Networking has become the main selling point for computer games: commercial games are expected to support multiplaying and the online game sites aim at supporting an ever increasing number of users. At the same time, new game console releases rely heavily on the appeal of online gaming, and a whole new branch of mobile entertainment has emerged with intention to develop distributed multiplayer games for wireless applications. This special issue on "Networking for computer games" focuses on the latest research done on networked computer games and presents five papers exploring different aspects of online multiplayer games. Multiplayer computer games require both consistent and responsive networking. Consistency is important for maintaining a similar set of data for all players, whereas responsiveness requires that updates to the data are done as promptly as possible. These two requirements, however, are often contradictory and solving this consistency– responsiveness dichotomy lies in the heart of real-time interactive networking. In the first paper "Towards an information model of consistency maintenance in distributed interactive applications," Xin Zhang et al. approach this topic by introducing a framework for analysing the state fidelity of predictive methods. A massively multiplayer game can have tens of thousands simultaneous players from all of over the world, which means that the scalability of the chosen network architecture becomes critical. Moreover, amassivemultiplayer game often requires maintaining a persistent game world, where the game progresses around the clock regardless whether a player takes part in it. The next two papers address this topic. In the second paper "High-level development of multiserver online games," Frank Glinka et al.describe a middleware system called real-time framework, which aims at raising the level of abstraction for the developer of an online game. In the third paper, "ALVIC versus the Internet: redesigning a networked virtual environment architecture," Peter Quax et al. present a generic framework for deploying a massive multiplayer online game using the existing Internet resources. Mobile gaming and wireless games require a special attention to maintain a continuous and error-free flow information. In the fourth paper "The playing session: enhanced playability for mobile gamers in massive metaverses," Stefano Cacciaguerra and Gabriele D'Angelo introduce a mechanism, based on mimicking the player activities, which is capable of controlling the communication even in a case of a network failure. The online game sites aim at providing the players more customized content according to the players preference and playing style. This requires methods for analysing the player behavior, which is also important in detecting players who cheat or otherwise misbehave in the game world. In the fifth paper "Visualization of online-game players based on their action behaviors," Keita Iizuka and Ruck Thawonmas present an approach for recognizing different player-type clusters by visualizing the players in-game decisions.


A recent debate has ensued over the claim by Pikovski et al. [Nat. Phys. 11, 668 (2015)] that systems with internal degrees of freedom undergo a universal, gravity-induced, type of decoherence that explains their quantum-to-classical transition. This decoherence is supposed to arise from the different gravitational redshifts experienced by such systems when placed in a superposition of two wave packets at different heights in a gravitational field. Here we investigate some aspects of the discussion with the aid of simple examples. In particular, we first resolve an apparent conflict between the reported results and the equivalence principle by noting that the static and free-fall descriptions focus on states associated with different hypersurfaces. Next, we emphasize that predictions regarding the observability of interference become relevant only in the context of concrete experimental settings. As a result, we caution against hasty claims of universal validity. Finally, we dispute the claim that, at least in the scenarios discussed by Pikovski et al., gravitation is responsible for the reported results, and we question the alleged ability of decoherence to explain the quantum-to-classical transition. In consequence, we argue against the extraordinary assertion by Pikovski et al. that gravity can account for the emergence of classicality.


Cellular calcium acts as a second messenger and regulates diverse developmental events and stress responses. Cytosolic calcium has long been considered as an important regulator of senescence, however, the role of Ca2+ in plant senescence has remained elusive. Here we show that the Calmodulin 1 (CaM1) gene, which encodes Ca2+-binding protein calmodulin 1, positively regulates leaf senescence in Arabidopsis. Yellowing of leaves, accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and expression of the senescence-associated gene 12 (SAG12) were significantly enhanced in CaM1 overexpression plants. In contrast, abscisic acid (ABA)-triggered ROS production and stomatal closure were reduced in amiRNA-CaM1 plants. We found a positive-feedback regulation loop among three signaling components, CaM1, RPK1, and RbohF, which physically associate with each other. RPK1 positively regulates the expression of the CaM1 gene, and the CaM1 protein, in turn, up-regulates RbohF gene expression. Interestingly, the expression of CaM1 was down-regulated in rbohD, rbohF, and rbohD/F mutants. We show that CaM1 positively regulates ROS production, leaf senescence, and ABA response in Arabidopsis.


This thesis examines the interpretation of laws using rights and freedoms at common law and human rights under Victoria's bill of rights - the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) (the Charter). In recent court cases, interpretation using the newer Charter has been equated with the older common law technique. However, the thesis finds that while there are some similarities, there are also significant differences or potential differences between the two. The thesis calls for the courts to reconsider and clarify this issue.


We examine the gravitational dispersal of dense fluid through a horizontal permeable layer, which is separated from a second underlying layer by a narrow band of much lower permeability. We derive a series of analytical solutions which describe the propagation of the fluid through the upper layer and the draining of the fluid into the underlying region. The model predicts that the current initially spreads according to a self-similar solution. However, as the drainage becomes established, the spreading slows, and in fact the fluid only spreads a finite distance before it has fully drained into the underlying layer. We examine the sensitivity of the results to the initial conditions through numerical solution of the governing equations. We find that for sources of sufficiently large initial aspect ratio (defined as the ratio of height to length), the solution converges rapidly to the initially self-similar regime. For longer and shallower initial source conditions, this convergence does not occur, but we derive estimates for the run-out length of the current, which compare favourably with our numerical data. We also present some preliminary laboratory experiments, which support the model.


The magnetic properties and structures of Ni and NiFe nanocrystalline films prepared with the gas-deposition method (GDM) are investigated. From the results of STM and SEM, fine particles, approximately 10 nm in diameter, were seen in the films. Furthermore, aggregates several tens of nm in diameter, composed of the small particles, are also observed. The magnetization of the Ni nanocrystalline films is about 50 emu/g, or 90% of that of bulk Ni. Coercivity of the Ni nanocrystals ranged from 4 to 20 Oe. In the case of NiFe, the concentration of Fe is slightly increased as the evaporation temperature is increased.


This paper discusses e-business developmental issues in the Australian Food industry that were identified from a research project funded by the Australian Research Council. Data was gathered from interviews with 11 food organisations in the year 2000, most of which can be classified as 'bricks and clicks'. These 11 companies were traditional businesses that had adopted e-business as a new way of doing business. The findings of the paper highlight the fact that the B2B is the predominant e-business model in the Australian Food Industry, EDI is an important foundation technology platform for developing B2B e-business, e-procurement was an important reason for adopting B2B e-business and improved supply chain management was the most important achievement from E-Business for these organizations. It also highlighted the fact e-business developed in-house with an IT department managed e-business sites better than those that outsourced the development.


The ATLAS experiment has achieved important new physics results in particular in the Higgs area using the large proton-proton collision data-setsluminosity of 36 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The Yukawa coupling of the Higgs boson to fermions was established with the direct observation of the production of the Higgs boson with a top quark pair and the observation of the Higgs boson decay to beauty quarks. The four main production modes of the Higgs boson have now been been observed. The couplings to all heavy particles (Z/W-boson, top and bottom quark and tau-lepton) are observed and already measured with good precision. It is experimentally confirmed that the Higgs boson couplings strongly depend on the particle mass.

ATLAS also observed a few important electroweak diboson processes and measured their cross-section and some properties. For some of these processes it is the first observation by the ATLAS experiment. A preliminary measurement of the electroweak mixing angle accomplished a 15\% precision using Drell-Yan cross-section measurements at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. Measurements of spin correlations between top quark pairs show that a discrepancy with NLO QCD. New measurements of top quark pair production in association with beauty quark pairs show a 50\% normalisation difference with respect to most recent QCD calculations.

The ALICE experiments studies particle production in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions in great detail. New results on strange particle production and baryon-to-meson ratio lead to a consistent picture in proton-proton, xenon-xenon and lead-lead collisions. Models of collective flow measurements tuned in lead-lead
collisions can also describe the xenon-xenon data showing that the initial matter distributions in the collisions and the expansion dynamics of the hot and dense nuclear medium are well understood. Moreover, detailed measurements of D-meson demonstrate a quantitative understanding of charm transport.


We study current modulation of spin torque oscillators (STOs) based on single and double nano-contacts. For single nano-contact devices, we show modulation for a carrier frequency of 19-40 GHz and modulation frequencies from 50 MHz to 1 GHz. We show that the behavior of modulation and the asymmetry in the power of the modulation sidebands can be very well modeled, and predicted, using nonlinear frequency and amplitude modulation (NFAM) calculations based on the free-running STO parameters. Modulation of synchronized double nano-contact STOs is equally well modeled by NFAM theory and demonstrates the feasibility of communication applications based on arrays of synchronized STOs.


A synergy between AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) will significantly improve sense-making, situational awareness, proactivity, and collaboration. However, the key challenge is to identify the underlying context within which humans interact with smart machines. Knowledge of the context facilitates proactive allocation among members of a human–smart machine (agent) collective that balances autonomy with human interaction, without displacing humans from their supervisory role of ensuring that the system goals are achievable. In this article, we address four research questions as a means of advancing toward proactive autonomy: how to represent the interdependencies among the key elements of a hybrid team; how to rapidly identify and characterize critical contextual elements that require adaptation over time; how to allocate system tasks among machines and agents for superior performance; and how to enhance the performance of machine counterparts to provide intelligent and proactive courses of action while considering the cognitive states of human operators. The answers to these four questions help us to illustrate the integration of AI and IoT applied to the maritime domain, where we define context as an evolving multidimensional feature space for heterogeneous search, routing, and resource allocation in uncertain environments via proactive decision support systems.


This study examined the relationship between the unemployment rate and the demand for OJ. Based on the demand estimates obtained, the hypothesis that unemployment is having a significant negative impact on OJ demand cannot be refuted. Over the sample period, the unemployment rate increased by about 4.5 points, resulting in a 7.7% to 12.6% decline in OJ demand, based on the alternative model estimates. The unemployment rate, however, has trended upward in recent years, raising the possible that it may be reflecting to some extent the impact of other trend related factors such as preferences for reduced calories.


The relative responsiveness of different vertebrates (mammals, amphibia, and fish) at different stages of life to thyroxine (T4) with respect to protein and nucleic acids contents of liver has been studied. The control growing rat, toad, and Lata fish showed a gradual rise in the protein content of liver with the advancement of age. The rat liver RNA reached a maximum level at the 15th d (immature stage) of life and this level was maintained in 30 (juvenile) and 60th d (adult) of life. In the toad, no significant difference in liver RNA was observed with age. Fish liver, however, showed more RNA in juvenile stage than that in immature stage; no such difference was observed in between juvenile and adult stages of life. In normal growing rat, the liver DNA was found to be reduced in juvenile stage from that of immature stage. But in adult stage, the level of DNA was more or less at the same level as that of immature stage of the animals. Fish liver DNA did not exhibit any change with age. But in the toad, the progress of the stages of life was associated with the enhancement of liver DNA. Administration of T4 for 5 consecutive d caused an increase in protein, RNA and DNA contents of liver of rat, toad and Lata fish of different age groups excepting liver DNA in adult toad and fish. The dose of 1 microgram of T4 per g produced maximum effects in these animals. The T4-induced percentage increase in the amount of liver DNA was maximum in immature stage of life; this was followed by an increase in RNA and then by protein. In juvenile stage of these animals, RNA shows maximum increase followed by DNA and/or protein; and in adult stage, the rate of percentage increase in liver RNA was maximum followed by protein and DNA. The dose-response relationship between rat, toad, and Lata fish after T4 treatment (1 microgram/g) revealed that the poikilothermic vertebrates (toad and Lata fish) were more responsive than homoiotherm (rat) so far as the T4-induced increase in liver protein, RNA, and DNA are concerned.


Quality of individual services is substantial to guarantee high performance and availability of overall composite service oriented systems. This requires the process of diagnosing service quality degradation and responding to it in a timely and non-stopping manner. This paper presents a modeling-based approach to coordinate the process of Web service management, configuring parameters or invoking other tasks. This approach uses executable process models to represent diagnosis logic and orchestrate the replacement. The process models can interact with the system and accept administrators' instruction at the process level. As a result, a service can be automatically replaced by the best available strategy without any downtime of the overall system. Our approach is implemented on an architecture of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) that allows intercepting services and redirecting messages with little performance penalty. The experiment demonstrates the efficiency of this approach using a loan-brokering Web service on ESB.


The progressive collapse of the frame structure is simulated with testing a 1/3 scale, 4×2-bay and 3-storey reinforced concrete spatial frame in this paper. The experimental model was designed according to the non-seismic resistance demand, and the middle-side column of the bottom floor was replaced by a mechanical jack to simulate its initial local damage. Based on the experimental results, the applied load process and the load transferring mechanism of the model frame are analyzed. The progressive collapse-resisting performance of reinforced concrete frames with non-seismic demand are obtained.


AB InBev is today's uncontested world leader of the beer market. It represents over 20 per cent of global beer sales, with more than 450 million hectolitres a year flowing all around the world. Its Belgian predecessor, Interbrew, was a success story stemming from the 1971 secret merger of the country's two leading brewers: Artois and Piedboeuf. Based on first-hand material originating from company and private archives as well as interviews with managers and key family actors, this is the first study to explore the history of the company through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.The story starts in the mid-nineteenth century with the scientific breakthroughs that revolutionized the beer industry and allowed both Artois and Piedboeuf to prosper in a local environment. Instrumental in this respect were the respective families and their successive heirs in stabilizing and developing their firms. Despite the intense difficulties of two world wars in the decades to follow, they emerged stronger than ever and through the 1960s became undisputed leaders in the national market. Then, in an unprecedented move, Artois and Piedboeuf secretly merged their shareholding in 1971, though keeping their operations separate until 1987 when they openly and operationally merged to become Interbrew. Throughout their histories Artois, Piedboeuf, and their successor companies have kept a controlling family ownership. This book provides a unique insight into both the complex history of these three family breweries and their path to becoming a prominent global company, and the growth and consolidation of the beer market through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.


This paper presents the results of a successful development of an algorithm to reduce processing time for mobile hosted location aware software applications. It starts with a review of location based services and discusses issues surrounding various designs to place the algorithm in context. The algorithm draws on various methodologies pioneered in the high-speed 3D graphics industry to reduce processing time checking for collisions between a user and location aware data points. The algorithm and experiment are presented in a concise manner before the results are shown. The results conclude that the algorithm presents a very significant improvement over brute force methods. With a database of 100,000 data points a 99% reduction in processing time is observed


Arsenic (As) is one of four metals/metalloids in tobacco being considered for regulation. In vitro toxicological response to As varies substantially, determined primarily by valence and compound speciation, and inorganic arsenite (As(III)) compounds are the most toxic to humans. This study uses X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) to determine valence states of As from the tobacco plant to the crucial combustion stage that creates respirable smoke. Samples studied include cultivated plants (some burdened with additional As), reference standards, and commercial products, along with smoke condensate and ash from these samples. The relative contributions of As(III) and As(V) to the XANES spectra are analyzed, and a consistent pattern of redox changes emerges. Tobacco leaf and manufactured products tend to be dominated by As(V) whereas combustion produces respirable smoke invariably in As(III) form and ash invariably as As(V). The valence state of precursor tobacco is not a controlling factor because all the As mobilized in smoke is reduced during combustion. This study concludes that tobacco combustion exposes smokers to potentially the most toxic forms of arsenic, and this exposure is magnified in regions where arsenic is present in tobacco crops at relatively high concentrations.


Previous studies have indicated that the appearance of synaptic vesicle‐associated proteins known as the synapsins is one indicator of synapse formation. In this study, the levels and morphological distribution of synapsin I and synapsin IIa and IIb were studied in intraocular hippocampal transplants and in situ in the intact hippocampus. No detectable levels of either synapsin I or synapsin II were found in the fetal brain. The in situ levels of the synapsins exhibited parallel increases rapidly after birth, reaching peak levels at 8 weeks, after which a slight decline was noted in synapsin I and synapsin IIb. In hippocampal transplants, a comparable increase in the synapsins was seen during the first 8 weeks in oculo. It is likely that the synapse formation in the hippocampal transplants represents synapses from neurons within the transplant, as well as from various peripheral ganglia that send collaterals into the graft. Peripheral and central synapses express different synapsin I: synapsin IIa and IIb ratios. When the ratios of the synapsin proteins in hippocampal transplants were examined ratios essentially identical to those seen in the normal hippocampus were found, despite the numerous peripheral neurites innervating the grafts. Immunohistochemical studies supported the immunoblot data, showing no detectable immunofluorescence with synapsin antibodies in fetal or newborn hippocampal formation. The density of immunoreactive profiles increased substantially both in transplants and in the hippocampal formation in situ during the first 2 postnatal months.


This study evaluates the impact of all-inclusive trip experiences of tourists on their prejudicial attitudes toward their host. All-inclusive German travelers were probed for their attitudes toward their host at the time of arrival and before departure. Reasons for the differences between arrival and departure attitude scores were explored via multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and regression analyses. As opposed to the intergroup contact hypothesis that tourism would reduce prejudice and increase cross-cultural understanding, the findings indicate that structured, all-inclusive tour experiences of this sample of tourists increase prejudicial attitudes toward their host. Exploring potential reasons for such differences in pre- and post-arrival scores, the study reports that overall satisfaction with the vacation, service quality factors and the nature of all-inclusive tour might be responsible for such results. Enhanced with qualitative data from key informants, likely reasons are cautiously speculated using contact hypothesis and the notion of "cultural bubble."


Both corn and soybean yields were exceptional in 2017, with the national corn yield being the highest ever and the national soybean yield being the second highest. Recently released county yields from the National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) show that many areas of the country had very high yields. For corn, many counties averaged over 200 bushels per acre in a stretch of counties beginning in central Illinois and going through southern Minnesota. For soybeans, many counties averaged over 60 bushels per acre.


MMCs can be usually fabricated by powder metallurgy, stir casting and spray co-deposition, etc. Al2O3/Al composites were produced by means of reciprocating extrusion with alumina and pure aluminum particulates in the present study. The microstructure was analyzed by scanning electronic microscope, and the mechanical properties were measured by hardness tester and universal testing machine, respectively. The results showed that Al2O3/Al composites with as high as 20 vol.% alumina can be successfully produced by reciprocating extrusion. During reciprocating extrusion process, the reinforced alumina particles can be fragmentized and uniformly distributed in the aluminum matrix. The tensile strength and hardness of the composites increase as volume fraction of alumina particles increases, whereas the elongation decreases. Compared with the pure aluminum compact, the tensile strength and hardness of the composite with 20 vol.% alumina particles is 29.3% and 93.5% higher, respectively; whereas the elongation decreases 66.6%, and the fracture mechanism of the composites is attributed to ductile rupture.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a metabolically flexible member of the Gammaproteobacteria. Under anaerobic conditions and the presence of nitrate, P. aeruginosa can perform (complete) denitrification, a respiratory process of dissimilatory nitrate reduction to nitrogen gas via nitrite (NO 2), nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O). This study focuses on understanding the influence of environmental conditions on bacterial denitrification performance, using a mathematical model of a metabolic network in P. aeruginosa. To our knowledge, this is the first mathematical model of denitrification for this bacterium. Analysis of the long-term behavior of the network under changing concentration levels of oxygen (O 2), nitrate (NO 3), and phosphate (PO 4) suggests that PO 4 concentration strongly affects denitrification performance. The model provides three predictions on denitrification activity of P. aeruginosa under various environmental conditions, and these predictions are either experimentally validated or supported by pertinent biological literature. One motivation for this study is to capture the effect of PO 4 on a denitrification metabolic network of P. aeruginosa in order to shed light on mechanisms for greenhouse gas N 2 O accumulation during seasonal oxygen depletion in aquatic environments such as Lake Erie (Laurentian Great Lakes, USA). Simulating the microbial production of greenhouse gases in anaerobic aquatic systems such as Lake Erie allows a deeper understanding of the contributing environmental effects that will inform studies on, and remediation strategies for, other hypoxic sites worldwide.


The bee genus Austrosphecodes Michener, 1978 comprises 29 obligatory cleptoparasitic species distributed from Chile to Mexico. Currently, three species are known to occur in Brazil, Austrosphecodes brasiliensis (Schrottky, 1910), A. inornatus (Schrottky, 1902), and A. minarum (Schrottky, 1910). Here, we describe nine new species, Austrosphecodes asmodeus sp. nov., A. balrog sp. nov., A. cerberus sp. nov., A. gorgon sp. nov., A. jurupari sp. nov., A. krampus sp. nov., A. lucifer sp. nov., A. orcus sp. nov., and A. tartarus sp. nov. An identification key for the 12 known species from Brazil is presented. Specimens of A. asmodeus sp. nov. and A. brasiliensis were observed near nest aggregations of Caenohalictus incertus (Schrottky, 1902) in Curitiba (State of Paraná).


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to get the genotypic and allelic frequencies of rs1801282 in 179 volunteer donors and 154 patients with Metabolic syndrome (MetS) in Brasilia, Brazil and also examine the association with anthropometric, biochemical and hemodynamic variables in the latter group. MetS comprises a group of diseases resulting from insulin resistance, in-creased risk of type 2 diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. MetS is defined by the presence of increased visceral fat, atherogenic dyslipidemia (elevated triglycerides (TGL)), with decreased high density lipoprotein (HDL) and increased low density lipoprotein (LDL) levels, hypertension (BPH) and disturbances in glucose homeostasis representing a significant burden across the world due to the alarming increase in the incidence over the last decades besides their significant morbidity and mortality. Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma (PPARg) has been mentioned as a candidate gene for determining the risk of MetS. It is a member of the nuclear receptors superfamily and a ligand-activated transcription factor, which regulates the expression of genes involved in the network lipogenesis and adipogenesis, insulin sensitivity, energy balance, inflammation, angiogenesis and atherosclerosis. Among the PPARG genetic variants, single nucleotide polymorphism rs1801282 has been the most extensively studied one since it was first described by Yen and cols. in 1997. This polymorphism is characterized by the replacement of a proline (CCC) to an alanine (GCA) at codon 12 of exon B, due to the exchange of a cytosine with a guanine. The Ala allele frequency varies in different ethnic groups.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
DNA was extracted using Chelex-100 method and determinations of genotypes were performed by allele-specific chain reaction.

RESULTS
The distribution of genotype frequency of the MetS group was not statistically different from the frequency in the donor population at large. In the first group, genotype frequency was CC to 0.869 and 0.103 for CG, while allelic frequencies were 0.948 for C and 0.052 for G allele. In the group of donors, the genotype and allele frequencies were 0.882 for CC, 0.117 to CG; and 0.941 to 0.059 for G and C, respectively. GG genotype was not found in any of the two groups. The genotype distribution and allele frequencies were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. No marker could be detected from the analysis of anthropometric, biochemical and hemodynamic variables in the MetS group.

CONCLUSION
Our data suggest that this polymorphism is not correlated with predisposition to MetS. The results obtained on a small sample of the population of Brasilia, corroborate the data reported in the literature on the prevalence of this polymorphism in PPAR in populations of different ethnic origins.


The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between the height reached when performing the Ollie maneuver and the muscle force and power of the lower limbs required by beginner level skateboarders. Ten practitioners of Street category, with at least two years experience and who participate in competitions in Beginner, Amateur II or Amateur I categories were submitted to three tests: (1) maximal voluntary contraction of the knee and hip extensor muscles; (2) vertical jump tests, Counter Movement Jump (CJ) and Squat Jump (SJ); and (3) the maximum height achieved during the Ollie maneuver. The results demonstrate that the variance of the Ollie maneuver (p<0.05) is explained by the power estimated with the CJ (76.3%); and the maximal force of the knee extensor muscle (50.6%). These results suggest that the variable power is strongly associated with the performance of the Ollie maneuver.


Seismic activity in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area may be associated with various mapped faults that locally offset volcanic basement of Eocene age and younger. This volcanic basement is concealed in most places by young deposits, vegetation, and urban development. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted an aeromagnetic survey in September 1992 to investigate the extent of these mapped faults and possibly to help identify other seismic and volcanic hazards in the area. The survey was flown approximately 240 m above terrain, along flight lines spaced 460 m apart, and over an area about 50 × 50 km. These magnetic data indicate a pronounced northwest-striking magnetic lineation east of the Willamette River in downtown Portland associated with a fault concealed beneath Quaternary sedimentary deposits and previously inferred from shallow well data. The magnetic lineation confirms the existence of the fault and suggests that it has had a prolonged history: (1) Although well data indicate <200 m of vertical offset of underlying volcanic basement, models based on the aeromagnetic data from downtown Portland suggest reverse faulting with up to 1 km of offset deeper in the section. (2) The magnetic lineation associated with this fault extends southeast to the Clackamas River drainage, a distance of 50 km and considerably beyond the mapped extent of the fault. A northwest-striking magnetic anomaly located southwest of the Tualatin Mountains corresponds closely with another mapped fault and with mixed reverse and strike-slip faulting during a seismic swarm (M ≤ 3) in 1991. We believe these and other anomalies in the aeromagnetic data reflect the Portland Hills fault zone, believed to be the southwestern boundary of a structural basin now occupied by Portland and Vancouver. The postulated northeastern boundary of the basin, the Frontal fault zone, is also evident, although less well represented in the aeromagnetic data. Aeromagnetic anomalies, geologic mapping, and earthquake focal-plane solutions demonstrate a complex deformational history in the Portland-Vancouver area since middle Miocene time that includes elements of compression, extension, and dextral slip. These complexities reflect Portland-Vancouver's unique position within a north-south transition in tectonic styles along the Cascadia margin, from compressional in the north to extensional in the south.


Currently the most frequently used tools for investigating and learning from industrial accidents are based on linear, reductionist models of event causality. It has been suggested that complex socio-technical systems exhibit non-linear behaviour, incompatible with these approaches. An alternative approach based on system dynamics group model building is proposed and investigated within the context of the civil nuclear industry. The success and feasibility of the approach is assessed though the analysis of a case study event by a group of industrial experts previously unfamiliar with system dynamics. A selection of the models produced are discussed. The investigation demonstrates the feasibility of the approach and its potential to provide additional insights and learning. A possible archetypal structure is also identified and described indicating the possibility of the discovery of further archetypes through this approach which could then be shared for contextual learning between organizations and industries.


The purpose of this study is to investigate certain basic group properties as they apply specifically to dihedral groups. The following theorems and corollaries were formulated and proven in this study: 1. every dihedral group Dn contains a cyclic subgroup Sn of order n. 2. If n is odd, an element Rj, where O < j < n, has as its normalizers the elements of S. An element HRj, where O< j <= n, has as its normalizers I and the element HRj itself. 3. If n is odd, the center of Dn contains only the identity element. 4. If n is even, an element Rj, where 0 < j < n and j [not] = n/2, has as its normalizers the elements of Sn. When j=n/2, the normalizers of Rj are all of the elements of D. An element of the form HRJ, where 0 < j <= n, has as its normalizers I, Rn/2, HRj, and HRj+n/2. 5. If n is even, the center of Dn is the subgroup composed of the identity element and the element Rk, where k = n/2. 6. If n is odd, the commutator subgroup is Sn. 7. If n is even, the commutator subgroup is of order 0/2. 8. If n is odd, Dn has 2n inner automorphisms. 9. If 0 is even, Dn has n inner automorphisms.


Tree mortality is a key driver of forest community composition and carbon dynamics. Strong winds associated with severe convective storms are dominant natural drivers of tree mortality in the Amazon. Why forests vary with respect to their vulnerability to wind events and how the predicted increase in storm events might affect forest ecosystems within the Amazon are not well understood. We found that windthrows are common in the Amazon region extending from northwest (Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and west Brazil) to central Brazil, with the highest occurrence of windthrows in the northwest Amazon. More frequent winds, produced by more frequent severe convective systems, in combination with well-known processes that limit the anchoring of trees in the soil, help to explain the higher vulnerability of the northwest Amazon forests to winds. Projected increases in the frequency and intensity of convective storms in the Amazon have the potential to increase wind-related tree mortality. A forest demographic model calibrated for the northwestern and the central Amazon showed that northwestern forests are more resilient to increased wind-related tree mortality than forests in the central Amazon. Our study emphasizes the importance of including wind-related tree mortality in model simulations for reliable predictions of the future of tropical forests and their effects on the Earth' system.


Connecting the relevant literature in sociology, political theory and European studies with original empirical research, this article calls for a reappraisal of conflict when addressing the issue of the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. It offers a critical account of rationalistic and consensus-based deliberative democracy both in the classical theories of deliberative democracy and in the practices institutionalised in the EU. Drawing on the model of 'discursive democracy' theorised by John Dryzek, it provides an account of the contentious debate over the EU Services Directive (also known as the Bolkestein Directive). It is argued that the EU can function as a polity where democratic legitimacy is granted by deliberation. However, this holds only under two conditions. First, deliberation must be conflict based; that is, it must allow for the voicing of dissent and its channelling into political institutions. Second, supranational institutions and decision making can only be responsive and engage in alleviating conflict through deliberation when conflict is structured along transnational — as opposed to national — lines.


Mycobacterial infection occurs commonly in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Incubation of monocytoid cell line U937 cells, which was cotransfected HIV-1 long terminal repeat sequence (LTR) chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) plasmid and Tat expression plasmid, with Mycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium bovis BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis resulted in enhancement of CAT production, indicating that these mycobacteria could activate LTR in this cell line. The amount of CAT in the cells coexisting with M. smegmatis was higher than that infected with other mycobacteria. The amounts of CAT production in the cells coculturing with M. avium and M. bovis BCG were intermediate. M. tuberculosis slightly stimulated CAT production. The amount of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α produced by transfected U937 cells was correlated with the amount of CAT production. The interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-6 levels in the supernatant from coculturing with all species were similar. The antibody to TNF-α inhibited CAT production induced by mycobacterial infections. The anti-IL-1β and anti-IL-6 antibodies, however, scarcely influenced stimulation of LTR by mycobacteria. In addition, U937 cells transfected with full length LTR CAT plasmid showed increased CAT production by activation with mycobacteria, but the cells transfected with mutant LTR CAT constructs from which the nuclear factor (NF)-κB binding site was deleted did not show activation. These findings indicated that activation of Mycobacterium-induced LTR CAT is NF-κB dependent. These findings suggested that activation of HIV-1 LTR by mycobacteria was mainly mediated by NF-κB-induced secondary release of cytokine TNF-α.


We present switching field distributions of spin-transfer-assisted magnetization reversal in perpendicularly magnetized Co/Ni multilayer spin-valve nanopillars at room temperature. Switching field measurements of the Co/Ni free layer of spin-valve nanopillars with a 50 nm x 300 nm ellipse cross section were conducted as a function of current. The validity of a model that assumes a spin-current-dependent effective barrier for thermally activated reversal is tested by measuring switching field distributions under applied direct currents. We show that the switching field distributions deviate significantly from the double exponential shape predicted by the effective barrier model, beginning at applied currents as low as half of the zero field critical current. Barrier heights extracted from switching field distributions for currents below this threshold are a monotonic function of the current. However, the thermally induced switching model breaks down for currents exceeding the critical threshold.


Background: Port-site metastasis following laparoscopic cholecystectomy with unsuspected gallbladder carcinoma is a serious problem. Gallbladder carcinoma is found in 1% of all biliary tract operations, in most being diagnosed only after histological examination of the gallbladder. The spread of cancer following laparoscopy appears aggressive and widespread, as noticed from re-operation for radical treatment. The pathologic findings of gallbladder were consisting of tumoral and necrotic tissue, indicating of well differentiated adenocarcinoma. Mucosa and submucosa were involved, but no evidence of invasion to muscular layer and gall bladder serosa was found ( T1 ). In this article we present the first of an unusual case of four port site adenocarcinoma metastasis from gallbladder cancer. Case report: A 63 year old woman underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis. Thirty months later, she was admitted to the hospital with a complaint of masses at the four trocar sites. A biopsy from the port sites was undertaken and led to the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma metastasis. There is no published report of all four port site metastasis of gallbladder cancer after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Abstract


An inter-comparison among partners' CFD simulations has been carried out within the EU-funded project, PRESLHY, to investigate the dispersion of the mixture cloud formed from large scale liquid hydrogen release. Rainout experiments performed by Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have been chosen for the work. From the HSE experimental series trial-11 was selected for simulation due to its conditions where only liquid flow at the nozzle was achieved. During trial-11 liquid hydrogen is spilled horizontally 0.5 m above a concrete pad from a 5 barg tank pressure through a 12 mm (1/2 inch) nozzle. The dispersion takes place outdoors, and thus it is imposed to variant wind conditions. Comparison of the CFD results with the measurements at several sensors is presented and useful conclusions are drawn.


Motorway infrastructures may cause a chronic pollution of water resources. Wear residues from vehicles, coatings, road equipment as well as the emissions from road vehicles induce an accumulation of particles upon the carriageway which are swept from the roads each time it rains. Protection of the water resource, defined as the common heritage of our nation (Art. L210.1 Code de l'Environnement), requires appropriate measures. To comply, first it is necessary to know about the loads of pollutant which are deposited upon the carriageway to assess the works suited for the protection of the water resource. The National Technical and Scientific Network of the Ministry of Equipment have exploited the measurement provided at nine equipped locations. The goal of this operation was to obtain correlations between the actual loads in the runoff, concerning various pollutants (suspended matter, PAH, COD, lead, zinc, cadmium, copper and hydrocarbons), and various parameters (annual precipitation, maximal intensity of the rain event, traffic, number of days of dry weather, etc.). At present, two relations might be applied: a pollution/traffic law linking the total traffic and the maximal annual global load of pollution collected in the runoff; a law linking the maximal compound fraction of annual pollution swept along, and the height of water of the associated event. These two laws make it possible to quantify the chronic pollution that therefore is liable to reach the water resources and then to adapt the strategy of water resource protection according to the sensitivity of the aquatic environment.


Does foreign aid contribute to economic growth? Is the impact of foreign aid conditional on the presence of quality institutions? This issue has attracted much attention over the years from both the donor community and recipient countries given that despite several years of foreign aid flows the increasing high poverty levels raise questions about the effectiveness of foreign aid. Despite several years of study on the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth results have remained inconclusive. Conclusions from various studies on this issue are varied. The conclusions thus far can be summarised as follows: there is a positive relationship between aid and economic growth; there is no relationship between aid and growth; the presence of good governance and institutions is a precondition for aid to have a positive influence on economic growth; and the presence of good governance and institutions is not a precondition for aid to have positive influence on economic growth. The research assignment sought to determine if there is any relationship between foreign aid, economic growth and institutional quality in Zimbabwe for the period 1980 to 2010 using the autoregressive distributed lag approach. In order to determine this relationship, the assignment also examined economic growth theories that have evolved over the years and reviewed existing empirical literature on the subject. An analysis of the economic growth theory revealed a shift from foreign aid being merely assumed to supplement savings to a new approach looking at conditions necessary for it to be effective, with a special focus on institutional quality. To date there has not been any agreement on the definition and institutional characteristics that create an environment conducive for foreign aid. Studies still use indicators that group together a wide range of social structures affecting economic outcomes such as political system, property rights, contract enforcement, and investor protection as measures of institutional quality The research assignment used quality of governance, polity iv and economic freedom of the world index as measures of institutional quality. The empirical results revealed there that there was a positive relationship between foreign aid and economic growth and that all the measures of institutional quality perform best when all are included in the model. This suggests that the effectiveness of aid in Zimbabwe was strongly influenced by the quality of institutions. It is therefore important for the government of Zimbabwe to maintain the rule of law, political stability and economic freedom. This is likely to attract economic agents who can make meaningful investment and resuscitate the Zimbabwean economy.


Studies to determine the effect different seeding dates and fungicide application on incidence and severity of blackleg disease were established at Melfort and Scott, SK. A similar study to determine the effect of seeding date on incidence and severity of Sclerotinia stem rot was also conducted at Melfort. The Brassica napus cultivar Quest was seeded in late October 1998 (fall), mid to late April (early spring) and mid to late May (traditional). Following germination, seedling counts were taken. In the blackleg experiments at Melfort and Scott, azoxystrobin (125 g a.i./ha) was compared with a non-treated control. For the sclerotinia experiment, vinclozolin (500 g a.i./ha) applied at 20–30% bloom was compared with a non-treated control. Evaluation of plants for disease incidence and severity and for plot yield was done at plant maturity. At all locations, seedling populations were reduced for the fall seeding date compared to the early spring and traditional seeding. Sclerotinia stem rot infection levels were higher in the fall and early spring seeded treatments compared to the traditional seeding date treatment. However yield from fall and early spring seeding dates was higher than yield from the traditional date. There were no differences in sclerotinia levels with fungicide application within each seeding date. At Melfort, blackleg levels for fall and early spring treatments were lower than levels for the traditional seeding date. Fungicide reduced incidence and severity of blackleg infection for all seeding dates. Yield for all seeding dates were higher with fungicide application as opposed to yield from the non-treated control. However, significant yield differences were only observed with fall seeding date. Yields of the treated and non-treated early spring seeding date were at least 20 to 80% higher than both treatments for traditional seeding date. At Scott the fall seeding date had lower yields compared to the traditional and early spring seeding date treatments. At all seeding dates, fungicide application only reduced the blackleg incidence; disease severity was only reduced for the early spring and traditional seeding dates. Fungicide increased yield for the early spring and traditional seeding dates but not the fall seeded treatment. Variation in yield of canola over the seeding dates was small but yield was greatest for the traditional seeding date treatment. This study indicated that blackleg infection and subsequent yield loss differed with location. Under the conditions of the study, fungicide application on the fall or early spring seeded crop did not reduce sclerotinia stem rot symptoms or increase yield in 1999.


Quantum dots are proposed as luminescent species in luminescent solar concentrators in combination with thin film silicon solar cells. As both tuning absorption and emission properties of quantum dots is possible by adapting process conditions, as well as tuning the band gap of thin film silicon solar cells, an optimum combination is expected to exist for which the conversion efficiency of the whole device is maximum. As a first step we have employed ray-tracing modeling to determine the efficiency of a luminescent concentrator using several quantum dots and heteronanocrystals with varying Stokes' shift and absorption cross sections. A maximum efficiency of 5.9% is found for so-called Type II heteronanocrystals.


Traditionally it has been thought that the moral valence of a proposition is, strictly speaking, irrelevant to whether someone knows that the proposition is true, and thus irrelevant to the truth-value of a knowledge ascription. On this view, it's no easier to know, for example, that a bad thing will happen than that a good thing will happen (other things being equal). But a series of very surprising recent experiments suggest that this is actually not how we view knowledge. On the contrary, people are much more willing to ascribe knowledge of a bad outcome. This is known as the epistemic side-effect effect (ESEE), and is a specific instance of a widely documented phenomenon, the side-effect effect (a.k.a. "the Knobe effect"), which is the most famous finding in experimental philosophy. In this paper, I report a new series of five experiments on ESEE, and in the process accomplish three things. First, I confirm earlier findings on the effect. Second, I show that the effect is virtually unlimited. Third, I introduce a new technique for detecting the effect, which potentially enhances its theoretical significance. In particular, my findings make it more likely that the effect genuinely reflects the way we think about and ascribe knowledge, rather than being the result of a performance error.


GRP94 (gp96)-associated peptides can elicit cellular immune responses, an activity thought to reflect the presence of a cell surface receptor (CD91) on antigenpresenting cells that mediates GRP94 internalization and trafficking to an amenable site for peptide transfer to major histocompatibility complex class I molecules. We report that GRP94 internalized by receptor-mediated endocytosis is trafficked to a Rab5a, CD1 and transferrin-negative, Fc receptor and major histocompatibility complex class I-positive endocytic compartment. Receptor-internalized GRP94 did not access the endoplasmic reticulum of antigen-presenting cells. To identify the site of re-presentation of GRP94-associated peptides, kinetic analyses were performed utilizing GRP94-OVA (SIINFEKL) peptide complexes, with peptide re-presentation assayed with the Kb-SIINFEKL-specific MAb, 25-D1.16. Analyses of the kinetics of re-presentation of GRP94-associated peptides, under conditions in which de novo synthesis of major histocompatibility complex class I molecules was inhibited, identified a post-endoplasmic reticulum compartment, accessed by mature major histocompatibility complex class I, as the predominant site of GRP94-associated peptide exchange onto major histocompatibility complex class I.


Recently, a small subgroup of PEComas has been recognized to harbor rearrangements involving TFE3, a gene also involved in rearrangements in translocation-associated renal cell carcinomas and alveolar soft part sarcomas. The few TFE3 rearrangement–associated PEComas reported have exhibited distinctive pathologic characteristics contrasting to PEComas in general, including predominantly epithelioid nested or alveolar morphology and underexpression of muscle markers by immunohistochemistry. In this study, we report the clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical, and molecular features of a primary urinary bladder PEComa diagnosed by transurethral resection in a 55-year-old woman that clinically mimicked urothelial carcinoma. Light microscopy demonstrated mixed spindle cell and epithelioid morphology with the epithelioid component preferentially associated with blood vessels. Immunohistochemistry revealed positive staining for HMB45, tyrosinase, MiTF, cathepsin K, smooth muscle actin, and TFE3 protein. Fluorescence in situ hybridization for the TFE3 gene revealed a split signal pattern, indicating TFE3 rearrangement. X chromosome inactivation analysis demonstrated a clonal pattern despite the heterogenous appearance of the tumor. Unfortunately, despite surgical resection and sarcoma-directed therapy, the patient died of metastatic disease 12 months after diagnosis. This report adds to the known data regarding urinary bladder PEComas and PEComas with TFE3 rearrangement, indicating that both can pursue an aggressive course. Although the few reported TFE3-rearranged PEComas have predominantly lacked a spindle cell component and expression of smooth muscle actin and MiTF by immunohistochemistry, the findings in this study indicate that these features are sometimes present in TFE3-rearranged PEComas.


The subcellular trafficking of GLUT4 in isolated rat adipose cells and 3T3-L1 adipocytes exhibits many of the properties observed in regulated secretory processes and neurosecretion. GLUT4 is sorted and sequestered from endosomes into a specialized secretory compartment in the basal state and the initial stimulation of its exocytosis by insulin is more rapid than its recycling through the endosomes and secretory compartment during the steady-state response to insulin. We present a mathematical analysis which shows that this behavior is inconsistent with a simple 2-pool model with one plasma membrane and one intracellular compartment, but that a 3-pool model, with two intracellular compartments, can simulate these properties. We extend this model to include the presence of occluded pools in the plasma membrane. Our analysis compares the behavior expected when these occluded pools are precursors in stimulation and/or clathrin-associated-like intermediates in endocytosis. The presence of a precursor occluded pool can account for a lag between the appearance of GLUT4 in the membrane and before the full stimulation of glucose transport activity. The analysis also shows that since the pool size of the occluded GLUT4 is relatively small, the formation of endocytic occluded intermediates such as GLUT4 in clathrin-coated pits is likely to be slow compared with the rate of endocytosis of the coated vesicles.


The paper focuses on the emergence of Knowledge Management in Pharmaceutical Companies and its impact on employee's awareness and service quality. The present era is coping its attention towards Knowledge Management. Knowledge Management has become a most needed approach and various strategies that are adopted for managing knowledge. There are various effects of Knowledge Management in employee awareness and service quality. The objective of the study is to analyze different types of Knowledge Management Techniques adopted in Pharmaceutical Companies and to examine its effect of services in the organization. This study is analytical and conceptual since my research work is still in progress. The data taken is secondary and descriptive in nature which explores the detailed analysis of strategies adopted in companies by integrating insights from the literature on Organizational Services and Knowledge Management. Detailed research may be undertaken to equip the Pharmaceutical Companies with Knowledge Management to bench mark their talent management practices and identify the gaps in development road of execution that generate innovative ideas for development of companies and to up bring the human resource skills.


A theoretical and experimental investigation is being made of a modified form of H guide as a possible guided wave structure for millimeter and submilliieter wavelengths. The effects of channels in the conducting planes to support a dielectric film has been studied by scaled-up models at 3-cm wavelength. Low losses, even at the shorter wavelengths, are predicted. The channels may be used to filter unwanted higher order modes, and the use of high-permittivity dielectric is suggested to further reduce the guide attenuation.


This study develops a multi-equation partial equilibrium model of the Malawi maize market which is linked sequentially to a local maize economy to show that the skepticism surrounding the use of innovation systems in agricultural research in Africa is not unfounded. The results demonstrate that participating households have the potential to be negatively affected by greater linkages with the market given policy shocks. Therefore in order for the innovation systems perspective in agricultural research to be effective in sustaining robust livelihoods in Africa and to ensure sustainable utilization of natural resources; interventions must be implemented only after systematic analysis of the potential consequences of the resultant macro-micro linkages; thus ensuring harmony between policies and micro-level livelihood strategies.


The aim of this bachelor thesis is to through a theoretical analyze, investigate the conditions and the challenges for a consolidated democracy in Egypt from 1952 until after the revolution of 2011. The central question in this thesis is what opportunities and challenges are there for the democratic consolidation in Egypt, with respect to civic, political and economic conditions. How have the conditions developed between 1952 and 2011? How has the transition government/military government handled the central problems in the transitions phase after 2011? The theory used in this analysis is Linz and Stepans famous five arenas (the political society, the economic society, the civil society, the bureaucracy and the state of rule, whit focus on the three first). Through a qualitative case study we have analyzed the conditions in Egypt from 1952 to after the revolution 2011. The empirical material shows that the arenas in Egypt are both historically and current very weak, and they are not supporting democratic consolidation as they are challenged by several enormous problems. Egypt is still in a transition phase and has still a long way to go for democratic consolidation


Long‐duration (≳1 s) marine mammal vocalizations (i.e., blue whale calls) generate echos and other multipath effects [McDonald et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98, 712–721 (1995)], obscuring the original structure of the call, which may contain valuable anatomical information about the animal. Several deconvolution techniques are evaluated for their effectiveness in removing multipath effects from both a hypothetical and actual marine mammal call. The evaluation is first performed on a model of a whale call in an isovelocity waveguide with noise, where the source signal is known and can be compared with the output of the deconvolution schemes. The methods are then applied to two blue whale calls recorded during an experiment (SWellEx‐3) in July, 1994 in 200‐m water. The depth and range of the animal at those two times had previously been determined by matched field processing. As the position of the animal is known, the resulting multipath propagation can be computed and the accuracy of the techniques in ident...


The phase behaviour of Tween 80IBrij 301H20 and Tween 80/Brij
30/glycerol was constructed to determine the isotropic region produced by the
mixed surfactants (MS) - Tween 80:Brij 30 - in aqueous and nonaqueous
systems. The weight ratios of 90: 10, 80:20 and 60:40 Tween 80:Brij 30 were
selected for further construction of MS systems of MA or EB/Tween 80:Brij
30lwater and MA or EB/Tween 80:Brij 30/glycerol. M S in aqueous systems
produced a larger isotropic region than the single phase MA or EB/Tween
80lwater and MA or EB/Brij 30lwater systems. The system of MA/Tween
80:Brij 30 (90: 10, 80:20 and 6O:40)lwater was then studied to determine the
surfactants' aggregation and their association with BA.
The conductivity was measured to assess the charge carrier and the
movement of ions in the system. The structure of the isotropic region was also
deterrnined. A reverse micelle (w/o micromulsion), bicontinuous structure and micelle (o/w microemulsion) formed in the range of 20 - 40wt%, 40 -
60wt% and >60wt% water, respectively. However, the MA/Tween 80:Brij 30
(80:20)/water system did not form a micelle. The results were confirmed by
light scattering measurement in which the particle size in each region was
determined.
BA was more soluble in the system with higher Tween 80. The
solubility of BA increased with the MA content and decreased with the water
content.
In the antimicrobial study, 0.01 wt% BA in the microemulsion
MA/Tween 80:Brij 30 (80:20)/water was more active against Candida
lipolytica ATCC 2075 than the pure microemulsion itself. A higher mixed
surfactant content (20:80 weight ratio of MA and MS) gave better activity than
a lower one (50 :50 weight ratio). BA in the reverse micelle region gave the
highest activity compared to in the monomer and bicontinuous regions.
The cytotoxicity study produced unexpected results. The
microemulsion systems were very active and killed all the cells (CEM-SS)
leaving no control data with which to assess the cytotoxicity.


Professor Stalley began to explore Ireland's rich legacy of medieval art in 1969, at a time when it was little known by students abroad. From the start his principal aim was to discover how Irish art fitted into its European context, an aim which led to a series of important comparative studies on major European monuments, both Romanesque and Gothic. Having begun his career as a historian, the author has been concerned with the social and political implications of medieval art, particularly the effect of the racial divisions that existed in medieval Ireland. He has written about Irish cathedrals, as well as the buildings of the Cistercian monks and Franciscan friars. He has also investigated the royal programme of castle building in the thirteenth century. Other essays in this volume include a fascinating account of the repercussions of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, as well as a consideration of the influence of Viking styles on Hiberno-Romanesque sculpture. In recent years Professor Stalley has turned his attention to the high crosses, writing with authority on the iconography of these complex monuments. The opening essay in the volume is devoted to the patronage of Henry I's justiciar, Bishop Roger of Salisbury, whose cathedral at Sarum was destined to influence the course of Irish Romanesque.


Pt-pure Ceria (CeO2) supported by carbon black (CB) anode was synthesized for development of eco-electrode material for fuel cell application. The onset potential for methanol oxidation reaction on Pt-round shaped CeO2 shifted to a lower potential as compared with that on Pt-mixed shape (i.e. round shape + rod like shape) CeO2/CB. This onset potential on Pt-mixed shape CeO2 /CB anode at 60degC was equal to that on commercially available Pt-Ru/CB anode, although the on-set potential on Pt-mixed shape CeO2/CB was lower than that on Pt-Ru/CB at room temperature. This suggests that the anode performance of Pt-CeO2/CB anode is improved at operation temperature (80degC) of fuel cell by enhancement of diffusion and formation of oxygen species from nano-sized CeO2 particles. It is expected that the nano-size Pt-pure CeO 2/CB anode in the present study will be one of promising eco-anode materials for development of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs)


The uptake and extracellular and intracellular metabolism of radioisotopically labeled cyclic 3',5'-adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) was determined in canine mesenteric arteries incubated in vitro. Intracellular tissue uptake was measured by radioisotope counting and labeled metabolites separated by thin-layer chromatography. Extracellularly, cAMP was extensively metabolized to AMP, adenosine, and Pi. DBcAMP was metabolized to monobutyryl cAMP (MBcAMP) intracellularly. Vasodilation of the mesenteric circulation in vivo was produced by cAMP, its metabolites and DBcAMP. DBcAMP caused greater vasodilation than cAMP but had a response time to its peak effect of 12 min versus 90 s for cAMP. The vasodilator properties of cAMP and DBcAMP were related to their metabolism. It was concluded that the vasodilation caused by cAMP was due to cAMP metabolites produced by extracellular metabolism.


Despite the enormous potential repertoire of γδ T cells, there are several observations which suggest that the expressed γδ repertoire in the periphery of normal individuals is often quite restricted. To assess selective expansions among γδ T cells from both adult and newborn blood samples, PBMC from 12 normal adults and cord blood from 15 normal newborns were analyzed for TCRDV1 and TCRDV2 junctional diversity by CDR3 size spectratyping and single-strand conformational polymorphism. Although TCRBV usage showed extensive heterogeneity in adults and newborns, both populations often showed CDR3 region restriction for TCRDV1 and TCRDV2. Analysis of the CDR3 spectratype patterns of newborn twins suggested that clonal selection for TCRDV is independent of genetic background. The possible role of Gram-negative bacteria in driving selective responsiveness of γδ T cells in PBMCs from adults was examined by in vitro stimulation with Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Donors whose TCRDV repertoire was highly clonal in the unstimulated blood cells showed the same predominant clones among the bacteria-stimulated cultures. In individuals whose γδ T cells were less restricted, in vitro stimulation did not select for clonality; rather, the TCRDV repertoires were similar before and after bacterial stimulation. Together, these data indicate that γδ T cells are often clonally restricted in adults as well as in newborns and suggest that the prominent stimulatory activity of Gram-negative bacteria does not by itself account for the restriction or diversity of the γδ T cell repertoire.


Using a masculinities and human rights framework, this thesis explores civil society advocacy to address sexual violence. This thesis provides recommendations aimed at enhancing civil society effectiveness. Ultimately, seeking to reduce the real rate of rape and improve survivors' access to justice. This study seeks to respond to current literature gaps to: broaden our understanding of human rights advocacy, examine activists' conceptualisation of masculinities and human rights as a field, identify the impact of this field of women's rights - and explore how responses to sexual violence may account for men's experiences of victimisation. Alongside a review of the literature, this thesis uses two case studies to address the research questions. The first of these case studies looks at civil society advocacy to enact and implement the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 32 of 2007. The second of these case studies explores the work of a South African based 'masculinities and human rights' NGO, named Sonke Gender Justice Network. This thesis challenges the dominant literature on human rights advocacy. In contrast to the literature's focus on transnational advocacy networks, this study explores a domestic network which is a product of new cross-sector alliances. The exploration of male rape in South Africa introduces two new concepts: accidental and ambivalent advocacy. These concepts are applied in order to explain how male rape came to be legally recognised, without concerted advocacy to champion the rights of male rape victims. Ultimately, this thesis argues that the impacts of a masculinities and human rights framework are contradictory and dependent on the way the framework is realised in practice. The framework provides some opportunities for developing civil society advocacy to address male rape. However, the way the framework is currently implemented by South Africa's largest masculinities and human rights NGO raises concerns regarding its impact on women's rights.


Capability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to create in-depth gradients in properties and functionalities of conventional materials has been investigated for the first time. Functionally graded material (FGM) concept has also been employed for the first time to bridge conventional materials to their advanced nanocomposites containing a high concentration of CNTs, which is promising for unexplored yet novel structural, electronic and biomaterial applications. In this study, α-alumina ceramics considered as the most challenging case has been used as the matrix. Bulk, layered, nanostructure-controlled, CNT-based, functionally graded α-alumina ceramics have been fabricated employing a recently established powder processing technology. In-depth gradients in microstructure, grain size and hardness have been successfully achieved in alumina ceramic without cracking, delamination or warping, after homogeneous and gradual incorporation of the CNTs within the alumina ceramic matrix. The FGM approach showed promise to successfully bridge conventional ceramics to their nanocomposites containing a high concentration of CNTs.


Severe plastic deformation processes (SPD) are gaining importance as advanced materials processing techniques and hold immense potential in obtaining ultra fine-grained high strength materials. Among the SPD techniques, Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) has its own merits to produce materials with ultra fine grains in bulk with better mechanical properties. The material deforms with high level of plastic strain inside the channel resulting in grain refinement of the output material with improvement in mechanical properties. A very viable die configuration was conceptualized and die was made with 1200 channel angle. Processing of 25 mm dia. of Al alloy AA2219 at room temperature was successfully carried out and grain refinement was observed. The mechanism of grain refinement has been studied using optical and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was observed that low energy dislocation structure (LEDS) forms concurrently with sub-grain structure due to dislocation rearrangements, which provide stability to the evolving sub-grain structure. Dislocation mobility is hindered by the presence of precipitates and / or intermetallic dispersoids present in the matrix and results in presence of dislocations in grain interiors. The pile up of dislocations at intermetallic dispersoids was confirmed from the dark field TEM micrographs. Present paper describes the experimental procedure and followed to attain severe plastic deformation through ECAP. Increase in hardness as well as refinement in the grain size after 5-passes have been discussed in light of extensive optical and TEM. The mechanisms of grain refinement to achieve nano-grained structure and strengthening accrued from the grain refinement through ECAP has been discussed.


The Book of Jubilees, probably written in the 2nd century B.C.E., is an account of the Biblical history of the world from creation to Moses. It is divided into periods ('Jubilees') of 49 years. For the most part the narrative follows the familiar account in Genesis, but with some additional details such as the names of Adam and Eve's daughters, and an active role for a demonic entity called 'Mastema'. The anonymous author had a preoccupation with calendar reform, and uses Jubilees as a platform for proposing a solar calendar of 364 days and 12 months; this would have been a radical departure from the Jewish Calendar, which is lunar-based. There are also a couple of messianic, apocalyptic passages, although quite a bit less than the Book of Enoch.


We study some properties of a nonconvex variational problem. We fail to attain the infimum of the functional that has to be minimized. Instead, minimizing sequences develop gradient oscillations which allow them to reduce the value of the functional. We show an existence result for a perturbed nonconvex version of the problem, and we study the qualitative properties of the corresponding minimizer. The pattern of the gradient oscillations for the original nonperturbed problem is analyzed numerically.


A two-staged experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of indigenous and predefined mycorrhizae inoculation on sour orange (Citrus aurantium L.) growth under saline soil conditions. In first stage, indigenous mycorrhizae that existed in the rhizosphere of Mediterranean halophytic plants propagated by using a trap culture method. Trifolium sp. was used as the host plant. In the second stage, the effects of propagated indigenous mycorrhizae and predefined morphological species (Glomus clarum, G. caledonium and G. mosseae) on citrus plant growth were evaluated with high levels of salt (2000 μmhos/cm NaCl) under greenhouse conditions. These species are produced in the method of grafting on a regular basis exists Cukurova University. Andesitic tuff: soil: compost (6:3:1) mixture were used as growth media. Shoot and root dry matter, root infections, spore production, and concentrations of N, P, K, Zn, Mn and Cu in plant tissues were analyzed. The results demonstrated that indigenous mycorrhizae, especially spores extracted from the rhizospheres of Euphorbia paralias and Ambrosia maritima, had a significant effect on citrus growth and nutrient uptake. Citrus plants inoculated with G. clarum and G. caledonium grew more efficiently than those inoculated with G. mosseae.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this work was to screen strains having tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) deteriorating activity, isolated from the inner and superficial of tobacco plants. Then strain AS97 was isolated and identified for further application.

METHODS
Strain AS97, with the highest conversion ability against both nitrate and nitrite, was screened by enrichment and selective medium. The strain was identified by morphological, physio-biochemical characteristics and 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The concentration of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridy)-1-butanone (NNK), N-nitrosonicotine (NNN), N-nitrosoanatabine (NAT) and N-nitrosoanabasine (NAB) were determined by LC-MS/MS. The fermentation broth of strain AS97 was spraied on the leaves of tobacco to define inoculum concentration and fermentation condition.

RESULTS
AS97 was identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens (Genbank accession number: JF 449445). Under the optimal growth conditions with inoculum concentration of 5%, at 30 degrees C for 10 d, AS97 had high biological activity against NNK and NNN with a degradation rate of 59.08% and 38.79%, respectively. The correlation analysis displayed a pronounced correlation (p > 0.01) among the concentration of nitrate, nitrite and TSNA. Furthermore, the results also exhibited that nitrate and nitrite were antecedent substance of TSNA.

CONCLUSION
These results indicated that Pseudomonas fluorescens AS97 could be a promising microorganism in the practice of non-harmful cigarette production.


Background: EGFR alterations are commonly observed in malignant gliomas (MG). Osimertinib, an irreversible EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor, effectively penetrates the blood brain barrier and achieves therapeutic concentrations in brain tissue. Materials and Methods: This retrospective chart review identified six patients with recurrent MG and EGFR alterations who received osimertinib. Results: Four patients were assessed for response. One patient had a partial response, two patients achieved stable disease and one was refractory. One patient with an EGFR vIII rearrangement remained on treatment for 236 days and a second patient with an EGFR vIII mutation remained on treatment for 294 days and continued on treatment at the time of analysis. Thrombocytopenia occurred in two patients, one patient developed grade 1 diarrhea and pneumonia, and another patient developed grade 1 mucositis. Conclusion: Osimertinib had a tolerable safety profile in this heavily pretreated brain tumor population. Osimertinib may benefit select patients with recurrent MG containing EGFR alterations.


The introduction of new communication infrastructures such as Beyond 3rd Generation (B3G) and the widespread usage of small computing devices are rapidly changing the way we use and interact with technology to perform everyday tasks. Ubiquitous networking empowered by B3G networking makes it possible for mobile users to access networked software services across continuously changing heterogeneous infrastructures by resource-constrained devices. Heterogeneity and devices' limitedness, create serious problems for the development and dynamic deployment of mobile applications that are able to run properly on the execution context and consume services matching with the users' expectations. Furthermore, the everchanging B3G environment calls for applications that self-evolve according to context changes. Out of these problems, self-evolving adaptable applications are increasingly emerging in the software community. In this paper we describe how CHAMELEON, a declarative framework for tailoring adaptable applications, is being used for tackling adaptation and self-evolution within the IST PLASTIC project.


This paper reports on a novel formulation and evaluation of visual odometry from RGB-D images. Assuming a static scene, the developed theoretical framework generalizes the widely used direct energy formulation (photometric error minimization) technique for obtaining a rigid body transformation that aligns two overlapping RGB-D images to a continuous formulation. The continuity is achieved through functional treatment of the problem and representing the process models over RGB-D images in a reproducing kernel Hilbert space; consequently, the registration is not limited to the specific image resolution and the framework is fully analytical with a closed-form derivation of the gradient. We solve the problem by maximizing the inner product between two functions defined over RGB-D images, while the continuous action of the rigid body motion Lie group is captured through the integration of the flow in the corresponding Lie algebra. Energy-based approaches have been extremely successful and the developed framework in this paper shares many of their desired properties such as the parallel structure on both CPUs and GPUs, sparsity, semi-dense tracking, avoiding explicit data association which is computationally expensive, and possible extensions to the simultaneous localization and mapping frameworks. The evaluations on experimental data and comparison with the equivalent energy-based formulation of the problem confirm the effectiveness of the proposed technique, especially, when the lack of structure and texture in the environment is evident.


Phonemic and semantic fluency involve the capacity to generate words beginning with particular letters or belonging to particular categories, respectively. The former has been associated with frontal lobe function and the latter with temporoparietal function, but neuroimaging studies indicate overlap of underlying neural networks. Schizophrenia patients may experience disproportionate semantic fluency impairment owing to abnormal semantic organization; however, executive dysfunction in schizophrenia suggests possible disproportionate phonemic fluency impairment. Moreover, little is known about the diagnostic specificity of either verbal fluency deficit to schizophrenia or their stability over time. We examined 83 schizophrenia patients, 15 bipolar disorder patients, and 83 normal controls. Both fluency types were impaired in schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia patients as a whole manifested disproportionate semantic fluency impairment relative to bipolar disorder patients, but only a subset of schizophrenia patients manifested disproportionate semantic fluency impairment relative to controls. Few characteristics, except to some extent paranoid-nonparanoid subtype, meaningfully differentiated schizophrenia patients with and without this disproportionate impairment. Verbal fluency measures were moderately stable over a 4-year period in schizophrenia patients and controls (.48 < rs < .79). These results mirror a literature that overall suggests a small degree of disproportionate semantic fluency impairment in schizophrenia, but also some heterogeneity in fluency deficits.


Congenital hypothyroidism (CH) is the most important cause of preventable mental retardation. The prevalence of CH varies by geographic region, race and ethnicity. In the countries of the Northern hemisphere, the prevalence has been reported as 1:4,000 live newborns. The prevalence is remarkably different among the countries of Latin America not only because of their different races and ethnicities but also because of the heterogeneous social-economic development. The prevalence of CH in 1984 in Peru was reported as 1:1250. In 2007, the reported incidence by the Instituto Nacional Materno Perinatal was 1:1638. A recent retrospective study performed by the Instituto Nacional de Salud del Nino in Lima, Peru described the average age of diagnosis of CH as 5,9 months +/- 5,28. This late age of CH diagnosis certainly suggests the poor efficiency of the current neonatal CH screening programs in Peru. Every Peruvian infant deserves a timely newborn screening and treatment for CH. The Peruvian government is responsible for ensuring this mandatory goal is achieved promptly.


One of the key properties of a program is its input specification. Having a formal input specification can be critical in fields such as vulnerability analysis, reverse engineering, software testing, clone detection, or refactoring. Unfortunately, accurate input specifications for typical programs are often unavailable or out of date. In this paper, we present a general algorithm that takes a program and a small set of sample inputs and automatically infers a readable context-free grammar capturing the input language of the program. We infer the syntactic input structure only by observing access of input characters at different locations of the input parser. This works on all stack based recursive descent input parsers, including parser combinators, and works entirely without program specific heuristics. Our Mimid prototype produced accurate and readable grammars for a variety of evaluation subjects, including complex languages such as JSON, TinyC, and JavaScript.


Our proposal focuses on a theoretical framework intended to characterise and understand capacity development processes oriented towards the promotion of a critical development practice, an approach that faces the tensions between reformist and critical views of development management. This is what we call capacity development for emancipatory social change. From this viewpoint, we explore a postgraduate university programme in development management offered by the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain), with a twofold aim: first, to carry out an inquiry of the programme as a capacity development process in the training of critical development practitioners and second, to discuss the suitability of the framework for understanding similar capacity development processes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Rational word languages can be defined by several equivalent means: finite state automata, rational expressions, finite congruences, or monadic second-order (MSO) logic. The robust subclass of aperiodic languages is defined by: counter-free automata, star-free expressions, aperiodic (finite) congruences, or first-order (FO) logic. In particular, their algebraic characterization by aperiodic congruences allows to decide whether a regular language is aperiodic.
We lift this decidability result to rational transductions, i.e., word-to-word functions defined by finite state transducers. In this context, logical and algebraic characterizations have also been proposed. Our main result is that one can decide if a rational transduction (given as a transducer) is in a given decidable congruence class. We also establish a transfer result from logic-algebra equivalences over languages to equivalences over transductions. As a consequence, it is decidable if a rational transduction is first-order definable, and we show that this problem is PSPACE-complete.


The purpose of this paper is to examine gazelles and mice, their transformational leadership style level and its relationship with business performance. The study is a quantitative approach based on survey data collected from business owners and CEOs across Bosnia and Herzegovina. The quantitative results show that gazelles apply more transformational leadership compared to mice. In the long term, we suggest gazelles to improve transformational leadership styles in order to maintain their growth and development. Leaders of mice should be aware that transformational leadership can influence their transformation into gazelles if it is fully implemented. Both gazelles and mice should work on intellectual stimulation that can create and produce proactiveness in the long term, giving them more strength and synergy for being a first mover in the market. The research also draws implications for managers and business owners regarding transformational leadership's effect in creating a growth model for mice to reach gazelles level, while simultaneously suggesting how gazelles should behave in order to retain their current title. This is the first empirical research that examines transformational leadership style's effect on business performance in gazelles and mice.


Sub-ppm hydrogen chloride (HCl) and water vapour (H2O) monitoring using photoacoustic spectroscopy in optical fibre manufacturing is reported. The development and performance of a sensor based on an acoustic resonant configuration is described, and on-site measurements are presented. Two DFB lasers emitting in the 1370 nm and 1740 nm range were used for the detection of H2O and HCl, respectively. A detection limit (defined for a SNR = 3) of 60 ppb for HCl and 40 ppb for H2O was achieved. Contamination sources of the carrier gas used for the fibre preform manufacturing are identified and discussed. PACS 42.62.Fi; 43.35.Ud


Purpose LLP2A-alendronate (LLP2A-Ale) is a novel bone-seeking compound that recruits mesenchymal stem cells to the bone surface and stimulates bone formation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of LLP2A-Ale in the treatment of rabbit open fracture. Methods Thirty New Zealand White rabbits underwent radius mid-diaphyseal osteotomy and were randomly divided into control and treatment groups with fifteen rabbits in each group. The treatment group received only one injection of LLP2A-Ale (dosage 125 μg/kg), whereas the control group received one injection of PBS. X-ray images were taken to observe the course of fracture healing at 2, 4 and 6 weeks after treatment. Rabbits were sacrificed at 4 and 6 weeks post treatment. Calluses were then harvested and were subjected to histology, immunohistochemistry, molecular biology techniques and biomechanical test. Results X-ray images showed that the LLP2A-Ale group exhibited abundant callus formation, stronger bony callus remodeling and earlier marrow cavity recanalization compared to the control group in a time-dependent manner. Histomorphological analysis revealed an advance in woven formation at 4 weeks and lamellar bone formation at 6 weeks in the LLP2A-Ale group. Moreover, gene and protein levels suggested that LLP2A-Ale promoted osteogenesis and angiogenesis probably via upregulating the expression of osteogenesis factors (including bone morphogenetic protein 2 and Runt-related transcription factor 2) and angiogenesis factors (vascular endothelial growth factor). Besides, the radius callus biomechanical properties were significantly enhanced in the LLP2A-Ale group compared with the control group at 6 weeks. Conclusion LLP2A-Ale can significantly promote open fracture healing in the rabbit model, probably through enhancing osteogenesis and angiogenesis.


This article describes online group assignment sequences that were carried out in a large undergraduate music course, "Turning Points in Western Music." These assignment sequences were developed to build on students' high levels of digital literacy, using their enthusiasm and skill in online interactions in order to promote their writing skills. The assignment sequences involved online student-student discussions assisted by e-moderators, and sequenced online writing tasks based on existing best practice models in online learning. The benefits of this practice, from both the student and teacher perspective, are discussed, and some guidelines as well as suggested further developments are provided.


As geographic, temporal, and cost constraints move organizations toward virtual teamwork for increasingly complex tasks, research on the impact of groups attempting to solve business problems without face-to-face communication becomes more critical. In two independent studies in two different organizations, virtual groups provided feedback related to choice of communications media. The results of the studies lend support to Media Synchronicity Theory which suggests that communications media with low synchronicity (e.g. e-mail, bulletin board) may be appropriate for "conveyance" of information, whereas media with high synchronicity (e.g. face-to-face, video conference) may be more desirable for "convergence" on shared meaning. For researchers, Media Synchronicity Theory provides an alternative explanation for the variety of studies both supporting and contradicting Media Richness and Social Presence theories. For practitioners, the results suggest an approach to communications media choices that may improve the effectiveness of team problem solving.


The positive selection of V (cid:1) 14 invariant (i)NKT cells in mice requires CD1d-mediated Ag presentation by CD4 (cid:2) CD8 (cid:2) thymocytes. Maturation of newly selected iNKT cells continues in the periphery and also involves CD1d expression. CD1d molecules acquire Ags for presentation in endosomal compartments, to which CD1d molecules have access through an intrinsic CD1d-encoded tyrosine motif and by association with the class II MHC chaperone, invariant chain. In this study, we report the generation of mice in which all CD1d is replaced by CD1d-enhanced yellow fluorescent fusion protein (EYFP). CD1d-EYFP molecules are stable, present lipid Ags, and have near normal subcellular distribution. CD1d-EYFP molecules mediated positive selection of V cell precursors at decreased efficiency, caused a delay in their terminal maturation, and did not invoke V (cid:1) 14 iNKT cell effector function as wild-type CD1d could. Using these mice, we show that the intrinsic CD1d-encoded sorting motif mediates thymic selection and activation of V (cid:1) 14 iNKT cells by professional APCs, while for peripheral terminal differentiation the intrinsic CD1d sorting motif is dispensable. The Journal of Immunology, 2009, 183: 1780–1788. iNKT cells are exposed to CD1d-positive cells that express invariant chain (i.e., professional APCs, including dendritic cells (DCs)), and cells that do not express invariant chain, in nonprofessional APCs such as peripheral T cells. Strong reactivity of iNKT cells for CD1d/self-glycolipid complexes results in their removal from the iNKT cell repertoire, as was shown using trans-genic mice that overexpress CD1d and in fetal thymic organ cul-tures containing the high affinity ligand (cid:2) GalCer (27, 28). In those experiments, the CD1d endosomal trafficking requirements for peripheral maturation could not be judged because postselection thymocytes did not survive. Mutant mice in which CD1d is expressed only on cortical thymocytes (driven by the Lck promotor) and professional APCs (driven by the I-E (cid:2) promotor) develop V (cid:2) 14 iNKT cells that undergo normal selection and terminal differentiation (20). In those mice, postselection maturation of iNKT cells in the periphery could be contributed by either CD1d-tail-mediated endocytosis or Ii-assisted endocytosis. We generated a new mouse model in which all CD1d is expressed as CD1d-enhanced yellow fluorescent fusion protein (EYFP) fusion proteins. CD1d-EYFP molecules exhibit normal subcellular distribution and CD1d-EYFP molecules can support development of V (cid:2) 14 iNKT cells, albeit at a reduced rate. Using these mice, we clarified the roles that the CD1d-intrinsic sorting motif plays in CD1d-mediated positive selection, postselection terminal maturation, and stimulation of matured V (cid:2) 14 iNKT cells.


T he liver is a frequent target for chemically induced injury. This injury is manifested by a number of toxic endpoints and is detectable at levels of organization from the molecular to the gross anatomical. The significance of the liver in toxic action has several roots. First, with the possible exception of the skin, it is the largest organ in the mammalian body. Second, most xenobiotics enter the body via the gastrointestinal tract and, after absorption, are transported directly to the liver via the hepatic portal vein, making the liver the first organ perfused by chemicals absorbed by the gut. Third is the high concentration of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes (XMEs), particularly isoforms of cytochrome P450 (CYP). These enzymes, while primarily involved in detoxication also carry out many activation reactions, the products of which may cause hepatotoxicity or toxicity in other organ systems after being distributed throughout the body.


Optimisation theory is at the heart of any control process, where we seek to control the behaviour of a system through a set of actions. Linear control problems have been extensively studied, and optimal control laws have been identified. But the world around us is highly non-linear and unpredictable. For these dynamic systems, which don't possess the nice mathematical properties of the linear counterpart, the classic control theory breaks and other methods have to be employed. But nature thrives by optimising non-linear and over-complicated systems. Evolutionary Computing (EC) methods exploit nature's way by imitating the evolution process
and avoid to solve the control problem analytically.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) from the other side regards the optimal control problem as a sequential one. In every discrete time step an action is applied. The transition of the system to a new state is accompanied by a sole numerical value, the "reward" that designate the quality of the control action. Even though the amount of feedback information is limited into a sole
real number, the introduction of the Temporal Difference method made possible to have accurate predictions of the value-functions. This paved the way to optimise complex structures, like the Neural Networks, which are used to approximate the value functions.

In this thesis we investigate the solution of continuous Reinforcement Learning control problems by EC methodologies. The accumulated reward of such problems throughout an episode suffices as information to formulate the required measure, fitness, in order to optimise a population of candidate solutions. Especially, we explore the limits of applicability of a specific branch of EC, that of Genetic Programming (GP). The evolving population in the GP case is comprised
from individuals, which are immediately translated to mathematical functions, which can serve
as a control law.

The major contribution of this thesis is the proposed unification of these disparate Artificial Intelligence paradigms. The provided information from the systems are exploited by a step by step basis from the RL part of the proposed scheme and by an episodic basis from GP. This makes possible to augment the function set of the GP scheme with adaptable Neural Networks. In the quest to achieve stable behaviour of the RL part of the system a modification of the Actor-Critic
algorithm has been implemented.

Finally we successfully apply the GP method in multi-action control problems extending the spectrum of the problems that this method has been proved to solve. Also we investigated the capability of GP in relation to problems from the food industry. These type of problems exhibit also non-linearity and there is no definite model describing its behaviour.