Cryptosporidium spp. are protozoan parasites that infect perhaps all vertebrate animals, with a subset of species and genotypes that function as food- and waterborne pathogens. The objective of this work was to collate the Cryptosporidium species and genotypes from common wild rodents on the west coast of the USA and update the information regarding the zoonotic potential of Cryptosporidium from these ubiquitous wild species. Representative sequences of the 18S rRNA gene for a unique set of Cryptosporidium isolates obtained from deer mice, house mice, mountain beavers, yellow-bellied marmot, long-tailed vole, California ground squirrels, Belding's ground squirrels, and a golden-mantled ground squirrel in GenBank were selected for phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic and BLAST analysis indicated that 4 (18%) of the 22 unique Cryptosporidium sequences from these wild rodent species were 99.75% to 100% identical to known zoonotic species (C. parvum, C. ubiquitum, C. xiaoi), suggesting that a minority of these representative Cryptosporidium isolates could have a public health impact through food and waterborne routes of human exposure. These zoonotic isolates were shed by deer mice and a yellow-bellied marmot from California, and from a mountain beaver trapped in Oregon. In addition, the group of unique Cryptosporidium isolates from deer mice and ground dwelling squirrels exhibited considerable DNA diversity, with multiple isolates appearing to be either host-limited or distributed throughout the various clades within the phylogenetic tree representing the various Cryptosporidium species from host mammals. These results indicate that only a subset of the unique Cryptosporidium genotypes and species obtained from wild rodents on the US west coast are of public health concern; nevertheless, given the geographic ubiquity of many of these host species and often high density at critical locations like municipal watersheds or produce production fields, prudent pest control practices are warranted to minimize the risks of water- and foodborne transmission to humans.


Abstract: This paper describes the development of a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) system for learning Arabic using natural language processing (NLP) techniques. This system can be used for learning Arabic by students at the primary schools. It provides grammar practice for learners of Arabic. The learners are encouraged to produce sentences freely in various situations and contexts and guided to recognize by themselves the erroneous or inappropriate functions of their misused expressions. In this system, we use NLP tools (including a morphological analyzer and syntax analyzer) and an error analyzer to give the adequate feedback to the learner. Furthermore, we propose the mechanism of correction by the learner which allows the learner to correct the typed sentence by herself/himself, and allows the learner to realize that what error she/he has made. Keywords: Arabic natural language processing, CALL, handling ill-formed natural language input ˘ ˇ


As part of an investigation in subacute bacterial endocarditis the records of 364 patients admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital in the past fourteen years (to October 1933) have been analyzed, with particular attention to the antecedent history and the manner of onset. Several interesting facts were noted which are reported here. The outstanding feature of the cases studied is the frequency with which the onset of subacute bacterial endocarditis is associated with an immediately preceding acute infection of the upper respiratory tract, tonsillitis or grip. This relationship has been noted by others. Libman, 1 in an article on the prognosis in subacute bacterial endocarditis, pointed out that the onset can occur with an attack of acute tonsillitis. He also wrote that "there is evidence which indicates that repetition of infection (in cases with recurrent attacks) may be due to an invasion from focal infections." In a subsequent article 2 he


Current research to improve state of the art Text-To-Speech (TTS) synthesis studies both the processing of input text and the ability to render natural expressive speech. Focusing on the former as a front-end task in the production of synthetic speech, this article investigates the proper adaptation of a Sentiment Analysis procedure (positive/neutral/negative) that can then be used as an input feature for expressive speech synthesis. To this end, we evaluate different combinations of textual features and classifiers to determine the most appropriate adaptation procedure. The effectiveness of this scheme for Sentiment Analysis is evaluated using the Semeval 2007 dataset and a Twitter corpus, for their affective nature and their granularity at the sentence level, which is appropriate for an expressive TTS scenario. The experiments conducted validate the proposed procedure with respect to the state of the art for Sentiment Analysis.


We present a compact, industrial laser ablation system for trace element analysis. The system uses a high repetition rate femtosecond laser for material ablation and an inductively coupled mass spectrometer for analysis.


There is no other condition quite like cystic fibrosis (CF). Faulty genes that the parents usually did not know they carried have caused it. The newborn baby will usually be free of any problems, but the young child is likely to have problems with weight gain and with frequent respiratory infections. Once the diagnosis has been made, the family must learn a complex new set of rules: medication needs to be given several times every day, and chest physiotherapy must be learned and performed twice a day, sometimes more. The family and later the child need to become medical experts: they will need to recognise when they need to seek extra help from their CF team—how do they know when the child is coughing enough to need another appointment? They will need to learn to work with a whole range of willing and enthusiastic practitioners including doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists, social workers and pharmacists. Not to mention the additional worries of school absences for inpatient and outpatient consultations. Then on top of that there are the family crises—not just the normal ones that all families will go through, but those when the child may grow Pseudomonas aeruginosa for the first time and a 2-week hospital admission is required, often with minimal advance notice. As the child grows up, they will be expected to learn more about their health and how to maintain it, with a gradual reduction in responsibility from their parents and the expectation that they will become largely independent of parental input.

There is convincing evidence in favour of improving survival for patients with CF, despite the fact that there is as yet no definitive treatment to cure the defect at a cellular level.1 2 This improved survival is a reflection in part of the improving …


In this chapter, we present one of the most crucial branches in motion planning: search- based planning and replanning algorithms. This research branch involves two key points: first, representing traverse environment information as discrete graph form, in particular, occupancy grid cost map at arbitrary resolution, and, second, path planning algorithms calculate paths on these graphs from start to goal by propagating cost associ- ated with each vertex in graph. The chapter will guide researcher through the foundation of motion planning concept, the history of search-based path planning and then focus on the evolution of state-of-the-art incremental, heuristic, anytime algorithm families that are currently applied on practical robot rover. The comparison experiment between algo- rithm families is demonstrated in terms of performance and optimality. The future of search-based path planning and motion planning in general is also discussed.


We present a nonlinear model of electrically actuated microbeams accounting for the electrostatic forcing of the air gap capacitor, the restoring force of the microbeam and the axial load applied to the microbeam. The boundary-value problem describing the static deflection of the microbeam under the electrostatic force due to a dc polarization voltage is solved numerically. The eigenvalue problem describing the vibration of the microbeam around its statically deflected position is solved numerically for the natural frequencies and mode shapes. Comparison of results generated by our model to the experimental results shows excellent agreement, thus verifying the model. Our results show that failure to account for mid-plane stretching in the microbeam restoring force leads to an underestimation of the stability limits. It also shows that the ratio of the width of the air gap to the microbeam thickness can be tuned to extend the domain of the linear relationship between the dc polarization voltage and the fundamental natural frequency. This fact and the ability of the nonlinear model to accurately predict the natural frequencies for any dc polarization voltage allow designers to use a wider range of dc polarization voltages in resonators.


Memory-related activity is one of the major sources of energy consumption in embedded systems. Many types of memories used in embedded systems allow multiple operating modes (e.g., active, standby, nap, power-down) to facilitate energy saving. Furthermore , it has been known that the potential energy saving increases when the embedded systems use multiple memory banks in which their operating modes are controlled independently. In this paper, we propose (a compiler-directed) integrated approach to the problem of maximally utilizing the operating modes of multiple memory banks by solving the three important tasks simultaneously: (1) assignment of variables to memory banks, (2) scheduling of memory access operations, and (3) determination of operating modes of banks. Specifically, for an instance of tasks 1 and 2, we formulate task 3 as a shortest path(SP) problem in a network and solved it optimally. We then develop an SP-based heuristic that solves tasks 2 and 3 efficiently in an integrated fashion. We then extend the proposed approach to address the limited register constraint in processor. From experiments with a set of benchmark programs, we confirm that the proposed approach is able to reduce the energy consumption by 15.76% over that by the conventional greedy approach.


The effect of Bad overexpression on apoptosis was demonstrated by a mouse Bad transgene stably expressed in NIH/3T3 cells. The cells overexpressing Bad treated with either serum starvation or ceramide showed apoptotic characteristics evident at 18 and 8 h, respectively. Whether serum deprivation and ceramide utilize a common death pathway requires further investigation. The time for the first apoptosis detection was shortened to 2 h and was prominent at 4 h, while above that time cells were maintained under serum-depleted conditions in the presence of ceramide (40 microM). Further investigation revealed that the activity of caspase-3 (CPP32) was elevated after ceramide treatment in Bad-transfected cells compared to that of the cells without Bad transfection, indicating the involvement of caspase cascade. Furthermore, the Bad-transfected cells showed reduced phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). Taken together, we hypothesize that Bad-overexpressing NIH/3T3 cells in the presence of ceramide undergo apoptosis by activating caspase cascade. Simultaneously, the cell survival pathway was blocked possibly by inactivation of the MAPK pathway such as the down-regulation of ERK.


In this paper, we present a novel system that acquires clear human face or head in video stream from a single surveillance camera and applies several state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms to generate real-time human head detection and tracking results. The detection results are obtained using histogram of gradients (HoG) feature powered by GPU and the false positives are filtered out by motion and appearance likelihoods. Then all the true positives are tracked by a track algorithm based on earth mover's distance (EMD) and SURF points. Our experiment results show that the proposed system makes it possible to accomplish robust detection and tracking performance in most surveillance scenes.


Mobile crowd sensing (MCS) is a relatively new paradigm for collecting real-time and location-dependent urban sensing data. Given its applications, it is crucial to optimize the MCS process with the objective of maximizing the sensing quality and minimizing the sensing cost. While earlier studies mainly tackle this issue by designing different combinatorial optimization algorithms, there is a new trend to further optimize MCS by integrating learning techniques to extract knowledge, such as participants' behavioral patterns or sensing data correlation. In this paper, we perform an extensive literature review of learning-assisted optimization approaches in MCS. Specifically, from the perspective of the participant and the task, we organize the existing work into a conceptual framework, present different learning and optimization methods, and describe their evaluation. Furthermore, we discuss how different techniques can be combined to form a complete solution. In the end, we point out existing limitations, which can inform and guide future research directions.


A stop signal passed without authority (aka SPAD) is one of the most serious types of incidents in railways since they potentially cause derailments or collisions. SPADs are complex incidents that have been usually analysed as human factors incidents. Human errors of train drivers such as slips or lapses have been prevalent in SPAD incident investigations. In the big data era, alternatives to the traditional methods can be used to support SPAD analysis of whatever kind. Railway systems produce a huge amount of data from a variety of data sources that can be used to get a better understanding of the factors involved in SPADs. This paper describes a first trial within the Big Data Risk Analysis program (BDRA) in order to combine unstructured data from SMIS/IFCS text records with structured data from of railway signals in order to support the SPAD management.


The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between psychosocial stress and intraocular pressure among apparently healthy subjects. Psychosocial stress among 1,461 public school workers (883 men and 578 women) was measured using the inventory to measure psychosocial stress (IMPS) and intraocular pressure was measured using a non-contact tonometer (Topcon CT-90). After controlling for the effects of likely confounding variables such as age, body mass index (BMI), glycosylated hemoglobin, systolic blood pressure, alcohol consumption, smoking status, and exercise, partial correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were performed in order to test the hypothesis that IMPS-measured stress score was associated with intraocular pressure. IMPS-measured stress score was found to correlate positively with intraocular pressure in women after controlling for the effects of confounding variables, whereas this relationship was not found in men. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that IMPS-measured stress score was positively associated with intraocular pressure in women independent of confounding variables, but not in men. Perturbations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis associated with stress are considered to be partly responsible for an increase in intraocular pressure among people suffering from psychosocial stress. Further research is needed to elucidate the relationship between this stress-associated increase in intraocular pressure and open-angle glaucoma.


Important questions to enable the use of marine current energy are how the electrical system is designed, how multiple energy converters are interconnected offshore and how the power is transmitted to the shore. The Division of Electricity at Uppsala University have constructed and deployed a marine current energy converter in the river Daläven in Söderfors, Sweden. In the study presented in this article, a model of a near-shore low-voltage AC collection grid and a near-shore low-voltage DC collection grid is presented for the technology at the Söderfors test site. The models are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. For collection grids of five turbines, it is shown that the proposed control schemes are able to deliver power to the distribution grid. The controllers are able to achieve this even when one turbine is suddenly disconnected from the grid. Furthermore, it is shown that the conduction losses of the DC system are higher than the losses of the AC system for nominal and high water speeds. However, in a qualitative comparison between the systems it is concluded that despite the higher losses, the DC system can be an interesting option. This is because fewer components need to be placed in the turbine, which is beneficial in offshore systems where space is a limiting factor. Furthermore, a DC system can be less expensive since fewer cables are needed.


Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, seems to naturally fall at the intersection of art and mathematics. This workshop shares a traditional origami model which was repurposed for mathematics instruction in the elementary classroom. Participants will learn to fold the traditional candy dish and become familiar with the Shape Snacker which is a candy dish modified for classroom implementation to study shape and size with students in the second grade. We will then get an overview of other modifications for several other classrooms. Aside from printable materials, participants in the workshop will get to brainstorm further uses of these models for their own classrooms and goals.


This paper describes a new method for the parameter identification of large salient synchronous generators based on the combination of the tabu search technique and finite element method. In order to overcome the drawback of being trapped in local optimum, some improvements are made on the tabu search algorithm so far used for combinational optimization problems. The numerical results of parameter identification of a 300 MW generator validate the present method.


The interaction of E. coli DNA dependent RNA polymerase with nucleic acids was studied by chemical modification of both the enzyme and DNA. Chemical modification requires large quantities of a pure homogeneous preparation of a protein. Core enzyme was purified from up to 1 kg of E. coli, in yields of about 10 mg per 100 g cells, and to 95 % purity. Core-enzyme was used because it is the simplest active form, with most of the properties, of the complete enzyme. Work on the binding of synthetic peptides and proteins to nucleic acids suggests that tryptophan and tyrosine form stacking interactions with nucleic acid bases, and that lysine interacts ionically, N-bromosuccinimide was used to modify the tryptophan and tyrosine groups of RNA polymerase. A 30 fold molar excess of reagent rapidly and completely inactivated the enzyme. The modification resulted in oxidation of 1-2 tryptophans and 8 (+/-2) cysteines, loss of 9% of the protein fluorescence, and no loss of overall structure (as judged by the accessibility of thiols to reaction with 5, 5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid). Substrates did not protect against inactivation. The oxidation of 8 thiols, which accounted for up to 40 % of the inactivation, was limited to 4 thiols and 10 % inactivation by reversibly protecting the surface SH groups with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid). Inactivation of protected enzyme required a 30 fold molar excess of N-bromosuccinimide, and led to a loss of 11 % of the protein fluorescence, and no change (<2%) in the overall conformation (as judged by far ultraviolet circular dichroism). Amino acid analysis showed that between 3 and 6 tyrosines, and no methionines (+/-2) or histidines (+/-5) were oxidised. The error in determining tryptophan (+/-2) was too large to detect the oxidation previously observed by extinction changes. Stacking of aromatic amino acids with nucleic acid bases would contribute to the binding energy to DNA and nucleotides, and would help unwind the double helix, N-bromosuccinimide inactivation of thiol protected RNA polymerase resulted in no decrease in DNA binding activity (as judged by salt elution from DNA agarose), and no loss in ATP binding. No difference in inactivation was observed when assayed with native and denatured DNA, and inactivation was also independent of the initiation circumventing dinucleotide G-A, suggesting that the major cause of inactivation was not loss of unwinding or initiating activity. Further work is required to resolve the cause of inactivation. Methyl-[14C] acetimidate modification of 50 lysines resulted in complete inactivation of core enzyme. Both purine nucleoside triphosphates and denatured DNA protected against inactivation. ATP, GTP, CTP, and denatured DNA together resulted in maximal protection against inactivation, and protection of about 8 lysines against modification. Since amidination should not disrupt ionic interactions greatly, lysine may have another role in RNA polymerase. Protection against inactivation was used to obtain a dissociation constant of 80 +/- 20 ?M for denatured DNA from core enzyme. The kinetics of formaldehyde melting of DNA was studied as a probe of protein-DNA interactions. The kinetic analysis of Trifonov et al. (1968) did not adequately describe the unwinding of the small, double-helical, DNA from phage T7, despite taking precautions in the experimental techniques. Calf thymus DNA, and calf thymus DNA with nucleoside triphosphates and low concentrations of holoenzyme, gave interpretable kinetics. However the shortcomings of calf thymus DNA as a template, and the difficulties with explaining the kinetics with larger concentrations of enzyme, and with T7 DNA, detract from the method as a probe of RNA polymerase-DNA interactions.


Objectives To define the frequency of cytomegalovirus disease among kidney transplant patients in an intensive care unit in which this complication was suspected and to identify predisposing factors and their possible impact on clinical outcome. Methods Retrospective observational study in which kidney transplant patients over the age of 18 years were hospitalized for any reason in an intensive care unit with at least one collection of samples to test for the presence of antigenemia or cytomegalovirus via polymerase chain reaction during hospitalization. Cytomegalovirus disease was defined as positive antigenemia or polymerase chain reaction above 500 copies/mL in the presence of symptoms and in the appropriate clinical setting, as judged by the attending physician. Results A total of 99 patients were included (age: 53.4 ± 12.8 years, 71.6% male). Cytomegalovirus disease was diagnosed in 39 patients (39.4%). Respiratory symptoms (51%), non-specific clinical worsening (20%) or gastrointestinal symptoms (14%) were the main reasons for exam collection. Transplant time was lower in those with cytomegalovirus disease than in those without this diagnosis (6.5 months and 31.2 months, p = 0.001), along with pulse therapy in the last 6 months (41% and 16.9%, p = 0.008) and previous use of thymoglobulin in the last year (35.9% and 6.8%, p < 0.001). In the logistic regression model, only the transplant time and the use of thymoglobulin were associated with a higher frequency of cytomegalovirus. There was no difference in clinical evolution between patients with and without cytomegalovirus disease. Conclusion In kidney transplant patients suspected of cytomegalovirus disease, the prevalence was high. Transplant time less than 6 months, and the use of thymoglobulin in the last year should increase the intensivist's suspicion for this complication.


Three finishing experiments were conducted in commercial feedlots to determine effects of implant programs on finishing heifer performance, carcass characteristics, and economics. A total of 3,307 heifers were used in the three experiments. Overall, four treatment comparisons were tested within the three separate experiments. Treatment groups included the following: 1) heifers implanted with Synovex® Plus (Fort Dodge Animal Health; Fort Dodge, IA) but not fed melengestrol acetate (MGA®; Pharmacia and Upjohn Company; Kalamazoo, MI), 2) heifers implanted with Synovex® Plus and fed MGA®, 3) heifer implanted with Revalor®-H (Intervet Inc.; Millsboro, DE) and fed MGA®, and 4) heifers implanted with Finaplix®-H (Intervet Inc.) and fed MGA®. Common treatments of Synovex® Plus and dietary MGA® as well as Finaplix®-H and dietary MGA® were used in each of the three experiments. Finishing heifers fed MGA® and implanted with Synovex® Plus had 3.9 and 4.1% greater (P<0.10) ADG than did heifers implanted with Revalor®-H or Finaplix®-H and fed MGA®, respectively. Daily gain did not differ for heifers implanted with Revalor®-H or Finaplix®-H. Feeding MGA® to heifers implanted with Synovex® Plus increased ADG and decreased deleterious effects on quality grade; however; carcasses had greater fat thickness. Fewer carcasses of heifers fed MGA® and implanted with Synovex® Plus or Revalor®-H were graded Choice in comparison with the carcasses of those implanted with Finaplix®-H. When selling heifers on a carcass-merit basis, net returns did not differ among heifers implanted with Synovex® Plus, Revalor®-H, or Finaplix®-H when fed MGA®. When selling heifers on a dressed basis, net return was maximized (P<0.10) with the use of Synovex® Plus and supplementation with MGA® compared with Synovex® Plus and no MGA® supplementation, Revalor®-H and MGA® supplementation, and Finaplix®-H and MGA® supplementation.


In recent years, electrospinning process is gradually applied in producing tissue-engineering scaffold. In this study, we chose polylacticacid(PLA) and β-tertiary calcium phosphate(β-TCP) as raw materials to fabricate PLA/β-TCP biodegradable composite scaffold by electrospinning process. The characteristics of the scaffold and effect of the scaffolds to cell proliferation and cell adhesion was studied. Compare with pure PLA scaffold, blendingβ-TCP in the spinning process of the scaffold could improve the properties of the scaffold, especially the hydrophilicity and the proliferation and adhesion of cells, this means that the material is more potential to be used as tissue engineering scaffolds.


We introduce a novel method to estimate the risk premium that investors should demand on top of public equity's return to be properly compensated for the peculiar hazards of investing in venture capital. Unlike existing CAPM-based methods, our benchmarks are based upon direct measures of the factors that affect the value of venture capital portfolios—i.e., illiquidity, hazard of failure and control; being, at the same time, clear of the confounding effects of superior fund management. Our method is an empirically grounded alternative to the rules of thumb employed by institutional investors and fund managers when defining target returns on venture capital.


The Historical Peninsula, one of the most unique and ancient urban settlement areas of Istanbul, has also been named as a cultural heritage of UNESCO, and is a very unique and characteristic area. It has also been a symbol of Istanbul's two different municipal districts, i.e., the Fatih and Eminonu Municipalities, governing the peninsula. The Eminonu area, which is located in this region being almost a cornerstone of Istanbul's identity, stood out and was practically a symbol of the city in each of the civilizations that Istanbul witnessed during its thousands of years of history with the unique mission that the city has assumed. In addition, the area has maintained its function up until today as the collection and distribution center of goods and services in the context of commercial relationships and economic activities. The Fatih region has embraced its extremely diverse cultural mosaics and residential image, with neighbors living side by side and having mutual support with Eminonu for many centuries. These two very important districts, which are very important for the city with respect to urban memory and localities, have faced a different implementation in recent times. As a result of a series of administrative border revision decisions made in the country, new districts and municipalities have been created, and a new arrangement has been made by also referring to the municipality law, according to which existence of some of the municipalities were terminated based on the population criteria. The municipalities of Eminonu and Fatih Districts as well as their respective municipalities will be combined and become a single entity following the said arrangement. The risks, especially in the context of the tourism function of the region, which these Municipalities will come across by the end of this process will be discussed and presented in this paper.


Conventional civil Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems are able to detect targets and identify collaborative aircrafts in the air space but they don't assure full coverage at low altitude, in presence of non cooperative targets (NCTs) and aircraft A/C with a low value of radar cross section (RCS). In the following a new architecture to address this problem is proposed. The new ATC architecture foresees the combined use of conventional system, such as Primary and Secondary Radar, ADSB, etc., and innovative systems such as a new enhanced PSR, passive and bistatic radar network. In the following the new system architecture will be described. The approach foresees a data fusion center and a decision support system as a valid support for the situation awareness. Starting from the single sensors, the overall performance of the new ATC system are showed by a first preliminary analysis of data fusion. This results show the advantage of the new system respect to the conventional one specially in absence of the PSR coverage where the current system don't allows to address the radar blind zones problem.


The article focuses on the study of the aspects of ecotourism development in the regions of Russia, which have a significant natural tourist potential. Based on the best practice of ecotourism identified by the Russian Ministry of Culture, the authors of the study have shown that the availability of tourist resources in a region does not imply a high level of effective tourist activity. The methodology of the study included a scientific and practical grouping of ecotourism sites and the development of an algorithm to evaluate regional practices. The expert assessment was based on general and internal criteria, allowing the identification of the best ecotourism destinations, the compilation of best practices, and the creation of a system of flaws in environmental programs. The findings of the study showed that a greater number of best ecotourism practices were identified in the regions, having a modern tourist infrastructure and apply a systematic approach to ecotourism development. According to the authors, the use of the selective approach does not only make it possible to diagnose the state of ecotourism development in the regions of the Russian Federation, but also to develop new methods of promoting the most successful ecotourism practices.


Self-mixing interferometry (SMI) is a new scheme of interferometry having several advantages compared to standard configurations: it can work with no optical part external to the laser, is self-aligned, is immune to external stray light, and can measure also on target with diffusing surfaces. In this paper, an overview of the several measurements already demonstrated with self-mixing is presented, with application tthe measurements of kinematic quantities (displacement, vibration. etc.) as well physical (linewidth, alfa factor, etc.)


Circus WOW's advertising motif is the phrase, 'Ordinary women doing extraordinary things'. Created by Penny Lowther in 2001, Circus WOW appeared nearly a decade after Australia's more renowned women's circuses, such as the Women's Circus and the Performing Older Women's Circus in Melbourne and Vulcana in Brisbane. The late formation of Circus WOW in Wollongong coincided with the re-evaluation of the city's industrial role in Australia's economy. This paper argues that the success of Circus WOW reflects a reappraisal of place by audiences in a rapidly developing city. The site-specific and festival work of Circus WOW provides the principal means through which the company is recognised by the general public of Wollongong. The presence of site-specific performance events can be used to effect 'place-making'. Circus WOW's female performers through interactive relationships with Wollongong environments have realigned perspectives of culturally dormant sites. This paper explores three site-specific Circus WOW productions, to investigate the interaction of this women's circus troupe with concepts of urban development in Wollongong spaces. Now in its seventh year, Circus WOW's new director, Cheryle Moore, also director of Frumpus, a Sydney based all-women contemporary theatre company, seeks to strengthen the empowering role of Circus WOW in the cultural identity formation in the city of Wollongong. The enactment of differing possibilities for urban female subjects in a small city opens new spaces of contestation of identity for a wider public. This paper looks at the links between the visibility of outdoor and site-specific physical performance, regional politics and the concept of a 'missing voice' in the landscape. This perspective on the performative impact of an all female circus company complements the gender specific cultural niches occupied by women's circus companies established by previous research.


Mg2+ doped LiFePO4 was synthesized from Li3PO4, FeSO4 and MgSO4 by a hydrothermal synthesis at 150 °C(Li1-xMgxPO4, x=0.00, 0.01,0.02,0.04,0.06). The samples were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and charge-discharge test. The results showed that Mg2+ dissolved in the LiFePO4 lattice. When the content is in the range of 0 to 6 mol%, Mg2+ caused the shrinkage of LiFePO4 cell volume. The capacity of doped and undoped samples at low discharging rate was similar, about 145mAhg-1 for 0.2C. But the sample doped with 2-4 mol% Mg2+ has higher capacity and longer cycle lifetime than the undoped one at 5C.


The effect of the support in the simultaneous hydrogenation of acetophenone and dehydrogenation of 1,4butanediol was studied using supported (MgO, g-Al2O3, MgO–Al2O3 and SiO2) copper (10 wt%) catalysts, prepared via impregnation. In this process, acetophenone was transformed to 1-phenylethanol/ ethylbenzene and 1,4-butanediol converted to g-butyrolactone/tetrahydrofuran under a hydrogen-free environment, indicating the major role of the supports. The Cu/MgO catalyst was active and highly selective towards the production of 1-phenylethanol and g-butyrolactone. However, an adverse behaviour was observed over Cu/MgO–Al2O3. An extraordinary catalytic performance was obtained over Cu/SiO2 with high selectivity for ethylbenzene (99%) and g-butyrolactone (99%). Contrarily, no hydrogenation of acetophenone was observed over Cu/g-Al2O3 due to the dehydration of 1,4butanediol, yielding tetrahydrofuran. The main advantage of this process is that no external hydrogen is required for the hydrogenation of acetophenone. Copper dispersion, the reduction behaviour of copper, copper particle size and the acidity and basicity of the catalysts play important roles in the activity. All four catalysts were characterized using BET surface area, N2O pulse chemisorption, XRD, XRF, H2-TPR, XPS, and TPD of NH3/CO2 to understand our results.


Feature modeling is widely used in software product-line engineering to capture the commonalities and variabilities within an application domain. As feature models evolve, they can become very complex with respect to the number of features and the dependencies among them, which can cause the product derivation based on feature selection to become quite time consuming and error prone. We address this problem by presenting techniques to find good feature selection sequences that are based on the number of products that contain a particular feature and the impact of a selected feature on the selection of other features. Specifically, we identify a feature selection strategy, which brings up highly selective features early for selection. By prioritizing feature selection based on the selectivity of features our technique makes the feature selection process more efficient. Moreover, our approach helps with the problem of unexpected side effects of feature selection in later stages of the selection process, which is commonly considered a difficult problem. We have run our algorithm on the e-Shop and Berkeley DB feature models and also on some automatically generated feature models. The evaluation results demonstrate that our techniques can shorten the product derivation processes significantly.


In this study, we introduce a detailed protocol for the preparation of DNA-assembled GRS-DNA-copper sulfide (CuS) nanodandelion, a multifunctional theranostics nanoparticle. Using transmission electron microscope (TEM) and dynamic light scattering techniques, we characterize the physicochemical property of DNA-assembled GRS-DNA-CuS nanodandelions and their dissociation property after the first near-infrared (NIR) light irradiation. In addition, we systematically monitor the processes of tumor accumulation and uniform intratumoral distribution (UITD) of ultrasmall CuS photothermal agents (PAs), which are dissociated from GRS-DNA-CuS nanodandelions, by Raman imaging and photoacoustic imaging, respectively. The UITD of the dissociated ultrasmall CuS PAs can enhance the therapeutic efficiency of photothermal treatment under the second NIR light irradiation. Overall, this protocol provides a powerful tool to achieve UITD of PAs by explosively breaking the hydrogen bonds of DNA in GRS-DNA-CuS nanodandelions under NIR light irradiation. We expect DNA-assembled nanotheranostics to serve as a robust platform for a variety of biomedical applications related to photothermal therapy in the oncology field. This protocol can increase experimental reproducibility and contribute to efficient theranostics nanomedicine.


In many experimental conditions, the evaporative fraction, defined as the ratio between evaporation and available energy, has been found stable during daylight hours. This constancy is investigated over fully covering vegetation by means of a land surface scheme coupled with a mixed-layer model, which accounts for entrainment of overlying air. The evaporation rate follows the Penman-Monteith equation and the surface resistance is given by a Jarvis type parameterization involving solar radiation, saturation deficit and leaf water potential. The diurnal course of the evaporative fraction is examined, together with the influence of environmental factors (soil water availability, solar radiation input, wind velocity, saturation deficit above the well-mixed layer). In conditions of fair weather, the curves representing the diurnal course of the evaporative fraction have a typical concave-up shape. Around midday (solar time) these curves appear as relatively constant, but always lower that the daytime mean value. Evaporative fraction decreases when soil water decreases or when solar energy increases. An increment of saturation deficit above the mixed-layer provokes only a slight increase of evaporative fraction, and wind velocity has almost no effect. The possibility of estimation daytime evaporation from daytime available energy multiplied by the evaporative fraction at a single time of the day is also investigated. It appears that it is possible to obtain fairly good estimates of daytime evaporation by choosing adequately the time of the measurement of the evaporative fraction. The central hours of the day, and preferably about 3 hr before or after noon, are the most appropriate to provide good estimates. The estimation appears also to be much better when soil water availability (or evaporation) is high than when it is low.


Learning English is a potentially profitable investment for immigrants in the U.S.: while there are initial costs, the subsequent benefits include the ability to communicate with the majority of the population, potentially leading to better paying jobs and economic success in the new country. These payoffs are lessened if immigrants choose to live and work in ethnic enclaves where the necessity to communicate in English is weak. Ethnic enclaves are widespread and persistent in the U.S. This study uses data from the 2010 American Community Survey to examine the impact of residential and occupational segregation on immigrants' ability to speak English. We allow for heterogeneity in the relationship between segregation and English language proficiency across ethnic groups and focus specifically on Mexican and Chinese immigrants. Our results show that immigrants in the U.S. who live and work among high concentrations of their countrymen are less likely to be proficient in English than those who are less residentially and occupationally segregated. The magnitude of the effect of segregation on language proficiency varies across immigrants' birthplaces and other salient characteristics defining the immigration context.


Embedding methods have achieved success in face recognition by comparing facial features in a latent semantic space. However, in a fully unconstrained face setting, the facial features learned by the embedding model could be ambiguous or may not even be present in the input face, leading to noisy representations. We propose Probabilistic Face Embeddings (PFEs), which represent each face image as a Gaussian distribution in the latent space. The mean of the distribution estimates the most likely feature values while the variance shows the uncertainty in the feature values. Probabilistic solutions can then be naturally derived for matching and fusing PFEs using the uncertainty information. Empirical evaluation on different baseline models, training datasets and benchmarks show that the proposed method can improve the face recognition performance of deterministic embeddings by converting them into PFEs. The uncertainties estimated by PFEs also serve as good indicators of the potential matching accuracy, which are important for a risk-controlled recognition system.


Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder affecting children and adults. Genetic and environmental factors are associated with the etiology of ADHD. Among the environmental factors, exposure of the developing brain to nicotine is considered a major risk factor. Recent evidence suggests that environmental influences on the brain and behavior may be transmitted from one generation to the next. We used a prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE) mouse model of ADHD to test the hypothesis that PNE-induced hyperactivity, a proxy for human ADHD phenotype, is transmitted from one generation to the next. Our data reveal transgenerational transmission of PNE-induced hyperactivity in mice via the maternal but not the paternal line of descent. We suggest that transgenerational transmission is a plausible mechanism for propagation of environmentally induced ADHD phenotypes in the population.


PURPOSE
Differentiating air from bone is challenging with conventional MR images. While ultrashort TE (UTE) techniques have shown some promise, factors including noise, partial volume averaging, and imaging artifacts all may limit the discriminatory power of this technique.

METHODS
A biological phantom containing bone, bone marrow, solid tissue (with an air cavity), and fat was scanned with an 18-channel surface coil on a 3T MR scanner (Siemens SKYRA). MRI volumes acquired included T1-weighted gradient echo (TE 2.5 ms), T2-weighted fast spin echo (TE 88 ms), and two echoes from a UTE acquisition (UTE1 TE 0.06 and UTE2 TE 4.46 ms). CT images for the phantom were acquired to define "true" air and bone regions using thresholds of -600 and 145, respectively. A range of intensity thresholds was used to test sensitivity in defining air regions in T1, T2, UTE1, UTE2 and difference of the UTE1 and UTE2 images. The number of voxels labeled as air in MR images and within air and bone regions defined in CT images were counted to calculate sensitivity and specificity. ROC curves were generated to evaluate bone and air discrimination in different MR image types.

RESULTS
ROC curves did not cross for the individual image types tested. UTE1 had the greatest discriminatory power (AUC 0.944), followed by UTE1-UTE2 (0.906), UTE2 (0.869), T1 (0.750), and T2 (0.651). UTE1 could not completely separate air from bone, generating false positive locations of air within the CT-defined bone region of interest at sensitivities of 0.756 and higher for labeling air within the cavity defined on CT.

CONCLUSION
While UTE1 reasonably separates air from bone, the persistence of false labeling of bone as air warrants further investigation. Subtraction of UTE1 and UTE2 did not improve sensitivity/specificity, indicating no added value of the 4.46 ms TE in separating bone from air.


Trillium recurvatum is a long-living herbaceous perennial plant found in the central and eastern United States. It is currently threatened in Michigan and rare in Wisconsin. Threats to this plant include: forest management practices, land-use conversion, and habitat fragmentation. Pollen limitation also threatens this plant as the species is self-incompatible so one genetic individual must be pollinated by a different genetic individual. T. recurvatum is clonal, so pollination could be difficult if there are few different genetic individuals in a specific region. My research project aims to explore the genetic diversity of T. recurvatum in the University of Memphis Meeman Biological Field Station. This will provide the first population genetics for Shelby County populations of T. recurvatum . In March 2014, 220 T. recurvatum leaf samples were collected from a population at the University of Memphis Meeman Biological Field Station. The DNA was extracted from these leaves using a commercially available kit, Omega Biotek E.Z.D.N.A Plant DNA Kit, and stored at -80 degrees Celsius. Following that, PCR was performed on all 220 samples for the 10 microsatellite loci. Locus 2,3,4,7,9, and 10 were pooled and run on a capillary electrophoresis at the Molecular Research Core at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center where the instrument can detect one base pair differences. The alleles were recorded using the software package GeneMarker, and the data was analyzed for genetic and clonal diversity using the GenAlEx software. These results were correlated with the demographic data collected by Dr. James Moore and colleagues 8 . Based on the data analyzed, the genetic diversity of T. recurvatum was higher than expected. 108 unique genotypes were found from 182 plants sampled, which means there is 60% diversity. 8. Moore, J.E., Franklin S.B., Wein, G., Collins, B.S. "Long-term population demography of Trillium recurvatum on loess bluffs in western Tennessee, USA." AoB PLANTS 2012: pls015; doi:10.1093/aobpla/pls015 2012.


Abstract The objective of the present study was to determine the optimum dosage of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) in the diet of keureling, Tor tambra (Val.) fingerlings for optimal growth performance and feed utilization. Five doses of vitamin E were tested: 0 mg kg−1 feed (control); 150 mg kg−1 feed; 300 mg kg−1 feed; 450 mg kg−1 feed; 600 mg kg−1. The feed ratio was 5% body weight, which was delivered twice daily at 08:00 and 17:00 for 60 days. The results showed that higher growth performance, feeding conversion ratios, feed efficiency, protein retention, and protein digestibility were obtained at 600 mg kg−1 feed, but the value was not significantly different from the other doses. The optimal dose in terms of the hepatosomatic index and survival rate was 300 mg kg−1. Hence, it was concluded that the optimum, most economical dose of vitamin E supplement for keureling (T. tambra) was 150 mg kg−1 feed, because this value was not significantly different from the doses of 300 and 600 mg kg−1 feed.


In an effort to tackle the exceptionally high level of alcohol consumption in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, there are a suite of alcohol policies and new legislation that have been introduced. These include restricted purchasing and consumption for certain individuals. In 2017, the Banned Drinker Register (BDR) was (re)introduced – a policy that involves placing persons who consume alcohol at harmful levels to themselves or others onto a register which prohibits the purchase of alcohol from take-away liquor outlets. As a result, there is an incentive for banned drinkers to obtain alcohol through friends, family, and through the black market – referred to as secondary supply. Though the phenomenon of secondary supply is not new, the recent evaluation of the BDR highlighted a number of challenges of tackling the secondary supply of alcohol. Informed by Head's framework for assessing 'wicked' policy problems, this policy analysis uses data from interviews with stakeholders undertaken as part of two studies on alcohol policy and services. The findings present the limitations of the policy design and implementation context in preventing secondary supply of alcohol to banned drinkers. The paper concludes with implications for policy and research that better recognise the implementation context.


The ability to determine the presence and identity of sugars in the guts of adult parasitoids in the field would aid researchers in addressing long-standing problems in parasitoid ecology. Until very recently, however, gut sugar analyses have not been carried out on parasitoids. This is despite the development and use of methodologies for gut sugar analyses in biting flies (mosquitoes, sand-flies, black-flies, horse- and deer-flies, and biting midges) for decades. Methods used have been the cold anthrone test for the detection of gut sugars, and various forms of chromatography for the identification of gut sugars. We review the use of these methods in biting fly research and then describe the nascent field of gut sugar analyses in parasitoids. Both cold anthrone and chromatography tests have begun to be used on field-caught parasitoids, and we describe progress from our own work. We used cold anthrone on the aphid parasitoid Aphelinus albipodus (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), and results from one field study show that approximately one-fifth of individuals tested were positive for gut sugars. The characteristics of the field site point to the primary source of these gut sugars as being aphid honeydew. We also analysed the gut contents of Diadegma insulare (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), a parasitoid of diamondback moth. In this case, HPLC analyses showed that over 85% of field-captured individuals had fed upon sugars. These same analyses suggested that honeydew may have been a major source of the gut sugars in this case also, but the sugar profiles suggest some nectar feeding. Understanding the importance of various sugar sources on parasitoid activity and effectiveness will facilitate the incorporation of sugar sources in habitat manipulation programmes as a part of IPM.


INTRODUCTION
Smoking is established as the most important causative factor responsible for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Occurrence of allergy in COPD patients causes acute exacerbation of this disease, but role of allergy is not established in aetiopathogenesis of COPD.

AIM
The present study was aimed at evaluation of occurrence of COPD in patients having symptoms suggestive of respiratory allergy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
An observational cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate occurrence of COPD in patients having respiratory allergic symptoms by routine spirometric screening. Five hundred and fifty urban patients aged 18-60 years (both gender) ailing from chronic respiratory symptoms like cough, wheeze and Shortness Of Breath (SOB), who were referred from OPDs of RGKMCH, Kolkata, were included in this study. After obtaining detailed clinical profile, patients were divided into two groups: subjects having additional clinical symptoms suggestive of respiratory allergy (n=260) like nasal catarrh, nasal stuffiness and sneezing and subjects with no symptoms suggestive of respiratory allergy (n=290). Thereafter, routine spirometry was carried out following recommendations of ATS/ERS (2005). Patients were then categorized based on FVC, FEV1, FEV1/FVC, FEF25-75 and PEFR percent predicted values.

RESULTS
Study revealed that 18.97% of non-allergic population was suffering from COPD whereas only 7.69% of allergic subjects had COPD. This difference was statistically highly significant (p=0.0001). Although there was no significant difference in prevalence of respiratory symptoms between these two groups.

CONCLUSION
Present study concludes that patients with respiratory allergy may have coexistent COPD but occurrence of COPD is much less than that in patients with no respiratory allergy.


In recently years, Artificial Neural Networks have been studied extensively and applied in medical field, and have been demonstrated to have much better pattern recognition ability. In this chapter we present a VLSI chip to be implemented using 0.35 μm CMOS technology which is the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICDs). Implantable cardioverter defibrillator is a device which monitors the heart and delivers electrical shock therapy in the event of a life-threatening arrhythmia. At present most ICDs are often using time information from leads to classify rhythms. (Leong, P. H.W &Jabri, M.A November 1995) This means they cannot distinguish some dangerous rhythms from the safe one, as in the case of ventricular-tachycardia arrhythmia. (R. Coggins et al., 1995) Our chip is used to distinguish between two types of arrhythmia; The Sinus Tachycardia (ST) arrhythmia and the Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) arrhythmia. The ST is a safe arrhythmia occurs during vigorous exercises and is characterized with rate of 120beat/minute. The VT is a fatal arrhythmia with the same rate. They can be separated only by detecting the morphology changes in each one. (Acherya,U,R.,2004) Most morphology changes are appeared in the QRS-complex. The QRS-complex for both the ST and VT arrhythmia's are shown in fig.1. (Dale Dublin, 2000) Since most morphology changes are appeared in the QRS-complex, for classifying the arrhythmias we must separate QRS complexes from ECG, consequently a new circuit for detecting QRS is designed. In this circuit the R-R distance between two QRS complexes and also the pulse width of QRS complex are used to improve the detection algorithm. By using fuzzy logic and some parameters of ECG (pulse width, R-R interval and peak) we can separate QRS complex from ECG and after that apply this part to a Neural Network for classification. The proposed analog VLSI chip can detect such morphology changes. It has the following advantages:  It is easily interfaced to the analog signals in an ICD (in contrast to the digital systems which require analog to digital conversion).  Analog circuits are generally small in area.  Low voltage circuits are used to decrease battery weight and size and to extend battery life time which required for portable and modern wireless equipment.  Hamming network did not need to have a training system and the reference vectors determine the weights.


Generator is a concise representation for frequent itemset. And it has the anti-monotone property as the frequent itemset does, which is an important property in real applications. But when itemsets are attached with weights to balance importances between themselves, the anti-monotone property of generator may not hold. Additionally generator with weight may become tough to be dealt with in many circumstances. In this paper, we adapt support weight calculation to generator definition under weight support framework through specific techniques. The anti-monotone property of generator with weight can be kept to facilitate mining works. A new method for mining generators with weights is proposed. It exploits depth-first mining strategy and prunes search space with little cost. Experimental results show that the proposed method runs properly and achieves good performance.


Abstract Lakes tend to respond noticeably to minor changes in sediment and water balance driven by climatic, tectonic, or geomorphic processes. This unique behavior of lacustrine basins can provide a high-resolution record of geologic processes within the continental setting, far from the globally averaged record of marine strata. The Wilkins Peak Member of the Eocene Green River Formation, in Wyoming, USA, is dominated by aggradation of repetitive sedimentary facies successions recording distinct lacustrine expansions and contractions. These lacustrine "cycles" consist of up to four successive facies associations: littoral, profundal–sublittoral, palustrine, and salt pan. Because they comprise disparate facies that may never have been simultaneously deposited in the basin, Wilkins Peak Member cycles are non-Waltherian successions that do not readily equate to any established sequence stratigraphic unit. The completeness of the stratigraphic record in the Wilkins Peak Member varies continuously across the basin. At least 126 cycles are present in the ERDA White Mountain #1 core near the basin depocenter, whereas only about one third as many are recognizable 53 km north, nearer to the basin margin. Cycle boundaries terminate northward by gradual amalgamation into palustrine facies, reflecting the interplay between varying lake levels and a south-dipping deposition gradient. Evidence for complete desiccation and hiatuses is commonplace even near the basin center; a truly complete record may not be present anywhere. Based on recent 40Ar/39Ar geochronology of tuffs, the average cycle duration in the White Mountain #1 core is approximately 10,000 years. However, the true average duration is shorter due to the presence of lacunae, and the time required for deposition of the thinnest cycles may have been less than 1000 years. No external driving mechanism is presently known for Eocene cycles of such short duration, raising the possibility that they are instead autogenic cycles related to geomorphic instability of the surrounding landscape. Evaporite deposition corresponded closely in time and space to maximum differential subsidence, suggesting that tectonic influences on drainage patterns and basin accommodation exerted a primary control. Differential accommodation was most pronounced during deposition of the lower Wilkins Peak Member and became progressively less so after that time. Based on structural and stratigraphic observations, a period of increased tectonic uplift commenced concurrent with deposition of the lower Wilkins Peak Member.


ABSTRACT A 2-yr survey of hymenopteran parasitoids associated with carrion-breeding flies was conducted to establish the parasitoid species of potential forensic significance in Western Australia. Host associations, seasonality, and rates of parasitism in the field were examined to assess the value of the identified parasitoids as forensic indicators of time since death. Four species of parasitoid emerged from dipteran specimens collected from carcasses: Tachinaephagus zealandicus Ashmead (Encryptidae), Nasonia vitripennis Walker (Pteromalidae), Spilomicrus sp. (Diapriidae), and Aphaereta sp. (Braconidae). Overall parasitism of carrion-breeding flies was 11.8%. T. zealandicus and N. vitripennis were the predominant species, accounting for 86.3 and 11.5% of parasitism observed, respectively. In contrast, Aphaereta sp. and Spilomicrus sp. were intermittently collected from carcasses throughout the study and the parasitism rates of both species were low (≤3.0%). Our findings provide forensically important biological and behavioral data of parasitoid—host interactions within carcass environments. The cosmopolitan parasitoids T. zealandicus and N. vitripennis have the greatest potential as indicators of time since death in forensic investigations based on their broad host ranges, rates of parasitism, and seasonal prevalence. In combination, these two species are present throughout the year and they parasitized nearly all of the dipteran species that colonize carcasses. Because both are cosmopolitan species, the data presented here are applicable to regions experiencing a similar Mediterranean climate. This work reports the first incidence of T. zealandicus and N. vitripennis parasitizing the dipteran species Calliphora albifrontalis Malloch (Calliphoridae), Calliphora dubia Macquart (Calliphoridae), and Hydrotaea rostrata Robineau-Desvoidy (Muscidae).


Retailing firms operating in a hypercompetitive environment are increasingly leveraging a hybrid commerce strategy to reach their customers through both physical and virtual channels. This study seeks to better understand the aspects of physical and virtual retail channels that can be integrated to create value for consumers. The role of consumers in co-creating value is examined in a hybrid commerce service-delivery system. The study draws on the theoretical foundations of value co-production as well as the customer contact model to develop a set of hybrid process metrics. A structural model is then advanced to examine the relationships between these processes and consumer value. Survey data from 300 consumers assessing hybrid commerce stores were used to empirically test this value co-creation model. Results demonstrate that the integration of promotion information, product and pricing information, and transaction information enhances information quality, while the integration of information access, order fulfillment, and customer service increases service convenience. Overall, the metrics developed and the structural model results offer a better understanding of the design of an effective value-creating hybrid commerce service-delivery system.


Education-only interventions produce little change in drinking behaviors; but, multi-component prevention programs, which include alcohol information as one feature, can decrease drinking. This study examined the role of alcohol knowledge in a multi-component intervention previously found to reduce first-year female college students' alcohol consumption. Intervention and control group students completed pre and postintervention assessments of drinking behaviors, and a postintervention assessment of alcohol-knowledge. Intervention students outperformed control students on the measure of alcohol knowledge. However knowledge did not predict drinking outcomes for this group, and it was positively correlated with drinking behaviors for control students. The findings suggest that, although learning took place through the intervention, it was not the mechanism by which the intervention reduced drinking behaviors.


The present background description concentrates on the structure of wood xylem, on the mechanical strength properties under monotonic external loading, on the degradation of the structure of wood and somewhat also on the influence of thermal treatment (heat treatment) on the structure and properties of wood. The presentation is largely based on a recent publication of the author /1/. In this manner, the description tries to illustrate the status of the present general knowledge in the fields, into which the present papers bring new results and ideas for a better understanding of the structure and behavior of wood.


In this paper, we describe the concept of adaptive modular playware, where the playware adapts to the interaction of the individual user. We hypothesize that there are individual differences in user interaction capabilities and styles, and that adaptive playware may adapt to the individual user's capabilities, so that the activity automatically will match the capability of the individual user. With small test groups, we investigate how different age groups and gender groups physically interact with some specific playware games, and find indications of differences between the groups. Despite the small test set, the results are important as a proof of existence of differences and of the need for adaptation. The fact that there are individual differences makes the results significant for the development of games and interaction. It indicates that it is necessary to adapt the game and interaction, if we desire to make the most appropriate game and interaction for the individual. Hence, we investigate adaptation as an important issue for playware. With simple playware games, we show that the adaptation will speed the game up and down to find the appropriate level that matches the reaction speed of the individual player. The appropriate level will change with game/interaction complexity, and adaptation will automatically find the appropriate level for the individual player, even in multi-player games.


The paper introduces the method of separation for improving reliability and reducing technical risk and provides insight into the various mechanisms through which the method of separation attains this goal. A comprehensive classification of techniques for improving reliability and reducing risk, based on the method of separation has been proposed for the first time. From this classification, three principal categories of separation techniques have been identified: (i) assuring distinct functions/properties/behaviour for distinct components or parts (ii) assuring distinct properties/behaviour at distinct time, value of a parameter, conditions or scale and (iii) distancing risk-critical factors. The concept 'stochastic separation' of random events and methods for providing a stochastic separation have been introduced. It is shown that separation of properties is an efficient technique for compensating the drawbacks associated with a selection based on homogeneous properties. It is also demonstrated that the method of deliberate weak links and the method of segmentation can be considered as a special case of the method of separation. Finally, the paper demonstrates that the traditional reliability measure 'safety margin' is misleading and should not be used as a measure of the relative separation between load and strength.


In vitro technique was dedicated to alleviate the technical problems in conventional propagation of gladiolus for healthy planting material production in marketable quantities.  Two experimental series were conducted in non factorial and factorial designs respectively.  Cormels of three gladiolus cultivars namely Kaifa, Clara and Nabila were inoculated into free hormone media for plantlet establishment and dormancy breaking observations among genotypes.  The established plantlets were then deflasked into solidified MS + 0.5 mg/l NAA with various BA concentrations (1, 2, 3 and 4 mg/l).  A randomized complete experiment with seven replications was designed to accomplish these subsequent experiment to determine optimal BA for shoot-leaves initiations and complete plantlet formations. The results showed that in free hormone media, the dormancy breakings of cormel were varied among cultivars tested.  The variation among cultivars was also detected on the level of BA for optimum shoot and leaf formations.  2 mg/l BA gave highest shoot and leaves formations for cv. Nabila while higher concentrations needed by other two cultivars. Thus, BA concentrations ranged from 2–3 mg/l were recommended shoot inductions on in vitro propagation of gladiolus.


Electric motor used in an electrical vehicle commonly operated under high direct current of several hundred amperes. In such condition conductor contacts are very critical. Bad contacts may result in losses, overheating and disturb the operation of the motor. The improvement of contact can be achieved by reducing the contact resistance. This paper reports investigation results on the effects of silver and nickel coating on the contact surface in improving the contact performance in copper conductors. The effect of the pressure on the contact was also investigated. The current used in the investigation is direct current with magnitude of up to 350 A. The measured parameter was contact resistance. Contact resistance was measured using micro ohmmeter. The investigation results indicated significant improvement of conductor contact performance by applying the silver and nickel coating on the contact surfaces. The contact resistance reduced from 10.6 μΩ for uncoated contact to 9.5 μΩ for nickel coated and to 5 μΩ for silver coated contact.


The interest of family businesses and the research within the topic is gaining momentum. A relatively new concept "familiness" elaborates on how the owning family affects the firm. Previous studies within the field have put emphasis on the family and top management, leaving a void of research in other levels of the organisation. The problem addressed in this thesis is how the unique characteristics of family firms can be captured and how to take advantage of them. This is examined through an elaboration of existing research and an investigation of familiness in three different hierarchical levels at Spendrups. By interpreting the quantitative tool F-PEC and apply a qualitative approach, where actual values are investigated, the extent of family influence at different hierarchical levels as well as limitations to existing theories are examined. This thesis indicates that culture is a vital part of familiness that should be emphasised more. In order to capture familiness and to assimilate the family firm's unique characteristics, culture alignment appears to be of importance. As an organisation grows, it becomes harder for the family's core values to permeate the organisation, hence highlighting the aspects of culture alignment and unification of the organisation. This thesis contributes to the research field of family firms and familiness. Based on Spendrups it also presents a concrete case of how familiness is perceived throughout the organisation.


The monoclinic LiMn0.9Cr0.1O2 irreversibly transforms to spinel-like structure m-LiMnO2 during the electrochemical cycling. Experimental results indicated that the (440) interplanar distance of LixMn2O4 at the charged state increases as the cycle number increases, while the (440) interplanar distance of LixMn2O4 at the discharged state decreases as the cycle number increases.A model for the transformation of monoclinic LiMn0.9Cr0.1O2 to the spinel LiMn2O4 is suggested. According to the suggested model, there may exist two types of s-LixMn2O4 when m-LiMnO2 transforms into s-LixMn2O4. The two types of spinel LixMn2O4 develop the nanodomain.


In order to protect offshore installations and reduce the risk of accidents, which results in marine pollution, certain areas around offshore installations are designated as exclusion zones and precautionary areas. Article 60 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982 recognizes the right of coastal states to establish exclusion zones around offshore installations. These zones should extend to a distance not exceeding 500 m from each point of the outer edge of the installation. Also, Resolution A.671(16) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) (Safety Zones and Safety of Navigation around Offshore Installations and Structures) recommends that governments consider, amongst other things, the establishment of safety zones around offshore installations or structures as well as the establishment and charting of fairways or routing systems through exploration areas. In this regard, this study analyzes the effectiveness of the safety zones prescribed by law in protecting oil installations. It concludes that although UNCLOS 1982 does not stipulate the establishment of safety zones around offshore installations constructed in the territorial sea, the coastal state has a right to establish safety zones in such locations, and its radius may extend beyond 500 m if it is necessary to protect the offshore installation in the territorial sea.


Foot-pad dermatitis (FPD) is a widespread challenge to turkey production. This study aimed at evaluating the effects of using floor heating and exposure to litter with critical moisture content (35%) under experimental infection with Eimeria. adenoeides on the severity of FPD in turkeys. Two trials were done; in each trial, 4 groups of 2-wk-old female turkeys were reared over 4 wk. At the start of the experiment (d 14), each bird had normal foot pads. All birds were fed ad libitum on identical pelleted diets without any anticoccidial additive. The first 2 groups were kept on dry wood shavings with or without floor heating; the other 2 groups were housed on wet wood shavings of 35% moisture with or without floor heating. Two birds in each of the 4 groups were experimentally infected with E. adenoeides via crop intubation (~50,000 oocysts/bird). Foot pads were assessed weekly for external scoring and at d 42 of life for histopathological scoring. The number of oocysts eliminated via excreta was determined. In both trials, using floor heating resulted in significantly decreased FPD scores (2.06 ± 0.735; 1.47 ± 0.734, trials 1 and 2, respectively) compared with groups housed without floor heating (3.88 ± 0.812; 2.73 ± 1.25, trials 1 and 2, respectively). Birds continuously exposed to wet litter (35% moisture) showed significantly increased FPD scores (3.41 ± 1.23; 2.69 ± 1.34, trials 1 and 2, respectively) compared with the group not exposed to wet litter (2.53 ± 1.00; 1.53 ± 0.683, trials 1 and 2, respectively). The coccidial infection in both trials resulted in markedly lowered DM contents of excreta (14.8 and 15.1%, trials 1 and 2, respectively) and litter (58.0 and 57.6%, trials 1 and 2, respectively) in the groups exposed to wet litter without using floor heating. In both trials, using floor heating resulted in the highest mean DM content of litter (85.1 and 85.0%, trials 1 and 2, respectively) and the highest BW (2,693 and 2,559 g, trials 1 and 2, respectively). The results suggest that induced diarrhea caused by coccidial infection led to poor litter quality, and hence, increased the severity of FPD, which can be overcome by using floor heating.


Abstract Rice yield is reduced by a short period of water stress at the early panicle-development stage. This study was conducted to examine the factors that reduce the panicle dry weight of rice subjected to water stress and the alleviating effects of top dressing after the stress. Akihikari, Nipponbare and Akebono were grown in 4-L pots under submerged soil conditions. One half of the pots were subjected to the same degree of water stress during panicle development and the other half was grown without water stress. On the day after the stress treatment, chemical fertilizer was applied to one half of each water treatment. Panicle dry weight at maturity was decreased by water stress and the top dressing after the stress alleviated the decrease. The top dressing increased panicle dry weight under the two water treatments in all three cultivars. Increase of panicle dry weight was dependent on that of total dry weight from drainage to full heading, from full heading to maturity, and from drainage to maturity. Leaf area duration (LAD) and net assimilation rate (NAR) were responsible for changes in total dry weight. Effect of water stress was prominent before full heading, while that of top dressing after full heading. It was concluded that reduction of LAD and NAR may be involved in reduction of panicle dry weight by water stress at the early panicle-development stage, and that top dressing after the water stress may mitigate the effect of water stress on panicle dry weight through the improvement of LAD and NAR.


We used survey data collected from cotton producers in eleven U.S. states to address the issues of correlated events and individual heterogeneity in multiple precision technologies adoption. Results from a conditional frailty model indicated that younger, better educated cotton producer adopted precision technology quickly once those technologies were available. Further, farm size and farm income have positive influence on a chance of technology adoption by the cotton farmers. Moreover, the conditional frailty model addresses for both heterogeneity and event dependence allowing different baseline hazards for each group of precision technology adopters.


This paper introduces the comparison of altricial and precocial birds as a model system for the study of patterns of intestinal growth. It reports on comparative morphometric and cytokinetic studies of intestinal growth in altricial European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) and precocial Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica). Morphometric data at five gut segments of neonates and adults of both species are provided to evaluate the growth of the intestine. A double labelling technique combining 3H-thymidine autoradiography with 5-bromo-2'-deoxy-uridine immunohistochemistry gives labelling index, length of S-phase, and tissue turnover time for hatchlings and adults of both species. The results of morphometry show a similar pattern of intestinal growth in both species, a strong dependency of intestinal growth on body size, and a clear topographic separation of areas of cell proliferation from the functional mucosal epithelium. The results of the cytokinetic experiments indicate a constant length of the S-phase independent of species, development, and age. The 3H-thymidine labelling index is significantly higher in neonate quail than in neonate starling. Between adult animals of both species, the labelling index goes not differ significantly except for the duodenum which has a higher index in starling. The turnover time necessary to replace the mucosal epithelium is 3 days in hatchlings of both species and ranges between 10 and 17 days in adults. A diurnal pattern of cell proliferation, as previously reported in adult quail, is not present in neonate quail. Thus, differences in intestinal growth among altricial and precocial birds are primarily based on size differences of proliferation areas whilst cellular proliferation rates have only minor impact on intestinal growth. The short turnover time and the high rates of proliferation suggest that the intestine is a flexible organ that may be adjusted in size and function to the actual needs of the growing bird.


Affective computation allows machines to express and recognize emotions, a core component of computer games. A natural way to express emotion is language, through text and speech; computational methods that accurately recognize emotion in text and speech are therefore important. Machine learning techniques such as support vector machines (SVMs) have been used successfully for topic detection in documents and speech as well as for the identification of authors/speakers. SVMs have also been used for emotion detection in written and spoken communication, although with mixed success. An impediment to emotion extraction by use of support vector machines is that, after learning, it is not quite clear what has been learned. For instance, a gamer may acoustically respond to a character with fear and the SVMs that observe user behaviour confuse the sentiment (fear) with the character (e.g. an in-game persona). Successful emotion identification by support vector machines requires methods that ensure the recognition of sentiments without any confusion with certain topics or characters. This paper provides an introduction to affective computation and rule extraction from support vector machines, a set of techniques used for emotion recognition in text.


The conventional approach to construct quadratic elements for an n‐sided polygon will yield n(n+1)/2 shape functions, which increases the computational effort. It is well known that the serendipity elements based on isoparametric formulation suffers from mesh distortion. Floater and Lai proposed a systematic way to construct higher‐order approximations over arbitrary polygons using the generalized barycentric and triangular coordinates. This approach ensures 2n shape functions with nodes only on the boundary of the polygon. In this paper, we extend the polygonal splines approach to 3 dimensions and construct serendipity shape functions over hexahedra and convex polyhedra. This is done by expressing the shape functions using the barycentric coordinates and the local tetrahedral coordinates. The quadratic shape functions possess Kronecker delta property and satisfy constant, linear, and quadratic precision. The accuracy and the convergence properties of the quadratic serendipity shape elements are demonstrated with a series of standard patch tests. The numerical results show that the quadratic serendipity elements pass the patch test, yield optimal convergence rate, and can tolerate extreme mesh distortion.


The double melting behavior of a thermotropic liquid crystalline polyimide was studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarized light microscopy (PLM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD), and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). This liquid crystalline polyimide exhibited a normal melting peak around 278 °C and transformed into a smectic A phase. The smectic A phase changed to nematic phase upon heating to 298 °C, then became isotropic melt around 345 °C. The samples annealed or isothermally crystallized at lower temperature showed double melting endotherms during heating scan. The annealing-induced melting endotherm was highly dependent on annealing conditions, whereas the normal melting endotherm was almost not influenced by annealing when the annealing temperature was low. Various possibilities for the lower melting endotherm are discussed. The equilibrium melting points of both melting peaks were extrapolated to be 283.2 °C. Combined analytical results showed that the double melting peaks were from the melting of the two types of crystallites generated from two crystallization processes: a slow and a fast one. Fast crystallization may start from the well-aligned liquid crystal domains, whereas the slow one may be from the fringed or amorphous regions. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 3018–3031, 2000


Hal Gladfelder reconsiders the much-considered relation between early modern nonfictional representations of crime and the novel. His nonfictional accounts include newspaper reports, Old Bailey Sessions reports, dying speeches of malefactors about to be hanged, and popular criminal biographies. He focuses on two novelists, Daniel Defoe and Henry Fielding, both of whom also wrote nonfiction about crime. A third novelist, William Godwin, who addressed the problem of crime in his anarchist Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), comes in to frame the overall analysis. Some earlier writers have stressed the differences between, on the one hand, the nonfictional literature of crime, which they see as serving primarily to inculcate and reinforce ruling-class norms, and, on the other hand, fiction, which they see as critical of those norms.' Others have found the novel itself an ally of the police.2 Gladfelder, however, argues that both the nonfiction and the fiction are oppositional. He contends that both forms of writing "tend to legitimate, to project as desirable, the very disruptive potentialities they set out to contain."'


Forty years in, the War on Drugs has done almost nothing to prevent drugs from being sold or used, but it has nonetheless created a little-known surveillance state in America's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Arrest quotas and high-tech surveillance techniques criminalize entire blocks, and transform the very associations that should stabilize young lives-family, relationships, jobs - into liabilities, as the police use such relationships to track down suspects, demand information, and threaten consequences. Alice Goffman spent six years living in one such neighborhood in Philadelphia, and her close observations and often harrowing stories reveal the pernicious effects of this pervasive policing. Goffman introduces us to an unforgettable cast of young African American men who are caught up in this web of warrants and surveillance - some of them small-time drug dealers, others just ordinary guys dealing with limited choices. All find the web of presumed criminality, built as it is on the very associations and friendships that make up a life, nearly impossible to escape. We watch as the pleasures of summer - evening stoop-sitting are shattered by the arrival of a car full of cops looking to serve a warrant; we watch - and can't help but be shocked - as teenagers teach their younger siblings and cousins how to run from the police (and, crucially, to keep away from friends and family so they can stay hidden); and we see, over and over, the relentless toll that the presumption of criminality takes on families-and futures. While not denying the problems of the drug trade, and the violence that often accompanies it, through her gripping accounts of daily life in the forgotten neighborhoods of America's cities, Goffman makes it impossible for us to ignore the very real human costs of our failed response-the blighting of entire neighborhoods and the needless sacrifice of whole generations.


Mobile and wireless networks are the integrant infrastructure of mobile and pervasive computing that aims at providing transparent and preferred information and services for people anytime anywhere. In such environments, end-to-end network bandwidth is crucial to improve user's transparent experience when providing on-demand services such as mobile video playing. As a result, powerful computing power is required for networked nodes, especially for routers. General-purpose processors cannot meet such requirements due to their limited processing ability, and poor programmability and scalability. Intel's network processor IXP is specially designed for fast packet processing to achieve a broad bandwidth. IXP provides a large number of registers to reduce the number of memory accesses. Registers in an IXP are physically partitioned as two banks so that two source operands in an instruction have to come from the two banks respectively, which makes the IXP register allocation tricky and different from conventional ones. In this paper, we investigate an approach for efficiently generating balanced bipartite graph and register allocation algorithms for the dual-bank register allocation in IXPs. The paper presents a graph uniform 2-way partition algorithm (FPT), which provides an optimal solution to the graph partition, and a heuristic algorithm for generating balanced bipartite graph. Finally, we design a framework for IXP register allocation. Experimental results demonstrate the framework and the algorithms are efficient in register allocation for IXP network processors.


Two measures of nutritious snack selection were compared in order to judge the validity of a role-played measure of snack selection. Elementary school students were provided a free-time snack period before and after nutrition education instruction. For half of these snack periods, students selected and ate snacks. For the remaining periods, food models (pictures) were provided, and students were asked to select those snacks they would like to eat, if real. A Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient was calculated for snack and picture selections. None of these correlations was greater than .48, and most did not reach statistical significance. It was concluded that the model snack procedure was not a valid measure of nutritious snack selection. It was suggested that explicit tests of validity may be important for other role-played and analogue measures of behavior.


This study examined the assertion that, in spite of the twenty-first century rhetoric of equality in English education, class and values based prejudice in schools remains strong. It particularly explored how practitioners perceived different groups of students, students' self-reported attitudes to school, and whether or not the between-group differences perceived by practitioners reflected the self-reported views of students. Furthermore it examined whether practitioners' perceptions of students were linked to gender, SEN, ethnicity, academic ability, or economic, familial, and cultural capitals, and whether students with socio-economic status and cultural capital closest to that of practitioners were viewed more positively than other students. Finally, it questioned whether school practice widened the achievement and attitudinal gaps between different groups of students.

The study followed 156 students for their first four terms in secondary school. Student questionnaires were used to create group profiles for initial and post-first-year attitudes, academic self-concept; cultural capital, and socio-economic capital. Practitioner perceptions of students used teacher-awarded motivation grades, detention and behaviour logs, ability-group placements, and questionnaires with pastoral managers. Analytical procedures included factor analyses, comparisons of means, and a regression analysis.

The findings showed that practitioner-perceived group differences were much larger than the differences perceived by students. Practitioners perceived larger differences between English ability groups compared to Maths groups. Also, practitioners perceived girls and high cultural capital students as more motivated and in-tune with school values than others. Poorer male students, SEN students, and students with a single parent were perceived less positively than others. An elite group of students had more economic and cultural capital than others, and were viewed very positively by practitioners. There was a suggestion that non-white students were not viewed as positively as they should have been. The study suggested a need to further explore the situation of mixed-heritage children.

The study suggested that teachers as individuals, and schools as institutions, need to question whether they discriminate against poorer students and those with cultural capital different from their own. They also need to question whether they are gender stereotyping and ask if they are offering boys from disadvantaged backgrounds an appropriate curriculum delivered in an effective pedagogical style. The findings of this study had important policy implications for pedagogy, curriculum content, school organization, and equal opportunities. They suggested that some practices exacerbated pre-existing achievement and attitudinal gaps.


In the absence of a universal patent law with global jurisdiction , members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), have adopted and legislated national laws in their respective countries though some what different interpretations of the TRIPS Agreement. While the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) was the first attempt for a near harmonized system by accepting a common application, PCT has little use during the prosecution phase of patent applications. One of the important issues which have been differently interpreted is related to the patentability criteria and exceptions to patentability dealt with under Articles 27.2 and 27.3 of the TRIPS Agreement. Thus Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act has turned out to be a contentious issue, the resolution of which may have serious consequences on inventions related to pharmaceuticals. The Novartis case on the Gleevec patents is a case in point. While the Act provides for granting of patents even for known substances if substantial enhancement of activity vis-a-vis known activity is established, in practical terms several obstacles to a fair assessment of what is substantial has turned out to be difficult. The provision for pre-grant opposition in the Indian Patents Act has led to a large number of applications from patent groups, pharmaceutical companies and non-governmental organizations. These and related matters are discussed in detail in this paper.


This study presents the results of an evaluation of the root causes of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy to inform strategies to boost vaccine acceptance among vaccine-hesitant populations in the United States. The authors conducted a literature review of the causes of vaccine hesitancy and vaccine acceptance; focus groups with patients, pre-hospital first responders, and hospital-based health care providers; a social media platform sentiment analysis to review attitudes regarding the COVID-19 vaccine; and a roundtable discussion with experts on vaccine hesitancy. Drawing on this mixed-methods analysis, the authors recommend strategies to help boost COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the United States, grouping them according to three overall goals: boosting confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, combating complacency about the pandemic, and increasing the convenience of getting vaccinated. The authors emphasize that combating misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine is key to achieving these goals. These recommendations can inform the development of a toolkit of strategies to reach herd immunity and end the pandemic.


SiC Diodes in the 300 to 1200V range have steadily increased their market penetration in the last 7 years. Especially the 600V SiC diodes are a nearly mandatory device for further increase of power density in modern switch mode power supplies. Those devices entered the market from the high end side due to the still significant higher costs in comparison with conventional fast Si diodes. On the other hand, these high end markets like server or telecom power supplies also require very high reliability of the devices used. In previous papers we showed, that Merged-PN-Schottky (MPS) diodes can be designed for avalanche ruggedness [1,2]. In this paper we will describe, how this feature supports overall reliability improvement. Addditionally, we will show, how a conventional SiC Schottky diode without MPS structure can be modified in order to achieve stable avalanche breakdown in combination with strong reliability improvement.


Taxonomy is a key to life not only in providing guides to distinguishing species but in opening the door to knowledge about biodiversity. Names of species, as the only standardised measure of biodiversity, are essential for communication of information about nature. However, new knowledge means that what we understand each species to be may change over time. Online species databases are improving accessibility to this knowledge and expertise and provide an easy way to keep up to date with species nomenclature and classification. I propose three practical priorities for taxonomy: (1) complete a world list of all known species; (2) establish an online cooperative community infrastructure that updates species nomenclature and links it to associated literature, information and expertise; (3) create an internet portal as a key to life on Earth. The first is near completion in the Catalogue of Life. The second has an exemplar in the World Register of Marine Species. The third goal has not begun but some of its ingredients exist. This key to life should make it easy for anybody with internet access to accurately name, and discover unnamed, species, and learn about their natural history. Moreover, a "key to life" infrastructure suitably supported by the community and science organisations, could be a focal point for a world taxonomic society and a taxonomy based mega-science initiative to understand life on Earth.


Allergy is an exacerbated response of the immune system against non-self-proteins called allergens and is typically characterized by biased type-2 T helper cell and deleterious IgE mediated immune responses. The allergic cascade starts with the recognition of allergens by antigen presenting cells, mainly dendritic cells (DCs), leading to Th2 polarization, switching to IgE production by B cells, culminating in mast cell sensitization and triggering. DCs have been demonstrated to play a crucial role in orchestrating allergic diseases. Using different C-type lectin receptors DCs are able to recognize and internalize a number of allergens from diverse sources leading to sensitization. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence highlighting the role of epithelial cells in triggering and modulating immune responses to allergens. As well as providing a physical barrier, epithelial cells can interact with allergens and influence DCs behavior through the release of a number of Th2 promoting cytokines. In this review we will summarize current understanding of how allergens are recognized by DCs and epithelial cells and what are the consequences of such interaction in the context of allergic sensitization and downstream events leading to allergic inflammation. Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of allergen recognition and associated signaling pathways could enable developing more effective therapeutic strategies that target the initial steps of allergic sensitization hence hindering development or progression of allergic diseases.