The extraordinarily large optical rotations [α] of poly((R)-2-deuterio-n-hexyl isocyanate) were investigated with a particular emphasis on the chain length dependence of [α]. Data for [α] in hexane, 1-chlorobutane, and dichloromethane were obtained as functions of temperature and degree of polymerization N and analyzed by a statistical mechanical theory developed recently (Lifson, S. ; Andreola, C. ; Peterson, N. C. ; Green, M. M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1989, 111, 8850). The theory is based on a model whereby a polymer chain consists of an alternate sequence of M helix (left-handed) and P helix (right-handed), interrupted by helix reversal points, and [α] originates from the excess presence of the P helix over the M helix due to the chiral substitution of a deuterium atom on the side chain. Detailed analysis of [α] vs N data substantiated the validity of the theory and allowed a separate estimate of enthalpic and entropic contributions to the isotope effect, revealing that the P helix dwells in a slightly narrow but deep energy well in the conformational space compared with the M helix. In hexane at 25 °C, this isotope effect favors the P helix over the M helix by 0.74 cal mol -1 on a monomer unit basis, implying that the P helix would exist in excess of the M helix only by 0.12%. However, for a long chain with N = 2000, this minute excess is amplified by the cooperative mechanism to 67 :33 in [α], whereas the helix reversal costs 3900 cal mol -1 and appears only once in 762 units on the average.


Podoplanin (PDPN), a type I transmembrane sialoglycoprotein, is extensively expressed by normal lymphatic endothelial cells, renal podocytes, and pulmonary type I alveolar cells. Nevertheless, increased expression of PDPN in malignant tumors not only associates with poor prognosis but also facilitates hematogenous metastasis through interaction with C-type lectin-like receptor-2 presented on platelets, followed by PDPN-mediated platelet activation. We previously reported a novel PMab-38 antibody, an anti-dog PDPN (dPDPN) monoclonal antibody, which specifically recognizes PDPN in squamous cell carcinomas melanomas and cancer-associated fibroblasts in canine cancer tissues. However, the specific binding with the epitope of PMab-38 remains undefined. In this study, flow cytometry was utilized to investigate the epitope of PMab-38, which was determined using a series of deletion or point mutants of dPDPN. The results revealed that the critical epitope of PMab-38 is Tyr67 and Glu68 of dPDPN.


The deterioration of concrete can be due to: (1) the corrosion of reinforcement; (2) freezing and thawing, including frost damage; (3) chloride ingress; (4) carbonation of concrete; (5) sulphate attack; (6) acid attack; (7) alkali attack; (8) alkaliaggregate reaction; (9) salt attack; and (10) abrasion. Investigation of the durability of concrete generally consists of either the causes of deterioration or the extent of it. Usually, methods used to improve the durability of concrete aim to prevent the causes of deterioration; however, occasionally methods that limit the extent of damage are employed. In this context, and in order to propose test, which can assess the durability between the material properties and deterioration mechanisms, is carried out. Such an analysis should help to focus the attention of various investigators the key issues that ultimately determine the durability of concrete structures. Concerning the various deterioration mechanisms described above, one of the fundamental properties that influences the initiation and extent of damage of concrete is corrosion of reinforcement in the concrete structure. Environmental effects such as the freezing and thawing cycles have caused deterioration of the bridge decks and all other exposed reinforced concrete structures. Concrete is full of microcracks even when it is not loaded. When under vehicular traffic, some structural cracks form that can join the other already existing cracks, providing an easy route to reinforcing steel for the deicing salt. The presence of shrinkage and temperature cracks can also do the same. When chloride ions along with moisture reach the level of reinforcing steel, they start corroding the steel reinforcement. Corrosion of steel reinforcement in concrete bridge decks and parking structures is one of the most common types of deterioration, which has substantially reduced the useful life of such facilities. This widespread problem and the rapidly increasing cost of maintenance and repair have resulted in great economic and social repercussions. The rising rate of the use of chloride deicing salt is a major factor causing corrosion, and there is no feasible economic alternative to its use at present. Corrosion may occupy a greater volume than the parent steel reinforcement, thereby extending pressure on the upper concrete, causing it to spall off the main body of concrete. Common types of deterioration and corrosion mechanisms of reinforcement in concrete are reviewed with the view of effects of the concrete environment on the process. It is feasible to study the effect of the individual and combined causes on the onset and rate of reinforcement corrosion. The role of concrete design and construction practices is discussed as the first protection resort available against corrosion. The importance of concrete quality in providing protection to reinforcement cannot be overemphasized. Bleeding of concrete, which may happen during construction, can result in unfavorable consequences and lead to unfavorable consequences and also to premature corrosion of steel. The limitations and applicabilities of the various repair techniques and protective measures in existing structures, of course, have differential impacts on concrete in version environments. Cathodic protection is considered the most versatile and effective means of controlling the corrosion of steel and subsequent deterioration of the concrete.


We evaluate the effects of undergoing any early education (before the compulsory starting age of 5) and of pre-school on a cohort of British children born in 1958. In contrast to most available studies, we are able to assess whether any effects on cognition and socialisation are long-lasting, as well as to estimate their net impact on subsequent educational attainment and labour market performance. Controlling for a particularly rich set of child, parental, family and neighbourhood characteristics, we find some positive and long-lasting effects from early education. Specifically, pre-compulsory education (preschool or school entry prior to age 5) was found to yield large improvements in cognitive tests at age 7, which, though diminished in size, remained significant throughout the schooling years, up to age 16. By contrast, attendance of pre-school (nursery or playgroup) was found to yield a positive but short-lived impact on test scores. The effects on socialisation appear to be more mixed: we found some positive, though short-lasting, effects of pre-compulsory education on teachers' reports of social adjustment (only at age 7); on the other hand, we found some adverse behavioural effects according to parental reports at age 7 which persisted up to age 11. In adulthood, pre-compulsory education was found to increase the probabilities of obtaining qualifications and of being employed at age 33. For both pre-compulsory education and pre-school per se, we found evidence of a marginally significant 3-4 per cent wage gain at age 33.


Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is the leading cause of vaccine-preventable encephalitis in Asia and the western Pacific. JEV is maintained in an enzootic cycle involving mosquitoes and amplifying vertebrate hosts, mainly pigs and wading birds. The virus is transmitted to humans primarily by Culex mosquitoes, which breed in flooded rice fields and pools of stagnant water and most often feed outdoors during the evening and night. JEV transmission occurs mainly in rural agricultural areas, but occasional human cases occur in urban areas. Japanese encephalitis (JE) in persons who have traveled or lived overseas is diagnosed infrequently in the United States, with only four cases identified from 1992 (when a JE vaccine was first licensed in the United States) to 2008. This report describes the only cases diagnosed in the United States and reported to CDC since then. The first was a fatal case in a U.S. child who had visited relatives in the Philippines. The other occurred in a refugee who became ill while traveling from Thailand to the United States and whose diagnosis was complicated by concurrent neurocysticercosis. JE should be considered in the differential diagnosis for any patient with an acute neurologic infection who recently has been in a JE-endemic country. Travelers to JE-endemic countries should be advised of the risk for JE and the importance of personal protective measures to prevent mosquito bites. JE vaccine should be considered for travelers who might be at greater risk based on the season, location, and duration of their visit and their planned activities.


Abstract Objective: To determine the efficacy of meatal treatment with a polyantibiotic cream in the prevention of bacteriuria during transurethral bladder catheterization. Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Community teaching hospital. Intervention: Adult patients who underwent closed urinary catheter drainage for short and intermediate durations (two to 30 days). Intervention: Polyantibiotic cream containing polymyxin B sulfate, neomycin sulfate, and gramicidin was applied to the urethral meatus-catheter interface three times daily from the first day of catheterization until bacteriuria was found. The onset of bacteriuria was defined as the day the colonizing species first achieved a colony count of >1000 colonies/ml. Patients randomized to the control group received routine meatal care with cleansing of the meatal surface during daily bathing. Results: Among 2,923 patients who were randomly allocated to receive either the protocol meatal care or routine care, the evaluable study population consisted of 747 patients who were nonbacteriuric and who remained catheterized for more than two days. Overall, 26 (6.8%) of 383 patients given the polyantibiotic treatment acquired bacteriuria, as compared to 37 (10.1%) of 364 patients not given this treatment (p = .167). A Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that, among putative risk factors including lack of meatal care, only female gender, a meatal swab culture yielding gram-negative rods or enterococci, and lack of antibiotic use during catheterization were independently associated with the development of bacteriuria. Conclusions: The adverse effect of meatal care noted in earlier studies of a disinfectant ointment applied twice daily was not found in this study of an antimicrobial preparation in a cream vehicle applied three times daily. However, the results do not support meatal care as an efficacious method to prevent catheter-associated bacteriuria in all patients.


To meet a growing demand for accurate high-fidelity vegetation cover mapping in urban areas toward biodiversity conservation and assessing the impact of climate change, this paper proposes a complete approach to species and vitality classification at single tree level by synergistic use of multimodality 3D remote sensing data. So far, airborne laser scanning system(ALS or airborne LiDAR) has shown promising results in tree cover mapping for urban areas. This paper analyzes the potential of mobile laser scanning system/mobile mapping system (MLS/MMS)-based methods for recognition of urban plant species and characterization of growth conditions using ultra-dense LiDAR point clouds and provides an objective comparison with the ALS-based methods. Firstly, to solve the extremely intensive computational burden caused by the classification of ultra-dense MLS data, a new method for the semantic labeling of LiDAR data in the urban road environment is developed based on combining a conditional random field (CRF) for the context-based classification of 3D point clouds with shape priors. These priors encode geometric primitives found in the scene through sample consensus segmentation. Then, single trees are segmented from the labelled tree points using the 3D graph cuts algorithm. Multinomial logistic regression classifiers are used to determine the fine deciduous urban tree species of conversation concern and their growth vitality. Finally, the weight-of-evidence (WofE) based decision fusion method is applied to combine the probability outputs of classification results from the MLS and ALS data. The experiment results obtained in city road corridors demonstrated that point cloud data acquired from the airborne platform achieved even slightly better results in terms of tree detection rate, tree species and vitality classification accuracy, although the tree vitality distribution in the test site is less balanced compared to the species distribution. When combined with MLS data, overall accuracies of 78% and 74% for tree species and vitality classification can be achieved, which has improved by 5.7% and 4.64% respectively compared to the usage of airborne data only.


Background Priority Health Case Managers (CMs) work telephonically with frail patients that have multiple co-morbidities. CMs have lacked facilitation skills for Advance Care Planning (ACP) discussions in this vulnerable population. Following a 6-month pilot of telephonic ACP (TACP) in the Medicare population, TACP was implemented for the entire Medicare CM staff. Aim To engage identified patients in First Steps© and Last Steps© TACP. Methods CMs were trained and certified by Respecting Choices© to facilitate ACP discussions telephonically with both First Steps© and Last Steps© protocols. CMs identified appropriate patients using hospitalisation and emergency room utilisation data, severity of illness and diagnostic criteria. The primary goal was to complete both the ACP discussion and document for each protocol on identified patients. CMs also attempted to schedule facilitated conversations with the health care advocate present. Results In one calendar year, 155 patients were identified for TACP using established criteria. 59% indicated they had an existing document identifying preferences for medical care. 35% declined TACP. Last Steps© discussions occurred in 15% of the patients. TACP resulted in eight new or updated documents. Discussion Following TACP implementation to the Medicare CM team and evaluation of the results, processes and methods were instituted to increase engagement and completion of discussions and documents. These included enhancements to the electronic assessment and ongoing support of the CM team to increase engagement of patient and advocate. Conclusion Dissemination of the project to the entire Medicare CM team demonstrates opportunities and lessons learned for facilitated TACP discussions.


Profound congenital or early aquired deafness is one of the most common severe disabilities (1-2/1000 newborns). Approximately 30% of these children have additional functional disabilities (syndromes). Today nearly 400 syndromes are known, and the most common combination of organ dysfunctions are ear and eye- deafblindness. Many deafblind syndromes have additional dysfunctions of the central nervous system (learning disabilities, delayed mental development etc). Since communication to a large extent is based on an intimate interaction between sight and hearing, this dual sensory loss can if not compensated give rise to severe sensory deprivation and communications problems. We will report results from cognitive studies in Usher and Alstrom syndrome and some clinical observations regarding CHARGE syndrome. The etiologies of deafblindness with additional cognitive dysfunctions have to be diagnosed very early in order to enhance basic communication skills and habilitation in children with deafblindness have to be enhance the use of multiple sensory capacities such as hearing, vision, tactile, smell, and taste. The importance of early and correct diagnoses for early intervention will be discussed.


There are many studies on Japanese internal migration, however the movements of foreigners living in Japan have not been studied specifically until now, in part due to data unavailability. This study tries to clarify the in- and out-migration patterns of the Japanese and foreign population living in the centre of a metropolis, selecting as a research area the Ikuno Ward in Osaka city. Ikuno Ward has been losing population since the 1960's (see graph), and it is distinguished by the existence of an important and stable Korean community (a quarter of the total population), whose origin goes back to the colonial times.The data was gathered from the residential change forms in Ikuno's ward office. The study covers the period of March, April and May of 1993, and the subjects are 3, 078 out-migrants and 2, 603 in-migrants, accounting for in each case about 32% of all the migrants from and to Ikuno Ward in that year. The data collected is: gender, type of migration (individual or family), age, and destination or origin of the flows.Out-migration (see Table 1):(1) In both populations out-migrants are short-distance migrants, and about 76% of them moved within the metropolitan area of Osaka. This figure refers to the internal migration. However, the foreigners, who in this case can be considered Koreans, either tend to remain more in the city, mainly in the sourrounding areas where important Korean populations exist, or moved out to the central wards. In addition, there is a significant migration of foreigners to big cities such as Kobe and Kyoto. The outstanding Japanese sectoral bias out-migration toward the east (Nara Prefecture) related to the purchase of a home is unimportant to foreigners, and the suburbanization phenomenon is less evident. At the national level, the foreigners' out-migration to Eastern Japan is far more important than to Western Japan. Therefore they break the East-West cultural division that is visible in the Japanese migration flows.(2) Mobility in terms of gender is substantially higher among men, and more noticeable among Japanese. The sex ratio of out-migrants to the metropolitan area is the same for both populations (about 99), however for the rest of Japan it increases, especially for the Japanese migrating to Eastern Japan.(3) In general, individual migration is higher for foreigners except in the case of the Japanese migrating to Eastern Japan.(4) The Japanese migrants of different ages exhibit clearly different patters of destination choice, while for the Koreans it is not so clear.In-migration (see Table 2) and net migration:There is a negative net migration for both populations. There is a larger percentage of foreigners in-migrating from the metropolitan area, principally from the rest of Osaka Prefecture to Ikuno Ward (positive net migration). The in-migration from Eastern Japan is comparatively higher for foreigners also. For the Japanese, the in-migration from the rest of Western Japan is a major flow (positive net migration). The sex ratio is higher for foreigners particularly for those coming from outside the Metropolitan Area. Ikuno Ward is a net gainer of mainly female, young, individual Japanese migrants from Western Japan.The author believes that the destination choice process varies not only with the migrant's age and gender, but also with its ethnic and cultural characteristics. In this case, restrictions in employment and housing opportunities for Koreans are probably important factors for the difference in migration patterns. Moreover, more qualitative research is needed in geography on the ethnic groups' differential spatial perceptions and migration decision-making process.


Di-(1, 3, 8) and triorganotin(IV) complexes (2, 5, 7) with the general formula RnSnL4-n, where R = Me, Et, n-Bu, n-Oct, Ph, and Bz, and L = the n-C4H9OCOC6H4COO- monoanionic ligand have been synthesized by the reaction of the silver salt of the n-butylhydrogen phthalate with di- and triorganotin chloride in dry chloroform. However, di-n-butyl- and di-n-octyltin(IV) derivatives (4 and 6, respectively) were synthesized by the reaction of the corresponding organotin(IV) oxide with n-butylhydrogen phthalate in dry toluene. All the synthesized complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, multinuclear (1H, 13C, 119Sn) NMR, and mass spectrometric techniques to assess the binding mode of the n-butylphthalate (n-C4H9OCOC6H4COO-) anion. The diorganotin(IV) derivatives were found to adopt distorted octahedral and triorganotin(IV) n-butylphthalates and to have linear, polymeric trigonal bipyramidal structures in which n-butylphthalate is a monoanionic bidentate coordinating through the C(O)O group. The biocidal activity and LD50 values of the synthesized compounds are also reported. Some complexes exhibited good activity comparable to that of standard drugs. Furthermore, triorganotin(IV) derivatives exhibited significantly better activity than the diorganotin(IV) derivatives.


Insulin stimulates the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK pathway leading to feedback phosphorylation of the Ras guanylnucleotide exchange protein SOS and dissociation of Grb2 from SOS. Even though epidermal growth factor (EGF) also stimulates ERK activity and phosphorylation of SOS similar to insulin, EGF induces a dissociation of the Grb2-SOS complex from Shc. To determine the molecular basis for this difference, we examined the signaling properties of a mutant EGF receptor lacking the five major autophosphorylation sites. Although EGF stimulation of the mutant EGF receptor activates ERK and phosphorylation of both Shc and SOS, it fails to directly associate with either Shc or Grb2. However, under these conditions EGF induces a dissociation of the Grb2-SOS complex suggesting a role for receptor and/or plasma membrane targeting in the stabilization of Grb2-SOS interaction. Consistent with this hypothesis, expression of an SH2 domain Grb2 mutant which is unable to mediate plasma membrane targeting of the Grb2-SOS complex results in both insulin- and EGF-stimulated uncoupling of Grb2 from SOS. Furthermore, a plasma membrane-bound Grb2 fusion protein remains constitutively associated with SOS. Together, these data demonstrate that EGF stimulation prevents the feedback uncoupling of Grb2 from SOS by inducing a persistent plasma membrane receptor targeting of the Grb2-SOS complex.


It may not be obvious why historians of early Quebec are paying so much attention to rural society. Indeed, one of the books under review refers to "une remarquable banalite" of the area studied (Lavallee 274). Such candour may do little to attract the attention of historians interested in larger populations and apparently more vital issues. Does the history of rural Quebec matter? At one time, intellectuals argued that the virtue of nations was located in the countryside. The nineteenth-century French historian Jules Michelet lauded the peasant: "Le paysan n'est pas seulement la partie la plus nombreuse de la nation, c'est la plus forte, la plus saine, et, en balancant bien le physique et le moral, au total la meilleure."(f.1) In part, such sentiments reflected anti-modernist concerns about declining "communitas." But French-Canadian nationalists, until the 1960s, often located the heart of their nation among rural communities as well. Much of the recent production on the rural history of Quebec, with its emphasis on peasant culture, revisits such views, often recreating the social divisions that defined possibilities in rural communities in Quebec and discussing the rich and tenacious rural culture that developed in the colony. The history of seventeeth-century Montreal spans the religious and commercial interests fundamental to the colony of New France. Founded in 1642 as the Counter-Reformation utopian experiment Ville-Marie, Montreal soon revealed the extent to which Old World patterns were replicated in the New World. Louise Dechene's now classic account Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal set the historiographical trend in which many studies of colonial society locate themselves. Published in French in 1974 but only recently translated, this volume re-evaluates the nature of colonial society by reconstructing in minute detail the workings of commerce and agriculture in the second most important town of the colony. Dechene's book is filled with insights into the society and economy of New France, and relatively little of her work has been shaken by the historical production of the last 20 years. The European population remained small throughout the period, and indeed throughout the history of New France as a whole, given limited immigration. For Dechene, the merchants and the peasants were the most important classes in the colony. The two groups functioned in relative isolation. While merchants in the fur trade dominated economic exchanges and ignored local development, farmers were content with subsistence. It was this lack of integration between the two sectors of the economy that determined the colony's features and long-term viability: "No sooner was it settled than the countryside began to exhibit the familiar, unchanging features of Quebec rural society -- and this despite the closeness of the warehouses -- encapsulated in its uniform farms and lifestyle, stable land ownership, strong family ties, and entrenched routines"(283). La Prairie en Nouvelle-France, 16471760, an examination of a seigneury located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence, provides an interesting counterpart to Dechene's study of Montreal. An agrarian seigneury, La Prairie did not witness the same socio-economic cleavages as the commercial town. Delving meticulously into notarial documents, Louis Lavallee sketches the lines of solidarity within the community: La Prairie constituted indeed "une unite de vie et de lieu"(263). Lavallee emphasises (but does not always demonstrate) social consensus within the local population, "la belle unite habituellement maintenue au sein de la communaute"(168). Without denying economic differences within the peasantry, there was a rough parity amongst them: "une majorite de paysans moyens, plus ou moins mediocres, dont l'independance economique semble cependant assuree"(262). Having a religious order as seigneur, La Prairie, like Montreal, was managed carefully but was managed carefully but not with legal and financial vigilance until the 1730s. …


Communicating with confidential data requires special attention in a Mobile Agents environment, especially when the other hosts must be prevented from eavesdropping the communication. We propose a communication model for secured communication between the agents belonging to Publishers and Consumers. Data confidentiality is ensured using our on the fly Encryption-Decryption sequence using ElGamal system to directly convert the message or plaintext into one that is encrypted directly with the public key of Consumer. The scheme ensures that the data possessed by the agents is secured at all times when it is executing at any of the untrusted hosts. We also explain how the homomorphic property of ElGamal scheme can be integrated with our model for a web based application like voting involving multiple agents.


The objective of this study was to compare the life-cycle cost of using a dedicated hood exhaust and replacement air system versus the cost of removing heat and moisture by the kitchen's general HVAC system. With measured sensible and latent heat generation data from Part I of the RP-1631, whole-building energy performance simulations and cost–benefit analysis were conducted for a generic prototype model of restaurants/cafeteria that included a dining and kitchen zone. Simulations were performed for 12 climate zones in the United States and different amounts of transfer air from the dining to the cooking zone. For most of the climates simulated, the hooded cases resulted in an increase in energy consumption, particularly for the heating-dominated regions, since the heat from the appliance was not used for space heating. In the cooling dominated regions, the hooded cases had about the same or less energy consumption due to reduced cooling loads. However, after integrating the initial cost, maintenance cost, and operating cost in a 10-year lifespan, utilizing a hood with 100% TR always gave the lowest life-cycle cost. This is a result of the lower operating cost compared to the unhooded case and no need for a makeup air system, saving in both equipment and operating cost, compared to the other hooded cases. The study fills a knowledge gap on the impact of commercial kitchen HVAC system design on the energy consumption and life-cycle-cost with realistically measured data of heat and moisture generation from electric counter-top cooking appliances. Also, the potential impact of the hood's capture efficiency on the thermal comfort and indoor air quality was analyzed.


In the summer of 1862, after a year of protracted fighting, Abraham Lincoln decided on a radical change of strategy-one that abandoned hope for a compromise peace and committed the nation to all-out war. The centerpiece of that new strategy was the Emancipation Proclamation: an unprecedented use of federal power that would revolutionize Southern society. In The Long Road to Antietam, Richard Slotkin, a renowned cultural historian, reexamines the challenges that Lincoln encountered during that anguished summer 150 years ago. In an original and incisive study of character, Slotkin re-creates the showdown between Lincoln and General George McClellan, the "Young Napoleon" whose opposition to Lincoln included obsessive fantasies of dictatorship and a military coup. He brings to three-dimensional life their ruinous conflict, demonstrating how their political struggle provided Confederate General Robert E. Lee with his best opportunity to win the war, in the grand offensive that ended in September of 1862 at the bloody Battle of Antietam.


For the successful realization of large engineering and construction projects (LECPs), a systemic organizational learning framework for institutional cooperation is critical. Due to the long project life-cycle of LECPs, this is particularly important for this kind of project. The objective of this paper is to analyze to what extent the conformity assessment of LECPs, carried out under Engineering, Procurement and Construction management (EPCm) services, can be used as a tool for organizational learning and cooperation between typical stakeholders (project owners, engineering contractors, EPC contractors; subcontractors and certification bodies). The research, from which this paper emanates, was based on a case study concerning LECPs in an oil and gas company in Brazil. Based on its results, we suggest that the proposed organizational learning framework, supported by the conformity assessment rationale, constitutes an important management tool that can be disseminated in other organizational contexts where conformity assessments of LECPs take place.


There is an art and a craft to making an appealing fine fragrance that takes perfumers many years to master. The IBM Research AI for Product Composition system was created to assist perfumers to design novel fragrances that are appealing, well balanced and technically sound. The system has been used by Master Perfumers at Symrise to develop 2 fragrances for Brazilian millennials. This creative submission presents the two fragrances, one designed for men and the other for women.


This paper described the first clinical study of lung tumor scanning by positron emission tomography (PET) using C-11-labeled L-methionine (11C-L-Met). Tumor images were clearly visualized by high contrast in eight lung cancer patients and also in a patient with a silicotic nodule. Quantitative evaluations of methionine uptake in tumor tissue and normal tissue by comparing differential uptake ratios suggested that the extent to which 11C-L-Met accumulates in a tumor is closely correlated to the tumor's viability such as benign or malignant, viable or necrotic. 11C-L-Met is considered to be an effective tumor marker for PET diagnosis which represents increased amino acid metabolism of tumors in the mediastinum and lung.


Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) represents an evolutionarily conserved family of secreted factors that mobilize a complex signaling network to control cell fate by regulating proliferation, differentiation, motility, adhesion, and apoptosis. TGF-beta promotes the assembly of a cell surface receptor complex composed of type I (T beta RI) and type II (T beta RII) receptor serine/threonine kinases. In response to TGF-beta binding, T beta RII recruits and activates T beta RI through phosphorylation of the regulatory GS-domain. Activated T beta RI then initiates cytoplasmic signaling pathways to produce cellular responses. SMAD proteins together constitute a unique signaling pathway with key roles in signal transduction by TGF-beta and related factors. Pathway-restricted SMADs are phosphorylated and activated by type I receptors in response to stimulation by ligand. Once activated, pathway-restricted SMADs oligomerize with the common-mediator Smad4 and subsequently translocate to the nucleus. Genetic analysis in Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans, as well as T beta RII and SMAD mutations in human tumors, emphasizes their importance in TGF-beta signaling. Mount ng evidence indicates that SMADs cooperate with ubiquitous cytoplasmic signaling cascades and nuclear factors to produce the full spectrum of TGF-beta responses. Operating independently, these ubiquitous elements may influence the nature of cellular responses to TGF-beta. Additionally, a variety of regulatory schemes contribute temporal and/or spatial restriction to TGF-beta responses. This report reviews our current understanding of TGF-beta signal transduction and considers the importance of a cooperative signaling paradigm to TGF-beta-mediated biological responses.


This paper discusses the application of a self-generating fuzzy rule extraction and inference system for the prediction of petrophysical properties from well log data. A set of core data with known characteristics is first selected as the training samples. Fuzzy rules are then extracted and undergo a process of rule elimination. The reduced rule set forms the rule-base of the fuzzy prediction model. This will be used to predict properties of other depths within or around the well. Results based on a test case for the prediction of porosity is reported and the performance of the system is discussed.


INTRODUCTION
A review of the literature relating to supernumerary teeth is presented along with a survey of 152 cases.

METHODS
The study population consisted of 152 children who visited the department of Paediatric Dentistry at the Jordan University Hospital. Patients ranged in age from 5 to 15 years. Supernumeraries were detected by clinical examination and radiographs.

RESULTS
Males were affected more than females with a sex ratio of 2.2 : 1. Seventy-seven percent of the patients had one supernumerary tooth, 18.4% had double teeth, and 4.6% had three or more supernumeraries. Ninety percent of the supernumerary teeth occurred in the premaxilla, of which 92.8% were in the central incisor region and of these latter 25% were located in the midline. The other 10.4% of the supernumeraries were located in the premolar, canine, molar, and lower central incisor regions. Two cases were of non-syndrome supernumerary teeth. Seventy-five percent of the supernumeraries were conical, 83.1% were in the normal vertical position and 26.5% were erupted. Conical-shaped supernumerary teeth had a significantly higher rate of eruption compared to the tuberculate type.


Technetium-99m radiopharmaceuticals are shown to be subject to autoradiation induced decomposition, which results in increasing abundance ofpertechnetate in the preparation. This autodecomposition is catalyzed by the presence of oxygen, although the removal of oxygen does not prevent its occurrence. The initial appearance of pertechnetate in the radiopharmaceutical is shown to be a function of the amount of radioactivity, the quantity of stannous ion used, and the ratio of Tc-99m to total technetium in the preparation. J NuclMed 20:138—143, 1979


Smart Homes confront many challenges trying to move from vision to reality. Poor understanding of the concept of Smart Homes by both designers and end users causes many challenges in accepting smart homes by public. To overcome this problem, user participation in Smart Home design is advocated. On the other hand, there are no sufficient tools to design and represent real usage of smart spaces. Most BIM (Building Information Modeling) systems are lack of information needed in order to create a virtual environment which can interact with users. Filling this gap, we develop an application called VR Smart Home which supports: 1. Visualizing smart technologies, 2. Performing real-time interactions and tasks by users. The application presents a virtual smart home consisting of several smart technologies which can react to user interactions. The created virtual space in this application is different from conventional 3D space and has the capability of doing certain functions and reacting toward users' interaction. The application utilizes three typical domestic tasks and several real-time interactions. Scripting the tasks makes the real-time interactions and system reactions possible. Accordingly, users can explore three predefined tasked named, cooking, working and contemplation inside the Virtual Smart Home on a touch screen LCD. The results from the first evaluations of the application reveal a positive attitude of users. They prove that when the users can directly execute a task in the virtual model, they can deliver a better comprehension of how smart technologies can be utilized. Hence, the application can be used as a toolset to improve communications among users and designers in the design processes of smart environments. Eventually, it can help designers to match the smart technology usability with users' demands.


This book brings together a series of ground-breaking studies on human bones and artefacts recovered from Irish caves principally between 1870 and 1990. Until now these assemblages had either been completely neglected or had not been examined with modern techniques. The 15 expert contributions presented here shine a light on the use and perception of caves at different times in the past, from the Early Mesolithic through to post-medieval times.
The book opens with osteoarchaeological analyses of human bones from 24 caves, revealing complex and varied funerary practices and rituals. Shell beads and animal tooth pendants provide insight into the status of those whose skeletal remains were placed in caves. Studies on lithics, stone axes and prehistoric pottery highlight the changing roles of caves as places for shelter, occupation, burial and ritual practices during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age. An examination of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age metalwork contributes to wider evidence of votive deposition at natural places in the landscape. Several chapters focus on the wealth of early medieval and Viking-age activities, drawing on pottery assemblages from caves along the north coast, to ecclesiastical shrine fragments from sites in the south, as well as Viking material from a growing number of caves.

These studies will be of interest to osteoarchaeologists; to those who specialise in particular archaeological periods; to museumologists and artefact specialists; to cave archaeologists; and to everyone interested in Ireland's past.


Trend and Value are pervasive anomalies, common to all financial markets. We address the problem of their co-existence and interaction within the framework of Heterogeneous Agent Based Models (HABM). More specifically, we extend the Chiarella (1992) model by adding noise traders and a non-linear demand of fundamentalists. We use Bayesian filtering techniques to calibrate the model on time series of prices across a variety of asset classes since 1800. The fundamental value is an output of the calibration, and does not require the use of an external pricing model. Our extended model reproduces many empirical observations, including the non-monotonic relation between past trends and future returns. The destabilizing activity of trend-followers leads to a qualitative change of mispricing distribution, from unimodal to bimodal, meaning that some markets tend to be over- (or under-) valued for long periods of time.


Collaborative sensemaking occurs when a group of people with diverse backgrounds engage in the process of making sense of information rich, complex and dynamic situations. Our understanding of collaborative sensemaking and critical functionalities to support such sensemaking is limited. In this paper, based on review of relevant literature, we outline a set of broad requirements critical for supporting collaborative sensemaking. Requirements identified are: support for creating explicit representations, support co-existence of different representations, support for developing shared representation, support for creating representations using templates, providing workspace for developing shared representations, support for building consensus and reaching agreement, support for facilitating and moderating interactions, support for exchanging documents, and support for retrieving and visualizing information. We argue that a collaborative systems designed to satisfy above requirements would provide better support for collaborative sensemaking activities.


This paper is about the relationship between management, a First World discipline, and the Third World. Management is widely assumed to apply in organizations in modern, or postmodern, societies. However, a distinctive form of management, Development Administration and Management (DAM), exists and is applied to Third World nation-states, which are deemed in the First World to require modernization. This article sets out the institutional and conceptual separation and crossover between management and DAM. It then goes on to consider DAM in practice, demonstrating how it, and through it management, are complicit in neo-liberal World Bank interventions in the Third World. It concludes by reviewing the implications of the status of DAM, and management, as direct instruments of national-level neo-liberal change.


Investigations on welded joints of a low strength steel and of an age-hardened aluminium- alloy have been performed to compare the effects of different post-weld treatment methods. The experimental results show, that the methods which are working with help of ultrasonic activation lead to a higher depth of penetration of the compressive residual stresses as shot peening does. The cold worked surface area is deeper and the hardening effect can be found in deeper layers. Furthermore the shape of the weld toe is changed strongly due to the cold working of the surface with the consequence of a change of the weld toe geometry. Anyway the fatigue strength improvement is comparable to that which is generated by shot peening (steel) or less than after shot peening (aluminium). The reason is, that the shape of the treated weld toe profile must not be necessarily smoother due to the ultrasonic hammer peening. Depending on the treatment parameters also sharp defects can be produced at the boarder of the treated zone which may compensate the beneficial effect of the compressive residual stresses.


Considerable evidence indicates that individuals with obesity are vulnerable to stigma and discrimination. However, comparably less research has examined strategies to reduce weight bias, and the existing evidence is mixed. To help clarify these findings and incorporate prejudice-reduction interventions that have been successfully applied to other stigmatized groups (i.e., empathy-induction and perspective-taking), we experimentally tested and compared four different, brief stigma-reduction interventions in a national sample of American adults. Participants (N = 650) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 experimental conditions (Empathy, Perspective-Taking, Causal Information, or Empathy/Information Hybrid) or a control condition. Outcome variables included explicit weight bias (Fat Phobia), social distance, and affective reactions to individuals with obesity. The empathy and perspective-taking conditions induced more empathy than the control and informational conditions, and altered affective reactions towards persons with obesity in the expected directions. However, no experimental condition reduced Fat Phobia or social distance relative to the control condition. The current findings suggest that empathy-evoking and perspective-taking strategies may increase empathy and alter affective reactions towards individuals with obesity; however, these strategies remain questionable as effective means to reduce weight stigma.


The paper looks at recent results of research dealing with a coherent backscattering (CBS) on the particles of alumina. It was developed a system of registration of CBS with a tunable dynamic sample. During the experiment the transport mean free path over the width of the peak of angular profile of signal intensity of CBS was determined. Moreover, new scientific data about the CBS's profiles from randomly inhomogeneous environments were obtained.


A field study was conducted to evaluate the protozoan colonization patterns on artificial substrates in relation to organic pollution within a tropical harbour. The composition of protozoans and their succession rates on artificial substrates(polyurethane foam units) were compared between two field stations(A and B), and their presence were considered with regards to the prevailing water quality conditions at the study sites. Altogether 44 genera of flagellates and ciliates were documented. The common genera of flagellates encountered included Monas, Polytoma, and Chromalina. Among the ciliates, the predominant genera were Tetrahymena, Vorticella, Lagymophyra, and Heloiphyra. These groups exhibited characteristic successional patterns in relation to ambient water quality. At Station A, located close to the sewage outfall, the water quality parameters included poor Secchi-disc transparency(0.48 m), dissolved oxygen of 1.93 mg/ml, salinity of 18 psu, and temperature 31.3 degrees C. Here, the nanoflagellates (spumella) colonized first, followed by microcilliate(Tetrahymena) and sessile form(Vorticella). Station B, located on the seaward side, was characterized by relatively less-stressed environmental conditions with transparency 1.85 m and dissolved oxygen value of 6.04 mg/ml. Salinity of 27.27 psu, and mean temperature of 30 degrees C were recorded at "B". At this station, the nanoflagellate Polytoma was first documented to colonize on the substrates, followed by microcilliate(Lagynophrya) and suctorid(Heliophyra). These findings support the use of protozoans as indicator species for evaluating the hazards posed by organic pollution to natural estuarine communities.


In the past few decades, individuals have experienced dramatic changes in some of the most established dimensions of human life: time, space, matter, and individuality. Working across several time zones, traveling with relative ease between satellite maps and nanoscale images, gleefully drowning in information, acting fast in order to preserve some slow downtime, people cope daily with dozens of changes in scale. Minds adapt and acquire enough elasticity to be able to synthesize such abundance. One of design's most fundamental tasks is to stand between revolutions and life, and to help people deal with change. Designers have coped with these displacements by contributing thoughtful concepts that can provide guidance and ease as science and technology evolve. Several of them—the Mosaic graphic user's interface for the Internet, for instance—have truly changed the world. Design and the Elastic Mind was a survey of the latest developments in the field. It focuses on designers' ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores, changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior, and convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use.

The exhibition highlighted examples of successful translation of disruptive innovation, examples based on ongoing research, as well as reflections on the future responsibilities of design. Of particular interest were the exploration of the relationship between design and science and the approach to scale. The exhibition included objects, projects, and concepts offered by teams of designers, scientists, and engineers from all over the world, ranging from the nanoscale to the cosmological scale. The objects ranged from nanodevices to vehicles, from appliances to interfaces, and from pragmatic solutions for everyday use to provocative ideas meant to influence our future choices. The exhibition included my research project Future (Now) Families and Hybrids: Towards a New Typology of Beings and Animal Products, and was visited by over half a million people from all over the world.


Attenuation splice is an important process in the manufacture of fiber optical communication systems. The method proposed in this brief paper is superior to the splice vendors' methods because of the accuracy of the insertion loss, the efficiency in terms of the least number of resplice trials, and the robustness to the different operation conditions. This system includes a laser source and a power meter as the measurement feedback. The measurement error and the compensation formula is discussed. Since the power meter measurement cannot be updated quickly enough to meet the requirements of the real time control system, a multirate Kalman filter is adopted. This method may be used in a broad class of systems that need to update the state estimation in a rate faster than the rate of measurement. The application of this system has become a key technology in a fiber optical communication system manufacturing process.


It hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1893 Monet moved to a house in rural Giverny. In 1893 and the years following, he turned a swampy area at Giverny into a water lily pool. It became a source of artistic inspiration. In 1899 Monet painted 12 works that centered on the garden and the Japanese Footbridge he constructed. The National Gallery of Art writes: 'When Monet exhibited these paintings at Durand–Ruel's gallery in 1900, a number of critics mentioned his debt to Japanese art. More telling, the impenetrable green enclosure—heightened in the National Gallery painting by the placement of the top of the bridge's arch just below the painting's top edge—harkens back to the hortus conclusus (closed garden) of medieval images, while also evoking a dreamlike contemplative zone consonant with symbolist literature, especially poems such as 'Le Nenuphar blanc' by Stephane Mallarme. Gustave Geffroy described this effect in his review of the exhibition (Le Journal, November 26, 1900), speaking of 'this minuscule pool where some mysterious corollas blossom,' and 'a calm pool, immobile, rigid, and deep like a mirror, upon which white water lilies blossom forth, a pool surrounded by soft and hanging greenery which reflects itself in it.'


Separated populations of wide-ranging ectothermic species may be subjected to differing ambient environmental regimes, with consequences for adult size and related allometric characteristics. We investigated effects of environmentally induced size variation in freshwater Australian Chironomidae (Diptera) on several morphometric ratios used to account for such variation in taxonomic classification. Echinocladius martini Cranston, 2000 (Orthocladiinae) and Australopelopia prionoptera Cranston, 2000 (Tanypodinae) larvae were sampled from tropical and temperate populations separated by approximately 1800 km, and reared to adult at temperatures representing the continent-wide range encountered by these species. Additionally, adults were sampled regularly from a field population to assess seasonal variation. Body size was related inversely to rearing temperature for both species. Nonlinear (allometric) relationships were observed consistently between body size and ratios pertaining to the antennae (AR, the ratio of the terminal to subapical flagellomeres) and legs (BV, the ratio of proximal segments to distal tarsomeres), demonstrating that these ratios inadequately factor out within-species, size-related divergence. Responses of other ratios varied erratically with sex, species, and population. We advocate cautious use of these ratios in taxonomy and phylogenetic reconstruction. We discuss possible adaptive significance of allometry in the male antennae related to the "tuning" of sound-sensitive structures to the expected terrestrial environment encountered at emergence.


Purpose
Following deaths and hospitalisations in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, related to the unwitting consumption of a combination of 25C-NBOMe and 4-FA, a community-led unauthorised drug checking service was rapidly established at a subsequent music festival. We aim to demonstrate the value of community-led drug checking, even when conducted in less-than-ideal conditions, by describing this service and reporting on its outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach
In all, 131 samples were tested with between 1 and 4 (M = 2.24 and SD = 0.61) reagents (Mandelin, Marquis, Mecke and Simons), and behavioural intentions of service users were reported.

Findings
People whose results indicated that the drug tested was what they expected, or was a drug familiar to them, were more likely to report an intention to take the drug compared to those whose results indicated that the drug was not what they had expected. For example, in 11 cases where the expected substance was not identified and novel substances including 2 C-X (including the NBOMe series), methylone, mephedrone, PMA and MXE were indicated, most reported an intention to discard (8/11).

Practical implications
The guerrilla service appeared to dissuade some people from consuming substances with higher risk profiles. It was also quick to identify substances of concern consistent with the NBOMe/4-FA combination for broader community action. The authors urge governments in Australia and elsewhere to reconsider their opposition to drug checking services, given their utility as vital health services during times of volatile drug market shifts.

Originality/value
While these data are five years old, it has only been in the past year that the Coroners Court of Victoria finalised their report on the deaths associated with this drug outbreak, providing context for the rapid peer response.


Voice communication becomes extremely difficult, if not impossible, when helium-oxygen breathing mixtures are substituted for air in deep-sea diving to overcome physiological problems. The effects of helium and pressure on speech intelligibility are discussed. With the helium voice unscrambler described, effective speech conversation was conducted with various helium-oxygen mixtures at depths to 300 feet. The unscrambler is useful even when high ambient acoustic noise is present, as in "hard-hat" diver applications.


This thesis contains three essays spanning the fields of econometrics and the economics of education. The first is a methodological essay wherein I propose a solution to the test score measurement problem. Test scores that measure the same skill or trait are often scaled differently. I propose a statistical methodology to express test scores in a standard format to make them comparable across different tests. While other methods to standardize scores exist, the method I develop avoids several statistical pitfalls that commonly befall other procedures. The second chapter is an applied paper examining the question of whether academic achievement increases when students are the same race as their teacher. I pay particular attention to the effects of same-race teachers on academic achievement in both the short and medium run. Using a model that takes into account past school inputs, I find positive effects of racial matching on student achievement; moreover, these benefits persist with time. The third is a methodological piece that develops a technique to answer the question of whether one can be confident that a statistical estimate of something such as a mean or a regression parameter estimate lies between two points. The procedure has desirable statistical properties, and is ideally suited for use when testing for the existence of zero or near-zero effects.


This report presents a literature review of soil and sediment inundation methodologies and
describes a pilot scale laboratory inundation study.
Changing weather conditions, subsequent flooding events, and the increased frequency of such
events both in the UK and worldwide is highlighting the need to research the area of contaminant
mobility from soils and sediments under inundated conditions. The findings of such
investigations impact on a wide variety of sectors, including human and ecological health,
agriculture, building, transport, world economy and climate change.
Standardised methodologies for the investigation of contaminant mobility resulting from
soil/sediment inundation episodes are not available. Most research has been conducted in the
agricultural sector for nutrient transport, as part of soil fertility and plant nutrition studies. Only
recently has work been undertaken for studying potentially harmful element transport in
inundated sediments/soils.
A pilot scale laboratory study was undertaken using contaminated bank sediment samples
collected from the Rookhope Burn catchment, Northern England, UK, with the aim to examine
the extent of contaminant mobilisation from flooded sediments. The catchment has been
affected by historical mining and processing of lead and zinc ore and is representative of several
catchments affected by the environmental legacy related to mining in the Northern Pennine
Orefield.
Bank sediment Pb and Zn concentrations were found significantly above both the TEL and PEL
sediment quality criteria, posing potentially a significant hazard to aquatic organisms. The source
of the Pb and Zn in the sediments is related to the underlying mineralisation, mining activities
and mine water discharges in the catchment. Abundances of original sulphide ore and authigenic
metal-bearing phases were expected to vary through the catchment.
The study design simulated rising flood water, a slow saturation of the sediment in order to
induce a slow change in physico-chemical properties, followed by a 3 month (88 day) stagnation
period. Natural day-night cycles were simulated by undertaking the study on the bench top
during the winter of 2009/2010 (November to February). The chemical changes in the
inundation water during the experiment were monitored and the sediment pore water at the end
of the inundation period analysed. The inundation water pH remained alkaline to neutral, while
redox measurements indicated oxic conditions in the water column throughout the inundation
period.
The pilot study showed that inundation of river bank sediments from the Rookhope Burn may be
a significant pathway for contaminants in the catchment and that mobilisation from the
sediments may pose a hazard to environmental receptors in the area, particularly with respect to
Pb and Zn contamination. The different degrees and different rates of metal losses to the
overlying water column observed during the flooding of the Rookhope Burn bank sediments
demonstrated that the significance of metal mobilisation was dictated by the sediment
composition.
The inundation water composition monitored during the sediment flooding was used to indirectly
infer possible processes that control contaminant fluxes from the sediments to the overlying
water. Dissolved Pb concentration in the inundation water reflected the original concentration in
the solid material and in sediments that had XRD-detectable galena and cerussite the dissolved
Pb concentration reached a maximum value of 395 μg l-1. Cerussite, which is commonly formed
as coatings on galena during the sulphide weathering, was close or supersaturated in those
solutions, suggesting that the lead carbonate mineral phase provided a continuous source of Pb to
these solutions.
The initial dissolved Zn in the inundation waters was independent of the original concentration
in the sediments. Sediments downstream a mine water discharge showed a greater availability of
easily mobilised Zn, producing high initial Zn concentration in the inundation water, despite the
relatively low Zn concentration in the inundated sediment. The Zn/SO4 and Cd/Zn molar ratios
were both consistent with sphalerite mineral oxidation. The final inundation water solutions had
the highest Zn concentrations for those sediment samples where sphalerite was detected by
XRD.
Redox sensitive elements such as Fe and Mn could not unequivocally indicate the presence of
reducing conditions within the flooded sediments and the redox measurements were carried out
only in the overlying water column (ORP above 200-350 mV). Low organic matter content and
sandy texture would not have favoured the rapid formation of an anoxic layer. Yet, only
extending the ORP measurements to the submerged sediment would determine the presence of
flooding-induced reducing conditions. Reductive dissolution of Mn oxyhydroxides would result
in release of Mn into solution, along with other trace metals, such as Pb and Zn. Mn increased in
the inundation water throughout most or all the inundation period for some of the studied
sediments. Their final pore water composition was significantly enriched in Mn (1300-
6500 μg l-1). Saturation indices indicated both rhodocrosite (MnCO3) and Mn oxides reached
saturation. Therefore, it was not possible to preclude either the role of rhodocrosite as solubility
controlling solid phase or the reductive dissolution of Mn oxides for accounting the enhanced
Mn concentrations in the pore water and overlying water column without a better
characterisation of the solid phase and monitoring of the sediment redox conditions.
Amendments to the inundation test design have been recommended, which comprise:
 set-up to allow for the continuous monitoring of pore water dynamics and allow for the
collection of pore water at the different times and measurement of pore water pH and Eh;
 inclusion of a blank test cell, to test the influence of the properties and the volume of the
inundation water;
 inclusion of flow-cell tests to assess the influence of moving or stagnant inundation
water;
 the inclusion of abiotic blanks to identify the role microbes play in the solubilisation of
contaminants.
 complementary characterisation of the solid phase material and metal distribution in the
sediment before and after the inundation experiment.


This report discusses simulators in automata theory and which one should be best for use in laboratory assignments. Currently, the Formal Languages, Automata and Theory of Computation course (FABER) at Malardalen University uses the JFLAP simulator for extra exercises. To see if any other simulators would be useful either along with JFLAP or standalone, tests were made with nine programs that are able to graphically simulate automata and formal languages. This thesis work started by making an overview of simulators currently available.After the reviews it has become clear to the author that JFLAP is the best choice for majority of cases. JFLAP is also the most popular simulator in automata theory courses worldwide.To support the use of JFLAP for the course a manual and course assignments are created to help the student to getting started with JFLAP. The assignments are expected to replace the current material in the FABER course and to help the uninitiated user to get more out of JFLAP.


As Alan Turing showed in his epochal work, computation is formal symbol-manipulation—reading and writing symbols based on rules that operate only on the arbitrary shapes of the symbols (whether 0's and 1's or the words of a natural language) not on their meanings. So where does the meaning of symbols come from? My version of this impasse was the Chinese-Chinese dictionary-goround: How can one learn the meanings of Chinese words from a Chinese-Chinese dictionary alone? Everything is defined there, but the definitions are meaningless unless you already know what some of them, at least, mean. How to "ground" the meanings of those symbols, so the rest of them can be defined and described through words alone? That is what I dubbed the "symbol grounding problem". The natural candidate for grounding symbols is direct sensorimotor interaction with the things the symbols refer to, so that the grounded symbol system can recognize manipulate and name them, autonomously.... These are sensorimotor and robotic capacities... To categorize is to do the right thing with the right kind of thing. The focus of my research has since been on how we acquire categories... Symbol grounding is also the necessary condition for the evolution of language, but language has to be grounded in the capacity to acquire some categories, at least, directly, through the senses, rather than indirectly, through language...


Schistidium leptoneurum is described as a new species from King George Island and Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands archipelago in West Antarctica. It clearly belongs to sect. Conferta on account of the presence of the distinct basal marginal border in the vegetative leaves. The new species differs from all other local species of the genus Schistidium in having very narrow and weak costae which are 35-40 μm wide, bistratose throughout and not or scarcely convex on the dorsal side, and those in the perichaetial leaves end far below the apices. Moreover, S. leptoneurum has a well-developed peristome and its vegetative leaves are epilose and shorter than 1.3 mm, making it the smallest species of the genus in the Antarctic.


In the present work the effect of intramuscular administration of 30.000, 50.000 and 100.000 IU of vitamin A palmitate daily for seven days, respectively, on the liver enzyme activity in 45 white male Wistar rats, aged 12 weeks and weighing 180-200 g, have been studied. The group control was integrated by 15 healthy rats with similar characteristics (strain, gender, age and weight) to treated animals. Food and water consumption and body weights were recorded at the end of the experimental period. Rats were observed for clinical signs of toxicity. At the end of the study, rats were sacrificed under ether anesthesia. Liver samples were taken for the determination of enzyme activity. Administration of excess of vitamin A produced a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the content of liver vitamin A, determined diverse and variable clinical signs (such as, anorexia, loss of body weight, alopecia, conjunctivitis, external and internal hemorrhages, skin abnormalities and death) and increased (p < 0.05) the activity of the following enzymes: alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, acid maltase (acid alpha-1,4-glucosidase), acid proteases, lactate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase while glucose-6-phosphatase, glycogen phosphorylase, alpha-amylase, cholinesterase and arginase decreased (p < 0.05) as compared with untreated controls. These changes depend on the doses given of vitamin A. In conclusion, our results provide evidence that short-term administration of high doses of vitamin A determined diverse and variable clinical signs and produces a marked alteration of activity of liver enzymes.


Starting from the guiding principles of innovation as pillars for updating and achieving educational excellence, it is pertinent to highlight the need to generate new ways of conducting educational processes in order to respond to the interests of students in the digital age. In this line, one of the most pioneering novelties generated by the technological revolution has been the metaverse, a virtual world in which - through digital devices - a great immersive experience and total interaction with its elements is generated in the user. Due to its short history, the potential of the metaverse in education is yet to be explored. The aim of this project is to create an educational metaverse to develop didactic content for different curricular subjects, in order to raise the teaching and learning process to a higher level of immersion and innovation. To achieve this, a specific didactic methodology will be designed and implemented for training in the metaverse, as well as the development and implementation of a competence training plan for the creation and use of virtual classrooms. In this way, knowledge can be generated and transferred in the metaverse by improving the psycho-educational skills of students, promoting inclusive education, and improving attention to diversity. The methodology that the project will follow will be based on collaborative work and the principle of autonomy for the effective deployment of project and problem-based learning for the delivery of didactic content and the achievement of learning objectives. All this will be based on a systematic strategy for monitoring and evaluating the development of the project and its impact.


Parasitoids can suppress populations of their host and thus play a primary role in Integrated Pest Management. In the stored product environment, stimuli deriving from plant products, damaged plant products and hosts might be important for host location by the parasitoids. We studied foraging cues in Holepyris sylvanidis (Hymenoptera: Bethylidae), a larval parasitoid of Tribolium species and Cephalonomia waterstoni (Bethylidae), a natural enemy of the rusty grain beetle Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Cucujidae). Our studies in a fourchamber olfactometer revealed that the host complexes of both Tribolium species and different living host stages attract naive H. sylvanidis females, whereas no reaction was observed to uninfested substrates. The olfactory response of C. waterstoni was found to be strongly elicited both by chemicals emitted by the dust, adult C. ferrugineus and C. ferrugineus third and fourth instar larvae. Our findings may contribute to the development of biological control strategies of T. castaneum, T. confusum and C. ferrugineus with parasitoids.


The loss of biodiversity is altering the structure of ecological networks; however, we are currently in a poor position to predict how these altered communities will affect the evolutionary potential of remaining populations. Theory on adaptive landscapes provides a framework for predicting how selection constrains phenotypic evolution, but often treats the network context of evolving populations as a "black box". Here, we integrate ecological networks and adaptive landscapes to examine how changes in food-web structure shape evolutionary constraints. We conducted a field experiment that removed a guild of larval parasitoids that imposed direct and indirect selection pressures on an insect herbivore. We then measured herbivore survival as a function of three key phenotypic traits to estimate directional, quadratic, and correlational selection gradients in each treatment. We used these selection gradients to characterize the slope and curvature of the adaptive landscape to understand the direct and indirect effects of consumer loss on evolutionary constraints. We found that the number of traits under directional selection increased with the removal of larval parasitoids, indicating greater selective constraints on the trajectory of evolutionary change. Similarly, we found that the removal of larval parasitoids altered the curvature of the adaptive landscape in such a way that tended to decrease the evolvability of the traits we measured in the next generation. Our results suggest that the loss of trophic interactions can impose greater constraints on phenotypic evolution. This indicates that the simplification of ecological communities may constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations to future environmental change. Impact Summary The loss of biodiversity is rewiring the web of life; however, it is uncertain how this will affect the ability of remaining populations to evolve and adapt to future environments. To gain insight to these effects, we conducted a field experiment that either maintained a natural community of predators or removed all but one of the predators that was able to impose selection on a common prey. We found that the loss of predators acted to constrain prey evolution toward a particular combination of traits. Moreover, we found that the loss of predators could make it more difficult for prey to adapt to uncertain future environments. Taken together, our results suggest that the simplification of the web of life may constrain the adaptive potential of remaining populations.


As for thin walled cylindrical liquid storage tanks in nuclear power plants, the current elastic design guideline against seismic loading might result in too conservative component design. Therefore, it is thought possible to make the design procedure more reasonable by taking dynamic response reduction into account. Experiments using scaled models as well as numerical analyses were carried out, and seismic behavior of thin walled cylindrical liquid storage tanks was simulated to investigate energy absorption capacity and seismic resistance of those tanks. Based on the test and analysis results, assessment procedure for buckling considering post-buckling behavior has been proposed.


High-performance computing systems have already approached peta-scale with hundreds of thousands of processors/cores in many deployments. These systems promise a new level of predictive and knowledge discovery ability as researchers gain the capability to model dependencies between phenomena at scales not seen earlier. These applications are highly I/O and data intensive, leading scientists to observe that performing I/O and subsequent analyses are major bottlenecks in effectively utilizing peta-scale systems and a major hurdle in accelerating discoveries. Although significant progress has been made in performance, interfaces, and middleware runtime systems for I/O in the recent past, significantly more research and development needs to be carried out to scale the performance to the desired levels for systems containing tens to hundreds of thousands of cores. In this work we outline our recent achievements and current research for designing scalable I/O software and enabling data analytics in storage systems. We also enumerate key challenges for the I/O systems and discuss ongoing efforts that address these challenges.


ATP-sensitive potassium channels are supposed to have a substantial role in improvement of cardiac performance. This study was performed to evaluate whether nandrolone decanoate (ND) and (or) exercise training could affect the expression of cardiac K(ATP) channel subunits. Thirty-five male albino Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups, including sedentary control (SC), sedentary vehicle (SV), sedentary ND (SND), exercise control (EC), and exercise and ND (E+ND). Exercise training was performed on a treadmill 5 times per week. ND was injected (10 mg/kg/week, i.m.) to the rats in the SND and E+ND groups. Following cardiac isolation, the expression of both sarcolemmal and mitochondrial subunits of K(ATP) channel was measured using Western blot method. The expression of sarcolemmal, but not mitochondrial, subunits of K(ATP) channel (Kir6.2 and SUR2) of EC group was significantly higher compared with SC group while ND administration (SND group) did not show any change in their expression. In the E+ND group, ND administration led to decrease of the over-expression of sarcolemmal Kir6.2 and SUR2 which was previously induced by exercise. There was no significant association between the mitochondrial expression of either Kir6.2 or SUR2 proteins and administration of ND or exercise. Supra-physiological dosage of ND negatively reverses the effects of exercise on the cardiac muscle expression of sarcolemmal, but not mitochondrial, K(ATP) channel subunits.


: The paper aims to introduce results of a study of the effects of partici- pation in video clubs on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers' selective attention. It is a part of a larger project concerned with EFL teachers' professional vision. The paper introduces the theoretical background of study on teachers' professional vision and selective attention and the rationale of video clubs used specifically for EFL teachers. 11 EFL teachers participated in this year-long study and attended video club meetings that aimed to foster their professional vision for conscious development of pupils' communicative competence. They were interviewed at the beginning and at the end of the programme; video sequences of their own teaching and of other teacher's teaching were used as prompts. The transcribed data were analysed using a theory-driven system of categories describing the areas of teachers' selective attention (i.e. aims, context, content, pupil/s, teacher, process). The results suggest that after participating in video clubs the teachers paid more attention to aims and content, and less to the teacher. The results for the category of pupil(s) differed for the own/other video sequence. As the development of communicative competence represents the ultimate goal of EFL teaching, it is encouraging that after the intervention the teachers' comments were more aim and content oriented.


Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of food poisoning resulting from the consumption of contaminated food with staphylococcal enterotoxins. Raw meat is a good medium for the survival and spread of drug-resistant S. aureus.

 To look for the prevalence of drug-resistant S. aureus in Addis Ababa abattoir enterprise.

 A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2013 to April 2014 in Addis Ababa abattoir enterprise. A total of 185 swab samples were collected from the carcasses of sheep, goat and slaughtering materials such as workers' clothes, vehicles, knives and hands. Isolation and identification of S. aureus were conducted using the conventional culture methods and signatory tests. Antimicrobial sensitivity was conducted using standard methods.

 The overall prevalence rate for S. aureus in the present study was 33%. The higher prevalence rates of S. aureus were recorded from sheep carcasses 36%, followed by 30% from the environment and 16% from goat carcasses. The variation in the prevalence of S. aureus between the carcasses and environment was not statically significant (p > 0.05). More than 90% of S. aureus strains were sensitive to vancomycin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin and kanamycin. While 86.9% S. aureus strains were resistant to penicillin G 80.3% resistant to ampicillin, 63.9% resistant to ceftriaxone, 62.3% resistant to oxacilin, and 62.3% resistant to cefoxitin respectively.

 The present study indicated that the quality of slaughtered sheep carcasses was more contaminated by S. aureus as compared to goat carcasses, during slaughtering, processing, handling and transportation. The presence of MDR strain in the carcasses demonstrates that there is a growing need to control antimicrobial resistance in sheep and goat carcasses.


This paper examines asset prices when risk-sharing externalities are incorporated into an infinite-horizon model where consumers are exposed to the endogenous income risks. It is shown that there exist multiple types of equilibria depending on the degree of market participation. Under incomplete participation, income risks cannot be fully diversified as they induce higher precautionary savings, which are conducive in turn to higher asset prices. However, the exposure to additional dividend risks can lead at the same time to a lower demand for risky assets. The aggregate effect is an increase in the equity risk premium and a decrease in the risk-free rate. Thus, the evidence suggests that the equity premium and risk-free rate puzzles can be partly explained by infinite-horizon models with incomplete market participation.


SuMMARy Whether seen from a "minimalist" or a "maximalist" model of democratic participation, the issue of the role of the internet in facilitating citizens' participation in the public sphere has acquired a permanent place in the academic and public debate. Particular attention has been devoted to young people and their engagement with the internet and digital media. While a consistent body of writing has focused on assessing the efficacy of online participation in mobilising young people and promoting new citizenship models, a different approach has addressed the issue from the perspective of media literacy, investigating the links between digital and civic literacies. This second strand of research is rooted in, while at the same time originating, the shift from media literacy to digital citizenship operated at a policy and public level. However, the very concept of media literacy is a contested one, as it is its stretching so as to include civic competencies. On these premises, the present papers aims to provide a critical review of the current debate on media and digital literacies framed as social practices, and to investigate the relationship between digital and civic literacies on a theoretical and empirically-driven level, in order to identify which dimensions of both digital and civic literacy should be studied, and how.


OBJECTIVE
Studies indicate the genetic, biological, and clinical heterogeneity of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Recently the histological diversity of RA has been postulated. We investigated whether serum concentrations of interleukin 8 (IL-8), RANTES (regulated upon activation normal T cell expressed and secreted), and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) are correlated with histological appearance of the rheumatoid synovitis.

METHODS
Using ELISA we assessed IL-8, RANTES, and MCP-1 concentrations in serum of 47 patients with RA and 30 patients with osteoarthritis (OA).

RESULTS
Morphological analysis of synovial specimens distinguished 2 types of rheumatoid synovitis. Twenty-eight RA samples presented diffuse infiltrates of mononuclear cells with no specific microanatomical organization and were categorized as diffuse synovitis. In the remaining 19 specimens, classified as follicular synovitis, formation of lymphocytic follicles with germinal center-like structures was observed. Serum levels of studied chemokines were increased in patients with RA compared to the OA control group (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Concentrations of IL-8, RANTES, and MCP-1 were highest in serum of RA patients with follicular synovitis in comparison with patients with diffuse synovitis (p < 0.01, p < 0.01, and p < 0.05, respectively) and could distinguish RA patients with these 2 histological disease patterns. Serum levels of chemokines correlated with markers of disease activity such as erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein concentrations, and Disease Activity Score.

CONCLUSION
Distinct histological variants of rheumatoid synovitis associated with different serum levels of IL-8, RANTES, and MCP-1 reflect clinical activity of the disease and confirm the concept of RA heterogeneity.


The authors perform unconstrained ear recognition using transfer learning with deep neural networks (DNNs). First, they show how existing DNNs can be used as a feature extractor. The extracted features are used by a shallow classifier to perform ear recognition. Performance can be improved by augmenting the training dataset with small image transformations. Next, they compare the performance of the feature-extraction models with fine-tuned networks. However, because the datasets are limited in size, a fine-tuned network tends to over-fit. They propose a deep learning-based averaging ensemble to reduce the effect of over-fitting. Performance results are provided on unconstrained ear recognition datasets, the AWE and CVLE datasets as well as a combined AWE + CVLE dataset. They show that their ensemble results in the best recognition performance on these datasets as compared to DNN feature-extraction based models and single fine-tuned models.


Importance High health care costs encourage initiatives that avoid overuse of resources and identify opportunities to promote appropriate care. Objective To investigate the causes of potentially avoidable surgical intensive care unit (SICU) admissions and disposition delays to determine whether targeted interventions could decrease these stays. Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective, observational study focused on potentially avoidable SICU days, as determined by observers with input from the rounding intensivists at a 24-bed open SICU at an urban, academic hospital. The preintervention phase occurred from April 6 through June 21, 2015; after implementation of targeted interventions, the postintervention phase occurred from April 4 through June 28, 2016. Data collected included demographic characteristics, reason for admission, and length of stay. All patients admitted to the SICU during the preintervention and postintervention phases were included in the analysis. Interventions Based on results collected in the preintervention phase, targeted interventions were designed and implemented from July 1, 2015, through March 31, 2016, including (1) reducing SICU care for minor traumatic brain injury, (2) optimizing postoperative airway management, (3) enhancing communication between services regarding transfers to the SICU, (4) identifying and facilitating more timely end-of-life conversations and supportive care consultations, and (5) encouraging early disposition of patients to floor beds. Main Outcomes and Measures Changes in the proportion of potentially avoidable SICU days owing to potentially avoidable admissions and/or disposition delays. Results A total of 459 patients (253 men [55.1%] and 206 women [44.9%]; median age, 62 years [interquartile range, 46-75 years]) were admitted during the preintervention and postintervention phases. Of 261 patients admitted during the preintervention period and 245 during the postintervention period, median SICU and hospital length of stay remained unchanged. A reduction was noted in the percentage of postintervention SICU days owing to potentially avoidable admissions (152 of 1168 days [13%] vs 118 of 1338 days [8.8%]; P = .001) and disposition delays (138 of 1168 days [11.8%] vs 97 of 1338 days [7.2%]; P < .001). During the postintervention period, decreases were noted in the SICU days related to the most common sources of potentially avoidable admissions (SICU stay ⩽24 hours, airway concerns, and somnolence) and disposition delays (end-of-life decisions and floor bed unavailable) as well as in the overall rate of potentially avoidable days (269 of 1168 days [23%] vs 205 of 1338 days [15.3%]; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance Nearly one-fourth of SICU days could be categorized as potentially avoidable. Targeted interventions resulted in a significant reduction of potentially avoidable SICU days.


Digital curation emerged as an important new concept in the theory and management of cultural information, not least because of its broad applicability and promise of a universal approach to ensure future "fitness for purpose" of digital information. This paper explores curatorial traditions in the field of museums and cultural heritage, in order to contribute to the active current debate on the nature, scope and methods of digital curation. It uses an approach inspired by cultural-historical activity theory in order, firstly, to understand cur-rent digital curation practice, its achievements and limitations; secondly, to explore key ac-tivities in the cultural heritage field, i.e., knowledge production in archaeological field-work and publication, museum curation, and meaning interaction in exhibition visitor ex-perience. On account of these insights, it concludes that, in order to ensure the declared objective of future "fitness for purpose", and avoid the risk of epistemic failure, more ef-fort should be dedicated by the digital curation community on developing adequate knowledge representation of digital information in specific epistemic and pragmatic con-texts; that an agency-based approach, using event-centric approaches to represent knowl-edge on the content and context of information, would be particularly useful in some ap-plication domains; and that formal methods to curation lifecycle based on belief change and ontology evolution could also be used in modelling the co-evolution of the epistemic content and context of curated knowledge.


This paper is based on the experiential metafunction of Halliday's systemic functional linguistics, including material process, mental process, relational process, verbal process, behavioural process and existential process. It is an aim to study the poem "Ru Meng Ling"written by Li Qingzhao and four English versions from the perspective of experiential metafunction in systemic functional linguistics. It starts with a brief introduction of experiential metafunction; then, it analyses the experiential metafunction in original poem. Next, it compares with the experiential metafunctionof these four English versions. Finally, it comes to a conclusion. At the same time, it aims to explore the feasibility of systemic functional linguistics in discourse analysis and translation by studying Chinese poetry, and try to provide a new way for the analysis of Chinese poetry translation.


Engineering conceptual design is a knowledge-intensive process that generates solutions to a product specification. It is a process that can benefit from past experience of similar designs. In reality however, designers often have limited time to build up the necessary experience and are, in any event, unlikely to become experts in all relevant fields. Hence there is a need to capture, store and reuse valuable knowledge. Currently available conventional CAD systems offer limited possibilities for the re-use of existing designs. Techniques from the field of Artificial Intelligence (Al) may be applied to aid the conceptual design phase, which is known as the area of intelligent computer-aided design. The aim of this work is to identify and externalise design knowledge using a fractal-like model, to understand the role of design knowledge in conceptual design and to use design knowledge as a guide for every stage of concept development. This research provides a framework for supporting conceptual design, which uses the techniques of Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) and fractal theory, for reasoning about the design and development of computer-based design aids. The framework is comprised of three parts. The first is case representation. This research proposes a new representation technique, Fractal-like Design Modelling (FDM), which integrates design knowledge in a graph-based form and has fractal-specific characteristics. The second is case retrieval. Based on FDM, the similarity between a new design and the existing designs is assessed by concurrently applying a feature-based similarity measure and a structure-based similarity measure. The third is case adaptation. With the help of fractal characteristics, an approach of adaptive design is developed by performance revision and by goal-oriented substitution. These three parts work together to achieve an automated, case-based, conceptual design method: Fractal-Based Re-design.


The principles of lean manufacturing made known to the world with the success of Toyota haveproven to be exceptional way to reach manufacturing brilliance. In recent years these sameprinciples have been used in other industries where for example patients, services or informationflows instead of solid products.The purpose of this thesis is to identify improvement opportunities in the assembly process ofelectric detonators with application of lean manufacturing. Three different tools were used todiscover the areas of interests: 1. Value-stream mapping: To analyze the process on a macro level. 2. Process mapping: To analyze the processes on a micro level. 3. Spaghetti diagram mapping: To analyze the wastes built into the layout. In addition, simulation with VBA for Excel was used (where applicable) to explore the performanceand/or the possibility of suggested changes such as Kanban systems and new production orderpolicy.Suggested changes include new replenishment systems for company made materials to ensureavailability of these materials, elimination of non-value adding processes and justification ofincreased automation at vital processes. Furthermore, the possibility of changing the productionorder policy to assembly to order from assembly to stock was explored. Few of these changes requireinvestments in equipment and changes to current processes, for which a rough estimation of therequired costs are included.


This paper argues that expectations - the process of evaluating the chances for future attainment of valued goals in the home community (stay decision) vs. alternative locations (move decision) - along with family norms about migration are major predictors of intention to move, which in turn is a proximate determinant of migration behaviour. Utilizing longitudinal data from the 1992 and 1994 waves of the Thailand National Migration Survey, logistic regression models show that a strikingly different set of expectations, household demographic indicators, and migrant capital factors were significant determinants of migration intentions for men and women; reflecting Thai gender roles. Migration intentions, in turn, predicted more permanent, but not temporary, survival strategy migration behaviour, while low household income predicted temporary but not more permanent migration behaviour. The measure of perceived family migration norms was a powerful determinant of migration behaviour, but the size of migrant n...


England is in the process of introducing the most radical changes to children's services since the Second World War. The 'Every Child Matters' Change for Children programme aims to integrate services in order to enhance prevention and early intervention and thereby improve the outcomes for all children while paying particular attention to the most disadvantaged. It places a particular importance on professionals sharing information and has introduced a whole range of new Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems for the screening and surveillance of the child population to make this possible. This paper provides a critical analysis of the changes, and argues that we are witnessing a significant shift in the responsibilities of and relationships between children, parents, professionals and the state and that this poses significant challenges for all concerned.


We reported previously that 933W repressor apparently does not cooperatively bind to adjacent sites on DNA and that the relative affinities of 933W repressor for its operators differ significantly from that of any other lambdoid bacteriophage. These findings indicate that the operational details of the lysis-lysogeny switch of bacteriophage 933W are unique among lambdoid bacteriophages. Since the functioning of the lysis-lysogeny switch in 933W bacteriophage uniquely and solely depends on the order of preference of 933W repressor for its operators, we examined the details of how 933W repressor recognizes its DNA sites. To identify the specificity determinants, we first created a molecular model of the 933W repressor-DNA complex and tested the predicted protein-DNA interactions. These results of these studies provide a picture of how 933W repressor recognizes its DNA sites. We also show that, opposite of what is normally observed for lambdoid phages, 933W operator sequences have evolved in such a way that the presence of the most commonly found base sequences at particular operator positions serves to decrease, rather than increase, the affinity of the protein for the site. This finding cautions against assuming that a consensus sequence derived from sequence analysis defines the optimal, highest affinity DNA binding site for a protein.


This Essay focuses on faith-based torture perpetrated against Muslim detainees, torture that was crudely designed, only minimally seeking security-sensitive information. However, anti-Islamic torture - which has profoundly offended Muslim communities throughout the world - reaffirms the dark side of U.S. government policies that periodically single out populations, domestic and foreign, and subject them to cruelty. This dark side is evidenced by the degradation of Native Americans, enslavement of Western Africans, internment of Japanese-Americans, and slaughtering of the Vietnamese. More specifically, anti-Islamic torture has undermined what were sincere and substantial efforts of many American institutions to promote religious freedom at home and abroad. Today, indignant American citizens and organizations are seeking to prosecute lawyers and politicians who designed and endorsed torture, partly because torture policies have soiled the honor of the U.S. as a beacon of liberty.


Intensive computations required for sensing and processing perceptual information can impose significant burdens on personal computer systems. We explore several policies for selective perception in SEER, a multimodal system for recognizing office activity that relies on a layered Hidden Markov Model representation. We review our efforts to employ expected-value-of-information (EVI) computations to limit sensing and analysis in a context-sensitive manner. We discuss an implementation of a one-step myopic EVI analysis and compare the results of using the myopic EVI with a heuristic sensing policy that makes observations at different frequencies. Both policies are then compared to a random perception policy, where sensors are selected at random. Finally, we discuss the sensitivity of ideal perceptual actions to preferences encoded in utility models about information value and the cost of sensing.