We are developing mixed-initiative systems that provide users with flexible control over evolving processes. For such systems to be feasible, both users and automated agents must be able to operate at multiple levels of abstraction. We are designing mixed initiative systems organized around shared task models to achieve this multi-level task sharing. These task models will allow both human and automated agents to view the ongoing state, to control tasks and to project future requirements. Our task models will have semantics, allowing a suitable interpreter to directly execute tasks for users. We discuss this approach and our initial implementation of a system that assists users in proposal preparation.


In the course of the 1980's studies on domestic sources of Canadian foreign policy have generated analytical propositions which, to this day, have not been submitted to empirical investigation. This paper presents the results of a case study on the domestic sources of Canadian foreign policy towards Central America for the period 1979-1987. The theoretical propositions underlying this study are taken from previous studies made by C. Pratt, J. Rochlin and S. Baranyi. By comparing the demands made by interest groups with the behavior, as observed, of the federal government, the authors show a relatively weak adequation between demands made by counter-consensus groups and governmental action towards Central America. The study also demonstrates a relatively minor interest on the part of the business groups in Canadian foreign policy towards Central America.


Despite the fact that earnings associated with selling hunting leases could significantly contribute to landowners' incomes, only a small minority of them allow access on their lands for a fee. Based on a sample survey of Mississippi state landowners, we analyzed landowners' willingness to participate in supplying leases as well as factors influencing lease revenue per fee acre. While landowners' decision to allow hunting access and factors influencing lease revenue per acre were jointly modeled consistent with Heckman's analysis of sample selectivity bias, the hunting lease revenue function was specified in accordance with Rosen's hedonic pricing theory. Empirical results showed landowners' concerns about control over their land, loss of privacy and damage to property, and accident liability insurance reduced their willingness to allow hunting access; and, in contrast, increase in total land holding, race and residential location increased the probability of participation. With regards to factors explaining differences in lease revenue per fee acre, analysis showed that location, expertise in managing fee hunting enterprise, provision of services, and certain wildlife habitats account for systematic variations in lease revenues. These findings have implications for landowners' management of their lands, the design of extension programs, and public agencies engaged in the provision of natural resource based recreation.


This thesis offers five self-contained essays on the need of institutions and their design. Each essay constitutes a chapter, the first of which offers a mathematical model showing the importance of external institutions for the existence of a society. More specifically, it is an extension of a model dealing with strategic situations in which players share an asset. In the original model, both players have means to eliminate the opponent with some probability and, in case of successfully eliminating him, gain the full share of the asset which was previously shared. Only after introducing damage in case of attacking but failing to eliminate the opponent and discounting of future periods is it rational for the players to abstain from attacking. The extension of the model brought forward in the present analysis limits the possibility to gain the opponents share of the asset. It is shown that the introduction of imperfect abilities to gain the opponent's share increases the probability of remaining peaceful. This result is interpreted as showing the need for external institutions.
The second chapter analyzes a specific concept of morality which may be regarded as playing the role of an institution in the aforementioned sense. To be more precise, one of the building blocks of Adam Smith's moral philosophy is analyzed, namely the impartial spectator. Smith apparently introduces the impartial spectator as personification of a value system. This hypothetical person is "the man within the breast", a synonym of our conscience if you wish. He constantly observes our conduct and makes us feel bad if we fail to act according to his standards. Simple as it may seem, Smith's impartial spectator is interpreted in rather different ways. For instance, some scholars argue that he is an epitome of a universal value system. In other words, all humans share the same impartial spectator. Others regard him as purely individual, implying that each person has "his own" impartial spectator or value system. Still others regard the impartial spectator as personification of the values of a specific society. The present analysis tries to disentangle these different meanings and find out where their justification may be found.
The third chapter of the analysis takes up the idea that, within a society, its members observe other members. In addition to the mere observing, information gained by observing others is also communicated within the society. Hence, a social group may provide a frame for signaling and exchanging information about and via others. As an increasing amount of literature on signaling implies, the quality of signals may also contribute to the economic success of the respective group. In the present analysis it is shown that the quality of signals, and hence the economic success of the group, may depend on the size of the group. However, there is a trade-off. On the one hand, a smaller group may provide a higher signal value. On the other hand, a larger group may provide more information and trading opportunities. It seems that there should be an economically optimal group size. As evidence for this hypothesis it is referred to the economic success of religious groups in the past.
In the philosophy of Adam Smith legal institutions evolve due to the imperfections of the natural institutions, as was briefly mentioned above. Chapters four and five of this thesis discuss this argument. Moral attitudes and social norms give rise to punishment. In other words, the enforcement of values and norms is set through via punishment. However, for Smith punishment is not based on a welfare analysis but the resentment felt by those affected and those watching an unjust (or in another manner improper) action. Put differently, punishment arises out of passions or sentiments. Yet, punishment may also be regarded as a necessary instrument in order to prevent misbehavior in various forms, though it remains based on emotions or passions. But passions are easily distorted and punishment may hence fail to fulfill this preventing role in an adequate manner. At some times, for instance, the wrong people may be punished, at other times punishment may be too harsh.
In order to correct for these problems the right to punish is passed on to more impartial, external institutions such as legal institutions. But although legal institutions are "external" to a certain degree, they are not completely independent from the natural institutions. In order to function well, legal institutions have to respect the moral values and social norms of the society they are to regulate.
In the two papers which constitute the fourth part of the thesis, it is argued that a jury system may offer a potential for advantages over other forms of legal settlement. This advantage occurs in the form that a jury may include the "social perspective" into the verdict in a better way. However, this advantage faces the disadvantage of unintended social dynamics within the jury, which may distort the verdict. As one of the main factors affecting the advantage or disadvantage, homogeneity of the society and the jury is identified. A homogeneous society may, with higher probability than a heterogeneous society, bring about a homogeneous jury. On the one hand, the positive side, homogeneous juries may communicate well and hence overcome partiality of the individual jurors. Also, a homogeneous jury can rather easily agree upon a verdict. On the other hand, the negative side, homogeneous groups tend to polarize due to group dynamics. Further, the "argument pool" is limited. This implies that there is a greater chance that relevant information is not taken into account as compared to heterogeneous groups.


A PIVOTAL balance for the design of disease control programmes is to achieve widescale benefits for populations based on regions/countries while minimising financial and operational burdens for individual producers. An assumption, formal or implicit, is that control programmes are periodically monitored to amend policy and procedures in accordance with changes in socioepidemiological factors. Principal control strategies for bovine tuberculosis (TB) include antemortem testing (primarily via tuberculin skin test and interferon-γ release assays), slaughter surveillance, isolation of affected herds, slaughter of infected animals or entire affected herds (depopulation or 'stamping out'), movement control and movement testing policies.

The 'singleton protocol' was initiated in 1996 by the Irish Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to address the shortfall in specificity of the single intradermal comparative cervical test (SICCT) for bovine TB. With the SICCT, Mycobacterium bovis purified protein derivative (PPD) and Mycobacterium avium PPD are administered intradermally at separate sites in the mid-cervical region of cattle. Seventy-two hours later, injection sites are measured for the level of reaction (induration) to provide a presumptive diagnosis concerning bovine TB infection status of the animal. As applied to cattle in Ireland, the SICCT has excellent relative specificity (ie, approximately 99.8 to 99.9 per cent [O'Reilly and MacClancy 1975]). As the test is not 100 per cent specific, a small fraction of reactors are falsely identified as M bovis -infected. The 'singleton protocol', as described by Murray and others (2012) in a paper summarised on p 516 of this issue, provides an opportunity for early restoration of health status for herds that meet epidemiological and test criteria as a singleton herd. Through analysis of postmortem results of cattle originating from herds with a single SICCT reactor, Murray and others …


Stretchable electrodes are essential components for wearable electronics. However, the stretchability of the electrodes is often achieved with the sacrifice of electronic conductivity along with huge variation in resistance. In this work, stretchable metallic glass electrodes (MG-electrodes) that have both high electronic conductivity and excellent electronic stability are developed. The stretchability of the MG-electrode is significantly improved by shrinking MG films deposited on substrates with pre-strain. We demonstrate two types of MG-electrodes. One is a transparent MG-electrode for uniaxial stretching, and the other with better conductivity is for biaxial stretching. Compared with previous electrodes, the MG-electrodes exhibit a combination of high conductivity and negligible resistivity change (<5%), making them promising candidates for interconnections. Along with the excellent corrosion resistance of metallic glasses, the electrodes may be used in harsh environments.


Background: The aim of the study is to investigate whether the gender composition in workplaces is related to long-term sickness absence (LSA). We start off with Kanter's theory on ''tokenism,'' suggesting an increased risk of stress among minority groups (tokens), which, in turn, might increase the risk of ill health and LSA. Methods: The dataset consists of information obtained from the Swedish level of Living Survey (LNU) and the Swedish Establishment Survey (APU), linked to register-based data from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. The longitudinal data is representative for the Swedish population and consists of 496 women and 566 men, aged 20—55 at baseline. Our study group consisted of employed persons in 1991 and we analyze, by means of piecewise constant intensity regressions, the first entry into LSA with a follow-up period of nine years. Results: Compared with women in gender-integrated workplaces, women's risk of LSA is most elevated at both extremely male-dominated (0—20% females) and extremely female-dominated workplaces (80—100% females), although the result among women in the most male-dominated group did not reach statistical significance at the 5% level. Men's risk seems less varied by gender composition. Conclusions: The present study suggests that the gender composition in the workplace has an impact on the risk of LSA, especially among women. Our findings lend no support for Kanter's theory on the effects of being a token. Most likely, women's and men's different status positions have an impact on the different associations found.


In all mining projects, transportation costs influence net profit, justifying eco nomic feasibility studies before transport fleet acquisition or replacement. These stud ies can provide the best loading and hauling equipment combination to meet production demands at lower costs by evaluating the alternatives available in the market. When there is more than one solution with similar costs and technical specifica tions, decision-making technics were considered to be used. Herein is presented the case of selecting hauling trucks used to transport run of mine (ROM) ore at a bauxite mining company, located in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, using the Multi-Criteria Decision Aid methodology (MCDA).


The IEEE Standards Association is one of the world's leaders in establishing a wide breadth of standards, especially those related to communications standards. This keynote address will describe: IEEE-SA's role and the scope and significance of its activities in standards setting; the position that the IEEE Communications Society is playing in the arena; and the means by which standards projects and working groups come into an existence. The speaker invites individuals or corporate entities to become involved in proposing new initiatives.


Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a global public health problem that imposes negative effects on human quality of life, especially in pregnant women and children. Silkworm feces extract (SFE) has been used for improving renal anemia of maintenance hemodialysis patients. In this study, we aimed to explore the preventive efficacy of SFE toward iron deficiency anemia in rats and clarify the underlying mechanisms. Our study demonstrated that SFE treatment improved hematological parameters, decreased TIBC, increased serum iron, transferrin saturation, liver iron and spleen iron of IDA rats. Western blot analysis showed that SFE upregulated iron-regulatory proteins (IRPs) expression and downregulated ferritin expression in livers. Furthermore, SFE inhibited hepcidin expression and increased ferroportin1 expression by blocking JAK2/STAT3, BMP6/SMAD, and HFE/TfR2 pathways. And SFE also attenuated hepcidin expression induced by IL-6 and BMP6 in HepG2 cells. These findings suggested that SFE may be an efficient oral iron supplement to ameliorate iron deficiency anemia.


We investigate the relationship between the transparency of loan loss provision disclosures and the provisioning practices of privately held banks. We study a unique change in disclosure regulation under German banking law which introduces mandatory disclosures of loan loss provisions. Using proprietary data provided by the national supervisor, we are able to observe provisioning practices before and after disclosure becomes mandatory. Our findings suggest that bank managers use loan loss provisions to a lesser extent for income smoothing once they are required to disclose their accounting choice. At the same time, provisions become more informative about future loan losses. The change comes in the absence of capital market pressure and highlights the role of depositors and public pressure in the monitoring of bank managers. We exploit cross-sectional variation and show that the change is associated with differences in the local information environment and banks' funding structure.


The choice of parallel programming models and languages is a major factor in program performance and programmer productivity in HPC. However, evaluation of their relative merits is usually done based on conventional wisdom and subjective beliefs. We present a quantitative approach to evaluate such hypotheses statistically and validate them with empirical data. We apply this approach to compare two languages representing the message passing (MPI) and shared memory programming (UPC) paradigms. We formulate hypothesis tests for comparing the performance and productivity of these two models and evaluate them with data from observational studies of HPC programmers. We present and analyze several results, some of which are statistically significant, that demonstrate the promise of empirical evaluation in HPC development.


The term 'wandering spleen' refers to an abnormal hypermobility of the spleen, which may be congenital or acquired. The absence or abnormal laxity of splenic ligaments combined with an abnormally long and mobile vascular pedicle predispose to complications such as torsion of the splenic pedicle, infarction and splenic vein thrombosis. The clinical presentation of such disease is highly variable. In this case, we describe an asymptomatic case of wandering spleen in high thrombotic risk patients with cavernoma of splenic vein and infarction of the spleen. Physical examination was normal except the enlarged and no tender consistency spleen palpable at left iliac fossa. Ultrasonography revealed enlarged spleniform mass below its normal position suggesting vascular impairment and subsequently has been confirmed by colour Doppler ultrasound and computed tomography. The family history was positive for ischemic thrombotic vascular diseases and the screening for thrombotic risk has revealed hyperhomocysteinemia, thrombophilic homozygous gene mutations for factor V (H1299R) and MTHFR (C677T). For high thrombotic risk, prophylaxis postsplenectomy was suggested according to the international recommendations with subcutaneous low molecular weight heparin, associated with a preventive treatment with acetyl salicylic acid and folic acid along with B-vitamin. This case report may be helpful for clinicians involved in the care of splenectomized patients, because it has shown the importance of an appropriate pre and postoperative antithrombotic management to reduce as soon as possible the risk of thrombotic events in such patients after splenectomy.


This study advances the literature by addressing the issues surrounding Sunday trading and provides in-depth insights into family-run small and medium size businesses (SMEs), employees and consumers attitudes and perception towards Sunday Trading. The results of semi-structured interviews found immense support for extending Sunday Trading hours and highlighted the socio-economic change. The arguments against Sunday Trading were found to be redundant. Sunday is the second busiest shopping day of the week. Lack of experienced Sunday workforce was found to be a major concern. Non-resident parents and parents with small children were amongst the supporters for reforming Sunday Trading act. Sunday is the new Saturday. The findings justify recent trends towards the creation of more pleasurable shopping environments that offer family activities to entice the customers into stores. Finally, more efforts should be made to understand and cater for the needs of the shoppers who believe reforming the Sunday Trading law is a necessity of today's modern Britain. The findings demonstrate that Sunday Trading offers different benefits to consumers, employees and SMEs. The findings provide important implications for policy makers and practitioners.


OBJECTIVE
To test the hypothesis that footrests contribute to active control of sitting balance.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional group study.

SETTING
Rehabilitation center.

PARTICIPANTS
Ten persons with complete low thoracic (T9-12) spinal cord injury (SCI), 10 persons with complete lumbar (L1-5) SCI, and 10 matched able-bodied controls.

INTERVENTION
An elastically suspended footrest.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Reaching distance, time needed to perform a bimanual forward-reaching movement, center of pressure displacement, and muscle activity.

RESULTS
Controls performed the forward-reaching movement slower and with less forward acceleration of the center of mass (COM) in the chair with the elastic footrest. Furthermore, they revealed a typical change in muscle activity patterns when the solid footrest was replaced by the elastic one. Persons with SCI performed the forward-reaching movement equally fast in both footrest conditions, but those with lumbar SCI showed less forward acceleration of the COM, whereas persons with thoracic SCI revealed more forward acceleration of the COM in the chair with the elastic footrest. Muscle activity patterns in persons with SCI did not indicate alternative muscle use through possible compensations or reflex activity.

CONCLUSIONS
Regarding wheelchair design, footrest condition does not seem to affect the range in which manual activities of daily living can be performed, but it does affect how they are performed.


Abstract:Dr. Holly Christopher Lewis is an immunologist, public health activist, and aspiring surgeon. She sat down with queer writer, comedian, and activist Ocean Eerie to talk about her work in Atlanta as an activist and medical professional—and the ways that these roles overlap and intersect. Dr. Lewis begins work with the Duke University General Surgery Residency in July 2019, having completed her MD and PhD at Emory University. Pronouns: she/her. Ocean Eerie holds an MA in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Seattle. Pronouns: they/she. This interview has been edited and condensed for publication.


Abstract Variation in behavior within marine and terrestrial species can influence the functioning of the ecosystems they inhabit. However, the contribution of social behavior to ecosystem function remains underexplored. Many coral reef fish species provide potentially insightful models for exploring how social behavior shapes ecological function because they exhibit radical intraspecific variation in sociality within a shared habitat. Here, we provide an empirical exploration on how the ecological function of a shoaling surgeonfish (Acanthurus triostegus) may differ from that of solitary conspecifics on two Pacific coral reefs combining insight from behavioral observations, stable isotope analysis, and macronutrient analysis of gut and fecal matter. We detected important differences in how the social mode of A. triostegus affected its spatial and feeding ecology, as well as that of other reef fish species. Specifically, we found increased distance traveled and area covered by shoaling fish relative to solitary A. triostegus. Additionally, shoaling A. triostegus primarily grazed within territories of other herbivorous fish and had piscivorous and nonpiscivorous heterospecific fish associated with the shoal, while solitary A. triostegus grazed largely grazed outside of any territories and did not have any such interactions with heterospecific fish. Results from stable isotope analysis show a difference in δ15N isotopes between shoaling and solitary fish, which suggests that these different social modes are persistent. Further, we found a strong interaction between social behavior and site and carbohydrate and protein percentages in the macronutrient analysis, indicating that these differences in sociality are associated with measurable differences in both the feeding ecology and nutrient excretion patterns. Our study suggests that the social behavior of individuals may play an important and underappreciated role in mediating their ecological function.


To carry out in vivo and in vitro comparative pilot study to evaluate the preciseness of a newly proposed digital dental radiography setup. This setup was based on markers placed on an external frame to eliminate the measurement errors due to incorrect geometry in relative positioning of cone, teeth and the sensor. Five patients with previous panoramic images were selected to undergo the proposed periapical digital imaging for in vivo phase. For in vitro phase, 40 extracted teeth were replanted in dry mandibular sockets and periapical digital images were prepared. The standard reference for real scales of the teeth were obtained through extracted teeth measurements for in vitro application and were calculated through panoramic imaging for in vivo phases. The proposed image processing thechnique was applied on periapical digital images to distinguish the incorrect geometry. The recognized error was inversely applied on the image and the modified images were compared to the correct values. The measurement findings after the distortion removal were compared to our gold standards (results of panoramic imaging or measurements from extracted teeth) and showed the accuracy of 96.45% through in vivo examinations and 96.0% through in vitro tests. The proposed distortion removal method is perfectly able to identify the possible inaccurate geometry during image acquisition and is capable of applying the inverse transform to the distorted radiograph to obtain the correctly modified image. This can be really helpful in applications like root canal therapy, implant surgical procedures and digital subtraction radiography, which are essentially dependent on precise measurements.


Transworld is supported by the Seventh Framework Programme The system of international environmental governance has undergone a significant development in the past half of a century. Progress has been achieved especially at the normative level, with the adoption of treaties and instruments of soft law, and a general recognition that the environment is a concern of humank ind as a whole. To this body of internationally agreed norms there does not correspond an adequate mechanism of environmental law enforcement. This remains the major weakness of the present system. This paper provides an analytical overview of the political, social and legal context of environmental governance. It analyses progress made so far and suggests possible ways to address deficiencies of the existing system. One possible way forward is the reform and strengthening of the global institutions. Various options are discussed in this regard. The paper also argues that there is a need for a more decentralized, multilevel governance based on a functional conception of state sovereignty, which is responsive to the general interest of the international community to protect the global environment. The European Union and the United States can significantly contribute to the advancement of this conception of "environmentally responsible sovereignty". The Evolution of the Global Environmental System: Trends and Prospects


In this paper I demonstrate a novel distinction between work and heat, in terms of the distinguishability of states. Specifically, I show that if it is possible to extract different amounts of work deterministically from a physical system prepared in any one of a set of states, then those states must be distinguishable from one another. This result is formulated independently of scale and of particular dynamical laws; it also provides a novel connection between thermodynamics and information theory, established via the law of conservation of energy. This connection, unlike the well-known one between information and the second law, is exact, i.e., it does not depend on coarse-graining or ensemble approximation. Albeit compatible with these conclusions, existing thermodynamics approaches cannot provide a result of such generality, because they are scale-dependent (relying on ensembles or coarse-graining) or tied to particular dynamical laws. This result provides a foundation for thermodynamics that is both broader and more secure than existing ones, with implications for the theory of von Neumann's universal constructor.


Epidemiological and clinical observations have led to the hypothesis that the risk of developing some chronic diseases in adulthood is influenced not only by genetic and adult lifestyle factors, but also by environmental factors acting in early life. These factors act through the processes of developmental plasticity and possibly epigenetic modification, and can be distinguished from developmental disruption. The concept of predictive adaptation has been developed to explain the relationship between early life events and the risk of later disease. At its base, the model suggests that a mismatch between fetal expectation of its postnatal environment and actual postnatal environment contribute to later adult disease risk. This mismatch is exacerbated, in part, by the phenomenon of 'maternal constraint' on fetal growth, which implicitly provides an upper limit of postnatal nutritional environment that humans have adapted for and is now frequently exceeded. These experimental, clinical and conceptual considerations have important implications for prevention and intervention in the current epidemic of childhood obesity and adult metabolic and cardiovascular disorders.


Maurice Duverger passed away on 22 December 2014. Duverger was the main thinker behind the creation and the development of a method for the analysis of institutions, that we could define «combinatorial», that gave attention to both the legal component and the features of the political system. Beyond the specific conclusions he drew from his analysis, Duverger's motivations for devising such method during the crisis of the French regime in the 1950s are still valid today. The Italian legal scholarship has adopted his method to study Italy's transition of the 1990s and, more recently, the French scholarship has also contributed to revive Duverger's intellectual heritage.


Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is an emerging psychiatric treatment that is attracting significant scientific, medical, and public attention. Whilst preliminary results from empirical studies are promising, the medical use of these compounds is highly controversial. Surprisingly, and despite the current controversies caused by the re-medicalisation of psychedelics, bioethicists have remained mysteriously silent. This paper aims to stimulate further bioethical reflection regarding the re-medicalisation of psychedelics. The current paper aims to do this by applying a normative phenomenological lens of analysis. Namely, this paper applies Martin Heidegger's critique of modern technology, and Fredrik Svenaeus' extension of this critique, to the re-medicalisation of psychedelics. I argue that when this critique of modern technology is applied several normative issues become apparent. Specifically, it becomes apparent that the re-medicalisation of psychedelics risks turning the ecological sources, cultural contexts, and experiences induced by psychedelics into resources to be exploited for human goals; all of which risks endangering ecosystems, appropriating traditional knowledge, and reducing the therapeutic effects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Furthermore, I suggest that preserving non-reductionist, non-instrumentalising traditional ways of understanding psychedelic compounds is essential in mitigating these consequences. More discussion by bioethicists is necessary as these consequences represent important global challenges for the psychedelic renaissance that require immediate addressing.


This research work deals with the development of free-standing hydroxyapatite (HA) components produced using the Atmospheric Plasma Spraying Process. The spray parameters were based on the optimal values found in previous work for the HA powder used. The deposition time used to produce the free-standing coupons was varied between 70 and 150 seconds. The influence of spray time on the deposit thickness and the resulting crystallinity of the coupons were investigated. The surface of the samples was characterised by means of SEM and surface roughness was measured using a laser profiler. The crystallinity of the samples was analysed using XRD. The phase content of the coupons was investigated using XRD and Raman Spectroscopy. The crystallinity and thickness of the coupons was found to increase with increasing spray time. A maximum crystallinity of 89% and maximum average thickness of 2.45 mm were obtained.


Little is known about the wear rate of enamel and dentin opposing resin composite following restoration of the occlusal surface in patients with tooth wear. Hence, the aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the wear of enamel and dentin surfaces when opposing each of three resin composites in a two-body and three-body wear test. The two-body and three-body wear of dentin, enamel, and three resin composites (Clearfil AP-X, Filtek Z250, and Filtek Supreme) opposing four antagonists (stainless steel and three resin composites) were evaluated using the ACTA wear machine. In addition, all the surfaces were evaluated with scanning electron microscopy. The results showed the lowest wear rate in enamel and the highest in dentine, with the composite showing intermediate wear rates. The three-body wear results were not affected by the antagonist and showed pure wear caused by the abrasive food medium. The in vitro enamel/composite wear ratio was 2.5. The results show that tooth wear accelerates as soon as enamel disappears and dentin is exposed to composite resin. Therefore, it is important to protect dentin with a restorative material.


Cats injected with LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide) exhibit a group of behaviors that appear to be specific to hallucinogenic drugs. Two of these behaviors, limb flick and abortive grooming, have an extremely low frequency of occurrence in normal cats, but often dominate the behavior of LSD-treated cats. The frequency of occurrence of this group of behaviors is related to the dose of LSD. The behavioral changes are long-lasting following a single injection of LSD, and exhibit tolerance following the repeated administration of LSD. They are not elicited by a variety of control drugs, but are elicited by other indole nucleus hallucinogens. Because the behavioral effects are specific, reliable, easy to score, and quantifiable, they represent an animal model that can be used in studies of the effects of LSD and related hallucinogens.


Introduction: Autism is a spectrum condition with symptom presentation varying widely. Teachers and parents
 face challenges in supporting autistic children. There are similarities in how teachers and parents make sense of
 autism, but there may be differences in priorities and approach potentially leading to misunderstandings. Where
 parents are actively engaged in their child's school life the impact on outcomes is positive. SAFE with Schools is a
 new intervention in development designed to support parents and teachers of autistic children to build collaborative
 relationships. The study aims to explore understandings among parents and teachers, areas of difference and
 agreement and perceptions of communication between the two contexts.
Methods: Teacher–parent units (N=32) for 13 autistic children, were recruited. The parents and teachers completed
 reflective journals and carried out semi-structured interviews focusing on the aims of the study. A blended thematic
 interpretive approach drawing from IPA and Thematic Analysis methodological approaches was used to analyse the
 resulting data. The analysis proceeded by extracting themes for the parents and the teachers separately. Subsequently
 these were compared, to identify which themes appeared for both and how they were employed in similar or
 divergent ways.
Findings: The following 6 themes emerged from the data: Each Child is Unique, Behavioral Differences between Home
 and School, Building Positive Relationships as Essential to Child's Wellbeing, Emotional Impacts of the Autism, Bureaucracy as
 a Barrier and Feelings of Control. Although these themes were shared by teachers and parents there were differences in
 emphasis and expression in practice between the two contexts.
Discussion: The findings related to various bodies of both clinical and educational literature which highlight the
 need for interventions such as SAFE with Schools that take a systemic, attachment-based approach to facilitating
 strong relationships with and around the autistic child.


Although motion between Arabia and Africa is presently occurring along the entire length of the Red Sea, the morphology and tectonics that result from this motion vary greatly along its length. South of 21°N, the main trough is bisected by a deep axial trough which has formed by sea-floor spreading during the past 4 m.y. and is associated with large-amplitude magnetic anomalies and high heat flow. North of 25°N, an axial trough is not present and the floor of the main trough has an irregular faulted appearance. The magnetic field in the north is characterized by smooth low-amplitude anomalies with a few isolated higher amplitude magnetic anomalies commonly associated with gravity anomalies and in many places probably due to intrusions. Between these regions, the axial trough is discontinuous with a series of deeps characterized by large-amplitude magnetic anomalies alternating with shallower intertrough zones which lack magnetic anomalies. It is argued that the different regions represent successive phases in the rifting of a continent and the development of a continental margin. An initial period of diffuse extension by rotational faulting and dike injection over an area perhaps 100 km (60 mi) wide is followed by concentration of extension at a single axis and the initiation of sea-floor spreading. The main trough in the southern Red Sea, away from the deep axial trough, formed during the Miocene by the same processes of diffuse extension that are still active in the northern Red Sea. This model explains the available geologic and geophysical data and reconciles previous models for the formation of the Red Sea which emphasize either the evidence for considerable motion between Arabia and Africa or the evidence for down aulted continental crust beneath much of the Red Sea. The initial pre-sea-floor spreading stage results in considerable extension (160 km or 100 mi) at 25°N in the Red Sea), can last for several tens of millions of years, and is an important factor in the development of the continental margin. Such an extended phase of rifting and diffuse extension must be taken into account in studies of sedimentation, subsidence, and paleotemperatures.


CFTR is a cAMP-activated chloride and bicarbonate channel that is critical for lung homeostasis. Decreases in CFTR expression have dire consequences in cystic fibrosis (CF) and have been suggested to be a component of the lung pathology in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Decreases or loss of channel function often lead to mucus stasis, chronic bacterial infections, and the accompanying chronic inflammatory responses that promote progressive lung destruction, and, eventually in CF, lung failure. Here we discuss CFTR's functional role airway surface liquid hydration and pH, in regulation of other channels such as the epithelial sodium channel, and in regulating inflammatory responses in the lung.


Combretum dolichopetalum Engl. & Diels (Combretaceae) is a medicinal plant used in the Kpando Traditional Area for treating wounds. However, it has received little attention by the scientific world. The study was designed to evaluate the wound healing potential and antioxidant activities of the plant to confirm its folkloric use. Excision wound model was used with Penicillin as the standard reference drug. Sensitivity test was carried out on the extract against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia using disc diffusion method. The antioxidant activity was measured by three different spectrophotometric assays. The content of total phenolics and total flavonoids were also determined. The extract significantly caused wound healing and reduced microbial load. Similarly, the methanol extract significantly inhibited the growth of S. aureus and K. pneumonia at higher doses. Almost all results from the antioxidant activity models were concentration dependent with no significant difference from the standard Ascorbic acid except at very low concentrations. Tannins and flavonoids were present whose synergistic effects may be responsible for the high antioxidant activity. Correlation analysis between the values of DPPH and TAC (r2=0.7790) indicates the viability of the two models for evaluating antioxidants from medicinal plants.


Purpose: NK/T-cell neoplasms are rare, highly aggressive, and insensitive to chemotherapy. These lymphomas have a poor prognosis, with patients being vulnerable to relapse. Hence, there is a need for alternative treatments. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether anti-PD1 takes effect on NK/T cell lymphoma. Methods: The expression of PD-L1 in NK/T cell lines was investigated by flow cytometry and by Western blot. In vivo, overall survival and median survival time of mice bearing an NK/T cell line tumor was assessed. Tumor-infiltrating T cells and monocyte-derived suppressor cells were evaluated by flow cytometry. Levels of PD-L1 and components of the JAK-STAT pathway were assessed in tumor tissues by immunohistochemistry. Results: NK/T cell lines had greater expression of PD-L1 than normal peripheral blood human NK cells. In vivo, anti-PD1 treatment improved overall survival and median survival time of mice bearing an NK/T cell line. Furthermore, anti-PD1 treatment increased levels of PD-L1. Cultured tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from mice treated with anti-PD1 had greater levels of IFN- γ than cultured lymphocytes from untreated animals. Further, levels of JAK2 and STAT1 were greater in mice treated with anti-PD1. Conclusion: In vivo, anti-PD1 inhibited the progression of an NK/T-cell lymphoma and up-regulated PD-L1 expression. This up-regulation may be through the IFN- γ -associated JAK-STAT pathway.


Purpose
This paper aims to propose criteria and indicators for the adoption of e-books in libraries in the context of the cloud computing paradigm.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper carried out bibliographical and documentary research and the application of a questionnaire. Sampling focused on five library managers and five e-book vendor managers.

Findings
A proposal is presented containing a set of three criteria and their respective indicators. The technology platform criterion consists of seven indicators: patron data privacy, patron data security, availability of services, accessibility of information in e-books, interoperability of the technology platform, digital preservation and portability of e-books. The criterion for the acquisition of e-books involves three indicators: forms of commercialization, acquisition models and selection of e-book titles. The criterion for the circulation of e-books is divided into two indicators: unlimited and limited use. In the unlimited use mode, there are no limits on the use of e-books. In limited use, there are 11 levels of permissions: available copies, number of loans under each license, duration of the license, interlibrary loan, reading only in digital format, reading online via streaming only, download on the patron's device, content printing, loan according to the patron's identity, reservation services and renewal services.

Practical implications
This paper provides a set of criteria and indicators that can aid in the construction of policies and the development of collections, programs and projects directed toward the use of e-books in libraries.

Originality/value
This paper contributes socially by presenting a proposal that can support policies of evaluation and development of collections, projects, programs and actions around the adoption of e-books in different types of libraries.


research memorandum on religion in the depression is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our books collection hosts in multiple locations, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the research memorandum on religion in the depression is universally compatible with any devices to read.


OBJECTIVES
Computer-aided detection (CAD) for CT colonography (CTC) has been developed to detect benign polyps in asymptomatic patients. We aimed to determine whether such a CAD system can also detect cancer in symptomatic patients.

METHODS
CTC data from 137 symptomatic patients subsequently proven to have colorectal cancer were analysed by a CAD system at 4 different sphericity settings: 0, 50, 75 and 100. CAD prompts were classified by an observer as either true-positive if overlapping a cancer or false-positive if elsewhere. Colonoscopic data were used to aid matching.

RESULTS
Of 137 cancers, CAD identified 124 (90.5%), 122 (89.1%), 119 (86.9%) and 102 (74.5%) at a sphericity of 0, 50, 75 and 100, respectively. A substantial proportion of cancers were detected on either the prone or supine acquisition alone. Of 125 patients with prone and supine acquisitions, 39.3%, 38.3%, 43.2% and 50.5% of cancers were detected on a single acquisition at a sphericity of 0, 50, 75 and 100, respectively. CAD detected three cancers missed by radiologists at the original clinical interpretation. False-positive prompts decreased with increasing sphericity value (median 65, 57, 45, 24 per patient at values of 0, 50, 75, 100, respectively) but many patients were poorly prepared.

CONCLUSION
CAD can detect symptomatic colorectal cancer but must be applied to both prone and supine acquisitions for best performance.


Comparative analysis of vitamin C, B2 and A sufficiency evaluation of the patients suffering from obesity and cardiovascular diseases has been done by means of rated vitamin intake on the basis of foodstuff consumption frequency and blood serum level detection. According to both methods the surveyed had optimal sufficiency with vitamin C. At lowered in comparison with recommended receipt of these vitamins with a diet in 56-94% of patients retinol blood serum concentration was within the limits of norm, while only 15% of patients had lowered concerning the bottom border of norm riboflavin blood serum level.


Sometimes debates on programming languages are more religious than scientific. Questions about which language is more succinct or efficient, or makes developers more productive are discussed with fervor, and their answers are too often based on anecdotes and unsubstantiated beliefs. In this study, we use the largely untapped research potential of Rosetta Code, a code repository of solutions to common programming tasks in various languages, which offers a large data set for analysis. Our study is based on 7'087 solution programs corresponding to 745 tasks in 8 widely used languages representing the major programming paradigms (procedural: C and Go, object-oriented: C# and Java, functional: F# and Haskell, scripting: Python and Ruby). Our statistical analysis reveals, most notably, that: functional and scripting languages are more concise than procedural and object-oriented languages, C is hard to beat when it comes to raw speed on large inputs, but performance differences over inputs of moderate size are less pronounced and allow even interpreted languages to be competitive, compiled strongly-typed languages, where more defects can be caught at compile time, are less prone to runtime failures than interpreted or weakly-typed languages. We discuss implications of these results for developers, language designers, and educators.


Plasmonics, a sub-field of nanophotonics, has attracted amazing interests in recent years due to its promise of revolutionary impacts on nanotechnologies, medicine, and our daily lives. In short, plasmonics guides, confines, localizes, and enhances electromagnetic waves to a small area to enable novel applications such as plasmonic waveguides, sub-wavelength diffraction lithography and imaging, higher photovoltaic efficiency, sub-wavelength lasers, and biological sensing. The first part of this dissertation will introduce the general concepts of plasmonics and its applications in biological sensing, starting from Maxell's equations and the Drude model of metal. In the second part, it will delve into the specifics of designing, simulating, fabricating, and characterizing nanostructures that show improved performance characteristics over previous published results. Plasmonic coupling of propagating surface plasmon polaritons and localized plasmons is utilized to fabricate three-dimensional mushroom-like metallodielectric array for improved surface plasmon resonance biological sensing over conventional nanohole array. It is used to determine the hydrophilicity of a surface by monitoring the shift in resonant wavelength. In addition, the fabricated structure is used to detect specific binding events between biotinylated-bovine serum albumin and streptavidin protein and demonstrates an improved limit of detection. The real- time control and manipulation of nanoparticles in a biocompatible aqueous solution is demonstrated in a multilayer micro/nanofluidic chip platform by using voltage control. This will have future applications to control and position nanoparticles and biomolecules to an area of maximum field enhancement to co-localize the analyte with the plasmonic nanostructure for maximal enhancement efficiency. Finally, the intra-particle plasmonic coupling of a nanotorch structure is utilized for surface enhanced Raman scattering detection to yield high enhancement factor and better than 80\% Raman signal uniformity due to the fabrication of controllable rim opening of the nanotorch and the deterministic orientation of the structure. The common theme of this dissertation is coupled plasmonic nanostructures for improved biological sensing applications


The time of development and survival of Toxocara canis eggs in the soil of Gorno-Altaisk was experimen- tally investigated in 2011-2014. In July 2011, T.canis eggs matured at 3-5-cm soil depths from the stage of 1-2 blastomeres to invading larva within 12 days at a daily average temperature of +23°C and at a relative humidity of 82%. At 3-5-cm soil depths, more than 70% of invaded T. canis eggs preserved their viability through- out the experimental period (4 years). The paper gives evidence for the seasonal survival of invaded T. canis eggs in relation of the length of soil stay.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Maxillofacial trauma is frequent and represents a heavy burden for patients and society. The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics and management of mandibular fractures caused by falls.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
One hundred thirty-nine patients with 185 mandible fractures caused by falls were included in this retrospective study. The patients were grouped according to age, gender, fitness level (as classified by the American Society of Anesthesiology physical status classification), the month of the accident, sites of fractures and treatment methods.

RESULTS
Most adult and fit patients were treated with open reduction and internal fixation, except for intracapsular condyle fractures. Conservative management was chosen for paediatric patients and in all cases deemed at high risk for lengthy procedures under general anaesthesia (physical status III according to the American Society of Anesthesiology). Young patients were mainly males, whereas geriatric patients were mainly females. In cases of single-site fracture, condylar fractures were the most prevalent. In cases with multiple sites, the association of condyle and symphysis fractures was the most frequent.

CONCLUSIONS
The results show an increasing trend in geriatric condyle fractures, especially in females. The epidemiology of fall-related mandibular fractures is subject to the influence of seasonal, historical, cultural and demographic factors.


Diabetic macular edema (DME) can cause blindness in diabetic patients suffering from diabetic retinopathy (DR). DM parameters controls (glycemia, arterial tension, and lipids) are the gold standard for preventing DR and DME. Although the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is known to play a role in the development of DME, the pathological processes leading to the onset of this disease are highly complex and the exact sequence in which they occur is still not completely understood. Angiogenesis and inflammation have been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. However, it still remains to be clarified whether angiogenesis following VEGF overexpression is a cause or a consequence of inflammation. This paper provides a review of the data currently available, focusing on VEGF, angiogenesis, and inflammation. Our analysis suggests that angiogenesis and inflammation act interdependently during the development of DME. Knowledge of DME etiology seems to be important in treatments with anti-VEGF or anti-inflammatory drugs. Current diagnostic techniques do not permit us to differentiate between both etiologies. In the future, diagnosing the physiopathology of each patient with DME will help us to select the most effective drug.


In order to study the change of the filter cloth and the change of supramolecular structure after heat setting, two groups of filtering cloths were produced using polypropylene monofilament, Scanning electron microscope, IR Spectrometer FTIR and differential scanning calorimeter were used to observe the structure variation before and after heat setting. It was found that the fabrics in different groups exhibited significantly different surface structures, after heat setting. In addition, the infrared spectrogram and DSC data revealed that supramolecular structure of polypropylene fiber did not change after heat setting, since no new chemical bond was observed after heat setting.


BACKGROUND
The gold standard treatment for symptomatic lumbar stenosis refractory to conservative management is a facet-preserving laminectomy. New techniques of posterior decompression have been developed to preserve spinal integrity and to minimise tissue damage by limiting bony decompression and avoiding removal of the midline structures (i.e. spinous process, vertebral arch and interspinous and supraspinous ligaments).

OBJECTIVES
To compare the effectiveness of techniques of posterior decompression that limit the extent of bony decompression or avoid removal of posterior midline structures of the lumbar spine versus conventional facet-preserving laminectomy for the treatment of patients with degenerative lumbar stenosis.

SEARCH METHODS
An experienced librarian conducted a comprehensive electronic search of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the clinical trials registries ClinicalTrials.gov and World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) for relevant literature up to June 2014.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included prospective controlled studies comparing conventional facet-preserving laminectomy versus a posterior decompressive technique that avoids removal of posterior midline structures or a technique involving only partial resection of the vertebral arch. We excluded studies describing techniques of decompression by means of interspinous process devices or concomitant (instrumented) fusion procedures. Participants included individuals with symptomatic degenerative lumbar stenosis only.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently assessed risk of bias using the Cochrane Back Review Group criteria for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for non-randomised studies. We extracted data regarding demographics, intervention details and outcome measures.

MAIN RESULTS
A total of four high-quality RCTs and six low-quality RCTs met the search criteria of this review. These studies included a total of 733 participants. Investigators compared three different posterior decompression techniques versus conventional laminectomy. Three studies (173 participants) compared unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression versus conventional laminectomy. Four studies (382 participants) compared bilateral laminotomy versus conventional laminectomy (one study included three treatment groups and compared unilateral and bilateral laminotomy vs conventional laminectomy). Finally, four studies (218 participants) compared a split-spinous process laminotomy versus conventional laminectomy.Evidence of low or very low quality suggests that different techniques of posterior decompression and conventional laminectomy have similar effects on functional disability and leg pain. Only perceived recovery at final follow-up was better in people who underwent bilateral laminotomy compared with conventional laminectomy (two RCTs, 223 participants, odds ratio 5.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.55 to 12.71).Among the secondary outcome measures, unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression and bilateral laminotomy resulted in numerically fewer cases of iatrogenic instability, although in both cases, the incidence of instability was low (three RCTs, 166 participants, odds ratio 0.28, 95% CI 0.07 to 1.15; three RCTs, 294 participants, odds ratio 0.10, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.55, respectively). The difference in severity of postoperative low back pain following bilateral laminotomy (two RCTs, 223 participants, mean difference -0.51, 95% CI -0.80 to -0.23) and split-spinous process laminotomy compared with conventional laminectomy (two RCTs, 97 participants, mean difference -1.07, 95% CI -2.15 to -0.00) was significantly less, but was too small to be clinically important. A quantitative comparison between unilateral laminotomy and conventional laminectomy was not possible because of different reporting of outcome measures. We found no evidence to show that the incidence of complications, length of the procedure, length of hospital stay and postoperative walking distance differed between techniques of posterior decompression.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The evidence provided by this systematic review for the effects of unilateral laminotomy for bilateral decompression, bilateral laminotomy and split-spinous process laminotomy compared with conventional laminectomy on functional disability, perceived recovery and leg pain is of low or very low quality. Therefore, further research is necessary to establish whether these techniques provide a safe and effective alternative for conventional laminectomy. Proposed advantages of these techniques regarding the incidence of iatrogenic instability and postoperative back pain are plausible, but definitive conclusions are limited by poor methodology and poor reporting of outcome measures among included studies. Future research is necessary to establish the incidence of iatrogenic instability using standardised definitions of radiological and clinical instability at comparable follow-up intervals. Long-term results with these techniques are currently lacking.


In sequential decision making, objective specifications are often underspecified or incomplete, neglecting to take into account potential (negative) side effects. Executing plans without consideration of their side effects can lead to catastrophic outcomes -- a concern recently raised in relation to the safety of AI. In this paper we investigate how to avoid side effects in a symbolic planning setting. We study the notion of minimizing side effects in the context of a planning environment where multiple independent agents co-exist. We define (classes of) negative side effects in terms of their effect on the agency of those other agents. Finally, we show how plans which minimize side effects of different types can be computed via compilations to cost-optimizing symbolic planning, and investigate experimentally.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of fenfluramine (FEN) administered at single and repeated doses on brain, stomach and plasma serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) levels in rats. FEN was injected intraperitoneally at single doses (1, 3 and 10 µmol kg-1) and given orally at repeated doses (1.25, 5 and 10 mg kg-1) for 21 days. The tissues and plasma samples were collected 20, 40, 80 and 160 minutes after the single dose administrations and 4 h after the last dose administration in repeated experiments. In addition, the rats treated with the dose of 1.25 mg kg-1 were maintained until 2 and 8 weeks and the tissues were taken at these times. The 5-HT levels in the tissue and plasma were measured by using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The levels of brain 5-HT were decreased at the single FEN doses when compared with the control group. At the repeated experiments, although no effect was observed at the dose of 1.25 mg kg-1; decreases were determined in brain 5-HT levels at the high doses. The levels of 5-HT in the stomach were found to increase in both single and repeated administrations. Decreases in levels of plasma 5-HT were determined in all experimental groups. In conclusion, while fenfluramine was determined to decrease brain and plasma 5-HT levels generally, it increased the levels of stomach 5-HT.


In a preliminary retrospective study, 418 regional sympathetic blocks with guanethidine administered as treatment of 103 cases of algodystrophy gave 70 p. cent of positive results versus 55 p. cent in case of psychic disorders. The tolerance was correct in 85 p. cent but was decreased by old age.


Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a gut peptide that increases post prandially and functions to increase insulin secretion and improve glucose homeostasis. GLP-1 is coded by the preproglucagon gene ( Gcg ) and is expressed by intestinal and pancreatic cells. Interestingly, GLP-1 is also increased during sepsis, which is the most common cause of death in intensive care units (ICU). The goal of this study was to determine in a preclinical model of sepsis if the increase in GLP-1 was from intestinal or pancreatic cells. In order to model sepsis, we administered lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to Cre-control mice, to mice devoid of Gcg, and thus GLP-1 ( Gcg null), to mice with Gcg expression reactivated only in the intestine (GcgRA δIntestine ), and to mice with Gcg expression reactivated only in the pancreas (GcgRA δPancreas ). LPS significantly increased GLP-1 in the control mice, as well as in the two reactivated genotypes compared to saline. However, the degree of the increase in both GcgRA δIntestine and GcgRA δPancreas mice was about 50% of control animals. LPS first increased, then significantly decreased blood glucose in control, pancreatic and intestinal reactivated mice but was significantly lower across all time points in Gcg null mice. These data suggest that both intestinal and pancreatic sources contribute to the increase in plasma GLP-1 seen in our model of sepsis. However, either pancreatic or intestinal sources of GLP-1 are sufficient to maintain glucose responses to LPS. Disclosure E.M. Davis: None. C. Hutch: None. K. Kim: None. B. Maerz: None. K.J. Roelofs: None. M. Lehrke: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. Consultant; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S. Advisory Panel; Self; Sanofi, Amgen Inc., Bayer AG, MSD K.K. D.A. Sandoval: Research Support; Self; Novo Nordisk A/S, Zafgen, Ethicon US, LLC..


In this paper, we present a newly developed analytical thermodynamic theory and show that it offers a simple understanding of entrepreneurship. The approach we present in the paper is different from previous work on the subject in that we not only borrow the mathematical tools from, and the analogy to thermodynamic but treat economics in general and entrepreneurship in particular as a thermodynamic process. Entrepreneurship as a thermodynamic process can be represented by lognormal process, which contains a growth term and a dissipation term. The lognormal process in turn can be mapped into a thermodynamic equation. The thermodynamic equation is solved to derive an analytic function that explicitly represents the relation among fixed costs, variable costs, uncertainty of the environment and the duration of a production system. Our analysis shows that entrepreneurial ventures and established firms have different kinds of competitiveness in different kinds of market environments. Even if equilibrium states are reached, introduction of innovation by entrepreneurial venture changes the market and will disrupt the balance in old systems. Furthermore we use information theory to show that when environment changes suddenly, novice entrants as the entrepreneurs are, actually perform better than experts whose prior knowledge often cause severe biases in prediction, in terms of recognizing and acting upon opportunities.


Motivated by the recent synthesis of layered hexagonal aluminum nitride ($h$-AlN), we investigate its layer- and strain-dependent electronic and optical properties by using first-principles methods. Monolayer $h$-AlN is a wide-gap semiconductor, which makes it interesting especially for usage in optoelectronic applications. The optical spectra of 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-layered $h$-AlN indicate that the prominent absorption takes place outside the visible-light regime. Within the ultraviolet range, absorption intensities increase with the number of layers, approaching the bulk case. On the other hand, the applied tensile strain gradually redshifts the optical spectra. The many-body effects lead to a blueshift of the optical spectra, while exciton binding is also observed for 2D $h$-AlN. The possibility of tuning the optoelectronic properties via thickness and/or strain opens doors to novel technological applications of this promising material.


3 Abstract: Over 100 years. Employability is an emerged concept in unemployment and labour markets. Part of the problem of youth employability is the relevance of acquired knowledge, skills and educational and training qualifications to current labour market opportunities. This paper focuses the concept of employability and skills needed to become a globally recognized employee. The perception of Employers and employees towards employability skills required for Entry level engineering graduates in multinational software companies is examined. An approach of accreditation towards higher education is explained and highlighted the importance of accreditation in Indian Institutions. The development skills available in India which are needed to enhance the employability in global market are projected. Overall this paper paves a way for an Indian employee to work in global market.


: The analysis of 11 various oncogenes expression in different human tumors showed that each tumor is characterised by a specific functioning program of these genes. In 40-50% of tumors the oncogenes ras, fos and myc are expressed. All other oncogenes are either considered to be "silent" or are expressed only in few cases. The increased expression of sis and myb oncogenes is observed in metastases.


Studies of drill cores from the Pasos Blancos area at El Laco in the central Andes, northern Chile, give evidence of an intense and extensive subvolcanic contact-metasomatic process. This process resulted from shallow-level emplacement of very volatile-rich iron-oxide magma, with discharge of volatiles that resulted in extensive fracturing of overlying volcanic rocks. The brecciated rocks were altered (mainly extensive scapolitization and formation of pyroxene) by hot magmatic fluids emitted from the cooling intrusion, and accompanied by magnetite deposition. With time and decreasing temperature, the metasomatic fluids evolved to fluids of hydrothermal character, and a final recent geothermal event took place that deposited superficial gypsum over a large part of the El Laco Volcanic Complex.


Welfare technologies (WT) such as telecare, service robots, and other digital innovations for public sector service delivery are expected to improve and even radically transform healthand eldercare. However, despite political awareness and financial investments, many studies report promising inventions that fail to become implemented on a larger scale. Current research draws a fragmented and heterogeneous picture of this problem, with divergent implications for practice. This article reviews and discusses the extant literature to identify eight competing concerns central to how WT can become implemented on a large scale. By highlighting and contrasting practical and theoretical positions in this emerging and interdisciplinary research topic, the review contributes to understanding the complexities that managers and policy-makers must address to diffuse and sustain WT innovations from small to large scale.


The effect of polymer charge density on protein selectivity in the presence of carboxylated polysaccharides (CPS) and sulfated polysaccharides (SPS) was investigated for Kunitz trypsin inhibitor/Bowman-Birk protease inhibitor (KTI/BBI, KBM). To determine the conditions for coacervation or precipitation as a function of polymer charge densities, turbidimetric titrations and Tricine-SDS-PAGE were used. Polymer charge density as well as chain flexibility greatly influenced the strength of interactions and protein recovery. Although charge compensation must occur for CPS-KBM complexes, SPS-KBM systems did not require conservation of charge neutrality. Despite their similar isoelectric points, KTI bound preferentially to CPS and SPS due to its higher affinity compared to BBI. Complexation of KBM with the polysaccharide with the lowest charge density, arabic gum, expectedly cannot realize the purification of BBI under conditions where binding to more highly charged polysaccharides occurs. This work will be beneficial to selective purification of target proteins through control of protein-polysaccharide complexation.


Summary. Experiments were conducted to produce seedlings of papaya with roots colonized by Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescens for the control of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne incognita. Seed treatment with P. fluorescens (10 8 cfu/g) and application of P. fluorescens and T. harzianum (10 6 cfu/g), each at 5 g/kg soil, reduced significantly the eggs/egg-mass of Meloidogyne incognita. Nursery soil treated with formulations of either P. fluorescens or T. harzianum was not significantly effective in reducing the nematode root-galling index. However, root-knot nematode control was improved when both bio-agents were used in the nursery soil at a rate of 5 g/kg each. Combined use of P. fluorescens and T. harzianum did not affect root colonization by either bio-agent. Seed and soil treatment with the formulations of the bio-agents produced highly vigorous seedlings with significantly increased growth. The seedling roots were colonized by both the bio-agents, which, therefore, would be carried to the field on transplanted seedlings. Thus, the results outline the potential for the production of papaya seedlings with roots colonized by combined formulations of P. fluorescens and T. harzianum for the control M. incognita under field conditions.


The problem of designing fault detection and isolation (FDI) filters is considered. The approach provides new techniques for designing filters that maximize fault sensitivity (effects of faults on the residual signal), while guaranteeing robustness to noise, disturbances and modeling errors. The design of the FDI filters is formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) and involves the generalized structured singular value /spl mu//sub g/.


The problem of relating state-based intraagent (or intraobject) behavioral descriptions with scenario-based interagent (interobject) descriptions has recently focused much interest among the software engineering community. This paper compiles the results of our investigation of this problem. As interagent formalism, we adopt a simple variant of live sequence charts. For the intraagent perspective, we consider a game-theoretic foundation, looking at agents as "strategies," which encompasses the popular "state-based" paradigm. Three classes of relationships between models are studied: scenario checking (called eLSC checking), synthesis, and verification. We set a formally defined theoretical stage that allows us to express these three problems very simply, to discuss their complexity, and to describe optimal solutions. Our study reveals the intrinsic high computational difficulty of these tasks. Consequently, many related problems and solutions are surveyed, some of which can be the basis for practical solutions. In this, we also offer a panorama of current research and directions for the future.


TOR kinases integrate environmental and nutritional signals to regulate cell growth in eukaryotic organisms. Here, we describe results from a study combining quantitative proteomics and comparative expression analysis in the budding yeast, S. cerevisiae, to gain insights into TOR function and regulation. We profiled protein abundance changes under conditions of TOR inhibition by rapamycin treatment, and compared this data to existing expression information for corresponding gene products measured under a variety of conditions in yeast. Among proteins showing abundance changes upon rapamycin treatment, almost 90% of them demonstrated homodirectional (i.e., in similar direction) transcriptomic changes under conditions of heat/oxidative stress. Because the known downstream responses regulated by Tor1/2 did not fully explain the extent of overlap between these two conditions, we tested for novel connections between the major regulators of heat/oxidative stress response and the TOR pathway. Specifically, we hypothesized that activation of regulator(s) of heat/oxidative stress responses phenocopied TOR inhibition and sought to identify these putative TOR inhibitor(s). Among the stress regulators tested, we found that cells (hsf1-R206S, F256S and ssa1-3 ssa2-2) constitutively activated for heat shock transcription factor 1, Hsf1, inhibited rapamycin resistance. Further analysis of the hsf1-R206S, F256S allele revealed that these cells also displayed multiple phenotypes consistent with reduced TOR signaling. Among the multiple Hsf1 targets elevated in hsf1-R206S, F256S cells, deletion of PIR3 and YRO2 suppressed the TOR-regulated phenotypes. In contrast to our observations in cells activated for Hsf1, constitutive activation of other regulators of heat/oxidative stress responses, such as Msn2/4 and Hyr1, did not inhibit TOR signaling. Thus, we propose that activated Hsf1 inhibits rapamycin resistance and TOR signaling via elevated expression of specific target genes in S. cerevisiae. Additionally, these results highlight the value of comparative expression analyses between large-scale proteomic and transcriptomic datasets to reveal new regulatory connections.


BACKGROUND
Although patient safety climate is an important factor in preventing adverse events in health care organizations, there is no usable Japanese scale.

OBJECTIVE
To develop a Japanese scale to measure patient safety climate and to evaluate its psychometric properties.

METHODS
Cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted with respect to 9 non-academic general hospitals in Japan. A total of 1878 health care professionals (nurses, therapists, technicians, pharmacists and physicians) were included in a study.

RESULTS
The eight dimensions measuring worker attitudes (free communication flow, continuous improvement, reporting/rules compliance and patient/family involvement) and organizational factors (supervisors' safety leadership, allied professionals' safety leadership, patient safety committee leadership and rules/equipment availability) were extracted by factor analysis. The internal consistency (measured by Cronbach's alpha) and repeatability (measured by intraclass correlation) were more than 0.70 for all subscales. In addition, the mean score, the within-group interrater reliability statistic (r(wg)) and the correlation coefficients of the mean score were confirmed at the workplace level.

CONCLUSIONS
The scale showed acceptable dimensionality, reliability and validity. It also provided workplace team-evaluation and a tool for assessing the patient safety climate at the level of the workplace.


Abstract Smoking is the most lethal social poisoning event. The World Health Organization defines smoking as the most important preventable cause of disease. Around 4.9 million people worldwide die from smoking every year. In order to analysis this matter, we aim to investigate an e-cigarette smoking model with Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivative. We obtain the existence conditions of the solution for this fractional model utilizing fixed-point theory. After giving existence conditions, the uniqueness of the solution is proved. Finally, to show the effect of the Atangana-Baleanu fractional derivative on the model, we give some numerical results supported by illustrative graphics.


During the last 2 decades, transcatheter occlusion of coronary artery fistulae has developed into a safe and effective therapy for children. This procedure avoids the need for open surgical repair and the attendant complications of cardiopulmonary bypass and median sternotomy. The long-term outcome in patients after transcatheter occlusion remains unknown. We describe the intermediate-term progress of 4 such patients after coil occlusion of coronary artery fistulae. Persistent coronary artery dilatation was present in all patients reviewed, as late as 4 years after occlusion. (Tex Heart Inst J 2001; 28:21-5)


The use of smartphones in Intelligent Transportation Systems is gaining popularity, yet many challenges exist in developing functional applications. Due to the dynamic nature of transportation, vehicular social applications face complexities such as developing robust sensor management, performing signal and image processing tasks, and sharing information among users. This study utilizes a multimodal sensor analysis framework which enables the analysis of sensors in multimodal aspect. It also provides plugin-based analyzing interfaces to develop sensor and image processing based applications, and connects its users via a centralized application as well as to social networks to facilitate communication and socialization. With the usage of this framework, an on-road anomaly detector is being developed and tested. The detector utilizes the sensors of a mobile device and is able to identify anomalies such as hard brake, pothole crossing, and speed bump crossing. Upon such detection, the video portion containing the anomaly is automatically extracted in order to enable further image processing analysis. The detection results are shared on a central portal application for online traffic condition monitoring.


We systematically reviewed randomized controlled trials of interventions to improve the health of people during imprisonment or in the year after release. We searched 14 biomedical and social science databases in 2014, and identified 95 studies. Most studies involved only men or a majority of men (70/83 studies in which gender was specified); only 16 studies focused on adolescents. Most studies were conducted in the United States (n = 57). The risk of bias for outcomes in almost all studies was unclear or high (n = 91). In 59 studies, interventions led to improved mental health, substance use, infectious diseases, or health service utilization outcomes; in 42 of these studies, outcomes were measured in the community after release. Improving the health of people who experience imprisonment requires knowledge generation and knowledge translation, including implementation of effective interventions.


The present paper examines the constraints governing the acquisition of sociolinguistic variables. More specifically, it investigates the acquisition of the school variety of Venezuelan Spanish characterized, according to previous research, by increased levels of retention of [ð] in lower-socioeconomic-class children. The paper offers a quantitative analysis that provides empirical evidence for faithfulness effects in high activation domains, as well as a formal account of the data framed within Optimality Theory (OT). Positional faithfulness constraints are shown to interact with extra-linguistic variables such as socioeconomic class, age, indicating the acquisition of stylistic variation. The results of the empirical investigation reveal a pattern of deletion of intervocalic [ð] in younger lower-socioeconomic background children that is consistent with the informal variety spoken in the immediate community. This favorable tendency toward deletion is overruled when intervocalic [ð] is located in high activation domains, such as stressed syllable and word-initial position. In contrast, the older, lower-socioeconomic background children have fewer instances of deletion. The results suggest that the grammar of older, lower-socioeconomic class children contains two rankings, one favoring deletion and another one (acquired later) favoring retention. These rankings get activated as a consequence of external constraints such as socioeconomic class , age , and style . Probabilistic weights attached to each one of the rankings account for the general likelihood of selection of each ranking.


Analog modeling of volcanic cones traversed by strike-slip faulting was conducted, and the cones were analyzed for deformation characteristics. The study shows that symmetrical volcanoes that have undergone basal strike-slip offset may be deformed internally without manifesting any change in their conical shape. Volcanoes deformed by strike-slip faulting may already have well-developed fractures in their interior, yet still appear as a symmetrical cone, exhibiting concentric contours when viewed on a topographic map. Moreover, slight changes in the basal shape of the cone induced by strike-slip movement can be restored by the relatively faster resurfacing and reshaping processes from the deposition of younger eruptive products. These findings pose a subtle but significant point in the assessment of volcanic landslide hazards: not all perfect cones are undisturbed. The detection of concealed deformation is important because fractures induce further instability in volcanoes and act as slip planes during volcano-collapse events. There are many examples of symmetrical volcanoes in nature. The faultless appearance of such perfect cones can be misleading, which requires careful attention in hazards assessment.


We present results from Chandra observations of NGC 5813, the dominant central galaxy in a nearby galaxy group. We focus on three main results. 1) The diffuse gas shows clear signatures from three distinct outbursts of the central AGN, with three pairs of roughly collinear cavities. The inner two cavity pairs are associated with unambiguous elliptical shock fronts, with Mach numbers M~1.7 and M~1.5 for the inner and outer shocks, respectively. 2) The mean power of the two most recent outbursts differs by a factor of six, indicating that the mean jet power varies over long (~10^7 yr) time scales. 3) The heating from the shocks alone is sufficient to balance radiative cooling of the gas within at least the central 10 kpc, allowing feedback to operate isotropically at small radii.


The transport of water from street fountains into living spaces was tedious but essential labor that impacted the health and social integration of subelite populations, yet it remains understudied in work on Pompeii's public water system. This article uses spatial network analysis to demographically model public fountain use at a unit-level scale. Dynamic neighborhoods are identified using least-cost routes between every external door and fountain in the city. Maximum and minimum ranges of labor and water accessibility are quantified by total daily time and energy fetching water per household, aggregate pedestrian traffic to fountains, and fountain crowding or underuse. Data are contextualized within disruptions to the water system from seismic events in the city's final decades, the contributions of cistern and private water lines to daily needs, and comparative and primary textual evidence for the socioeconomic status and well-being of water fetchers. The results expose disproportionate inequality at the system's peripheries, although most residents enjoyed good water access. Moreover, they reconstruct the scale of labor of marginalized sectors of Roman society that is underrepresented in textual and artistic sources, offering quantifiable comparanda for further studies on water accessibility in antiquity.1


We present a method for investigating variations in the upper end of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) by probing the production rate of ionizing photons in unresolved, compact star clusters with ages ⩽107 yr and with different masses. We test this method by performing a pilot study on the young cluster population in the nearby galaxy NGC5194 (M51a), for which multi-wavelength observations from the Hubble Space Telescope are available. Our results indicate that the proposed method can probe the upper end of the IMF in galaxies located out to at least ∼10 Mpc, i.e., a factor ≈200 further away than what is possible by counting individual stars in young compact clusters. Our results for NGC5194 show no obvious dependence of the upper mass end of the IMF on the mass of the star cluster down to ≈103 M☉, although more extensive analyses involving lower mass clusters and other galaxies are needed to confirm this conclusion.


Peaches are rich of nutritive and medicinal value, they are widely grown in the world, but it is not easy to preserve. In order to explore the effects and mechanism of micro-biological preservation methods and find out a neweffective way to preserve peaches which fits the food safety policyi¼Œwe using antagonists regarded as a potential useful solution for the issue. In this study, three new antagonists, Cryptococcus Laurentii (CL), Candida Guilliermondii (CG) and Tricho-sporon Aquatile (TA) were used and evaluated in preserving peaches. With a multi-year (2011 -2015) study, the treatments with CL, TA showed obvious advantages. After spraying the three antagonists,the decay,rots, respiration,weight loss decreased compared with the CK.The results of this study indicated the beneficial effect of Malon Dialdehyde (MDA), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and SSC have been reduced by sprayingCL of 108 CFU/ ml. The TA of 108 CFU/ ml showed most affective results in weight loss and respiration.The peaches were firmer than the CK with the treatment of CL of 108 CFU/ ml, as well as the reduction ofrelative conductivity. The MDA growth rate of CL treatment was 82.60% and PPO growth rate was 11.04% lower than the controlled group. The results indicated the ability of Cryptococcus Laurentii (CL) antagonist is an effective way tocontrol postharvest disease in honey peaches.


It has been well established that appropriate physical activity and exercise play an important role in promotion of health and fitness, prevention of disease and treatment and rehabilitation of health conditions. However, practice based on scientific evidence, in respect of the role and effectiveness of exercise interventions in prevention and treatment of diseases, has only been promoted and implemented in the fields of clinical exercise physiology, public health and medicine in recent years. This brief review provides an introduction of the concept of "Exercise is Medicine", the development and evidence-based practice in Clinical Exercise Physiology, and the role and training of Clinical Exercise Physiologist in the health care system of some other countries.


This article provides an introduction to multimarket competition and the research stream that examines it. Multimarket competition occurs when firms meet their competitors in multiple markets and compete with them by coordinating their strategies across those markets. In this article, we present a concise exposition of the theoretical foundations of the literature on multimarket competition and illustrate how empirical research projects are typically designed in this literature. We also provide some directions for future work in this area and discuss implications for research in organization design.


Three outcrop sections for the EoceneOligocene boundary have been studied in Sinjar anticline northwestern Iraq. This study includes the lithostratigraphy, biostratigraphy and the identification of trace fossils and related ichnofacies in order to report the geological history of this boundary in the frame of sequence stratigraphy. Jaddala Formation, which is composed of marl and marly limestone, represents deep (outer shelf-upper bathyal) Eocene facies, Palani and Tarjil formations represent deposition in deep basinal environments during Early and Late Oligocene sequences. The EoceneOligocene boundary in Sinjar area represents a disconformity surface, where the deposition ceased in the Middle Eocene (Lutetian) at the end of Jaddala Formation, forming the firmground Glossifungites Ichnofacies which embrace Thalassinoides ichnotaxa in Jaddala section, and the hardground Trypanites Ichnofacies in Sharafiddin section, while at Sinjar section, a chalky limestone bed deposited at the Early Oligocene (Rupelian) Palani Formation representing Skolithos Ichnofacies. A rapid wide transgression took place at the end of Early Oligocene (Rupelian) leading to the deposition of Palani Formation, and continued through the Late Oligocene (Chattian) leading to the deposition of Tarjil Formation.


The Zambian beef industry can potentially contribute more to the nation's development if value addition is better promoted in the agricultural sector. Effective promotion of value chain (VC) activities is achievable only with in-depth understanding of economic activities embedded in the beef VC. This was the main issue for this study which analyzed cost incurred and margins secured across the value chain for smallholder beef cattle production in 4 districts of the Southern Province against the backdrop of high final consumer price of beef in Zambia. The objectives of the study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of players, identify their value addition activities and how they influence the value chain, map the beef VC with key actors, compute the costs added to retail price at each value chain node and explain how this influences the final consumer price. Net margin accruing to VC participants and the overall cost of producing a unit of beef were also computed. Empirical results showed that the majority of VC participants were males which were below 50 years of age, married and had basic education. The cattle rearing node was found to contribute the largest proportion (38%) of the marketing margin of USD2.97/kg of beef followed by trading node and retailing node (27% apiece) while the abattoir node accounted for a paltry 8%. The net margin earned was also highest at the cattle rearing node (USD0.77/kg) followed by trading (USD0.70/kg), retailing (USD0.66/kg) and abattoir node (USD0.22/kg). Prices of steak and mixed cuts were found to be more uniform in all the four districts. However, the prices of offals tended to parity only in urban areas but were significantly higher in the largely rural Namwala District. In all the districts, the prices of offals were found to be significantly lower than those of steak and mixed cuts. It is concluded that final consumer prices are mostly determined by cost incurred and margins added at cattle rearing, trading and retailing nodes. Lastly, differentiating beef into steak and mixed cuts does not yield any corresponding price differentiation. The study recommended raising the participation of females in some value chain nodes, stopping beef differentiation into steak and mixed cuts and lowering final consumer prices by implementing policies such as elimination of double levies by councils that can lead to cost reduction at beef cattle rearing, trading and retailing nodes.


This study is concerned with the piloting of a formative evaluation process at an elementary school in the Rocky Mountain School District, Golden Zone. The formative evaluation process was provided as an option to teachers at this school in lieu of their scheduled surnrnative evaluations. The purpose of this study was to determine if formative evaluation resulted in more professional growth than surnrnative evaluation. All six teachers scheduled for a surnrnative evaluation at this school chose to participate in pilot and each was interviewed with respect to the evaluation system as piloted. The teachers reported that the piloted formative evaluation system did result in more professional growth than the previous surnrnative evaluation process. As well, the teachers' responses supported the current literature on formative evaluation in stressing the importance of collegiality, teacher ownership, and the meeting of personal needs as an essential component of an effective evaluation model for promoting professional growth.


: The purpose of the study was to examine the accuracy of MRI in distinguishing between the cartilage of the femoral head and the acetabulum in vivo. In 20 healthy and 41 arthrotic hips an MRI was performed, using a special traction on the hips. With T1-weighted 3-dimensional gradient-echo sequence it is possible to distinguish between the high-signal femoral head and acetabular cartilage by having a low signal of the joint space. In the horizontal position of the phase encoding parameters a reduction of the chemical-shift artefact can be achieved mainly in the ventro-lateral areas. In addition it is possible to discriminate between four qualities of cartilage. The extent and localisation of degenerative cartilage in the hip joint can influence the indication of osteotomies for the hip joint.


BACKGROUND : Recent advances in transcriptome sequencing have enabled the discovery of thousands of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) across multitudes of species. Though several lncRNAs have been shown to play important roles in diverse biological processes, the functions and mechanisms of most lncRNAs remain unknown. Two significant obstacles lie between transcriptome sequencing and functional characterization of lncRNAs: 1) identifying truly noncoding genes from de novo reconstructed transcriptomes, and 2) prioritizing hundreds of resulting putative lncRNAs from each sample for downstream experimental interrogation. RESULTS: We present slncky , a computational lncRNA discovery tool that produces a high-quality set of lncRNAs from RNA-Sequencing data and further prioritizes lncRNAs by characterizing selective constraint as a proxy for function. Our filtering pipeline is comparable to manual curation efforts and more sensitive than previously published approaches. Further, we develop, for the first time, a sensitive alignment pipeline for aligning lncRNA loci and propose new evolutionary metrics relevant for both sequence and transcript evolution. Our analysis reveals that selection acts in several distinct patterns, and uncovers two notable classes of lncRNAs: one showing strong purifying selection at RNA sequence and another where constraint is restricted to the regulation but not the sequence of the transcript. CONCLUSION : Our novel comparative methods for lncRNAs reveals 233 constrained lncRNAs out of tens of thousands of currently annotated transcripts, which we believe should be prioritized for further interrogation. To aid in their analysis we provide the slncky Evolution Browser as a resource for experimentalists. 2 . CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/031385 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Nov. 11, 2015;


Methylation of G1405 within bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA results in high-level resistance to specific combinations of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Only a few closely related methyltransferases (MTases), which carry out the respective modification (here dubbed "Agr", for aminoglycoside resistance), are known. It is not clear, whether they are related to "typical" S-adenosylmethionine (AdoMet)-dependent MTases or not. Demydchuk et al., 1998 proposed that the cofactor-binding region is localized at the C-terminus of Agr MTases, which implies an interesting case of sequence permutation. Since the Agr MTases lack significant sequence similarity to other proteins, we tested that hypothesis using more sensitive sequence/structure threading approach. Structure prediction confirmed the presence of a putative AdoMet-binding site in these proteins, albeit at a distinct location, resembling that of "typical", non-permuted MTases. Additionally, a small alpha-helical domain dissimilar to other proteins in the database was identified in the N-terminal region of Agr MTases. Comparison of a three-dimensional model of the Agr family member with a recently solved structure of reovirus mRNA capping MTase suggests that the mechanism of guanine-N7 methylation in rRNA and mRNA may be different.