Some patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) react abnormally to a number of cutaneous viral infections. Herpes simplex, for example can become widely disseminated with severe systemic symptoms. This susceptibility of AD patients may be due, at least in part, to deficient natural killer cell function. This study investigated the NK cell activity of AD patients using a standard four hour chromium release assay with the erythroleukaemic cell line K562 as the target cell. The NK cell activity of patients with AD was significantly reduced as compared with normal age and sex matched controls. The effect of the length of incubation time of the assay, removal of phagocytic/adherent cells and the use of target cells other than K562 on the standard four hour assay were examined. Increasing the incubation time from 4 to I8 hours and removing phagocytic/adherent cells resulted in an increase in NK cell activity, though the difference in response between patients and controls was maintained. In contrast the overall NK cell activity was reduced when target cells other then K562 were used, although the NK cell activity of the controls remained consistently higher than the patients. Atopic dermatitis is a chronic relapsing disorder and to determine whether or not NK cell activity fluctuated with disease xxiii severity NK cell activity was examined sequentially over a 12 month period in a group of patients. An inverse correlation was found between disease severity and NK cell activeity, ie. the more severe the disease the lower the NK cell activity. A strong correlation was also confirmed between clinical activity of the disease and IgE level. The reduction in NK cell activity in AD could result from either a qualitative abnormality, ie. normal numbers of effector cells with abnormal function, or a quantitative abnormality, ie. reduced numbers of effector cells. Effector cell numbers were counted using two monoclonal antibodies, HNK-1 (Leu) and Leu-11. Numbers were then correlated with function, as measTored by chromium release. Using HNK-l it appeared there was a reduction in the numbers of effector cells and this correlated v;ith the reduced activity. HNK-1 does not however, stain all NK effector cells. Using Leu-llb, which is a more specific reagent, showed normal numbers of effector cells are present in the peripheral circulation of patients as compared with controls. The reduced NK cell activity in atopic dermatitis was therefore thought to be due to a functional abnormality in the effector cell's lytic cycle. The reduction of NK cell activity could be caused by inhibitors in the serum of patients with AD. This was investigated by incubating effector cells from both AD patients, and normal controls in medium supplemented with either serum from patients with AD, normal controls or foetal calf serum (PCS). The M cell activity was estimated following either a normal four hour assay, an extended 18 hour assay or a standard four hour assay following an 18 hour preincubation in the supplemented media. Using these three protocols no significant increase was observed in the patient's effector cell activity following incubation in medium supplemented with control serum nor was there a significant decrease in control effector cell activity following incubation in medium supplemented with patients' serum. The results of this study suggest that reduced NK cell activity in AD may be related to the treatment of the disease rather than the disease itself. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


Apparent metastability of the electroweak vacuum poses a number of cosmological questions. These concern evolution of the Higgs field to the current vacuum, and its stability during and after inflation. Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity interactions can make a crucial impact on these considerations potentially solving the problems. In this work, we allow for these couplings to be present simultaneously and study their interplay. We find that different combinations of the Higgs-inflaton and non-minimal Higgs-gravity couplings induce effective Higgs mass during and after inflation. This crucially affects the Higgs stability considerations during preheating. In particular, a wide range of the couplings leading to stable solutions becomes allowed.


"other" group must suggest secretory otitis ("glue ear") under treatment; that is, an active disease. 3. The most important effect of ear'disease, of course, is significant hearing impairment, and therefore the lack of an accompanying assessment of hearing in this survey must be regarded seriously. Without such a survey it is impossible to accept such statements as: "In addition, there are no doubt many people with no otoscopic abnormality who have hearing loss". Besides this, it is quite possible that a number of adults who had abnormal tympanic membrane appearances could have had adequate hearing. 4. The statement that otitis media "occurs more frequently and lasts longer in Aboriginals" adds nothing to already available information as reference to the Journal over the years' 3 4 and to other reports published in this country" e 7 would show. The figures indicating the incidence of ear disease may be unduly optimistic when compared with earlier fiqures" 7 unless the incidence of disease has indeed diminished over the last 10 years, which I do not believe is the case. 5. The references quoted above should dispel any ideas that Professor Hollows and his team are the only ones concerned about and with "ear disease in rural Australia". Such work is being continued by otological colleagues in all States in which a significant number of Aboriginals live. Mostly the work continues with minimal financial support and, in some cases, on an entirely honorary basis. In addition, since the article in question appeared, the Australian Deafness Council and the Otolaryngological Society of Australia have joined forces to conduct a two-day seminar on otitis media in Aboriginals at which all current knowledge on this major public health problem in Australia was pooled, and indications were given that efforts in this field will be redoubled.


CONTEXT.—
Renal malignancies can be divided into cortical- and medullary-based tumors, the latter of which classically infiltrate the renal parenchyma by extending between nonneoplastic structures. Although high-grade cortical tumors can rarely exhibit the same growth pattern, the infiltrative morphology should elicit a differential diagnosis to be considered in each case. However, these diagnoses can be challenging to distinguish, especially on small renal biopsy samples.

OBJECTIVE.—
To provide an overview of the clinical, gross, and microscopic findings; genetic and molecular alterations; and immunohistochemical evaluation of medullary-based renal tumors and other tumor types with overlapping morphologies and growth patterns.

DATA SOURCES.—
Literature review and personal observations were used to compile the information in this review.

CONCLUSIONS.—
Collecting duct carcinoma is a prototypical medullary-based tumor, and although diagnostic criteria exist, it remains a diagnosis of exclusion, especially with ancillary techniques aiding the recognition of established as well as more recently described neoplasms. Other medullary-based malignancies included in the differential diagnosis include renal medullary carcinoma/renal cell carcinoma unclassified with medullary phenotype, fumarate hydratase-deficient renal cell carcinoma, and upper tract urothelial carcinoma. Moreover, other rare entities should be excluded, including metastatic carcinoma, lymphoma, and melanoma. In addition to potential prognostic differences, accurate diagnoses can have important surgical and clinical management implications.


Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most widespread mental disorders among children and adolescents. Studies have shown respective results for Germany as well as for Saudi-Arabia. Many of the young people who are affected by ADHD tend to experience a certain rejection in their families and especially in school. Due to their short concentration span and increased urge to move, they often have difficulties to follow classes. Eventually this can lead to discrimination and negative influences on their education and career. In order to ensure a successful school and family life, adults who work or live with children suffering from ADHD need to have some fundamental knowledge about the disorder.

For this theses, a quantitative empirical study was carried out, surveying parents' and teachers' knowledge about ADHD. Teachers and parents of Arabic origin living in Germany (N=146) were compared with teachers and parents in Saudi-Arabia (N=232). As a general result of the research, knowledge levels were found to be very low in both countries and in both groups. There is some basic knowledge on symptoms and diagnostics of ADHD. However, there are many incorrect assumptions about causes and treatment. Another variable that was taken into consideration was the effect of personal experience with children affected by ADHD. Surprisingly, teachers who had taught children with ADHD or parents of an ADHD-child were not necessarily better informed about the disorder than other adults.

The intercultural approach not only allowed for a comparative examination of knowledge levels in both countries but also made it possible to include further aspects of interest such as the migration situation of Arabic parents in Germany. A smaller part of the research based on the Critical Incidents Technique added some important leads to the quantitative study. For example, it became clear that opportunities to find information on ADHD vary strongly between the two countries. It is necessary to provide schools as well as families with much more scientifically substantiated material on ADHD than what is currently available. To spread sufficient information that is understandable for the respective target group is an urgent task. The well-being of children suffering from ADHD depends on it.


ABSTRACT The reality that teachers in developing countries teach large, and even overcrowded classes, is daunting and one that may not go away any time soon. Class size in Kenyan public secondary schools is generally 40–59 students per class. This article reports initial findings on teachers' and principals' perspectives related to large classes. We used questionnaires, interviews and classroom observation data to examine teachers' and principals' perspectives regarding their capacities to teach and manage large classes; what challenges large class sizes present; and what additional supports teachers and principals perceive to be necessary. Both teachers and principals reported that the current class size has a negative impact on teaching and learning. Additionally, both teachers and principals cited a need for more support in the form of (a) professional development; (b) workload reduction; and (c) increased resources. These areas of support could help to mediate the effects of large class size, including an almost sole reliance on lecturing with little teacher-to-student and studentto-student interaction.


This article strives to set in motion comprehensive research on the ways in which Arabic is evolving in Arabic blogs and computer mediated communication (CMC). By combining media studies, sociolinguistics and literature it examines code choice, content and mode of representation in five top ranked Egyptian blogs. We distinguish between MSA, ECA and mixed varieties and establish that all three codes may be employed. We argue that bloggers make deliberate choices regarding code, and that code-switching in CMC may function as frames for familiarizing or officialdom. We conclude that bloggers with an activist agenda tend to use ECA and a mixed variety, and educational blogs tend to use MSA and a mixed variety. Both activist and educational bloggers may employ a Bakhtinian carnivalesque mode of representation.


Investigations of the course disaccharidases take in duodenum and pancreas were made with 20 suckling lambs (straw litter, supplementary feed from 3rd week onwards) at an age between 1 and 30 days. In the first week of the Lambs' lives the activity of lactase in the duodenal mucosa was highest. In the following weeks there was a slightly falling tendency. During the first four weeks of the lambs' lives there were no statistically significant differences concerning the maltase activities in the duodenal mucosa. At the beginning of the first and at the end of the fourth week of the lambs' lives the activity of lactase in the content of the duodenum was significantly lower than at the end of the first and up to the third week. The maltase in the contents of the duodenum showed a significantly higher activity at the end of the fourth week of life. Enzyme activities in the contents of the duodenum were significantly lower then those in the mucosa. After maltase activity in the pancreas had shown high values in the first two days of life, it decreased distinctly toward the end of the first week and than increased again up to the fourth week of life. In the period investigated, saccharase activity in the duodenal mucosa and in the contents of the duodenum could not be detected in any lamb.


Expanding on an approach developed by financial economist Hyman Minsky, the authors of this new working paper present an alternative to the standard "efficient markets hypothesis"--the relevance of which Minsky vehemently denied. Minsky recognized that, in a modern capitalist economy with complex, expensive, and long-lived assets, the method used to finance asset positions is of critical importance, both for theory and for real-world outcomes—one reason his alternate approach has been embraced by Post Keynesian economists and Wall Street practitioners alike. Coauthors L. Randall Wray and Eric Tymoigne argue that the current financial crisis, which began with the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market in 2007, provides a compelling reason to show how Minsky's approach offers us a solid grounding in the workings of financial capitalism. They examine Minsky's extension to Keynes's investment theory of the business cycle, which allowed Minsky to analyze the evolution, over time, of the modern capitalist economy toward fragility--what is well known as his financial instability hypothesis. They then update Minsky's approach to finance with a more detailed examination of asset pricing and the evolution of the banking sector, and conclude with a brief review of the insights that such an approach can provide for analysis of the current global financial crisis.


Nanoindentation tests on a folded chain crystal of polyethylene are implemented with the molecular dynamics simulation. The orthorhombic crystal is made of the planar zig-zag chains and has the thickness of about 10nm. The ideal Berkovich indenter is plunged into upper surface of the crystal down to 2nm with the constant loading rate of 200m/s or 2000m/s. After the holding time of 1000fs at the maximum depth, the indenter is then pulled up with the same speed. The results are summarized as follows; a) The indentation of 2000m/s remains the residual depression while that of 200m/s recovers the hollow, b) No elastic component is found in the deformation under the both rate of 200m/s and 2000m/s, c) The crystal deforms statically under the indentation of 200m/s while that of 2000m/s shows delayed response.


Angiogenesis or the development of blood vessels and oxidation or the radical transformation of cellular substances are two key processes that contribute to cancer progression. This study evaluated the antiangiogenic and antioxidant properties of different concentrations of calamansi (Citrusmicrocarpa)ethanolic peel extract. Preliminary quantification of active compound phenolic acid in 1 ml of 0.1% extract solution revealed 0.005% phenolic acid content. By chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay of 11-day duck embryo, 0.10 g/ ml to 0.30 g/ml extract revealed significantly lower numbers of blood vessels compared to the untreated control (p<0.05), in a concentration-dependent fashion, demonstrating antiangiogenic property of the extract. On the other hand, by 1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, 0.10% to 0.50% extract concentrations were tested against DPPH radical using ascorbic acid as positive control. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed significantly stronger inhibition of DPPH radical by the extract than by ascorbic acid (p < .05), demonstrating more powerful antioxidant property of the extract than ascorbic acid. Hence, the study proved that C. microcarpa peel extract exhibits both antiangiogenic and antioxidant properties. Development of anti-cancer therapy envisaged, antiangiogenic and antioxidant bioassays of the extract using tumor-positive animal models are recommended. Keywords:  Pharmacology, antiangiogenic, antioxidant, CAM Assay, DPPH Assay, Citrus microcarpa, Philippines


Numerous studies and researchers argue the concept and value of entrepreneurial orientation concerning a sustainable approach. It helps to provide different conceptual values and benefits in terms of employment opportunities. The given paper has the primary aim is to understand the impact of effective orientation, social mission orientation and self-efficacy orientation on the social performance of the pharmaceutical industry of Thailand, while with the help of sustainability orientation as a mediating role. For this purpose, the data has been collected from Traditional pharmaceutical communities with the help of the survey questionnaire. The designed questionnaire distributed among 300 respondents, from whom 169 were female and 131 were male. The response rate of the respondents was 100%. Moreover, under the analysis portion, the various analysis techniques are used such as rotated component matrix, KMO, SEM, bartlett's test and CFA. These various analysis techniques are used to analyze the fitness of the model as well as acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis. Finally, the tables and figures indicate that social mission and self-efficacy have a positive impact on the social performance of the companies. At the same time, effective orientation has an insignificant impact on social performance with the presence of sustainability orientation. In the end, various limitations are recognized and recommendations are given for future studies.


One or both uterine horns were removed on postpartum day 6 day 1=parturition in pseudopregnant gerbils. On dy 16, the corpora lutea (C) in unilaterally hysterectomized gerbils were smaller (P less than 0.05) in the ovary adjacent to an intact horn than in the ovary adjacent to a removed horn. The cL were smaller in uterine-intact than in completely hysterectomized gerbils. I n another experiment, the cl were smaller (P less than 0.05) in pseudopregnant gerbils given a single intrauterine injection of a 30- or 20-mug dose of prostaglandin F2alpha) (PGFalpha) on postpartum day 6 and theen necropsied on day 10 than in gerbils given 10-, 5-, 1-, and 0-mug doses; CL were smaller (P less than 0.05) on the side ipsilateral to the treated horn than on the opposite side, although the interaction of dose and side was not significant...


Facing constant pressures to grow, established firms increasingly harness external innovation by collaborating with and eventually acquiring startups. To succeed in their exit through acquisition, startup firms and incumbents have to master three steps (the "3 Cs") that enhance the co-specialization with the acquirer: establishing the Complementarity of offerings, generating Customer endorsement, and attracting an acquirer executive Champion. Drawing on a multiple-case, inductive study of seven Israeli startup acquisitions completed by two acquirers from the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, this article illustrates the different approaches pursued by the startup firms and their acquirers to succeed in managing pre- and post-acquisition processes.


Although not always given the necessary attention, architectural detailingis of extreme importance for many aspects of a building. It can defineits theoretical expression, production processes and sustainability issues.The objective of this paper is to discuss the changes in the practice ofarchitectural detailing with the recent introduction of new technologiesin the design and construction processes, such as digital modeling, rapidprototyping and digital fabrication, based on a review of the literature on thesubject. The paper starts with a summary of architectural detailing conceptsand theories from three different points of view: the design studio, buildingtechnology and theory and criticism. Next, some recent projects that usedigital fabrication are described, with a focus on detailing issues. Finally,conclusions are drawn about what is changing in architectural detailing,what abilities are now needed, and how they can be incorporated inarchitectural education.


Charge carrier dynamics in organolead iodide perovskites is analyzed by employing time‐resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy with several ps time resolution. The measurements performed by varying photoexcitation intensity over five orders of magnitude enable separation of photoluminescence components related to geminate and nongeminate charge carrier recombination and to address the dynamics of an isolated geminate electron–hole pair. Geminate recombination dominates at low excitation fluence and determines the initial photoluminescence decay. This decay component is remarkably independent of the material structure and experimental conditions. It is demonstrated that dependences of the geminate and nongeminate radiative recombination components on excitation intensity, repetition rate, and temperature, are hardly compatible with carrier trapping and exciton dissociation models. On the basis of semiclassical and quantum mechanical numerical calculation results, it is argued that the fast photoluminescence decay originates from gradual spatial separation of photogenerated weakly bound geminate charge pairs.


Cosmic ray (CR) spectra, both measured upon their arrival at the Earth
atmosphere and inferred from the emission in supernova remnants (SNR), appear to be significantly
steeper than the "standard" diffusive shock acceleration (DSA)
theory predicts. Although the CR spectra steepen due to propagation losses, this steepening falls short to explain the data. We investigate whether the variable acceleration conditions on the SNR shock
suffice to produce the necessary extra steepening. To this end, we perform two-dimensional hybrid simulations of a shock propagating into a SNR shock environment where the magnetic field
inclination to the shock front varies. The rationale behind this approach
is the strong dependence of the DSA efficiency upon the field angle.
We find that the variation of shock obliquity along its face results in a noticeable
steepening of the DSA spectrum: as compared to simulations of quasi-parallel shocks,
we observe an increase of the spectral index by $\Delta q = 0.1-0.15$.


Calcium phosphate glass (CPG) is well-documented alloplastic bone graft material. The objective of this study was to evaluate the osteoconductive effect of newly developed calcium phosphate glass cement (CPGC) in rabbit calvarial defects. Three circular defects (8 mm diameter) were created on the rabbit calvarium. One defect was filled with biphasic calcium phosphate (BCP group) and one defect was filled with CPGC (CPGC group). The remaining defect was not filled as the control. Histologic and histometric analysis were performed at four and eight weeks following the implantation of materials. One-way ANOVA method was used to evaluated the significance between three groups (p < 0.05). The CPGC group did not show a statistical difference in new bone area compared with the control at all healing periods, but the bone formation rate of CPGC seemed to increase between four and eight weeks. This suggests the bone formation rate of CPGC is initially slow, but increases at a specific time, showing the possibility of greater bone formation with time. The resorption rate of CPGC was greater than BCP. Within the limits of this study, CPGC demonstrated good space maintaining capacity and had an osteoconductive effect, suggesting it could be successfully used to improve bone formation capacity.


The classification of football techniques can not only exert positive effect on the development of football, but also reflect the current football development level. This paper firstly studies the history of football by combining the exploration of Chinese football techniques classification and evaluations on them with the history of Chinese football techniques classification theories. Secondly, this paper gives a specific discussion on the development of Chinese football techniques classification theories by finding out the deficiencies so as to provide strong support for the fast football development in China. Thirdly, in the study, the author tried to find out the reasons for the monotonousness and one-sidedness of football techniques classification in China by deeply discussing the deficiencies so as to provide theoretical support for the improvement of theory system. Fourthly, comparative analysis of football technique concepts was carried out so as to merge the practical application effect and technical capacity with the classification theory system, thus enriched the study on classification theory. Finally, this paper improves the football technique classification theory by studying the fundamental skills and special skills in football.


Formation and repair of platinum (Pt)‐induced DNA adducts is a critical step in Pt drug‐mediated cytotoxicity. Measurement of Pt–DNA adduct kinetics in tumors may be useful for better understanding chemoresistance and therapeutic response. However, this concept has yet to be rigorously tested because of technical challenges in measuring the adducts at low concentrations and consistent access to sufficient tumor biopsy material. Ultrasensitive accelerator mass spectrometry was used to detect [14C]carboplatin–DNA monoadducts at the attomole level, which are the precursors to Pt–DNA crosslink formation, in six cancer cell lines as a proof‐of‐concept. The most resistant cells had the lowest monoadduct levels at all time points over 24 hr. [14C]Carboplatin "microdoses" (1/100th the pharmacologically effective concentration) had nearly identical adduct formation and repair kinetics compared to therapeutically relevant doses, suggesting that the microdosing approach can potentially be used to determine the pharmacological effects of therapeutic treatment. Some of the possible chemoresistance mechanisms were also studied, such as drug uptake/efflux, intracellular inactivation and DNA repair in selected cell lines. Intracellular inactivation and efficient DNA repair each contributed significantly to the suppression of DNA monoadduct formation in the most resistant cell line compared to the most sensitive cell line studied (p < 0.001). Nucleotide excision repair (NER)‐deficient and ‐proficient cells showed substantial differences in carboplatin monoadduct concentrations over 24 hr that likely contributed to chemoresistance. The data support the utility of carboplatin microdosing as a translatable approach for defining carboplatin–DNA monoadduct formation and repair, possibly by NER, which may be useful for characterizing chemoresistance in vivo.


Abstract—Electricity market activities and a growing demand for electricity have led to heavily stressed power systems. This requires operation of the networks closer to their stability limits. Power system operation is affected by stability related problems, leading to unpredictable system behavior. Voltage stability refers to the ability of a power system to sustain appropriate voltage levels through large and small disturbances. Steady-state voltage stability is concerned with limits on the existence of steady-state operating points for the network. FACTS devices can be utilized to increase the transmission capacity, the stability margin and dynamic behavior or serve to ensure improved power quality. Their main capabilities are reactive power compensation, voltage control and power flow control. Among the FACTS controllers, Static Var Compensator (SVC) provides fast acting dynamic reactive compensation for voltage support during contingency events. In this paper, voltage stability assessment with appropriate representations of tap-changer transformers and SVC is investigated. Integrating both of these devices is the main topic of this paper. Effect of the presence of tap-changing transformers on static VAR compensator controller parameters and ratings necessary to stabilize load voltages at certain values are highlighted. The interrelation between transformer off nominal tap ratios and the SVC controller gains and droop slopes and the SVC rating are found. P-V curves are constructed to calculate loadability margins.


Effective cerebral protection remains the principle concern during aortic arch surgery. Hypothermic circulatory arrest (HCA) is entrenched as the primary neuroprotection mechanism since the 70s, as it slows injury-inducing pathways by limiting cerebral metabolism. However, increases in HCA duration has been associated with poorer neurological outcomes, necessitating the adjunctive use of antegrade (ACP) and retrograde cerebral perfusion (RCP). ACP has superseded RCP as the preferred perfusion strategy as it most closely mimic physiological perfusion, although there exists uncertainty regarding several technical details, such as unilateral versus bilateral perfusion, flow rate and temperature, perfusion site, undue trauma to head vessels, and risks of embolization. Nevertheless, we believe that the convenience, simplicity and effectiveness of straight DHCA justifies its use in the majority of elective and emergency cases. The following perspective offers a historical and clinical comparison of the DHCA with other techniques of cerebral protection.


Roundup Ready Flex cotton was introduced commercially in 2006. Although research is available documenting Roundup Ready cotton tolerance to glyphosate, little to no data exists regarding the effect of glyphosate application on fruit partitioning in Roundup Ready Flex cotton. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effect of glyphosate application on fruit partitioning in Roundup Ready Flex cotton varieties. Five experiments were conducted at three locations throughout Mississippi in 2004 and 2005. Varieties chosen for the study were DP 117 B2RF, DP 143 B2RF, ST 4554 B2RF, and ST 6611 B2RF. Variety selection was based upon differing relative maturity among the varieties. Glyphosate was applied at a labeled rate (0.84 kg ae/ha), to all varieties, four separate times throughout the growing season. Data were collected using box mapping, a technique designed to depict yield partitioning on a cotton plant. These data indicate that yield partitioning was different among varieties but was unaffected by glyphosate application for any variety. Lower percent seed cotton partitioned to lower nodes was observed for the DP 143 B2RF and ST 6611 B2RF varieties compared to DP 117 B2RF and ST 4554 B2RF. However, DP 143 B2RF and ST 6611 B2RF partitioned more seed cotton to higher nodes, starting with node 12, compared to DP 117 B2RF and ST 4554 B2RF. These data indicate that the four varieties evaluated exhibited excellent tolerance to multiple glyphosate applications with no significant differences with respect to yield. Additionally, glyphosate application had no impact on seedcotton partitioning in Roundup Ready Flex cotton. B


This paper explores the way information security awareness connects to the overall information security management framework it serves. To date, the formulation of security awareness initiatives has tended to ignore the important relationship with the overall security management context, and vice versa. In this paper we show that the two processes can be aligned so as to ensure that awareness activities serve the security management strategy and that security management exploits the benefits of an effective awareness effort. To do so, we analyze the processes of security awareness and security management using a process analysis framework and we explore their interactions. The identification of these interactions results in making us able to place awareness in a security management framework instead of viewing it as an isolated security mechanism.


We review seven certification systems for verifying carbon trading from forestry and other land uses, and evaluate evidence of their effectiveness in generating social and environmental co-benefits. Published research on non-carbon co-benefits was located by searching the three principal bibliographic databases in this area of science: CABI, ISI Web of Science Core Collection and SCOPUS. We included studies published in English from 2000 to 2016. Our searches yielded 679 studies after duplicates were removed. Of these 11 studies presented relevant results from projects that had been certified by one of the carbon certification standards. Although there is some evidence of positive impacts related to land use governance, local livelihoods and non-carbon ecosystem services, there were studies reporting negative aspects of carbon certification. Overall the evidence-base is very limited and there is a real need for more research on the social and environmental impacts of carbon certification standards.


Abstract: Sida [sect. Nelavaga] subsect. Conglomerata is described as a new subsection of the genus, including eight species from South America. Two of the eight are newly described: Sida calva and S. florulenta. The group is characterized by having flowers and fruits borne in axillary glomerules.


Abstract Understanding the relations between entities denoted by NPs in a text is a critical part of human-like natural language understanding. However, only a fraction of such relations is covered by standard NLP tasks and benchmarks nowadays. In this work, we propose a novel task termed text-based NP enrichment (TNE), in which we aim to enrich each NP in a text with all the preposition-mediated relations—either explicit or implicit—that hold between it and other NPs in the text. The relations are represented as triplets, each denoted by two NPs related via a preposition. Humans recover such relations seamlessly, while current state-of-the-art models struggle with them due to the implicit nature of the problem. We build the first large-scale dataset for the problem, provide the formal framing and scope of annotation, analyze the data, and report the results of fine-tuned language models on the task, demonstrating the challenge it poses to current technology. A webpage with a data-exploration UI, a demo, and links to the code, models, and leaderboard, to foster further research into this challenging problem can be found at: yanaiela.github.io/TNE/.


The present study investigates the influence of academic stress on student's academic performance among university students. The objectives of this study is to find out the influence of academic stress on academic performance of university level students and to compare the academic stress in terms of their gender and schools i.e. School of Engineering (SOE), School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) and School of Sciences (SOS). A total of 120 University students were selected by random sampling technique from Tezpur University,India. Descriptive survey method was adopted in the study. The tool used in this study was Academic Stress Scale constructed by Rajendran & Kaliappan (1990). Academic performance t was measured using student's semester exams results. To find out the correlation between academic stress and academic performance Pearson product-moment correlation method was used and the result shows positive correlation. Further, it was also found that stress and academic achievement has no significant gender difference. The result also shows that there is no significant difference in academic stress among university level students in respect to their school.


PCK needs strategies in order to ensure that resources are allocated in the most effective way. The firm is operating in a highly turbulent and competitive business environment and achieving superior performance relative to rivals is its ultimate challenge. This has necessitated it to formulate and adopt strategies that should result in superior performance for the firm and ensure survival in an environment that is constantly changing due to different competitive factors. The liberalization of the Postal market has introduced new competition in the postal business that goes beyond the Kenyan boundaries and the days when PCK could simply wait for clients to find their way to its outlets are long gone. PCK should realise that its products no matter how good they are, simply do not sell themselves Kotler (2000). Therefore, PCK has had to focus on its capabilities and core competencies in order to achieve competitive advantage. Various strategies have been adopted by PCK for survival and growth. The objectives of the study were to establish I the strategies adopted by the Postal Corporation of Kenya and whether those strategies have enabled the organization to achieve competitive advantage. In addition, the research was to look at the challenges faced by the organization and the opportunities that it can exploit. The research was a case study. The research was conducted at PCK headquarters and targeted 15 respondents who are on managerial level. Data was collected using an interview guide and was analysed using content analysis. The study found that PCK has adopted strategies such as diversification, automation, formation of strategic alliances, innovation, human resources capacity development, use of PCK outlets to provide logistical solutions and marketing for survival and growth although it still faces challenges in the implementation of those strategies. The limitations of the study were found to be unwillingness by the respondents to disclose the strategies adopted by PCK and time constraints. The ,study therefore recommends further research on the strategies adopted by private operators in the postal sector.


Since hydraulic hybrid vehicles are power dense and do not require costly batteries, they have the potential to achieve high fuel economy and performance and at low cost. The three main classes of hydraulic hybrid architectures are series, parallel and hydro-mechanical (HMT) or power-split. These architectures have intrinsic differences in transmission efficiencies and effectiveness in engine management. This paper compares the fuel economies and performance of these architectures and validates these features. Using a Toyota Prius like engine and chassis as common factors, fuel economies are compared for the "optimal" design for each architecture which considers both the physical designs and the engine/energy management. Physical design variables include pump/motor sizes and gear ratios. The effect of pump/motors efficiencies, extra gears and different engine efficiency maps are also studied. To improve computational efficiency in evaluating fuel economy, engine operation is restricted to several operating modes and the accumulator pressure is assumed to be constant. These simplifications enable the Lagrange multiplier method to be employed so as to quickly determine the optimal engine management control and the resulting fuel economy for each design iteration. Full optimal control computations without the simplifying assumptions for the optimized design for each architecture (using dynamic programming) verify that, despite these simplification, the estimated fuel economies are close. It is shown that hybrid HMT offers the best fuel economy for various hydraulic efficiencies, followed by parallel and series architectures. However, the difference between HMT and parallel architectures diminishes if the engine has a wide efficient speed range of operation. It is also shown that an extra mechanical gear ratio can significantly increase fuel economy for all three architectures.


We show that discrete synaptic weights can be efficiently used for learning in large scale neural systems, and lead to unanticipated computational performance. We focus on the representative case of learning random patterns with binary synapses in single layer networks. The standard statistical analysis shows that this problem is exponentially dominated by isolated solutions that are extremely hard to find algorithmically. Here, we introduce a novel method that allows us to find analytical evidence for the existence of subdominant and extremely dense regions of solutions. Numerical experiments confirm these findings. We also show that the dense regions are surprisingly accessible by simple learning protocols, and that these synaptic configurations are robust to perturbations and generalize better than typical solutions. These outcomes extend to synapses with multiple states and to deeper neural architectures. The large deviation measure also suggests how to design novel algorithmic schemes for optimization based on local entropy maximization.


Four novel coordination networks based on N-donor ligand, [Zn(L)Cl]n (1), [Cd2(L)Cl3]n (2), [Zn(L)2(H2O)2]n (3), and [Cd(L)2(H2O)2]n (4) (HL = 5-(4-(1,2,4)triazol-1-yl-phenyl-1H-tetrazole) were synthesized and structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), infrared spectrophotometry (IR), and elemental analysis. The structure of 1 displays a two-dimensional (2D) structure with (6, 3) topology, which extends to a three-dimensional (3D) supramolecular network by C–H⋯Cl weak interactions, compound 2 can be described as a 3D 5,9-connected network based on the assembly of binuclear cadmium clusters and L ligands. Ligand in 3 and 4 is synthesized in situ, the complexes are isostructural and possess one-dimensional (1D) double chains, which further connect by O–H⋯N weak interactions to form 2D supramolecules. The configurations of 1–4 span from 1D, 2D to 3D network, which indicates that metal ions, counterions and weak interactions play important roles in the formation of the coordination polymers. Furthermore, all compounds exhibit high sensitivity sensing responses to nitroaromatic explosives.


This article presents the quality assurance system established in the NDT Laboratories of the Middle East Technical University - Welding Technology and NDT Centre in Ankara, Turkey. The quality assurance system is based on the requirements of EN 45001: 'General criteria for the operation of testing laboratories'. In 1995 the quality system activities began, and these NDT laboratories were audited and accredited as a testing laboratory by DAR-Germany in November 1996.


The potential of machine learning to automate and control nonlinear, complex systems is well established. These same techniques have always presented potential for use in the investment arena, specifically for the managing of equity portfolios. In this paper, the opportunity for such exploitation is investigated through analysis of potential simple trading strategies that can then be meshed together for the machine learning system to switch between. It is the eligibility of these strategies that is being investigated in this paper, rather than application. In order to accomplish this, the underlying assumptions of each trading system are explored, and data is created in order to evaluate the efficacy of these systems when trading on data with the underlying patterns that they expect. The strategies are tested against a buy-and-hold strategy to determine if the act of trading has actually produced any worthwhile results, or are simply facets of the underlying prices. These results are then used to produce targeted returns based upon either a desired return or a desired risk, as both are required within the portfolio-management industry. Results show a very viable opportunity for exploitation within the aforementioned industry, with the Strategies performing well within their narrow assumptions, and the intelligent system combining them to perform without assumptions.


High-resolution structural information on membrane proteins is essential for understanding cell biology and for the structure-based design of new medical drugs and drug delivery strategies. X-ray diffraction (XRD) can provide angstrom-level information about the structure of membrane proteins, yet for XRD experiments, proteins are removed from their native membrane environment, chemically stabilized, and crystallized, all of which can compromise the conformation. Here, we describe how a combination of surface-sensitive vibrational spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations can account for the native membrane environment. We observe the structure of a glycerol facilitator channel (GlpF), an aquaporin membrane channel finely tuned to selectively transport water and glycerol molecules across the membrane barrier. We find subtle but significant differences between the XRD structure and the inferred in situ structure of GlpF.


MR SHEWRING has succeeded in giving within these narrow limits a comprehensive theory of art according to St Thomas. It should not be necessary to say that the booklet is well written and well produced, and it is a pity that its great usefulness is to some extent impaired by the high price. Eric Gill's view of the fine arts receives an interpretation which makes it acceptable to the present reviewer. KI.T. Les Enseignements de ] esus-Christ by J. Bonsirven, S.}. Pp. 5Il. Beauchesne. 420 francs.


This report summarizes the findings of a long-term study of the benthic biota of the mesohaline regions of the Potomac estuary and the Maryland portion of the mainstem of the Chesapeake Bay. The primary objective of the program was to determine if power plant operations had measurable effects on benthic resources over time periods greater than 5 years. Salinity was the major environmental factor controlling regional benthic distributions and sediment properties were the major environmental factor contributing to local distributions. Seasonal fluctuations in abundance and biomass were the largest source of variation for most species. Higher standing stocks and more successful recruitment of several benthic populations occurred at thermally affected locations than at reference areas.


Global progress towards food security and nutrition has been slow in many places and even reversing in others. Against the background of changes in population, income, technology, climate, and other drivers, the pressures on food systems are daunting. When designing and rolling out future interventions towards these goals it is of vital importance to utilize foresight knowledge to anticipate, shape, and prepare for alternative possible futures. Overcoming current and emerging challenges but also seizing opportunities as they present themselves requires continued efforts to provide robust analysis to inform decision making. Here we collated the latest insights from foresight studies around three central aspects within the food system. First, consumer demand and the changes this is undergoing is a key aspect shaping the food system itself as well as nutritional and environmental outcomes. Second, distributional inequalities and trade-offs within the food system have further been identified as key challenges to tackling adverse health outcomes of the current food system. And third, amplified by the COVID crisis, enhancing the resilience of the food system that is increasingly under threat from multiple risks has risen to the top of the agenda.


The significant problems caused by soilborne pathogens in crop production worldwide include reduced crop performance, decreased yield, and higher production costs. In many parts of the world, methyl bromide was extensively used to control these pathogens before the implementation of the Montreal Protocol—a global agreement to protect the ozone layer. The threats of soilborne disease epidemics in crop production, high cost of chemical fungicides and development of fungicide resistance, climate change, new disease outbreaks and increasing concerns regarding environmental as well as soil health are becoming increasingly evident. These necessitate the use of integrated soilborne disease management strategies for crop production. This article summarizes methods for management of soilborne diseases in crop production which includes the use of sanitation, legal methods, resistant cultivars/varieties and grafting, cropping system, soil solarization, biofumigants, soil amendments, anaerobic soil disinfestation, soil steam sterilization, soil fertility and plant nutrients, soilless culture, chemical control and biological control in a system-based approach. Different methods with their strengths and weaknesses, mode of action and interactions are discussed, concluding with a brief outline of future directions which might lead to the integration of described methods in a system-based approach for more effective management of soilborne diseases.


Abstract The sensitivity of the global properties of a two-dimensional turbulent wake produced by the separated flow of a 'D'-shaped cylinder at $\mathit{Re}= 13\hspace{0.167em} 000$ is investigated experimentally using a small circular control cylinder as a local disturbance. The height of the main cylinder is $D= 25~\mathrm{mm} $ and control cylinders are of diameters $d= 0. 04D$ and $d= 0. 12D$, the former being smaller than the shear layer thickness detaching from the main cylinder, while the latter is larger. In both cases, the control cylinder is able to modify the global frequency, base pressure and spanwise velocity correlation. The results are presented as sensitivity maps. Reynolds stresses spatial structure and the recirculation bubble length are examined in detail when the control cylinder is displaced vertically across the wake at a fixed downstream location. It is found that the increase of the recirculation bubble length is accompanied by a damping of Reynolds stresses with a downstream shift of their spatial structures together with the base pressure increase. The global frequency can be either decreased or increased independently of the bubble length modification. The sensitivity of these global properties is interpreted on the basis of the ability of the control cylinder to change the size of the formation region of the Kármán vortex street by interacting with the primary detached shear layers. The corresponding physical mechanisms are discussed. The impact of a two-dimensional control cylinder on the three-dimensional properties of the wake is examined through spanwise correlation. This is found to be improved whenever the control cylinder is placed inside the recirculation region of the main cylinder wake.


CÉSAR FRANCK AS A PIVOTAL FIGURE IN THE REVITALIZATION OF FRENCH ORGAN MUSIC AFTER THE REVOLUTION Anna Pan, D.M.A. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2012 Chair: Dr. Thomas W. Bolton Though widely known as a skillful improviser and teacher in his day, César Franck has been largely overlooked concerning the pivotal role he played in the revival of French organ music after the bloody and destructive Revolution of 1789. This dissertation presents evidence of Franck's importance as teacher, performer, and composer who served as a crucial bridge between the ruinous state of organ music after the French Revolution and the vibrant French organ school of the twentieth century. Chapter 1 presents the problem and provides background for the study. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the effects of the Revolution on the state, the church, and organ music. Chapter 3 is a description of post-revolutionary political developments, improved organ design and construction, and music education efforts that lead to the beginnings of recovery of French organ music. Chapter 4 is a detailed picture of Franck's educational, performing, and compositional activities. Chapter 5 reveals the significant influence and legacy of Franck as a result of his teaching, performing, and composition. The final chapter is a conclusion of the findings.


High-throughput sequencing of RNA transcripts (RNA-seq) has become the method of choice for detection of differential expression (DE). Concurrent with the growing popularity of this technology there has been a significant research effort devoted towards understanding the statistical properties of this data and the development of analysis methods. We report on a comprehensive evaluation of the commonly used DE methods using the SEQC benchmark data set. We evaluate a number of key features including: assessment of normalization, accuracy of DE detection, modeling of genes expressed in only one condition, and the impact of sequencing depth and number of replications on identifying DE genes. We find significant differences among the methods with no single method consistently outperforming the others. Furthermore, the performance of array-based approach is comparable to methods customized for RNA-seq data. Perhaps most importantly, our results demonstrate that increasing the number of replicate samples provides significantly more detection power than increased sequencing depth.


Black cool pigments are very interesting for its application in asphalt urban pavements and building floors for moderate the urban heat island effect (UHI) and improving air conditioning energy efficiency. Cool black pigments based on Cr doped hematite Fe2O3 (trigonal, R-3c), hexagonal perovskites YMnO3 (hexagonal, P63cm) and Sr4CuMn2O9 (trigonal, P321) and melilite Sr2(Mg0.5Mn0.5)Ge2O7 (tetragonal, P-421m) with high NIR reflectance synthesized by ceramic and coprecipitation method, are analyzed and compared from color yield in alkyd paint, ceramic glazes and porcelain stoneware, NIR reflectance, bandgap and photocatalytic activity on Orange II substrate. Sr4CuMn2O9 black powders show the nearest hue h to the reference carbon black and the highest NIR reflectance (51%). All pigments show high NIR reflectance in all tested applications. The Fe1.2Cr0.8O3 pigment shows good behavior in the free ZnO glaze and also in porcelain stoneware, YMnO3 and Sr4CuMn2O9 pigments are compatible with low temperature glazes, but Sr2(Mg0.5Mn0.5)Ge2O7 pigment loses the black color even in low temperature glazes. Sr4CuMn2O9 pigment shows moderate photoactivity on Orange II (t1/2=216 min) and the Fe1.2Cr0.8O3 pigment also shows some activity (t1/2=329 min).


In 2009, Larry Alexander and Kimberly Ferzan published Crime and Culpability: A Theory of Criminal Law. The book set out a theory that those who deserve punishment should receive punishment commensurate with, but no greater than, that which they deserve. Reflections on Crime and Culpability: Problems and Puzzles expands on their innovative ideas on the application of punishment in criminal law. Theorists working in criminal law theory presuppose or ignore puzzles that lurk beneath the surface. Now those who wish to examine these topics will have one monograph that combines the disparate puzzles in criminal law through a unified approach to culpability. Along with some suggestions as to how they might resolve the puzzles, Alexander and Ferzan lay out the arguments and analysis so future scholars can engage with questions about our understanding of culpability that very few have addressed.


In this work we analyze PT-symmetric double-well potentials based on a two-mode picture. We reduce the problem into a PT-symmetric dimer and illustrate that the latter has effectively two fundamental bifurcations, a pitchfork (symmetry-breaking bifurcation) and a saddle-center one, which is the nonlinear analog of the PT-phase-transition. It is shown that the symmetry breaking leads to ghost states (amounting to growth or decay); although these states are not true solutions of the original continuum problem, the system's dynamics closely follows them, at least in its metastable evolution. Past the second bifurcation, there are no longer states of the original continuum system. Nevertheless, the solutions can be analytically continued to yield a new pair of branches, which is also identified and dynamically examined. Our explicit analytical results for the dimer are directly compared to the full continuum problem, yielding a good agreement.


A important part of educational buildings must be retrofitted in many European countries, in the next years, for historical and demographic reasons. These retrofittings must be carried out with a limitation of energy consumption and a better indoor comfort. In this context, Annex 36 of International Energy Agency aims at promoting energy efficient measurements of educational buildings in the retrofitting process. In the same time, in France, decision makers want to integrate high environmental quality comfort requirements. These requirements are defined in order to better control external environmental impacts and to create a healthy and comfortable indoor environment. However, decision makers and designers have to make face to the complexity of the retrofitting of educational buildings and of the comfort notion. In order to integrate the acoustic, visual and thermal requirements, a specific approach must be developed. This paper exposes the high comfort constraints inherent in the retrofitting of educational buildings. Then an iterative integration process is presented within a study case in Rhône-Alpes Region.


Nano-TiO2 particles or TiO2 whiskers encapsulated by polyaniline/cyanate ester composites were fabricated by solution-mixing method. Then the dispersion of particles in cyanate ester was observed with the aid of TEM. The effect of the content of particles or whiskers on the dielectric properties of cyanate ester composites was investigated. As the content of the particles up to 3% or the whiskers up to 7%, the dielectric loss of the composites achieved its maximum.


This thesis is an explorative experimental study in two parts of different ways of organising Science education in the Swedish context. The first study deals with the question if students attain higher scores on test results if they have been working with integrated Science compared to subject-specific Science i.e. Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The second study concerns the similarities and differences between integrated Science education and Science education in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, especially in the teaching organisation. The introduction describes the nature of integrated curriculum, what integrated learning is, issues about integrated Science education, in what way integration is carried out, between subjects or within subjects, what the opposite to integrated Science is (here named as subjectspecific science education) in the Swedish context and what the Swedish curriculum has to say about integrated Science. Previous studies in integrated curriculum looking at students' results are referred to, and it is argued for the use of the OECD's PISA assessment instrument in this study. The thesis consists of two studies, one quantitative and one qualitative, within the above framework. The quantitative study is an attempt to find differences in scores on students' written results on a large-scale assessment in scientific literacy between students studying in different organisations of Science education. The qualitative study is an attempt to describe differences at classroom level between integrated Science and subject-specific Science. This gives a quite rich description of four schools (cases) in a small town and how they organise their teaching integrated or subject-specific. No differences in students' results between different Science organisations were found in the quantitative study in this thesis. Possible explanations for the lack of differences in students' results are discussed in the article. An additional investigation that attempts to test the variable used in the quantitative study is carried out in the thesis, with an attempt to sharpen the teacher organisation variable. This is done to find out if it is possible that there can be found differences with the sharpened variable. The qualitative study gives a glimpse of some differences in the implemented curriculum between schools working with integrated Science education and a school that works subjectspecifically. The teachers do the overall lesson plans in different ways according to which organisation according to integrated or subject-specific Science they work with. When asked in a survey what kind of Science organisation they have, students from the four schools studied answered differently between schools and also, sometimes, within the same school. A further analysis of this second study is carried out by defining a conceptual framework used as structure and a possible explanation for differences between students' views and teachers' views on the organisation of Science education. This latter analysis tries to give an enriched description in mainly the two levels of the implemented and attained curricula, and tries to discuss the difference in students' attained curriculum. A final discussion concludes the thesis and concerns an elaboration of the results of the thesis, problems with the main variable involved in the two studies and the possibility that the teacher actions effects also the magnitude of students' achievement on tests.


It is important to understand an interaction between deformable surface and flow field surrounding it. In order to clarify this interaction, we had made some detailed experiments using several kinds of cylinder models having elasto-flexible surface in uniform water flow, and had found that on the surface were excited three different kinds of traveling waves, i. e. a continuously occurring wave, a periodically occurring wave and a randomly occurring wave. The present experiments were made to elucidate the mechanism of the wave generation and its propagation. The results showed that a relative frequency of the wave generation to that of the Karman vortex pair emission was linearly proportional to the power of 2/3 of the Reynolds number. This dependency is similar to the dependency of the wave propagation speed of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in free shear layer on the Reynolds number. The traveling velocities of the waves were found to be about 65% of the main flow velocities regardless of the model diameter. Small vortices observed in the vicinity of the wave were found to move with same velocities as the wave propagating velocities. The velocity distribution in the shear layer of the separated flow around the cylinder was measured. The velocity at the inflexion point of the distribution was found to be same as the wave propagation velocity and the moving velocity of the small vortices. We concluded from the above results that the traveling waves were generated by the flow instability of the shear layer in the separated flow around the cylinder.


Tethered kite technology is one potential means of harnessing energy available in high altitude winds. In an efficient and practical system, the kite is required to fly in cyclic patterns to maximize net power produced per cycle. At the same time, the tether length must be controlled to ensure the system does not expend more energy than it produces. This can be a challenging problem when the intermittency of the wind speed and direction, as well as unsteady wind components, are taken into account. This paper is the second in a series of two that studies the dynamics and control of a flexible kite. In this part, the dynamic model and trajectories derived in Part I are used to develop a nonlinear dynamic observer. Full state estimation is required to implement one of the proposed feedback tracking controllers. The system dynamics are extremely complex and therefore a method that does not require the computation of vector field derivatives has been chosen. The square-root unscented Kalman filter is implemented to estimate the kite dynamics as well as the true wind speed at the kite.


In the course of the postshock period the experimental animals show changes of two types both in acetylcholine metabolism and pulmonary histophysiology. Comparison of the evidence obtained revealed a relationship between these changes, thereby promoting purposeful therapy of pulmonary complications by means of propionylcholinesterase. Administration of the preparation before and after injury improved acetylcholine metabolism, favoured the recovery of the respiratory system function, as well as an increase in the life span and decrease in lethality of the experimental animals.


This guide will point to resources to raise awareness focusing on the issues surrounding gun violence as a public health issue in our nation. Provided by the Becker Medical Library and the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis.


New Zealand's maritime zones cover a very large area. This article explores the extent to which these maritime zones are protected through marine protected areas and area based management. There are several different types of protection in New Zealand waters, from marine reserves that prohibit fishing to marine mammal sanctuaries and
benthic protection zones. Māori play an important role in the establishment and management of many of these areas. However, in general the legislation that addresses marine protection is disjointed and there are important gaps in coverage. Attempts to reform the legislation have not yet succeeded.


In the past half century since the Vogts stimulated investigations on the anatomi- cal relationships between cortex and subcortical structures, a voluminous literature has developed on the thalamus. Although much of this writing has been based upon studies of sub-human primates and carnivora, the prime goal of most investi- gators has been to elucidate clinical experience. And indeed, these researches have enlightened the neurologist. From the beginning of anatomical studies of the thalamus, anatomists have sought a meaningful parcellation of the thalamus on the basis of both topography and cellular morphology. However, as the internal organization of the thalamus changes greatly in phylogeny, a topographical designation of thalamic divisions in different species loses its significance. Hence, the detailed descriptions of the nuclear configuration of carnivora, which appeared from the laboratories of Huber and Crosby, could not be readily applied to the thalamus of monkey or man. This has led to the introduction of different and more or less specific terminologies for each species rendering attempts at homologies difficult, if not impossible. Recogniz- ing the changes in conceptualization of the thalamus and the advances in neuro- anatomical knowledge, Dr. Van Buren has tackled the formidable tasks of bringing the thalamic nomenclature up to date. He has based his parcellation of the thala- mus upon the histological morphology of the neuronal components, which are modified, to some extent at least, by the fiber tracts traversing the area.


This paper has performed the fatigue strength evaluation for the bogie frame of Korean tilting train. In order to verify the structural safety of the bogie frame, we firstly investigated the loading condition imposed on the bogie frame. The bogie frame of the tilting train is exposed to the more severe loadings compared with the conventional one because of the tilting of the carbody and the high-speed curve negotiation. We have conducted some multi-body dynamic analyses to extract the load condition by tilting on curve. The finite element analysis is used to obtain the stress distribution. Through this study, we could make sure the safety of the tilting bogie frame.


Background: Ghrelin is a peptide predominantly produced by the stomach. Recent studies have shown its protective roles and plasma alterations during hypoxia. Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of an exogenous administration of ghrelin on body weight and blood hematocrit during chronic hypoxia. Materials and Methods: Twenty four adult male Wistar rats were divided randomly into 3 groups. Hypoxic rats with saline or ghrelin treatment were placed in a normobaric hypoxic chamber for 2 weeks. Controls remained in room air. Weight gain, hematocrit, and plasma ghrelin were measured. Results: The rats showed significant (P < 0.05) weight loss in the hypoxic groups, and administration of ghrelin in hypoxic rats could prevent further weight loss. Interestingly, hypoxic animals that were treated with ghrelin were significantly more polycythemic than the controls and even the hypoxic rats treated with saline (P < 0.001). Plasma ghrelin significantly increased in the hypoxic animals at the end of the second week (P < 0.05). Conclusions: It seems that exogenous administration of ghrelin may be useful in modulating metabolism in high-altitude situations and that polycythemia induced by ghrelin, to some extent, might be a beneficial compensation during hypoxia. However, more investigation is needed to confirm the beneficial effects of ghrelin to establish this peptide's status as a therapeutic agent. © 2010 Kowsar M.P.Co.


Apiculture is one of the most widely spread agricultural subsectors making substantial contribution to household food security through providing income, quality foods and assets to the rural beekeepers in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is endowed with immense apicultural resources and long standing traditional beekeeping practices. Recently, there is a growing pesticides grievance on honeybee population and their products decline with considerable economic impacts on beekeepers. To ascertain the gripe, field assessment was conducted on pesticides use and its economic impacts on the apiculture subsector in three districts of Amhara region (Dangila, Guangua and Mecha) in April 2014. Random household survey was conducted on a total of 270 respondents (90 per district) of which 137 were beekeepers and 133 none beekeepers. From the total respondents, 147 uses pesticides and Dimethoate 40% EC, Ethiolathion 50%, Karate 5EC, 2,4-D were the most often used pesticides. March, June, July and September are identified as pesticides applications months. From the total pesticides users (147), 114 (78%) apply before flowering stage, 25 both before and during flowering stages and the rest applies whenever they feel pests and/ or weeds occur. Besides, more than 60% of the respondents know pesticides kill honeybees and results in dwindling and absconding. Three years trends analysis of honeybee colony number and honey yield indicated dramatic decline mainly attributed to indiscriminate applications of pesticides. This assessment revealed indiscriminate uses of pesticides caused fatalities on 22987 honeybee colonies and incurred economic loss amounting USD 819291.37. This study is appropriate and timely to develop and implement effective development and extension strategies to minimize and/or control the ill effects of accidentally using pesticides.


Imputation is frequently used to handle missing data for which multiple imputation is a popular technique. We propose a fractional hot deck imputation which produces a valid variance estimator for quantiles. In the proposed method, the imputed values are chosen from the set of respondents and are assigned with proper fractional weights that use a density function for the working model. In addition, we consider a nonparametric fractional imputation method based on nonparametric kernel regression, avoiding a parametric distribution assumption and thus giving more robustness. The resulting estimator can be called nonparametric fractionally imputation estimator. Valid variance estimation is also discussed. A limited simulation study compares the proposed methods favorably with other existing methods.


An anti-windup compensate algorithm for active disturbance rejection mechanism is proposed in this paper. This paradigm extends the traditional anti-windup scheme to the Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) mechanism, to deal with the input saturation nonlinearity and meanwhile reject the disturbance automatically by using Extended State Observer (ESO) . The output of anti-windup compensator is treated as a part of unknown disturbances and is introduced into the ESO, which can online observe both internal and external disturbances (parameter uncertainties and model mismatches). The controller input is yielded by using a nonlinear feedback combination, and it is used to compensate the integrator windup caused by the saturation nonlinearity element. On the other hand, in order to determine the parameters of the ESO and the anti-windup compensator feedback gain, the ℒ2 gain is adopted. The effectiveness and the robustness against model and parameter uncertainties of the proposed method is verified by an example of the seeker platform.


We propose a technique for the detection of neutrons that relies on the sensitivity of SRAM cells to particle radiation. In particular, we introduce a system based on a memory test bench that records the neutron reactions. It is conceived to be modular, programmable, low power consuming and portable.


Several properties of the solar system, including the wide radial spacing and orbital eccentricities of giant planets, can be explained if the early solar system evolved through a dynamical instability followed by migration of planets in the planetesimal disk. Here we report the results of a statistical study, in which we performed nearly 104 numerical simulations of planetary instability starting from hundreds of different initial conditions. We found that the dynamical evolution is typically too violent, if Jupiter and Saturn start in the 3:2 resonance, leading to ejection of at least one ice giant from the solar system. Planet ejection can be avoided if the mass of the transplanetary disk of planetesimals was large (Mdisk ≳ 50 MEarth), but we found that a massive disk would lead to excessive dynamical damping (e.g., final e55 ≲ 0.01 compared to present e55 = 0.044, where e55 is the amplitude of the fifth eccentric mode in the Jupiter's orbit), and to smooth migration that violates constraints from the survival of the terrestrial planets. Better results were obtained when the solar system was assumed to have five giant planets initially, and one ice giant, with mass comparable to that of Uranus and Neptune, was ejected into interstellar space by Jupiter. The best results were obtained when the ejected planet was placed into the external 3:2 or 4:3 resonance with Saturn and Mdisk ≃ 20 MEarth. The range of possible outcomes is rather broad in this case, indicating that the present solar system is neither a typical nor expected result for a given initial state, and occurs, in best cases, with only a ≃5% probability (as defined by the success criteria described in the main text). The case with six giant planets shows interesting dynamics but does offer significant advantages relative to the five-planet case.


Healthcare documentation in the Czech Republic usually has the form of a free text formatted just using spaces, tabs and line breaks. Extracting information from such a documentation is a challenge that if fulfilled would allow to use Czech medical reports by physicians with no knowledge of the Czech language as well as information transfer to a structured form. It is possible to approach this task as a task of finite- state machine, as a task of the linguistic analysis or as a task of statistics. This article summarizes our findings gained using finite-state machines and using commonly used code lists. Excerpts from real medical reports are translated to English in a way that demonstrates the same or similar problems as in the Czech language. Original Czech excerpts are available in the Czech version of this article.


This study investigates the team processes that transmit the effect of trust on team performance. Building on the motivated information processing in groups model, we propose that low swift trust increases team members' motivation to process information elaborately, which in turn benefits performance in nonroutine situations. Using a mixed repeated measure design with 40 teams performing routine and nonroutine decision- making tasks under manipulated conditions of low and high swift trust, we find that teams receiving the low swift trust manipulation, processed information more elabo- rately than teams in the high swift trust condition. This in turn, increased performance in nonroutine tasks but did not influence performance when performing routine tasks. This study extends past individual level research on trust and strategic thinking to the team level and identifies information processing as an important mediator in the trust-team performance relation.


An interest in teachers' prior learning experiences dates back to 1975, when Lortie introduced the notion of 'apprenticeship of observation' to refer to teachers' early school experiences. This notion emphasises the fact that, before their teacher training experiences, teachers spend thousands of hours in classrooms as students, during which time they internalise the teaching models and teacher behaviour they are exposed to. These early experiences mould teachers' teaching philosophies and form their pre-training beliefs, which are said to be resistant to change (Holt- Reynolds, 1992; Johnson, 1994; Kagan, 1992; Pajares, 1992) and which are believed to filter the information teacher trainees are introduced to in teacher education courses (e.g., Hollingsworth, 1988 in Carter, 1990; Pennington, 1996; Richards, 1998; Tillema, 1994). Kennedy claims: "Teachers acquire seemingly indelible imprints from their own experiences as students and these imprints are tremendously difficult to shake" (Kennedy, 1990: 17, cited in Bailey et al., 1996). This article sets out to review, mainly within the field of second/foreign language teaching and grammar teaching in particular, the impact of teacher training courses (TTCs) on pre-training knowledge and belief development. In order to understand this impact, it is necessary first to discuss how prior language learning experiences (PLLEs) influence teachers' teaching practices and conceptualisation of language teaching.


Purpose:  This study was conducted to examine the effect of pay for performance and interactional justice on job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach:  A survey method was used to collect 107 usable questionnaires from employees who work in the US subsidiary manufacturing firm operating in a silicon valley in East Malaysia, Malaysia. Findings:  The outcomes showed two important findings: first, relationship between interactional justice and adequacy of pay significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Second, relationship between interactional justice and participation in pay systems significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Statistically, this result confirms that interactional justice does act as a mediating variable in the pay for performance models of the studied organization. Originality/value:  Most previous research tested a direct effect of pay for performance on job satisfaction. Unlike such research approach, this study discovers that interactional justice has strengthened the effect of pay for performance on job satisfaction in a compensation system framework.


BACKGROUND: Although some studies have analyzed the prevalence of urinary incontinence during pregnancy, there are scarce data on the frequency and characteristics of fecal incontinence during this period. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and characteristics of women with fecal incontinence symptoms during early and late pregnancy, to evaluate its impact on quality of life, and to identify whether there is a specific clinical pattern that could identify patients at risk. DESIGN: This was a cross-sectional observational study. SETTINGS: The study was conducted at the maternity unit of a university tertiary care center. PATIENTS: Pregnant women undergoing obstetric follow-up were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: A prospective study was conducted. All of the patients attending our maternity unit for obstetric ultrasound examination during the first and third trimesters were eligible for inclusion. Selected patients completed a self-reported questionnaire that included items on fecal incontinence, Wexner score, and stool consistency. Quality of life was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36. RESULTS: The study included 228 consecutive pregnant women. Ninety-three patients (40.8%) had some episode of fecal incontinence in the 4 weeks before the survey, 15 patients with solid stool, 6 patients with liquid stools, and 72 with flatus. In these patients, the mean Wexner score was 3.82 (range, 2.0–13.0). In patients with incontinence, quality of life was significantly affected in most subscales of Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36. There were no significant differences in the following variables between patients with and without symptoms of fecal incontinence, including age (p = 0.090), BMI (p = 0.094), history of previous deliveries (p = 0.492), trimester of pregnancy (p = 0.361), and Bristol Stool Form Scale (p = 0.388). LIMITATIONS: The cross-sectional design hampered identification of specific time at which the impact of pregnancy occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of fecal incontinence is high during pregnancy with a notable impact on quality of life. There was no specific clinical pattern during pregnancy that could define patients at risk for fecal incontinence during this period of life.


Here in is described the clinical and laboratorial findings of a laboratory-acquired infection caused by the virus SP H 114202 (Arenavirus, family Arenaviridae) a recently discovered agent responsible for a viral hemorrhagic fever. The patient was sick for 13 days. The disease had an abrupt onset characterized by high fever (39 degree C.), headache, chills and myalgias for 8 days. In addition, on the 3rd day, the patient developed nausea and vomiting, and in the 10th, epigastralgia, diarrhea and gengivorrhagia. Leucopenia was seen within the 1st week of onset, with counts as low as 2,500 white cells per mm3. Counts performed after the 23rd day of the onset were within normal limits. With the exception of moderate lymphocytosis, no changes were observed in differential counts. An increase in the titer of antibodies by complement fixation, neutralization and ELISA (IgM) was detected. Suckling mice and baby hamsters were inoculated intracerebrally with 0.02 ml of blood samples collected in the 2nd and 7th days of disease. Attempts to isolate the virus were also made in Vero cells. No virus was isolated. This virus was isolated before in a single occasion in São Paulo State, in 1990, from the blood of a patient with hemorrhagic fever with a fatal outcome. The manipulation of the virus under study, must be done carefully, since the transmission can occur through aerosols.


Background: Estimating input costs for Markov models in health economic evaluations requires health state–specific costing. This is a challenge in mental illnesses such as depression, as interventions are not clearly related to health states. We present a hybrid approach to health state–specific cost estimation for a German health economic evaluation of antidepressants. Methods: Costs were determined from the perspective of the community of persons insured by statutory health insurance ("SHI insuree perspective") and included costs for outpatient care, inpatient care, drugs, and psychotherapy. In an additional step, costs for rehabilitation and productivity losses were calculated from the societal perspective. We collected resource use data in a stepwise hierarchical approach using SHI claims data, where available, followed by data from clinical guidelines and expert surveys. Bottom-up and top-down costing approaches were combined. Results: Depending on the drug strategy and health state, the average input costs varied per patient per 8-week Markov cycle. The highest costs occurred for agomelatine in the health state first-line treatment (FT) ("FT relapse") with €506 from the SHI insuree perspective and €724 from the societal perspective. From both perspectives, the lowest costs (excluding placebo) were €55 for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in the health state "FT remission." Conclusion: To estimate costs in health economic evaluations of treatments for depression, it can be necessary to link different data sources and costing approaches systematically to meet the requirements of the decision-analytic model. As this can increase complexity, the corresponding calculations should be presented transparently. The approach presented could provide useful input for future models.


Nuclei of extremely high energies are persistently bombarding the Earth. The so-called ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) were discovered about 100 years ago. The world's largest UHECR experiment for energies above 10^17 eV is the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, sampling air showers during their passage through the atmosphere and at ground level. After more than ten years of operation it has accumulated a large amount of air shower measurements to tackle the open questions. Studies of charged primaries are complemented by searches for neutral primaries. Neutral primaries propagate on straight lines, pointing back to the location of their production. Although not observed yet, there might be a small fraction of primary photons of less than a few percent. UHE photons are expected to be created in resonant pion photoproductions of UHECR with photon backgrounds during their propagation. Alternatively, several exotic top-down models predict a significant photon fraction from decays of extremely heavy particles. Some top-down models predict a dominance of UHE photons above about 10^20 eV (100 EeV) and were already disfavoured by upper limits on the UHE photon flux and fraction.
The main goal of this work is an update and improvement of the upper limits on UHE photons with the surface detector (SD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory. The SD becomes fully efficient for triggering photon-induced showers above 10 EeV. Air showers from primary hadrons and photons differ in their longitudinal development in the atmosphere as well as in their lateral distribution of the electromagnetic and muonic shower component at ground. As the SD does not measure these parameters directly in the standard data reconstruction, correlated SD observables are being investigated in order to establish a photon-hadron separation in the energy range above 10 EeV. Two parameters are combined in a multivariate analysis to optimize the separation power and to make use of the large SD aperture. Those parameters allow for a powerful compromise of high selection efficiency, which is found when optimizing the data selection towards large statistics preserving a sufficient reconstruction quality, and good photon-hadron seperation. An update of existing photon energy calibrations is presented and the separation parameters are studied carefully. Throughout the search of rare particles, a proper understanding of the electronics and possible faults or rare physical events is needed as they can create photon-like events. Electronics issues are discussed, such as direct light effects or PMT afterpulses. The main result of this work is a significant improvement of the last published limits, entering the region of photon-optimistic GZK-predictions. The upper limit (95% C.L.) on the diffusive, integral photon flux above 10 EeV for zenith angles between 30 degrees and 60 degrees is 1.9 x 10^-3 km^-2 sr^-1 yr^-1, corresponding to a maximum photon fraction of 0.72%. For 20 EeV (40 EeV) it is 0.99 x 10^-3 km^-2 sr^-1 yr^-1 (0.49 x 10^-3 km^-2 sr^-1 yr^-1 ), corresponding to a maximum photon fraction of 1.6% (6.17%). A differential upper limit has also been placed for the first time in the range of 10-30 EeV, with a maximum photon flux of 2.59 km^-2 sr^-1 yr^-1 and a maximum photon fraction of 2.73%. In this region it is most likely to observe a photon. Photon candidate events are being discussed.


Following the success of his autobiography, everyone's favourite cult football icon Perry Groves is back, pen in hand, to deliver his latest opus."Perry Groves' Football Heroes" is his collection of the twenty players he has idolised in front of the television, marvelled at from the stands, tussled with on the pitch and drank with in the bar. Pele's in there, so is Bobby Moore...and what all-time player list would be complete without Terry Hurlock?More than just a collection of great players, Perry explains in his own inimitable way exactly why these players made the cut. So, while Pele would make everyone's list for his amazing goal-scoring feats, Perry can't help but admire the Brazilian's drug of choice - Viagra - to guarantee he still keeps scoring despite pushing 70!From Cryuff's turn and 20-a-day habit to Brazilian maestro Ronaldinho, who still manages to be the best player in the world despite being a fixture on the Barcelona party circuit; and from the flamboyant skills, poetry and kung-fu fighting of Eric Cantona to the va-va-voom of Thierry Henry, Perry has a host of great players from the history of the game - from the 1960s up to the present day - and from all corners of the globe. Packed full of facts and uproarious stories from the man himself, "Perry Groves' Football Heroes" is guaranteed to have you believing, just for a little while, that We All Live in a Perry Groves World. This is an engaging and hilarious collection of football heroes by a true football hero.


Enterprises are adopting new business and IT models due to the growing trend of elastically scalable cloud- based collaboration services. However, enterprises are not fully embracing them because they do not want to expose their sensitive information to the cloud when someone collaborating with someone. Therefore, the paper proposes a semantic enhanced attribute-based access manager as a gatekeeper for cloud-based services so that authoritative service access can be achieved. The paper use universal resource identifier for attribute representation. The core of the approach is an access manager, which does not only providing a globally accessible attributes but also managing the entire service access decision process. Furthermore, we propose a rule-based representation scheme to represent service access policies, using a logic-based reasoning mechanism. In order to analyze the feasibility of the proposed approach, we select a cloud-based collaboration scenario and present the prototype implementation of it.


We use mock interferometric H I measurements and a conventional tilted-ring modelling procedure to estimate circular velocity curves of dwarf galaxy discs from the APOSTLE suite of Λ cold dark matter cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. The modelling yields a large diversity of rotation curves for an individual galaxy at fixed inclination, depending on the line-of-sight orientation. The diversity is driven by non-circular motions in the gas; in particular, by strong bisymmetric fluctuations in the azimuthal velocities that the tilted-ring model is ill-suited to account for and that are difficult to detect in model residuals. Large misestimates of the circular velocity arise when the kinematic major axis coincides with the extrema of the fluctuation pattern, in some cases mimicking the presence of kiloparsec-scale density 'cores', when none are actually present. The thickness of APOSTLE discs compounds this effect: more slowly rotating extra-planar gas systematically reduces the average line-of-sight speeds. The recovered rotation curves thus tend to underestimate the true circular velocity of APOSTLE galaxies in the inner regions. Non-circular motions provide an appealing explanation for the large apparent cores observed in galaxies such as DDO 47 and DDO 87, where the model residuals suggest that such motions might have affected estimates of the inner circular velocities. Although residuals from tilted-ring models in the simulations appear larger than in observed galaxies, our results suggest that non-circular motions should be carefully taken into account when considering the evidence for dark matter cores in individual galaxies.


Gastaut type-idiopathic childhood occipital epilepsy (G-ICOE) is a rare form ofidiopathic childhood occipital epilepsy. It is characterized by late-onset, brief, frequent,usually diurnal, elementary visual auras which may be associated with hemi-clonicor generalized convulsion. Occasionally the clinical presentation can be overlappedwith Panayiotopoulos syndrome. Typical EEG findings are occipital paroxysms. Theprognosis remains uncertain, but most seizures are often responsive to antiepileptictreatment.


Pedestrian motion prediction is a fundamental task for autonomous robots and vehicles to operate safely. In recent years many complex approaches based on neural networks have been proposed to address this problem. In this work we show that – surprisingly – a simple Constant Velocity Model can outperform even state-of-the-art neural models. This indicates that either neural networks are not able to make use of the additional information they are provided with, or that this information is not as relevant as commonly believed. Therefore, we analyze how neural networks process their input and how it impacts their predictions. Our analysis reveals pitfalls in training neural networks for pedestrian motion prediction and clarifies false assumptions about the problem itself. In particular, neural networks implicitly learn environmental priors that negatively impact their generalization capability, the motion history of pedestrians is irrelevant and interactions are too complex to predict. Our work shows how neural networks for pedestrian motion prediction can be thoroughly evaluated and our results indicate which research directions for neural motion prediction are promising in future.


Australian courts, as with those in most common law systems, value judicial officers who are generalists. Appointment to a court indicates that the appointee is capable of dealing impartially with all types of cases that come before it. However, caseload allocation processes within courts also recognize and value different skills or expertise that may be applied to particular types of cases or to particular judicial tasks. Our research investigates ways magistrates courts in Australia (first instance courts of general criminal and civil jurisdiction) manage caseload allocation processes to match magistrates' skills and abilities to specific work demands within their general jurisdictions as well as to the demands of specialist lists and courts. The research draws on interview data collected from judicial officers and court staff involved in caseload allocation in four Australian jurisdictions. This research finds that these courts place a high value on the principle that 'everyone should be able to do everything' and the entitlement of individual judicial officers to a caseload that is balanced and fair in relation to their colleagues. However, this preference for generalist judicial officers can create tensions in relation to the need to staff specialist lists, and to sometimes use particular skills in the general lists. Despite the presumption of competence, those allocating generalist and specialist caseload take into account different skills and expertise in the judicial workforce in the allocation decisions. Preferences of judicial officers for particular types of work can also play a role. However, the process by which assessments are made about expertise is also less than transparent in many cases, and draws largely on informal sources of knowledge. Magistrates and court users may benefit from a more clearly defined and transparent process to identify and develop skills and expertise, and allocate caseload accordingly. Such a process must preserve the flexibility that these high-volume courts need to deal with their caseload efficiently and appropriately and to match judicial skills to the needs of particular types of cases.


The aim of this research was to develop a brief scale of gay men's optimism-scepticism in the context of new HIV treatments. Following comprehensive literature search and communication with other researchers, 34 items about viral load testing, HIV therapies and concern about HIV infection were generated. By way of anonymous, self-complete questionnaires, these items were put to 532 gay men recruited at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair Day in February 1999. Principal axes factor analysis and item refinement yielded an optimism-scepticism scale based on 12 items (range 12-48, with higher scores indicating greater optimism). The sample mean was 19.8 (SD = 4.7). The scale had high internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.79). Providing preliminary evidence of validity, men who reported unprotected anal intercourse with a casual partner 'in the past six months' had a significantly higher mean score (21.3) than those who did not report this risk practice (19.5, p < 0.001). Similar validation was provided from separate samples of gay men in Queensland and Sydney. Our scale of optimism-scepticism in the context of new HIV therapies is a brief, reliable instrument which can be incorporated within broader questionnaires and interview schedules. It is a useful tool to monitor attitudes toward HIV therapies and possible associations with risk practices.


Reconstruction is prerequisite whenever a discrete signal needs to be resampled as a result of transformation such as texture mapping, image manipulation, volume slicing. and rendering. We present a new method for the characterization and measurement of reconstruction error in spatial domain. Our method uses the Classical Shannon's Sampling Theorem as a basis to develop error bounds. We use this formulation to provide, for the first time, an efficient way to guarantee an error bound at every point by varying the size of the reconstruction filter. We go further to support position-adaptive reconstruction and data-adaptive reconstruction which adjust filter size to the location of reconstruction point and to the data values in its vicinity. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods with 1D signals, 2D signals (images), and 3D signals (volumes).