Micro, Small and Medium sized-enterprises (MSMEs) are the basic form of business organisation in the Turkish Economy, comprising 99.8% of the business organisation; 76.7% of total employment; 46% of business turnover; 38% of capital investment; 26.5% value added; 10% of export and 5% of bank credit (OECD, 2004). As SMEs (Small Medium-Sized Enterprises) play a particularly important role, because of their number and because of the large share of the workforce involved, the Turkish governments have for many years carried out a variety of programmes to support SMEs to increase their export share. Exclusively, the design and implementation of such programmes have received increasing attention since Turkey joined the Customs Union with the European Union on 1 January 1996. This paper examines the differences between exporters and non-exporters SMEs in Turkey in order to understand the impact of government programs on their export decisions. The empirical data is from a survey of 300 Turkish SMEs (150 exporters and 150 non-exporters) in Turkey. As our question is of why some SMEs are exporting whilst the others of a similar size are not, although the government export promotion programs are same for all SMEs, the dependent variable should be dichotomous and the applicable analytical model should come from the binary-choice genre of models, namely Logit model as it takes the value 1 if the firms have been exporter, and 0 if have been non-exporter. Results suggest that government export promoting programs, size of the firms, manufacturing status of the firms, contribute positively to export performance in SMEs, but barriers such as, educational level of managers, lack of financial resources, lack of language knowledge, to many government regulations, high taxes, negatively affect the export performance of Turkish SMEs. We believe that our results might be considered by policy makers to achieve better and sustained export performance in the near future.


It is well known that animal groups use sentinels. We model the benefits to a collective by incorporating sentinel behaviour into an existing agent-based model consisting of predator and prey animats. Our model system is large enough to exhibit multi-length and multi-time scale behaviours, and we compare the effects of individal members of the prey species adopting sentinel roles, with the normal boom-bust behaviour of the established model. We record significant changes to animat spatial patterns and population size and demonstrate how such models can be used to enable various "what-if" scenarios and provide interesting insights and allow exploration of situations that would be impossible to measure during field research into real animal groups.


The ever-changing and growing reality of on-line communications and of the World-Wide Web has posed the need for a general re-thinking of the tasks of all the subjects involved in the process of creating and using a "cultural product". Publishers and all those institutions involved in the dissemination and preservation of cultural heritage can not ignore the risk of being left behind and gradually replaced by different subjects who, since they own the new information technology, can become the new and only vehicles for its dissemination. But the challenge that publishing houses and primary source repositories such as libraries and historical archives have to face nowadays is not only that of safeguarding their experience and know-how and bring it into the new information technology world. The change of roles has to be compounded by the act of singling out new kinds of "cultural products" and value-added services that properly exploit all the potentialities of the newtechnology. In this paper, we will describe the experience of a publishing house which has moved into the non- traditional sector of on-line publishing. Specifically, we will relate about its close collaboration with European libraries and historical archives on the one hand, and software houses and technical universities on the other, in order to develop innovative editorial services to be available on the World-Wide Web.


Ayria appendiculata and Sungaiicola bactrodesmiella gen. et spp. nov. and Fluviatispora boothii, Torrentispora crassiparietis and T. fusiformis spp. nov. are described based on specimens collected on submerged wood in Brunei. Ayria appendiculata has remarkable unravelling appendages, which are somewhat similar to those in Pseudoproboscispora, but the asci of these species differ. Sungaiicola is described to accommodate a new pyrenomycete with multi-septate, hyaline ascospores and thin-walled asci with an inconspicuous apical ring. It is compared with Luttrellia and Saccardoella, genera having ascospores that are similar in appearance. Fluviatispora boothii has longer and wider ellipsoidal ascospores than the other Fluviatispora species. Torrentispora crassiparietis and T fusiformis has larger and differently shaped ascospores as compared to T. fibrosa. All species are illustrated with interference contrast micrographs and compared with morphologically similar taxa.


This paper discusses nonlinear acoustic synthesis in augmented musical instruments via acoustic transduction. Our work expands previous investigations into acoustic amplitude modulation, offering new prototypes that produce intermodulation in several instrumental contexts. Our results show nonlinear intermodulation distortion can be generated and controlled in electromagnetically driven acoustic interfaces that can be deployed in acoustic instruments through augmentation, thus extending the nonlinear acoustic synthesis to a broader range of sonic applications.


The first standards for chemical protective clothing (CPC) emerged mid to late 1980's and have evolved since as most standards are revisited every 5 yr. Over the past years, we have also seen a strengthening of the chemical and worker protection legislation around the globe (various forms of REACH) but also protection of workers. The most prevalent standards originate under the auspices of the International Standards Organisation (ISO), European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) or under various US standards organisations (e.g. NFPA, ASTM). Protective clothing against hazardous materials is required in many of the professional and non-professional activities of everyday life. Effective and adequate protection is important in many scenarios from household (e.g. cleaning agents, peroxides, acids and bases, paints), to agricultural (e.g. fuel, pesticides), to medical (e.g. pharmaceuticals and active ingredients), to industrial production (e.g. petro-chemicals, chemicals, paints, adhesive and coatings) but also manufacturing of many products (e.g. light bulbs, cars, semi-conductors), during various emergency activities (e.g. boat, rail or road accidents as well as fire-fighting in an urban and industrial setting), and finally, military operations or response to incidents of terrorism. Nevertheless, CPC must remain the last line of defence whenever possible through a preference for less hazardous chemicals, less dangerous processes and handling operations, and by engineering controls to reduce and minimise human contact with the chemicals. This article provides information about the selection, use, care and maintenance (SUCAM) of protective clothing against chemical and microbiological hazards.


Starting from elemental Co (99.9%), Ni (99.9%) and Sb (99.99%) powders, Co4-xNixSb12 powder mixture with different Ni concentration were subjected to mechanical alloying by using a planetary ball mill. Phase transformation during mechanical alloying process of Co-Ni-Sb system was studied in this paper. Ni substituted skutterudite could be synthesized by solid state reaction. With assistance of hot pressing for two hours, the as mechanically alloyed low Ni concentration powders could be completely transformed into skutterudite compound. The lattice parameter of Ni substituted skutterudite compound complies well with Vegard law when x is not more than 0.2. When Ni concentration is larger than the maximum solubility, NiSb2 compound forms and single phase skutterudite compound can not be obtained.


BACKGROUND
To our knowledge, there have been no previously published reports characterizing lower-extremity amputations in Canada. The objective of this study was to describe the indications and outcomes of lower-extremity amputations in the Canadian population.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective cohort study of all adult patients who underwent lower-extremity amputation in Canada between 2006 and 2009. Patients were identified from the Canadian Institute for Health Information's Discharge Abstract Database, which includes all hospital admissions across Canada with the exception of the province of Quebec. Pediatric, trauma, and outpatients were excluded.

RESULTS
During the study period, 5342 patients underwent lower-extremity amputations in 207 Canadian hospitals. The mean age was 67 ± 13 years, and 68% were men. Amputations were most frequently indicated after admission for diabetic complications (81%), cardiovascular disease (6%), or cancer (3%). In total, 65% of patients were discharged to another inpatient or long-term care facility, and 26% were discharged home with or without extra support. Most patients were diabetic (96%) and most (65%) required a below-knee amputation. Predictors of prolonged (> 7 d) hospital stay included amputation performed by a general surgeon; cardiovascular risk factors, such as diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, congestive heart failure, or hyperlipidemia; and undergoing the amputation in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, or British Columbia.

CONCLUSION
There is variability in the delivery of lower-extremity amputations and postoperative hospital discharges among surgical specialists and regions across Canada. Future work is needed to investigate the reasons for this variability and to develop initiatives to shorten postoperative hospital stays.


A World in a Grain of Sand is a collection of twenty-two interviews with Northrop Frye from the early 1960s through the 1980s. Frye responds to a wide range of questions about the media, education, religion, literary theory, language, music, and literature itself - from Plato and the Bible to Milton, Blake, Shelley, and Melville. Half of the interviews, transcribed from tape recordings, are published here for the first time. Throughout the collection the reader will discover a richly stored mind, often expressing itself in an ironic mode, arguing for the value of both the liberal tradition and the visionary imagination. What emerges finally from the interviews is Frye's own broad vision of the social function of words.


European labour markets currently fail millions for whom they cannot provide work, and millions more who must face job insecurity, underemployment, stagnant wages or poverty pay. The forces which have served to weaken our labour markets include political failure, globalization, technological change, labour union decline and the increasing power of capital vis-a-vis labour. Ominously, each of these forces look likely to accelerate, rather than abate. This is – clearly – a particular problem for a movement so historically and closely bound up with the labour movement, and labour rights. Given this, it is imperative that European socialists look beyond their existing prescriptions for labour markets. We may have lost the recent history of labour, but it is essential we reclaim the future. This paper identifies and develops four new areas which policymakers may seek to exploit. Firstly, we assess the potential for strengthening labour markets through a renewed focus on international solidarity – including deepening cross border cooperation with labour organisations and learning from best practice both in and outside of Europe. Secondly, we consider the options for strengthening the position of migrant labourers within the EU – a policy which serves to not only build solidarity within Europe, but also begin to mitigate the race to the bottom which characterises man sectors of European Labour markets. We also consider the possibility of developing Europe's industrial strategy such that it becomes capable of coordinating the development of capacity and innovation – and in so doing, securing the kind of work that (particularly young) European workers often seek. And in the same vein, we conclude by arguing that the European left must look much more closely at developing a basic income style proposal of its own. Such a policy, we argue, offers the prospect of the most radical and effective rebalancing of Europe's labour market. We argue that much of the leftist scepticism over a basic income is misplaced, and that suitably defined – the policy represents an invaluable pro-socialist and pro-labour option for the future.


Heavy metals, as essential or non-essential ones, are present in aquatic systems at different levels. The over limited concentration of metals has a negative effects as physiological, histological and morphological patterns. The levels of contaminants in fish are of particular interest because of potential risk to human consuming them. Heavy metals bring about their effects as single or mixture on organs or tissues of fish. The influence starts at cellular or molecular level, then being at population level, particularly through early stages of development, and may result in species extinction, due to tendency towards accumulation and reduced biodegradation. The liver, gills and kidney seem to be the most interested organs included in current studies due to their sensitized feature towards metal impact. Fishes could be employed as biomarker indicator for environmental contamination, in particular with long term monitoring, and with trace levels of pollutants. Overlap between different factors, along with integrated responses must be considered in determination of heavy metals impact, in complementary of water quality parameters; and so, standardized methods being necessary for comparison among variable results obtained. This study is an interpretative effort of some aspects included in toxicity of five heavy metals for fish species.


Short Tandem Repeats (STRs) are mutation-prone loci that span nearly 1% of the human genome. Previous studies have estimated the mutation rates of highly polymorphic STRs using capillary electrophoresis and pedigree-based designs. While this work has provided insights into the mutational dynamics of highly mutable STRs, the mutation rates of most others remain unknown. Here, we harnessed whole-genome sequencing data to estimate the mutation rates of more than 4,500 Y-chromosome STRs (Y-STRs) with 2-6 base pair repeat units. To this end, we developed MUTEA, a new algorithm that infers STR mutation rates from population-scale high-throughput sequencing data using a high-resolution SNP-based phylogeny. After extensive intrinsic and extrinsic validations, we used MUTEA to estimate the mutation rates of STRs across the Y-chromosome using data from the 1000 Genomes Project and the Simons Genome Diversity Project. In total, we analyzed evolutionary data for over 222,000 meioses to yield the largest set of Y-STR mutation rate estimates to date. We found that the average mutation rate of polymorphic Y-STRs is an order of magnitude lower than estimates from prior studies. Using our ascertainment-free estimates, we identified determinants of STR mutation rates and built a model to predict rates for STRs across the genome. Our projection indicates that the load of de novo STR mutations exceeds the load of all other known variants. We also identified new Y-STRs for forensics and genetic genealogy, assessed the ability to differentiate between the Y-chromosomes of father-son pairs, and imputed Y-STR genotypes.


Macrophages interact with cells in every organ to facilitate tissue development, function and repair. However, the close interaction between macrophages and parenchymal cells can be subverted in disease, particularly cancer. Motility is an essential capacity for macrophages to be able to carry out their various roles. In cancers, the macrophage's interstitial migratory ability is frequently co-opted by tumor cells to enable escape from the primary tumor and metastatic spread. Macrophage accumulation within and movement through a tumor is often stimulated by tumor cell production of the mononuclear phagocytic growth factor, colony-stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1). CSF-1 also regulates macrophage survival, proliferation and differentiation, and its many effects are transduced by its receptor, the CSF-1R, via phosphotyrosine motif-activated signals. Mutational analysis of CSF-1R signaling indicates that the major mediators of CSF-1-induced motility are phosphatidyl-inositol-3 kinase (PI3K) and one or more Src family kinase (SFK), which activate signals to adhesion, actin polymerization, polarization and, ultimately, migration and invasion in macrophages. The macrophage transcriptome, including that of the motility machinery, is very complex and highly responsive to the environment, with selective expression of proteins and splice variants rarely found in other cell types. Thus, their unique motility machinery can be specifically targeted to block macrophage migration, and thereby, inhibit tumor invasion and metastasis.


Adaptive filtering in the DFT domain is popular for its computational efficiency and its attractive convergence properties resulting from the applicability of the FFT and separate adaptation of individual DFT bins. Narrowband algorithms assume a complete decoupling of different frequency bins, which corresponds to assuming a circulant structure for the input data matrix. Wideband designs account for the difference between the actual Toplitz structure and the circulant structure by introducing additional constraints. In this contribution, we show that a wideband approach with rigorous implementation of appropriate constraints leads to highly efficient algorithms with excellent convergence properties. As examples we consider multichannel acoustic echo cancellation (MC-AEC) and blind source separation (BSS) of convolutive mixtures.


Aim: In the follow-up of patients with advanced stage thyroid cancer radioiodine scintigraphy, F-l 8-FDG PET and tumormarker hTg using stimulation with recombinant human TSH (rhTSH) were compared to the results of same diagnostic procedures during TSH-suppression or endogenous TSH-stimulation. Methods: 30 patients were investigated in hypothyroidism and after application of rhTSH regarding the serum hormone concentrations, hTg, radioiodine scans and FGD-PET scans. Results: Radioiodine avidity and FDG uptake were significantly higher in 7/30 and 3/5 patients, respectively, compared to endogenous stimulation or TSH-suppression. In about one third of patients hTg increased more than 30%. Conclusion: Our preliminary results indicate a sufficient feasibility and sensitivity of rhTSH not only in the follow-up by hTg and radioiodine scan but also in FDG-PET.


Starting from the assumption that Discourse Analysis can shed light on hidden instances of social demand through the analysis of discourse in different social contexts, the present paper focuses on healthcare, in particular on the social demands concerning health that emerge in forums where health problems are discussed. A corpus of texts produced in the context of non-specialized discussion groups has been analyzed, both from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective. Various discourse features have been examined — from strategies of self-presentation and other-addressing to the selection of specialized lexicon and terminologies, from levels of formality to the interplay of description and narrative. The analysis has revealed the presence of two different 'scenographies' (Maingueneau, 2007), that can be named 'social' and 'private', respectively. The former is characterized by the exchange of information, while the latter gives voice to the need for a different relationship between patients and doctors. In this perspective, it is suggested that the person as a whole should be the main concern of doctors, thus leading to a renewal of discourse in the medical sector.


Despite widespread recognition of the importance of strategy–structure fit, e.g., diversification and divisionalization, research has yet to address the possibility of similar fit issues for other structural forms of organization, such as the choice of franchised vs. company-owned governance structures. In this study, we depart from the usual debates regarding the superiority of one governance structure over another and argue that performance differences between these two alternative governance structures may be attributable more to the matching of one structure with a correspondingly appropriate strategy. Specifically, we posit that stores will act in fit-enhancing ways by pursuing strategies that are more congruent with their governance structure; i.e., that franchised stores, with their more flexible and decentralized structures, will be more likely to pursue strategies that emphasize flexibility and local adaptation, whereas company-owned stores will tend to pursue strategies that emphasize predictability and control. We also argue that those stores acting in such a manner will enjoy subsequent performance benefits. We develop these ideas around strategy/governance structure fit and test our hypotheses using longitudinal data from over 6000 stores within one of the biggest U.S. restaurant chains from 1991 to 1997. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The EUProMeta is an international distributed doctoral school that educates students at the Ph.D. level in all theoretical and experimental aspects of metamaterials. This contribution provides an overview to the activities of the school, its intention, its structure and the way individual school events are implemented. The article aimes to raise awareness that education of students is an essential ingredient of a research community that advances its research field as a whole. Doctoral schools are an excellent institution to set a base of shared knowledge in a community and to interlink the people that contribute most to the actual research performed in the field.


Since the European Central Bank's (ECB's) 2003 strategy review, the importance of macro-financial amplification channels for monetary policy has increasingly gained recognition. This paper takes stock of this evolution and discusses the desirability of further incremental enhancements in the role of financial stability considerations in the ECB's monetary policy strategy. The paper starts with the premise that macroprudential policy, along with microprudential supervision, is the first line of defence against the build-up of financial imbalances. It also recognises that the pursuit of price stability through monetary policy, and of financial stability through macroprudential policy, are to a large extent complementary. Nevertheless, macroprudential policy may not be able to ensure financial stability independently of monetary policy, because of spillovers originating from the common transmission channels through which the two policies produce their effects. For example, a low interest rate environment can create incentives to engage in more risk-taking, or can adversely impact the profitability of financial intermediaries and hence their capacity to absorb shocks. The paper argues that the existence of such spillovers creates a conceptual case for monetary policy to take financial stability considerations into account. It then goes on to discuss what this conclusion might imply in practice for the ECB. One option would be to exploit the flexible length of the medium-term horizon over which price stability is to be achieved. Longer deviations from price stability could occasionally be tolerated, if they resulted in materially lower risks for financial stability and, ultimately, for future price stability. ...


Diverse papaya (Carica papaya L.) germplasm were assessed for tolerance by mechanical challenge with Jamaican Papaya ringspot virus type p (PRSV) isolates. One local accession of the large papaya fruit type was found to be tolerant to infections, with plants exhibiting mild symptoms and a recovery phenotype that was dependent on the challenge virus. However, virus was detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the recovered plants. Another local accession, C. jamaicensis Urb., was susceptible to all challenge isolates. Furthermore, molecular analyses suggested that C. jamaicensis was more closely related to commercial papaya varieties than to highland species. Other C. papaya cultivars from India, Taiwan, Thailand, and Florida, U.S.A., showed a range in reactions to the Jamaican PRSV isolates. The reactions included no visible symptoms but detectable virus titres, recovery from systemic infections, and attenuated symptom expression as well as susceptibility. Together, the data provide a basis for developing germplasm with natural tolerance to PRSV in Jamaica.


Video games often offer players a chance to visit fantastical places that could never exist in reality. However, these interactions are related to and can influence how one perceives the real world. Research has primarily focused on the relationship between violent video games and aggression, but there is another aspect of video games that could influence players: sexualized content. In this article we review the prevalence of sexualized content in video games and discuss the relationship this content has with players' attitudes toward women. This burgeoning body of work indicates that sexualized content is both highly prevalent in video games and is linked to increased sexist attitudes and perceptions of the real world. We conclude by highlighting important questions that remain unanswered regarding the role that sexualized content has on video game players.


On the 5th October 1990 the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Major, announced the Government's proposal for full British membership of the European Monetary System (EMS), from the following Monday, thereby ending mass speculation about the date of the UK's application. The belief that the time was now ripe was stimulated by the view that there would be substantial reduction in the UK's rate of price inflation over the coming year, both in absolute terms and relative to the inflation rates experienced by our European partners. In providing such a justification John Major appeared to have gone back on not only his own word but also that of the previous Chancellor, Nigel Lawson. Both stressed on several occasions that entry into the exchange rate mechanism (ERM) of the EMS would take place when the conditions spelt out in the Madrid summit had been met. The most stringent condition was the UK achievement of the EC average rate of inflation. As recently as the 3rd April 1990, in answering questions before the House of Commons Treasury and Civil Service Committee, Mr Major maintained that, whilst the conditions for entry were moving towards being met, the condition that Britain's inflation rate should be "proximate" to the European Community level had "certainly not been met". This important decision is one example of how important is the measurement and presentation of the rate of inflation in determining policy and economic behaviour. It is not the only one - the impact of published inflation figures on the wage bargaining climate has at times been crucial and had far-reaching consequences during the past two or three decades. This article attempts to assess whether the most widely accepted and used definition of inflation (the percentage change in the Retail Price Index (RPI)) is the most appropriate for calculations, starting with some comparisons with our European neighbours.


The structural parameters, thermal properties, and transport properties of three type I clathrates, namely Sr8Zn8Ge38, Sr8Ga16Ge30, and Ba8Ga16Si30, have been determined at or below room temperature. The structural parameters of these clathrates were determined by powder neutron diffraction. Their lattice thermal expansion is two to four times greater than that of the diamond phases of silicon and germanium, consistent with more anharmonic lattice vibrations. From the temperature dependence of the isotropic atomic displacement parameters, the estimated rattling frequencies of guests in the large cages of these clathrates are in the range 50–60 cm−1. The heat capacities of these three clathrate materials increase smoothly with increasing temperatures and approach the Dulong–Petit value around room temperature. The Grüneisen parameter of these materials is constant between 100 and 300 K but increases below 100 K, due to the dominance of the low-frequency guest-rattling modes. The room-temperature electrical resistivity and the Seebeck coefficient show that these materials are metallic. The temperature profile of the thermal conductivities and calculated phonon mean free paths of these materials show glasslike behavior, although they are crystalline materials, indicating strong resonant scattering of heat-carrying acoustic phonons via the rattling of the guests in the clathrate cages.


Nov 7 Javier Arsuaga, UCSF DNA knots reveal a chiral organization of DNA in phage capsids Icosahedral bacteriophages pack their double-stranded DNA genomes to near-crystalline density and achieve one of the highest levels of DNA condensation found in nature. Despite numerous studies, some essential properties of the packaging geometry of the DNA inside the phage capsid are still unknown. We present a different approach to the problems of randomness and chirality of the packed DNA. We recently showed that most DNA molecules extracted from bacteriophage P4 are highly knotted because of the cyclization of the linear DNA molecule confined in the phage capsid. Here, we show that these knots provide information about the global arrangement of the DNA inside the capsid. First, we analyze the distribution of the viral DNA knots by high-resolution gel electrophoresis. Next, we perform Monte Carlo computer simulations of random knotting for freely jointed polygons confined to spherical volumes. Comparison of the knot distributions obtained by both techniques produces a topological proof of nonrandom packaging of the viral DNA. Moreover, our simulations show that the scarcity of the achiral knot 4(1) and the predominance of the torus knot 5(1) over the twist knot 5(2) observed in the viral distribution of DNA knots cannot be obtained by confinement alone but must include writhe bias in the conformation sampling. These results indicate that the packaging geometry of the DNA inside the viral capsid is writhe-directed.


Abstract : This work used hyperspectral imagery to derive shallow water depth estimates. A technique to classify substrates and estimate reflectance values for the substrate types is the major contributions of this work. This was accomplished by masking different bottom types based on spectra, effects that were not included in previous methods. HYDICE data was taken over Lake Tahoe on June 22, 1995. The high altitude of the lake provided a low aerosol content within the atmosphere. This allowed for relatively straight forward atmospheric corrections. This was substantially easier than in an oceanic environment. The atmospheric radiative transfer code MODTRAN3.O was used to model the atmospheric conditions at the time of the experiment. The radiative transfer code HYDROLIGHT3.5 was used to model the attenuation coefficients of the relatively clear water of the lake. Minimal river input and low chlorophyll concentrations made it simpler to determine these values. Making use of the full spectral content of data within the optical range, multiple substrates were differentiated and masked off. This allowed for an estimation on wet substrate reflectance and a straight forward calculation of bottom depth.


Tak Chan presents a hypothetical case where a child affected by trisomy 18 was conceived using in vitro fertilisation (IVF), and where the parents requested parentage testing.1 Chan argues that doctors are morally obliged to accede to requests for genetic testing to determine parentage provided that carrying out the test results in a low risk of child abandonment.1

Although we also support providing genetic testing to determine parentage in the particular case described by Tak Chan, we are concerned about the implications and practicalities of the proposed 'risk of abandonment' test for other parentage determination requests. We offer different arguments for why the parents should be assisted in their request in this particular circumstance.

Genetic testing to determine parentage is widely available on a direct-to-consumer basis in many jurisdictions including Australia, and the involvement of a medical practitioner is not necessary to access the test. As Tak Chan points out, ordinarily there are few, if any, medical reasons for determining parentage. In the circumstances where one can envisage a medical reason, for example, to clarify recurrence risk for a genetic disorder in future children, this is generally achievable through specific genetic testing, rather than parentage determination.1 Parentage determination has …


In this paper, we discuss the implementation of a serial main-memory key-value store based on Masstree[6]. Similar to Masstree, the key-value store is implemented as a trie-like tree of B+-Trees, where each B+-Tree is responsible for a fixed-length slice of a variable-length key. However, one of the major differences between our key-value store and Masstree is that our B+-tree implementation (a component of the key-value store) takes linear time to insert a set of sorted records. This is compared to a traditional B+-tree implementation that would take linearithmic time. Moreover, partially sorting a sequence of operation leads to substantial performance gains. This is made possible using a data structure for navigating B+-trees called a B+-tree cursor. As our next operation is amortized constant time, our B+-tree does not need to maintain cross links between leaf nodes. We also briefly show that this same data structure can be extended to the trie of B+-Trees to ensure amortized linear time for bulk insertion of key-value pairs in the key-value store. We were inspired with this idea of B+-Tree cursors from the SQLite [5] B-tree source code.


This article assesses three major recent preemption decisions, all issued during the 2008-2009 term, for their implications about the role of the states in national administrative governance. A striking feature of the decisions is the extent to which they are centrally concerned with using state law and preemption analysis to improve federal administration and police against federal agency failure. Federalism clearly factored into the decisions as well, but it did so more as a mechanism for enhancing federal agency performance than as a principle worth pursuing in its own right.The decisions' framing state law and preemption analysis as mechanisms for improving federal administration stands in sharp contrast with other judicial precedents, in both the preemption and administrative law contexts, in which the Supreme Court has rejected efforts to use state law and court challenges to police federal agency performance. One possible explanation of the Court's conflicting jurisprudence, and the one on which I focus here, is as reflecting a distinction between direct and indirect efforts at federal agency reform. Such a direct-indirect distinction has substantial appeal on both federalism and separation of powers grounds, but I ultimately conclude that drawing a firm line between direct and indirect efforts to improve agency performance is analytically and normatively unsatisfying. Indirect methods can have a significant impact on agencies and state measures do not clearly sort into direct and indirect categories. Nor, moreover, do direct state efforts to target federal administration necessarily run afoul of constitutional federalism principles. Instead, in our contemporary world of concurrent federal and state authority and an ever-expanding national administrative state, some direct state targeting of federal agencies seems both constitutionally legitimate and functionally necessary if states are to play a meaningful governance role.


Investigates the stability and performance of a two-level production control method for part release, routing, and machine scheduling in manufacturing systems. At the first level (off line), a continuous-flow (fluid) approximation of the production control problem is formulated and solved as a linear program. At the second level (on line), simple distributed control policies are used to track the solution of the continuous-flow model of level one. A major research issue concerns the potential instability of decentralized tracking policies due to the discreteness of the decision space (caused by the sequential nature of operations and their discrete processing times). The author considers a broad class of distributed tracking policies, which is called nonidling-nonexceeding (NINE) and finds a sufficient condition for their stability. The results show the NINE policies potential instability for nonacyclic systems due to machine starvation, which is caused by tracking delays induced by the discrete nature of operations. The sufficient stability condition takes a familiar form, namely that, the largest eigenvalue of a matrix/spl minus/which captures the dynamics of tracking delays in the system/spl minus/must be less than one. It ensures the contraction of tracking delays in the feedback loops of material flow in the system. When this condition is met, an upper bound on the performance of the policy is readily obtained. It is further shown that any nonidling dispatching policy can be considered as a special NINE policy, and thus the same stability and performance results apply to the class of all nonidling policies. The author also investigates NINE policies with buffer priorities and shows that a NINE policy with certain buffer priority ordering is always stable. Simulation experiments show that near-zero work-in-process and finished-parts' inventory can be achieved with the method even for demands that are very close to the production capacity of the system. >


The aim of this study was to establish a standard method for determining the pressure setting of the Codman Hakim valve (CHV) in patients with hydrocephalus. The authors' investigation was twofold. It focused on: 1) the relationships among CHV setting, intracranial pressure (ICP), intraabdominal pressure (IAP), hydrostatic pressure (HP), and perfusion pressure (PP); and 2) the shunt flow in 18 patients with normal-pressure hydrocephalus. With the patient in a sitting position, the pressure environment around the ventriculoperitoneal shunt stabilized when PP became equal to the CHV setting. The lower the CHV setting, the lower the ICP obtained in patients in a sitting position (ICPsit) settled. This indicated the possibility of calculating the CHV setting by the equation CHV setting = HP + ideal ICPsit - IAP, where the ideal ICPsit was estimated to be between -70 and -140 mm H2O. The CHV setting was individually determined for 18 patients by using this method. The ICPsit, was controlled at a level equal to the estimated ICPsit in most cases, which supported the rationality of our concept. Shunt flow was intermittent or very low when the patient assumed a supine position and between 200 and 600 microl/minute when the patient was seated. Determining the CHV setting by using the equation CHV setting = HP + ideal ICPsit - IAP was found to be useful when directly measuring HP and IAP in patients and estimating the ideal ICPsit to be between -70 and -140 mm H2O. Postoperative shunt control performed using this method was satisfactory, and shunt complications and the number of CHV resettings were lower than in those published in previous reports. Shunt-flow measurement performed in vivo and in real time by using a microflowmeter should be useful not only in testing the functioning of shunt systems, but also in clarifying the pathophysiology of hydrocephalus.


Pre-Silicon hardware Trojan detection has been studied for years. The most popular benchmark circuits are from the Trust-Hub. Their common feature is that the probability of activating hardware Trojans is very low. This leads to a series of machine learning based hardware Trojan detection methods which try to find the nets with low signal probability of 0 or 1. On the other hand, it is considered that, if the probability of activating hardware Trojans is high, these hardware Trojans can be easily found through behaviour simulations or during functional test. This paper explores the "grey zone" between these two opposite scenarios: if the activation probability of a hardware Trojan is not low enough for machine learning to detect it and is not high enough for behaviour simulation or functional test to find it, it can escape from detection. Experiments show the existence of such hardware Trojans, and this paper suggests a new set of hardware Trojan benchmark circuits for future study.


Intravitreal injections of triamcinolone acetonide are today widely performed as a therapeutic tool for a large variety of ocular diseases. The risk of toxicity of the product and its vehicle is quite real and is still at the center of investigations. Complications related to the substance and the technique of injections are already well-known (intraocular pressure rise, cataract, endophthalmitis, pseudo-endophthalmitis, vitreous haemorrhage and retinal detachment). Carefulness and rigor in the indication, realization and follow-up of these injections are therefore mandatory.


This biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, written with reference to Browning correspondence only recently available, argues that the poet was a strong and determined woman largely responsible for her own incarceration in Wimpole Street. The author traces her life from her early childhood and adolescence and explores her marriage. She draws a picture of early Victorian family life and aims to show that Elizabeth was a considerable and dedicated poet, self-willed, witty and courageous. Forster has also edited the companion volume "Selected Poems" of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and is author of several other biographies.


Abstract An activated sludge pilot plant was used to acclimatise sludge to a low dose of H2S gas. Sludge samples from different types of treatment works were compared with acclimatised and unacclimatised sludges using batch absorption tests. The effects of sludge source and acclimatisation on the ability of the sludge to withstand shock loads of 50 ml l−1 H2S were evaluated. Sludge that had been acclimatised to 5 ml l−1 H2S in the air supply removed 70% of a 50 ml l−1 load in a batch reactor after three sludge ages of acclimatsation. Pre‐exposure to low H2S concentrations enabled the bacterial community to maintain a sufficient sulphide‐degrading population to retain acclimatisation and degrade subsequent high loads which are toxic to unacclimatised sludge. Acclimatisation to H2S is therefore mainly an effect of selection pressure on the mixed bacterial population, which suggests that the H2S removal capacity of different types of activated sludge will converge after acclimatisation, irrespective of their initial degradative abilities


In this paper we intend to give a broad overview of natural and artificial photosynthesis systems. We point out seven orders of magnitude difference of the rates of water splitting between natural and state of the art artificial photosynthesis in favour of natural photosynthesis. We reviewed the open literature for photocatalytic water splitting, CO 2 reduction and suggested routes for improvements in the low yields.


The Urumieh-Dokhtar Magmatic Belt (UDMB) is the host of many Iranian Cu porphyry deposits. The southern part of this belt, in the Jebal-Barez area, has been less investigated due to the mountainous and rough topography as well as some security confrontations. Porphyry deposits are associated with hydrothermal alteration zones, which can be mapped using the remote sensing data such as Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). The aim of this study was to identify and detect the alteration zones associated with porphyry systems using ASTER data in Jebal-Barez area, SE Iran. For this reason, seven scenes of ASTER level-1B data which cover the Jebal-Barez area, were pre-processed and then processed by band ratio, false color composite and Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) methods. The result indicated the presence of extensive phyllic and argillic alteration zones. The argillic alteration is surrounded by border zones of propylitic alteration. Also, a massive granitoid intrusion in NW of the studied area was detected by SAM method and the color composite of 4, 6, and 8 bands of ASTER as a completely altered area (SF area) which strongly needs more detailed exploration and field inspections.


The primary elements of the travel experience are transportation and accommodation. Travellers choose between various suppliers with the final choice being determined by an evaluation of a number of criteria. In the case of hotel accommodation, the choice is based on a multi-criteria assessment of a hotel's perceived attributes.
The aim of the thesis is to determine and analyse the weighting and ranking attributed by potential customers to a number of criteria used in selecting a 5-star hotel framed in the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard and confront with those made by hotel managers. The customer decision criteria identified in this study mirror key result areas used in hospitality management performance measurement tools such as the balanced scorecard.
The 5-star hotel industry in Malta has performed exceptionally well in recent years, in a dramatically changed scenario in which the source of bookings for Malta visits changed from 70% package tours in 2006 to 45% in 2014, with 55% individual bookings. This was driven by the introduction of low cost carriers. Disintermediation necessitated a customer-centric approach by hotel managers entailing their full awareness of what the customer expects from a 5-Star hotel. This research study set out to confirm or otherwise reject this hypothesis by a survey of potential 5-star hotel customers complemented by a survey targeting managers in 5-star hotels in Malta. Strong correlation between survey results is noted and both sets of findings are subjected to sensitivity analysis, and practical implications are drawn.


The number of digital photos in the personal computer is exploding. In an effective photo management system, photo annotation is the most challenging task. The current photo annotation and management systems suffer from two crucial problems. One is the expression of semantic knowledge; the other is the way of photo annotation. Aiming at the former problem, this paper proposes to utilize ontology to organize the domain knowledge and provide formal, explicit and conceptual annotation. Meanwhile, a dual-level semi-automatic annotation approach is also proposed to resolve the latter problem. The rough annotation layer provides preliminary annotation by automatically extracting some semantic concepts from photo titles/texts, time concepts from EXIF metadata, and photo classification concepts from the result of face detection algorithms. The accurate annotation layer provides more detailed annotation by allowing users to modify, delete and add the annotation information freely. An ontology based photo management system OntoAlbum is implemented in this paper. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is very effective and promising.


This article presents findings from a five year study of 'gambling careers' designed to explore the ways that individuals move in and out of problematic behaviour over time. A longitudinal qualitative methodology was used to investigate patterns of stability and change in a cohort of 50 problem and recreational gamblers. The study found that change, rather than stability, was the norm in gambling behaviour and identified four different trajectories of behaviour: progression, reduction, consistency and non-linearity. Drawing on rich narrative accounts of respondents' gambling behaviour, the study begins to suggest reasons for these different types of movement, highlighting the role of material factors such as employment, environment and social context in each. It concludes that gambling behaviour is highly variable over time, and recommends that future research focus on patterns of behaviour rather than on 'types' of gamblers.


Extracted from text ... T
54 Management Today March 2006
Team building:
critical questions for a successful intervention
The use of teams has become one of the
features of modern organisational life. The
skills to lead teams to be optimally effective
have become one of the most distinguishing
features setting successful leaders
apart from their less fortunate counterparts.
This article is the first in a series that
will focus on teams and leading teams. The
series will address issues like performance,
team building, conflict management,
problem solving and other critical
issues to ensure the success of teams.
The emphasis will be on practical,
hands-on ..


Abstract Vascular structures are contemplated for cooling the skins and leading surfaces of future high speed aircraft. This paper evaluates the proposal to cool with a flow architecture shaped as trees (dendritic) a parallelepipedic body that is heated uniformly. The coolant enters the body through one face and exits through the opposite face. The vasculature connects the two faces, and consists of trees that alternate with upside down trees. The fields for fluid flow and heat transfer are determined numerically in three dimensions. The effect of local pressure losses at bends, junctions and entrances is documented. Designs with tree-shaped architectures having up to four levels of bifurcation are evaluated for fluid flow and heat transfer performance, and are compared with the performance of a design with a single sheet of fluid sweeping the upper surface of the body. The fluid flow conductance of the tree designs increases when the number of bifurcation levels increases. The thermal performance of tree designs can be improved by endowing the tree design with more freedom such that the bifurcations generate asymmetric daughter channels. The tree designs outperform the fluid sheet design dramatically: the global thermal resistance of the tree designs is roughly one tenth of the global thermal resistance of the fluid sheet design.


Ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless technology is envisaged to play a key role in B3G wireless systems, guaranteeing very high bit rates, low power consumption, low costs and location capabilities. The availability of low cost and efficient devices makes UWB technology very competitive on the communications market. However, its worldwide acceptance mainly relies on coexistence issues because of the necessity of sharing the spectrum with other radio systems. The reduction, due to coexistence constraints, in the capacity of an UWB system in a realistic multipath channel is investigated. Link performance of an UWB system that exploits either partial or selective Rake combining at the receiver is evaluated over experimental impulse responses of an UWB indoor channel in an office building. Using these results, system performances are evaluated through a semi-analytical procedure in terms of outage probability and system capacity. Results on system capacity account for the limitations imposed by the current regulation, leading us to introduce the concept of 'UWB systems limited by coexistence'.


By using the Schenzle-Brewer model, in which the ground state of a two-level system also has a finite lifetime, it is shown that two pressure-induced extraresonant degenerate four-wave mixing signals are obtained. The first extra resonance is similar to that predicted and observed by Bogdan et al. [Opt. Lett. 6, 82, 348 (1981)]. It is characterized by a linewidth equal to the inverse lifetime of the upper state and appears only in the presence of collisional redistribution. The second extra resonance is characterized by a linewidth equal to the inverse lifetime of the ground state and does not depend on collisional redistribution for its appearance.


Cloud Computing is regarded as a revolution of the IT industry. It is also a business model, in which the service provider should try to make best use of resources, reduce energy consumption and earn profits as much as possible. Scheduling strategy plays an important role in service providing. A priority based algorithm for scheduling virtual machines on physical hosts in cloud computing environment is proposed. The target of this algorithm is to maximize the benefits of the service providers in the case of current resources are not enough to process all the requests in time. In this strategy, the requests are ranked according to the profits they can bring. Through the experiments, this approach has been proven it can increase the benefits than applying typical first come first serve strategy.


We present new algorithms and a software implementation for assigning confidence to peptide sequence assignments obtained through classic accurate mass and retention time (AMT) matching techniques, as well as methods for integrating these assignments with standard proteomics workflows. The algorithms are intended to increase the number of peptides and proteins identified (and, when applicable, quantitated by isotopic labeling) among related proteomics experiments that use high-resolution mass spectrometry instrumentation. The motivations for our extensions include the need to exploit high-resolution data to support highly complex proteomics experiments, especially those involving extensive off-line fractionation, to which recent label-free workflows might not easily generalize.


Analytical results are presented for nonlinear vibrations of a wide timing belt with parametric excitation in tension and meshing impact forces. The equation of motion is developed from Hamilton's principle, and approximate solutions to the basic equation are obtained using the Galerkin method. The steady-state responses are calculated using the harmonic balance method. Analytical results are presented which show the contributions of pulley speed and tension to natural frequencies. The resonant amplitude varies with cross section y. In the case of variable tension, the resonant peak value varies with the rates of variable tension, and tension. Amplitude reduction by means of periodic variation of tension is effective for tension and rate of variable tension.


The outcomes of fibrate trials have varied: positive with gemfibrozil in the primary prevention Helsinki Heart Study and the secondary prevention VA-HIT trial; positive with reservations in the primary prevention WHO trial (clofibrate); and mixed with bezafibrate in the secondary prevention BIP study and with fenofibrate in the combined primary and secondary prevention FIELD study. Overall, the mixed results, combined with potential for adverse effects when given in combination with statins, have limited the use of these fibrates as cardioprotective agents. However, post hoc analyses of several of the fibrate studies have shown that people with features of the metabolic syndrome, particularly overweight people with high plasma triglyceride levels and low levels of HDL cholesterol, derive a disproportionately large reduction in cardiovascular events when treated with these agents. Thus, there is a strong case for the use of a fibrate to reduce the cardiovascular risk in overweight people with high triglyceride and low HDL-C. However, it should be noted that such people also have their cardiovascular risk reduced by statin therapy. It remains to be determined whether the combination of a fibrate plus statin reduces the risk beyond that achieved with a statin alone. (Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2008;28:39-46.)


Metallurgy
Low-density magnesium alloys are a promising type of material for making lighter vehicles and improving fuel efficiency. One challenge for lightweighting is developing high-strength magnesium alloys. Wu et al. created a dual-phase magnesium thin film with near-ideal strength. The alloy consists of small nanocrystalline cores surrounded by glass, combining the benefits of both phases to create the high-strength alloy. The strategy for creating this type of nanostructure should translate to other types of alloys, opening a different pathway to creating high-strength metals.

Nature 10.1038/nature21691 (2017).


We reported three cases of Mikuhcz's disease. Mikulicz's disease was diagnosed by the following criteria: 1) symmetrical enlargement of the lacrimal and salivary glands lasting at least 3 months', 2) the lacrimal and salivary glands were microscopically involved in the infiltration of inflammatory cells, 3) sarcoidosis and other lymphoproliferative diseases were excluded. Three patients with Mikulicz's disease were all characterized by elevated IgG4 concentration in the serum and prominent infiltration of IgG4-positive plasmacytes in the minor salivary glands. On the contrary, there were no findings indicating sicca syndrome or anti-SS-A and SS-B antibodies, which characterize Sjogren syndrome. It is suggested that Mikulicz's disease is an IgG4-related plasmacytec disease, with a pathogenesis differing from that of Sjogren syndrome.


WE were indebted to Mr. Johnson's kindness for an opportunity of examining the other day an interesting case of the above affection, which derives some practical interest from the fact, that it had previously escaped detection and been confounded with the ordinary morbus coxariuis. The patient, a girl, ten years of age, was the child of a woman who had suffered from venereal disease, and was of a pale weakly appearance. She had not been able to walk till three years of age, and had then been observed to limp. For this she was taken to her mother's medical attendant, who merely said she would outgrow it. She had been since then under the care of various persons, and at different institutions, and blisters and iodine had been used to combat the supposed inflammation of the hip. There is no pain in the part, but the weakness of the extremity increases as the child gets older. On examination, the left leg is seen to be much shortened, about an inch and a half. The pelvis is quite natural in its direction, and the whole shortening is seen to be due to a displacement of the upper part of the femur, as the distance between the trochanter and spine of the ilium corresponds to the extent of the shortening. The lead of the femur can be felt low down upon the dorsum ilii, nmoving quite freely and loosely. The foot enjoys great freedom of motion, and when she stands quiet, points outwards, the ball of the foot resting upon the ground. The diagnosis in this case is founded on the absence of all appearance or history of previous inflammation,-on the history which seems to imply a deformity during the earliest periods of life, proportionally equal to that at present existing, and on the apparent integrity of the head of the bone. All these circumstances forbid the idea of inflammation or abscess as the cause of the complaint.


Abstract Allium pervariensis, a new species of sect. Allium, is described and illustrated from southeastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is a narrowly distributed geophyte in Siirt Province and its closest relatives are A. pustulosum Boiss. & Hausskn, A. karyeteini Post, but it is clearly differentiated due to outer tunic, perigon, pedicel, leaf and filament, and bracteoles characteristics. In this study, a comprehensive description, detailed illustration of A. pervariensis and distribution map, identification key are provided for A. pervariensis and related taxa.


Author(s): Fong, Anthony | Advisor(s): Garay, Javier E | Abstract: Mg-Sn alloys have many uses due to their relative elemental abundance, low toxicity and low densities. Some applications include thermoelectric energy conversion, hydrogen storage, and enhancement of structural alloys. The thermoelectric application is of particular interest because Mg-Sn-Si based materials have shown promise in recent years. It is well accepted that materials structure-property relationships are at the root of the improvement of a device's performance. Due to the interdependence of the transport properties, research for efficient thermoelectric conversion has focused on synthesizing materials with novel microstructures and compositions. Metastable structures present a unique opportunity in this regard. The Mg-Sn material system has a relatively unknown metastable phase which remains largely unstudied. My work represents one of the first studies of the metastable Mg-Sn phase in a polycrystalline bulk form. I present a new synthesis route using a combination of high energy ball milling (powder synthesis) and current activated pressure assisted densification (CAPAD) (powder densification). This method allowed for the synthesis of the metastable trigonal phase at 600 °C and 112 MPa, significantly lower pressures and temperatures than have been demonstrated previously. This method produces samples large enough for the first neutron diffraction study allowing for Rietveld structural refinements to a high degree of accuracy. Through careful control of the synthesis process, I have also studied and characterized the densification and transformation kinetics for the trigonal phase. Analysis of the real time deformation data during CAPAD processing reveals that the transformation mechanisms can be isolated from the densification mechanisms. The transformation process is analyzed using the KJMA model modified for constant heating and shows an activation energy of 74 kJ/mol. Transformation under isothermal conditions follows a second order rate law with a higher activation energy (448 kJ/mol) caused by differing degrees of transformation completion. The amount of metastable phase can be controlled by varying the CAPAD processing parameters. Incorporating the metastable phase into the microstructure changes the thermal, electrical and Seebeck coefficient behavior. The first measurements of this trigonal phase show bipolar diffusion behavior at much lower temperatures than the previously reported Mg-Sn based materials without the metastable trigonal phase.


This report describes a case of a well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the foreskin of a dog, with metastasis in the regional lymph node. A six-year-old male intact Pit Bull dog presented a preputial ulcerated lesion with an evolution time of one year and enlarged left inguinal lymph node. Surgical resection of the preputial lesion and inguinal lymph nodes was made. The diagnosis of a well differentiated SCC was made following histopathological analysis and immunohistochemistry technique was used to confirm lymph node metastasis and to determine the histological features of the tumor. Here we demonstrated that immunohistochemistry can be an important complementary diagnostic tool to assess the prognostic features of SCC and to determine the treatment of choice. Also, the combination of COX-2 selective inhibitors in adjuvant therapy is presented as an effective alternative treatment for metastatic SCC in dogs.


ABSTRACT The use of corporate management practices in higher education has led to spread of result-oriented practices to improve research productivity, including publication rewards and requirements. In this paper we stress the importance of input and process based approaches by examining the mediating role of research self-efficacy on the relationship between training & development practices and research productivity, and the moderating role of knowledge sharing climate. This empirical work provides a more complete understanding of how training & development practices may build research self-efficacy which in turn promotes faculty members' research productivity. Finally, we contribute to the emerging literature on the moderating effects of knowledge sharing climate.


We performed reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) modeling on neutron total scattering data and obtained an atomic structure consistent with the local and the average structures of the relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3. By analyzing the model structure from the RMC analysis, we found evidence for a significant off-centering of the lead ion that varied in magnitude and direction, leading to a partial ordering of polarizations over a few unit cells. We also estimated the static lattice distortion of the oxygen lattice from the bond-length distributions of atomic pairs.


It has become the norm for WTO panels to issue rulings on preliminary issues such as jurisdiction, terms of reference and other related issues pertaining to a dispute upon the request of the disputing parties at the preliminary stage itself. In recent practice, panels have even started to circulate these preliminary rulings. Panel practice on preliminary rulings has developed despite of the absence of any express or implied provision in the Dispute Settlement Understanding. This paper discusses panel jurisprudence pertaining to preliminary rulings on salient aspects such as the scope of preliminary rulings, the timing of requests, et al. It also discusses issues pertaining to preliminary rulings which have legal bearing on the WTO dispute settlement system such as circulation, appellate review, and adoption; some of which WTO Members have themselves identified. While the practice of issuing preliminary rulings may be beneficial to the WTO's Members and the dispute settlement system as such, the unfettered practice of issuing preliminary rulings coupled with the absence of any express rules or a formal WTO understanding regarding the same raises certain systemic concerns. Given the systemic importance and utility of preliminary rulings in WTO dispute settlement, and also the legal uncertainties that may arise, it would be in Members' best interests if they took steps to codify current practice to ensure uniformity. However, a better alternative may be for panels/AB to develop the extant framework by either adding or modifying the Working Procedures.


Few people have anything encouraging to say about middle management: past, present, or future. The picture of middle management that comes from many articles and from the business press is predominantly a gloomy one. Most writers portray the middle manager as a frustrated, disillusioned individual caught in the middle of a hierarchy, impotent, and with no real hope of career progression. In this article, these predictions are discussed and compared with a recent study of middle management in Europe that suggests a different picture. The authors have been participating in a six-country Western European study, initiated and partially funded by the European Foundation for Living and Working conditions, which has been examining the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to such changes. Specifically, the study sought to examine the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to these changes in six countries: U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, and The Netherlands.


His 238, a conserved amino acid located in hydrogen-bonding distance from C-6 of the substrate in the active site of murine adenosine deaminase (mADA) and postulated to play an important role in catalysis, was altered into an alanine, a glutamate, and an arginine using site-directed mutagenesis. The Ala and Glu substitutions did not result in changes of the secondary or tertiary structure, while the Arg mutation caused local perturbations in tertiary structure and quenched the emission of one or more enzyme tryptophans. Neither the Glu or Arg mutations affected substrate binding affinity. By contrast, the Ala mutation enhanced substrate and inhibitor binding by 20-fold. The most inactive of the mutants, Glu 238, had a kcat/K(m) 4 x 10(-6) lower than the wild-type value, suggesting that a positive charge on His 238 is important for proper catalytic function. The Ala 238 mutant was the most active ADA, with a kcat/K(m) 2 x 10(-3) lower than the wild-type value. NMR spectroscopy and crystallography revealed that this mutant is able to catalyze hydration of purine riboside, a ground-state analog of the reaction. These results collectively show that His 238 is not required for formation of the hydroxylate used in the deamination and may instead have an important electrostatic role.


We analyse the level of nuclear activity in galaxies belonging to UZC-CGs. Spectra are available for 868 galaxies (90% of the whole catalog); 67 % of them show nuclear activity (AGN or Star formation). To carry out a detailed study about the nuclear activity and its relationship with properties of the host galaxy and parent group we select a sample of 215 groups with spectra available for all their members. From the analysis of this sample and using diagnostic diagrams to do the nuclear classification we found that 37% of emission galaxies host an HII nuclear region, 43% an AGN and 20% a Transition Object. AGNs are located mainly in bright early type galaxies meanwhile HII are in fainter and later types. Groups dominated by HII show significant lower velocity dispersions and larger sizes than groups dominated by AGNs or TO.


During the operation of outlet high slop of the hydropower station diversion tunnel, the monitoring data shown that the upper slope had an abnormal deformation tendency toward the upstream, which was different from the general slope deformation law. The paper analyzed the deformation mechanism of the high slop outside the hydropower station diversion tunnel in detail based on detailed analysis of the geological data. The analysis shown that the basic reasons of slope deformation were the upper hard and lower soft structure characteristics and the fully developed interlayer shear zone; the excavation unloading, reservoir impounding, reservoir water level change, rainfall, flood discharge atomization, rock weathering, water-rock long-term effects, and some other factors induce and aggravate the rock mass deformation.


This work will first consider the economic-industrial importance of digital standards in shaping the IT1 sector. Then empirical research will focus on the innovative driver represented by their coordination as open standards within an agile framework. This process innovation will be contextualized with parallel models that are constitutive of an agile paradigm, Lean Production, Agile Manufacturing, Agile Software Development, and Agile Requirements Engineering (for that purpose, the singularities between requirements engineering and digital standardization will be shown). Then an in-depth case study will be undertaken about the non-profit international consortium OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards). Findings will show how the model emphasizes agile dynamics in the industrially-oriented open coordination of digital standardization.JEL Codes: L15, O32, O33, L3, A12, M15


* Corresponding Author: E-mail address: firstname.lastname@example.com Abstract A line × tester analysis involving five varieties SQ-26, SQ-77, GH-10, 8670, PARC-N2 (lines) and three varieties 8721, SARC-5 and DN-4 (testers) were crossed to study some hydroponics growing characters. In controlled conditions SQ-26 exhibited the highest positive GCA effects on Shoot length, Shoot fresh weight, Na+ and K+ concentrations, while SQ-77 showed maximum GCA effects on Root length, Root fresh weight and Shoot dry weight in females and in males and both DN-4 and SARC-5 showed the highest GCA effects. Under high saline concentration female SQ-77 showed the maximum positive effects on all characters but on shoot length and Na concentration while male SARC-5 exhibited the highest positive GCA effects on all characters. Under high saline level, the cross combination SQ-26 × 8721 showed SCA effects for shoot length, whereas 8670 x 8721 showed the same effects for shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight and root dry weight. For Na+ and K+ concentrations, the cross combination GH-10 × DN-4 showed then highest SCA effects, whereas for shoot dry weight and root length, the cross combinations GH-10 × SARC-5 and PARC-N2 × 8721 showed the highest SCA effects, respectively.


Magnetic resonance imaging has become the mainstay in the evaluation of internal derangements of joints, cartilage as well as bone and soft tissue tumors. Advances in the magnetic field strength, coil technology and sequences have led to significant increase in spatial resolution as well as improvements in ability to image cartilage. Imaging of cartilage has moved beyond mere detection of cartilage defects to functional imaging methods like T2 mapping which can image abnormal architecture and degeneration of the cartilage. With advent of cartilage repair procedures, MRI has a significant role to play in non‐invasive post operative imaging of these patients. Newer advances like MR spectroscopy and tractography which already have an established role in neuroradiology, provide exciting possibilities in imaging of nerves, tumors and muscles in future.


We study the restructuring of solid nickel catalyst nanoparticles during carbon nanotube growth by environmental transmission electron microscopy and multiscale modeling. Our molecular dynamics/continuum transport calculations of surface-diffusion-mediated restructuring are in quantitative agreement with the experimentally observed catalyst shape evolutions. The restructuring time scale is determined by reduced Ni diffusion through the stepped Ni-C interface region where the catalyst surface strongly anchors to the growing nanotube.


Background: Increased plasma concentrations of free fatty acids (FFA) can lead to insulin resistance in skeletal muscle, impaired effects on mitochondrial function, including uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation and decrease of endogenous antioxidant defenses. Nitric oxide (NO) is a highly diffusible gas that presents a half-life of 5-10 seconds and is involved in several physiological and pathological conditions. The effects of palmitic acid on nitric oxide (NO) production by rat skeletal muscle cells and the possible mechanism involved were investigated. Methods: Primary cultured rat skeletal muscle cells were treated with palmitic acid and NO production was assessed by nitrite measurement (Griess method) and 4,5-diaminofluorescein diacetate (DAF-2-DA) assay. Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-ĸB) activation was evaluated by electrophoretic mobility shift assay and iNOS protein content by western blotting. Results: Palmitic acid treatment increased nitric oxide production. This effect was abolished by treatment with NOS inhibitors, L-nitro-arginine (LNA) and L-nitro-arginine methyl esther (L-NAME). NF-ĸB activation and iNOS content were increased due to palmitic acid treatment. The participation of superoxide on nitric oxide production was investigated by incubating the cells with DAF-2-DA in the presence or absence of palmitic acid, a superoxide generator system (X-XO), a mixture of NOS inhibitors and SOD-PEG (superoxide dismutase linked to polyethylene glycol). Palmitic acid and X-XO system increased NO production and this effect was abolished when cells were treated with NOS inhibitors and also with SOD-PEG. Conclusions: In summary, palmitic acid stimulates NO production in cultured skeletal muscle cells through production of superoxide, nuclear factor-kappa B activation and increase of iNOS protein content.


In today's environment and society, modern technology is present everywhere. This so-called modern era offers so many healthy as well as unhealthy alternatives for physical exercise that the amount of it is dangerously diminishing. It is something we must stand up to. Every individual must realize that physical exercise is necessary. Each physical activity leads us over the cliffs that are called diseases of contemporary times. Illnesses like diabetes type 2, osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis, heart and veins illnesses, high cholesterol and excessive body weight can be avoided by adequate, everyday, at least one hour long sport activity.
In order to introduce the effects of 'modern' society and era to children, we have to use appropriate and qualitative methods of presenting information throughout the whole teaching process, especially in Physical Education. In the process of physical education pupils develop their movement skills. We have to start building an appropriate attitude towards sport activities in pupils, starting very early, in pre-school period in order to engage them in sports in their later lives.
If our aim is to make exercising an important personal value of people, we have to build a positive attitude towards it in children. Parents and the primary environment play a significant role here, since it is very important that exercising and active free time start in the child's family. In the child's secondary environment, that is school, the teachers are the ones who influence the individuals the most, especially in Physical Education, that is why they have to offer them as many sport activities as possible during the lessons as well as in other out-of-school activities. Therefore, sports education should start at a very early age.
On account of the influences of modern society and technology we decided to investigate and focus on Physical Education and the teacher's sports activity in this research, since the teacher is the one who can offer sports to children and make them integrate sports as an important part of their everyday lives. In addition, the teacher is the one who can plan and execute qualitative Physical Education lessons. The subjects of our research were:
• the present situation in Physical Education through separate quality indicators (lesson planning and execution, teaching methods and forms, checking and evaluation, student motivation, individualisation and differentiation, constant teacher professional development and training, inclusion in school as well as out-of-school activities, work conditions and satisfaction with one's own work, frequency of sport activities, types of sport activities, participating in sport activities in one's free time);
• differences according to separate criteria (lesson planning and execution, teaching methods and forms, checking and evaluation, student motivation, individualisation and differentiation, constant teacher professional development and training) for Physical Education quality as regards the teachers' age, education, work experience and title;
• differences in the frequency and ways of engaging in sports according to the teachers' age
• types of sports activities that teachers engage in;
• does the teacher's own sport activity have a positive influence on teaching Physical Education.
In presented Master's Thesis there are a theoretical part and an empirical part. The first part describes facts and research results in the sports field, sports education and engaging in sports. The second part introduces the results of a basic statistic analysis questionnaire in the first part and results of a questionnaire of performed statistically important differences in the second part.
The analysis of the present situation indicates that the teachers usually develop schemes of work and lesson plans in line with curriculum objectives of Physical Education. However, they also tend to cooperate with their fellow colleagues, the class teachers. The most commonly used teaching method is direct demonstration; most common teaching forms are circuit training, all-round exercising, obstacle courses and relay races.
When forming a learner's grade, teachers usually consider the progress the learner makes, their effort, cooperation during the lessons and their gained knowledge. The teachers' most important components of motivation are stimulative words and setting realistic aims, as well as praising the learners for their achievements.
When considering differentiation and individualisation, teachers most commonly talk about helping learners when they feel that they are falling behind and paying attention to all learners equally. Teachers rarely take part in permanent professional development seminars. They usually get involved in school activities at professional work group meetings and at Physical Fitness Report testing. Teachers never receive their own personal sport equipment (52, 6%) in school. The analysis of the situation has shown that the teachers are physically active two or three times a week. The teachers usually choose unorganised types of physical activity, for example: swimming, walking, running in nature, mountaineering (Alpine climbing) and street cycling.
The analysis of the questionnaires has indicated that there are statistically important differences considering separate criteria/indicators (lesson planning and execution, teaching methods and forms, checking and evaluation, student motivation, individualisation and differentiation, constant teacher professional development and training) for Physical Education quality as regards the teachers' age, education, work experience and title.
Moreover, we found out that there are no statistically important differences among teachers when examining their age and frequency of their sport activity as well as the ways of engaging in sports (organised/unorganised).
However, the results of our analysis have confirmed that there are some statistically important differences among teachers, according to age and the chosen sport activity, with certain sports, for example fitness (group training), volleyball, orientation sport, rollerblading, ski touring and riffle practice.


Not so very long ago, the idea of religious freedom enjoyed all the self-evident virtue of a Norman Rockwell painting. Sure, Americans disagreed about what it meant in practice, leaving their Supreme Court to hash out the details. Still, however Americans differed in their religious beliefs, they espoused religious freedom and insisted that it cannot be government's job to promote any one religious sect over others or coerce anyone's conscience in religious matters. "If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation," thundered Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson in 1943, "it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein."1 For a time, this consensus seemed poised to embrace the entire world. When in November 1949 Eleanor Roosevelt proudly held up for public view a poster-size copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including its article on "freedom of thought, conscience and religion," one might have been forgiven for thinking that all the peoples of the earth were ready to follow her matronly instruction.2


In regions where crystalline basement is not well exposed, radiogenic isotope data from high-level igneous rocks can provide important information about the underlying crust, even if only modest amounts of crustal assimilation have occurred. One such region is northwestern Mexico, where cover sequences and younger tectonic features obscure the southern margin of the North American craton. Within the heart of the Sierra Madre Occidental volcanic field in northwestern Mexico, ranges of isotope ratios from the 38–29 Ma Tomochic volcanic center in west-central Chihuahua, are ϵ Nd, +2.3 to −5.2 (with only one value 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, 0.7043–0.7089 (with only one value > 0.7070); 206 Pb/ 204 Pb, 18.49–18.80; 207 Pb/ 204 Pb, 15.56–15.62; and 208 Pb/ 204 Pb, 38.35–38.79. These values are unlike those of xenolith-bearing, primitive, mantle-derived magmas from either the southwestern United States or northern Mexico, and are interpreted to reflect modest crustal interaction, even in the least evolved compositions (basaltic andesite). Volcanic rocks of the Tomochic volcanic center have less radiogenic Sr and more radiogenic Nd than rocks from calc-alkaline, mid-Tertiary, ash-flow tuff provinces in the southwestern United States that were erupted through the 1.8–1.0 Ga North American Precambrian craton (Laurentia). The Pb isotopic compositions of the Tomochic volcanic center have a restricted range and closely resemble those for volcanic rocks in eastern Chihuahua and west Texas that were erupted through the basement of the Coahuila block, which is outboard of the Ouachita front in the region. These results eliminate the possibility that Laurentia continues southward beneath the Tomochic area. We suggest instead that the younger basement to the south of the Ouachita front continues into western Chihuahua, although a regional isotopic study is needed to demonstrate the continuity of this configuration.


The biology of Eucharitidae is summarized, and the potential for biological control of ant pests using members of this family is reviewed. The morphology, habits, and life histories of these wasps are described. Their associations with thrips, and with plants during oviposition, are considered. The need for comparing infested and uninfested host colonies in a controlled setting is stressed. Aspects of eucharitid biology that may affect their use in biocontrol are examined, including dispersal, levels of parasitism, and possible synergistic effects with other natural enemies. Possible conflicts of interest in the use of these wasps for biocontrol are considered.


The aim of this study was to investigate the relative density of μ-, κ-, and δ-opioid receptors (MOR, KOR, and DOR) and guanosine 5′-O-(3-[35S]thio)triphosphate ([35S]GTPγS) binding stimulated by full agonists in cortical and thalamic membranes of monkeys. The binding parameters [Bmax (femtomoles per milligram)/Kd (nanomolar)] were as follows: [3H][d-Ala2,N-Me-Phe4,Gly5-ol]-enkephalin (DAMGO) (MOR; 80/0.7), [3H]U69593 [(5α,7α,8β)-(–)-N-methyl-N-(7-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-oxaspiro(4,5)dec-8-yl) benzeneacetamide] (KOR; 116/1.3), and [3H][d-Pen2,d-Pen5]-enkephalin (DPDPE) (DOR; 87/1.3) in the cortex; [3H]DAMGO (147/0.9), [3H]U69593 (75/2.5), and [3H]DPDPE (22/2.0) in the thalamus. The relative proportions of MOR, KOR, and DOR in the cortex were 28, 41, and 31% and in the thalamus were 60, 31, and 9%. Full selective opioid agonists, DAMGO (EC50 = 532–565 nM) and U69593 (EC50 = 80–109 nM) stimulated [35S]GTPγS binding in membranes of cortex and thalamus, whereas SNC80 [(+)-4-[(αR)-α-((2S,5R)-4-allyl-2,5-dimethyl-1-piperazinyl)-3-methoxybenzyl]-N,N-diethyl-benzamide] (DOR; EC50 = 68 nM) was only active in cortical membranes. The magnitudes of [35S]GTPγS binding stimulated by these agonists were similar in the cortex, ranging from 17 to 25% over basal binding. In the thalamus, DAMGO and U69593 increased [35S]GTPγS binding by 44 and 23% over basal, respectively. Opioid agonist-stimulated [35S]GTPγS binding was blocked selectively by antagonists for MOR, KOR, and DOR. The amount of G protein activated by agonists was highly proportional to the relative receptor densities in both regions. These results distinguish the ability of opioid agonists to activate G proteins and provide a functional correlate of ligand-binding experiments in the monkey brain. In particular, the relative densities of opioid receptor binding sites in the two brain areas reflect their functional roles in the pharmacological actions of opioids in the central nervous system of primates.


In this paper, we present the regional ionospheric delay models for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). An ionospheric delay is a dominant error on GNSS positioning. Then, an ionospheric delay should be corrected for a high positioning accuracy. In this study, the methods to develop the ionospheric delay models are proposed. Ionospheric delays can be measured by the geometry-free combination of the GNSS regression (GR) models of dual frequency bands. An ionospheric delay is proportional to total electron content (TEC) and then a vertical component of TEC (VTEC) is modeled. The VTEC models have been developed based on spherical cap harmonic analysis (SCHA) by using GNSS earth observation network (GEONET) data. The GEONET data are observed only in Japanese region and provided by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI). We also investigate the prediction of ionospheric delays with the post-processing models developed by the SCHA. We propose the prediction methods by periodic autoregressive (PAR) models.


6-Deoxy-6-[(18)F]fluoro-D-fructose (6-[(18)F]FDF) is a promising PET radiotracer for imaging GLUT5 in breast cancer. The present work describes GMP synthesis of 6-[(18)F]FDF in an automated synthesis unit (ASU) and dosimetry calculations to determine radiation doses in humans. GMP synthesis and dosimetry calculations are important prerequisites for first-in-human clinical studies of 6-[(18)F]FDF. The radiochemical synthesis of 6-[(18)F]FDF was optimized and adapted to an automated synthesis process using a Tracerlab FXFN ASU (GE Healthcare). Starting from 30 GBq of cyclotron-produced n.c.a. [(18)F]fluoride, 2.9 ± 0.1 GBq of 6-[(18)F]FDF could be prepared within 50 min including HPLC purification resulting in an overall decay-corrected radiochemical yield of 14 ± 3% (n = 11). Radiochemical purity exceeded 95%, and the specific activity was greater than 5.1 GBq/μmol. Sprague-Dawley rats were used for biodistribution experiments, and dynamic and static small animal PET experiments. Biodistribution studies served as basis for allometric extrapolation to the standard man anatomic model and normal organ-absorbed dose calculations using OLINDA/EXM software. The calculated human effective dose for 6-[(18)F]FDF was 0.0089 mSv/MBq. Highest organ doses with a dose equivalent of 0.0315 mSv/MBq in a humans were found in bone. Injection of 370 MBq (10 mCi) of 6-[(18)F]FDF results in an effective whole body radiation dose of 3.3 mSv in humans, a value comparable to that of other (18)F-labeled PET radiopharmaceuticals. The optimized automated synthesis under GMP conditions, the good radiochemical yield and the favorable human radiation dosimetry estimates support application of 6-[(18)F]FDF in clinical trials for molecular imaging of GLUT5 in breast cancer patients.[This corrects the article on p. 248 in vol. 4.].


In the last few years, we have witnessed tremendous events occurred on social, religious and political fields in Southeast Asia. This region is believed to be one the most hybrid regions in the world. On one hand, we see the proliferation of democracy and civil society in most of Southeast Asian countries. On the other hand, we also see religious extremism, terrorism, ethno-religious conflicts, and other religious-based violence which have disrupted the stability of this region. The Marawi conflict in the Philippines, the Rohingya case in Myanmar, as well as several cases of violence against minorities in Indonesia and several other Southeast Asian countries are clear evidence that this problem poses threats to the stability of this highly plural societies in the region. For the reason above, the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta held the 2nd Studia Islamika International Conference 2017 with the main theme "Southeast Asian Islam: Religious Radicalism, Democracy and Global Trends" on 8-10 August 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia. This conference is a continuation of the first conference held in 2014. The 2nd Studia Islamika International Conference 2017 is organized to respond various aspects related to current social and religious issues in Southeast Asia. The conference explores Southeast Asian's political trends including religious radicalism, democratic development, and global trends. In addition, the conference is also dedicated to promote Studia Islamika, published by PPIM, as an important reference on studies of Islam in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. DOI:  10.15408/sdi.v24i3.6566


The authors have researched a support system of the reminiscence and life review activity. This support system consists of an interactive tabletop display and interface system. Many interaction systems are proposed until now. An invisible code is one of the useful technologies for a computer interaction. The invisible codes provide us with an operating environment using a pen-like device. However, this technology is applied to the only paper media. The authors think we want to realize an interaction using the invisible code on an electrical media. In this paper, we propose a method to display invisible codes using LCD panels and to detect a polarized symbol image with a conventional CCD camera.


Four anticarcinogens (oltipraz, alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene and phenethylisothiocyanate [PEITC]) were studied with respect to their effects on oesophageal, gastric, colonic and hepatic (i) glutathione (GSH) content, (ii) glutathione S-transferase (GST) enzyme activity, (iii) GST isoenzyme levels, and (iv) glutathione peroxidase (GPx) enzyme activity in male Wistar rats. GST enzyme activity was significantly increased in oesophagus (1.9X) and colon (1.2X) by PEITC and in liver (1.4X) by oltipraz. GST Alpha was doubled in the liver by oltipraz, alpha-tocopherol and PEITC. GST Mu levels were increased by beta-carotene and PEITC in stomach and liver, by oltipraz in liver and by alpha-tocopherol in stomach. PEITC induced colonic GST Pi levels (1.3X). GSH content was induced in liver by oltipraz (1.4X) and alpha-tocopherol (1.2X) and in colon by PEITC (1.6X). Each of the anticarcinogens tested increased GPx activity at one or more sites: Se-dependent and total GPx activities were induced in 31.3% and 37.5% of all possibilities, respectively. Major induction in total GPx was found in stomach by alpha-tocopherol (1.8X). In conclusion our data demonstrate that dietary administration of oltipraz, PEITC, alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene, may exert chemopreventive effects in the digestive tract of the rat by enhancing GST, GPx, and, to a lesser extent, GSH levels.


Information Extraction methods can be used to automatically "fill-in" database forms from unstructured data such as Web documents or email. State-of-the-art methods have achieved low error rates but invariably make a number of errors. The goal of an interactive information extraction system is to assist the user in filling in database fields while giving the user confidence in the integrity of the data. The user is presented with an interactive interface that allows both the rapid verification of automatic field assignments and the correction of errors. In cases where there are multiple errors, our system takes into account user corrections, and immediately propagates these constraints such that other fields are often corrected automatically.

Linear-chain conditional random fields (CRFs) have been shown to perform well for information extraction and other language modelling tasks due to their ability to capture arbitrary, overlapping features of the input in a Markov model. We apply this framework with two extensions: a constrained Viterbi decoding which finds the optimal field assignments consistent with the fields explicitly specified or corrected by the user; and a mechanism for estimating the confidence of each extracted field, so that low-confidence extractions can be highlighted. Both of these mechanisms are incorporated in a novel user interface for form filling that is intuitive and speeds the entry of data--providing a 23% reduction in error due to automated corrections.


The experiment was conducted in the sick plot at Pulses Research Centre, BARI, Ishurdi, Pabna, Bangladesh during 2013-14 to find out the control measure of foot and root rot of lentil by seed treatment and its effect on yield. The test lentil variety was BARI Masur 1. Seven fungicides viz. Bavistin (0.2%), Tilt 250 EC (0.05%), Folicur EW 250 (0.1%), Indofil M 45 (0.2%), Ridomil gold (0.2%), Dithane M 45 (0.2%), and Vitavax 200 (0.2%), and one untreated control were used in this experiment. The lowest foot and root rot (20.65%), and the highest plant survival (79.35%) were obtained from Vitavax 200 (0.2%) followed by Bavistin (0.2%) and the highest foot and root rot (36.26%), and the lowest plant survival (63.74%) were obtained from control. The highest number of pods/plant, number of seeds/plant, weight of seeds/plant and yield (kg/ha) were recorded in Vitavax 200 (0.2%) which also followed by Bavistin (0.2%) and the lowest of these parameters were in untreated control.


Capacity management has always been a great challenge for cloud platforms due to massive, heterogeneous on-demand instances running at different times. To better plan the capacity for the whole platform, a class of cloud computing instances have been released to collect computing demands beforehand. To use such instances, users are allowed to submit jobs to run for a pre-specified uninterrupted duration in a flexible range of time in the future with a discount compared to the normal on-demand instances. Proactively scheduling those pre-collected job requests considering the capacity status over the platform can greatly help balance the computing workloads along time. In this work, we formulate the scheduling problem for these pre-collected job requests under uncertain available capacity as a Prediction + Optimization problem with uncertainty in constraints, and propose an effective algorithm called Controlling under Uncertain Constraints (CUC), where the predicted capacity guides the optimization of job scheduling and job scheduling results are leveraged to improve the prediction of capacity through Bayesian optimization. The proposed formulation and solution are commonly applicable for proactively scheduling problems in cloud computing. Our extensive experiments on three public, industrial datasets shows that CUC has great potential for supporting high reliability in cloud platforms.


The bacteriophage population present in the rumen is diverse in composition and highly dynamic (Ritchie et al. 1970; Klieve and Bauchop 1988). The numbers and fluctuations in the population may play an important role in the turnover of microbial cells and supply of microbial products to the animal. Although the rumen bacteriophage population has been shown to contain a small proportion of classic lytic phages (these infect, then lyse cells), temperate phages are widespread among rumen bacteria (Klieve et al. 1989). Temperate phages infect bacteria and either lyse the cells or integrate their DNA into the bacterial chromosome and then exist from one generation to another as an integral part of the bacteria. Temperate phage are, however, capable of reverting to lytic development (termed induction) and thus are capable of causing large-scale lysis of bacterial populations.