Human health hazards caused by bisphenol A (BPA), a precursor for epoxy resins and polycarbonate-based plastics, are well documented and are closely associated with mitochondrial impairment and oxidative imbalance. This study aimed to assess the therapeutic efficacy of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on renal deterioration caused by long-term BPA exposure and examine the signaling transduction pathway involved. Male Wistar rats were given vehicle or BPA orally for 12 weeks then the BPA-treated group was subdivided to receive vehicle or NAC concurrently with BPA for a further 4 weeks, while the vehicle-treated normal control group continued to receive vehicle through to the end of experiment. Proteinuria, azotemia, glomerular filtration reduction and histopathological abnormalities caused by chronic BPA exposure were significantly reduced following NAC therapy. NAC also diminished nitric oxide and lipid peroxidation but enhanced renal glutathione levels, and counteracted BPA-induced mitochondrial swelling, increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production, and the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential. The benefit of NAC was related to the modulation of signaling proteins in the AMPK-SIRT3-SOD2 axis. The present study shows the potential of NAC to restore mitochondrial integrity and oxidative balance after long-term BPA exposure, and suggests that NAC therapy is an effective approach to tackle renal deterioration in this condition.


In this study, we demonstrate the use of a geo-spatial information system for volume estimation of fallout deposits and for identification of syn-eruptive and post-eruptive depositional mechanisms. For the first time, we present thickness distribution maps, isopachs maps, and fallout deposit volumes for the single stratigraphic units (A-F) of the 122 BC Plinian eruption of Etna, the most powerful eruption of this volcano in historical times. Thickness data collected during the field survey were organized into a geo-referenced database, and several interpolation algorithms were used to calculate the volumes of the six fallout layers of eruption (units A-F). The results are compared with those obtained using the Pyle method, which bases volume calculations on the exponential thickness-decay law of the deposits. Differences in the two methods are analyzed through applying two-dimensional (2D) and 3D geo-statistical analysis to thickness data, with an 'ideal' fallout deposit used as reference. Our approach allowed both identification of stratigraphic sections where the deposits were affected by secondary erosional or accumulation phenomena, and assessment of whether the secondary processes were caused by local morphologic conditions or by variations in eruptive dynamics (e.g., rotation of dispersal axis direction).


Background: High intake of some elements results in toxicity for human. Investigations has been shown that in some species of tea (Camellia sinensis L) the level of certain elements are higher than standard. This study aimed to measure the amount of K, Cu, Pb, Ni, Na, Mg, Zn, Ar, and Se ions in black tea. Matereials and Methods: Pre-analysis treatment of tea samples (trade marks Tala,Gulabi, Ahmad, Golestan, and the bulk brand of Ceylon ) and the measurment of ions were carried out using acid digestion and atomic-absorption spectrometry techniques, respectively. Results: The minimum and maximum means for K, Mg, Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Na ions in the examined samples were (18062±1095 and 19364±6120 mg/kg), (1±0 and 157±20 mg/kg), (21±3 and 31±9 mg/kg), (17±0 and 21±0 mg/kg), (0.485±0.249 and 0.151±0.066 mg/kg), (0.485±0.249 and 0.151±0.066 mg/kg), (2.907±0.077 and 6.987±1.270 mg/kg), (1±0 and 157±20 mg/kg), respectively. Se and Ar levels is samples were non-detectable. Conclusion: The availibility of high levels of K and Mg ions in the examined black teas is in agreement with a traditional medicine hypothesis signifiyiny the use of tea to decrease the blood pressure.


Radiative cooling is a passive cooling technology that offers great promises to reduce space cooling cost, combat the urban island effect, and alleviate the global warming. To achieve passive daytime radiative cooling, current state-of-the-art solutions often utilize complicated multilayer structures or a reflective metal layer, limiting their applications in many fields. Attempts have been made to achieve passive daytime radiative cooling with single-layer paints, but they often require a thick coating or show partial daytime cooling. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate remarkable full-daytime subambient cooling performance with both BaSO4 nanoparticle films and BaSO4 nanocomposite paints. BaSO4 has a high electron band gap for low solar absorptance and phonon resonance at 9 μm for high sky window emissivity. With an appropriate particle size and a broad particle size distribution, the BaSO4 nanoparticle film reaches an ultrahigh solar reflectance of 97.6% and a high sky window emissivity of 0.96. During field tests, the BaSO4 film stays more than 4.5 °C below ambient temperature or achieves an average cooling power of 117 W/m2. The BaSO4-acrylic paint is developed with a 60% volume concentration to enhance the reliability in outdoor applications, achieving a solar reflectance of 98.1% and a sky window emissivity of 0.95. Field tests indicate similar cooling performance to the BaSO4 films. Overall, our BaSO4-acrylic paint shows a standard figure of merit of 0.77, which is among the highest of radiative cooling solutions while providing great reliability, convenient paint form, ease of use, and compatibility with the commercial paint fabrication process.


Expanded π-systems with a narrow highest occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital band gap encounter deactivation of excitons due to the "energy gap law" and undesired aggregation. This dilemma generally thwarts the near-infrared (NIR) luminescence of organic π-systems. A sophisticated cofacially stacked π-system is known to involve exponentially tailed disorder, which displays exceptionally red-shifted fluorescence even as only a marginal emission component. Enhancement of the tail-state fluorescence might be advantageous to achieve NIR photoluminescence with an expected collective light-harvesting antenna effect as follows: (i) efficient light-harvesting capacity due to intense electronic absorption, (ii) a long-distance exciton migration into the tail state based on a high spatial density of the chromophore site, and (iii) substantial transmission of NIR emission to circumvent the inner filter effect. Suppression of aggregation-induced quenching of fluorescence could realize collective light-harvesting antenna for NIR-luminescence materials. This study discloses an enhanced tail-state NIR fluorescence of a self-standing porphyrin film at 1138 nm with a moderate quantum efficiency based on a fully π-conjugated porphyrin that adopts an amorphous form, called "porphyrin glass".


We identified a Saccharomyces cerevisiae peroxisomal membrane protein, Pex13p, that is essential for protein import. A point mutation in the COOH-terminal Src homology 3 (SH3) domain of Pex13p inactivated the protein but did not affect its membrane targeting. A two-hybrid screen with the SH3 domain of Pex13p identified Pex5p, a receptor for proteins with a type I peroxisomal targeting signal (PTS1), as its ligand. Pex13p SH3 interacted specifically with Pex5p in vitro. We determined, furthermore, that Pex5p was mainly present in the cytosol and only a small fraction was associated with peroxisomes. We therefore propose that Pex13p is a component of the peroxisomal protein import machinery onto which the mobile Pex5p receptor docks for the delivery of the selected PTS1 protein.


Background We determined whether poorer 6-minute walk performance and lower physical activity levels are associated with higher rates of ischemic heart disease (IHD) events in people with lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD). Methods and Results Five hundred ten PAD participants were identified from Chicago-area medical centers and followed prospectively for 19.0±9.5 months. At baseline, participants completed the 6-minute walk and reported number of blocks walked during the past week (physical activity). IHD events were systematically adjudicated and consisted of new myocardial infarction, unstable angina, and cardiac death. For 6-minute walk, IHD event rates were 25/170 (14.7%) for the third (poorest) tertile, 10/171 (5.8%%) for the second tertile, and 6/169 (3.5%) for the first (best) tertile (P=0.003). For physical activity, IHD event rates were 21/154 (13.6%) for the third (poorest) tertile, 15/174 (8.6%) for the second tertile, and 5/182 (2.7%) for the first (best) tertile (P=0.001). Adjusting for age, sex, race, smoking, body mass index, comorbidities, and physical activity, participants in the poorest 6-minute walk tertile had a 3.28-fold (95% CI 1.17 to 9.17, P=0.024) higher hazard for IHD events, compared with those in the best tertile. Adjusting for confounders including 6-minute walk, participants in the poorest physical activity tertile had a 3.72-fold (95% CI 1.24 to 11.19, P=0.019) higher hazard for IHD events, compared with the highest tertile. Conclusions Six-minute walk and physical activity predict IHD event rates in PAD. Further study is needed to determine whether interventions that improve 6-minute walk, physical activity, or both can reduce IHD events in PAD.


Abstract : The report presents procedures, analysis methods, and final results pertaining to the LO-LOCAT Program (Phases I and II). Approximately 800 hours of low-level (0-1,000 feet) turbulence and associated meteorological data recorded from September 15, 1966 to December 20, 1967 are analyzed. A model of the turbulence environment at low-level is presented in terms of gust velocity primary peaks, amplitude samples, rms values, maximum values, and derived equivalent gusts. Mathematical expressions of turbulence spectra and scale length statistics, and correlations between atmospheric gust velocities and meteorological and geophysical phenomena are shown. The frequency spectrum of turbulence and the associated characteristics of isotropy, homogeneity, and stationarity are discussed. It was found that gust velocity magnitude rms values above 1.0 fps may be approximated by truncated normal distributions. For wavelengths less than 7,000 feet turbulence spectra are best represented by the von Karman expressions. The longitudinal scale length of atmospheric turbulence at low altitude is approximately 400 feet. The turbulence, sampled during 5-1/2 minutes over a distance of approximately 21 miles, at absolute altitudes below 1,000 feet, was found to be stationary, isotropic, and homogeneous. (Author)


Gertrude Berg invents the character Molly Goldberg and forever after people think of Berg as Molly Goldberg. "Gertrude Berg, who created Molly, wrote all her lines, played her for two decades on radio and another five years on television." (Hinckley, 2002) Who was Gertrude Berg/Molly Goldberg and how did she so effectively represent the hegemonic ideologies of the l950s? First, she glorifies one of the values so pervasive in America: motherhood. This buxom and benevolent meddler who can solve problems by mixing good common sense, a considerable dab of compassion, but most of all wisdom becomes an archetype for motherhood during this era. Along with motherhood she celebrates the family unit and the need for family to work together to protect each other. She also embodies a sense of hope and goodness that Americans believe about themselves, that this land is generous enough to accept and embrace "the other" without restrictions.


Abstract Concurring with the approach stressing the role of contentious politics in (re)shaping state institutions, this study explores how disorganized popular contentions configure local institutional building in China. As Chinese citizens are not legally allowed to take organized collective action to express their grievances and demands, popular contentions, despite their common origins, similar claims and identical targets, break out here and there in large numbers without clear organizational shape. This compels the government to build institutions able to map scattered conflicts, detect potential problems and defuse them on a case-by-case basis in a timely fashion. Such a dissipative approach is distinguished, by its purpose, format and mechanism, from two common types of state responses to popular contentions—incorporation and repression—which are typically linked to democracies and authoritarian developing states where popular contentions are often organized in various ways.


Palliative care is uprising in developing countries. The Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 palliative care service put the main concepts in pediatric palliation in consideration while facing the challenges and needs for these children and their families. The palliative care program developed will be connected to other centers in Egypt as well as further branches of the hospital in other Egyptian cities.


Water is an important enemy of an electric insulation system. Water vapour can be absorbed by electrical insulation materials (liquids or solid) and migrate in between the materials to achieve the same relative humidity equilibrium everywhere. Water can reduce withstand voltage of the insulation liquid, initiate partial discharges in wet solids and increase dielectric losses in solids like epoxies, gels, PCB cards and produce dielectric heating. In insulation liquid filled system the water content of the liquid should never be allowed to reach saturation. One failure scenario is when typical oil with significant water content is cooled to a temperature where the water content is above the saturation content, and then water will precipitate and may condensate at cold insulating gaps and give breakdown due to electric field enhancement. Gel samples were investigated in climate chambers in various conditions of humidity and temperature until an equilibrium was reached. Diffusion and absorption of water were measured at different intervals. The aim of the study was to find an appropriate technique/methodology to follow the absorption of moisture in gel as a function of time. Several techniques were tested to determine the moisture content in the gel such as Karl Fischer, weight differences measurement, freeze drying and capacitive relative humidity sensors giving contrasted results. The weight difference method showed "anomaly" indicating bound water, even after equilibrium (measured with the other methods) was reached the weight continued to increase. The use of humidity sensors covered by gel appears to be the most reliable technique.


Eight adult participants were investigated in a pre-experiment for the future assessment of semantic N400 effects in children. The materials were words resented in semantically incongruent vs. congruent picture contexts. For example, he word duck was played while a picture of a tree was shown in the incongruent est condition vs. the word duck was played while a picture of a duck was shown in the congruent test condition. A larger N400 effect was expected in response to the incongruent audio-visual pairings. The results showed in time extended peak-to peak differences between congruent and incongruent audio-visual pairings at the centroparietal, parietal and parieto-occipital recording sites. This study was performed to validate the current materials to be used to answer questions on appearance of the N400 component in children.


Since 2010, Greece has experienced an unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis, which continues to have tremendous social impact. Austerity measures and policy cuts have included a dis-investment in social work and social care and more recently the abolition of one of the four national Social Work Departments providing qualifying social work education. In this context, this study addresses the following question: how does pre-qualifying social work education in Greece influence students' ability to manage value tensions in relation to anti-oppressive practice? Using a case study methodology, the research was based in one Social Work Department (subsequently abolished). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from social work students at the beginning and the end of their professional education (n = 32) and once from academic staff/placement supervisors (n = 10). Data were analysed drawing on grounded theory techniques. In this paper only one particular dataset is considered in detail: the attitudes and experiences of final year students. The main findings indicate students' narrow understandings and individualistic approaches towards oppression, reflecting an urgent need to redefine social work education and practice in Greece according to current social justice concerns. Specifically, social work education needs to give greater weight to a structural perspective on the dynamics of oppression. Although focussed on Greece, the paper offers a critical debate of contemporary relevance for social work education in many European nation states.


In this paper I show that recently proposed methods to quantify the level of inequality of opportunity are likely to be downward biased when the dependent variable is a proxy for an unobserved concept. Using a multidimensional framework of development, such as the capability approach, or a standard utility maximization framework with heterogeneous preferences permits us to show that such measurement errors are the rule rather than the exception. I propose to estimate the latent variable of interest through appropriate multivariate techniques to circumvent the aforementioned bias. Using a simulation and an empirical illustration, I show that the use of multiple indicator variables and appropriate aggregation techniques can reduce the bias substantially. Using data from Mexico, it is found that inequality of opportunity for the broader concept of economic well-being is more than twice as high as inequality of opportunity in log income, which is commonly used as a proxy of the first.


Inhibition of cardiac ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) by alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) did not prevent normal cardiac growth in mature rats but attenuated isoproterenol-induced hypertrophy. Hypertrophy caused by triiodothyronine was not prevented by DFMO. There appear to be both ODC-dependent and ODC-independent processes contributing to the subcellular mechanisms associated with growth, which must be considered in the potential laboratory and clinical use of DFMO.


Respiratory muscle fatigue appears to be the cause of hypercapnic respiratory failure in many patients with lung disease. Recent studies have suggested that the rate of development of respiratory muscle fatigue largely depends on the balance between the level of respiratory muscle blood flow and the metabolic demands of these muscles. Physiological factors that alter muscle blood flow (for example, cardiogenic or septic shock, alterations in muscle length) or respiratory muscle metabolic demands (for example, increases in the work of breathing) may influence this balance, affecting the rate of development of respiratory muscle fatigue in these patients. Therapeutic measures that augment respiratory muscle blood flow (restoration of normal arterial pressure in patients in shock) or reduce the work of breathing (for example, mechanical ventilation) may prevent or reverse respiratory muscle fatigue.


We present a new method for multi-modal, long-term vehicle trajectory prediction. Our approach relies on using lane centerlines captured in rich maps of the environment to generate a set of proposed goal paths for each vehicle. Using these paths -- which are generated at run time and therefore dynamically adapt to the scene -- as spatial anchors, we predict a set of goal-based trajectories along with a categorical distribution over the goals. This approach allows us to directly model the goal-directed behavior of traffic actors, which unlocks the potential for more accurate long-term prediction. Our experimental results on both a large-scale internal driving dataset and on the public nuScenes dataset show that our model outperforms state-of-the-art approaches for vehicle trajectory prediction over a 6-second horizon. We also empirically demonstrate that our model is better able to generalize to road scenes from a completely new city than existing methods.


In this selective review, we consider a number of unsolved questions regarding the glycogen storage diseases (GSD). Thus, the pathogenesis of Pompe disease (GSD II) is not simply explained by excessive intralysosomal glycogen storage and may relate to a more general dysfunction of autophagy. It is not clear why debrancher deficiency (GSD III) causes fixed myopathy rather than exercise intolerance, unless this is due to the frequent accompanying neuropathy. The infantile neuromuscular presentation of branching enzyme deficiency (GSD IV) is underdiagnosed and is finally getting the attention it deserves. On the other hand, the late-onset variant of GSD IV (adult polyglucosan body disease APBD) is one of several polyglucosan disorders (including Lafora disease) due to different etiologies. We still do not understand the clinical heterogeneity of McArdle disease (GSD V) or the molecular basis of the rare fatal infantile form. Similarly, the multisystemic infantile presentation of phosphofructokinase deficiency (GSD VII) is a conundrum. We observed an interesting association between phosphoglycerate kinase deficiency (GSD IX) and juvenile Parkinsonism, which is probably causal rather than casual. Also unexplained is the frequent and apparently specific association of phosphoglycerate mutase deficiency (GSD X) and tubular aggregates. By paying more attention to problems than to progress, we aimed to look to the future rather than to the past.


We aim to enhance the quality of life of elderly and people with mild cognitive disabilities through technology. This includes increasing their autonomy, enhancing their security, and preventing isolation by staying socially connected. One way to do so is enabling them a life in their familiar surroundings as long as possible. We present the successful integration of several systems comprising the intelligent medicament blister and the task-based calendar. The intelligent medicament blister helps to increase a patient's compliance and the task-based calendar assists people with cognitive disabilities in their activities of daily living like cooking tea. Furthermore, we present the technical infrastructure such as the universal control hub or the digital product memory. Our long term vision is to promote an accessible intelligent environment based on open standards and architectures and innovative solutions where everyone can continue to play a role in society.


The author presents a comprehensive review highlighting historical as well as new developments in the area of random media. Both discrete and continuous media are considered as well as rough surfaces. The author discusses wave propagation in turbulence and in a random continuum where the refractive index is a random function of space and time. Examples are optical propagation in the atmosphere, microwaves in the troposphere, ionosphere, planetary atmosphere, and solar wind, and acoustic scattering in ocean turbulence. The author describes multiple scattering by random distributions of discrete scatterers. Examples are optical and microwave scattering by rain, fog, smog, snow, ice particles, and vegetation, optical and ultrasound scattering by tissues and blood, optical and acoustic scattering in the ocean, and scattering in composite materials. Scattering by rough surfaces and interfaces is discussed. Examples are acoustic scattering by ocean surfaces, microwave and optical scattering by vegetation, terrain, and snow cover, and ultrasound scattering by rough interfaces in biological media. >


We present the results of an extensive survey for rapid pulsators among Extreme Horizontal Branch (EHB) stars in ω Cen. The observations performed consist of nearly 100 h of time-series photometry for several off-centre fields of the cluster, as well as low-resolution spectroscopy for a partially overlapping sample. We obtained photometry for some 300 EHB stars, for around half of which we are able to recover light curves of sufficient quality to either detect or place meaningful non-detection limits for rapid pulsations. Based on the spectroscopy, we derive reliable values of log g, Teff and log N(He) /N(H) for 38 targets, as well as good estimates of the effective temperature for another nine targets, whose spectra are slightly polluted by a close neighbour in the image. The survey uncovered a total of five rapid variables with multi-periodic oscillations between 85 and 125 s. Spectroscopically, they form a homogeneous group of hydrogen-rich subdwarf O stars clustered between 48 000 and 54 000 K. For each of the variables we are able to measure between two and three significant pulsations believed to constitute independent harmonic oscillations. However, the interpretation of the Fourier spectra is not straightforward due to significant fine structure attributed to strong amplitude variations. In addition to the rapid variables, we found an EHB star with an apparently periodic luminosity variation of ~2700 s, which we tentatively suggest may be caused by ellipsoidal variations in a close binary. Using the overlapping photometry and spectroscopy sample we are able to map an empirical ω Cen instability strip in log g − Teff space. This can be directly compared to the pulsation driving predicted from the Montreal "second-generation" models regularly used to interpret the pulsations in hot B subdwarfs. Extending the parameter range of these models to higher temperatures, we find that the region where p-mode excitation occurs is in fact bifurcated, and the well-known instability strip between 29 000−36 000 K where the rapid subdwarf B pulsators are found is complemented by a second one above 50 000 K in the models. While significant challenges remain at the quantitative level, we believe that the same κ-mechanism that drives the pulsations in hot B subdwarfs is also responsible for the excitation of the rapid oscillations observed in the ω Cen variables. Intriguingly, the ω Cen variables appear to form a unique class. No direct counterparts have so far been found either in the Galactic field, nor in other globular clusters, despite dedicated searches. Conversely, our survey revealed no ω Cen representatives of the rapidly pulsating hot B subdwarfs found among the field population, though their presence cannot be excluded from the limited sample.


The current article discusses the feelings of nursing students as they enter their psychiatric rotation. Most nursing students are apprehensive of the psychiatric clinical setting. After more than 25 years of teaching, observing, and listening to remarks from students, the current researchers have discovered two major situations nursing students fear most about the psychiatric clinical setting: handling an assaultive patient and communication. Students have heard stories from the media and come with preconceived ideas about the psychiatric setting. Orientation and training in these two areas before the start of psychiatric clinical rotation is key in preparing students for this experience. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, xx(x), xx-xx.].


Abstract Subsidence due to peat compaction may have important implications in alluvial floodplains, because it leads to wetland loss, land inundation, and damage to buildings and infrastructure. Furthermore, it potentially influences spatial and temporal river sedimentation patterns, and hence the evolution of alluvial floodplains. As the vast majority of peatlands occur in cold temperate regions, alluvial plains situated in such areas are most susceptible to these implications. To determine which locations within alluvial floodplains are most vulnerable to high amounts of compaction-induced subsidence, it is necessary to quantify compaction and to identify which factors influence the amount and rate of peat compaction. For this, we carried out field work in the Cumberland Marshes (east-central Saskatchewan, Canada) guided by the following two questions: (1) how much peat compaction has occurred over the past decades to centuries, and (2) which factors control the amount and rate of peat compaction at the same timescale. To address these questions, we used methods involving construction of stratigraphic cross sections, organic-matter content and bulk-density measurements, and radiocarbon dating. A new sampling device was devised to sample uncompacted peat in the field. Results show that peat layers have compacted up to 43% within a few centuries, with compaction rates of up to 6.08 mm/yr. The dominant factors influencing peat compaction are: (1) organic-matter content, (2) stress imposed on a peat layer, and, to a lesser extent, (3) plant species composition. In an alluvial setting, crevasse splays and natural levees are sites that are most susceptible to high amounts of peat compaction at short timescales (100–102 years). Sheet-like splay deposits initially compact underlying peat uniformly, whereas differential compaction commonly occurs beneath natural levees due to lateral variations in sediment thickness. Subsidence due to peat compaction creates additional accommodation space and hence locally enhances floodplain sedimentation rates.


This paper deals with estimating parameters and reliability function for the general linear failure rate distribution, which is an important probability distribution for studying the time to failure for machines and equipment. The parameters of location ( ), and scale parameter ( ), were estimated, while the shape parameter ( ) considered known. Three statistical methods are used for estimation which include maximum likelihood method, least square method, and proposed method including finding a mixed distribution, from using maximum likelihood and lest square estimator with proportion ( ), ( 1 − ). The comparison between estimators has been done through simulation procedure using different sample size like ( =15,30,50,75,100 ), and each experiment is replicated ( =1000 ). The comparison done using the statistical measure mean square error (MSE), all results of comparison were represented in Tables.


The objectives of the project are to determine the use of rape as a weapon in the Mt. Elgon conflict, its effectiveness as a weapon and its impact on society. The study used the strategic rape theory which propagates that sexual violence is calculated and premeditated to achieve a certain end. This theory was complemented by the conflict theory of sexual stratification which bases the roots of violence towards women as a consequence of societal stratification that exalts male domination which manifests in the battle field through the violation of women. The study was carried out in Kapsokwony, Cheptais and Kopsiro Divisions. Primary and secondary data was used in the study. Secondary sources included books, scholarly journals and articles from the University of Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta Library as well as newspaper and magazine articles and Non Governmental Organization reports. Primary sources included women and men victims of the violence as well as former Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) militia men (fifty seven in total) in the area that were targeted through the snow balling technique. This data was collected using interviews, focused group discussions and open ended questionnaires. This data was then analyzed and conclusions reached. The study established that rape was the ultimate weapon of terror and the SLDF used it to their advantage. Rape when wielded as a weapon is often used to terrorize the masses and demoralize the enemy in a way only sexual violence v can do. Rape is the violation of the woman. It signals the enemy's failure as a man to protect his woman. It is an effective way to dishearten and break the enemy's resistance. Physical weapons, such as pangas and guns, were used but they were not as damaging as rape as a weapon. A broken leg heals faster than a broken heart or spirit which is exactly why rape was used. This is because it has destructive effects. In the Mt. Elgon conflict, rape achieved what bullets and guns could not; humiliation, abject fear and total submission of the enemy. The study concludes that sexual violence not only affected the women but the entire society. It not only impacts the victim, but the perpetrator as well. They both grapple with the wide range of consequences that have shattered the values and integrity of the Mt. Elgon community. These ramifications run from social issues, such as the rise of prostitution and divorce, to physical impacts like miscarriages, disabilities or diseases like HIV to psychological results like depression, low self esteem and even suicide. These and a host of other consequences have indeed torn the fabric of the Mt. Elgon community in terms of trust, security and harmony.


All legal systems work under a master narrative – the self-conception of most actors of the system itself. A master narrative is a short and simple story and it is the underlying premise upon which any legal system is based. It is a simple story because it paints the system in quick broad brushstrokes and at (most) times is oblivious to the paradoxes within it. Furthermore, a master narrative is important for legitimization purposes because the actors' legitimacy will depend on their (perceived) conformity with the system's master narrative. Therefore, legitimacy is self-referential; the yardsticks for a legitimate action are contained within the system's master narrative, not outside of it. When talking about different international courts it is important to remember that they are embedded within a master narrative that is contextual and contingent and, at different points, more or less contested. This paper explores the question of what happens when the master-narrative is in a period of transition (from a state cantered to a post-national world order) and when the actors' legitimacy, their interpretative endeavours the very fundamentals are in a state of flux. I use the margin of appreciation discussion as a focal point of describing the conflicting narratives under which the European Court of Human Rights works, narratives in which the different actors (judges, attorneys, NGO activists, government agents) and their consequences in terms of the interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights.


This paper describes the design of a wideband SiGe low-noise amplifier (LNA) for 3.1-10.6 GHz ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless receivers. The LNA uses a circuit topology consisting of two gain stages in multiple feedback loops to achieve broadband flat gain together with low noise figure and good input match. Fabricated in a 0.25 mum SiGe BiCMOS technology, the IC prototype delivers a flat power gain of nominal 20 dB and a noise figure of 2.8-4.7 dB over the entire UWB frequency band, while achieving an input IP3 of -8 dBm. The amplifier occupies only 0.34 mm2 chip area and consumes 11 mA from a 2.7 V supply


Mouse blastocysts undergo developmental steps in culture analogous to those occurring during implantation in utero. We examined cultured blastocysts by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as they passed through these stages. From the time of hatching to the acquisition of adhesiveness, most blastocysts were exhanded, with flattened cells possessing relatively small numbers of microvilli, centrally raised areas (presumably reflecting the location of the nuclei) and intercellular ridges often possessing microvilli. At, or shortly before, the trophoblast outgrowth stage, blastocysts appeared to contract; the cells bulged noticeably, microvilli covered the entire surface of most cells and intercellular ridges were no longer observable. Blastocysts removed from uteri on the seventh day of ovariectomy delay possessed a variety of morphologies and shapes. The blastocoel was frequently collapsed and cell outlines were difficult to discern. These blastocysts were initially adhesive in vitro, but subsequently disengaged from the substratum before becoming permanently adherent several hours later. During the initial phase of adhesiveness, blastocysts were elongated and had prominent intercellular ridges, particularly in the equatorial region. Detached blastocysts contained bulging cells with contours which obscured the intercellular ridges. Surface ultrastructure during subsequent phases resembled non-delayed blastocysts during attachment and outgrowth. On the basis of our studies, we propose that intercellular ridges play some role in blastocyst adhesiveness. However, we must conclude that there are other factors involved in the acquisition of adhesiveness by the blastocyst which are at least equally important but of a nature too subtle to be identified by our SEM analyses. Insofar as delayed blastocysts are concerned, we find that, within limits, the surface alterations that take place when blastocysts are activated in culture mirror those observed following reversal of delay in vivo by administration of hormones. Since delayed blastocysts placed in saline also undergo morphological changes resembling those seen at the onset of activation in utero, we suggest that reversal of implantation delay requires initially neither direct contact with steroid or macromolecular inducers nor an exogenous supply of metabolites.


Stochastic Approximation Algorithms in the Estimation of Quasi-Stationary Distribution of Finite and General State Space Markov Chains Shuheng Zheng This thesis studies stochastic approximation algorithms for estimating the quasi-stationary distribution of Markov chains. Existing numerical linear algebra methods and probabilistic methods might be computationally demanding and intractable in large state spaces. We take our motivation from a heuristic described in the physics literature and use the stochastic approximation framework to analyze and extend it. The thesis begins by looking at the finite dimensional setting. The finite dimensional quasi-stationary estimation algorithm was proposed in the Physics literature by [10, 9, 13], however no proof was given there and it was not recognized as a stochastic approximation algorithm. This and related schemes were analyzed in the context of urn problems and the consistency of the estimator is shown there [1, 29, 3]. The rate of convergence is studied by [3] in special cases only. The first chapter provides a different proof of the algorithm's consistency and establishes a rate of convergence in more generality than [3]. It is discovered that the rate of convergence is only fast when a certain restrictive eigenvalue condition is satisfied. Using the tool of iterate averaging, the algorithm can be modified and we can eliminate the eigenvalue condition. The thesis then moves onto the general state space discrete-time Markov chain setting. In this setting, the stochastic approximation framework does not have a strong theory in the current literature, so several of the convergence results have to be adapted because the iterates of our algorithm are measure-valued The chapter formulates the quasi-stationary estimation algorithm in this setting. Then, we extend the ODE method of [21] and proves the consistency of algorithm. Through the proof, several non-restrictive conditions required for convergence of the algorithm are discovered. Finally, the thesis tests the algorithm by running some numerical experiments. The examples are designed to test the algorithm in various edge cases. The algorithm is also empirically compared against the Fleming-Viot method.


Background The principles of deprescribing (the process of tapering, withdrawing, discontinuing or stopping medicines) arise from appropriateness methods (Beers and STOPP criteria). They include reviewing all current medicines and identifying medicines to be withdrawn, substituted or reduced. Considering the high pill burden for patients with several comorbidities, such patients might benefit from a systematic approach to deprescribing. Purpose To identify the available evidence about deprescribing strategies in the elderly and/or patients with several chronic conditions and, if applicable, assess its efficacy. Materials and methods Systematic review of studies published from 1967–2013 in MEDLINE and EMBASE. Eligible studies had to report the success rate [SR] of deprescribing strategies. Success was defined as not having to modify further the withdrawn, substituted or reduced drug during the study follow-up. The search strategy included terms for deprescribing (drug withdrawal, appropriateness), study population (polypathological [PP], chronic disease, elderly) and study design (clinical trial [CT], observational study[OS]). Results Seventy-two articles were examined. Twenty of them (14 CTs, 6 OSs) fulfilled all inclusion criteria. None focused on PP patients. Several of them focused on benzodiazepines 5(30%), diuretics 2(10%) and antihypertensive drugs 2(10%). Strategies based on a full pharmacotherapy review conducted by pharmacists or physicians (5 studies) showed a 70% SR. They were based on clinical practice or explicit methods (Beers or STOPP-criteria). In contrast, the SR for single drug class strategies (15 studies) was 30%. Furthermore, the SR was higher in CTs (80%) than Oss (20%). Health outcomes were collected in all the studies but did not show a statistically significant improvement across all the intervention groups. Conclusions Currently there is no evidence of the benefit of deprescribing on PP. Interventions in patients with chronic conditions and the elderly seems more effective if a full pharmacotherapy review done by pharmacists or physicians in the context of a CT. There is no current evidence of efficacy from systematic interventions based on software programs or similar tools. No conflict of interest.


This paper focuses on the visions incorporated by the Hydrogen Road in Norway (HyNor) project. This is a large-scale project that aims to demonstrate real life implementation of hydrogen in the transport sector in Norway. The starting point of the analysis is that visions play an important role in technological projects. Visions carry, communicate and construct valid practices and meanings in technology. Consequently, visions in technological projects should be a matter of analysis. The following paper discusses both the meaning of technological visions and the kinds of visions that have been deployed in the HyNor project. This discussion shows that HyNor's visions are numerous, flexible and dynamic. Furthermore the ambivalence and tension in the project's visions represent a challenge that needs to be dealt with.


In order to get good car rideability, the electronic air suspensions(EAS) are now used in some advanced automotives. Although ABS systems are used in automotives for a long time, in some limit cases such as cornering at high speeds, cars may be still in great dangerous states. It is considered that if electronic air suspensions(EAS) can be adjusted with ABS during some extreme conditions, the cars may become safer. To investigate this possibility and then find out a specific control scheme, some research work is done in the paper. The research work begins from the dynamic analysis for cars with EAS and ABS both, and then based on it an integration control scheme for EAS and ABS is put forward. By means of Matlab/Simulink simulation study, it is found that the braking performances such as braking distance, braking deceleration, and the car vertical acceleration are improved obviously with the integration control technique for both of EAS and ABS during high speed cornering. Therefore the integration control method developed here can work well and improve the car performances obviously.


We propose a novel method for computing joint 2-node structural representations for link prediction in directed graphs. Existing approaches can be grouped into two families. The first group of methods learn structural embeddings of individual nodes in the entire graph through a directed Graph Neural Network (GNNs), and then combine pairs of the encodings to get a representation for the respective node pairs. Methods in the second group compute a representation of the subgraph enclosing the two nodes by employing GNNs initialized with positional encodings and consider these as their potential edge embeddings. Both families of link prediction techniques suffer from considerable shortcomings: The former fail to differentiate two distant nodes with similar neighborhoods; The latter, although provably appropriate for learning edge representations, adopt undirected GNNs, positional encodings, and subgraphs, so the edge direction signal is inevitably lost. Our proposal is also based on the idea of enclosing subgraphs, but the subgraphs are assumed directed, and directed Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are used to learn their node encodings and initial positional embeddings are direction-aware. Our emphasis on capturing the direction of edges is reflected in superior performance in the link prediction task against baselines with undirected GNNs on symmetrized enclosing subgraphs and existing directed GNNs over a collection of benchmark graph datasets. 1


The growing need for proficient English speakers in China, Japan and Korea has spurred a shift in English language policy from the traditional model focusing on reading and writing to a model emphasizing communicative language teaching (CLT) (Hu & Lei, 2014; Hu & McKay, 2012). However, despite policy changes, CLT methods are not regularly used in the classroom because of constraints such as the university entrance exam system. Therefore, students remain unprepared for the English method instruction (EMI) demands at university. As such, the purpose of this study is to explore student perspectives regarding their experiences attending high school in their home countries and then EMI programs at U.S. universities. The following is a mixed-method study that focuses on students who attended high school in China, Japan or Korea and are currently studying at a U.S. university. This study further focuses on the perspectives of these students with regard to whether they believe they were prepared for the English demands of their current university. Data was obtained through an online 33-item survey from fourteen university students as well as from semi-structured interviews from six of those participants. Results are mixed, because although the interviews revealed unanimously that the participants did not feel prepared for university in the U.S., the survey revealed no conclusive evidence as the participants felt neutral about the majority of the items regardless of country of origin. Implications for addressing the English language needs of current Chinese, Japanese and Korean university students and future research are also discussed. LANGUAGE POLICY CHANGE ii Table of


Background. Laparoscopic suturing has proved to be a challenging skill to master which may prevent surgical procedures from being started, or completed, in a minimally invasive fashion. The aim of this study is to compare the learning curves between traditional laparoscopic techniques with a novel suturing device. Methods. In this prospective single blinded nonrandomized controlled crossover study, we recruited 19 general surgery residents ranging from beginner (PGY1-2, n = 12) to advanced beginner (PGY3-5, n = 7). They were assigned to perform a knot tying and suturing task using either Endo360 or traditional laparoscopic technique (TLT) with needle holders before crossing over to the other method. The proficiency standards were developed by collecting the data for task completion time (TCT in seconds), dots on target (DoT in numbers), and total deviation (D in mm) on 5 expert attending surgeons (mean ± 2SD). The test subjects were "proficient" when they reached these standards 2 consecutive times. Results. Number of attempts to complete the task was collected for Endo360 and TLT. A significant difference was observed between mean number of attempts to reach proficiency for Endo360 versus TLT (P = .0027) in both groups combined, but this was not statistically significant in the advanced beginner group. TCT was examined for both methods and demonstrated significantly less time to complete the task for Endo360 versus TLT (P < .0001). There were significantly less DoT for Endo360 as compared with TLT (P < .0001), which was also associated with significantly less D (P < .0001) indicating lower accuracy with Endo360. However, no significant difference was observed between the groups for increasing number of trials for both DoT and D. Conclusions. This novel suturing device showed a shorter learning curve with regard to number of attempts to complete a task for the beginner group in our study, but matched the learning curve in the advanced beginner group. With regard to time to complete the task, the device was faster in both groups.


In the present research, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors were applied for the detection of transverse cracks, which cause strain distribution within the gage length, in carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) cross-ply laminates. An uncoated FBG sensor was embedded in 0° ply on the border of 90° ply in a CFRP cross-ply laminate. The reflection spectra from the FBG sensor were measured at various tensile stresses. As a result, the reflection spectrum became broad and had some peaks with increase of the transverse crack density in the 90° ply. After the crack density was saturated, the spectrum became narrow and had one large peak again. For confirming that the change in the spectrum form was caused by transverse cracks, the spectra were calculated theoretically. The calculated result reproduced the change in the measured spectrum form very well. These results show that the occurrence of transverse cracks can be detected from the change in the form of the reflection spectrum, and the spectrum width at the half-maximum is a good indicator for the quantitative evaluation of the transverse crack density on real-time.


A method is described for estimating the relative incidence of clinical events in defined time intervals after vaccination compared to a control period using only data on cases. The method is derived from a Poisson cohort model by conditioning on the occurrence of an event and on vaccination histories. Methods of analysis for event-dependent vaccination histories and survival data are discussed. Asymptotic arguments suggest that the method retains high efficiency relative to the full cohort analysis under conditions which commonly apply to studies of vaccine safety.


pregnancies. A 24 year old lady, G1P0, with no known consanguinity, detected multiple congenital malformation at 26 weeks including early onset fetal growth restriction, microcephaly, cerebellar hypoplasia, ventriculomegaly, micrognathia and abnormal limbs posture. She declined amniocentesis and resulted in a intrapartum stillbirth at 39 week, birth weight 955g. Placental karyotype was 46XX and autopsy confirmed all the ultrasound findings but no specific diagnosis could be reached. She was pregnant again 3 months later. She did not come early until 20 weeks and ultrasound showed similar features as last pregnancy. Amniocentesis revealed 46XX and the couple declined the option of pregnancy termination despite grave prognosis explained. Polyhydramnios developed at 35 weeks. A 'collodion baby', 1475g, was delivered by Cesarean section at 38 weeks for breech presentation and maternal request. Diagnostic skin biopsy revealed lamellar ichthyosis. A diagnosis of Neu-Laxova syndrome was made. Baby died on day 5 of life. Postmortem showed additional findings including pulmonary hypoplasia, lissencephaly and agenesis of corpus callosum. The diagnosis of Neu-Laxova syndrome was confirmed. Review of previous autopsy also showed features compatible with the syndrome. The differential diagnosis included restrictive dermopathy, bullous congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma, fetal akinesia sequence etc. The recurrence risk of 25% was explained to the couple. Prenatal ultrasound remains the mainstay of diagnosis and the diagnosis may be reached in the first trimester.


I would like to explore in some detail the often clouded interaction between agriculture and foreign policy, focusing specifically on certain provisions of the 1981 farm bill and the recent Soviet/American grain agreement. I believe that these issues can tell us something about what the 1985 Farm Bill should strive for, and what it should avoid. I will make three general points: (1) The international setting of American agriculture has created increased instability for producers, (2)The legislative response to this instability has been inadequate, (3) New farm legislation must confront instability by recognizing the linkages between farm and foreign policy, and must build in the flexibility necessary to respond to this new policy environment.


This paper develops a bond graph-based formalism for modeling multibody systems in a singularly perturbed formulation. As opposed to classical multibody modeling methods, the singularly perturbed formulation is explicit, which makes it suitable for modular simulation. Kinematic joints that couple rigid bodies are described by a set of differential equations with an order of magnitude smaller time scale than that of the system. Singularly perturbed models of joints can be used to investigate nonlinear properties of joints, such as clearance and friction. The main restriction of this approach is that the simulation may need to be computed using 64 bits precision because of the two-time scale nature of the solution. The formalism is based on developing bond graph models of an elementary set of graphical velocity-based constraint functions. This set can be used to construct bond graphs of any type of mechanical joint. Here, this set is used to develop bond graphs of several joints used in multibody systems and spatial mechanisms. Complex models ofmultibody systems may now be built by graphically concatenating bond graphs of rigid bodies and bond graphs of joints. The dynamic equations of the system are automatically generated from the resulting bond graph model. The dynamic equation derived from the bond graph are in explicit state space form, ready for numerical integration, and exclude the computationally intensive terms that arise from acceleration analysis.


This paper describes a detailed investigation on the interaction between paraquat, an organic herbicide, and DNA using experimental and computational approaches. According to the results arising from the fluorescence spectra, voltammetric measurements and molecular modeling studies, it can be concluded that paraquat is a minor groove binder of DNA and preferentially binds to A–T rich regions. This was substantiated by displacement studies with Hoechst 33258, a known minor groove binder. In addition, the thermodynamic and molecular modeling parameters showed that hydrophobic interaction via paraquat inside the DNA minor groove plays a major role in binding. Also, MCF-7 cells were incubated with paraquat and the bright fluorescence intensity was observed spread all over the cells. Computational experiments showed that the most probable mode of action of paraquat as a DNA binding agent is via intercalation of 4-pyridyl rings between AT base pairs with the linker binding to the minor groove.


What drives the behaviors of banks and their customers in time of profound changes? The modern economic crisis has significantly affected consumers' willingness to invest and made them more price sensitive, more rational in their decision making, and thus more challenging for banks to serve. Considering these relevant changes, banks have pursued projects to improve their internal processes and online services. Considering these changes in customer behavior and in the banking sector, some crucial questions arise. How has the strategy banks use to provide online trading services changed in the past decade? Can outsourcing and new managerial practices resolve the lack of specific competencies and assets that marked the banking sector in the past? This study, conducted in an Italian banking context, suggests that banks can attain all three elements by engaging in smart sourcing of online services to minimize costs, gain and sustain competitive advantages, and promote strategic assets.


As online learning is becoming very popular in formal educational settings and in individual development, online exams are starting to be recognized as one of the more efficient assessment methods. Online exams are effective in either blended or traditional forms of learning, and, when appropriately used, bring benefits to both learners and the learning process. However, learners' perceptions of online exams in developing countries have not been widely studied despite the potential of such research for contributing to more effective use of online exams in these countries. Thus, this study served two purposes. First, it aimed to investigate students' perceptions of online exams at a state university in Turkey, and at a state university in Kyrgyzstan. Second, the study compared the results. Structured as a mixed study, the research was conducted during the 2018-2019 fall term. The participants were 370 undergraduate students taking first-year courses online. Quantitative data considered learners' perception scores gathered via a survey, whereas qualitative data considered learners' opinions in response to an open-ended question. According to the quantitative analysis, learners' perceptions differed according to gender, major, and prior online course experience variables. In addition, Turkish and Kyrgyz learners differed in that Turkish learners found online exams less stressful and more reliable and fairer than traditional paper-based exams when compared with their Kyrgyz counterparts. The qualitative analysis provided important results for future planning in both institutions.


The  œuvre of Portuguese photographer Jorge Molder (Lisbon, 1947) can be construed as a series of series. These series are filled with a wealth of absent presences, of possibilities that arise and fade without ever reaching actualization or confirmation, thereby contributing to create a 'detective-story' atmosphere. This also proves to be true as regards Molder's own body. Indeed, his face, his hands are recurrent "subjects" running through his 40 years of work. Even so, when we ask who the man is that we see in Molder's series, the answer is problematic. On the one hand, we know it is "him", insofar as he himself is the model for his iconic "constructions". On the other hand, Molder's images are not "self-portraits" aiming to reveal the essence of his self, but rather "self-representations" creating a peculiar "character" who is and yet is not him: a  double .


The sound intensity vector provides useful information on the state of an ultrasonic field in water, since sound intensity is a vector quantity expressing the direction and magnitude of the sound field. In the previous studies on sound intensity measurement in water, conventional piezoelectric sensors and metal cables were used, and the transmission distance was limited. A new configuration of a sound intensity probe suitable for ultrasonic measurement in water is proposed and constructed for trial in this study. The probe consists of light-emitting diodes and piezoelectric elements, and the output signals are transmitted through fiber optic cables as intensity-modulated light. Sound intensity measurements of a 26 kHz ultrasonic field in water are demonstrated. The difference in the intensity vector state between the water tank with and without sound-absorbing material on its walls was successfully observed.


Abstract We present an experimental study of a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) control on a flat plate using plasma actuators. Three different configurations of the actuators produce spanwise arrays of large-scale streamwise vortices (LSSVs). An ultra-high-resolution floating element (FE) force balance, developed in house and calibrated using μ-particle tracking velocimetry, is employed to measure wall friction. The FE captures a drag reduction (DR) of up to 26 % on the FE area (667 × 1333 wall units), downstream of the actuators. The local DR persists downstream, well after the LSSVs disappear. Both plasma-generated flow and the TBL under control are compared with an uncontrolled TBL. The maximum DR takes place when the LSSVs producing wall jets reach a spanwise velocity of 3.9 in wall units. The flow is altered by up to 29 % of the TBL thickness, with a drop in the new vortices due to the control-induced stabilization of the wall streaks. The local friction is characterized by three distinct spatial regions of drag increase, pronounced DR and drag recovery – all connected to the LSSVs. The LSSVs push the streaks to the middle between two adjacent actuators, suppressing transient growth and near-wall turbulent production. A DR mechanism is proposed.


During the development of green criminology, little attention has been paid to how Indigenous/Native Peoples (INP) are victimized by green crime and how they employ environmental activism to resist externally imposed ecological destruction. In the past decade, news services and environmental interest groups have reported on the killing of INP environmental activists who have resisted ecological destruction across the world. Here, we begin to develop a green criminological view of INP victimization and resistance to ecological destruction within the context of the global capitalist treadmill of production, while drawing upon concepts of colonization, imperialism, genocide and ecocide. Our analysis suggests that in the contemporary capitalist world system, expansion of the treadmill of production's ecological withdrawal process (i.e. the withdrawal of raw materials used in production) not only accelerates ecological disorganization in developing/underdeveloped nations, but may be harmful in nations where INP are dependent on access to nature for survival.


The article considers education as the main factor and indispensable condition of socio-economic progress, the most important value and main capital of modern society, the priority and driving force of which is a person capable of search, independent, creative thinking, learning, socio-professional activities and creativity. The need for a radical change in attitude to physical culture is emphasized, its great importance is emphasized as a universal and personal value that encourages people to take care of their health, to engage in self-education in this field throughout life. Accordingly, the need to improve the training of highly qualified personnel in the field of physical culture and sports is emphasized. The teacher must be able to educate the next generation to be creative and independent. Therefore, the development of new approaches to the content and organization of the educational process, which provide and stimulate the personal activity of the student, is crucial in the system of training specialists with higher physical education. The orientation of professional pedagogical education on the individual and creative development of the personality of a physical education teacher is considered as a means of improvement, and as a strategic direction of professional training of teachers on the basis of personality-oriented approach. Introduction of humanistic models designed to implement a personal approach related to the transfer of emphasis from the process of learning (teaching) to the process of individualized learning. In this regard, before the training of future teachers of physical culture is the task of transition to personality-oriented education, the priority of personal development, its ability to self-improvement, self-realization.


Head movement during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) degrades data quality. The effects of small movements can be ameliorated during data postprocessing, but data associated with severe movement is frequently discarded. In discarding these data, it is often assumed that head‐movement is a source of random error, and that data can be discarded from subjects with severe movement without biasing the sample. We tested this assumption by examining whether head movement was related to task difficulty and cognitive status among persons with multiple sclerosis (MS). Thirty‐four persons with MS were scanned while performing a working memory task with three levels of difficulty (the N‐back task). Maximum movement (angle, shift) was estimated for each difficulty level. Cognitive status was assessed by combining performance on a working memory and processing speed task. An interaction was found between task difficulty and cognitive status (high vs. low cognitive ability): there was a linear increase in movement as task difficulty increased that was larger among subjects with lower cognitive ability. Analyses of the signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) confirmed that increases in movement degraded data quality. Similar, though far smaller, effects were found in a cohort of healthy control (HC) subjects. Therefore, discarding data with severe movement artifact may bias MS samples such that only those with less‐severe cognitive impairment are included in the analyses. However, even if such data are not discarded outright, subjects who move more (MS and HC) will contribute less to the group‐level results because of degraded SNR. Hum Brain Mapp 35:1–13, 2014. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This article wrestles with a seemingly straightforward question that turns out to be surprisingly complex: what is a bank? The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the OCC) recently began offering special purpose national bank (SPNB) charters to entities that are, at best, banklike. But are they banks or not? Although the OCC considers SPNBs to be banks, not everyone is sure to agree, including bankruptcy judges. The question matters because banks are ineligible for bankruptcy relief. This Article considers the legal and policy arguments that are likely to be presented to bankruptcy judges about whether SPNBs are banks and concludes that bankruptcy judges are likely to disregard the OCC's interpretation and conclude SPNBs are not banks. If SPNBs are bankruptcyeligible because they are not banks, a host of issues arise. For example, can a SPNB rush to bankruptcy court to take advantage of the automatic stay if the OCC tries to revoke its charter? Will bankruptcy courts or the OCC control the resolution of a financially distressed SPNB? How fast and by what processes will their financial trouble be resolved? This Article explores these questions.


Accelerated digitalization during the COVID-19 pandemic and the transition from mobile phones to smartphones have increased the need for ICT literacy among the general public, including knowledge of the potential risks and their management. Generally, it is assumed that some population groups are more at risk of being left behind. Original empirical data collected in autumn 2020 as part of the PRECOBI project were used to identify the sociodemographic groups at risk of insufficient knowledge of biometrics and ICT safety. The novelty Biometrics Knowledge and ICT Safety Index (BIKIS index) was constructed to identify these and analyzed in the context of the Czech Republic. The OLS regression shows that the combination of higher age and lower education is associated with the highest risk of digital illiteracy, potentially resulting in digital exclusion. Regarding biometrics and ICT safety knowledge, the age of 50 is the cut-off point, with those with elementary and lower secondary education at a disadvantage compared to those with higher levels of education. The results show that in terms of ICT literacy, old age starts considerably earlier than in other societal contexts, which is important to note when designing ICT and biometrics-related risk mitigation strategies. The role of early life educational attainment should be supported to ensure ICT literacy in later life.


Classical biocontrol of Senecio jacobaea (ragwort) has generally utilised herbivorous insects, although the nisi Puccinia expansa has also been considered. Although this rust is specific and damaging in the glasshouse. It has not been used in the field. Research into the ecophysiology of Senecio vulgaris (groundsel) infected by the rust Puccinia lagenophorae has revealed the extent to which the effects of infection are dependent on environmental factors. The damage caused by rust is enhanced under mild drought conditions, during periods of frost in winter and by competition between groundsel and neighbouring plants, bui is reduced by nutrient deficiency. Rust injury is also greatly increased by secondary infection of pustules by necrotrophic fungi. Such secondary infection can be achieved artificially with a range of opportunistic necrolrophs and can selectively kill groundsel: the effective inoculum dose of both fungi is significantly reduced. Attempts to apply our understanding of rust-necrotroph injury to ragwort have been partially successful but we have not succeeded in causing significant mortality of this host.


The Hansenula polymorpha MOX gene encodes a peroxisomal enzyme that catalyzes the first step of the highly specialized methanol metabolism. MOX is strongly transcribed in cells growing in methanol and completely repressed in glucose. We show here that the MOX promoter confers a glucose-repressible expression upon a lacZ reporter gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an unrelated yeast species that lacks the methanol metabolism. Repression was mediated by a 200-bp region of the MOX promoter, termed MOX-B, and was counteracted by Adr1p, a transcription factor involved in the derepression of S. cerevisiae genes encoding peroxisomal proteins, the class to which MOX belongs. Binding of Adr1p to MOX-B was demonstrated by gel retardation and DNaseI-footprinting, and Adr1p was shown to interact with a DNA region containing only a half of the putative Adr1p consensus binding site. Our findings suggest that Adr1p is a conserved regulator for genes encoding peroxisomal proteins at least in other yeast species, and that its interaction with the DNA is dependent on the promoter context.


Growth of the embryonic chick cornea was directly related to, and coordinated with, overall eye growth. During normal development, the size of the embryonic chick cornea increased in three linear phases of diametric growth. Corneal diameter increased at a rate of 216 microns per day between embryonic day 4 (E4) and E7, 511 microns per day between E7 and E10, and 144 microns per day from E10 until after hatching. After the sustained release of intraocular pressure by intubation on E4, corneal diametric growth was reduced to a single phase of 122 microns per day. After intubation on E4, the mesenchyme surrounding the developing cornea was substantially thicker and the neural crest-derived corneal endothelium was established earlier. The primary corneal stroma of the intubated eye swelled and was precociously populated by neural crest-derived corneal fibroblasts. Thus, the timing of arrival of neural crest cells in the anterior segment and their contribution to the cornea were determined by the growth rate of the eye. Although the diameter of the cornea was substantially reduced after intubation, it was more densely populated by fibroblasts, resulting in a cornea that was substantially thicker than the control by E14. Prospective corneal nerves normally extend into the cornea proper on E11, concomitant with a decrease in its diametric growth rate. After intubation on E4, the perilimbal nerve ring was virtually complete by E5 and numerous nerves had extended throughout the E8 cornea. By E16, the cornea from the intubated eye contained a very high density of nerve fibers, possibly reflecting its reduced size. These data suggest that the primary corneal stroma does not permit nerve fiber extension and demonstrate that the timing of nerve fiber extension into the secondary corneal stroma is specified by the rate of oppositional diametric growth of the cornea.


The municipalities should understand the expectations and needs of the citizens in the service area and try to produce services in accordance with these needs. In this study, the satisfaction levels of the citizens living in Yalova from the services provided by Yalova Municipality were tried to be determined. It has also been investigated whether or not there is a difference in satisfaction with demographic characteristics and the residential neighborhood. For the research, a questionnaire were applied via internet and face-to-face interview. Survey questionnaires were arranged in accordance with the services of Yalova Municipality by utilizing the literature. A survey was conducted on 402 citizens who were selected by easy sampling method. Satisfaction was measured by using the likert scale for 10 services offered by the municipality in the survey. The collected data were analyzed in the SPSS program. Analyzes show that the that the people of Yalova are medium level satisfied with the municipal services. It has been determined that satisfaction levels in some types of services differ according to gender, age and occupation. According to the residential neighborhood, there are differences in satisfaction in cleaning and inspection services. While services are being planned to increase the level of satisfaction, it is suggested that these differences be taken into consideration and that the municipality should carry out work on services that are below average.


This work is devoted to the study of plasma channel evolution characteristics in pulsed xenon flashlamps working in an array. Influencing factors on the plasma channel evolution process are studied, including pre-ionization pulse and neighbor flashlamps. It has been found that neighbor flashlamps affect the plasma channel by shaping the electric potential distribution, rather than by Lorentz force. Branching is observed in the plasma channels of the flashlamps in the middle of the array. Inconsistency also exists in the plasma channels of these flashlamps in different tests. The branching and inconsistency are both caused by the unique electric field distribution in these flashlamps. Besides, the pre-ionization pulse can help the main pulse plasma channel to develop more smoothly and faster, which will weaken the shock wave and benefit the mechanical strength of the flashlamp.


Access to natural resources and cheap labour has made the developing world particularly appealing to multinational corporations (MNCs) in the mining and extractive sector. While this industry has great potential as an engine of economic growth for these nations, it has also demonstrated an equally destructive potential, threatening the environmental and social welfare of people who have little to lose as it is. This article investigates three incidents of environmental disaster resulting from foreign-owned operations in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world. Bangladesh has been endowed with large reserves of natural gas, but rather than bringing the country increased prosperity, the exploitation of these natural resources has resulted in disasters which have had reverberating effects on the natural environment, the human rights and the public health of this impoverished nation. These three environmental incidents will be examined in the context of international norms governing corporate responsibility and will emphasise the importance for national regulation on the environment in the absence of binding international regulation. Suggestions will be made for improving the existing regime of regulation in Bangladesh to ensure improved environmental performance of MNCs operating within its borders.


Dear Sir, We all have our rights, but driving is not one of them. In their article 'Drinking and the Right to Drive' (March 1982), my colleagues from Totton conclude that proposed legislation which would restrict the ability of 'drink drivers' to re-apply for a driving licence is 'based upon ill-defined objectives which fail to take account of the basic rights of individuals'. As a pedestrian I have a right to walk


A numerical simulation has been carried out to understand the thermo-hydrodynamics of single phase flow with obstacle in microchannel. In this study, two different shapes of obstacle are analyzed with five different substrate materials to study the effect of thermal conductivity on the heat transfer. Uniform heating source is present at bottom wall of microchannel and remaining walls are kept adiabatic. The flow rate is maintained such that flow will be laminar theoretically. But under influence of obstacle, fluid is likely to get disturbed as it flows past the obstacle. So, both laminar and turbulent model was used in this analysis. The other factor is considered is the position of obstacle in the flow. The positions of obstacle affect the mixing of layer of fluid. Analysis revels that position of obstacle in the flow field directly affect the heat transfer. Disturbance created at the initial stage carried to long distance which enhance heat transfer coefficient. It is found that the temperature difference between wall and fluid increase along the axial direction of flow except near the obstacle. In analysis, it is found that shape of obstacle directly affect the Nusselt number, for half obstacle variation of Nusselt number increase vibrantly as compared to full obstacle. In case of laminar model, it does not take account of eddies formation near the flow. Nor it accounts the surface roughness. While in turbulent model, eddies formation near the surface can be seen which in turn increase Nusselt number, when simulating both full and half obstacle using both laminar and turbulent model, it is found that higher Nusselt number is found in case of turbulent model, hence Nusselt number is reach to maximum in turbulent in comparison to laminar model.


By combining a low-gain single-pass collinear amplifier with a high-gain noncollinear seeder, in which the group velocities are self-matched, we demonstrate highly efficient parametric conversion of frequency-doubled Ti:sapphire pulses of hundreds-microjoule energy. With β-barium borate in both seeder and amplifier, bandwidth-limited signal pulses tunable between 0.46 and 0.66 µm are obtained at a 1-kHz-repetition rate, with duration as short as 78 fs and energy as much as 17 µJ in the visible.


This study concentrates on multi-time series and - time scale modeling in wind speed and wind power forecasting. Different statistical models along with different time horizons are analyzed and evaluated broadly and comprehensively. For this reason, the entire study is divided into two main scientific parts. In case of making a general overview of the entire study, moving average (MA), weighted moving average (WMA), autoregressive moving average (ARMA) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) methods are employed for multi-time series modeling. Very short-term, short-term, medium-term and long-term scales are utilized for multi-time scale modeling. Specifically, in this part of the entire study, the mentioned statistical models are presented in detail and 10-min and 1-h time series forecasting models are created for the purpose of achieving 10-min and 2-h ahead forecasting, respectively. Many useful outcomes are accomplished for very short-term and short-term wind speed and wind power forecasting.


In 2007 WG-SAM defined a set of reference observations for validating and tuning proposed models to evaluate krill catch allocation options for Area 48 (the SAM calendar). The observations, which were endorsed by WG-EMM, were largely qualitative and relative. We used available data to translate these observations into numerical terms (the numerical calendar). We provide spatially-resolved reference points for the density of krill, and the abundance of "generic" seals, penguins and whales in 1970, 2007 and at least one intermediate year. Recent work on baleen whales indicates a higher growth rate than that suggested by WG-SAM, so the numerical calendar for this taxon deviates from the SAM calendar. The numerical calendar is a partly subjective interpretation of limited data and should not be considered a definitive description of the relevant dynamics. This exercise resulted in population sizes for several taxa that are adjusted for asynchronous observations and are potentially more suitable for initialising models than those published in Hill et al (2007).


Signaling through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) promotes breast cancer metastasis. G proteins convey GPCR signals by dissociating into Gα and Gβγ subunits. The aim of the present study was to determine whether blockade of Gβγ signaling suppresses breast cancer cell migration and invasion, which are critical components of metastasis. Conditioned media (CM) of NIH-3T3 fibroblasts are widely used as chemoattractants in in vitro cancer metastasis studies. Expression of a Gβγ scavenger peptide attenuated NIH-3T3 CM-induced migration and invasion of both metastatic breast cancer MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-436 cells by 40 to 50% without effects on cell viability. Migration and invasion of cells in response to NIH-3T3 CM were also blocked by 8-(4,5,6-trihydroxy-3-oxo-3H-xanthen-9-yl)-1-naph-thalene-carboxylic acid) (M119K), a Gβγ inhibitor, with maximum inhibition exceeding 80% and half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 1 to 2 μM. M119K also attenuated Rac-dependent formation of lamellipodia, a key structure required for metastasis. Constitutively active Rac1 rescued Gβγ blockade-mediated inhibition of breast cancer cell migration, whereas dominant negative Rac1 inhibited cell migration similar to Gβγ blockade. Furthermore, M119K suppressed Gi protein-coupled CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4)-dependent MDA-MB-231 cell migration by 80% with an IC50 value of 1 μM, whereas tyrosine kinase receptor-dependent cell migration was significantly less inhibited. However, CXCR4-dependent inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, a Giα-mediated response in MDA-MB-231 cells, was not blocked by M119K but was blocked by pertussis toxin, which selectively inactivates Giα. This report is the first to directly demonstrate the role of Gβγ in cancer cell migration and invasion and suggests that targeting Gβγ signaling pathways may provide a novel strategy for suppressing breast cancer metastasis.


In this study, an efficient compression system is introduced, it is based on using wavelet transform and two types of 3Dimension (3D) surface representations (i.e., Cubic Bezier Interpolation (CBI)) and 1 st order polynomial approximation. Each one is applied on different scales of the image; CBI is applied on the wide area of the image in order to prune the image components that show large scale variation, while the 1 st order polynomial is applied on the small area of residue component (i.e., after subtracting the cubic Bezier from the image) in order to prune the local smoothing components and getting better compression gain. Then, the produced cubic Bezier surface is subtracted from the image signal to get the residue component. Then, thebi-orthogonal wavelet transform is applied on the produced Bezier residue component. The resulting transform coefficients are quantized using progressive scalar quantization and the 1 st order polynomial is applied on the quantized LL subband to produce the polynomial surface, then the produced polynomial surface is subtracted from the LL subband to get the residue component (high frequency component). Then, the quantized values are represented using quad tree encoding to prune the sparse blocks, followed by high order shift coding algorithm to handle the remaining statistical redundancy and to attain efficient compression performance. The conducted tests indicated that the introduced system leads to promising compression gain.


It is still very difficult to generate a geometry model and finite element model, which has complex and many free surface, even though 3D CAD solutions are applied. Furthermore, in the medical field, which is a big growth area of recent years, there is no drawing. For these reasons, making a geometry model, which is used in finite element analysis, is very difficult. To resolve these problems and satisfy the requests of the need to create a 3D digital file for an object where none had existed before, new technologies are appeared recently. Among the recent technologies, there is a growing interest in the availability of fast, affordable optical range laser scanning. The development of 3D laser scan technology to obtain 3D point cloud data, made it possible to generate 3D model of complex object. To generate CAD and finite element model using point cloud data from 3D scanning, surface reconstruction applications have widely used. In the early stage, these applications have many difficulties, such as data handling, model creation time and so on. Recently developed point-based surface generation applications partly resolve these difficulties. However there are still many problems. In case of large and complex object scanning, generation of CAD and finite element model has a significant amount of working time and effort. Hence, we concerned developing a good direct finite element model generation method using point cloud's location coordinate value to save working time and obtain accurate finite element model.


Environmental impact of electricity production has come under increasing international scrutiny over the last few decades. In particular, fossil fuel-fired power plants constitute a significant portion of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. One of the main internal energy-consuming components in a thermal power plant is the main boiler feedwater pump, and its efficiency is a contributor to overall plant efficiency.This paper reports the design optimization of a 30 MW multistage, double-case, volute pump in order to increase overall efficiency by at least three percentage points. The six stage barrel pump produces 3865 m (12680 ft) of head at a capacity of 2750 m3/hr (12100 USGPM) at a speed of 4665 RPM. The machine is installed at the coal-fired supercritical Nuon Hemweg 8 power station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as the main boiler feedwater pump.The design study employed Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to identify energy losses and evaluate design iterations. This paper describes the optimization of several individual components, including volutes, short and long crossovers, suction box and final discharge. Scaled model tests were conducted on series stages to validate the CFD results. Additional design constraint that had to be taken into account was that new hardware had to be installed within the limits of the existing pressure boundary components, sealing device and bearing design, which confines the design space considerably. Hardware has, at the time of writing this paper, entered production and is planned to be installed during a May 2013 plant outage.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Several soft intellectual property (IP) core implementations of decision trees (axis-parallel, oblique and nonlinear) based on the concept of universal node (UN) and sequence of UNs are presented. Proposed IP cores are suitable for implementation in both field programmable gate arrays and application specific integrated circuits. Developed IP cores can be easily customised in order to fit a wide variety of application requirements, fulfilling their role as general purpose building blocks for SoC designs. Experimental results obtained on 23 data sets of standard UCI machine learning repository database suggest that the proposed architecture based on the sequence of UNs requires on average 56% less hardware resources compared with previously proposed architectures, having the same throughput.


This paper presents LANCET, a multi-platform software visualization tool that enables the inspection of programs at the binary code level. Implemented on top of the link-time rewriting framework DIABLO, LANCET provides several views on the interprocedural control flow graph of a program. These views can be used to navigate through the program, to edit the program in a efficient manner, and to interact with the existing whole-program analyses and optimizations that are implemented in DIABLO or existing applications of DIABLO. As such, LANCET is an ideal tool to examine compiler-generated code, to assist the development of new compiler optimizations, or to optimize assembly code manually.


A family with two sibs affected clinically with the severe infantile form of fucosidosis is described. Biochemical studies revealed a relatively high residual activity (34-60% of normal) with markedly decreased thermostability. The importance of including thin layer chromatography for urinary oligosaccharides in the diagnostic workup for such patients is emphasized.


Preface for Instructors. Introduction for Students. About the Editors. About the Contributors. Methodological Prologue: How Should We Think about Sex and Gender? D.H. Lawrence: A Propos of Lady Chatterly"s Lover. Janet Radcliffe Richards: The Fruits of Unreason. 1. Male and Female: Is the Distinction Natural or Conventional? Jan Morris: My Conundrum. Anthony Mastroeni: The Principle of Totality-A Possible Justification for Transsexual Surgery. Stephen B. Clark: The Universality of Sex Roles. Suzanne Kessler and Wendy McKenna: The Primacy of Gender Attribution. Richard Wasserstrom: Sex Roles and the Ideal Society. Mary Midgley and Judith Hughes: Biology, Mere and Otherwise. Roger Scruton: Sex and Gender. 2. Sexuality: The Flesh and the Spirit. Richard Mohr: The Inherent Privacy of Sex. Andrea Dworkin: Intercourse. Bertrand Russell: The Place of Sex Among Human Values. Thomas Nagel: Sexual Perversion. Richard Connell: Reproduction as the Goal of Sexuality. Niles Newton: Sexual Intercourse: Its Relation to the Rest of Women"s Sexual Role. Susan Lydon: The Politics of Orgasm. Richard Rodriguez: The Late Vicotrians. Arlene Stein: From Old Gay to New. Plato: The Ladder or Eros. 3. Reproduction: How Far Should We Try to Control It? Sallie Tisdale: We Do Abortions Here. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion. Celia Wolf-Devine: Abortion and the Feminine Voice. Rosemary Radford Ruether: Birth Control and the Ideals of Marital Sexuality. Cormac Burke: Marriage and Contraception: Donors and Surrogates. John Robertson: Collaborative Reproduction. Jean Bethke Elshtain: Technology as Destiny. Hilde Lindemann Nelson and James Lindemann Nelson: Cutting Motherhood in Two. 4. Marriage and Family: Is the Traditional Family a Good Thing? Donald Hatcher: Existential Ethics and Why It"s Immoral to be a Housewife. Sandra Bartky: Feeding Egos and Tending Wounds: Deference and Disaffection in Women"s Emotional Labor. John Rawls: Justice and the Family. Michael Sandel: Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender and the Family. Phyllis Schlafly: The Power of the Positive Woman. Jean Behtke Elshtain: Feminists Against the Family. Sylvia Ann Hewlett: When the Bough Breaks. 5. Politics: Gender in the Public Arena. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar: Sex Wars: Not the Fun Kind. Alison Jaggar: Political Philosophies of Women"s Liberation. Juli Loesch Wiley: Social Feminism: Reweaving Society. Louis Katzner: Is the Favoring of Women and Blacks in Employment and Educational Opportunities Justified? Laura Purdy: In Defense of Hiring Apparently Less Qualified Women. Catherine MacKinnon: Sexual Harassment: Its First Decade in Count. Katie Roiphe: Reckless Eyeballing. Michael Novak: Men Without Women. Timothy F. Murphy: Homosex/Ethics. Andrew Sullivan: The Conservative Case for Same-Sex Marriage. Robert P. George: "Same-Sex Marriage" and "Moral Neutrality". David Orgon Coolidge: The Question of Marriage: Two Arguments. Paula Ettlelbrick: Since When is Marriage a Path to Liberation?. E.J. Graff: Retying the Knot. 6. Religion: Naming the Supreme Being. Mircea Eliade: The Sacredness of Nature and Cosmic Religion: Sky Gods and Mother Earth. Genesis: Chapters 1-3. Carol P. Christ: Why Women Need the Goddess: Phenomenological, Psychological, and Political Reflections. Elizabeth Johnson: Basic Linguistic Options: God, Women Equivalence. Juli Loesch Wiley: On the Fatherhood of God and Is "God the Mother" Just as Good? Richard Davis: Inclusive Language: A Christian Gay Man"s View. Susan Heine: God the Father, God the Mother, and Goddesses. Gary Culpepper: Why Christians Name God "Father". Rosemary Radford Ruether: Ecofeminism: Symbolic and Social Connections of the Oppression of Women and the Domination of Nature. Edith Black: Women in Genesis 1-3. Tamar Frankiel: Judaism and Feminine Spirituality.


This paper reports an evaluation the utility of ISO/IEC 9126. ISO/IEC 9126 is an international standard intended to ensure the quality of all software-intensive products including safety-critical systems where lives are at risk if software components fail. Our evaluation exercise arose from an experiment that required a quality assessment of outputs of the design process. Although ISO/IEC 9126 is intended to support evaluation of intermediate software products, both the experimental subjects (158 final year computer science and engineering student) and experimenters found the standard was ambiguous in meaning, incomplete with respect to quality characteristics and overlapping with respect to measured properties. We conclude that ISO/IEC 9126 is not suitable for measuring design quality of software products. This casts serious doubts as to the validity of the standard as a whole.


There were several existing KISTERS TSM Client Applications (TCA) which used the Time Series Management (TSM) system. Each application was developed using different technologies; these applications contained significant features and were important to the success of the operation. However, they posed a set of problems to the operation, including difficulty in adding a new feature and lack of integration. This paper describes how we have designed and implemented the new TCA including the problems we face. The new TCA is developed based on the Eclipse platform, which enables us to integrate every existing client application into a single and extendable application that can be run as a standalone application as well as a web application using the same source.


The heat shock protein 90 kDalpha (Hsp90) subfamily is constituted by five isoforms, among them Hsp90alpha and Hsp90beta are the more abundant cytosolic proteins. These two proteins are molecular chaperons that participate in numerous cellular processes, through interacting with more than 100 proteins known as client proteins of Hsp90. These client proteins include: transcriptional factors, kinase proteins and other proteins that participate in transcriptional and transductional regulation such as steroid hormone receptors and nitric oxide synthases. This review offers a retrospective in the recent information about molecular and cellular functions of Hsp90 in the vascular physiology. In addition, the studies that evaluate Hsp90 role in the renal physiology and pathophysiology are discussed. Finally, the molecular tools developed to manipulate the Hsp90 expression in vitro and in vivo, through its inhibition or over-expression are reviewed. All these studies together have allowed increasing our knowledge regarding the role of Hsp90 during normal and pathophysiological conditions.


This article describes the results of an experiment designed to examine the impact of the use and amount of delayed unconditional incentives in a mixed mode (push to web) supplement on response rates, response mode, data quality, and sample bias. The supplement was administered to individuals who participate in the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the longest running national household panel in the world. After 10 weeks of data collection, individuals who had not yet completed the interview were sent a final survey request and randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions: no incentive, US$5, and US$10. The impact of the incentives on response rates and mode, effects on data quality, and sample bias are described. The implications for the use of incentives in mixed mode surveys and directions for future research are discussed.


More than a century after Emancipation, no comprehensive overview of the history of the female American slave exists. In this book, historian Emily West offers the first comprehensive overview of the lives of enslaved women in America by placing their stories within the broader context of slavery in this country from the colonial era through to the end of the Civil War. She compares the lives of enslaved women with the lives of enslaved men from the same period, and with the white men and women who unjustly held them in bondage. West's thorough research and eye for detail construct a narrative of the enslaved woman's life, giving voice to and revealing the significance of a singularly strong but largely overlooked member of early American society.