Objective: To examine the secretory effect of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and ACTH on the adrenal glands of prenatal and postnatal sheep. Methods: Immunocytochemistry was used to examine the adrenal cortex and medulla for 17α-hydroxylase and tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity. Microphysiometric technique was used to measure [H+] after exposure of whole dispersed prenatal and postnatal adrenal glands to PGE2, ACTH, or both. Results: Immunocytochemistry showed many cortical-type cells in all adrenal medullae and many medullary-type cells in fetal adrenal cortices. Maximum H+ responsiveness to PGE2 deceased with increasing age. The developmental age-related pattern of maximum percentage change in [H+] during ACTH exposure was similar to previous findings with cortisol production as the endpoint. ACTH stimulated H+ production at 80 days' gestation and at all ages greater than 125 days' gestation (P <.05). The molar concentration of ligand required to elicit a response that was 50% of maximum response (EC50) for the ACTH response was lower in fetuses than in newborn lambs (< 1 day and 3 days old), but there was no change in EC50 for PGE2 across the ages studied. Adrenal cell response to ACTH after prior ACTH and PGE2 exposure was higher (P <.05) compared with ACTH after ACTH or ACTH alone at 110 days' gestation only and was lower in 3-day-old lambs. Conclusions: Based on the ACTH results, microphysiometry was a valid method for investigating dispresed adrenal cell physiology. Prostaglandin E2 stimulated dispersed adrenal cells during the mid-gestation ACTH refractory period, but this effect decreased with increasing age. Prostaglandin E2 sensitized adrenal cells to ACTH at 110 days' gestation but inhibited ACTH effects at postnatal day 3.


In August-September 1981, in some areas of Karelia (on the border of northern and middle taiga) there occurred diseases with signs of fever, rash, and arthralgia developing in some patients into a chronic condition. Examinations of paired sera from patients with the acute disease and from convalescents using a set of Toga- and Bunya-viruses showed the etiology of the disease to be associated with a virus from the Togaviridae family, genus Alphavirus, of the antigenic Sindbis complex.


This article describes single-molecule force spectroscopy measurements of the interaction between individual amino acid residues and inorganic surfaces in an aqueous solution. In each measurement, there is an amino acid residue, lysine, glutamate, phenylalanine, leucine, or glutamine, and each represents a class of amino acids (positively or negatively charged, aromatic, nonpolar, and polar). Force-distance curves measured the interaction of the individual amino acid bound to a silicon atomic force microscope (AFM) tip with a silcon substrate, cut from a single-crystal wafer, or mica. Using this method, we were able to measure low adhesion forces (below 300 pN) and could clearly determine the strength of interactions between the individual amino acid residues and the inorganic substrate. In addition, we observed how changes in the pH and ionic strength of the solution affected the adsorption of the residues to the substrates. Our results pinpoint the important role of hydrophobic interactions among the amino acids and the substrate, where hydrophobic phenylalanine exhibited the strongest adhesion to a silicon substrate. Additionally, electrostatic interactions also contributed to the adsorption of amino acid residues to inorganic substrates. A change in the pH or ionic strength values of the buffer altered the strength of interactions among the amino acids and the substrate. We concluded that the interplay between the hydrophobic forces and electrostatic interactions will determine the strength of adsorption among the amino acids and the surface. Overall, these results contribute to our understanding of the interaction at the organic-inorganic interface. These results may have implications for our perception of the specificity of peptide binding to inorganic surfaces. Consequently, it would possibly lead to a better design of composite materials and devices.


The present study aims at evaluating the contribution of spatial audiovisual coherence for sound source unmasking for live music mixing. Sound engineers working with WFS technologies for live sound mixing have reported that their mixing methods have radically changed. Using conventional mixing methods, the audio spectrum is balanced in order to get each instrument intelligible inside the stereo mix. In contrast, when using WFS technologies, the source intelligibility can be achieved thanks to spatial audiovisual coherence and/or sound spatialization (and without using spectral modifications). The respective effects of spatial audiovisual coherence and sound spatialization should be perceptually evaluated. As a first step, the ability of naive and expert subjects to identify a spatialized mix was evaluated by a discrimination task. For this purpose, live performances (rock, jazz, and classic) were played back to subjects with and without stereoscopic video display and VBAP or WFS audio rendering. Two sound engineers realized the audio mixing for three pieces of music and for both audio technologies in the same room where the test have been carried out.


One explanation for the cost to mating for females caused by damaging male mating behavior is that this causes the females to adaptively modify their subsequent life histories in a way that also increases male fitness. This might occur because the reduction in residual reproductive value of the female increases her optimal oviposition rate or because an increase in the current level of damage increases the female's optimal remating interval. In this article, I present models of a stochastic dynamic game in which males choose the level of mating damage that they inflict on females and females choose their oviposition rate and whether to remate. The models show that some level of damage is always an evolutionarily stable strategy and may even provoke females into making terminal reproductive investment (and hence a semelparous life history), that nondamaging populations are always invaded by damaging male mutants, and that damage evolves because of its effect on oviposition rate and despite its effect on remating interval.


We have isolated and characterized a segment of the chick alpha 2 collagen gene by screening a library of chick genomic fragments using as hybridization probe an alpha 2 collagen cDNA clone. Several clones were isolated and one of them, lambda gCOL 204, was used for further studies. The DNA of lambda gCOL 204 hybridizes to a unique species of mRNA the size of alpha 2 collagen mRNA. This mRNA can be translated into a unique polypeptide which comigrates in SDS-gel electrophoresis with pro-alpha 2 collagen. Electron microscopic analysis by R-loop technique indicates that lambda gCOL 204 contains 7Kb of the alpha 2 collagen gene. This 7 Kb piece constitutes the 3' end of the gene. The same clone also contains 9 Kb of DNA that is immediately adjacent to the 3' end of the alpha 2 collagen gene. The cloned segment of the alpha 2 collagen gene is interrupted by 8 intervening sequences of various lengths. The coding sequences for collagen in this clone add up to approximately 1,800 bp, which correspond to about 1/3 of alpha 2 collagen mRNA. DNA sequence analysis of a small coding segment of lambda g COL 204 reveals a characteristic collagen type sequence which encodes for an amino acid sequence identical to a sequence found in calf alpha 2 collagen. The sequence of this region of the protein has not yet been determined for the chick alpha 2 collagen.


The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in inadequately prioritized healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries such as Kenya. In this prolonged pandemic, nurses and midwives working at the frontline face multiple ethical problems, including their obligation to care for their patients and the risk for infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Despite the frequency of emergencies in Africa, there is a paucity of literature on ethical issues during epidemics. Furthermore, nursing regulatory bodies in African countries such as Kenya have primarily adopted a Western code of ethics that may not reflect the realities of the healthcare systems and cultural context in which nurses and midwives care for patients. In this article, we discuss the tension between nurses' and midwives' duty of care and resource allocation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to clarify nurses' and midwives' rights and responsibilities, especially in the current political setting, limited resources, and ambiguous professional codes of ethics that guide their practice.


Region inference is a type-based program analysis that takes a non-annotated program as input and constructs a program that explicitly manages memory allocation and deallocation by dividing the heap into a stack of regions, each of which can grow and shrink independently from other regions, using constant-time operations. Whereas region-based memory management has shown useful in the contexts of explicit region-based memory management, and in particular, in combination with parallel execution of code, combining region inference with techniques for higher-order parallel programming has not been investigated. In this paper, we present an implementation of a fork-join parallel construct suitable for a compiler based on region inference. We present a minimal higher-order language incorporating the parallel construct, including typing rules and a dynamic semantics for the language, and demonstrate type soundness. We present a novel effect-based region-protection inference algorithm and discuss benefits and shortcomings of the approach. We also describe an efficient implementation embedded in the MLKit Standard ML compiler. Finally, we evaluate the approach and the implementation based on a number of parallel benchmarks, and thereby demonstrate that the technique effectively utilises multi-core architectures in a higher-order functional setting.


This study investigated whether Dalmatian puppies with normal hearing bilaterally had the same click-evoked brainstem auditory potential characteristics as age-matched dogs of another breed. Short-latency brainstem auditory potentials evoked by condensation and rarefaction clicks were recorded in 23 1.5- to 2-month-old Dalmatian puppies with normal hearing bilaterally by a qualitative brainstem auditory evoked potential test and in 16 Beagle dogs of the same age. For each stimulus intensity, from 90 dB normal hearing level down to the wave V threshold, the sum of the potentials evoked by the 2 kinds of stimuli were added, giving an equivalent to the alternate click polarity stimulation. The slope of the L segment of the wave V latency-intensity curve was steeper in Dalmatian (-40 +/- 10 micros/dB) than in Beagles (-28 +/- 5 micros/dB, P < .001) puppies. The hearing threshold was lower in the Beagle puppies (P < .05). These results suggest that interbreed differences may exist at the level of cochlear function in this age class. The wave V latency and wave V-wave I latencies differences at high stimulus intensity were different between the groups of puppies (4.3 +/- 0.2 and 2.5 +/- 0.2 milliseconds, respectively, for Beagles; and 4.1 +/- 0.2 and 2.3 +/- 0.2 milliseconds for Dalmatians, P < .05). A different maturation speed of the neural pathways is one possible explanation of this observation.


The removal of low-polarity organic compounds from soils and aquifers by water flushing is often constrained by sorption interactions. There is great interest in developing systems that can enhance the transport of organic compounds through porous media, thus facilitating remediation. We investigated the potential of hydroxypropyl-[beta]-cyclodextrin (HPCD), a microbially produced compound, to reduce the sorption and to enhance the transport of several low-polarity organic compounds. The results show that cyclodextrin does not interact with the two porous media used in the study. As a result, there is no retardation of cyclodextrin during transport. The retardation of compounds such as anthracene, pyrene, and trichlorobiphenyl was significantly (orders of magnitude) reduced in the presence of cyclodextrin. The enhancement effect of the cyclodextrin was predictable with a simple equation based on three-phase partitioning. The nonreactive nature of cyclodextrin combined with its large affinity for low-polarity organic compounds makes cyclodextrin a possible candidate for use in in-situ remediation efforts. 22 refs., 6 figs., 3 tabs.


As European nations grapple with when and how to extend inclusive citizenship to their Muslim minorities, the parameters of Muslim women's citizenship have jumped to the forefront of feminist concern. Much of the debate internationally has revolved around veiling, but we argue that this is only one element of how ethnic, religious, and other differences among women are addressed. In this paper, we choose two cases which highlight political choices surrounding intersectionality for German feminists: headscarf laws and antidiscrimination laws. Both laws are inherently intersectional, with significant and differential impact on Muslim women, but German feminists have engaged in these two issues quite differently. The so-called headscarf debate has drawn intense feminist involvement but changes in antidiscrimination law are rarely discussed in feminist media. We attempt to explain this difference by focusing on how solidarity-across-difference is understood: as a strategic alliance around multiple axes of difference or as using the state as an ally to help "other" women address their special needs.


This chapter discusses a challenging hot topic in the area of Web 2.0 technologies for Lifelong Learning: how to merge such technologies with research on personalization and adaptive e-learning, in order to provide the best learning experience, customized for a specific learner or group of learners, in the context of communities of learning and authoring. The authors of this chapter discuss the most well-known frameworks and then show how an existing framework for personalized e-learning can be extended, in order to allow the specification of the complex new relationships that social aspects bring to e-learning platforms. This is not just about creating learning content, but also about developing new ways of learning. For instance, adaptation does not refer to an individual only, but also to groups, which can be groups of learners, designers or course authors. Their interests, objectives, capabilities, and backgrounds need to be catered to, as well as their group interaction. Furthermore, the boundaries between authors and learners become less distinct in the Web 2.0 context. This chapter presents the theoretical basis for this framework extension, as well as its implementation and evaluation, and concludes by discussing the results and drawing conclusions and interesting pointers for further research.


The biomagnification of the cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5) and dodecamethylcyclohexatetrasiloxane (D6) was analyzed in the Lake Mjøsa food web in Norway from zooplankton and Mysis to planktivorous and piscivorous fish. The trophic magnification factor (TMF) for D5 was determined and compared with TMFs of several legacy contaminants: polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners 153 and 180, polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) congeners 47 and 99, and p,p'-DDE. D5 showed TMF significantly greater than 1, implying food web biomagnification (TMF = 2.28, CI: 1.22-4.29). This contrasts with two studies that reported TMF < 1, which may reflect variability in TMF between food webs. The Lake Mjøsa D5 TMF was sensitive to the species included at the higher trophic level; whole food web TMF differed from TMF excluding smelt (Osmerus eperlanus) or brown trout (Salmo trutta) (TMF(-SMELT) = 1.62, CI: 0.96-2.72; TMF(-TROUT) = 3.58, CI: 1.82-7.03). For legacy contaminants (e.g., PCB-153 and PCB-180), the TMFs were less sensitive to the food web composition, and a better model fit was obtained compared to D5. The differences in biomagnification behavior between D5 and the legacy contaminants suggest that the biomagnification of D5 is being governed by species-specific properties such as biotransformation rate or tissue distribution that differ from those of legacy contaminants.


In this paper we present risk-estimation models and methods for early detection of patient non-adherence based on unstructured text in patient records. The primary objectives are to perform early interventions on patients at risk of non-adherence and improve outcomes. We analyzed over 1.1 million visit notes corresponding to 30,095 Cancer patients, spread across 12 years of Oncology practice. Our risk analysis, based on a rich risk-factor dictionary, revealed that a staggering 30% of the patients were estimated to be at a high risk of non-adherence. Our risk classification showed that 2 distinct patient groups, between 26 and 38 (mean risk score, r=0.77, s=0.22), and 75 and 90 (r=0.81, s=0.19) years of age respectively, exhibited the highest risk of nonadherence when compared to the rest. The dominant risk-factors for these two groups, not surprisingly, included psychosocial (e.g. depression, lack of support), medical (e.g. side-effects such as pain) and financial issues (e.g. costs of treatment).


Risk is mitigated in the course of reliable prediction. A probabilistic model is proposed to predict the risk effects on time and cost of construction projects. Project managers and consultants can use the model in estimating project cost and duration based on historic data. Statistical regression models and sample tests are developed using real data of 140 projects. The research objective is to develop a model to predict project cost and duration based on historic data of similar projects. The model result can be used by project managers in the planning phase to validate the schedule critical path time and project budget. Research methodology is steered per the following progression: i) Conduct nonparametric test for project cost and time performance. ii) Develop generic multiple-regression models to predict project cost and duration using historic performance data. iii) The percent prediction error is statistically analyzed; and found to be substantial; thus, iv) Custom multiple regression models are developed for each project type to obtain statistically reliable results. In conclusion, the 95% point estimation of error margin= ±0.035%. Therefore, at a probability of 95%, the proposed model predicts the project cost and duration with a precision of ±0.035% of the mean cost and time.


The aims of this research is to find out how the consumers decision process on
purchasing organic vegetables and their preference towards organic vegetables are.
This is an quantitative research which use descriptive method. There are two brands
and six atributes that being evaluated in this research. The brands are TOM and
TOS, while the attributes are price, packaging, brand, freshness, variant of
vegetables, and organic label. The data analysis techniques used in this research
are descriptive and ideal point attitude model. The result of the research, which is
taken from 44 respondents, shows that freshness is the most important attribute in
organic vegetables. Consumers' are being motivated to consume organic vegetable
because of its better nutrient compared to non-organic. Magazine and newspaper
are the source of information about organic vegetables that being accesed by mostly
consumers. People feel good benefits to their health after consuming organic
vegetables so they decided to continue consuming organic vegetables. Overall,
TOM brand gained higher score than TOS brand, and consumer prefer to buy TOM's
organic vegetables.


Background:Although genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and subsequent meta-analyses have confirmed associations between the PTPN2 (protein tyrosine phosphatase, nonreceptor type 2) gene and Crohn's disease (CD), the potential causal variants remain unidentified. We aimed to dissect potential causal CD-associated PTPN2 variants, assess their functional significance, and relate PTPN2 protein expression with inflammation in CD. Methods:A 3-stage study was carried out. In stage 1, we genotyped tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (tag-SNPs) in the PTPN2 gene in a sample of patients with CD (<20 years, n = 556) and controls (n = 602). In stage 2, we resequenced the putative promoter, target exons and introns in the PTPN2 gene, and examined associations with high-frequency variants with CD in the stage 1 cohort. In stage 3 we studied the relationship between PTPN2 protein expression and mucosal inflammation and carried out in silico analyses to study the functional characteristics of the PTPN2 CD-associated SNPs. Results:In stage 1, we observed associations between 5 intronic SNPs and CD including rs1893217 (P = 2 × 10−4), the SNP that is in perfect linkage disequilibrium with the lead genome-wide association studies SNP rs2542151. Resequencing revealed 2 known promoter polymorphisms. No associations between these promoter SNPs and CD were evident. In silico analyses revealed that the 5 associated intronic SNPs influenced PTPN2 expression and binding to important transcription factors. PTPN2 protein was overexpressed in inflamed intestinal tissues of patients with CD. Conclusions:Our findings suggest that noncoding variation in the PTPN2 gene may represent the causal variations influencing susceptibility for CD.


Featuring Handa, star of "Handa's Hen" and "Handa's Surprise", this innovative storybook contains three linked stories and is designed to build reader confidence. Join the ever popular Handa, a young African girl living in a Kenyan tribe, as she goes about her everyday life, delivering fruit to her village, hunting for her Grandma's black hen with her friend, Akeyo and encountering a troublesome goat.


Autoreactive T cells directed against CNS antigens seem to play an essential role at least in the initiation of multiple sclerosis. To improve our understanding about the function of pathogenic T cells in CNS autoimmunity we aimed to endow the classical neuroimmunlogical Lewis rat EAE model with new analytic power. To do this, we generated two TCR transgenic Lewis strains: the rMT-II strain carrying T cells specific for the self-antigen myelin basic protein and the rOT-II strain in which the transgenic TCR is specific for chicken ovalbumin. To our knowledge, these are first available TCRtg models created in R. norvegicus.
The immune system of the rMT-II+/+ strain is characterised by a high proportion of CD4+ MHC class II restricted T cells readily responding to MBP challenge by proliferating and producing proinflammatory cytokines. Although no spontaneous EAE was observed in rMT-II rats, this strain is highly susceptible to an early-onset severe monophasic EAE induced by active immunization even with reduced amounts of adjuvant or antigen. Repeated immunization induced relapse EAE in rMT-II, but not in WT Lewis rats. Peripheral T cells isolated from rMT-II donors were able to mediate an accelerated onset of active EAE upon transfer into WT recipients. Remarkably, the effector T cell lines established from rMT-II rats were highly encephalitogenic and caused severe EAE including atypical symptoms with increased propensity to infiltrate not only the spinal cord but also brain tissue.
In the rOT-II+/+ strain the majority of peripheral T cells express a transgenic TCR specific for ovalbumin. In this strain, however, thymic development is disturbed leading to moderate lymphopenia, aberrant expression of the CD8 coreceptor in mature OVA-reactive T cells and reduction of the CD62L+ population. Still, this line can be used to track priming and migration of non-pathogenic OVA-specific T cells upon adoptive transfer.
A green fluorescent marker which is co-expressed with each transgenic TCR greatly facilitates phenotyping and analysis of T cell migration. Further, its high expression by endothelial and myeloid cells can be exploited to visualize interaction of meningeal BBB structures with invading immune cells by TPM using rOT-II animals as a host for transfer experiments.
Using an experimental setup comprising adoptive transfer and local activation in the draining LN, we performed analysis of migration and gene expression of cytokines and chemokine receptors in naive and effector populations of MBP- and OVA-specific T cells in vivo. Furthermore, TPM analysis of rMT-II+/+ cells invading the spinal cord during EAE induced by peripheral T cell activation revealed differences in behaviour of primary versus effector T cell subtypes.


Osteoarthritis affects more than 27 million Americans and cost nearly $5700 per person annually. [1], [2] It commonly affects the knee joint and has been linked to work involving prolonged knee bending. [3], [4] In restricted vertical working heights such as low-seam coal mines and aircraft baggage compartments, workers are forced to assume stooped, kneeling, or squatting postures to perform work. In order to protect the knees in these postures, we must have an understanding of what the internal knee structures experience under these conditions. A finite element model is being developed to quantify the stresses and strains in the tissues in static kneeling postures. The accuracy of any finite element model is heavily dependent on the input parameters (i.e. forces and moments). Therefore, the objective of this work was to develop a 3-D computational model which may be used to determine the net forces and moments applied to the knee joint during static kneeling. The developed model uses inverse dynamics to determine the net forces, net moments, and joint angles for subjects while kneeling near full flexion, kneeling on one knee, kneeling near 90° flexion, and squatting. Motion data, ground reaction forces, and pressures between the thigh and calf and heel and gluteal muscles were inputs into this model. Additionally the thigh-calf contact force, which was shown to be significant [5], and the heel-gluteus contact force, which had not been previously investigated, were inputs in this model. Data from two subjects were analyzed with and without the subject wearing kneepads. Kneeling near full flexion and squatting created sagittal joint moments 3 to 5 times larger than standing in one subject. Moments of this magnitude may be significant to cause cartilage damage. It was also found that the moments caused by the thigh-calf and heel-gluteus contacts act to extend the knee, thereby reducing knee moments in fully flexed postures.


[Extract] During March 2015, Tropical Cyclone Pam charted a course of destruction through the southwest Pacific. The effects of the storm were felt in Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. But the greatest impact was in Vanuatu, many of whose islands were battered by the Category 5 system. It is still too early to know the full economic, fiscal, and developmental impacts of Cyclone Pam on Vanuatu. As data come to hand, they will add to existing literature on the economic impacts of disasters. Cross-country econometric studies have produced mixed and often contradictory findings when examining the impacts of disasters. This is not unexpected given that disasters come in many forms and affect both economic sectors (e.g., agriculture and services) and geographic areas differently. Cyclone Pam was unique given the breadth of its impact, but even in this case, some islands in Vanuatu such as Santo were not severely affected. In this article, we provide an update on estimated fiscal, economic, and development impacts of the cyclone on Vanuatu. We commence by establishing projections for the Vanuatu economy before the onset of the storm and move on to an examination of the immediate and short-term impacts. We then consider the medium-to longer-term impacts of this event, including risks and opportunities associated with reconstruction efforts whether by government or development partners. We conclude with some recommendations for the future.


In this paper we describe an evolutionary algorithm for assigning students to courses in a situation where each student specifies a set of courses in order of preference, each course has a limited enrollment, and the object is to maximize the overall student satisfaction by assigning each student to a course as high on his or her preference list as possible. Results of using the algorithm on historical data are compared to the success of a human in making the assignments. This work was done as part of a summer undergraduate research project while the second author was still a student. We also report preliminary results for using this problem as the basis for an assignment in a course in Artificial Intelligence.


HCV has chronically infected an estimated number of 160 million individuals worldwide.1 In the course of 10–20 years of persistent infection, approximately 20% of these patients are at risk of developing severe liver disease, including fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.2 Besides the ability to establish chronic infection, the pronounced genetic variability of HCV and the diverse course of chronic infection ranging from relatively benign to exacerbating liver disease are hallmarks of hepatitis C. Moreover, response to classical antiviral treatment based on pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN-α) and ribavirin is substantially influenced by viral and host factors, since viral genotypes 1 and 4 are more resilient to therapy compared with genotypes 2 and 3 and as polymorphisms in the vicinity of the IFN28B locus predict the chances to naturally clear HCV infection and of response to IFN-based therapies.3 ,4 The high degree of virus variability is also a formidable challenge in the emerging era of directly acting antivirals for treatment of hepatitis C by mediating drug escape through resistance mutations. Moreover, many molecules, most prominently the already licensed protease inhibitors telaprevir and boceprevir, display a genotype-dependent antiviral activity. Therefore, both viral and host genetic variability complicate provision of efficacious, safe, well-tolerated and cost-effective therapies to the large number of HCV patients.

At the same time, HCV has been resistant to disclosing its secrets as the road for development of suitable cell culture and animal models to dissect mechanism of virus replication and liver disease has been paved with many roadblocks. For instance, infection of cultured cells by primary patient-derived virus from sera …


Outlines development strategies of firms which have engaged in giant clam mariculture, particularly Australian firms, with special attention being given to Reefarm Pty. Ltd., the longest surviving commercial company involved in giant clam mariculture. Considers methods which companies in this area have used for coping with business uncertainty; examines the development of Reefarm Pty. Ltd and the choice of product-mix by Reefarm. The product mix involves pearl oysters, and supply of giant clams for a variety of markets (the aquarium trade, seed sales, the restaurant trade for food and provision of tourism/educational services). The analysis indicates the importance of considering the development of firms from an evolutionary perspective.


This paper presents a comparative analysis of the performances of both a traditional induction meter and various types of commercial static meters for reactive energy in the presence of harmonic distortion. This is a topical issue, since there are several types of static meters on the market, based on different principles of construction. In accordance with current standards, these meters are designed to operate in sinusoidal conditions and their performance is not tested in the presence of harmonic distortion. However, with the increase of pollution levels in power systems, the meters may be used even in the presence of distorted voltages and/or currents; in such cases, their accuracy may be very different from the nominal conditions, and the various meters may lead to different measurements of energy for the same load conditions. In this paper, the analysis is supported by several experimental tests, performed by means of a power calibrator.


High-Intensity Interval Exercise (HIIE) has been shown to be more effective than moderate-intensity exercise for increasing acute lipid oxidation and lowering blood lipids during exercise and postprandially. Exercise in cold environments is also known to enhance lipid oxidation, however the immediate and long-term effects of HIIE exercise in cold are unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects cold stress during HIIE on acute exercise metabolism and postprandial metabolism. Eleven recreationally active individuals (age: 23±3 years, weight: 80±9.7 kg, V̇O2peak: 39.2±5.73 mL·kg-1·min-1) performed evening HIIE sessions (10x60s cycling, 90% V̇O2peak interspersed with 90s active recovery, 30% V̇O2peak) in thermoneutral (HIIE-TN, control; 21°C) and cold environments (HIIE-CO; 0°C), following a balanced crossover design. The following morning, participants consumed a high-fat meal. Indirect calorimetry was used to assess substrate oxidation, and venous blood samples were obtained to assess changes in noncellular metabolites. During acute exercise, lipid oxidation was 113% higher in HIIE-CO (p=0.002) without differences in V̇O2 and EE (p≥0.162) between conditions. Postprandial V̇O2, lipid and CHO oxidation, plasma insulin and triglyceride concentrations were not different between conditions (p>0.05). Postprandial blood LDL-C levels were higher in HIIE-CO two hours after the meal (p=0.003). Postprandial glucose AUC was 49% higher in HIIE-CO vs HIIE-TN (p=0.034). Under matched energy expenditure conditions, HIIE demonstrated higher lipid oxidation rates during exercise in the cold; but only marginally influenced postprandial lipid metabolism the following morning. In conclusion, HIIE in the cold seemed to be less favorable for postprandial lipid and glycemic responses.


This paper proposes a methodology which combines elements of parametric regression analysis with the nonparametric distribution dynamics approach in order to analyse the role of some variables in the convergence of productivity across European regions over the period 1980-2002. We find that the initial productivity crucially accounts in the convergence process across European regions. Differently, employment growth seems not to play a role, while the Structural and Cohesion Funds seem to play a positive role, even though such effect seems to be very low and statistically significant only at the low bound of the range of initial productivity. The structural change of regional economies plays a positive role, but such effect is statistically significant only for the least productive regions. The output composition of a region in 1980 affects the convergence process of productivity growth in several ways. In particular, the share of non market services on output acts like a source of convergence from 1980 to 2002 but in the long-run it plays a negligible role. Finally, the share of finance acts like a force of divergence across European regions, especially for the least productive regions.


The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the FATIH Project from the perspective of future mathematics teachers. Contributions to the education system derived from the project, and related problems that emerged from the implementation process, were investigated based on the prospective teachers' observations. Qualitative research methods were used in the study, and the participants were 50 prospective mathematics teachers, who were senior students from a state university in Turkey. They were selected by means of purposeful sampling among students who were completing their teaching education in the high schools where the project was being implemented. The data was collected by means of focus group interviews, observations and a questionnaire prepared by the researchers. The data was analyzed by a way of descriptive analysis. Results revealed that the participants viewed the project as an important educational reform movement. However, the participants also indicated that it did not seem possible for the project to achieve its goals.


Mixture modeling is becoming an increasingly important tool in the remote sensing community as researchers attempt to resolve subpixel, area information. This paper compares a well-established technique, linear spectral mixture models (LSMM), with a much newer idea based on data selection, support vector machines (SVM). It is shown that the constrained least squares LSMM is equivalent to the linear SVM, which relies on proving that the LSMM algorithm possesses the "maximum margin" property. This in turn shows that the LSMM algorithm can be derived from the same optimality conditions as the linear SVM, which provides important insights about the role of the bias term and rank deficiency in the pure pixel matrix within the LSMM algorithm. It also highlights one of the main advantages for using the linear SVM algorithm in that it performs automatic "pure pixel" selection from a much larger database. In addition, extensions to the basic SVM algorithm allow the technique to be applied to data sets that exhibit spectral confusion (overlapping sets of pure pixels) and to data sets that have nonlinear mixture regions. Several illustrative examples, based on an area-labeled Landsat dataset, are used to demonstrate the potential of this approach.


This study examines and validates a technique for spatial enhancement of thermal satellite images for urban heat island analysis, using a nighttime ASTER satellite image. The technique, termed Emissivity Modulation, enhances the spatial resolution while simultaneously correcting the image derived temperatures for emissivity differences of earth surface materials. A classified image derived from a higher resolution visible wavelength sensor is combined with a lower resolution thermal image in the emissivity correction equation in a procedure derived from the Stephan Bolzmann law. This has the effect of simultaneously correcting the image-derived "Brightness Temperature" (Tb) to the true Kinetic Temperature (Ts), while enhancing the spatial resolution of the thermal data. Although the method has been used for studies of the urban heat island, it has not been validated by comparison with "in situ" derived surface or air temperatures, and researchers may be discouraged from its use due to the fact that it creates sharp boundaries in the image. The emissivity modulated image with 10 m pixel size was found to be highly correlated with 18 in situ surface and air temperature measurements and a low Mean Absolute Difference of 1 K was observed between image and in situ surface temperatures. Lower accuracies were obtained for the Ts and Tb images at 90 m resolution. The study demonstrates that the emissivity modulation method can increase accuracy in the computation of kinetic temperature, improve the relationship between image values and air temperature, and enable the observation of microscale temperature patterns.


Background and study aim Barrett's esophagus (BE)-associated dysplasia is an important marker for risk of progression to esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and an indication for endoscopic therapy. However, BE surveillance technique is variable. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of dedicated BE surveillance lists on dysplasia detection rate (DDR). Patients and methods This was a prospective study of patients undergoing BE surveillance at two hospitals – community (UHL) and upper gastrointestinal center (GSTT). Four endoscopists (Group A) were trained in Prague classification, Seattle protocol biopsy technique, and lesion detection prior to performing BE surveillance endoscopies at both sites, with dedicated time slots or lists. The DDR was then compared with historical data from 47 different endoscopists at GSTT and 24 at UHL (Group B) who had undertaken Barrett's surveillance over the preceding 5-year period. Results A total of 729 patients with BE underwent surveillance endoscopy between 2007 and 2012. There was no significant difference in patient age, sex, or length of BE between the two groups. There was a significant difference in detection rate of confirmed indefinite or low grade dysplasia and high grade dysplasia (HGD)/EAC between the two groups: 18 % (26 /142) Group A vs. 8 % (45/587) in Group B (P Conclusion This study demonstrated that a group of trained endoscopists undertaking Barrett's surveillance on dedicated lists had significantly higher DDR than a nonspecialist cohort. These findings support the introduction of dedicated Barrett's surveillance lists.


Background: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Our previous studies showed a high frequency of motor vehicle accidents among neurosurgical patients. However, there is a dearth of data on head injuries in children in Nigeria. Aims: To determine the epidemiology of paediatric traumatic brain injuries. Setting and Design: This is a prospective analysis of paediatric head trauma at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, a major referral centre for all traumatic brain injuries in Nigeria between October 2006 and September 2011. Materials and Methods: We studied the demographic, clinical and radiological data and treatment outcomes. Data was analysed using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) 16.0. Results: We managed 127 cases of paediatric head injuries, 65 boys and 62 girls representing 13% of all head injuries managed over the 5-year period. They were aged 3 months to 17 years. The mean age was 7.4 years (median 7 years) with peak incidence occurring at 6-8 years i.e. 31 (24.4%) cases. Motor vehicle accidents resulted in 67.7%, falls 14% and violence 7%. The most frequent computed tomography finding was intracerebral haemorrhage. Mean duration of hospitalization was 18 days (median 11 days). Eleven patients died, mortality correlating well with severity and the presence of intracerebral haematoma. Conclusion: Head injuries in children are due to motor vehicle and motor vehicle-related accidents. Hence, rational priorities for prevention of head injuries in children should include prevention of vehicular, especially pedestrian, accidents in developing countries.


The aim of this thesis is to examine the archivist's professional role in public authorities and discuss if, and in what way, the profession is effected by the new swedish process oriented archival description system. The study focuses on swedish authorities and does not make any international comparisons with other institutions. Neither does it investigate archivists workingin the private sector, but centers on public institutions.The survey is performed in five swedish public authorities, using interviews and observations. Grounded theory is used as a method initially in the purpose of keeping an open mark towards the object of study. The initial results led on to questions about how well the archivists perceived that communication within the authorities served, and how this in turn prepossessed their work situation and the professional roles in which they found themselves. To answer these questions, theories from the subjects of sociology and social psychology, among other things the idea of sensemaking as it is put by Karl Weick, was used to analyze the material.The result of the analysis shows that the implementation of a new archival system has generated a change in the archivists work tasks. The archivists in the studied authorities did in some cases, out of this new situation, manage to find a professional role in which they felt comfortable, and in some cases not. The difference between these two categories seemed to stem from a difference in the ability to make sense of their situations in their workplaces respectively. In the cases where the archivists ideas of their responsibilities and provinces did not correlatewith their employers a lack of sensemaking occured and led to confusion and conflict. This discrepancy between the archivists and the employer's expectations, the thesis argues, comes from the change in the archival profession that is taking place due to the changes in society at large. The employers' traditional image of an archivist clashes with the archivists new professional role. From this it is suggested that if consent is not reached around the archivists place in the organizations, and in society, much knowledge is at risk of being lost, and much competence going to waste. This thesis is a two years master's thesis in archival science.


In a first of its kind, this paper examines the issue of sectoral efficiency of the Indian Stock Market. For this, daily data for 11 sectoral indices on NSE viz. Auto, Bank, Energy, Finance, FMCG, IT, Media, Metal, Pharma, PSU Banks and Realty Index have been used. The study period spans from Jan 2004 to Jan 2014 covering a comprehensive 10 years including the recent global financial crisis. The analysis is done using unit root tests (Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF), Phillips-Perron (PP) and Kwiatkowski-Phillips-Schmidt-Shin (KPSS)] and Variance ratio tests [Chow Denning Joint Test, LoMackinlay Test and Wright (2000) Test based on Ranks and Signs].The results suggest that although overall Indian stock market seems to be weak form efficient, but different sectors comprising it are not, especially during total study period. Further we find evidence of increased inefficiency in Bank, Metal, PSU Bank and Realty sectors in the post-crisis period. This may be due to investor's overreaction in Indian stock market. Tripathi and Aggarwal (2009) have reported that Indian investors tend to overreact to bad news and hence post crisis, the price discovery mechanism was not so efficient. The findings on sectoral efficiency in India have important implications for policy makers, mutual funds, portfolio managers and investors at large. Weak form inefficiency in Bank, Metal, PSU Bank and Realty sectors is suggestive of exploitable arbitrage opportunities in these sectors. The regulators and policy makers must also note that overall market efficiency may not imply efficiency at the sectoral level; for this more efforts and sector specific reforms need to be taken.


What can people possibly know: an object as it is or their idea of the object? This question is central to the way people look at the world. If one can know a thing as it is, then the world must be real. Only a real world can have objects whose reality is inherent in them. Whoever knows a thing as it is must get the same knowledge about it. On the other hand, if people can only know the idea of a thing and not the thing as such, the world as they know must be an idea! There are people who look at the world as their idea. They take all human knowledge as mental constructions. They are the 'Constructivists' and their position is called 'Constructivism'. This article attempts to enquire into the constructivist worldview and its implications for two important ways of human resource development viz. teaching and training. It takes a catechistical approach to explain the idea of constructivism to the general reader. * It shows that knowledge construction is possible while assuming a knowable reality. Constructivism would be more useful if it accepts knowledge-reality correspondence. Such a position can justify constructivist teaching and training. * It shows that in a knowable real world the need for generalization or abstraction strengthens the constructivist position. It dispels the widely prevalent notion of equating hands-on experiences with active learning. * It positions constructivism as a comprehensive approach to look at training. Further, it outlines the lifecycle of a constructivist training. Do People Construct Their Own Mind-worlds? To do that they must be able to influence the way they know the reality. The world doesn't appear as colourful to dogs as to humans (Plonsky 1998). Human physiology has indeed enabled us to see the world differently. One can still argue that it is a case of setting limits by one reality viz. physiology over the other viz. colour. Probably a more appropriate question would be to ask whether the observers influence reality. Consider a scenario where Mr. Reji awaits the train to Kerala. A train passes by in which he spots a child throwing a ball in the air and managing to catch it. Sitting snugly on her seat, the child did it again by the time the train covered around two meters. While the child knows that she has taken the catches sitting at the very same place, Mr. Reji knows them as separated by a distance of two meters. Whose knowledge is correct? Can someone answer this question without taking the frames of reference of the observers into account? One can still argue that this is the nature of physical reality as explained by the theory of relativity (Einstein 2000). Can something uniquely human such as the points of view and culture influence the way people know the world? Consider the discovery of a new fossil. Must it mean a missing link between two related species? Can't it be taken as just another animal created by God? It depends on the interpreter. Materialists would explain it along evolutionary lines because they have closed themselves to God; creationists would see God's intelligence at work because only He can create life. These two explanations flow primarily from the inherent beliefs of the interpreters rather than the reality per se. As theories are by definition falsifiable (Popper 1963), a theory can never be proved once and for all. The dominant social paradigm ends up judging the validity of the competing explanations to declare one as knowledge and the other as opinion (Kuhn 1970). The effect of culture on the way people look at diverse phenomena is well researched (Clark 2002, Hofstede 2001, House et al. 2004). Indeed, uniquely human influences seem to affect the way we look at the world! Much of the human knowledge results from the coherent systems of explanations. Now the known world as an idea appears to be a plausible proposition. Notice that such knowledge is the result of the questions posed. …


The role of dispositional mindfulness on stress in student-athletes and factors that mediate this relationship has yet to be examined. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the facets of mindfulness and life stress in student-athletes and whether these relationships are mediated through coping effectiveness and decision rumination. Participants were 202 student-athletes who completed validated measures of dispositional mindfulness, student-athlete life stress, decision rumination and coping effectiveness in sport. Results indicated that the acting with awareness and nonjudging facets of mindfulness were negative predictors of life stress, whereas the observe facet was a positive predictor of life stress. Mediation analyses revealed that these relationships were mediated through coping effectiveness and decision rumination. Findings provide new insight into the role dispositional mindfulness plays on student-athlete perceptions of life stress and implications f...


Information Technology (IT) is often viewed as a resource that is capable of enhancing organizational performance. However, it is difficult for organizations to measure the actual contribution of IT investments. Despite an abundance of literature, there is an insufficiency of generally applicable frameworks and instruments to help organizations definitively assess the relationship among organizational performance, IT-business alignment, and IT governance. Previous studies have emphasized IT-business alignment as an important enabler of organizational effectiveness; however, the direct and indirect effects of IT governance have not been incorporated into these studies. The purpose of this study was (1) to propose a new model that defines the relationships among IT governance, IT-business alignment, and organizational performance, (2) to develop and validate measures for the IT governance and IT-business alignment constructs, and (3) to test this IT Governance-Alignment-Performance or "IT GAP" model. This study made some novel contributions to the understanding of the factors affecting organizational performance. The quest for IT-business alignment in the MIS literature has been based on the presumption that IT contributes directly to organizational performance. However, this study found that although IT-business alignment does contribute to organizational performance, IT governance is an important antecedent of both IT-business alignment and organizational performance. The major contributions of this work are the development and validation of uni-dimensional scales for both IT-business alignment and IT governance, and the confirmation of the validity of the IT GAP model to explain the hypothesized relationships among the three constructs. Future studies may improve upon this research by using different organizations settings, industries, and stakeholders. This study indicates that in order for organizations to improve the value, contribution, and alignment of IT investments they first need to improve the ways in which they govern their IT activities and the processes and mechanisms by which IT decisions are made.


Design Overview
The Volvo Open 70 Rule has announced a new race course in autumn 2006 as well as a change from the 4-year cycle to a 2 year cycle. The new course and the demands it will put to the boats due to different weather conditions on the new course have triggered the motivation to design a preliminary 2nd generation VO70 to the new rule and optimized to the new course, based on a successful design from the 2005/06 race.
The latest version of the race course will lead the boats into regions with different winds and different wind directions in the Indian Ocean, South-East Asia as well as
China. To find an estimate for the weather conditions that can be expected a weather study was carried out. Initial sets of hull lines were drawn, with the lines of the above
mentioned parent model and an initial comparison of parametric data of 5 different hull shapes to the parent hull has been carried out. A statistical parametric comparison with other Volvo70s was at the stage when the project was started not possible as public data was not available due to the just recently finished race.
Two preliminary hull shapes, one with the maximum Rule beam of 5.7m and one with the medium beam of 5.4m were selected to compete against each other in an artificial course sections within the VPP, based on the weather study and the course.
The outcome of these races was evaluated with respect to the scoring system within the race and the winning hull has been chosen to develop further.
A towing tank experiment to verify the data from the VPP has been discarded in favour of a more detailed design in areas such as appendages design, deck/safetyissues
and the structure of the yacht.
A weight study has been carried out with respect to what information is available and been updated with calculated data to optimize the bulb weight. Also attention has been paid to the shifting of equipment under and on deck ("stacking") and its affects to the stability of the yacht which has been worked out with positions of each item under certain sailing conditions. This data then has been
put back into the stability and weight calculations.
The deck layout representing the workbench for the sailors for every day in all conditions has been developed under consideration of what sailors form the last race
liked and did not like, for example height of coach roof to protect the crew from water washing over the deck.
Further on the Rule requirements were addressed. Structure, stability, powering, safety, accommodation and sail are strongly driven by the VO70 Rule. Changes to version 1 of the Rule were especially addressed and worked out to optimize the boat under the new requirements.
The author was involved in the construction process of Pirates of the Caribbean in summer 2005. This provided a deep insight into the nature of these still very new
boats and the technology behind it. The knowledge gained form that was used and data from the work carried out has been partially used. All data used from work carried out before hand is clearly marked.


Wave profiles were measured in an Fe–Cr–Ni alloy (stainless steel 304) shock compressed to Hugoniot stresses between 7 and 80 GPa. A single-stage propellant gun was used to generate shock states and time histories were recorded by velocity interferometry. The particle velocity measurements are generally consistent with impedance match calculations to ±2%. Unloading wave velocities were obtained from analysis of the release wave profiles. Using Eulerian finite strain theory and under the assumption of fully elastic initial release, the first and second pressure derivatives of the longitudinal modulus are given by: 7.9(0.5) and –0.16(0.06) GPa–1, where the numbers in parentheses are one standard deviation uncertainties. The first and second pressure derivatives of the adiabatic bulk modulus are: 6.4(1.0) and –0.17(0.08) GPa–1. The unloading wave velocities are generally consistent with extrapolated trends from low-pressure ultrasonic data as well as with higher stress shock measurements on an alloy of similar composition. From 1 bar to 80 GPa, Poisson's ratio, nu, increases with Hugoniot stress, sigma (in GPa), according to the relation: nu =0.29 + 0.0008 sigma. The Hugoniot elastic limit of 304 steel was found to be 0.35(0.12) GPa, and the initial yield stress is 0.21(0.07) GPa. The elastic precursor velocity was 5.8(0.1) km/s. Numerical simulations of the wave profiles using a constitutive model that incorporates a Bauschinger effect and stress relaxation reproduced the main features observed in the profiles. Release adiabats were also calculated from the measured wave profiles. The shear stress at unloading was determined to vary with stress according to the relation: tau0+tauc=0.149+0.018 sigma, where sigma is given in GPa.


The prediction of dangerousness in mentally disordered offenders is still as well complex as insufficiently empirically proven. So far more or less valid criteria for predicting recidivism have been determined concerning historical and clinical aspects. Whereas biological, neurological and neuropsychological variables that could be of importance for the development of chronic delinquent behavior have mostly been neglected. This article deals with the relevance of neurological soft signs (NSS) for the prediction of dangerousness in mentally ill offenders as one possible factor in a multidimensional model. 155 patients were examined after a minimum time at risk of 2 years (mean 4 years). The results showed that on the one hand there is no relevant and valid connection between neurological soft signs and recidivism for the general heterogeneous group of forensic patients. On the other hand similar results arose for the subgroup of patients with a personality disorder without intellectual deficits as for the homogeneous group of offenders in prisons. Therefore a significant meaning of NSS for certain subgroups can be presumed.


During the current long machine shutdown of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva), the innermost part of the ATLAS experiment, the pixel detector, is upgraded. The existing ATLAS pixel system is equipped with silicon sensors, organized in three barrel layers and three end cap disks on either side. To cope with the higher instantaneous luminosity in the future and for compensation of radiation damages due to past and near future running time of the experiment, a new fourth pixel detector layer is inserted into the existing system. This additional pixel layer is called "Insertable b-Layer" (IBL).
The IBL is a detector system, based on silicon pixel sensors. Due to the smaller radius, compared to all other detectors of the ATLAS experiment, it has to be more radiation tolerant, than e.g. the current pixel layers. Furthermore, a reduced pixel size is necessary to cope with the expected higher particle flux. During the planning phase for the IBL upgrade, three different sensor technologies were competing, namely 3D silicon sensors, planar silicon sensors and diamond sensors. For each of the two kinds of silicon sensor approaches, different design alternatives were taken into account as IBL candidates. To find the best sensor for the IBL upgrade, a series of testbeam measurements were performed at DESY (Hamburg) and CERN. This thesis describes the used testbeam setup, the testbeam analysis tools and the results of the IBL testbeam that finally led to the sensor technology choice for the Insertable b-Layer.


Background: Many hypertensive studies done in Taiwan have focused on older population. There is a paucity of data on hypertension in young Taiwanese adults. Methods: We analysed the prevalence of elevated systolic-diastolic blood pressure (SDBP), elevated isolated diastolic blood pressure (IDBP) and elevated isolated systolic blood pressure (ISBP), and the associations between systolic and diastolic blood pressures with possible risk factors [gender, body mass index (BMI), serum uric acid (UA), creatinine (Cr) and total cholesterol levels (TCHL)] among 7,706 freshmen (3,316 men) attending an university in Taipei county. Ordinary least square regression was applied to analyze the association of SBP or DBP with examined health factors. Results: The prevalence of elevated blood pressure in this study population of young adults was 13%. The prevalence of elevated SDBP among our total, male and female students was 3.0%, 6.0% and 0.8% respectively. The prevalence of elevated IDBP in male (15.1%) and female freshmen (6.2%) was significantly higher than the prevalence of elevated ISBP (11.9% in males and 1.6% in females). The prevalence of hyperuricemia, hypercholesterolemia, and elevated serum CR were 41.7%, 30.5%, and 6.6% among our freshmen. Compared with female counterparts, male students tend to have higher BMI, SBP, DBP, UA, and Cr levels (p<0.001). Conclusions: Our data showed the change the related health factors (gender, BMI, and serum Cr, TCHL and UA levels) was associated with DBP or SBP among our freshmen. Gender and BMI were the two strongest predictors for blood pressure in our study group.


Eight men and 8 women were tested for voluntary and isometric evoked contractions of the dorsiflexors. Maximal voluntary contractions were conducted isometrically (30 degrees plantarflexion) and isokinetically. Men produced greater peak torques at all but the highest isokinetic velocity. They exceeded women in measures of absolute voluntary isometric (33.8%), tetanic (46.3%), and twitch (37.9%) peak torque. Men demonstrated a higher tetanus/MVC ratio (17.8%). This ratio disparity would indicate that gender differences in peak torque in this study were more dependent upon muscle mechanisms. Although men exceeded women in measures of absolute voluntary maximum rate of torque development (MRTD) (38.7%), tetanic MRTD (39.1%), twitch MRTD (27.9%), voluntary maximum rate of torque relaxation (MRTR) (46.9%), and tetanic MRTR (41.9%), there were no significant gender differences in percentage rates of torque development or relaxation with voluntary or evoked contractions. Therefore the central and peripheral mechanisms controlling MRTD and MRTR may be similar between the sexes.


Background In this study, our aim was to identify molecular aberrations predictive for response to everolimus, an mTOR inhibitor, regardless of tumor type. Methods To generate hypotheses about potential markers for sensitivity to mTOR inhibition, drug sensitivity and genomic profiles of 835 cell lines were analyzed. Subsequently, a multicenter study was conducted. Patients with advanced solid tumors lacking standard of care treatment options were included and underwent a pre-treatment tumor biopsy to enable DNA sequencing of 1,977 genes, derive copy number profiles and determine activation status of pS6 and pERK. Treatment benefit was determined according to TTP ratio and RECIST. We tested for associations between treatment benefit and single molecular aberrations, clusters of aberrations and pathway perturbation. Results Cell line screens indicated several genes, such as PTEN (P = 0.016; Wald test), to be associated with sensitivity to mTOR inhibition. Subsequently 73 patients were included, of which 59 started treatment with everolimus. Response and molecular data were available from 43 patients. PTEN aberrations, i.e. copy number loss or mutation, were associated with treatment benefit (P = 0.046; Fisher's exact test). Conclusion Loss-of-function aberrations in PTEN potentially represent a tumor type agnostic biomarker for benefit from everolimus and warrants further confirmation in subsequent studies.


As research has begun to focus on the fact of less-than-infinite liquidity in real-world financial markets, evidence has begun to accumulate on price effects caused by large trades. Cash inflows into index-based mutual funds can be large and potentially highly correlated across "herding" investors, resulting in flow-induced price effects on the index stocks. In this article, Lehnert shows that mutual fund inflows, which have been shown to push prices of illiquid stocks too far at first only to be followed by predictable reversals later, also affect index options in the form of negative shocks to risk-neutral skewness. Among the interesting results are that inflows are more powerful than outflows; only the unexpected portion of the flow seems to matter; and the effect is largely limited to short maturity options. The article goes on to consider risk-neutral volatility and kurtosis, finding behavior largely consistent with the fund flow hypothesis.


Organizational foundations of a stage-by-stage medical rehabilitation of therapeutic-profile patients were motivated on the basis of the modern understanding of logistic management principles. Data, confirming the advantages of a three-stage rehabilitation scheme versus its one stage variation, are described. A conclusion is made on the need to introduce as much as possible of the logistics into the healthcare management to ensure the continuity and succession between different stages of medical care organization.


(1) The purpose of this experiment was to characterize the responses of neurons in somatosensory cortex while the hand was actively moved (stroked) across a textured surface. Surfaces consisted of horizontal gratings that varied by spatial period or ridge-groove ratio (roughness). Surfaces were attached to rectangular blocks. TOP and BOTTOM halves of each block could contain surfaces of different roughness. (2) Velocity and force of the stroke were behaviorally constrained within certain limits and continuously measured and recorded during the stroke. (3) Response samples for each neuron were obtained for repeated presentations of each surface. Statistical analyses consisted of analysis of variance and t tests across surfaces on the data of each neuron, and summary statistics on groups of neurons with similar response characteristics. The interaction effects of behavioral variables (velocity and force) were examined and found not to be significant. (4) The sample mainly consisted of rapidly adapting neurons in area 3b of somatosensory area I (SI). Three main response types were found: (a) GRADED cells showed a monotonic increase in firing rate to increasingly rougher surfaces. This effect was seen in one-third of cells studied and is consistent with other reports. These cells seem to code roughness in the magnitude of their response. (b) In some cells, response to a BOTTOM surface depended on the roughness of the preceding TOP surface. This is analogous to contrast in the visual system. These CONTRAST cells are a novel finding in the somatosensory system. (c) Some cells only responded to surfaces that were completely smooth. These "OFF"-response-type cells were seen in proximity to other cells that responded in a reciprocal fashion to surfaces with ridges, but not to smooth surfaces. SMOOTH cells did not respond to punctate or passively applied stimuli, and therefore could not be classified by adaptation of the responses. (5) An increase in firing rate as spatial period (roughness) increases (with a constant ratio of ridge to groove) seems contrary to vibratory models of texture perception. As spatial period increases, temporal frequency decreases, and thus "tuned" cells should show a decreased response rate. Yet GRADED cells showed an increased response. In addition, response varied on surfaces with different groove size, where spatial period, and thus temporal period, was constant. This suggests that in rapidly adapting neurons, at least for these simple surfaces, texture is coded by the magnitude of the firing rates rather than by its temporal fidelity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Continuous monitoring of sea ice and its changes is mainly done by passive microwave sensors on satellites. One frequently used technique of retrieving sea-ice concentrations is the Arctic Radiation and Turbulence Interaction STudy Sea Ice (ASI) algorithm, which uses the near-90-GHz channels, here those of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System to calculate sea-ice concentrations. The ASI ice concentrations are compared with ice concentrations derived from the following: 1) the multispectral imager Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus operating on Landsat and 2) from Envisat and Radarsat SAR images. In this paper, we focus on marginal ice zones, as the ice concentrations in those regions are in general observed with higher errors. First-year ice (bias: -1%-0% and rms error: 1%-4%) and young ice (bias: -4%-0% and rms error: 3%-9%) are fairly well recognized with little underestimation of ASI ice concentrations with respect to Landsat ice concentrations. New ice is identified with less accuracy by the ASI algorithm (bias: -16%-9% and rms error: 18.3%-26.2%). Averaged over all ice types, the bias ranges between -8.4% and 4.5%, and the rms error ranges between 2.0% and 17.4%. Discrepancies mainly occur in polynya areas (underestimation by ASI) and along the ice edge (overestimation by ASI). The results of the ASI-SAR comparison yield contrasting results. ASI underestimates the ice concentrations near the ice edge but overestimates them in some interior areas (bias: -2.9%-2.5% and rms error: 16.9%-20.1%). The discrepancies between both comparisons may be due to the different interaction mechanisms of the different sensor types, particularly with the newly formed ice.


In primary cultures of rat preadipocytes (PA) isolated from epididymal or perirenal depots, rat serum is more effective than other animal sera (fetal calf, newborn calf, human, horse, rabbit, cat, sheep, goat, dog, pig) in promoting adipogenic conversion, biochemical differentiation, and mitogenesis. Only mouse serum is comparable to rat serum. This activity is attributable to a specific growth factor (pre‐adipocyte stimulating factor, PSF). An assay for PSF in rat serum was devised using PA from perirenal fat of 3‐month‐old Fischer 344 rats grown first to confluence in FCS for 8 days and then for the next 3 days in test serum, followed by measurement of triglyceride (TG) and glycerol‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH). Rat serum induces dose‐dependent rapid cell division, which coincides with accumulation of TG and increase of GPDH; for routine quantitation, TG is assayed. The biochemical characteristics of PSF in serum are as follows: stable at 4°C for up to 1 year; inactivated at 100°C (80% loss, 30 min) but stable at 56°C for 1 hr; stable at pH 2–12; non‐dialyzable; completely resistant to pepsin, trypsin, and chymotrypsin but destroyed by pronase and subtilisin; stable to DTT and periodate; and m.w. between 68 kDa (Sephacryl‐300) and 58 kDa (Sephacryl‐300 in 5 M urea). PSF activity is greater in serum from Wistar than from Fischer 344 rats, while activity of serum from Zucker obese (fa/fa) rats is at least as great as that from Wistar rats and, like serum of rats made obese by feeding a high‐fat, high‐carbohydrate diet, is not suppressed. PSF activity is not due to insulin, insulin‐like growth factor‐1 (IGF‐1), growth hormone, glucocorticoids, or combinations of these hormones. PSF activity was not seen with a number of growth factors including colony‐stimulating factor (CSF‐1), GM‐CSF, interleukins 1, 2, and 3, neuroleukin, tumor necrosis factor, and others. PSF is distinct from the low molecular weight (4–8 kDa) differentiation factor present in rat serum, FCS, and human serum that promotes the adipogenic conversion and cellular differentiation of 3T3‐L1, 3T3‐F442A, and Ob17 cells. PSF appears to be a new differentiation factor for rat preadipocytes, has properties suggestive of a highly glycosy‐lated protein, and may be highly species specific.


Nitrobenzene was used as a molecular probe to study electron donor properties of four sulfide minerals. Nitrobenzene was selected as a probe because its reaction in aqueous systems has been well characterized. Suspensions of the four minerals were reacted with nitrobenzene under anaerobic conditions for various time periods. Nitrobenzene and its reaction products in both the solution and the solid phase were analyzed by liquid chromatography and UV‐visible spectroscopy. The observed half‐lives of nitrobenzene are 7.5, 40, 105, and 360 h, respectively, for reaction with sodium sulfide (Na2S), alabandite (MnS), sphalerite (ZnS), and molybdenite (MoS2) under anaerobic conditions, at a 0.24 mol L−1 water‐mineral mixture concentration. The log plot of calculated sulfide ion concentration of minerals vs. reaction halflife shows a linear relationship. Nitrobenzene reduction by sulfide minerals is a solution phenomena. The sulfide mineral dissolution rate and its solubility, however, influence the reduction rate.


This study reports client satisfaction in five UK National Health Service (NHS) Stop Smoking Services (SSS) and examines the impact of satisfaction on outcome four weeks postquit. Six services were selected on the basis of perceived ability to run the study from a pool of 11 who responded to a mailshot to volunteer. Advisors made one of two satisfaction surveys available to their clients two weeks after quitting smoking. The two surveys were a 'brief' three-item survey and a 'full' survey containing those items plus 19 others about specific aspects of the service. There were two key items: how satisfied respondents were with the support they received to stop smoking and would they recommend the service to another smoker. Surveys were completed anonymously but had unique identification numbers so they could be linked to individual demographic and outcome data. Overall 10% (554/5520) of treated smokers in the services completed a survey, 7% (390/5520) completed the 'full' survey. Responses were a strong endorsement of the participating services, with 93% (505/542) satisfied or very satisfied with the service and 99% (548/552) prepared to recommend the service. The sample was unrepresentative of the population of treated smokers in terms of eligibility for free prescriptions, ethnicity, age, type of treatment experienced, the type of advisor seen, medication use and end of treatment outcome. Satisfaction at week two was not related to abstinence at four weeks postquit. Limitations of the study and suggestions for service delivery are discussed.


This thesis examines the role played by the law of intellectual property in promoting the economy of the state. The general argument is that the small and medium enterprises sector (SMEs) in Tanzania has not fully exploited the benefits of the intellectual property and as such, they continue to be poor, hence a need to find solution for this problem. The work is divided into six chapters. Whereas chapter one deals with the general introduction and description of the study, chapter two discusses the concepts and background to the development of intellectual property (IP). While chapter three is an eye on contribution of IP to the SMEs development, chapters four and five look at IP as an important tool for economic growth for SMEs, taking a comparative experience from selected countries. Chapter six concludes the work by providing a conclusion, observation and recommendations aimed at improving the intellectual property regime for socio – economic development. Conclusively, the researcher is of the view that despite IP being very important tool for any SME development, the opportunity has not been well exploited by our SMEs, hence recommendations at the end of this paper, for improvement.


Federal, state and local governments impose detailed ethics restrictions on their employees. The substantive ethics restrictions vary in their details across federal, state and local jurisdictions. Some place significant restrictions on the kinds of partisan political activities their employees can engage in; others do not. The precise contours of gift restrictions vary considerably, from how broadly the gift ban is defined to how many exceptions exist. While most jurisdictions have anti-nepotism statutes, there is considerable variation regarding what types of relatives are covered. These variations reflect the fact that ethics standards are generally the result of legislative action, and legislatures often come up with different solutions to the same problem. This memorandum describes restrictions on the financial interests, associations and activities of current and former government employees that fit under the rubric of "government ethics." It does not catalog every government ethics restriction adopted by all federal, state and local jurisdictions. Instead, it uses as a template the standards that apply to the federal government's executive branch. The federal executive branch ethics standards may not be a perfect model for other jurisdictions to emulate, but it is a mature system of government ethics regulation, having been developed and implemented over several decades. It provides one example of what a comprehensive system of ethics regulation looks like. Part II of this memorandum describes in some detail the full range of ethics restrictions that apply to federal executive branch employees, from conflicts of interest to restrictions on the types of work they can perform after leaving the government. In discussing government ethics, it is important to focus not just on substantive restrictions but also on the mechanisms and structures that implement those restrictions. Ethics laws are not self-executing, and a jurisdiction that has tough ethics standards but fails to implement them leaves itself vulnerable to corruption and abuse. The third part of this memorandum discusses these different designs for implementing government ethics restrictions. The fourth part of the memorandum then examines the degree to which other jurisdictions have adopted variations of these restrictions. For example, with regard to financial interests, the federal government imputes to the employee the financial interests of some – but not all family members: the employee's spouse and minor children. Other jurisdictions have taken a broader approach, imputing the interests of domestic partners, adult children, siblings, parents, or members of an employee's household. While there is a consensus that governments should regulate the financial interests of their employees, there is not a consensus about how broadly or narrowly to define those interests.


Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory arthritis which can affect extra-articular tissues including eyes.

Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate the ocular manifestations, their correlation with the duration and activity of disease in patients with RA.

Materials and Methods: Patients diagnosed with RA of disease onset age >20 years, irrespective of sex were selected for the study. The eye manifestations were done clinically and also with the help of slit lamp, ophthalmoscope and Schirmer's test. The findings were statistically analysed.

Result: One hundred cases of RA were selected (mean age 52.54 years). Keratoconjunctivitis sicca was the commonest finding (40%) along with few cases of keratitis (3%), scleritis (1%) and episcleritis (1%). A statistically significant negative correlation was found between the duration of disease and the Schirmer score (r=-0.785; p=0.001). Further, no statistically significant correlation between ocular manifestation and the disease severity were found. Higher ophthalmic involvement was found in seropositive patients.

Conclusion: The commonest ocular manifestation found was keratoconjunctivitis sicca. The frequency and severity of involvement of eyes were found to be significantly associated with the duration of the disease. This emphasizes the need for the routine ophthalmic evaluation of RA patients on a periodic basis for the early detection as well as the prevention of ophthalmic complications and thereby modifying treatment.


The present report describes a case of fatal toxoplasmosis in a two-year-old female rock hyrax (Procavia capensis). Major histopathological findings consisted of multifocal acute necrotising hepatitis, enteritis and adrenalitis, glial nodule formation in the brain, and suppurative splenitis with numerous intralesional protozoan tachyzoites and tissue cysts. Infection with Toxoplasma gondii was confirmed via immunohistochemical examination in the liver, adrenal gland, spleen, intestine, brain and the lung. To the authors' knowledge this is the first case report of a systemic toxoplasmosis in a rock hyrax and in the family of Procaviidae.


A general-purpose phase-locked loop (PLL) with programmable bit rates is presented demonstrating that large frequency tuning range, large power supply range, and low jitter can be achieved simultaneously. The clock recovery architecture uses phase selection for automatic initial frequency capture. The large period jitter of conventional phase selection is eliminated through feedback phase selection. Digital control sequencing of the feedback enables accurate phase interpolation without the traditional need of analog circuitry. Circuit techniques enabling low Vdd operation of a PLL with differential delay stages are presented. Measurements show a PLL frequency range of 1-200 MHz at Vdd=1.2 V linearly increasing to 2-1600 MHz at Vdd=2.5 V, achieved in a standard process technology without low threshold voltage devices. Correct operation has been verified down to Vdd=0.9 V, but the lower limit of differential operation with improved supply-noise rejection is estimated to be 1.1 V.


Purpose
This paper aims to provide an insight into the design, development and delivery proposals for a first of its kind "Liaison Mental Health Training Programme". In the UK, there has been a significant investment in Liaison Mental Health Services and an expansion of the workforce (NHS England, 2016). However, the complexity and varied presentations of patients who attend to acute physical health services now requires a dedicated strategy to address any skills deficit in the mental health liaison workforce and to support core competency development (DOH, 2016).

Design/methodology/approach
This paper provides an overview of preparations to develop a regional educational pilot programme using a three-phased model: Phase 1 – Review of policy and best practice guidelines; Phase 2 – Stakeholder Data Collection; and Phase 3 – Synthesis and Development.

Findings
An insight into the developmental processes undertaken to shape a core competency liaison mental health training programme is presented. Additionally, the authors provide insight into educational theory and an overview of the LMH Core Competency Curricula.

Practical implications
This paper provides the reader with an insight into our findings and a focussed core competency training model for those working within LMH services. This programme development was reviewed throughout by both those using LMH services and the LMH practitioners working within them, ensuring the curriculum proposed was endorsed by key stakeholders. The three-phased model has transferable benefits to other training development initiatives.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this training is the first of its kind in the UK and addresses the education of essential core competencies of a regional liaison mental health workforce. The collaboration of clinical and academic expertise and model of co-production makes this endeavour unique.


The rapid digitization of the entertainment industry urges managers to find new ways to improve marketing effectiveness and combat online piracy. Smart devices and innovative online services generate brand-related tracking data that reflect consumers' brand engagement (e.g., digital usage rates, Facebook Likes), yet managers are unaware of how to use these big data to improve brand performance. We therefore propose a model to assess how digitally tracked engagement behaviors, namely consumer brand usage (CBU, measured by digital usage rates) and consumer brand endorsement (CBE, measured by Facebook Likes), drive the impact of promotion and new product releases and affect the role of piracy. We apply our framework to the U.S. music industry, and develop web scrapers and API mining scripts to collect data for 569 music artists over 66 weeks. Both CBU and CBE enhance marketing effectiveness and positively mediate the sales impact of piracy, thereby offsetting piracy's cannibalization effect by 55%. However, CBU exerts a systematically stronger influence in these relationships than CBE. Using simulations, we show how our findings can help managers to improve the allocation of their marketing efforts across brands and reduce the detrimental sales impact of piracy.


After aggregation by chemotaxis, cells of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum form a multicellular structure and show coherent motion such as vortices. Here we present a mathematical model to explain both aggregation and coherent motion of cells in two-dimensional space. The model incorporates chemotactic response of cells and the cell's property, called "contact following", to follow the other cells with which they are in contact. Analytical study and computer simulation using the model show that with contact following cells form circular clusters within which cell rotation occurs. Unidirectional cell motion in a long belt of cells is another type of solution of the model. Besides, contact following has an effect to accelerate cell cluster merging. By considering the mechanism of cell movement, possible explanations of contact following are proposed.


Fire departments are essential assets in American rural communities. The current
study aims to understand the motivations and the personal, organizational, and
communal aspects that drive firefighters (both paid and volunteers) to engage in
additional voluntary community work. Their volunteer activity challenges existing
theories on motivation to volunteer, since these firefighters already have what most
volunteers seek (e.g., recognition and satisfaction). Two focus groups of
firefighters were assembled in which volunteer and career firefighters shared their
perceptions about their communities and the work they do for them. Qualitative
data analysis showed that leadership, attitudinal commitment, a strong sense of
affiliation, altruism, and a sense of community all influenced firefighters'
perceptions and motivations.
Key words: firefighters, community, volunteer, focus groups, asset-based
community development


Search for new producers of biologically active compounds that can be widely used in various fields of human activity is intense among the variety of organisms, habitats of which are connected with the extreme conditions of existence, including Antarctica. The purpose of this work was conducting relevant research on this topical issue. 25 isolation of pure cultures of microscopic fungi (species of Mortiriella, Mucor, Eurotium, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Geotrichum, Pseudogymnoascus, Penicillium, Phoma, Rhodotorula etc.) were obtained from the samples of mosses, lichens, soil and stones obtained from 18-20th Ukrainian Antarctic expedition (Galindez, Pitterman and Yalur Islands). Among them Pseudogymnoascus pannorum and Mucor circinelloides are characterized by a pronounced activity to the synthesis of complex of biologically active lipids. 8 pure cultures of bacteria were also isolated that synthesize biologically active substances which can inhibit the growth of other microorganisms (pronounced antagonistic properties were observed). Collection of technologically advanced microorganisms replenished whith new srains of microscopic fungi and bacteria - producers of biologically active compounds.


Wavelet based compression schemes are the natural choice for the multi-resolution representation of images because of their successive approximation and better decorrelation property. Experiments conducted by compressing images through wavelet filters and integer wavelet transforms suggest that the filter performance indeed is image dependent. It is observed that no wavelet filter outperforms others uniformly while compressing sample images drawn from a large selection. In fact, a detailed analysis of the results reveals that certain wavelets perform better on certain classes of images. A neural network can therefore, be used to categorize the input image into one of these classes. A wavelet-based lossy or lossless coder is then used to compress the image using the most "appropriate" wavelet filter or integer-transform suitable for that class.


The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of antimony (Sb) on acute toxicity, on serum metabolic enzyme activities as well as on erythrocyte morphological changes in the blood stream of zebrafish (Brachydanio rerio). Median lethal concentrations were determined in acute tests. The 96-h LC50 value was 4.65 (3.37-6.42) mg/L. During 2 weeks testing period, zebrafish were exposed to 3 different sublethal levels of antimony (0.5, 1.5, and 3.0 mg/L) in laboratory toxicity tests. Serum metabolic enzyme activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) was analyzed. An increase of enzyme activity in serum was observed, particularly at the highest exposure concentrations. Moreover, erythrocyte morphological deformation in the bloodstream proposes acting as a promising indicator of water pollution levels.


Guided imagery can be an effective intervention when used as a therapeutic modality for a variety of symptoms and conditions. It can improve health and enhance well-being, particularly through the reduction of pain and anxiety. The application of a specific type of guided imagery, integrative guided imagery, is presented through a case report and within the context of the therapeutic recreation process. Implications for the use of guided imagery in therapeutic recreation are discussed.


In recent years sensor networks have interested fields such as environment monitoring, surveillance and other distributed applications for data elaboration. This interest has been based on the decentralized approach in treating the information. However it is still a challenge to manipulate such streams of data when the dimension of the net becomes large despite computational capabilities and consumption constraints. In most of applications, location awareness is fundamental to accomplish common tasks. In this paper a probabilistic approach to solve localization problem in wireless sensor networks is presented. The algorithm, based on the Kalman Filter, estimates the sensors' location by an adaptive behavior. The technique proposed allows a reduction of the computation burden respect to the traditional Kalman Filter showing, as explained in simulations and real world experiments, good performances.


This study aims to empirically test how contingent convertible (CoCo) bond prices are affected by the main theoretical determinants and design features. The theoretical framework used in this article is the Equity Derivatives Model suggested by De Spiegeleer and Schoutens (2012). The authors test for the relationship between CoCo prices and key variables suggested by this model. They find that the main determinants are mostly significant and that the explanatory power of the model is high with an R-squared of 86%. The power of the model is not affected by the loss absorption mechanism (conversion to equity or principal write-down). They also identify a number of additional explanatory variables of importance.


The mould for plastics industry in Portugal is highly technological, innovative and modern, with a clear focus on exports. It is one of the most successful sectors in this country with high reputation in the world markets. The main aim of this study is to explain this success by detecting the main factors which determine the dynamic production structure of this industry and its transformation over time. Focus is given on the multiple aspects of human capital, such as work experience, learning by doing tendencies, innovation, dissemination of knowledge and business cooperation between companies that generate positive externalities in the production process. All these factors contribute significantly to explain the success this industry has achieved over the recent decades. A production function framework is employed in line with the neoclassical approach where human capital is the engine of growth as has been postulated by the endogenous growth theory. The production function is estimated by using unbalanced panel data and applied to a sample of firms operating in this industry, over the period 1987-2012. Our empirical evidence suggests that factors such as physical capital(cutting edge technology, including specific software) and quantitative as well as qualitative factors associated with human capital are the key factors explaining the production dynamics of the moulds industry in Portugal. Increasing returns to scale and human capital externalities are also identified as special characteristics in this sector.


This paper analyzes the relationship between banks' divergent strategies toward specialization and diversification of financial activities and their ability to withstand a banking sector crash. We first generate market-based measures of banks' systemic risk exposures using extreme value analysis. Systemic banking risk is measured as the tail beta, which equals the probability of a sharp decline in a bank's stock price conditional on a crash in a banking index. Subsequently, the impact of (the correlation between) interest income and the components of non-interest income on this risk measure is assessed. The heterogeneity in extreme bank risk is attributed to differences in the scope of non-traditional banking activities: non-interest generating activities increase banks' tail beta. In addition, smaller banks and better-capitalized banks are better able to withstand extremely adverse conditions. These relationships are stronger during turbulent times compared to normal economic conditions. Overall, diversifying financial activities under one umbrella institution does not improve banking system stability, which may explain why financial conglomerates trade at a discount.


The ownership of preexisting genes and other biochemicals raises important questions about the scope and purpose of patent law - what it is designed to accomplish and how biotechnology fits within that design. More fundamentally, whether patent law is properly applied to products not independently created by a patent applicant implicates questions about the limits of intellectual property ownership, policy decisions about whether natural substances and processes should reside in the public or private sphere, choices about the value placed upon publicly available knowledge, and the microeconomic effects of limiting patents to some kinds of biotechnological innovations while excluding patents on others. Are patents on naturally occurring phenomena, such as discovered DNA sequences, proteins, plasmids, and other biological chemicals, truly as uncontroversial and "simply necessary" as a matter of public policy as many legal commentators, the biotechnology industry, and the Patent and Trademark Office Director himself have argued? Are patents on naturally occurring substances of any kind authorized by the relevant legislation and case law? The answers are far from obvious, and their importance merits a more careful and detailed examination of the legal and policy underpinnings of the patenting of genes and other biotechnological innovations than has so far been undertaken. This Article provides the first comprehensive examination of this issue. The authors argue that the strong recent trend in the case law and literature toward viewing gene patents as uniformly desirable and legally proper rests upon a prevalent misinterpretation of a triad of key patent law concepts.


We study two parameters that arise from the dichromatic number and the vertex-arboricity in the same way that the achromatic number comes from the chromatic number. The adichromatic number of a digraph is the largest number of colors its vertices can be colored with such that every color induces an acyclic subdigraph but merging any two colors yields a monochromatic directed cycle. Similarly, the a-vertex arboricity of an undirected graph is the largest number of colors that can be used such that every color induces a forest but merging any two yields a monochromatic cycle. We study the relation between these parameters and their behavior with respect to other classical parameters such as degeneracy and most importantly feedback vertex sets.