This volume is a comprehensive reference work on the life, labors and influence of the great evolutionist Charles Darwin. With more than sixty essays written by an international group representing the leading scholars in the field, this is the definitive work on Darwin. It covers the background to Darwin's discovery of the theory of evolution through natural selection, the work he produced and his contemporaries' reactions to it, and evaluates his influence on science in the 150 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species. It also explores the implications of Darwin's discoveries in religion, politics, gender, literature, culture, philosophy and medicine, critically evaluating Darwin's legacy. Fully illustrated and clearly written, it is suitable for scholars and students as well as the general reader. The wealth of information it provides about the history of evolutionary thought makes it a crucial resource for understanding the controversies that surround evolution today. T he Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolut ionary T hought


The Late Devonian Gumusali formation of the eastern Taurides is a terrigenous-carbonate rock sequence about 600 m thick, consisting mainly of quartz sandstone, quartz siltstone, shale, and carbonate rocks. Palaeontologic and sedimentologic data mainly indicate a shallow subtidal depositional environment. This sequence generally represents the shallow-water polygnathid-icriodid biofacies, and contains conodont faunas that range from the Upper falsiovalis Zone into the Upper praesulcata Zone. However, they do not correlate well to the Late Devonian standard conodont zonation because of the lack of zonally diagnostic species and the irregular vertical distributions of the present taxa. Herein, 54 taxa belonging to nine genera are described and illustrated from the studied section. Icriodus adanaensis, Icriodus fekeensis, and Polygnathus antecompressus are the newly described species.


An 80 year old man with advanced pulmonary fibrosis secondary to asbestos exposure presented to the emergency department with sudden onset shortness of breath and right sided chest and back pain. He was found to have a large, right sided pneumothorax. The patient was resuscitated and the on-call medical registrar inserted an underwater sealed chest drain. Its position was confirmed with a repeat chest radiograph.

Forty eight hours later, the junior doctor on call was asked to see the patient, who had severe face and chest pain with shortness of breath. He had not been vomiting or retching or undergone any further medical interventions and had not suffered any trauma. On examination, he looked unwell but could talk. The chest drain was in situ, but it was not swinging or bubbling and no leak was identified. His arms, chest, neck, and face were grossly distended, and there were subcutaneous crepitations in his skin. His respiratory rate was 36 breaths/min, oxygen saturation was 98% on 10 L O2/min, pulse was regular at 110 beats/min, and blood pressure was 130/86 mmHg. His skin was easily compressible and …


Glycans play a vital role in a large number of cellular processes. Their complex and flexible nature hampers structure-function studies using experimental techniques. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations can help in understanding dynamic aspects of glycans if the forcefield (FF) parameters used can reproduce key experimentally observed properties. Here, we present optimized coarse-grained (CG) Martini FF parameters for N-glycans, calibrated against experimentally derived binding affinities for lectins. The CG bonded parameters were obtained from atomistic (ATM) simulations for different glycan topologies including high mannose and complex glycans with various branching patterns. In the CG model, additional elastic networks are shown to improve maintenance of the overall conformational distribution. Solvation free energies and octanol-water partition coefficients were also calculated for various n-glycan disaccharide combinations. When using standard Martini non-bonded parameters, we observed that glycans spontaneously aggregated in the solution and required down-scaling of their interactions for reproduction of ATM model radial distribution functions. We also optimised the non-bonded interactions for glycans interacting with seven lectin candidates and show that scaling down the glycan-protein interactions can reproduce free energies obtained from experimental studies. These parameters should be of use in studying the role of glycans in various glycoproteins, carbohydrate binding proteins (CBPs) as well as their complexes, while benefiting from the efficiency of CG sampling.


Abstract The snowmelt-onset date represents an important transitional point in the Arctic surface energy balance, when albedo decreases and energy absorption increases rapidly in response to the appearance of liquid water. Interannual variations in snowmelt onset are likely related to large-scale variations in atmospheric circulation, such as described by the Arctic Oscillation (AO). This research therefore examines the relationship between monthly-averaged AO values and mean annual snowmelt-onset dates over Arctic sea ice in 13 regions, from 1979 to 1998. The objective is to statistically relate variations in mean annual regional snowmelt-onset dates to variations in the AO. Additionally, monthly-averaged 500 hPa heights and 2 m air temperatures are used to illustrate a physical link between snow-melt onset and a positive AO phase. Regression analyses demonstrate that variations in the AO explain a significant portion of the variations in snowmelt onset in the West Central Arctic, Laptev Sea, East Siberian Sea, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay. Synoptic analyses suggest earlier (later) than average snowmelt onset occurs where warm (cold) air advection and increased (decreased) cyclonic activity are present.


Why do corporations and wealthy philanthropists fund the human sciences? Examining the history of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI), a private research institute founded in the early 1980s, this article shows that funders can find as much value in the social worlds of the sciences they sponsor as in their ideas. SFI became increasingly dependent on funding from corporations and libertarian business leaders in the 1990s and 2000s. At the same time, its intellectual work came to focus on the underlying principles of adaptation, innovation, and decentralized coordination supposedly at work in 'complex systems' from biological ecosystems to markets and firms. This research cast the ideas of the libertarian economist Friedrich Hayek into a new scientific idiom. SFI also became a space where figures in business, media, academia, and politics could come to learn to see the world in a particular way—to acquire the subjectivity of what I call 'the Santa Fe Institute libertarian'. At SFI, visitors did not simply learn the principles of neo-Hayekian complex system science. They came to see themselves as agents of social evolution, providing the spark that the free-market system needed to produce new technologies and new solutions to social problems without top-down political direction. For the Institute's corporate and libertarian financiers, SFI was not just a space where intellectuals described the world in favored ideological terms, but a space where elite actors became committed to the project of making a new political-economic order.


The paper researches the processing for leather by utilizing different kinds of tanning materials, retanning and leather fatliquoring, and analyses the effect of leather electroconductibility influenced by water ratio in it and pressure added on the leather. The study illustrates: the greater electric conduction function of tanning materials or amount of polar radical they containing, the better conductivity the leather has. There is a compact relationship between the electric charge of different chemical material which were added in leather and electric conduction function, and the electrical conductivity of leather can be improved obviously by increasing the electric charge and water ratio the leather has.


To determine if an isolated right ventricular wall infarct (RVI) alters right ventricular diastolic function (RVDF), 6 mongrel dogs were studied before and after a right ventricular wall infarct was produced by ligating the right coronary artery and embolizing the distal right coronary artery with mercury. Right ventricular diastolic function was assessed by prior instrumentation of the animals with an RV Millar catheter and segment length crystals attached to the infarct (I) and non-infarct (NI) territory of the right ventricle. The time constant of RV isovolumic relaxation (Tau) was assessed by fitting right ventricular pressure decline after minimum dp/dt to the equation 1nP = At + B, where A represents the slope of the relationship, a negative number, tau = -1/A. The right ventricular diastolic pressure segment length relationship (RVD PSR) was analyzed using a multiple linear regression model whereby the independent effects of heart rate, segment length, and right ventricular wall infarct could be assessed. Right ventricular wall infarct reduced stroke volume to 63% of baseline values largely by increases in RV-I end-systolic segment length. Tau was significantly prolonged. However, there was no significant upward shift in RVDPSR in any animal. These data suggest that in this model RV diastolic relaxation is impaired. However, the degree of this impairment is not significant enough to shift the right ventricular diastolic pressure segment length relationship, as long as the pericardium remains open.


In this paper, an electrospray technique followed by annealing at high temperatures was developed to produce nanocrystals of carbamazepine (CBZ), a poorly water-soluble drug, for continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing process. Electrospraying solutions of CBZ in methanol obeys the expected scaling law of current, which is I ∼ Q(1/2) (I, electrical current; Q, flow rate), for liquids with sufficiently high conductivity and viscosity. Lower flow rates during electrospraying were preferred to produce smaller diameters of monodisperse, dense CBZ nanoparticles. CBZ nanoparticles were predominantly amorphous immediately after electrospraying. Crystallization of CBZ nanoparticles was accelerated by annealing at high temperatures. CBZ nanocrystals with the most stable polymorph, form III, were obtained by annealing at 90°C, which is above the transition temperature, 78°C, for the enantiotropic CBZ form III and form I. The solubility and dissolution rates of CBZ nanocrystals increased significantly as compared with those of CBZ bulk particles. Therefore, electrospray technology has the potential to produce pharmaceutical dosage forms with enhanced bioavailability and can readily be integrated in a continuous pharmaceutical manufacturing process.


This paper deals with a phonological analysis of rhythm in Thomas Gray's poetry. As such, the current study attempts to answer the following questions: a. what are the rhythmic patterns in Thomas Gray's poetry? b. what is the role of rhythm in the construction of the poetic value in Thomas Gray's poetry? Accordingly, this study aims to (1) identify the rhythmic patterns in Thomas Gray's poetry; and (2) explicate the role of rhythm in the construction of the poetic value in Thomas Gray's poetry. To achieve the aims of the study, the following procedures are adopted: a.reviewing literature on rhythm in phonological and poetic studies; b.using a model developed by this study to analyze the data under scrutiny which are represented by two poems randomly selected from Thomas Gray's ones. It has been concluded that rhythm in Gray's poetry is characterized by variation and effectiveness since it is not limited to one metering flow of feet. Additionally, deviations of stress in poetic rhythm are related to the general theme of the poem and the literary objective of the poet himself. This reflects changes in the mood of the poem.


Objective Clinic blood pressure values are known to change according to seasonal influences. We therefore examined home and 24 h ambulatory blood pressure values to determine whether these measurements are also affected by the seasons. Design and methods In 2051 subjects of the Pressione Arteriose Monitorate E Loro Associazioni (PAMELA) study, we measured clinic (sphygmomanometric measurements), home (semi-automatic device) and ambulatory (Spacelabs 90207) systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate. Because the overall sample was evenly distributed over each month (except August), we were able to make a cross-sectional determination of whether the values differed between seasons. The corresponding heart rates were also evaluated. Results As expected, summer was associated with the lowest clinic blood pressure and winter with the highest, and this was the case also for home and 24 h average blood pressure, although seasonal differences in the latter were less pronounced. Seasonal clinic, home and ambulatory blood pressure patterns were similar for normotensive subjects (n = 1152), untreated hypertensives (n = 540) and treated hypertensives (n = 359). Heart rate values did not differ by season. Conclusions Seasonal influences on blood pressure are not limited to conventional measurements but characterize daily values as well. These effects are visible in both normal and elevated blood pressure values, regardless of the effect of antihypertensive drugs. This has implications both for the clinician and for studies aimed at evaluating the effects of antihypertensive treatment.


Predation by clupeoid species (e.g., Atlantic herring, Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1758) on the early life stages of gadoids is hypothesized to be an important source of mortality, especially for Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua Linnaeus, 1758. Adult cod also prey on herring, creating a positive feedback process ("trophic triangle") that may result in alternative dominance patterns of cod or herring depending on the relative levels of mortality. We estimated the effect of herring on cod recruitment with a predator-dependent Ricker stock-recruitment function, fit to time-series data. In this formulation, herring gradually reduce the per capita recruitment rate of cod, but this predation does not result in depensatory dynamics. We incorporated this predator-dependent recruitment function into a multispecies length-based model (LeMans) of Georges Bank, northeast US shelf, to investigate the consequences of predation mortality for the recovery of cod from overfishing. In LeMans, all fished species undergo the same size-dependent fishing mortality, following a logistic selection curve. We investigated two fishing patterns: a selective (L50 = 65 cm) and an unselective fishery (L50 = 15 cm). The effect of predation on prerecruits was more pronounced under selective fishing because herring were spared as a result of their small size. In rebuilding scenarios with selective fishing, cod started at low abundance and herring at high abundance. Without fishing, cod could rebuild in 10 yrs even with predation mortality before recruitment. In contrast, with low levels of fishing mortality, rebuilding took 25 yrs and even longer with such predation. These results suggest that predation on prerecruits and fishing can combine to delay rebuilding of depleted cod stocks.


Introduction: As the media landscape has changed so has fierce competition in the market, giving an effect of stronger commercialization of the media. Societal problems in our society are caused by increased commercialization and market orientation. Media has gone from trusted social institutions to focus on their own economic interests, where owners are expected revenue. The content of the media is characterized more and more by entertainment, because it attracts a larger audience. On one side media is expected to contribute to democracy in society and on the other they are expected to contribute profits to their owners, which creates a conflict in today's media society. Since TV4 is Sweden's largest commercial tv-channel it is interesting for us to study them and understand their view. Purpose: Our purpose of this paper is to create an understanding how the TV4 group's management looks at external influences when it comes to the design of the channel. The aim is also to see how they relate to commercial and democratic interests. Methodology: The study was based from a hermeneutic viewpoint and a deductive research approach. We collected out empirical data through qualitative interviews with people that could contribute with valuable and relevant information for our study. Conclusion: We concluded that there are several external factors that affect the design of the TV4 channel, such as advertisers, owners, audience and competitors. Factors affecting to varying degrees. Today's media companies relate to commercial and democratic interests in different ways depending on different expectations.


Transdisciplinary research offers a promising approach to development cooperation programs by integrating knowledge from academic and non-academic stakeholders, and from natural and social sciences. In the context of development research on water, there is little evidence on how stakeholder involvement takes place in the three stages of transdisciplinary research (problem definition, knowledge production, and knowledge application). This paper aims to create empirical evidence and insights on this question based on the Palestinian-Dutch Academic Cooperation Programme on Water (PADUCO). Six research projects, which have been implemented within the first phase of PADUCO, were examined using the data collected through a survey and document reviews. The results show that research problems were defined according to societal needs and contextual factors. Research teams were multidisciplinary and included non-academic members, whereas the institutional involvement of non-academic stakeholders was limited and unbalanced between the governmental and non-governmental actors. Although the application of the knowledge produced was mainly focused on academia, opportunities for broad dissemination were utilized, albeit to a limited extent. Finally, there was a lack of monitoring and evaluation of impacts, which is explained by the budget and time limitations of such small-scale projects and can be mitigated by programme-level measures.


ABSTRACT Hydrothermal chimneys are a globally dispersed habitat on the seafloor associated with mid-ocean ridge (MOR) spreading centers. Active, hot, venting sulfide structures from MORs have been examined for microbial diversity and ecology since their discovery in the mid-1970s, and recent work has also begun to explore the microbiology of inactive sulfides—structures that persist for decades to millennia and form moderate to massive deposits at and below the seafloor. Here we used tag pyrosequencing of the V6 region of the 16S rRNA and full-length 16S rRNA sequencing on inactive hydrothermal sulfide chimney samples from 9°N on the East Pacific Rise to learn their bacterial composition, metabolic potential, and succession from venting to nonventing (inactive) regimes. Alpha-, beta-, delta-, and gammaproteobacteria and members of the phylum Bacteroidetes dominate all inactive sulfides. Greater than 26% of the V6 tags obtained are closely related to lineages involved in sulfur, nitrogen, iron, and methane cycling. Epsilonproteobacteria represent <4% of the V6 tags recovered from inactive sulfides and 15% of the full-length clones, despite their high abundance in active chimneys. Members of the phylum Aquificae, which are common in active vents, were absent from both the V6 tags and full-length 16S rRNA data sets. In both analyses, the proportions of alphaproteobacteria, betaproteobacteria, and members of the phylum Bacteroidetes were greater than those found on active hydrothermal sulfides. These shifts in bacterial population structure on inactive chimneys reveal ecological succession following cessation of venting and also imply a potential shift in microbial activity and metabolic guilds on hydrothermal sulfides, the dominant biome that results from seafloor venting. IMPORTANCE Hydrothermal chimneys are globally dispersed seafloor habitats associated with mid-ocean ridge spreading centers. Active, hot, venting chimneys have been examined for microbial ecology since their discovery in the late 1970s, but the microbiology of inactive chimneys, which may persist for thousands of years, has only recently been explored. We studied bacterial diversity on inactive hydrothermal sulfide chimney samples from 9°N on the East Pacific Rise to learn their bacterial community composition, potential ecological roles, and succession from active venting to inactive chimneys. Many bacteria on inactive sulfide chimneys are closely related to lineages involved in sulfur, nitrogen, iron, and methane cycling, and two common groups found on active chimneys are nearly absent from inactive vents, where they were replaced by groups likely involved in the elemental cycling mentioned above. Our findings reveal that ecological succession occurs on hydrothermal sulfides after active venting ceases and also imply a potential shift in microbial metabolic guilds. Hydrothermal chimneys are globally dispersed seafloor habitats associated with mid-ocean ridge spreading centers. Active, hot, venting chimneys have been examined for microbial ecology since their discovery in the late 1970s, but the microbiology of inactive chimneys, which may persist for thousands of years, has only recently been explored. We studied bacterial diversity on inactive hydrothermal sulfide chimney samples from 9°N on the East Pacific Rise to learn their bacterial community composition, potential ecological roles, and succession from active venting to inactive chimneys. Many bacteria on inactive sulfide chimneys are closely related to lineages involved in sulfur, nitrogen, iron, and methane cycling, and two common groups found on active chimneys are nearly absent from inactive vents, where they were replaced by groups likely involved in the elemental cycling mentioned above. Our findings reveal that ecological succession occurs on hydrothermal sulfides after active venting ceases and also imply a potential shift in microbial metabolic guilds.


AIMS
Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) are used to treat acute and chronic forms of coronary artery disease. While in chronic forms the main goal of PCI is to improve the quality of life, in acute coronary syndromes (ACS) timely PCI is a life-saving procedure - especially in the setting of ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The aim of this study was to describe the experience of countries with successful nationwide implementation of PCI in STEMI, and to provide general recommendations for other countries.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI) recenty launched the Stent For Life Initiative (SFLI). The initial phase of this pan-European project was focused on the positive experience of five countries to provide the best practice examples. The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark and Austria were visited and the logistics of ACS treatment was studied. Public campaigns improved patient access to acute PCI. Regional networks involving emergency medical services (EMS), non-PCI hospitals and PCI centres are useful in providing access to acute PCI for most patients. Direct transfer from the first medical contact site to the cathlab is essential to minimise the time delays. Cathlab staff work is organised to provide acute PCI services 24 hours a day / seven days a week (24/7). Even in those regions where thrombolysis is still used due to long transfer distances to PCI, patients should still be transferred to a PCI centre (after thrombolysis). The highest risk non-ST elevation acute myocardial infarction patients should undergo emergency coronary angiography within two hours of hospital admission, i.e. similar to STEMI patients.

CONCLUSIONS
Three realistic goals for other countries were defined based on these experiences: 1) primary PCI should be used for >70% of all STEMI patients, 2) primary PCI rates should reach >600 per million inhabitants per year and 3) existing PCI centres should treat all their STEMI patients by primary PCI, i.e. should offer a 24/7 service.


ABSTRACT We propose a theoretical model based on the judge-advisor system (JAS) and empirically examine how algorithmic advice, compared to identical advice from humans, influences human judgment. This effect is contingent on the level of transparency, which varies with whether and how the prediction performance of the advice source is presented. In a series of five controlled behavioral experiments, we show that individuals largely exhibit algorithm appreciation; that is, they follow algorithmic advice to a greater extent than identical human advice due to a higher trust in an algorithmic than human advisor. Interestingly, neither the extent of higher trust in algorithmic advisors nor the level of algorithm appreciation decreases when individuals are informed of the algorithm's prediction errors (i.e., upon presenting prediction performance in an aggregated format). By contrast, algorithm appreciation declines when the transparency of the advice source's prediction performance further increases through an elaborated format. This is plausibly because the greater cognitive load imposed by the elaborated format impedes advice taking. Finally, we identify a boundary condition: algorithm appreciation is reduced for individuals with a lower dispositional need for cognition. Our findings provide key implications for research and managerial practice.


In the years since the question of authorship was satisfactorily resolved, Shamela has received much attention. Few would now deny that Fielding's parody goes beyond its primary target, Pamela, to ridicule three other best sellers of 1740 and 1741- An apology for the life of Mr. Colley Cibber, Comedian, Connyers Middleton's Life of Cicero (especially its dedication to Lord Hervey), and A Short Account of God's Dealings with the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield. The result of this multiple satire is the exposure to artistic, religious, and social fraud in Walpole's England. One theme linking Pamela to the satire of false religion, suggests Eric Rothstein, is Shamela's comic adherence "to the serious belief of Middleton and Whitefield that...the self should be the measure of moral truth."1 Amid this egocentrism there is a more positive motif in several allusions to another book, itself a best seller for many years, The Whole Duty of Man, which had been attacked by Whitefield and recommended by Pamela. Because of its place in his own history Fielding introduced this devotional work in Shamela to defend it from such an enemy and such a friend, as well as to vindicate its morality to a deluded public. In Joseph Andrews he made it one basis of his hero's virtue.


To optimize system performance for a specific target application, embedded system designers may add some new instructions, called application-specific instructions (ASIs), by automatic design flow. In past days, most application-specific instruction-set processor (ASIP) researches focus on reducing instruction latency to improve performance regardless of the impact of memory access. In this paper, a design flow is proposed to automatically generate ASIs and to compare the performance between considering register transferring and regardless of it. The experiment results show the proposed approach can achieve up to 14% performance improvement and 10% memory access reduction comparing to no register transferring consideration.


Nanoparticles (NPs) can interact with naturally occurring inorganic and organic substances in soils, which may change their transport behavior in soil and plants. This study was performed in two steps. In the first step, corn (Zea mays) plants were cultivated for one month in soil amended with 10 nm commercial spheroid ZnO NPs at 0–800 mg kg−1 and sodium alginate at 10 mg kg−1. In the second step, the plants were grown with ZnO NPs at 400 mg kg−1 and alginate at 0, 10, 50, and 100 mg kg−1. The dynamics of Zn concentrations in soil solution and Zn accumulation in plant tissues were determined by ICP-OES. Biomass accumulation, chlorophyll concentration, and the activity of antioxidant enzymes in leaves were also quantified. Results indicate that ZnO NPs coexisting with Zn dissolved species were continuously released to the soil solution to replenish the Zn ions or ZnO NPs scavenged by roots. At 400 and 800 mg kg−1, without alginate, ZnO NPs significantly reduced the root and shoot biomass production; however, plants treated with these NP concentrations, plus alginate, had significantly more Zn in tissues with no reduction in biomass production. Alginate significantly reduced the activity of stress enzymes catalase and peroxidase, which could indicate damage in the defense system. The effects of ZnO NPs in a food crop grown in alginate enriched soil, showing an excess of Zn in the aerial parts, are yet to be reported.


ABSTRACT This paper considers the ANC government's approach to welfare and, in particular, its de facto rejection of a Universal Basic Income Grant. In the first part of this essay we argue that the current welfare model in SA is underpinned by a naive conception of the South African economy as potentially fast-growing and labour absorbing across all skills types. In the second part of this essay, we consider the gendered character of welfare and of unemployment arguing that under current conditions young men are effectively excluded from social protection. We propose that this situation interrupts the transition to male adulthood and fuels violence against women and children. We conclude by proposing that a Universal Basic Income Grant is necessary under conditions of mass, structural unemployment and widespread 'waithood'.


The isolated Mid-Atlantic Ridge islands of Ascension Island (8° S), St Helena (16° S), and Tristan da Cunha (37° S) are 1700 - 2800 km from Africa, the nearest continent. We compiled published, unpublished, and new records of ants from these islands and evaluated the probable origin of each species. We examined specimens representing 20 different ant species: ten from Ascension, 16 from St Helena, and one from Tristan da Cunha. These included three new records from Ascension (Pheidole teneriffana FOREL, 1893, Solenopsis sp. 1, Strumigenys emmae (EMERY, 1890)), five new records from St Helena (Hypoponera sp. 1, Linepithema humile (MAYR, 1868), Monomorium latinode MAYR, 1872, Monomorium cf. sechellense, Pheidole teneriffana), and the first identification of the only ant species known from Tristan da Cunha (Hypoponera eduardi (FOREL, 1894)). All confirmed island records, except Camponotus fabricator (F. SMITH, 1858) and Hypoponera punctatissima (ROGER, 1859) on St Helena, included specimens from 1995 or later. We could not confirm two additional published ant species records from Ascension (Cataglyphis sp., Tapinoma sp.) and one from St Helena (Camponotus castaneus (LATREILLE, 1802)). Most, if not all, of the 20 ant species we documented on South Atlantic islands, including C. fabricator, a putative St Helena endemic, may be exotic species that arrived accompanying humans. However, it is possible that some ants were present before human arrival. One candidate for native status is Cardiocondyla mauritanica FOREL, 1890, a widespread tramp species originally from Africa, found on Ascension in many uninhabited areas.


The terms chronic superficial dermatitis and poikiloderma have in the past both been called parapsoriasis en plaques although they are entirely different disorders. Chronic superficial dermatitis is benign and does not advance to a reticulosis. Poikiloderma of the prereticulate type, on the other hand, may progress and may be the cause of death in some cases. It should no longer be considered a separate entity but should be regarded as part of the spectrum of mycosis fungoides.


Abstract Aims  Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is associated with mutations in many genes encoding sarcomere proteins. Truncating mutations in the titin gene TTN are the most frequent. Proteomic and functional characterizations are required to elucidate the origin of the disease and the pathogenic mechanisms of TTN-truncating variants. Methods and results  We isolated myofibrils from DCM hearts carrying truncating TTN mutations and measured the Ca2+ sensitivity of force and its length dependence. Simultaneous measurement of force and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) consumption in skinned cardiomyocytes was also performed. Phosphorylation levels of troponin I (TnI) and myosin binding protein-C (MyBP-C) were manipulated using protein kinase A and λ phosphatase. mRNA sequencing was employed to overview gene expression profiles. We found that Ca2+ sensitivity of myofibrils carrying TTN mutations was significantly higher than in myofibrils from donor hearts. The length dependence of the Ca2+ sensitivity was absent in DCM myofibrils with TTN-truncating variants. No significant difference was found in the expression level of TTN mRNA between the DCM and donor groups. TTN exon usage and splicing were also similar. However, we identified down-regulation of genes encoding Z-disk proteins, while the atrial-specific regulatory myosin light chain gene, MYL7, was up-regulated in DCM patients with TTN-truncating variants. Conclusion  Titin-truncating mutations lead to decreased length-dependent activation and increased elasticity of myofibrils. Phosphorylation levels of TnI and MyBP-C seen in the left ventricles are essential for the length-dependent changes in Ca2+ sensitivity in healthy donors, but they are reduced in DCM patients with TTN-truncating variants. A decrease in expression of Z-disk proteins may explain the observed decrease in myofibril passive stiffness and length-dependent activation.


In deep neural networks, the spectral norm of the Jacobian of a layer bounds the factor by which the norm of a signal changes during forward/backward propagation. Spectral norm regularizations have been shown to improve generalization, robustness and optimization of deep learning methods. Existing methods to compute the spectral norm of convolution layers either rely on heuristics that are efficient in computation but lack guarantees or are theoretically-sound but computationally expensive. In this work, we obtain the best of both worlds by deriving four provable upper bounds on the spectral norm of a standard 2D multi-channel convolution layer. These bounds are differentiable and can be computed efficiently during training with negligible overhead. One of these bounds is in fact the popular heuristic method of Miyato et al. (2018) (multiplied by a constant factor depending on filter sizes). Each of these four bounds can achieve the tightest gap depending on convolution filters. Thus, we propose to use the minimum of these four bounds as a tight, differentiable and efficient upper bound on the spectral norm of convolution layers. We show that our spectral bound is an effective regularizer and can be used to bound either the lipschitz constant or curvature values (eigenvalues of the Hessian) of neural networks. Through experiments on MNIST and CIFAR-10, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our spectral bound in improving generalization and provable robustness of deep networks.


© 2015, Pakistan Agricultural Scientists Forum. All rights reserved. Pakistan, the sixth most populous country (91.71 million)in the world, is battling to keep the balance between economic growth and environmental protection. At present the government is mainly focusing on meeting the energy and food needs of the country and environmental protection is lacking serious attention. Pollution (air, water, and soil), sanitation and loss of wildlife and biodiversity are growing environmental health issues in Pakistan. In order to deliver demand led solutions to these multifaceted challenges development of institutional and technical capacities in the countryis prerequisite. Transnational Education (TNE) provides institutional mobility in tertiary education and through British Council facilitated links we were successful in developing a much needed baseline courses work and underway the research for environmental health related issues. The Government of Pakistan will certainly use the data from the research and experts will also be available to concerned departments to tackle emerging environmental problems. Additionally the understanding and concerns of TNE in academic, economic, career and socio-cultural contexts could be imperative challenges. Through TNE it was learned that other nations / regions can be benefitted from such institutes and concerned people for a true flow of knowledge for reciprocated problems. The recommendations include general considerations for policy makers which are linked with environmental health and wildlife. Among the general considerations, or overarching advice, is that policies should promote community-wide action to manage wildlife, biodiversity, environmental health and that the safety of new emissions and exposure with technologies must be assessed rather than estimated.


Abstract: Calcium is an important nutrient for birds, especially for eggshell production and the mineralization of the skeleton of developing young. In temperate regions insects and seeds that form the bulk of the diet of breeding passerines do not contain sufficient calcium to meet the needs of breeding females and young; these birds obtain their calcium by eating snails, woodlice and millipedes. Little is known about the way tropical frugivorous passerines meet their calcium needs. The calcium contents of fruits of 34 species eaten by birds during the breeding season in mature floodplain forest in south-eastern Peru were determined. The suitability of these fruits as calcium sources for hypothetical 10-g and 25-g birds and for 26 species of frugivore that breed at the study site was evaluated based on bird body weight and on the rictal width of the bill, which influences feeding. Fruits of five species in the study area appear to be suitable sources of calcium for birds ≤25 g, although those of Ficus killipii (Moraceae) are likely optimal. The latter contain a lot of calcium (2.48% dry weight of pulp or c. 4.15 mg per pulp per fruit) and are small enough (mean diam. = 9 mm) for most birds to swallow whole, and trees produce large crops. Snails, woodlice and millipedes are common in the area and also contain sufficient calcium to meet birds' needs. In addition, birds could likely meet their calcium needs through geophagy at natural mineral licks.


This article presents and discusses analytical data on the scientific publication record from 1910 to 2020 on two topics: "climate" and "climate change/global warming/climate emergency". The goal is to visualize how the publication record on these two topics has evolved over time, from different classification perspectives (year, country, source and organization). Three hypotheses are tested using data collected from Web of Science and various graphical representations of the data. It is found that research output related to the Earth's contemporary changing climate overtook that of general climate research in 2011, and the publication ratio has been expanding in the last decade. There are significant differences in the publication countries and sources between the two topics, and conversely less significant differences in terms of organizations publishing these works. Differentiation factors that affect the level of research output and engagement on the climate challenge include: island versus landlocked nations, specialized versus general scientific journals, academic versus institutional organizations. The future of the publication records is discussed, such as the emergence of new terms to refer to the climate challenge, such as "climate emergency".


We analyzed 865 diarrheal outbreaks with an identified bacterial pathogen or unknown cause that occurred in the Israeli military between 1988 and 2002. The number of outbreaks per year declined over the study period, as did the proportion of outbreaks with an identified pathogen. Shigella, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus species were the bacteria most commonly isolated. Seventy percent of the outbreaks involved < 35 cases and only 5% involved > 100 cases. More than one-half of the outbreaks occurred in field units, but these outbreaks were smaller than those in other units. The most commonly identified cause of the outbreaks was a lapse in maintaining standards of food preparation. Improvements in infrastructure and enhanced attention to surveillance, education, and infection control have resulted in a marked decline in the number of outbreaks in recent years.


[Introductory paragraph] :

"Remembering is Our Munity": An Examination of Exile, Memory, and Palestinian Identity in Salt Houses "[W]hat is true of all exiles is not that home and love of home are lost, but that loss is inherent in the very existence of both."- Edward Said, "Reflection on Exile" (1984)

Watan means homeland in Arabic. For exiled Palestinians, the politically charged term evokes a painful memory of home, loss, and expulsion from a land they were forced to flee in 1948. The 1948 Israeli-Arab War which led to the creation of the State of Israel, also resulted in the devastation of Palestinian society. This period is regarded by Palestinians as the nakba, or the catastrophe, which saw the displacement and expulsion of over 800,000 Palestinians from their communities (Gelvin 236). Approximately 80 percent of the Palestinians who lived in the major part of Palestine, upon which Israel was established, became refugees (Abu-Lughod and Sa'di 3). The minority of Palestinians who remained in the newly-minted state became "nominal citizens" and were subject to a separate system of "military administration" (3). In the same year, those who had stayed witnessed the systematic annexation of their lands (Abu-Lughod 3). Others became internally-displaced refugees and sought refuge in places like the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which were under the control of Jordan and Egypt respectively (Gelvin 240). Thus, historic Palestine became "a society disintegrated, a people dispersed, and a complex and historically changing but taken for granted communal life was violently ended" (Abu-Lughod and Sa'di 3).


The exploration of linguistic profiles of research articles (rAs) has been underrepresented in the existing literature. This study utilizes two automated language processing tools and a cluster analysis approach to explore linguistic features and variation of published research articles (N=360) in two hard science disciplines (i.e., Biology and Medicine). Findings show five different profiles characterized by their use of distinct combinations of linguistic features. The identified profiles not only vary between the two disciplines, but also within each discipline. The distinct profiles within each discipline represent the potentially different ways for researchers to write publishable research articles. The study fills the research gap and contributes to a new understanding of linguistic features and variation of rAs.


The dissemination of the practice of collaborative authorship (coauthorship) in Brazil and in the international scientific community has been accompanied by an increasing occurrence of frauds, manipulations and other deviations in the assignment of responsibility for a scientific paper. This article discusses the criteria for authorship attribution, the reasons for the growing indices of coauthorship and the challenges to determine authorship in electronic journals. Through literature review and case study (bibliographic search in scientific database), it shows ways to avoid that "misbehaviors" related to the authorship attribution affect the credibility of science.


We have introduced a facile synthetic route for well-defined A2B miktoarm star copolymer composed of regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) and poly(methyl methacrylate) ((P3HT)2PMMA) by the combination of anionic polymerization and click reaction. First, we synthesized PMMA terminated with 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)benzene (PMMA-(Br)2) by anionic polymerization, and two bromines attached to the end of the PMMA chains were replaced by azides (PMMA-(N3)2). Also, monoethynyl-capped P3HT was synthesized by Grignard metathesis polymerization and post-end functionalization. Then, copper(I)-catalyzed Huisgen 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition click reaction between monoethynyl-capped P3HT and PMMA-(N3)2 was performed to synthesize (P3HT)2PMMA. We used a slightly excess amount of monoethynyl-capped P3HT so that all of the azide groups at the end of the PMMA chains completely reacted with monoethynyl-capped P3HT. After complete removal of unreacted monoethynyl-capped P3HT by column chromatography, pure (P3HT)2PMMA with narrow molecular weight distribution (the polydispersity of 1.18) was obtained. The weight fraction of P3HT and the total molecular weight of (P3HT)2PMMA are 0.48 and 16,000, respectively. To investigate the effect of the chain architecture on optical property and thin-film morphology, we synthesized two linear P3HT-b-PMMAs (P3HT-b-PMMA-L and P3HT-b-PMMA-H) with similar weight fraction of P3HT block (0.48 for P3HT-b-PMMA-L and 0.45 for P3HT-b-PMMA-H) but two different total molecular weights (7900 for P3HT-b-PMMA-L and 15,300 for P3HT-b-PMMA-H). UV–visible (UV–vis) absorption spectrum and the fibril width of (P3HT)2PMMA thin film were similar to those of P3HT-b-PMMA-L thin film. However, UV–vis spectrum for P3HT-b-PMMA-H thin film was red-shifted and the fibril width of P3HT-b-PMMA-H was much larger than that of (P3HT)2PMMA. This indicates that the π–π interaction between P3HT arms in (P3HT)2PMMA is strong enough to arrange two P3HT backbone chains in (P3HT)2PMMA to stack one by one along the nanofibril axis. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013


Using data from the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances and the U.S. Census Bureau, along with data and research from other sources, this paper presents seven economic facts about the racial wealth gap in the U.S. We present data on racial disparities in income, employment, homeownership, education, access to credit, and retirement savings – all factors that contribute to a significant and persistent gap in net worth between households of different races and ethnicities, particularly between Black households and White households. While none of the economic factors listed fully explains the racial wealth gap, each factor, along with a history of racism and discrimination has contributed to the extreme wealth inequality in America today.


The unexplored South Purulia Shear Zone (SPSZ) at the north of Singhbhum Shear Zone (SSZ) in Eastern India is a prospective zone for structural-guided hydrothermal mineralization. We carried out an integrated geophysical study using self-potential (SP), gradient-resistivity profiling (GRP), and gravity study across the SPSZ to identify the near-surface structural features and probable correlation with the uranium mineralization of the region. We studied a broad low SP, anomaly zone correlated with corresponding low-gravity and lowresistive zone across the same part of the study area. This conductive and low-density zone was identified as the width of the brittle-to-ductile and highly altered SPSZ. The 2D modeling of SP and residual gravity data along a northeast–southwest profile across the shear zone between Raghunathpur and Barabazar localities revealed the northerly dipping shear zone with an average width of ∼4.5 km. However, the 2D modeling of the SP data suggested numerous thick, sheet-type vertical and/or inclined structures intervening the shear zone, which were well correlated with the vertical structures delineated by the 2D gravity inverse model. The vertical alteration zones (density and conductivity) at ∼40-, 200-, and 400-m depths have been identified over this region. These alteration zones are likely to be mineralized zone because a hydrouranium anomaly has also been reported from those locations earlier. We studied the efficacy of an integrated approach using GRP, SP, and gravity surveys for the investigation of near-surface vertical to dipping conducting structures associated with uranium mineralization in such shear zone regions.


Roentgenology has won a place for itself in the diagnosis and treatment of disease until it has now come to be recognized as an important specialty. It is therefore appropriate that the Section on Radiology consider what is to be expected of the members of this new branch of medicine. As the students of today are the physicians of tomorrow it is fitting that this section discuss the problem of standards of teaching roentgenology to medical students. Since the various bodies governing medical education have definitely assigned in the curriculum the number of hours proportionate to the importance of roentgenology, it is proper that there should be presented to the various teachers a comprehensive plan for the employment of these hours. Their task is to make the medical student of today acquainted with the established facts in roentgen-ray diagnosis and in roentgen-ray therapy, so that his future patients may derive


In most of the research articles, demand is considered either constant or a function of single variable which is not practical; customers' purchasing deeds may be affected by factors such as selling price and inventory level consequently in the present study we have considered demand rate as a function of stock-level and selling price both. Various researchers considered the situation in which shortages are either completely backlogged or completely lost which is not realistic therefore in development of this model it is assumed that shortages are partially backlogged and the most realistic backlogging rate is considered. In this research, we proposed a partial backlogging inventory model for decaying items considering stock and selling price dependent demand rate in fuzzy environment. In developing the model demand rate, ordering cost, purchasing cost, holding cost, backordering cost and opportunity cost are considered as triangular fuzzy numbers. Graded mean integration representation method is used for defuzzification. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the problem. Sensitivity analysis of the optimal solution with respect to the changes in the value of system parameters is also discussed.


It is widely accepted that tobacco is a threat to public health security. Anti-tobacco norms are intensively campaigned by international agencies, such as World Health Organisation (WHO) and nongovernment organisations (NGOs). Indonesia has not signed and ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC); however, Indonesian legislation obligates government agencies such as ministries, universities, and the local government to control tobacco use. Meanwhile, tobacco remains one of the central sources of income for Indonesia's state and local economies, a reality that is especially salient for tobacco farmers and labourers. This study aims to examine the extent to which Indonesia internalises the anti-tobacco norm. We focused our investigation on features including norm internalisation and human security, with specific attention to economic and health security. Our study revealed notable ambivalence in the internalisation of tobacco norms in Indonesia. This ambivalence reflects conflictual interests over economic and health security and ambiguity in policymaking concerning tobacco control. Using a qualitative approach, the authors of this study gathered primary data via in-depth interviews and FGD with knowledgeable stakeholders, such as government officials, NGO representatives, health agency workers, farmers, smokers, and academics, and integrated this data with support from the relevant literature. The findings of the present study enrich the existing discussion on norm internalisation, particularly as it relates to tobacco control and other controversial norms.


(Gradient) Expectation Maximization (EM) is a widely used algorithm for estimating the maximum likelihood of mixture models or incomplete data problems. A major challenge facing this popular technique is how to effectively preserve the privacy of sensitive data. Previous research on this problem has already lead to the discovery of some Differentially Private (DP) algorithms for (Gradient) EM. However, unlike in the non-private case, existing techniques are not yet able to provide finite sample statistical guarantees. To address this issue, we propose in this paper the first DP version of (Gradient) EM algorithm with statistical guarantees. Moreover, we apply our general framework to three canonical models: Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), Mixture of Regressions Model (MRM) and Linear Regression with Missing Covariates (RMC). Specifically, for GMM in the DP model, our estimation error is near optimal in some cases. For the other two models, we provide the first finite sample statistical guarantees. Our theory is supported by thorough numerical experiments.


Social movements and political parties are perceived as more and more distant from each other. While in the past the emerging social movements tended to ally with existing parties (especially the «Old Left») and/or to create new ones (see the Green parties), the cycle of protest that became visibile at the turn of the millennium around issues of global justice testifies for an increasing mistrust between those two actors. This article documents - on the basis of survey data and focus groups - the attitudes and behaviors of European activists of the global justice movement towards political parties, explaining the growing criticism as motivated by a perceived organizational detachment of the (left-wing) parties from the society as well as their move towards the center. At the same time, there are however also evidences of overlapping memberships in social movements and political parties, as well as an interest by movement activists in addressing party politics. These evidences are explained on the basis of a comparative analysis of political and discoursive opportunities in six European countries.


As the complexity of multidisciplinary system design has substantially increased, so too has the need for incorporating tradeoffs into the design process. By incorporating such tradeoffs, the optimal system performance of each objective is sacrificed to increase the overall range of the system's functionality. Flexible systems have been defined as systems designed to maintain a high level of performance through real time change in their configuration when operating conditions or requirements change in a predictable or unpredictable way. When effectively applied, flexible systems have the ability to achieve the optimal performance for all system objectives, while also meeting the different constraints faced by each discipline. This method of designing effective flexible systems focuses on determining the manner in which the design variables of a system change, as well as investigating the stability of a flexible system through the application of a state-feedback controller. This method is then applied to a three discipline – structural, aerodynamics, and handling study involving the design of a Formula One racecar traversing a pre-defined racetrack.


Education Policies and Practices: What Have We Learnt and the Road Ahead for Bihar This paper assesses the status of education, both quantity and quality, in Bihar in both absolute terms and relative to other states in India. It then performs a regression exercise using a panel data of Indian states to identify the correlates of educational outcomes. It also surveys the broader literature on education policies which provides a perspective on the current policies in the field of education in Bihar. Finally, it makes a case for several policy initiatives that should be accorded priority by the policymakers in Bihar. JEL Classification: I2, J31, O15, O22


We study the problem of determining the capacity of the binary perceptron for two variants of the problem where the corresponding constraint is symmetric. We call these variants the rectangle-binary-perceptron (RPB) and the u−functionbinary-perceptron (UBP). We show that, unlike for the usual step-function-binaryperceptron, the critical capacity in these symmetric cases is given by the annealed computation in a large region of parameter space (for all rectangular constraints and for narrow enough u−function constraints, K < K∗). We prove this fact (under two natural assumptions) using the first and second moment methods. We further use the second moment method to conjecture that solutions of the symmetric binary perceptrons are organized in a so-called frozen-1RSB structure, without using the replica method. We then use the replica method to estimate the capacity threshold for the UBP case when the u−function is wide K > K∗. We conclude that full-step-replica-symmetry breaking would have to be evaluated in order to obtain the exact capacity in this case.


Abstract We have employed as 'gold standards' two in-house, well-characterised and validated polyclonal antibodies, C9-L and C9-S, which detect the longer and shorter forms of C9orf72, and have compared seven other commercially available antibodies with these in order to evaluate the utility of the latter as credible tools for the demonstration of C9orf72. C9-L and C9-S antibodies immunostained cytoplasmic 'speckles', and the nuclear membrane, respectively, in cerebellar Purkinje cells of the cerebellum in patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and in patients with ALS alone. Similar staining was seen in Purkinje cells in healthy control tissues and in other neurodegenerative disorders, and in pyramidal cells of CA4 and dentate gyrus of hippocampus. However, in the spinal cord there was little cytoplasmic staining with C9-L antibody. C9-S antibody immunostained the nuclear membrane of anterior horn cells in healthy neurons. In patients with bvFTD + ALS, or ALS alone, this C9-S nuclear staining was redistributed to the plasma membrane. In those patients with bvFTD + ALS or ALS bearing an expansion in C9orf72, none of the commercially available antibodies detected TDP-43 inclusions in anterior horn cells, nor were dipeptide repeat proteins demonstrated. Five of the commercial antibodies provided immunohistochemical staining patterns similar in morphological appearance to the in-house C9-L antibody, but distinct from C9-S antibody. However, only three showed sufficient specificity and intensity of staining for C9orf72 at acceptably low concentrations, to make them of practical value and sufficiently reliable for the detection of at least the longer form of C9orf72 protein.


Recent research on ferroelectrics based on two‐dimensional (2D) materials may lead to a technological revolution, offering much higher density for integration as well as a better combination of semiconductor properties and non‐volatile memories at the nanoscale compared with traditional ferroelectrics. In addition, ferroelectricity can be much more robust than ferromagnetism in 2D. In this study, we review the studies on 2D ferroelectricity starting from 2013, which are mainly first‐principles predictions, including functionalization‐induced 2D ferroelectricity in prevalent non‐polar 2D materials as well as 2D intrinsic ferroelectricity, which are either in‐plane or vertical. Although the number of reports on 2D ferroelectricity is still small compared to the large amount of research on 2D ferromagnetism, the potential of these materials to unravel new science and technology has stimulated considerable interest in 2D ferroelectricity, making it a fast developing field. It is interesting to note that 2D ferroelectricity was experimentally realized a year before 2D ferromagnetism, and the large difference in the Curie temperatures of these materials has further demonstrated that 2D ferroelectricity could be much more robust than 2D ferromagnetism.


Learners specially acquire knowledge by means of reading. The importance of this
skill is emphasised with reference to reading strategies and the teaching thereof,
as well as the development of critical and analytical thinking. Although it is not
implicated that such teaching does not exist at all, the lack of a procedural and
systematic approach in this regard is mentioned. The different underlying processes
which take place during the transaction between reader and text need to be taken
into account. One of the main functions of text processing is to make the reader
understand the text as a coherent whole, and therefore the teaching of reading
should acknowledge the interaction between cohesion and coherence. Learners
must become aware of the different devices by means of which an author
communicates specific intentions and should be taught how to utilize these markers
of cohesiveness. Prediction and inferencing are two of the most important thinking skills used
during reading and effective readers are able to identify text features and
contextualisation cues as part of these cognitive processes. They know, in fact, the
meaning and grammatical functions of words, can identify the logical relationships
between ideas in a text and recognise the rhetorical conventions that govern
academic texts. These readers possess the necessary strategies for the construction
of meaning and use it in a flexible and active way. Successful readers monitor the
reading process and adapt their reading strategies to the type of text and reading
purposes. It is this ability that needs to be taught by means of a procedural approach
to reading.


The epileptic hippocampus has an enhanced propensity for seizure generation, but how spontaneous seizures start is poorly understood. Using whole cell and field-potential recordings, this study explored whether repetitive perforant-path stimulation at physiological frequencies could induce epileptiform bursts in dentate gyrus minislices from rats with kainate-induced epilepsy. Control slices from saline-treated rats responded to single perforant-path stimulation with an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) and a single population spike in normal medium, and repetitive stimulation at different frequencies (0.1, 1, 2, 5, 10 Hz) did not cause significant increases in the responses. Most minislices (82%) from rats with kainate-induced epilepsy also responded to single perforant-path stimulation with an EPSP and a single population spike/action potential, but some slices (18%) had a more robust response with a prolonged duration and negative DC shift or responses with two to three population spikes. Repetitive perforant-path stimulation at 5-10 Hz, however, transformed the single-spike responses into epileptiform bursts with multiple spikes in half (52%) of the slices, while lower frequency (e.g., ≤ 1 Hz) stimulation failed to produce these changes. The emergence of epileptiform bursts was consistently associated with a negative field-potential DC shift and membrane depolarization. The results suggest that compared with the controls, the "gate" function of the dentate gyrus is compromised in rats with kainate-induced epilepsy, and epileptiform bursts (but not full-length seizure events) can be induced in minislices by repetitive synaptic stimulation at physiological frequencies in the range of hippocampal theta rhythm (i.e., 5-10 Hz).


In the 1930s, the United States was a global leader in public education by having the largest student populations in the world attend high schools. In the 1980s, mass school shootings started escalating in the United States, as did profitable investing in the privatization of American prisons, which currently contain half of the world?s total prison population. In the 2000s, adversarial laws related constitutionality and impartiality but not resolve for why the United States is where the majority of the world?s prison population resides and massive school shootings. There has been debate of whether a correlation authentically or unexpectedly exists. There has been debate of why random mass school shootings cannot be predetermined by traditional means of profiling or quasi-experimental research, which ironically are two predispositions debated as contributing to high imprisonment in America. There has been debate that penal populations and school massacres may decrease if judicial practices are less politicized, popularized, and localized. While well intended, the decades of debates distract from definite resolve. The American dream of equal access to education in the pursuit of liberty and happiness is a civil right in a nation of exceptionally high imprisonment and indiscriminate school massacres. Resident and nonresident aliens in the United States are not the primary populations of prisoners because native-born citizens conduct the majority of crimes and school massacres in America. Disadvantaged individuals who are young, poor, minorities, and uneducated immensely compile prison populations in the United States. However, in American school massacres, disadvantaged or advantaged individuals who are young, poor, wealthy, or minorities can equally and effortlessly become defenseless instructors, deceased principals, injured professors, or dead students. The contrast is alarming. A proposed solution to help foster safeness and preparation for mass school shootings is that the United States Department of Education forms a sector enacting and regulating federal laws of defensive mandatory practices, which expands federal authority in state jurisdictions. The United States Department of Education administrates legal policies for schools through federal delegation. State governments chiefly regulate schools? safety. The proposal merits substantial review, as federal administrative laws are a necessity in the governance of education. If opposition exists to the proposal, consider the fact that from the time the proposal was written to the time the proposal is published and read, another mass school shooting likely occurred in the United States.


Purpose Advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (aNSCLC; stage IIIB/IV) presents a substantial clinical burden to society; reliable estimates of its economic burden are lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to quantify real-world health care resource utilization (HCRU) and costs of patients with squamous (SQ) and non-SQ (NSQ) aNSCLC who received two or more lines of treatment (2L+) in Europe, and to describe cost-predictors. Methods The LENS (Leading the Evaluation of Non-squamous and Squamous NSCLC) retrospective chart review study collected data from 2L+ patients with aNSCLC diagnosed between 07/2009 and 08/2011 (wave 1) or 07/2010 and 09/2012 (wave 2) in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Patients were followed from diagnosis through most recent visit/death. A weighted average of country-specific unit costs (2018 Euro) was applied to systemic anti-cancer therapy usage and HCRU (hospital/emergency department visit, surgery, radiotherapy, ancillary care, biomarker testing) to determine the total cost from aNSCLC diagnosis to death. Generalized linear models (gamma distribution, log link) were used to assess clinical and demographic predictors. Results Of 973 2L+ aNSCLC patients, median overall survival (OS) was 1.5 years from advanced diagnosis (range: 0.2–5.3; median OS: 1.4 [SQ], 1.6 [NSQ]), 79.0% died during follow-up. Weighted mean total per-patient costs were €21,273, ranging from €17,761 (England) to €30,854 (Sweden), and €15,446 (SQ) to €26,477 (NSQ). Systemic drug costs comprised 77.4% of total costs. Insurance status, presence of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, SQ histology, age, alcohol abuse, and year of diagnosis were significant predictors for lower total costs per patient-month, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) ≥1 and country for higher costs. Conclusion In the era pre-immunotherapy, HCRU and costs were substantial in aNSCLC 2L+ patients, with most of the costs accrued prior to start of 2L. NSQ patients incurred significantly higher total costs than SQ patients in all participating countries.


We used the agar dilution method to evaluate the antibacterial effect of Terminalia macroptera leaf (Tml) extract against nine reference and clinical Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains, including penicillin- and tetracycline-resistant and -susceptible strains. Tml possesses anti-N. gonorrhoeae activity against all of the strains and the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were between 100 and 200 microg ml(-1). We then used a liquid-liquid partition method to divide the Tml extract into five fractions and determined the anti-N. gonorrhoeae activity of each of the fractions. All of the fractions showed antibacterial activity. The most active one was identified as the diethyl ether fraction and had MIC values of between 25 and 50 microg ml(-1) against all of the strains.


Abstract Background Vascular access may increase the risk of bloodstream infections, especially in newborn infants with weak immune systems and requiring invasive supportive care. Skin disinfection prior to peripheral venous catheter insertion lowers the risk of infection. However, antiseptics chosen for this task should be effective and safe for newborn infants. Objective To compare the effectiveness of 70% alcohol (BD alcohol swabs ®), 10% povidone-iodine (Pharma-RSUPNCM), and octenidine (Octenisept ®) as antiseptics for reducing skin bacteria for pre-invasive procedures in neonates. Methods Infants aged less than 28 days, regardless of gestational age, at the Neonatal Unit of Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSUPNCM) were included in our study. Infants were divided into three groups, each tested with different skin antiseptics (alcohol, povidone-iodine or octenidine). Skin swabs were performed before and after application of skin antiseptic, followed by inoculation onto blood agar plates. Colony-forming units were counted after 18 hours of incubation at 37oC. Results Ninety subjects were divided into 3 groups of 30, each group using either 70% alcohol swabs, 10% povidone-iodine, or octenidine as skin antiseptic. Skin swabs were taken before and after antiseptic application and drying, as well as 5 minutes after application. The mean reductions in CFU/cm2 (%) after antiseptic application (and fully dried) were 97.54% for povidone-iodine, 97.52% for octenidine, and 89.07% for alcohol. There were no significant differences in mean CFU reductions among the three antiseptics groups (P=0.299). Furthermore, 5 minutes after application, there were still no significant differences in the three antiseptic groups (P=0.289). Conclusions Although octenidine showed a significant bacterial count reduction after application, it was not significantly different from those of alcohol or povidone-iodine. [Paediatr Indones. 2011;51:277-81].


Context. The formation of massive (O-type) stars through the same accretion processes as low-mass stars is problematic, mainly because of the feedback massive stars provide to the environment, which halts the accretion. In order to constrain theoretical models of high-mass star formation, observational signatures of mass accretion in O-type forming stars are desirable. The high-mass star forming region NGC 7538 IRS1 (distance = 2.7 kpc) is an ideal target, because VLBI measurements of CH3OHmasers recently identified a triple system of high-mass young stellar object (YSOs) in the region: IRS1a, IRS1b, and IRS1c. The first two YSOs seem to be surrounded by rotating disks. Aims. We want to characterize physical conditions and kinematics of circumstellar molecular gas around O-type young stars. Subarcsecond resolution observations of highly-excited lines from high-density tracers are useful, since these probe the hottest and densest gas, which presumably is close to O-type forming stars, i.e., in disks and the innermost portions of envelopes. Methods. Using theKarl Jansky VeryLarge Array (JVLA), we have mapped the hot and dense molecular gas in the hot core associated with NGC 7538 IRS1, with ∼0. �� 2 angular resolution, in seven metastable (J = K) inversion transitions of ammonia (NH3): (J,K) = (6, 6), (7, 7), (9, 9), (10, 10), (12, 12), (13, 13), and (14, 14). These lines arise from energy levels between ∼400 K and ∼1950 K above the ground state, and are observed in absorption against the HC-HII region associated with NGC 7538 IRS1. The CH3OH JK = 132−131 and CH3CN (2−1) lines were also included in our spectral setup, but only the former was detected. We also obtained sensitive continuum maps at frequencies between 25 and 35 GHz. Results. For each transition, we produced resolved images of total intensity and velocity field, as well as position-velocity diagrams. The intensity maps show that the NH3 absorption follows the continuum emission closely. With a 500 AU linear resolution, we resolve the elongated north-south NH3 structure into two compact components: the main core and a southernmost component. Previous observations of the radio continuum with a 0. �� 08 (or 200 AU) resolution, resolved in turn the compact core in two (northern and southern) components. The velocity maps of the compact core show aclear velocity gradient in all lines, which is indicative of rotation. It is possible that the rotation is not in an accretion disk but in a (circumbinary) envelope, containing ∼40 M� (dynamical mass). The core hosts a binary system of massive YSOs, associated with the two (northern and southern) components of the radio continuum, which have a separation of about 500 AU and velocities around −59 km s −1 and −56.4 km s −1 , respectively. The southernmost component, separated by 1000 AU and resolved in our NH3 maps (0. �� 2 beamsize) from the core, is associated with a third massive YSO, with a velocity around −60 km s −1 . These features correspond to the triple system of high-mass YSOs IRS1a, IRS1b, and IRS1c. In addition, we derive rotational temperatures, NH3 column densities, H2 gas densities, and gas masses from the NH3 data. Surprisingly, measurements of the hyperfine structure show total optical depths of 10−26 even for these highly-excited lines, among the largest found so far in hot NH3 in high-mass star forming regions. From ratios of optical depths as well as rotational temperature diagrams of the observed ortho and para transitions, we derive a rotational temperature ∼280 K, NH3 column densities ∼1.4−2.5 × 10 19 cm −2 ,t otal H2 volume densities ∼3.5−6.2 × 10 10 cm −3 , and a total gas mass in the range of 19−34 M� (the latter two assume [NH3]/[H2] = 10 −7 ), for the main core. For the southern component, we derive a temperature of 110 K, a molecular density of ∼ 0.7−2 × 10 10 cm −3 and a gas mass in the range of 4−12 M� . Conclusions. We conclude that NGC 7538 IRS1 is the densest hot molecular core known to date, containing a rotating envelope which hosts a multiple system of high-mass YSOs, possibly surrounded by accretion disks. Future JVLA observations in the A-configuration are needed to resolve the binary system in the core and may allow the study of the gas kinematics in the accretion disks associated with individual binary members.


The federated learning (FL) framework trains a machine learning model using decentralized data stored at edge client devices by periodically aggregating locally trained models. Popular optimization algorithms of FL use vanilla (stochastic) gradient descent for both local updates at clients and global updates at the aggregating server. Recently, adaptive optimization methods such as AdaGrad have been studied for server updates. However, the effect of using adaptive optimization methods for local updates at clients is not yet understood. We show in both theory and practice that while local adaptive methods can accelerate convergence, they can cause a non-vanishing solution bias, where the final converged solution may be different from the stationary point of the global objective function. We propose correction techniques to overcome this inconsistency and complement the local adaptive methods for FL. Extensive experiments on realistic federated training tasks show that the proposed algorithms can achieve faster convergence and higher test accuracy than the baselines without local adaptivity.


We give a deterministic algorithm for triangulating a simple polygon in linear time. The basic strategy is to build a coarse approximation of a triangulation in a bottom-up phase and then use the information computed along the way to refine the triangulation in a top-down phase. The main tools used are the polygon-cutting theorem, which provides us with a balancing scheme, and the planar separator theorem, whose role is essential in the discovery of new diagonals. Only elementary data structures are required by the algorithm. In particular, no dynamic search trees, of our algorithm.


BJBRKE, H. 1978. Food and feeding of young herring larvae of Norwegian spring spawners. Fisk.Dir. Skr. Ser. HavUnders., 16: 405-42 1. The gut contents of young herring larvae sampled each hour from 3 to 9 April 1967 at three depth intervals around a floating drogue were examined to study their feeding. Copepod eggs constituted more than 90% of the food items. Feeding started shortly after sunrise within the same hour in the depth intervals 25-5 m, 30-50 m and 75-55 m. Meanlength increased with diminishing yolk sac until absorption when mean length decreased. The latter could indicate lack of suitable food. The mean gut content of feeding larvae did not increase until after absorption of the yolk sac. Larvae from the deepest strata had less gut contents than the others, probably because a lower percentage of them had absorbed yolk sacs. A high percentage of larvae feeding during day-time contradicted total defecation due to capture. No correlation was found between numbers of Calanus eggs in the guts and in plankton. Larvae containing Cdanus nauplii had more assorted gut contents than larvae containing Calanus eggs. The critical period concept is discussed.


Storey et al. (1998) implicated the proline/argine polymorphism of the codon 72 of the tumor-suppressor gene p53 in the development of cervical cancer (CC) with the observation that the p53 protein is more efficiently inactivated by the E6 oncoprotein of human papillomavirus in p53 arginine as compared with its proline isoform. These authors further noted that in the United Kingdom, individuals homozygous for the arginine allele were several times more susceptible to HPV-associated tumorigenesis that proline/arginine heterozygotes. Subsequent studies in different countries failed to unanimously confirm this association. Motivated by the high incidence of CC in Chile, we undertook a case control study obtaining the following frequencies for genotypes PP, AP and AA in 60 ICC cases and 53 carefully selected controls: 0.067, 0.250, 0.683 and 0.075, 0.453, 0.472 respectively. A significant difference (X2 = 3.19 p < 0.02) and an odds ratio of 2.62 supported Storey et al (1998)'s results. In addition, rejecting previous hypotheses about the world distribution of the p53 codon 72 polymorphism, we conclude that this distribution most likely represents ancient human dispersal routes. Several methodological and biological explanations for the results obtained in previous negative association studies are briefly discussed.


Monte Carlo calculations have been used to study the mechanical relaxation of a monolayer of CH 3 (CH 2 ) 15 SH admolecules on a gold substrate when subjected to indentation caused by a nanometer-scale force-microscope tip. An almost elastic response is observed to forces that compress the monolayer by about 25% of its original thickness. Jump to contact on approach of the tip is signaled by an abrupt change in the mean molecular tilt, and the subsequent compression leads to very substantial but reversible changes in the conformations of the molecules. Comparison is made with results obtained by interfacial-force microscopy


Comics as "cultural artefacts" say a lot about the time and the society in which they were created; they can broaden our horizons on the most recent past. During World War II they became part of the psychological warfare - even in Sweden. The publishing house "Bonniers" published comics after Swedish national epics, such as "Faltskarns berattelser", "Karolinerna" and "Rode Orm". But in 1943 all nationalistic propaganda was discarded and comic strips from the USA were most welcome. Since 1942, these comics have been part of the psychological warfare, with precise instructions issued by the Office of War Information (OWI) and the Writers' War Board (WWB). Successfully, they spread American values throughout Sweden. They encouraged hate towards fascism and Nazism, promoted the achievements of the allies and influenced numerous readers in Sweden towards democracy.


We update our annual analysis of expected returns for 38 equity markets around the world. For the first time since we started our series in 2012, we find most emerging markets now exhibit higher expected returns than developed markets. In particular the expected returns for the core European stock markets of Germany, the UK and Switzerland have declined after strong performances of 2014 and early 2015. For many of these markets, expected returns are now at or below historical averages, but still significantly above the mediocre returns expected for the US stock market.In this study we examine the significant differences between expected returns in different countries. We demonstrate that exchange rate movements exert a considerable influence on stock market returns. Contrary to common belief, exchange rate movements also matter for longer investment horizons of, say, five to ten years. We show how stock market valuation differences correlate with exchange rate movements, and perhaps surprisingly we show that CAPE differences between two countries offer some insight into their long-term exchange rate trends. One likely outcome of our analysis is that over the next five years European stock markets will likely show higher returns in euros than do US markets in dollars. We would quickly add that exchange rate movements may reduce the effective return difference when calculated in a common currency such as the euro or the dollar. Thus, to reap the full benefits of a global equity investment strategy, US investors should use currency-hedged investments to avoid losses from devalued foreign currencies.


This article has been written purposely in a style that is entirely foreign to the usual scientific publication, which follows a strict cut and dried pattern, stating the problem with its history, experimental and clinical notes and discussion, then closing the article with conclusions. Probably the main reason that this discourse does not follow the usual routine is because it is believed this will be enjoyed by Dean Lewis, who in his prime, endowed with that gift of the warmest human relationship, always maintained his students' utmost interest by striving for something new, different from the ordinary and entirely free from dulness. Although this article may seem to lack the genius of Dean Lewis and contains nothing startling, it no doubt expresses the opinions of many general surgeons. Further, it may bring out many truths not to be found in much of the literature on this most common of surgical conditions. It is believed that even in the most formal medical journals an occasional publication of this type will be welcomed by the physician.


Forced convective enhanced heat transfer performance of air flows (50 = Re = 4000) in novel slotted sinusoidal wavy-plate-fins is investigated both experimentally and computationally. The slotted wavy fin core evaluated in the experiments was produced by direct metal laser sintering. Compared with the equivalent non-slotted core, results indicate that the pressure drop was reduced by as much as 31% whereas the heat transfer had no appreciable change. This very attractive enhancement by way of pressure drop reduction was further explored in a three-dimensional computational analysis. It is seen that a significant part of pressure loss in plain unslotted wavy-fin channels is due to form drag induced by flow recirculation in the trough regions. This is shown to be reduced substantially if the fins are slotted at large form drag locations. Their position and size, characterized respectively by phase angle and dimensionless slot size, are varied in the simulations to explore their role in the enhanced thermal-hydrodynamic performance. One such modified design exhibits a characteristically unusual performance at low Re, where a reduction in pressure loss (-16.8%) is also accompanied with an improvement in heat transfer (+17%). At high Re, however, a slight decline in heat transfer (-7.6%) is evidenced but the pressure drop is nearly cut in half (-46.6%). Moreover, the overall thermal-hydrodynamic performance based on the metric of fixed heat transfer rate and pressure drop constraint shows that ~15% reduction in the required heat transfer surface area can be achieved.


Data science plays an increasingly important role in solving today's scientific and social challenges. To promote progress toward a cure for multiple sclerosis, the Accelerated Cure Project has created an open repository of biological and survey data on patients with multiple sclerosis. Similar large-scale repositories are being created in other domains. As the open, data-driven model of science proliferates, the research community faces a growing need for a cloud platform for collaborative data science. Such a platform should facilitate collaboration between domain experts and data scientists and possess artificial intelligence capabilities for organizing, recommending, and manipulating data analyses. In this paper, we present some foundational technologies motivated by this vision. Our system automatically extracts a high-level dataflow graph from a data analysis. This graph describes how data flows through an analysis pipeline, including which statistical methods are used and how they fit together. The system requires no special annotations from the data analyst and consumes analyses written in Python using standard tools, such as Scikit-learn and Statsmodels. In this paper, we explain how our system works and how it fits into our larger vision for a collaborative data science platform.


This communication develops a steady-state block diagram about the configuration of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in relation to the mineralocorticoid-dependent reabsorption of sodium. Two principal mechanisms appear to be involved in the control of renin secretion. The baroreceptor hypothesis suggests that decreased stretch of the afferent glomerular arteriole produces increased renin secretion. The macula densa theory, on the other hand, suggests that renin secretion responds to alterations either in sodium load or in sodium concentration at the macula densa. These two receptors are presented as parallel feedback pathways which are independently capable of altering renin secretion. This concept of independent receptor function is supported by literature in which one of the receptor pathways was eliminated. The system configuration for the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system suggests the hypothesis that the vascular receptor controls renin secretion in the autoregulatory range of blood pressure and that macula densa control dominates at pressures below the autoregulatory range. The control system diagram also calls attention to certain unique features of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system; it indicates that (1) a chronic low-sodium diet involves changes in both input variables (extracellular fluid volume) and parameters (hepatic blood flow) to maximize sodium reabsorption, (2) thoracic inferior vena cava constriction opens the feedback loop so that the renal receptors do not perceive increases in extracellular fluid volume, (3) congestive heart failure reduces the overall gain of the system, and (4) a small nonhypotensive hemorrhage primarily increases renin secretion through renal sympathetic nerve stimulation.


The National Water Initiative and earlier water reforms have committed Australian governments to redressing environmental degradation caused by excessive extraction from rivers and groundwater systems. To date, the states, territories and commonwealth have identified a range of alternatives for achieving the requisite resource re-allocation. Unfortunately, there has been a predilection amongst policy makers to treat voluntary acquisition of access rights from irrigators as a 'last resort' in the suite of options. This paper explores the rationale for this approach and questions the use of incomplete information by bureaucrats, policy makers and water lobby groups in this context.


Skills that are difficult to automate are expected to increase in demand and reward according to skill-biased technological change advocates, who have identified high rewards for cognitive and social skills. However, such broad skill categories involve numerous essential competencies that can be differentially rewarded or go simply unrewarded. Using US data, this article analyses the demand for and payment of linguistic competency, a cross-cutting kind of skill that is basic for both cognitive and social work in the new economy and is one of the human capacities that is most difficult to automate. While human capital theory predicts an increase in wages as the demand for linguistic skills rises, from cultural/institutional perspectives, it can be theorised that communicative abilities and foreign-language knowledge are socially undervalued because of their association with feminised activities, ethnicity, and low-status service jobs. We analyse the demand and reward for linguistic skills through a two-step analysis of occupational and individual data derived from two sources: the Occupational Information Network and the Current Population Survey. Results show that while 'hard' verbal-reasoning skills are associated with high average salaries, as is predicted by neoclassical theory, the potentially undervalued linguistic skills – interactive and multilingual skills – are unrewarded and even penalised. This evidence requires further political attention, given its implications for large number of workers, especially in feminised, low-status service jobs. JEL Codes: J01, J23, J24, J31, J38


Total Hg and methylmercury concentrations were measured in mine-waste calcines (retorted ore), sediment, and water samples collected in and around abandoned mercury mines in western Nevada to evaluate Hg methylation at the mines and in the Humboldt River Basin. Mine-waste calcines contain total Hg concentrations as high as 14 000 μg g−1. Stream-sediment samples collected within 1 km of the mercury mines contain total Hg concentrations as high as 170 μg g−1, whereas stream sediments collected at a distance >5 km from the mines, and those collected from the Humboldt River and regional baseline sites, contain total Hg concentrations <0.5 μg g−1. Similarly, methylmercury concentrations in mine-waste calcines are locally as high as 96 ng g−1, but methylmercury contents in stream sediments collected downstream from the mines and from the Humboldt River are lower, ranging from <0.05 to 0.95 ng g−1. Stream-water samples collected downstream from two mines studied contain total Hg concentrations ranging from 6 to 2000 ng l−1, whereas total Hg in Humboldt River water was generally lower, ranging from 2.1 to 9.0 ng l−1. Methylmercury concentrations in the Humboldt River water were the lowest in this study (<0.02–0.27 ng l−1). Although total Hg and methylmercury concentrations are locally high in mine-waste calcines, there is significant dilution of Hg and there is also lower Hg methylation down gradient from the mines, especially in the sediments and water collected from the Humboldt River, which is >8 km from the nearest mercury mines. Our data indicate little transference of Hg and methylmercury from the sediment to the water column due to the lack of mine runoff in this desert climate.


Abstract The discovery of the giant Lula Field (Santos Basin, Brazil) has focused exploration on the pre-salt lacustrine carbonate play in both Brazil and Angola. Understanding the main controls on deposition and the link to the unique tectonic setting of the South Atlantic during the Early Cretaceous is paramount in successful exploration. Observations from conjugate regional seismic lines between the Kwanza and South Campos basins define the key megasequences as pre-rift, rift, sag, salt basin, post-salt carbonates and post-salt clastic sediments. The pre-salt stratigraphy can be described by three significant phases. In the first phase, the synrift lakes (Valanginian–Hauterivian), representing the onset of continental break-up and the formation of synrift graben, created several deep basins leading to overfilled freshwater lakes. In the second phase, Sag 1 (Barremian–Aptian), there was widespread subsidence created by syn-kinematic stretching of the continental crust and/or continuous rifting. Lacustrine sediments composed of coarse Pelecypod coquina with moderate faunal diversity are found, suggesting a fresh to brackish, balanced-filled, interconnected lake. In the third phase, Sag 2 (Aptian), there was continuous subsidence and isolation of the lake. Base level falls below sea-level resulted in an under-filled, alkaline and hypersaline lake with widespread microbialite growth. Based on the integration of seismic data, well data, biostratigraphy and tectonic models, a regional predictive model has been developed for reservoirs in phases 2 and 3.


Why do users of social networking sites recommend some applications to their friends while rejecting others? What value do they obtain from applications? This exploratory study investigates the value users derive from 'cool' Facebook applications, and explores the features that either encourage or discourage users to recommend applications to their friends. Our qualitative data reveal consumers derive a combination of functional value along with either social or emotional value from the applications. Female Facebook users indicate self-expression as important motivators, while males tend to use Facebook applications to socially compete. Three broad categories emerged for application features; symmetrical features can both encourage or discourage recommendation, polar features where different levels of the same feature encourage or discourage, and uni-directional features only encourage or discourage but not both. Recommending or not recommending an application tends to be the result of a combination of features and context, rather than one feature in isolation.


Mintzes et al. comment on our study in which we showed that retrieval practice enhances meaningful learning more than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Here, we consider and rebut claims that are based on mischaracterizations of our paper and speculations rather than evidence. We emphasize that randomized, controlled studies in both laboratory and classroom settings are essential to identifying effective strategies that promote meaningful learning.


The IBM Blue Gene/P (BG/P) system is a massively parallel supercomputer succeeding BG/L, and it comes with many machine design enhancements and new architectural features at the hardware and software levels. This paper presents techniques leveraging such features to deliver high performance MPI collective communication primitives. In particular, we exploit BG/P rich set of network hardware in exploring three classes of collective algorithms: global algorithms on global interrupt and collective networks for MPI COMM WORLD; rectangular algorithms for rectangular communicators on the torus network; and binomial algorithms for irregular communicators over the torus point-to-point network. We also utilize various forms of data movements including the direct memory access (DMA) engine, collective network, and shared memory, to implement synchronous and asynchronous algorithms of different objectives and performance characteristics. Our performance study on BG/P hardware with up to 16K nodes demonstrates the efficiency and scalability of the algorithms and optimizations.


We find that the major determinants of the payout premium of firms after privatization are improved firm operating performance and a prevalence of agency costs which are mitigated by higher pay outs. We examine up to 82,612 firm-years (up to 409 privatized and 6,193 non-privatized firms) across 26 countries. The privatized firm payout premium increases substantively in civil law countries and is inversely related to the proportion of closely held shares. It also increases with firm earnings, efficiency and growth opportunities. Our main findings do not materially differ in respect to the international variation over time of the dividend tax penalty and across the state of economic development in the country of firm privatization but they are not evident in industry sectors with high levels of regulation. We therefore provide an economic rationale for the higher pay outs of privatized firms.


The effect of urea on Chlorella glutamine synthetase (E. C. 220.127.116.11) activity and tertiary structure is investigated. Urea is found to inhibit the activity of glutamine synthetase, the inhibitory effect being independent on the time. The enzyme molecule relax and changes its affinity to ammonium under the effect of urea at concentrations of 1.0-4.0 M. Higher concentrations of urea (5,0 M and more) produce a dissociation of the enzyme molecule into monomers without any intermediate forms. Monomers do not possess any synthetase and transferase activities. Substrates and cofactors do not protect the enzyme from the effect of urea and do not stimulate the emzyme reactivation and reaggregation after its dissotiation. The data obtained are discussed from the viewpoint of the regulation of Chlorella glutamine synthetase activity in vivo.