Summary: We present MutaGeneSys: a system that uses genomewide genotype data for disease prediction. Our system integrates three data sources: the International HapMap project, whole-genome marker correlation data and the Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) database. It accepts SNP data of individuals as query input and delivers disease susceptibility hypotheses even if the original set of typed SNPs is incomplete. Our system is scalable and e xible: it operates in real time and can be congured on the y to produce population, technology, and condence-specic predictions. Availability: Efforts are underway to deploy our system as part of the NCBI Reference Assembly. Meanwhile, the system may be obtained from the authors.


Rhizosphere processes strongly influence the availability of phosphorus (P) to plants. Organic ligands that are exuded from the root surface mobilize phosphorus by dissolution of P minerals or by desorption of adsorbed phosphate. We developed a mechanistic model to study the mobilization of phosphate sorbed on goethite by the exudation of citrate and consequent uptake of phosphate by the root. The use of a model allows the effects of the organic anion and pH on P desorption to be separated. The model is also used to predict concentration profiles developing around the root for phosphate, citrate (with or without accounting for degradation) and pH, providing insight into the processes that occur in the rhizosphere. Results of model calculations show that with larger rates of citrate exudation, greater P availability is predicted. Exudation at a rate of 0.5 μmol citrate m–1 root day–1, which is in the range found for P‐deficient plants, increased P availability almost 2‐fold at fairly large phosphate loading of goethite (1.9 μmol m–2) and almost 30‐fold at small phosphate loading (1.3 μmol m–2). Competitive adsorption causes a much greater relative increase in the phosphate concentration in solution at small than at large phosphate loading, which explains this result. Simultaneous acidification of the rhizosphere results in a smaller P mobilization than at a fixed pH of 5, as a result of the pH dependence of phosphate adsorption in the presence of citrate. Sorption of citrate increases its persistence against microbial decay, and hence has a positive effect on the mobilization of adsorbed phosphate.


Several applications require information about street furniture. Part of the task is to survey all traffic signs. This has to be done for millions of km of road, and the exercise needs to be repeated every so often. We used a van with 8 roof-mounted cameras to drive through the streets and took images every meter. The paper proposes a pipeline for the efficient detection and recognition of traffic signs from such images. The task is challenging, as illumination conditions change regularly, occlusions are frequent, sign positions and orientations vary substantially, and the actual signs are far less similar among equal types than one might expect. We combine 2D and 3D techniques to improve results beyond the state-of-the-art, which is still very much preoccupied with single view analysis. For the initial detection in single frames, we use a set of colour-and shape-based criteria. They yield a set of candidate sign patterns. The selection of such candidates allows for a significant speed up over a sliding window approach while keeping similar performance. A speedup is also achieved through a proposed efficient bounded evaluation of AdaBoost detectors. The 2D detections in multiple views are subsequently combined to generate 3D hypotheses. A Minimum Description Length formulation yields the set of 3D traffic signs that best ex-Fig. 1 3D mapped traffic signs in a reconstructed scene. plains the 2D detections. The paper comes with a publicly available database, with more than 13 000 traffic signs annotations .


The nutrient composition, and feed value of cactus were evaluated through total collection and nylon bag techniques. In the first trial conducted with 3 Chios rams, digestion coefficients of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, ether extracts, crude fiber and nitrogen-free extracts of cactus leaves (cladodes) and cactus silage were found to be 57.57, 79.20, 72.69, 79.13, 27.95 and 84.14%; 57.32, 69.40, 33.21, 90.10, 13.08 and 78.45%, respectively. The contents of digestible protein, ether exctracts, fiber and nitrogen-free extracts (dry matter basis) were as 3.55, 1.61, 6.77 and 63.33%; 2.14, 1.78, 7.71 and 52.35%, respectively. Depending upon the data above, starch unit (SU) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) of the same feeds were calculated (dry matter basis) as 58.10 and 42.80%; 61.20 and 46.37%, respectively. Dry matter degradation data of newly emerged leaves (named as young cladodes) and leaves ripened (named as old cladodes) and the silage of their mixture determined by means of nylon bag technique at 4, 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, 96 h following the rumen incubation with 3 cannulated Merino rams were 50.39, 56.36, 78.35, 77.78, 84.88, 84.95 and 82.01%; 43.58, 47.77, 50.26, 63.22, 66.23, 64.18 and 63.13%; 38.63, 39.99, 45.97, 57.58, 64.35, 67.91 and 71.77%, respectively. The in situ rumen dry matter degradation rates of young cladodes were significantly higher than those of the old ones and the silage at 4, 8, 16, 24 and 72 h at P < 0.01 and at 48 and 96 h at P < 0.05 levels. During the whole year, each months, old and young cladodes and their mixed silages were analysed in order to determine variations in their nutrient compositions. Statistical analyses indicated significant differences in nutrient compositions in terms of both young/old cladodes and months (P < 0.01). pH and organic acid determinations carried out after sensorial tests proved that old cladodes had better silage quality scores of old cladodes compared to the young cladodes. The results of this research indicated that cactus and cactus silage can be utilised efficiently as an alternative roughage in ruminant nutrition.


The safety benefits of automated enforcement has been well documented with jurisdictions across Australasia using red light and speed safety camera to improve the safety of their roads. Redflex Traffic Systems has been at the forefront of the development of automated photo enforcement systems, improving the safety of communities worldwide through the adaptation of digital technology. The Australian based Research and Development team at Redflex have now developed world leading radar technology that eliminates traditional reflectivity issues, therefore enabling it to be deployed in built up areas. This radar has been incorporated into a new non-intrusive red light/ speed system that produces prosecutable images that are comparable to evidence produced by in road sensors. Along with the safety benefits derived through automated enforcement, by using non-intrusive technology, jurisdictions can reduce costs significantly. With non-intrusive systems there is no longer the need for costly civil works cutting into the road to lay sensors during implementation. With no in-ground sensor the maintenance costs are also reduced. This presentation provides a high level overview of the new technology used in non-intrusive red light/ speed safety cameras, allowing those non-technical delegates to have a basic understanding of how the systems work and the benefits that they can bring through cost reduction and road safety.


The changing political situation in the Middle East poses challenges for the economies of the region, and some see none more vulnerable to collapse than Saudi Arabia's. Yet as this study demonstrates, the fundamentals of the Kingdom's economy are relatively robust, as over three quarters of GDP is accounted for by the non-oil sector, and impressive modern industries have been established, notably in petrochemicals. The financial system functions well, and despite substantial government debts, there is low inflation and currency stability. The private sector increasingly drives the economy, although job creation has been insufficient to prevent rising youth unemployment. The development challenges Saudi Arabia faces are similar to those of other middle-income countries, and three decades of diversification have made the economy less unique than it was in the oil boom years of the 1970s.


Introduction: Overweight negatively impacts the cardiovascular system and osteomyoarticular, promoting pain in the joints of the lower limbs. Therefore, strategies have been applied to reduce overweight through lifestyle changes. Objective: to investigate the effects of two multidisciplinary intervention programs on the health-related physical fitness of obese women with pain symptoms in the knees. Methods: Women between 40 and 59 years of age with obesity (n=59) were evaluated in the pre- and post-intervention time regarding anthropometry, body composition, physical fitness, level of disability in the knee and hip, and health-related quality of life. A randomized clinical trial of parallel groups was conducted, using two resistance exercise programs and food re-education, for eight weeks. All participants received the same nutritional intervention content and for physical exercises were randomized into two groups, G1 being the "strength group" using machines (n=30), and G2 being the "functional training" group (n=29). Twenty-eight women (G1=18 + G2=10) were included in the final analyses. The groups and time were evaluated by two-way analysis of variance, with repeated measures. A p < 0.05 was assumed for all analyses. Results: a time effect was identified, with higher values for maximum isometric lumbar-traction strength (MILTS), after the intervention period in both groups (p < 0.05). However, for the other variables investigated, no significant differences were identified (p > 0.05). Conclusion: The absence of significant results for all variables, except FIMTL, may be justified by the moderate adherence of the participants to interventions (~59% to 66%) since the study was conducted during the period of social isolation (COVID-19). However, it is believed that the intervention models were positive in maintaining the variables studied.


Visual anosognosia or Anton-Babinski syndrome is a rare neurological condition related to cortical blindness. The patients deny their blindness and affirm adamantly that they are capable of seeing. The clinical presentation includes confabulations and sometimes confusional states. In this article we report two patients with anosognosia related to ischemic stroke in two different sets of etiology and pathogenesis. We describe the major clinical manifestations of this syndrome and review the current medical literature. Two patients were identified, a 96-year-old male with visual anosognosia secondary to a right posterior cerebral artery thrombosis, and a 56-year-old female with the same syndrome but related to central nervous system angiitis in relation with multiple sclerosis and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Visual anosognosia or Anton-Babinski syndrome is a rare neurological condition, however the ischemic vascular cerebral disease is a frequent etiology. We believe that this is the first report of this syndrome in relation to angiitis with a clear autoimmune pathogenesis.


This project explores affects and effects of epistemic confusion through the figure of the missed encounter. In oblique dialogue with post-Althusserian studies, the project makes a new performative term available for debates on contemporary artistic practice and knowledge production. The missed encounter does not signal a lack of encounters, nor an encounter that should have taken place and/but/or did not for an (un)expected reason. The missed encounter is unstable, it can operate as: a missed prescription, the sad outcome of a failed meeting, a quarrel or a disagreement.

Drawing on diverse materials spanning conceptual art, science fiction, paraliterary production and European and Latin American philosophy the project performs and explores such missed encounters. Chapter One introduces Santiago-Castro Gomez's figure of the heterarchy and sets a template where artistic practices that deal with discursive and linguistic material come across affects of not-knowing. Chapter Two explores the notion of epistemic breakdown and knowledge by-products; it does so by reading the Strugatsky Brothers' Novella A Billion Years Before the End of the World (2014) and actualising Robert Smithson's Tour of the Monuments of Passaic (1996) in relation to it. Chapter Three reads Ricardo Piglia's Theory of Complot (2002, 2015) and its production of a com-plot: a machination of plots that activate suspicion and intrigue as conspiranoid drivers of epistemic production. Chapter Four follows Hugo Santiago's film Invasion (1969), exploring paraliterary situations of immanence, recurrence and non-exit through the retro-futural story of an infinite siege.

The material brought into play in this project engages with the performative and self-actualising dimensions of textual production, tackling linguistic surpluses and the limits of knowledge products. Following this thrust, the project probes the productive ranges of a writing of the missed encounter.


State planning has been a defining means for modern subjects to regulate the passage of time. In practice, it is the focus of multiple conflicts and doubts, which planners attempt to mediate. In this paper, I address the regimes of time that planning both promotes and encounters, and tease out what these imply for anthropology. Using ethnography of Norwegian and Swedish planning offices and their encounters with participatory planning, I question recent claims that there has been an evacuation of the near future or a retreat of administrative intervention. I also suggest that recent anthropological concerns with time have been confined by their attempts to characterize the changing timescapes of specific modal shifts, such as from the modern to the neoliberal. Instead, in my ethnography, I focus not on tracking epochal breaks in time, but on demonstrating how time is manipulated, and how multiple temporalities are performed in ongoing projects of democratic planning.


An insight into auxiliary propulsion systems (APS) requirements for large space systems (LSS) launchable by a single shuttle is presented. In an effort to scope the APS requirements for LSS, a set of generic LSSs were defined. For each generic LSS class a specific structural configuration, representative of that most likely to serve the needs of the 1980's and 1990's was defined. The environmental disturbance forces and torques which would be acting on each specific structural configuration in LEO and GEO orbits were then determined. Auxiliary propulsion requirements were determined as a function of: generic class specific configuration, size and openness of structure, orbit, angle of orientation, correction frequency, duty cycle, number and location of thrusters and direction of thrusters and APS/LSS interactions. The results of this analysis were used to define the APS characteristics of: (1) number and distribution of thrusters, (2) thruster modulation, (3) thrust level, (4) mission energy requirements, (5) total APS mass component breakdown, and (6) state of the art adequacy/deficiency.


This dissertation develops connections between algorithmic randomness and computable analysis. In the first part, it is shown that computable randomness can be defined robustly on all computable probability spaces, and that computable randomness is preserved by a.e. computable isomorphisms between spaces. Further applications are also given. In the second part, a number of almost-everywhere convergence theorems are looked at using computable analysis and algorithmic randomness. These include various martingale convergence theorems and almosteverywhere differentiability theorems. General conditions are given for when the rate of convergence is computable and for when convergence takes place on the Schnorr random points. Examples are provided to show that these almost-everywhere convergence theorems characterize Schnorr randomness.


Late results and angiographic evaluation of arm veins as arterial bypass grafts have not been reported previously. From 1969 to 1979, 68 long bypasses were performed using arm veins exclusively. There were 41 femoropopliteal bypasses, 6 peripheral aneurysm resections, 16 femorotibial bypasses, and 5 other bypasses. Sixty-four patients have been followed from 2 to 10 years. In peripheral aneurysm cases, all grafts were patent at 1 year, and long-term patency (to 127 months) was achieved in five of six patients. In the 41 femoropopliteal bypasses, cumulative life table patency rates at 1, 2, 3, and 5 years were 62%, 47%, 31%, and 31%. Unlike grafts with saphenous veins, significant graft attrition occurred in the second and third postoperative years. With femorotibial bypasses, the 1-, 2-, and 5-year life table patency rates were 43%, 31%, 15%. Late (4- to 10-year) angiographic evaluation of seven grafts revealed a pattern of graft elongation and dilation. One aneurysmal graft, partially resected 103 months after insertion, showed atheromatous changes. These results suggest that when used as infrainguinal bypass grafts, arm veins have distinct limitations and may be inferior to other presently available material. Critical review of the literature supports this conclusion.


NAVIGATING THE PATH TO PRESENCE: IDEOLOGY, POLITICS, AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR GENDER BALANCED BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS IN IOWA by EZRA JOSEPH TEMKO University of New Hampshire From 1986 through 1988, Iowa adopted and strengthened a gender balance law that required men and women be equally represented on state boards and commissions. In 2009, Iowa extended this law to also require its counties, municipalities, and school districts to gender balance their boards and commissions. Iowa's law remains unique in the United States. Through archival research and interviews, my research investigates how advocates navigated the ideological landscape associated with this policy issue. My research unveils the mechanisms that substantially deradicalized gender balance in Iowa, enabling its passage and shifting Iowans' perceptions of gender, governance, and affirmative action—disembedding gender segregation, normatizing and institutionalizing gendered representation practices, and prioritizing an ideology of good governance. Based on my findings and analyses, I argue for reconceptualizing ideology through navigation theory—actors simultaneously hold multiple complementary and competing ideologies and must negotiate how these ideologies are (de)activated, (de)prioritized, and interpreted and applied to the issue under consideration. In Iowa, advocates employed collective action frame management to facilitate and steer this navigation such that a majority of legislators voted for and governors signed these affirmative action legislation.


In the paper there are presented results of method for rotor time constant adaptation with application of artificial neural network. The method employs the model reference adaptive system (MRAS). The adaptation algorithm is designed according to the Popov's criterion for hyperstability. The method is based on application of current model and voltage model of rotor flux in MRAS. The estimation of rotor time constant for adaptive model of MRAS is realized by the help of PI-controller. In next part of the paper there is described a replacement of adaptation algorithm in MRAS by the help of artificial neural network. The estimated rotor time constant is necessary for so-called current model. The current model is used in the vector control of the induction motor and serves for the determination of the quantities for the transformation from stationary reference frame into reference frame, which is oriented on the rotor flux space vector. Simulations have been performed in the Matlab-Simulink. The control algorithms are implemented using TMS320C2812 DSP. At the end of the paper some simulation and experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed method.


The chemical structures of aggregation-sex pheromones of longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) are often conserved among closely related taxa. In the subfamily Lamiinae, adult males and females of several species are attracted by racemic blends of (E)-6,10-dimethyl-5,9-undecadien-2-ol (termed fuscumol) and the structurally related (E)-6,10-dimethyl-5,9-undecadien-2-yl acetate (fuscumol acetate). Both compounds have a chiral center, so each can exist in two enantiomeric forms. Males of many species of longhorned beetles only produce one stereoisomer of each pheromone component, and attraction may be reduced by the presence of stereoisomers that are not produced by a particular species. In a previous publication, analysis of headspace volatiles of adult beetles of the lamiine species Astyleiopus variegatus (Haldeman) revealed that males sex-specifically produced (S)-fuscumol and (S)-fuscumol acetate. Here, we describe field trials which tested attraction of this species to single enantiomers of fuscumol and fuscumol acetate, or to blends of enantiomers. We confirmed attraction of A. variegatus to its species-specific blend, but during the course of the trials, found that several other species also were attracted. These included Aegomorphus modestus (Gyllenhall), attracted to (S)-fuscumol acetate; Astylidius parvus (LeConte), attracted to (R)-fuscumol; Astylopsis macula (Say), attracted to (S)-fuscumol; and Graphisurus fasciatus (DeGeer), attracted to a blend of (R)-fuscumol and (R)-fuscumol acetate. These results suggest that chirality may be important in the pheromone chemistry of lamiines, and that specific stereoisomers or mixtures of stereoisomers are likely produced by each species.


This article analyzes German debates on the microbiology of infectious diseases from 1865 to 1875 and asks howand when organic pollution in tis sues became noteworthy for aetiology and pathogenesis. It was with Ernst Hallier's pleomorphistic microbiology that the organic character of alien material in tissues came to be regarded as important for pathology. The process that followed saw both vigorous biological critique and a number of medical applications of Hallier's work. Around 1874 contemporaries reached the conclusion that pleomorphous vegetation was most likely of little importance if not accidental in relation to the aetiology of infectious diseases whereas the idea of monomorphous micro-organisms facilitated a causal explanation. It was only then that notions such a pure cultures, bacterial specificity, etc. favored by Ferdinand Julius Cohn and his school became popular in medical circles.


We examine the theory of optical amplification in long span single-mode fibers which have low levels of erbium dopant. When pumped from the transmitter end at a suitable wavelength, lightly doped fibers can form a distributed amplifier, capable of overcoming transmission losses due to the intrinsic attenuation of the host glass at the signal wavelength. The entire communications link in effect becomes a fiber amplifier. We critically examine the potential of a long span erbium doped fiber amplifier and compare it to a system consisting of a short span power amplifier, followed by an undoped transmission fiber.


The lumbar plexus is an essential collection of nerves that arise from mostly the lumbar spinal cord. The term plexus refers to a "web" of nerves that is created just lateral to where T12-L5 exit the spinal cord via intervertebral foramina. The plexus exists bilaterally and allows nerves to combine with different levels to create multiple functioning nerves that serve to innervate various structures. This type of nerve web is significant for the formation of larger, longer nerves that target peripheral tissues that altogether primarily help to innervate the portions of lower extremities. The primary functions of these nerves are motor innervation and sensory nerves to the skin mainly in the lower extremities, although the superior nerves in the plexus do contribute to the lower abdomen and pelvis. The nerves arising from the lumbar plexus are vital for the functioning of the lower extremity and maintaining the ability to extend the knee, flex the hip, adduct the thigh, and more.


Phishing and related cybercrime is responsible for billions of dollars in losses annually. Gartner reported more than 5 million U.S. consumers lost money to phishing attacks in the 12 months ending in September 2008 (Gartner 2009). This paper asks whether the majority of organised phishing and related cybercrime originates in Eastern Europe rather than elsewhere such as China or the USA. The Russian "Mafiya" in particular has been popularised by the media and entertainment industries to the point where it can be hard to separate fact from fiction but we have endeavoured to look critically at the information available on this area to produce a survey. We take a particular focus on cybercrime from an Australian perspective, as Australia was one of the first places where Phishing attacks against Internet banks were seen. It is suspected these attacks came from Ukrainian spammers. The survey is built from case studies both where individuals from Eastern Europe have been charged with related crimes or unsolved cases where there is some nexus to Eastern Europe. It also uses some earlier work done looking at those early Phishing attacks, archival analysis of Phishing attacks in July 2006 and new work looking at correlation between the Corruption Perception Index, Internet penetration and tertiary education in Russia and the Ukraine. The value of this work is to inform and educate those charged with responding to cybercrime where a large part of the problem originates and try to understand why.


BACKGROUND: Listening to music may reduce anxiety during medical procedures. However, the magnitude of any effect may differ with respect to patient and procedure. We evaluated the effect of a musical intervention on patient anxiety during a central venous catheter or dialysis catheter implantation in an intensive care unit. METHODS: A prospective single-center controlled open-label 2-arm randomized trial was conducted in a medical intensive care unit (ICU) from February 2018 to February 2019. Patients undergoing central venous catheterization were randomized to listening to music or not during the procedure. Patients randomized to music listened to the Music Care application via headphones. The primary outcome was the change in anxiety assessed on a 100-mm Visual Analogue Scale between the beginning and end of the catheterization procedure. Secondary outcomes included postprocedural pain. RESULTS: We included 37 patients in the musical intervention group and 35 in the standard care group. The primary reasons for intensive care unit admission were the need for a central catheter for chemotherapy for hematologic malignancy and sepsis and/or septic shock in both groups. Postprocedural anxiety and pain assessments were missing in 1 (2.7%) and 4 (11.4%) patients in the intervention and standard care groups. We found no between-group difference in change in anxiety score: median −1 (interquartile range, −3 to 0) vs 0 (−3 to 0) in the musical intervention and standard care groups (median difference, −1 [−2 to 0]) (P = .24). Postprocedural pain score did not differ between the groups: median 0 (0–2) and 0 (0–3.75) in the musical intervention and standard care groups (median difference, −0 [0–0]) (P = .40). To account for missing outcome assessments, sensitivity analyses were performed using 2 extreme scenarios, one favoring the standard care group (scenario 1) and the other favoring the intervention group (scenario 2). In either scenario, change in anxiety score did not differ between the intervention and standard care groups: −1 (−3 to 0) vs 0 (−4 to 0) (P = .88) in scenario 1 and −1 (−3 to 0) vs 0 (−2.75 to 1) (P = .07) in scenario 2. CONCLUSIONS: In this first randomized pilot study of musical intervention for central venous catheterization in awake patients in the intensive care unit, the musical intervention did not reduce patients' anxiety as compared with usual care.


The Shockley-Queisser (SQ) limit provides a convenient metric for predicting light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of a solar cell based on the band gap of the light-absorbing layer. In reality, few materials approach this radiative limit. We develop a formalism and a computational method to predict the maximum photovoltaic efficiency of imperfect crystals from first principles. Our scheme includes equilibrium populations of native defects, their carrier-capture coefficients, and the associated recombination rates. When applied to kesterite solar cells, we reveal an intrinsic limit of 20% for Cu2ZnSnSe4, which falls far below the SQ limit of 32%. The effects of atomic substitution and extrinsic doping are studied, leading to pathways for an enhanced efficiency of 31%. This approach can be applied to support targeted-materials selection for future solar-energy technologies.


In this letter, we have analyzed the area, perimeter, and corner leakage current components of lateral p+/n-Ge-based diodes with a GeO2 isolation layer, which were fabricated at temperatures below 500 °C. In addition, the effects of forming gas anneal are included, which was done to further reduce the leakage current. It was found that corner leakage was the most dominant source of surface leakage. Perimeter leakage is the next major source of leakage, and it is mostly affected by the quality of the passivation layer. Forming gas annealing of 350 °C gave the most beneficial results in overall leakage current reduction.


This paper presents a three-dimensional microfabrication and integration technology for MEMS smart materials that utilizes a spray coating method. Spray coating is shown to be most effective for additional deposition on non-planar surfaces. PZT films were formed both on flat and uneven surfaces at a thickness of about 1/spl mu/m. Perovskite structures were formed with suitable heat treatment and ferroelectric P-E hysteresis loop was also obtained. This paper is the first report from our group and other researchers on the deposition of smart materials for MEMS using a spray coating method. Spray coating has been proposed as an effective three-dimensional coating method which can be used to deposit piezoelectrics, pyroelectrics, magnetics, etc. for sensors and actuators. The hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties between the substrate surface and ejected liquid are most essential process factors in the spray coating method for improving the film growth conditions.


Investigations with different 'antitubulins' have shown that different cell types in culture response to prolonged treatment with the formation of annulated lamellae. These annulated lamellae are possibly derived from previously accumulated smooth endoplasmic profiles. A hypothetical explanation would be that annulated lamellae (and the nuclear membrane) are sites of tubulin synthesis or microtubular polymerization. Their appearance after induced microtubule disintegration could then be viewed upon as a reactive hyperproduction of such sites.


During the production of polymer-grade ethylene, trace amounts of acetylene (about 1%) in the ethylene feed need to be reduced to 40 parts per million (ppm). We herein report a metal–organic framework (MOF) of flexible-robust nature for the efficient removal of acetylene from acetylene/ethylene mixture to meet such a challenging separation need. Neutron powder diffraction studies reveal that its specific binding sites and unique pore structure collectively enable this MOF (ELM-12) to efficiently and selectively adsorb acetylene over ethylene under ambient conditions, making it feasible for this challenging separation. The purity of obtained ethylene is over 99.999%, as demonstrated by experimental breakthrough curves of 1/99 acetylene/ethylene mixture.


Background. The use of steatotic livers is associated with increased primary nonfunction in liver transplantation. To reduce the risk of liver injury, we applied a short-term combination therapy of diet, exercise and drugs for 11 living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT) candidates with steatosis. Methods. Subjects were treated with a protein-rich (1000 kcal/day) diet, exercise (600 kcal/day), and bezafibrate (400 mg/day) for 2–8 weeks. Results. The treatment significantly improved macrovesicular steatosis (30±4% vs. 12±2% [mean±SEM], P= 0.0028). Body weight and BMI were significantly reduced (73.7±3.2 kg vs. 66.9±2.9 kg, P=0.0033, 26.4±0.7 kg/m2 vs. 24.1±0.8 kg/m2, P=0.0033). The treatment completely normalized liver function tests and lipid metabolism. Seven treated liver grafts (left lobe) were transplanted to the recipients. We compared transplanted graft function and resected liver function of donors using parameters such as peak total bilirubin, prothrombin time at postoperative day 3, and peak alanine aminotransferase between treated liver (n=7) and donor liver without hepatic steotosis (n=37). The transplanted grafts showed good liver functions, and there was no difference between them with respect to functional parameters. The treated donors also showed good liver functions, and no significant differences in functional parameters. Conclusions. The results of this study indicate that our short-term treatment effectively reduced steatosis and contributed to safer LDLT. Our findings also suggest that even severely steatotic livers can be used for LDLT grafting subsequent to our short-term treatment regimen.


The successful application of machine learning algorithms in the financial sector has in more companies relying on stochastic models for the classification of financial distress. Researchers go to great lengths to make quantitative analysts get better accuracy than machine learning models. In this paper, we propose a technique for analyzing and classifying financial distress using the KNears Neigborn Classifier model, Random Forest, Naive Bayes and the stacking ensemble. A collection of financial report data from the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) containing financial reports is used as a basis for information as a feature of technical indicators. Selection of features based on their level of influence on the target output results with an accuracy rate of 98%. The stacking model of the neural network meta classifier ensemble is trained and tested on different multi-class ratio financial data sets combining technical indicator data of companies in Indonesia over time is novel. Our experiments show that in some scenarios, the ensemble stacking model performs better than the single model.


The intention of the study was to improve the efficiency of total organic carbon (TOC) and colour removal from the wastewater samples polluted with flexographic printing ink following coagulation treatments with further adsorption onto activated carbons and ground orange peel. The treatment efficiencies were compared to those of further flocculation treatments and of coagulation and adsorption processes individually. Coagulation was a relatively effective single-treatment method, removing 99.7% of the colour and 86.9% of the organic substances (TOC) from the printing ink wastewater samples. Further flocculation did not further eliminate organic pollutants, whereas subsequent adsorption with 7 g/l of granular activated carbon further reduced organic substances by 35.1%, and adsorption with 7 g/l of powdered activated carbon further reduced organic substances by 59.3%. Orange peel was an inappropriate adsorbent for wastewater samples with low amounts of pollution, such as water that had been treated by coagulation. However, in highly polluted printing ink wastewater samples, the adsorption treatment with ground orange peel achieved efficiencies comparable to those of the granular activated carbon treatments.


High-performance electrophosphorescent light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were demonstrated with tris-[9,9-dihexyl-2-(pyridinyl-2′) fluorene] iridium(III) [Ir(DPF)3], tris-{9,9-dihexyl-2-[phenyl-4′-(-pyridin-2″-yl)] fluorene} iridium(III) [Ir(DPPF)3], and tris-[2,5-bis-2′-(9,9′-dihexylfluorene) iridium] [Ir(HFP)3] as guests and poly(vinylcarbazole) (PVK) blended with 2-tert-butylphenyl-5-biphenyl-1,3,4-oxadiazol (PBD), poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) (PFO), and poly(9,9-dihexylfluorene)-co-2,5-dicyanophenylene (PF3CNP1) as hosts. The devices made with PVK-PBD exhibited the highest external quantum efficiency (QEext), luminous efficiency (LE) and luminance (L). For example, yellowish green emission from PVK-PBD doped with Ir(DPF)3 was observed with QEext = 10% ph/el, LE = 36 cd/A, and L > 8300 cd/m2, and red emission from PVK-PBD doped with Ir(DPPF)3 was observed with QEext = 5% ph/el, LE = 7.2 cd/A, and L > 2700 cd/m2. Red electrophosphorescent LEDs with a low turn-on voltage (5 V), QEext= 4.5% ph/el, LE = 6.2 cd/A, and L > 1000 cd/m2 were achieved with the conjugated polymer, PFO, as the host and Ir(HFP)3 as the guest. Electrophosphorescent LEDs fabricated with the conjugated copolymer PF3CNP1 doped with Ir(HFP)3 exhibited QEext = 1.5% ph/el and LE = 3 cd/A with L = 2200 cd/m2. These devices exhibited good operational stability under DC drive at room temperature. Forster energy transfer played a minor role in achieving the high efficiencies in these electrophosphorescent devices; direct sequential charge trapping appeared to be the main operating mechanism. These results demonstrated that high-performance electrophosphorescence can be obtained from polymer-based LEDs that are fabricated by processing the active materials directly from solution. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 2691–2705, 2003


GOAL
The objective of this study was to characterize an autoimmune hepatitis (AIH)/nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) overlap cohort, determine if they received standard of care treatment, and delineate their outcomes in comparison with patients with AIH or NAFLD alone.

BACKGROUND
AIH is a relatively rare and heterogeneously presenting liver disease of unknown etiology. NAFLD is a leading cause of liver disease worldwide. AIH treatment includes steroids, which have adverse metabolic effects that can worsen NAFLD. No treatment guidelines are available to mitigate this side on AIH/NAFLD overlap patients. Few studies to date have examined these patients' characteristics, management practices, and outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A single-center, retrospective chart review study examining biopsy-proven AIH/NAFLD, AIH, and NAFLD patients. Characteristics, treatment, and 1- and 3-year outcomes (all-cause mortality, need for liver transplantation, or decompensated cirrhosis) were evaluated.

RESULTS
A total of 72 patients (36.1% AIH/NAFLD, 34.7% AIH, and 29.2% NAFLD) were included. AIH/NAFLD patients were found to be more often Hispanic/Latino, female, and with lower liver aminotransaminases, immunoglobulin G, and anti-smooth muscle antibody positivity. AIH/NAFLD patients were less likely to receive standard of care treatment. No significant differences in outcomes were seen between AIH/NAFLD and either AIH or NAFLD.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrated that AIH/NAFLD patients have unique characteristics and are less likely to receive standard of care treatment compared with patients with AIH alone. Despite this, no difference in outcomes (all-cause mortality, need for liver transplantation, or decompensated cirrhosis) was seen. Given NAFLD's rising prevalence, AIH/NAFLD cases will likely increase, and may benefit from alternative treatment guidelines to prevent worsening of NAFLD.


Membrane bioreactor (MBR) package systems are providing affordable and simple-to-use decentralized wastewater treatment solutions for small to medium sized communities that face the challenge of balancing environmental and regulatory responsibilities with budgetary limitations. With a greater confidence and understanding of MBR technology, there is an increasing incentive in using MBR technology for these types of applications. Furthermore, valued qualities such as compact footprint, quick installation and start-up, process reliability, ease of operation, and superior effluent quality suitable for direct surface discharge and water reclamation have made MBR package system a preferred solution for decentralized wastewater treatment applications. This paper presents a retrofit solution for the Whitehouse Terrace Wastewater Treatment Plant. The existing extended aeration activated sludge package plant was retrofitted with a pre-engineered newterra MicroClear MBR package system for a small community along St Lawrence River in Brockville, Ontario. Five years full scale operation data of the MBR package system is presented and it is evident that the MBR package system consistently delivered high quality effluent that is far better than the required limit for direct surface water discharge to the St. Lawrence's river, with average effluent quality of 2.4, 2.6, 0.5, 0.05 mg/L, 1.7 counts/100 mL and 7.4 for biochemical oxygen demand, TSS, TP, TAN, Escherichia coli and pH, respectively.


As drosophilids are versatile, low maintenance and non-harming model organisms, they can be easily used in all fields of life sciences like Genetics, Biotechnology, Cancer biology, Genomics, Reproductive biology, Developmental biology, Micro chemical studies, ecology and much more. For using such a model organism, we need to learn capturing, rearing and culturing their progeny along with basic identification and differentiation between males and females. This chapter is being emphasized on techniques of capturing these flies with different and effective techniques. Along with it, most species-specific baits are discussed to catch more yield. Culture food media, a set measurement of different ingredients is used to rear the collected sample. The reasons for using each ingredient are also discussed in this chapter. At last, this chapter highlights the basic clues to identify different species in the field and lab along with learning distinguishing characteristics of males and females easily and effectively.


Sinusitis is inflammation that causes pain, pressure, and swelling in the sinuses. Chronic sinusitis is sinusitis that lasts for a long time, usually longer than 12 weeks.Unlike acute sinusitis, which is often due to a sinus infection, chronic sinusitis is not usually caused by bacteria and does not always get better with standard treatment, such as antibiotics.Chronic sinusitis occurs when the spaces inside your nose and head (sinuses) are swollen and inflamed for three months or longer, despite treatment.This common condition interferes with the way mucus normally drains and makes your nose stuffy. Breathing through your nose may be difficult, and the area around your eyes might feel swollen or tender.Chronic sinusitis can be brought on by an infection, by growths in the sinuses (nasal polyps) or swelling of the lining of your sinuses. Also called chronic rhinosinusitis, the condition can affect both adults and children.


For the last eighteen hundred years, Indian arts have been seen in terms of strictly classified emotional effects known as the nine rasas. "The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense" celebrates, for the very first time, what Sukumar Ray called the 'spirit of whimsy', or the tenth rasa, through the topsy-turvy, irreverent, melodic genre of nonsense literature. This fabulous selection of poetry and prose, brilliantly translated from seventeen Indian languages across India, includes works by Rabindranath Tagore, Sukumar Ray, Vinda Karandikar, Gulzar, Dash Benhur, Manoj Das, Navakanta Barua, Mangesh Padgavkar, Sri Sri, Vaikom Mohammad Basheer, Kunjunni and other known, lesser-known and previously unpublished authors. In forms as varied as stories and songs for children and adults, lullabies, folk tales, Bollywood song lyrics and medieval court verse, the writers open doors to wildly imaginative worlds populated by peculiar characters and fantastical creatures, where only nonsense makes perfect sense.


Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is one of the most important subfields of social robotics. In several applications, text-to-speech techniques are used by robots to provide feedback to humans. In this respect, a natural synchronization between the synthetic voice and the mouth of the robot could contribute to improve the interaction experience. This paper presents an algorithm for synchronizing Text-To-Speech (TTS) systems with robotic mouths. The proposed approach estimates the appropriate aperture of the mouth based on the entropy of the synthetic audio stream provided by the TTS system. The paper also describes the cost-efficient robotic mouth which has been used in the experiments. The system, which has been implemented in C++ and can perform in real-time, is freely available as part of the RoboComp open-source robotics framework. Finally, the paper presents the results of the opinion poll that has been conducted in order to evaluate the overall user experience.


This paper presents variable speed drive method for DC Brushless compressor. The trend for air conditioning system is aiming for energy efficiency. This is achieved by utilizing a more efficient compressor and variable speed drive method. As the Compressor is dealing with high variance of temperature range, conventional sensored method for driving a Dc Brushless motor is not practical. A sensor-less method is utilized for this system by detecting the back EMF.

A prototype of the driver is built by using the circuit CAD software PROTEL The circuit is designed on the Advance Schematic of PROTEL and the printed circuit board layout is designed with Advance PCB of PROTEL. A micro controller is programmed with ANSI C language with reference to application software provided by the micro controller vendor. Electromagnetic compatibility test for harmonics and conducted emission is performed on the prototype. A few solutions for harmonics counter measure is produced and tested. A noise filter is designed for counter measure of conducted emission noise.

The compressor to be controlled in this project is a DC Brushless motor with concentrated winding stator design and interior permanent magnet rotor design. A number of driving methods have been considered. The 120 degrees commutation, sensorless back EMF detection, full control on the full bridge three-phase inverter circuit techniques is employ in this motor driving scheme. Speed control of the system is achieved by PWM technique. Torque and speed regulation by PID control are also reviewed. Fine-tuning of the efficiency of the motor is achieved by lead-angle control method.

Simulation by a commercially available software package SIMCAD by Power Simulation Inc. is used to simulate the drive condition. The simulated results are compared with the actual results. The solutions for various harmonics counter measure methods are compared.

A complete motor driving system is built. The sesign allows the flexibility for further expansion and improvement through software upgrades. This method reduces time-consuming hardware redesigning and testing. The design also maximizes cost versus features of the driver as most of the additional features are realized through software implementation.


ABSTRACT Background: Health planning in developing countries differs from developed countries. They have more limited resources for health development. Therefore efficient health planning and resource allocation is critical to ensure optimal health outcome of the nation. Due to the nature of heterogeneity among the developing countries, the health approach may differ contextually among developing countries. This paper aims to compare practices of health planning development among selected developing countries. Materials and Methods: This review encompasses relevant scientific articles and most recent official country report related to health planning. Searches only include articles or reports published in English. Based on the six WHO regions. Selection of countries based on availability of manuscript (article and report) fulfilling the criteria. The countries selected were Bangladesh, Belize, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia and Turkey. Result: A five or ten years of strategic plan for health is the most practiced among the studied developing country. It usually involves multi-sectorial within the country and international agencies and consultants. The advancement of technology helps in improving the administrative data utilisation to allow informed-decision making, deeper root cause analysis and timely monitoring and evaluation. Other than that, engagement with various stakeholders from different level – at all phase of plan development, together with political will is the key factor of the successful implementation. Despite that, these developing countries often suffer from limited resources in term of workforce, financing and technical expertise. Conclusion: Although the health planning process is similar across countries studies, where the cycles start with situational analysis, prioritisation, options appraisal, implementation, monitoring and lastly evaluation. Each country may have slightly different approaches, depending on their context, resources and technology capacity. Keywords: health care, planning, planning framework, developing countries


This dissertation project examines the extent to which the interaction between the international aid and the public health systems in Thailand generates change in both systems by examining the Global Fund process over the last ten years. This research uses complexity science, network theory, and organizational collaboration literatures, taking Elinor Ostrom's institutional analysis and development framework as its theoretical foundation. The Global Fund is an action arena that bridges both the local public health action arena and the Thai foreign aid action arena. It creates structures that result in organizational interactions, program design and implementation, and program evaluations that feed back into both the local public health and foreign aid action arenas, resulting in change in both.

This project uses document analysis, network analysis and interviews conducted during fieldwork in Thailand to examine how interactions between organizations change the structure of relationships, organizational roles and influence and program outcomes. It finds that the Global Fund process results in network structural and substantive changes, including changes in density, development of sub-network structures and changes in participants and program focus. Through these changes, the process engenders positive adaptation within the public health sector in Thailand, by improving human, organizational and community capacity and by reaching previously underserved populations, and positive adaptation in the foreign aid system in Thailand through the changing the roles of these organizations, adapting from agenda setters to providers of technical assistance.

This study makes important contributions to the fields of complexity and systems, organizational collaboration and network theory. It finds that the bridging action arena creates and enhances relationships between organizational members, resulting in adaptation within the arenas it overlaps. The results are changes in the attributes of the community and the rules in which they operate within both systems. It also changes the material conditions of both the systems it overlaps. This study is an exploratory endeavor that seeks to expand the understanding of overlapping systems and contribute to theories surrounding this phenomenon. In the process of this research, theoretical questions emerged about the nature of these overlapping systems, about the participants within them, and about how they develop over time that will inform future research agendas.


We present the results of new tephrostratigraphical and environmental impact studies of the 40-38 ka varved sediment section of Lago Grande di Monticchio (southern Italy). The sediments in this time zone are correlated with the Heinrich H4-stadial that occurred between Greenland Interstadials GI-9 and GI-8, and include the widespread Campanian Ignimbrite (CI, 39.3 ka) as a thick tephra layer in the middle of the H4 stadial. The CI in the Monticchio record is overlain by the Schiava tephra from Vesuvius, c. 1240 varve-years younger than the CI, and preceded by four tephras from small-scale eruptions of the Phlegrean Fields and by an Ischia-derived tephra. The four Phlegrean Field-derived tephras were deposited 600 varveyears or fewer prior to the deposition of the CI and show very similar major, minor, and trace element glass compositions compared to those of the CI. This similarity in composition and age may lead to erroneous tephra identification and therefore potentially compromise the accurate linking and synchronisation of palaeoenvironmental records in the central Mediterranean area. Microfacies analyses and μ-XRF core scanning were used to characterise POST-PRINT Published in Quaternary Science Reviews. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027737911400198X 2 primary and secondary depositional features of all seven tephra layers and to evaluate environmental and ecological responses after tephra deposition. Higher concentrations of tephra-derived material (mainly glass shards and pumices) in primary and reworked layers were detected by elevated K-counts in μ-XRF elemental core scans. Reworked tephra derives mainly from in-washing from the littoral zone and the catchment and occurs within five to 30 years, and up to 1240 varve years, after the deposition of thinner (1-5 mm) and thicker (5-230 mm) tephra fallout deposits, respectively. An obvious response of diatom population growth directly after the primary tephra deposition was observed for the thicker tephra layers (> 1 mm) during the first 1 to 8 years after deposition of the primary deposit indicating that the additional input of potential nutrients (glass shards) affected the ecological lake system.


Mad2 is a key component of the spindle assembly checkpoint, a safety device ensuring faithful sister chromatid separation in mitosis. The target of Mad2 is Cdc20, an activator of the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C). Mad2 binding to Cdc20 is a complex reaction that entails the conformational conversion of Mad2 from an open (O-Mad2) to a closed (C-Mad2) conformer. Previously, it has been hypothesized that the conversion of O-Mad2 is accelerated by its conformational dimerization with C-Mad2. This hypothesis, known as the Mad2-template hypothesis, is based on the unproven assumption that the natural conversion of O-Mad2 required to bind Cdc20 is slow. Here, we provide evidence for this fundamental assumption and demonstrate that conformational dimerization of Mad2 accelerates the rate of Mad2 binding to Cdc20. On the basis of our measurements, we developed a set of rate equations that deliver excellent predictions of experimental binding curves under a variety of different conditions. Our results strongly suggest that the interaction of Mad2 with Cdc20 is rate limiting for activation of the spindle checkpoint. Conformational dimerization of Mad2 is essential to accelerate Cdc20 binding, but it does not modify the equilibrium of the Mad2:Cdc20 interaction, i.e., it is purely catalytic. These results surpass previously formulated objections to the Mad2-template model and predict that the release of Mad2 from Cdc20 is an energy-driven process.


The physical processes governing coastal exchange between the surf zone, the inner shelf, and the open ocean is critical for estimating mass exchange and its impact on ecological processes. The present study combined field measurements and theoretical approaches to explore the hydrodynamics in the coastal boundary layer (CBL) in which both bottom drag and shore friction affect the transport and mixing processes. Observed drifter-cluster trajectories in a nearly alongshore-uniform coastal area showed that the occurrence of current reversal varies with cross-shore distance, which confirmed the tidal phase difference between different cross-shore distances predicted by the proposed CBL model. According to the CBL model, tidal phase difference is affected by the bottom drag coefficient and horizontal eddy viscosity coefficient. With the results of three experiments under different wave conditions, this study also discusses the effects of waves on the CBL. Data analysis based on observations indicates that the bottom drag term is closely related to the bottom shear stress induced by the interactions of waves and currents. The bottom drag coefficient under the more energetic wave condition was much greater than that under milder wave conditions during the experiment. The study also suggests that in addition to pressure gradient and bottom drag, flow structure is subject to lateral stress, which reflects the impact of shoreline roughness in the nearshore region and that the estimated eddy viscosity coefficient decreases linearly with distance from the shoreline.


Here we demonstrate that the inferential model (IM) framework, unlike the updating rules that Gong and Meng show to be unreliable, provides valid and efficient inferences/prediction while not being susceptible to sure loss. In this sense, the IM framework settles what Gong and Meng characterized as "unsettling."


defined as a person's general well-being, and may include individual perceptions of a variety of factors such family, work, finances, local community services, community relationships, surrounding environment, and other important aspects of their life, ultimately leading to life satisfaction. Energy development can have an effect on QOL components for rural residents. Southwest Wyoming is a rural area with a history of ranching and farming which continues today. This area has also seen a "boom" of increasing wind, solar, oil and gas energy developments over the past decade. Wyoming Department of Agriculture, as part of the Wyoming Landscape Conservation Initiative (WLCI), sponsored research to examine the effect of energy development on ranchers' and farmers' quality of life.


Over the past two decades, conversational Artificial Intelligence has become an increasingly prevalent part of our daily lives. With companies relying heavily on the use of chatbots for e-commerce, customer service, and education, it is safe to say that these technologies are not going away any time soon. While machine learning based chatbots provide revolutionary advances in the way these companies conduct business online, they are often vulnerable to conversational bias emanating from toxic training data. If left unchecked, these chatbots have the potential of reflecting offensive elements of biased conversation. In this paper, we develop a novel approach to eliminating bias from training data, including user input. More specifically, we create a filtering algorithm that assesses the toxicity level of a chatbot's response and eliminates statements from the training data that surpass a predetermined threshold of conversational bias. Our model includes a toxicity assessment framework that evaluates such a bias based on the content of a given statement, as well as a toxicity scoring system that evaluates the level of bias present based on this framework. Our chatbot implements this technique by evaluating each statement in its initial training dataset, as well as new user input, and filtering out statements that contain high levels of toxicity so that harmful outcomes are successfully mitigated.


The mesenteric circulation is regulated by multiple mechanisms, there is sufficient reason to support the suspicion that local metabolic factors are especially important in the control of intestinal vasculature. Of these, adenosine, a purine nucleoside and mesenteric vasodilator, may be the messenger of the intestinal tissue to signal appropriate responses of the intestinal vessels. The evidence supporting the candidacy of the nucleoside as a local regular of mesenteric circulation may be summarized, as follows: Adenoside is present in the tissue of the gut in measurable quantities. Exogenous adenosine is a powerful dilator of mesenteric resistance vessels. Blockade of adenosine receptors in the mesenteric circulation interferes significantly with three autoregulatory phenomena, i.e., postprandial hyperemia, pressure-flow autoregulation, and reactive hyperemia. The evidence which weakens the role of adenosine as mesenteric vasoregulator includes: Findings in several reports that adenosine depressed intestinal oxygen consumption. The failure of adenosine receptors to inhibit some autoregulatory hyperemias of the gut and the rather limited amount of evidence regarding tissue adenosine release in autoregulatory responses of the gut's vasculature.


This investigation focuses on the thermal response of two objects under medium-intensity continuous-wave (CW) laser irradiation: (1) a homogeneous slab and (2) a complex electronic component, a flat planar spiral antenna. An analytical solution was found for the homogeneous slab under laser irradiation. The analytical solution is helpful for those conditions where a numerical solution is difficult to achieve and for validating the numerical models. Four numerical models of the antenna under laser irradiation were developed. These were used to determine if one-, two- or three-dimensional models were required to adequately predict the temperature profile in the antenna. Temperature predictions from the four numerical models were compared to experimental data.


This article examines the impact of electoral politics on state welfare policy in the post-civil rights era South. In contrast to an emerging consensus concluding that southern African Americans materially benefited from rejoining the electorate, this study suggests that higher black registration rates actually reduced states' poverty relief efforts. In the years immediately following the Voting Rights Act (VRA), when Democrats controlled state government, the significant negative relationship between the size of the black electorate and state welfare generosity was moderated to some extent by high levels of partisan competition. In such cases, Democrats ostensibly chose a "core" targeting strategy of pursuing lower-income votes and had the institutional wherewithal to purchase these votes with policy concessions. Overall, however, the liberal "Downsian" policy response to African American mobilization was dominated by an antiredistributive response. In the South, welfare policies were relatively conservative vis-à-vis the other states during Jim Crow and became more so in response to black voting.


Dolly is a lamb that was cloned by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a Scottish embryologist. But she is also a Rorschach test. The public response to the production of a lamb by cloning a cultured cell line reflects the futuristic fantasies and Frankenstein fears that have more broadly surrounded research in genetics and especially genetic engineering. Cloning was a term originally applied to a botanical technique of asexual reproduction. But following early experiments in the manipulation of the hereditary and reproductive process during the mid-1960s, the term became associated with human biological engineering. It also became a pervasive theme in horror films and science fiction fantasies. Appearing to promise both amazing new control over nature and terrifying dehumanization, cloning has gripped the popular imagination.


The language of Bioethics is situated in a context of singular terminological complexity. On the one hand, if we look at the epistemological status of this discipline, we can realize that the knowledge of their material object (which refers to the Bios and transformations that technology involves) requires the assistance of several sciences, whose contribution is indispensable for understanding the empirical data. At the same time, the question which constitutes its formal object is clearly philosophical, and therefore requires moving at the level of ethics. This paper attempts to deal with some problematic knots of the issue, gathered around two axes: the role of techno-scientific language in bioethics and its explanatory ability and the characteristics of philosophical language. As for the second point, it also discusses the tentative to find a neutral language (structuring the same Bioethics as a lingua franca); the recourse to indirect speech that shifts the focus from the truth of the arguments to the framework of models; the rhetorical use of the language. Palabras clave: bioetica, filosofia moral, lenguaje, justificacion.


The insulin insulin-like growth factor signaling pathway has been hypothesized as a major determinant of life history profiles that vary adaptively in natural populations. In Drosophila melanogaster, multiple components of this pathway vary predictably with latitude; this includes foxo, a conserved gene that regulates insulin signaling and has pleiotropic effects on a variety of fitness-associated traits. We hypothesized that allelic variation at foxo underlies genetic variance for traits that vary with latitude and reflect local adaptation. To evaluate this, we generated recombinant outbred populations in which the focal foxo allele was homozygous and fixed for either the allele common at high latitude or low latitude and the genomic background was randomized across 20 inbred lines. After eight generations of recombination, experimental populations were phenotyped for a series of traits related to gene function. Our results demonstrate that natural allelic variation at foxo has major and predictable effects on body size and starvation tolerance, but not on development time. These patterns mirror those observed in natural populations collected across the latitudinal gradient in the eastern U.S.: clines were observed for starvation tolerance and body size, but development time exhibited no association with latitude. Furthermore, differences in size between foxo genotypes were equivalent to those observed between populations sampled from the latitudinal extremes, although contribution to the genetic variance for starvation tolerance was less pronounced. These results suggest that allelic variation at foxo is a major contributor to adaptive patterns of life history variation in natural populations of this genetic model.


: Routine screening of females for gonococcal infection has become common in many clinic settings, particularly in public family planning clinics. The results of such routine screening in one large family planning program operated by the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health was examined. From 1973 to 1975 a trend toward decreasing rates of positivity for gonorrhea was observed. Use of computer information on the population being served by the program and a review of individual patient's charts enabled identification of certain high-yield subpopulations, including blacks, welfare recipients, new patients over age 19, and new patients who were not using any contraception when first screened. The cost of detecting a case of gonorrhea through screening was related to the positivity rate with the demonstration of a very high cost per case found when the positivity rate is less than 1 percent. Consideration should be given to identifying high and low-yield subpopulations for gonorrhea screening in large family planning programs so that, as cost considerations demand, funds now used for routine gonorrhea screening may be used instead for selective screening and provision of family planning services to high-yield groups.


Report presents results of investigations aimed spray pyrolysis technology application for nanodimensional film gas sensors (NDFGS) manufacturing. It is shown that due to spray deposition installation modification the developed technology of nanodimensional gas sensitive film formation becomes compatible with group planar technology of microelectronics. Correct selection of spray solutions has allowed to providing 100150°C decreasing of deposition temperatures, improving the initial stoichiometry of gas sensitive film composition (post-deposition treatment is excluded and manufacturing cost is reduced) and increasing of gas sensitivity to CO by one order and to hydrogen by three orders. It is concluded that spray pyrolysis technology can be successfully used for NDFGS manufacturing.


It's just past 10:00 am on a humid Monday in Singapore, and the streets seemed to have settled after a workday rush. My walk from Arab Street to McNally Street was rather placid, punctuated by moments at intersections, and surrounded by people heading somewhere. Minutes later, I was looking up at the postmodern buildings of LASALLE College of the Arts—a panorama of reinforced concrete, glass, tiles, and steel gleaming under the morning sun. In cinema, spaces and landscapes are primary features. At times, the setting goes beyond the overarching narrative, as it conveys its own story. Given their impact, Stephen Heath (2016) infers that a process occurs in identifying spatial connections to the characters, since "organizing, guiding, sustaining and reestablishing the space are the factors that reveal this process." The audience absorbs the familiar images or experiences onscreen. However, embodied objects of varying iterations contribute to how environments in films are concretized. On this note, one can ask: in what ways do filmic environments thus project narratives and discourses?


HTTPS ensures that the Web has a base level of privacy and integrity. Security engineers, researchers, and browser vendors have long worked to spread HTTPS to as much of the Web as possible via outreach efforts, developer tools, and browser changes. How much progress have we made toward this goal of widespread HTTPS adoption? We gather metrics to benchmark the status and progress of HTTPS adoption on the Web in 2017. To evaluate HTTPS adoption from a user perspective, we collect large-scale, aggregate user metrics from two major browsers (Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox). To measure HTTPS adoption from a Web developer perspective, we survey server support for HTTPS among top and long-tail websites. We draw on these metrics to gain insight into the current state of the HTTPS ecosystem.


Abstract The CEA is studying the development of processes with a sufficiently large operating range in order to propose a general treatment system and make it possible to absorb a significant quantity of radioactive liquid stocks awaiting treatment around the world. A solution may be the use of submerged plasma into which the organic liquids would be injected. Current research has demonstrated that such a technique may enable the instantaneous and complete destruction of liquids with a wide variety of constituents, such as chlorine, fluorine, or phosphorus. The ELIPSE process was designed based on the results of this research. In this process, an arc plasma torch is submerged in the core of an aqueous solution. The submersion solution offers many advantages: quenching and cleaning of combustion gases; filtering of the particles they contain; and cooling maintained for the entire process, which guarantees excellent corrosion control. An advantage of this type of design is that the gas treatment system can be reduced to a demister-condenser followed by a simple safety filter, thereby offering the additional advantage of an extremely compact treatment system. This design also allows the ELIPSE process to become by this way an embeddable process if required. The present paper will first describe the state of the art concerning this concept and secondly research currently conducted using the ELIPSE process to destroy a wide variety of liquids such as tributylphosphate, trichloroethylene, and perfluoropolyether with an efficiency of over 99% at rates of several liters per hour. The apparent absence of any corrosion observed in the treatment system would indicate that, following optimization, a universal and compact process may soon be available, which may be transportable and dedicated to the treatment of orphan waste products awaiting treatment.


The evolution of implant dentistry has altered the practice of dentistry in general and replacement of missing teeth in particular. Despite their high rate of success, implants are not without problems. The initial event in the pathogenesis of most bacterial disease is by the adsorption of salivary components to the surface of the transgingival abutment or healing implant components. Oral bacteria interacts with these salivary components to adhere to the surface.Variations in pellicle constituents cause differences in bacterial adhesion and ultimately in colonization. As titanium differs in its engagement of salivary components the plaque developing on the titanium surface and its potential pathogenicity also differs.The study was aimed to identify and compare the main proteins that adsorb onto titanium surfaces in vivo, between partially dentulous and edentulous subjects using biochemical methods. They were clinically analyzed and the samples then subjected to biochemical methods to identify the individual proteins.


We present an approach to build multiwavelength achromatic metasurface that can work in off-axis configuration with an ultra-wide applicable incident angle range for visible light. The metasurface is constructed by combining multiple metallic nano-groove gratings, which support enhanced diffractions for transverse magnetic polarization in an ultrawide incident angle range from 10° to 80° due to the excitations of localized gap plasmon modes at different resonance wavelengths. To achieve the achromatic diffraction, the ratio between the resonance wavelength and the period of each elementary grating is fixed. Incident light at those multiple resonance wavelengths can be efficiently diffracted into the same direction with near-complete suppression of the specular reflection. Based on the similar approach, we also design a wide-angled off-axis achromatic flat lens for focusing light of different wavelengths into the same position. Our findings provide an alternative simple way to design various off-axis achromatic flat optical elements without stringent angle requirement for imaging and display applications.


Nano-sized precursor FePO4·xH2O particles were obtained by oxidation co-precipitation using FeSO4⋅7H2O, H2O2 and ammonia. The powder was characterized by differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetry (TG), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The TG-DTA results determined the content of crystal water of FePO4·xH2O, i.e. x = 1.5. The SEM observation suggested that FePO4·xH2O particles were spherical in shape and its grain size was about 150 nanometers. The dispersion of the synthesized powder was improved through the addition of surfactant. The XRD analysis indicated that the synthesized FePO4·xH2O was amorphous. After being calcined at 720 °C for 10 hrs, the synthesized FePO4·xH2O at pH of ~3.5 was crystallized and FePO4 in a single phase was obtained. According to the test results, the optimized preparation process parameters were determined.


This paper analyzes the current development of industry clusters of the industrial parks in Jiangxi. It is found that most of the industrial parks are in the stage of agglomeration, others are in the transitional phase from agglomeration to cluster and the remaining, namely about the one-third industrial parks, are still in the concentrated phase. There is a large gap between the development of the industrial parks in Jiangxi and the requirements of industry clusters, which is embodied in the fact that the industrial structures converge, the growth of industrial chain is incomplete and the supporting system of production is imperfect. Finally, the countermeasures are proposed from the perspective of the government to promote the development of industry clusters of the industrial parks in Jiangxi. These countermeasures mainly are to make the industrial orientation clear, to plan a good industrial layout, to develop the industrial parks based on the mechanism of industriy clusters, to actively explore appropriate development models, to strengthen the construction of industrial supporting system and to create an innovation environment for industry clusters in the industrial parks.


Transformational Philanthropy: Entrepreneurs and Nonprofits is a practical guide on attracting entrepreneurs to nonprofit organizations as an investor, donor and true philanthropist. It provides insight into the decision making patterns, expectations, and philanthropic behaviors of entrepreneurs. The primary use of this book will be for those in the philanthropic world to understand how to approach entrepreneurs for donations and contributions. The book includes real world examples, industry statistics, case studies, interviews, and important how-to tips related to entrepreneurs.


The law of trademark tarnishment — a type of trademark dilution — is in disarray. The basic definition is deceptively simple. Trademark tarnishment occurs when a junior mark harms the reputation of a substantially similar existing senior trademark by associating itself with something perverse or deviant. However, it turns out that Congress and the courts disagree over the prima facie evidence necessary to prove its existence. The problem is that federal law and related legal principles are simply ill-equipped to adequately analyze this unique market driven doctrine. To make matters worse, legal scholars cannot even agree on whether trademark tarnishment can empirically exist in the marketplace. Part of the issue is that there has never been any real attempt to define the phrase "harm to reputation" in the trademark context.

Drawing on marketing scholarship and social science methods, this article provides the first workable framework that courts can use to hear and accurately analyze these cases. It relies on experimental survey methodology to empirically show that tarnishment can exist under certain conditions; the key here is quantifying the number of exposures to the harmful mark. The article also introduces extant branding theory as a way to define harm to reputation in the marketplace. This interdisciplinary approach ultimately gives courts a mechanism by which to measure harm to reputation and the tangible impact of tarnishment. In the process, this theory provides litigants with an empirical based strategy to prove their dilution claims and contributes to the doctrinal justification for trademark dilution laws.


This year marks the 50th anniversary of the influential Club of Rome report Limits to Growth , which used computer modelling to show that, on a finite planet, current human resource use cannot ultimately be sustained. In this paper we use the anniversary as an opportunity to reflect on the framing of limits in HCI. Following recent work in design and social science, we ask whether the idea of limits is an effective way to imagine, prompt and manage cultural change in participatory, sustainable HCI. Drawing from our experiences investigating participatory creative practice in the CreaTures project, we suggest that limits-led framings could be usefully held in tension with ideas of abundance. As researchers and practitioners of sustainable design, our job is often asking others to use less – whether that involves consuming fewer materials, less energy; or indeed even 'un-making' particular practices. We argue that directive change can be reconceptualised as 'eco-social' transformation: a fusion of care-infused ecological and social sensibilities to create existential change that would impact lifestyle and political choices (and technology use), turning to potentially abundant human resources of imagination, reflection and solidarity. We offer the example of The Hologram , a feminist economist healthcare art project situated online, to illustrate this potential.


The general theme of this thesis is to improve our understanding of community structure for large networks. A scientific challenge across fields (e.g., neuroscience, genetics, and social science) is to understand what drives the interactions between nodes in a network. One of the fundamental concepts in this context is community structure: the tendency of nodes to connect based on similar characteristics. Network models where a single parameter per node governs the propensity of connection are popular in practice. They frequently arise as null models that indicate a lack of community structure, since they cannot readily describe networks whose aggregate links behave in a block-like manner. We generalize such a model called the degree-based model to a flexible, nonparametric class of network models, covering weighted, multi-edge, and power-law networks, and provide limit theorems that describe their asymptotic properties. We establish a theoretical foundation for modularity: a well-known measure for the strength of community structure and derive its asymptotic properties under the assumption of a lack of community structure (formalized by the class of degree-based models described above). This enables us to assess how informative covariates are for the network interactions. Modularity is intuitive and practically effective but until now has lacked a sound theoretical basis. We derive modularity from first principles, and give it a formal statistical interpretation. Moreover, by acknowledging that different community assignments may explain different aspects of a network's observed structure, we extend the applicability of modularity beyond its typical use to find a single "best" community assignment. We develop from our theoretical results a methodology to quantify network community structure. After validating it using several benchmark examples, we investigate a multi-edge network of corporate email interactions. Here, we demonstrate that our method can identify those covariates that are informative and therefore improves our understanding of the network.


5'-Methylthioadenosine was taken up and immediately metabolized further by cultured baby-hamster kidney cells during the exponential phase of growth. The adenine moiety supplied the purine-nucleotide pool via the salvage pathway and was efficiently incorporated into nucleic acids. Catabolites of methylthioadenosine excreted by the cells included adenine, purinic compounds and metabolites of the ribose portion. 5'-Methylthiotubercidin had no significant effect on the cellular metabolism of methyl-thioadenosine, but greatly inhibited its uptake. erythro-9-(2-Hydroxy-3-nonyl)adenine had no effect on the uptake, but markedly interfered with the further utilization of methylthioadenosine after cleavage in the cells.


A dramatic surge in revenues from TV broadcasting and brand-selling forced modern football clubs, simultaneously involved in domestic and European competitions, to operate in a new environment. In response, the Union of European Football Associations introduced the Financial Fair Play Regulations, a set of financial regulations that affect all major European clubs. To assess the impact of financial restrictions (e.g., salary caps) on the default risk for individual clubs and competitive balance, we construct a game-theoretic model where clubs make decisions on the amounts they borrow and spend on the team. The impact of financial restrictions on competitive balance is positive; the total amount of debt also decreases at equilibrium. Finally, we show that financial restrictions create more incentives to invest in second-tier clubs compared to the situation in which there are no financial regulations.


Abstract This interventions forum presents a debate on Margaret Kohn's The Death and Life of the Urban Commonwealth. Four contributors from different disciplinary backgrounds discuss and critique Kohn's book, which offers an exploration of the political in an age of modern urbanism. Building on theories of solidarism and social rights, Kohn puts forth a set of new arguments about how the city might be a more governable commonwealth. Her book lays bare some of the great contradictions inherent in questions of the distribution of wealth and space in the metropolis. It builds on classical and current political theory and philosophy, theories of justice, and debates on gentrification and social mobility. The reviewers appreciate the great contribution the book is making to current debates in urban politics, geography and law, but they also point to significant areas for further debate along various lines as laid out by the author. Kohn concludes the debate with a response to the critical interventions.


ELI-ALPS, one of the three pillars of the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project, will be in a unique position to offer dedicated experimental platforms for ultrashort time-resolved investigations of strongly excited dynamical systems. The state-of-the-art surface plasma attosource (SPA) beamlines at ELI-ALPS are being designed and developed to enable new directions in plasma-based attoscience research. The SPA beamlines will be driven by ultrashort, high peak power, high repetition rate lasers based on the latest technology and are aimed to develop previously unavailable attoscience experimental platforms employing surface high-harmonic generation process. This endeavor involves research and development challenges and careful considerations. Here we discuss the physics of plasma attosources and their characteristics under such extreme conditions and the beamline functionalities that would facilitate these objectives. Finally, we delineate the initial research possibilities with these sophisticated instruments. (C) 2018 Optical Society of America


The purpose of this study was to evaluate the healing potential of deep, primarily 3wall intrabony defects which were treated by flap debridement and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) membranes and followed for extended time periods. All of the treated defects were in the mandibular arch. Thirty-two patients were treated and reexamined at an average of 3 years 5 months. Twenty-four of these patients had re-entry procedures at the second examination. Sixteen of these patients were examined a third time at an average of 4 years 3 months. The patients were evaluated for changes in probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL), recession, changes in crestal resorption, and defect bone fill. The paired t-test for related samples was used to test for differences between examinations. Between Exams 1 and 2 there was a statistically significant reduction of pocket depth (3.8 mm), gain in clinical attachment level (4.2 mm), and an increase in recession (-1.2 mm). For the 24 patients who had re-entry procedures there was an average defect fill of 4.3 mm (P < 0.0001) and 0.33 mm of crestal resorption (P < 0.0001). The 16 patients who were examined 3 times sustained decreases in PD, gains in CAL, and recession recorded at the second examination. These changes were statistically significant at Exam 3. The results of this study demonstrate that deep, 3-wall intrabony defects treated by debridement and ePTFE barrier membranes will have significant decreases in PD, gains in CAL, recession, decreases in crestal resorption, and gains in bone fill. These gains can be maintained over extended time intervals and are considered to be predictable. J Periodontol 1993; 64:1138-1144.


Sparse linear regression is a central problem in high-dimensional statistics. We study the correlated random design setting, where the covariates are drawn from a multivariate Gaussian $N(0,\Sigma)$, and we seek an estimator with small excess risk. If the true signal is $t$-sparse, information-theoretically, it is possible to achieve strong recovery guarantees with only $O(t\log n)$ samples. However, computationally efficient algorithms have sample complexity linear in (some variant of) the condition number of $\Sigma$. Classical algorithms such as the Lasso can require significantly more samples than necessary even if there is only a single sparse approximate dependency among the covariates. We provide a polynomial-time algorithm that, given $\Sigma$, automatically adapts the Lasso to tolerate a small number of approximate dependencies. In particular, we achieve near-optimal sample complexity for constant sparsity and if $\Sigma$ has few ``outlier'' eigenvalues. Our algorithm fits into a broader framework of feature adaptation for sparse linear regression with ill-conditioned covariates. With this framework, we additionally provide the first polynomial-factor improvement over brute-force search for constant sparsity $t$ and arbitrary covariance $\Sigma$.


In this paper, comparative study between wavelet transform (WT) and S-transform (ST) based on extracted features for detection of islanding and power quality (PQ) disturbances in hybrid distributed generation (DG) system is presented. The hybrid system consists of DG resources like photovoltaic, fuel cell, and wind energy systems connected to grid. The negative sequence component of the voltage signal is used in islanding detection of these resources from the grid. Voltage signal extracted directly at the point of common coupling is considered for detection of PQ disturbances. Further, the effect of variation of grid impedances on islanding and PQ disturbances and effect of islanding on the coherency between the energy resources is also presented in this paper. The study for different scenarios of DG system is presented in the form of time-frequency analysis. The energy content and standard deviation of ST contour and WT signal is also reported in order to validate the graphical results. The results demonstrate the advantages of S -transform over WT in detection of islanding and different disturbances under noise-free as well as noisy scenarios.


Several mouse monoclonal antibodies which recognize carbohydrate sequences distinguish between different types of human lung cancer immunohistologically. These antibodies bind to glycolipid antigens pro duced by the cancer cells. When these glycolipids are separated by thin-layer chromatography, immunostaining of the chromatograms yields complex patterns of antigen-positive bands. To determine whether gly colipid patterns are useful in the classification of lung cancer, 16 human lung cancer cell lines comprising the major histológica!types of primary lung cancer were studied. Neutral glycolipids and gangliosides were isolated and separated by thin-layer chromatography. Six anti-carbohy drate antibodies which recognize structurally related antigens were used for immunostaining. Neuraminidase treatment of the chromatograms was used to detect "cryptic" sialylated antigens. All the cell lines were unique with regard to the type, amount, and chromatography pattern of the glycolipid antigens produced. Small cell lung cancer cell lines synthesized the greatest variety of antigens, whereas cell lines with large cell cytology synthesized the least. Interestingly, there was an inverse relationship between expression of some glycolipid antigens and DNA amplification of the c-myc oncogene. This suggests that enhanced c-myc expression may influence the types of glycolipids expressed at the surface of lung tumor cells.


Benefits are indissolubly associated to cost, as specific cost levels will always raise questions regarding the accompanying benefit levels. Contrary to cost benchmarking, the benchmarking of benefits, and especially the benefit constituents which should be measured, seem hardly developed. This study presents the IT benchmarking of housing associations over a period of seven years. Although cost measurements appeared relatively stable, benefit measurements evolved significantly. A processand outcome-based measurement methodology is defined to improve our understanding of benchmarking and benefits benchmarking in particular. Differences between and the experiences with the outcomeand process-based approaches are described and analyzed. Results indicate the outcome-based approach to be preferred for cost benchmarking, however, the application of this approach on the measurement of benefits caused numerous problems. In this regard, most organizations seem unable to provide the required data and prefer the process-based approach.


LoRa technology has received a lot of attention in the last few years. Numerous success stories about using LoRa technology for the Internet of Things in various implementations. Several studies have found that the use of LoRa technology has the opportunity to be implemented in indoor-based applications. LoRa technology is found more stable and is more resilient to environmental changes. Environmental change of the indoor is a major problem to maintain accuracy in position prediction, especially in the use of Received Signal Strength (RSS) fingerprints as a reference database. The variety of approaches to solving accuracy problems continues to improve as the need for indoor localization applications increases. Deep learning approaches as a solution for the use of fingerprints in indoor localization have been carried out in several studies with various novelties offered. Let's introduce a combination of the use of LoRa technology's excellence with a deep learning method that uses all variations of measurement results of RSS values at each position as a natural feature of the indoor condition as a fingerprint. All of these features are used for training in-deep learning methods. It is DeepFi-LoRaIn which illustrates a new technique for using the fingerprint data of the LoRa device's RSS device on indoor localization using deep learning methods. This method is used to find out how accurate the model produced by the training process is to predict the position in a dynamic environment. The scenario used to evaluate the model is by giving interference to the RSS value received at each anchor node. The model produced through training was found to have good accuracy in predicting the position even in conditions of interference with several anchor nodes. Based on the test results, DeepFi-LoRaIn Technique can be a solution to cope with changing environmental conditions in indoor localization


A connecting rod from a motor boat was broken in two places at the small end. At position I there was a fatigue fracture brought about by operational stress, whereas the fibrous fracture surface II was a secondary tensile fracture. Furthermore the transition on the other side of the rod was cracked symmetrically to the fatigue fracture (position III). Magnetic inspection showed indications of cracking at the transition between the rod and small end in six other connecting rods from the same batch. Metallographic investigation showed the connecting rods were rendered susceptible to fatigue by the notch effect of coarse scale-filled folds formed during forging.


Agricultural biotechnology has been largely opposed by advocates in the sustainable agriculture movement, despite claims by the technology's proponents that it holds the promise to deliver both production (economic) and environmental benefits, two legs of the sustainability stool. We argue in this paper that participants in this polarized debate are talking past each other because assumptions about biotechnology and sustainability remain simplistic and poorly defined. Genetically engineered (GE) herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant crop varieties are the most visible current forms of agricultural biotechnology, and thus the form of biotechnology that many in the sustainability movement react to. However, these crops represent a biotechnology option that has paid insufficient attention to the integrated and systemic requirements of sustainable agriculture. In particular, common definitions of sustainable agriculture reinforce the need to include consideration of socio-economic distributive or equity effects into any assessment of sustainability. However, the frameworks that have been proposed to assess the potential for GE crops to enhance sustainable agriculture generally neglect this essential socio-economic dimension. We present an analysis that augments the sustainability frameworks to include the full suite of environmental, economic and social impacts. A review of the latest science on each impact category reveals that crop biotechnology cannot be fully assessed with respect to fostering a more sustainable agriculture due to key gaps in evidence, especially for socio-economic distributive effects. While the first generation of GE crops generally has made progress in reducing agriculture's environmental footprint and improving adopting farmers' economic well-being, we conclude that these early products fall short of the technology's capacity to promote a more sustainable agriculture because of the failure of those developing and promoting the technology to fully engage all stakeholders and address salient equity issues. To realize the sustainability potential of biotechnology will require fundamental changes in the way public and private research and technology development and commercialization are structured and operated. We identify new approaches in these areas that could make this powerful biological science more compatible with sustainable agriculture.


Facebook is still the leading social networking site in the world that people primarily use to connect with their friends, share their thoughts and feelings, catch up with the news and trends in their surroundings and follow their favourite brands. Since Facebook is a cost-effective tool, many multinational large sized companies from a variety of sectors worldwide have opened brand fan pages on Facebook to reach their target audience conveniently. These large sized companies cooperating with social media agencies and implementing a corporate communication strategy on their Facebook brand fan pages gain many benefits from their Facebook usage. However, few research have examined so far how small and medium sized enterprises, whose budgets are limited comparative to large sized companies, can gain some benefits from their Facebook usage. This research aims to look at how small and medium sized enterprises use Facebook for business purposes and whether they may get a competitive advantage from their Facebook usage.