The reforms in the higher education in the Republic of Macedonia point out the students' written expression. As members of the academic community and bearer of the society progress, students should beware of their written expression, primarily because they cultivate their language expression and contribute for protecting and strengthening the stability of the language norm. The punctual and orthographic marks have treatment as something secondary and they do not have the prominence they deserve. Yet they have relevant role in forming the text according to the orthographic norm. Thus, the paper examines the use of the punctual and orthographic mark colon. The research has qualitative paradigm (analysis of content) and descriptive design. The sample consist of written texts that refer to the colon in the Curriculum and the Textbooks for teaching the Macedonian language from first to ninth grade of the primary school and texts from first to fourth year of the secondary vocational and gymnasium education. The sample also comprises 100 written texts from students from first to fourth year that are studying on the Faculty of Education in Bitola. The data are excerpt from the materials that present the sample. The methods for processing the data are analysis, synthesis and comparison. The results of the research indicate that there is a need of revision of the Curriculum and the Textbooks, and a need for actualization of the correct use of this mark among the students in order to improve their written expression in accordance with the language norm.


In 2017 NSF funded "oVert (openVertebrate): Open Exploration of Vertebrate Diversity in 3D," which is the first Thematic Collections Network devoted entirely to vertebrate morphological specimens. The primary goal of oVert is to generate and serve high-resolution digital three-dimensional data for internal anatomy across vertebrate diversity. oVert will CT-scan >20,000 fluid-preserved specimens representing >80% of the living genera of vertebrates, providing broad coverage for exploration and research on all major groups of vertebrates. Contrast-enhanced scans will be generated to reveal soft tissues and organs for a majority of the living vertebrate families. This collection of digital imagery and three-dimensional volumes will be open for exploration, download, and use. These new media will provide unprecedented global access to valuable morphological data of specimens in US collections.oVert is developing best practices and guidelines for high-throughput CT-scanning, including efficient workflows, preferred resolutions, and archival formats that optimize the variety of downstream applications.
 Using the Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) API, we have developed a workflow where people uploading media files to MorphoSource can search for and import metadata for specimens directly from iDigBio. Via a Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed from MorphoSource, Audubon Core data describing media files for a given scientific collection can be retrieved and integrated into institutional IPT and databases. Such data migration of large files requires attention to detail and the development of data workflows that ensure correct specimen mapping at all steps. The RSS feed from MorphoSource will also consolidate usage information for media files from specimens in each scientific collection for reporting. Additional goals of the project are to provide information vital to the creation of collection best practices for imaging permissions/copyright. A status report and update on best practices will be presented.


The study explored whether laypersons correctly tacitly know Galileo's law of the inclined plane and what the basis of such knowledge could be. Participants predicted the time a ball would take to roll down a slope with factorial combination of ball travel distance and slope angle. The resulting pattern of factorial curves relating the square of predicted time to travel distance for each slope angle was identical to that implied by Galileo's law, indicating a correct cognitive representation of this law. Intuitive physics research suggests that this cognitive representation may result from memories of past perceptions of objects rolling down a slope. Such a basis and the correct cognitive representation of Galileo's law led to the hypothesis that Galileo's law is also perceptually represented correctly. To test this hypothesis, participants were asked to judge the perceived travel time of a ball actually rolling down a slope, with perceived travel distance and perceived slope angle varied in a factorial design. The obtained pattern of factorial curves was equal to that implied by Galileo's law, indicating that the functional relationships defined in this law were perceptually represented correctly. The results foster the idea that laypersons may tacitly know both linear and nonlinear multiplicative physical laws of the everyday world. As a practical implication, the awareness of this conclusion may help develop more effective methods for teaching physics and for improving human performance in the physical environment.


Working as an IT employee who must meet Service Level Agreement (SLA) to customers means having to do the best for customers even though they are no longer in working hours. This way of working will ultimately affect the quality of life. Therefore, this study aims to determine which of the grit, perceived organizational support and job characteristics will affect the quality of life of IT employees. This research was conducted using a non-probability sampling technique, namely employees who work in the IT department who have service standards to customers in carrying out their work. Research data collection was carried out twice with a data collection time of 1 to 3 weeks between the first study and the second study. The number of participants in the first study was 199 people and the second study was 128 people. The results showed that job characteristics became the dominant factor affecting the quality of life of IT employees. Meanwhile, grit and perceived organizational support do not affect the quality of life of IT employees. With about 70 percent of the study participants being male, it is understandable if work becomes an important part of a person's life so that even though he works with high work demands he still feels he has a good quality of life.


Perennial prairie grasses offer many advantages to the developing biofuels industry. High yielding varieties of native prairie grasses such as switchgrass, which combine lower levels of nutrient demand, diverse geographical growing range, high net energy yields and high soil and water conservation potential indicate that these grasses could and should supplement annual row crops such as corn in developing alternative fuels markets. Favorable net energy returns, increased soil erosion prevention, and a geographically diverse land base that can incorporate energy grasses into conventional farm practices will provide direct benefits to local and regional farm economies and lead to accelerated commercialization of conversion technologies. Displacement of row crops with perennial grasses will have major agricultural, economic, sociologic and cross-market implications. Thus, perennial grass production for biofuels offers significant economic advantages to a national energy strategy which considers both agricultural and environmental issues.


Ever since the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in the summer 2013, defending and reclaiming the city parks, market gardens, public squares, and urban forests has become a mainstream act of defiance and a symbolic rejection of an intensifying authoritarianism, neoliberal urbanism, and exclusionary planning practices. Growing interest in the mobilizing capacity of the emerging urban-environmental imaginary, however, has not remained exclusive to the opposition. Rather than dismissing the critique entirely, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) has most recently embraced the politics of urban greenery and strived to mold it in its own image. This article focuses on the contentious politics of urban greenery in Istanbul and examines how the city's green public spaces have come to proxy a larger struggle over the future of Turkey. By discussing the possibilities, challenges, and limits of the politics of urban greenery, this article examines how the government has attempted to absorb an emerging urban-environmental objection into its fold. To do so, the article traces the genealogy of Istanbul's park politics in the last decade and most specifically focuses on the latest iteration of the urban greenery frenzy: the Gardens of the Nation. By studying how this nationwide urban greenery drive has been designed, promoted, discussed, inaugurated, and used, this article provides an account for the critical role green aesthetics play in conjuring up alternative environmental imaginaries and communities against the backdrop of a populist authoritarian climate.


The method for establishing the forming limit diagram (FLD) of multi-gauge high strength steel laser tailor-welded blanks (LTWB) is introduced based on analyzing the failure mechanism of multi-gauge LTWB. The Nakazima test is performed to generate the limit strain of multi-gauge high strength steel LTWB. By means of the ARGUS strain measuring system, the limit strain is measured and the FLD of LTWB is plotted subsequently. The FLD established by the Nakazima test is introduced into the FEA forming process as the failure criteria. Compared with the predicted result of the FLD of thinner metal, better correlation between the simulation and experimental results is indicated by adopting the FLD of LTWB as the necking criteria, which also reveals the validity and practicability of the FLD research method for multi-gauge high strength steel LTWB.


The Tamils can be defined in terms of the people who speak Tamil as their mother tongue. The Tamil language is a member of the Dravidian/South Indian family of languages. The four southernmost states of India - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh - are predominantly linguistically Dravidian, each state is carved out on the basis of predominance of the four major Dravidian languages. South India and Sri Lanka have been homelands of the Tamils from the beginning of recorded history. The region roughly covered by the modern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala is identified as ancient "tamizakam" up to about 10th century AD. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Tamils migrated to some British colonies in search of employment and thus there are substantial Tamil populations in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. These volumes provide an extended introduction to the Tamils by discussing all the important facets that make them so vibrant a society. They are arranged thematically and provide a glimpse into Tamil history, culture, politics, language, literature and social progress.


A new reconfigurable subpixel interpolation architecture for multistandard (e.g., MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, and AVS) video motion estimation (ME) is presented. This exploits the mixed use of parallel and serial-input FIR filters to achieve high throughput rate and efficient silicon utilization. Silicon design studies show that this can be implemented using 34.8 × 103 gates with area and performance that compares very favorably with specific fixed solutions, e.g., for the H.264 standard alone. This can support SDTV and HDTV applications when implemented in 0.18 ¿m CMOS technology, with further performance enhancements achievable at 0.13 ¿m and below.


Vapor–solid phase reaction (VSPR) is a two-step process for synthesizing 2D MoS2. In the first step, a precursor film such as molybdenum oxide is grown on a substrate, followed by a sulfurization process at elevated temperature. This process offers a scalable fabrication of wafer-scale film with feasible control in thickness and uniformity. However, the properties of MoS2 films from this VSPR process often suffer from poor electrical properties. The major reason is their polycrystalline (PC) structure with large concentrations of defects and grain boundaries, which are inherited from the amorphous precursor films. Here, we report a new and scalable VSPR process in which epitaxial MoO2 films (grown over a 2-inch wafer) are used as high-quality precursors, which are converted into quasi-single-crystalline (QSC) MoS2. We demonstrate that the field effect mobility of transistors fabricated using a QSC MoS2 channel is almost 35 times larger, compared to a PC MoS2 channel, also better than most previously reported MoS2 films by other two-step MoS2 formation processes. Our process presents a new approach in which the epitaxial growth of the precursor phase can be used to improve 2D semiconductor and device performance.


Previous work on subcultural consumption presents structure, ethos, and subcultural boundaries as key theoretical aspects. These concepts are critically reconsidered through examining and interpreting ethnographic fieldwork and the consumer accounts of 44 gay men interviewed during a study of a gay urban community. Original insights are developed in relation to consuming in a subcultural context. The findings include consideration of the following key aspects of subcultural consumption: (1) contested meanings of gay subcultural consumption, (2) consuming and constructing subcultural boundaries, and (3) negotiating individual distinction with consumption practices. Overall, findings indicate that the oppositional character of subcultural consumption is captured well by the proposed theoretical framework that takes into account contested meaning clusters; fluid subcultural boundaries; flexible subcultural, interpretive frameworks for consuming; and negotiation of individual tastes through subcultural consumption.


Modern leadership theories, while started with the trait approach, have offered much more sophisticated conceptual frameworks for the study of leadership in the past century that go well beyond the initial theories. The process of evolution in leadership thoughts resulted in emerging a series of conceptual frameworks and models that started with focusing on leadership behaviors and styles, and not necessarily on the leader as a primary factor. Later situational theories brought the issue of contextual factors as a main basis for shaping leadership approaches compatible with the demands of both internal and external environments with the aim of selecting the optimal leadership style that leads to the success and sustainability of the institution. This paper takes the position that the primary focus on leadership success need to be put on creating a leadership system and its related processes that permeate throughout the entity and not on individual leader's predisposition or action. By bring some examples from the real world this position supports that effective leaders are those who always pay attention to creating a leadership system and processes that permeate the whole entity and outlive their very presence. The final conclusion of the paper is that key to successful and effective leadership would be to be adoptive, give primacy to the leadership system compatible with the needs of the time and situation and not giving too much credit to the action of an individual leader more than it deserves. This would open the path to success and sustainability for any system, be it business, public, nonprofit, or political entity.


Human neurodegenerative diseases are becoming an increasing burden on society as populations age. However, the underlying mechanisms that cause age-dependent neurodegeneration still remain unclear. Consequently, therapies for these debilitating and eventually fatal disorders are lacking. Simple model organisms have great potential for uncovering conserved mechanisms of neurodegeneration and thus for identifying neuroprotective drugs.

In this study we describe a new C. elegans model of age-dependent neurodegeneration caused by mutation of the dnj-14 gene. DNJ-14 is the worm homologue of cysteine string protein (CSP), a neuronal chaperone protein that prevents the misfolding of presynaptic proteins. Previously it has been shown that CSP knockout mice have a short lifespan and exhibit progressive age-related neurotransmission defects, sensorimotor dysfunction and pre-synaptic neurodegeneration. We show in this study that mutations in C. elegans dnj-14 also result in a significant reduction of lifespan. In addition, dnj-14 mutants exhibit age-dependent reductions in locomotion and sensitivity to aldicarb - a behavioural read-out of cholinergic neurotransmission. The above phenotypes correlate to an age-dependent loss of neurons as indicated by the punctate/abnormal expression of the GFP marker in dnj-14 worms. This loss of neurons in the head region corresponds with a reduced ability of the dnj-14 mutants to reach a food source or a volatile attractant indicating the loss of chemosensory neurons. Treatment with resveratrol, a polyphenol with a neuroprotective role in several neurodegenerative disease models, rescues the phenotypes of the dnj-14 mutant worms. This suggests that the dnj-14 model can be used to identify generic neuroprotective interventions rather than drug targets that are disease specific.

CSP is thought to prevent neurodegeneration by chaperoning the synaptic SNARE protein, SNAP-25. In this study we have shown that the mutation of ric-4, worm SNAP-25 homologue, produced phenotypes similar to those seen in dnj-14 mutants, suggesting a functional interaction between the two presynaptic proteins. The dnj-14;ric-4 double mutant showed no further deterioration of lifespan and locomotion phenotype. This suggested genetic epistasis in C. elegans similar to CSP knock out mice. Moreover, treatment with resveratrol rescued the lifespan phenotype of the ric-4 worms and also the ric-4;dnj-14 double mutant. Overexpression of ric-4 in dnj-14 mutants rescued the lifespan and chemosensory defects as seen in the food race assays. This further suggests that the dnj-14 model is similar to the CSP knock out model in mice. More importantly, mutations in CSP cause Adult-onset Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis (ANCL), a human neurodegenerative disease. Hence, characterisation of dnj-14 mutants could well act as a model to study ANCL.


Objective: To explore the relationship between frequency of walking trips, perceptions of the local environment and individual travel preferences in children. Design: Cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. Setting: Six primary schools in Birmingham, UK, range of socioeconomic classifications. Participants: 473 children aged 9–11 years (82% response rate), including 250 (52.9%) boys and 160 (33.8%) from ethnic minority populations. Outcome measures: The primary outcome measure was level of walking (high or low) based on self-reported walking frequency in the past week. Secondary outcome measures included child perceptions of seven aspects of the local environment and individual travel preference. All outcomes were measured through questionnaires administered at school in the presence of a researcher. Results: 198 (41.9%) children were classified as high walkers and 275 (58.1%) as low walkers. After adjusting for confounding factors, high walkers were more likely to perceive heavy traffic surrounding their homes (odds ratio (OR) 1.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03 to 2.33), unsafe streets (OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.27 to 2.80) and prefer healthier modes of travel (OR 1.67, 95% CI 2.56 to 1.08). High walkers were less likely to worry about strangers (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.45 to 1.02) and less likely to report no parks or sports grounds nearby (OR 0.66, 95% CI 0.42 to 1.02). Children from ethnic minority groups walked significantly less than white children (mean number of walking trips 16.8 and 21.9, respectively, p<0.001). Conclusions: Certain environmental perceptions are related to walking levels in children. Awareness of these may help in the development of future interventions, and also enable healthcare professionals to encourage walking by providing case-specific and appropriate advice.


4H-SiC MOSFET on carbon face exhibits the high channel mobility when the gate oxide is formed by pyrogenic wet oxidation. However, this improvement is not proof against the metallization annealing which is indispensable in the fabrication of the SiC power MOSFETs. We develop the alternative metallization process suitable for the high channel mobility on the carbon face. The metallization annealing in hydrogen ambient has much effect to suppress the degradation of the channel mobility. The lateral MOSFET with the ohmic contact formed by hydrogen annealing exhibits the high channel mobility which is comparable to the channel mobility of the lateral MOSFET formed without metallization annealing.


Abstract The operations improvement literature is found to focus on the adoption of relatively stable, monolithic external management ideas, neglecting the processes by which such ideas and associated practices are identified in source organizations and changed before and during adoption. The notion of translation is used to analyze the way SME managers assimilate practices observed in larger firms during a management development programme. A model of the micropractices of operations managers during translation is developed. The five micropractices are: navigating distance; identifying and categorizing ideas; interacting with peers; persevering based on reassurance; re-embedding practices. The findings point to the importance of understanding that managers, especially in SMEs, are active in selecting and adapting parts of systemic improvement approaches such as lean, rather than simply choosing and adopting them wholesale. They also underline the importance of peer networking in the translation process. Senior managers who want to adopt management ideas must take account of translation in their strategies. Policy-makers who advocate and evaluate the use of well-known management ideas must also be aware that translation may mean that many useful practices are adopted, even if the adopting firms no longer explicitly espouse the overarching management idea of which these practices are a part.


The Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) is one of the major alternatives for realizing energy production from thermonuclear fusion. Compared to alternative configurations (such as the tokamak and the stellarator) it has some advantages that suggest that an RFP reactor may be more economic. However, the conventional RFP is flawed with anomalously large energy and particle transport (which leads to unacceptably low energy confinement) due to a phenomenon called the "RFP dynam". The dynamo is driven by the gradient in the plasma current in the plasma core, and it has been shown that flattening of the plasma current profile quenches the dynamo and increases confinement. Various forms of current profile control schemes have been developed and tested in both numerical simulations and experiments. In this thesis an automatic current profile control routine has been developed for the three-dimensional, non-linear resistive magnetohydrodynamic computer code DEBSP. The routine utilizes active feedback of the dynamo associated fluctuating electric field, and is optimized for replacing it with an externally supplied field while maintaining field reversal. By introducing a semi-automatic feedback scheme, the number of free parameters is reduced, making a parameter scan feasible. A scaling study was performed and scaling laws for the confinement of the advanced RFP (an RFP with enhanced confinement due to current profile control) have been obtained. The conclusions from this research project are that energy confinement is enhanced substantially in the advanced RFP and that poloidal beta values are possible beyond the previous theoretical limit beta βΘ < ½. Scalings toward the reactor regime indicate strongly enhanced confinement as compared to conventional RFP scenarios, but the question of reactor viability remains open.


This paper examines whether financial services (McKinnon conduit) or provision of credit is more effective in reducing poverty in Nigeria using data for the period 1980-2018. It employs Autoregressive and Distributed Lag Model (ARDL) Approach to estimate the parameters and cointegration analyses for income and consumption models. The results of the ARDL Bound Test to Cointegration indicate a long-run relationship among the variables in the two models. The study reveals that availability and improvement in financial services is more beneficial than credit growth. In addition, the study suggests that financial instability may hurt the poor and retards the beneficial effect of financial development particularly in the short run. The paper recommends intensification of effort towards second-generation reforms, such as, design and implementation of financial inclusion policies that involve improving access to financial services that foster inclusive-growth. Furthermore, the study recommends guided deregulation in credit market as a way of precluding or subduing its susceptibility in triggering full-blown crises that is detrimental to the poor's aggregate welfare.


Indoor-outdoor housing of three types was designed, constructed, used and evaluated for housing a breeding colony of common (Callithrix jacchus) and cottontop (Saguinus oedipus) marmosets. All types were relatively inexpensive to construct, required minimal care, simulated a natural environment and allowed for some isolation between units and between individual runs within units.


Global economies have been characterised by a large dependency of material inflows from natural stocks, an exponential growth of material stock-in-use in the built environment, and the extensive disposal of waste material outflows to anthropogenic sinks. In this context, the concept of the circular economy has emerged, promising to circulate the stock-in-use of materials and transforming output waste material flows back into useful resources while promoting job and value creation. These promises have drawn the attention and interest of policymakers and industry, and gained popularity across society. Despite its apparent emergent legitimacy and diffusion, a few essential adjustments still need to be addressed so that circular economy initiatives can actually deliver on their promises without leading to negative unintended effects. First, a complete entanglement with the existing formal economy is fundamentally needed; this implies valuing the preservation of natural stocks and pricing material input flows adequately. Secondly, a recognition of its socio-economic embeddedness is essentially necessary. The decision-making of societal actors affects material configuration, which in turn affects societal actors; this important feedback loop needs to be explicitly taken into account in circular economy initiatives. The aim of this short communication paper is to explore these pervasive challenges in a broad context of sustainable physical resource management. An integrative framework for recognising the socio-economic embeddedness of the circular economy in practice and the role of the formal economic system in realising its ambitions is proposed.


Aluminum (Al) toxicity is the main factor limiting crop productivity in acidic soils around the world. In cereals, this problem reduces crop yields by 30-40%. The use of DNA-based markers linked to phenotypic traits is an interesting alternative approach. Strategies such as molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) in conjunction with bioinformatics-based tools such as graphical genotypes (GGT) have been important for confirming introgression of genes or genomic regions in cereals but also to reduce the time and cost of identifying them through genetic selection. These biotechnologies also make it possible to identify target genes or quantitative trait loci (QTL) that can be potentially used in similar crops to increase their productivity. This review presents the main advances in the genetic improvement of cereals for Al-tolerance.


In the article I introduce several distinctions regarding the issue of civilisation in general, especially stressing the role of values in its development. I also discuss the bases of the Western civilisation, which are—I believe—undermined in the name of certain benefits overridden by propaganda of various types of "correctness" (political, religious, social, etc.). Technology with increasing intensity transforms societies into superstructures, where humanity is disappearing. Technology is becoming more and more mentally ergonomic, replacing man not only in physical work but also in mental work. It is not about the utopian rejection of technology, but about being aware of both opportunities and threats including enslaving by technology. The phenomenon seems to be particularly dangerous if we assume the existence of so-called superintelligence (N. Bostrom). So if technology is not anthropocentric, sooner or later it will lead to complete incapacitation of the human being, both physically and mentally. For this reason, we should seek an integral understanding of man and the so-called progress. It is necessary to understand what values are important in our individual and social life. The fundamental value is the art of wise life as the highest skill.


The rapid decline of Arctic sea ice has triggered new rounds of territorial claims making, investment, and development in northern states. This article argues that the physical processes of climate change require a rethinking of the typical mechanics of environmental degradation to account for the renewed possibilities for accumulation emerging in the Arctic, where the effects of historic, large-scale fossil fuel combustion are being organized into new regional production strategies that sharpen and deflect environmental degradation—a process I call 'accumulation by degradation'. The region's hyperamplified thermodynamic response to radiative forcing by anthropogenic greenhouse gases allows for strategic maneuvering by nation-states and firms eager to secure various forms of rent and make climate change literally perform physical work for capital. These opportunities for new Arctic energy extraction and shipping are both heightened and complicated by contemporary geopolitics and commodity prices. Nevertheless, the much-heralded possibilities for capital accumulation in the Arctic may be overestimated. The entire conjuncture depends on a precarious coordination of markets, turnover times of capital, regulatory regimes, and fundamentally uncontrollable physical processes across many operational scales. Because the climate is a nonlinear system, emergent physical properties may materialize rapidly and unpredictably, drastically changing the regional operating environment for capital. Such emergence might well be both a result of and an obstruction to Arctic accumulation by degradation.


Numerous techniques have been developed to perform advanced shading operations in real time. The real-time versions vary greatly from their original implementations due to the constraints of existing hardware and programming libraries. This paper introduces a grammar for articulating these modern real-time shading pipelines. We survey the existing techniques, using the grammar to classifies them into a taxonomy illustrating the commutations that differentiate the pipelines from the classical version and each other. The taxonomy follows a natural development that concludes with texture shading, which is applied to four advanced shaders to explore its versatility.


Neotropical forests are being increasingly replaced by a mosaic of patches of different successional stages, agricultural fields and pasture lands. Consequently, the identification of factors shaping the performance of taxa in anthropogenic landscapes is gaining importance, especially for taxa playing critical roles in ecosystem functioning. As phyllostomid bats provide important ecological services through seed dispersal, pollination and control of animal populations, in this study we assessed the relationships between phyllostomid occurrence and the variation in local and landscape level habitat attributes caused by disturbance. We mist-netted phyllostomids in 12 sites representing 4 successional stages of a tropical dry forest (initial, early, intermediate and late). We also quantitatively characterized the habitat attributes at the local (vegetation structure complexity) and the landscape level (forest cover, area and diversity of patches). Two focal scales were considered for landscape characterization: 500 and 1000 m. During 142 sampling nights, we captured 606 individuals representing 15 species and 4 broad guilds. Variation in phyllostomid assemblages, ensembles and populations was associated with variation in local and landscape habitat attributes, and this association was scale-dependent. Specifically, we found a marked guild-specific response, where the abundance of nectarivores tended to be negatively associated with the mean area of dry forest patches, while the abundance of frugivores was positively associated with the percentage of riparian forest. These results are explained by the prevalence of chiropterophilic species in the dry forest and of chiropterochorous species in the riparian forest. Our results indicate that different vegetation classes, as well as a multi-spatial scale approach must be considered for evaluating bat response to variation in landscape attributes. Moreover, for the long-term conservation of phyllostomids in anthropogenic landscapes, we must realize that the management of the habitat at the landscape level is as important as the conservation of particular forest fragments.


Genetic and spatial analyses suggest that what was previously described as the Bluenose herd of barren-ground caribou ( Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus ) comprises three separate populations. Of these, the Bluenose-East caribou herd (BECH) has received little coverage in past surveys. Existing estimates of abundance suggested that current harvest rates of Bluenose-East caribou (~5000 animals/year) might be excessive. We used post-calving photography in June-July 2000 to estimate the size of the BECH. A maximum of 33 radio-collared caribou were available for location in June 2000. We located 30 of these caribou and photographed distinct groups containing 23 collared individuals. Excluding caribou assumed to belong to the neighboring Bluenose-West herd, we photographed a minimum of 84 412 adult and 4193 calf caribou. Using a simple mark-recapture model to account for caribou associated with collared individuals not photographed, we calculated an estimate of 104 000 ± 22 100 (95% CI 84 412 - 126 100) non-calf caribou. A recently published stochastic model produced a considerably higher and more variable estimate of 208 700 (95% CI 112 600 - 474 700). In March 2001, we deployed seven more radio collars in anticipation of repeating the census in 2001, but poor weather conditions precluded the formation of large aggregations. Present densities of Bluenose-East caribou seem high, and we recommend regular monitoring of body condition to assess the potential for a forage-induced population crash.


Black hole thermodynamics (BHT) is regarded as one of the deepest clues we have to a quantum theory of gravity. It motivates scores of proposals in the field, from the thought that the world is a hologram to calculations in string theory. The rationale for BHT playing this important role, and for much of BHT itself, originates in the analogy between black hole behavior and ordinary thermodynamic systems. Claiming the relationship is "more than a formal analogy," black holes are said to be governed by deep thermodynamic principles: what causes your tea to come to room temperature is said additionally to cause the area of black holes to increase. Playing the role of philosophical gadfly, we pour a little cold water on the claim that BHT is more than a formal analogy. First, we show that BHT is often based on a kind of caricature of thermodynamics. Second, we point out an important ambiguity in what systems the analogy is supposed to govern, local or global ones. Finally, and perhaps worst, we point out that one of the primary motivations for the theory arises from a terribly controversial understanding of entropy. BHT may be a useful guide to future physics. Only time will tell. But the analogy is not nearly as good as is commonly supposed.


Abstract The ocean is a huge kinetic energy field with considerable energy harvesting potential. Harvesting renewable ocean wave energy and using it to power electric facilities such as sensors for sea-crossing bridges in real time could be an effective strategy to promote sustainable development of the oceans. In this paper, we propose a piezoelectric-electromagnetic wave energy harvester (PEWEH) based on a sealed capsule structure for self-powered applications in sea-crossing bridges. The proposed system consists of three main components: piezoelectric module, electromagnetic module, and energy storage module. The piezoelectric module is mainly composed of two piezoelectric sheets which can be deformed by continuous wave motion to generate electricity. The electromagnetic module includes a fixed coil and a core that moves back and forth to cut the magnetic line to generate electricity. The electrical energy recovered by the piezoelectric module and electromagnetic module will be stored in the energy storage module after being rectified and stabilized. Experiment results showed that output voltage up to 7 V and power of 162 mW can be obtained by the PEWEH, validating that the proposed wave energy harvesting system is promising for self-powered applications in low-power monitoring sensors for sea-crossing bridges.


VIA3 Resonant-Tunneling Hot-Electron Transistors (RHET's) Using InGaAs/In ( AlGa) As Heterostructure--I< , Imamura, S. Muto, H. Ohnishi, T. Fujii, and N. Yokoyama, Fu-jitsu Limited, 10-1, Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi 243-01, Japan. This paper describes a resonant-tunneling hot-electron transistor (RHET) using an InGaAs/In( A1Ga)As heterostructure. A cornmon-emitter current gain of 10 and a collector currept peak-to-valley ratio of 9.6 were measured at 77 K €or a 1000-A base RHET , The peak current depsity was 3.14 X lo4 A/cmZ. The measuretl current gain of 250A base RHET's reached 28, which is the high. est value yet reported for any hot-electron transistors. In 1985, we proposed and fabricated a three-terminal resonant. tunneling device, named the RHET, which used a GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure [l]. We demonstrated the various attractive features of RHETs for memory and/or logic applications [2]. However, the common-emitter current gain in the GaAs/AlGaAe RHET was not high enough to enable practical use. On the other hand, we reported [3] that use of InGaAs for the base layer of hot electron transistors (HET) was effective to increase a current gain because of larger F-L valley separation energy (0.55 eV) than that of GaAs (0.30 eV) . This paper demonstrates that current gains and collector peak-to-valley ratios of RHET's are greatly improved by using an InGaAs /In ( A1Ga) As heterostructure . The devices have a quantuy well, which acts as the hot-electron injector, consisting of 38.1-A Ino,53Gao,47As sandwiched by two 44A Ipo.53Alo,47As. The thickness of the base layers were 250 and 1000 A . The carrier concentration of the base layer was 1 X 10" ~ m ~ . The thiskness of the tno.52 ( Alo .5G~,5 )o.4sAs collector barrier was 2000 A with a 60-A graded layer. Each layer was grown using pulsed molecular-beam methods. A common-emitter current gain of 10.0 was measured at 77 K at a collector-emitter voltage of 2 V and a base current of 1 mA. The increased current gain of InGaAs/InAlGaAs RHET's is believed to be due to the large I'-L valley separation energy of InGaAs compared to that of GaAs. The collector current, measured as a function of the baseemitter voltage, exhibited a pronounced peak due to resonant-tunneling at a base-emitter voltage of 1 V. The peak current density was 3.14 X lo4 A/cm2 and the collector current peak-to-valley ratio reached 9.6. The increase in the peak-to-valley ratio with a high peak collector current is due to the low electron effective mass of the InAlAs emitter barrier, compared to that of AlGaAs [4]. A common-emitter current gain of 28 was measured for 250-A base RHET's at a collector-emitter voltage of 1.5 V and a base current of 0.2 mA. A common-emitter current gain of 28 is the highest value yet reported. The collector current peak-to-valley ratio was 4.54. These results indicate that the use of InGaAs/ln( AlGa) As heterostmctures may well result in the high performance RHET's.


BACKGROUND
The role of primary care for young people with psychosis, and transitions between specialist mental health services and primary care, are underexplored areas, both clinically and in research terms.

AIM
To explore service users' perspectives of early intervention services and primary care, in-depth and over time.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Longitudinal qualitative methodology in five geographically diverse sites across England.

METHOD
Semi-structured interviews with 21 young people with first-episode psychosis at two time points.

RESULTS
Early intervention services are highly prized by service users; however, the 'gold standard' nature of the care is difficult to replicate in other services and may lead to unrealistic expectations. Flexibility in terms of the timing of discharge does appear to be happening in practice, but continuity is not always well established before discharge. Primary care seems to be under-utilised, both as a location of care during time with the early intervention service and as a skill set, particularly for physical health problems. Service users expected GPs to advocate for and navigate the health system, particularly at times of crisis or relapse.

CONCLUSION
Early intervention services should focus on actively establishing relationships between service users and either the community mental health team or the GP in the months leading up to discharge, and ensuring that service users' expectations about access and availability of care are 'realistic'. Primary care could be better utilised, even when service users are actively engaged with early intervention services, to help ensure physical health needs are met from the start of treatment.


Part 1 Perspective: RISC architectures, M. Slater instruction set design, B. Case design issues for next-generation processors, B. Case SPARC architecture, B. Case cypress SPARC chips, M. Slater SPARC support, M. Slater redesigned cypress SPARC chips, M. Slater first ECL microprocessor, M. Slater LSI logic embedded control SPARC processor, M. Slater fujitsu embedded SPARC processor, M. Slater. Part 2 MIPS: MIPS processor, M. Slater MIPS R3000 system design, M. Slater IDT R3000 derivative, M. Slater MIPS chip set with full ECL CPU implementation, M. Slater ECL bus controller, M. Thorson IDT embedded MIPS processors, M. Slater high integration on MIPS based processor, M. Slater MIPS with 64-Bit R4000 architecture. Part 3 Motorola 88000: motorola 88000 RISC chip set, M. Slater Motorola 88200, M. Slater. Part 5 Intel 960: intel register scoreboarding, J.H. Wharton intel 960 architecture, J.H. Wharton intel i860 performance, B. Case intel i860 parallel processing support, M. Slater MASS860, B. Case and M. Slater. Part 6 AMD 29000: AMD 29000 architecture, B. Case AMD 29000 bus structure, B. Case and T. Olson AMD 29050, B. Case PA-RISC, B. Case PA workstations, M. Slater.


Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) require a multitude of components interacting among themselves and with the users to perform automatic actions, usually under unpredictable or uncertain conditions. Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) have emerged over the years as one of the major technological paradigms regulating interactions and negotiations among autonomous entities running under heterogeneous conditions. As such, MAS have the potential to support CPS in implementing a highly reconfigurable distributed thinking. However, some gaps are still present between MAS' features and the strict requirements of CPS. The most relevant is the lack of reliability, which is mainly due to specific features characterizing negotiation protocols. This paper presents a systematic literature review of MAS negotiation protocols aiming at providing a comprehensive overview of their strengths and limitations, examining both the assumptions and requirements set during their development. While this work confirms the potential of MAS in regulating the interactions among CPS components, the findings also highlight the absence of real-time compliance in current negotiation protocols. Strongly characterizing CPS, the capability to face strict time constraints could bridge the gap between MAS and CPS.


A simulated three-dimensional model of relative sea-level changes for northern Norway is presented. The model is based on the shoreline relation principle using a simple trend surface analysis of data from sixty raised sea-level indicators (SLl's). It represents an extension of the model presented by Moller (1987). Problems associated with constructing a reliable data base for the model are discussed. It is demonstrated how the model can be applied to raised sea-level problems, and used to generate maps and three-dimensional diagrams. Paleogeographic reconstructions may subsequently be tested against new field data in the area.


Part one in this two paper series reviewed the nature of geographical thinking in nursing research thus far. The current paper builds on it by looking forwards and providing a particular vision for future research. It argues that it is time to once again look to the parent discipline of human geography for inspiration, specifically to its turn towards non-representational theory, involving an emphasis on life that onflows prior to meaning, significance, and full cognition; on life's 'taking-place'. The paper introduces this way of viewing and animating the world. Some potential connections to nursing research and practice are suggested, as are some specific avenues for future inquiry. Explained is how, through non-representational theory, nursing might be re-imagined as something that reveals space-time.


Introduction: Bone marrow study has wide application in clinical medicine. It is important test not only for diagnosis of haematological diseases but also for various systemic illnesses. The aim of this study is to determine the indications, the spectrum of haemotological and non haematological disorders diagnosed by using this procedure.
Materials & Methods: It was a prospective study comprising 152 patients who underwent bone marrow examination for evaluation of haematological and nonhaematological disorders in the Department of Haematology, Enam Medical College Hospital during the period of 2012 to 2017.
Results: In our study male to female ratio was 1.6:1 and common age group was >45years (n-65, 42.76%). Most common indications for bone marrow examination were pancytopenia (26.97%, n-41) and diagnosis of leukaemia/myeloproliferative neoplasm (25.66%, n-38). 90.13% (n-137) marrows were pathological. Non-malignant conditions were 40.79% (n-62) and malignant conditions were 49.43% (n-75). Non malignant haematological condition were 33.55% (n-51), malignant haematological conditions were 47.37% (n-72). Most common nonmalignant haematological conditions were aplastic anaemia (15.13%, n-23) and immune thrombocytopenic purpura (9.87%, n-15). Visceral leishmaniasis was found 3.29% (n-5). Acute myelogenous leukaemia (14.47%, n-22) and multiple myloma (11.18%, n-17) were the most common malignant haematological condition. Secondary deposit was found 1.97% (n-3).
Conclusion: Bone marrow examination is a simple invasive procedure for diagnosis of both haematological and nonhaematological diseases when routine investigations failed to reach the final diagnosis.
Medicine Today 2019 Vol.31(1): 15-18


Epidemiological evidence suggests that soy consumption is associated with a decreased risk of prostate cancer. The isoflavone genistein is found at high levels in soy and a large body of evidence suggests it is important in mediating the cancer preventive effects of soy. The mechanisms through which genistein acts in prostate cancer cells have not been fully defined. We used gene expression profiling to identify genes significantly modulated by low and high doses of ge- nistein in LNCaP cells. Significant genes were identified using StepMiner analysis and significantly altered pathways with Ingenuity Pathways analysis. Genistein significantly altered expression of transcripts involved in cell growth, carcinogen defenses and steroid signaling pathways. The effects of genistein on these pathways were confirmed by directly assessing dose-related effects on LNCaP cell growth, NQO-1 enzymatic activity and PSA protein expression. Genistein produces diverse effects on gene expression that are dose-dependent and this has important implications in developing genistein as a putative prostate cancer preventive agent.


In this paper we analyze the effects of financial constraints on the exchange rate through the portfolio balance channel. Our contribution is twofold: First, we construct a tractable two-period general equilibrium model in which financial constraints inhibit capital flows. Hence, departures from the uncovered interest rate parity condition are used to explain the effects of sterilized foreign exchange intervention. Second, using high frequency data during 2004-2015, we use a sharp policy discontinuity within Colombian regulatory banking limits to empirically test for the portfolio balance channel. Consistent with our model's postulations, our findings suggest that the effects on the exchange rate are short-lived, and significant only when banking constraints are binding.


Several laboratories have shown that cyclic AMP (cAMP) plays an important role in inducing oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelin synthesis. Our previous results have shown that oligodendrocytes contain a nuclear protein that binds to the DNA sequence TGACGTCA or cAMP response element (CRE) known to be involved in the transcriptional regulation of cAMP‐responsive genes. In this report the oligodendroglial CRE‐binding protein was further identified by using two different antibodies which specifically recognize the CRE‐binding protein known as CREB. In DNA‐shift assays CREB‐1 (X‐12) antibody interacted with the CRE‐protein complexes resulting in further retardation ("super shift") of the mobility of the bands in the gels. Immunoprecipitation of oligodendroglial nuclear extracts with CREB(240) antibody prior to the DNA binding assays resulted in a lack of formation of CRE‐protein complexes. In addition immunoreaction with CREB(240) antibody identified the CRE‐binding species as a 45 kDa phosphoprotein. Immunocytochemical staining with CREB(240) antibody in oligodendrocytes from 10‐, 14‐, and 18‐day‐old and adult rats indicated that this protein in expressed before the appearance of myelin basic protein (MBP) which was used as a marker of myelin synthesis. Collectively, these observations support our previous results and indicate that the oligodendroglial CRE‐binding protein species is highly homologous to the CREB protein. The developmental expression of this CREB protein supports the idea of a possible role during the early stages of oligodendrocyte differentiation preceding the peak of myelin synthesis in rat CNS. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


There is a continuing search for the ideal substitute for the cruciate ligaments. Autogenous tissues have been widely used as a replacement. The use of allografts is an attractive alternative: no donor side morbidity, decreased operative time, smaller incisions, especially with new endoscopic techniques, unlimited supply with a choice of graft sizes in multiple ligament reconstructions and a long shelf-life are some of the distinct advantages that allografts offer. They may be useful in circumstances where there is no suitable autologous substitute or the available tendon is too short to span the joint cavity. The preparation of an allograft requires appropriate donor selection and screening, careful surgical tissue procurement, and safe and effective processing techniques. At the present time, the issue of secondary sterilization of allografts remains controversial. Subclinical immune response and the possibility of transmission of infectious agents have to be considered. The early results in the literature and in our small series are encouraging; however, long-term results are necessary prior to widespread use of allografts in cruciate ligaments reconstructions. The authors believe that allografts should presently be reserved for use as an alternative to prosthetic ligaments in situations where autografts are unavailable or inappropriate.


Abstract Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is an uncommon disease which can involve all layers of the gastrointestinal tract anywhere from the esophagus to colon. Clinical features depend upon the site of involvement and layer of GI tract involved. It is an inflammatory disease with remitting and relapsing course. We report a case which presented with discharging fecal fistula in lower abdomen after emergency laparotomy. Initial colonoscopy showed stricture with nodularity of the IC junction and biopsy showed features of eosinophilic gastroenteritis. Due to persistence of fistula he underwent right hemicolectomy with illeo-transverse anastomosis. Biopsy from surgical specimen showed well differentiated adenocarcinoma and eosinophilic infiltrate in muscularis. Surveillance colonoscopy done six months later showed ulcer at anastomotic site and biopsy showed features of eosinophilic colitis. The clinical course of this patient circumstantially indicates a linkage of eosinophilic colitis with carcinoma colon. This is the first reported case of association of eosinophilic colitis with carcinoma colon. We discuss in detail the clinical and pathological features of eosinophilic enteritis and possible mechanisms linking eosinophilc enteritis with carcinoma.


Although surface-based cages dominate the marine finfish aquaculture industry, production issues that arise at the surface such as poor environmental conditions and the presence of parasites has spurred interest in submerging cages. However, submerged culture is not without its own issues; for example, the adverse effects on fish buoyancy levels can alter swimming speeds and cause tilted swimming at night time, leading to reduced growth rates and vertebral deformities. The use of continuous artificial lighting is common practice in surface-based salmon farming to inhibit maturation. Its implementation can also increase swimming speeds at night, and, if used in submerged cages, may reduce the incidence of tilted swimming. Here we compared submerged (below 10 m) and surface culture of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar for 42 d under continuous lighting. The use of continuous lightning during submergence of large (3.4 kg) Atlantic salmon increased swimming speeds, reduced tilted swimming, and spinal deformities did not arise. Submerged culture also decreased infestation by attached sea lice stages by 72%, from 4.4 to 1.2 lice per fish. However, specific growth rates of submerged fish were 30% lower than those of surfacereared fish. Developments in engineering and technologies that allow salmon to refill their swim bladders during submergence show promise in eliminating welfare and growth problems. Robust scientific experiments at full commercial scale of cages and operating systems that consider both production and welfare outcomes are critical to the successful development of submerged farming.


Stem cell therapy, often referred to as "magic cell therapy" boost tissue differentiation, development, and repair and facilitate an interpretation of ageing and organogenesis phenomenon. However, many social, moral and ethical dilemmas arise in context of therapeutic application and biomedical researches involving stem cells. Issues of concern may range from psychological/physiological effects on potential beneficiaries or donors; ethical dilemmas concerning the origin of embryonic stem cells; logistic issues like cost and availability, medical concerns like teratogenic proliferation as well long term general implications on society. Key stake potential challenge lies in distinguishing, defining and justifying 'benchmark' guidelines of therapeutic, prophylactic and non-therapeutic intervention in stem cell therapy. Researchers related to stem cells cultivate a 'lot of tissues', in an almost commercial pattern. Stem cell oriented biomedical techniques like cloning, genetic modification and in- vitro fertilization furnish progressive physical creation, maintenance, alteration or repair of humans, without any clear distinction between the natural and the artificial. There is no convergence between 'what is original and what is scoop'. Would perhaps not be an understatement in such a scenario, the 'magic cell' holds the possibility to direct and alter prime personalities, life and life styles.


Reinforcement-learning (RL) algorithms can automatically learn optimal control strategies for nonlinear, possibly stochastic systems. A promising approach for RL control is experience replay (ER), which learns quickly from a limited amount of data, by repeatedly presenting these data to an underlying RL algorithm. Despite its benefits, ER RL has been studied only sporadically in the literature, and its applications have largely been confined to simulated systems. Therefore, in this paper, we evaluate ER RL on real-time control experiments that involve a pendulum swing-up problem and the vision-based control of a goalkeeper robot. These real-time experiments are complemented by simulation studies and comparisons with traditional RL. As a preliminary, we develop a general ER framework that can be combined with essentially any incremental RL technique, and instantiate this framework for the approximate Q-learning and SARSA algorithms. The successful real-time learning results that are presented here are highly encouraging for the applicability of ER RL in practice.


Network on chip (NoC) using packet switching is a solution to cope with complex system on chip (SoC) communications. However, tools are needed to help designers to deal with NoC. The two elements composing an NoC are its routers and its network interfaces (NI). We focus on the specification and generation steps of the /spl mu/spider NOC design flow that addresses what we consider as the main features of a realistic and useful NoC. Firstly, the synthesis tool is based on a generic router through a user friendly design interface. Secondly, it supports the management of different levels of quality of service (QoS), allowing a guaranteed throughput (GT) service in addition to a classical best effort (BE) service. Finally, it can be tuned to handle asynchronous communications. The paper presents the router architecture and its various custom characteristics. We show the tradeoff between a hierarchical QoS channel implementation and the performance of the system.


Little attention has been focused on the burial diagenesis of deltas deposited on active foreland-basin margins, where tectonics is likely to strongly impact fluid–rock interactions. A petrographic, geochemical, and microthermometric study of several fractured dolomite concretions and enclosing prodelta marls provides insights into the evolution of burial diagenesis in the Eocene Sobrarbe deltaic complex (Ainsa Basin, Spain), and more generally, on the paleohydrology of the South Pyrenean foreland basin.

Shallow burial diagenesis was controlled by microbial activity in marine-derived porewaters. Microbial sulfate reduction was first responsible for the formation of pyrite and early calcite, followed by the growth of dolomite concretions during methanogenesis. Subsequent diagenesis was limited to temperatures and depth of less than approximately 75°C and 2 km, respectively. Diagenesis was recorded in porous bioturbation traces and septarian fractures found inside dolomite concretions, as well as in tectonic shear fractures. Neomorphic tabular barite, found only in the bioturbation traces, is interpreted to have formed early in marine-derived porewaters. Septarian fractures were then filled by Fe-rich calcite and centimeter-size celestine. Stable isotopes indicate that calcite probably formed in meteoric-derived waters coming from the overlying fluvial delta plain. The sulfur isotope composition of celestine is compatible with precipitation in waters of mixed parentage, but the exact origin of dissolved sulfate remains poorly constrained. In tectonic fractures, celestine precipitated coevally with calcite displaying evidence of strong fluid–rock interaction. Dissolved sulfate may have migrated to the fractures during active tectonics from the late Eocene to the Oligocene.

The paragenesis and the proposed paleohydrologic model are similar to those previously described for other deltaic systems deposited in active foreland basins, including the South Pyrenean foreland basin. These features point to common diagenetic processes in syntectonic foreland-basin deltas, involving both meteoric and marine fluid sources. Similar to passive margin settings, early diagenesis appears to be controlled mainly by relative variations of sea level, whereas during further burial, the development of permeable tectonic fractures is likely to facilitate the influx of basinal or continental waters into fine slope deposits, impacting the diagenetic record. These results emphasize the importance of fracture development in the fluid-flow regime of syntectonic foreland-basin deltas. They demonstrate the necessity to take this parameter into account in fluid-flow modeling of foreland-basin margins.


We have developed a simple method for treating blood samples permitting direct detection of Plasmodium falciparum parasites using the P. falciparum-specific DNA probe pPF14 after polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of target DNA sequences, and have compared this method with microscopic examination of thick blood smears. For PCR amplification, blood samples were lysed, then filtered onto filter paper. After drying, a piece of the filter paper was added directly to the PCR mixture for amplification. The presence of PCR products was detected using nonisotopically labeled probe. This method permits detection of less than than 10 parasites in a 20-microliters sample, and minimizes the effects of PCR inhibitors generally found in blood. Samples were collected from patients presenting at malaria clinics in Mae Sod and Mae Ramat, Thailand, and 626 were analyzed both by the PCR method and by conventional microscopy. Of these, 157 were positive both by microscopy and by PCR, while 297 were negative by both methods. PCR detected 131 samples that were negative by microscopy, and failed to detect 41 samples identified as positive by microscopy. All discordant samples were re-analyzed by microscopy and by PCR. Upon re-examination at a higher sensitivity, microscopy identified five additional positive cases, while six previously positive cases were found to be negative. This method of treating blood samples for PCR may also be useful in other diagnostic assays.


This thesis contributes to the literature on nonparametric additive error models with discrete explanatory variables. Although nonparametric methods have become very popular in recent decades, research on the impact of the discreteness of regressors is sparse. Main interest is in an unknown nonparametric conditional mean function in the presence of endogenous explanatory variables. Under endogeneity, the identifying power of the model depends on the number of support points of the discrete instrument relative to that of the regressor. Under non-parametric identification failure, we show that some linear functionals of the conditional mean function are point-identified, while some are completely unconstrained. A test for point identification is suggested. Observing that the simple nonparametric model can be interpreted as a linear regression, new approaches to testing for exogeneity of the regressor(s) are proposed. For the point-identified case, the test is an adapted version of the familiar Durbin-Wu-Hausman approach. This extends the work of Blundell and Horowitz (2007) to the case of discrete regressors and instruments. For the partially identified case, the Durbin-Wu-Hausman approach is not available, and the test statistic is derived from a constrained minimization problem. In this second case, the asymptotic null distribution is non-standard, and a simple device is suggested to compute the critical values in practical applications. Both tests are shown to be consistent, and a simulation study reveals that both have satisfactory finite-sample properties. The practicability of the suggested testing procedures is illustrated in applications to the modelling of returns to education.


In this paper, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) propounds to accomplish an image compression. A lossy technique is introduced through the PCA which is followed by SPIHT to enhance the compression performance. The Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) value of the reconstructed image acquired from the PCA methods is not found to be sufficient which can be further improved by another method called SPIHT. In this paper, a hybrid compression model is constructed to accomplish the benefits of both PCA and SPIHT. In the bio-medical research, compression becomes necessary due to transfer of patients images from one group of experts to other experts group. So that, the proposed image compression technique is useful for conserving the storage space needed for healthcare systems. Finally, it is concluded that the proposed PCA-SPIHT performs better than other recent state-of-the-art techniques with acceptable loss of image quality.


Abstract:In the most exciting results of linguistic criticism of poetic function in classical Chinese poetry, one sees an ideal integration of microattention to texts and macroinvestigation of grammars of Chinese poetics. The greatest contribution of this close reading of the sinologist brand is the laying bare—in plain analytical language—of the mechanism of Chinese poetics, long grudgingly guarded as some ineffable (zhike yihui buke yanchuan 只可意會不可言傳) secret.


Several Escherichia coli strains are pathogenic. Excessive and noncompliant use of antibiotics and disinfectants may cause bacteria to build resistance mechanisms. Forming biofilms cause eradicatation more difficult. An effective cleaning action required antibiofilm and antimicrobial agents that have different mechanisms with antibiotics and disinfectants. Bacteriophages are potential candidates because they meet these requirements. Bacteriophages produce specific polysaccharide lyase enzymes capable of degrading biofilm extracellular polymeric matrix. Study was aimed to determine concentrations of specific bacteriophage showing Escherichia coli antibiofilm activity was conducted. The results of this study showed that the most effective concentrations bacteriophage EC RTH 04 to prevent, inhibit, and degrade Escherichia coli EC 3 biofilms were 106, 102, dan 102 respectively.


In a meta-diagnostic evaluation of Daniel Paul Schreber's (1840-1911) case history the conclusion is that he suffered from an anxiety-blissfulness psychosis. This results from a comparison of Schreber's autobiographical remarks as published in his "Memoirs" on the one hand with his psychiatrist's remarks in his clinical files on the other. The main characteristics of his illness were extensive anxieties and ecstatic elation. Since Schreber's book in recent years has been published in English, French and Italian translations and a number of biographical details have surfaced, a new international discussion has developed. The Schreber case partly is being seen as prototype of schizophrenia, partly as the typical result of the drill of a father education. Both views can be refuted out of the available material. This paper concentrates exclusively on the clinical diagnostic question.


This paper undertakes a comprehensive review of the growing international literature on age‐friendly communities. It examines a range of approaches and identifies the key attributes associated with creating a sustainable environment for seniors. The authors critically evaluate emerging policy trends and models and suggest directions for future research attention. The discussion provides important information and insights for the development of ageing policy and planning in Australia.


screening for pre-eclampsia and the use of low dose aspirin (ASA) for the prevention of pre-eclampsia. Methods: A brief national-wide online survey was designed to assess the knowledge on pre-eclampsia screening and the usage of ASA for pre-eclampsia prevention. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the participants' demographic characteristics. Chi-square tests were used to assess differences in health professionals' knowledge on PE screening and ASA usage for PE prevention between provider groups to identify key knowledge gaps. Results: 336 respondents completed the survey: 55.1% OB/GYN,17.0% FP, 14.6%, MFM, 10.0% MW. Guidelines followed: SOGC 57.2%, ACOG 17%, NICE 7.5%, local guidelines 18.2%. Percentage of respondents who prescribe ASA for prevention of pre-eclampsia; 96.7%, prior to 16 weeks' gestation: 96.6%, recommended dose162 mg OD: 38% MFMs 61.2%, OB/GYN 48.6%, FP 45.6%, and MW 38.2%), recommended time of day to take ASA: bedtime 56.5%, recommended gestational age to stop ASA: 36 weeks gestation MFMs (87.8%), Ob/Gyns (71.9%), MWs (67.6%) and FPs (59.6%, p = 0.014). Conclusions: This study provides important information regarding the current practice among obstetric care providers in Canada with regard to pre-eclampsia screening and prevention. While most recommend ASA for the prevention of pre-eclampsia, the screening guidelines followed, ASA dosage and dosage schedules recommended, and timing of stopping of ASA were variable. This baseline knowledge will enable the focused development of educational materials for implementation of PE screening and prevention based on recent high grade evidence regarding predictive screening algorithms and optimal use of ASA for prevention.


This study reveals the fascinating history of the Polynesian word ake and its linguistic cognate a`e. It is a case study in Polynesian botanical taxonomy, as well as lexical and semantic change, with results that provide evidence for the pathways of human migration and interaction in ancient Polynesia. My original objective was to understand why indigenous scientists had given the Hawaiian name a`e to trees in Zanthoxylum (Rutaceae), Sapindus (Sapindaceae) and Xylosma (Salicaeae). I assumed that: the Hawaiian name a`e was given to these tree genera for discernible reasons, and not as a result of misidentification; indigenous scientists are as competent as modern taxonomists; indigenous names generally coincide with the modern post-Linnaean genus; and we humans tend to recognize the same groupings of like organisms in nature. When I discovered that the word ake also named Dodonaea (Sapindaceae) in several Polynesian island groups and Olearia (Asteraceae) in Aotearoa, my goal became much broader—to seek out new words from more destinations—to go boldly where ake had gone before (with apologies to Gene Roddenberry), and, ultimately, to determine whether and how these words might be related. To do this, I gathered ake/a`e words for fifteen Polynesian languages from dictionaries, combined them with other indigenous names for each plant genus with an ake/a`e name, and found additional ake/a`e words using comparative linguistic techniques. Semantic reconstruction was accomplished by integrating data regarding the morphology, characteristic properties, distribution, and use of species in the ake genera, the well-accepted pathways of Polynesian migration, and the effects of Polynesian colonization and cultural hegemony. Results indicate that Polynesian scientists recognized the same genera as modern botany, but named them according to either their morphology or cultural use. Once a plant genus was named ake or a`e, the name was applied consistently to the same genus, until the Polynesians travelled to a new land where the previously-named genus no longer occurred. At these points, the word ake was given to other things that were 'scented' or made of 'very hard wood,' reflecting the use of the ake trees in the Society Islands or Marquesas, respectively. In this way, the word was able to "live long and prosper" in very different biogeophysical environments in Polynesia. [Holistic: characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.]


ABSTRACT In this study, 77 clinical and 67 oyster Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates from North America were examined for biochemical profiles, serotype, and the presence of potential virulence factors (tdh, trh, and type III secretion system [T3SS] genes). All isolates were positive for oxidase, indole, and glucose fermentation, consistent with previous reports. The isolates represented 35 different serotypes, 9 of which were shared by clinical and oyster isolates. Serotypes associated with pandemic strains (O1:KUT, O1:K25, O3:K6, and O4:K68) were observed for clinical isolates, and 7 (9%) oyster isolates belonged to serotype O1:KUT. Of the clinical isolates, 27% were negative for tdh and trh, while 45% contained both genes. Oyster isolates were preferentially selected for the presence of tdh and/or trh; 34% contained both genes, 42% had trh but not tdh, and 3% had tdh but not trh. All but 1 isolate (143/144) had at least three of the four T3SS1 genes examined. The isolates lacking both tdh and trh contained no T3SS2α or T3SS2β genes. All clinical isolates positive for tdh and negative for trh possessed all T3SS2α genes, and all isolates negative for tdh and positive for trh possessed all T3SS2β genes. The two oyster isolates containing tdh but not trh possessed all but the vopB2 gene of T3SS2α, as reported previously. In contrast to the findings of previous studies, all strains examined that were positive for both tdh and trh also carried T3SS2β genes. This report identifies the serotype as the most distinguishing feature between clinical and oyster isolates. Our findings raise concerns about the reliability of the tdh, trh, and T3SS genes as virulence markers and highlight the need for more-detailed pathogenicity investigations of V. parahaemolyticus.


BACKGROUND: CD44 is an extracellular matrix molecule that has hyaluronan as one of its principal ligands. The interaction between CD44 and its ligand initiates activation and migration of endothelial cells. Migration of endothelial cells holds importance in neovascularization during cancer metastasis where new blood vessels are formed in order to nurture metastasized cancerous tissue. Studies on bovine endothelial cells showed that greater degree of migrations occurred with addition of lower molecular weight hyaluronic acid fragments (HAF) than the whole molecule of hyaluronan (HA). Our study included addition of heparin to the seedings of HA and HAF at concentrations of 10μg/ml, 100μg/ml, 250μg/ml and 500μg/ml to endothelial cells and measuring the degrees of migrations obtained on migration assay. METHODS: HUVECs were isolated from umbilical cords obtained from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. The cells were standardized to 2000 cells/ml and cultured in co-star well plates and were seeded with HA and HAF at concentrations of 10μg/ml, 100μg/ml, 250μg/ml and 500μg/ml. Basal level of control were resting cells and PMA treated cells were positive control. Migration assay was done on which the endothelial cells were embedded. After treatments, the migrations were measured and compared. Expression of CD44 was done using SDS-PAGE and Western Blot analysis. RESULTS: Heparin seems to play a role in the activation and migration of endothelial cells and their sustenance and viability in the medium. In Heparin M199 medium, the endothelial cells showed greater migrations when seeded with HAF than with HA. At 100μg/ml heparinised endothelial cells showed greater degree of migration with HAF than HA added at the same 100μg/ml. In heparin-free medium, the primary HUVECs migrated more at 10μg/ml for cells seeded with HA while they migrated more with HAF at a concentration of 250μg/ml. SDS–PAGE and western blot analysis showed CD44 molecules on the primary HUVECs. CONCLUSION: The assays were set up and studied in duplicate. Further analysis should be done in order to substantiate the role of heparin in the migration of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells following signaling with CD44 and HA. This might hold promise for therapeutic research into cancer metastasis and neovascularisation.


The Postmasburg Biobash took place from 23-26 Septemnber 2016. The mining of iron ore is the dominant economic activity in Postmasburg area of the Northern Cape. The Gamagara Mining Corridor which stretches from Postmasburg to Hotazel is now in the development stage with significant investments and rapid expansions currently taking place. It is also an area short of biodiversity data upon which to base planning decisions. Over the weekend of the BioBash, 64 full protocol atlas checklists were completed for 55 pentads. Of these, 31 were first checklists for pentads. The Postmasburg BioBash resulted in SABAP2 coverage for the Northern Cape increasing by 0.6%. A total of 80 Virtual Museum records were also collected. Apparent range extensions were noted for a number of bird and reptile species.


Nowadays, the importance of sustainability is persuading novel shifts in everyday life. This diversity makes it significant and challenging for sustainability to be quantified and measured. While the existence of perfect sustainability indicators is relatively unreasonable, they have important pragmatic roles in quantification and measurement by bridging sustainability's three pillars. Information system (IS) and sustainability are popular research areas, which clearly reflect the divergent and multidimensional role of sustainability. Despite this importance, defining the right sustainability indicators for IS is imperceptible. In this paper, we have identified sustainability indicators for IS using previous theoretical frameworks where universal design (UD) and its advance concept were used. Followed by this, a framework of IS sustainability indicators were proposed. The indicators were shown in the form of a design space arrangement, which could play significant roles in assessing sustainability for IS.


Professor Bryan Wildenthal makes an impressive contribution to the debate about whether ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment acted to "incorporate" the Bill of Rights so that its protections are enforceable against the states. His signal achievement is to develop a metric that facilitates making a judgment about whether the states had sufficient notice of the intent of at least some in Congress to incorporate the Bill of Rights into Section 1. He concludes that the states ratified with adequate notice of incorporation. In George Thomas's reply to Wildenthal, he reviews the evidence and concludes that it is insufficient to meet Wildenthal's metric and thus is insufficient to show that the states knew of congressional intent to incorporate. This does not, for Thomas, end the debate because the evidence is also insufficient to show that the states were not aware of the intent to incorporate. For Thomas, the historical question remains a riddle.


Experiments were performed to investigate the fluorescence of phosphors when excited by discharges in rare gases and mixtures of them as a possible substitute for mercury vapor. A special tubular discharge lamp was built that contained a glass strip upon which numerous patches of fluorescent material were painted. Measurements were made on the brightness of the individual patches as the rare gases, mixtures of them, pressures, and tube currents were varied. From a large amount of such data the following conclusions could be drawn: (1) All phosphors showed fluorescence to some degree to all gases or mixtures and operating conditions but the efficiencies were low compared to mercury excitation. Zinc silicate phosphors were always the brightest. The resultant light depended upon the glow from the gas as well as upon the light from the phosphor. (2) Highest efficiencies were obtained with the rare gases at low pressures. The shapes of the curves indicated that resonance radiation was the principal agent in producing fluorescence. In pure gases the optimum pressures were too low to be usable in a commercial lamp. (3) With certain gas mixtures the high light output of low pressures could be carried over to higher pressures. Argon, krypton, or xenon mixed with helium or neon gas showed this desirable characteristic, and is analogous to mercury vapor of a few microns pressure in a gaseous atmosphere of argon at several mm pressure. (4) The highest efficiency is attained with neon gas but the light is predominately the orange-red glow from neon. Neon might become a competitor of mercury only in pink fluorescent lamps. (5) Several interesting relationships associated with the atomic numbers of the rare gases were found.


Noncovalent molecular imprinting of a synthetic polymer with the herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid has been achieved in the presence of the polar solvents methanol and water. Formation of the prearranged complex relied on hydrophobic and ionic interactions between the template and the functional monomer 4-vinylpyridine. The polymer obtained binds the original template with an appreciable selectivity over structurally related compounds. The potential use of micrometer-sized imprinted polymer particles as the recognition element in a radioligand binding assay for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid is demonstrated.


In this paper 85 cases of relapsing Parotiditis are presented, with the aim to ascertain the degree of accuracy provided by treatments with vitamin B complex, anti-inflammatory drugs or catchers of free radicals. Perusal of the bibliography and proposal of considering the malady divided in two stages. The first one would be characterized for metabolic alterations of the saccharoid cycle with scarce yielding of energy (ATP). Therefore failure of the Na/L bomb, which phenomenon is linked to an enzymatic protein deficiency and/or coenzyme of the B complex vitamins, being this condition provoked for a dietetic deficiencies, intestinal malabsorption due to alcoholic oedema, excessive expenditure of energy among drug-addicts, anemia, diabetes, etc. From this moment on appears the second stage--the inflammatory--with the whole metabolic and biochemical courtship of structural and functional irreversible damages.


This paper proposes a conceptual design for a distributed system of very simple robots capable of performing a useful realworld mission such as mapping the interior of a building overnight with a swarm of possibly hundreds of cockroach-sized robots. Presentation of this system concept follows an initial discussion of strategies for developing distributed robotic systems. Success is dependent on making good decisions in selecting appropriate applications, in system design, and in executing the system development process. Each robot includes basic mobility, crude odometry, contact or near-contact object/obstacle detection sensors, an omnidirectional beacon (probably IR), and a beacon detection sensor that can simultaneously detect multiple beacons on other robots and measure the bearing of each to less than one degree. Beacon triangulation (combined with knowledge of some baseline distance) allows the determination of the position of any robot (and any object next to it) relative to the others. Occlusion of a robot's beacon indicates the presence of an intervening object, while lack of occlusion identifies a "ray" of free space. Clever deployment of large numbers of robots will permit mapping of walls and objects, and can also support the detection and localization of intruders moving within the space. The object sensor can be very short range and, therefore, hopefully very simple and cheap, perhaps implemented as an array of whiskers. The beacon sensor is more complex, but it can be completely tuned to the detection of the cooperating beacon. Thus, the robots need tackle no perception tasks whatsoever. The system development begins with the implementation of an initial baseline system, in which each robot is controlled by a central coordinating element via a high bandwidth communications link. This initial effort will develop and validate behaviors and algorithms, assess sensitivity to sensor error, determine communications and processing requirements, and generally expedite the system's evolution into a fully distributed system.


This paper investigates how robots may emerge a lexicon to communicate complex meanings about actions such as `I am going to the red target' using simple (one-word) utterances. The main issue of the paper concerns the way these complex meanings represent the actions that are performed. It is argued that the meaning of these utterances may be represented without the need for categorising a complex flow of sensorimotor data. To illustrate the point, a simulation is presented in which robots develop such a communication system. The paper concludes by confirming that it is well possible to construct such a lexicon once robots have a number of basic sensorimotor skills available.


The Republic of Kazakhstan was a colonial territory of the Russian Empire in the late 19th-early 20th century. Like many peoples, who were oppressed by metropolitan country, Kazakhs strived towards independence. In this regard, there was a new pro-opposition Kazakh intelligentsia formed under the bourgeois revolutions in Europe and committed to the spread of liberal ideas. In this term, they begin to create patriotic publications, which spread the ideas of social equality and independence. Thus, the purpose of this article is to consider the Kazakh printed press in the late 19th – early 20th century. This will enable to trace the socio-political sentiment of the time. The results show that the Kazakh printed press was under substantial censorship; its leaders were sent into exile. However, the revolutionary sentiments' growth occurs the growth in printed press that cannot be stopped by authorities for any longer. They provided the idea of social change, transition from nomadism to agriculture. In the Soviet, there is an oppression of Kazakh printed press – the Communist Party creates a hard censorship regime. Despite the repression, the ideas provided in the press of that time had a significant influence on Kazakh state system formation.


Training deep neural networks (DNN) with noisy labels is challenging since DNN can easily memorize inaccurate labels, leading to poor generalization ability. Recently, the meta-learning based label correction strategy is widely adopted to tackle this problem via identifying and correcting potential noisy labels with the help of a small set of clean validation data. Although training with purified labels can effectively improve performance, solving the meta-learning problem inevitably involves a nested loop of bi-level optimization between model weights and hyper-parameters (i.e., label distribution). As compromise, previous methods resort to a coupled learning process with alternating update. In this paper, we empirically find such simultaneous optimization over both model weights and label distribution can not achieve an optimal routine, consequently limiting the representation ability of backbone and accuracy of corrected labels. From this observation, a novel multi-stage label purifier named DMLP is proposed. DMLP decouples the label correction process into label-free representation learning and a simple meta label purifier, In this way, DMLP can focus on extracting discriminative feature and label correction in two distinctive stages. DMLP is a plug-and-play label purifier, the purified labels can be directly reused in naive end-to-end network retraining or other robust learning methods, where state-of-the-art results are obtained on several synthetic and real-world noisy datasets, especially under high noise levels. Code is available at https://github.com/yuanpengtu/DMLP.


During development of vertebrate cerebellum, a multiple innervation of each Purkinje cell (PC) by several climbing fibers (CFs) (Crepel, F., J. Mariani, and N. Delhaye-Bouchaud (1976) J. Neurobiol. 7: 567–578; Mariani, J., and J. -P. Changeux (1981) J. Neurosci. 1: 696–702) precedes the one-to-one relationship characteristic of the adult stage. In the present study, the spontaneous activity of inferior olivary neurons (whose axons constitute the CFs) and the spontaneous activity elicited in PCs by the CF system were investigated in developing rats. Extracellular unitary recordings were obtained in medial and dorsal accessory olives from 249 neurons from 1-day-old to adult animals. The mean discharge rate varied from 0.19 spike . sec-1 on day 1 to 1.69 spikes . sec-1 on postnatal day 21 and 1.78 spikes . sec-1 in adult animals. Although the spontaneous discharge was low, interspike interval histograms were constructed for a sample of cells. Their modal value varied from a mean value of 660 msec on day 1 to 250 msec in the adult with, however, marked variations at each age in the young animals. Intracellular recordings from PCs were performed in rats ranging in age from 5 to 15 postnatal days. The spontaneous (i.e., asynchronous) discharge of excitatory postsynaptic potentials mediated neurons at the same age. The main results are the following: (1) In PCs innervated by one CF, the mean frequency of CF-EPSPs was similar to the discharge of inferior olivary neurons; (2) in PCs innervated by several CFs, the mean discharge of CF-EPSPs was much higher than the discharge of inferior olivary neurons; (3) as a whole, the CF-mediated activity of PCs decreased from day 5 to day 11, while the multiple innervation disappeared; from then on, the activity increased with the maturation of inferior olivary neurons until adult values. The ratio of the frequencies of CF-EPSPs and olivary neurons discharges gives an approximate mean number of CF collaterals per PC at each age; it varied from 3.6 on day 5 to values close to 1 on day 11 and the following days.


The Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), which ventilates most of the deepest basins of the world ocean, has shown widespread warming in recent decades that contributes inter alia to the global thermosteric sea level rise. More than half of the AABW is supplied by outflow from the Weddell Sea where it attains its characteristics, in particular its high density, by heat loss of its source water masses to the atmosphere and to the fringing ice shelves and by influx of locally formed water masses such as the high-salinity shelf water shaped by brine release from freezing sea ice. Dense shelf waters cascade down the continental slope along the southern and western rim of the Weddell Sea, mix with the modified source waters and thus replenish the Weddell Sea Bottom (WSBW) and Deep Water (WSDW), precursor of the AABW. The major source water mass, hence conduit of heat for the interior Weddell Sea, is the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) advected from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) with the southward oriented eastern limb of the Weddell Gyre. During its advection, the CDW is sucked upward by divergence in the large-scale mean wind-field to about 200 m in the central Weddell Sea, where it is termed Warm Deep Water (WDW).
Progress in the understanding of this twisted transformation of water masses is obtained from a combination of three different observational approaches. First, a gridded data set of upper-ocean hydrographic properties in the Weddell Gyre derived by objective mapping of under-ice Argo float profiles; this data set reveals for instance the WDW inflow, its transport with the Weddell Gyre, and the erosion of its core thermohaline properties during circulation. Second, multi-annual time series obtained from repeat deep CTD stations, which demonstrate a significant, approximate linear warming trend in the Weddell Sea deep water masses below 700 m depth of roughly 2 mK per annum during the past 25 years. Third, long-term mooring records of velocity and temperature in the Weddell outflow regime on the northwestern continental slope, which reveal sizable intra-seasonal and seasonal fluctuations in the WSBW plume, and a hardly significant multi-annual trend which indicates rather a cooling than a warming and therefore differs from the significant warming seen in the deep waters of the Weddell interior.


Before taking advantage of the growing opportunities of the Chinese market, investors will do well to understand the strong influence of Chinese culture on the way businesses operate, how they govern themselves, and how they interact with each other. The author (David Smith) identifies two key cultural and sociological issues of particular interest guanxi (relationships and networks) and mianzi (face). He analyzes their most common implications for investors in areas such as related-party transactions, board composition and deliberations, and shareholder engagement.


The parasitic flowering plants Striga gesnerioides (Willd.) Vatke and Alectra vogelii (Benth.) are formidable cowpea production constraints in the West and Central African savanna. The two parasites cause substantial yield reduction in cowpea in the dry savannas. A field study was conducted to screen some of the cowpea breeding lines that have been developed for resistance to Striga and Alectra under natural infestation. Results showed significant variations in the susceptibility of genotypes to infestations.  The cowpea lines B301, IT03K-338-1 and IT99K-573-2-1 were consistently free of emerged Striga and Alectra shoots in both years while IT98K-1092-1 and IT97K-205-8 were resistant to Striga but supported some emerged Alectra shoots. Other lines supported varying numbers of emerged Striga and Alectra shoots. The combined effect of Striga and Alectra resulted in low yield of the susceptible cultivars compared with most of the resistant cowpea lines. The differential response to Striga and Alectra confirmed that the genes controlling these parasites are non-allelic and independent of each other. A strong negative correlation was observed between grain yields and Striga and Alectra counts. The cowpea breeding lines identified with a high level of resistance to both Striga and Alectra infestation indicate the possibility of breeding cowpea varieties that combine resistance to both parasites.

 Key words: Cowpea, Striga, Alectra, Comparative responses, screening, breeding lines, genotypes.


Design by Contract (DBC) is an oft-cited, but rarely followed, programming practice that focuses on writing formal specifications first, and writing code that fulfills those specifications second. The development of static analysis tools over the past several years has made it possible to fully embrace DBC in Java systems by writing, type checking, and consistency checking rich behavioral specifications for Java before writing any code. This paper discusses a DBC-based, verification-centric software development process for Java that integrates the Business Object Notation (BON), the Java Modeling Language, and several associated tools including the BON compiler BONc, the ESC/Java2 static checker, a runtime assertion checker, and a specification-based unit test generator. This verification-centric process, reinforced by its rich open source tool support, is one of the most advanced, concrete, open, practical, and usable processes available today for rigorously designing and developing software systems.


Anti-gender groups defend heteronormative and traditionalist views of family values and include both conservative Christian and far-right political actors. Moreover, these groups often rely on digital communication. Through a qualitative analysis of videos, tweets, and press releases produced during the World Congress of Families (WCF), an anti-gender event held in 2019 in the Italian city of Verona, this article discusses anti-gender movements' digital communication as an example of online populism. The analysis suggests that the WCF used the Internet to enhance affective communications and connections among different religious and political actors. In particular, speakers at the event emotionally articulated antagonism between pro-family actors and those allegedly against family values, enacting the populist trope of "the people" against "the elites," and also embedding anti-feminist, racist, and anti-migration discourses. The article shows how a focus on Christianity and digital hypermediated communication can better help to understand some characteristics of contemporary far-right populist politics.


In THE TWO VIRTUALS, Alex Reid shows that to understand the relationship between our traditional, humanistic realm of thought, subjectivity, and writing and the emerging virtual space of networked media, we need to recognize the common material space they share. The book investigates this shared space through a study of two, related conceptions of the virtual. The first virtual is quite familiar; it is the virtual reality produced by modern computing and networks. The second, less familiar, virtual comes from philosophy. It lies in the periphery of more familiar postmodern concepts, such as deconstruction, the rhizome, and simulation. In drawing the connection between the two virtuals of philosophy and networked media, Reid draws upon research in computers and writing, rhetoric and composition, new media studies, postmodern and critical theory, psychology, economics, anthropology, and robotics. ABOUT THE AUTHOR ALEX REID is an associate professor and the director of Professional Writing at the State University of New York College at Cortland. His scholarship focuses on the relationship between writing, pedagogy, and emerging technologies and has appeared in journals such as Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, Theory & Event, and Culture Machine, as well as in collections such as Culture Shock and the Practice of the Profession: Training the Next Wave in Rhetoric And Composition, and Techknowledgies: New Cultural Imaginaries in the Humanities, Arts, & TechnoSciences. He maintains a blog, Digital Digs, on the issues of new media, writing, and higher education at alexreid.typepad.com.