Leishmania is the causative agent of various forms of leishmaniasis, a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The clinical manifestations of the disease range from selfhealing cutaneous and mucocutaneous skin ulcers to a fatal visceral form named visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar. The differentiation of Leishmania parasites from the insect stage, the promastigote, towards the pathogenic mammalian stage, the amastigote, is triggered primarily by the rise in ambient temperature encountered during the insect to mammal transmission. The survival of amastigote stage is dependent on that of the host. Regarding energy metabolism, which is an essential factor for the survival, parasites adapt to the environment under low oxygen tension in the host using metabolic systems which are very different from that of the host mammals. The amastigote form of L. donovani is independent on oxidative phosphorylation for ATP production. Indeed, its cell growth was not inhibited by 20-fold excess oligomycin and dicyclohexylcarbodiimide, which are the most specific inhibitors of the mitochondrial FoF1-ATP synthase. In contrast, mitochondrial complex I inhibitor rotenone and complex III inhibitor antimycin A inhibited amastigote cell growth, suggesting the role of complex I and complex III in cell survival. Complex II appeared to have no role in cell survival. To further investigate the site of ATP production, we studied the substrate level phosphorylation, which was involved in the synthesis of ATP. Succinate-pyruvate couple showed the highest substrate level phosphorylation, whereas NADHfumarate and NADH-pyruvate couples failed to produce ATP. In contrast, NADPH-fumarate showed the highest rate of ATP formation in promastigotes. We conclude that substrate level phosphorylation is essential for the growth of L. donovani amastigotes.


Ebullition (bubbling) from climate‐sensitive northern lakes remains an unconstrained source of atmospheric methane (CH4). Although the focus of many recent studies, ebullition is rarely linked to the physical characteristics of lakes. In this study we analyze the sediments of subarctic postglacial lakes and investigate how sediment properties relate to the large spatial variation in CH4 bubble flux, quantified over multiple years using bubble traps. The results show that the sediments from our lakes are rich in total organic carbon, containing 37 kg/m3 on average. This number is roughly 40% higher than the average for yedoma deposits, which have been identified as high CH4 emitters. However, the quantity of total organic carbon is not a useful indicator of high emissions from the study lakes. Neither is the amount of CH4 in the sediment a reliable measure of ebullition potential. Instead, our data point to coarse detritus, partly from buried submerged aquatic vegetation and redeposited peat as spatial controls on fluxes, often in combination with previously established effects of incoming solar radiation and water depth. The results once again highlight the climate sensitivity of northern lakes, indicating that biological responses to warmer waters and increased energy input and heating of organic sediments during longer ice‐free seasons can substantially alter future CH4 emissions.


This study is devoted to a theoretical model of the membrane-mediated interactions between inclusions (proteins) incorporated into lipid bilayers. The interactions are due to the overlap of the bilayer deformations around each of two approaching inclusions. To determine the resulting stresses in the membrane we have developed an appropriate model of the lipid bilayer, which has been described as an elastic layer (the hydrocarbon-chain region) sandwiched between two Gibbs dividing surfaces (the two headgroup regions). Expressions for the membrane stretching and bending elastic moduli have been derived in terms of the lipid monolayer tension and elastic constants. The interaction between two cylindrical inclusions have been calculated by using both force and energy approaches. The range of this interaction turns out to be of the order of several inclusion radii. The results, which are in qualitative agreement with the experimental observations, can be applied to the interpretation of membrane processes and mechanisms, such as protein aggregation in lipid membranes, as well as to any process affected by the membrane stretching and bending elastic properties.


Based on Donnan's equilibrium, a simple chemo-mechanical model is developed to study the transient swelling behavior of the pH-sensitive hydrogel for design and optimization of smart hydrogel-based BioMEMS device. The model is mathematically composed of several governing equations, including Fick's law which describes the diffusion process in the buffer solution, the fixed charge density formula associated with pH value of the buffer solution, and mechanical equation which gives the swelling ratio responding to pH. The model also considers several chemical conditions, including Donnan's equilibrium condition which gives Donnan partitioning ratio relating to the concentrations of ionic species in the interior hydrogel and the external solution, the electroneutrality condition in the interior hydrogel and bathing solution as well. The model is capable of predicting the kinetics process of the smart hydrogel immersed in buffer solution with change in pH. The simulation of the diffusion-swelling behavior of the pH-sensitive hydrogel is presented, and the responsive deformation of the smart hydrogel to the solution pH is discussed in detail.


This study compared the characteristic of strategic planning as used in the corporate world with the planning process used in a sample of television news departments. The purpose was to determine if commonalities exist; in what circumstances, and whether techniques and approaches used for many years by businesses could advance the process of planning in the fast-paced environment of local television news. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of highly experienced local news managers. The results indicated some similarities in planning approaches but suggested significant differences in how the two industries approach key elements of traditional strategic planning. The primary conclusion drawn from the research suggests the local television news industry has informally adapted strategic planning processes to their needs with heavy emphasis on tactical execution.


We report the detection of proper motions in [Fe II] 1.644 μm emission among the southeasternmost features in the Herbig-Haro object complex GGD 37. Imaging observations were made over a period of 5 yr, at epochs 1993.67, 1996.71, and 1998.68, that reveal proper-motion velocities of 400 ± 200 km s-1 at GGD 37:W2 and 850 ± 200 km s-1 at a newly identified object, designated GGD 37:RWPF 1. We believe the proper-motion velocity of GGD 37:RWPF 1 is the highest found to date for a Herbig-Haro object. The direction of GGD 37:RWPF 1's proper motion is almost due west, away from the nearby young stellar object complex in Cep A East. GGD 37:W2's direction of proper motion is north/northwest, which does not lead back to any of the compact objects in Cep A East.


OBJECTIVE
Chronic exposure to elevated glucocorticoid (GC) concentrations induces detrimental effects in several tissues. In the skin, GCs provoke intense alterations on various parameters of the physiology of fibroblasts, cumulatively leading to skin atrophy and impaired wound healing. As there are concerns that GCs may generate permanent adverse functional changes, we have investigated whether chronic in vivo exposure to GC excess results in persisting defects in skin fibroblasts.

DESIGN AND METHODS
We have studied in vitro primary skin fibroblast cultures obtained from patients suffering from endogenous Cushing's syndrome (CF), as well as from sex- and age-matched normal donors (NF). The following functional parameters were investigated: cell proliferation, secretion of collagen, matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors (tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases; TIMPs) and contractile capacity.

RESULTS
CFs, grown under standard culture conditions in the absence of a hypercortisolemic milieu, exhibited an increased proliferative capacity and a higher final cell culture density compared with NFs. Collagen synthesis, in the absence or presence of transforming growth factor-beta, was equal to that of NFs. However, CFs secreted comparatively lower levels of MMP-1, MMP-2 and TIMP-1, and nearly equal levels of TIMP-2. CFs also exhibited an increased ability to contract gels of polymerized collagen.

CONCLUSIONS
Collectively, these functional characteristics of CFs are in contrast to the known catabolic effects of GCs, and suggest that prior exposure to GC excess is not associated with a persisting adverse outcome in the functional phenotype of the fibroblasts.


Access is a new algebraic specification formalism, which focuses on the fine description of the ``true'' concurrency and on a high degree of expressivity. Systems are specified by a set of local states, whose value changes under the occurrence of events. Both events and data structure are specified by abstract data types. Static properties, i.e. global constraints over events and data structure, are described by first order formulae, while dynamic axioms, explaining the behavior of events, are given by causality rules. Concurrency can be described in different ways, it can be interleaving or true concurrency. Finally, expressivity is given by fine descriptions of both static and dynamic properties. Access has demonstrate to be a natural generalization of a great variety of Petri Nets (as for example -Algebraic, -Coloured, -With arc extensions Petri Nets). It is also able to capture concepts from other formalisms as Gamma language or CO-OPN. This report presents a complete description of Access syntax and semantics, together with an example of Access specification based on Petri Nets with Arc Extensions. This report also explains how specifications written in other languages as Petri Nets, Gamma, CO-OPN, are written in Access.


Transverse thin sections (0.5 mm thick) of sagittal otoliths from 290 Murray cod up to 1400 mm in total length and 47.3 kg in weight were used to establish the age and growth of cod in the lower Murray-Darling Basin, including comparisons of recent (1986-91) and past (1949-51) growth rates and growth in different waters. The maximum estimated age was 48 years. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the seasonal changes in otolith marginal increments showed that annuli in fish of all ages were laid down each spring, and 1 October was assigned as the birthday. The thin-sectioning method was validated by comparing age estimates for 55 Murray cod from Lake Charlegrark (age 0-21 years), which had been validated by using burnt and polished half-otoliths. The new method had an accuracy of 96.4% and it offers major advantages in ease of preparation, reading, and batch-handling of large numbers of otoliths. The precision of the method, estimated as an average error for four readers, was 5.4% (3.0% after ignoring discrepancies in relation to annuli on otolith edges). There was a linear relationship between otolith weight and fish age and an exponential relationship between otolith weight and fish length. Both otolith length and otolith width reached an asymptote at about 15 years, when fish length also approached its maximum. However, otolith thickness continued to increase throughout the life of the fish and, after about 15 years, contributed most to the increase in otolith weight. This confirmed that otoliths continued to grow in thickness and that annuli were laid down throughout life, and that cod could be aged reliably to the maximum age. The annulus pattern is very clear and distinct, and the reading techniques are fully described, including recognition of 'larval' and 'false' rings. Various differences were found in the growth rates, and the length-weight relationships for males and females, for cod caught in 1986-91 and those caught in 1949-51, and various subpopulations are discussed. The von Bertalanffy growth parameters (all individuals combined) were estimated at L∞ = 1202 mm, k=0.108 and t0= -0.832. The availability of a reliable ageing method provides the first opportunity to determine year of birth and thus to examine the age structure of populations and to effectively manage cod populations that have declined in abundance.


An S-space is any topological space which is hereditarily separable but not Lindelof. An L-space, on the other hand, is hereditarily Lindelof but not separable. For almost a century, determining the necessary and suffcient conditions for the existence of these two kinds of spaces has been a fruitful area of research at the boundary of topology and axiomatic set theory. For most of that time, the twoproblems were imagined to be dual; that is, it was believed that the same setsof conditions that required or precluded one type would suffice for the other aswell. This, however, is not the case. When Todorcevic proved in 1981 that itis consistent, under ZFC, for no S-spaces to exist, everyone expected a similarresult to follow for L-spaces as well. Justin Tatch Moore surprised everyonewhen, in 2005, he constructed an L-space in ZFC. This paper summarizes andcontextualizes that result, along with several others in the field.


Meckel's diverticulum is a rare gastrointestinal congenital anomaly that is difficult to diagnose and presents with anemia, abdominal pain, or intussusception was described originally by Guilhelmus Fabricius Hildanus in 1598. [1,2] A Meckel's diverticulum is usually an asymptomatic condition, and many cases are incidentally discovered during a radiographic evaluation or during surgery performed for other reasons. [1] The diagnosis is usually made in childhood. Here, we report the case of a 44-year-old female with a volvulated Meckel's diverticulum, causing a small bowel obstruction. The patient initiated with profuse diarrhea and vomiting bilious content; then started with abdominal distention and severe abdominal pain, becoming an intestinal obstruction. Later, the patient was surgically intervened; finding a Meckel's diverticulum volvulated in the intraoperative that was causing the obstruction.

Meckel's diverticulum is rarely diagnosed in adults. It is usually asymptomatic and becomes evident when complicated. [3] Of the few reported cases; intestinal obstruction is the most common presentation in adult and is the second most common in children. [3]


From creating interactive PDFs to full-fledged Flash sites, the expanded capabilities of InDesign now make it possible to design projects that go beyond print, into the world of Web and interactive. Designing for Interactivity with InDesign CS5is the first book of its kind, expressly devoted to the interactive capabilities of InDesign CS5 and their use in creating documents destined for output to interactive PDF and Flash SWF. Both a reference book, with sections broken out by topic, and a training guide, with real-world exercises and/or projects provided for each chapter, the book includes exercise files available for download on an associated Web site.It goes beyond simply teaching the function of InDesign to familiarize readers with the basics of Web and interactive design, audio and video compression and conversion, and the fundamentals of animation. Power-user tips are peppered throughout as are productivity tools and techniques. An entire section is dedicated to best practices for successful output to interactive PDF, Flash SWF and Flash Professional, with how-to's for using Acrobat and Flash Professional to extend the InDesign-generated files. There's even a section on Type and Layout making this a soup-to-nuts guide on the InDesign-to-interactive workflow. *Full-color illustrations, step-by-step instruction, and real-world exercises deliver hands-on training *Includes essential design principles for interactive media as well as practical InDesign techniques for execution *Tutorial media is provided on the companion Web site


Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology is an annual series which presents research materials in the fields of the history of economic thought and the methodology of economics.


OF THESIS THE USE OF VIDEO MODELING TO TEACH REQUESTING FOR CONVERSATIONAL REPAIR IN VOCATIONAL SITUATIONS Video modeling has been found to be effective in teaching various skills to individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Despite this evidence, there is very little evidence to support using video modeling to teach specific soft skills in the workplace, such as requesting for conversational repair. This study evaluated the effects of video modeling on requests for conversational repair within vocational situations using a multiple probe research design. Due to unforeseen circumstances as a result of COVID-19, the study had to be concluded before all participants could receive intervention. However, an effect between video modeling and requests for conversational repair was demonstrated for the first participant. This effect shows promising results for the potential of video modeling interventions in teaching softs skills related to the work place.


Geodetic data are providing a new prospective in studying active tectonic processes that are occurring in penin- sular Italy. In this paper we use a recently published GPS velocity solution, obtained by merging a data set of permanent and non-permanent networks spanning the 1991-2002 time interval, to provide new quantitative con- straints of the active deformation rates across the Apennines Chain and the Calabrian Arc. The velocity field, given with respect to a fixed Eurasian frame, has been used to compute horizontal strain-rates within polygonal regions that connect and include geodetic stations, and to draw velocity cross sections along 5 different profiles through this region. The computed strain-rates provide a picture of the regional deformation field, which is in agreement with other seismological and geological data, and show that the Apennines are mainly extending in a SW-NE direction, while in Calabria extension is NW-SE oriented. Indications of active shortening are present only in the outer Northern Apennines. The velocity profiles across the Northern and Southern Apennines, along the Tyrrhenian Sea and Calabria, provide a quantitative measurement of the active extension and shortening rates, which are taking up at a more local scale.


This paper presents data annotation models at five levels of granularity (database, relation, column, tuple, and cell) of relational data to address the problem of unsuitability of most relational databases to express annotations. These models do not require any structural and schematic changes to the underlying database. These models are also flexible, extensible, customizable, database-neutral, and platform-independent. This paper also presents an SQL-like query language, named Annotation Query Language (AnQL), to query annotation documents. AnQL is simple to understand and exploits the already-existent wide knowledge and skill set of SQL.


This paper makes three contributions to debates about penal abolitionism and criminal law minimalism in the United States and elsewhere.

First, it explains the origins and contours of European and Latin American penal abolitionism and compares it to penal abolitionism in the United States. In this context, the paper explains that European and Latin American penal abolitionism in the 1970s, 1980s and the early 1990s, was in conversation with and part of a broader set of critical ideas to humanize and reduce the scope of the penal system — that included critical criminology and "criminal law minimalism." Criminal law minimalism states that the penal system still has a role to play in society, but a substantially reduced, re-imagined and redesigned role than the one it has played in the United States.

This article's second set of contributions consist of articulating three of the most important challenges for penal abolitionism. The first challenge has to do with harmful behavior. These types of harms do not always or necessarily require police intervention, prison or punishment responses from society. But fully discarding police intervention, prison or other potential punishments as a possible response to these situations — as penal abolitionists who advocate for "abolishing the police", "a society without prisons" or "a society without punishment" do — can itself be unfair and inhumane, deprive the weak of protection against the powerful, harm the communities and individuals affected by these situations (including communities of color), and enable more of these harmful situations in the future.

Another challenge for penal abolitionists is that even assuming that police and prisons could one day be abolished, power relations and regimes could not. Every society has to structure power relations and regimes somehow. Since the range of possible power relations and regimes is endless, the question is which power relations and regimes are more just than other alternatives. In this regard, it is not clear to me that any of the many possible variations of societies without any prisons — including the ones suggested by various penal abolitionists — would necessarily be more just than a set of societies that would still give to law enforcement, prisons or other forms of punishment a role in addressing harmful behavior.

Another challenge for prison or penal abolitionists is that, for reasons discussed, it is not clear that a fair society would be a society without punishment.

These challenges explain why, despite sharing the goal of eliminating inhumane, unnecessary, unfair and discriminatory penal laws and practices, I would consider myself closer to "criminal law minimalism", rather than to penal abolitionism.

This piece's final set of contributions will be discussing the notion of "abolition constitutionalism" that constitutes main, original and important contribution Prof. Roberts makes in "Abolition Constitutionalism, 122 HARV. LAW REV. 1 (2019). After explaining the rich potential of this concept and why I agree with its critique of Flowers v. Mississippi and the Batson doctrine, I will articulate the concept of minimal criminal law constitutionalism and make three points that put it in conversation with abolition constitutionalism. First, Prof. Roberts' critique of Flowers v. Mississippi is consistent with both abolition constitutionalism and minimal criminal law constitutionalism and could be powerfully applied to other doctrines besides jury selection such as prosecutorial discretion and plea bargaining — doctrines that arguably affect many more cases subjected to the penal system than jury selection regulations. Second, I will suggest that a strong and renewed principle of criminal law as "ultima ratio" or last resort — which has not been considered a constitutional principle in the United States but is well-known in other legal systems — should be part of minimal criminal law constitutionalism and could supplement the strong anti-subordination principle that animates Prof. Roberts' analysis. Finally, I will suggest that if implementing penal abolitionism's and minimalist criminal law's visions would demand not only a substantial reduction of incarceration and an elimination of arbitrary, discriminatory and violent policing, prisons and punishment, but also a more just society, "abolition constitutionalism" and "minimalist criminal law constitutionalism" would require a constitution and a social pact that include, among others, the right to education, health care, food, work and economic safety, housing, and a healthy environment. Various constitutions around the world have included these rights.


During the last decades, it has come to the attention of many scientists, working on the fields of environmental protection, that there is a tendency for the appearance of extreme environmental phenomena (floods, extreme temperatures, prolonged dry seasons etc). Additionally the frequency of these phenomena tends to shorten, which means that although they started as rare, nowadays they are more common. Many scientists believe that their appearance is directly connected to the global climate change; nonetheless however since they become more frequent there is a need for developing monitoring methods in order to protect sensitive regions from their destructive force. Additionally the protective actions must be implemented in a new framework, which mainly consists on budget cuts, personnel reductions etc. The purpose of this paper is the presentation of a methodology which can be used in order to deploy monitoring networks, which can be modular and installed in problematic regions. Additionally we present a case study of the proposed methodology for a Greek area of special interest.


WHY GLOBALIZATION WORKS Martin Wolf New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. xviii, 398pp, $43.50 cloth (ISBN 0-300-10252-6)Give the antiglobalization gaggle their due. After the 1999 "battle in Seattle," mainstream commentators summarily dismissed most of the claims of most of the antiglobalization protestors-often within the space of a single op-ed column. That was then. Over the past five years the antiglobalization crowd has managed to convince a fair fraction of the globe of the correctness of their arguments: global economic integration empowers multinational corporations at the expense of citizens, enriches the wealthy while impoverishing the poor, and strips away the autonomy of governments, leaving them at the mercy of global capital markets.As these claims have garnered greater credence, the reaction has been a fuller articulation of the mainstream response. Economists and policymakers who support the reduction of national barriers to exchange have generated a raft of books devoted to debunking the myriad claims of the antiglobalization and alternative globalization crowds. Some of themDouglas Irwiris Free Trade Under Fire, Brink Lindsey's Against the Dead Hand, Raghuram Rajan's Saving Capitalism From the Capitalists, Johan Norberg's In Defense of Global Capitalism, and Jagdish Bhagwati's In Defense of Globalization-have made some excellent points. However, Martin Wolf's Why Globalization Works is the best single book to date that comprehensively addresses all of the claims and counterclaims with regard to economic globalization. Wolf, a World Bank economist turned Financial Times editor and columnist, has written the kind of book that makes me envious-because I wish I had written it.Wolf's argument is simple but compelling: compared to all other forms of economic organization, a system based on free market principles brings the greatest good to the greatest number. A market system supported by the legal and popular sovereignty of a liberal democratic polity functions even better. Globalization increases the size of the market, which increases the opportunities for growth, which increases the number of nonzero-sum interactions as compared to zero-sum conflicts. When contrasted against the alternatives, both theory and practice strongly recommend the unfettered integration of national markets. Critics of global market integration-variously dubbed "new millennium collectivists" or "antiglobalization.com" by Wolf-are simply unable to propose a better international economic arrangement.The first three sections of Why Globalization Works are devoted primarily to the theory side of the argument-how to define globalization, why the free movement of goods, services, and people across borders is a good thing, and the proper division of labor between markets and governments. Few of the points made in this section are new, but they serve a useful purpose, which is to point out an alternative frame through which to judge the merits of globalization. Protestors tend to focus on cross-sectional analysis-i.e., comparing how different parts of the present-day world are experiencing the (mal)distribution of benefits from the globalization phenomenon. Wolf argues that the thoughtful observer should also make temporal comparisons. How much do individuals benefit during eras of globalization as opposed to periods of segmentation? The answer here is not surprising-periods of globalization generate much greater gains than other periods in history. …


Drought is a major abiotic factor limiting crop productivity in many regions of the world. It causes reduction in plant growth, dry matter accumulation and decline in plant water status of the plants and in certain cases interferes with biochemical processes within cultivated crops. The aim of the study was to map out the distribution of different African Nightshade species in Siaya and Kisii Counties of Kenya and to determine water stress effect on total antioxidant capacity and total phenolic content of two selected African nightshade namely, giant nightshade (Solanum scabrum) and black nightshade (Solanum villosum). Prior to selection of the two varieties, the study involved farmer field visits, mapping of nightshades present and administration of semistructured questionnaires to farmers to determine the indigenous vegetables being grown, the nightshade species grown and factors affecting their production. Experiments were conducted both in the field and greenhouse conditions. Watering intervals were at 15 cbars, 50 cbars and 85 cbars. Data on number of secondary buds, leaf area, shoot height, shoot and root dry weights were gathered. The total antioxidant capacity was recorded using DPPH radical scavenging method and the total phenolic content using Folin-Ciolcalteu method. The data collected were subjected to ANOVA. In both counties production was 100% under small scale, with Solanum scabrum being the main variety grown is Siaya County (36%) while in Kisii the main variety was Solanum villosum (32%). There were significant differences (P≤0.05) among treatments in leaf area, plant height, shoot biomass, number of secondary buds, leaf and root total phenolic content and leaf and root antioxidant activity. Solanum scabrum had the tallest plants at all stress levels with a maximum height of 45.17cm at 15cbars, while Solanum villosum had the shortest plants at all stress levels, with the shortest one being recorded at 16.65 cm at 85 cbars. Solanum scabrum also had the highest root dry weight (7.78g), shoot dry weight (50.78g) and highest leaf area of (304.45cm 2 ), however Solanum villosum had the highest number of secondary buds at all stress levels with the highest being 24 at 15 cbars. With respect to phytochemicals, Solanum villosum had a higher concentration of both the total phenolics and antioxidant activity in the shoots (46.41g GAE/Kg DM total phenolic content and 52.68% total antioxidant activity) while Solanum scabrum had higher concentration in the roots (25.06gGAE/Kg DM total phenolic content and 27.18% total antioxidant activity). Water stress led to a decline in all growth parameters but enhanced phytochemical accumulation in nightshade accessions grown. It is therefore recommended that for better yields irrigation should be done at every 15 cbars, however for adequate phytochemical accumulation, irrigation should be carried out at 50 cbars. Further research to explore and quantify other phytochemical components as affected by different watering regimes need to be undertaken.


ABSTRACT To better align teacher learning with teachers' learning needs, teachers' sense-making of an innovation during which teachers experimented with differentiated instruction was studied during two school years. Using answers to a questionnaire, 15 teachers' sense-making processes were characterised by three types of search for meaning: assimilation, adaptation, and toleration. We further specified the teachers' sense-making through their experienced sources of ambiguity and uncertainty (limited resources and conflicting goals) and a detailed description of their personal frames of reference. We concluded that the teachers varied in their types of search for meaning during both school years, though most teachers were found to use assimilation in the second school year. Their experienced sources of ambiguity and uncertainty and their personal frames of reference, though becoming more similar to each other, still differed after two school years. A possible reason for the variety in teachers' sense-making is the freedom they had in the implementation of differentiated instruction: several teachers were positive about this from the start, others needed more support and guidance. This study hereby provides additional insight into the advantages of freedom in the implementation of an innovation, but also show the importance of proper support and guidance to ensure effective implementation.


The failure of successive generations of imported, Western development strategies and projects to deliver meaningful reductions in poverty and achieve basic needs in Africa, has provoked a deep questioning of Western concepts and methodologies of development. Non-governmental organisations and development practitioners are increasingly focusing their attention on strategies which build upon local knowledge, skills and resources. The concepts of 'self- reliance' and local economic development are examined in the context of development challenges which face Africa. This is followed by a detailed case study of local economic development in the rural Mpofu District of the former Ciskei Homeland, which was incorporated into the Eastern Cape province of South Africa with the demise of apartheid in 1994.


Mixing is studied in open-flow channels with conformally mapped wavy-wall profiles, using a point-vortex model in two-dimensional irrotational, incompressible mean flow. Unsteady dynamics of the separation bubble induced by oscillatory motion of point vortices located in the trough region produces chaotic mixing in the Lagrangian sense. Significant mass exchange between passive tracer particles inside and outside of the separation bubble forms an efficient mixing region which evolves in size as the vortex moves in the unsteady potential flow. The dynamics closely resembles that obtained by previous authors from numerical solutions of the unsteady Navier–Stokes equations for oscillatory unidirectional flow in a wavy channel. Of the wavy channels considered, the skew-symmetric form is most efficient at promoting passive mixing. Diffusion via gridless random walks increases lateral particle dispersion significantly at the expense of longitudinal particle dispersion due to the opposing effect of mass exchange at the front and rear of the particle ensemble. Active mixing in the wavy channel reveals that the fractal nature of the unstable manifold plays a crucial role in singular enhancement of productivity. Hyperbolic dynamics dominate over non-hyperbolicity which is restricted to the vortex core region. The model is simple yet qualitatively accurate, making it a potential candidate for the study of a wide range of vortex-induced transport and mixing problems.


Recombinant human growth hormone (r-hGH) can be produced by recombinant Escherichia coli a main host for recombinant protein productions. In order to improve the productivity of r-hGH, an orthogonal (L16(43×22)) experiment was applied to optimize the best culture conditions for r-hGH production by flask cultures of E. coli BL (21) harboring a new constructed plasmid (pEHUb-hGH). Based on the results of primary tests, five factors such as culture medium, culture volume, induction starting time, r-hGH expression time, and IPTG concentration were chosen for this present investigation as themain factors to influence the r-hGH expression. The optimum culture conditions were determined as follows: culture mediumas themodified TB, culture volume 50mL, induction starting time 3 h, r-hGHexpression time 7 h, and IPTG0.3mmol/L.Under this optimized conditions, the r-hGH productivity could reached 18.72 mg/L·h in flask culture. A high r-hGH concentration of 4.3 g/L, resulting in a high productivity of 215 mg/ L·h, could be obtained in the fed-batch culture of recombinant E. coli.


Metallic corrosion is a very common, but serious problem, which is causin~ considerable revenue loss throu~out the whole world. Mitigation of corrosion requires the application of various engineering techniques and scientific knowledge on the roll of the alloying elements in the reduction of corrosion losses and application of the film fomling inhibitors are well known. )'robe inside the electrocehmical nature of the metallic substrates has also resulted in the understanding of the mechanism of passivity. However, in the regime of engineering techniques mention may be made for processes like elech"'Oplatin~ sprayin~ galvanising and anodising along with those of anodic and cathodic protection methods. These techniques, processes and methods are widely used by the corrosion engineers for reducing the corrosion losses of metallic surfaces. Nevertheless, use of surface modification techniques for the improvement of surface perfomlance appears to he the most promising techni<lue for corrosion control. This technique provides a stronger and more reliable surface alloy layer to be formed on the surface, having a lower level of porosities and higher level of corrosion res is t.'111ce. This paper has discussed all these aspects, with particular reference to surt'ace modification. Some experimental results have heen correlated showing the interrelation of the type of surface modification with tlie indicator propel1ies like leo", E e.,..... mass loss, oxidation rating etc.


Over the years, natural language processing has increasingly focused on tasks that can be solved by statistical models, but ignored the social aspects of language. These limitations are in large part due to historically available data and the limitations of the models, but have narrowed our focus and biased the tools demographically. However, with the increased availability of data sets including socio-demographic information and more expressive (neural) models, we have the opportunity to address both issues. I argue that this combination can broaden the focus of NLP to solve a whole new range of tasks, enable us to generate novel linguistic insights, and provide fairer tools for everyone.


Traditional access controls have evolved from being static and coarse-grained to being dynamic and very fine-grained. However, a balance still must be struck: too little access inhibits usefulness, effectively creating a denial of service for people trying to do their jobs; and too much access invites breaches of security. Break-the-glass techniques and adaptive access control have previously been developed to address this issue. But gaps in these techniques still exist. We extend these techniques as follows: consider a system in which prohibitions fall into two classes. Core prohibitions prevent disaster, and are axiomatic to the system. Ancillary prohibitions, derived from core prohibitions, hinder the ability of an attacker to violate core prohibitions, but are not in and of themselves critical to the security of the system. We introduce optimistic access control, a framework in which core prohibitions are always enforced, and ancillary prohibitions are enforced only when a specific threshold is crossed. The threshold depends upon history, trust, and a variety of non-binary countermeasures. This control deals with many scenarios—including the insider threat and remote access with limited communication—that are extremely difficult to address or even characterize using current techniques. Therefore, these controls address certain gaps. Finally, we present a formal mapping to lattice models, and describe implementation ideas and issues of this method in practice.


Ionizing radiation has been shown to modulate gene and protein expression as well as cellular signal transduction pathways. However, the biochemical and molecular mechanisms that underlie the cellular response to radiation are not fully understood. The effects of ionizing radiation on the expression of nuclear proteins have now been investigated in radiorestistant human head and neck squamous carcinoma cells (SQ-20B cells) using the techniques of two-dimensional PAGE, silver staining, and computer-assisted quantitative analysis. Radiation (600 cGy) induced the expression of 10 proteins and suppressed the expression of 5 proteins in the nuclei of SQ-20B cells as detected 4 h after treatment. Electroelution and NH2-terminal amino acid sequence analysis revealed that one of the radiation-induced proteins was the Ca(2+)-binding protein calreticulin. The expression of calreticulin was increased approximately 6-fold in the nuclei of irradiated SQ-20B cells. Calreticulin and the other proteins whose expression was affected by radiation may contribute to the radioresistance phenotype of SQ-20B cells.


We propose an optimal thresholding method for the voxel coloring in the reconstruction of a 3D shape. Our purposed method is a new approach to resolve the trade-off error of the threshold value on determining the photo-consistency in the conventional method. Optimal thresholding value is decided to compare the photo-consistency of a surface with inside voxel on the optic ray of the center camera. As iterating the process of the vokels, the threshold is approached to the optimal value for the individual surface voxel. And also, graph cut method is reduced to the surface noise on eliminating neighboring voxel. To verify the proposed algorithm, we simulated in the virtual and real environment. It is advantaged to speed up and accuracy of a 3D face reconstruction by applying the methods of optimal threshold and graph as compare with conventional algorithms.


A large body of research exists on the prevalence and impact of PTSD symptoms assessed in relation to a specific traumatic event, as well as on posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) which refers to the presence of posttraumatic stress symptoms without measurement of a specific traumatic event. Migraine headache is one example of a moderately heritable chronic pain condition which has been found to co-occur with PTSD and PTSS. However, there is a dearth of scientific evidence to either support or refute any proposed models of co-occurrence. The specific aims of this study were to : 1) examine the extent to which shared genetic contributions convey a shared vulnerability to the association between PTSS and migraine headache symptoms (MHS); and 2) use longitudinal twin data to estimate the direction of the relationship between PTSS and MHS. Already available data, as of November 2013, was used from the University of Washington Twin Registry community-based sample of adult twin pairs. To address aim 1, 3,369 MZ and DZ pairs with complete data from the Registry at Time 1 were included in the analyses. To address aim 2, 1,134 MZ pairs with complete data from the Registry at both Time 1 and Time 2 were included in the analyses. A modest phenotypic association was found between PTSS and migraine headache for males and females. Bivariate analyses revealed that the proportion of the phenotypic association attributable to additive genetics that are common to both PTSS and MHS was an estimated 38% in males and 68% in females. The cross-lagged MZ twin difference model did not find PTSS at Time 1 to be directly related to MHS at Time 2 in both males and females or vice versa. Findings from both aims suggest that there is a modest overlap in genetic influences common to both PTSS and MHS in males and females, that this overlap is potentially more substantial in females, rather than one condition directly influencing the other. Understanding the underlying mechanisms that link PTSD or PTSS and chronic pain conditions such as migraine can provide insight into the development of tailored psychological and pharmacological interventions


For engineering components with cracks, it is very important to evaluate the reliability for fracture. The X-ray diffraction method is now widely used to measure non-destructively the loading and residual stresses in crystalline materials. Synchrotron radiation sources provide the X-rays with extremely high intensity as well as a narrow divergence. The high intensity X-rays with a narrow divergence enables stress measurements in a localized region. The strain distribution near the fatigue crack in the steel plate with ultrafine-grained surface layers, called SUF plates, was measured by the polychromatic X-ray from synchrotron radiation at SPring-8. The spatial resolution in the direction parallel to the crack propagation direction was 0.1 mm. The strain distributions at several applied stress levels were determined for six diffraction planes. The measured strain distribution was compared with the result calculated by the FE analysis. The average value of the measured strains for several diffraction planes agreed well with the calculated results.


Rodents generate negative consequences for smallholder farmers in Africa that directly impact household and livestock damage, food security and public health. Ecologically Based Rodent Management (EBRM) seeks sustainable solutions for the mitigation of rodent damage through assessments of rodent population dynamics, agro-ecosystems and socio-cultural contexts. We adopt a comparative approach across three rural Afro-Malagasy smallholder farming regions in South Africa, Tanzania and Madagascar to assess the household impacts of rodent pests and current perceptions and preferences associated with several rodent control measures. We conducted focus groups questionnaires and interviews in different study site locations. Rodents assert multiple impacts on Afro-Malagasy farmers demonstrating recurrent and emerging agricultural and household costs, and public health impacts. We identify a significant knowledge gap in educating communities about the application of different EBRM approaches in favour of acute poisons that are perceived to be more effective. Cultural issues and taboos also have a significant impact on the social acceptance of rodent hunting as well as biological control using indigenous predators. We advocate for an enhanced investigation of the socio-cultural beliefs associated with different rodent practices to understand the factors underlying social acceptance. A collaborative approach that integrates the perspectives of target communities to inform the design of EBRM initiatives according to the specific agro-ecosystem and socio-cultural context is necessary to ensure programmatic success.


ABSTRACT Counts of avian fledglings, nestlings, or clutch size that are bounded below by zero and above by some small integer form a discrete random variable distribution that is not approximated well by conventional parametric count distributions such as the Poisson or negative binomial. We developed a logistic quantile regression model to provide estimates of the empirical conditional distribution of a bounded discrete random variable. The logistic quantile regression model requires that counts are randomly jittered to a continuous random variable, logit transformed to bound them between specified lower and upper values, then estimated in conventional linear quantile regression, repeating the 3 steps and averaging estimates. Back-transformation to the original discrete scale relies on the fact that quantiles are equivariant to monotonic transformations. We demonstrate this statistical procedure by modeling 20 years of California Spotted Owl fledgling production (0−3 per territory) on the Lassen National Forest, California, USA, as related to climate, demographic, and landscape habitat characteristics at territories. Spotted Owl fledgling counts increased nonlinearly with decreasing precipitation in the early nesting period, in the winter prior to nesting, and in the prior growing season; with increasing minimum temperatures in the early nesting period; with adult compared to subadult parents; when there was no fledgling production in the prior year; and when percentage of the landscape surrounding nesting sites (202 ha) with trees ≥25 m height increased. Changes in production were primarily driven by changes in the proportion of territories with 2 or 3 fledglings. Average variances of the discrete cumulative distributions of the estimated fledgling counts indicated that temporal changes in climate and parent age class explained 18% of the annual variance in owl fledgling production, which was 34% of the total variance. Prior fledgling production explained as much of the variance in the fledgling counts as climate, parent age class, and landscape habitat predictors. Our logistic quantile regression model can be used for any discrete response variables with fixed upper and lower bounds.


Aging is one of the most intriguing processes of human ontogenesis. It is associated with the development of a wide variety of diseases affecting all organs and their systems. The victory over aging is the most desired goal of scientists; however, it is hardly achievable in the foreseeable future due to the complexity and ambiguity of the process itself. All body systems age, lose their performance, and structural disorders accumulate. The cardiovascular system is no exception. And it is cardiovascular diseases that occupy a leading position as a cause of death, especially among the elderly. The aging of the cardiovascular system is well described from a mechanical point of view. Moreover, it is known that at the cellular level, a huge number of mechanisms are involved in this process, from mitochondrial dysfunction to inflammation. It is on these mechanisms, as well as the potential for taking control of the aging of the cardiovascular system, that we focused on in this review.


Abstract. Corrosion of steel due to chloride ingress is a worldwide problem in reinforced concrete. In order to control such chloride-induced corrosion and evaluate the effectiveness of silane water repellent surface treatment on steel corrosion in concretes with different chloride ingress, two series of reinforced concrete specimens were used to investigate experimentally. In the first series, concrete was applied permanent migrating chloride from a reservoir of 3% NaCl solution which was placed on the top surface of each specimen. For comparison, the same concrete was made with silane water repellenet treatment correspondly. Tests were taken with half-cell potential and polarization resistance methods. Results show that steels in concrete without water repellent treatment have more negative half cell potential, higher mass loss ratio and bigger corrosion current density, and the effect of improvement through silane liquid surface treatment is evident. In the second series,concrete was same to the first one, but for wetting and drying cycle chloride ingress. Results indict that corrosion potentials decreased in negative little and later keep stable in the beginning period after water repellent treatment. Relatively for specimens without treatment, the value of corrosion negative corrosion potentials and corrosion current densities increase all the time.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To introduce and define the patient involvement climate and measure its quality and strength via views and behaviours among nurses in coronary care units.

BACKGROUND
Patient involvement is receiving increased attention among healthcare providers. To better understand and optimise the interpersonal dynamics of patient involvement, it is important to study the organisational context in which the patient-provider interaction occurs.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional, self-report questionnaire study.

METHODS
Registered nurses across 12 coronary care units (n = 303) completed a questionnaire reporting their views and behaviours regarding patient involvement. Analyses assessed climate quality (the positive or negative nature of nurses' perceptions) and climate strength (the degree of consensus within coronary care units).

RESULTS
Climate quality and strength were greatest for the dimensions measuring nurses' views of patient involvement, the nurse-patient information exchange process and nurses' responsiveness to patient needs. Climate quality and strength were weaker for the dimensions measuring nurses' views of the hindrances associated with patient involvement, discussion of daily activities and efforts to motivate patients to take responsibility for their health. In units with consensus that patient involvement poses hindrances, nurses were less likely to address patient needs.

CONCLUSIONS
When nurses perceived patient involvement as less of a hindrance in their work, they were more responsive to patient needs. A patient involvement climate characterised by motivational behaviour among nurses was marked by better information exchange and discussion of suitable activities postdischarge.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Managers can capitalise on positive climate aspects by encouraging ward activities that facilitate active patient involvement among nurses. One suggestion is educational interventions at the workplace focused on reducing perceptions of patient involvement as a hindrance and encouraging the attitudes that it can enrich nursing work and patient outcomes.


The extent to which changes in land use has affected the availability and usage of social facilities were studied. Emphasis was placed on four (4) facilities – pipe-borne water, sewage channels, sanitary sites and public open spaces. The stratified, simple and purposive sampling techniques were used to select 327 respondents made up of building owners, chiefs and government land institutions. Ten communities in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana formed the study area. Geographic Information System (GIS) tools were employed to map out changes in land use in the study communities. Results of the study showed that residents in the Kumasi metropolis were denied of all the four social facilities as a result of illegal allocation of lands meant to provide these services. Homes were unable to be connected to the service lines of the water company while others had interruptions in the flow of water. Again residents had difficulties disposing of refuse and waste water from their homes. Open spaces provided on maps were virtually absent on the ground. However, where some of these facilities existed, they were highly inadequate compared to the existing population. Residents, therefore, survived by adopting alternative ways of accessing the facilities most of which were financially costly and detrimental to the health of residents. The practices adopted also encourage environmental decay and finally affects the beauty of the metropolis. Based on the findings, this research recommends that future research investigates how changes in land use affect the health of residents in the Kumasi Metropolis. Keywords: Ghana, Land, Land Use Changes, Social Facilities, Traditional Authorities, Kumasi Metropolis.


Temporal subtraction techniques using 2D image registration improve the detectability of interval changes from chest radiographs. Although such methods are well known for some time they are not widely used in radiologic practice. The reason is the occurrence of strong pose differences between two acquisitions with a time interval of months to years in between. Such strong perspective differences occur in a reasonable number of cases. They cannot be compensated by available image registration methods and thus mask interval changes to be undetectable. In this paper a method is proposed to estimate a 3D pose difference by the adaptation of a 3D rib cage model to both projections. The difference between both is then compensated for, thus producing a subtraction image with virtually no change in pose. The method generally assumes that no 3D image data is available from the patient. The accuracy of pose estimation is validated with chest phantom images acquired under controlled geometric conditions. A subtle interval change simulated by a piece of plastic foam attached to the phantom becomes visible in subtraction images generated with this technique even at strong angular pose differences like an anterior-posterior inclination of 13 degrees.


This paper presents a graph-theoretic construct called a fuzzy metagraph (FM) with the capability of describing the relationships between sets of fuzzy elements instead of only single fuzzy elements. The algebraic structure of FM and its properties are extensively investigated. Subsequently, the FM construct is applied to rule-based systems. First, we propose FM-based knowledge representation in both graphic and algebraic format. The representation is capable of identifying dependencies across compound propositions in the rules. In the algebraic representation, the FM closure matrix is considered a precompiled rule base enabling efficient query processing. An iterative approach is presented to facilitate the construction and expansion of the FM closure matrix, which is a key for real-world applications. Next, we introduce the concept of indexing, which was originally developed for information retrieval (IR), to enable an immediate extraction of relevant entries from the FM closure matrix. The indexing approach is applied in combination with the FM closure matrix. Based on the combination, corresponding inference mechanisms are introduced to achieve instant acquisition of relevant rules over a large collection of rules. The application in rule-based systems indicates that the combination of FM and IR techniques offers advantages for the mathematical analysis of systems


In this study, polyuronide was isolated from Lallementia royleana seeds, and its carboxymethyl modification was carried out by Williamsons' synthesis. The degree of carboxymethylation substitution was found to be 1.65. The outcomes of the characterization studies performed on carboxymethylated derivative pointed to the increased flow properties and elasticity, decreased swelling property, viscosity and anionic nature. The nanoparticulate suspension of modified polyuronide was prepared by its interaction with chitosan using ofloxacin as a model drug. The concentrations of modified polyuronide and chitosan were found to affect the particle size. The polyelectrolyte nanosuspension formulated using carboxymethylated polyuronide (0.02 %,w/v) and chitosan (0.01%,w/v) showed particle size, polydispersity index, zeta potential and entrapment efficiency of 402.3 nm, 0.315, 22.3 mV and 96.50%, respectively was selected for in vitro release study. The selected batch of nanosuspension provided a sustained release of 87.10% of ofloxacin over a time period of 12 h following first-order kinetics with mechanism of release being diffusion through the matrix.


The forbears of Charles Frederick Arden-Close were predominantly military and naval. Major-General Frederick Close, R.A. (1830-1899) married twice, and by his second marriage, to Lydia Ann Stevens, had seven sons and four daughters. The eldest was Charles Frederick Close, born 10 August 1865, at St Saviour's, Jersey, C.I., who later changed his surname from Close to Arden-Close by deed poll dated 17 August 1938. His mother's parents were Captain J. A. Stevens, R.N. (1791-1867), and the daughter of Captain Francis Cole, R.N. (1760-1798), and niece of Captain Sir Christopher Cole, R.N. (who captured Banda Neira on 9 August 1810, and received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament). His paternal grandfather was Captain Charles Close, R.H.A. (1783-1849), who married the daughter of William Lewis, Member of Council, Bombay. This Captain Close had a younger brother, the Very Reverend Francis Close, Dean of Carlisle, a well-known leader of the Low Church Party and a stout opponent of science, especially of geology! The father of these two brothers was the Reverend Henry Jackson Close (1753-1806), rector of Bentworth, Hants, a friend of Warren Hastings whom he helped in his agricultural pursuits at Daylesford, being himself a well-known agriculturist. The large family of Major-General Close—there were also two daughters by his first marriage—created something of a financial problem. Here is what the subject of this memoir wrote about his early life at home and at school:


Myocardial performance is diminished in persistent SVT and will lead to hydrops fetalis (HDF). This study sought to determine which methods of fetal echocardiography are best for evaluating treatment and outcome in these fetuses. Methods: Ten infants with HDF due to SVT were included in this study. No fetus has structural heart disease. Serial cardiovascular function was estimated from CC/TC ratio, left ventricular shortening fraction, tricuspid E and A velocities and E/A ratio, mitral E, A velocities and E/A ratio and Doppler flow patterns in the free loop of the umbilical cord, MCA, ductus arteriosus and ductus venosus (DV) as well as maximal velocities and time velocity integrals into the ascending aorta and main pulmonary artery. The Tei index was calculated as the sum of the isovolumetric contraction time (ICT) and the isovolumetric relaxation time (IRT) divided by the ejection time using the ''clicks'' method. These parameters were compared to age matched normal fetuses from our data base. Changes in the gross measurements of third space effusions were considered demonstrable of improvement of fetal cardiovascular status. Results: The most sensitive indicator of change in fetal function was the Tei index followed by CC/TC ratio. Tei index is the first cardiovascular parameter which gets normalised in these fetuses responding to the treatment. There was no significant change over time with E/A ratios, LV shortening fraction or peripheral arterial Doppler values. DV A wave reversal normalized with cessation of SVT with normal PI values. DV size went from greater than the 95% to normal with cessation of SVT. Conclusions: The Tei index easily performed from 14 weeks through term. It is a useful and likely the most sensitive method of evaluating global myocardial performance in followup of fetuses with HDF especially due to SVT.


Experimental animal and human studies have demonstrated that probiotic strains have beneficial effects on allergy. Here we report that the probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 strain (EcN) is able to activate DC, as shown by important cytokine synthesis together with up‐regulation of membrane expression of CD40, CD80 and CD86. This EcN‐induced DC activation was strictly dependent on the TLR4 signaling pathway and was also associated with stimulation of NF‐κB and MAPK. We next investigated the prophylactic potential of i.n. co‐administration of EcN with a recombinant form of Der p 1 (ProDer p 1) in a murine model of mite allergy. I.n. vaccinations with EcN plus ProDer p 1 prevented the subsequent allergic response following Der p 1 sensitization and airway challenge with aerosolized mite extracts through the induction of an allergen‐specific IgG2a response, the prevention of specific IgE production and a strong reduction of IL‐5 secretion by allergen‐restimulated splenocytes. EcN alone or in combination with ProDer p 1 inhibited the development of airway eosinophilia and neutrophilia. This in vivo protective effect of EcN was, in part, mediated by TLR4 signaling. Our results suggest that EcN represents an efficient adjuvant to prevent allergic responses.


(53.6%), and 7.1% presented with ever severe form of the disease (S1). The recommended complete diagnostic algorithm was performed only in 29.4% of our patients. First line therapy used in CD was exclusive enteral nutrition (EEN) for remission induction (84.2%) and azathioprine for remission maintenance (73.7%). In patients with UC, aminosalicylates were the most common drug used (89.3%). By the end of the first year 41.2% of CD and 53.9% of UC patients had a relapse and required escalation of treatment. Median time to the first relapse was 5 (5-11) months. Following potential risk factors for relapse were examined: age (p = 0.769), gender (p = 0.091), Z – score body mass index for age (p = 0.914), Z – score height for age (p = 0.087), Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index (p = 0.947), Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis Activity Index (p = 0.245), EEN (p = 0.605), but none of them were statistically significant. Our data confirm extensive intestinal involvement in pediatric IBD and relatively high relapse rate during the first year of follow-up. More effort should be invested on the national level to implement more stringent adherence to the current European guidelines.


IN A previous communication one of us (M. B. B.) reported 4 cases of monocular diplopia and polyopia in patients with disease of the brain. 1 Although each case presented a different clinical and pathologic problem, there were certain features which all had in common: The double or multiple vision was most pronounced on prolonged or close fixation. Two of the patients, who were studied in detail during the period when the illusions were manifest, complained of multiple image formation only after prolonged fixation on an object. Furthermore, the diplopia and polyopia seemed to be confined to the macular field of vision. Since the act of close fixation is usually associated with an increase in ocular movements, it was felt that the latter might in some way be related to the phenomenon of monocular diplopia and polyopia. Kubie and Beckmann 2 found that increased ocular movements resulted in diplopia (presumably


Copper chaperones, soluble copper-binding proteins, are essential for ensuring proper distribution of copper to cellular compartments and to proteins requiring copper prosthetic groups. They are found in all eukaryotic organisms. Orthologues of the three copper chaperones characterized in yeast, ATXl, CCS and COX17, are present in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plants are faced with unique challenges to maintain metal homoeostasis, and thus their copper chaperones have evolved by diversifying and gaining additional functions. In this paper we present our current knowledge of copper chaperones in A. thaliana based on the information available from the complete sequence of its genome.


Packet classification is one of the major challenges today in designing high-speed routers and firewalls, as it involves sophisticated multi-dimensional searching. Ternary content addressable memory (TCAM) has been widely used to implement packet classification, thanks to its parallel search capability and constant processing speed. However, TCAMs have limitations of high cost and high power consumption, which ignite the desire to reduce TCAM usage. Recently, many works have been presented on this subject due to two opportunities. One is the well-known range expansion problem for packet classifiers to be stored in TCAM entries. The other is that there often exists redundancy among rules. In this paper, we propose a novel technique called Block Permutation (BP) to compress the packet classification rules stored in TCAMs. Unlike previous schemes that compress classifiers by converting the original classifiers to semantically equivalent classifiers, the BP technique innovatively finds semantically nonequivalent classifiers to achieve compression by performing block-based permutations on the rules represented in Boolean Space. We have developed an efficient heuristic approach to find permutations for compression and have designed its hardware implementation by using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to preprocess incoming packets. Our experiments with ClassBench classifiers and Internet Service Provider (ISP) real-life classifiers show that the proposed BP technique can significantly reduce 31.88% TCAM entries on average, in addition to the reduction contributed by other state-of-the-art schemes.


This work reveals the potential of mechanics of structure genome (MSG) for the free-edge stress analysis of composite laminates. First the cross-sectional analysis specialized from MSG is formulated for solving a generalized free-edge problem of composite laminates. Then, MSG and the companion code SwiftCompTM are applied to the free-edge stress analysis of several composite laminates with arbitrary layups and general loads including extension, torsion, in-plane and out-of-plane bending and their combinations. The results of MSG are compared with various existing solutions for symmetric angle-ply laminates. New results are presented for the free-edge stress fields in general la minates for combined mechanical loads and compared with three dimensional (3D) finite element analysis (FEA) results, which agree very well.


Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) that has very interesting photophysical properties which make it suitable for a broad range of applications. The 2,7-positions of pyrene are situated on nodal planes in both the HOMO and LUMO. Hence, electrophilic reactions take place at the 1-, 3-, 6-, and 8-positions. The goal of this project was to develop novel pyrene derivatives substituted at the 2- and 2,7-positions, with very strong donors or/and acceptors, to achieve unprecedented properties and to provide a deeper understanding of how to control the excited states and redox properties. For that reason, a julolidine-type moiety was chosen as a very strong donor, giving D-π and D-π-D systems and, with Bmes2 as a very strong acceptor, D-π-A system. These compounds exhibit unusual photophysical properties such as emission in the green region of the electromagnetic spectrum in hexane, whereas all other previously reported pyrene derivatives substituted at the 2,7-positions show blue luminescence. Furthermore, spectroelectrochemical measurements suggest very strong coupling between the substituents at the 2,7-positions of pyrene in the D-π-D system. Theoretical studies show that these properties result from the very strong julolidine-type donor and Bmes2 acceptor coupling efficiently to the pyrene HOMO-1 and LUMO+1, respectively. Destabilization of the former and stabilization of the latter lead to an orbital shuffle between HOMO and HOMO 1, and LUMO and LUMO+1 of pyrene. Consequently, the S1 state changes its nature sufficiently enough to gain higher oscillator strength, and the photophysical and electrochemical properties are then greatly influenced by the substituents.
In another project, further derivatives were synthesized with additional acceptor moieties at the K-region of pyrene. These target derivatives exhibit strong bathochromically shifted absorption maxima (519-658 nm), which is a result of the outstanding charge transfer character introduced into the D-π-D pyrene system through the additional acceptor moiety at the K-region. Moreover, emission in the red to NIR region with an emission maximum at 700 nm in CH2Cl2 is detected. The excited state lives unusual long for K-region substituted pyrenes; however, such a lifetime is rather typical for 2,7-substituted pyrene derivatives.
The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon perylene, especially perylene diimide, has received considerable attention in recent years and has found use in numerous applications such as dyes, pigments and semiconductors. Nevertheless, it is of fundamental importance to understand how to modulate the electronic and photophysical properties of perylene depending on the specific desired application. Perylenes without carboxyimide groups at the peri positions are much less well studied due to the difficulties in functionalizing the perylene core directly. In particular, only ortho heteroatom substituted perylenes have not been reported thus far (exception: (Bpin)4-Per was already reported by Marder and co-workers). Thus, the effect of substituents on the ortho positions of the perylene core has not been investigated.
Two perylene derivatives were synthesized that bear four strong diphenylamine donor or strong Bmes2 acceptor moieties at the ortho positions. These compounds represent the first examples of perylenes substituted only at the ortho positions with donors or acceptors.
The investigations show that the photophysical and electronic properties of these derivatives are unique and different compared to the well-studied perylene diimides. Thus, up to four reversible reductions or oxidations are possible, which is unprecedented for monomeric perylenes. Furthermore, the photophysical properties of these two ortho-substituted derivatives are unusual compared to reported perylenes on many regards. Thus, large Stokes shifts are obtained, and the singlet excited state of these derivatives lives remarkably long with intrinsic lifetimes of up to 94 ns.
In a cooperation with Dr. Gerard P. McGlacken at University College Cork in Ireland, different quinolones were borylated using an iridium catalyst system to study the electronic and steric effect of the substrates. It was possible to demonstrate that the Ir-catalyzed borylation with the dtbpy ligand allows the direct borylation of various 4-quinolones at the 6- and 7-positions. Thus, later stage functionalization is possible with this method and more highly functionalized quinolones are also compatible with this mild reaction conditions.


The zebrafish embryo remains transcriptionally quiescent during the first 10 cell cycles. Only then Zygotic Genome Activation (ZGA) occurs and is accompanied by fast chromatin remodeling. At ZGA, homologs of mammalian stem cell transcription factors (TFs) Pou5f3/Oct4, Nanog and Sox19b bind to thousands of developmental enhancers to initiate transcription. So far, how these three ZGA TFs influence chromatin dynamics at ZGA has remained unresolved. To address this question, we analyzed before and after ZGA nucleosome positions in wild-type and Maternal-Zygotic (MZ) mutants for pou5f3 and nanog. We show that Nanog, Sox19b and Pou5f3 bind to the High Nucleosome Affinity Regions (HNARs). HNARs are spanning over 600 bp, featuring high in vivo and predicted in vitro nucleosome occupancy and high propeller twist DNA shape value. Just prior to ZGA, Pou5f3 and Nanog non-specifically compete with histones and reduce nucleosome occupancy on strong nucleosome positioning sequences genome-wide. After ZGA, specific binding of Nanog and Pou5f3/SoxB1 complex is necessary to maintain open chromatin state on more than 6,000 HNARs. Nanog binds to the strongest nucleosome positioning sequence within HNAR, while the Pou5f3/SoxB1 complex binds to the flanks of it. We suggest a model, where the same intrinsic DNA properties of HNAR promote both high nucleosome occupancy and differential binding of TFs. We hope that our model will provide a useful framework for genome regulatory studies in the variety of biological systems.


In 1965 Cooley and Tukey published an algorithm for rapid calculation of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT), a particularly convenient calculating technique, which can well be applied to impulse-like functions whose beginning and end lie at the same level. Independently, various propositions were made to overcome the truncation error which arises, if a step-like function, i.e. one whose end level differs from its starting level, is treated in the same way. It was argued that they behave differently under the influence of noise, band-limited violation, and other experimental inconveniences. The aim of this paper is to show that the three widely and satisfactorily used techniques of Samulon, Nicolson, and Gans, which originate from apparently different ideas, are exactly the same. An extended DFT and fast Fourier transform (FFT) formula is deduced which is adapted as well to impulse-like as to step-like functions.


Contemporary linguistic forms are partially the product of their historical antecedents, and the same is true for cognitive conceptualization. The book presents the results of several diachronic corpus studies of conceptual metaphor in a longitudinal and empirical "mixed methods" design, employing both quantitative and qualitative analysis measures; the study design was informed by usage-based theory. The goal was to investigate the interaction over time between conceptualization and cultural models in historical English-speaking society. The main study of two linguistic metaphors of anger spans five centuries (A.D. 1500 to 1990). The results show that conceptualization and cultural models—understood as non-autonomous, encyclopedic knowledge—work together to determine both the meaning and use of a linguistic metaphor. In addition, historically a wide variety of emotion concepts formed a complex cognitive array called the Domain Matrix of emotion. The implications for conceptual metaphor theory, research methodology, and future study are discussed in detail.


Abstract. X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is an x-ray astronomical mission led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), with collaboration from the European Space Agency (ESA) and other international participants, that is planned for launch in 2022 (Japanese fiscal year), to quickly restore high-resolution x-ray spectroscopy of astrophysical objects using the microcalorimeter array after the loss of Hitomi satellite. In order to enhance the scientific outputs of the mission, the Science Operations Team (SOT) is structured independently from the Instrument Teams (ITs) and the Mission Operations Team. The responsibilities of the SOT are divided into four categories: (1) guest observer program and data distributions, (2) distribution of analysis software and the calibration database, (3) guest observer support activities, and (4) performance verification and optimization activities. Before constructing the operations concept of the XRISM mission, lessons on the science operations learned from past Japanese x-ray missions (ASCA, Suzaku, and Hitomi) are reviewed, and 15 kinds of lessons are identified by categories, such as lessons on the importance of avoiding non-public ("animal") tools, coding quality of public tools in terms of the engineering viewpoint and calibration accuracy, tight communications with ITs and operations teams, and well-defined task division between scientists and engineers. Among these lessons, (a) the importance of early preparation of the operations from the ground stage, (b) construction of an independent team for science operations separate from the instrument development, and (c) operations with well-defined duties by appointed members are recognized as key lessons for XRISM. Based on this, (i) the task division between the mission and science operations and (ii) the subgroup structure within the XRISM Team are defined in detail as the XRISM operations concept. Based on this operations concept, the detailed plan of the science operations is designed as follows. The science operations tasks are shared among Japan, the USA, and Europe and are performed by three centers: the Science Operations Center (SOC) at JAXA, the Science Data Center (SDC) at NASA, and European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) at the ESA. The SOT is defined as a combination of the SOC and SDC. The SOC is designed to perform tasks close to the spacecraft operations, such as spacecraft planning of science targets, quick-look health checks, and prepipeline data processing. The SDC covers tasks regarding data calibration processing (pipeline processing) and maintenance of analysis tools. The data-archive and user-support activities are planned to be covered both by the SOC and SDC. Finally, the details of the science operations tasks and the tools for science operations are defined and prepared before launch. This information is expected to be helpful for the construction of science operations of future x-ray missions.


Multi-view based shape descriptors have achieved impressive performance for 3D shape retrieval. The core of view-based methods is to interpret 3D structures through 2D observations. However, most existing methods pay more attention to discriminative models and none of them necessarily incorporate the 3D properties of the objects. To resolve this problem, we propose an encoder-decoder recurrent feature aggregation network (ERFA-Net) to emphasize the 3D properties of 3D shapes in multi-view features aggregation. In our network, a view sequence of the shape is trained to encode a discriminative shape embedding and estimate unseen rendered views of any viewpoints. This generation task gives an effective supervision which makes the network exploit 3D properties of shapes through various 2D images. During feature aggregation, a discriminative feature representation across multiple views is effectively exploited based on LSTM network. The proposed 3D representation has following advantages against other state-of-the-art: 1) it performs robust discrimination under the existence of noise such as view missing and occlusion, because of the improvement brought by 3D properties. 2) it has strong generative capabilities, which is useful for various 3D shape tasks. We evaluate ERFA-Net on two popular 3D shape datasets, ModelNet and ShapeNetCore55, and ERFA-Net outperforms the state-of-the-art methods significantly. Extensive experiments show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed 3D representation.


The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organizational commitment and job satisfaction as mediator on the relationship between organizational learning and public service managers' work performance. The population of the study is around 4579 Administrative and Diplomatic (ADS) officers working in 28 ministries located in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, Malaysia. The collection of primary data was through the distribution of personally administered questionnaires to the respondents who were chosen by systematic sampling procedure. A total of 435 (87%) answered questionnaires were returned and used in the final analysis. The findings indicate organizational learning is equally important in explaining organizational commitment, job satisfaction and work performance. At the same time, organizational learning, job satisfaction and organizational commitment are also equally important in explaining work performance among the public service managers. In conclusion, this paper contributes and enriches present knowledge in this field and it can be argued that western theories can be valid in non-western setting. The implications of the findings of this paper are that top management in ministries need to pay serious attention and effort to create a conducive environment that will encourage learning among the employees. This will improve work outcomes and consequently improve the government delivery system.


Ultrapotassic rocks of the Christopher Island Formation (Baker Lake basin) were emplaced across an enormous area (240 000 km 2 minimum) of the western Churchill Province ca. 1.83 Ga. These rocks extend across the Snowbird zone, a geophysical feature postulated by others to represent a Paleoproterozoic suture that welded the Rae and Hearne domains. Minette dikes and flows of the Rae and Hearne domains display identical ϵ Nd, 1830 values and incompatible element patterns, and thus appear to have originated from a common lithospheric-mantle source. Christopher Island Nd model ages cluster at 2.8 Ga, and ϵ Nd data from one Archean lamprophyre and three 2.45 to ca. 2.2 Ga mafic suites suggest that enriched lithospheric-mantle sources beneath both the Rae and Hearne domains existed well before ca. 1.83 Ga, inconsistent with Paleoproterozoic suturing along the Snowbird zone. In contrast to commonly invoked models that envisage melting of local enriched domains, Christopher Island ultrapotassic rocks appear to have originated from an extensive reservoir. We suggest that such a reservoir was created during an Archean metasomatic event, perhaps owing to flat subduction, and that it remained in nearly complete isolation until tapped during Paleoproterozoic extension related to squeezing of western Churchill crust between flanking Wopmay and Trans-Hudson orogens.


Tauopathies are a group of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), Pick's disease (PiD), or frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17 (FTDP-17) that are characterised by altered metabolism and deposition of the microtubule associated protein tau. Alternative splicing of tau exon 10 results in tau isoforms containing either three or four microtubule-binding repeats (3R-tau and 4R-tau). Discovery of silence and intronic mutations leading to increased 4R/3R ratio in FTDP-17 affected families revealed that a disbalance in 4R-tau and 3R-tau in favour of the 4R isoform is sufficient to cause neurodegeneration with personality disturbances, dementia and motor dysfunction. Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder characterised by involuntary movements, psychiatric symptoms and dementia that is caused by an expanded CAG repeat in exon 1 of the Huntingtin (HTT) gene. HD thus belongs to the group of dominant trinucleotide repeat diseases that include many other CAG repeat disorders such as the spinocerebellar ataxias SCA1, SCA2, SCA3, SCA6, SCA7, SCA12, SCA17, dentatorubropallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) and spinobulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) as well as the CUG repeat disorders SCA8 and myotonic dystrophy 1 (DM1). A key element in the pathogenesis of the latter is the binding of splicing factors by the mutant CUG transcript, thus leading to alternative splicing aberrations in multiple genes. Intriguingly, CAG repeats have recently been shown to mimic CUG repeats in the misregulation of alternative splicing. Since it has also been very recently reported that aberrant splicing contributes to the generation of the highly toxic short N-terminal species of HTT, it is conceivable that splicing alterations significantly contribute to HD pathogenesis. Here we aim to explore whether the neurodegeneration-causing increase in 4R/3R-tau mRNA ratio occurs in HD by performing quantitative RT-PCR from RNA extracted from striatum and cortex of HD and control subjects.


Disease-related deficits in the everyday social interaction are responsible for socially inadequate integration of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPS).
The supply resources due to the extensive psychosocial impairment of affected patients are strongly encouraged. Nevertheless the BPS gets less attention in aspects of structural analysis for quality of care compared to other mental disorders. Although the psychotropic drugs benefit compared to the psychotherapy in treatment of BPS, it is extensively applied in practice.
In the present study, 87 borderline patients with a total of 140 hospital stays were analyzed in the period of 2008-2012. The retrospective analysis of medical record showed that 94% of patients in the in-patient treatment history were given psychotropic drugs. In the period 1998-2004, there were 87%. During this period there were no significant differences in the frequency of the psychotropic drug treatment compared to the psychotherapy for crisis- intervention. Different psychotropic substance classes were used, most commonly, like in the first observation period, antidepressants. In the first group there were 73.2%, in the present study 64% of patients, who had already experience with antidepressants while being admitted or during the hospitalization. Remarkable in our study slightly less neuroleptic drugs were prescribed compared to other studies In the period of 2008-2012, there were 46.5% of the patients. Comparing both periods regarding hypnotics and sedatives, the first observation period dominated with 45.1%. In contrast, only 29% of patients received these drugs in the second time interval.Noteworthy, the substances, which are not recommended or even proved to be detrimental (e.g. benzodiazepine) in treatment of BPS.
The treatment of the BPS is syndrome-oriented, therefore the administration of the various substance classes was broken down by syndromes - for example patients with affective symptoms got antidepressants and self-harming patients often got Neuroleptics.
The number of medicines prescribed increased by an average of 27% during an inpatient stay, which means that the patients left hospital with significantly more drugs than they came in. Compared to the observation period (1996-2004), there was a general increase in the variety of medications administered per inpatient stay as well as a significant increase in the frequency of a psychotropic drug treatment even at shortened length of inpatient
 stay.
High percentages of comorbidities and the socio-demographic data highlighted the severity of the disease, which obviously often requires a targeted psychotropic drug treatment.
High rates of psychotropic drug treatment and intensive polypharmacy were found for borderline patients- a psychotropic drug treatment was as high as for other psychiatric syndromes. Therefore there is a need for future research for effective medication at the borderline personality disorder.


The quality of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) is typically measured by mean opinion score (MOS) that significantly varies in wireless environments. Several approaches have been proposed to evaluate the MOS values of voice paths. However, these solutions require extra servers/gateways to conduct heavy computation for MOS measurement of VoIP calls. We propose two MOS measurement procedures for mobile devices. In our approach, a simple program is installed in each of the mobile devices (through an app-store like mechanism). In the perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) MOS measurement procedure, a lightweight real-time table lookup solution significantly reduces the computation time of PESQ MOS measurement from 315.4 s to 3 s. In the E-model MOS measurement procedure, the E-model MOS value can be accurately computed in 5.35 s.


NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) is a flavoprotein that utilizes NAD(P)H as an electron donor, catalyzing the two-electron reduction and detoxification of quinones and their derivatives. NQO1−/− mice deficient in NQO1 activity and protein were generated in our laboratory (Rajendirane, V., Joseph, P., Lee, Y. H., Kimura, S., Klein-Szanto, A. J. P., Gonzalez, F. J., and Jaiswal, A. K. (1998) J. Biol. Chem. 273, 7382–7389). Mice lacking a functional NQO1 gene (NQO1−/−) were born normal and reproduced adeptly as the wild-type NQO1+/+ mice. In the present report, we show that NQO1−/− mice exhibit significantly lower levels of abdominal adipose tissue as compared with the wild-type mice. The NQO1−/− mice showed lower blood levels of glucose, no change in insulin, and higher levels of triglycerides, β-hydroxy butyrate, pyruvate, lactate, and glucagon as compared with wild-type mice. Insulin tolerance test demonstrated that the NQO1−/− mice are insulin resistant. The NQO1−/− mice livers also showed significantly higher levels of triglycerides, lactate, pyruvate, and glucose. The liver glycogen reserve was found decreased in NQO1−/− mice as compared with wild-type mice. The livers and kidneys from NQO1−/− mice also showed significantly lower levels of pyridine nucleotides but an increase in the reduced/oxidized NAD(P)H:NAD(P) ratio. These results suggested that loss of NQO1 activity alters the intracellular redox status by increasing the concentration of NAD(P)H. This leads to a reduction in pyridine nucleotide synthesis and reduced glucose and fatty acid metabolism. The alterations in metabolism due to redox changes result in a significant reduction in the amount of abdominal adipose tissue.


Abstract : Propagation of electromagnetic waves in forest environments at medium and high radio frequencies is examined for the case where both the transmitting and receiving points are situated within the vegetation. A conductive slab in the presence of a reflecting ionosphere is employed to describe the forest configuration and this model is further simplified by disregarding the ground- forest interface. The radiated field of an arbitrarily oriented small dipole is found to consist primarily of two separate waves: a lateral wave which skims along the tree tops and a sky wave which is produced by a single-hop reflection at the ionospheric layer. These two field constituents are compared and their domains of preponderance are calculated for a large range of the pertinent parameters; it is then found that the lateral wave plays the major role since the sky wave is restricted to a narrow frequency band and its amplitude is appreciable only at large distances. The lateral wave field is examined in detail and is shown to yield a simple physical picture for the propagation mechanism in forests. Its features are found to be qualitatively consistent with the field behavior reported in the literature and the quantitative aspects agree well with the available experimental data. The observed variation of the field with distance, the height gain effect, the vegetation factor, the basic path loss and depolarization effects are separately examined and are all shown to express merely one or another of the intrinsic properties of a lateral wave. The ground proximity effect produced by the presence of a planar conducting ground is also estimated and shown to be of minor importance in most cases. (Author)


Response surface modelling of tool electrode wear rate and material removal rate in micro electrical discharge machining Inconel 718 is a corrosion-resistant and high strength nickel-based alloy with wide range of applications includingcomponents for cryogenic tankage, liquid fueled rockets and casings for aircraft engines. The material is characterizedby high hardness, high temperature strength, low thermal conductivity and high strength causing it extremely difficult tomachine. Micro-Electrical Discharge Machining (Micro-EDM) is a non-conventional method that has a potential toovercome these restrictions for machining of Inconel 718. Response Surface Method (RSM) was used for modelling thetool Electrode Wear Rate (EWR) and Material Removal Rate (MRR) with the input factors such as voltage (V), peak current(I on) and pulse on-time (Ton ). The RSM analysis of variance results show that the main input factors' pulse off-time and p onvoltage are significant in controlling the tool electrode wear rate at 95% confidence level. An increase in voltage from30 to 45 V and pulse on-time from 1 to 3 μs causes a linear decrease in EWR by 35%. Using response surface modeling, a3 3 minimum EWR of 12.3184 μm /min and a maximum MRR of 37.2151 μm /min is obtained at a current of 1.07 A, pulse ontimeof 4.44 μs, pulse off-time of 4.06 μs and voltage of 60 V.


The poor old Amazons become Martyrs and the Ds Picts living in the woods, in Arthur Ransome's 11th adventure. The Ds can't wait to go and stay with Nancy and Peggy in the Lake District during the summer holidays. But when the Amazons' dreadful Great Aunt invites herself to stay too, the summer is threatened with dullness. Staying indoors and reading poetry is not what the Amazons had in mind. To save the Ds from the same fate they organise for them to stay in the Dogs' Home, a tumble-down hut in the woods. As long as no one discovers they're there they can sail all summer long.


When invited to review this book I approached its content with eager anticipation, why you
might ask? The answer is quite literally because I am so used to thinking about 'inequality'
that the title of this book, in its very essence, challenges some of the fundamental
assumptions that we may hold with regards to the way we observe, discuss and analyse social
interactions in society. This book usurps some of these assumptions. The concept is
straightforward; a 'no-nonsense guide to equality, inequalities are not forgotten or dismissed;
instead the reader is invited to think about equality and inequality in society and the impact
that greater equality may bring with it


When a user requests content from a cloud service provider, sometimes the content sent by the provider is modified inflight by third-party entities. To our knowledge, there is no comprehensive study that examines the extent and primary root causes of the content modification problem. We design a lightweight experiment and instrument a vast number of clients in the wild to make two additional DNS queries every day. We identify candidate rogue servers and develop a measurement methodology to determine, for each candidate rogue server, whether the server is performing inflight modifications or not. In total, we discover 349 servers as malicious, that is, as modifying content inflight, and more than 1.9% of all US clients are affected by these malicious servers. We investigate the root causes of the problem. We identify 9 ISPs, whose clients are predominately affected. We find that the root cause is not sophisticated transparent in-network services, but instead local DNS servers in the problematic ISPs.


This paper presents a distributed algorithm called L-REMiT for enhancing the lifetime of a source-based multicast tree in wireless ad hoc networks (WANET). The lifetime of a multicast tree is the duration from the formation of the tree to the time when the first node fails due to battery energy exhaustion. L-REMiT assumes that the energy consumed to forward a packet is proportional to the forwarding distance and channel characteristics, and that WANET nodes can dynamically adjust their transmission power. The task of extending the lifetime of a multicast tree is formulated as the task of extending the lifetime of bottleneck nodes in the tree. The number of multicast packets that a bottleneck node can forward, as determined by its residual battery energy and the distance of its farthest child node, is the minimum over all the nodes in the multicast tree. The lifetime of a bottleneck node is improved by reassigning its farthest children to other nodes in the tree with the goal of improving the lifetime of the multicast tree. Nodes only require information from their neighbors for refining the tree in a distributed manner. Simulation results show that L-REMiT has low overhead and performs better than the BIP/MIP and EWMA algorithms.