The goal of this review article is to provide a conceptual based summary of how heritability estimates for complex traits such as obesity are determined and to explore the future directions of research in the heritability field. The target audience are researchers who use heritability data rather than those conducting heritability studies. The article provides an introduction to key concepts critical to understanding heritability studies including: i) definitions of heritability: broad sense versus narrow sense heritability; ii) how data for heritability studies are collected: twin, adoption, family and population-based studies; and iii) analytical techniques: path analysis, structural equations and mixed or regressive models of complex segregation analysis. For each section, a discussion of how the different definitions and methodologies influence heritability estimates is provided. The general limitations of heritability studies are discussed including the issue of "missing heritability" in which heritability estimates are significantly higher than the variance explained by known genetic variants. Potential causes of missing heritability include restriction of many genetic association studies to single nucleotide polymorphisms, gene by gene interactions, epigenetics, and gene by environment interactions. Innovative strategies of accounting for missing heritability including modeling techniques and improved software are discussed.


Predicting the macro-scale behaviour of gas bubbles and understanding the coupling between bubbles and fluid flow is essential if one wants to describe the local concentration of all electrolyte components and the current density distribution at an electrode surface. The presented two-phase model uses an Eulerian-Lagrangian approach to simulate the hydrodynamic phenomena occurring in the bubble-laden flow. The model describes the continuous electrolyte phase via the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, while the trajectories of the gas bubbles are tracked sequentially in space and time. The electrochemical behaviour of the reactor is described using the Multi-Ion Transport and Reaction Model (MITReM), which considers for all relevant species the effect of convection, diffusion and migration and homogeneous reactions. For the electrode reactions, Butler-Volmer kinetics are used. The MITReM provides the concentration of dissolved gas at the electrode and in the electrolyte. At predefined nuclei gas bubbles are formed proportional to the local supersaturation. After a certain time the spherical bubbles are large enough to become detached bubbles. While the bubbles are growing on the electrode surface, they block the surface and therefore also influence the current density distribution. The first steps in view of the validation of the proposed two-phase model against experiments are reported.


Eighteen autopsy cases of syringomyelia were studied neuropathologically. In 5 cases associated with Chiari type I malformation, the syrinx was irregular in shape and communicated with the subarachnoid space at the entry zone of the posterior nerve roots. The central canal above the level of the syrinx was patent in 2 but closed in 3 out of 5 cases. In cases associated with Chiari type I malformation, communication between the syrinx and the subarachnoid space was considered to play an important role in the pathogenesis of syringomyelia. In 6 cases associated with Chiari type II malformation, the syrinx central canal, and the central canal was patent from the 4th ventricle to the syrinx in all cases. In these cases, direct continuity between the 4th ventricle and the syrinx was essential for the development of the syrinx. In cases associated with posterior fossa or spinal canal tumors, the local circulatory disturbance and/or edema due to the tumors were thought to cause the syrinx.


An effective Mie-scattering model is developed to deal with the scattering property of a spherical fractal aggregate consisting of scattering particles. In this model the scattered field of a scattering particle is given by the classical Mie-scattering theory. On the basis of the Monte Carlo simulation method, we determine the physical parameters of a scattering aggregate, the scattering efficiency Q, and the anisotropy value g, as well as their dependence on the size and the effective mean-free-path length of a scattering aggregate. Accordingly, photon migration through a microscope objective focused into a turbid medium including scattering aggregates is simulated to understand the effect of complex tissue on image quality.


Possessive constructions encode a relation between two entities, the possessor and the possessum. For inalienable possession the relation encoded reflects a close, intrinsic connection between the possessor and the possessum (e.g., kinship, part-whole relations) whereas for alienable possession the relation is contingent and extrinsic. The distinction between alienable and inalienable possession, and even between different types of alienable possession, is sometimes overtly marked in the grammar (as in many Oceanic languages) and sometimes only covertly signalled (as in many European languages). In a previous offline study, we found that English attributive possessive phrases containing inherently relational possessums elicited a narrower range of interpretations than those given for phrases containing non-relational possessums (Lichtenberk, Vaid, & Chen, 2011). To the extent that the meaning of inalienable possessive phrases is directly retrievable from the lexical semantics of the relational possessum, we hypothesized that it should be accessed more quickly than the meaning of alienable possessive phrases, which may require additional computation. In the present study we tested this hypothesis using a plausibility judgment task. English adnominal possessive phrases containing relational vs. non-relational possessums each paired with animate or inanimate possessors were presented in the s-genitive form (the N1's N2). Independently of possessor characteristics, participants were significantly faster at judging plausibility for phrases with relational than those with non-relational possessums. The processing advantage observed for inalienable possession is taken as support for the claim that inalienable possessive relations have a privileged status in the mental lexicon.


Fire is an integral component of many ecosystems worldwide. Many plant species require fire-related cues, primarily heat and smoke, to trigger germination. Despite the importance of this process, the responses of many Australian species to these cues are unknown. Without this knowledge fire management strategies may be developed that are inappropriate for individual species and vegetation communities. In this study we examined the responses of a dry sclerophyll forest seed bank to heat and smoke germination cues. Analysis was possible for 48 taxa within the soil seedbank with 34 of these showing a response to one or both of the germination cues. 10 species responded to the heat treatment, 11 species responded to the smoke treatment and 13 species responded to both the heat and smoke treatments. Germination cues acted independently for all species considered. Results in this study were consistent with published reports for most species, although some differences were seen at the species and genus level. The study highlights the importance of fire-related cues in enhancing germination of a large proportion of the species occurring in dry sclerophyll forests.


Urban slums in East Africa exhibit deplorable sanitary conditions. Despite (inter)national efforts, slum sanitation provision remains inadequate and the projected population growth forecasts a worsening of this crisis. The core of the problem is that available knowledge about the local feasibility of the currently applied sanitary methods is limited. This paper analyses the interface of sanitation policy and technology domains by reviewing the distribution and local characteristics of current centralized and decentralized sanitation options. The findings confirm that conventional, centralized sanitation is an unrealistic solution for application in slums. Simplified sewerage may prove appropriate, but the reported initiatives are in the planning phase only. At present, only decentralized sanitation options are found to be viable in the assessed slums, but their servicing is increasingly neglected by the municipal authorities. The quasi-monopoly of pit latrines implies that improved sanitation technologies are not sufficiently rooted yet. Public toilets are crucial to these slums, especially where land tenure issues prevail. Although the potential of ecological sanitation is currently negligible, novel biocenter initiatives are promising. Municipal authorities are advised to prioritize the implementation of elsewhere successful slum sanitation technologies and to integrate appropriate decentral solutions into their predominantly centralized sanitation schemes.


What is involved in "making art"? In what ways have Americans introduced art making to students? In Art Making and Education, a practicing artist and a historian of art education discuss from their particular perspectives the production of studio and classroom art. Among those to whom this book will appeal are prospective teachers, school administrators, university-level art educators, and readers interested in the theory of discipline-based art education. "The sources are excellent. The bibliographical material is a must for any candidate wanting to teach the visual arts and certainly for any student hoping to become an artist." -- William Klenk, University of Rhode Island


This paper describes several novel designs of fiberoptic sensor made from standard silica fibers with plane oblique facets polished at the fiber tip, and various surface treatments. All use the phenomenon of total internal reflection (TIR) to distinguish drops, bubbles or other moieties of immiscible fluids in a multiphase flow, on the basis of contrast in refractive index. Surface treatments for control of wettability can be critical to some of the conceptions. Depending on the geometry chosen, sensors with quasibinary outputs may be made to distinguish various pairs of immiscible fluids (liquid/gas or oil/"not-oil"). Sensor pairs may then be used for discrimination of three mutually immiscible phases (oil, water, gas) in complex flows. Example outputs from prototype sensors in laboratory test flows are shown.


Treatment of mild hypertension is becoming increasingly accepted, and many more patients are receiving antihypertensive drugs. A number of new agents offer potential benefits over traditional therapy. These benefits are due to differences in side effect profiles, which have the potential for improved compliance. Quality of life is an important consideration in the selection of antihypertensive therapy.


The total expenditure for bridge maintenance, repair and rehabilitation (MR&R) and bridge asset extension increases rapidly every year in Australia. Computer-aided Bridge Management Systems (BMSs) are used to establish the best possible bridge MR&R strategies which ensure an adequate level of safety at the lowest possible bridge life-cycle cost. To achieve this, keeping up-to-date bridge information is crucial for a BMS software package. Although most bridge agencies in the past have conducted inspections and maintenance, the format of such bridge inspection records is dissimilar to those required by BMSs. These data inconsistencies inhibit correct BMS implementations. This paper presents an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based prediction model, called the Backward Prediction Model (BPM), for generating historical bridge condition ratings using very limited existing inspection records. The BPM employed historical non-bridge datasets such as traffic volumes, populations and climates, to establish correlations with the existing bridge condition ratings from the very limited bridge inspection records. Such correlations can help fill the condition rating gaps required for an effective and accurate BMS implementation. The outcome of this study can contribute to minimising BMS operational problems due to limited inspection records.


In this paper we investigate and enhance the user-pairing probability in a system employing multi-user superposition transmission (MUST). In order to improve the multiuser pairing probability, we propose an additional feedback of the second best channel state information (CSI) consisting of channel quality indicator (CQI) and precoding matrix indicator (PMI). We analyze the pairing-probability and show that the additional feedback increases significantly the pairing possibilities at the scheduler. By system level simulations we confirm that the proposed enhanced feedback is improving significantly MUST performance in the context of MUST operation on the same-beam with Gray-mapped super-constellation. In addition, we suggest a simple link-to-system mapping for maximum likelihood (ML) MUST receiver, which can re-use legacy mutual-information-to-block-error-rate tables.


Policy intervention schemes for increased deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV) have been launched in several countries, with varying success. In order to ensure an efficient deployment of the technology, thorough knowledge is needed about relevant present actors and institutions, and about how a desirable actor base and institutional setup should look like; mere cost reductions are not enough to guarantee deployment of a new technology. A framework that captures the systemic nature of technical change, i.e. the development and deployment of new technology, is the technological innovation systems (TIS) framework. The objective of this paper is to discuss how the TIS framework could be used to analyze policy for PV with a focus on deployment of grid-connected, building-sited PV systems. So far, little emphasis has been on using TIS for detailed analysis of deployment of new emerging energy technologies. The TIS framework has been used for analyzing market growth of new energy technologies including processes of deployment in parallel with processes of technology development and production. We argue that "upstream" parts of the PV value chain differ fundamentally from "downstream" parts in that "upstream" activities (e.g. production of purified silicon, wafers, and solar cells) can often be understood as pertaining to a global TIS, while "downstream" activities (system installation etc.) could generally be assumed to be part of a more local (or national) TIS, and we identify and discuss components and processes of the TIS that are of particular importance for deployment of PV.


This paper demonstrates the performance analysis of various arrangements of thermoelectric generators to be used for the combination of a Low Temperature Difference Stirling Engine-Thermoelectric Generator hybrid system. To estimate whether the deployed Stirling Engines will perform on satisfactory level it is necessary to determine if a sufficient thermal flux can be provided to the heating part of the Low Temperature Difference Stirling Engine (LTD SE) from the "cold" side of the thermoelectric generator or their combination. This paper reports study results on the performance of a single layer and a cascaded two-layer thermoelectric generator made up of bulk material. These two generators were connected in series and in parallel to produce the combined thermoelectric module operating as a three-layer generator. Also computational data on the temperature distribution across the layers has been obtained using Finite Element Analysis as a part of ANSYS software. Results obtained demonstrate that both the single and two-layer generators provide sufficient heat flux to drive LTD SEs but the total power output from the two-layer generator-Stirling Engine system is considerable higher when the engine is coupled to a single and three-layered thermoelectric generator.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Batteryless or so called passive wearables are providing new and innovative methods for human activity recognition (HAR), especially in healthcare applications for older people. Passive sensors are low cost, lightweight, unobtrusive and desirably disposable; attractive attributes for healthcare applications in hospitals and nursing homes. Despite the compelling propositions for sensing applications, the data streams from these sensors are characterised by high sparsity---the time intervals between sensor readings are irregular while the number of readings per unit time are often limited. In this paper, we rigorously explore the problem of learning activity recognition models from temporally sparse data. We describe how to learn directly from sparse data using a deep learning paradigm in an end-to-end manner. We demonstrate significant classification performance improvements on real-world passive sensor datasets from older people over the state-of-the-art deep learning human activity recognition models. Further, we provide insights into the model's behaviour through complementary experiments on a benchmark dataset and visualisation of the learned activity feature spaces.


Abstract Resettlement can be an uncertain time for refugees as they have often suffered life-threatening circumstances prior to flight from their countries, yet few resettlement programs screen for mental health. The purpose of this study was to pilot the Refugee Health Screener-15 (RHS-15) to assess mental health and the Pathways to Wellness intervention to identify internal and structural barriers affecting resettlement with a refugee women's sewing group. Community collaborations that create healthy social and physical environments through access to resources, economic opportunities, and social support promote a holistic approach to health and can improve quality of life for this vulnerable population.


In today's global society, the development of novel materials for wastewater treatment has attracted the interest of academic and industrial researchers as this can ensure reliable access to clean water. Herein, we report for the first time the development of an economical and sustainable bimetallic nanocatalytic system comprising a polymeric magnetic chitosan support decorated with redox couple Co–Ni nanoparticles and highlight its role in the in situ generation of hydroxyl radical species that can effectively catalyze the degradation of toxic water contaminants, including the pesticide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and the azo dye methyl orange (MO). Coumarin fluorescence probe and radical scavenging studies provided valuable insights into the mechanistic pathway, revealing the in situ generation of hydroxyl radicals that were responsible for expediting the degradation process. Kinetics studies revealed that the degradation process followed pseudo-first-order kinetics in both cases (with kinetic constant values of 0.07517 min−1 for 2,4-D and 0.03352 min−1 for MO at room temperature under neutral pH conditions). In addition, reusability studies suggested that the Co–Ni@CS@Fe3O4 nanocatalyst maintained its degradation efficacy even after eight consecutive cycles. Notably, this is the first report that effectively exploits a synergistic combination of two transition metals, Co and Ni, anchored onto the surface of chitosan-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles to effectively catalyze the degradation of hazardous contaminants in the presence of a green oxidant under neutral and ambient conditions.


The colloidal stability of titanium oxide nanosheets (TNS) and nanowires (TiONW) was studied in the presence of protamine (natural polyelectrolyte) in aqueous dispersions, where the nanostructures possessed negative net charge, and the protamine was positively charged. Regardless of their shape, similar charging and aggregation behaviors were observed for both TNS and TiONW. Electrophoretic experiments performed at different protamine loadings revealed that the adsorption of protamine led to charge neutralization and charge inversion depending on the polyelectrolyte dose applied. Light scattering measurements indicated unstable dispersions once the surface charge was close to zero or slow aggregation below and above the charge neutralization point with negatively or positively charged nanostructures, respectively. These stability regimes were confirmed by the electron microscopy images taken at different polyelectrolyte loadings. The protamine dose and salt-dependent colloidal stability confirmed the presence of DLVO-type interparticle forces, and no experimental evidence was found for additional interactions (e.g., patch-charge, hydrophobic, or steric forces), which are usually present in similar polyelectrolyte-particle systems. These findings indicate that the polyelectrolyte adsorbs on the TNS and TiONW surfaces in a flat and extended conformation giving rise to the absence of surface heterogeneities. Therefore, protamine is an excellent biocompatible candidate to form smooth surfaces, for instance in multilayers composed of polyelectrolytes and particles to be used in biomedical applications.


The design and implementation of a camera array for real-time streaming of medical video across a high speed research network is described. Live video output from the array, composed of 17 Gigabit Ethernet cameras, must be delivered in low-latency, simultaneously, to many students at geographically disparate locations. The students require dynamic control over their individual viewpoints not only from physical camera positions, but potentially, of a real-time interpolated view. The technology used to implement the system, the rationale for its selection, scalability issues, and potential future improvements, such as recording and offline playback, are discussed.


Hard biological tissues (e.g., nacre and bone) have evolved for millions of years, enabling them to overcome the conflict between different mechanical properties. The key to their success lies in the combination of limited material ingredients (i.e., hard and soft constituents) and mechanistic ingredients (e.g., functional gradients and building block hierarchical organization). However, the contribution of each material and mechanistic ingredient is still unknown, hindering the development of efficient synthetic composites. Quantitative and systematic studies of hard–soft composites are required to unravel every factor's role in properties outcome. Herein, a voxel‐by‐voxel multi‐material 3D printing technique is used to design and additively manufacture different groups of hard–soft composites. Several combinations of gradients, multilevel hierarchies, and brick‐and‐mortar arrangements are created. Single‐edge notched fracture specimens are mechanically tested and computationally simulated using extended finite element method (XFEM). It is found that functional gradients alone are not sufficient to improve fracture properties. However, up to twice the fracture energy of the hard face is observed when combining functional gradients with hierarchical designs, significantly increasing composite properties. Microscopic analysis, digital image correlation, and strain distributions predicted with XFEM are used to discuss the mechanisms responsible for the observed behaviors.


Aedes aegypti is a major vector of arboviruses such as dengue (DENV), Chikungunya (CHIKV) and Zika (ZIKV) that may be controlled on an area-wide basis using the sterile insect technique (SIT). Larval diet is a major factor in mass-rearing for SIT programs. Accordingly, we compared dietary effects on immature development and adult fitness-related characteristics for laboratory based fish feed diet 'Super Nova' (Super Nova, Perfect Companion Group Co. Ltd., Thailand) and high quality feed for fingerlings, 'Micro-180' (Skretting, Neutreco company, USA) to use in SIT. The percentage of larvae that survived to pupation or to adult emergence did not differ significantly between the two diets under the same rearing conditions. On the second day of development, a good number of male pupae (69-71% among total male pupae) produced from both the diet treatments. The flight ability and the longevity of Ae. aegypti did not differ significantly with larval diets, irrespective of sex. In other aspects, the 'Micro-180' diet generally performed better. Larval development was faster on the 'Micro-180' than 'Super Nova' fish feed diet. An Adult female mosquito from the 'Micro-180' diet was significantly larger and exhibited higher fecundity compared to 'Super Nova' fish feed diet. We concluded that both the diet treatments are suitable and especially the 'Micro-180' diet is likely to be more suitable for mass-rearing of Ae . aegypti for area-wide SIT-based vector control.


The role of computer tomography (CT), while choosing the abdominoplasty method in the patients with different types of the anterior abdominal wall deformity present. For CT date the anterior abdominal wall deformity type was determined in the accordance to it--the operation volume needed. Depending on the changes degree the patients were divided on 5 groups, and in accordance to the deformity type present a necessary correction was made. The CT application have had permitted to determine the changes degree in the anterior abdominal wall, and to choose a necessary volume of abdominoplasty precisely.


From Athena Swan accreditations to Access and Widening Participation agendas, diversity training and renewed pedagogic approaches to inclusive learning, the higher education landscape is now awash with the language of 'diversity' as policy and practice. The institutionalisation of 'diversity' is a welcome method of inclusion, yet it is often reproduced as 'happy talk' (Bell and Hartmann 2007) that pacifies the call for meaningful structural and institutional change, silencing and even reinforcing the inequality it seeks remedy (i.e. Ahmed, 2012; Alexander, 2005; Archer, Hutchings & Ross 2003; Kirton, Greene & Dean 2007; Mohanty, 2003; Puwar, 2004). Taking these paradoxical dimensions of diversity as ethnographic and conceptual points of departure, this special issue seeks to unravel some of the everyday experiences, practices and policies encoded in diversity 'speak' and 'diversity work' (Ahmed 2012) across anthropology departments in the UK. By giving credence to accounts of the daily graft of 'diversity work', together with embodied and lived experiences of what 'being diverse' entails on the ground, we strive to productively mobilise decentred 'situated knowledges' (Haraway, 1988) in order to displace the continued centrality of white / elite / heteronormative / ableist reference points at the heart of much higher education institutional diversity strategies and inclusion agendas (cf. also Puwar, 2004). For us, the term 're-imagining' is a call for positive political transformation in which we hope the difficult, uncomfortable - but hopefully - fruitful questions and critiques posed by papers in this special issue galvanise a space for diverse-led action. It is thus against this backdrop that we try to re-imagine diversity in a new light: to bear witness to those who live its effects and thereby reveal the potential to democratically and holistically re-structure anthropology from the ground up.


Evidence-based practice is integral to the delivery of effective and efficient nursing care. However, translating evidence into practice remains a challenge in health care. To overcome this challenge, the Oncology Nursing Society developed a program, the ONS Foundation Institute for Evidence-Based Practice Change, to provide nurses with the tools they need to translate evidence-based practice to their units. This article reviews the process of implementing the evidence-based practice of guided imagery for pain management on a medical oncology inpatient unit at a comprehensive cancer center.


Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a cerebrovascular disorder caused by the deposition of amyloid beta-peptide (Aβ) aggregates. Aβ aggregates lead to vessel rupture and intracerebral hemorrhages, detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Presenile CAA is usually genetically determined by mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene. However, mutations after codon 200 in the presenilin 1 (PSEN1) gene have been reported to facilitate CAA onset. Here, we analyzed the genetic bases in a patient of 55 years old affected by CAA and cognitive decline. DNA was isolated and genetic analysis was performed by Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). RNA was extracted and retro-transcribed to perform segregation analysis by TOPO-TA cloning. WB analysis was carried out to check the impact of the mutations on protein. Two compound heterozygous mutations in PSEN1 exon 10, such as a novel stop-gain mutation (c.1070C > G) and a pathogenic splice variant (c.1129A > T), were found by NGS. Both mutations altered the presenilin 1 protein, truncating its C-terminal portion. This is the first case of CAA and cognitive decline caused by two compound mutations in PSEN1. With this report, we suggest extending the genetic analysis to PSEN1 when cerebral microbleeds are observed by MRI investigation in a patient affected by presenile cognitive decline.


In analogy with the usual quantum state estimation problem, we introduce the problem of state estimation for a preand post-selected ensemble. The problem has fundamental physical significance since, as argued by Y. Aharonov and collaborators, preand post-selected ensembles are the most basic quantum ensembles. Two new features are shown to appear: 1) information is flowing to the measuring device both from the past and from the future; 2) because of the post-selection, certain measurement outcomes can be forced never to occur. Due to these features, state estimation in such ensembles is dramatically different from the case of ordinary, pre-selected only ensembles. We develop a general theoretical framework for studying this problem, and illustrate it through several examples. We also prove general theorems showing the intimate relation between information flowing from the future is related to the complex conjugate information flowing from the past. Finally we illustrate our approach on examples involving covariant measurements on spin 1/2 particles. We emphasize that all state estimation problems can be extended to the preand post-selected situation. The present work thus lays the foundations of a much more general theory of quantum state estimation.


The proportions of E-rosette-forming cells on the 9th, 13th, 17th, 21st, 1st and 5th h were determined in the blood of healthy donors divided into 3 groups (4 men in each). I--the blood was taken at every specified time point and the rosette formation was tested immediately; II--the blood was taken at hour 9, stored at +20 degrees C throughout the experiment and used for the tests at the same time points; III--the blood taken at hour 9, the mononuclear cells were obtained and kept throughout the experiment for the determination of rosette formation at the same time points. In all the three groups similar circadian curves were obtained with a peak at 13th and a minimum at the 1st hour. It is believed that lymphocytes possess oscillator(s) of the activity of receptors that are used for cell subset identification.


In this paper, we use multilevel growth-curve analysis to model occupational stratification across West German careers for cohorts born between 1919 and 1971. We argue that a life-course approach gives a more appropriate perspective into social stratification by focusing on the permanence of inequalities across human lives. With data from the German Life History Study (GLHS), our primary interest is in the amount and timing of career progression and the ways in which educational attainment, class background, and cohort context shape them. We confirm previous findings of limited career progression and permanence in occupational inequality. Thus, career mobility can correct for initial disadvantages only to a limited degree. We also confirm the strong role played by the standardized and stratified German educational system, which channels workers into specific occupations with strict boundaries. We find a substantial gross effect of class background, which is strongly mediated by educational attainment for women but not for men. We do not find any general indications of a trend in change across cohorts, although there are some weak indications that men who entered the labor market in the problematic 1970s had weaker career growth. We conclude by discussing the advantages of a life-course approach to occupational stratification and the possibilities of growth-curve analysis to answer pertinent questions in research on careers and occupational mobility.


Potassium channels are widely distributed. To serve their physiological functions, such as neuronal signaling, control of insulin release, and regulation of heart rate and blood flow, it is essential that K+ channels allow K+ but not the smaller and more abundant Na+ ions to go through. The narrowest part of the channel pore, the selectivity filter formed by backbone carbonyls of the GYG-containing K+ channel signature sequence, approximates the hydration shell of K+ ions. However, the K+ channel signature sequence is not sufficient for K+ selectivity. To identify structural elements important for K+ selectivity, we randomly mutagenized the G protein-coupled inwardly rectifying potassium channel 3.2 (GIRK2) bearing the S177W mutation on the second transmembrane segment. This mutation confers constitutive channel activity but abolishes K+ selectivity and hence the channel's ability to complement the K+ transport deficiency of Deltatrk1Deltatrk2 mutant yeast. S177W-containing GIRK2 mutants that support yeast growth in low-K+ medium contain multiple suppressors, each partially restoring K+ selectivity to S177W-containing double mutants. These suppressors include mutations in the first transmembrane segment and the pore helix, likely exerting long-range actions to restore K+ selectivity, as well as a mutation of a second transmembrane segment residue facing the cytoplasmic half of the pore, below the selectivity filter. Some of these suppressors also affected channel gating (channel open time and opening frequency determined in single-channel analyses), revealing intriguing interplay between ion permeation and channel gating.


In 17 years we have performed 6,505 neurosurgical procedures in the neurosurgical unit of the Salisbury Hospital Group. Only 62% were performed on Africanpatients and 38% on European patients, despite the fact that the African population exceeds the European population by 20 times. This is partly due to the tolerance of rural people towards disease and partly to a number of social factors. The European group has a greater percentage of elderly people than the African group and, although we could not estimate the incidence of tumors among the African group, we would expect their overall incidence per capita to be lower because malignant tumors tend to occur in older people. We do not suspect the existence of a genetic factor in tumor incidence. There were 205 primary intracranial neoplasms in Africans and 244 in Europeans. Histological study shows that 33% of all tumors were meningiomas in the African group compared to 19% in the European group. Gliomas comprised 61.3% of the European series and 48.8% of the African series but the distribution by Kernohan's grading of astrocytomas was the same in both groups. If age was a factor, Grades I and II should have predominated in the African group, but did not. The incidence for each tumor among our European patients followed the patterns reported in various European and USA series. Likewise the pattern emerging from our African series closely paralleled the reports of other workers in Africa. Acoustic neuromas appear to be rather rare among Africans. The average age of all adults with tumors was 15 years lower in the African group than in the European group. However, this is entirely related to the age structure of the population, and not to an earlier age of occurrence. The average ages of medulloblastoma cases were identical. In our European series the occurrence according to age was much the same as that reported by overseas workers. The sex incidence of tumors in the European group seems to be a fair reflection of the situation elsewhere; in the African group it is questionable because men go into the towns to work and leave their families in the country. There was no significant difference in the location of tumors in the two groups. Results of treatment were uniformly inferior in the African group, partly due to the lateness of arrival at the hospital so that the growth was already far advanced and also because many patients suffered poor health from concomitant disease.


Surface molecular motions of amorphous polymeric solids have been directly measured on the basis of lateral force microscopic (LFM), scanning viscoelasticity microscopic (SVM) and differential X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (D-XPS) studies. SVM and LFM measurements of monodisperse polystyrene (PS) films revealed that, in the case of the number-average molecular weight, Mn less than ca. 30k, the surface was in a glass-rubber transition state at room temperature even though the bulk glass transition temperature, Tg was far above room temperature. The active molecular motion at the polymeric solid surface can be interpreted mainly in terms of excess free volume near the surface region induced by the surface segregation of chain end groups, which was confirmed by dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy (DSIMS). D-XPS measurement revealed that the surface Tg for the poly(styrene-block-methyl methacrylate) diblock copolymer films increased gradually with an increase in depth from the air/polymer interface.


Organophosphorus compounds are extensively used as pesticides for soft bodied insects in agriculture. They have been imported in India since 1951, but very few knew the nature of these compounds as a virulent poison till the food poisoning tragedy in 1958 which claimed above 100 lives. This was due to inadvertent stocking of food packages in the same hold as folidol containers. In countries such as India and Nicaragua, organophosphates are easily accessible and, therefore, a source of both intentional and unintentional poisonings. The incidence of international organophosphate-related human exposures appears to be underestimated.(1) Over time organophosphorus compounds have become the no.1 poison of choice for the purpose of suicide in India and remain so till date. Hence this study was conducted to shed some light on the scenario of deaths due to organophosphorus compound poisoning.

Keywords: Organophosphorous compound poisoning.


Agricultural development is essential for improved well-being in rural Ecuador. As much as 40% of the population relies on agriculture as its primary source of income and agricultural exports account for a significant proportion of foreign exchange revenue. In the highlands, potatoes are a major staple, and more than 90,000 producers grow them on about 60,000 hectares of land. Potato production is associated with heavy use of chemical inputs--pesticides and fertilizers--to manage pests and optimize profits. Concerns have emerged about the sustainability of Ecuador's potato crop as rising input costs have created a cost squeeze and public health officials are increasingly concerned about health consequences of pesticide over use. Producers need alternative pest management approaches that are feasible, economically sustainable, and effective at controlling pests. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is an approach that can help lower production costs, reduce exposure to pesticides, and improve long-term sustainability of the agricultural system. The national agricultural research institution in Ecuador (INIAP), supported in part by the IPM Collaborative Research Support Project (IPM CRSP) funded by USAID has developed technologies to manage potato pests. Information regarding these technologies reaches farmers through several diffusion mechanisms, including farmer field schools (FFS), field days, exposure to other farmers, and written media (e.g. pamphlets). Given only limited involvement of the public sector in technology transfer, decision makers need to understand the relative cost effectiveness of alternative dissemination methods. This understanding can help promote better technology transfer and, in so doing, effectively create a more sustainable potato production sector in Ecuador. This study had several objectives: 1) to analyze the extent of IPM use in Carchi and identify the determinants and constraints to IPM adoption, 2) to evaluate how IPM technologies are spread among potato farmers in Carchi, Ecuador, and 3) to compare the cost-effectiveness of the FFSs to other information dissemination methods. Carchi is of interest because it is Ecuador's primary potato production region, its potato producers suffer damage from the three major potato pests, and because it shares a border with Colombia. There is interest in generating stable agriculture-base livelihoods in the region. The study employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to achieve the above objectives. A comprehensive survey was conducted of 109 potato farmers in Carchi. Respondents included 30 Farmer Field School (FFS) participants, 28 farmers who had been exposed to FFS-participants, and 51 randomly selected farmers. Farmers were asked a series of questions including the following information categories: demographic and socioeconomic, potato production, pesticide usage and handling, IPM knowledge and implemented techniques, and knowledge about the three most significant potato pests. These pests are, in order of economic significance, Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans), the Andean Potato Weevil (Premnotrypes vorax), and the Central American Tuber Moth (Tecia solanivora). The quantitative information was combined with qualitative interviews, information on budgets and costs from the FFSs, and expert opinion. The analysis involved three steps: (i) determination of spread of information and sources of information by adoption level; (ii) analysis of the determinants of adoption using an ordered probit model; and (iii) use of the econometric results together with information on program costs to examine cost effectiveness. Step (i) involved use of descriptive statistics and differences in means. Each farmer was given a score for his or her level of IPM usage: 1=no usage, 2=minimal adoption, 3=moderate adoption, 4=high adoption, and 5=full adoption. The IPM index value is used to analyze the relationship between access to information, IPM knowledge and adoption. It is also used as the dependent variable in the econometric model. In the ordered probit model, independent variables included three categories of potential determinants of adoption for IPM potato technologies including: (i) farmer characteristics, (ii) economic factors, and (iii) institutional factors. Technology characteristics (complexity and labor requirements) and farmer perceptions (perceived profitability, risk, and preferences) are considered, not as separate variables in the model, but qualitatively to provide feedback in conjunction with model results. Specific variables included in the econometric model were: farmer age, education, household size, household members over the age of 14 (indication of labor availability), land holdings, illness from pesticides, and five variables representing the sources of information for acquiring knowledge about IPM. The five information sources included: (i) attended FFS, (ii) exposed to FFS-participant farmers, (iii) exposed to non-FFS farmers, (iv) attended one or more field days, and (v) exposed to written materials (pamphlets). Model results showed that farmer characteristics (socio-economic factors) did not play a significant role in affecting adoption rates. Four of five information sources had a positive impact on adoption. FFS-participation was the main determinant of adoption, followed by field days, pamphlets, and exposure to FFS-participants. Apart from information effects, the only other significant variable in the model was household size where larger households adopted less IPM. Lack of effects from household variables may be due to limitations in the survey sample. On the other hand, farmer characteristics affected participation in FFS, which, in turn, was a major determinant of IPM adoption. The variable land holdings was included in the model to evaluate whether there was a relationship between household wealth and adoption. Although it was not significant in the probit regression, there is evidence that capital or income may be a constraint for adopters. When we examined technology attributes of specific IPM activities and the patterns of adoption, we found that activities perceived as risky and/or were capital-intensive were adopted least in all farmer groups. These activities included buying high-quality seed, use of resistant varieties, irrigation, use of recommended storage, and use of fungicides with different active ingredients. In addition, most farmers claimed that an increase in pesticide prices or potato prices would cause them to use more IPM. Marginal effects from the ordered probit model and cost data were used to determine the relative cost-effectiveness of information dissemination mechanisms. In terms of quality of information, FFS participants have the most thorough understanding of IPM and the highest adoption rates. Concerning pesticide safety, FFSs have had the most effect on farmers in terms of safe pesticide handling. Factoring in costs, field days and pamphlets are possibly more cost-effective as diffusion mechanisms. Although these farmers have slightly lower knowledge scores and adoption rates, the benefits are high relative to the costs of implementation. FFS cost 20 times as much as a field days and 60 times as much as a pamphlet. They provide valuable information but only a small percentage of farmers can attend the limited number of schools. Through exposure to FFS participants, other farmers choose to learn about IPM through field days and pamphlets. By combining these information diffusion mechanisms (FFS, field days, farmer interactions and pamphlets), large populations of farmers are able to access important IPM messages. Based on our survey results, we expect that access to information will lead to higher rates of adoption. The study found evidence of farmer-to-farmer diffusion from FFS to non-FFS farmers, but further analysis is necessary to evaluate the nature and quality of information transfers. Analysis is also needed to identify communities that have not been exposed to IPM and evaluate the best approach for those areas.


Nineteen cases of hypopharyngeal and cervical esophageal cancer treated primarily with laryngopharyngoesophagectomy and gastric pull-up reconstruction are presented. Thirteen patients received radiotherapy preoperatively, and 4 patients postoperatively.The perioperative morbidity rate was 47% (cutaneous fistula: 21%), reflux: 21%, pyloric stenosis: 11%, but most of the complications were minor. There were no fatal intrathoracic and mediastinal complications.The mean time to oral intake was 26 days and the mean length of hospitalization was 110 days.Although 4 patients had neck nodal recurrences, two of them were salvaged and the others died of intercurrent diseases. Five patients suffered distant relapses that were fatal. No patient had local recurrence. The 5-year survival rate of the hypopharyngeal group and cervical esophagus group was 46% and 49% respectively.Gastric pull-up reconstruction is a safe and effective technique for patients with extensive carcinoma of the hypopharynx and cervical esophagus.


Aims - Cancer care coordinators have been implemented by a number of health services in an effort to overcome service fragmentation and improve patient and service outcomes, although the evidence is broad and poorly synthesised. This systematic review sought to examine the impact of these roles on patient care and outcomes and service delivery, from the perspective of patients, carers and clinicians.

 Methods - We included articles with any study design published in English between 1990 and 2012 with adult patients with at least 70% of the sample diagnosed with cancer. Care coordination studies aiming to increase cancer screening or follow-up after abnormal test results were excluded. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed and other databases for published and unpublished studies. Results - We included 59 studies from 72 articles involving 23,750 participants; this included 11 randomised controlled trials. Thirty-seven studies included in this review (n=9,107 patients) evaluated patient-reported outcomes, including quality of life, psychological morbidity, symptoms, concerns, self-efficacy, continuity of care, satisfaction with care and satisfaction with the care coordinator. In a qualitative synthesis, no impact on patient-reported outcomes of care coordination was found, with the exception of satisfaction with care, which was shown by most studies to increase with coordination, and satisfaction with the care coordinator, which was high among coordinated groups.

 Conclusions - The cumulative evidence suggests cancer care coordination is associated with higher satisfaction with care, although evidence for other outcomes is inconclusive. Studies included varied significantly in design, setting and cancer population, and studies used a diverse range of (frequently non-validated) measurement tools.


Over the last century, philosophy has comprehensively criticised the 'common- sense' view of the proposition 'God exists' as being meaningfixl. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to show that instances of 'God exists' can be considered meaningful, whether or not God does in fact exist. From the intuitive premise of compositionality - that the meaning of a proposition is determined by the meaning of its parts - I ask what options 'God exists' presents. Its appearance is that of a simple subject-predicate sentence, restricting possible difficulties in interpreting compositionality; it appears to take a subject and attribute a property to that subject. However, several problems are apparent. The first is the concept of existence. The first chapter, therefore, compares the views of Bertrand Russell with recent work by Colin McGinn, arguing in favour of existence as a predicate. McGinn presents a challenge to allowing the predication of existence of 'God', centred around the concepts by which ontological arguments characterise 'God'. The second chapter, as an historical-theological angle on the meaningfulness of 'God exists', takes up this challenge in an attempt to resolve it using Anselm's Proslogion, which is traditionally thought to demonstrate the existence of God by using the idea of God. Analysis of the Proslogion and the thought underlying it do not provide an entirely acceptable resolution, but lay the foundations for the remainder of the thesis.The third chapter argues for the rejection of McGinn's challenge. Having provided arguments for seeing 'God exists' as a subject-predicate sentence, and noted the difficulties in conceiving adequately of God, I address the problem of what account to give of 'God'. Against a background of debate in the philosophy of language, I advocate understanding 'God' as a name in God exists', and argue for a view of the meaning and reference of 'God' based upon the work of Jerome Gellman. Finally, I combine relevant elements from existence, reference and meaning - incorporating theological suggestions arising from Anselm - to provide a model for the meaningfulness of 'God exists' which, I argue, demonstrates God exists' to be a meaningful proposition if God does in fact exist or if God does not in fact exist.


Abstract : The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effectiveness of the irondale DBCP control system in preventing the off-post migration of contaminated ground water. This is a consolidated report which includes approximately 24 months of data. The evaluation of the system was accomplished by monitoring water elevation changes in the study area, chemical analysis of water samples, and analysis of the influence of the SACWSD wells' cone of depression on contaminated ground water flow direction. The data were used to develop water table elevation maps, ground water profiles, DBCP concentrations maps, and summaries of the total volume of water pumped by the control systems an the SACWSD wells


A simple, reliable, specific, accurate and precise reverse phase high performance liquid chromatographic method was developed and validated for the determination of Atomoxetine HCl in pharmaceutical dosage form. Chromatographic separation was carried on RP-C8 column (Phenomenex, size: 250×4.60 mm, particle size 5μm) with a mobile phase composed of acetonitrile and 10 mM disodium hydrogen phosphate buffer with 0.1% TEA (pH 3.0, adjusted with OPA) (55:45, v/v) in isocratic mode at a flow rate of 1mL/min. The detection was monitored at 271nm. The retention time for Atomoxetine was found to be 3.08 min. The method was found to be linear in the range of 50-150μg/mL. The proposed method can be used for the estimation of Atomoxetine HCl in bulk and pharmaceutical dosage forms for routine quality control analysis


This empirical study focus on demonstrating the relation between of earnings and stock returns by using data from Istanbul Stock Exchange of Turkey (Borsa Istanbul-BIST). This study analyzes the presence of earnings management practices by using financial information of the Turkish listed manufacturing companies. For this purpose, it was tested that low performance companies are prone to apply income increase practices than high performance companies. It was first approved that companies with low performance employ these practices. Thereafter it was examined if these earnings management practices decrease the value relevance of earnings. To test the hypothesis a model is created to present the relation between reported earnings and stock returns. Our findings display that low performance companies tend to increase their earnings so that they can hide their low performance. Our results point out that there is significant and positive relationship between earnings and market adjusted stock returns for whole sample, however there is no significant difference between adjusted market returns of high and low performance companies. In the literature, earnings management and value relevance studies are mostly based on US data. This study is the first paper that examines the relationship between earnings management, value relevance and financial performance in Turkish manufacturing companies.


Backpacker travel has become an imperative trend in modern tourism. Previous research, however, has not discussed in-depth the intentions and motivations of accommodation selection, in particular, the religious organization e.g. church, mosque, synagogue, and temple affiliated pilgrim hostel. To fill the gap of previous studies, this study provides a new research direction involving the pilgrim hostel playing an essential role as more than mere pilgrim accommodation; pilgrim hostels in Taiwan have surprisingly included a certain percentage of backpacker tourists. A survey addressed the primary identity and service content perceptions of lodgers. Two historical temple-affiliated pilgrim hostels generated 287 valid responses; 112 backpackers, composing 39 % of the sample units, participated in person. Study findings indicated many significant differences between pilgrims and backpackers regarding self-recognised identity on journeys and perceptions of pilgrim hostel service content (for example, religious identification, reason for lodging, total travel expense, number of nights stayed, customer satisfaction, and service value). Implications of these findings provide suggestions and practical applications for the tourism stakeholder and for future research.


This paper presents the design and testing of an integrated micro-chip for the controlled trapping and detection of magnetic particles (MPs). A unique magnetic micro-actuator consisting of square-shaped conductors is used to manipulate the MPs towards a giant magnetoresistance (GMR) sensing element which rapidly detects the majority of MPs trapped around the square-shaped conductors. The ability to precisely transport a small number of MPs in a controlled manner over long distances by magnetic forces enables the rapid concentration of a majority of MPs to the sensing zone for detection. This is especially important in low concentration samples. The conductors are designed in such a manner so as to increase the capture efficiency as well as the precision and speed of transportation. By switching current to different conductors, MPs can be manipulated and immobilized on the innermost conductor where the GMR sensor is located. This technique rapidly guides the MPs towards the sensing zone. Secondly, for optimum measurement capability with high spatial resolution the GMR sensor is fabricated directly underneath and all along the innermost conductor to detect the stray fields originating from the MPs. Finally, a microfluidic channel is fabricated on top of this micro-chip. Experiments inside the microchannel were carried out and the MPs were successfully trapped at the sensing area.


It is shown apparently for the first time how dispersion of birefringence (retardation, phase difference or ellipticity) can be measured through the visible spectrum by the use of a Martens type of polarization photometer and monochromator. Dispersion curves are given for several organic thermoplastic sheets including those with both normal and abnormal dispersion of birefringence, and possible uses for such sheets are suggested.


In this paper we discuss an experiment that was carried out with a prototype, designed in conformity with the concept of parallelism and the Parallel Instruction theory (the PI theory). We designed this prototype with five different interfaces, and ran an empirical study in which 18 participants completed an abstract task. The five basic designs were based on hypotheses of the PI theory that for solving tasks on screens all task relevant information must be in view on a computer monitor, as clearly as possible. The condition with two parallel frames and the condition with one long web page appeared to be the best design for this type of task, better than window versions that we normally use for our computer simulations on the web. We do not only describe the results of the abstract task in the five conditions, but we also discuss the results from the perspective of concrete, realistic tasks with computer simulations. The interface with two parallel frames is the best solution here, but also the interface with long web pages ('virtual parallelism') is a great favourite in practice when doing realistic tasks.


A New series of 1,2,4-triazole derivatives were synthesized using appropriate synthetic route and structures were confirmed by infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Antimycobacterial activity of the synthesized compounds (1-12) was carried out and percent reduction in relative light units was calculated using luciferase reporter phage assay. Percent reduction in relative light units for isoniazid was also calculated. The test compounds showed significant antitubercular potential against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and clinical isolates, S, H, R and E resistant M. tuberculosis, when tested in vitro. Compound 8 and 12 showed better antitubercular activity compared to reference isoniazid against M. tuberculosis H37Rv strain while compounds 5, 8 and 12 found superior to isoniazid against clinical isolates: S, H, R and E resistant M. tuberculosis. Synthesized compounds were also tested in vitro against representative bacterial and fungal strains. Tested compounds showed better antibacterial activities (minimum inhibitory concentration) against Gram-positive bacteria compared to Gram-negative. Compound 5 showed better antibacterial activity than ampicillin against B. subtilis. Compound 12 in the series displayed most potent antifungal activity, which was comparable to reference fluconazole against both the fungal strains.


This study, undertaken in rural New Zealand, discusses issues involved in enhancing linkages between an existing rail tourism product and a cycle tourism product. The article assesses demand for such a development and gauges current and potential future connectivity between the two products. The article draws on a survey of train passengers and rail trail visitors, along with interviews undertaken with key tourism and community stakeholders in relation to the rail trail. The data highlight problems around product development and integration. While participants agree that an enhanced link between the railway and the rail trail will be of benefit for all those involved with tourism in the region, stakeholders who currently benefit from the current (unenhanced) links between the two tourism products are hesitant about improved connectivity because of concerns centered around community growth management. Conversely, other stakeholders support enhanced rail/trail connections, lending weight to social exchange premises which infer that attitudes towards a particular issue are influenced by evaluations of the real and expected outcomes for individuals or their communities. The article highlights the complexities around the multistakeholder nature of managing such linear routes, especially in rural communities where the benefits and drawbacks of tourism developments are strongly felt.


The early history of philosophical thought experiments remains largely unwritten. In this article I argue for the importance of Ibn Sina (the Latin Avicenna, 980-1037) for understanding the gradual systematization of Aristotelian thought experiments and their methodology. Through a close examination of Avicenna's novel take on Aristotle's refutation of self-motion, I develop a case for Ibn Sina being possibly the first Peripatetic to have a reflected view of what thought experiments are and how they function. Important here is Ibn Sina's theory of the inner senses, especially his distinction between the faculties of imagination and estimation, which allows Ibn Sina to set apart idealized abstractions from imaginative feats. Ibn Sina's case demonstrates how in the Aristotelian tradition, a naturalized basis can be postulated that will underwrite the dependability of (properly conducted) philosophical thought experiments, something to which more modern thinkers no longer have access.


A "radar micrometeor" is the radar-scattering signature from the free electrons in the plasma generated by entry of a dust-sized meteoroid into the atmosphere. We report the first direct Doppler measurements, made using the Arecibo Observatory 430-MHz radar, of the so-called meteor head echo. Our observations demonstrate that this region is moving with the speed of the meteoroid as determined from the meteor head-echo altitude‐time trajectory and that this radar return is distinct spatially and in velocity from the much more commonly observed trail echo. We also report the first observations of near-antapex micrometeors which are characterized by the very slow atmospheric speeds expected from low-eclipticinclination objects entering the atmosphere from behind Earth's orbital path. Of the 32 meteors observed during four early evening hours of observations on 10 January 1997, velocities were determined for 18 of the meteors of which 7 were at or just below Earth escape velocity (11.2 km/s). We give heliocentric orbits for the 11 meteor events with speeds greater than the escape velocity and present a detailed analysis of these orbital parameters and their possible origins. One particle was determined to be interstellar: a preliminary analysis indicates that the ecliptic coordinates of the radiant relative to the local standard of rest (LSR) (with the solar motion relative to the nearby stars removed) are'D 43.02 ‐ ,flDi43.28 ‐ , VDi25.11 km/s or, in system II galactic coordinates lIID 219.8 ‐ ,


Monoclonal antibodies reactive with myeloid cell surface antigens were used to study evolutionary changes in granulocyte surface antigens from primate species. Certain of these granulocyte membrane antigens are conserved in phylogenetically distant species, indicating the potential functional importance of these structures. The degree of conservation of these antigens reflects the phylogenetic relationship between primate species. Furthermore, species of the same genus show similar patterns of binding to this panel of anti-human myeloid antibodies. This finding of conserved granulocyte surface antigens suggests that non-human primates may provide a model system for exploring uses of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of human myeloid disorders.


Acetolactate decarboxylase (ALDC) is a bacterial enzyme of the butanediol fermentation
pathway that decarboxylates (S)-acetolactate into (R)-acetoin. Remarkably this enzyme
also catalyses the decarboxylation of the opposite enantiomer, (R)-acetolactate, to give the
same product, (R)-acetoin. It is unusual for an enzyme to convert racemic substrate into
an enantiomerically pure product. This unusual stereochemical control has led to extensive
study of the ALDC mechanism and the hypothesis that ALDC catalyses the rearrangement
of (R)-acetolactate into (S)-acetolactate prior to decarboxylation.
The research presented in this thesis sought to gain insight into the molecular mechanism
of the ALDC catalysed reaction by using a combination of kinetic and structural techniques.
Bacillus subtilis alsD encoding ALDC was cloned into an expression vector and a series of
active site mutants were prepared. The activity of mutant AlsD were determined using a
circular dichroism based assay, which identified that the two active site glutamates and a
basic residue are required for catalysis.
A series of chiral transition state analogues were prepared in a two-step synthesis to give
enantiomerically enriched 2,3-dihydroxy-2-methylbutanoic acid in reasonable yields. Three
of the compounds were identified as competitive inhibitors, co-crystallised with Bacillus brevis
ALDC and structures solved to 1.1-1.6 A. These structures, coupled with inhibition studies
and site-directed mutagenesis, provide an improved understanding of the molecular processes
involved in the stereoselective decarboxylation of acetolactate. A mechanism for the
transformation of each enantiomer of acetolactate is proposed.


Purpose
Vulnerability studies are commonly used to inform planning, as cities and regions seek to build resilience to environmental hazards. In Shelby County, Tennessee, socioeconomic census tract data were mapped to identify the socially vulnerable population and places to underpin strategies in the Mid-South Regional Resilience Master Plan (RRMP). While this is an important step in identifying vulnerability in the county, this paper aims to enhance the local analysis through an integrated approach that considers both social factors and environmental hazards in assessing vulnerability.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper conducts a social vulnerability assessment by integrating a social vulnerability index with risk exposure analysis at the census tract level to identify the population and places vulnerable to riverine flooding in Shelby County.

Findings
The analysis reveals that social vulnerability assessments that do not relate socioeconomic factors to specific environmental hazards such as riverine flooding underestimate the population and places that are vulnerable. For Shelby County, this has the tendency to undermine the prioritization and effectiveness of strategies to build resilience to riverine flooding and can worsen preexisting marginalization.

Practical implications
This paper recommends integrated vulnerability assessments for each of the environmental hazards identified in the Mid-South RRMP to augment existing resilience efforts in the county.

Originality/value
This paper enhances the understanding of social vulnerability assessments by consolidating the need for integrated assessment frameworks as basis for resiliency planning.


Whilst the features of spectralism are diverse and difficult to define, there can be little doubt that in the music of George Benjamin there exist characteristics that are commonly regarded as being related to spectral thinking. As with many composers of the late twentieth century, the sounds of both the proto-spectralists and the early spectral pioneers resonate in the music of Benjamin. Approaches to colour and timbre, the use of organic structures, and the presence of spectral harmonies come together with a fastidious approach to orchestration to give this music its distinctive sound. Yet these factors do not define the music; it is not entirely spectral. There are moments of consonant, even functional, harmony; evidence of teleological thinking and a preference for change over stasis; and an impression that timbre enhances the music rather than acts as its impetus.

Benjamin's music is characterised by an acute sense of sonority, yet it is not all about the sound. Form plays a crucial role, and it is often the expression of this form through tonality and texture that is of primary importance. The music exists in a tension between localised timbre and large-scale structure: it can be enjoyed for the sounds one hears as much as the journey that is created.

This paper examines the place of spectral thinking in Benjamin's music and proposes a basis for understanding the relationship between timbre, harmony and form in his compositional approach(es). An analysis of A Mind of Winter (1981) will act as a case study from which broader issues relating to later works will be extrapolated. Analysis of localised and macro-level examples will inform conclusions that aim to open up a wider debate on this subject, and provide a starting point for the exploration of other works.


Security is always a priority in the implementation of information technology solutions. The necessity of IT as well as the complexity of IT based solutions has increased. The technology of the Internet and distributed processing enable information processing in a geographically broad area. The IT awareness and the technological sophistication of users produce a large number of educated hackers and cyber criminals. Companies worry about this threat and are willing (forced) to invest in improving the safety characteristics of their IT systems. Sophisticated security equipment and excellent aviation security requirements are not sufficient to assure efficient aviation security services. The human being continues to be the most important factor in the security process.


Background/Aim: Mutations of the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor gene have been described in a subset of pancreatic carcinomas. The APC gene modulates the β-catenin-Tcf pathway. The major player in this pathway is the β-catenin protein encoded by the β-catenin gene. A variety of different tumors, including colon, prostate, endometrial, and hepatocellular carcinomas, carry mutations in exon 3 of the β-catenin gene. The aim of this study was to determine the role of the β-catenin gene in the genesis of exocrine and endocrine tumors of the pancreas. Methods: 78 ductal pancreatic adenocarcinomas, 14 ductal pancreatic cancer cell lines, and 33 endocrine pancreatic tumors were evaluated for mutations in exon 3 of the β-catenin gene by single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis and direct DNA sequencing. In addition, 40 ductal pancreatic adenocarcinomas were analyzed for intracellular β-catenin accumulation by immunohistochemistry, indicating alterations of the β-catenin gene. Results: Neither the 111 exocrine and endocrine pancreatic tumors nor the 14 pancreatic cancer cell lines carried mutations in exon 3 of the β-catenin gene. Intracellular β-catenin accumulation was not identified in any of the 40 pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Conclusion: These data suggest that the β-catenin gene as the major player of the β-catenin-Tcf pathway does not play an important role in the genesis of pancreatic tumors.


Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an unpredictable disease accounting for more than 50% of all hospital admissions for pancreatic diseases. The disease is generally mild and self-limiting, but about 20% of the patients develop moderate to severe AP with poor prognosis leading to high morbidity and mortality. Recently increased occurrence of AP has been noted with severe AP requiring several weeks to months for treatment. Acute pancreatitis may get complicated by pancreatic and/or peripancreatic necrosis, which may become infected through several routes. The pathogenesis of secondary bacterial pancreatic infection is still under controversy. Acute pancreatitis is the setting for most infections of the pancreas, which can complicate various stages of pancreatitis. In some patients, AP develops into necrotizing pancreatitis. Patients with AP-related infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN) are prone to develop organ failure, leading to increased mortality, further complicated by multidrug-resistant (MDR) microorganisms. The bacterial spectrum in IPN reflects the commensal flora of the intestine. Clinically, there are no reliable parameters to distinguish infected from sterile necrosis as the clinical features are indistinguishable from other infectious conditions. Infected pancreatic necrosis can be diagnosed mainly by laboratory methods like culture and radiographic scan. The management of AP has developed considerably during the past decades. The preferred choices are primary conservative and minimally invasive modalities compared to open surgical necrosectomy. Antibiotics are generally not given to patients with severe AP because of limited clinical benefits. Various aspects of infections of AP inclusive of diagnostic and management modalities have been reviewed here.


Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma are two closely related types of lymphoma that are managed differently in clinical practice and the accurate diagnosis is a key point in treatment decisions. However based on current criteria combined with morphological, immunophenotypic and genetic characteristics, a significant number of cases exhibit overlapping features where diagnosis and treatment decisions are difficult to make. Especially, the prognosis have been reported significantly unfavourable in a subset of cases that are initially diagnosed as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma but bear MYC gene translocation, which is a defining feature of Burkitt lymphoma however can also be found in other lymphomas. Despite the adverse effect of MYC in aggressive lymphomas other than Burkitt lymphoma, the underlying mechanism and effective treatment is still unclear.
Recent technological advances have made it possible to simultaneously investigate an enormous number of bio-molecules, and the scientific fields associated with measuring molecular data in such a high-throughput way are usually called "omics". For example, genomics assesses thousands of DNA sequences and transcriptomics assays large numbers of transcripts in a single experiment. These techniques together with the rapidly emerging analytical methods in bioinformatics have introduced cancer research into a new era. The growing amount of omics data have significantly influenced the understanding of lymphomas and hold great promise in classifying subtypes, predicting treatment responses that will eventually lead to personalized therapy.
Here in this study, we investigate the discrimination of Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma based on DNA microarray gene expression data, which has contributed most in molecular classification of lymphoma subtypes in the last decade. On the basis of two previous research level gene expression profiling classifiers, we developed a robust classifier that works effectively on different platforms and formalin fixed paraffin-embedded samples commonly used in routine clinic. The validation of the classifier on the samples from clinical patients achieves a high agreement with diagnosis made in a central haematopathology laboratory, and leads to a potential outcome indication in the patients presenting intermediate features. In addition, we explore the role of MYC in the above lymphomas. Our investigation emphasizes the inferior impact of high level MYC mRNA expression on patients' outcome, and the functional analysis of MYC high expression associated genes show significantly enriched molecular mechanisms of proliferation and metabolic process. Moreover, the gene PRMT5 is found to be highly correlated with MYC expression which opens a possible therapeutic target for the treatment.


Graph clustering and community detection are central problems in modern data mining. The increasing need for analyzing billion-scale data calls for faster and more scalable algorithms for these problems. There are certain trade-offs between the quality and speed of such clustering algorithms. In this paper, we design scalable algorithms that achieve high quality when evaluated based on ground truth.
 We develop a generalized sequential and shared-memory parallel framework based on the LAMBDACC objective (introduced by Veldt et al.), which encompasses modularity and correlation clustering. Our framework consists of highly-optimized implementations that scale to large data sets of billions of edges and that obtain high-quality clusters compared to ground-truth data, on both unweighted and weighted graphs. Our empirical evaluation shows that this framework improves the state-of-the-art trade-offs between speed and quality of scalable community detection. For example, on a 30-core machine with two-way hyper-threading, our implementations achieve orders of magnitude speedups over other correlation clustering baselines, and up to 28.44× speedups over our own sequential baselines while maintaining or improving quality.


This study was conducted to determine sheep farmers' selection of marketing channels in livestock sales and the factors affecting their choices. The research data were generated from the survey data of 53 enterprises selected via simple random sampling method in Samsun province in 2019. In this research, descriptive statistics were used to determine some characteristics of the sheep farmers, and the chi-square test was employed to compare the farmers' characteristics according to the selection of the marketing channels. According to the results of the study, four marketing channels were identified to be efficient in livestock marketing. These were final consumers, brokers, retailers, and mixed channels. Besides, it was determined that the variables of selling additional products (milk, cheese, fleece) in the enterprise other than livestock, being a member of the Sheep and Goat Breeders Association, and the reason of choosing marketing channels had an impact (P<0.05) on the selection of marketing channels.


Late middle Miocene to middle or late Pliocene benthic foraminifera from north-central Falcon State, northwestern Venezuela, were used in determinations of the marine paleoenvironments of the Urumaco, Codore, Caujarao, La Vela and San Gregorio formations. From 121 collected samples, 31 that included a total of 126 taxa were applied to paleoenvironmental interpretations, and 20 well-preserved foraminiferal samples were analyzed with cluster analysis. In the Urumaco region, the upper middle to upper Miocene Urumaco Formation, which alternates among continental, marginal marine, and marine facies, was predominantly inner shelf, and the taxa and very low diversities suggest highly variable, low-salinity conditions. Foraminifera of the upper Miocene–middle Pliocene Chiguaje Member of the overlying Codore Formation indicate a deepening from inner to deeper-middle shelf. The middle to upper Pliocene San Gregorio Formation varies from estuarine in the lower Vergel Member to inner shelf in the overlying Cocuiza Member. In the Coro–La Vela region to the northeast, paleobathymetries are deeper, fluctuating from middle- to outer-neritic depths in the upper Miocene Taratara Member of the Caujarao Formation, and middle-neritic depths in the conformably overlying upper Miocene, basal part of the La Vela Formation. The relatively stable water depths of the Caujarao and lower La Vela formations support deposition on a stable marine platform. Overall, the shallower facies in the west and deeper facies in the east agree with the interpretation of an eastward progression of inversion of the Falcon basin from Miocene to Pliocene time. The middle Miocene–Pliocene shelf sequences of Falcon are compared to other formations of Venezuela and Colombia with similar paleoenvironments.


ABOUT THE BOOK As the title Safety or Profit? suggests, health and safety at work needs to be understood in the context of the wider political economy. This book brings together contributions informed by this view from internationally recognized scholars. It reviews the governance of health and safety at work, with special reference to Australia, Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Three main aspects are discussed. The restructuring of the labor market: this is considered with respect to precarious work and to gender issues and their implications for the health and safety of workers. The neoliberal agenda: this is examined with respect to the diminished power of organized labor, decriminalization, and new governance theory, including an examination of how well the health-and-safety-at-work regimes put in place in many industrial societies about forty years ago have fared and how distinctive the recent emphasis on self-regulation in several countries really is. The role of evidence: there is a dearth of evidence-based policy. The book examines how policy on health and safety at work is formulated at both company and state levels. Cases considered include the scant regard paid to evidence by an official inquiry into future strategy in Canada; the lack of evidence-based policy and the reluctance to observe the precautionary principle with respect to work-related cancer in the United Kingdom; and the failure to learn from past mistakes in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Intended Audience: Researchers; policymakers, trade union representatives, and officials interested in OHS; postgraduate students of OHS; OHS professionals; regulatory and socio-legal scholars.


: A case of a ten years old boy is reported who developed a severe intoxication after changing the phenytoin treatment from the calcium salt to the free acid. The difference in bioavailability reduced the drug requirement to 55% of the previous dose. The child was receiving also sodium valproate and clonazepam. Serial measurements revealed a significant inverse correlation between the toxic phenytoin serum concentration and the serum level of valproic acid. The measurements of phenytoin as well as of valproic acid in this case have shown again the value of routine monitoring of anticonvulsant therapy.


Understanding the properties of a reservoir's fluids and creating a successful model based on lab data and calculation are required for every reservoir engineer in oil and gas today, and with reservoirs becoming more complex, engineers and managers are back to reinforcing the fundamentals. PVT (pressure-volume-temperature) reports are one way to achieve better parameters, and Equations of State and PVT Analysis, 2nd Edition, helps engineers to fine tune their reservoir problem-solving skills and achieve better modeling and maximum asset development. Designed for training sessions for new and existing engineers, Equations of State and PVT Analysis, 2nd Edition, will prepare reservoir engineers for complex hydrocarbon and natural gas systems with more sophisticated EOS models, correlations and examples from the hottest locations around the world such as the Gulf of Mexico, North Sea and China, and Q&A at the end of each chapter. Resources are maximized with this must-have reference.Improve with new material on practical applications, lab analysis, and real-world sampling from wells to gain better understanding of PVT properties for crude and natural gasSharpen your reservoir models with added content on how to tune EOS parameters accuratelySolve more unconventional problems with field examples on phase behavior characteristics of shale and heavy oil


Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is a structured, time-limited, cognitive behavioural treatment originally developed for Borderline Personality Disorder clients who have chronic parasuicidal problems. The therapy integrates individual psychotherapy with concurrent skills training, access to skills generalisation and team consultation for therapists. Initial outcome studies by Linehan and colleagues conducted in the US suggest that the therapy successfully lowers attrition rate, parasuicidal episodes and psychiatric in-patient days. The effect on parasuicidal behaviour and psychiatric inpatient days appear to outlast the therapy by at least a year. This paper overviews the therapy and examines how it may be used in day-to-day clinical practice in other cultural settings. We suggest that any adaptation or modification to DBT should be done in the context of a theoretical model of which psychological processes underlie the treatment effects and with due attention to the advantages and disadvantages of wor...


Background:  Diarrhoea is a common complication during enteral tube feeding (ETF) and, despite little empirical evidence, is said to be unpleasant for both patients and nurses (Whelan et al., 2007). The aspects of diarrhoea considered to be unpleasant among patients receiving ETF or among nurses caring for these patients has not previously been investigated. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate patients' and nurses' attitudes towards diarrhoea during ETF.

Methods:  A questionnaire was developed following an extensive literature review and was pre-tested for clarity. An interviewer-administered questionnaire survey was then conducted by the same interviewer, in patients receiving ETF and in nurses caring for patients receiving ETF. Seven different characteristics of diarrhoea (faecal colour, consistency, frequency, quantity, incontinence, odour, need to change underwear) were rated for their unpleasantness using a four-point Likert scale. Ratings were then ranked and a mean rank calculated for each group to determine the most and least unpleasant characteristic. Ranks were then compared within patients and within nurses using a Friedman test. Ethical approval was obtained from an NHS Research Ethics Committee.

Results:  In total, 22 patients (16 male, six female; mean age 58.5 ± 15.2 years) receiving ETF due to dysphagia, post-surgery, tracheostomy and inadequate nutritional intake and 57 nurses (16 male, 41 female) from respiratory, intensive therapy, elderly care and renal units were interviewed. There were differences in the rankings of the seven characteristics among patients (P < 0.001) and among nurses (P < 0.001). Patients rated incontinence and frequency as the most unpleasant characteristic of diarrhoea, whereas nurses rated odour and changing underwear as the most unpleasant characteristic of caring for patients with diarrhoea during ETF (Table 1).

Table 1.   Mean ranking of attitude towards diarrhoea during ETF within nurses and patients (Rank 1 = least unpleasant, 7 = most unpleasant) Characteristics Patient (n = 22) Nurses (n = 57)
Incontinence 5.5 4.0
Frequency 4.8 4.0
Consistency 4.4 4.1
Odour 4.2 5.3
Quantity 3.8 3.7
Colour 2.8 2.4
Changing underwear 2.5 4.5
P-value (Friedman test) <0.001 <0.001

Discussion:  The characteristics of diarrhoea considered to be unpleasant by patients are not the same as for nurses. The importance of understanding the patient perspective of symptoms is increasingly recognised in practice and research.

Conclusion:  Faecal incontinence and frequency are considered to be the most unpleasant characteristics of diarrhoea by patients. These characteristics should be monitored by healthcare professionals and strategies developed to minimize their occurrence in hospitalised patients receiving ETF.

Reference  Whelan, K. (2007) Enteral-tube-feeding diarrhoea: manipulating the colonic microbiota with probiotics and prebiotics. Proc. Nutr Soc. 66, 299–306.


The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive analysis and assessment of how the European Investment Bank contributes to the achievement of Cohesion Policy objectives. The study finds that the role of the European Investment Bank in Cohesion Policy increased significantly in the 2007-13 programme period and continues to increase in 2014-20. Research results show that there is limited understanding of the effectiveness of European Investment Bank contributions to Cohesion Policy. In order to increase accountability, the inter-institutional relationship between the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development and the European Investment Bank should be strengthened.


Abstract Curriculum-based measures of written expression have traditionally used total words written or correct word sequences as indices of students' skill levels. Although there are validity data to support these measures, anecdotal evidence indicates that these measures may be unacceptable to some teachers and psychologists. This investigation attempted to determine whether additional hand-scored and computer-scored measures might share more variance with the criterion measures than total words written or correct word sequences. Third and fourth grade students (n = 179) completed 3-min CBM writing probes on two consecutive days, which were scored for nineteen variables. Correlations and regressions of these with criterion variables were calculated. The new measure, correct punctuation marks, shows the most promise for serving as an additional index for writing skill. In addition, this study investigated the time costs associated with scoring these variables. Implications of the analyses, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.


English serves as a bridge of communication for the people from all over the world as it plays an increasingly crucial role in the process of globalization. In accordance with English curriculum standards issued by the Ministry of Education in 2011, the ultimate goal of English language discipline is to communicate. But over these years, China's English education has been difficult to get out of the dilemma of "Dumb English". When facing the real oral communication situations, students are still too nervous to speak with a great deal of fluency and accuracy. Therefore, the present study aims to explore the relationship between English language anxiety, gender, years of English learning and final oral English achievement by inviting 41 English major freshmen of foreign language departments of Nanchang Business College. For this purpose, this study adopts a reliable Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale developed by Horwitz and Cope (1986) to measure students' anxiety. The results reveal that anxiety levels between males and females are similar; there is also no significant difference among years of learning English; however, a significantly negative correlation between college students' foreign language anxiety and their oral English learning achievement was found.


The aim of this article is to examine the prevalence and etiological causes of sinus headache in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis. Patients who complained of sinus headache were identified and their presenting symptoms were analyzed in the light of the final diagnosis, made after surgical treatment and follow-up. The mean follow-up time for patients with sinus headache was 3.2 months (range, 4-16 months). Patients' responses to treatment were classified under three categories; complete improvement, partial improvement and no response to treatment. Headache resolved completely in nine (34.6%) out of 26 patients diagnosed with chronic sinusitis and complaining of headache, while partial resolution was seen in five (19.2%) and no change in pain in 12 (46.1%).  Five patients with partial improvement and  12 patients with no improvement were re-evaluated through consultation with the neurology clinic. Eleven patients were diagnosed with migraine and five with tension type headache. No additional disease to sinusitis was determined in one patient. Sinonasal surgery may be beneficial in patients with primary headaches. We believe that a new diagnostic criterion for primary headache, whose etiology includes sinonasal pathologies, is now needed.


Aim: To evaluate the utility of a mobile device to detect and assess intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) on head computed tomographys (CT) performed in the emergency setting. Materials and Methods: 100 head CT scans were randomly selected from our emergency radiology database and anonymized for patient demographics and clinical history. The studies were independently interpreted by two experienced radiologists in a blinded manner, initially on a mobile device (iPad, Apple computers) and subsequently, at an interval of one week, on a regular desktop workstation. Evaluation was directed towards detection, localization and characterization of hemorrhage. The results were assessed for accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive value. Statistical significance was ascertained using Fisher's exact test. Results: 27 of the examinations were positive for ICH, of which 11 had multiple hemorrhages. Of these there were 17 subdural, 18 intraparenchymal, 8 subarachnoid, 4 intraventricular and 2 extradural hemorrhages. In 96 of the studies there was complete concurrence between the iPad and desktop interpretations for both radiologists. Of 49 hemorrhages, 48 were accurately detected on the iPad by one of the radiologists. In the remaining case, a tiny intraventricular hemorrhage was missed by both radiologists on the iPad as well as on the workstation, indicating that the miss was more likely related to the very small size of the hemorrhage than the viewer used. Conclusion: We conclude that in the emergency setting, a mobile device with appropriate web-based pictue archiving and communication system (PACS) is effective in the detection of intracranial hemorrhage present on head CT.


Thermoelectric power plants require large volumes of water for cooling, which can introduce drought vulnerability and compete with other water needs. Alternative cooling technologies, such as cooling towers and hybrid wet–dry or dry cooling, present opportunities to reduce water diversions. This case study uses a custom, geographically resolved river basin-based model for eleven river basins in the state of Texas (the Brazos and San Jacinto–Brazos, Colorado and Colorado–Brazos, Cypress, Neches, Nueces, Red, Sabine, San Jacinto, and Trinity River basins), focusing on the Brazos River basin, to analyze water availability during drought. We utilized two existing water availability models for our analysis: (1) the full execution of water rights—a scenario where each water rights holder diverts the full permitted volume with zero return flow, and (2) current conditions—a scenario reflecting actual diversions with associated return flows. Our model results show that switching the cooling technologies at power plants in the eleven analyzed river basins to less water-intensive alternative designs can potentially reduce annual water diversions by 247–703 million m3—enough water for 1.3–3.6 million people annually. We consider these results in a geographic context using geographic information system tools and then analyze volume reliability, which is a policymaker's metric that indicates the percentage of total demand actually supplied over a given period. This geographic and volume reliability analysis serves as a measure of drought susceptibility in response to changes in thermoelectric cooling technologies. While these water diversion savings do not alleviate all reliability concerns, the additional streamflow from the use of dry cooling alleviates drought concerns for some municipal water rights holders and might also be sufficient to uphold instream flow requirements for important bays and estuaries on the Texas Gulf coast.


Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) has many nonconforming loads that are a challenge for their automatic generation control (AGC) software. Their area control error (ACE) values often have peak-to-peak swings of 150+ MW in a few minutes, and the ACE signal is noisy due to numerous asynchronous nonconforming industrial loads. These loads include over 20% of the base US steel production. A number of investigations targeted at assessing the actual impact of highly varying industrial loads on system reliability have been undertaken. This paper reports results for one of these investigations. The current AGC program attempts to account for short duration excursions which leads to increased generation over and under shoots and possible increased wear and tear on generating equipment. It has been shown that conventional control strategies of this nature can degrade rather than improve overall control of ACE. As a consequence, an effort has been undertaken to develop algorithms that will discriminate between noncontrollable short-term excursions and controllable long-term excursions. This paper presents two techniques that address the nonconforming load problem for AGC. One technique used a neural network algorithm for pattern recognition of controllable signals, and the other technique is based on the detection of a controllable signal in the presence of a noisy random load using a random signal probability model. Both algorithms were tested with actual field load data via a dispatcher training simulator that utilized a generic system model. >


Two regions of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) genome have been shown to display properties of a transcriptional enhancer. Enhancer 1 is active in most hepatoma lines examined as well as in some non-hepatocyte-derived cell lines. In contrast, enhancer 2 activity is strictly liver specific. In this study, we show that adenovirus E1A expression in the highly differentiated human hepatoma line Huh6 strongly inhibits HBV enhancer 2-stimulated transcription while having no effect on HBV enhancer 1 activity. A sequence motif in HBV enhancer 2 which is essential for its enhancer function is the target for E1A-mediated repression. The repression of HBV enhancer 2 activity is mediated through the N-terminal region of the E1A proteins known to bind a 300-kDa cellular protein. Our results suggest that HBV enhancer function may be modulated by a cellular mechanism similar to E1A-mediated transcriptional repression.