In the aftermath of the financial crisis the G20's Financial Stability Board (FSB) invited auditors to play a more prominent role in assisting the FSB in its mandate to stabilize the global economy. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in its response to the financial crisis introduced new requirements aimed at achieving closer alignment between banks' risk reporting and accounting systems. In the summer of 2015 the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) published a consultation paper at the request of the UK's Prudential Regulation Authority on providing assurance services for calculating banks' risk weighted assets (RWAs) and capital ratios. Also in the summer of 2015 the Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC) of the FSB published a consultation paper on establishing relationship data to create an authoritative record of control and ownership structures of legal entities aligned to the accounting principles applied in the preparation of consolidated financial statements.These and other initiatives provide the foundation on which the role of auditors and accountants in global regulatory regimes are being extended to support post-crisis initiatives aimed at restoring reliability and stakeholder confidence in banks' risk reporting. This paper reports on the role of auditors in regulatory oversight and offers perspectives on further involvement. The authors explore existing mandates and potential expanded roles to include: the BCBS's independent validation of compliance with its risk and data aggregation principles including that risk controls be as robust as financial accounting controls; the use of auditors third party assurance services applied to banks' risk weighted asset (RWA) and capital ratio calculations; for accommodating the FSB's newly designated privacy agent for masking derivatives counterparties; for assuring adherence to criteria for new securitizations and derivatives regulations; to validate legal identities and their ownership structures within the ROC's new global legal entity identification system (GLEIS); and to extend auditors financial reporting taxonomies to prospectuses, articles of incorporations, contracts and other source documents.The authors draw comparisons with these regulatory developments and the US's Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) legislation, and similar legislation in other jurisdictions that were enacted with the aim of reducing the risk of material misstatements in financial reporting. They consider whether the role and responsibilities of auditors framed in SOX legislation should be extended to risk reporting.Finally, the authors see an expanding role for accountants and auditors to adapt financial metrics and reporting to achieve more comprehensive and precise disclosure of accepted risks in audited financial statements. Risk Accounting, Confidence Accounting and Sustainability Accounting have already entered the accountants' lexicon. These represent both a risk quantification and an accounting challenge as regulators seek to more fully engage accountants and auditors in achieving greater financial stability while risk adjusting the financial system.


The Eph receptor A2 (EphA2) is overexpressed in a range of human epithelial cancers, a phenotype that is associated with cancer cell proliferation, progression and angiogenesis. Mouse models of mammary neoplasia have confirmed the role of EphA2 as mice carrying a knockout allele of EphA2 were resistant to breast cancer, a phenotype that was associated with interactions between EphA2 and ErbB2. We investigated in vivo the role of EphA2 in GI cancer. To determine whether EphA2 influences intestinal tumorigenesis, we used qRT‐PCR to examine the mRNA expression levels of EphA2 in tumors from the small intestine and colon of ApcMin/+ mice. We found that EphA2 was significantly up‐regulated in tumors from both regions when compared with normal control tissues. We then evaluated the spatial expression patterns of EphA2 protein using immunohistochemistry in both the small intestine and colon and found that in normal tissues EphA2 was robustly expressed in highly differentiated cells, such as cells of the villi, but that EphA2 expression was largely absent from the stem cell niche and proliferative zones of intestinal crypts. In contrast, in tumors EphA2 was broadly expressed. Finally, we created a strain of ApcMin/+ mice carrying a genetic knockout of the EphA2 gene. These mice developed significantly fewer and smaller tumors in both the small and large intestine. Overall, our results indicate that EphA2 plays an oncogenic role in the mammalian intestine suggesting that strategies to target EphA2 activity may offer new therapeutic modalities for colorectal cancer. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


: Five cases of acute plasmablastic leukemia (APL) in patients with a history of multiple myeloma (MM) are described. MM lasted from 3 months to 7 years. During APL, blast metaplasia in the bone marrow was detected in all the cases while in 3 patients it was found in the blood. The treatment ended in failure in 4 patients. The duration of APL in those patients did not exceed 6 months. In one of the patients, the duration of APL, in the presence of a partial remission, exceeded 19 months. The patient remains under observation.


The prevalence of community-acquired meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) strains has become a serious problem worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the annual transitions of MRSA strains with the CA-MRSA feature, which were identified as SCCmec type IV or V, in a hospital setting in Japan. Between 2005 and 2012, MRSA strains were collected from a tertiary-care hospital in Tokyo, Japan, and SCCmec typing, detection of the virulence factors and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were conducted. The rate of detection of type II SCCmec, which is found mainly in healthcare-associated MRSA, significantly decreased from 90.0 (2005-2006) to 74.3 % (2011-2012) (P < 0.01). In contrast, the rate of detection of type IV SCCmec, which is mainly found in CA-MRSA, significantly increased from 5.8 (2005-2006) to 16.3 % (2011-2012) (P < 0.01). The rate of detection of the toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 gene significantly decreased from 66.7 (2005-2006) to 51.6 % (2011-2012) (P < 0.01), whilst that of the Panton-Valentine leukocidin gene significantly increased from 0.1 (2005-2006) to 2.1 % (2011-2012) (P < 0.01). The resistance rates of cefotaxime, levofloxacin, clarithromycin and minocycline decreased every year. The resistance rates of these antimicrobial agents for the SCCmec type IV or V strains were significantly lower than those for the SCCmec type I or II strains (P < 0.01, respectively). Therefore, these results suggest that the annual transitions of the virulence factors and antibiograms in MRSA are closely related to the increase of SCCmec type IV/V strains.


Today, animal movement data can be used in a remote sensing approach to obtain environmental information and detect human activities. Using the example of red kites (Milvus milvus) in western Switzerland the aim of this thesis was to develop a location-based, data-driven method to identify locations of anthropogenic feeding sites. Anthropogenic feeding of red kites is a rather common habit within the rural and urban population of Switzerland. Survey-based research has located and quantified anthropogenic feeding within a study area in western Switzerland. However, this is a very time-consuming approach, especially for larger geographic areas. The developed individualbased approach combined context variables, kernel density estimation and revisitation analysis in a modelling framework. A key finding is that the methodology works best with data collected on breeding birds. For breeding birds 63% of potentially used anthropogenic feeding sites could be detected, with 60% and 75% detection rates for small and large sites, respectively. Non-breeding bird data, while performing well for large sized anthropogenic feeding sites with a detection rate of 80%, only detected 31% of potentially used anthropogenic feeding sites overall. In conclusion, while it is possible to detect small and large size anthropogenic feeding sites with breeding bird data, data of non-breeding birds only delivers reliable results for large size feeding sites. These findings highlight the behavioural differences of the age classes and indicate that the behaviour of breeding birds is more predictable by repeated visits to a location. In general, the results show how GPS tracking data of individual animals offer a new way to remotely sense environmental information.


This regional taxonomic revision of the genus  Wellstedia  Balf.f., a member of the family Boraginaceae  s.I. (including Hydrophyllaceae s.str.), is part of a series of publications on the Boraginaceae in southern Africa.  Wellstedia comprises six species, five in Socotra, Somalia and Ethiopia with the remaining one.  W. dinteri Pilg.. occurring in southern Africa.  W dinteri Pilg. subsp. dinteri occurs in Namibia and the Northern Cape, whereas the newly instated subspecies W. dinteri subsp. gracilior (D.R.Hunt) Retief & A.E.van Wyk, based on W. dinteri Pilg. var. gracilior D.R.Hunt, is confined to Namibia only. The disjunct distribution of Wellstedia and numerous other plant and animal taxa between the arid regions of northeastern Africa and southern Africa is usually explained by the postulated periodic existence of an arid corridor between the two regions during the arid phases of the Pleistocene and even earlier.  Wellstedia is treated here in Wellstedioideae, a subfamily of Boraginaceae s.I. but is sometimes placed in a family of its own, Wellstediaceae Pilger. Morphologically Wellstedia displays strong similarity to genera of the Ehretioideae and also to certain members of the Hydrophyllaceae. The genus is characterized by a perennial, dwarf shrub habit, densely hairy leaves. 4-merous flowers, a terminal, bifid style and a 1- or 2-seeded capsule. A key to the two subspecies, diagnostic characters, a distribution map and illustrations of various macro- and micromorphological features are provided.


We propose a miniaturized-element frequency selective surface (MEFSS) by using the coupling mechanisms between capacitive surface and inductive surface, so the uint cell size will not be restricted by wavelength. In order to improve resonance stability performance with respect to different polarizations and incidence angles, according to the traditional FSS Y element, we create periodic elements of capacitive surface and inductive surface with "Y" shape and Y element array is in the form of equilateral triangle, The grid array and the effects of the parameteristics of Y loop element on the frequency response characteristics of MEFSS are calculated using the modal matching method. With filming technology and lithography, the corresponding capacitive surface and inductive surface between polyimide are produced and a prototype MEFFSS using freedom space method is examined. Both simulated and measured results obtained show that the MEFFSS constructed by using equilateral triangle "Y" element array has much better f 0 resonance stability performance with respect to different polarizations and 60° incidence angles, and the -3 dB bandwidth reaches up to 7.6 GHz. We present a theoretical and experimental reference of MEFSS for the applications in large-angle incidence curved streamlined radome.


The What Works Collaborative is a foundation‐supported research partnership that conducts timely research and analysis to help inform the implementation of an evidence‐based housing and urban policy agenda. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of those funders listed above or of the organizations participating in the What Works Collaborative. All errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. and participants in our October 2011 roundtable for insightful suggestions and critiques.


We propose a scheme for coding sub-regions in video scenes to provide content-based scalable video. For each region, a special color is used to represent the non-object area, and the resulting frames are coded using conventional video coding algorithms. At the decoder, the region shape is recovered based on chroma keying, and hence content-based manipulations are made possible. A number of techniques that eliminate boundary artifacts common to region-based coding are presented. In this scheme, no explicit shape coding is needed, and the advantages of existing coding algorithms are retained. This scheme was submitted to ISO MPEG-4, and performed very well in the subjective tests.


The Department of Molecular and Cell Biology offers a program of graduate study leading to the PhD in molecular and cell biology. This program provides advanced training in the research methods and concepts of the study of the molecular structures and processes of cellular life. The training is intellectually focused, but at the same time offers an unusually wide range of opportunities for varied disciplinary specialization.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To examine nurses' discharge planning understanding, adherence and barriers.

BACKGROUND
Discharge planning commenced at admission by nurses plays a key role in improving patient outcomes,but policies in place to maintain effective discharge planning are often not followed by nurses.

DESIGN
This is a descriptive study.

METHODS
Nurses (n = 64) working in acute wards undertook a self-report survey of discharge planning understanding, adherence and barriers.

RESULTS
Adherence to discharge planning policy is low (23%), despite a general awareness of the reduced quality of patient outcomes that may result. The most common barriers to discharge planning identified were lack of time and patient factors. Further contradictions occurred in that nurses understood the importance of discharge planning, yet did not comply with discharge planning policies.

CONCLUSIONS
Nurses require additional encouragement and support in complying with discharge planning policies, and discharge planning policies should be adapted to better handle unpredictable illness trajectories.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Completion of discharge planning is important for the safe transition of patients from one care setting to the next. Before a systematic approach to discharge planning can be implemented, a greater understanding of nurses' discharge planning practice in acute care wards is required. Greater incorporation of discharge planning activities into nurses' daily practice may also occur if nurses are involved in the development and implementation of the discharge processes and then provided with education and regular feedback on monthly audit results.


Commentary on the paper by Heinrich et al (see page 517)

Exposure to traffic generated pollutants, especially among people living along busy roads, has been associated with increased risk of respiratory disorders among children and adults as well as with overall mortality.1–5 Simple exposure indicators (self report, distance from pollutant sources, traffic density) and more complex and integrated models that take into account demographic factors and land use by means of geographic information system (GIS) based technology6–8 have been employed in epidemiological studies.

As has happened in the past in occupational epidemiology, environmental epidemiologists are trying to develop more accurate methods for assessing air pollution exposure.9 As a result, comparing the different methods available is of great interest. In this issue, Heinrich et al have compared parental report of traffic intensity near homes (cars, trucks, buses, and mopeds on the street of residence and other nearby streets) with a combination of air pollution measures (fine particle mass, filter absorbance, and nitrogen dioxide) and GIS based modelling in two different European locations (the Netherlands and Munich, Germany).10 They found that predicted exposure estimates for air pollutants increased with self reported traffic level in Munich and in urban areas of the Netherlands. However, agreement …


This paper demonstrates that shareholder ownership, a sacred cow of business, is a myth. According to our legal system, shareholders do not own the Modern Corporation itself, nor do they own the corporate assets or profits. While this finding raises many important questions, the focus of this paper is on the accounting profession. By equating shareholders' equity to net assets and having it encompass profit, the accounting equation implies that shareholders own the corporate net assets and profit. Insinuating that shareholders have stronger claims to corporate resources than they actually do runs counter to accounting profession's prime directive to provide useful information. A solution would be to replace shareholders' equity with its components, such that Assets = Liabilities Capital Retained Earnings. This would better reflect the reality that corporation's have no legal obligation to give shareholders any of the net assets or profit.


A hallmark of type 2 diabetes (T2D), a major cause of world-wide morbidity and mortality, is dysfunction of insulin-producing pancreatic islet β cells1–3. T2D genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of signals, mostly in the non-coding genome and overlapping β cell regulatory elements, but translating these into biological mechanisms has been challenging4–6. To identify early disease-driving events, we performed single cell spatial proteomics, sorted cell transcriptomics, and assessed islet physiology on pancreatic tissue from short-duration T2D and control donors. Here, through integrative analyses of these diverse modalities, we show that multiple gene regulatory modules are associated with early-stage T2D β cell-intrinsic defects. One notable example is the transcription factor RFX6, which we show is a highly connected β cell hub gene that is reduced in T2D and governs a gene regulatory network associated with insulin secretion defects and T2D GWAS variants. We validated the critical role of RFX6 in β cells through direct perturbation in primary human islets followed by physiological and single nucleus multiome profiling, which showed reduced dynamic insulin secretion and large-scale changes in the β cell transcriptome and chromatin accessibility landscape. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of complex, systemic diseases necessitates integration of signals from multiple molecules, cells, organs, and individuals and thus we anticipate this approach will be a useful template to identify and validate key regulatory networks and master hub genes for other diseases or traits with GWAS data.


For the first time, we demonstrate DNA mutation detection in surface un-modified polymeric microfluidic chambers without suffering from bubble trapping or bubble formation. Microfluidic devices were manufactured in off-stoichiometry thiol-ene epoxy (OSTE+) polymer using an uncomplicated and rapid fabrication scheme. The device performance was compared to that of PMMA and PDMS devices. In OSTE+ devices, we were able to perform ligation-based mutation detection and rolling circle amplification (RCA) assays directly on the un-modified surface without suffering from bubble formation or enzyme inhibition during bio-operation at elevated temperatures. In contrast, PMMA, PDMS and COP microfluidic devices required specific surface treatment.


In their comment, Angelini et al object to the conclusion of (2019 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 52 445002), where we show that in (2013 Phys. Rev. B 87 134201) the exponent ν has been obtained by applying a mathematical relation in a regime where this relation is not valid. We observe that the criticism above on the mathematical validity of such relation has not been addressed in the comment. Our criticism thus remains valid, and disproves the conclusions of the comment. This constitutes the main point of this reply. In addition, we provide a point-by-point response and discussion of Angelini et al's claims. First, Angelini et al claim that the prediction 21/ν = 1 of (2019 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 52 445002) is incorrect, because it results from the relation λmax = 21/ν between the largest eigenvalue of the linearized renormalization-group (RG) transformation and ν, which cannot be applied to the ensemble renormalization group (ERG) method, given that for the ERG λmax = 1. However, the feature λmax = 1 is specific to the ERG transformation, and it does not give any grounds for questioning the validity of the general relation λmax = 21/ν specifically for the ERG transformation. Second, Angelini et al claim that ν should be extracted from an early RG regime (A), as opposed to the asymptotic regime (B) used to estimate ν in (2019 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 52 445002), and that (B) is dominated by finite-size effects. However, (A) is a small-wavelength, non-critical regime, which cannot characterize the critical exponent ν related to the divergence of the correlation length. Also, the fact that (B) involves finite-size effects is a feature specific to the ERG, and gives no rationale for extracting ν from (A). Finally, we refute the remaining claims made by Angelini et al As a result of our analysis, we stand by our assertion that the ERG method yields a prediction given by 21/ν = 1.


Highly expressed urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) can interact with α5β1 integrin leading to persistent ERK activation and tumorigenicity. Disrupting this interaction reduces ERK activity, forcing cancer cells into dormancy. We identified a site in uPAR domain III that is indispensable for these effects. A 9-mer peptide derived from a sequence in domain III (residues 240-248) binds purified α5β1 integrin. Substituting a single amino acid (S245A) in this peptide, or in full-length soluble uPAR, impairs binding of the purified integrin. In the recently solved crystal structure of uPAR the Ser-245 is confined to the large external surface of the receptor, a location that is well separated from the central urokinase plasminogen binding cavity. The impact of this site on α5β1 integrin-dependent cell functions was examined by comparing cells induced to express uPARwt or the uPARS245A mutant. Transfecting uPARwt into cells with low endogenous levels of uPAR, inactive integrin, low ERK activity, and a dormant phenotype in vivo restores these functions and reinstates growth in vivo. In contrast, transfection of the same cells with uPARS245A elicits only very small changes. Incubation of highly malignant cells with the wild-type, but not the S245A mutant peptide, disrupts the uPAR integrin interaction leading to down-regulation of ERK activity. The relevance of this binding site, and of the lateral uPAR-α5β1 integrin interaction, to ERK pathway activation and tumor growth implicates it as a possible specific target for cancer therapy.


Low-income rural southern African American women experience a high prevalence of morbidity and mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) as well as other related cardiovascular (CV) diseases. Few models have taken into account the full impact of the contextual influences encountered on a daily basis by these women, and the effect of these influences on their CV health status. There are clearly demarcated examples of existing health disparities that occur in various ethnic/racial, underserved, and vulnerable populations. Yet, to date, there is no conceptual model that offers a plausible explanation as to why health disparities exist. Consequently, there is a lack of guidance as to where interventions should be focused for effective CV risk reduction. Because African American women continue to die at a disproportionately higher rate, and at earlier ages than do Caucasian women, it is imperative that new theoretical models capable of driving empirically based interventions be developed, tested, and implemented. One possible choice is the conceptual model proposed in this article. The model is based on the interrelationships between contextual risk factors, rational choice theory (RCT), and opportunity cost. Conceivably, this model may serve as a foundation to ground conceptual thought and drive theory-based interventions to reduce the health disparities in the CV health of low-income rural southern African American women. A model is presented in an attempt to provide guidance for advanced practice nurses who must struggle with addressing the critical need to reduce ethnic and race-associated CV health disparities.


A case of long term retention of a bronchial foreign body in a 62-year old female patient is presented, which mimicked lung carcinoma. Despite a negative history of choking, the diagnosis airway foreign body should be kept in mind.


Abstract Intracardiac leiomyomatosis (ICLM) is a rare condition in which the benign tumor extends into the right heart chambers through inferior vena cava. The best surgical approach still remains unclear. We present a retrospective cohort of 36 patients diagnosed with ICLM in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between 2002 and 2016. The mean patient age was 44.5 (range 25–55) years. The clinical manifestations were various, including shortness of breath, chest tightness, edema of the lower extremities, palpitations, syncope, etc. Cardiac function of 30 patients (80%) remained mildly influenced, classified as New York Heart Association (NYHA) I-II. After careful preoperative evaluation, 19 patients underwent 1-stage operation while the other 17 patients underwent 2-stage operations. The original surgical plans were changed in 5 patients (14%) due to intraoperative transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) monitoring, with the tumor directly extracted through abdominal approach or right atrium without cardiopulmonary bypass and/or deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. Complete resection was achieved in 32 patients (89%). Despite increased volume of blood loss (P < .05), patients undergoing 1-stage operation had significantly shorter operation time, anesthesia time as well as hospital length of stay (P < .05), compared with 2-stage operations. The postoperative complication rates were not different between the 2 groups (P = .684). During mean follow-up time of 36.1 months, recurrence occurred in 7 patients (23%) but all are survived. Precise and full-scale preoperative evaluation of both the tumor anatomy and the patient's tolerability to the surgery should be performed. TEE plays a crucial role in guidance of surgical decision making, and 1-stage extraction of tumor through either abdominal approach or right atrium may be possible.


Low-cost phenological experiments with cut twigs are increasingly used to study bud development in response to spring warming and photoperiod. However, a broader variety of species needs to be tackled and in particular the influence of insufficient winter chilling deserves more attention. Therefore, we investigated if and how chilling requirements can be efficiently investigated by cut twigs and how this low-tech approach could be successfully implemented as a citizen science or school project. We conducted an experiment on bud burst and leaf development of Corylus avellana L. twigs, with natural chilling outdoors on a shrub (S) and another chilling treatment as cut twigs in containers (C), and subsequent forcing indoors. Subsampling of the number of cutting dates and number of twigs was used to infer minimum required sample sizes. Apart from insufficiently chilled twigs, ~80% of the twigs (both S and C) reached leaf out. For multiple definitions of chilling and forcing, a negative exponential relationship was revealed between chilling and amount of forcing needed to reach certain developmental stages. At least 5 out of 15 cutting dates or alternatively half of the 10 twig repetitions, but especially those mirroring low chilling conditions, were needed to describe the chilling-forcing relationship with some degree of robustness. In addition, for cutting dates with long chilling, i.e., from January onwards, freshly cut twigs (S) required significantly more forcing to reach bud burst than twigs from containers (C), although the effect was small. In general, chilling conditions of mature shrubs were well captured by cut twigs, therefore opening the possibility of chilling through refrigeration. We conclude that experimental protocols as outlined here are feasible for citizen scientists, school projects, and science education, and would have the potential to advance the research field if carried out on a large scale. We provide an easy-to-use Shiny simulation app to enable citizen scientists to build up a bud development model based on their own experimental data and then simulate future phenological development with winter and/or spring warming. This may encourage them to further study other aspects of climate change and the impacts of climate change.


This paper presents both theoretical and experimental studies carried on wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) networks with arbitrary (mesh) topology that provide optical circuits with differentiated reliability (DiR). Reliability is obtained by means of a modified shared path protection (SPP) switching scheme-here referred to as SPP-DiR. As explained in the paper, SPP-DiR networks provide multiple degrees of circuit reliability that satisfy client-specific reliability requirements in a cost-effective way. The theoretical study first defines the problem of optimally designing SPP-DiR WDM networks. It then presents a time-efficient suboptimal algorithm that determines the routing and the reliability degree of each demand in the given traffic matrix by applying both the conventional SPP and the SPP-DiR scheme. When compared to dedicated path protection switching, results obtained for the pan-European network using the proposed algorithm indicate cost reductions of about 16% when SPP is applied, and up to 34% when SPP-DiR is applied. The experimental study describes the /spl Omega/ testbed-a WDM optical circuit-switched mesh network with an IP control plane-which is believed to be the first testbed ever built that makes use of the SPP-DiR scheme. Experimental results performed on the /spl Omega/ testbed report restoration times of the optical circuits-disrupted by a fiber fault-that are few tens of milliseconds.


How to allocate computing and communication resources in a way that maximizes the effectiveness of control and signal processing, has been an important area of research. The characteristic of a multi-hop Real-Time Wireless Sensor Network raises new challenges. First, the constraints are more complicated and a new solution method is needed. Second, a distributed solution is needed to achieve scalability. This article presents solutions to both of the new challenges. The first solution to the optimal rate allocation is a centralized solution that can handle the more general form of constraints as compared with prior research. The second solution is a distributed version for large sensor networks using a pricing scheme. It is capable of incremental adjustment when utility functions change. This article also presents a new sensor device/network backbone architecture---Real-time Independent CHannels (RICH), which can easily realize multi-hop real-time wireless sensor networking.


Oleoylanilide was administered orally to groups of rats according to different patterns. Subcellular fractionation of liver, lung and adipose tissue was then carried out in order to study the main enzyme activities involved in the lipogenesis. The observed findings indicate that adipose tissue and lung are the main target organs for the anilide, adipose tissue being involved in a general decrease of the enzyme activities, whereas transacylation reaction exhibits the most marked depletion of all the enzyme activities in the lung. The enzyme activities in liver were not markedly affected by this oral administration, although some data support the existence of a latent liver toxicity. These data suggest that oleoylanilide has the capacity to alter lipid metabolism of lung and adipose tissue to a considerable extent, whereas no major effect was produced in the liver. This different organ response could be related to the lymphatic gland via absorption of the substance.


The authors report their experience with 44 homoplasties in chronic hematogenous osteomyelitis in 42 patients on definite indications. Positive results were obtained in 28 operations. In 15 patients homografts were removed, but in 7 cases they showed an adequate functioning ultimately. In 3 observations there was a recurrence of the pathological process. Thirteen patients are still under treatment. It is believed that osteohomoplasty used on proper indications for chronic hematogenous osteomyelitis is a largely warranted and perspective measure.


Abstract This article argues that a shift towards issues of poverty is a welcome antidote to policy‐making that had expunged poverty from the central agenda to focus on stabilization, debt management and static allocative efficiency. Unfortunately, in correcting a narrow policy agenda the new focus pushes a good point too far when it focuses attention only on the proximate causes of poverty and narrows the development agenda. Development was aimed at more than poverty and, significantly in countries that have successfully combated poverty, the most important policy measures were not explicitly directed at poverty. Indeed in many cases, other objectives — pre‐empting social unrest, nation‐building, 'human capital' developmental considerations — lay behind the policies that, ex post, can be read as poverty reducing. Eradication of poverty is always embedded in social and economic development. The determinants of human development goals are multiple and cut across sectors. The new challenge in Africa is to bring back development, but now one that is democratically anchored and socially inclusive.


Minimization of deleterious effects of chemical fertilizers on health, ecosystem and economy can only be achieved by finding healthy, eco-friendly and cheap alternatives. Naturally selected symbiotic relationship between the endophytic bacteria and their host plants makes them an ideal candidate as biofertilizer. They can synthesize various plant growth hormones as well as assist their host in uptake of nutrients from soil. The study was designed to compare plant growth promotion of Solanum lycopersicum by Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and total endophytic community isolated from roots of S. lycopersicum , grown in the soil samples collected from various locations of Kathmandu valley of Nepal. Tomato seeds were inoculated with mixtures of eight endophytic strains of Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp., and crude endophytes obtained from each location separately. Endophytic treatments, except Pseudomonas spp., inhibited seminal root growth during 12-days germination period. However, after plantation, root and shoot biomass was enhanced by the endophytes, with no significant differences among the bacterial treatments. The shoot height was also enhanced, among which Pseudomonas spp. had the strongest effect. In phosphate solubilization assay, out of seventy-two isolates each of Bacillus spp. and Pseudomonas spp. tested, twenty-four isolates of Pseudomonas spp . and sixteen isolates of Bacillus spp. could solubilize phosphate. Higher number of phosphate solubilizing isolates of Pseudomonas spp. might provide a possible explanation for the greater enhancement of shoot height by Pseudomonas spp. as compared to Bacillus spp. Int J Appl Sci Biotechnol, Vol 4(4): 464-469


Introduction Most literature on psychosocial occupational characteristics and their effects on health have been based on studies outside the U.S., leaving a significant knowledge gap about psychosocial exposures and outcomes in the U.S. labour force. Low job control has been posited as a potential risk factor for type 2 diabetes, however most of the research has focused on younger adult workers. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of baseline job control on incident diabetes over a 7-year period, in a sample of older adults aged 50 years and older participating in the US labour force. Methods Using Health and Retirement Study data from 2006–2012 Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the risk of incident diabetes according to perceived job control at baseline in 1,391 adults. Results In comparison to high job control, working in low control jobs was associated with a 66% (95% CI = 1.17–2.36) increased risk of diabetes after adjustment for behavioural, socioeconomic and occupational factors. Stratification by gender indicated that women had a 72% increased risk (95% CI = 1.08–2.98), while men showed a 77% increased risk (95% CI = 1.03–2.89) of incident diabetes. Risk was highest in participants who were racial minorities, obese, less educated, worked long hours, and those who were not married. Conclusions Low job control is a risk factor for incident diabetes in older adults participating in the workforce. Interventions which take into account the dynamics and psychosocial aspects of work culture in America should be explored, particularly for adults nearing or surpassing the age of retirement.


The demand for imported shrimp in the United States by country of origin is estimated by using the two-stage differential production method. Conditional and unconditional own/cross price elasticities are derived. We further project how countervailing duties imposition by U.S. affect source-specific shrimp imports. The results from aggregate level data show that overall the ownprice elasticities indicate that U.S. demand for imported shrimp is inelastic. U.S. total shrimp imports would experience an increase despite the countervailing duties, which may not be effective.


Background and objectives:Heterosexual HIV-1–serodiscordant couples are increasingly recognized as an important source of new HIV-1 infections in sub-Saharan Africa. A simple risk assessment tool could be useful for identifying couples at highest risk for HIV-1 transmission. Methods:Using data from 3 prospective studies of HIV-1–serodiscordant couples from 7 African countries and standard methods for development of clinical prediction rules, the authors derived and validated a risk scoring tool developed from multivariate modeling and composed of key predictors for HIV-1 risk that could be measured in standard research and clinical settings. Results:The final risk score included age of the HIV-1–uninfected partner, married and/or cohabiting partnership, number of children, unprotected sex, uncircumcised male HIV-1–uninfected partner, and plasma HIV-1 RNA in the HIV-1–infected partner. The maximum risk score was 12, scores ≥5 were associated with an annual HIV-1 incidence of >3%, and couples with a score ≥6 accounted for only 28% of the population but 67% of HIV-1 transmissions. The area under the curve for predictive ability of the score was 0.74 (95% confidence interval: 0.70 to 0.78). Internal and external validation showed similar predictive ability of the risk score, even when plasma viral load was excluded from the risk score. Conclusions:A discrete combination of clinical and behavioral characteristics defines highest risk HIV-1–serodiscordant couples. Discriminating highest risk couples for HIV-1 prevention programs and clinical trials using a validated risk score could improve research efficiency and maximize the impact of prevention strategies for reducing HIV-1 transmission.


Background Under-reporting because of the limitations of human memory is one of the key challenges in dietary assessment surveys that use the multiple-pass 24-hour recall. Research indicates that shortening a retention interval (ie, the time between the eating event and recall) reduces the burden on memory and may increase the accuracy of the assessment. Objective This study aimed to explore the accuracy and acceptability of Web-based dietary assessment surveys based on a progressive recall, where a respondent is asked to record multiple recalls throughout a 24-hour period using the multiple-pass protocol and portion size estimation methods of the 24-hour recall. Methods The experiment was conducted with a dietary assessment system, Intake24, that typically implements the multiple-pass 24-hour recall method where respondents record all meals they had for the previous day on a single occasion. We modified the system to allow respondents to add multiple recalls throughout the day using the multiple-pass protocol and portion size estimation methods of the 24-hour recall (progressive recall). We conducted a dietary assessment survey with 33 participants, where they were asked to record dietary intake using both 24-hour and progressive recall methods for weekdays only. We compared mean retention intervals (ie, the time between eating event and recall) for the 2 methods. To examine accuracy, we compared mean energy estimates and the mean number of reported foods. Of these participants, 23 were interviewed to examine the acceptability of the progressive recall. Results Retention intervals were found to be, on average, 15.2 hours (SD 7.8) shorter during progressive recalls than those during 24-hour recalls. We found that the mean number of foods reported for evening meals for progressive recalls (5.2 foods) was significantly higher (P=.001) than that for 24-hour recalls (4.2 foods). The number of foods and the amount of energy reported for other meals remained similar across the 2 methods. In interviews, 65% (15/23) of participants said that the 24-hour recall is more convenient in terms of fitting in with their daily lifestyles, and 65% (15/23) of respondents indicated that they remembered meal content and portion sizes better with the progressive recall. Conclusions The analysis of interviews and data from our study indicate that progressive recalls provide minor improvements to the accuracy of dietary assessment in Intake24. Additional work is needed to improve the acceptability of progressive recalls in this system.


To solve more complex manufacturing problems and perform larger scale collaborative manufacturing, a new service-oriented networked manufacturing model—Cloud Manufacturing is presented. The paper presents a resource virtualization model to support resource sharing in cloud manufacturing environment. It can be decomposed into four layers: manufacturing resources layer, concrete web service layer, logical service layer and application layer. The relationships of every layer are discussed in detail. At last, we make a conclusion and put forward the future work.


The employment of persuasive technology in education, computing, sales, health, and environment is dramatically increasing. Persuasive technology is powerful in changing the attitudes and behaviours of end users. This paper begins by presenting the ethics of persuasive technology which are relevant to Islamic values and beliefs, and how the concept of persuasion had been applied in Islam practices to influence people. It explores how persuasive technology and its design factors presented in FBM are related to the Islamic practices proven in the Quran and Hadith. Additionally, this paper discusses persuasive technology strategy tools and their activities from Islamic prospective. The paper also examines in depth how Islamic concepts improve the perception of persuasive technology as an interactive computing system which is able to modify attitudes and behaviours. Essentially, this paper also demonstrates how practices and principles of the design factors and strategy tools of persuasive technology have been identified and utilized in early Islamic age. Those principles and strategies are further analyzed from Quran verses and Hadith that are of particular relevance. The conceptual results claim that Islamic principles are a contemporary and universal religion that takes care of the persuasive technology aspects and view of the critically of persuasive technology to Muslim society


A recent study into prescreening techniques to identify bones suitable for radiocarbon dating from sites known for poor or variable preservation (Brock et al. 2007, 2010a) found that the percent nitrogen (%N) content of whole bone powder was the most reliable indicator of collagen preservation. Measurement of %N is rapid, requires little preparation or material, and is relatively cheap. The technique reduces the risk of needlessly sampling valuable archaeological objects, as well as saving time and money on their unsuccessful pretreatment prior to dating. This method of prescreening is now regularly used at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). In the original study, linear regression analysis of data from 100 bones from 12 Holocene sites across southern England showed that when 0.76% N was chosen as a threshold, 84% of bones were successfully identified as containing sufficient (i.e. >1%) or insufficient (i.e. <1%) collagen for dating. However, it has been observed that for older, Pleistocene bones the failure rate may be higher, possibly due to the presence of more degraded, short-chain proteins that pass through the ultrafilters used in pretreatment, resulting in lower yields. Here, we present linear regression analysis of data from nearly 600 human and animal bones, antlers, and teeth, from a wide range of contexts and ages, to determine whether the 0.76% threshold identified in the previous study is still applicable. The potential of carbon:nitrogen atomic weight ratios (C:N) of whole bone to predict collagen preservation is also discussed.


Falafel and Shwarma are two iconic national Israeli dishes that are widely recognized and loved in Mexico. They are also the most mentioned by the participants. Kosher stores selling Israeli snack like Bamba, Bisli and Shkedei Marak (soup almonds) have a long-standing tradition in Mexico. However, restaurants serving Israeli food are far less common. In fact, for most of the 1980s and 1990s there were only three establishments, until recently when a new gourmet Israeli cuisine restaurant opened up. So, why is Strauss Israel's largest food company bothering to invest in Mexico? Why are they marketing a line of Israeli popular items there? In addition to answering these questions. other queries to be explored include: How is Israeli food perceived in Mexico by the Jewish community? How did it go from a simple snack/street food to a gourmet affair? How are they framed and marketed? The main objective is to compare three different groups: Jewish Mexicans in Israel, Israelis in Mexico and Jewish Mexicans who remained in Mexico and how they perceive Israeli food in Mexico and in Israel. In addition to this, how marketing of Israeli food in Mexico has evolved. Twenty interviews will be conducted in Israel in total. Ten will be conducted with Mexican Jews living in Israel and ten will with Israelis who lived in Mexico and who have returned to Israel. To date, eight interviews have been conducted. They will be carried out in various cities in Israel. So far the median age is 45. It seems that for the Israelis eating their national food in Mexico represented an attempt at trying to connect to a symbolic sense of home. For Jewish Mexicans, eating Israeli food was either a way to connect to their future home (those that later immigrated to Israel) or a means to show their solidarity with Israel. Israeli companies investing in Mexico have a vested interest in selling and marketing their authentic wares in Mexico as they seek to gain a foothold in this emerging market.


Abstract. The Arctic winter 2010/2011 was characterized by a persistent vortex with extremely low temperatures in the lower stratosphere above northern Scandinavia leading to a strong activation of chlorine compounds (ClOx) like Cl, Cl2, ClO, ClOOCl, OClO, and HOCl, which rapidly destroyed ozone when sunlight returned after winter solstice. The MIPAS-B (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) and TELIS (TErahertz and submillimeter LImb Sounder) balloon measurements obtained in northern Sweden on 31 March 2011 inside the polar vortex have provided vertical profiles of inorganic and organic chlorine species as well as diurnal variations of ClO around sunrise over the whole altitude range in which chlorine has been undergoing activation and deactivation. This flight was performed at the end of the winter during the last phase of ClOx deactivation. The complete inorganic and organic chlorine partitioning and budget for 31 March 2011, assumed to be representative for the late-winter Arctic stratosphere, has been derived by combining MIPAS-B and TELIS simultaneously observed molecules. A total chlorine amount of 3.41 ± 0.30 parts per billion by volume is inferred from the measurements (above 24 km). This value is in line with previous stratospheric observations carried out outside the tropics confirming the slightly decreasing chlorine amount in the stratosphere. Observations are compared and discussed with the output of a multi-year simulation performed with the chemistry climate model EMAC (ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry). The simulated stratospheric total chlorine amount is in accordance with the MIPAS-B/TELIS observations, taking into account the fact that some chlorine source gases and very short-lived species are not included in the model.


Author(s): Sallo, Marielle Limfueco | Advisor(s): Tucker, Eugene; Howard, Tyrone C | Abstract: This study examined the impact of multi-school collaboration through Parent College Knowledge Workshops for parents of Latino first and second-generation students at all-girl Catholic Secondary Schools. As schools educate students on the expectations and college admissions process, parents have not always been part of the discussion. For Latina students, their parents play an important role in making future decisions. Additionally, small all-girl Catholic schools do not always have access to the same resources as larger high schools especially when serving inner-city students. My research design applied qualitative action research methods in order to observe the ability for multiple schools to collaborate as well as impact parent college knowledge for first and second-generation parents of Latino students through communidad. Once data were collected I determined the influence of collaboration for college knowledge workshops on parents and schools. Findings from parent questionnaires provided the Action Research team with a baseline of college knowledge all ready available to parents. Through the action research cycle, the Action Research Team was able to plan, host and evaluate workshops. Findings from observations, reflections and focus groups show the importance of investing in the relationship between schools and time into parents, especially by building trust through communidad. My findings also showed that parents first needed to learn college basics to realize that college is accessible to their daughters. Through the workshops, parents learned the importance of involving their daughters in the college conversations. Parents also learned how much time they needed to invest in researching the college process outside of what is given to them at school. My findings suggest a model for small all-girl Catholic Secondary Schools to collaborate with each other and provide college knowledge to parents of first and second-generation students. Keywords: College knowledge, communidad, familismo, marianismo


Introduction: The labor pain is probably the most severe pain a mother experiences in her lifetime and is usually severe and prolonged in women with pregnancy, Aim: To evaluate the effects of labor epidural and spinal analgesia on the incidence of cesarean section in painless delivery. Methods: This randomized clinical trial was conducted on pregnant women aged 37-42 weeks of pregnancy. Female candidates for painless labor were divided into two groups: Epidural Analgesia (EA) and Spinal Analgesia (SA). Patients in the labor epidural group underwent analgesia using marcaine and fentanyl and after fully assuring the normal hemodynamic status of the mother and fetal hearth rate (FHR), labor spinal analgesia was used for other group. Results: The average age of mothers was 27.5 years, their mean gestational age was 39 weeks and their mean weight was determined to be 72 kg. Frequency of cesarean delivery in mothers was found as 12.9%. Significantly, the incidence of cesarean section in the labor epidural analgesia group was higher than the labor spinal analgesia group (P = 0.02). In addition, the mean second phase of delivery in the labor epidural analgesia group was significantly higher than the labor spinal analgesia group (P = 0.03). There was no significant in 1st and 5th min Apgar scores between groups in infants (8.6 and 9.6, respectively). Conclusion: Labor epidural analgesia and labor spinal analgesia result in a significant reduction in pain due to normal delivery. Due to the similarity of Apgar and arterial blood gas (ABG) in neonates, labor epidural analgesia may serve as an alternative in childbirth delivery.


U.S. stocks trade on an increasing number of structurally diverse and competitive stock markets. However, there is concern about the type of competition that has emerged and its implications for investor protection and market efficiency. For instance, the increasing challenge posed to the principal stock exchanges (like the NYSE) by alternative markets raises concerns about excessive order flow fragmentation and its implications for stock price efficiency and liquidity. The controversial practice of payment for order flow (POF), whereby dealers pay brokers to route customers' orders to them whether or not such routing results in the best price for the customer, also causes concern because it significantly reduces investors' choice over where their trades will occur. The paper considers these and other contemporary issues (like market transparency and collusion in dealer markets) in considerable detail. It also provides a useful survey of the financial economics literature on these topics. The paper argues that the current regulatory framework (the National Market System) inadequately addresses the above concerns. In light of technological and regulatory changes over the past two decades, the theoretical framework upon which the present regulatory system is based is no longer appropriate. In particular, recent developments cast doubt on the view that the primary exchanges are natural monopolies. Therefore, I propose a fundamentally different approach to the regulation of U.S. secondary trading markets: a genuinely competitive regime that gives issuers and, derivatively, investors a genuine choice over where their shares will trade.


The Goddess and the Bull Çatalhöyük: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization. By Michael Balter. Free Press, New York, 2005. 424 pp. $27, C$39, £18.99. ISBN 0-7432-4360-9. The author offers nonspecialists an account of the archaeological discoveries at Çatalhöyük, Turkey (a topic that he has covered for Science) and the researchers who work there.


The Early Ordovician Upper Knox Group is characterized by stacked meter-scale peritidal cycles that repeat at high frequencies (10 4 to 10 5 yr). Stacking patterns (stratigraphic trends in lithofacies and cycle thickness) of meter-scale cycles define five depositional sequences that, in conjunction with Fischer plots, delineate five long-term relative sea-level fluctuations during Upper Knox deposition. Intrabasinal and interbasinal correlation of Upper Knox Fischer plots suggests that the third-order sea-level events were eustatic. Meter-scale peritidal cycles likely formed in response to high-frequency, fourth-and fifth-order, eustatic sea-level fluctuations superimposed on these third-order sea-level events. Upper Knox cyclic carbonates are extensively dolomitized; as much as 85% of all dolomite is stratiform and consists of early dolomite exhibiting minor to extensive modification by burial dolomite. Synsedimentary dolomitization likely occurred in modified sea water during tidal-flat progradation governed by high-frequency sea-level events. This is suggested by the common association of dolomite with mud-cracked laminites and silicified evaporite nodules, the systematic decrease in dolomite abundance below laminite cycle caps, and the presence of dolomite clasts in regoliths veneering high-frequency cycle tops or in transgressive limestones of the overlying cycle. Dolomite distribution within depositional sequences shows a strong relationship to third- and fourth-order eustatic sea-level events, indicating that long-term eustasy also strongly controlled early dolomitization of Upper Knox carbonates. Mass-balance calculations show that the proposed sabkha model of dolomitization in concert with composite eustasy could generate stratiform dolomite of considerable vertical and lateral extent in peritidal cyclic carbonates. This reflects the duration of progradation and supratidal exposure (10 4 to 10 5 yr) available for dolomitization to proceed, and the broad zone of active dolomitization that would develop during continued progradation throughout each cycle period.


The problem of spirometry control in medicine and medical engineering still remains urgent. The necessity of getting more and more information from spirometry investigations imposes more and more stringent requirements for spirometers, volumeters and bodypletizmographs, first of all, to the primary spiroflow transdusers. Practice shows that these requirements can not be met by improving devices which use conventional spirometric principles. The new acoustic means for pulsating air-gas flow rate measurement has been created in Russia and is described in the paper. The main feature special air-metric channel, supplied with ceramics electro-acoustic transducers. The principle of its operation is based on the dependence of the velocity of the acoustic vibrations arriving at the receiver upon the air-gas velocity. The device does not disturb the air dynamic structure of the flow, has no inertia or moving elements and unsurpassed sensitivity and precision.


An extractive electrospray ionization (EESI) source design is presented to improve the reproducibility of the interactions occurring in EESI. This design uses three concentric capillaries to deliver the solvent, sample and nebulizing gas. Coaxial EESI was found to improve the inter-experiment variation by a factor of four and intra-run relative standard deviation by a factor of 2.4. Unlike most standard EESI designs, the device has the form factor of a standard electrospray emitter and can be used without any further instrument modifications.


Background: Resilience is defined as the capacity to cope successfully with change or adversity. The aims of our study were to investigate levels of resilience in Italian healthcare professionals (HCPs) during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to identify potential predictors of resilience. Methods: We performed a web-based survey of HCPs (n = 1009) working in Italian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey contained a 14-item resilience scale (RS14) and questionnaires to evaluate depression and anxiety symptoms. Non-HCP individuals (n = 375) from the general population were used for comparison. Results: HCPs showed significantly lower resilience compared to the control group (p = 0.001). No significant differences were observed after stratification for geographical area, work setting, role, or suspected/confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. In a linear regression analysis, RS14 was inversely correlated with depression (R2 = 0.227, p < 0.001) and anxiety (R2 = 0.117, p < 0.001) and directly correlated with age (R2 = 0.012, p < 0.001) but not with body mass index (BMI, R2 = 0.002, p = 0.213). In male HCPs, higher depression score (odds ratio (OR) 1.147, p < 0.001) or BMI (OR 1.136, p = 0.011) significantly predicted having low resilience. In female HCPs, higher depression score (OR 1.111, p < 0.0001) and working in a COVID-19 free setting (OR 2.308, p = 0.002) significantly predicted having low resilience. HCPs satisfied with personal protective equipment had higher levels of resilience (p < 0.010). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that resilience was lower in Italian HCPs than in the general population after the first COVID-19 wave. Specific factors can be identified, and targeted interventions may have an important role to foster resilience of HCPs.


ABSTRACT Glomus tumor (GT) is a benign mesenchymal tumor with an estimated incidence of 1.5 to 2% of soft tissue tumors. The majority of glomus tumors are benign and are mostly seen in the superficial skin & soft tissue of upper and lower distal extremity. The malignant variant of the glomus tumor is scarce. We report a case of a recurrent glomus tumor diagnosed in a 28-year-old male patient, who complained of painful swelling in the proximal phalanx of the right index finger. The magnetic resonance imaging of the hand revealed a well-defined multilobulated soft tissue mass at the palmar aspect of the 2nd digit along the shaft of the proximal phalanx. Histopathology revealed a well-circumscribed tumor arranged in solid sheets, nests and cords interconnect by vessels of varying size. The tumor cells were round to oval, showed moderate nuclear pleomorphism, eosinophilic cytoplasm, atypical mitoses (>5/10HPF), and necrosis. Immunohistochemically tumor cells reveal diffuse and strong cytoplasmic positivity with smooth muscle actin (SMA). Based on histomorphology and immunohistochemistry, a final diagnosis of malignant glomus tumor was made. We report this case due to its rarity, and it to be included among the differential if the lesion is painful and recurrent.


Natural Areas Journal 20:36–45 ABSTRACT: In northern temperate regions, sedge meadows dominated by the tussock-sedge Carex stricta Lam. (Cyperaceae) were historically a fire-maintained community type. In two Wisconsin natural areas (Lulu Lake and Summerton), we assessed the effects of time since prescribed spring burning on plant composition and aboveground biomass in eight sedge meadows representing a partial chronosequence of zero to seven years since burning, plus no burning. We recorded plant species cover in line-intercept transects and measured live biomass and litter in sample plots along transects. Responses were prominent during the first two years after burning. In the Lulu Lake meadows, live biomass and annual forb cover reached their highest values during the first growing season after burning, whereas cover and frequency of perennial forbs were elevated for two seasons. Plant litter was removed by burning but returned to preburn levels in one to two years. In the Summerton meadows, where seven years had elapsed since the last fire, burned and unburned meadows did not differ in live biomass, litter, or relative cover of plant life-forms. It appears that periodic burns do not cause major shifts in the relative dominance of sedges and grasses, which are long-lived clonal perennials. However, because litter removal promotes recruitment of shorter-lived forbs, prescribed fire can enhance sedge meadow diversity by allowing plant species with different life histories to temporarily share dominance with the more abundant graminoids. Periodic seed inputs by forbs to the wetland seed bank may be a desirable fire management objective for maintaining sedge meadow diversity.


Diversification and speciation processes in the endemic Anatolian Aphanius taxa are well documented today based on crossbreeding experiments and molecular data. On the other hand, otolith characteristics have rarely been utilized to demonstrate these processes in Aphanius. In this study, otoliths of 250 specimens of Aphanius anatoliae, A. asquamatus, A. danfordii, and A. villwocki were studied, mainly by SEM. The otoliths display morphological characters that clearly discriminate the four species. The otoliths were found to be morphologically different in five out of ten populations of A. anatoliae anatoliae. However, the differences in otolith morphology between subspecies of A. anatoliae are less obvious. Variation of the general otolith variability is documented in two of the four A. danfordii populations, and may reflect differences in the genetic diversity. The results obtained from otoliths correspond in part with previous reports on zoogeographic groups and phylogenetic clades.


The evolution of temperature and velocity fields during linear and spot Nd-yttrium aluminum garnet laser microwelding of 304 stainless steel was simulated using a well-tested, three-dimensional, numerical heat transfer and fluid flow model. Dimensional analysis was used to understand both the importance of heat transfer by conduction and convection as well as the roles of various driving forces for convection in the weld pool. Compared with large welds, smaller weld pool size for laser microwelding restricts the liquid velocities, but convection still remains an important mechanism of heat transfer. On the other hand, the allowable range of laser power for laser microwelding is much narrower than that for macrowelding in order to avoid formation of a keyhole and significant contamination of the workpiece by metal vapors and particles. The computed weld dimensions agreed well with the corresponding independent experimental data. It was found that a particular weld attribute, such as the peak temperature or weld penetration, could be obtained via multiple paths involving different sets of welding variables. Linear and spot laser microwelds were compared, showing differences in the temperature and velocity fields, thermal cycles, temperature gradients, solidification rates, and cooling rates. It is shown that the temperature gradient in the liquid adjacent to the mushy zone and average cooling rate between 800 and 500 °C for laser spot microwelding are much higher than those in linear laser microwelding. The results demonstrate that the application of numerical transport phenomena can significantly improve current understanding of both spot and linear laser microwelding.


We consider the problem of zero-shot recognition: learning a visual classifier for a category with zero training examples, just using the word embedding of the category and its relationship to other categories, which visual data are provided. The key to dealing with the unfamiliar or novel category is to transfer knowledge obtained from familiar classes to describe the unfamiliar class. In this paper, we build upon the recently introduced Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) and propose an approach that uses both semantic embeddings and the categorical relationships to predict the classifiers. Given a learned knowledge graph (KG), our approach takes as input semantic embeddings for each node (representing visual category). After a series of graph convolutions, we predict the visual classifier for each category. During training, the visual classifiers for a few categories are given to learn the GCN parameters. At test time, these filters are used to predict the visual classifiers of unseen categories. We show that our approach is robust to noise in the KG. More importantly, our approach provides significant improvement in performance compared to the current state-of-the-art results (from 2 ~ 3% on some metrics to whopping 20% on a few).


The aim of this study is to investigate the individual effects and institutional reflections different organizational work models have in terms of employees and to contribute to the field of application and the related literature by explaining their results and effects on work life. The study is based on the phenomenological research design and focuses on the participants' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was carried out using the interview method on a volunteer basis with 16 managers. The data were analyzed using MAXQDA 2020 and evaluated by collecting two main categorical themes and 13 sub-themes. The study observed negative aspects such as the ineffectiveness of face-to-face communication, prolonged communication times, experience transfer and socialization problems, and the intertwining of professional life and social life. Positive results were determined such as a reduction in time and money spent on commuting, work flexibility, having the opportunity to spare more time for oneself and family, and reduced office expenses. The following determinations were made: organizations offer different levels of employee support, practices have no standardization, the problems employees experience are preventable with sufficient organizational support, and legal regulations are needed. The results revealed deficiencies to be present in crisis management, the organizations to be unprepared for the crisis, and all organizations to need to review their processes regarding fringe benefits. The study has aimed to contribute to the literature by focusing on the results of the work models that have been applied during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is a fatal form of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection of the central nervous system (CNS). The similarities in the clinical and radiological findings in TBM cases with or without HIV make the diagnosis very challenging. Identification of genes, which are differentially expressed in brain tissues of HIV positive and HIV negative TBM patients, would enable better understanding of the molecular aspects of the infection and would also serve as an initial platform to evaluate potential biomarkers. Here, we report the identification of 796 differentially regulated genes in brain tissues of TBM patients co-infected with HIV using oligonucleotide DNA microarrays. We also performed immunohistochemical validation and confirmed the abundance of four gene products-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade A member 3 (SERPINA3), thymidine phosphorylase (TYMP/ECGF1) and heat shock 70 kDa protein 8 (HSPA8). Our study paves the way for understanding the mechanism of TBM in HIV positive patients and for further validation of potential disease biomarkers.


Viruses have been implicated in vasculitis. To determine activity of viral infection associated with vasculitis. 17 patients with vasculitis had been in immunological and antiviral antibodies evaluation. Twenty five healthy controls sex and age matched with hematic biometry (BH) and AA. All subjects were negative to HIV and HBV. Viral activity was demonstrated in eight patients; vascular purpura (5), Takayasu disease (1), polyarteritis nodosa (1), erythema nodosum (1). None subject of control group had IgM activity. Antibodies response of IgG in patients were of lesser intensity than in control group. 14 abnormalities in BH were found in patients and 4 in control group. Immune response in patients, measured by lymphocyte subpopulations and circulating immune complexes was abnormal. In conclusion 47% showed viral activity, but the dominant feature was abnormal immune response in 82%.


The gravity driven film flow down a heated inclined ramp and how it is affected by temperature dependent fluid properties is examined. The five temperature dependent fluid properties examined were: surface tension, mass density, dynamic viscosity, thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity. The investigation utilized a theoretical model based on the conservation of mass, momentum and energy, including the physically appropriate Newton's Law of Cooling to incorporate temperature changes on the surface of the film. A two-scale model of his system was also considered and a Benney equation was derived. A depth-integrated model was also considered and modified Integral Boundary layer (IBL) equations were generated. A linear stability analysis was carried out in all cases. Numberical simulations were carried out on the nonlinear modified IBL equations and their agreement to the linear approximations was good. The nonlinear analysis was also used to determine the evolution of the unstable flow.


Black shales are one of the largest reservoirs of fossil organic carbon and inorganic reduced sulfur on Earth. It is assumed that microorganisms play an important role in the transformations of these sedimentary rocks and contribute to the return of organic carbon and inorganic sulfur to the global geochemical cycles. An outcrop of deep subterrestrial ~256-million-year-old Kupferschiefer black shale was studied to define the metabolic processes of the deep biosphere important in transformations of organic carbon and inorganic reduced sulfur compounds. This outcrop was created during mining activity 12 years ago and since then it has been exposed to the activity of oxygen and microorganisms. The microbial processes were described based on metagenome and metaproteome studies as well as on the geochemistry of the rock. The microorganisms inhabiting the subterrestrial black shale were dominated by bacterial genera such as Pseudomonas, Limnobacter, Yonghaparkia, Thiobacillus, Bradyrhizobium, and Sulfuricaulis. This study on black shale was the first to detect archaea and fungi, represented by Nitrososphaera and Aspergillus genera, respectively. The enzymatic oxidation of fossil aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons was mediated mostly by chemoorganotrophic bacteria, but also by archaea and fungi. The dissimilative enzymatic oxidation of primary reduced sulfur compounds was performed by chemolithotrophic bacteria. The geochemical consequences of microbial activity were the oxidation and dehydrogenation of kerogen, as well as oxidation of sulfide minerals.


An experimental model of the L4-L5 lumbar motion segment was developed that allowed precise manipulation of sagittal translation, rotation of L5 relative to L4, tilt of L4 on L5, and control of roentgenogram quality (image clarity) by placing a water bath between the tube and the vertebral body. A series of experiments were designed to systematically assess the consistency and accuracy of sagittal translation measurements from roentgenograms of varying quality, using different measurement protocols and various rater combinations on models with varying degrees of concomitant motions (rotations and tilts). Study 1 assessed the effects of roentgenogram quality, raters, and seven measurement methods on the consistency and accuracy of evaluating translations in the sagittal plane. Results indicated very high reliabilities across roentgenogram quality, raters, and measurement. As expected, high-quality roentgenograms were more accurately evaluated than lower-quality roentgenograms. However, closer inspection of the consequences of errors in measured translations indicated surprisingly high false-positive and false-negative rates, with significant differences observed between measurement methods. Study 2 assessed the effects of concomitant motions and measurement methods on the consistency and accuracy of evaluations. Within-rater consistency and accuracy indices were remarkably high and similar across measurement methods and degrees of concomitant motions. However, important differences in the false-positive and false-negative rates were again observed. Method 2, described by Morgan and King, demonstrated the overall best performance and the least interference due to concomitant motions. Study 3 assessed the effects of raters and measurement methods on the consistency of measuring translation in clinical roentgenograms, where concomitant motion factors may be present, but not explicitly considered. Results indicated substantially lower within- and between-rater consistency estimates relative to consistencies obtained from the model, although these magnitudes were similar to those reported by others evaluating clinical roentgenograms. The implications of lower consistency estimates relative to increased false- positive and false-negative rates must be more closely examined. These studies present evidence suggesting that high consistency and accuracy indices do not ensure acceptable false-positive and false-negative rates and, thus, provide empirical evidence supporting the view that using roentgenograms as a basis for diagnosing instability often can lead to errors in classification. This is less so when observed translations are relatively large (± 5 + mm) on roentgenograms that are relatively clear, with little obliquity, and when concomitant motions are minimal. However, when roentgenogram quality is lower, obliquity problems are apparent, and concomitant motions are involved, even relatively large measured translations of ±6 mm or more may occur when actual translations are substantially less. In these settings, using roentgenograms to classify patients as haying excessive translation may result in large false-positive rates.


In order to determine the influence of a 6alpha-methyl group activity, the 6alpha-methyl derivative of digitoxigenin 3-acetate 14 was prepared and pharmacologically tested in comparison with digitoxigenen 3-acetate. The synthesis of 6alpha-methyldigitoxigenin 3-acetate (14) was performed starting from 21-hydroxy-4-pregnene-3,20-dione (1). According to the cardiac activity determined on guinea-pig isolated heart and by slow infusion in the cat, the 6alpha-methyldigitoxigenin 3-acetate (14) is not more active than digitoxigenin 3-acetate.


A study of the ratings of aggressive behavior was based on a theoretical model of the attribution process. The ratings were based on four separate text versions. The subjects (the raters) were 28 Swedish adults studying Education at the University of Umeå. A 2 x 2 x 2 (Intent No intent x Reason No reason x Harm No harm) analysis of variance was performed separately on each text version. The results which were discussed in terms of attribution theory showed among other things that intent and reason could be seen as attributes of aggression but that this hardly applies to harm. It was also shown that more than one text version could be useful for continued research within this field.


Bacillus licheniformis SVD1 exhibited highest production of three different polysaccharides when sucrose was used as the carbon source for polysaccharide production and yeast extract was used as the nitrogen source. Polysaccharides were characterized using size exclusion chromatography (SEC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GCMS), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to examine the topography of the cells and polysaccharides. The cell-associated polysaccharides were composed of galactose, while two different polysaccharides were present in the extracellular medium, one of 2,000 kDa (EPS1), consisting of fructose monomers and identified as a levan with (2→6)-linkages and (1→2)-branching linkages. The other extracellular polysaccharide (EPS2) consisted of mannose and galactose and had a range of sizes as identified through SEC. All three polysaccharides displayed an immune modulatory effect as measured using Interleukin 6 (IL6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα).


In a previous study (O'Doherty, R. M., Lehman, D. L., Seoane, J., Gómez-Foix, A. M., Guinovart, J. J., and Newgard, C.B. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 20524-20530), we demonstrated that adenovirus-mediated overexpression of glucokinase but not hexokinase I has a potent enhancing effect on glycogen synthesis in primary hepatocytes. In an effort to understand the underlying mechanism of this differential effect of the two hexokinase isoforms, we have investigated changes in key intracellular metabolites and the activation state of glycogen synthase in cells treated with recombinant adenoviruses expressing the liver isoform of glucokinase (AdCMV-GKL) or hexokinase I (AdCMV-HKI). Glucose 6-phosphate (Glu-6-P) levels are elevated from approximately 1.5 nmol/mg protein to 8-10 nmol/mg protein in both AdCMV-GKL- and AdCMV-HKI-treated hepatocytes as glucose is raised from 1 to 5 mM, levels four times higher than those in untreated cells. In AdCMV-GKL-treated cells, Glu-6-P continues to accumulate at glucose levels greater than 5 mM, reaching a maximum of 120 nmol/mg protein in cells incubated at 25 mM glucose, a value 10 and 50 times greater than the maximal levels achieved in AdCMV-HKI-treated and untreated cells, respectively. In parallel with the changes observed in Glu-6-P levels, increases in UDP-Glc in AdCMV-HKI- and AdCMV-GKL-treated cells were most pronounced at low (1-5 mM) and high (25 mM) glucose levels, respectively. Despite the significant increases in Glu-6-P and UDP-Glc achieved in AdCMV-HKI-treated cells, only AdCMV-GKL-treated cells exhibited increases in glycogen synthase activity ratio and translocation of the enzyme from a soluble to a particulate form relative to untreated control cells. We conclude that Glu-6-P produced by overexpressed glucokinase is glycogenic because it effectively promotes activation of glycogen synthase. Glu-6-P produced by overexpressed hexokinase, in contrast, appears to be unable to exert the same regulatory effects, probably due to the different subcellular distribution of the two glucose-phosphorylating enzymes.


The cryptographic primitive Secure Function Evaluation (SFE) enables the evaluation of a function public function f (x , y), under input parameters that are provided by different parties without them revealing their specific value. Restricting SFE further by requiring the function to be only known by one party is called Private Function Evaluation (PFE). Furthermore Semi-Private Function Evaluation (SPF-SFE) can help to increase the maximum function size which can be evaluated in a somewhat private manner. One way to achieve SPF-SFE is to split the function into blocks, as was shown in [PSS09]. However their implementation was crafted specifically for Yao's garbled Circuit protocol. Therefore there are protocols, namely GoldreichMicali-Wigderson (GMW), by which it could not be evaluated. We provide circuit designs for different Privately Programmable Blocks, which are constructed to work with the GMW protocol as well. Additionally we provide a toolchain to achieve SPF-SFE efficiently. Furthermore we implemented a tool used in the toolchain, which uses the aforementioned designs and can combine them with plain circuits and Universal Circuits (UCs) to build a single programmable circuit. A function designer can use the toolchain to balance out his needs for function privacy with performance.


Yellow fever, as other arboviruses, has reemerged as an important public health problem in Brazil1,2. Until April 19, 2018, the Brazilian Ministry of Health had confirmed more than 1,150 cases of this disease in the country, in which 340 of these cases evolved to death. For infection prevention and control, a yellow fever vaccine (YFV) has been shown as being highly effective. It is also a safe immunobiological agent, consisting of an attenuated virus of the 17DD sub-strain, promoting immunization in 90-98% of vaccinated people1. Approximately 17.8 million people were vaccinated against yellow fever in the Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo States, most of them with fractioned doses, until March 2018. In addition, at the time of circulation of the virus in several regions of Brazil, the Ministry of Health aimed at gradual vaccination throughout the national territory, targeting 77.5 million people vaccinated by 20193. The YFV in a standard or fractionated dose is quite safe to induce seroconversion in previously seronegative individuals, although adverse effects may occur, which in rare cases could lead to serious changes, including neurological disorders and eventual death. Studies indicate that the occurrence of serious adverse effects related to the YFV in Brazil between 2007 and 2012 was 0.42 cases per 100,000 doses, and the incidence of neurological adversities [yellow fever vaccineassociated neurologic disease (YEL-AND)] in the country was 0.20 per 100,000 doses. In addition, in cases of booster doses, assessments released by the World Health Organization indicate low incidence rates of YEL-AND, although they require more detailed and comparative studies of primo-vaccinated individuals. In this sense, the YEL-AND cases described in the literature are not unfeasible vaccination campaigns; they are rare and usually have a good prognosis. However, it is important that the doctor, especially the neurologist, is aware of the main adverse effects involving the central and peripheral nervous systems post-vaccination, given the proportions that the current vaccination campaign has achieved in the country. Thus, the purpose of this communication is to present a brief summary of the clinical neurological conditions that may occur in individuals who have received the YFV. In the neurological diseases group associated with the 17DD YFV, cases of acute infections and autoimmune reactions are included. Among the meningoencephalic syndromes described, clinical signs such as fever, seizure and/or meningism were observed on average one to three weeks after vaccination, usually with a brief course and frequently with full recovery. In these cases, to determine them as definitive, an important criterion was the presence of specific immunoglobulin M (IgM) against the virus in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)4,5. Other diseases involving the central nervous system described in YEL-ANDs, although still rarer, are acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, transverse myelitis, and bilateral optic neuromyelitis4. In the YEL-AND cases triggered by autoimmune mechanisms, the diagnostic investigation involved the association between the CSF biochemical analysis standard and clinical evidence of demyelination with negativity for any other causal disease agents, other than the vaccine4, given that in these cases, there were no specific laboratory evaluations available to verify the YFV as the cause. On the other hand, in these same autoimmune neurological disorders, the absence of CSF-specific IgM antibodies is not conclusive to deny a possible effect of the vaccine. Thus, although suspect or probable cases need more thorough study, they deserve to be recognized. Reports of neurological deficits and electrophysiological data characteristic of Guillain-Barré syndrome in the post-vaccination period, for example, may help in the search for better diagnostic methods for YEL-AND, although some cases cannot be declared as definitive4. In this sense, neurotropism due to the YFV does not justify the reduction in the current vaccination campaigns, since besides the rarity of the cases, there is a great chance of good prognosis. However, in the face of a clinical condition that raises suspicion of the diseases already described, investigation of the vaccine history in the medical interview is an extremely relevant strategy for the diagnosis.


DURING the last few years a programme of creep tests under general stress systems at high temperatures has been carried out at the N.P.L., using four metallic alloys which were chosen as being representative of basic groups of materials used in practice in machinery operating at high temperatures. This work, it was hoped, would fulfil, at least partly, the great need for experimental data in this field, as opposed to the comparative abundance of theoretical work available, and also enable a critical examination of the merits of this theoretical work to be made. The materials chosen in order of examination were a cast 0–17 per cent carbon steel, an aluminium alloy (R.R. 59), a magnesium alloy (containing 2 per cent aluminium), and a nickel‐chromium alloy (Nimonic 75). Each material was tested at temperatures lying within the normal working range of the material in question. Thus the 0–17 per cent carbon steel was tested at 350, 450 and 550 dcg. C. (662, 842 and 1,022 deg. F.), the aluminium alloy at 150 and 200 deg. C. (302 and 392 dcg. F.), the magnesium alloy at 20 and 50 deg. C. (68 and 122 dcg. F.), and the nickel‐chromium alloy at 550 and 650 dcg. C. (1,022 and 1,202 deg. F.).


As the system of confiscation becomes more and more perfect, grasping the distribution of the types of confiscations actually announced by the courts will enable you to understand changing of the trend. In addition to assisting legislators in formulating laws, it can also provide other people with an understanding of the actual operation of the confiscation system. In order to enable artificial intelligence technology to automatically identify the distribution of confiscation, and consumes a lot of manpower and time costs of manual judgment. The purpose of this research is to establish an automated confiscation identification model that can quickly and accurately identify the multiple label categories of confiscation, and provide the needs of all social circles for confiscation information, so as to facilitate subsequent law amendments or discretion. This research uses the first instance criminal cases as the main experimental data. According to the current laws, the confiscation is divided into three categories: contrabands, criminal tools and criminal proceeds, and perform multiple label identification. This research will use Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) and Word2Vec algorithm as the feature extraction algorithm, with random forest classifier, and CKIPlabBERT pretrained model for training and identification. The experimental results show that under the CKIPlabBERT pretrained model, the best identification effect can be obtained when only use sentences with confiscated words mentioned in the judgment. When the task is case confiscation, the Micro F1 Score can be as high as 96.2716%, and when the task is defendant confiscation, the Micro F1 Score is as high as 95.5478%.


Criminal intelligence is an area of expertise highly sought-after internationally and within a variety of justice-related professions; however, producing university graduates with the requisite professional knowledge, as well as analytical, organisational and technical skills presents a pedagogical and technical challenge to university educators. The situation becomes even more challenging when students are undertaking their studies by distance education. This best practice session showcases the design of an online undergraduate unit for final year justice students which uses an evolving real-time criminal scenario as the focus of authentic learning activities in order to prepare students for graduate roles within the criminal intelligence and justice professions. Within the unit, students take on the role of criminal intelligence analysts, applying relevant theories, models and strategies to solve a complex but realistic crime and complete briefings and documentation to industry standards as their major summative assessment task.

The session will demonstrate how the design of the online unit corresponds to authentic learning principles, and will specifically map the elements of the unit design to Herrington & Oliver's instructional design framework for authentic learning (2000; Herrington & Herrington 2006). The session will show how a range of technologies was used to create a rich learning experience for students that could be easily maintained over multiple unit iterations without specialist technical support. The session will also discuss the unique pedagogical affordances and challenges implicated in the location of the unit within an online learning environment, and will reflect on some of the lessons learned from the development which may be relevant to other authentic online learning contexts.


As communications technology continues its rapid transition from analog to digital, more functions of contemporary radio systems are implemented in software, leading toward the software radio. This article provides a tutorial review of software radio architectures and technology, highlighting benefits, pitfalls, and lessons learned. This includes a closer look at the canonical functional partitioning of channel coding into antenna, RF, IF, baseband, and bitstream segments. A more detailed look at the estimation of demand for critical resources is key. This leads to a discussion of affordable hardware configurations, the mapping of functions to component hardware, and related software tools. This article then concludes with a brief treatment of the economics and likely future directions of software radio technology. >


Wood I-joists is a kind of wood-based engineering material which was widely used in wood construction. As it is in fact, the property of I-joists are influenced not only by shear stress but also by a part of normal stress when they are taking into application. In this study, the effects of different factors were evaluated on the tensile property of the wood I-joists. The factors include the depth of the tanks on the flanges, the amount of glue spread and adhesive type. The method of orthogonal test was used in the process of the experiment design, and tensile test were taken during the experiment at the aim of testing the property of the I-joists using a universal mechanical testing machine. Ultimately, it has been discovered that the factor of adhesive type is the most influential one in the three factors which had been listed. So this paper offers the optimal fabrication technology of the I-joists to make it is possible for the increase of reliability when wood I-joists are taken into application.


Boyd (1974) proposed a class of infinite ball packings that are generated by inversions. Later, Maxwell (1983) interpreted Boyd's construction in terms of root systems in Lorentz spaces. In particular, he showed that the space-like weight vectors correspond to a ball packing if and only if the associated Coxeter graph is of "level 2"'. In Maxwell's work, the simple roots form a basis of the representations space of the Coxeter group. In several recent studies, the more general based root system is considered, where the simple roots are only required to be positively independent. In this paper, we propose a geometric version of "level'' for root systems to replace Maxwell's graph theoretical "level''. Then we show that Maxwell's results naturally extend to the more general root systems with positively independent simple roots. In particular, the space-like extreme rays of the Tits cone correspond to a ball packing if and only if the root system is of level $2$. We also present a partial classification of level-$2$ root systems, namely the Coxeter $d$-polytopes of level-$2$ with $d+2$ facets.


This paper explores the interaction between bioethics and law in the theatre of the courtroom, with particular reference to English law. No matter what some judges say, the courtroom has long been a location in which law and bioethics interact, not least in seminal health care law cases such as Re A (Minors) (Conjoined Twins: Separation [2000] and R v Arthur [1981]. Judge-made law has made some positive contributions to the shaping of bioethics as a discipline, providing a real-world testing ground for moral arguments, issuing the judicial 'products' with which bioethics engages, and emphasising the importance of observing due process. At the same time, the courtroom is an adversarial arena, not always ideally suited to the resolution of ethical conflict, and its concern with actions that satisfy attainable standards can fall short of the aspirations set in philosophical ethics. Indeed, sometimes the judges misinterpret or wholly neglect the ethical dimensions of the case at hand. So much of what judges do involves orchestrated framing, the manipulation of legal concepts, interpretation (of the facts of the case, the story of legal precedent and of the particular ethical dilemma) and translation (of ethical issues into law's discourse). Whether they like it or not, the judges are interpreting and responding to the voice of bioethics alongside the voice of the law in their attempts to reach the 'right' judgment and in the face of the theatre surrounding cases involving bioethical controversy. The end result may be distorting because bioethical theory is misinterpreted or the voice of bioethics becomes obscured because of the drama of the case. But this is not to claim that bioethics has some access to the 'right' or 'true' response to the case at hand. Indeed, neither bioethics nor law can necessarily claim superiority or access to the 'truth' of the matter. We nevertheless argue that each will be likely to gain greater insight by opening a dialogue with the other, telling and re-telling the story, so that the voices of one forum can carry over into the other.


Numerous members of the Anthemideae tribe are important as cut flowers and ornamental crops, as well as being medicinal and aromatic plants, many of which produce essential oils used in folk and modern medicine and in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry. Essential oils generally have a broad spectrum of bioactivity, owing to the presence of several active ingredients that work through various modes of action. Due to their mode of extraction, mostly by distillation from aromatic plants, they contain a variety of volatile molecules such as terpenes, phenol-derived aromatic and aliphatic components. The large genus Artemisia L., from the tribe Anthemideae, comprises important medicinal plants which are currently the subject of phytochemical attention due to their biological and chemical diversity. Artemisia species, widespread throughout the world, are one of the most popular plants in Chinese traditional preparations and are frequently used for the treatment of diseases such as malaria, hepatitis, cancer, inflammation and infections by fungi, bacteria and viruses. Extensive studies of the chemical components of Artemisia have led to the identification of many compounds as well as essentials oils. This review summarizes some of the main reports on the chemistry and anti-infective activities of Artemisia. Li. essential oils from the data in the recent literature (2000–2011).