In the author's words, the project of the book is to search the Bible (Hebrew Bible and New Testament) for 'alternatives to exclusively male language and imagery for God... for images...that open up possibilities...' (p. 99). Discussions of topics like God's name5, incomparability, gender, motherly images and attributes, presence and future, and a chapter on Wisdom/Sophia, lead to the conclusion that Christiamty advocates patriarchy by silent consent and active praxis, and that 'One step on the way to wholeness is to restore the word-images we use of God to full inclusivity' (p. 100). This is a book written by a scholar for a specific target audience: members of communities of faith, mainly Christian (hence the Glossary, introducing basic terms, pp. 102-104). It is sophisticated, insightful and mature in its approach. Hence Bible students and scholars, especially feminmst ones, will find it of interest. AB


Multispectral radiation thermometry (MRT) was applied to predict the aluminum surface temperature. Experiments were conducted to measure the spectral intensity values for five different aluminum alloys, AL1100, AL2024, AL5083, AL6061, and AL7005, at 600 K, 700 K, and 800 K. The experimental work is coupled with six MRT emissivity models encompassing mathematical and analytical functions to infer surface temperature. Assessment of the MRT emissivity model is subject to parametric effects of number of wavelengths, alloy composition, and temperature. Results show that increasing wavelength number does not significantly improve measurement accuracy while applying MRT. If the emissivity model can represent well the real emissivity behaviors, a more accurate inferred temperature can be achieved. Overall, most models achieve high accuracy in temperature prediction, except two emissivity models. One particular emissivity model provides the best compensation for the aforementioned parametric influences.


Today's consumer electronics based on a large variety of time-keeping and frequency reference applications is based on quartz-crystal oscillators, because of their excellent performances in terms of quality factor, thermal and frequency stability. However, macroscopic size and CMOS incompatibility of quartz-crystal resonators draw a major limit on the miniaturization of wireless communication applications. For this reason, silicon microelectromechanical (MEM) resonators are considered promising candidates to replace quartz-oscillators in VLSI communication systems, due to their compactness, design flexibility and CMOS process compatibility. This work reports on the design, fabrication and characterization of MEM bulk lateral resonators with resonance frequencies in the order of tens of MHz. The need of stable, low cost and high yield processes for fabricating devices with extremely narrow (sub 100 nm) transduction gaps is a main research driver, together with the requirements of improved designs which include high quality factors and appropriate power handling. We are investigating two major designs: (1) longitudinal beam resonators and (2) novel fragmented-membrane resonators that respond to both high quality factor (Q) and low motional resistance (Rm) requirements. We propose several design optimizations for solving some of the issues which currently affect the MEM resonator performance, like the frequency stability and Q enhancement through energy loss minimization. An original fabrication process is presented, which enables the manufacturing of SOI-based, fully monocrystalline devices with 100 nm transduction gaps and aspect ratios as high as [60:1], without the need of advanced lithography techniques. We successfully validate the fabrication process on two different SOI substrates, with silicon film thicknesses of 1.5 µm and 6.25 µm. This thickness range combined to the doping level corresponds to partially depleted SOI, which can be a substrate of choice for the fabrication of future integrated hybrid MEMS-CMOS integrated circuits for communication applications. The fabricated structures are successfully characterized, demonstrating excellent resonator performance at room temperature. Q's as high as 235'000 and Rm's as low as 59 kΩ have been extracted in vacuum. Atmospheric pressure frequency response measurements of the fragmented membrane resonators show Q's of 3'600. This value is among the best reported to date, opening the possibility for atmospheric pressure applications such as mass-detection for gas sensing applications with detection done without a special package, just by direct exposure of the resonator to the environment. A novel study on temperature dependence (between 80 K and 320 K) of the fragmented membrane resonators is presented and discussed. Significant Q increase and Rm reduction are experimentally observed at cryogenic temperatures. The bulk mode resonators developed and discussed in this thesis can successfully be integrated in oscillator circuits, as we demonstrate by simulating a Pierce topology based on the calibrated equivalent circuit model of a 24.48 MHz fragmented membrane BLR. Our oscillator shows very good phase-noise performance of -142 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset from the carrier and the noise floor at -144 dBc/Hz, which nearly meets the GSM specifications.


Objectives It is important for healthcare professional students to understand the experience of people with dementia, their family, and their carers. Despite person-centred educational policies, current curriculums may not adequately prepare students to meet the needs of people with dementia. This study qualitatively evaluated the impact of a virtual dementia experience on medical and pharmacy students' self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards people with dementia. Methods Ten focus groups were conducted with 29 medical and 24 pharmacy students in September and October 2016. All students had undertaken a multisensory virtual dementia experience designed to simulate the cognitive and perceptual difficulties faced by people with dementia. Focus groups were used to evaluate the virtual dementia experience in terms of perceived usefulness, suggestions for improvement, and ability to inform students' understanding of dementia-friendly environments. Focus groups were audio-recorded and analysed via a thematic approach. Results The virtual dementia experience was described as useful and impactful, and students suggested how it could be more tailored towards their learning needs, such as via incorporating hospital, medical, and pharmacy-specific scenarios and opportunities for role play. Additionally, students explained how dementia-friendly communication techniques could be used in their future practice and provided strategies to optimise dementia-friendly characteristics of current work environments. Conclusion A virtual dementia experience improved student self-reported knowledge and attitudes towards people with dementia.


In this paper we suggest the use of diffusionneural-networks, (neural networks with intrinsic fuzzy logic abilities) to assess the relationship between isoseismal area and earthquake magnitude for the region of Greece. It is of particular importance to study historical earthquakes for which we often have macroseismic information in the form of isoseisms but it is statistically incomplete to assess magnitudes from an isoseismal area or to train conventional artificial neural networks for magnitude estimation. Fuzzy relationships are developed and used to train a feed forward neural network with a back propagation algorithm to obtain the final relationships. Seismic intensity data from 24 earthquakes in Greece have been used. Special attention is being paid to the incompleteness and contradictory patterns in scanty historical earthquake records. The results show that the proposed processing model is very effective, better than applying classical artificial neural networks since the magnitude macroseismic intensity target function has a strong nonlinearity and in most cases the macroseismic datasets are very small.


In the mid-1820s, banks became the first businesses in Great Britain and Ireland to be allowed to form freely on an unlimited liability joint-stock basis. Walter Bagehot warned that their shares would ultimately be owned by widows, orphans, and other impecunious individuals. Another hypothesis is that the governing bodies of these banks, constrained by special legal restrictions on share trading, acted effectively to prevent such shares being transferred to the less wealthy. We test both conjectures using the archives of an Irish joint-stock bank. The results do not support Bagehot's hypothesis.


Managing solid waste is problem facing worldwide. In developing counties rapid increase of solid waste is produced as a result of rapid population increases, urbanization, rapid industrialization and economic sustainability. The challenges in urban areas are diverse and enormous in a global point of view, but looking at the developing countries, particularly in the cities, an inadequate waste collection and its inefficient management systems are the causes of serious urban pollution and risks to public health and environment, affecting the population, expressly the poor ones [1]. The research process will focus on sustainable development and integrated solid waste management theories.


In recent years, the Sustainable Development Goals have introduced a "race to the top" mechanism to complement the "race to the bottom" in local governance and have an impact on pollution. This study utilizes the environmentally oriented accreditation of National Civilized Cities as a policy shock and applies the PSM-DID method to identify the pollution-relocation effects among cities triggered by the competition in local governance. The results indicate that environmentally oriented intergovernmental competition leads to the transfer of industrial enterprises to non-accredited cities, resulting in a significant increase in their pollution emissions and industrial pollution intensity. This indicates that the competition in asymmetric local governance will lead to the transfer of pollution to backward regions, which hampers the overall implementation efficiency of national environmental policies. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact is more significant for cities in the central and western regions. Being nominated for the National Civilized City accreditation helps to inhibit the influx of polluting enterprises. Cities that are not part of integrated environmental regulatory regions show a more pronounced increase in pollution emissions compared to other cities, indicating that symmetric local government environmental regulations and environmental collaborative governance contribute to restraining pollution transfer.


Social norms can help solving cooperation dilemmas, constituting a key ingredient in systems of indirect reciprocity (IR). Under IR, agents are associated with different reputations, whose attribution depends on socially adopted norms that judge behaviors as good or bad. While the pros and cons of having a certain public image depend on how agents learn to discriminate between reputations, the mechanisms incentivizing agents to report the outcome of their interactions remain unclear, especially when reporting involves a cost (costly reputation building). Here we develop a new model---inspired in evolutionary game theory---and show that two social norms can sustain high levels of cooperation, even if reputation building is costly. For that, agents must be able to anticipate the reporting intentions of their opponents. Cooperation depends sensitively on both the cost of reporting and the accuracy level of reporting anticipation.


A design project that explores how augmented reality may be incorporated within architecture to embed hybrid 'info-tectonic' detail, across a range of scales is documented. The context in which the project is undertaken is the legacy of South Indian temple design. This opens up a complimentary field of research within a cultural context, to locate another agenda for augmented reality in architecture. The idea of cultural augmentation and its articulation at a range of scales, from the tactile to the urban, was generated through the design project. By way of introduction this mode of research is discussed in relation to CAAD research methods. In conclusion, a general model for cultural augmentation with augmented reality as a scalar continuum is presented.


The potential for application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to hydrologic analyses has received increasing attention in recent years. Published literature on hydrologic applications of GIS is often of a research nature or is focused on developing models for institutional use in water resource planning and management. This paper describes recent research and development efforts, coupled with opportunities for application on current consulting projects, in which commercially available GIS software has been applied in design flood studies. Applications include probable maximum precipitation estimation, retention loss estimation, and unit hydrograph parameters.


Optimization methods commonly are designed for solving the optimization problems. Local search algorithms are optimization method, which are good candidate in exploiting the search space. However, most of them need parameter tuning and incapable of escaping from local optima. This work proposes non-parametric Acceptance Criterion (AC) that not relies on user-defined, which motivate to propose an Adaptive Acceptance Criterion (AAC). AC accepts a little worse solution based on comparing the candidate and best solutions found values to a stored value. The value is stored based on the lowest value of comparing the candidate and best solution found, when a new best solution found. AAC adaptively escape from local optima by employing a similar diversification idea of a previous proposed (ARDA) algorithm. In AAC, an estimated value added to the threshold (when the search is idle) to increase the search exploration. The estimated value is generated based on the frequency of the solutions quality differences, which are stored in an array. The progress of the search diversity is governed by the stored value. Six medical benchmark datasets for clustering problem (which are available in UCI Machine Learning Repository) and eleven benchmark datasets for university course timetabling problems (Socha benchmark datasets) are used as test domains. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the propose AAC, comparison made between AC, AAC and other approaches drawn from the scientific literature. Results indicate that, AAC algorithm is able to produce good quality solutions which are comparable to other approaches in the literature.


We recover the Holocene earthquake history of seven seismogenic normal faults in the Fucino system, central Italy. We collected 800 samples from the well‐preserved limestone scarps of the faults and modeled their 36Cl concentrations to derive their seismic exhumation history. We found that > 30 large earthquakes broke the faults in synchrony over the last 12 ka. The seven faults released strain at the same periods of time, 12–9 ka, 5–3 ka, and 1.5–1 ka. On all faults, the strain accumulation and release occurred in 3–6 ka supercycles, each included a 3–5 ka phase of slow (≤ 0.5–2 mm/yr) strain accumulation in relative quiescence, followed by a cluster of three to four large earthquakes or earthquake sequences that released most of the strain in < 1–2 ka. The large earthquakes repeated every 0.5 ± 0.3 ka during the paroxysmal phases and every 4.3 ± 0.9 ka between those phases. Earthquakes on the northern faults produced twice larger surface slips (~ 2 m) and had larger magnitudes (Mw 6.2–6.7) than those on the southern faults. On most faults, the relative strain level was found to control the amount of slip and the time of occurrence of the next large earthquake. Faults entered a phase of clustered activity once they had reached a specific relative strain threshold. The Tre Monti fault is identified as the most prone to break over the next century. Our data document earthquake synchrony and clustering at a broader space and time scale than has been reported to date.


University careers services in the UK are increasingly challenged to contribute to ensuring graduates find, obtain and engage with graduate level opportunities. Parallel to this the range of graduate opportunities has become increasingly competitive. All universities strive to identify and promote their added value to the academic experience. The Blueprint for Careers (LSIS, 2011a) builds on international practice in developing career management competencies. It offers a useful framework, which can be used by careers professionals to work with students and academics to review and assess the attainment of career competencies. This multi-layered research project utilised an online questionnaire, student peer researcher training and focus groups to engage a sample of students across all faculties of the university. The indicative findings present a mixed picture, with students generally feeling most confident about their attitudes to lifelong learning, and how changes in society impact on life, learning and work. Areas of least confidence focused on the ability to make effective career and life decisions and planning and managing life, learning and work. In relation to programme provision students welcomed opportunities to engage in extra curricular activities but demanded more focused and relevant work experience opportunities.


This work presents an energy audit to determine daily heating load and energy eliminated by Solar Water Heating (SWH) system. Monthly average daily irradiance in plane of solar collector and Cold water temperature calculated from weather data collated to determine heating load. Mathematical model was developed based on heat transfer, thermal and optical and energy performance of collector. The absorber plate area, dimensions of solar collector, pipes" diameter, mass flow rate, fluid inlet, outlet temperature, the overall loss coefficient are considered as variables. Optimization procedures formulated and models developed were transposed into a MATLAB computational program. Components selection was also carried out. Data was generated by increasing the absorber plate area from 1 to 20m 2 and the mass flow rate of fluid from 0.001 to 0.009 kg/s. The optimum values recorded for the area and mass flow rate are 18.33m 2 and 0:0087 kg/s respectively. Increasing the mass flow rate above the optimum determines the non change of Exergy efficiency. Heat load per day in KUTI Hall is 636.7MJ and the collector area obtained is 91.64m 2 . 6.95MJ of heat is needed per meter square. The SWH system can cater for heating load of 115MJ/day which will sufficiently heat up 600 litres of water from 24 0 C to 70 0 C. Keywords: Water Heater, Collector, Energy Audit, Absorber, Plate


The mouse tibia is a common site to investigate bone remodelling and the effect of treatments preclinically. It can be monitored using in vivo micro-Computed Tomography (microCT) imaging in order to track longitudinal changes in its morphometric and densitometric properties. Additionally, microCT images can be converted into micro-Finite Element (microFE) models for the non-invasive estimation of mechanical properties. Therefore, the combination of in vivo imaging and microFE modelling can provide comprehensive analyses about bone changes over space and time. However, repeated ionizing radiation exposure can have a significant effect on the bone properties; also, microFE models need to be validated against experimental measurements before application. The aim of this PhD project was to provide the best practice for the definition and validation of the in vivo microCT scanning procedure for the mouse tibia in preclinical studies. First, different scanning protocols have been tested by quantifying the accuracy of the image-based measurements against high resolution scans. One of the procedures has been selected as the best compromise between measurement accuracy and nominal radiation dose. Afterwards, microFE predictions of local and structural mechanical properties obtained using the selected scanning protocol have been validated. The experimental data for the validation has been obtained using the Digital Volume Correlation (DVC) approach, the only method which can provide volumetric measurements of local displacements under loading. Good to excellent correlations between the measured and predicted displacements were found. Errors in predictions of structural properties were in the order of 10-15%. Lastly, the protocol has been tested in vivo. The right tibia of 24 mice has been scanned in vivo five times, while the left tibia has been used as non-irradiated control. Non-significant or minimal radiation effects were found on the morphometric, densitometric and mechanical properties of the tibia. In conclusion, a scanning procedure for longitudinal in vivo microCT imaging of the whole mouse tibia has been defined and validated. The protocol will be used in future studies for investigating the effect of bone interventions.


This is now a well known fact that the psychosomatic reactions of patients to loss of their teeth generated only little concern in the past. Though, in this modern era, artificial replacement of missing teeth with dental implants have been increasingly common and widely accepted option which often been referred as an affirmative experience by patients with regards to function, cosmetic and psychological aspects.[1] Undoubtedly, dental implant replacement therapy render fabrication of implant supported or retained prosthesis with excellent prognosis even in the compromised bony conditions where typical removable or fixed prosthesis fails. On an average number of dental implants inserted annually world-wide has been estimated to be approximately 1 million


Objective
 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) have the highest incidence of cleft lip and palate (orofacial clefts [OFCs]) when compared to other ethnic groups. We aim to determine the AI/AN populations' proximity and accessibility to American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association accredited centers (ACPA centers) for treatment of OFCs. Our hypothesis is an unacceptable proportion of the AI/AN population lacks reasonable accessibility to ACPA centers and comprehensive craniofacial care.
 Design
 A cross-sectional study of ACPA centers and AI/AN populations were analyzed for possible disparities.
 Main Outcome Measurements
 ACPA centers were mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and compared with 2018 census population data and 2017 Tribal Census Tract data to visually display possible disparities. Total annual potential pediatric cleft care need for selected high-density AI/AN populated lands were estimated.
 Results
 GIS mapping demonstrates geographical isolation of AI/AN populations from ACPA centers. Two states with high AI/AN populated lands (ND, WY) have no ACPA centers. 47.1% of ACPA centers in high AI/AN populated lands have no craniofacial trained surgeons versus 78.9% craniofacial staffed ACPA centers nationally. The potential unmet cleft and craniofacial care need in selected high-density AI/AN populated lands is 1042 children.
 Conclusion
 AI/AN populations are likely underserved by ACPA centers and by craniofacial fellowship-trained staffed centers. Not addressing OFCs with comprehensive care can lead to worsened outcomes and further marginalization of these children. With future studies, we will be capable of making data-driven, informed decisions to more effectively ensure AI/AN access to comprehensive cleft and craniofacial care.


This paper utilizes an error correction model to examine how anhydrous ammonia (AA) and urea prices at different locations in North America adjusted to changes in crop and input prices during two time periods: 2002 to 2005 and 2006 to 2009. The empirical results suggest that natural gas futures prices had relatively more of an impact on nitrogen fertilizer prices during the 2002-2005 period. Nitrogen prices tended to adjust more rapidly to increases in natural gas futures prices than decreases. In the 2006 to 2009 period, corn futures prices had more of an impact on nitrogen prices. Nitrogen prices tended to respond immediately to decreases in corn futures prices. The nitrogen price responses to increasing corn futures prices were mixed.


Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a rapidly expanding data transmission technique in the emerging universal mobile telecommunication system. Digital matched filter (DMF) in a CDMA system is used for correlating the received data with the transmitted data. The key issues in the design of a DMF are speed and power. This paper presents the design of a fine-grain pipelined DMF with clock gating with an objective to increase the speed and at the same time reduce the power consumption. The design has been verified through simulation and synthesis of the existing DMF and the proposed architectures. Verilog HDL coding of the design is done using Xilinx ISE design tool. Speed and estimated power consumption of the design are obtained using XST Synthesis and XPower tools of Xilinx respectively.


Drug trafficking has assumed a frightening dimension and poses a serious threat to human and national security. One of the major challenge facing Nigeria as a country is the problem of illicit drug trafficking and consumption. Hard drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, ephedrine, and psychotropic substances, though mostly produced outside the country are on high demand and abused by people of different class, religious and cultural background. In drug trafficking, some fundamental forces romance each other in ensuring the success or otherwise of this organised criminal activity. These include the routes, mode of concealment, the medium of transportation and deception technique. Others include drug barons, merchants, traffickers, agents, distributors, couriers, and peddlers. The joint and shared efforts of members of these syndicates determine the fate of the illicit drug commerce. Available records of arrest with the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) indicate that there has been an exponential and steady increase in the number of persons arrested for drug trafficking-related offences. From four hundred and sixty-four (464) drug traffickers arrested in 1990, the statistics stood at eight thousand, eight hundred and twenty-six (8,826) arrest in 2014. The statistics further revealed that between 2000 and 2014, a total number of eighty-six thousand, three hundred and fourteen (86,314) persons were arrested for drug traffickingrelated offences. In light of the above, this paper examined the trends in illicit drug trafficking in Nigeria, highlighting the need to raise the red flag. The paper recommends that strong laws, good governance, and political will are fundamental in checking the problem of illicit drug trafficking in Nigeria. In addition, Nigeria Law Enforcement Agency should focus on adequate intelligence gathering that will aid them in designing efficient ways of achieving a drug-free society.


Mutations in genes encoding voltage-gated sodium channels have emerged as the most clinically relevant genes associated with epilepsy, cardiac conduction defects, skeletal muscle channelopathies and peripheral pain disorders. Geneticists in partnership with neurologists and cardiologists are often asked to comment on the clinical significance of specific mutations. We have reviewed the evidence relating to genotype phenotype associations among the best known voltage-gated sodium channel related disorders. Comparing over 1300 sodium channel mutations in central and peripheral nervous system, heart and muscle, we have identified many similarities in the genetic and clinical characteristics across the voltage-gated sodium channel family. There is evidence, that the level of impairment a specific mutation causes can be anticipated by the underlying physico-chemical property change of that mutation. Across missense mutations those with higher Grantham scores are associated with more severe phenotypes and truncating mutations underlie the most severe phenotypes. Missense mutations are clustered in specific areas and are associated with distinct phenotypes according to their position in the protein. Inherited mutations tend to be less severe than de novo mutations which are usually associated with greater physico-chemical difference. These findings should lead to a better understanding of the clinical significance of specific voltage-gated sodium channel mutations, aiding geneticists and physicians in the interpretation of genetic variants and counselling individuals and their families.


High-throughput 3' single-cell RNA-Sequencing (scRNA-Seq) allows for cost-effective, detailed characterization of thousands of individual immune cells from healthy and diseased tissues. Current techniques, however, are limited in their ability to elucidate essential immune cell features, including the variable sequences of T cell receptors (TCRs) that confer antigen specificity in T cells. Here, we present an enrichment strategy that enables simultaneous analysis of TCR variable sequences and corresponding full transcriptomes from 3' barcoded scRNA-Seq samples. This approach is compatible with common 3' scRNA-Seq methods, and adaptable to processed samples post hoc. We applied the technique to resolve clonotype-to-phenotype relationships among antigen-activated T cells from immunized mice and from patients with food allergy. We observed diverse but preferential cellular phenotypes manifest among subsets of expanded clonotypes, including functional Th2 states associated with food allergy. These results demonstrate the utility of our method when studying complex diseases in which clonotype-driven immune responses are critical to understanding the underlying biology.


The relative merits of accuracy engraving technique and rapid prototyping technique during processing are discussed. Because the product dimensions are small and the strength of the rapid prototyping sample workpiece in vertical direction is too small to meet the engineering design requirements, the method using accuracy engraving machine to replace rapid prototyping machine to design product with large size and need to assemble like motorcycle cover is proposed. If the product size is too large, it can be split and every part is carved with the accuracy engraving machine, and then they are sticked together to finish the whole part. So the speed of new product development is accelerated, the cost of new product development is decreased, the rapid manufacturing is realized and the traditional design method using only RP machine is improved. This method has been applied to the development for a new motorcycle cover and the application method is expounded.


This study is an investigation of whether social skills training provided by paraprofessionals to elementary grade children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in both partially and fully included classrooms can result in perceived gains in social skills as measured by teacher ratings. Results showed that several areas of social responsiveness noticeably improved as a result of the intervention in the short run; however, sustained improvement was difficult to detect. This study extends the research on the development of social skills among children with ASD by examining perceptions of social responsiveness rather than noting how often the children engaged in prosocial behaviors. It further extends the research by studying the efficacy of using trained paraprofessionals to deliver the intervention inconspicuously in the child's general education classroom. Keywords: autism spectrum disorders; social skills interventions; paraprofessionals ********** According to the U.S. Department of Education (2002), the number of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) receiving educational services in special education increased over 1300%, from 5,415 to 78,749 children during the 1990's. This number can only continue to rise as current estimates put the prevalence of autism at 1 in 150 children (Autism Speaks). At the same time as the number of children with autism requiring services in our schools is increasing, calls for evidence-based practices for all children have strengthened (Williams, Johnson, & Sukhodolsky, 2005). The use of evidence-based practices, those having an empirical basis attesting to their validity and efficacy, is one approach at accountability. The needs of children with ASD are indeed varied and complex, however, the lack of social skills may be among the most pressing of problems. There are many issues surrounding social skills interventions, including but not limited to who should deliver the intervention (a trained peer or a trained adult), where the intervention should take place (e.g., in the school, in the clinic, or in a pull-out program within the school), and what the intervention should be (e.g., social scripts, modeling, visual cueing, discrete trials). While studies using trained peers show promising results, the question of acceptance of children with ASD by their peers remains relevant and problematic. Farmer, Pearl and, VanAcker (1996) noted that students with disabilities are more likely to have a rejected status and less likely to have a popular status in the classroom and school. The concept of peer rejection is derived from peer nominations and peer ratings that measure how well students are liked by classmates in general, and is based heavily on the degree of a child's social skills (Farmer, Pearl, & VanAcker). Behaviors such as the stereotyped behaviors often common in ASD are not seen as socially acceptable and frequently reduce opportunities for social interaction (Lee, Odom, & Loftin, 2007). Chamberlain, Kasari, and Rotherman-Fuller (2007) found that "the average level of social network centrality was lower for children with autism than for their peers; they were less well accepted and they had fewer reciprocal friendships" (p. 239). Swaim and Morgan (2001) have shown that even with information explaining autism, attitudes of typically developing children toward children with autism do not change. The work of Lee, Yoo, and Bak (2003) shows that children with typical abilities tend to act as helpers, caregivers, and tutors of children with disabilities rather than becoming friends, as evidenced by reciprocal social interactions. Though this is not the ideal outcome of peer tutoring, it allows for a give and take relationship and may afford the child with ASD some opportunity to move from weak social skills to more appropriate social skills. Contact with typically developing peers is thought to be a critical piece in supporting children with ASD, but it cannot be the only piece representing successful socialization (Ochs, Kremer-Sadlik, Solomon, & Gainer Sirota, 2001). …


The glassy alloy rods of Cu50Zr43Al7, (Cu50Zr43Al7)100-xYx(x=2,5) and (Cu50Zr43Al7)100-xAgx(x=6,7) with diameters of 3.0 mm were prepared by copper mold suction casting method. The influence of adding Ag and Y to Cu50Zr43Al7 metallic glass on glass formation ability (GFA) and thermal stability was studied by means of X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results show that Ag and Y appropriate micro-addition enhance the glass formation ability and thermal stability of the Cu-Zr-Al metallic glass. The effect of Ag is better than that of Y. The addition of Ag causes a increase of the reduced glass transition temperature (Trg) of (Cu50Zr43Al7)100-xAgx alloy from 0.618 at 0 at.% Ag to 0.628 at 7 at.% Ag. The width of the supercooled liquid region of Cu43Zr43Al7Ag7 glassy alloy increases about 25K compared with that of Cu50Zr43Al7, and the γ value of Cu43Zr43Al7Ag7 reaches 0.433. The electrochemical corrosion behaviors of Cu50Zr43Al7, (Cu50Zr43Al7)100-xYx(x=2,5) and (Cu50Zr43Al7)100-xAgx(x=6,7) metallic glasses in 3.5% NaCl solution were investigated by potentiodynamic polarization method. It is found that corrosion resistance of all amorphous alloys is better than that of the corresponding crystalline alloys. The Ag and Y micro-addition improve corrosion resistance of Cu50Zr43Al7 metallic glass. The corrosion current density of Cu43Zr43Al7Ag7 metallic glass decreases 1~2 orders of magnitude compared with that of Cu50Zr43Al7.


Innovation Briefs are summaries of recent discoveries and developments within AT&T Bell Laboratories. Patents To Build On call attention to AT&T patents that may have commercial potential. Those wishing further information, or AT&T readers who would like to contribute future items, are encouraged to contact the AT&T Technical Journal editor.


During the postwar period the modern family home assumed a special place in the Australian imaginary. Women achieved a greater public presence in this context, reflected in calls to Australian housewives to think about how their ideal home would look. The 'new look' required of the national home was addressed to its occupants, the Australian family, and was articulated through both government policy discourses and the popular media. Planning for and dreaming about modernity became key activities of homemaking. The requirements of women, in particular, to dream and plan for the future family produced the housewife as a modern figure responsible for the planning of a successful future for her family. The modern challenge to make home anew spoke to women's authority on day-to-day living, moving the efficient arrangement of the home and its public exposure firmly into their domain. However, this new, mass-mediated way of looking at domesticity created a contradiction in female domestic subjectivity. On the one hand, both state and market discourses suggested that women could sweep away the elements of traditional, particularly prewar, home designs that bound them to the home. On the other, popular magazines also placed a great deal of emphasis on the look of things and on looking itself, further inscribing women's identity within domestic space. We argue through a case study of the figure of the housewife in Australian home magazines that as a result of this contradiction during this period the identity of 'housewife' came to offer a new, reflexive relationship between female selfhood and home. Via the domestication of modernity in terms of gender, previous divisions between the public and private were destabilised. We suggest that the housewife's gaze both towards the home and towards her 'domestic self' intensified the problematic of feminity, putting it on the threshold of public and private space, offering a critical, enabling position for an ensuing feminist analysis.


Abstract Background During the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in healthcare institutions posed a significant problem. Due to limited evidence, guidance on appropriate infection prevention and control (IPC) measures such as the wearing of face masks varied. Here, we applied whole virus genome sequencing (WvGS) to analyse transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2 in hospital-acquired (HA) COVID-19. Methods An investigation was undertaken for all HA cases of COVID-19 from March to April 2020. Fifty SARS-CoV-2 samples were analysed by WvGS and their phylogenetic relationship established. Results WvGS identified transmission events previously undetected by epidemiological analysis and provided evidence for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between healthcare workers (HCW) and patients and among HCW themselves. The majority of HA COVID-19 cases occurred in patients highly dependent on nursing care, suggesting the likely route of transmission was by close contact or droplet, rather than aerosol, transmission. Mortality among HA COVID-19 infections was recorded as 33%. Conclusions This study provides evidence that SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs from symptomatic and asymptomatic HCWs to patients. Interventions including comprehensive screening of HCWs for COVID-19 symptoms, PCR testing of asymptomatic HCWs upon identification of HA cases and implementation of universal use of surgical masks for all clinical care is indicated to prevent viral transmission. Our study highlights the importance of close collaboration between guidance bodies and frontline IPC experts for developing control measures in an emergency pandemic situation caused by a virus with undefined transmission modus.


This paper deals with construction design of DC permanent magnet disc motor by classical calculation method and its verifying by computer finite element simulation method. The paper deals also with the computer analysis of the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems focused to the area of electrical machines, which can also disclose the startling facts concerning. A problem of interference between electric motor and surroundings space caused by electromagnetic field radiation is discussed too.


Elite endurance athletes are strongly suspected to have differing genetic profiles from sub-elite endurance athletes and non-athletes. This thesis will contribute to the developing knowledge in this area, providing a more detailed analysis of the genetic profile of elite endurance athletes in the sport of marathon running. Identifying 'advantageous' genetic characteristics would be a significant development. The insight provided about the underlying physiological mechanisms may have implications for both sport, exercise and for the prevention and treatment of disease.
Numerous physiological systems detailing a complex phenotype are required for elite endurance performance therefore it is likely that 'elite status' is polygenic. Eight 'endurance' alleles have previously demonstrated discrete associations with elite endurance athlete status. The human ACE gene contains a restriction fragment length polymorphism consisting of the presence (insertion, I) or absence (deletion, D) of a 287 base pair Alu repeat sequence in Intron 16. The renin-angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) plays a homeostatic role in the human circulation. Renin catalyses the conversion of Angiotensinogen (AGT) to angiotensin I. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme is responsible for the breakdown of vasodilator kinins while catalysing the formation of the vasoconstrictor angiotensin II. Angiotensin II stimulates adrenal aldosterone release, leading to salt and water retention. These two elements maintain blood pressure and volume before, during and after a marathon competition and would therefore influence aerobic power, VO2 kinetics
The alpha actinins cross-link with actin at the z- lines of skeletal muscle and are therefore major contributory structural components. ACTN3 is responsible for the stabilisation of the contractile apparatus of the sarcomere during exercise. However, knock out mice have shown enhanced enzyme expression associated with oxidative capacity and superior endurance running performance and improved recovery time. Extrapolation of this information lead to the hypothesis that the ACTN3 XX genotype may confer some advantage to endurance athletes based on an enhanced oxidative capacity and preferential skeletal muscle fibre type proportion to compete in endurance events such as marathon running.
PPARGC1A is thought to indirectly mediate the regulation of several genes encoding key enzymes involved in fatty acid oxidation, and mitochondrial biogenesis through its interaction with specific transcription factors such as nuclear receptor PPARɣ, nuclear respiratory factors 1 and 2 and MEF2, PARAGC1A is thought to influence the fatty acid substrate availability during the later stages of a marathon and its conversion to ATP, to directly fuel skeletal muscle contraction during a marathon and will therefore influence a runners running economy and lactate threshold.
The uncoupling proteins regulate the coupling of oxidative phosphorylation to ATP production used in propulsion during a marathon. Their role is not fully understood however they have been linked to thermogenesis and the uncoupling of respiration from ATP production both important factors in the successful completion of a marathon on race day.
Three hundred and ninety-nine Caucasian marathon athletes donated DNA samples for analysis. In addition, DNA was collected from 676 non-athlete research participants. Of those 1075 samples collected, all 1075 samples were genotyped for actinin, alpha 3 (gene/ pseudogene) (ACTN3) (399 athletes and 676 non-marathon controls, 932 samples (399 athletes and 533 non-marathon controls) were genotyped for Angiotensin I Converting Enzyme (ACE), 673 samples (364 athletes) were genotyped for angiotensinogen (AGT) and 705 samples (399 athletes) peroxisome proliferator receptor 1 alpha (PPARGC1A) as well as uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3). For uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) rs660339 702 samples were genotyped (396 athletes). Finally, for UCP r659336, 578 samples were genotyped (272 athletes). Three hundred and six non-marathon controls were genotyped for AGT, PPARGC1A, UCP2 rs659336 and rs660339, and UCP3.
In addition, the collected samples contributed to an investigation into whether genetic characteristics differ at different levels of 'eliteness'. We compared the genotype and allele frequency distributions in 'elite' and 'sub- elite' marathon runners with those of a non-athlete population. Marathon personal best times (PBs) were verified and used to determine elite (males <2.5 h; females <3 h) or sub-elite (males 2.5-3 h; females 3-3.5 h) status. Chi-squared analysis was used to compare genotype and allele frequency distributions between athletes and non-marathon controls, while a genotype-dependent difference in marathon PB was investigated using a one-way analysis of variance for both males and females.
Analysis of the AGT rs699 polymorphism revealed over-representation of the TT genotype and T allele in athletes compared to non-marathon controls. This over-representation of the TT genotype and T allele was also noted when sub-elite athletes were compared to non-marathon controls.
The PPARGC1A rs8192678 polymorphism analysis showed the A allele tended to be more frequent in athletes than non-marathon controls (χ2 = 2.988, p = 0.084). The minor A-allele was over represented 9.2% in the elite male marathon athletes when compared to non-athlete controls (χ2 = 6.871, p = 0.03). An association was also reflected in the male elite marathon cohort towards the minor AA genotype (χ2 = 6.890, p = 0.04) when compared to non-marathon controls. Further to this, a tendency towards the minor A allele was seen when the male elite marathon group was compared to the male sub-elite marathon group (χ2 = 2.986, p = 0.084). In the female cohort, there was a 7.8% higher AA genotype frequency in sub-elite marathon athletes when compared to non-marathon controls (χ2 = 7.193, p = 0.04)
Tendency for a higher AA frequency in sub-elite vs. elite marathon athletes (χ2 = 5.425, p = 0.066). When considering PB, in women the PPARGC1A GG genotypes ran the marathon approximately 5 min 38 s faster than other genotypes (p = 0.022), which is generally consistent with previous literature.
UCP2 rs660339 analysis revealed A genotype apparent difference was recorded when male elite and sub-elite athletes were compared to non-marathon controls independently (elite χ2 = 11.173, p = 0.001; sub-elite χ2 = 17.584, p = 0.01) via Pearson's-Chi squared. In the female athletes, a genotype association was observed when compared to non-marathon controls (genotype χ2=8.376, p = 0.02)
The female elite athletes also reflected a genotype association when compared to non-marathon controls (genotype χ2 = 8.942, p = 0.02)
Our findings suggest that the AGT rs699, PPARGCIA and UCP2 rs660339 polymorphisms are associated independently with marathon performance. In addition, it is reported that ACE I/D, ACTN3 R577X, UCP2 rs659366 and UCP3 rs1800849 polymorphisms are not associated with elite or sub- elite marathon performance when either analysed a whole cohort or individually as males and females. TGS analysis revealed difference in the combined polygenic profile between athletes and controls (t = 4.130 p = 0.000041).


Robert Hayden employs innovative modes of signification to unveil and expose race-based violence in the United States. In "Night, Death, Mississippi" (1966) he defies bildverbot (1) traditions, or the customary injunction against representing the sacred or, in secular times, the secret. This policy pertains to what must not be shown because it lies beyond the reach of representation (traditionally, God or the Shoah) and also applies to what must not be shown because its portrayal undermines hegemonic ideologies that maintain and naturalize systems of oppression (as in the phenomena of lynching and slavery). Some topics are designated unspeakable, "beyond the veil," or simply lack first-hand witnesses. Yet, this barred access or knowledge gap due to iconoclastic tendencies in the culture does not inhibit a poet accustomed to poetry's mode of meaning by indirection. While we live in a time of relative freedom of speech and expression, vestiges of the prohibition against depicting unrepresentable subject matter have led writers and artists to seek alternate aesthetic strategies that insist on historical and contemporary realities even as they dismantle conventional realism. Hayden's innovative portrayal of the ostensibly obscene (ob scaena) matter of a death by lynching works according to ambiguous modes that depend on the materiality of the medium (language), rather than the materiality of the desecrated body itself. By treating language as a revelatory concrete substance--a clay of sounds, a stack of stanzas, a shifting web of syntax ruled and unruled--Hayden calls attention to his creative activity, and by extension, to the hidden or forbidden subject matter as well. Thus, the medium's material qualities anchor the poem as does the space/time referent: Mississippi, U.S.A., in the mid 1960s. From this fixed point, the poet then raises metaphysical questions about society and human suffering. In defiance of restrictions against using art to signify certain categories of experience, Hayden tears away the rhetorical veil that falls over episodes too terrible to recount (to use a common collocation from slave narratives), employing a poetics of indeterminacy that both tempers and intensifies the truth with its rhetorical power. The poet's insistence on the subject matter, examining a generalized episode of a recurring event, serves as a call to witness for both those who follow his line of vision and those who avert their eyes. Dispersing perspective among at least four entities, Hayden offers a polyphony of internal and articulated voices that stage a quasi-narrative spanning past, present and future experience, both actual and imaginary. The trope of the veil occupies a central position in U.S. literary history, due in part to the ways W. E. B. Du Bois uses it in The Souls of Black Folk (1903) as a sign of mourning, an instrument of separation or concealment, and a marker of prophecy. Werner Sollors explicates Old Testament references to demonstrate the metaphor's function to "separate Afro-Americans from American culture at large but also [to give] them a more profound vision and higher destiny" (49; qtd. in Gates and Oliver xxviii): Du Bois imaginatively adapted two biblical images of the veil as a division within the Temple [Exodus 26.33] and as the cover that the divinely inspired Moses wore when he came back from Mount Sinai and spoke to the people [Exodus 34.33-35]. (49) Hayden transposes this metaphoric configuration into an aesthetic strategy as he writes "Night, Death, Mississippi," using language to obscure and reveal in delicate tones of lament that ultimately solidify the protest nature of his poem. Hayden twice evokes the notion of iconoclasm, literally "the breaking of icons," in his essays on Harlem Renaissance-era activism (Prose 46) and on later aesthetic innovations ("Recent Poetry" 69). According to Hayden, Harlem Renaissance artists shattered inauthentic images of the Black experience, asserting their own new depictions in place of old stereotypes. …


Exposure to binaural beats in an environment of restricted stim- ulation coupled with a guidance process can safely provide access to and ex- periences in many propitious states of consciousness. This method requires a unique combination of well-understood psycho-physiological inductive techniques with the addition of a refined binaural-beat technology. Binaural beats provide potential consciousness-altering information to the brain's reticular activating system. The reticular activating system in turn interprets and reacts to this information by stimulating the thalamus and cortex - thereby altering arousal states, attentional focus, and the level of awareness, i.e., the elements of consciousness itself. This effective binaural-beat process offers a wide variety of beneficial applications and vehicle for the ex- ploration of expanded states of consciousness.


Study on the relationships between yield and its components will improve the efficiency of breeding programmes by determining appropriate selection criteria. An investigation was carried out on 24 potato genotypes to find out the association among yield, yield components and their direct and indirect effects on tuber yield of potato. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications at Sinana Agricultural Research Center. The association was analyzed by correlation coefficient, and further subjected to path analysis to estimate direct and indirect effects of each character on tuber yield. Positive and significant genotypic and phenotypic correlation were found between total tuber yield and marketable tuber yield (rg=0.99), leaf area index (r g =0.82), plant height(r g =0.56), stem number per plant(r g =0.56), average tuber weight (r g =0.74) and biomass yield (r g =0.69). Path analysis of tuber yield and its components shows that marketable tuber yield and average tuber weight had maximum positive direct genotypic and phenotypic effect on total tuber yield indicating their importance in selection for tuber yield improvement.


Since 1995, William L Benoit's "Image Restoration Theory" has been applied in various different contexts. While most applications of this theory have been used to analyze modern day apologia, little work has filtered ancient artifacts through Benoit's theory. This thesis aims to analyze St. Patrick's defense rhetoric as seen in his autobiographical letter Confession. Emphasis is first placed on the historical account of the life of Saint Patrick in order to establish a foundation for analysis of Confession. An extensive literature review of "Image Restoration Theory" follows before the application of Benoit's theory to Confession. The author concludes by describing Patrick's defense strategies. Special attention is given to Patrick's main two strategies, mortification and transcendence. Using these two strategies, Patrick defends his ministry and work among the Irish by focusing on his humility and appealing to a higher authority. Future scholars will find this thesis useful in designing approaches to specific ancient and modern apologia


In order to properly determine one's exposure to hazardous pollutants, it is critical to understand our surroundings and the types of activities that we as humans perform that influence our exposure. Individuals that specialize in exposure modeling use cross section data containing individual activity patterns from tools such as the Consolidated Human Activity Database (CHAD). Over the years, experts have addressed the need to further improve our methods in representing human activity patterns and improving the quality of human activity patterns that are used for exposure modeling. Presented here in is a review of 45 human activity diaries that were completed by graduate school students enrolled in Environmental Assessment 503 during the fall 2011 and 2013 semesters. Each diary completed by the student was reviewed for quality purposes and the corresponding activity / micro-environmental codes were assigned to each individual for consistency purposes. The time spent within the following micro environments were evaluated for analysis; time spent outdoors, time spent indoors and time spent within a vehicle. In addition, the following groups of individuals were evaluated; females, males and particular age groups. For these particular microenvironments, the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and lagone autocorrelation (A) was calculated. The overall ICC values ranged from .27 through .29 and the A values ranged from -.09 through .03. Overall, the ICC values were somewhat higher and the A values were lower than what was predicted prior to performing study compared to a similar study performed by a similar longitudinal activity data analysis. Based on the analysis the group of individuals show are large degree of within person variability with unique differences.


Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have revealed many single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with complex traits. Although these studies frequently fail to identify statistically significant associations, the top association signals from GWAS may be enriched for true associations. We therefore investigated the association of alcohol dependence with 43 SNPs selected from association signals in the first two published GWAS of alcoholism. Our analysis of 808 alcohol-dependent cases and 1,248 controls provided evidence of association of alcohol dependence with SNP rs1614972 in the ADH1C gene (unadjusted p = 0.0017). Because the GWAS study that originally reported association of alcohol dependence with this SNP [1] included only men, we also performed analyses in sex-specific strata. The results suggest that this SNP has a similar effect in both sexes (men: OR (95%CI) = 0.80 (0.66, 0.95); women: OR (95%CI) = 0.83 (0.66, 1.03)). We also observed marginal evidence of association of the rs1614972 minor allele with lower alcohol consumption in the non-alcoholic controls (p = 0.081), and independently in the alcohol-dependent cases (p = 0.046). Despite a number of potential differences between the samples investigated by the prior GWAS and the current study, data presented here provide additional support for the association of SNP rs1614972 in ADH1C with alcohol dependence and extend this finding by demonstrating association with consumption levels in both non-alcoholic and alcohol-dependent populations. Further studies should investigate the association of other polymorphisms in this gene with alcohol dependence and related alcohol-use phenotypes.


This paper includes a summary of an extensive literature review and the experience of the author in researching the properties of surface aggregates. It confirms that to resist wear, the aggregate must be hard and tough, and to resist polishing and surface slipperiness, the aggregate must wear slowly and irregularly. Particle shape, size, and gradation are important characteristics in providing optimum pavement surfaces, but ultimate aggregate performance depends largely on the aggregate mineralogy. A high proportion of hard minerals well cemented in a softer or a porous matrix will provide both high skid resistance and acceptable wear resistance. Within an aggregate particle, grain shape and size contribute to improved performance—medium to large and angular to subangular crystalline grains outperform minute and rounded non-crystalline grains. The performance history of an aggregate provides the best key to its expected future performance. In the absence of experience with an aggregate or when it is to meet new requirements, commonly used tests combined with petrographic analysis should provide sufficiently dependable initial information on the expected aggregate performance. A table that includes suggested target values for properties that enhance aggregate skid resistance and wear resistance is included in the paper.


An international group of researchers from NUST MISIS and Clemson University (Clemson, U.S.) has proposed a new method for producing gold nanoparticles based on synthesis under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. The method excludes the use of aggressive chemical agents and the obtained nanoparticles are safe for the body and can be used for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The results are published in the international scientific journal Biomaterials Science.


This paper addresses two important questions that have, so far, been studied separately in the literature. First, the paper aims at explaining the high volatility of long-term interest rates observed in the data, which is hard to replicate using standard macro models. Building a small-scale macroeconomic model and estimating it on U.S. and U.K. data, I show that the policy responses of a central bank that is uncertain about the natural rate of unemployment can explain this volatility puzzle. Second, the paper aims at shedding new light on the distinction between rules and discretion in monetary policy. My empirical results show that using yield curve data may facilitate the empirical discrimination between different monetary policy regimes and that U.S. monetary policy is best understood as originating from a discretionary regime since 1960.


In 1998 the government of the Hungarian Republic decided that a new Civil Code is to be drafted. In 2000 the Main Committee of Codification issued guidelines for the new Civil Code, determining, among others, that the new Code is to be cast into separate books, after the model of the Dutch Civil Code, and that one of these separate books is to be devoted entirely to family law, i.e. a branch of law which has been enunciated in a separate Act since 1952. The present study examines some of the topical questions raised by a reform of family law in general, and the relevance of the above considerations to such an undertaking, in particular. The author makes a few proposals concerning the determination of independent principles for the family law materials which are to be included in the Civil Code, raises and discusses a number of questions in the area of marital property law which are in need of regulation or re-regulation, and discusses a few questions of child-parent relationships and of a reform in childr...


A method for low resistivity resistor on transparent substrate with laser induced plasma assisted by ablation and laser annealing was described. The diffusion distribution for metallization was measured with XPS. The surface profile was analysed with SEM. The minimum resistivity we got was 0.1 /Sq. It demonstrates that the electronic thin film obtained has a very good conductivity. The most important factors for forming electrically conducting films on the transparent substrate are laser fluence, beam scanning and pulse repetition rate. This technology will be useful in the fabrication of LCD electrode, glass defused resistor and circuit on glass.


s 153 non-MS; the difference in MP was significant also for these latter vs. nonobese with MS. MP was positively correlated with distensibility (rZ0.097, p<0.001) and inversely with Young's modulus (rZ-0.121, p<0.001); IMT had a negative correlation with both. Conclusion: Obesity and MS decrease echogenicity of the carotid media. MP is influenced by different parameters than IMT, and conveys different information; it is inversely correlated with intrinsic and total vessel stiffness. Its histological and clinical meaning are to be investigated.


Excimer laser ablation is applied in the deflashing and demarking of IC packages. It is found that mold flash filled in the interface holes of IC leadframe can be removed completely by the laser deflashing in a short period of time. With appropriate selection of laser parameters, deflashing quality and efficiency can be greatly improved. The laser deflashing is more efficient for higher pin count packages. It is a superior alternative in future applications. In laser demarking, ink marks on package surfaces can also be removed completely in a short time. The surface after the processing has good conditions for remarking. The package remarking shows good permanency. The lifetime for good marking is much longer for IC packages after the laser demarking than those after hydrogen flame-off. Laser processing can be used to replace hydrogen flame-off in the ink printing of IC packages for high efficiency and safety.


In the last decades there has been a progressive advance in the development of techniques able to explore in humans neurophysiologic and neurochemical processes. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a very powerful technique allowing to study a quite variable range of physiological and biochemical processes in the healthy subjects and in diseases. Apart from its capacity to provide pathophysiological information, PET is also important for the objective assessment of therapeutic efficacy. Initial studies were performed measuring cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (CMRglc) and cerebral blood flow (CBF), representing an indirect index of synaptic activity. The advent of receptor tracers allowed measuring other important physiological parameters, such as receptor occupancy, and endogenous release. In neuropsychiatric disorders, as Alzheimer disease, schizophrenia, epilepsy and Huntington disease, PET has been useful to elaborate hypothesis of the pathogenesis, to relate symptoms to biological variables and to study individuals at increased risk. The new concepts of neurovascular unit and default network, preferentially active at rest, can significantly change the approach of PET, with images reflecting a complex scenario, not merely limited to neural activity, but involving the activity of the entire neurovascular unit and the multifunctional role of astrocytes. To detect dysfunction of the dialog between glutamatergic neurons and astrocytes could lead to a better understanding of altered functional brain images. In this direction a professional network between PET researchers and basic scientists, could give a determinant improvement in the capability to understand the complex physiological and pathophysiological cerebral world. J. Cell. Physiol. 226: 948–961, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The vision of creating a Linked Data Web brings together the challenge of allowing queries across highly heterogeneous and distributed datasets. In order to query Linked Data on the Web today, end users need to be aware of which datasets potentially contain the data and also which data model describes these datasets. The process of allowing users to expressively query relationships in RDF while abstracting them from the underlying data model represents a fundamental problem for Web-scale Linked Data consumption. This article introduces a distributional structured semantic space which enables data model independent natural language queries over RDF data. The center of the approach relies on the use of a distributional semantic model to address the level of semantic interpretation demanded to build the data model independent approach. The article analyzes the geometric aspects of the proposed space, providing its description as a distributional structured vector space, which is built upon the Generalized Vector Space Model (GVSM). The final semantic space proved to be flexible and precise under real-world query conditions achieving mean reciprocal rank = 0.516, avg. precision = 0.482 and avg. recall = 0.491.


Vehicle route problem of logistics distribution is the important step optimizing logistics distribution. According to the traditional genetic algorithm shortcomings of slowly convergent speed, weakly partial searching ability and easily premature, therefore, hybrid genetic algorithm is used to get the optimization solution, namely, use dualistic coding so as to simplify the problem and improve the searching efficiency of genetic algorithm. The individual amount control choice strategy so as to guard the diversity of group. Improved ordinal crossover operators can avoid destroying good gene parts during the course of ordinal crossover so as that the algorithm can be convergent to the optimization as whole. Adopt self-adaptive thought to strengthen the partial searching ability of chromosome, improve the convergent speed of algorithm. Finally, the good performance of improved algorithm can be proved by experiment calculation and concrete examples.


Although delay-based congestion control protocols such as FAST Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) promise to deliver better performance than traditional TCP Reno, they have not yet been widely incorporated to the Internet. Several factors have contributed to their lack of deployment. Probably, the main contributing factor is that they are not able to compete fairly against loss-based congestion control protocols. In fact, the transmission rate in equilibrium of delay-based approaches is always less than their fair share when they share the network with traditional TCP Reno derivatives that employ packet losses as their congestion signal. There are also other performance impairments caused by the sensitivity to errors in the measurement of the congestion signal (queuing delay) that reduce the efficiency and the intra-protocol fairness of the algorithms. In this paper, we report, analyse and discuss some recent proposals in the literature to improve the dynamic behaviour of delay-based congestion control algorithms, FAST in particular. The coexistence of sources reacting differently to congestion, the identification of congestion appearance in the reverse path and the persistent congestion problem are the issues specifically addressed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


For many evaluation metrics commonly used as benchmarks for unconditional image generation, trivially memorizing the training set attains a better score than models which are considered state-of-the-art; we consider this problematic. We clarify a necessary condition for an evaluation metric not to behave this way: estimating the function must require a large sample from the model. In search of such a metric, we turn to neural network divergences (NNDs), which are defined in terms of a neural network trained to distinguish between distributions. The resulting benchmarks cannot be "won" by training set memorization, while still being perceptually correlated and computable only from samples. We survey past work on using NNDs for evaluation and implement an example black-box metric based on these ideas. Through experimental validation we show that it can effectively measure diversity, sample quality, and generalization.


Background: Citizen satisfaction surveys are used in many jurisdictions to measure attitudes towards public services and inform service delivery improvement strategies. Canada is regarded as a world leader in the field due to its internationally influential Citizens First surveys. Aim: This study aims to determine the soundness of the design, execution and reporting of Canada's Citizens First surveys. Method: It presents a critical methodological review drawing on several social scientific paradigms including survey research, interpretivism and post-structuralism. Results: The Citizens First surveys contain significant problems in terms of sample representativeness, validity of causal claims and treatment of subjective opinions. These surveys can also be criticized for the influence they have had on the direction of public service reforms. Survey findings have been invoked to support the shift to private sector models of delivery and encourage a narrow and passive view of the role of the citizen in official decision-making. These developments conflict with other realities and values in contemporary administration and governance. Conclusion: Canada's citizen satisfaction surveys contain important methodological weaknesses which must be acknowledged and rectified if reformers wish to extend the scope and effectiveness of current service delivery innovations. Points for practitioners Canada's citizen satisfaction surveys are widely regarded as models for other jurisdictions to follow, yet they have significant limitations, including very low response rates, which mean the findings are not representative of the population's views on government service delivery. Although the surveys claim to identify the specific elements of service delivery that cause increases in general citizen satisfaction with the performance of governments, the existing methodology does not permit such assertions. These surveys present a private-sector-inspired view of the service user as a customer, and suggest that all users of government services value the same things. This view fails to capture the diversity of government service delivery and is particularly inappropriate in complex policy areas such as human and social services.


The lambda terminase enzyme binds to the cohesive end sites (cos) of multimeric replicating lambda DNA and introduces staggered nicks to regenerate the 12 bp single-stranded cohesive ends of the mature phage genome. In vitro this endonucleolytic cleavage requires spermidine, magnesium ions, ATP and a host factor. One of the E. coli proteins which can fulfill this latter requirement is Integration Host Factor (IHF). IHF and the gpNu1 subunit of terminase can bind simultaneously to their own specific binding sites at cos. DNase I footprinting experiments suggest that IHF may promote gpNu1 binding. Although no specific gpNu1 binding to the left side of cos can be detected, this DNA segment does play a specific role since a cos fragment that does not include the left side or whose left side is replaced by non-cos sequences, is unable to bind gpNu1 unless either spermidine or IHF is present. Binding studies on the right side of cos using individual or combinations of gpNu1 binding sites I, II and III indicate that binding at sites I and II is not optimal unless site III is present.


Liver lymphatic vessels support liver function by draining interstitial fluid, cholesterol, fat, and immune cells for surveillance in the liver draining lymph node. Chronic liver disease is associated with increased inflammation and immune cell infiltrate. However, it is currently unknown if or how lymphatic vessels respond to increased inflammation and immune cell infiltrate in the liver during chronic disease. Here we demonstrate that lymphatic vessel abundance increases in patients with chronic liver disease and is associated with areas of fibrosis and immune cell infiltration. Using single-cell mRNA sequencing and multi-spectral immunofluorescence analysis we identified liver lymphatic endothelial cells and found that chronic liver disease results in lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) that are in active cell cycle with increased expression of CCL21. Additionally, we found that LECs from patients with NASH adopt a transcriptional program associated with increased IL13 signaling. Moreover, we found that oxidized low density lipoprotein, associated with NASH pathogenesis, induced the transcription and protein production of IL13 in LECs both in vitro and in a mouse model. Finally, we show that oxidized low density lipoprotein reduced the transcription of PROX1 and decreased lymphatic stability. Together these data indicate that LECs are active participants in the liver, expanding in an attempt to maintain tissue homeostasis. However, when inflammatory signals, such as oxidized low density lipoprotein are increased, as in NASH, lymphatic function declines and liver homeostasis is impeded.


Purpose: The Cancer and Leukemia Group B conducted a phase II study of gefitinib, an inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase, in patients with previously untreated malignant mesothelioma. Experimental Design: Eligible patients had unresectable pleural or peritoneal mesothelioma, measurable disease, no prior therapy, and performance status 0-1 by Cancer and Leukemia Group B criteria. Gefitinib (500 mg p.o.) was administered once a day for 21 days. Patients underwent restaging after every two cycles. Therapy was continued until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Results: The most common grade 3 toxicities were diarrhea (16%) and nausea (12%). Of 43 patients enrolled, 1 patient (2%) had a complete response, 1 patient (2%) had a partial response, 21 (49%) had stable disease lasting two to eight cycles, 15 (35%) had progressive disease, and 5 (12%) had early deaths. One-year survival was 32% [95% confidence interval (CI), 21-50%]. Median survival and failure-free survival were 6.8% (95% CI, 3.5-10.3) and 2.6 months (95% CI, 1.5-4.0), respectively. The 3-month failure-free survival was 40% (95% CI, 25-56%). EGFR expression score by immunohistochemistry done in 28 patients was categorized as low (EGFR 1+ or 2+) or high (EGFR 3+) expression: 97% had EGFR overexpression (2+ or 3+). The median and 3-month failure-free survival were 3.6 months and 40% for those patients with low EGFR expression compared with 8.1 and 40% for those with high EGFR expression. Conclusions: Although 97% of patients with mesothelioma had EGFR overexpression, gefitinib was not active in malignant mesothelioma. EGFR expression does not correlate with failure-free survival.


The formation of a polyion complex was applied for molecular imprinting of AMP on a QCM resonator surface. The gold electrode on the resonator surface was modified with anionic thiols. Subsequently, layers of polycations and boronic acid-containing polyanions were adsorbed onto the QCM anionic surface utilising an alternating adsorption process. When the polymer adsorption was conducted in the presence of AMP, the anionic charges of the phosphate group introduced into polyanion by a boronate–cis-diol interaction altered the film growth behaviour: viz., excess polycationic units were adsorbed onto the polyanionic surface. After removal of the AMP from the surface polyion complex, a swollen gel layer with excess cationic charge is created. It was proven that this QCM system sensitively responds to AMP. The responsiveness is derived from the mass decrease in relation to the shrinking of the surface gel layer.


This paper examines the relationship between the Samuelson rule for efficient provision of stock externality and unilateral transfers for equalization of mitigation costs among the agents. Using a generic model of stock externality provisions, we proved that the revised Samuelson rule that allows transfers is a necessary and sufficient condition for efficient provision of stock externalities. In addition, selection of social welfare weights of the agents plays a key role in directions and magnitudes of the transfers. We discuss the implications of the revised Samuelson rule in economic modeling of climate change, an empirical case of stock externality, through numerical simulations in the RICE model.


Background: E4599 was a phase II/phase III trial, in which 878 patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer were randomized to carboplatin + paclitaxel (PC arm) or PC + bevacizumab (BPC arm). Survival and progression-free survival were superior on the BPC arm. The rationale for markers used in this correlative study was based on elevated vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM) and E-selectin in a variety of malignances and changes in response to endothelial cell apoptosis. Materials and Methods: Prospective correlates included measurements of pretreatment plasma VEGF, as well as pretreatment and week 7, bFGF, ICAM, and E-selectin. Low and high levels were defined as less than or equal to or more than the median. Results: E-selectin (P < 0.0001) showed a decrease and bFGF showed an increase (P = 0.004) from baseline at week 7, which were similar in both arms. Baseline ICAM showed significant associations with response and survival in both groups. Patients with low baseline ICAM had a higher response rate (32% versus 14%; P = 0.02), better overall survival (P = 0.00005), and better 1-year survival (65% versus 25%) than those with high ICAM, respectively, regardless of treatment arm. Patients with high VEGF levels were more likely to respond to BPC compared with PC, but this was not predictive of survival. The results also suggest a benefit from bevacizumab for patients with low baseline ICAM levels (53% reduction in the progression-free survival hazard rate). Conclusions: In this study, baseline ICAM levels were prognostic for survival and predictive of response to chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab. VEGF levels were predictive of response to bevacizumab but not survival.


The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) simulated in various ocean-only and coupled atmosphere–ocean numerical models often varies in time because of either forced or internal variability. The path of the Gulf Stream (GS) is one diagnostic variable that seems to be sensitive to the amplitude of the AMOC, yet previous modeling studies show a diametrically opposed relationship between the two variables. In this note this issue is revisited, bringing together ocean observations and comparisons with the GFDL Climate Model version 2.1 (CM2.1), both of which suggest a more southerly (northerly) GS path when the AMOC is relatively strong (weak). Also shown are some examples of possible diagnostics to compare various models and observations on the relationship between shifts in GS path and changes in AMOC strength in future studies.


Numerous motivational and strong emotional intentions can be found in the background of the desire for a child. Hence unintended childlessness gives rise to a severe psychological burden to both members of the couple. In the literature, several studies are involved in the exploration of this subject, albeit most of them bring into focus the differences of psychological liabilities between the genders. A smaller proportion of these papers examined the psychological aspects affecting couples, and just a very small number of studies investigated the psychological aspects in men. Nevertheless, most of the studies proved that although the psychological aspects in women can be more significant compared to their partner, the psychological burden of infertile men are obviously above the population average. Several different, gender-specific coping-mechanisms have been identified, which tend to be less successful in men compared to women. The acquirement of proper coping mechanisms could be more emphasized during the psychotherapeutic part of reproductive treatment.


Context. Stellar systems are broadly divided into collisional and non-collisional categories. While the latter are large-N systems with long relaxation timescales and can be simulated disregarding two-body interactions, either computationally expensive direct N-body simulations or approximate schemes are required to properly model the former. Large globular clusters and nuclear star clusters, with relaxation timescales of the order of a Hubble time, are small enough to display some collisional behaviour and big enough to be impossible to simulate with direct N-body codes and current hardware.
Aims. We aim to introduce a new method to simulate collisional stellar systems and validate it by comparison with direct N-body codes on small-N simulations.
Methods. The Multi-Particle Collision for Dense Stellar Systems (MPCDSS) code is a new code for evolving stellar systems with the multi-particle collision method. Such a method amounts to a stochastic collision rule that makes it possible to conserve the exact energy and momentum over a cluster of particles experiencing the collision. The code complexity scales with N log N in the number of particles. Unlike Monte Carlo codes, MPCDSS can easily model asymmetric, non-homogeneous, unrelaxed, and rotating systems, while allowing us to follow the orbits of individual stars.
Results. We evolved small (N = 3.2 × 104) star clusters with MPCDSS and with the direct-summation code NBODY6, finding a similar evolution of key indicators. We then simulated different initial conditions in the 104 − 106 star range.
Conclusions. MPCDSS bridges the gap between small collisional systems that can be simulated with direct N-body codes and large non-collisional systems. In principle, MPCDSS allows us to simulate globular clusters such as Ω Centauri and M 54, and even nuclear star clusters, which is beyond the limits of current direct N-body codes in terms of the number of particles.


Targeted Covalent Inhibitors bind to their targets both covalent and non-covalent modes, providing exceptionally high affinity and selectivity. These inhibitors have been effectively employed as inhibitors of protein kinases, with Taunton and coworkers (Nat. Chem. Biol. 2015, 11 (7), 525–531) reporting a notable example of a TCI with a cyanoacrylamide warhead that forms a covalent thioether linkage to an active-site cysteine (Cys481) of Bruton's tyrosine kinase. The specific mechanism of the binding and the relative importance of the covalent and non-covalent interactions is difficult to determine experimentally, but established simulation methods for calculating the absolute binding affinity of an inhibitor cannot describe the covalent bond forming steps. Here, an integrated approach using alchemical free energy perturbationand QM/MM molecular dynamics methods was employed to model the complete Gibbs energy profile for the covalent inhibition of BTK by a cyanoacrylamide TCI. These calculations provide a rigorous and complete absolute Gibbs energy profile of the covalent modification binding process. The mechanism is ionic, where the target cysteine is deprotonated to form a nucleophilic thiolate, which then undergoes a facile conjugate addition to the electrophilic functional group to form a bond with the non covalently bound ligand. This model predicts that the formation of the covalent linkage makes binding 19.3 kcal/mol more exergonic than the non-covalent binding alone. Nevertheless, non-covalent interactions between the ligand and individual amino acid residues in the binding pocket of the enzyme are also essential for ligand binding,particularly, van der Waals dispersion forces that have a larger contribution to the binding energy than the covalent component in absolute terms. This model also shows that the mechanism of covalent modification of a protein occurs through a complex series of steps and that entropy, conformational flexibility, non-covalent interactions, and the formation of covalent linkage are all significant factors in the ultimatebinding affinity of a covalent drug to its target.


This paper reports a research project carried out on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry New Zealand designed to scope the issue of water efficiency in New Zealand and demonstrate where the most significant gains in efficiency can occur. The paper describes the efficiency framework developed based on the key areas of allocative, technical and dynamic efficiency. The areas of significant gains based on the theoretical analysis are tested against three community irrigation schemes. Although the case study findings support the theoretical conclusions there is a significant range of potential areas of improvement according to the nature of each case study.


New stellar models spefically designed for the Small Magellanic Cloud are presented in this paper. In order to take into account the uncertainties in the metal content we computed two grids with different metallicities: Z = 0.002 and Z = 0.004. The covered mass range is from 0.8 up to 125 M and the models are followed until the exhaustion of carbon in the core, for the more massive ones. We have introduced a recent measurement of the nuclear rate N(p, γ)O. A comparison among models with the old and new rate was carried out revealed that the former are slightly hotter than the first ones. Such differences depend on the mass range. The opacities, the equation of state, the remaining nuclear reactions rates, the core overshooting parameterization and the convective transport of energy are the same as discussed previously by us. We also give, besides the classical evolutionary models outputs, the internal structure constants needed to investigate apsidal motion and tidal evolution in close binaries. This aspect acquires importance in the light of recent investigations on circularization and synchronization levels in binary systems belonging to the Magellanic Clouds. The role of rotation can also be investigated through the gravity-darkening exponents which allow us to compute the brightness distribution of a given stellar surface.


Along the western Tethyan convergent margin, where Tertiary subduction history is well constrained, porphyry, epithermal and skarn ore deposits show a variable evolution of their spatial distribution. Using different and complementary database on European and Middle East ore deposits, three metallogenic episodes have been highlighted: (1) a late Cretaceous - Paleocene phase characterized by a copper mineralization within the Balkan chain and in the Kackar mountains (eastern Turkey), (2) an Eocene phase with a few copper ore deposits in eastern Turkey and small Caucasia and (3) an Oligocene - Neogene phase with a more southern distribution along the margin and mainly constituted by epithermal Au systems in the west (Carpathians, Rhodope, Aegean and western Turkey) and by porphyry copper deposits in the east (Zagros). Using paleogeographic tools, it turned out that, in the eastern Mediterranean area, the late Cretaceous - Paleocene and Oligocene - Neogenemetallogenic episodes arecoeval with a significant decrease of the Africa - Eurasia convergence rate, from about 1.5 to 0.4 cm/yr. Indeed, compressional tectonics promote the storage of large volumes of metal-rich magma and the development of an extensive MASH (melting, assimilation, storage and homogenization) zone. When this convergence rate decreases, a stress relaxation occurs in the overriding crust, inducing the ascent of a sufficient flux of this fertile magma and allowing the formation of numerous mineralized systems within the upper crust. The Au-rich Oligocene - Neogenemetallogenic episode in the eastern Mediterranean region is also correlated with an increase of mantle-derived and/or subduction-modified lithospheric mantle components in magmas. This feature may be a consequence of the emplacement of hot asthenosphere at shallow depth related to (1) the development of a wide back-arc region due to slab retreat such as in the Aegean domain and (2) a slab tear and/or a lithospheric delamination, suspected notably in the Carpathians and western Turkey where alkaline to shoshoniticvolcanism occurs. As the behavior of the slab and asthenosphere below the upper plate seems to play a key-role in controlling the distribution of ore deposits, it is worth studying the dynamics of the 3D mantle flow related toslab retreat. Thus, 3D numerical models of subduction dynamics with realistic rheologies have been developed. Around the slab edges, the poloidal (i.e. in a vertical plane) and toroidal (i.e. in a horizontal plane) components of the mantle flow in subduction zone appear to depend on the slab rollback to plate velocity ratio.


The contributions of glacier-melt, snowmelt, and groundwater to stream flow in alpine catchments result in characteristic discharge regimes and unique stream habitats. The year round dynamics of alpine floodplain ecosystems are however, poorly understood, in particular
the effects of flow regulation on alpine stream ecosystems have not been assessed. Fieldwork was undertaken over two summer melt-seasons (2008/2009) and the intervening winter
season within the Eisboden catchment, Austrian Alps. The application of a novel diurnal statistical hydrograph classification technique to analyse flow dynamics at six stream sites elucidated the varying influences of precipitation, ablation, and groundwater contributions on
spatiotemporal flow dynamics. Although a clear ablation driven seasonal progression in river flow was evident, rainfall also exerted a dominant influence altering the melt-signal during both summer seasons. Water temperature time series, monitored at 23 sites across the catchment revealed year-round spatiotemporal variability in flow permanency, and high thermal heterogeneity, amongst streams. Benthic macroinvertebrate communities were found
to be associated predominately with variations in stream temperature and channel stability during the summer melt-season. However, the communities of mixed water source floodplain sites were found to be highly dynamic and considerably more diverse than expected with
respect to existing conceptual models of alpine streams. Macroinvertebrate community structure differed markedly during the winter; the assemblage diversified at glacial-fed and mixed sites both in terms of taxonomic and functional diversity. Anthropogenic flow regulation
from the Weiβsee hydropower storage reservoir had a large impact on the discharge and thermal regimes of streams but the macroinvertebrate community was relatively resistant in
flow regulation disturbances. This finding suggests alpine stream macroinvertebrates inhabiting proglacial river systems are well adapted to the harsh and dynamic physicochemical conditions. Current hydrological and ecological conceptual models of alpine stream systems
are evaluated with respect to new insights from the Eisboden and future research directions suggested.


Although the physical activity questionnaire, in general, is the most common measure of physical activity levels in minority subgroups, additional measures may be needed to supplement the information collected by questionnaire alone. The most frequent types of physical activities performed in many of these minority groups are often lower intensity activities. However, when assessing activity by questionnaire, we know that lower intensity activities like walking and housework tend to be less reproducible than higher intensity activities such as many of the organized sports (Kriska et al., 1990; Sallis et al., 1985). Therefore, the activity questionnaire alone may not be the best way to quantify these lower intensity, variable frequency, life-style activities. As Figure 3 reminds us, measurement of lower intensity activities may require the use of more objective measures. One feasible approach may be to use a simple, inexpensive, objective measure of activity like an activity monitor or a pedometer. Step monitors are now successfully being used to estimate levels of movement expressed as "daily steps taken throughout the day" and to document activity changes in intervention efforts. However, activity monitors also have their own set of limitations such as the inability of capturing cycling, swimming, and upper body movement. Likewise, monitors certainly are not as practical as physical activity questionnaires in assessing activity in population studies. It is likely that a combination of the two methods of activity assessment would work best. Individuals who have scored low on the activity questionnaire could be given a step monitor to further evaluate their physical activity levels. Although promising, much more work needs to be done in this area.


. soundcorrs is a small R library of functions intended to facilitate computer-aided analysis of sound correspondences between languages. It is not designed to draw its own conclusions, merely to automate labour-intensive tasks and furnish the linguist with sifted and processed data for him or her to interpret. To make use of its basic functionality, soundcorrs requires only a very rudimentary knowledge of R, and no understanding of statistics at all. More advanced functions can be accessed and more involved results obtained after only a brief course of the two.


The purpose of this essay is to discuss relationality in G.W Leibnizs Monadologie (1714). In general terms this essay analyzes the notion of individuation in relation to the concept of monads. The analysis proposes a question regarding the body in this individuation, and what consequences follows for the understanding of the relation between the single individual and other individuals. It will be shown that the irreducibility of having a body transcendens something like ownness, subjectivity, personality and individuation, and this is explained through the pre-established harmony between the monads – where the plurality of monads is detected before the monads singularity. To widen this investigation of relationality between the monads, I will turn to Edmund Husserls phenomenological operation for solving the egological problem of solipsism in Cartesian Meditations (1929). In his meditations, Husserl uses the monad as a self-conscious ego with peculiar ownness. After having outlined the relevant characteristics of Husserl phenomenological methodical operation, I turn to Deleuzes non-phenomenological reading of Leibniz in The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque (1988). In Deleuzes reading Leibniz is ascribed a transcendental philosophy which bears on the event rather than the phenomenon. The purpose is to develop a discussion between Leibniz, Husserl and Deleuze about relationality in relation to the concept of monads, and about the different ways in which we can approach this subject.


The acquisition of group B streptococci by babies in a special-care baby unit and two postnatal wards was investigated over a six-month period using serology and phage typing. Sixty-three culture-positive babies were identified in the postnatal wards, one-third of whom had been born to mothers who were not carrying the organism in the genital tract or anorectal area during labour. A non-maternal source was identified for 14 of these 21 infants: either colonised mothers and babies in the same ward or, on one occasion, a member of the hospital staff. In the special-care baby unit, however, only one instance of nosocomial acquisition of group B streptococci was recorded despite a high prevalence of colonisation in the staff on the unit and the presence of heavily colonised babies. The results of this survey suggest that although sepsis caused by group B streptococci may be the result of nosocomial transmission, this may be prevented by careful attention to hygiene.