: The most important and consistent symptom of acute PE is the sudden onset of dyspnoea unexplained by pneumonia, heart failure, pneumothorax, or exacerbation of airway obstruction. The features commonly remembered such as haemoptysis and pleural rub may be absent in up to two thirds of patients. With previous cardiorespiratory disease the signs and symptoms become nonspecific and a relatively minor PE can produce clinical features more suggestive of a large embolus. Hypoxia and a raised respiratory rate are also suggestive but cannot be relied upon if there is pre-existing cardiorespiratory disease or in the elderly. Although the radiological appearance of an infarct shadow may be recognized, the chest X-ray is frequently nonspecific or normal. A negative perfusion scan excludes any significant emboli and an abnormal perfusion scan is suggestive of PE but not diagnostic; its specificity can be increased considerably if facilities are available for a concurrent ventilation scan. A deep venous thrombosis when present is also indicative of PE, although its absence does not preclude the diagnosis. Factors predisposing to deep venous thrombosis are usually present in the patient with PE. No single diagnostic aid can be relied upon in the diagnosis of PE. As with many illnesses much of the evidence begins with a careful consideration of the presenting history and physical signs. Further help can be obtained from various investigations, but results must be interpreted with consideration of the patient's age and pre-existing health. The final diagnosis may need to be established by pulmonary angiography.


Abstract. In this paper, we propose a software architecture for a feature extraction tool which is suitable for automatic extraction of sparse features from large remote sensing data capable of using higher order algorithms (computational complexity greater than O(n)). Many features like roads, water bodies, buildings etc in remote-sensing data are sparse in nature. Remote-sensing deals with a large volume of data usually not manageable fully in the primary memory of typical workstations. For these reason algorithms with higher computational complexity is not used for feature extraction from remote sensing images. A good number of remote sensing applications algorithms are based on formulating a representative index typically using a kernel function which is having linear or less computational complexity (less than or equal to O(n)). This approach makes it possible to complete the operation in deterministic time and memory.Feature extraction from Synthetic Aparture Radar (SAR) images requires more computationally intensive algorithm due to less spectral information and high noise. Higher Order algorithms like Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Gray Level Co-Occurrence Matrix (GLCM), wavelet, curvelet etc based algorithms are not preferred in automatic feature extraction from remote sensing images due to their higher order of computational complexity. They are often used in small subsets or in association with a database where location and maximum extent of the features are stored beforehand. In this case, only characterization of the feature is carried out in the data.In this paper, we demonstrate a system architecture that can overcome the shortcomings of both these approaches in a multi-threaded platform. The feature extraction problem is divided into a low complexity with less accuracy followed by a computationally complex algorithm in an augmented space. The sparse nature of features gives the flexibility to evaluate features in Region Of Interest (ROI)s. Each operation is carried out in multiple threads to minimize the latency of the algorithm. The computationally intensive algorithm evaluates on a ROI provided by the low complexity operation. The system also decouples complex operations using multi-threading.The system is a customized solution developed completely in python using different open source software libraries. This approach has made it possible to carry out automatic feature extraction from Large SAR data. The architecture was tested and found giving promising results for extraction of inland water layers and dark features in ocean surface from SAR data.


Using the same choice experiment surveys and same specification of mixed logit models are used in California (CA) and Florida (FL) to compare homeowners willingness to pay (WTP) for two types of fuel reduction programs. Comparing the WTP of homeowners in CA and FL for private and public wildfire risk reduction show that WTP for the private actions among households who perceive low to moderate wildfire risk is quite low, and probably lower than what their cost share would be for making significant wildfire risk reductions on their property and to their residence. However, these same individuals would pay substantially more for public programs to reduce wildfire risk in their neighborhoods and common/public lands around their neighborhoods. The results also suggest the highest priority for cost sharing funds would go to homeowners in areas who perceive their houses to be at high risk, and especially to cost share private actions on their own land.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of three-dimensional spiral computed tomoangiography (3-D spiral CTA) of the abdomen as a substitute for renal angiography in the evaluation of potential live kidney donors. Two of 10 potential live renal donors underwent 3-D spiral CTA only, whereas the remaining 8 underwent 3-D spiral CTA and renal angiography before transplantation. 3-D spiral CTA and renal angiography results were compared and correlated with intraoperative findings. In all 8 cases in which 3-D spiral CTA and renal angiography were compared, the number of arteries was correctly identified by both modalities. In this limited study, 3-D spiral CTA provided the same information as did angiography. According to these findings, 3-D spiral CTA might be used as an alternative to renal angiography, though a larger series is needed to determine whether it could replace renal angiography for all potential live-donor work-ups.


Objective
To observe the expression dynamics of lens-related transcription factors in human embryonic stem cell (hESC) differentiated into lentoid body(LB).

Methods
A "three-stage" protocol was used for LB directional differentiation from hESC in vitro.The hESC (D0) and three differentiation stages cells were collected to analyze the expression dynamics of lens development-associated transcription factors by high throughput RNA sequencing technology in hESC-induced LB.Western blot and cell immunofluorescence were used to observe the involved genes at protein level.

Results
During D0-D6, cells became more round and compact.And during D7-D18, cells morphology gradually changed to spindle.At the end of D35, three-dimensional and transparent structure-lentoid body (LB) was obtained.RT-PCR results showed that the stem cell related genes reduced and the lens specific genes increased significantly, and the LB was characterized by the expression of crystallins.According to clustering analysis of high throughput sequencing, a distinct difference in transcription factors gene expression was observed between D0 and D32.Meanwhile, the difference between D6 and D18 was minimum.The expressions of preplacodal genes, including DLX3, DLX5, DLX6, HES1, HES4, OTX2 and EYA1 increased remarkably at the first induction stage and then decreased.Lens-specification gene SOX2 declined gradually and then increased.In addition, the expression of PAX6 increased during all three induction stages.Furthermore, lens-differentiation genes including MAB21L1, CMAF, PROX1 and PITX3 had no significant change in the early induction stage, but increased significantly at the third induction stage.

Conclusions
The expression dynamics of lens development-associated transcription factors in the hESC induced LB corresponded to those in vivo, which indicate that this induction system can recapitulate early lens development well and lay the foundation of studying lens embryonic development and transcription factor associated congenital lens diseases.

Key words:
Human embryonic stem cell; Lentoid body; Transcription factor; High throughput RNA sequencing


Use of bio fuels in a regular spark ignition engine is becoming common in several countries to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and overall generation of green house emissions. Alcohols such as methanol and ethanol are blended with gasoline when SI engines are considered. Advanced direct injection stratified charge engine technology has gained lot of interest due to its merits over conventional port fuel injection engine. Since the technology is significantly spray controlled, fuel injection and spray behavior under different thermodynamic conditions plays a very important role in successful engine operation. Present work was carried out to understand the spray behavior of isooctane and three alcohols under engine-like pressure and temperature conditions. Selected alcohols were ethanol, isobutanol and n-butanol. A six holes solenoid injector was used for this study. Experiments were conducted in high pressure and temperature spray chamber to determine the liquid penetration length, overall spray cone angle and overall Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of the different fuels under engine relevant conditions. Selected chamber conditions were a) 1.5 bar, 329 K, b) 2.5 bar, 371 K and c) 6.0 bar, 453 K. Mie scattering principle was used to determine the liquid penetration and spray cone angle of the fuels, whereas droplet diameter information was obtained using single component Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA). Results showed that thermo-physical properties of the fuel such as vapour/liquid equilibrium, surface tension, density, viscosity and latent heat of vaporization have significant effect on the spray characteristics. Due to its lower latent heat of evaporation, isooctane evaporated faster and hence resulted in the shortest liquid penetration length. The penetration lengths of alcohols were higher due to their comparatively higher latent heat of evaporation. SMD data from the experiments supported this observation.


Active magnetic bearings (AMBs) have found a wide range of high-speed rotating machinery applications in energy storage, electric power generation, machine tool operation, heart pumps and hybrid vehicles. Compared with conventional mechanical bearings, AMBs need feedback control to support and constrain the rotor and demand additional electronic devices. When AMBs are used to support flexible rotors, their nonlinear characteristics and complex dynamics of flexible rotors cause problems with stabilization and disturbance rejection. Proportionalintegral-derivative (PID) controllers are the most popular control method for AMB applications. They are easy to implement and reasonable control performance can be achieved. However, it is difficult for PID controllers to deliver robust and near optimal performance for complex dynamic systems. In recent years, robust control techniques such as μ-synthesis have also been applied to AMB applications. The μ-synthesis is able to better handle the uncertainties in complex systems and to achieve reliable performance. However, it requires plant and uncertainty models to generate the most suitable solution, which makes this control design not as practical as PID controllers. The characteristic model-based all-coefficient adaptive control (ACAC) method has been widely used in process control and the aerospace industry. Numerous applications have demonstrated its effectiveness. This method is able to provide robust control performance on multidimensional complex dynamical systems, while maintaining a simple structure and not requiring the actual plant model. It focuses on the characteristics of the plant and the control performance requirements instead of precise system dynamics. It compresses the corresponding information of the high order plant into several characteristic parameters so that no information is lost. The simplicity of the characteristic model based ACAC method makes it convenient for practical engineering applications. This thesis explores the application of the characteristic model based all-coefficient adaptive ii Chapter 0 Abstract iii control method to the stabilization of a flexible rotor AMB system. Simulation has shown performance improvements over the μ-synthesis in terms of minimizing the vibration and maintaining a small orbit. Experimental results have also demonstrated some features of ACAC method and shown it is comparable to the μ-synthesis in certain measures. These results show its strong potential to perform well in spite of its simplicity.


To further understanding of light scattering on solution of anisotropic hard-to-image soft particles such as elastin-like polypeptide micelles the light scattering characterization of anisotropic easy-to-image inorganic gold nanoparticles was undertaken. We used Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering (DDLS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) to study commercial gold nanoparticles: nanospheres, nanorods with aspect-ratio=3, and nanorods with aspect ratio=7. According to SEM particles appeared to be larger than manufacturer specs, namely 2R=18.9±1.3nm, (26.1±4.1)x(65.5±9.5)nm, and (16.3±2.2)x(103.6±16.7)nm, respectively. DDLS on nanospheres showed no rotational diffusion (VH) signal, q dependence of decay rate consistent with that of spherical particles, no concentration dependence of translational diffusion coefficient (DVV), no absorption change under incident laser light, and a hydrodynamic radius Rh=12.2±0.4nm, largely consistent with SEM-measured size. The aspect-ratio=3 rods also revealed no VH signal, spherelike q-dependence of decay rate, no concentration dependence of DVV, and apparent Rh=20.9±0.5nm. These samples also revealed unexpected change of absorption and color under incident laser light. However, the absorption change didn't affect particle diffusion. In other words, DDLS on 26x66nm nanorods yielded apparent diffusion properties of 41.8nm diameter spherical particles! DDLS on aspect-ratio=7 rods revealed noticeable VH signal and significant change in absorption altering diffusion properties under the laser light. The absorption change might have been caused by plasmon resonance, which greatly alters the particles' absorption. It was also found that, after certain "exposure" to the laser beam 16x104nm particles became stable and showed diffusion properties consistent with diffusion of cylinders.


•   Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi are indispensable symbionts for the normal growth of many tree species. Here, we report the underground primary succession of ECM fungi in a volcanic desert on Mt. Fuji, Japan. •   We identified all the underground fungal constituents by comparing the fragment lengths of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions in nuclear r-DNA with those of sporocarps, considering intraspecific variation of each species at the research site. ITS sequences were also used for identification. •   In total, 21 ECM fungi associated with Salix reinii were identified. Species recorded as sporocarps dominated the underground ECM community. The sere of underground ECM fungi was initiated by one or two of three first-stage fungi, and additional species were recruited with host growth, especially in the soil that developed within a vegetation patch. The species richness of ECM fungi increased significantly with host growth. •   The underground ECM community associated with unhealthy hosts differed from that of normally growing hosts. The underground ECM communities and their successional patterns might influence plant growth and plant communities during early primary succession.


A novel method for preparing porous silicon carbide ceramics with high porosity had been developed by recrystallization of green bodies composed of α-SiC, β-SiC, remnant silicon and incompletely-reacted carbon. Fine microstructure and uniform pore structure of the resultant porous silicon carbide ceramics was obtained. The green bodies of porous ceramics were prepared by the precursor powder which contained α-SiC, carbon black and silicon powder. The precursor powder was sintered at 1600°C under Vacuum circumstance to obtain the green bodies; the sintering process is same with the reaction sintering silicon carbide. Then the green bodies were sintered to 2300°C for half an hour to recrystallization. The incompletely-reacted carbon was fully reacted with silicon. And the remnant silicon was excluded during the recrystallization process to create porous structures. The influence of composition of the precursor powder and the fabrication process (the moulding pressure) on the microstructure of sintering bodies was analyzed. X-ray diffractometry demonstrated the transformation of β-SiC to α-SiC during the recrystallization process. The density and the porosity of this material was 1.027g/cm3 and 67% respectively.


Although the stored energy of an antenna is instrumental in the evaluation of antenna Q and the associated physical bounds, it is difficult to strictly define stored energy. Classically, the stored energy is either determined from the input impedance of the antenna or the electromagnetic fields around the antenna. The new energy expressions proposed by Vandenbosch express the stored energy in the current densities in the antenna structure. These expressions are equal to the stored energy defined from the difference between the energy density and the far field energy for many but not all cases. Here, the different approaches to determine the stored energy are compared for dipole, loop, inverted L-antennas, and bow-tie antennas. We use Brune synthesized circuit models to determine the stored energy from the input impedance. We also compare the results with differentiation of the input impedance and the obtained bandwidth. The results indicate that the stored energy in the fields, currents, and circuit models agree well for small antennas. For higher frequencies, the stored energy expressed in the currents agrees with the stored energy determined from Brune synthesized circuit models whereas the stored energy approximated by differentiation of input impedance gives a lower value for some cases. The corresponding results for the bandwidth suggest that the inverse proportionality between the fractional bandwidth and Q-factor depends on the threshold level of the reflection coefficient.


Authoritative and lavishly illustrated, this best-selling reference returns in a fourth edition with comprehensive coverage of the current imaging strategies for the evaluation of disease processes affecting the temporal bone and its intricate anatomy. New in this edition is a highly practical "how-to" chapter that presents imaging modalities and technical parameters for CT and MRI as well as an overview of the role of plain film radiography, ultrasound, PET, and PET/CT. The chapter then addresses major clinical indications, providing step-by-step descriptions of how to protocol each case, how to interpret the studies, and how to report findings. The remaining chapters thoroughly cover specific anatomic areas of the temporal bone separately. Each chapter places special emphasis on gaining a solid foundation of the normal anatomy and anatomic variations. It then discusses imaging protocols and image evaluation for specific clinical problems.


This thesis sheds light on three questions in international macroeconomics. The first chapter investigates why business cycle correlations are state-dependent and higher in recessions than in expansions. I suggest a mechanism to explain why this is the case. Therefore, I build an international real business cycle model with occasionally binding constraints on capacity utilization which can account for state-dependent cross-country correlations in GDP growth rates. Empirically, I successfully test for the presence of capacity constraints using data from the G7 advanced economies in a Bayesian threshold autoregressive (T-VAR) model. This finding supports capacity constraints as a prominent transmission channel of cross-country GDP asymmetries in recession compared to expansions. The second chapter is joint work with Mathias Hoffmann and Sven Blank of the Deutsche Bundesbank. It analyzes how foreign direct investment (FDI) influences optimal country portfolio diversification. In a DSGE model that features the endogenous choice of firms to become internationally active through either exports or foreign direct investment (FDI), we find that the optimal equity holdings of agents are more biased towards domestic firms than in a model without FDI. The third chapter explores under which circumstances member countries of a monetary union will not find it optimal to bail each other out. To investigate these circumstances, I build a model of cross-country holdings of sovereign debt with the possibility of default, as well as the possibility to negotiate a bailout for a struggling country. I show that if there is a representative household in each individual member country, a bailout solution always exists. In a second version of the model that involves heterogeneity in household wealth within the bailout providing country, the utilitarian government of this country optimally refuses a bailout in some states of the world.


A Gram-positive, strictly aerobic, rod-shaped, non-motile bacterial strain, designated MJ28T, was isolated from a sludge sample from the Daejeon sewage disposal plant in South Korea. A polyphasic approach was applied to study the taxonomic position of strain MJ28T. Strain MJ28T showed highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to Pseudoclavibacter soli KP02T (95.2 %). Levels of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity to the type strains of other Pseudoclavibacter species were less than 94.0 %. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences showed that strain MJ28T belonged to the clade formed by members of the genus Pseudoclavibacter in the family Microbacteriaceae. The G+C content of the genomic DNA of strain MJ28T was 65.8 mol%. The chemotaxonomic characteristics of strain MJ28T showed features typical of the genus Pseudoclavibacter, with MK-9 as the predominant respiratory quinone, 2,4-diaminobutryic acid as the diamino acid in the peptidoglycan, and anteiso-C17:0 (44.6 %), anteiso-C15:0 (35.7 %) and C16:0 (9.5 %) as the major fatty acids. On the basis of phylogenetic inference, fatty acid profile and other phenotypic properties, strain MJ28T is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Pseudoclavibacter, for which the name Pseudoclavibacter caeni sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is MJ28T (=KCTC 19773T=JCM 16921T).


Objective
To investigate the effect of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) combined with low-dose cyclosporin A (CsA) on corneal transplantation rejection and its mechanism.

Methods
A fully allogeneic rat cornea transplant model (Wistar rats to Lewis rats) was created.Thirty-six model rats were divided into MSCs group, CsA group and MSCs+ CsA group randomly by using the random number table method, with 12 rats for each group.In each group, six rats were used for the evalution of symptom observation and six for the assay of immune factor.Three days after corneal transplantation, slit lamp microscope was used to observe and record the vascularization, edema and opacity scores of corneal graft.After 18 days, spleen T helper cell(Th)1 and Th2 cytokines were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The use and care of the animals complied with Regulations for the Administration of Affair Concerning Experimental Animals by State Science and Technology Commission.This study protocol was approved by Ethic Committee of Tianjin Medical University Eye Hospital (No.TMUaMEC2017028).

Results
The survival time of corneal grafts in MSCs+ CsA group was prolonged in comparison with the MSCs group and CsA group, with significant differences between them([21.3±3.9]days vs. (14.8±2.4)days; [21.3±3.9]days vs.[16.0±1.1]days) (P=0.003, 0.004). Eighteen days after corneal transplantation, corneal opacity scores were 3.17±0.17, 3.00±0.00 and 2.17±0.17, corneal neovascularization scores were 2.67 ± 0.21, 2.33 ± 0.21 and 1.83 ± 0.21, respectively in the MSCs group, CsA group and MSCs+ CsA group, showing significant differences among the three groups (F=15.500, P<0.01; F=4.524, P=0.029). The corneal opacity scores and corneal neovascularization scores in the MSCs+ CsA group were significantly lower than those in the MSCs group and CsA group(all at P<0.05). Interleukin(IL)-2, IL-4, IL-10, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) concentrations were all significantly different among the MSCs group, CsA group and MSCs+ CsA group (F=15.000, 12.810, 10.720, 17.960, all at P<0.01). Compared with the MSCs group and CsA group, Th1 subsets cytokines IFN-γ and IL-2 concentrations in the MSCs+ CsA group were significantly lower, and Th2 subsets cytokines IL-4 and IL-10 concentrations were significantly increased in the MSCs+ CsA group in comparison with the MSCs group and CsA group (all at P<0.05).

Conclusions
The combination of MSCs with low-dose CsA can effectively ameliorate immunological rejection by the modulation of the balance of Th1/Th2.

Key words:
Mesenchymal stem cells; Immunosuppressant; Corneal transplantation; Rejection


This thesis is concerned with the study of sequential decision problems motivated by the challenge of selecting questions to give to students in an online educational environment. In online education there is the potential to develop personalized and adaptive learning environments, where students can receive individualized sequences of questions which update as the student is observed to be struggling or flourishing. In order to achieve this personalization, we must learn about how good each question is, while simultaneously giving students good questions. Multi-armed bandits are a popular technique for sequential decision making under uncertainty. Due to their online nature and their ability to balance the trade-off between exploitation and exploration, multi-armed bandits lend themselves naturally to this problem of adaptively selecting questions in education software. However, due to the complexity of the educational problem, standard approaches to multi-armed bandits cannot be applied directly. In this thesis variants of the multi-armed bandit problem specifically motivated by the issues arising in the educational domain are considered. Particular focus will be placed on ton the statistical and mathematical foundations of such approaches.


As Australian society is ageing, individuals are increasingly concerned about managing their future, including making decisions about the medical treatment they may wish to receive or refuse if they lose decision-making capacity. To date, there has been relatively little research into the extent to which legal regulation allows competent adults to make advance refusals of life-sustaining medical treatment that will bind health professionals and others when a decision needs to be made at a future time. This thesis aims to fill this gap in the research by presenting the results of research into the legal regulation of advance directives that refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. In the five papers that comprise this thesis, the law that governs this area is examined, and the ethical principle of autonomy is used to critically evaluate that law. The principal finding of this research is that the current scheme of regulation is ineffective to adequately promote the right of a competent adult to make binding advance directives about refusal of medical treatment. The research concludes that legislation should be enacted to enable individuals to complete an advance directive, only imposing restrictions to the extent that this is necessary to promote individual autonomy. The thesis first examines the principle of autonomy upon which the common law (and some statutory law) is expressed to be based, to determine whether that principle is an appropriate one to underpin regulation. 1 The finding of the research is that autonomy can be justified as an organising principle on a number of grounds: it is consistent with the values of a liberal democracy; over recent decades, it is a principle that has been even more prominent within the discipline of medical ethics; and it is the principle which underpins the legal regulation of a related topic, namely the contemporaneous refusal of medical treatment. Next, the thesis reviews the common law to determine whether it effectively achieves the goal of promoting autonomy by allowing a competent adult to make an advance directive refusing treatment that will operate if he or she later loses decision-making capacity. 2 This research finds that conunon law doctrine, as espoused by the judiciary, prioritises individual choice by recognising valid advance directives that refuse treatment as binding. However, the research also concludes that the common law, as applied by the judiciary in some cases, may not be effective to promote individual autonomy, as there have been a number of circumstances where advance directives that refuse treatment have not been followed. The thesis then examines the statutory regimes in Australia that regulate advance directives, with a focus on the regulation of advance refusals of life-sustaining medical treatment.3 This review commences with an examination ofparliamentary debates to establish why legislation was thought to be necessary. It then provides a detailed review of all of the statutory regimes, the extent to which the legislation regulates the form of advance directives, and the circumstances in which they can be completed, will operate and can be ignored by medical professionals. The research finds that legislation was enacted mainly to clarify the common law and bring a level of certainty to the field. Legislative regimes were thought to provide medical professionals with the assurance that compliance with an advance directive that refuses life-sustaining medical treatment will not expose them to legal sanction. However, the research also finds that the legislation places so many restrictions on when an advance directive refusing treatment can be made, or will operate, that they have not been successful in promoting individual autonomy.


We present a proof method for networks of processes in which component processes communicate exclusively through messages. We show how to construct proofs of invariant properties which hold at all times during network computation, and terminal properties which hold upon termination of network computation, if network computation terminates. The proof method is based upon specifying a process by a pair of assertions, analogous to pre-and post-conditions in sequential program proving. The correctness of network specification is proven by applying inference rules to the specifications of component processes. Several examples are proved using this technique.


In molecular dynamics, enhanced sampling methods enable the collection of better statistics of rare events from a reference or target distribution. We show that a large class of these methods is based on the idea of importance sampling from mathematical statistics. We illustrate this connection by comparing the Hartmann-Schütte method for rare event simulation (J. Stat. Mech. Theor. Exp. 2012, P11004) and the Valsson-Parrinello method of variationally enhanced sampling [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 090601 (2014)]. We use this connection in order to discuss how recent results from the Monte Carlo methods literature can guide the development of enhanced sampling methods.


Currently, 20 drugs have been approved for Human Immunodeficiency Virus type-1 (HIV-1) clinical therapy. These drugs inhibit HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, protease, or virus entry. Introduction of a combination therapy with reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors has resulted in a drastic decrease in HIV-1 related mortality. Although the combination therapy can suppress viral replication below detection levels in current available assays, low levels of on-going viral replication still persist in some patients. Long-term administration of the combination therapy may increase selective pressure against viruses, and subsequently induce emergence of multiple drug-resistant HIV-1 variants. Attempts have been made to design novel antiretroviral drugs that would be able to suppress replication of the resistant variants. At present, several investigational drugs are being tested in clinical trials. These drugs target not only the resistant variants, but also improvement in oral bioavilability or other viral proteins such as HIV-1 integrase, ribonuclease H, and HIV-1 entry (CD4 attachment inhibitors, chemokine receptors antagonists, and fusion inhibitors). Understanding mechanism(s) of action of the drugs and mechanisms of drug resistance is necessary for successful designs in the next generation of anti-HIV-1 drugs. In this review, the mechanisms of action of reverse transcriptase- and protease-inhibitors, and the mechanism of resistance to these inhibitors, are described.


A large part of low-frequency variability in the climate system on sub-seasonal to decadal timescales can be described in terms of preferred atmospheric circulation patterns, often called circulation regimes. Such recurring and persistent, large-scale patterns of pressure and circulation anomalies span vast geographical area and are closely related to atmospheric teleconnection patterns like the famous North-Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Within the conceptual framework of circulation regimes, low-frequency variability can be observed as a result of transitions between the distinct atmospheric circulation regimes. Moreover, the frequency of occurrence of preferred atmospheric circulation regimes is influenced by the external forcing factors such as other components of the climate system and anthropogenic forcing. This determines, at least partly, the time-mean response of the atmospheric flow to the external forcing.
In this framework, one of our research foci is to advance the understanding of past, recent and future changes in the spatial/temporal structure of atmospheric circulation regimes and to assess the impact of internal climate dynamics versus external forcing. To tackle these questions, we exploit large global gridded data sets either from different reanalysis data sets or from model simulations with state of the art climate models mostly performed in the framework of CMIP (Coupled model intercomparison project) initiatives.
We introduce and apply a hypothesis-driven approach, in particular to study the impact of sea-ice changes on atmospheric circulation patterns. The hypothesis-driven approach consists in three (iterative) steps: (i) Application of statistical methods for pattern recognition on reanalysis and climate model data, (ii) development of a hypothesis about underlying dynamical mechanisms of the impact of sea-ice changes on atmospheric circulation patterns, (iii) testing of the new hypothesis by performing new well designed climate model experiments and new model data analysis. By applying this approach, we identified tropospheric and stratospheric dynamical pathways which explain, how Arctic climate changes, in particular sea-ice changes, influence the weather and climate in mid-latitudes.


Summary The color patterns on the wings of lepidopterans are among the most striking patterns in nature and have inspired diverse biological hypotheses such as the ecological role of aposomatic coloration, the evolution of mimicry, the role of human activities in industrial melanism, and the developmental basis of phenotypic plasticity. Yet, the developmental mechanisms underlying color pattern development are not well understood for three reasons. First, few mutations that alter color patterns have been characterized at the molecular level, so there is little mechanistic understanding of how mutant phenotypes are produced. Second, although gene expression patterns resembling adult color patterns are suggestive, there are few data available showing that gene products have a functional role in color pattern formation. Finally, because with few exceptions (notably Bombyx), genetic maps for most species of Lepidoptera are rudimentary or nonexistent, it is very difficult to characterize spontaneous mutants or to determine whether mutations with similar phenotypes are because of lesions in the same gene or different genes. Discussed here are two strategies for overcoming these difficulties: germ‐line transformation of lepidopteran species using transposon vectors and amplified frequency length polymorphism‐based genetic mapping using variation between divergent strains within a species or between closely related and interfertile species. These advances, taken together, will create new opportunities for the characterization of existing genetic variants, the creation of new sequence‐tagged mutants, and the testing of proposed functional genetic relationships between gene products, and will greatly facilitate our understanding of the evolution and development of lepidopteran color patterns.


Various approaches lie behind the modelling of spatial relations, which is a heterogeneous and interdisciplinary field. In this paper, we introduce a conceptual framework to describe the characteristics of various models and how they relate each other. A first categorization is made among three representation levels: geometric, computational, and user. At the geometric level, spatial objects can be seen as point-sets and relations can be formally defined at the mathematical level. At the computational level, objects are represented as data types and relations are computed via spatial operators. At the user level, objects and relations belong to a context-dependent user ontology. Another way of providing a categorization is following the underlying geometric space that describes the relations: we distinguish among topologic, projective, and metric relations. Then, we consider the cardinality of spatial relations, which is defined as the number of objects that participate in the relation. Another issue is the granularity at which the relation is described, ranging from general descriptions to very detailed ones. We also consider the dimension of the various geometric objects and the embedding space as a fundamental way of categorizing relations.


In this paper, the energy-based localization problem in wireless sensor networks is addressed. We focus on the weighted least squares (WLS) estimation of the source location. Due to the nonconvex nature of the WLS formulation, its global solution is hard to obtain without a good initial estimate. We propose a semidefinite relaxation method for this localization problem. To do so, we transform the original WLS formulation into a nonconvex approximate WLS (AWLS) formulation, which is then relaxed as a semidefinite programming (SDP). We show that it is possible for the SDP to be tight, i.e., the SDP solves the original AWLS problem. For the cases where the SDP is not tight, a procedure called Gaussian randomization is applied to further refine the SDP solution. Simulation results show that the proposed method can outperform the existing methods at high noise levels.


Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) has transformed proteomics by providing an avenue for collecting spatially distributed molecular data. Functional data acquired with matrix assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) IMS consist of tens of thousands of spectra, measured at regular grid points across the surface of a tissue section. Unlike the more standard liquid chromatography mass spectrometry, MALDI-IMS preserves the spatial information inherent in the tissue.
Motivated by the need to differentiate cell populations and tissue types in MALDI-IMS data accurately and efficiently, we propose an integrated cluster and feature extraction approach for such data. We work with the derived binary data representing presence/absence ' of ions as this is the essential information in the data. Our approach takes advantage of the spatial structure of the data in a noise removal and initial dimension reduction step and applies $k$-means clustering with the cosine distance to the high-dimensional binary data. The combined smoothing-clustering yields spatially localized clusters that clearly show the correspondence with cancer and various non-cancerous tissue types.
Feature extraction of the high-dimensional binary data is accomplished with our difference in proportions of occurrence (DIPPS) approach which ranks the variables and selects the optimal number of ranked variables in a data-driven manner. We summarize the best variables in a single image that has a natural interpretation. Application of our method to data from patients with ovarian cancer shows the close agreement of our results with tissue types identified by pathologists.


A distributed, hierarchical information service for computer networks might use several service instances, located in different layers. A distributed directory service, for example, might be comprised of upper level listings, and local directories. The upper level listings contain a compact version of the local directories. Clients desiring to access the information contained in local directories might first access the high-level listings, in order to locate the appropriate local instance. One of the keys for the competent operation of such service is the ability of properly summarizing the information which will be maintained in the upper level directories. We analyze the case of the Lookup Service in the Information Services plane of perfSONAR performance monitoring distributed architecture, which implements IP address summarization in its functions. We propose an empirical method, or heuristic, to perform the summarizations, based on the PATRICIA tree. We further apply the heuristic on a simulated distributed test bed and examine the results.


Achieving maximum performance through migration of functions from software to microcode requires rethinking the linkage editing process. An object-oriented model of naming and binding clarifies the alternative abstractions available in naming and linking across the macro-micro machine boundary. Alternative abstractions for sharing micro-objects and for dynamic use of micro-objects are presented and their implementations discussed. The conclusions are based on actual implementations. >


Optical manipulations utilizing the mechanical effect of light have been indispensable in various disciplines. Among those various manipulations, optical pulling has emerged recently as an attractive notion and captivated the popular imagination, not only because it constitutes a rich family of counterintuitive phenomena compared with traditional manipulations but also due to the profound physics underneath and potential applications. Beginning with a general introduction to optical forces, related theories, and methods, we review the progresses achieved in optical pulling forces using different mechanisms and configurations. Similar pulling forces in other forms of waves, including acoustic, water, and quantum matter waves, are also integrated. More importantly, we also include the progresses in counterintuitive left-handed optical torque and lateral optical force as the extensions of the pulling force. As a new manipulation degree of freedom, optical pulling force and related effects have potential applications in remote mass transportation, optical rotating, and optical sorting. They may also stimulate the investigations of counterintuitive phenomena in other forms of waves.


An inherent performance gap between custom designs and ASICs is one of the reasons why many designers still start their designs from register transfer level (RTL) description rather than from behavioral description, which can be synthesized to RTL via high-level synthesis (HLS). Sequencing overhead is one of the factors for this performance gap; the choice between latch and flip-flop is not typically taken into account during HLS, even though it affects all the steps of HLS. HLS-l is a new design framework that employs high-performance latches during scheduling, allocation, and controller synthesis. Its main feature is a new scheduler that is based on a concept of phase step (as opposed to conventional control step), which allows us scheduling in finer granularity, register allocation that resolves the conflict of latch being read and written at the same time, and controller synthesis that exploits dual-edge triggered storage elements to support phase step based scheduling. In experiments on benchmark designs implemented in 1.2 V, 65-nm CMOS technology, HLS-l reduced latency by 16.6% on average, with 9.5% less circuit area, compared to the designs produced by conventionalHLS.


The view of the world from different subjects is quite distinct, resulting in a different view of what it is to know, and what it is that is known about. Scientists are stereotypically Realists who seek objective facts about an independent external world. Literary theorists are stereotypically Constructivists, seeking insightful interpretations that are relevant to their community. Each overarching set of values and beliefs about the world is called a worldview, which determines the ontological, epistemological and methodological attitudes of the researcher to the object of investigation. These attitudes form a research paradigm within which certain activities are regarded as appropriate by peers and, as a result, produce relevant responses to perceived research questions. This paper presents an investigation that was funded by the Swedish Institute into architectural research as evidenced in Swedish doctoral theses. The sample was mapped and analysed in terms of clusters of interest, approaches, cultures of knowledge and uses of design practice. This allowed the identification of the ontological, epistemological and methodological attitudes of the researchers, and hence a glimpse of the implicit worldview. The authors claim that the relationship between values and beliefs (worldview), and actions (paradigm), in emerging areas of design research such as architecture is often under-scrutinised, resulting in a disjunction between actions and aims. One outcome of the project was a diagrammatic representation of various approaches evidenced in the theses. This representation made explicit the similarities and differences between the researchers' attitudes to the ontological, epistemological and methodological issues; and exposed distinct roles for practice in academic research. The responses to these issues in architectural research reflect the different values and beliefs regarding the roles of design practice in research. The project concluded that research in areas of design practice may constitute a new worldview requiring its own, more appropriate, research paradigm.


The study is aimed at evaluating the genotype by environment interactions (GEI) on acclimatization of sweetpotato genotypes to the farmers' field conditions. A field evaluation was done on six sweetpotato genotypes planted in RCBD, three replications in three different agro-ecologies. These genotypes were previously (2012, 2014) tested for yield performance in the same environment. Data collected were subjected to ANOVA. Genetic merit and GEI for total storage root tuber yield (TSRTY) was tested using BLUPs and GGE biplot, respectively. Clustering of genotypes was done using Ward's linkage method in the Squared Euclidean distance. Breeding significance and distance among clusters was determined using Mahalanobis's distance. Environment played significant (P<0.01) role in determining the genotypes' maturity days; and genotypes in lowland matured earlier than those on higher altitudes. TSRTY ranged from 7.5 to 59.5 t/ha, and total fresh biomass (TFB) 21.6 to 36.0 t/ha. Genotypes with high harvest index produced high TSRTY, TFB and NNPP hence well acclimatized. GEI was responsible for the genotypes acclimatization in the studied agro-ecologies; Tulla and Kulfo demonstrated wide acclimatization while Berkume was specific. Cluster II with very high dry matter content may be explored for crossbreeding cluster I and III to produce OFSP transgressive segregants for Ethiopia.

 Key words: Sweetpotato genotypes acclimatisation, agro-ecologies, yield and yield components, environment.


A comparison of the prognosis between 2 series of patients with urothelial renal pelvic tumors is presented. One series comprising 70 patients was operated with intrafascial nephrectomy with extirpation of varying length of the ureter. The other series comprising 38 patients was operated with transabdominal perifascial nephrectomy with homolateral adrenalectomy, total ureterectomy and in 28 patients retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy. The 5‐year survival was 51% in the patients operated with intrafascial nephrectomy and 84% in the patients operated with perifascial nephrectomy. The difference in prognosis is statiatically significant (p ⩽ 0.01) and cannot be explained by differences in extent of tumor infiltration, tumor grade or tumor size. The main difference in prognosis between the two series was in patients with high stage tumors (Grabstald stage 3 and 4). The 5‐year survival was 74% in patients with stage 3 and 4 tumors in the patients operated with perifascial nephrectomy compared with 37% in the patients operated with intrafascial nephrectomy. Since it is not possible with absolute certainty to determine tumor stage before the operation, an aggressive attitude against urothelial renal pelvic tumors is recommended. Thus the patients should undergo transabdominal perifascial nephroureterectomy including a cuff of the bladder wall and homolateral adrenalectomy. In patients with bilateral tumors, renal insufficiency or tumor in a single kidney parenchyma saving partial resection must be performed.


Storage and retrieval technology for large-scale medical image systems has matured significantly during the past ten years but many implementations still lack cost-effective backup and recovery solutions. As an example, a PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication system) in a general medical center requires about 40 Terabytes of storage capacity for seven years. Despite many healthcare centers are relying on PACS for 24/7 clinical operation, current PACS lacks affordable fault-tolerance storage strategies for archive, backup, and disaster recovery. Existing solutions are difficult to administer, and often time consuming for effective recovery after a disaster. For this reason, PACS still encounters unexpected downtime for hours or days, which could cripple daily clinical service and research operations. Grid Computing represents the latest and most exciting technology to evolve from the familiar realm of parallel, peer-to-peer, and client-server models that can address the problem of fault-tolerant storage for backup and recovery of medical images. We have researched and developed a novel Data Grid testbed involving several federated PAC systems based on grid computing architecture. By integrating grid architecture to the PACS DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) environment, in addition to use its own storage device, a PACS also uses a federated Data Grid composing of several PAC systems for off-site backup archive. In case its own storage fails, the PACS can retrieve its image data from the Data Grid timely and seamlessly. The design reflects the Globus Toolkit 3.0 five-layer architecture of the grid computing: Fabric, Resource, Connectivity, Collective, and Application Layers. The testbed consists of three federated PAC systems, the Fault-Tolerant PACS archive server at the Image Processing and Informatics Laboratory, the clinical PACS at Saint John's Health Center, and the clinical PACS at the Healthcare Consultation Center II, USC Health Science Campus.In the testbed, we also implement computational services in the Data Grid for image analysis and data mining. The federated PAC systems can use this resource by sharing image data and computational services available in the Data Grid for image analysis and data mining application.In the paper, we first review PACS and its clinical operation, followed by the description of the Data Grid architecture in the testbed. Different scenarios of using the DICOM store and query/retrieve functions of the laboratory model to demonstrate the fault-tolerance features of the Data Grid are illustrated. The status of current clinical implementation of the Data Grid is reported. An example of using the digital hand atlas for bone age assessment of children is presented to describe the concept of computational services in the Data Grid.


Finger millet is a food crop that provides nutritional security and is climatically resilient for farming and agricultural diversification. However, its quality and yield remain low due to biotic and abiotic factors, the greatest of which is blast disease caused by Magnaporthe oryzae. We surveyed the occurrence, distribution and severity of finger millet blast in five counties, namely, Busia, Bungoma, Kisii, Machakos and Makueni, in Kenya. Blast disease occurrence was determined by observing disease symptoms of different plant parts on each farm, and symptoms were recorded as either present or absent. Severity was evaluated based on the disease symptoms on plant fingers, leaves and necks and generally at the whole farm scale. Distribution was assessed based on the number of farms sampled for blast per county, and global positioning systems coordinates were recorded. Blast occurrence was 100%, with a uniform distribution pattern on all the farms surveyed across all the counties. Busia County had the highest disease severity at 82.3%, while Makueni had the lowest severity at 61%. Pearson's correlation test revealed no statistically significant correlation between blast severity and plant parts infected (p< 0.05), with Busia (74.2%) having the highest number of plants showing symptoms of blast on fingers, followed by Bungoma (57.1%), Makueni (57%), Machakos (56%) and Kisii, 53.3%. This study reveals that finger millet blast is rampant in all the counties surveyed and is widely distributed in Kenya. This information is helpful in understanding the geographical distribution, occurrence and severity of M. oryzae.

 Key words: Finger millet blast, occurrence, severity, distribution, Magnaporthe oryzae.


Pasture and forage plant breeding is complicated by the perennial nature of the plants, the diversity of environments in which improved cultivars will be used, and the complex criteria of merit involved, criteria that necessarily include some measure of impact on the efficiency of animal production. While pasture plant breeding in the temperate zone is a demonstrably productive activity, the record of success for the tropical species -"success" measured by release and adoption of bred cultivars -is less convincing, in spite of four decades of activity in numerous public sector breeding programs and a large published literature. The difference is at least partly owing to the less developed state of pasture research in general in the tropics. More specifically, the reasons for the lack of success of tropical pasture plant breeding can be classified as: i) inadequate understanding of the socioeconomic environment in which the bred cultivars are to be used, ii) inadequate level and stability of institutional support, and iii) inherent biological obstacles. It appears that in most cases the biological obstacles, while sometimes formidable, are the least constraining to success. Until responsibility for tropical pasture plant breeding is assumed by the private sector (as it largely has been in the temperate zone) the single factor that would most improve chances of success (or at least avoid many of the failures) is intimate contact and constant communication between the public sector plant breeder and the seed industry that is the vehicle for diffusion of his new bred cultivars.


The initial crack under fretting condition occurs at lower stress amplitude and at lower cycles of cyclic loading than that under plain fatigue condition. INCONEL alloy 600 and 690 are high–chromium nickel alloy having excellent resistance to many corrosive aqueous media and high-temperature atmospheres. In this paper, the effect of fretting damage on fatigue behavior for INCONEL alloy 600 and 690 were studied. Also, various kinds of mechanical tests such as hardness, tension and plain fatigue tests are performed. Fretting fatigue tests were carried out with flat-flat contact configuration using a bridge type contact pad and plate type specimen. Through these experiments, it is found that the fretting fatigue strength decreased about 40~70% compared to the plain fatigue strength in two materials. In fretting fatigue, the wear debris is observed on the contact surface, and the oblique micro-cracks at an earlier stage are initiated. These results can be used as basic data in a structural integrity evaluation of heat and corrosion resisting alloy considering fretting damages.


: Using a previous model based on the microbial hub (HUB; consists of heterotrophic bacteria and microzooplankton, the latter being heterotrophic protists), we investigated the ef fects of competition for inorganic and organic resources in planktonic food webs by proposing and developing the concept of 'competition switches'. A competition switch controls the flow of carbon toward either the HUB or other food web compartments. The 3 switches are PB: competition for inorganic nutrients between bacteria and phytoplankton; MB: competition for detritus between bacteria and mesozooplankton; and Mµ: competition for large-sized phytoplankton production between microzooplankton and mesozooplankton. Here, we explored the novel hypothesis that competition for resources between the HUB and other food web compartments plays a crucial role in controlling the flows of biogenic carbon in the euphotic zone. We ran a numerical model to determine the potential effects of the 3 competition switches and found that the most important switch is MB, followed by PB and Mµ. Comparison of our model results with field data indicated that the strong effects of HUB competition for resources with phytoplankton and mesozooplankton exist both in our model as well as in the world ocean. Finally, comparison of our model results with carbon flows estimated by the linear inverse approach showed that the competition switches can determine large changes in the flows of carbon in marine pelagic food webs. The focus of our study was the propagation of competition effects that occur at the core of the food web.


Chemotherapy with docetaxcel (DTX) plus estramustine (EMP) for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) was started 30 months after the patient, a 65-year-old man, was diagnosed as having advanced prostate cancer cT3aN1M1 (OSS) with an initial PSA of 490 ng/ml. Prostate biopsy specimens revealed moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, Gleason's sum 4+5. He was treated with DTX 30 mg/m2 on day 2 and oral EMP 560 mg/day days 1-3 weekly for 3 out of 4 weeks. PSA at start of DTX plus EMP was 81.7 ng/ml, and that after 59 months was 66.6 ng/ml. No objective change in computed tomography and bone scan were observed. He also had no cancer-related symptoms and activity of daily life was good. Chemotherapy was interrupted twice because of pleural effusion and dyspnea by DTX, at 3 and 4 months, respectively, long-term disease stabilization was obtained by this treatment. Other adverse events including interstitial pneumonia, cardiovascular disorders and myelosuppression were not observed. He was maintained on the same chemotherapy. DTX plus EMP chemotherapy is an effective treatment for CRPC patients. Continuing this therapy it is important to survey and control adverse events caused by DTX and EMP carefully.


Nuclear reactor pressure vessels must be able to withstand thermal shock due to emergency cooling during a loss of coolant accident. Demonstrating structural integrity during thermal shock is difficult due to the complex interaction between thermal stress, residual stress, and stress caused by internal pressure. Finite element and analytic approaches exist to calculate the combined stress, but validation is limited. This study describes an experiment which aims to measure stress in a slice of clad reactor pressure vessel during thermal shock using time-resolved synchrotron X-ray diffraction.
 A test rig was designed to subject specimens to thermal shock, whilst simultaneously enabling synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements of strain. The specimens were extracted from a block of SA508 Grade 4N reactor pressure vessel steel clad with Alloy 82 nickel-base alloy. Surface cracks were machined in the cladding. Electric heaters heat the specimens to 350°C and then the surface of the cladding is quenched in a bath of cold water, representing thermal shock. Six specimens were subjected to thermal shock on beamline I12 at Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron X-ray facility. Time-resolved strain was measured during thermal shock at a single point close to the crack tip at a sample rate of 30 Hz. Hence, stress intensity factor vs time was calculated assuming K-controlled near-tip stress fields. This work describes the experimental method and presents some key results from a preliminary analysis of the data.


The title is used for the research and practice for the engineering practice ability of undergraduate students who are learning engineering subject. We improve practice and design ability of the students by setting "Specialty Design", reforming "Course Design", "Graduation Project", "Teaching Practice" and "The second Classroom". We construct a new model of engineering education with "Design, Practice and Ability" based on actual projects.


To remove casting porosity and obtain smaller crystal grains, many large forgings need ingots to be upset axially with large ratio of height to diameter (H/D) greater than 3. But the ingots with large H/D are prone to buckling during upsetting process, and have non-uniform internal stress and strain distribution, cracks at barreling and other defects. A new axial upsetting process was proposed to handle these problems. Firstly, the research described deformation inhomogeneity and cracking tendency, and analyzed the causes of defects in the flat anvil upsetting process. Secondly, three two-stage upsetting processes were tried to improve the uneven deformation in the flat anvil upsetting, which applied symmetrical spherical convex die, conical convex die and multi-line sweeping concave die respectively in the first stage, and used flat anvils in the second stage. The effect of the die surfaces on constraining those defects was analyzed. Finally, three three-stage upsetting processes were suggested to take advantages of different die surfaces to stabilize the process. It was observed that the upsetting had better result from using conical convex die and multi-line sweeping concave die in the first stage, conical convex die and flat anvil in the second stage, two flat anvils in the third stage. The new axial upsetting process could improve the quality of the large forgings with more uniform deformation and less barreling.


Optically guided neuron growth is a relatively new field where the exact mechanisms that initiate growth are not well understood. Both Gaussian light beams and optical line traps have been purported to initiate neuronal growth. Here we present a detailed study using optical line traps with symmetric and asymmetric intensity profiles which have been previously reported to bias the direction of neuronal growth. In contrast to these previous studies, we show similar levels of growth regardless of the direction of the intensity variation along the line trap. Furthermore, our experimental observations confirm previous suggestions that the filopodia produced from neuronal growth cones can be affected by laser light. We experimentally observe alignment of filopodia with the laser field and present a theoretical model describing the optical torques experienced by filopodia to explain this effect.


The Danish company Arla Foods is a global dairy group with production facilities in 11 countries, sales offices in 24 countries, and sells its products in over 100 countries. Arla started its operation in the Middle East some 40 years ago. Soon after its entry into the Middle East market, it became the market leader mainly because of the absence of any credible local competitors at a time when the Middle East was still in its early economic development. Over the years, Arla has maintained its position as market leader in the Middle East in cheese, butter and cream production. In the mid-1980s, Arla started to operate the Danya Foods dairy in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh. The production facilities in Riyadh are seen to enhance and strengthen its position as market leader in the region. It employs more than 1,200 people across the Middle East, most working in Saudi Arabia. Since its early days in the Middle East until the end of 2005, Arla has enjoyed excellent brand recognition as indicated by the Executive Director of the Overseas Division, Finn Hansen (2005): "consumer awareness of our brands is on a par with, say, Coca Cola."


The Covid-19 pandemic has caused many events around the world to be cancelled, including the Business Model Conference 2020. The Conference Chairs, the Scientific Committee, and the Conference Committee discussed the possibility of hosting an online conference but thought that meeting virtually would not have provided participants with the same sense of community feeling experienced in previous years, when the Business Model Conference brought together international academics and practitioners from a multitude of disciplines to discuss the latest research and innovative teaching methods. Therefore, the decision was made to cancel the 2020 Conference.Despite this, the Editorial Board of the Journal of Business Models did not want the papers submitted to be a wasted effort; thus, it selected and reviewed the 11 papers included in this Special Issue. Originality, significance, and rigor were the three criteria thatguided the selection and the review process, leading to a mix of papers that tackle business model issues from different angles and employ different research methods.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, which causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Growing evidence has shown that the brain connectivity network experiences alterations for such a complex disease. Network comparison, also known as differential network analysis, is thus particularly powerful to reveal the disease pathologies and identify clinical biomarkers for medical diagnoses (classification). Data from neurophysiological measurements are multi-dimensional and in matrix-form, which poses major challenges in brain connectivity analysis and medical diagnoses. Naive vectorization method is not sufficient as it ignores the structural information within the matrix. In the article, we adopt the Kronecker product covariance matrix framework to capture both spatial and temporal correlations of the matrix-variate data while the temporal covariance matrix is treated as a nuisance parameter. By recognizing that the strengths of network connections may vary across subjects, we develop an ensemble-learning procedure, which identifies the differential interaction patterns of brain regions between the AD group and the control group and conducts medical diagnosis (classification) of AD simultaneously. We applied the proposed procedure to functional connectivity analysis of fMRI dataset related with Alzheimer's disease. The hub nodes and differential interaction patterns identified are consistent with existing experimental studies, and satisfactory out-of-sample classification performance is achieved for medical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. An R package \SDNCMV" for implementation is available at this https URL.


The Chang'e orbiter has successfully operated for more than 1 year. The exploration data sent back by Chang'e has been distributed to registered research institutes and universities after the pre-processing in National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC). This talk will introduce the processing and visualization of Chang'e-1 Lunar Exploration Data in Macau University of Science and Technology collaboratively with NAOC, CSSAR and Tsinghua University in the past few months. In this talk, the scientific objectives and its related data of Chang'e-1 will be firstly introduced. In order to study the topology of Lunar surface, the enhancement and automatic seamless stitching of the images from CCD camera will be shown and the data processing and its visualization of the laser altimeter will be discussed, then, followed by the comparison with the results of other countries. For the purpose to analyze the abundance of different elements and its distribution on lunar surface, the analysis of γray spectrum and the distribution of Thorium will be presented. To probe the space environment in the vicinity of the moon, the preliminary results for visualization of measurement data of sonar wind will also be shown. At last, future works will be discussed.


Summarization is the process of creating a more compact textual representation of a document or a collection of documents. In view of the vast increase in electronically available information sources in the last decade, filters such as automatically generated summaries are becoming ever more important to facilitate the efficient acquisition and use of required information. Different methods using natural language processing (NLP) techniques are being used to this end. One of the shallowest approaches is the clustering of available documents and the representation of the resulting clusters by one of the documents; an example of this approach is the Google News website. It is also possible to augment the clustering of documents with a summarization process, which would result in a more balanced representation of the information in the cluster, NewsBlaster being an example. However, while some systems are already available on the web, summarization is still considered a difficult problem in the NLP community. One of the major problems hampering the development of proficient summarization systems is the evaluation of the (true) quality of system-generated summaries. This is exemplified by the fact that the current state-of-the-art evaluation method to assess the information content of summaries, the Pyramid evaluation scheme, is a manual procedure. In this light, this thesis has three main objectives. 1. The development of a fully automated evaluation method. The proposed scheme is rooted in the ideas underlying the Pyramid evaluation scheme and makes use of deep syntactic information and lexical semantics. Its performance improves notably on previous automated evaluation methods. 2. The development of an automatic summarization system which draws on the conceptual idea of the Pyramid evaluation scheme and the techniques developed for the proposed evaluation system. The approach features the algorithm for determining the pyramid and bases importance on the number of occurrences of the variable-sized contributors of the pyramid as opposed to word-based methods exploited elsewhere. 3. The development of a text coherence component that can be used for obtaining the best ordering of the sentences in a summary.


Terahertz (THz) transmission modulation through copper phthalocyanine (CuPc)-coated Si under various laser light irradiation conditions was investigated using THz time-domain spectroscopy. The charge carrier transfer from Si to CuPc is crucial for photo-induced metallization, and the thickness of the CuPc layer is a critical parameter for achieving high charge carrier density for metallization. Transmission through a split-ring resonator array metamaterial, fabricated on CuPc-coated Si, can be efficiently modulated by laser light irradiation. Our findings may open the way for various types of metamaterials using organic conjugated materials that are suitable for easy device fabrication using printing technologies.


The investigation was carried out on Brassica campestris, two varieties cultivated with the treatment of two biofertillizers azatobacter chrococcum and phosphate solubilizing bacteria (PSB). In varieties ys-66 and k-88, effect of azatobacter15g inoculation showed 155.2±1.6 and 155.2±1.7 plant height respectively. PSB 15g inoculation showed 153.3±1.7 and 154.2±1.8 plant height respectively azatobacter +PSB 15g+15g inoculation showed 161.3± 2.0 and 162.2±1.8 respectively. In varities ys-66 and k-88, effect of azatobacter 15 g inoculation showed 10.3±1.7 and 11.1±1.4 number of branches per plant respectively. 15g PSB inoculation showed 9.7±1.3 and 9.6 ±1.1 respectively. Combined treatment of azatobacter + PSB showed 12.4±1.4 and 12.3±1.8 respectively. Control seeds of both varieties showed 146.3±4.2 and 146.3±3.2 plant height, 6.8±1.3 and 6.1±1.3 respectively.


Agriculture is a major contributor to environmental pollution. About quarter of water bodies in
England are classified as being good ecological and chemical status. To tackle agricultural
pollution, a range of on-farm mitigation measures are recommended. The overall aim of this
study was to assess the effectiveness of cover cropping and reduced cultivation methods as infield
mitigation measures to reduce diffuse water pollution, improve soil quality and reduce
nitrous oxide greenhouse gas emissions. These mitigation measures were applied to seven
fields within the intensive arable River Wensum catchment, eastern England, with a further
two fields kept under conventional cultivation as a control. Soil and water chemistry,
principally water discharging from subsurface agricultural field drains, were regularly sampled
and analysed from these fields over a two-year period.
The results revealed the mitigation measures had no positive impact on soil quality. The soil
chemical condition, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus, magnesium and sulphate
concentrations were not improved by the use of a cover crop or reduced cultivation, whilst soil
physical condition deteriorated through increased compaction, as highlighted by increased bulk
density, penetration resistance and lower infiltration rates. Conversely, field drain water quality
improved markedly. The presence of a winter cover crop significantly reduced mean dissolved
nitrate concentrations from 13.9 mg N L-1 to 2.5 mg N L-1, an 82% reduction. Different
inversion intensity of the soil tended to have no effect on nitrate concentrations. Regarding
dissolved N2O, a slightly higher N2O concentration was recorded in field drains under a cover
crop than without cover crop. This finding suggests that whilst the use of a winter cover crop
is highly effective at reducing soil nitrate losses to rivers, it does not represent an effective
strategy for reducing N2O emissions. Indirect nitrous oxide emission factors (EF5g and EF5r)
were calculated using two approaches (IPCC 2006 and the N2O-N/NO3-N ratio) for both field
drain and stream water samples. Values for these two EFs obtained were found to be below the
IPCC default value of 0.0025. If the IPCC were to revise EF5 values in future then, regardless
of soil type, crop type, and land use practices, a value of 0.0009 (about one third of the current
value) for EF5g and a value of 0.0002 (one order of magnitude lower than the current value) for
EF5r may be a more reasonable estimates. Such radical downward revision would at least halve
the current estimates of N2O emissions associated with N leaching and runoff from agriculture
for both the UK and globally.


The phenomenon of not starting psychotherapy is seldom investigated. The present study of psychotherapy in the Swedish mental health services differentiates between patients applying for and being offered psychotherapy but choosing not to start (n = 69), patients recommended to receive no treatment, another type of treatment or treatment at another clinic (n = 133), and therapy starters (n = 1294). After the initial assessment, nearly twice as many patients did not start based on the therapist's decision than on the patient's. Cases of not starting psychotherapy decided by the therapist were more frequent among patients whose occupational status was less stable, presented a danger to others, had lower levels of initial therapeutic alliance, and by therapists with lower levels of psychotherapy training and those at less structured and more unstable clinics. Patients choosing not to start therapy had lower levels of mental ill-health than both starters and therapist-initiated nonstarters. The most frequently presented reason for a patient-initiated decision to not start therapy was "patient wished another treatment or therapist," whereas the most common therapist-initiated reason was "recommended or referred to another treatment or clinic".


In 2013, cracks were found in the radius of the dovetail slots of the rotor rim sheets in generator 1 of Juktan hydro power plant in Vasterbotten, Sweden. The cracks were estimated to be too deep to be able to repair and Alstom conducted an investigation on the cause of fracture. The investigation came to the conclusion that the radius was too small and that the new rotor rim sheets should have a six times greater fillet radius. However, it has not been investigated whether the material structure or the manufacturing process may have an impact on the crack initiation and following propagation that is the focus of this report.Parts of the dovetail slots were cut out and characterized with XRF, SEM and LOM. Further mechanical characterizations were done according to Vickers.From the SEM and LOM micrographs a high amount of large (10μm) and cubic particles were found in the microstructure. The micrographs also showed a deformation of the microstructure and the hardness test showed a deformation hardening near the edge where the sheet had been punched. The edge surface of the sheet also had notches.The large and hard particles in the microstructure impair the mechanical properties of the steel. Furthermore, the hardening effect combined with the notches will make a good crack initiation point. Therefore, there is a higher possibility that a crack will initiate in the radius of the dovetail slots where large stresses occur.


PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
We examine hypotheses involving the potential health advantages of selection into military service and the potential health disadvantages associated with the experience of military service by comparing later-life mortality rates for veterans and nonveterans as well as among veterans based on their cohort of reentry into civilian life.

DESIGN AND METHODS
We use data on 3,453 men, including 1,496 veterans from the older men cohort of the National Longitudinal Surveys to estimate Cox proportional hazard mortality models. We distinguish between veterans and nonveterans and further classify veterans by age at exit while incorporating measures associated with military selection, health behaviors, and socioeconomic status.

RESULTS
Veterans who were discharged from the military at older ages have a mortality advantage relative to veterans discharged at younger ages. For the 1914-1921 birth cohorts, the mortality advantage for veterans who exited around age 30 is apparent for deaths before age 65, but rates equalize across all groups when deaths at older ages are included. These findings are robust to the inclusion of background characteristics, education, occupation, body mass index, smoking, marital status, and proxies for service deferments.

IMPLICATIONS
Rather than focusing on a general health effect of military service, per se, future research should distinguish among individual traits; the nature, timing, and duration of exposures relative to life course stage; and the sociohistorical context of military service to expand our understanding of the differential health consequences of military service.


Hagfish slime is a unique predator defence material containing a network of long fibrous threads each ∼10 cm in length. Hagfish release the threads in a condensed coiled state known as skeins (∼100 µm), which must unravel within a fraction of a second to thwart a predator attack. Here we consider the hypothesis that viscous hydrodynamics can be responsible for this rapid unravelling, as opposed to chemical reaction kinetics alone. Our main conclusion is that, under reasonable physiological conditions, unravelling due to viscous drag can occur within a few hundred milliseconds, and is accelerated if the skein is pinned at a surface such as the mouth of a predator. We model a single skein unspooling as the fibre peels away due to viscous drag. We capture essential features by considering simplified cases of physiologically relevant flows and one-dimensional scenarios where the fibre is aligned with streamlines in either uniform or uniaxial extensional flow. The peeling resistance is modelled with a power-law dependence on peeling velocity. A dimensionless ratio of viscous drag to peeling resistance appears in the dynamical equations and determines the unraveling time scale. Our modelling approach is general and can be refined with future experimental measurements of peel strength for skein unravelling. It provides key insights into the unravelling process, offers potential answers to lingering questions about slime formation from threads and mucous vesicles, and will aid the growing interest in engineering similar bioinspired material systems.


International exchanges have become an important and valued feature of university life. Large numbers of students in Europe participate in exchanges through programmes such as ERASMUS, which aims to promote mobility, enhance individual competences and develop understanding. A growing number of students exchange with countries where Europe's socalled 'least widely used and taught' languages are spoken. This paper explores the relationship between exchanges and language learning and reports on the reasons for coming on the exchange and learning Turkish of students on 4-week ERASMUS Intensive Language Courses (EILC) at a university in Turkey. The study discusses the purpose and content of training for exchange students and the need to manage participants' aspirations, recognise learning achievements and integrate with international standards.


Abstract Category 1 Continuing Medical Education credit for physicians is available to Wilderness Medical Society members for this article. Go to http://wms.org/cme/cme.asp?whatarticle=1812 to access the instructions and test questions. Objective.—Cuzco, Peru, is host to a dangerous mix of high altitude and rapid access from low elevation, which results in a high prevalence of acute mountain sickness (AMS). Thus, it is important that travelers entering Cuzco understand the basics of AMS. To this end, we assessed travelers' awareness of AMS, especially the resources used to obtain this knowledge. With this information we make recommendations with regard to better avenues for distribution of AMS information. Methods.—One hundred foreign travelers, representing an international population, completed a 45-item written questionnaire that was subsequently analyzed. Results.—Over half of the respondents (51%) rated their knowledge of AMS as "low" or "none." Furthermore, very few respondents knew about acetazolamide (Diamox) as prophylaxis for (9%) or treatment of AMS (5%). People who consulted physicians for AMS information were more likely to know about the utility of acetazolamide than those who depended on a guidebook (P = .0266) but were less likely to correctly identify the symptomatology of AMS (P = .047). While AMS knowledge was poor, the majority of travelers (90%) indicated compliance with recommended pretravel vaccinations. Conclusions.—This survey adds to the body of knowledge that indicates a lack of AMS knowledge among travelers. In addition, this survey identifies 2 potential avenues for improved dispersal of information: 1) guidebooks for countries of concern and 2) national health agency Web sites linked to information on pretravel vaccinations. Recommendations are made to utilize these commonly accessed resources to increase AMS information distribution to the general populous.


My PhD dissertation (Guiney Yallop, 2008) is an arts-based, autoethnographic, queer study. I wrote poetry to generate the data for my research.The first section of my dissertation consists of 46 poems, the first 23 of which are my Catholic terrain and the other 23 are my Education terrain.The poems are followed by an exegesis divided into 12 pauses. This article comes from the fifth pause where I explained the process I engaged in while writing the poetry and when I was putting the poems together in my dissertation. While each writer has her or his own processes when writing, I believe that making our processes explicit allows us and our readers to more fully appreciate how we construct our writing. As well as reflecting on the process, the reader may consider the content and the form of the writing; what are the poems saying and how are they saying it?


The manuscript of Yao et al. presents a DOAS-like retrieval algorithm to estimate the amount of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from TanSat measurements. For a technical paper, the actual retrieval algorithm is insufficiently well explained and results would not be reproducible. The SIF retrieval strategy including Eq. (2) is well documented in the literature. However, it remains unclear how the only novelty, that is the surface pressure to model residual O2 absorption, is incorporated and affects the retrieval. Perhaps a Figure and sensitivity analysis could illuminate the importance and necessity of this state vector element.


This paper assesses the impact of competition on racial discrimination. The dismantling of inter- and intrastate bank restrictions by U.S. states from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s reduced financial market imperfections, lowered entry barriers facing nonfinancial firms, and boosted the rate of new firm formation. We use bank deregulation to identify an exogenous intensification of competition in the nonfinancial sector, and evaluate its impact on the racial wage gap, which is that component of the black-white wage differential unexplained by Mincerian characteristics. We find that bank deregulation reduced the racial wage gap by spurring the entry of non- financial firms. Consistent with taste-based theories, competition reduced both the racial wage gap and racial segregation in the workplace, particularly in states with a comparatively high degree of racial prejudice, where competition-enhancing bank deregulation eliminated about one-quarter of the racial wage gap after five years.


The characteristics of opioid prescribing and administration in cancer centers include large quantities and less restrictive regulatory mandates governing cancer-related pain, which may increase the risk of drug diversion by staff members. The purpose of this article is to provide a framework for creating respectful investigative processes for staff suspected of drug diversion. Organizations, including cancer centers, need to engage in careful oversight of potential drug diversions while simultaneously promoting a psychologically safe work environment for individuals to successfully seek help.


Provisions in the Medicaid statute permit states to apply for waivers from traditional program requirements. On January 16, 2009, the federal government approved Rhode Island's Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver. In exchange for a cap on combined federal and state spending of $12.075 billion through 2013, Rhode Island received greater flexibility to adopt certain Medicaid program changes. This study analyzes the design and implementation of the Global Waiver to draw general lessons for health reform at the state-level, a key concern given ongoing state discretion to improve their health care systems under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Data derive from 325 archival sources and 26 semi-structured interviews. The Global Waiver would not have happened without political and ideological alignment between Rhode Island's Republican Governor and the Bush administration and the fractured nature of the waiver's opposition across provider and advocacy groups. The waiver was motivated largely by ongoing fiscal and programmatic pressures. Development was dominated by state officials, working over a short time period characterized by growing budgetary uncertainty. Dissatisfaction in the level of outside input contributed to distrust among stakeholder groups. Subsequent legislative constraints together with insufficient administrative personnel and antiquated information systems hampered implementation. So too did remaining divisions among those overseeing, advocating, and serving different beneficiary communities. Specific lessons include: ensuring sufficient levels of stakeholder input and transparency throughout the program design, approval, and implementation process; devoting adequate personnel and informational resources to program administration, including coordination across disparate elements of the state bureaucracy; and carefully considering the breadth and timing of the reform strategy pursued; factors that promote adoption, for example, may, in turn, impede implementation.


Waves and oscillations are commonly observed in the dynamics of systems self-driven agents such as pedestrians or vehicles. Interestingly, many factors may perturb the stability of homogeneous solutions, leading to the spontaneous formation of waves related as stop-and-go waves or phantom jam in the literature. In this article, we demonstrate that even a minimal additive stochastic noise in stable first-order dynamics can describe stop-and-go phenomena. The noise is not a classic white one, but a colored noise described by a Gaussian Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. It turns out that the joint dynamics of particles and noises forms again a (Gaussian) Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process whose characteristics can be explicitly expressed in terms of parameters of the model. We analyze its stability and characterize the presence of waves by calculating the correlation and autocorrelation functions of the distance spacing between the particles. The autocorrelation of the noise induces collective oscillation in the system and spontaneous emergence of waves. While the correlation and autocorrelation functions are complex-valued and difficult to analyze and interpret, we show that these functions become real-valued in the continuum limit when the system size is infinite. Finally, we propose consistent statistical estimations of the model parameters and compare experimental trajectories of single-file pedestrian motions to simulation results of the calibrated stochastic model.


This report of practice describes a five-year process to establish and implement quality standards for a substantial portfolio of distancedelivered courses at the Centre for Continuing and Distance Education, University of Saskatchewan. The report describes an analysis of the issues and the solutions found that led to our current curriculum design standards and procedures, the implementation of learning technologies, and the identification of issues and solutions regarding copyright law. Lastly, the future prospects of these distance-delivered postsecondary courses are considered. Focusing on the issues and solutions for each category of challenges, this report describes the five-year journey of a small instructional-design team that faced roadblocks and barriers common to many postsecondary continuing and distance education units.


A simple and exact closed-form equation to determine a penetrated ray path in a ray tracing is proposed for an accurate channel prediction in indoor environments. Whereas the penetrated ray path in a conventional ray tracing is treated as a straight line without refraction, the proposed method is able to consider refraction through the wall in the penetrated ray path. Hence, it improves the accuracy in ray tracing simulation. To verify the validation of the proposed method, the simulated results of conventional method, approximate method, and proposed method are compared with the measured results. The comparison shows that the proposed method is in better agreement with the measured results than the conventional method and approximate method, especially in high frequency bands.


THE FOLLOWING brief case report is being presented for two reasons: (1) It afforded an unusual opportunity to observe the effects of the antibiotic aureomycin on the mucous membrane of the tracheobronchial tree, and (2) it will serve to point out again certain dangers inherent in capsule or tablet medication of an infant. REPORT OF A CASE D. A., a 9-month-old white boy, was admitted to Strong Memorial Hospital on April 7, 1952. Approximately 36 hours previous to his admission medication with an aureomycin capsule was attempted, the capsule having been included in the child's orange juice. When the child failed to take the capsule, the mother attempted to force swallowing by pushing the capsule back over the tongue with her finger. As this was done, the patient suddenly choked, coughed, and became temporarily cyanotic. As soon as the acute spasm of coughing and cyanosis ceased, he seemed to be


1. The total osmotic pressure, electrical conductivity and chloride concentration of the body fluid of Ascaris lumbricoides and of the intestinal contents of the pig have been measured. 2. The results obtained agree with the observations of previous workers that Ascaris normally lives in a hypertonic medium and that it swells or shrinks in saline media which are too dilute or too concentrated. 3. Experiments comparing the behaviour of normal and ligatured animals show that both the body wall and the wall of the alimentary canal are surfaces through which water can pass. 4. 30% sea water has been used as a balanced saline medium for keeping the worms alive in the laboratory. This concentration was selected as being the one in which there was least change in the body weight of the animals exposed to it. 5. The osmotic pressure of the body fluid of worms kept in 30% sea water is approximately the same as in animals taken directly from the pig9s intestine. The body fluid of fresh worms is hypertonic to 30% sea water and hypotonic to the intestinal fluid. In 30% sea water the normal osmotic gradient across the body wall is therefore reversed. 6. In 30% sea water the total ionic concentration (as measured by the conductivity) decreases slightly, but the chloride concentration increases by about 50%, although still remaining much below that of the external medium. 7. Experiments in which the animals were allowed to come into equilibrium with various concentrations of sea water from 20 to 40% show that there are corresponding changes in the osmotic pressure of the body fluid which is, however, always slightly above that of the saline medium. The conductivity also changes in a similar manner but is always less than that of the medium, and the difference between the two becomes progressively greater the more concentrated the medium. 8. The chloride concentration of the body fluid varies with but is always below that of the external medium, whether this is intestinal fluid or one of the saline media. In the latter the difference between the internal and external chloride concentrations is least in 20% sea water and becomes progressively greater as the concentration of the medium is increased. 9. Experiments with ligatured worms and with eviscerated cylinders of the body wall show that these share the capacity of the normal worm to maintain the chloride concentration of the body fluid below that of the environment. This power is not possessed by cylinders composed of the cuticle alone. 10. If the worms which have had their internal chloride concentration raised by exposure to 30% sea water are transferred to a medium composed of equal volumes of 30% sea water and isotonic sodium nitrate solution, the chloride concentration of the body fluid is reduced to a value below that of the external medium. This phenomenon is also displayed by worms ligatured after removal from the 30% sea water and, to an even more marked degree, by eviscerated cylinders of the body wall. 11. It is concluded that Ascaris is able to maintain the chloride concentration of the body fluid below that of the external medium by an process of chloride excretion against a concentration gradient, and that this mechanism is resident in the body wall, the cuticle being freely permeable to chloride.


I have recently reported the development of ulceration of the skin of the face and nostril with erosion of the ala nasi in two patients with vascular disorders of the brainstem.6 The neurological process described in these cases seen personally, and in a further three case reports reviewed, would of necessity have involved the central sensory pathways of the trigeminus. Full clinical details have been presented elsewhere,6 but in this


Pastoralists are well adapted to harsh environments and have deep knowledge about their natural resources. They have also suffered from drought, famine, political interference, physical insecurity, armed aggression, increasing impoverishment, and marginalization. Despite these obstacles, pastoralists have long managed their lands for various purposes including livestock mobility, which depends on large commonly owned landscapes, knowledge of ecosystem productivity, and on the ability to negotiate access to resources. Even as their traditional institutions and social cohesiveness are being eroded, they continue to play a significant role in natural resource use.