This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Nahavaq, an Oceanic language spoken by about 700 people in the Sinesip cultural area of Malakula, Vanuatu. Nahavaq was previously undescribed, and this grammar is based on data collected by the researcher over a total of nine months in the Sinesip area. The thesis includes a sociolinguistic overview of the Nahavaq-speaking community and descriptions of phonetics, phonology, mophology, syntax, semantics, and discourse. Noteworthy features of Nahavaq include: (i) two classes of bilabial consonants, which are distinguished by palatalisation and velarisation; (ii) two reduplicative verbal prefixes, which partially overlap in function; (iii) a base-20 numeral system with subbases of five and ten; (iv) nouns which include an accreted article; (v) serial verb constructions; and (vi) nine different surface forms for expressing possession relationships. The attached DVD contains a Nahavaq-English glossary, along with recordings and transcriptions of Nahavaq texts for reference purposes.


The control of the spatial distribution of micrometer-sized dust particles in capacitively coupled radio frequency discharges is relevant for research and applications. Typically, dust particles in plasmas form a layer located at the sheath edge adjacent to the bottom electrode. Here, a method of manipulating this distribution by the application of a specific excitation waveform, i.e. two consecutive harmonics, is discussed. Tuning the phase angle θ between the two harmonics allows to adjust the discharge symmetry via the Electrical Asymmetry Effect (EAE). An adiabatic (continuous) phase shift leaves the dust particles at an equilibrium position close to the lower sheath edge. Their levitation can be correlated with the electric field profile. By applying an abrupt phase shift the dust particles are transported between both sheaths through the plasma bulk and partially reside at an equilibium position close to the upper sheath edge. Hence, the potential profile in the bulk region is probed by the dust particles providing indirect information on plasma properties. The respective motion is understood by an analytical model, showing both the limitations and possible ways of optimizing this sheath-to-sheath transport. A classification of the transport depending on the change in the dc self bias is provided, and the pressure dependence is discussed. PACS numbers: 52.27.Lw, 52.40.Kh, 52.65.Rr, 52.80.Pi Transport control of dust particles via the EAE 2


The thalamic reticular nucleus is an important structure governing the recurrent interactions between the thalamus and cortex that may provide a substrate for unified perception. Despite the importance of the TRN, its activity has been scarcely investigated in vivo in animal models, and never in humans. Here we anatomically identify the human TRN using multiple registered and averaged proton density-weighted structural MRI scans and drive its functional activity with a dual phase-encoded stimulus. We characterize the retinotopic and temporal response properties in the visual sector of the TRN and measured an inhibitory relationship with the contralateral LGN. These observations provide a basis for further gross characterizations of the role of the TRN in human behavior.


The paper describes first results of 6.5 kV SiC PiN diode modules which are designed as neutral point valves for medium-voltage power inverters rated for 1000 A. The power module consists of 4 AlN DCB substrates soldered on an AlSiC base plate. Each DCB is equipped with 20 SiC PiN diodes operating in parallel. The total active area of all 80 diode chips is 5.68 cm². At the rated current of 2 x 500A the forward voltage drops from 4.1 V at room temperature to 3.9 V at an averaged junction temperature of 125°C. The switching experiments show a very low reverse recovery charge of about 30 µC only. The conduction loss is comparable to the corresponding 6.5 kV silicon diode whereas the dynamic loss is marginal with respect to the forward conduction loss if the switching frequency is held below 10 kHz.


Abstract Recent evidence in healthy participants suggests that a motor subcomponent of working memory (mWM) may exist. We investigated whether this mWM is impaired in patients with a motor-dominant left hemisphere (LH) stroke and apraxia. Furthermore, we hypothesized that a deficient mWM contributes to deficits in motor cognition, that is, apraxia, in LH stroke. The study included 52 patients with LH stroke and 25 age-matched controls. Patients were classified into LH stroke patients with and without apraxia based on deficits in gesture imitation and object use. All participants were examined using the block span test (visuospatial WM), the digit span test (verbal WM), and a novel mWM task. In the latter, participants were presented with static pictures depicting three different actions: actions with objects, meaningless actions, and meaningful actions. In the mWM task, LH stroke patients with apraxia performed worse than age-matched controls. Notably, LH stroke patients with apraxia showed more pronounced mWM deficits than those without apraxia. These results remained significant even after controlling for visuospatial and verbal WM deficits. Regression analyses revealed that LH stroke patients' mWM deficits predicted deficits in imitation. Data provide neuropsychological evidence for a motor subsystem of WM and suggest that deficits in mWM contribute to the severity of apraxia in LH stroke patients.


A study was conducted in 1995 to evaluate five application technologies in the field in terms of deposition efficiency, as well as to assess their abilities to control the sweet potato whitefly and thereby influence crop yield. The FMC and ESS -on treatments provided the greatest deposition on the ventral side of the leaves. The FMC system tended to maintain high ventral deposition efficiencies as the plants grew and the canopy closed, whereas the efficiency of the ESS declined. Differences in ventral deposition efficiency among treatments were not closely associated with differences in whitefly control, although the declining rate of ventral deposition for the ESS-on is also reflected in its declining superiority in adult insect control relative to the CDA and conventional systems. The ESS sprayer provided somewhat better whitefly control than the conventional treatment, and was also associated with a higher yield of #12 melons than the control and Admire treatments, but not better than the conventional treatment. Early control of adults was associated with reduced egg counts later in the season, suggesting that there may be long term control advantages with the ESS system. New application technologies need to be developed to obtain higher ventral deposition and maximum whitefly control, with minimum use of insecticides.


Communications for information synchronization during the conceptual design phase require designers to employ more intuitive digital design tools. This paper presents findings of a feasibility study for using VR 3D sketching interface in order to replace current non-intuitive CAD tools. We used a sequential mixed method research methodology including a qualitative case study and a cognitive-based quantitative protocol analysis experiment. Foremost, the case study research was conducted in order to understand how novice designers make intuitive decisions. The case study documented the failure of conventional sketching methods in articulating complicated design ideas and shortcomings of current CAD tools in intuitive ideation. The case study's findings then became the theoretical foundations for testing the feasibility of using VR 3D sketching interface during design. The latter phase of study evaluated the designers' spatial cognition and collaboration at six different levels: "physical-actions", "perceptualactions", "functional-actions", "conceptual-actions", "cognitive synchronizations", and "gestures". The results and confirmed hypotheses showed that the utilized tangible 3D sketching interface improved novice designers' cognitive and collaborative design activities. In summary this paper presents the influences of current external representation tools on designers' cognition and collaboration as well as providing the necessary theoretical foundations for implementing VR 3D sketching interface. It contributes towards transforming conceptual architectural design phase from analogue to digital by proposing a new VR design interface. The paper proposes this transformation to fill in the existing gap between analogue conceptual architectural design process and remaining digital engineering parts of building design process hence expediting digital design process.


Abstract. Sea ice in both polar regions is an important indicator of the
expression of global climate change and its polar amplification.
Consequently, broad interest exists on sea ice coverage, variability and
long-term change. However, its predictability is complex and it depends
strongly on different atmospheric and oceanic parameters. In order to
provide insights into the potential development of a monthly/seasonal signal
of sea ice evolution, we applied a robust statistical model based on
different oceanic and atmospheric parameters to calculate an estimate of the
September sea ice extent (SSIE) on a monthly timescale. Although previous
statistical attempts of monthly/seasonal SSIE forecasts show a relatively
reduced skill, when the trend is removed, we show here that the September
sea ice extent has a high predictive skill, up to 4 months ahead, based on
previous months' oceanic and atmospheric conditions. Our statistical model
skillfully captures the interannual variability of the SSIE and could
provide a valuable tool for identifying relevant regions and oceanic and
atmospheric parameters that are important for the sea ice development in the
Arctic and for detecting sensitive/critical regions in global coupled
climate models with a focus on sea ice formation.


Facilitation is a major force shaping the structure and diversity of plant communities in terrestrial ecosystems. Detecting positive plant-plant interactions relies on the combination of field experimentation and the demonstration of spatial association between neighboring plants. This has often restricted the study of facilitation to particular sites, limiting the development of systematic assessments of facilitation over regional and global scales. Here we explore whether the frequency of plant spatial associations detected from high-resolution remotely sensed images can be used to infer plant facilitation at the community level in drylands around the globe. We correlated the information from remotely sensed images freely available through Google Earth with detailed field assessments, and used a simple individual-based model to generate patch-size distributions using different assumptions about the type and strength of plant-plant interactions. Most of the patterns found from the remotely sensed images were more right skewed than the patterns from the null model simulating a random distribution. This suggests that the plants in the studied drylands show stronger spatial clustering than expected by chance. We found that positive plant co-occurrence, as measured in the field, was significantly related to the skewness of vegetation patch-size distribution measured using Google Earth images. Our findings suggest that the relative frequency of facilitation may be inferred from spatial pattern signals measured from remotely sensed images, since facilitation often determines positive co-occurrence among neighboring plants. They pave the road for a systematic global assessment of the role of facilitation in terrestrial ecosystems.


Rubber dandelion (Taraxacum kok-saghyz, Rodin) is being developed as a temperate-zone source of rubber, but best agronomic practices must be determined before it can become a viable supplement to imported rubber produced from para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis, hevea) plantations located mostly in Southeast Asia. In our study, the effect of planting density and harvest time on yield was determined by transplanting 1.5-month-old greenhouse-produced plants at planting densities of 1.24, 2.47, 4.94, and 9.88 million plants/ha, randomized across four planting boxes with two densities per box (i.e., two planting areas at each density). Half of each planting area was selected randomly and hand-harvested after 6 months, and the remaining plants were hand-harvested after 1 year. Rubber yields per plant were greater after 1 year than after 6 months, but yields per unit area were similar as a result of the loss of half the plants during the severe 2013–14 Ohio winter. A maximum rubber yield of 960 kg dry rubber/ha was obtained from the 9.88 million-plants/ha planting density after 1 year, but root size was significantly decreased compared with lower densities, and appeared too small for mechanical harvest. A planting density between 2.47 and 4.94 million plants/ha may produce the optimal combination of root size and total rubber yield. Greater rubber concentrations, faster-growing plants, short-season germplasm, and in-field weed control are required before yields obtained in outdoor planting boxes can be matched or exceeded on farms, especially in a direct-seeded rubber dandelion crop.


With the high demand for freshwater and its vital role in sustaining multiple ecosystem services, it is important to quantify and evaluate freshwater provisioning for various services (e.g., drinking, fisheries, recreation). Research on ecosystem services has increased recently, though relatively fewer studies apply a data driven approach to quantify freshwater provisioning for different ecosystem services. In this study, freshwater provisioning was quantified annually from 1995 to 2013 for 13 watersheds in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB). Results showed that the annual freshwater provision indices for all watersheds were less than one indicating that freshwater provisioning is diminished in the UMRB. The concentrations of sediment and nutrients (total nitrogen, and total phosphorus) are the most sensitive factors that impact freshwater provisioning in the UMRB. A significant linear relationship was observed between precipitation and freshwater provisioning index. During wet periods freshwater provisioning generally decreased in the study watersheds, primarily because of relatively high concentrations and loads of sediment and nutrients delivered from nonpoint sources. Results from this study may provide an insight, as well as an example of a data-driven approach to enhance freshwater provisioning for different ecosystem services and to develop a sustainable and integrated watershed management approach for the UMRB.


Answering the call made by Frederic L. Holmes to introduce the concept of the longue durée in the history of science and medicine, this essay sets out to weigh the pros and cons of the concept for the field. It argues that four genres (or traditions) can be distinguished in medical historiography, each with their own ambitions, methods, perspectives and audiences. It concludes by calling for articulated and lively debate between the protagonists of the different genres as the royal way to historical understanding.


Mycobacterium paratuberculosis promoter-containing clones were isolated from a genomic DNA library constructed in the transcriptional-translational fusion vector pYUB76. The promoter-containing DNA fragments were identified in the surrogate host Mycobacterium smegmatis by expression of the promoterless lacZ reporter gene of pYUB76. The expression signals exhibited a wide range of strengths, as indicated by their corresponding beta-galactosidase activities. Eight clones were sequenced and characterized further. Predicted open reading frames and codon usage were identified by computer analysis. Database searching for related sequences using the BLAST method revealed no homologies. Transcriptional activity was measured by slot-blot hybridization with steady-state RNA isolated from lacZ+ M. smegmatis clones. Primer extension analysis identified the transcription start sites within the cloned fragments. The promoter regions characterized in this study were used to establish a consensus promoter sequence for M. paratuberculosis. M. paratuberculosis consensus hexanucleotide sequences of TGMCGT and CGGCCS centred approximately 35 and 10 bp upstream from the transcription startpoints do not correspond to the consensus hexanucleotides of Escherichia coli promoters.


A method to control the vortex state (flux-closure state) nucleation and annihilation field in asymmetric permalloy (Py) rings is presented. By introducing an inner circle shifted from the center of outer circle by a shift length, samples of asymmetric permalloy rings with different asymmetric ratios were fabricated by using E-beam lithography, sputtering, lift-off techniques, and measured by focused magneto-optic Kerr effect magnetometry. The vortex nucleation (Hn) and vortex annihilation (Han) fields, analyzed from the simulated and experimental hysteresis loops of 500 nm and 1000 nm outer diameters, have linear relations to the asymmetric ratio. When the lateral size reduces down to nanosize, two switching behaviors for the simulated hysteresis loops were observed. The single switching loop indicates that the switching process is single-domain switching and the all the spins rotate coherently. The double switching loop corresponds to the switching process via the formation of a vortex state. Both analyzed switching fields from the experiment and simulation present a linear relation with the aspect ratio in the small range of variation. This relation indicates that the Hn and Han of asymmetric ring arrays are mainly controlled by the shape anisotropy. It is observed that the switching behavior is in agreement with the experimental results.


Aim: This research was conducted to evaluate in vitro assay of nanoparticles ethanol extract of cloves toward Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 human breast cancer cell lines. Materials and Methods: In this research, we have synthesized bud clove extract nanoparticles and analyzed with differential scanning calorimetry. The cytotoxic activity of extract, nanoparticles, and its bioactive component was investigated with 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and analyzed by ELISA reader. Results: The in vitro test showed that the IC50 values of the extract and the nanoparticles were 20.13 μg/mL and 7.6 μg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: The ethanol extracts of clove (Syzygium aromaticum L.) could be formulated in nanoparticles form. From cytotoxicity assay, nanoparticle of clove extract showed better cytotoxic activity than the ethanol extract.


Central to most research in the field of creativity is the perception that creativity is an external and essentialist phenomenon. Recent studies, particularly in the area of art and design education, are beginning to question this understanding and seek alternative methods for exploring creativity. This paper takes the view that perceptions of creativity are historically and discursively constructed and that cultural shifts in the early twentieth century have more recently constituted the western understanding of creativity through a discourse of work. As an example, the paper will use a multi-perspectival analytical approach to explore the discursive construction of creativity as work in the situated context of a tertiary art and design studio environment. The paper concludes with a discussion of complications that may arise in the tertiary art and design environment as a result of the potential ambiguity created by the discourse of creativity as work.


Abstract Italy comprises a high proportion of people who never exercised. Low physical activity levels in adolescents is a risk factor for several disorders. The aim of this cohort epidemiological study was to compare physical fitness profiles between boys and girls with regard to age and gender and to identify health and fitness-related markers that contribute to the make-up of Southern Italian teenagers. Eight hundred eleven teenagers were assessed for anthropometric measurements and completed the 5 ASSO-fitness tests battery. Data were analyzed with a 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) for repeated measures to compare the effect of both age and gender on the fitness components. The boys' anthropometric measurements were superior than the girls as expected [weight, height, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference]; the overall BMI was found in the normality range. The overall teenagers' fitness markers were found to be quite poor with the boys outperforming the girls in all fitness tests. The weak cardiorespiratory performance of the female teenagers was remarkable. The under 16 years old (-16 yrs) girls outperformed the over 16 years old (+16yrs) girls. There were less significant differences when comparing (-16) and (+16) yrs old mixed-gender groups. There were no correlations between the (−16) and (+16) yrs when both genders were considered. The trend analysis showed the younger teenagers might be "catching up" the older ones in both contexts. Gender significantly influenced all variables. Although age did not influence cardiorespiratory fitness, the older the teenagers the worse their health and fitness markers become with the older girls worse than their younger peers.


The Department of Theatre and Dance is committed to equity and representation that reflects the student population, builds community, teaches compassion, and condemns intolerance. We are committed to advancing social justice by providing equal opportunity for all students without biases toward race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, economic status, or political beliefs. As artists, educators and scholars, we strive to achieve a creative collaboration in our classrooms, rehearsal, and performance spaces with a focus and dedication to equitable representation while actively embracing traditionally under-represented groups and their contributions to the canon.


Objective: To determine the effect of donepezil in treating memory and cognitive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods: This single-center double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluated 69 MS patients with cognitive impairment who were randomly assigned to receive a 24-week treatment course of either donepezil (10 mg daily) or placebo. Patients underwent neuropsychological assessment at baseline and after 24 weeks of treatment. The primary outcome was change in verbal learning and memory on the Selective Reminding Test (SRT). Secondary outcomes included other tests of cognitive function, patient-reported change in memory, and clinician-reported impression of cognitive change. Results: Donepezil-treated patients showed significant improvement in memory performance on the SRT compared to placebo (p = 0.043). The benefit of donepezil remained significant after controlling for various covariates including age, Expanded Disability Status Scale, baseline SRT score, reading ability, MS subtype, and sex. Donepezil-treated patients did not show significant improvements on other cognitive tests, but were more than twice as likely to report memory improvement than those in the placebo group (p = 0.006). The clinician also reported cognitive improvement in almost twice as many donepezil vs placebo patients (p = 0.036). No serious adverse events related to study medication occurred, although more donepezil (34.3%) than placebo (8.8%) subjects reported unusual/abnormal dreams (p = 0.010). Conclusions: Donepezil improved memory in MS patients with initial cognitive impairment in a single center clinical trial. A larger multicenter investigation of donepezil in MS is warranted in order to more definitively assess the efficacy of this intervention.


Being able to exploit resources to its fullest have been important throughout history. How can projects operating in low-resource setting optimize their resource utilization? In this thesis I have looked at some of the challenges this task present through an interpretive case study. Standardization and robustness as properties, and user-involvement as a tool, have been identifieded as important aspects of the task. I have worked on a project operating in a low-resource setting, with the aim to develop and implement a mobile application. The application is used by teachers to report student health data. Five schools are participating in a one-year pilot-project in Shimla, India. The teachers' task is to identify, report and follow-up suspected cases of Rheumatic Fever (RF) and Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD), using the application that has been developed. If the project becomes a success, other schools and additional diseases can be included. Working in a low-resource setting imposes challenges towards manpower, time, money and technology, which is something that we experienced during this project. My findings indicate that enhanced standardization and robustness will enable a more optimized resource utilization, and increase the project chances of succeeding. However, a prerequisite for accomplish this, is increased user-involvement; to be able to derive the right standard or ensuring robustness, the users has to be involved. Otherwise the project's scope can be misinterpreted.


Instead of displaying a simple list with the houses and apartments which are listed for sale, an alternative is to display them geographically in a map to get an overview of where they are located. To make it simple the map also has an icon of where you are located, so you know where you are according to the houses. A prototype of such a system with the most important functionality has been implemented. The system gives the user the option to choose different other facilities he or she wants to show in the map together with the apartments, such as schools and parking spaces etc. The system gives also short information of the different apartments when clicking on them, and the possibility to open the prospect of that specific apartment. The prototype has been evaluated by some "experts" from one of the largest estate agencies, together with a user- and a technical evaluation. The feedback from the "experts" has been very positive, and they are convinced that such a system will be very helpful for potential users. The response regarding the user-friendliness has also been good, except from some comments on too many confirmations needed when running the application. During the technical evaluation we got confirmed that a J2ME application not is directly portable between different devices without slightly adjustments.


Here we introduce our TMB-iBIOMES database which serves as both a reference for future comparative, on-demand simulations of nucleosomes and a demonstration of iBIOMES-Lite as a tool for managing a laboratory's simulation inventory. TMB-iBIOMES contains over 20 microseconds of all atom molecular dynamics simulations for over 500 different realizations of the nucleosome. For every simulation, the original input, output, de-watered trajectories, RMSD, and DNA helical parameter data are provided. Closely related simulations are grouped together, and a meta-analysis of each group is provided. The data can be navigated in a file browser format or downloaded directly with command line tools. Collectively the simulations provide a novel view of nucleosomal DNA. Compared to DNA free in solution, DNA on the nucleosome is not highly deformed or tightly restricted as determined by DNA helical parameter analysis. The overall conformation is restricted to a specific left-handed super helix, but the range of conformations explored by individual base pairs is larger than that observed for DNA free in solution.


The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the meaning of the menopausal transition in Amish women. Using in-depth interviews, 10 Amish women who were transitioning into menopause were asked to respond to the question, "As you think of your experiences going through the 'change of life,' what specific things stand out for you?" Three themes emerged: "This is such a natural thing." a descriptor of natural/unnatural; "I don't know if what I have has been normal, but what is normal?" a descriptor of change, the expected and unexpected; and "We finally figured it out." a descriptor of a search for clarification/validation. Each theme was interrelated while being imposed on the background of health and the reproductive body. As described by the participants, the menopausal transition is viewed as part of the reproductive cycle and is therefore considered part of the natural order of life. The accompanying bodily changes are expected and yet distinctly different for each individual woman. Preventive practices to guard against diseases, such as osteoporosis and cardiac disease, are begun early in life while the women are still in their youth. Amish women do not view menopause as an escape from childbearing or a sign that they are aging. Many of the women interviewed experienced childbirth after the age of 40 and expressed the belief that these young children maintained their youthfulness. The Amish do not experience the "empty nest syndrome." While Amish women are not exempt from psychosocial disruption, decline in health, or depression, the women who described problems with depression and anxiety were more likely to relate a decline in their health status or other psychosocial issues. Many women expressed the thought that the transition into menopause had changed little in their daily lives, although they would like to be able to slow down and have some time to focus their energies on themselves. Further research among the Amish women should explore the impact of later life pregnancy on transitional symptoms, the average duration and onset of the menopausal transition, and the occurrence, severity, and usual treatment of transitional symptoms.


Purpose Curcuma purpurascens BI. is a member of Zingiberaceae family. The purpose of this study is to investigate the wound healing properties of hexane extract of C. purpurascens rhizome (HECP) against excisional wound healing in rats. Materials and methods Twenty four rats were randomly divided into 4 groups: A) negative control (blank placebo, acacia gum), B) low dose of HECP, C) high dose of HECP, and D) positive control, with 6 rats in each group. Full-thickness incisions (approximately 2.00 cm) were made on the neck area of each rat. Groups 1–4 were treated two-times a day for 20 days with blank placebo, HECP (100 mg/kg), HECP (200 mg/kg), and intrasite gel as a positive control, respectively. After 20 days, hematoxylin and eosin and Masson's trichrome stainings were employed to investigate the histopathological alterations. Protein expressions of Bax and Hsp70 were examined in the wound tissues using immunohistochemistry analysis. In addition, levels of enzymatic antioxidants and malondialdehyde representing lipid peroxidation were measured in wound tissue homogenates. Results Macroscopic evaluation of wounds showed conspicuous elevation in wound contraction after topical administration of HECP at both doses. Moreover, histopathological analysis revealed noteworthy reduction in the scar width correlated with the enhanced collagen content and fibroblast cells, accompanied by a reduction of inflammatory cells in the granulation tissues. At the molecular level, HECP facilitates wound-healing process by downregulating Bax and upregulating Hsp70 protein at the wound site. The formation of new blood vessel was observed in Masson's trichrome staining of wounds treated with HECP (100 and 200 mg/kg). In addition, HECP administration caused a significant surge in enzymatic antioxidant activities and a decline in lipid peroxidation. Conclusion These findings suggested that HECP accelerated wound-healing process in rats via antioxidant activity, angiogenesis effect and anti-inflammatory responses involving Hsp70/Bax.


This essay examines Lady Mary Chudleigh's Pindaric The Song of the Three Children Paraphras'd (1703) in order to demonstrate how it makes an important contribution to religious, philosophical, and poetic ideas at the turn of the eighteenth century. While Chudleigh's work has recently been associated with nonconformist writing, I argue that it is not so much her ecclesiastical allegiances that are significant as the tolerance and comprehensiveness that her religious position generates. Her poem signals an openness to diverse modes of thought that are incorporated into her vision of the divine. Indeed, the attempt to draw together parts and whole informs the entire texture of Chudleigh's poem, signalling its huge scope and expansive perspective. Chudleigh embraces ideas that range from conservatism to the unorthodox and idiosyncratic in an effort to create an all-encompassing view of shared faith and common purpose, in which all parts connect to the whole that is God's creation. This extends to the choice of text on which her poem is based: the apocryphal Song of the Three Children metonymically links to all moments of thanksgiving across biblical history and beyond, stretching from souls in eternity to those on earth communally uttering the Song in the Anglican church service. In turn, the speaker's voice continually forges a link with those other voices so as to create a collective Christian speaking subject who attempts to involve the reader in its endeavour to bridge the gap between the human and divine.


This book accompanies the first-ever exhibition of paintings by the 17th-century Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo in American collections. It takes a comprehensive view of the artist's work, including portraits, history paintings, religious images and genre paintings. Some of the works in the show are well known, for example Two Women at a Window in the National Gallery (Washington, D.C.)--which will be on the front of the jacket - and the Madonna and Child in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Others have rarely been seen before. All the paintings have been restored and photographed for this exhibition. The essays address not only the artist's stylistic development, but also other interesting topics such as the artist's work on unusual supports (stone, copper), his drawings, and new discoveries about painting practices in 17th-century Spain.


This article presents and discusses empirical findings concerning the differences between fathers and mothers as to the language they use in the communication with their children. On the basis of the findings of other research two general expectations were formulated: fathers make higher demands upon their children and therefore adjust less to the language needs of the children than mothers do. For mothers it is the other way around.Data were collected from four fathers and mothers and their child at their homes in two situations: one with a picture book and one in an unstructured play situation with standardized playing materials. The language input - per situation at least 20 minutes were tape-recorded - was analysed as to form and content.The results indicate that there are no significant differences in the kind of language addressed to the child by its father and mother. These findings are interpreted with reference to our modern society, in which generally speaking fathers are more involved in educating their children than in former times.Finally it is proposed to replicate this study with a larger sample and with social class as a variable, in order to ascertain whether social class affects parents' language input.


Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is a rare lung disorder characterized by abnormal accumulation of surfactant materials in the lower respiratory tracts. It is classified into three distinct types according to etiology; autoimmune, secondary, and congenital PAP. Secondary PAP (SPAP) comprises ten percent of acquired PAP. Previously, we reported 40 cases of SPAP, in whom more than 70% occurred secondary to hematological disorders, with the majority being myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The present study focused clinical features of five patients (four female and one male) who developed PAP during 6 months to 18 years after the onset of Behcet9s disease (BD), with underlying trisomy 8-positive MDS in four of them. Oral and cutaneous BD lesions were involved in all cases, but ocular lesions were observed in only one case. Intestinal BD was recognized in three patients who had undergone potent immunosuppressive therapy that resulted in overwhelming sepsis. In the two surviving patients, PAP and BD were managed successfully, although both individuals had a high risk of MDS at diagnosis. Thus, we figure out the common and different points among SPAP patients complicated with BD. The differential diagnoses of SPAP should be ruled out when lung complications are encountered during the course of BD.


The topicality of the research is caused by the necessity to overcome contradictions between the traditional environment of educational institutions and the socialization of future graduates related to their mental world creation, to finding their identity in terms of civilization change and the rapid development of digital technologies. The aim of the study lies in defining the additional functions of the reflexive educational environment and its influence in the formation of students' reflexive abilities and their understanding of the relationship between reflection and adaptation process in society. The leading method to investigate this problem (issue) is the reflexive method, including introspection, self-analysis, existential techniques of 'self-exploration', a dialogical communicative technique that allowed identifying, through content analysis of reflexive and analytical essays of students, the types of adaptive orientations (and the reflexive repertoires based on them) from which, as they integrate, a reflexive personality style is developed. It is established that the reflexive repertoires used in the process of self-identification correspond to the four adaptive attitudes of the person: homeostatic, hedonistic, rationalistic and pragmatic. Social adaptation is manifested in a conscious change in behavior and one's own life support system, in creating a new environment of social existence, and is accompanied by a transformation of consciousness and self-awareness. In this case, reflection is the main means of these changes and the integration of reflexive repertoires and of formed reflection levels (narrative, dialogical, cognitive and axiological) are the factors influencing the outcome of social adaptation. The results of the research are aimed at solving the problem of creating a reflexive educational environment for students' personal development and at choosing effective ways and mechanisms for their adaptation and self-realization in society. The materials of the study can prove useful both for theoretical research of reflexive thinking development in a specially created educational environment and for the teaching activities, including a foreign language. Keywords : reflexive educational environment, reflexive orientation, reflexive repertoires, social adaptation.


Tuesday, March 29, 2011 Read this report in Chinese Wall Street Journal Original available here By TOM ORLIK> Will a shortage of workers and rising labor costs spell the end of China's export miracle? Not this year. A first-quarter survey of 87 manufacturing firms by Standard Chartered shows wages rising, but not the surge many feared. The wave of strikes at manufacturing firms in 2010 and sharp minimum-wage rises in many provinces stoked fears the age of low-cost Chinese labor was ending. Despite the fact that more than half of China's population still is living in the countryside, 30 years of development and an aging work force have depleted the supply of young, able-bodied workers ready to move from farm to factory. But the Standard Chartered survey shows 2011 wages rising by 9% to 15%. That is a little higher than 10% wage increases reported in 2010. But it's less than the 20% to 30% rises many had expected. A survey of 87 firms might seem thin, given the 790 million-strong labor force. But a survey of household wage expectations by the central bank also points to moderate increases, slightly down from the same time last year. Li Qiang of China Labor Watch, an organization that investigates worker conditions in China's export sector, also estimates wages for migrant workers in manufacturing will rise 15% this year after 10% in 2010. With official wage data on the migrant work force nonexistent, surveys and estimates are as good as it gets. For China's economy, lower-than-expected wage rises are a short-term blessing and a long-term curse. For now, it means a smaller contribution to inflationary pressure and contains costs for exporters, already facing a squeeze from yuan appreciation and pricey raw materials. Textile producers are absorbing a 150% rise in cotton prices over a year. Longer term, exporters' gains are workers' losses. Tepid wage increases will do little to put more money in workers' pockets or fulfill Beijing's aim of rebalancing from foreign to domestic demand.


Abstract In the mid-1950s, hot rolled carbon steels exhibited high carbon contents, coarse ferrite pearlite microstructures, and yield strengths near 300 MPa. Their ductility, toughness and weldability were poor. Today, a half century later, hot rolled steels can exhibit microstructures consisting of mixtures of ferrite, bainite and martensite in various proportions. These structures are very fine and can show yield strengths over 900 MPa, with acceptable levels of ductility, toughness and weldability. This advancement was made possible by the combination of improved steelmaking, microalloying technology and better rolling and cooling practices. The purpose of this paper is to chronicle some of the remarkable progress in steel alloy and process design that has resulted in this impressive achievement.


Higher alcohol synthesis (HAS) from syngas over a CuACo based catalyst was investigated under supercritical hexanes conditions. The effects of hexanes/syngas molar ratio, H2/CO molar ratio, and gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) on gas-phase HAS and supercritical hexanes-phase HAS (SC-HAS) were investigated. The CO conversion remained relatively constant with increases in the hexanes/syngas molar ratio, whereas the CH4 selectivity decreased. Higher alcohol productivity was found to increase monotonically with an increase in the hexanes/syngas molar ratio. Productivity of higher alcohols increased with an increase in the H2/CO ratio under the gas-phase conditions. An opposite trend in higher alcohol productivity with H2/CO was observed in SC-HAS. Further experiments were performed using argon as the reaction medium for comparison with the supercritical hexanes medium results. The enhanced higher alcohol productivity observed in this system can be attributed to improved extraction of alcohol products from the catalyst pores under the supercritical conditions. V C 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 00: 000–000, 2014


Deep dorsal vein (DDV) arterialization has developed as a treatment option for patients with arteriogenic impotence, especially in situations where artery-to-artery bypass is not feasible. The inferior epigastric artery (IEA), harvested through a lower abdominal incision, has usually served as the neoarterial source. Using dynamic infusion cavernosometry and cavernosography (DICC) to evaluate arterial and venous erection factors and pudendal arteriography to define arterial anatomy, we have identified 16 patients with cavernosal artery (CA) obstruction and a normal dorsal artery (DA) to serve as the neoarterial source. All patients were less than 50 years old (mean 34.8 +/- 8.6 years). During DICC, the gradient between systemic and CA systolic occlusion pressures averaged 38.7 mmHg. Two patients showed moderate and two minimal corporal veno-occlusive dysfunction (CVOD). From 1991-94, all 16 underwent microscopic DA-DDV arterialization. Four of these patients also underwent venous ligation procedures and three had IEA bypass to the other DA. With adequate follow-up in 15 men, the results for six are considered excellent or normal (40%); eight improved (53.3%) and one was unchanged. In the improved group are three men who did not respond adequately to maximum penile injection therapy before surgery but used small doses afterward with success. Of the three smokers in the series, two were improved and one unchanged. Excellent results were found in four of five men (80%) under age 30 but only one of five (20%) over age 40. Complications included two instances of penile shortening and one of glans hyperemia requiring reoperation. By avoiding an abdominal approach, operative times, morbidity and recovery were substantially shortened. This operative approach can provide an excellent treatment for nonsmokers with CA obstruction and a normal DA.


Introduction: Waterpipe use among adolescents has been increasing progressively. Yet no studies were reported to assess the validity and reliability of nicotine dependence scale. The current study aims to assess the validity and reliability of an Arabic version of the modified Waterpipe Tolerance Questionnaire WTQ among school-going adolescent waterpipe users. Methods: In a cross-sectional study conducted in Jordan, information on waterpipe use among 333 school-going adolescents aged 11-18 years was obtained using the Arabic version of the WTQ. An exploratory factor analysis and correlation matrices were conducted to assess validity and reliability of the WTQ. Results: The WTQ had a 0.73 alpha of internal consistency indicating moderate level of reliability. The scale showed multidimensionality with items loading on two factors, namely waterpipe consumption and morning smoking. Conclusion: This study report nicotine dependence level among school-going adolescents who identify themselves as waterpipe users using the WTQ.


Religion is a topic that businesses often ignore, in spite of 70% of the world being religious. Whether the silence results from the taboo nature of the topic or the thought that religion is a separate domain from consumption and business, the scant attention cannot be denied. Many do not realize or simply resist the idea that religion is a key contributor to a consumer's core values, which then contribute to consumption decisions, voting practices, reaction to pro-social messages and public policy, as well as donating behavior. The field of behavioral economics discusses how various social and cognitive factors influence economic decision making, which encompasses consumer decision making in business and public policy. This field needs to incorporate religion as an influencer to economic decision making. To be able to manage a business effectively, or carry out public policy decisions, the influence of believe systems and religion must be taken into account. Thus, this book provides one of the first comprehensive investigations into the relation between religion and behavioral economics. It is relevant to current managers, anyone involved in the marketing, MBA students, and also upper-division undergraduate students. Each of these groups will benefit from a clear understanding of religious groups and how religion influences consumer decision making.


Phenytoin is an antiepileptic drug and is commonly prescribed for generalized tonic-clonic seizure. It blocks the voltage gated sodium channel and produce the action. It has a narrow therapeutic index. Adverse effects are very common with phenytoin but idiopathic ataxia is rarely observed. We report a case of a 30-year-old male patient who had chief complaints of ataxia, giddiness and vomiting. He had past medical history of epilepsy for which he was adherent to phenytoin from past four years. Key words: Phenytoin, Ataxia, Male, Epilepsy, Adverse drug reaction.


Accelerated technological innovation induces disruptions in society and education. It results in both threats to and opportunities for the way the society learns and works. This case study examined the phenomenon of learning in a disruptive environment. The chosen typical case of a disruptive learning environment was comprised of multistable technology and multiple crossdisciplinary, stakeholders. To reveal how inexpert stakeholders cope with technological barriers, the study examined design studio education as a research site. There, groups of design students used 3D printing to develop assistive technologies together with patients and therapists. The empirical data collected on site was analyzed through qualitative content analysis and postphenomenological concepts. The study showed how new multistable technologies impose relational, fluid models of learning on site by revealing mediations between technology and humans. This new perspective on learning in disruptive environments informs practical sustainable pedagogical practices and theoretical approach to learning for resilience by expending vocabulary concerning technological education. It also proposes altered priorities for formal education. Instead of solely focusing on the knowledge content or learners' development, formal education should also take into account learners relations with their social and technological environment.


Author(s): Shi, Xian | Advisor(s): Chen, Jyh-Yuan; Dibble, Robert W | Abstract: Stratified combustion, combustion of fuel/air mixtures with temperature and/or mixture-composition stratification, is present in many combustion-related phenomena and applications such as forest wildfires, mining explosions, vessel ruptures, gas turbines, and reciprocating engines to name a few. A new generation of highly efficient internal combustion (IC) engines capable of satisfying stringent emission requirements, including modern direct-injection gasoline engines and gas turbines with lean premixed pre-vaporized (LPP) combustors, requires more comprehensive understanding and control of stratified combustion. Fundamentally, stratification of temperature or mixture composition affects a wide range of combustion characteristics such as flame speed, flammability, mode of combustion, instability, and others.This dissertation aims to identify, analyze and evaluate fundamental processes in the combustion of stratified mixtures, using theoretical analysis and advanced numerical simulation tools. ASURF-Parallel, a transient numerical solver of compressible reacting flow, is developed on the basis of the original A-SURF and exploited for stratified combustion simulations. A domain-decomposition parallelization scheme using Message Passing Interface (MPI) is developed and implemented in ASURF-Parallel to speed up the otherwise time-consuming numerical simulations. A significant speedup with the speed-up factor up to 10 is achieved on lab-scale servers.Effects of stratification on flame speeds, lean flammability limit, and modes of combustion are numerically investigated and studied. For flame speeds, laminar flame speeds of stratified flames propagating from rich mixtures to lean mixtures are generally faster than those of the corresponding homogeneous flames, primarily due to the preferential diffusion of lighter species and radicals such as H2, H and OH, i.e., the chemical effect. The degree of enhancement in flame speeds can be correlated to the degree of stratification, leading to the development of a transient local stratification level (LSL) model which is able to determine the stratified flame speeds incorporating both chemical effect and memory effect. For lean flammability limits, the extension introduced by stratification is very weak due to reduced overall reactivity and reduced degree of stratification. For modes of combustion, different modes can be realized by specific reactivity gradients, regardless of the sources of such gradients. Pressure waves introduced by ignition in a closed chamber can also lead to different modes of reaction front propagation and end-gas combustion. A transient reactivity gradient method is proposed to identify the onset of detonation.


Background: Jaundice is the most common cause of neonatal admission within the first month after birth. Therefore, by identifying the causes of jaundice based on the infant's age at disease onset and age at hospital admission and providing the required training, jaundice can be managed and its associated complications can be prevented. This study was performed to evaluate the causes of neonatal jaundice, based on the infant's age at disease onset and age at hospital admission. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, out of 3,130 infants with jaundice, referring to Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad, Iran, from 2003 to 2015, 2,658 newborns were selected. Causes of jaundice are determined based on hematocrit, direct and indirect bilirubin, Coombs test, reticulocyte count, blood group and Rh of mother and neonate, thyroid tests, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) enzyme testing, urinalysis, urine cul-ture, and If necessary, Na, blood urea nitrogen, creatinine and other tests depending on the doctor's supervision. After confirming jaundice in infants, based on the physician's diagnosis and laboratory results, a researcher-made questionnaire including the infant's characteristics, was completed. Results: Based on our study, 27.9% of infants had identified as causes of jaundice. Known causes of jaundice were blood group incompatibility (40%), infection (19%), G6PD enzyme deficiency (12%), endocrine disorders (8%), neonatal hypernatremic de-hydration (7%), polycythemia (6%), congenital heart disease (CHD) (4%), occult bleed-ing (3%) and Crigler-Najjar syndrome (2%). The most common time of hospital admission of jaundice was 4-6 days after birth due to blood incompatibilities, occult bleeding, endocrine disorders, hypernatremic dehydration, CHD, polycythemia and G6PD enzyme deficiency. Moreover, the most common time of admission due to infection was after the first week of birth. Conclusion: The most common age of onset of jaundice was first three days of birth for blood incompatibility, although they were admitted two days later. Therefore, neonatal admission at appropriate time at onset of jaundice and receiving prompt treatments can reduce the probable complications (e.g., kernicterus). Abstract w n l f r m t u m j .t u m s . a c . i r a t : I R S T on T ue da N o v e be


Author(s): Honavar, Vasant G; Hill, Mark D; Yelick, Katherine | Abstract: The emergence of "big data" offers unprecedented opportunities for not only accelerating scientific advances but also enabling new modes of discovery. Scientific progress in many disciplines is increasingly enabled by our ability to examine natural phenomena through the computational lens, i.e., using algorithmic or information processing abstractions of the underlying processes; and our ability to acquire, share, integrate and analyze disparate types of data. However, there is a huge gap between our ability to acquire, store, and process data and our ability to make effective use of the data to advance discovery. Despite successful automation of routine aspects of data management and analytics, most elements of the scientific process currently require considerable human expertise and effort. Accelerating science to keep pace with the rate of data acquisition and data processing calls for the development of algorithmic or information processing abstractions, coupled with formal methods and tools for modeling and simulation of natural processes as well as major innovations in cognitive tools for scientists, i.e., computational tools that leverage and extend the reach of human intellect, and partner with humans on a broad range of tasks in scientific discovery (e.g., identifying, prioritizing formulating questions, designing, prioritizing and executing experiments designed to answer a chosen question, drawing inferences and evaluating the results, and formulating new questions, in a closed-loop fashion). This calls for concerted research agenda aimed at: Development, analysis, integration, sharing, and simulation of algorithmic or information processing abstractions of natural processes, coupled with formal methods and tools for their analyses and simulation; Innovations in cognitive tools that augment and extend human intellect and partner with humans in all aspects of science.


— In today's world, the LED display has been used for presenting visual information under various circumstances. Such information is an important intermediary in the human information processing. Researchers have been investigated diverse factors that influence this process effectiveness. The letter size is undoubtedly one major factor that has been tested and recommended by many standards and guidelines. However, viewing information on the display from direct perpendicular position is a typical assumption whereas many actual events are required viewing from the angles. This current research aims to study the effect of oblique viewing angle and viewing distance on ability to recognize alphabet, number, and English word. The total of ten participants was volunteered to our 3 x 4 x 4 within subject study. Independent variables include three distance levels (2, 6, and 12 m), four oblique angles (0, 45, 60, 75 degree), and four target types (alphabet, number, short word, and long word). Following the method of constant stimuli our study suggests that the larger oblique angle, ranging from 0 to 75 degree from the line of sight, results in significant higher legibility threshold or larger font size required (p-value < 0.05). Viewing distance factor also shows to have significant effect on the threshold (p-value < 0.05). However, the effect from distance factor is expected to be confounded by the quality of the screen used in our experiment. Lastly, our results show that single alphabet as well as single number are recognized at significant lower threshold (smaller font size) as compared to both short and long words (p-value < 0.05). Therefore, it is recommended that when designs information to be presented on LED display, understanding of all possible ranges of oblique angle should be taken into account in order to specify the preferred letter size. Additionally, the recommendation of letter size for 100% legibility in our tested conditions is provided in the paper.


This paper briefly discusses a new architecture, Computation-In-Memory (CIM Architecture), for specific data-intensive applications; it is based on the integration of storage and computation in the same physical location (crossbar topology) and the use of non-volatile resistive-switching technology (memristive devices or memristors in short) instead of CMOS technology. The architecture has the potential of improving the energy-delay product, computing efficiency and performance area by at least two orders of magnitude.


Concentration addition (CA) is commonly used as a standard additive reference model to predict the shortterm toxicity for most chemical mixtures. Whether CA can predict the long-term toxicity of antibiotic mixtures was investigated. The long-term toxicity of five antibiotics including apramycin sulfate, paromomycin sulfate, tetracycline hydrochloride, chloramphenicol and streptomycin sulfate and their mixtures to a photo bacterium Q67 were detected by the long-term toxicity microplate analysis procedure. Seven five-antibiotic mixtures with various concentration ratios and concentration levels were designed by employing uniform design ray method. The long-term mixture toxicity was predicted by CA based on the toxicity data of single antibiotics. The results showed that Weibull or Logit function fit well with the long-term toxicity data of all the components and their mixtures (R>0.98 and RMSE<0.07). According the toxicity index, the negative logarithm of mean effect concentration, the long-term toxicity of the five antibiotics differs greatly and is higher than their short-term toxicity. The predicted values by CA model conformed to the experimental values of mixtures, which implies CA can predict reliable results for the long-term toxicity of antibiotic mixtures.


In thermophoresis, with the fluid at rest, suspensions move along a gradient of temperature. In an aqueous solution, a PEG polymer suspension is depleted from the hot region and builds a concentration gradient. In this gradient, DNA polymers of different sizes can be separated. In this work the effect of the polymer structure for genomic DNA and small RNA is studied. For genome-size DNA, individual single T4 DNA is visualized and tracked in a PEG solution under a temperature gradient built by infrared laser focusing. We find that T4 DNA follows steps of depletion, ring-like localization, and accumulation patterns as the PEG volume fraction is increased. Furthermore, a coil–globule transition for DNA is observed for a large enough PEG volume fraction. This drastically affects the localization position of T4 DNA. In a similar experiment, with small RNA such as ribozymes we find that the stem–loop folding of such polymers has important consequences. The RNA polymers having a long and rigid stem accumulate, whereas a polymer with stem length less than 4 base pairs shows depletion. Such measurements emphasize the crucial contribution of the double-stranded parts of RNA for thermal separation and selection under a temperature gradient. Because huge temperature gradients are present around hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean seafloor, this process might be relevant, at the origin of life, in an RNA world hypothesis. Ribozymes could be selected from a pool of random sequences depending on the length of their stems.


This paper presents a novel phase change material based thermal energy storage system (PCMTESS) that is suitable for smart building energy management, together with its corresponding thermal-electric combined two-stage dispatching strategy. Benefiting from the phase change materials' thermal characteristic of absorbing or releasing a significant amount of heat at a constant temperature, this thermal energy storage system is endowed with a high capacity and a relatively stable thermal state during its charge/discharge process. To evaluate the thermal performance of the PCMTESS, which is integrated as a part of building wallboard, a detailed analytic thermodynamic building model is proposed that considers the influence of the forced air convection and the external environments, such as solar radiation. Furthermore, a two-stage electric-thermal combined dispatching scheme is designed to minimize the electricity consumption expenditure and power fluctuation on the premise of maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature. Simulation studies on a smart building indicate that the proposed thermal energy storage system is a feasible and economical solution for solving peak load shaving and power fluctuation.


When I was a student in the 1980s the New Musical Express was a lifestyle Bible that had earned our respect with its political/punk coverage in the late 70s. Now my thirteen year old devours it with even greater enthusiasm as he practices his indie pop riffs in his skinny black jeans. So has nothing changed as this music media legend celebrates over half a century of charting the charts? Of course, like every other bit of media it is under seige from the Internet and sales of the magazine have fallen. But it is also branching out online with social networking and broadcast plans. My son tells me that he knows that he can find stuff about bands via Myspace or YouTube and that he can watch endless music channels digitally. But he says he likes NME in its magazine form because it is 'excellent'. He loves the writing and the ritual of its weekly delivery. There's a lesson there for anyone defending a media brand in the digital age. Polis intern Matt Lomas has been looking at the prospects for the New Musical Express. Here's his article.


Internet has become a popular medium today. The usage of internet has increased widely. Internet reduces the manual work and also more time consuming .These is the reason why people today are connected to internet. In recent years Online Social Networks (OSNs) also developed well and plays an equal role. People use Online Social Networks (OSNs) to share their view of life. Online Social Networks (OSNs) enables them to connect with their friends and families. Online Social Networks (OSNs) has become an important part of many people life today. Therefore Online Social Networks (OSNs) should be highly secure to protect the individual's privacy. Though (OSNs) provides the security measures but it was limited. To filter the spam, in this paper, we propose an enhanced filtering measure by using a machine learning technique based on a content filtering.


This paper reflects on Common-places (2019), a project that was developed in Sheffield on the invitation of Site Gallery to participate in their 'City of Ideas' programme. Amidst the urban regeneration processes that are reshaping the city, this programme offered the opportunity to think about novel approaches that art and interdisciplinary practices could bring to processes of urban change. Common-places was proposed as a participatory workshop that engaged the local community, by inviting them to recognise the things they 'hold dear' about the areas in which they live or work. The premise was to identify forms of material and immaterial value that would reveal the 'character' of a place and its forms of use-value that are important to a local community. The intention was to develop a set of tools to highlight, map, commemorate and ultimately protect this intangible heritage in the context of urban regeneration in Sheffield. The project addressed some of the existing challenges of integrating an expanded notion of heritage in urban planning. Moveover, it reflects on the importance of identifying the use-value of intangible heritage and embraces a more integral and holistic approach to city planning.


To the Editor: Resistance to drug treatment is widespread across the spectrum of human diseases. For any given condition, multiple mechanisms probably contribute to the clinical phenomenon of resistance to a single or multiple drugs. One mechanism that has received extensive attention across diseases is that of multidrug transport. Numerous multidrug transport proteins are known, and share the general ability to transport a variety of drugs, that often have disparate chemical structures, against concentration gradients, reducing the desired effects of those drugs. P-glycoprotein is the archetypal example of such a protein, and has been proposed as a mediator of drug resistance in disparate human conditions including various cancers, infections such as malaria, inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease, and disorders of the central nervous system. However, progress has proven difficult with results of different studies within the same field often being in conflict. One aspect of P-glycoprotein biology that is both particularly important and especially controversial is the variation in quantity and function of P-glycoprotein that may be due to inherited variation in the encoding gene, ABCB1. Despite numerous efforts, no clear association of ABCB1 genetic variation with clinical phenotypes has emerged in any disease field. These issues are well exemplified in the study of the epilepsies. About 30% of patients have epilepsy that proves resistant to treatment with multiple antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), even when AEDs with a range of putative mechanisms of action are used in an individual patient. The idea that P-glycoprotein might mediate at least part of this drug resistance was met with both enthusiasm and skepticism, and as in oncology, initial optimism has been clouded by conflicting results. A study published in 2003 suggested that there was an association between the CC major allele homozygote at the ABCB1 3435 locus and resistance to antiepileptic drug treatment (Siddiqui et al., 2003). An exact replication of this first report failed to confirm the original findings, and concluded that any effect of the 3435 polymorphism could only be comparatively modest (Tan et al., 2004). Several other studies have examined the association between this polymorphism and drug resistance in the epilepsies, but none were structured as a replication of the original study, differing critically in the phenotypes considered. But if P-glycoprotein, and particularly any genetically mediated variation in its activity, has any role to play in drug resistance in the epilepsies, can phenotypic differences between studies really explain the failure to robustly identify a role for P-glycoprotein from such genetic association studies? If there is a real effect of significance, should it not be obvious even if the studied phenotypes are slightly different? The latest, and very elegant, analysis of P-glycoprotein functional genomics, published this year in Science, may well provide a basis for understanding some of the lack of agreement between studies of association between genetic variation in ABCB1 and the clinical phenotype of drug resistance, whether the initially-reported association is real, a false-positive or a cohort-specific effect. Kimchi-Sarfaty et al. show, using a variety of model systems, that genetic variation within ABCB1 does affect the structure and transport function of the encoded P-glycoprotein (KimchiSarfaty et al., 2007). In particular, the authors demonstrate convincingly and deftly that the transport function of Pglycoprotein not only depends on genotype at specified loci within ABCB1, but also, critically, that differences in transport function are exaggerated when the transcription machinery is put under stress, for example when it is made to work harder due to increased gene expression. Thus, the genotype dependence of transport function is exaggerated under the stimulated state in comparison to the basal or repressed state. In specific experimental models, both seizures and AED treatment can induce ABCB1 expression, and would therefore be expected to amplify any ABCB1 genotype effect on P-glycoprotein quantity and function (Loscher and Potschka, 2005). Therefore, if phenotypes are not matched between studies, for example if one study focuses on a cohort with a more severe "drug-resistant" phenotype (in comparison to a control cohort) while another study examines a less severe "drug-resistant" cohort, there is good reason to believe that genotype-dependent differences should already be expected between these studies, in effect stratification biasing the results toward nonreplication from the outset. A biological, rather than a technical, basis for replication failure has thus emerged, emphasizing the importance of matching phenotypes across studies or cohorts. Notably, environmental factors beyond seizures and AED exposure can affect ABCB1 expression, making studies of P-glycoprotein pharmacogenomics even more complicated (Kwan and Brodie, 2005).


Abstract This study examines the connections between stock prices and key macroeconomic indicators: inflation, industrial production, interest rates, money supply and select interactions between the latter group of variables. Such links are evaluated through vector-autoregressions (VARs) on monthly data spanning over the period 1999–2017, for Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal. We check whether such relations are confirmed across different sub-periods and also adopt a non-parametric approach by using a Pesaran-Timmermann test. We find different contemporaneous and lead-lag relationships between stock prices and the selected variables, although there are variations across countries. VAR models indicate that stock prices significantly lead inflation across all countries during the sample period and in most cases this relationship was positive. In addition, stock prices significantly lead industrial production in four of the sampled countries and these relationships were positive as well. Contrary to long-established finance theories, we did not find numerous significant links between interest rates and stock indices; however the interaction between interest rates and money supply was a leading indicator of stock prices in France, Germany and Portugal.


Flexible software development models, e.g., evolutionary and incremental models, have become increasingly popular. Advocates claim that among the benefits of using these models is reduced overruns, which is one of the main challenges of software project management. This paper describes an in-depth survey of software development projects. The results support the claim that projects which employ a flexible development model experience less effort overruns than do those which employ a sequential model. The reason for the difference is not obvious. We found, for example, no variation in project size, estimation process, or delivered proportion of planned functionality between projects applying different types of development model. When the managers were asked to provide reasons for software overruns and/or estimation accuracy, the largest difference was that more of flexible projects than sequential projects cited good requirement specifications-and good collaboration/communication with clients as contributing to accurate estimates.


In this paper, a method for constructing Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy system from data is proposed with the objective of preserving TS submodel comprehensibility, in which linguistic modifiers are suggested to characterize the fuzzy sets. A good property held by the proposed linguistic modifiers is that they can broaden the cores of fuzzy sets while contracting the overlaps of adjoining membership functions (MFs) during identification of fuzzy systems from data. As a result, the TS submodels identified tend to dominate the system behaviors by automatically matching the global model (GM) in corresponding subareas, which leads to good TS model interpretability while producing distinguishable input space partitioning. However, the GM accuracy and model interpretability are two conflicting modeling objectives, improving interpretability of fuzzy models generally degrades the GM performance of fuzzy models, and vice versa. Hence, one challenging problem is how to construct a TS fuzzy model with not only good global performance but also good submodel interpretability. In order to achieve a good tradeoff between GM performance and submodel interpretability, a regularization learning algorithm is presented in which the GM objective function is combined with a local model objective function defined in terms of an extended index of fuzziness of identified MFs. Moreover, a parsimonious rule base is obtained by adopting a QR decomposition method to select the important fuzzy rules and reduce the redundant ones. Experimental studies have shown that the TS models identified by the suggested method possess good submodel interpretability and satisfactory GM performance with parsimonious rule bases.


Early spring applications of herbicides were evaluated for weed control and phytotoxicity to kleingrass (Panicum coloratum L.) during establishment. In 1986, areas treated with MSMA (monosodium salt of methylarsonic acid) at 2.2 and 4.5 kg ha⁻¹ or chlorsulfuron [ 2-chloro-N-[ [(4-methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl) amino] carbonyl] benzenesulfonamide] at 0.018 and 0.035 kg ha⁻¹ reduced weed yield to 9300 kg ha⁻¹. Untreated areas produced 5400 and 4300 kg ha⁻¹ of weeds and kleingrass, respectively. In 1988, kleingrass yields were increased only where weeds were removed by hand or MSMA. Bensulide [O,Obis(1-methylethyl) S-[2-[(phenylsulfonyI) amino] ethyl] phosphorodithioate], butylate [S-ethyl bis(2-methylpropyl)bamothioate], siduron [N-(2-methylcyclohexyl)-N'-phenylurea], and sulfometuron [2-[[[[(4,6-dimethyl-2-pyrimidinyl) amino] carbonyl] amino] sulfonyl] benzoic acid) were highly injurious to kleingrass. In 1989, no treatment increased kleingrass yields. In the greenhouse, 'Selection 75' kleingrass, common buffelgrass (Cenchrus ciliaris L.), 'WW-Spar' and 'WW-Ironmaster' old world bluestem [Bothriochloa ischaemum (L.) Keng var. ischaemum (Hack.) Celarier and Harlan], 'Bell' rhodesgrass (Chloris gayana Kunth), 'Cowboy' laurisiagrass (Penniseturn orientale L.), 'Haskel' sideoats grama [Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr.], 'Lameta' Indiangrass (Sorghustrum nutans L.), 'Alamo' switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), and 'Palar' Wilman lovegrass (Eragrosfis superba Peyn.) were treated. Based on seedling weight, most grasses tolerated butylate, MSMA, 2,4-D [(2,4-dichlorophenoxy) acetic acid], chlorsulfuron, and metsulfuron (2-[[[[(4 methoxy-6-methyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)amino] carbonyl] amino] sulfonyl] benzoic acid]. Buffelgrass, Indiangrass, and old world bluestem tolerated sulfometuron. Atrazine [6-chloro-N-ethyl-N'-(-methylethyl)- 1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine] and propazine [6-chloro-N,N'- bis(l-methylethyl)-l,3,5-triazine-2,4diamine] were sometimes injurious, but bensulide and siduron were highly injurious to most grasses. Cooperative investigation of the USDA-ARS and the Texas Agric. Exp. Stn., Texas A&M Univ.


This article assesses the predictive power of variables that measure market tightness, such as seller's bargaining power and sale probabilities, on future home prices. Theoretical insights from a stylized search‐and‐matching model illustrate that such indicators can be associated with subsequent home price appreciation. The empirical analysis employs listings data on residential units offered for sale through a real estate broker in the Netherlands and for certain U.S. regions. Individual records are used to construct quarterly home price indices, an index that measures seller's bargaining power and (quality‐adjusted) home sale probabilities. Using conventional time‐series models we show that current sale probabilities and bargaining power can significantly reduce home price appreciation forecast errors and help to predict turning points in local area housing markets. The measures and approaches in this article help to demonstrate ways in which researchers and practitioners can leverage listings data to gain knowledge about the current and future state of the housing market.


A micromethod is described for cultivation of peripheral blood lymphocytes from small laboratory animals (Chinchilla rabbits and inbred white rats) aimed for obtaining metaphasic plates and studying chromosomes. This method allows to study chromosomes of somatic cells (lymphocytes), individually in each animal, for a long time up to its natural death under normal or pathological conditions modelled in the experiment.


A novel islanding detection method based on Power Controlling is presented in this paper. The method continuously perturbs the reactive power supplied by dispersed generation systems while simultaneously monitoring the point of commoncoupling (PCC) voltage and frequency. When in grid-connected scenario, the voltage and frequency of PCC is insignificant; however, once the islanding event takes place, the frequency of PCC will be change own to the change of output reactive power. After it is over 4 cycles continuously, then the active power of dispersed generation systems is reduced to 80%, now a drop in voltage positively confirms islanding. Algorithm of the method is simple and confirmed by simulation with MATLAB.


Empirical field relationships between the apparent formation factors from surface resistivity soundings and hydraulic conductivity from pumping tests in fresh water granular aquifers usually show positive correlations. These relationships can be adequately explained by theory if consideration is taken of in situ field conditions. A sound theoretical basis for relating apparent formation factor to pertinent hydrogeophysical parameters in homogeneous isotropic sand is a three-phase parallel resistor model which explicity includes parameters of porewater resistivity, grain size and shape, porosity, tortuosity, and intergranular surface conductance. The veracity of the theoretical model is supported by data from laboratory tests. The model demonstrates that intergranular surface conductance is an important factor at small grain sizes and high porewater resistivities, operating to lower the apparent formation factor. The model further shows that direct relationships between hydraulic conductivity and formation factor are weak in the normal range of porewater resistivity, being strongly dependent on porosity. When systematic variation of in situ porosity and aquifer layering effects are considered, a simulated field curve relating the apparent formation factor to hydraulic conductivity is shown to compare favorably with the comparable curve from field data for thirteen pumping test sites in southern Rhode Island. Both theoretical and empirical results demonstrate a useful positive correlation between aquifer apparent formation factor and hydraulic conductivity. Quantitative interpretation, however, is imprecise because of nonuniqueness of interpretation and inherent variation in important aquifer parameters, especially porosity.


We present an update to the framework called Simulator of Galaxy Millimeter/submillimeter Emission (sígame). sígame derives line emission in the far-infrared (FIR) for galaxies in particle-based cosmological hydrodynamics simulations by applying radiative transfer and physics recipes via a postprocessing step after completion of the simulation. In this version, a new technique is developed to model higher gas densities by parameterizing the probability distribution function (PDF) of the gas density in higher-resolution simulations run with the pseudo-Lagrangian, Voronoi mesh code arepo. The parameterized PDFs are used as a look-up table, and reach higher densities than in previous work. sígame v3 is tested on redshift z = 0 galaxies drawn from the simba cosmological simulation for eight FIR emission lines tracing vastly different phases of the interstellar medium. This version of sígame includes dust radiative transfer with Skirt and high-resolution photoionization models with Cloudy, the latter sampled according to the density PDF of the arepo simulations to augment the densities in the cosmological simulation. The quartile distributions of the predicted line luminosities overlap with the observed range for nearby galaxies of similar star formation rate (SFR) for all but two emission lines: [O i]63 and CO(3–2), which are overestimated by median factors of 1.3 and 1.0 dex, respectively, compared to the observed line–SFR relation of mixed-type galaxies. We attribute the remaining disagreement with observations to the lack of precise attenuation of the interstellar light on sub-grid scales (≲200 pc) and differences in sample selection.


In the age of 'networked individualism' (Castells, 2004; Rainie & Wellman, 2012) students enter higher education as networked individuals with extant and diverse informal learning practices, networks and identities. While higher education institutions typically focus on Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) as the primary online hubs for students, students themselves use a wide range of online tools and resources for communicating, coordinating, collaborating and learning, i.e. building their own Personal Learning Environments (PLEs). While institutions and academic staff tend to see institutional VLEs and learner-chosen PLEs as separate entities, learners do not (Reed, 2013). Students often find that their informal learning practices sit uneasily within the formal education environments within which they study. Open education, particularly open educational practices (OEP), is one way that the formal/informal learning divide in higher education may be bridged. Advocates of open education highlight its potential to make education more inclusive and equitable. However, some critiques of open education view such claims as utopian, ignoring the workings of systemic power and privilege. This paper explores the formal/informal learning divide in higher education, the complexities and different interpretations of open education, and potential benefits for students and educators in bridging the formal/informal learning divide, i.e. working together within higher education learning communities but also as nodes in "broad networks of distributed creativity" (J. Ito, 2011).


INTRODUCTION
While previous studies have noted that hypogonadism (HG) may pose a significant economic and quality-of-life burden, no studies have evaluated the impact of HG on healthcare utilization and costs in the United States.

AIM
Compare direct (health care) and indirect (disability leave or medical absence) costs between privately insured U.S. employees with HG and controls without HG.

METHODS
The study sample included 4,269 male employees, ages 35-64, with ≥ 2 HG diagnoses (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification: 257.2x) or ≥ 1 HG diagnosis and ≥ 1 claim for testosterone therapy, 1/1/2005-3/31/2009, identified from a large, private insurance administrative database that includes medical, prescription drug, and disability claims data. The index date was the most recent HG diagnosis that had continuous eligibility for at least 1 year before (baseline period) and 1 year after (study period). Employees with HG were matched 1:1 on age, region, salaried vs. nonsalaried employment status, and index year to controls without HG.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Descriptive analyses compared demographic characteristics, comorbidities, resource utilization, direct and indirect costs inflated to USD 2009. Multivariate analyses adjusting for baseline characteristics were used to estimate risk-adjusted costs.

RESULTS
HG employees and controls had a mean age of 51 years. HG employees compared with controls had higher baseline comorbidity rates, including hyperlipidemia (50.2% vs. 25.3%), hypertension (37.7% vs. 21.1%), back/neck pain (32.0% vs. 15.7%), and human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (7.1% vs. 0.3%) (all P < 0.0001). HG employees had higher mean study period direct ($10,914 vs. $3,823) and indirect costs ($3,204 vs. $1,450); HG-related direct costs were $832 (all P < 0.0001). Risk-adjusted direct ($9,291 vs. $5,248) and indirect ($2,729 vs. $1,840) costs were also higher for HG employees (all P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Employees with HG had higher comorbidity rates and costs compared with controls. Given the low HG-related costs, a primary driver of costs among HG patients appears to be their comorbidity burden.


Consistent negative correlations between sibship size and cognitive performance (as measured by intelligence quotient and other mental aptitude tests) have been observed in past empirical studies. However, parental decisions on family size may correlate with variables affecting child cognitive performance. The aim of this study is to demonstrate how selection bias in studies of sibship size effects can be adjusted for. We extend existing knowledge in two aspects: as factors affecting decisions to increase family size may vary across the number and composition of current family size, we propose a sequential probit model (as opposed to binary or ordered models) for the propensity to increase family size; to disentangle selection and causality we propose multilevel multiprocess modelling where a continuous model for performance is estimated jointly with a sequential probit model for family size decisions. This allows us to estimate and adjust for the correlation between unmeasured heterogeneity affecting both family size decisions and child cognitive performance. The issues are illustrated through analyses of scores on Peabody individual achievement tests among children of the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979. We find substantial between‐family heterogeneity in the propensity to increase family size. Ignoring such selection led to overestimation of the negative effects of sibship size on cognitive performance for families with 1–3 children, when known sources of selection were accounted for. However, the multiprocess modelling proposed could efficiently identify and control for such bias due to adverse selection.


Self-attention networks have shown remarkable progress in computer vision tasks
such as image classification. The main benefit of the self-attention mechanism is
the ability to capture long-range feature interactions in attention-maps. However,
the computation of attention-maps requires a learnable key, query, and positional
encoding, whose usage is often not intuitive and computationally expensive. To
mitigate this problem, we propose a novel self-attention module with explicitly
modeled attention-maps using only a single learnable parameter for low computational overhead. The design of explicitly modeled attention-maps using geometric prior is based on the observation that the spatial context for a given pixel within an image is mostly dominated by its neighbors, while more distant pixels have a minor contribution. Concretely, the attention-maps are parametrized via simple functions (e.g., Gaussian kernel) with a learnable radius, which is modeled independently of the input content. Our evaluation shows that our method achieves an accuracy improvement of up to 2.2% over the ResNet-baselines in ImageNet ILSVRC and outperforms other self-attention methods such as AA-ResNet152 in accuracy by 0.9% with 6.4% fewer parameters and 6.7% fewer GFLOPs. This result empirically indicates the value of incorporating geometric prior into self-attention mechanism when applied in image classification.


Water-soluble phenol and phenolic compounds were generally removed via advanced oxidation processes. A novel semiconductor catalyst, CT, was the first-time employed in the present study to degrade phenol and catechol. The phenolic compounds (initial concentration of 88 mg L−1) were completely mineralized by the CT catalytic nanoparticles (1%) within 15 days, under acidic condition and with the presence of mild UV radiation (15 w, the emitted wavelength is 254 nm and the light intensity <26 μw/cm2). Under the same reaction condition, 1% TiO2 (mixture of rutile and anatase, nanopowder, <100 nm) and H2O2 had lower removal efficiency (phenol: <42%; catechol: <60%), whereas the control (without addition of catalysts/H2O2) only showed <12% removal. The processes of phenol/catechol removal by CT followed pseudo-zero-order kinetics. The aromatic structures absorbed the UV energy and passed to an excited state, which the CT worked on. The pollutants were adsorbed on the CT's surface and oxidized via charge-transfer and hydroxyl radical generation by CT. Given low initial concentrations, a circumstance encountered in wastewater polishing, the current set-up should be an efficient and less energy- and chemical-consumptive treatment method.


F. nucleatum is an anaerobic bacterium that is associated with several tumor entities and promotes tumorigenesis. Recent evidence suggests that F. nucleatum binds the inhibitory receptor carcinoembryonic antigen cell adhesion molecule 1 (CEACAM1) via the trimeric autotransporter adhesin CbpF. However, whether this binding is functional or whether other fusobacterial trimeric autotransporter adhesins are involved in CEACAM1 activation is unknown. In this study, using F. nucleatum mutants lacking the type 5c trimeric autotransporter adhesins fvcA (CbpF), fvcB, fvcC, and fvcD, we show that F. nucleatum CbpF binds and activates CEACAM1 and also binds carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a tumor-associated protein. We further find that CEACAM antibodies directed against the CEACAM N-terminal domain block the CbpF-CEACAM1 interaction. In functional assays, we demonstrate CbpF-dependent inhibition of CD4+ T cell response. Thus, we characterize an immune evasion mechanism in which F. nucleatum uses its surface protein CbpF to inhibit T cell function by activating CEACAM1.


PURPOSE
to analyze main parameters of respiratory dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) with and without concomitant ischemic heart disease (IHD).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We examined 104 patients with DM without (n= 64, 61.5%) and with (n=40, 38.5%) concomitant IHD. Examination included taking medical history, registration of parameters of myocardial and respiratory function and lung diffusion capacity. Resuts. Respiratory dysfunction in patients with DM was related to disease duration and glycose level. Presence of IHD and chronic heart failure of high functional class was associated with more pronounced reduction of forced expiratory volume in 1 sec and lung diffusion capacity.

CONCLUSION
Revealed association between respiratory parameters and characteristics of the state of myocardium evidence for possible contribution of the latter in development of respiratory dysfunction in patients with DM.


A system to determine the likelihood of survival for trauma injury patients is being developed. It uses a fuzzy logic approach that can model complex processes without reliance on sophisticated mathematical formulations and may have the potential to be more accurate than the existing approaches. The outline operation of the system that is currently in a prototype stage is described.


Abstract - The business of any organization depends on the data they have stored and fetch in quick span of time to take decision in recent competitive era. Data compression is a skill of sinking the number of bits needed to store or transmit data. The objective of this paper is to sink the size of statistics through compression techniques using different algorithms. In this paper a new compression algorithm based on J-bit encoding techniques has been proposed. This algorithm based on designing, optimizing and splitting the input data by dividing into two parts 1 for "true" and 0 for "false".  Data warehouse has large volume of storage capacity that can be used by J-bit encoding for largest data bits. It is tough to reduce the size of database and minimize the retrieval time. This proposed algorithm of data compression is named as Enhanced J-Bit Encoding (EJBE). It is conducive for enumerated data that provides the output of any format of data.


The precautionary principle has become an increasingly important component of environmental policy, considered by the European Union to be a general principle of international law. As the precautionary principle has gained prominence, policy analysts have devoted increasing attention to the issue of implementation. Nevertheless, the practical implications of the principle remain unclear. In this article, I argue that the principle has a plausible core meaning that yields a well-defined regulatory approach. The most non controversial norm apparently embodied in the precautionary principle requires that scientific uncertainty should not disadvantage those individuals who might be physically harmed by the potential hazard. This norm justifies environmental regulations based on the risk assessment reasonably preferred by potential victims. That assessment can be combined with standard economic methodology to quantify the injury cost of the potential hazard. That cost can then be evaluated pursuant to the regulatory procedure for known hazards. The resultant decision rule protects potential victims from the adverse consequences of scientific uncertainty as required by the norm apparently embodied in the precautionary principle. The decision rule requires a reasonable basis for the risk assessment adopted by potential victims. In applying the requirement of reasonableness, which determines the appropriate use of scientific evidence, regulators should be able to derive adequate guidance from the rules of international trade, as illustrated by the emerging case law that interprets the World Trade Organization Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures. Although the decision rule is not allocatively efficient in important settings, such inefficiency should not be controversial as a matter of welfare economics, because the distributive objective embodied in the precautionary principle cannot be attained by the standard compensatory or transfer mechanisms-the tax and tort systems. In important contexts, though, the decision rule selects allocatively efficient precautions. Consequently, the decision rule is unlikely to be fully satisfactory for either the proponents or critics of the precautionary principle. My objective, however, is not to defend a particular conception of the principle. Rather, for the debate over the precautionary principle to be fruitful, it must move from generalities to the particularized guidance required for principled regulation. A concrete proposal for implementation is a step in that direction.


In order to gain insight into the mechanisms underlying the dynamic changes in bone metabolism and bone quality after parathyroidectomy (PTX) in secondary hyperparathyroid patients with high levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH), we performed bone histomorphometric analysis with tetracycline labeling in iliac bone biopsy specimens taken before and after PTX, with special attention paid to osteocytes. At 2 to 4 weeks after PTX, PTH concentrations decreased markedly with evident reductions in bone turnover markers. Histomorphometry revealed that at 2 to 4 weeks following PTX, the osteoclast surface decreased to nearly 0%, with a substantial increase in osteoid volume and a reduction in fibrosis volume. Labeling with tetracycline was observed not only at the mineralization front on the bone surface but also around the osteocyte lacunar walls and canaliculi within both the basic multicellular units (BMUs) and bone structural units (BSUs), suggesting that mineralization was taking place along the lacunocanalicular system after PTX. The tetracycline‐labeled area was much greater in the BSUs than in the BMUs and at the mineralization front, and the tetracycline labeling in the BSUs was markedly increased after PTX compared with that in the low‐ and high‐PTH control groups without PTX. The osteocyte number was decreased significantly after PTX, concomitant with an increase in the number of empty lacunae and a reduction of lacunar volume. Thus the increased osteocyte death and mineralization around the lacunocanalicular system in association with a rapid decline in PTH may underlie the changes in bone metabolism and quality that occur following PTX. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.