Circular dichroism (CD) and infrared spectroscopy (IRS) studies of aqueous solutions of fourth N-terminal peptides of histone H4 with different chain length were carried out under various conditions. It was shown that all studied peptides had conformation of extended left-handed helix as well as poly-1-proline II at the acidic and neutral pH, in moderate ionic strength (0,15), in 80% ethanol, 0,2 M sodium dodecylsulphate, in 8 M urea and 5 M guanidinum hydrochloride. This conformation was changed by raising temperature, under transition to the range of basic pH and in the concentrated solutions of CaCl2 (5M).


We present a general framework and learning algorithm for the task of concept labeling: each word in a given sentence has to be tagged with the unique physical entity (e.g. person, object or location) or abstract concept it refers to. Our method allows both world knowledge and linguistic information to be used during learning and prediction. We show experimentally that we can learn to use world knowledge to resolve ambiguities in language, such as word senses or reference resolution, without the use of handcrafted rules or features.


With the impressive development of embedded systems, it becomes possible and imperative to connect them to the Internet. Meanwhile, because of the IPv4 address exhaustion problem, IPv6 is not only an appropriate but also a preferable choice for this purpose. This paper proposes a light-weight IPv6 protocol stack, EIPv6, for embedded systems. It is efficient and fast enough for time-critical applications, and highly portable and configurable to satisfy resource requirements of various platforms. With some optional features disabled, its size can be limited to 24.3 KBytes and requires 6.5 KBytes of RAM, without significant degradation in performance.


The Image chip, which accelerates 3D rendering algorithms base on Bresenham's line drawing and Pineda's parallel polygon drawing algorithms, is discussed. With these algorithms, Image can directly draw lines, spans, and triangles in wireframe, hidden-line, and Gouraud-shading modes. Image also directly antialiases vectors or provides antialiasing information to enhance antialiasing of vectors or triangles. Image's operation, separation into layers to maximize performance and simplify the input and output interfaces, and support of advanced rendering effects such as Phong shading and texture mapping are described. The designs of Image's internal architecture, host interface, and memory interface are also described.<<ETX>>


Black mats are prominent features of the late Pleistocene and Holocene stratigraphic record in the southern Great Basin. Faunal, geochemical, and sedimentological evidence shows that the black mats formed in several microenvironments related to spring discharge, ranging from wet meadows to shallow ponds. Small land snails such as Gastrocopta tappaniana and Vertigo berryi are the most common mollusk taxa present. Semiaquatic and aquatic taxa are less abundant and include Catinellids, Fossaria parva, Gyraulus parvus, and others living today in and around perennial seeps and ponds. The ostracodes Cypridopsis okeechobi and Scottia tumida, typical of seeps and low-discharge springs today, as well as other taxa typical of springs and wetlands, are common in the black mats. Several new species that lived in the saturated subsurface also are present, but lacustrine ostracodes are absent. The δ13C values of organic matter in the black mats range from −12 to −26‰, reflecting contributions of tissue from both C3 (sedges, most shrubs and trees) and C4 (saltbush, saltgrass) plants. Carbon-14 dates on the humate fraction of 55 black mats fall between 11,800 to 6300 and 2300 14C yr B.P. to modern. The total absence of mats in our sample between 6300 and 2300 14C yr B.P. likely reflects increased aridity associated with the mid-Holocene Altithermal. The oldest black mats date to 11,800–11,600 14C yr B.P., and the peak in the 14C black mat distribution falls at ∼10,000 14C yr B.P. As the formation of black mats is spring related, their abundance reflects refilling of valley aquifers starting no later than 11,800 and peaking after 11,000 14C yr B.P. Reactivation of spring-fed channels shortly before 11,200 14C yr B.P. is also apparent in the stratigraphic records from the Las Vegas and Pahrump Valleys. This age distribution suggests that black mats and related spring-fed channels in part may have formed in response to Younger Dryas (YD)-age recharge in the region. However, the inception of black mat formation precedes that of the YD by at least 40014C yr, and hydrological change is gradual, not rapid.


In the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) in the United States during the 1994-95 school year, sampled high school students were asked to rank 17 romantic relationship activities in ideal chronological order, and to nominate up to 5 male and 5 female best friends within the school. It is natural to see that the students' rank-order progression of social, romantic and sexual relationships may be influenced strongly by their peers or friends. So far, traditional ranking models do not account for such social network dependency. In this article, we introduce a new class of models called social order statistics (SOS) models to learn ranking data in social networks. The new models combine the order statistics models and spatial autoregressive models to account for social dependencies among the individuals. A flexible formulation of weight matrices in the spatial model is adopted to provide diverse network effects among the individuals for different items. Efficient and scalable MCMC algorithms are developed to perform Bayesian inference in a parallel manner for large networks with even a few thousand nodes. Analysis of the Add Health dataset reveals that social network effects are different for students' preferences towards different activities in a relationship. In particular, students' preferences on romantic and sexual events generally have stronger peer effects than those on social events, and opinions of close friends of the same gender tend to have a larger impact on the preferences on sexual events.


Two adaptive impulsive control techniques designed to eliminate steady state error for a rigid body system subject to friction, and undergoing a point-to-point maneuver are implemented. Pulse width and pulse amplitude pulse width modulations are explored. It is shown that the results of the pulse amplitude modulation never generates limit cycles and has lower steady-state error than the pulse width modulation


Much of the research conducted into young people's information seeking has taken place in schools. These organisations afford access to hundreds of diverse youngsters. They are accessible, and pupils are effectively pre‐classified for the researcher. Factors within a school that may affect information‐seeking behaviour can be explored. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to secure all appropriate permissions for the work. The timing of data collection can be problematic and the pupil population may not include all groups of interest. The investigator must also decide on the method(s) used for collecting data from the youngsters. Several lend themselves to developing an understanding of how far the individuals under scrutiny use particular sources, systems or organisations. Others are more effective for exploring the strategies inquirers employ when exploiting materials. The investigator must select the method that appears best equipped to deliver a satisfactory answer to the research question.


Detection and characterization of avalanches are important for making avalanche inventories as well as for the management of emergency situations. In this paper we propose a scheme for automatic detection and mapping of avalanches in SAR images. The approach builds upon the hypothesis that compacted rough snow of an avalanche has very high backscatter intensity values compared to homogeneous snow cover and bare ground, and hence, by comparing the event image with a reference image we may detect and map avalanches in the scene. The proposed approach consists of two steps: (i) an initial detection of potential avalanche objects and, (ii) supervised classification of avalanche candidates using a random forest classifier. The approach is evaluated on a set of Radarsat-2 ultra-fine images, and the out-of-bag error rate is 6.4%. We conclude that an operational automatic algorithm may be feasible provided enough training data is available.


By knowing energy carriers, human beings have made extensive efforts to extract and apply them in industry and economic development. These resources played an important role in the development of the industrial revolution, which led to the development of industry and technology, and global dependence on fossil fuels, especially oil, expanded rapidly in response to the need. With vast investments in alternative sources of renewable energy to address the crisis caused by the production and use of energy in terms of resource constraints and environmental threats, world life is affected by the need for energy and will be significantly dependent on fossil fuels in the future. The results of this paper indicate that use of oil and its derivatives is currently the first because of economic dependence of countries, and in the future, despite the constraints on resources, will play the most important role in global demand and supply.
Keywords: Oil; energy; demand; supply
References:
World Energy Outlook, November 2013.
Saghafi, M. (2009). Renewable energies. Tehran University, Tehran.
Heidari, SH. (2009). Energy Planning in Iran. Institute of Publications, University of Tehran.
Energy Balance Sheet (2014). Ministry of Power.
Deputy of Electricity and Energy Affairs. Office of Planning for Electricity and Energy.
Bahman Brokerage Company (Joint Stock Company): A comprehensive analysis of oil industry in the world. Bahman Investment Services, 2011
West Texas Research Group, October 2011.
BP Statistical Review of World Energy, June 2011.
OPEC Monthly Report, November 2011.
OPEC's Long-term Perspective on the World Oil Economy, 2011.


Background

The application of information and communication technology is becoming more popular in healthcare management evidencing improvement of effectiveness, access, quality, and efficiency of the healthcare systems. With increased investment and implementation of eHealth across the world, there is a need to evidence its value. That is, its evaluation is required in order to get the most benefits out of them. To this end, this research study investigates the practices, challenges, and insights regarding the evaluation of eHealth implementations in Uganda.

Methods

A qualitative approach was employed to conduct the study investigation with key eHealth implementers in Uganda considered as respondents to establish an understanding of their perspectives with respect to ehealth evaluation practices and challenges faced, as well as to derive insights from these perspectives in relation to the World Health Organization (WHO) understanding of digital health evaluation.

Results

Results show that Uganda has implemented various eHealth initiatives; however less to none evaluation is undertaken, as it is not a key activity with most of the eHealth implementers. The focus is put on monitoring the ehealth initiatives' functionality and adoption rather than their outcome and impact.

Conclusion

Accordingly, the study recommends the need for an evaluation framework following the WHO global digital health evaluation framework guidelines to elucidate the notion of evaluation, its characteristics, and measurement indicators regards the outcome and impact of ehealth implementations in healthcare and service delivery for Uganda's health system.


Maximal ancestral graphs (MAGs) have many desirable properties; in particular they can fully describe conditional independences from directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) in the presence of latent and selection variables. However, different MAGs may encode the same conditional independences, and are said to be \emph{Markov equivalent}. Thus identifying necessary and sufficient conditions for equivalence is essential for structure learning. Several criteria for this already exist, but in this paper we give a new non-parametric characterization in terms of the heads and tails that arise in the parameterization for discrete models. We also provide a polynomial time algorithm ($O(ne^{2})$, where $n$ and $e$ are the number of vertices and edges respectively) to verify equivalence. Moreover, we extend our criterion to ADMGs and summary graphs and propose an algorithm that converts an ADMG or summary graph to an equivalent MAG in polynomial time ($O(n^{2}e)$). Hence by combining both algorithms, we can also verify equivalence between two summary graphs or ADMGs.


Numerous studies have pointed to histone deacetylase inhibitors as potential therapeutics for various neurodegenerative diseases, and clinical trials with several histone deacetylase inhibitors have been performed or are under way. However, histone deacetylase inhibitors tested to date either are highly cytotoxic or have very low specificities for different histone deacetylase enzymes. The authors' laboratories have identified a novel class of histone deacetylase inhibitors (2-aminobenzamides) that reverses heterochromatin-mediated silencing of the frataxin (FXN) gene in Friedreich ataxia. The authors have identified the histone deacetylase enzyme isotype target of these compounds and present evidence that compounds that target this enzyme selectively increase FXN expression from pathogenic alleles. Studies with model compounds show that these histone deacetylase inhibitors increase FXN messenger RNA levels in the brain in mouse models for Friedreich ataxia and relieve neurological symptoms observed in mouse models and support the notion that this class of molecules may serve as therapeutics for the human disease.


Many applications make use of Series of data items, i.e., an array of
data items where new items can be added over time. Where such Series
are to be made available using REST protocols such as CoAP or HTTP,
the Series has to be mapped into a structure of one or more resources
and a protocol for a client to obtain the Series and to learn about
new items. Various protocols have been standardized that make Series-
shaped data available, with rather different properties and
objectives. The present document is an attempt to extract a common
underlying pattern and to define media types and an access scheme that
can be used right away for further protocols that provide Series-
shaped data.


Although the basketball teams of the Southeastern Conference dominate the national college rankings, it wasn't too long ago that the SEC was mostly recognized for football. Today the SEC has displaced the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference as the premier conference of college basketball. Beginning with Rick Pitino's revival of the University of Kentucky from the perdition of probation to the University of Arkansas's entry into the conference and subsequent national title, Chris Dortch chronicles SEC history up to its present pinnacle. The twelve conference teams play for high stakes, competing fiercely for coaches and players and for coveted spots at the NCAA tournament. Join Dortch as he talks to the coaches, players, and fans who have turned the SEC into the home of all that is best in college basketball. String Music also explores the traditions and history that bring SEC hoops to life, including the rivalries, the history, the players, and the coaches. It sets the standard for analyzing the state of college basketball today and provides the best coverage of the rich heritage of SEC basketball.


Background EarlyCDT®-Lung Test detects autoantibodies to abnormal cell surface proteins from the early stages of lung cancer with a specificity of 93%. This may allow earlier tumour detection thus altering prognosis. The primary research question is: Does using the EarlyCDT®-Lung Test to identify those at high risk of lung cancer, followed by xray and CT scanning in the test positive group, reduce the incidence of patients with late-stage lung cancer (III and IV) or unclassified presentation (U) at diagnosis, compared to standard practice? Recruitment was completed in June 2016 with 12,018 subjects randomised. Methods A RCT in Scotland recruiting from the most socially disadvantaged quintiles. Adults aged 50 to 75 (ECOG 0–2) who were at high risk for lung cancer (>20 pack years or relevant family history) were eligible. The intervention was the EarlyCDT®-Lung Test, followed by chest xray and CT in those with a positive result. The comparator is standard clinical practice in the UK. The primary outcome is the difference, after 24 months, between the rates of patients with stage III, IV or unclassified lung cancer at diagnosis in test v no-test group. Secondary outcomes include: all-cause mortality; cancer specific mortality; a range of morbidity outcomes; cost-effectiveness and measures examining the psychological and behavioural consequences of screening. Participants with a positive test result had an initial chest xray which was used to determine the urgency and the need for contrast in the initial screening CT. Those in whom the initial CT scan did not lead to a lung cancer diagnosis were offered biannual chest CTs for 24 months. Participants who are found to have lung cancer will be followed-up to assess both time to diagnosis and stage of disease at diagnosis. Results 575/6120 (9.8%) of the test group had a positive test with 207 found to have lung nodules >8 mm, 16 cancers have been detected so far, 12 of which are at early stage. Eleven have abnormalities undergoing current investigation. At this stage of the trial we have no outcome data for the comparison group. Conclusion The study will determine EarlyCDT-Lung test's clinical and cost effectiveness.


In this paper, we present new perturbation analysis and randomized algorithms for the total least squares (Tls) problem. Our new perturbation results are sharper than the earlier ones. We prove that the condition numbers obtained by Zhou et al. [Numer. Algorithm, 51 (2009), pp. 381-399], Barboulin and Gratton [SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl., 32 (2011), pp. 685-699], Li and Jia [Linear Algebra Appl., 435 (2011), pp. 674-686] are mathematically equivalent. Statistical condition estimates (Sce) are applied to the Tls problem. Motivated by the recently popular probabilistic algorithms for low-rank approximations, we develop randomized algorithms for the Tls and the truncated total least squares (Ttls) solutions of large-scale discrete ill-posed problems, which can greatly reduce the computational time and still keep good accuracy. Its efficiency is well demonstrated by numerical examples.


One in four toddlers are not achieving the recommended vitamin D intake crucial for their healthy development(1, 2). This study explored parents' acceptability of factors affecting purchasing of foods and drinks fortified with Vitamin D in children aged 0-2 years old. A total of 194 parents completed an online parent questionnaire. Focus groups and interviews were used to explore in depth perceptions of vitamin D fortification. Thirteen participants participated in the 5 focus groups, 5 completed interviews. The majority of participants were female (mothers) and of White-British ethnic background, aged between 25-40 years, with 89% of the sample with a level 3 qualification (e.g. 2 or more A levels, NVQ level 3). Basic descriptive statistics were calculated from the questionnaire data and a thematic analysis methodology was applied to the qualitative data. The findings indicated low purchasing of vitamin D fortified foods/drinks by parents (21% of the sample). The foods/drinks most purchased were cereal, yogurts and alternative milks. Willingness to purchase certain products fortified with vitamin D to increase their child's vitamin D was however high. After excluding formula milk, parents would be willing to buy yogurt, yogurt drinks, cereals, milk-based drinks, fruit juice and margarine. The table outlines parents' views on the facilitators and barriers to purchasing vitamin D fortified foods and drinks. There is a potential for fortified foods to play a role in increasing the intake of vitamin D intake. Parents need quality education explaining the need to prevent vitamin D deficiency, though fortified products. Products also need to be suitable for babies and toddlers; better labelled, lower cost; with healthy options available with lower sugar and salt content, tasty, longer shelf life and better availability in local shops and supermarkets. Future research should determine if consumption of fortified foods/drinks alone rather than supplementation is sufficient to meet children's daily intake of vitamin D(3).


. Calligrapha androwi is newly described from specimens collected in Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Alabama. It is placed in the subgenus Bidensomela Monros. Acalligrapha Monros and Coreopsomela Monros are reduced to subjective junior synonyms of Bidensomela Monros. A key to the striped species of Calligrapha occurring north of Mexico is adapted from Wilcox (1972) to include the new species.


Abstract. The combined use of high-resolution digital images taken from ground as well as from RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) have significantly increased the potential of close range digital photogrammetry applications in Cultural Heritage surveying and modeling. It is in fact possible, thanks to SfM (Structure from Motion), to simultaneously process great numbers of aerial and terrestrial images for the production of a dense point cloud of an object. In order to analyze the accuracy of results, we started numerous tests based on the comparison between 3D digital models of a monumental complex realized by the integration of aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry and an accurate TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner) reference model of the same object. A lot of digital images of a renaissance castle, assumed as test site, have been taken both by ground level and by RPAS at different distances and flight altitudes and with different flight patterns. As first step of the experimentation, the images were previously processed with Agisoft PhotoScan, one of the most popular photogrammetric software. The comparison between the photogrammetric DSM of the monument and a TLS reference one was carried out by evaluating the average deviation between the points belonging to the two entities, both globally and locally, on individual facades and architectural elements (sections and particular). In this paper the results of the first test are presented. A good agreement between photogrammetric and TLS digital models of the castle is pointed out.


It is already well known that hypermethylation of the O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) gene promoter is a predictive biomarker of response to temozolomide treatment and of favorable outcomes in terms of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in glioblastoma (GBM) patients. Nevertheless, MGMT methylation status has not currently been introduced into routine clinical practice, as the choice of the ideal technique and tissue sample specimen is still controversial. The aim of this study was to compare 2 analytical methods, methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) and pyrosequencing (PSQ), and their use on 2 different tissue type samples, snap-frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), obtained from a single-center and uniformly treated cohort of 46 GBM patients. We obtained methylation data from all frozen tissues, while no results were obtained for 5 FFPE samples. The highest concordance for methylation was found on frozen tissues (88.5%, 23/26 samples), using PSQ (76.7%, 23/30 samples). Moreover, we confirmed that OS and PFS for patients carrying methylation of the MGMT promoter were longer than for patients with an unmethylated promoter. In conclusion, we considered MSP a limited technique for FFPE tissues due to the high risk of false-positive results; in contrast, our data indicated PSQ as the most powerful method to stratify methylated/unmethylated patients as it allows reaching quantitative results with high sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, frozen tumor tissues were shown to be the best specimens for MGMT methylation analysis, due to the low DNA degradation and homogeneity in methylation throughout the tumor.


Background: Exposure of nursing staff to variable allergens constitutes an important occupational risk. The aim was to evaluate the frequency and type of allergic reactions. Subjects-Method: A questionnaire was distributed to the nursing staff of three general hospitals of Athens. SPSS was used for the statistical analysis. Results: 283 workers completed the questionnaire: 28(9,9%) males, 255 (90,1%) females, mean age: 38±16years. 149 (53%) individuals reported allergic reaction. 62(41,6%) presented the most recent episode in £1year. 75% reported 32episodes. Manifestations: Rash (74,5%), dyspnea (29,5%), facial angioedema (16,1%), laryngeal edema (6,7%). Allergens implicated: antiseptics-disinfectants (58,4%), gloves (57%), medications (23,5%). 77 (51,7%) workers needed medical treatment, 12 (8,1%) hospitalization, 17 (11,4%) sick-leave, 9 (6%) changed clinic/department. In 42% of the cases the head nurse was not informed. 41,6% reported that taking preventive measures is practically difficult. 45% had a history of allergic reactions outside the workplace. Conclusions: (1)The percentage of allergic reactions was significant. (2) Antiseptics-disinfectants and gloves have been mainly implicated. (3) A significant percentage needed medical treatment. (4) Only few workers took preventive measures.


Abstract Background: The high incidence and prevalence rates of depression among students identify them as a vulnerable population and make the case for the development of cost-effective treatments. Aims: We aimed to examine the comparative effects of brief group metacognitive therapy (MCT) versus behavioural activation (BA) treatments for depression, anxiety, and emotion regulation in university students. Method: All participants (25 women, 16 men; age range: 18–30 years) fulfilled criteria for major depression and were randomly assigned to MCT (n = 15), BA (n = 15), or a wait-list control group (n = 15). The treatment groups received 8 weekly MCT or BA sessions. Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were used as outcome measures. Results: This pilot study showed that both treatments were equally effective for depressive and anxiety symptoms. However, therapeutic techniques differed with regards to their effects on specific facets of emotion regulation, such as Positive Reappraisal and Catastrophizing, with MCT being more effective compared to BA. BA also showed a stronger relapse at follow-up with regards to Acceptance and Refocus on Planning. Conclusions: Results suggest that groups MCT and BA may be implemented as cost-effective treatments for students with moderate depression.


W4 is a giant H{\sc ii} region ionized by the OB stars of the cluster IC~1805. The H{\sc ii} region/cluster complex has been a subject of numerous investigations as it is an excellent laboratory for studying the feedback effect of massive stars on the surrounding region. However, the low-mass stellar content of the cluster IC~1805 remains poorly studied till now. With the aim to unravel the low-mass stellar population of the cluster, we present the results of a multiwavelength study based on deep optical data obtained with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, infrared data from 2MASS, $Spitzer$ Space Telescope and X-ray data from $Chandra$ Space Telescope. The present optical dataset is complete enough to detect stars down to 0.2~M$_\odot$, which is the deepest optical observations so far for the cluster. We identified 384 candidate young stellar objects (YSOs; 101 Class I/II and 283 Class III) within the cluster using various colour-colour and colour-magnitude diagrams. We inferred the mean age of the identified YSOs to be $\sim$ 2.5 Myr and mass in the range 0.3 - 2.5 M$_\odot$. The mass function of our YSO sample has a power law index of -1.23 $\pm$ 0.23, close to the Salpeter value (-1.35), and consistent with those of other star-forming complexes. We explored the disk evolution of the cluster members and found that the diskless sources are relatively older compared to the disk bearing YSO candidates. We examined the effect of high-mass stars on the circumstellar disks and found that within uncertainties, the influence of massive stars on the disk fraction seems to be insignificant. We also studied the spatial correlation of the YSOs with the distribution of gas and dust of the complex to conclude that IC 1805 would have formed in a large filamentary cloud.


Natural compounds ursolic acid (UA) and digoxin isolated from fruits and other plants display potent anti-cancer effects in preclinical studies. UA and digoxin have been at clinical trials for treatment of different cancers including prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer and breast cancer. However, they displayed limited benefit to patients. Currently, a poor understanding of their direct targets and mechanisms of action (MOA) severely hinders their further development. We previously identified nuclear receptor RORγ as a novel therapeutic target for castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and demonstrated that tumor cell RORγ directly activates gene programs such as androgen receptor (AR) signaling and cholesterol metabolism. Previous studies also demonstrated that UA and digoxin are potential RORγt antagonists in modulating the functions of immune cells such as Th17 cells. Here we showed that UA displays a strong activity in inhibition of RORγ-dependent transactivation function in cancer cells, while digoxin exhibits no effect at clinically relevant concentrations. In prostate cancer cells, UA downregulates RORγ-stimulated AR expression and AR signaling, whereas digoxin upregulates AR signaling pathway. In TNBC cells, UA but not digoxin alters RORγ-controlled gene programs of cell proliferation, apoptosis and cholesterol biosynthesis. Together, our study reveals for the first-time that UA, but not digoxin, acts as a natural antagonist of RORγ in the cancer cells. Our finding that RORγ is a direct target of UA in cancer cells will help select patients with tumors that likely respond to UA treatment.


This thesis is concerned with the concept of undergraduate Interprofessional Education (IPE) as a possible model of practice for the education of health care professionals at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta. In 2010, the World Health Organisation published its Framework for Action on IPE and Collaborative Practice outlining a vision for a "collaborative practice-ready workforce" emphasising the importance of the health and educational systems as supporting pillars of IPE and collaborative practices (WHO, 2010, p.7). The concept of IPE had been mentioned in policy documents in Malta but no such model had ever been tried or tested at the University. This study aimed to explore stakeholders' perspectives and perceptions of IPE and to encourage debate of adopting such an approach at the Faculty of Health Sciences.
This thesis starts by tracing a history of IPE internationally, teasing out the diversity of policy drivers and motivating factors behind its inception and highlighting the lessons learnt for its development and sustainability into curricula; which, inter alia, include the importance of political drivers, national coherent policies, organisational support and earmarked central funding. This was crucial to underscore as it brought to the fore the paucity of such triggers for IPE within this research study. The study then adopts a qualitative case study approach underpinned by a social constructionist and interpretative stance designed to explore the possibility of IPE at the University of Malta. The purposive sample totalled sixty four participants and these included academics at the Faculty of Health Sciences, key informants from the education/health sectors and newly qualified health professionals. Data was gathered through a combination of focus group discussions and one-to-one interviews, and analysed using Ritchie and Spencer's (1994) 'Framework' analysis supported by NVivo software. Findings yielded rich insights into participants' perceptions of IPE; while they lauded the notion in principle, they identified a multiplicity of factors that would pose barriers to its enactment in practice. Some barriers might be described as symbolic while others were rooted in the practical domain of operational systems and structures. On a symbolic level, participants were particularly concerned that IPE would pose a threat to their professional identities and to the maintenance of boundaries that define the conceptual territories of the various professions. Participants also pointed to traits and behaviours they perceived as endemic in Maltese culture that would conflict with the enactment of IPE; these were especially relevant as the influence of macro cultural determinants has been largely overlooked in the interprofessional literature.
These findings were interpreted through an interdisciplinary conceptual framework drawing on sociological discourses of professionalism and Bourdieu's theories of societies and social practices. The framework also drew on concepts in anthropological discourses, focusing in particular on Hofstede's theory of cultural dimensions as a means of theorising about the role that national culture can play in shaping perceptions and behaviours.
The originality of this study lies in its a priori approach by exploring perceptions of an interprofessional model of practice when this philosophy had not yet been considered, and which in the process, identified contextual variables which could impact on the design and delivery of IPE. It is unique in employing various theoretical perspectives so as to transcend the factual findings and engage in higher order reconceptualisation. It is also the first study of IPE to be conducted in Malta; significant to consider for any potential interprofessional initiatives. This research contributes to the body of evidence underpinning IPE in two ways. It highlights again the existence of embedded hierarchies and power struggles across health systems and how these impact on IPE, and it uncovers the potential impact of national culture as a tangible determinant in the planning, development and delivery of IPE initiatives.


In the neotropics, dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) is innately attractive to flower-visiting bats, and acts as a powerful bat lure in the scent bouquets of many bat-pollinated flowers. At first, DMDS appeared to be part of a general bat pollination syndrome. However, DMDS is absent in many bat-pollinated flowers of West Africa, and it is unclear whether palaeotropical flower-visiting bats are also attracted to it. Furthermore, DMDS was previously observed in neotropical, but not palaeotropical, populations of Ceiba pentandra (Malvaceae, Bombacoideae). We tested for an attraction to DMDS in the most common flower-visiting bat in Thailand, the dawn bat Eonycteris spelaea . We gave bats choices of Ceiba pentandra flowers, where one random flower was scented with DMDS. Rather than preferring the DMDS-treated flower, 21 of 22 bats chose an untreated flower, showing no attraction to DMDS. Alongside past evidence, this result suggests that the role of DMDS in bat pollination syndromes may result from an adaptive convergence that is limited to the neotropics. This hypothesis could be tested through comparative studies of (1) attraction across bats, (2) floral DMDS presence across bat-pollinated plants in Asia, and (3) floral DMDS measures across New and Old World populations of Ceiba pentandra.


In this paper we study both the theoretical problem of the existence and the practical problem of the approximate calculation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of (i) = 0, where T and S are some linear (in general unbounded and nonhermitian) operators in a Hilbert space. After a short discussion of a class of K -symmetric operators, in section 2 the author proves the existence of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of (i) under various conditions on T and S and investigates conditions under which the set of eigenvectors of (i) is complete. Section 3 indicates briefly the applicability and the unifying property of the generalized method of moments to the approximate solution of (i). Section 4 presents and thoroughly studies a very general new iterative method for the approximate solution of (i). The advantage of this method is that it does not require the practically inconvenient preliminary reduction of (i) to an equivalent problem with bounded operators and that under certain rather general conditions the convergence is mono tonic. Furthermore, by specializing operators and parameters, our iterative method contains as a special case, almost every known iterative method for the calculation of eigenvalues (mostly proved previously only for symmetric matrices and bounded operators). Finally the applicability and the numerical effectiveness of the iterative method is illustrated by calculating the smallest eigenvalue for a selfadjoint and nonselfadjoint eigenvalue problems arising in the problems of elastic stability.


This paper reviews literature regarding 'filler' (particularly safety) messages on variable message signs (VMS), then evaluates the applicability of Michie, van Stralen and West's behaviour change wheel for message generation using examples from Queensland. Although designed for generating health care interventions, the wheel readily extends itself to road safety. The paper concludes with a brief list of techniques for writing persuasive safety messages. This research was conducted because limited research is available on VMS safety messages or models for their generation. The literature review indicated that although controversy exists regarding the use of VMS for safety messages, more drivers would rather have the messages than blank signs; however, certain messages are seen as more useful than others. Further, VMS safety messages should not be expected to change the behaviour of all drivers but rather help a small share. The key benefit of this paper is that it proposes a comprehensive framework for generating VMS safety messages and describes strategies for writing them. Further research should be conducted on driver reactions to these messages.


Harvesting energy directly from sunlight is an environmentally friendly method of converting energy from one type to another. Indeed, inorganic solar cells have been commonly used over the last few decades and are now evidencing good power conversion efficiencies, but the cost of this type of solar cells is high. The cheaper alternative to inorganic solar cells is organic conjugated polymers. These are basic materials which take advantage of the single-double bond alternation along the polymer's backbone. Electronic transitions occur within the electronic levels of the different species of the conjugated polymers, especially between the HOMO (highest occupied molecular orbital) and the LUMO (lowest unoccupied molecular orbital). These transitions represent the basic work of the conjugated polymer-based solar cells.
In this project, we present our work on the preparation of furan based donor-acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymers based on benzothiadiazole (BTD) with alkoxy substitution as an acceptor with donor moieties of fluorene and carbazole using Suzuki cross coupling reaction polymerisation. In addition, conjugated polymers based on benzothiadiazole (BTD) with fluorine atoms substituents as an acceptor with donor moieties of fluorene and carbazole were copolymerised via direct hetero arylation (DHA). Also in this project, we synthesised acceptor-donor-acceptor (A-D-A) conjugated polymers based on (IDIC-C16) as an acceptor with donor units of benzothiadiazole flanked by thiophenes, bithiophene and fullerene through the Stille cross coupling reaction. Impressively, the results from UV-visible and cyclic voltammetry both achieved low bandgap polymers regardless of the type of donor units used in the conjugated polymers synthesised.
Chapter 2 in this thesis presents work synthesising three novel conjugated polymers P1, P2 and P3 based on 4, 7- bis (5-bromofuran-2-yl)-5, 6-bis (octyloxy)benzo[c][1,2,5] thiadiazole (as an acceptor) with fluorene, fluorene flanked by furan, and carbazole respectively. The optical studies presented bandgaps of P1 and P3 which were slightly above 2.01 eV and 2.04 eV. P2 had a lower bandgap than those of P1 and P3 (1.93 eV), which was attributed to the extra furan in the backbone of the polymer.
In chapter 3, two novel polymers were synthesised and characterised (P4 and P5) based on benzothiadiazole with fluorine atoms at the 5,6-positions flanked by furan as an acceptor, with fluorene and carbazole as donors respectively. The optical properties displayed bandgaps of 1.91 and 1.92 eV for P4 and P5 respectively. The electrochemical bandgaps were slightly higher due to barriers to oxidation and reduction between polymer films and electrodes.
In the last chapter, three novel polymers (A-D-A) were prepared and characterised (P6, P7 and P8) based on (IDIC-C16) as an acceptor with donor units such as benzothiadiazole flanked by thiophenes, bithiophene and fluorene through the Stille cross coupling reaction. The optical properties showed bandgaps of 1.55, 1.54 and 1.65 eV for P6, P7 and P8 respectively. The electrochemical bandgaps were higher at 1.58, 1.78 and 1.82 eV for P6, P8 and P8 respectively.
All polymers were characterised by Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) and Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC). The results showed each polymer had a different molecular weight depending on factors such as the chemical structure of the repeat moiety, the solubility in organic solvents, and the fraction in which the polymer was collected using the Soxhlet extraction method. In addition, UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and powder X-Ray diffraction were also used to analyse the properties of the polymers. The optical bandgaps were in the range of 1.54 eV to 2.07 eV. Thermal Gravimetric Analysis revealed that all the polymers possessed excellent thermal stability. Finally, powder X-Ray diffraction showed that all polymers were, in general, amorphous.


The classification of satellite images are difficult because of human eyes can see the colour of visible light mostly in three bands (RGB). The main shortcomings of existing system are leakage problem (when regions related to different structures in the image by connecting fake links leads to missing of certain objects), objects expected to disappear at a certain threshold remain present when objects were connected. And then if the small objects connected with large objects some attributes will be mixed together. The proposed work is a framework for providing better classification of satellite images by partial reconstruction along with morphological operations and finally using SVM (support vector machines) classifier. Keywords: Satellite images, partial reconstruction, morphological operations, SVM (support vector machines), RGB Cite this Article Shilpa Rajan, Sincy John. A Novel Approach for Morphological Attribute Profiles with Partial Reconstruction. Journal of Control & Instrumentation. 2019; 10(1): 1–8p.


This study aims to analyze whether Humaira Shop has applied the principles of Islamic business etchis in online buying and selling transactions and how to apply the principles of Islamic business ethics in online buying and selling transactions at Humaira Shop. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method with data collection techniques in the form of interviews and documentation. The primary data in this research are the owners of the Humaira Shop and consumers who buy Muslim clothing products at the Humaira Shop. The results of the study stated that Humaira Shop had fully implemented the principles of Islamic business etchis in buying and selling, with the principle of unity, the principle of equilibrium, principle free will, the principle of responsibility and the principle benevolence. In applying the ethical principle of Islamic business, Humaira Shop uses the 7p E-Marketing strategy, namely product and process, applying the principle of responsibility. Promotion, applying the principle of unity. Price applying the principle of equilibrium. Place applying the principle of free will. People and physical evidence, applying the principle of benevolence.
Keywords: Islamic Business Ethics, Online Buying and Selling Transactions, Muslim Fashion Products


We present a new technique for joint estimation of the chord progression and the downbeats from an audio file. Musical signals are highly structured in terms of harmony and rhythm. In this paper, we intend to show that integrating knowledge of mutual dependencies between chords and metric structure allows us to enhance the estimation of these musical attributes. For this, we propose a specific topology of hidden Markov models that enables modelling chord dependence on metric structure. This model allows us to consider pieces with complex metric structures such as beat addition, beat deletion or changes in the meter. The model is evaluated on a large set of popular music songs from the Beatles that present various metric structures. We compare a semi-automatic model in which the beat positions are annotated, with a fully automatic model in which a beat tracker is used as a front-end of the system. The results show that the downbeat positions of a music piece can be estimated in terms of its harmonic structure and that conversely the chord progression estimation benefits from considering the interaction between the metric and the harmonic structures.


This turn down the heat why a 4°C warmer world must be avoided provides a snapshot of recent scientific literature and new analyses of likely impacts and risks that would be associated with a 4°C warming within this century. It is a rigorous attempt to outline a range of risks, focusing on developing countries and especially the poor. A 4°C world will be one of unprecedented heat waves, severe drought, and major floods in many regions, with serious impacts on ecosystems and associated services. But with action, a 4°C world can be avoided and we can likely hold warming below 2°C . This report spells out what the world will be like if it warmed by 4°C , which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes. The 4°C scenarios are devastating: the inundation of coastal cities; increasing risks for food production potentially leading to higher malnutrition rates; many dry regions becoming dryer, wet regions wetter; unprecedented heat waves in many regions, especially in the tropics; substantially exacerbated water scarcity in many regions; increased frequency of high-intensity tropical cyclones; and irreversible loss of biodiversity, including coral reef systems.


The creation of value-added services by automatic composition of existing ones is gaining significant momentum as the potential silver bullet in service-oriented computing. A large number of composition methods have been proposed, and most of them are based on the matching of input and output parameters of services only. However, most services in the real world are not universally applicable, and some applicable conditions or restrictions are imposed on them by their providers. Such constraints have a great impact on service composition, but have been largely ignored by the existing methods. In this paper, they are discussed and defined, and a simple formal expression is adopted to describe them. Two novel concepts, called service intension and service extension, are presented, which allow one to divide the basic elements of a web service definition into two parts. Consequently, their use allows us to propose a constraint-aware service composition method in which service constraints are well taken care. The proposed solution includes a graph search-based algorithm and two novel preprocessing methods. A publicly available test set from ICEBE05 is used to evaluate and analyze the proposed methodology.


We introduce Meta-Album, an image classification meta-dataset designed to facilitate few-shot learning, transfer learning, meta-learning, among other tasks. It includes 40 open datasets, each having at least 20 classes with 40 examples per class, with verified licences. They stem from diverse domains, such as ecology (fauna and flora), manufacturing (textures, vehicles), human actions, and optical character recognition, featuring various image scales (microscopic, human scales, remote sensing). All datasets are preprocessed, annotated, and formatted uniformly, and come in 3 versions (Micro $\subset$ Mini $\subset$ Extended) to match users' computational resources. We showcase the utility of the first 30 datasets on few-shot learning problems. The other 10 will be released shortly after. Meta-Album is already more diverse and larger (in number of datasets) than similar efforts, and we are committed to keep enlarging it via a series of competitions. As competitions terminate, their test data are released, thus creating a rolling benchmark, available through OpenML.org. Our website https://meta-album.github.io/ contains the source code of challenge winning methods, baseline methods, data loaders, and instructions for contributing either new datasets or algorithms to our expandable meta-dataset.


Ser130, Asp131 and Asn132 ('SDN') are highly conserved residues in class A beta-lactamases forming one wall of the active-site cavity. All three residues of the SDN loop in Streptomyces albus G beta-lactamase were modified by site-directed mutagenesis. The mutant proteins were expressed in Streptomyces lividans, purified from culture supernatants and their kinetic parameters were determined for several substrates. Ser130 was substituted by Asn, Ala and Gly. The first modification yielded an almost totally inactive protein, whereas the smaller-side-chain mutants (A and G) retained some activity, but were less stable than the wild-type enzyme. Ser130 might thus be involved in maintaining the structure of the active-site cavity. Mutations of Asp131 into Glu and Gly proved to be highly detrimental to enzyme stability, reflecting significant structural perturbations. Mutation of Asn132 into Ala resulted in a dramatically decreased enzymic activity (more than 100-fold) especially toward cephalosporin substrates, kcat. being the most affected parameter, which would indicate a role of Asn132 in transition-state stabilization rather than in ground-state binding. Comparison of the N132A and the previously described N132S mutant enzymes underline the importance of an H-bond-forming residue at position 132 for the catalytic process.


The paper reports experimental data concerning the feasibility of structurally defective cerium doped Lu1.8Y0.2SiO5 oxyorthosilicates (Ce:LYSO) as optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) devices with emission at the Ce3+ recombination sites. The total OSL signal was evaluated as a function of continuous irradiation at 514.5 nm and compared to the curve obtained with a commercial C:Al2O3 sample. By assuming a single type of trap and a single recombination centre model for the OSL mechanism, the photoionization cross-section was estimated to be 1.7 × 10−17 cm2. The stimulation spectrum of the OSL signal evidences a single maximum at about 470 nm and a smooth decrease down to 650 nm. The recombination mechanism as well as the nature of the trapping site was studied by means of thermo-stimulated luminescence (TSL) measurements and analysed according to the generalized order kinetics model. The results confirm a single type of trap and a thermally activated tunnelling mechanism between the electrons trapped in the oxygen vacancies and holes localized at the Ce3+ centres. The analysis is further confirmed by TSL measurements after illumination with monochromatic lights in the range of the OSL stimulation spectrum. Finally, due to the high localization of trapping sites and recombination centres, we propose cerium doped oxyorthosilicates as efficient OSL imaging devices and UV based optical data storage materials: direct applications of defective Ce:LYSO as OSL imaging devices are shown.


Staphylococcus aureus has been reported as a major pathogen in dairy animals. The pathogenic potential of S. aureus isolates is attributed to a combination of extracellular factors and invasive properties that are controlled at the genomic level. In order to elucidate patterns of pathogenic genes, 346 isolates of S. aureus were recovered from Sahiwal, Karan Fries (cattles) and Murrah (buffalo) suffering from intra-mammary infection. The distribution of pathogenic genetic-determinants of isolates was evaluated using the PCR assays. All the isolates showed variations and variable number of repeats (3-12) in Spa gene. The number of repeats was the highest in Sahiwal isolates, followed by Karan Fries and Murrah. All the tested isolates were positive for genetic determinants of Spa, Ebp, Eno and FnbA. The prevalence of other pathogenic genes, namely, Fib, FnbB, Bbp and Map was more in isolates from Sahiwal as compared to isolates from Karan Fries and Murrah. A significant number of isolates (82%) showed presence of capsular gene subtypes (5 & 8). The toxin genes, namely, Sec, See, Seg and Sei were common in all the breeds; however, their proportion was less. Seb and Sed were present in only cattle originated isolates of S. aureus. Isolates of both cattle breeds (Sahiwal and Karan Fries) showed similar patterns of pathogenic factors that could be due to commonness or dissemination of strains among these animals. Conversely, variations in expression of pathogenicity factors in isolates of cattle and buffaloes were observed. Overall, the isolates from Murrah were less virulent and consisted of less proportion of pathogenic factors. However, the comparative observation suggested that a limited number of pathogenic factors of S. aureus seemed to be crucial in mastitis in various animals.


Paediatric CFS/ME is a stressor, which affects not only the sufferer but also the whole family. The sibling bond exerts a great influence on all the children in the family. Healthy siblings are often overlooked as attention is focused on the child with CFS/ME or other chronic illness. Individual children react in different ways to serious illness in another sibling by adopting a variety of coping mechanisms. There is a need for health and education professionals to consider the whole family when caring for and working with a child with CFS/ME.


Unless a physician has been living in another galaxy far, far away with Luke Skywalker, he or she is aware of the National Practitioner Data Bank. On March 31, 1994, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that each practitioner can now place in the Data Bank a six-hundred character "rebuttal" of a report, without formally disputing the factual accuracy of the report. Does this change make the Data Bank fair? Not really. It is a step in the right direction, but further reform is needed. "Health Law" is a regular feature of Physician Executive contributed by Epstein Becker & Green. Mark Lutes of the law firm's Washington, D.C., offices serves as editor of the column.


Reliable path-planning and generation of collision-free trajectories has become an area of active research over the past decade where the field robotics has probably been the most active area. This paper' s main objective is to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of two of the most popular techniques used in collision-free trajectory generation in n-dimensional spaces. The importance of analysing such techniques within a generalised framework is evident as path-planning is used in a variety of fields such as designing medical drugs, computer animation and artificial intelligence and, of course, robotics. The review provided in this paper starts by drawing a historical map of path-planning and the techniques used in its early stages. The main concepts involved in artificial potential fields and probabilistic roadmaps will be addressed as these are the most influential methods and have been widely used in specialised literature.


Oscillating bodies in stratified fluids may emit higher harmonics in addition to fundamental waves. In the present experimental study, we consider higher harmonics of an internal wave field generated by a horizontally oscillating spheroid in a linearly stratified fluid for moderate to high oscillation amplitudes, i.e., scaled oscillation amplitude A/a (cid:2) 0 . 5, with a the minor radius of the spheroid. Three different spheroid shapes are tested. The results are discussed in the context of the different theories on the generation of higher harmonics. Higher harmonics are observed at the intersections of fundamental wave beams, and at the critical points of the topography where the topographic slope equals the wave slope. The velocity amplitudes of the fundamental, second, and third harmonic waves grow respectively linearly, quadratically, and with the third power of the scaled oscillation amplitude A/a . Though these amplitudes are generally higher when the object's slope is larger, the increase in amplitude above and below the axisymmetric oscillating objects is found to be due to the effect of focusing. In order to discern the relative importance of the harmonics to the fundamental wave, the horizontal structure of the wave amplitude is measured. The results suggest that the n th harmonic of the internal wave field is associated with a radiation diagram corresponding to a multipole of order 2 n , with 2 n directions of propagation.


This article provides a case study of child sex tourism (CST) in Surabaya, Indonesia. CST cases are difficult to surface because the victims of CST are such vulnerable human beings. Victims of CST need a variety of forms of support for their recovery and reintegration. This article contends that social, economic, political, technological, and individual factors cause CST. It examines the negative impacts of CST, which are medical, social, psychological, and physical in nature. It also reveals that the techniques used for CST recruitment are fake promises, debt bondage, emotional abuse, counterfeit love, drug addiction, physical abuse, gifts and favors. The elimination of CST calls for ending certain depraved cultural practices and beliefs, rehabilitation and reintegration of the victims, proactive anti-CST government policies and programs, enactment and effective enforcement of tough laws prohibiting CST, prosecution of the offenders, raising public awareness about the ills of CST, providing education for all children, the provision of national identification documents to all children, and strict border controls to prevent the trafficking of children for sex tourism.


The locally sourced residue samples of Pinus arizonica, Pinus cooperi , and Pinus durangensis from the state of Durango in Mexico were analyzed for optimal yield of ethanol production. The samples were mixed at an equal proportion using a particle size of 0.59 mm. Each individual mixture was pretreated with either NaOH or Ca (OH) 2 (at 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5% w/v) for periods of 30, 60, and 90 min at 60, 90, and 120°C. The pretreated blending was subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis for 130 h at 80 rpm and 50°C with an enzymatic load of 25 filter paper units (FPU) and 50 IU β-glucosidase per gramme of cellulose to obtain a maximum yield of reducing sugars (RS) with NaOH subject at 120°C for 90 min. The results show that the hydrolysis yield depends on temperature and alkali concentration particularly (NaOH), which increased from 2.0 to 3.5% w/v. The best yield of glucose (41.33% w/w) was obtained using a pretreatment of 2.5% NaOH for 90 min, 120°C, and a hydrolysis residence time of 130 h. The removal of lignin and hemicellulose acetylation was observed to have influence on the enzymatic digestibility of cellulose. This process could theoretically produce a maximum yield of 90.19% of ethanol / substrate (glucose) and about 80 L of bioethanol per dry ton of woody biomass from pine residues. Keywords: Lignocellulosic biomass, alkaline pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentable sugars, fermentation African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(31), pp. 4956-4965


GENETICS
Women's postreproductive years, the immaturity of newborns, and strong kinship networks combine to make it reasonable that the grandmother effect could be important in the evolution of human life-span structure. For guppies, on the other hand, with live-born young that require no further care and with a lack of familial structures, the female postreproductive life phase is not likely to be a target of evolutionary forces. In fact, because guppies produce eggs throughout adulthood, a nonreproductive late-adult phase seems unlikely.

Nonetheless, guppies do have a postreproductive life phase, and, as Reznick et al. show, this phase seems to be an accident of extended reproductive life span rather than a point of evolutionary leverage. Guppies that face high rates of predation mature earlier and reproduce more often than guppies in more benign bends of the river. When reared in the lab, safe from predators, these two populations continued to show different life histories, and the predator-intense family of guppies lived longer. Many of these individuals had a postreproductive life phase, suggesting that reproductive senescence precedes somatic senescence. The length of the postreproductive life phase seemed to be an accidental outcome of the generally longer reproductive life span that the high-predation environment had brought about. — PJH

PLoS Biol. 4 , e7 (2006).


In the near twenty years, with the rapid increase of Chinese economy, Chinese welding technology developed very fast. In 2003, the annual output of steel in China has reached 230 megatons and above 40 percent was manufactured by welding process. The main welding engineering projects include: the Three Gorges power station, bridges over the Changjiang River, high pressure heavy-duty chemical container, pipeline project of transferring natural gas from West to East and manned spacecraft etc. Meanwhile, Chinese annual output of welding materials exceeds 1,200 kilotons, welding equipments exceed 200,000 sets and the welding automation rate reached 40 percent. The State Key Laboratory of Advanced Welding Production Technology in Harbin Institute of Technology is the only welding laboratory of national level in China. It is the base of applied fundamental research and high quality welding technicians training. It has completed many projects of welding technology development and some significant applied engineering tasks. Every year, about 15-20 Doctors, 40-50 Masters and 70-100 Bachelors graduate from the Laboratory. Also, it is opened to the whole world.


Sharing scientific analyses via workflows has the potential to improve the reproducibility of research results as they allow complex tasks to be split into smaller pieces and give a visual access to the flow of data between the components of an analysis. This is particularly useful for trans-disciplinary research fields such as biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (BEF), where complex syntheses integrate data over large temporal, spatial and taxonomic scales. However, depending on the data used and the complexity of the analysis, scientific workflows can grow very complex which makes them hard to understand and reuse. Here we argue that enabling simplicity starting from the beginning of the data life cycle adhering to good practices of data management can significantly reduce the overall complexity of scientific workflows. It can simplify the processes of data inclusion, cleaning, merging and imputation. To illustrate our points we chose a typical analysis in BEF research, the aggregation of carbon pools in a forest ecosystem. We propose indicators to measure the complexity of workflow components including the data sources. We illustrate that the complexity decreases exponentially during the course of the analysis and that simple text-based measures can help to identify bottlenecks in a workflow. Taken together we argue that focusing on the simplification of data sources and workflow components will improve and accelerate data and workflow reuse and improve the reproducibility of data-driven sciences


The digestive fluid of tropical pitcher plants (Nepenthaceae: Nepenthes L.) typically harbor communities of symbiotic organisms in nature, an example of a phytotelm ecosystem. While the inhabitants of pitchers (primarily the arthropods) have been described and studied from a community ecology perspective for over a century, many abiotic properties of the fluid environment have not been thoroughly documented. As the abiotic properties of the pitcher fluid micro-environment may have fitness and/or functional consequences on the inhabitants, it is of interest to examine intra and interspecific variation in fluid properties. Here I report observations of dissolved oxygen levels in Nepenthes pitchers. I find evidence that Nepenthes pitchers actively modify dissolved oxygen levels in the fluid and that this oxygenation ability may vary ontogenetically, with relatively hypoxic conditions in newly opened pitchers and high oxygen levels maintained in more mature pitchers.


Dendritic cells (DC) are potent inducers of immune responses. DC have been shown to infiltrate tumors, but very little is known about the functional status of these naturally occurring tumor-infiltrating DC (TIDC). In this study, the status and function of TIDC from several types of mouse melanoma were investigated in detail. CD11c+/MHC II+ cells, consistent with a DC phenotype, were found in all of transplantable or spontaneous melanomas studied. These TIDC were predominantly myeloid (CD11c+/CD8α−/B220−) in nature with small numbers of plasmacytoid (CD11c+/B220+). TIDC had an intermediate maturation phenotype with some expression of costimulatory molecules and the capacity to take up particles. Upon culture overnight ex vivo, the TIDC markedly up-regulated the expression of costimulatory molecules and also increased IL-12 production. Importantly, such ex vivo-matured TIDC pulsed with OVA were able to migrate to lymph nodes, to activate naive OVA-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and to confer protection against a challenge with OVA-expressing tumor cells. In conclusion, melanomas are infiltrated by functional DC that can act as fully competent APC. These APC have the potential to be manipulated and may therefore represent a promising target for cancer immunotherapy.


To date, polymorphisms in several genes have been associated with a strength/power performance including alpha 3 actinin, ciliary neurotrophic factor, vitamin D receptor, or angiotensin I converting enzyme, underlining the importance of genetic component of the multifactorial strength/power-related phenotypes. The single nucleotide variation in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha gene (PPARA) intron 7 G/C (rs4253778; g.46630634G>C) has been repeatedly found to play a significant role in response to different types of physical activity. We investigated the effect of PPARA intron 7 G/C polymorphism specifically on anaerobic power output in a group of 77 elite male Czech ice hockey players (18–36 y). We determined the relative peak power per body weight (Pmax.kg−1) and relative peak power per fat free mass (W.kg−1 FFM) during the 30-second Wingate Test (WT30) on bicycle ergometer (Monark 894E Peak bike, MONARK, Sweden). All WT30s were performed during the hockey season. Overall genotype frequencies were 50.6% GG homozygotes, 40.3% CG heterozygotes, and 9.1% CC homozygotes. We found statistically significant differences in Pmax.kg−1 and marginally significant differences in Pmax.kg−1 FFM values in WT30 between carriers and non-carriers for C allele (14.6±0.2 vs. 13.9±0.3 W.kg−1 and 15.8±0.2 vs. 15.2±0.3 W.kg−1 FFM, P = 0.036 and 0.12, respectively). Furthermore, Pmax.kg−1 FFM strongly positively correlated with the body weight only in individuals with GG genotypes (R = 0.55; p<0.001). Our results indicate that PPARA 7C carriers exhibited higher speed strength measures in WT30. We hypothesize that C allele carriers within the cohort of trained individuals may possess a metabolic advantage towards anaerobic metabolism.


We analyze resource extraction in a political economy setting by introducing a political leader who optimizes both his own and the society's welfare function. We find that accounting for the private utility of a political elite, its higher discount rate and a different time horizon generally speeds up extraction. The higher than optimal resource extraction is not only relevant in welfare terms, but also regarding possible consequences with respect to climate change. The effect of higher extraction caused by a political leader directly accroaching resources does not hold in a decentralized private ownership economy where the government strives to raise revenues through taxation. We endogenize the political economy framework and show that the politician's discount factor is higher than the social discount factor due to the probability of losing power. The weight that the political leader attaches to social welfare is determined by the way the probability of staying in power depends on the welfare of the society.


We have experimentally investigated the creation of spectrally ordered nuclear and electronic Zeeman coherences in a gas-phase sample. A Zeeman coherence is generated through the sequential excitation of two coupled optical transitions. In our experiment, one transition was excited by a data pulse and the other by a short reference pulse. Subsequent excitation of one of these transitions by a short reading pulse transforms the Zeeman coherence into an optical coherence and leads to the emission of a time-forward or time-reversed duplicate of the data pulse. Output signals up to 5% as intense as the original data pulse were observed. We present a general analysis that is applicable to both gases and solids and find that the solid-state analog of this process will exist only if the inhomogeneous broadening of the two optical transitions is highly correlated.


Complete atrioventricular block (CAVB) is a cardiac conduction defect wherein the trans¬mission of the normal electrical impulse from the atria to the ventricle is interrupted due to structural or functional impairment of the atrioventricular (AV) conduction system. If CAVB is diagnosed in utero or during the first month of life, it is named congenital CAVB. This thesis attempts to enhance our knowledge concerning the AV node anatomy, to evaluate current clinical therapies and propose new strategies using experimental data.
Chapter 1 reviews in depth the ECG characteristics and definitions that are applicable to the different types of AV block. It, furthermore, describes congenital CAVB as a distinc¬tive form of AV block, and discusses its pathogenesis and possibilities for therapy.
Chapter 2 is a synergy of three published studies. Two of them review the equipment, test protocols and interpretation of cardiopulmonary exercise testing in children with congenital heart disease. In the third study, the discussed techniques have been used to investigate the exercise capacity in a small cohort of children with congenital CAVB.
The current therapy of congenital CAVB, implantation of an electronic pacemaker, might be a lifesaving intervention, but it can cause considerable morbidity, and even mortality. The need for instrumentation with an electronic pacemaker, with its possible disadvan¬tages, might be circumvented by future application of stem cell-derived techniques with the aim to provide biological pacemaking or restoration of the damaged AV conduction in congenital CAVB. The attemps that, to date, have been made by the scientific com¬munity, the different types of cells, modes of administration, successes and pitfalls have been reviewed in depth as expressed in Chapter 3.
Understandably, cell therapy of the AV conduction system requires knowledge about the precise 3D structure of the normal and diseased AV conduction system. Chapter 4 reports the results of a submitted study that provided an extensive description of the 2D and 3D structure of the canine AV conduction system. Formalin-fixed and paraffin embedded tissue sections were derived from: (1) normal AV junction, (2) AV junction in (natural) acquired CAVB, and (3) AV junction of ablation-induced CAVB. The sections were stained with Masson's trichrome-, and van Gieson's stain, and immunolabeled with antibodies against connexin 43, pan-cadherin and neurofilament. Digitalized 2D secti¬ons were transformed into interactive 3D models by surface rendering .
Chapter 5 describes the results of a study that aimed to repair CAVB in dogs by trans¬plantation of cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs). In this study, CAVB was induced by radio-frequency ablation. From human and canine heart tissue CPCs were isolated by mag¬netic cell sorting. Three weeks after ablation CPCs were injected into the damaged AV conduction system. Within the study, several sources and amounts of cells have been tested with respect to their potency to restore AV conduction upon transplantation fol¬lowing different regimens. The chapter also includes a discussion regarding the multiple hurdles that are associated with the tested strategies of stem cell therapy.
Finally, we provide a summary of all mentioned chapters and, based on the acquired knowledge, also some future perspectives.


A non-degenerate dual-mode resonator derived from circular substrate integrated waveguide is proposed, and two pseudoelliptic bandpass filters with non-resonant mode based on the dual-mode resonators are presented. Two resonant modes (higher order modes) are employed to degenerate a passband, while a non-resonant mode (fundamental mode) is designed to provide a direct input-to-output coupling. Owning to an additional path provided by non-resonant mode, the filters have good selectivity and very compact size. The presented simulation and measurement results are in good agreement.


Some catalytic materials can be utilized in environment pollution treatment. The material of ceramisite can be used in dye wastewater treatment process with its good properties. When they were filled in the high voltage discharge reactor, the ceramsite pellets were polarized, and partial discharge could take place beside every pellet, which would promote methylene blue degeneration in the dye wastewater. And when the solution pH>ceramsite pHzpc, the ceramsite surface presented the electronegativity and the ceramsite could adsorb more methylene blue, and removal rate increased.


SUMMARY In this study, the effects of forearm static exercise were determined on local blood flow and oxygen consumption in 15 normal individuals (NL) and their responses were compared with ten patients in congestive heart failure (CHF). Forearm blood flow was determined by a plethysmographic technique before and during 15% of maximum voluntary contraction of the forearm. Regional arterial and venous oxygen contents were sampled and forearm oxygen consumption calculated by the Fick principle. At rest, forearm blood flow was less in patients with heart failure than in normal individuals; however, this was compensated for by an increased oxygen extraction, thus maintaining forearm oxygen consumption at a normal level. In contrast, during static exercise, forearm blood flow failed to rise normally with heart failure (NL 9.31; CHF 4.35 ml/min 100 ml, P < 0.001) and the increased oxygen extraction was not sufficient to maintain a normal forearm oxygen consumption (NL .82; CHF .44 ml/min − 100 ml, P < 0.01). Therefore, patients with congestive heart failure demonstrate regional circulatory and metabolic abnormalities during static exercise that are comparable to those present during dynamic exercise. Because of a limited ability of their skeletal muscle resistance vessels to respond to dilator stimuli, they have an attenuation of their exercise hyperemia which leads to an earlier shift to anaerobic metabolism.


The knee joint is the largest and most complicated joint in the human body. Bone structures, capsules, menisci, and ligaments provide static stability in the knee joint and are responsible for dynamic stabilization of the muscles and tendons. Menisci are fibrocartilage structures that cover two-thirds of the tibial plateau joint surface. The main functions of the meniscus are load sharing and loading of the tibiofemoral joint, shock absorption, helping to feed the cartilage by facilitating dissociation of the joint fluid, and contributing to the joint fit by increasing joint stability and joint contact surface area. Menisci are frequently injured structures. The incidence of acute meniscal tears is 60 per 100,000. It is more common in males. Trauma-related tears are common in patients under 30 years of age, whereas degenerative complex tears increase in patients over 30 years of age. There may not be a significant trauma story, especially in degenerative meniscus tears. They are sports traumas that come to the fore in the etiology of meniscus tears. It is the football that has the greatest risk of creating a meniscus lesion, followed by athletics, American football, and skiing. There is an indication for repair in peripheral ruptures where blood flow is excessive. In the central rupture where blood is not present, the treatment is meniscectomy. In this review, we compiled the diagnosis, etiology, and treatment methods of the meniscal tears.


A framework for 3D object recognition is presented. Its flexibility and extensibility are accomplished through a uniform, parallel, and modular recognition architecture. Concurrent and stacked parameter transforms reconstruct a variety of features from the input scene. At each stage, constraint satisfaction networks collect and fuse the evidence obtained through the parameter transforms, ensuring a globally consistent interpretation of the input scene and allowing for the integration of diverse types of information. The final interpretation of the scene is a small consistent subset of the many initial hypotheses about partial features, primitive features, feature assemblies, and 3D objects computed by the various parameter transforms. A complete, integrated, and implemented system that extracts planar surfaces, patches of quadrics of revolution, and planar intersection curves of these surfaces from a depth map viewing 3D objects is described. Experimental results on the recognition behavior of the system are presented. >


The ongoing climate change is closely related to greenhouse gas emissions from industries. One of the contributors to these sustainability challenges is the house construction industry. Although residential and commercial construction is needed, the production practices needs to be altered in order to meet sustainability objectives. This licentiate dissertation focuses on conditions for wooden multi-storey construction (WMC) in a Swedish context. It explores the conditions for market development for residential WMC. The dissertation focuses on corporate perspectives, but it also integrates the role of end-consumers. A systematic literature review served as an orientation before conducting empirical case studies analysis. With an understanding of the industrial norm, currently reflected in materials such as concrete and steel, the empirical studies focused on wooden multi-storey construction case studies and end-consumer's perceptions. These case studies indicate that a transition to WMC is hindered by path dependence, strong market positions for the currently used materials, and dated understandings of wood as a construction material. In the production process of residential construction, wood or other material, the end-consumer, the resident of an apartment in the house to be, is relatively anonymous. This is a reflection of a product dominant logic of the value chain where the end-consumer is a buyer or renter of an apartment. Enabling factors for further WMC market development that were verbalised by the case study respondents are captured in four factors: the properties of wood in a pre-fabrication setting, shorter erection times on site, fewer transports, and awareness of legislative sustainability demands. The case study interviewees report focusing on efficiency and technical properties in their business models - and limited concern for marketing communication and co-creation with end-consumers. The new legislation was seen as an enabling factor for the WMC market development by the case interviewees. It is clear that a sustainability transition, such as a gradual change to renewable construction materials that have carbon capture capacity, will take time. Business models that foster co-creation of value in public private partnerships may enable a WMC market development. The development of new legislation and increased awareness of sustainability aspects in construction is seen as future research areas for sustainable development.


This study tested the presence of the face inversion effect in 4-month-old infants using habituation to criterion followed by a novelty preference paradigm. Results of Experiment 1 confirmed previous findings, showing that when 1 single photograph of a face is presented in the habituation phase and when infants are required to recognize the same photograph, no differences in recognition performance with upright and inverted faces are found. However, Experiment 2 showed that, when infants are habituated to a face shown in a variety of poses and are required to recognize a new pose of the same face, infants' recognition performances were higher for upright than for inverted faces. Overall, results indicate that, under some experimental conditions, 4-month-olds process faces differently according to whether faces are presented upright or inverted.


ABSTRACT The theme of the 2016 Burian Lecture is how our understanding of strabismus has been changed by the research carried out in our laboratory in Reading over the years. Accommodation and convergence are fundamental to orthoptics, but actual responses have often been very different compared to what we had expected. This paper outlines how our laboratory's understanding of common issues such as normal development of accommodation and convergence, their linkage, intermittent strabismus, anisometropia, orthoptic exercises, and risk factors for strabismus have changed. A new model of thinking about convergence and accommodation may help us to better understand and predict responses in our patients.


To understand the role of the Src homology 2 (SH2) domain protein Shb in the signal transduction of tyrosine kinase receptor, NIH3T3 cells were transfected with a DNA construct expressing the Shb cDNA (NIHSHB cells). The NIHSHB cells expressed elevated levels of proteins with the estimated molecular weights of 77, 66 and 55 kDa as determined by immunoblotting. In contrast to the control cells, the NIHSHB cells failed to increase in cell number in the presence of 1% serum. This effect was largely due to apoptosis, since staining of pyknotic nuclei was observed using the terminal transferase labeling method. The NIHSHB cells displayed similar levels of c-myc mRNA and decreased contents of the p53 protein after culture in 1% serum compared with control cells. The addition of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF-BB) restored the growth of the NIHSHB cells, whereas insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) failed to affect the proliferation of Shb overexpressing cells in 1% serum. We conclude that Shb overexpression is associated with cell degeneration under certain conditions, and that Shb could transduce apoptotic signals from tyrosine kinase receptors.


The clinical evaluation of oedemata during pregnancy is more or less subjective and not reproducible. There is no common factor to the relevance of its presence. The aim of this investigation was to check systematically the frequency and degree of generalised Oedemata and their clinical relevance. 184 pregnant women were examined for their finger circumference between the 16th and 36th week of gestation. According to the change in the circumference, three significantly different groups of oedemata were found. The group with strongly marked oedemata showed increased hypertensive complications and the highest rate of growth retarded children. This objective and simple method of measuring the finger circumference, is suggested for antenatal care.


We consider the problem of estimating Boolean models of gene regulation networks from few and noisy mea- surements. To this end, we use a representation of Boolean functions as multilinear polynomials, leading to a reformulation of the estimation problem as mixed integer linear program. We then show that the integer constraints can be omitted which improves existing results and reduces the required computing time drastically. Also certain properties of Boolean functions such as unateness or the canalizing property can be included in the linear formulation. The benefits of this reformulation are demonstrated with the help of a large Boolean model of the network of the segment polarity genes in Drosophila melanogaster.


Abstract The study presents the high-dose behavior of dielectric mirrors specifically engineered for radiation tolerance. Alternating layers of Al2O3/SiO2 and HfO2/SiO2 were grown on sapphire substrates and exposed to neutron doses of 1 and 4 displacements per atom (dpa) at 458 ± 10 K in the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). In comparison to previously reported results, these higher doses of 1 and 4 dpa result in a drastic drop in optical reflectance, caused by a failure of the multilayer coating. HfO2/SiO2 mirrors failed completely when exposed to 1 dpa, whereas the reflectance of Al2O3/SiO2 mirrors reduced to 44%, eventually failing at 4 dpa. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation of the Al2O3/SiO2 specimens showed SiO2 layer defects, which increase in size with irradiation dose. The typical size of each defect was ≈8 nm in 1-dpa specimens and ≈42 nm in 4-dpa specimens. Buckling-type delamination of the interface between the substrate and first layer was typically observed in both 1- and 4-dpa HfO2/SiO2 specimens. Composition changes across the layers were measured in high-resolution-scanning–TEM mode using energy dispersive spectroscopy. A significant interdiffusion between the film layers was observed in the Al2O3/SiO2 mirror, although it was less evident in the HfO2/SiO2 system. The ultimate goal of this work is to provide insight into the radiation-induced failure mechanisms of these mirrors.


Schistosoma infection is a poverty-related parasitic infection, being the second most important neglected tropical disease in the world after malaria. Schistosomiasis is caused by five distinct Schistosoma species distributed in tropical and subtropical areas. But, imported cases can also be seen in non - endemic areas. Human popula‐ tions acquire infection after exposure to contaminated water collections. Schistosoma infection falls on a large spectrum of clinical manifestations that ranges from absence of signs and symptoms to severe forms of disease. Although morbidity and mortality have been reduced along the years after use of mass drug administration (MDA) in endemic areas, large populations are still at risk of disability-related outcomes on dai‐ ly basis. Recently, a great deal of debate has been done over two main issues in schis‐ tosomiasis management in endemic and non-endemic areas: how to accurately diagnosis Schistosoma infections pre and post-therapy in addition to assess morbidity level. Adoption of promising new diagnostic tools and development of new markers of disease progression might change the current scenario by improving schistosomia‐ sis clinical management in both community and institutional settings.


The current generation of portable music players and music-oriented mobile phones enables storing of thousands of songs. Common ways to access songs include list- and tree-based user interfaces, random or shuffle play modes, and (smart) playlists. As each of these approaches has its own limitations, an attractive alternative for accessing the songs is interactive visualization that facilitates browsing, organizing the music collection, and selecting what kind of music to listen to. The purpose of the visualization is to replace or complement the traditional UI with a dynamic, adaptive, and interactive image that is based on one or more attributes of the songs. For example, the user could click on a blurred black object to start the playback of old heavy metal from his music collection, or clicking a sharp yellow object would start the playback of new reggae music. To design the visualizations, the authors have arranged several online questionnaires on how people map graphical properties to musical properties. This paper presents the results of one of the questionnaires, focusing on mapping the release year of music to various visual features such as lightness, location, color, and shape.


The San Francisco Bay Area has one of the most congested metropolitan corridors in both California and nationwide, with very high demand for both passenger and air-freight transport. It is also a main entrance to the United States for the huge Asia market, and thus critical for the United States to play a leading role in the global economy. On one hand, traffic congestion in the main corridors through the Bay Area is severe and is becoming worse with the rapid increase of population and the development of the local economy, in which a substantial impact is created by truck-related activities such as the ever increasing air freight business (performed by companies such as Federal Express, UPS, DHL, and CNF). On the other hand, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) operates a regional environmentally-green transit system has excess capacity during non-commute periods and during the commute on some lines in some reverse-commute direction. If the BART system were to be used by the air-freight delivery service providers, BART could probably provide reliable service to integrated air freight carriers to meet their limited-time window delivery service needs. This would lead to additional revenue generation for BART. For the traveling public as well as local, regional, and state government it would reduce truck activity, and its corresponding negative impacts on traffic, environment, safety, land use and the economy. Using BART for air freight movement as a model for combined goods and passenger movement can be generalized to other critical corridors nationwide to effectively relieve corridor congestion problem. Improving movement through these critical metropolitan corridors could yield significant benefits in terms of reduced travel time and delays and increased reliability and predictability of both passenger and freight movement.


Relatively fresh exposures of the Semantan Formation along the East-Coast Highway (Lebuhraya Pantai Timur - Fasa 1) between Karak and Kuantan, central Peninsular Malaysia, have given new insights into the sedimentary processes in the Triassic flysch basin that once separated west and east Malaya. An eastward change from distal to proximal facies between Karak and Maran indicates a west-facing, active continental shelf to slope sedimentation. Outcrops between Karak and Temerloh, east of the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic Bentong-Raub collisional suture, are generally characterized by "classical" flysch-like, thinly-bedded sandstone-mudstone facies. Further east of Temerloh towards Maran, and nearer to the paleo-shelf and slope, more sandy and thick-bedded turbidite facies occur. A proximal deep- marine facies association in the Semantan Formation is exposed at the Chenor Junction (Exit 821), kilometre 139 along the highway. South- and north-facing cuts on either sides of the highway reveal large gravity-slide blocks (megaclasts), slumps, debris flow deposits, and associated syn-sedimentary thrust faults and glide surfaces. These features are strongly indicative of large-scale submarine mass-transport processes on the palaeo-slope of the Triassic active margin. The Chenor mass-transport complex is made up of zones of incoherent slump deposits intercalated with well-bedded turbidite/debrite facies. In the lower part of the succession, there are megaclasts of sandstone-mudstone facies, measuring several metres in size, encased in a plastically deformed silty matrix. The megaclasts are highly deformed internally by numerous meso- scale normal faults, probably due to gravitationally-induced extension. Along with other smaller sandstone blocks, these megaclasts are interpreted as slide blocks due to slope failure up-dip. There are other gravity-induced structural features such as rotational slumps, glide surfaces, thrust faults and associated soft-sediment folds. The slump folds and thrusts show vergence to the west, as opposed to the generally eastward tectonic vergence. A few of the well-stratified units show strongly inclined stratal surfaces which may be attributed to lateral accretion of turbidite fan lobes. Several sets of these inclined surfaces are bounded by erosional surfaces which could have resulted from different episodes of turbidity flow. The association of incoherent mass-flow units with the more well-stratified deposits reflects the close spatial and temporal relationship between submarine mass-transport events and turbidity flows on the Triassic active slope and basin plain.


We can often learn as much from political movements that failed as from those that achieved their goals. Nationalists Who Feared the Nation looks at one such frustrated movement: a group of community leaders and writers in Venice, Trieste, and Dalmatia during the 1830s, 40s, and 50s who proposed the creation of a multinational zone surrounding the Adriatic Sea. At the time, the lands of the Adriatic formed a maritime community whose people spoke different languages and practiced different faiths but identified themselves as belonging to a single region of the Hapsburg Empire. While these activists hoped that nationhood could be used to strengthen cultural bonds, they also feared nationalism's homogenizing effects and its potential for violence. This book demonstrates that not all nationalisms attempted to create homogeneous, single-language, -religion, or -ethnicity nations. Moreover, in treating the Adriatic lands as one unit, this book serves as a correction to "national" histories that impose our modern view of nationhood on what was a multinational region.


Broadnose sevengill sharks Notorynchus cepedianus caught in a recreational fishery during a 3 yr period in Anegada Bay, Argentina were examined. Monthly variations in abundance were found, with the highest mean abundance in April. Neonates and juveniles were common in the study area, indicating that Anegada Bay is a nursery area of N. cepedianus. Male and female sizes at maturity were 170 and 224 cm total length (TL), respectively, similar to other studied regions. Liver size was sexually dimorphic, with adult females having larger livers, which might allow for the max- imization of oocyte size/number. Individuals 170 cm fed mostly on carti- laginous fishes and marine mammals. All size groups preyed on marine mammals, which may be a result of the local availability of small calves of La Plata River dolphins Pontoporia blainvillei. Possi- bly, the pattern of habitat use of Anegada Bay by P. blainvillei is affected by N. cepedianus. The pro- portion of individuals with prey within the stomach was negatively correlated with TL. As indicated by prey remains found within stomachs (most were in pieces) and by the location of the fishing hook in sharks (most were hooked in the mouth), N. cepedianus extensively handles its prey with the mouth before swallowing it, which is consistent with previous observations. Anegada Bay may be an important area for conservation of N. cepedianus in the SW Atlantic given the high abundance of juveniles and subadults.


3 Abstract: Praniza Larvae of Gnathia pantherina were collected fromgills, pectoral fins and mouth cavity especially tongue and palate of Epinephelus tauvina. The total incidence (58.33%) 35 out of 60 examined fish. The effects of feeding on fishes in the infested E. tauvina are reported and the role of gnathiids as vectors is assessed. Ecological interactions between gnathiid larvae, client and cleaner fishes are summarized. Identification of parasitic praniza larvae of G. pantherina were done through light and scan electron microcopies and it characterized by large size (5.6±0.1mm, n=10). Compounds eyes large, each one is consist of number ocelli that penta-shaped. Maxilliped consists of five-articles, proximal article the largest and the distal four ones with plumose setae. Palp 4 times as long as wide, with three articles and article 3 with 6-8 simple setae. Other morphological features were compared with the most related described species of the same genius. The present work recorded gills, pectoral fins and mouth cavity record as new predilection site of these gnathiid larvae. E. tauvina and Arabian Gulf, especially off Dammam are new host and new geographical distribution of G. pantherina.


Abstract. The variability in the equatorial Tropical Pacific is characterized by sea-surface temperature anomalies and associated changes in the atmospheric circulation. Through an enormous monitoring effort over the last decades, the relevant time scales and spatial patterns are fairly well-documented. In the meantime, a hierarchy of models has been developed to understand the physics of this phenomenon and to make predictions of future variability. In this short review, I try to summarize theories and mechanisms about variability in such a way that these are accessible to a diverse group of researchers, such as that present in Guayaquil (in May 2005) at the First International Alexander Von Humboldt Conference "The El Nino Phenomenon and its Global Impact".