Abstract The Traditional Grocery market consists mainly of Kirana, Wholesalers, Grahak Panchayat, and KiranaSupermarket. Kirana shops are generally situated close to or within residential areas often in the ground floors of residential buildings. Wholesalers are situated in areas which conventionally are in designated wholesale market areas. Mumbai Grahak Panchayat is the largest voluntary consumer organization in Asia, having distribution centers in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Raigad. KiranaSupermarkets were traditionally Kirana shops now converted into mini supermarkets with self-service and trolleys to move around in isles within the shops. With the opening of Modern Shops Traditional retailers have lost a share of the customers purchasing basket. Food is a basic requirement of all people irrespective of their class or status in society. Groceries are required for daily life. Increasing inflation and the increase in prices of goods makes the purchase of groceries a sensitive area for consumers who require purchasing day in and day out. With an increase in competition amongst retail formats, consumers have wider choices from where they can shop. A Quota Sample of 559 Households of Low, Medium, and High income groups was studied through the Survey method, in Thane City, Maharashtra, India. This paper attempts to study where consumers purchase their groceries from amongst formats such as Kirana, Wholesalers, KiranaSupermarkets, and Modern shops. An analysis of the Input, Throughput, and Output shows three areas of Procurement, Value Addition, and Marketing & Selling that present strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for traditional and modern retailers. Keywords: Grocery Retail India, Kirana, Wholesalers, Kiranasupermarkets, Modern Shops


Titan's nitrogen-rich atmosphere is directly bombarded by energetic ions, due to its lack of a significant intrinsic magnetic field. Singly charged energetic ions from Saturn's magnetosphere undergo charge-exchange collisions with neutral atoms in Titan's upper atmosphere, or exosphere, being transformed into energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). The ion and neutral camera, one of the three sensors that comprise the magnetosphere imaging instrument (MIMI) on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, images these ENAs like photons, and measures their fluxes and energies. These remote-sensing measurements, combined with the in situ measurements performed in the upper thermosphere and in the exosphere by the ion and neutral mass spectrometer instrument, provide a powerful diagnostic of Titan's exosphere and its interaction with the Kronian magnetosphere. These observations are analysed and some of the exospheric features they reveal are modelled.


Extracellular glutathione peroxidase (E-GPx) and cellular glutathione peroxidase (C-GPx) are selenoenzymes encoded by two distinct genes. Using specific immunoprecipitations of [75Se]selenium metabolically labeled human cell lines in culture, it was found that Caco-2, Hep3B, Hep G2, and Caki-2 synthesize C-GPx and E-GPx and secrete E-GPx. HBL-100, BT-20, and MCF-7 synthesize only C-GPx. The relationship between Se status (as determined by C-GPx activity) and E-GPx and C-GPx mRNA steady-state levels was investigated in Hep G2, Caco-2, and Caki-2. The most Se-deficient Hep G2, Caco-2, and Caki-2 cells had 8.7 +/- 2.6, 11.2 +/- 4.9, and 9.4 +/- 5.0%, respectively, of C-GPx activity of the replete cells. The steady-state levels of mRNA were measured by Northern and slot blot hybridization analysis. By Northern analysis, a single band was present at 1.0 and 1.80 kb for C-GPx and E-GPx mRNA, respectively, in all three cell lines. Scanning densitometry of the blots revealed that the most Se-deficient cells had 30-50% C-GPx mRNA and 60-80% E-GPx mRNA of the replete cells. It is concluded that, in addition to previously examined human cell lines, Hep3B and Caco-2 make and secrete E-GPx while HBL-100 and BT-20 do not. The slightly reduced levels of G-GPx and E-GPx mRNA in Se-deficient human cell lines can only partially account for the decreased C-GPx activity in Se-deficient human cell lines.


Purpose: A new type of high‐definition multi‐leaf collimator (HD 120 MLC, Varian Medical Systems) is being introduced into clinical practice to improve the conformality of stereotactic radiation therapy and radiosurgery. Its leaf width at isocenter is 2.5 mm. The interface and casing are the same as Millennium 120 MLC so it can be easily fit inside the gantry for better clearance and efficiency. This study investigated the dosimetric characteristics of this new micro MLC.Method and Materials: The HD 120 MLC was installed in a Novalis TX dedicated image‐guided SRS/SBRT machine. Beam penumbra (defined between 20–80%) was measured with a scanning radiosurgery diode for various field sizes, depth, and beam energies. Dynamic dosimetric gap and leaf transmission were measured with both low (6 MV and 6 MV SRS) and high energy (15 MV) photon beams. The conformity and step effect were studied with a series of circular beams with various radius. Results: The penumbra of HD 120 MLC was measured to be 0.25 cm for 6 MV at 1.5 cm depth with 2 cm × 2 cm field size. It increases to 0.49 cm for 30 cm × 30 cm field size. For 15 MV at 3 cm depth, the penumbra increases from 0.36 cm at 2 cm × 2 cm to 0.60 at 30 cm × 30 cm. For other field sizes and depth, the penumbra values are listed in Table I. The dynamic dosimetric gap was 0.86 cm for 6 MV and 0.98 mm for 15 MV. The leaf transmission factors were 1.17% for 6 MV and 1.33% for 15 MV. Conclusion: HD 120 MLC provides finer beam penumbra, smaller dynamic dose gap, and lower leaf transmission compared to conventional Millennium MLC, and can thus potentially improve the conformality of SRS/SBRT treatments.


This research aim to assess morphological diversity of the elite chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) varieties in Ethiopia. Nineteen elite varieties of chickpea in Ethiopia were used to analyze the means and components of variability (genetic, phenotypic and environmental), and interrelationships (genetic and phenotypic) for yield and various other yield components. Such nineteen varieties were planted by the technique of Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) and three replications were used. Each genotype was sown in four rows with 4.8 m2 (1 m x 4.8 m) plots area, with 40 cm and 1 m spacing between plots and blocks, respectively. In each plot, one hundred and sixty seeds were planted, using 10 cm spacing between plants These nineteen elite varieties of chickpea were evaluated for the traits of hundred seed weight, biological yield, grain yield, plant height, days to 50% flowering, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, harvest index and days to 90% maturity. Genetic variations were evident among released chickpea cultivars as confirmed by high phenotypic and genotypic variations for quantitative and qualitative traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters except hundred seeds weight, days of 50% flowering and grain yield. Strong and positive significant correlation was observed between grain yield, biological yield, number of seeds per plant, number of pods per plant and number of primary branches; showing that their improvement led to yield improvement in chickpea. The result suggested from the mean values of number of seeds per plant, number of pods per plant and days of maturity that chickpea genotypes ICCV-14808, Mariye and ICCV-92069 may be used as parents in further breeding program to develop high yielding cultivars. Principal component analysis revealed that quantitative traits contributed a lot to chickpea genetic variability.

 Key words: Agronomic characters, correlation coefficients, elite, principal component analysis, variation


Summary Polymers have been successfully deployed in the Oil&Gas Industry for various field applications, including waterflood mobility control, flow divergence, and well conformance control. Polymers are among the most widely used chemical EOR methods. Polymer intermolecular interaction and resulting permeability alterations are not fully understood. In this study, we present a novel approach for dynamic visualization of polymer molecular interaction and transport behavior using porous media replication in a microfluidic device, including fluorescent tagging of polymers and single-molecule microscopy. We then use pore-scale simulations to reproduce the experimental observations. The microfluidic chip, conceptually referred to as "Reservoir-on-a-Chip", serves as a two-dimensional proxy, which facilitates assessing the flow mechanisms occurring at pore-scale. A microfluidic model was developed to observe polymer flow behavior and transport mechanisms through porous media. The designed microfluidic chip honors the pore-size distribution of oil-bearing conventional reservoir rocks, with pore-throats ranging from 2 to 10 μm. We built the micromodel out of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) through soft-lithography. The traditional use of tracers to track polymers has a limitation because of the tendency of polymer molecules to segregate. Polymer induced pore-clogging, alongside with the reverse mechanism, namely pore-unclogging, have been dynamically captured, for the first time. On the basis of the experimental observation, pore-scale simulations were performed to model the phenomenon. We investigated the flow of the polymer molecules and agglomerates residing in the polymer solution and the clogging-unclogging mechanisms. The simulations emphasize consistent flow conductance increase with time, in the flow channels that underwent unclogging. Both experimental and simulation results bring evidence of polymer retention and attainable flow conductance restoration to the initial pre-polymer flooding values. We show the first direct dynamic observations of a tagged polymer molecules at dynamic conditions. The conducted single-phase flow experiments enabled direct observation of polymer molecules' flow behavior within the hosting phase. Additionally, the retention mechanisms manifested during flow and their impact on apparent permeability are analyzed. The study presents a novel approach for labeling and visualizing polymer molecules and their flow behavior in porous media. We successfully used advanced microscopy techniques, to present dynamic visualization of polymer pore-clogging and unclogging mechanisms, for the first time. Using microfluidic techniques and single-molecule microscopy, we provide new insights at the molecular level, and flow behavior at the pore-scale, which helps to optimize polymer selection for field implementation.


The mass dependence of the limiting temperatures for finite nuclear systems is investigated. Our study shows that the different parameter sets of Skyrme interaction and the form of surface tension can influence the limiting temperature obviously.


When children lose a parent during childhood this offers emotional and life changing moments. It is important for them to be included in the death ritual and to be recognized as grievers alongside adults. Recent research has shown that children themselves consider it relevant to be part of the 'communitas' of grievers and do not like to be set aside because they are considered to be too young to participate. In this case study, I describe how a Dutch mother encouraged her three children, aged 12, 9 and 6, to participate in the death rituals of their father. She asked a funeral photographer to document the rituals. In that way, later on in their life, the children would have a visual report of the time of his death in addition to their childhood memories. The objective of my case study research was first, to explore in detail how children are able to participate in death rituals in a carefully contemplated manner and in accordance with their age and wishes, and second, to examine the relevance of funeral photographs to them in later years. The funeral photographs will be presented as a visual essay of how and when the children took part in the rituals and which ritual objects, such as the coffin and the grave, but also letters, poems and drawings were important in creating an ongoing bond with their deceased father. The conclusion of this case study presentation is that funeral photographs of death rituals may function as mnemonic objects later on in the life of children who lost a parent in their childhood. These photographs enable children, when necessary, to materialize how they participated in the death ritual of their father or mother. In this respect they can be seen as functional means of continuing bonds in funeral culture, linking the past with the present, in particular when young children are involved.


Abstract The collection and analysis of observational and experimental data represent the main tools for assessing the presence, the extent, the nature, and the trend of discrimination phenomena. Data analysis techniques have been proposed in the last 50 years in the economic, legal, statistical, and, recently, in the data mining literature. This is not surprising, since discrimination analysis is a multidisciplinary problem, involving sociological causes, legal argumentations, economic models, statistical techniques, and computational issues. The objective of this survey is to provide a guidance and a glue for researchers and anti-discrimination data analysts on concepts, problems, application areas, datasets, methods, and approaches from a multidisciplinary perspective. We organize the approaches according to their method of data collection as observational, quasi-experimental, and experimental studies. A fourth line of recently blooming research on knowledge discovery based methods is also covered. Observational methods are further categorized on the basis of their application context: labor economics, social profiling, consumer markets, and others.


The aim of this study was to develop an indirect ELISA for the detection of Hypoderma lineatum antibodies and to determine the influence of seroepidemiological factors on the seroprevalence of bovine hypodermosis in cattle of subtropical region of Pakistan. For this purpose a total of 1000 blood samples were taken from twenty eight villages of Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum districts. First instar larvae (L1) of the warble fly were collected from the surrounding abattoirs to obtain the antigen (HyC) used for development of indirect ELISA. The seroprevalence was 17.4% (174/1000). The highest seroprevalence was recorded in the Rawalpindi district (28.81%), followed by Attock (21.51%), Jhelum (10%) and Chakwal (6.66%). In present study the sensitivity and specificity was 97.28% and 96.44%, respectively. The epidemiological factors showed that the village having hilly locations, local breed, young animals, water bodies, extensive grazing, primary exposed and non medicated were more seropositive as compare to others (P<0.05). In conclusion, indirect ELISA developed during this study is very useful tool for early detection of bovine hypodermosis in cattle grazing in subtropical region of Pakistan.


Lonomia obliqua caterpillar is frequently seen in accidents with humans especially in the south of Brazil. Patients develop a hemorrhagic syndrome that can be treated with specific antilonomic serum. A consumptive coagulopathy was found to be the main cause of bleeding complications observed in patients after contact with L. obliqua. Studies revealed that L. obliqua caterpillar bristle extract (LOCBE) displays a procoagulant activity that leads to intravascular thrombin formation, resulting in a special form of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). Fibrinolysis seems to be secondary to the fibrin production, since no direct fibrinolytic activity was found in LOCBE. Two procoagulant toxins, a factor X activator (Losac) and a prothrombin activator (Lopap), were isolated from LOCBE and characterized. Infusion of Lopap into experimental animals triggered a condition similar to that observed in human envenomation.


Constitutional dictatorship, far from being a contradiction in terms, has been an important feature of republican governments since Roman times. This essay describes the basic idea of a constitutional dictatorship, and discusses those elements of constitutional dictatorship that already exist in the American constitutional system, particularly in the modern presidency. A constitutional dictatorship is a system (or subsystem) of constitutional government that bestows on a certain individual or institution the right to make binding rules, directives, and decisions and apply them to concrete circumstances unhindered by timely legal checks to their authority. The Roman dictatorship limited the time of the dictatorship and separated the institution that declared the emergency from the person who exercised power. The American pattern has been quite different. Generally speaking, the President announces the existence of a crisis or emergency, and, at the President's request, the Congress generally bestows new statutory grants of power. These new powers are usually never repealed and are banked away for future use, sometimes in very different contexts. The American pattern of constitutional dictatorship does not involve the executive claiming the right to transcend the law; instead Congress grants ever more practically unreviewable discretion to the executive. In addition, a significant feature of American constitutionalism is the rise of "distributed dictatorships," in which executive power is spread among a number of de facto dictators, each with its own special expertise. The modern administrative state increasingly spreads unreviewable power among a variety of different agencies, czars, and bureaucrats. The Federal Reserve's response to the recent economic crisis and the Centers for Disease Control's powers to impose quarantines are examples. The essay concludes with some suggestions for counteracting the more dangerous tendencies in the American pattern of constitutional dictatorship. Although emergencies often cannot be foreseen in advance, the structural features of emergency power must be designed in advance to preserve republican government.


Oviposition strategies are an important component of life history evolution in insects. Oviposition is a complex behaviour, where females must locate suitable habitat patches, locate oviposition sites, evaluate the quality, and finally decide how many eggs to lay. In this thesis, I explore some factors that may influence oviposition strategies in female butterflies. It discusses oviposition strategies from large to fine scales and ends with a discussion on implications for conservation. In paper I we tested for local adaptations in oviposition preference and larval performance in Polyommatus icarus. The result suggests that this species is evolutionary conservative in its utilization of the tested host plants. In the second paper we investigated frequency-dependent host plant choice in Polygonia c-album and showed that females spent significantly more time, and laid more eggs, in patches with high frequency of the preferred host. The influence of nectar sources on host plant choice in P. icarus was tested in paper III, females preferred ovipositing on host plants with flowers and after feeding. In paper IV we investigated oviposition "mistakes" in P. c-album and found differences in discrimination of hosts and non-hosts. Further, we showed that P. c-album butterflies are capable of responding to host quality by increasing clutch sizes on a high ranked host (paper V). Finally, in paper VI I explored how female oviposition behaviour can influence habitat management for a threatened butterfly species, Parnassius mnemosyne, by doing an observational field study on oviposition site preferences. This thesis highlights oviposition as a stepwise process and show that female discrimination is important at a multitude of levels with implications for oviposition strategies.


Abstract

Chapter 1 of this thesis introduces the reader to the background of the main topic – vitamin D, its metabolism and physiological effects. Since its discovery vitamin D has been recognized as an important factor in calcium homeostasis and bone metabolism. Recently, there has been extensive research performed on possible extra-skeletal effects of vitamin D. Nowadays vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a higher risk of many prevalent diseases such as cardio-vascular disease or type 2 diabetes mellitus. Based on this new research it is considered that improving vitamin D status may be a cost-effective tool to improve public health. The main objective of this thesis was to investigate the association of vitamin D and cardio-metabolic health.

Chapter 2 presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on vitamin D and the risk of mortality. The objective was to evaluate the extent to which circulating biomarker and supplements of vitamin D are associated with mortality under various circumstances. With this meta-analysis we found that the evidence from observational studies shows inverse associations of circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D with risks of vascular, cancer and nonvascular-noncancer deaths. Further we found that supplementation with vitamin D3 reduces overall mortality among older adults significantly; however, further investigations are required to establish the optimal dose and duration, and whether vitamin D3 affects mortality risk differently than vitamin D2.

In chapter 3 we investigated the associations between vitamin D and metabolic outcomes. More specifically, in chapter 3.1 we focused on possible association between vitamin D status and prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the elderly since the findings on this topic in the elderly are inconsistent. The aim was to evaluate the association between vitamin D status and the metabolic syndrome in the elderly, as well as between vitamin D status and the components of metabolic syndrome (i.e. serum glucose, triglycerides (TG), HDL cholesterol (HDL-C), waist circumference (WC), and blood pressure (BP)). We found higher 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations in the elderly to be associated with a lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome and, in particular, with more beneficial HDL-C, TG, WC and serum glucose. Further in this chapter (3.2) we examined the association between vitamin D and body composition in the elderly. We found lower serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations to be associated with a higher fat mass Vitamin D and Cardio-metabolic Health in the Elderly percentage. We also demonstrated that the association between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and differential fat distribution in the elderly was mainly explained by BMI, which deserves further study.

The focus of chapter 4 was on the association of vitamin D and cardiovascular health. Here we investigated the possible association between vitamin D status and the incidence of atrial fibrillation in the elderly. We found vitamin D status not to be associated with atrial fibrillation in any of the 3 multivariate models tested and concluded that this prospective cohort study did not support the hypothesis that vitamin D status is associated with atrial fibrillation.

Chapter 5 introduces new ideas in the vitamin D research. Firstly, we have investigated the possible interaction between serum magnesium levels and vitamin D in relation to incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (5.1). We found that the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and type 2 diabetes mellitus may depend on adequate serum magnesium levels. These results imply that it may be important in clinical practice to assess serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and magnesium levels simultaneously to identify people at risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus. In the second part of chapter 5 (5.2), we explored the association between vitamin D and serum lipids. Higher levels of vitamin D have been associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease perhaps through improved lipid profiles. However, results reported were inconsistent and the direction of the association between vitamin D and lipid levels remained unknown. For that reason the aim of this chapter was to assess the potential bidirectional associations between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and blood lipids using path analyses in cross-lagged models a novel approach in analyzing this kind of data. Our results from path analyses on repeatedly measured 25-hydroxyvitamin D and lipid levels suggest that total cholesterol might be related with a decrease in 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, but not the other way around, whereas the observed inverse association between HDL cholesterol and 25-hydroxyvitamin D may be bidirectional.

Chapter 6 discusses the main findings of this thesis as well as methodological issues arising from the design of our study, public health implications of our findings and future directions in vitamin D research. Repletion of vitamin D status might be considered as a cost-effective public health measure in prevention of certain conditions and improving some aspects of overall human health. However, to prove the causality of the association of vitamin D Vitamin D and Cardio-metabolic Health in the Elderly and different diseases with the certainty, properly designed randomized controlled trials are needed.


Failure rate functions were usually constructed in terms of life distribution. The present paper defines "discrete failure rate", analyzes the dependence of failure rate curve shape on the probabilistic property of load-strength interaction, and develops load-strength-interaction based system failure rate model. For the majority of mechanical equipment, operation load is normally a random process, components are subjected to a large number of stochastic load actions during its service life. Meanwhile, material property degrades continuously owing to the failure mechanisms such as fatigue. It is the ever changing load-strength relationship that yields the variation in failure rate. Based on the criterion that failure occurs when a load higher than the relevant strength appears, failure rate model is developed based on the interaction mechanism between load and residual strength, and their statistical characteristics as well. Based on the interpretation to the variation of failure rate in terms of load uncertainty and strength uncertainty, the effect of statistical risk of load and the effect of strength degradation on failure rate curve shape are highlighted.


An important unresolved issue in U.S. policy in Asia after World War II is the variation in the scale of land reforms in Japan and southern Korea during postwar American military occupation of these nations. The U.S. occupation authority in Japan conducted sweeping land redistribution, while the military government in Korea implemented very limited reform of landholding. This study asserts that the source of the variation lies in the different degrees of security threat to the two U.S. occupations. In Japan, the United States enjoyed a favorable security environment. No political force, either internal or external, challenged the authority of the occupation. Without fear of the islands falling to a hostile rival, U.S. occupation leaders focused on dissolving the concentration of wealth in rural society. By contrast, south of the 38th parallel in Korea, the U.S. occupation had to deal with challenges strong domestic Communist groups posed to its authority. In this unfavorable security environment, land reform might exacerbate existing chaos. The U.S. military government had to accommodate landed conservative elites as its governing partners to counter Communist organizations. Later, these former partners grew strong enough to block U.S. efforts to alter landholding and forced the occupiers to return home after only partial reform.


The onshore record of Cenozoic glaciation in the Antarctic Peninsula region is limited to a number of isolated localities on Alexander Island, the South Shetland Islands and in the James Ross Island area. In the James Ross Island area, Late Cretaceous sedimentary rocks are unconformably overlain by a unit of diamictites and tuffs, which occur at the base of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group. These rocks are here defined as the Hobbs Glacier Formation, and on the basis of palynological studies are assigned to a Miocene (?late Miocene) age. The diamictites are interpreted as representing glaciomarine sedimentation close to the grounding line of either a floating ice shelf or a grounded tidewater glacier in a marine basin. Provenance studies indicate that the glacier was flowing from the Antarctic Peninsula towards the southeast. Volcanic tuffs conformably overlie the diamictites and are interpreted as representing deposition in a periglacial delta front setting in either a marine or non-marine basin, away from direct glacial influence. The Hobbs Glacier Formation and overlying James Ross Island Volcanic Group help to enhance our understanding of the Neogene glacial chronology of West Antarctica.


The population of Sierra Leone consists of a detribalised Colony group which has imitated British standards of education and social life for over 150 years and a hetrogeneous Protectorate group which is strictly tribal and among which only about 4% of the children are receiving education of a Western type. Infiltration of Colony people into the Protectorate and Protectorate people into the Colony is now increasing rapidly and there are indications that certain less desirable tendencies of each group are being limited by the other. Children grow up in the Colony believing that their goal should be one of the professions and they feel frustrated when this proves impossible. The same attitude has claimed a large proportion of the educated Protectorate group who tend to desert their villages for clerkships in the city and to despise their illiterate relations. Primary school education of a 19th century Western type is provided for about 56% of the Colony children through the3 Amalgamated school system and secondary education is provided largely by the Missions. Of the few children who are in school in the Protectorate, most are in Mission schools, some are in Native Administration schools and a few in schools provided by the Central Government. The majority have only their tribal education which is given largely through secret societies. The areas where Western education is already established need a revolutionised school curriculum to meet the needs of the community; in the area where no Western education has yet been established it would be possible to develop a system which would avoid the serious effects of detribalisation on and at the same time enable the people to take their place in world society. In both cases the school should become a vital influence in the community and should stimulate social and economic progress.


Brevican, a proteoglycan of the lectican family, inhibits neurite outgrowth and may also stabilize synapses. Little is known about its expression or function in vitro. This study seeks to determine whether a brevican‐containing matrix is present in neural cultures, and if so, how the production of brevican may be modulated. To accomplish this, the content of brevican and its proteolytic fragments were measured in primary cultures of neurons, astrocytes and microglia after treatment with cytokines. These experiments revealed that astrocytes and neurons express several isoforms of brevican, whereas microglia do not produce this proteoglycan. Cleavage fragments of brevican were found primarily in neuronal and astrocyte culture medium. ADAMTS4 (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs), a protease that selectively cleaves lecticans, was detected in cultures of neurons, astrocytes and microglia. When astrocytes were challenged with various cytokines, it was found that treatment with transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) resulted in a marked increase in intact brevican in the culture medium that was accompanied by a trend for a decrease in ADAMTS‐generated fragments of brevican and apparent ADAMTS activity. Thus, TGFβ may play a role in neuronal plasticity through its regulation of brevican and the activity of the ADAMTSs.


Plan for construction and operation of demo disposal facility in Serpong Nuclear Area requires safety assessments to provide scientific evidence that the facility is safe for human and the environment. The result of the safety assessment is used also as a basis for granting environmental permits for the construction and operation of the facility. One of the site data requirements on the safety assessment is the direction and velocity of groundwater flow. Therefore, a study to determine the direction and velocity of groundwater flow at lower zone aquifer of demo disposal site candidate in Serpong Nuclear Area conducted. The research was carried out by using Rhodamin WT tracer. The tracer released in the main well (SBU) and monitored in SBP-1 (A), SBP-2 (B), and SBP-3 (C) boreholes. Based on the water samples and spatial analysis, groundwater data flow direction at a depth of 16 m towards N 240o E (west-southwest) with a velocity of 0.35 m/day up to 0.48 m/day obtained.


The objective of this project was a more detailed investigation of the rapid decline in milksolids production experienced at LUDF during late October and November in the 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. • Analysis of a sample of production curves from dairy farms across New Zealand failed to identify consistent patterns of 'Spring milk dip'. While some farms in each region showed a dip in milk production during the period of interest it was not as large as that observed on the LUDF and was not repeatable across years. • 2006 was an atypical year at LUDF, with a wet Winter and cold Spring resulting in high sugar levels, high DM% and low protein content in the early pasture. There was no evidence of differences in pasture composition between cultivars growing at LUDF (Bealey or Tabu). • A 'Spring Dip' in MS production was not observed at LUDF during late October/November 2006. • This allowed us to make comparisons of pasture covers and composition with previous 'Spring Dips', notably the large dip in 2005. • The LUDF 'Spring Dip' appears to result from lower pasture covers in the period soon after peak milk yield and is not related to pasture composition. • It may be more of a feature of herds that adopt extremely low grazing residuals and so are more likely to run into low covers at this time, though national database information did not allow us to verify this assertion (see above). Further studies of this aspect are justified. • The project reinforces the importance of maintaining pasture monitoring during this busy (mating) period. • Further work should focus on ensuring a reliable indication of pasture covers during this critical phase of lactation.


Diffusers are typically used in motorsport to generate negative lift (downforce). They also reduce aerodynamic drag and so significantly enhance aerodynamic efficiency. The amount of downforce generated is dependent on ride height, diffuser ramp angle and its relative length to that of the vehicle length. This paper details a numerical investigation of the effects of ride height and diffuser ramp angle in order to find an optimum downforce and efficiency for the inverted Ahmed model. A short and long diffuser with ratios of 10% and 35%, respectively, to that of vehicle length are studied. The short diffuser produced lower maximum downforce and efficiency at a lower ride height and lower angle when compared to the longer diffuser. The long diffuser produced highest downforce and the best efficiency with a ramp angle of 25° at ride height ratio of 3.8% when compared to vehicle length. Different ride heights were found to correspond to different diffuser ramp angles to achieve optimum downforce and efficiencies.


Weanling male rats were fed diets containing 1C% protein from
raw or autoclaved soybean for 7 days. Levels of plasma lysine,
methionine, threonine and tryptophan were determined and plasma amino
acid (PAA) scores were calculated. The PAA score indicated that
aethionine is the limiting amino acid in soybean. Threonine and
tryptophan levels were low in the plague of rats fed raw soybean, bat
increased markedly on feeding autoclaved soybean. Supplementation of
raw soybean diet withL-Rethionine resulted in a highly significant
increase in the level of methionine in the plasma indicating that the
inhibitors present in the raw soybean do not affect the availability
of added methionine. Supplementation of autoclaved soytean diet with
L-methionine, resulted in a marked increase in the plasma methionine
levels but caused a significant lowering of the threonine level.
Methionine supplementation markedly increased the protein efficiency
ratio (PER) of autoclaved soybean, but addition of threonine along
with methionine did not result in any further improvement in the PER,
although the threonine level in the blood increased. The results
indicated that, apart from threonine, some other amino acid(s) may be
limiting in soybean proteins.


The developmentpsilas results of the TWT with the low-voltage gridless and the high electronic efficiency, the gain coefficient and a broad band amplified frequency are submitted.


This paper studies the problem of forming and updating the network topology in a multirobot system that is simultaneously engaged in a given task. The contribution of this paper is to propose a decentralized model of how the network may evolve based on network-related payoff functions and pairwise games. As such, pairwise games provide a practical and general scheme for contacting other robots and revising the network topology. A network is deemed acceptable by all the robots using pairwise stability and pairwise Nash equilibrium. As an application, we consider networks that are generated with mutual link-based payoff functions and show that – under some assumptions regarding changes in the configuration states – each game is ensured of converging to a pairwise stable network. This approach is then integrated with a common robotic task where the network is critical to successful task completion. The resulting performance is evaluated with respect to a variety of measures including task completion, network density, and the average payoff along with comparative results with all-to-all communication. Graphical Abstract


Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) is one of the most developing research topic along with growing advance technology and digital information. The benefits of research topic on ITS are to address some problems related to traffic conditions. Vehicle detection and tracking is one of the main step to realize the benefits of ITS. There are several problems related to vehicles detection and tracking. The appearance of shadow, illumination change, challenging weather, motion blur and dynamic background such a big challenges issue in vehicles detection and tracking. Vehicles detection in this paper using the Optical Flow Density algorithm by utilizing the gradient of object displacement on video frames. Gradient image feature and HSV color space on Optical flow density guarantee the object detection in illumination change and challenging weather for more robust accuracy. Hungarian Kalman filter algorithm used for vehicle tracking. Vehicle tracking used to solve miss detection problems caused by motion blur and dynamic background. Hungarian kalman filter combine the recursive state estimation and optimal solution assignment. The future positon estimation makes the vehicles detected although miss detection occurance on vehicles. Vehicles counting used single line counting after the vehicles pass that line. The average accuracy for each process of vehicles detection, tracking, and counting were 93.6%, 88.2% and 88.2% respectively.


We identified and localized interphotoreceptor (or interstitial) retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) and cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP) in the cone-dominant retinas of diurnal squirrels. Western blots were prepared from sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gels (SDS-PAGE) from whole retina, and from retina proximal and distal to the photoreceptor nuclei. Blots were incubated with purified rabbit IgG's specific for the bovine retinal antigens, and the labeled components were visualized using immunoperoxidase techniques. Anti-bovine IRBP and anti-bovine CRALBP recognized single components on gels of retinal supernatants that corresponded to the electrophoretic migration of the bovine antigens. The component recognized by anti-bovine IRBP on blots of outer retinal proteins (Mr 146,000) was absent on blots of inner retinal proteins. Twelve and 24 hr after intravitreal injection of 3H-L-fucose, electropherograms showed one major peak of radioactivity that coincided with the component recognized by anti-bovine IRBP. By immunoelectron microscopy, anti-bovine CRALBP labeling was restricted to the cytoplasm of both RPE and Muller cells, with light labeling of nuclear euchromatin in both cell types. In contrast, anti-bovine IRBP recognized antigenic sites primarily in the interphotoreceptor space (IPS). Intracellular labeling was limited to occasional granules in the photoreceptor myoids and the apical RPE cytoplasm. Extracellular labeling with anti-bovine IRBP was strongly associated with patches or small clumps of amorphous, electron opaque material distributed throughout the IPS. This material was particularly prominent near the cone outer segment plasma membranes, and was tentatively identified as the residual interphotoreceptor matrix that remained after exposure to the solvents used during tissue processing. In general, the results are consistent with those obtained in rod-dominant species. In addition, they imply that cones as well as rods are responsible for IRBP synthesis in the ground squirrel.


The aim of this study was to explore the mRNA levels of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), vessel endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) in synovial tissues in ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and to analyze the functions of these proteins in the differentiation of AS synovial tissue fibroblasts into osteoblasts (OB) and osteoclasts. Synovial tissue samples from 22 AS patients and 22 normal individuals were collected. In situ hybridization was utilized to detect TNF-α, VEGF, and MMP-3 transcripts. After counting numbers of positive cells, Spearman analysis was used to determine the correlation between transcriptional levels of the three mRNAs and the AS disease activity index (BASDAI) and the C-response protein (CRP) levels. With the addition of TNF-α, VEGF, or both factors into cultured normal synovial fibroblasts, osteocalcin (bone gla protein, BGP) secretion levels were compared. We found that expression of TNF-α, VEGF, and MMP-3 was identified exclusively in the disease group. mRNA levels were significantly positively correlated with BASDAI (r = 0.42, 0.38, and 0.47, respectively; P < 0.05) and CRP (r = 0.44, 0.34, and 0.47 respectively; P < 0.05) scores. The secretion level of BGP in normal synovial fibroblasts increased progressively with increasing concentrations of VEGF or TNF-α (P < 0.01 compared to levels before treatment). Furthermore, co-incubation using both VEGF and TNF-α significantly elevated BGP levels compared to the single addition of VEGF or TNF-α (P < 0.01). These results suggest TNF-α, VEGF, and MMP-3 might directly participate in the differentiation of fibroblasts into OBs.


Although deep networks are typically used to approximate functions over high dimensional inputs, recent work has increased interest in neural networks as function approximators for low-dimensional-but-complex functions, such as representing images as a function of pixel coordinates, solving differential equations, or representing signed distance functions or neural radiance fields. Key to these recent successes has been the use of new elements such as sinusoidal nonlinearities or Fourier features in positional encodings, which vastly outperform simple ReLU networks. In this paper, we propose and empirically demonstrate that an arguably simpler class of function approximators can work just as well for such problems: multiplicative filter networks. In these networks, we avoid traditional compositional depth altogether, and simply multiply together (linear functions of) sinusoidal or Gabor wavelet functions applied to the input. This representation has the notable advantage that the entire function can simply be viewed as a linear function approximator over an exponential number of Fourier or Gabor basis functions, respectively. Despite this simplicity, when compared to recent approaches that use Fourier features with ReLU networks or sinusoidal activation networks, we show that these multiplicative filter networks largely outperform or match the performance of these approaches on the domains highlighted in these past works.


Stress during pregnancy has been implicated in various behavioral and emotional alterations in the offspring. Since N-acetylcysteine (NAC) has been shown to play neuroprotective role in offspring subjected to various manipulations in prenatal environment, we have examined the effects of this antioxidant against prenatal stress induced behavioral toxicity. Pregnant rats were restrained thrice daily for 45 minutes during early and late gestational periods. Other groups received early and late gestational restrain stress combined with NAC treatment throughout the gestational period. Behavioral and emotional alterations in offspring were investigated at different postnatal ages. Offspring of rats exposed late gestational stress exhibited increased anxiety like behavior during early growing period as demonstrated by greater time spent in dark area of darkbright arena. Increased rearing near the walls of open field and greater number of fecal pellets in the open field was also suggestive of enhanced anxiety. These behavioral alterations were however mitigated by prenatal NAC treatment. Interestingly the anxiety like behavior observed during the early growing period of prenatally stressed rats seemed to have reversed. The exploratory activity and motor development were not affected by prenatal stress. Our results suggest that prenatal stress can give rise to increased anxiety like behavior in offspring during a crucial period in life and the supplementation of thiol antioxidants like NAC may prove useful in managing such behavioral deficits.


TLR7 (Toll-like receptor 7) mediates anti-viral immunity by recognizing ssRNA (single-stranded RNA) viruses. Small-molecular-mass TLR7 agonists have been approved, or are being evaluated, for treatment of cancers or infectious diseases. Although TLR7 is predominantly expressed in a restricted set of immune cell types, including pDCs (plasmacytoid dendritic cells), it is also expressed in non-native expressing cells (e.g. hepatocytes) under certain circumstances. To elucidate the molecular basis of TLR7 induction by pro-inflammatory stimulation and the subsequent cellular responses in these non-native TLR7-expressing cell types, we first cloned and characterized the 5'-promoter region of TLR7. The proximal region of this promoter drives the transcription of the TLR7 gene. Pro-inflammatory stimuli activated TLR 7 transcription via a NF-kappaB (nuclear factor kappaB)-binding motif in this region, and this activation could be blocked by mutation of the NF-kappaB binding site or addition of NF-kappaB inhibitors. Further studies showed that pretreatment of the Hep3B hepatocytes with TNF-alpha (tumour necrosis factor-alpha) or IL-1 (interleukin-1) rendered them responsive to TLR7 activation by a TLR7 agonist. However, distinct from TLR7 activation in pDCs, which respond to stimulation with Th1 polarized cytokine production, TLR7 induction by pro-inflammatory signals in hepatocytes reconstitutes the NF-kappaB-dependent cascade but not the IRF7 (interferon regulatory factor 7)-dependent cascade, resulting in a pro-inflammatory polarized response rather than a Th1 polarized response. These results indicate that inflammatory stimulation is capable of priming cells to respond to TLR7 agonist with an immune response that differs from that in native TLR7-expressing cells.


We consider some Bernoulli free boundary type problems for a general class of quasilinear elliptic (pseudomonotone) operators involving measures depending on unknown solutions. We treat those problems by applying the Ambrosetti–Rabinowitz minimax theorem to a sequence of approximate nonsingular problems and passing to the limit by some a priori estimates. We show, by means of some capacity results, that sometimes the measures are regular. Finally, we give some qualitative properties of the solutions and, for a special case, we construct a continuum of solutions.


Abstract This article describes the antiretroviral (ARV) manufacturing market in Brazil and contextu-alizes the challenges for the public policy of sup-plying ARVs through the National STD/AIDS Pro-gram. Increasing expenditure on these drugs is the main source of uncertainty for the policy's fu-ture. Brazil's domestic scenario is one of growing external dependence, both for the finished drugs and the active ingredients. Experience in the Na-tional Program has shown that it is the state's role to provide public goods, which presupposes ensuring mutual compatibility between com-pany interests and social interests. This balance is currently at stake in Brazil, since structural changes in the market have raised challenges for the National Program's sustainability, requiring new public policy instruments in defense of the collective interest. The article drew on a literature review, using bibliographic indexing sources, sys-tematic organization of primary data, govern-ment publications, relevant legislation, research reports, and articles recommended by experts from the field.Anti-Retrovirals Agents; Pharmaceutical Services; Drug Industry


Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is a major endogenous vasoprotective agent that improves endothelial function by increasing nitric oxide (NO) synthesis and scavenging of superoxide and peroxynitrite. Therefore, administration of BH4 is considered a promising therapy for cardiovascular diseases associated with endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress. Here we report on a novel function of BH4 that might contribute to the beneficial vascular effects of the pteridine. Treatment of cultured porcine aortic endothelial cells with nitroglycerin (GTN) or 1H-[1,2,4]-oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxaline-1-one (ODQ) resulted in heme oxidation of soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), as evident from diminished NO-induced cGMP accumulation that was paralleled by increased cGMP response to a heme- and NO-independent activator of soluble guanylate cyclase [4-([(4-carboxybutyl)[2-(5-fluoro-2-([4′-(trifluoromethyl)biphenyl-4-yl]methoxy)phenyl)ethyl]amino]methyl)benzoic acid (BAY 60-2770)]. Whereas scavenging of superoxide and/or peroxynitrite with superoxide dismutase, tiron, Mn(III)tetrakis(4-benzoic acid)porphyrin, and urate had no protective effects, supplementation of the cells with BH4, either by application of BH4 directly or of its precursors dihydrobiopterin or sepiapterin, completely prevented the inhibition of NO-induced cGMP accumulation by GTN and ODQ. Tetrahydroneopterin had the same effect, and virtually identical results were obtained with RFL-6 fibroblasts, suggesting that our observation reflects a general feature of tetrahydropteridines that is unrelated to NO synthase function and not limited to endothelial cells. Protection of sGC against oxidative inactivation may contribute to the known beneficial effects of BH4 in cardiovascular disorders associated with oxidative stress.


The use of aluminium alloys rose in the last decade, as its specific mechanical properties allow a reduction of mass as for example in automotive. Moreover aluminium, due to its high corrosion resistance, is a very important material class in plant construction, where it is used for pipes or container till 250 °C. Aluminium can be welded with different technologies. Nowadays TIG and MIG are mainly used for example in plant construction or in mechanical engineering. Laser beam welding is a widely established technology in automotive. The advantage is the high energy concentration, which leads to a high welding speed and a narrow heat affected zone. Plasma welding is applied when joining aluminium with alternating current, as an easy removal of the oxide layer in the surface of the weld pool is possible. Plasma-Powder-Arc-Welding (PPAW) method has been developed from Plasma Transferred Arc (PTA) weld surfacing and Plasma Arc Welding (PAW) methods by combining a small PAW torch (PAW is traditionally performed with wire as filler material) with powder filler material feeding as used in PTA-equipment. The coupling leads to a better mechanisation of the welding process as the consumable is fed directly through the welding torch. In this paper investigations on aluminium sheets (£ 2 mm) AA5xxx and AA6xxx using different powder materials are reported. The influence of the processing parameters and conditions on the process reliability, when welding with industrial robots butt and corner welds is investigated. Conventional PPAW of aluminium is performed with AlSi12 filler material. A post processing of the joint, as for example anodising in order to improve corrosion resistance, leads to a very different optical aspect, as the colouration of the weld seam after anodising differs from the base material. Thanks to a correct choice of filler material it is possible to reduce the colour differences between base materials/heat affected zone and bead, so that the weldment can be set for high quality optical applications, too.


The preparation of high temperature ceramics simultaneously containing silicon, nitrogen and carbon has only relatively recently become an area of interest for inorganic crystal chemists, and the recent discovery of a new series of carbonitrides with the general formula MM'Si4N6C is of interest because of the good high temperature properties they appear to display. On the one hand, M and M' can be the same trivalent metal - either rare earth or yttrium; in this case, the resulting compounds display orthorhombic (pseudo-hexagonal) structures. Alternatively the metals may be a mix of di- (Ca,Sr, Ba) and tri-valent (Y,Ln) cations, in which case the carbon is replaced by nitrogen, and the overall symmetry is hexagonal. Other quaternary nitrides of a similar type can be produced if the two metal cations remain trivalent and one of the silicon atoms is replaced by aluminium. The present study describes the preparation of powder samples of Y2Si4N6C and LaYSi4N6C starting from YH2, La, Si3N4 and carbon precursors, and summarises attempts to achieve a dense product by hot-pressing at 1700-1800oC. Some preliminary mechanical property measurements are included.


Since the reconstruction of Joseph Schumpeter's view of innovation as a driver of capitalist development and the subsequent formation of the national innovation systems (NIS) theory in the early 1990s that can be described as neo-Schumpeterian, there has been a continuous attempt to analyse innovation. However, much of this has positioned innovation as a value-neutral process. We argue that such value-neutrality requires closer analysis because the neo-Schumpeterian thinkers do appear to acknowledge that capitalism itself is an uneven, dynamic process. The relationship between the vital dynamism of such analysis of technological change and the context of its description of power relations and value deserves further attention. Under what conditions are systemic interactions between institutions and actors potentially universalisable? Can the theory of innovation be abstracted from its social and political bases? This paper aims to redefine innovation as a predominately political process that is both historical and contextual, and thus draw out its implications for development politics.


Differences of opinion between Epstein, Flynn & Martohardjono (1996) and some commentators can be traced to different interpretations of Universal Grammar (UG) form or strategy. Potential full access to the form of linguistic universals in second language acquisition may be distinguished from access to UG strategy, but Epstein et al.'s dismissal of the Critical Age Hypothesis clouds their central argument.


Growth hormone treatment in growth hormone deficient adults. I. Effects on muscle mass and strength. ] Appl Phsvsiol (in press). 11 Rudman D, Feller AG, Nagraj HS, et al. Effects of human growth hormone in men over 60 years old. N Engl J Med 1990;323: 1-6. 12 Thuesen 1, Christiansen JS, Sorensen KE, Jorgensen JOL, Orskov H, Henningsen P. Increased mvocardial contractility following growth hormone administration in normal man. DanAfed Bull 1988;35:193-6.


Neutron diffraction has been used to study the progress of deformation twinning and intergranular strain evolution in extruded magnesium during cyclic and monotonic loading at two temperatures. Differences in the intergranular strains generated during tensile and compressive tests are attributed to the operation of twinning in compression. Twinning activity is reduced relative to slip at higher temperature, leading to greater similarities between tension and compression. During cyclic loading, a distinct Bauschinger effect is observed after each compressive loading stage. The origin of this effect is identified as the reversal of twinning during unloading and subsequent tensile loading.


"The labor markets of most industrialized countries are polarized. This means that employment has grown in jobs at the upper and lower tails of the wage distribution, while employment in the middle part of the distribution has stagnated or declined. However, there exists no measure that allows a quantitative comparison across different labor markets as yet. I propose a straightforward way to measure the actual magnitude of job polarization. To demonstrate its application, I use this measure to compare polarization across German local labor markets. Job polarization almost exclusively occurs in urban areas where the hypothesis of routine biased technological change is most likely to prevail." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))


Section I: Shining a Light on Leadership in Public Relations 1. Making Sense of Leaders and Leadership in Public Relations 2. Review of the Leadership Literature 3. Research Design and Methods 4.Profile of Survey and Interview Participants Section II: Results and Implications of the Global Leadership Study 5. The Context for Leadership in Public Relations Ansgar Zerfass, Anne Linke, Ulrike Roettger 6. Strategies and Tactics Leaders Use to Manage Issues Bryan Reber 7. Dimensions of Leadership and Issue Management Juan Meng 8. Development of Future Leaders Yan Jin 9. Perceptions of Leaders, Organizations and the Profession Elina Erzikova, Baiba Petersone Section III: Conversations with Leaders in Public Relations 10. Public Relations Leadership in the Chinese-Speaking Countries Chun-ju Flora Hung-Baesecke, Yan Jin, Juan Meng 11. Leadership in a Transforming Environment Nilanjana Bardhan, Padmini Patwardhan 12. Past, Present and Future Public Relations in South Korea Jae-Hwa Shin, Jaesub Lee, Jongmin Park, Kwang Hee Kim 13. Leadership in Communication Management Ulrike Roettger, Janne Stahl, Ansgar Zerfass 14. Addressing Organizational and Sociopolitical Changes Through Leadership in Public Relations in Latvia Baiba Petersone, Bryan Reber 15. Taking on the Bear Elina Erzikova 16. Spain: Public Relations Leadership in an Age of Turbulence Cristina Navarro, Angeles Moreno 17. Transcultural Study on Leadership in Public Relations and Communications Management Andreia Athaydes, Gustavo Becker, Rodrigo Cogo, Mateus Furlanetto, Paulo Nassar 18. Key Leadership Challenges and Factors in Public Relations and Communication in Mexico Marco Herrera and Rebeca Arevalo 19. U.S. Public Relations Leaders Pursue Talent, Digital Mastery, and Strong Cultures Bruce Berger, Juan Meng, William Heyman, Mark Bain, and Mark Harris Section IV: Creating the Future 20. The Global Study and Leadership in the Future Bruce K. Berger and Juan Meng


Phase-change materials (PCMs) are a useful alternative to more traditional methods of thermal management of Li-ion batteries in electric or hybrid-electric vehicles. PCMs are materials which absorb large amounts of latent heat and undergo solid-to-liquid phase change at near-constant temperature. The goal of the research is to experimentally investigate the thermal properties of a novel shape-stabilized PCM/HDPE composite extruded filament. The extruded filament can then be used in a 3D printer for custom PCM/HDPE shapes. The PCM used in the study is PureTemp PCM 42, which is an organic-based material that melts around 42° C. Four PCM/HDPE mixtures were investigated (all percentages by mass): 20/80, 30/70, 40/60, and 50/50. Preliminary findings include differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements of melting temperature and latent heat as well as scanning electron microscope (SEM) pictures of filament composition.


To reduce the transmission latency and mitigate the backhaul burden of the centralized cloud-based network services, the mobile edge computing (MEC) has been drawing increased attention from both industry and academia recently. This paper focuses on mobile users' computation offloading problem in wireless cellular networks with mobile edge computing for the purpose of optimizing the computation offloading decision making policy. Since wireless network states and computing requests have stochastic properties and the environment's dynamics are unknown, we use the model-free reinforcement learning (RL) framework to formulate and tackle the computation offloading problem. Each mobile user learns through interactions with the environment and the estimate of its performance in the form of value function, then it chooses the overhead-aware optimal computation offloading action (local computing or edge computing) based on its state. The state spaces are high-dimensional in our work and value function is unrealistic to estimate. Consequently, we use deep reinforcement learning algorithm, which combines RL method Q-learning with the deep neural network (DNN) to approximate the value functions for complicated control applications, and the optimal policy will be obtained when the value function reaches convergence. Simulation results showed that the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison with baseline methods in terms of total overheads of all mobile users.


Categorical perception, demonstrated as reduced discrimination of within-category relative to between-category differences in stimuli, has been found in a variety of perceptual domains in adults. To examine the development of categorical perception in the domain of facial expression processing, we used behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) methods to assess discrimination of within-category (happy-happy) and between-category (happy-sad) differences in facial expressions in 7-month-old infants. Data from a visual paired-comparison test and recordings of attention-sensitive ERPs showed no discrimination of facial expressions in the within-category condition whereas reliable discrimination was observed in the between-category condition. The results also showed that face-sensitive ERPs over occipital-temporal scalp (P400) were attenuated in the within-category condition relative to the between-category condition, suggesting a potential neural basis for the reduced within-category sensitivity. Together, these results suggest that the neural systems underlying categorical representation of facial expressions emerge during the early stages of postnatal development, before acquisition of language.


The stochastic nature of wind alters the unit commitment and dispatch problem. By accounting for this uncertainty when scheduling the system, more robust schedules are produced, which should, on average, reduce expected costs. In this paper, the effects of stochastic wind and load on the unit commitment and dispatch of power systems with high levels of wind power are examined. By comparing the costs, planned operation and performance of the schedules produced, it is shown that stochastic optimization results in less costly, of the order of 0.25%, and better performing schedules than deterministic optimization. The impact of planning the system more frequently to account for updated wind and load forecasts is then examined. More frequent planning means more up to date forecasts are used, which reduces the need for reserve and increases performance of the schedules. It is shown that mid-merit and peaking units and the interconnection are the most affected parts of the system where uncertainty of wind is concerned.


In region-growing segmentation algorithms random seed locations are used (reference). To ensure that repeating the segmentation will produce the same result, the seed locations are following a fixed random pattern. Empirical studies show that when the image that is subjected to the segmentation is changed by adding or removing rows or columns, the resulting segments are not identical anymore, the so-called seed effect. This occurs not only at the border of the image as one would intuitively expect, but also in the center part of the image. Apparently, the exact location of a seed affects the resulting segment. In this study I investigated whether application of an Edge-Preserving Smoothing Filter to an image prior to segmentation would reduce the effect of seed locations when rows or columns are added or removed from that image, and hence make the segmentation method by random seeds more robust. Two images were included: an IKONOS image of the central part of the Netherlands with fragmented land cover of agriculture, forest and villages and a SPOT5 2.5m multi-spectral image of a semi-desert steppe area in southeastern Kazakhstan. Both images were subjected to an Edge-Preserving Smoothing Filter before segmentation. This filter calculates variance for each band in nine different directions (8 wind directions + central area) and sums them per direction. The average band values of the direction with the lowest overall variance are then assigned to the central pixel. For both areas four subsets, each measuring 500x500 pixels, were selected representing different kinds of landscape with different patterns. For the IKONOS image the subsets covered a forested area with a golf course, a business area, a residential area, and an agricultural area. The subsets of the SPOT5 image covered a floodplain, a dune area with sparse vegetation where the soil is covered by lichens, a dune area with sparse vegetation but without lichens, and a dune area with many patches without vegetation and without lichens. In total 10x2 images were available for the analysis (8 subsets, 2 full images, original and EPSF). All images were segmented at five different heterogeneity levels. To quantify the effect of the seed location, the tessellations of the subsets were compared to the tessellation of the full image by overlaying and by analyzing the length of segment borders, both for the original and the EPSF versions. The length of segment borders that coincided between the subset and the full image was divided by the length of all borders in the subset (excluding the enveloping rectangle). The outcome was subtracted from 1 and this value was taken as a measure to quantify the seed effect. The results show that the segmentation results are more similar between the subset and the full image when the EPSF filter was applied before segmentation. In the heterogeneous area in the Netherlands, the seed effect was on average reduced by 6.6% when applying the EPSF filter. In the more homogenous area in the semi-desert in Kazakhstan, the seed effect was reduced by 48.8%. The seed effect strongly increases with higher heterogeneity levels, for all subsets and for both images. The explanation for the positive effect of the EPSF filter is likely found in the creation of very small homogenous patches. The seed pixels will be grouped with pixels from the same patch first, which reduces the location effect on the final segmentation.


INTRODUCTION Geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps (GHP) are one of the fastest growing applications of renewable energy (see discussion at the end of this article) in the world, with annual increases of 10% in about 30 countries over the past 10 years. Its main advantage is that it uses normal ground or groundwater temperatures (between about 5 and 30C), which are available in all countries of the world. Most of this growth has occurred in the United States and Europe, though interest is developing in other countries such as Japan and Turkey. The present worldwide installed capacity is estimated at almost 12,000 MWt (thermal) and the annual energy use is about 72,000 TJ (20,000 GWh). The actual number of installed units is around 1,100,000, but the data are incomplete. Table 1 lists the countries with the highest use of GHPs.


The occurrence of malignant melanoma had enormously increased since past decades. For accurate detection and classification, not only discriminative features are required but a properly designed model to combine these features effectively is also needed. In this study, the multi-tree representation of genetic programming (GP) has been utilised to effectively combine different types of features and evolve a classification model for the task of melanoma detection. Local binary patterns have been used to extract pixel-level informative features. For incorporating the properties of ABCD (asymmetrical property, border shape, color variation and geometrical characteristics) rule of dermoscopy, various features have been used to include local and global information of the skin lesions. To meet the requirements of the proposed multi-tree GP representation, genetic operators such as crossover and mutation are designed accordingly. Moreover, a new weighted fitness function is designed to evolve better GP individuals having multiple trees influencing each other's performance during the evolution, in order to get overall performance gains. The performance of the new method is checked on two benchmark skin image datasets, and compared with six widely used classification algorithms and the single tree GP method. The experimental results have shown that the proposed method has significantly outperformed all these classification methods.


Surface dark solitons in photovoltaic nonlinear media are reported. Taking advantage of diffusion and photovoltaic nonlinearities we demonstrated the surface dark solitons and their behaviors near surface theoretically and experimentally in LiNbO₃ crystal. It is very interesting that surface dark soliton is just half of dark soliton in bulk. Another interesting thing is that transverse modulation instability can be perfectly suppressed by surface dark soliton in virtue of surface. In addition, surface waveguides were written successfully utilizing surface dark soliton.


It is proposed to publish in each number of Notes and Records a short bibliography of books and articles dealing with the history of the Royal Society or its Fellows which have appeared during the previous year. If Fellows would be good enough to draw the Editor's attention to omissions these would be added to the next issue.


Aim: The Social Security Institution (SSI) is attempting to standardize intensive care (IC) pricing in Turkey using a package payment system. In our study, we aimed to determine if the intensive care standards of the Ministry of Health can be achieved with the pricing policy of the SSI. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional and observational cohort study, the refunds of patients discharged from a level III respiratory intensive care unit in November 2011 was calculated by the method of payment over the diagnosis based on the procedure (package payment system) by applying the Declaration of Healthcare Implementation, which was established on March 25 2010. The standards that were used to determine the levels of intensive care unit (ICU) use were identified. The number of intensive care beds, ventilators and other devices, number of doctors and nurses, working course, length of ICU stay, expected mortality according to APACHE II and actual mortality were recorded. Electricity, water and fuel expenditures were calculated from bills according to intensive care unit square meters size during study period. Additionally, the costs telephones, medical supplies, consumables, drugs, examinations, working doctors, nurses and other personnel salaries, and device repair prices were recorded from hospital bills. Overall income and expenses were compared. Results: During the study period, 22 level III ICU (two single isolation room, rooms with 4+4+6+6 beds) beds, 28 ventilators, 24 monitors, echocardiography, bronchoscopy, an arterial blood gas analyzer, portable X-ray device, and perfusors were present in the level III ICU. The mean length of ICU stay was 6.4 day for 87 patients in November 2011. The expected mortality ratio according to the median APACHE II score of 22 was 39%, but the actual mortality rate was 18.4% (n=16). Twenty-five patients were discharged home and 46 patients were discharged to the ward. Mechanical ventilation was applied to 37 patients (42.5%) invasively and 63 patients (72.4%) non-invasively, for a total of 479 days. According to improving the clinical level of an ICU stay, the income was 313.464 TL and expenses were 278.681 TL. An overall income of 34.783 TL was obtained. Conclusion: It is not possible to build a new ICU hat meets the IC standards of the Ministry of Health with the existing pricing policy of SSI. On the other hand, the management of an intensive care unit currently possessing these standards can be partially achieved. (Yoğun Bakım Derg 2012; 3: 23-6)


Protoporphyrin IX (PpIX)-induced photodynamic therapy (PDT) is being utilised within dermatological practice as a topical method of localised ablation of nonmelanoma skin cancer/precancer. Standardised protocols have been implemented to good effect when the disease remains superficial but improvement is required to widen the application of this light activated drug therapy to treat thicker or acrally located conditions. As innate haem biosynthesis is exploited to accumulate the light sensitive PpIX from a topically applied inert prodrug (aminolaevulinic acid; ALA), this pathway can be further manipulated through the concurrent administration of an iron chelating agent to hyper-accumulate PpIX by temporarily reducing its iron dependent conversion to haem. A topical preparation of ALA was applied to normal rat skin with or without the hydroxypyridinone iron chelator, CP94. Image analysis quantification of tissue fluorescence following excision indicated that ALA plus CP94 produced 29.0% more fluorescence than ALA alone (p < 0.09), peaking at 5 hours. Furthermore, fluorescence spectroscopy of frozen skin samples from each treatment group were characteristic of PpIX (maxima 636 +/- 2 nm), indicating that topical CP94 administration elevated PpIX levels without significantly producing any other fluorescent species. When PDT efficacy was considered post irradiation, a substantial three-fold increase in effect was observed 4 days after treatment when the iron chelator CP94 was co-administered topically with the prodrug (p < 0.07). It has therefore been established that the hydroxypyridinone CP94, is topically active within normal rat skin, effectively chelating iron to elevate PpIX accumulation and thus improve PDT efficacy.


We present tests carried out on optical and infrared stellar spectra to evaluate the accuracy of different types of interpolation. Both model atmospheres and continuum normalized fluxes were interpolated. In the first case we used linear interpolation, and in the second linear, cubic spline, cubic-Bezier and quadratic-Bezier methods. We generated 400 ATLAS9 model atmospheres with random values of the atmospheric parameters for these tests, spanning between -2.5 and +0.5 in [Fe/H], from 4500 to 6250 K in effective temperature, and 1.5 to 4.5 dex in surface gravity. Synthesized spectra were created from these model atmospheres, and compared with spectra derived by interpolation. We found that the most accurate interpolation algorithm among those considered in flux space is cubic-Bezier, closely followed by quadratic-Bezier and cubic splines. Linear interpolation of model atmospheres results in errors about a factor of two larger than linear interpolation of fluxes, and about a factor of four larger than high order flux interpolations.


Scaffolds can be defined as 3D architectures with specific features (surface properties, porosity, rigidity, biodegradability, etc.) that help cells to attach, proliferate, and to differentiate into specific lineage. For bone regeneration, rather high mechanical properties are required. That is why polylactic acid (PLA) and PLA/hydroxyapatite (HA) scaffolds (10 wt.%) were produced by a peculiar fused filament fabrication (FFF)-derived process. The effect of the addition of HA particles in the scaffolds was investigated in terms of morphology, biological properties, and biodegradation behavior. It was found that the scaffolds were biocompatible and that cells managed to attach and proliferate. Biodegradability was assessed over a 5-month period (according to the ISO 13781-Biodegradability norm) through gel permeation chromatography (GPC), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and compression tests. The results revealed that the presence of HA in the scaffolds induced a faster and more complete polymer biodegradation, with a gradual decrease in the molar mass (Mn) and compressive mechanical properties over time. In contrast, the Mn of PLA only decreased during the processing steps to obtain scaffolds (extrusion + 3D-printing) but PLA scaffolds did not degrade during conditioning, which was highlighted by a high retention of the mechanical properties of the scaffolds after conditioning.


About 30% of protein-coding genes in the human genome are related through two whole genome duplication (WGD) events. Although WGD is often credited with great evolutionary importance, the processes governing the retention of these genes and their biological significance remain unclear. One increasingly popular hypothesis is that dosage balance constraints are a major determinant of duplicate gene retention. We test this hypothesis and show that WGD-duplicated genes (ohnologs) have rarely experienced subsequent small-scale duplication (SSD) and are also refractory to copy number variation (CNV) in human populations and are thus likely to be sensitive to relative quantities (i.e., they are dosage-balanced). By contrast, genes that have experienced SSD in the vertebrate lineage are more likely to also display CNV. This supports the hypothesis of biased retention of dosage-balanced genes after WGD. We also show that ohnologs have a strong association with human disease. In particular, Down Syndrome (DS) caused by trisomy 21 is widely assumed to be caused by dosage effects, and 75% of previously reported candidate genes for this syndrome are ohnologs that experienced no other copy number changes. We propose the remaining dosage-balanced ohnologs on chromosome 21 as candidate DS genes. These observations clearly show a persistent resistance to dose changes in genes duplicated by WGD. Dosage balance constraints simultaneously explain duplicate gene retention and essentiality after WGD.


The constant temperature drying experiment on wheat straw at different initial moisture content and drying temperature were made with comprehensive thermal analyzer. The impact of initial moisture content, drying temperature and drying time on wheat straw procedure were reviewed, and the optimum drying result of wheat straw were gotten when initial moisture content was 32.5% and drying temperature was 100°C .The process of wheat straw drying was divided into three sections about preheating, constant temperature and falling rate drying. Regression equations on different sections were established by regression analysis, the result show that parabolic equation in preheating section, linear equation in constant rate drying section and power curve in falling rate drying section. Experiment data and reference frame from conclusion above were useful to crop straw drying technology.


Prolactin (PRL) plays a central and crucial role in the regulation of milk protein gene expression in mammary epithelial cells. PRL binding to its cognate receptor leads to receptor dimerization and activation of the tyrosine kinase Janus kinase 2 (JAK2), associated with the membrane-proximal, intracellular domain of the receptor. In turn, JAK2 phosphorylates and activates STAT5, a member of the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT) family. We have recently reported that 16 different protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTP) were expressed in lactating mouse mammary gland and mammary epithelial cells (Aoki, N., Kawamura, M., Yamaguchi-Aoki, Y., Ohira, S., and Matsuda, T. (1999) J. Biochem.(Tokyo) 125, 669–675). We investigated the involvement of each PTP in PRL signaling. Among the 12 phosphatases including SHP-2 examined, a cytosolic phosphatase PTP1B was found to specifically dephosphorylate STAT5a and STAT5b in transfected COS7 and in vitro. Nuclear translocation of STAT5a and STAT5b was largely inhibited upon overexpression of PTP1B. The PRL-dependent transcriptional activation of the β-casein gene promoter was also inhibited by PTP1B. Furthermore, retrovirus-mediated overexpression of PTP1B resulted in dephosphorylation of endogenous STAT5 and down-regulation of β-casein gene expression in mammary epithelial COMMA-1D cells when the cells were treated with lactogenic hormones. Endogenous tyrosine-phosphorylated STAT5 proteins in mammary epithelial COMMA-1D cells as well as tyrosine-phosphorylated STAT5a and STAT5b expressed in COS7 cells were co-precipitated by substrate-trapping mutants of recombinant PTP1B. These results strongly suggest that PTP1B dephosphorylates PRL-activated STAT5a and STAT5b, thereby negatively regulating PRL-mediated signaling pathway.


Nucleosome positioning (NP) is a fundamental parameter in chromatin packing/unpacking, playing key roles in transcriptional regulation and maintenance of genomic integrity. To better understand NP dynamics in ESCs, we studied two systems: a human embryonic stem cell (hESCs) differentiation system and a mouse embryonic stem cell (mESCs) knockout system.
We investigated how NP changes in a hESC differentiation system: WA09 hESCs → ISL1+ nascent mesoderm (INM) → smooth muscle cells (SMCs), by paired-end sequencing of mononucleosomal DNA fragments generated by micrococcal nuclease (MNase)-digestion (MNase-seq). The analysis reveals that at the promoter and gene body, NP is correlated primarily with transcriptional activity and secondarily with the GC content of the sequence. Pluripotent hESCs also exhibit a more dynamic NP than their differentiated derivatives, indicating that more genes are in the poised state and can be readily activated or silenced once differentiation starts. Surprisingly, the study finds mononucleosomal DNA of hESC to be ~10bp (one helix turn) longer than its differentiated WA09-SMC. Moreover, as fragment length increases, both the GC content and %CpG also increase. Thus, longer nucleosomal DNA, possibly arisen from a larger histone core, could be instrumental in maintaining the remarkable genomic integrity of hESC by reducing mutations such as C→T changes.
We also studied the NP dynamics in promoters of mESCs and Ext1-/- ESCs, with customized high density Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) arrays. We observed the similar pattern as hESCs that at the promoters, NP is correlated primarily with transcriptional activity and secondarily with the GC content of the sequence. In addition, we observed that genes with decreased expression had corresponding NP change while NP remain unchanged for genes have increased expression in the Ext1-/- ESCs. Interestingly, genes activated in Ext1-/- ESCs have significantly longer mRNA half-life than those silenced on average.
Both studies revealed a fundamental level of epigenetic control that was not previously recognized and adds to the complexity of epigenetic mechanisms. In addition, our studies provided a systematic tool of studying global NP with high-throughput approaches including the next generation sequencing and high density CGH arrays.


Study reproducibility is essential to corroborate, build on, and learn from the results of scientific research but is notoriously challenging in bioinformatics, which often involves large data sets and complex analytic workflows involving many different tools. Additionally many biologists aren't trained in how to effectively record their bioinformatics analysis steps to ensure reproducibility, so critical information is often missing. Software tools used in bioinformatics can automate provenance tracking of the results they generate, removing most barriers to bioinformatics reproducibility. Here we present an implementation of that idea, Provenance Replay, a tool for generating new executable code from results generated with the QIIME 2 bioinformatics platform, and discuss considerations for bioinformatics developers who wish to implement similar functionality in their software.


A robotic arm system was developed for use by children who had very severe motor disabilities and varying levels of cognitive and language skills. The children used the robot in a three-task sequence routine to dig objects from a tub of dry macaroni. The robotic system was used in the child's school for 12-15 sessions over a period of four weeks. Goal attainment scaling indicated improvement in all children in operational competence of the robot, and varying levels of gain in functional skill development with the robot and in carryover to the classroom from the robot experiments. Teacher interviews revealed gains in classroom participation, expressive language (vocalizations, symbolic communication), and a high degree of interest by the children in the robot tasks. The teachers also recommended that the robot should have more color, contrast and character, as well as generating sounds and/or music for student cues. They also felt that the robotic system accuracy should be increased so that teacher assistance is not necessary to complete the task.


Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire. By Wendy Brown. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 282p. $29.95. Globalization, population migration, multiculturalism, identity politics, 9/11, and the war on terror—if one thinks of tolerance as an art for reconciling differences, then the need for it would seem to be greater than ever. However, tolerance, as T. M. Scanlon argues (The Difficulty of Tolerance, 2003), is never easy. At the very least, it means acknowledging that other people whom I dislike are entitled to the same legal protections as I am and should be equally free to decide how to live their lives. Asking me to avert my eyes or look away from those beliefs and ways of life that I find repugnant may mean that tolerance comes close to being an "impossible virtue" (Bernard Williams, "Toleration: An Impossible Virtue?" in David Heyd, ed., Toleration: An Elusive Virtue, 1996), but the alternative—intolerance—seems a nonstarter. So for many of us the choice between tolerance and intolerance seems easy. Indeed, many liberals assume that tolerance is a defining feature of any decent society.


The aim of this study was to assess the antioxidant status of rat liver in various periods of postnatal development after affecting the pregnancy by high doses of vitamin A. Wistar rats of both sexes were used. Vitamin A (10 mg per kg of body weight) was administered to rats in gestation on days 8 through 10 per os. Biological activities of antioxidant enzymes were measured spectrophotometrically in experimental groups and controls. Superoxide dismutase showed a significant activity increase on postnatal day 7 in the experimental group. The glutathione peroxidase activity was highest on postnatal day 7 and showed a significant increase on day 14 in the experimental group. Glutathione reductase activity significantly increased only on days 1 and 21 and decreased on day 7. The glutathione content remained relatively constant in both groups although a slight depletion on day 7, in parallel to enzyme activities, suggested a higher level of oxidative stress. Our results demonstrate that hypervitaminosis A in pregnancy does not influence the postnatal antioxidant status.


SUMMARY We use observations of surface faulting, well-constrained earthquake focal mechanisms and centroid depths, and velocity structure determined by surface wave propagation and teleseismic receiver functions to investigate the present-day deformation and kinematics in and around the South Caspian Basin. The lack of earthquakes within the basin itself indicates that it behaves as a rigid block, though its sedimentary cover is deformed by numerous folds that are decoupled from its rigid basement by overpressured mud. The basin contains a sedimentary sequence almost 20 km thick above a relatively highvelocity basement that is thinner within the basin than on its margins. The basement beneath the basin could be either unusually thick oceanic crust or thinned, but relatively high-velocity, continental crust. The South Caspian Basin is surrounded by active earthquake belts on all sides. No earthquakes deeper than 30 km can be confirmed in the Kopeh Dag, Alborz and Talesh, which bound the NE, S and W sides of the basin. In contrast, earthquakes occur to depths of at least 80 km on the Apsheron-Balkhan sill, which bounds the N side of the basin and where no earthquakes can be confirmed that are shallower than 30 km. We interpret these deeper earthquakes to indicate the onset of subduction of the South Caspian Basin beneath the central Caspian, a process that appears to occur aseismically at shallow levels. Although oblique shortening is partitioned into pure strike-slip and pure thrust in many areas, conjugate right-lateral and leftlateral components in the Kopeh Dag and eastern Alborz suggest that the South Caspian Basin has a westward component of motion relative to both Eurasia and Iran. This motion enhances westward underthrusting of the basin beneath the Talesh mountains of Iran and Azerbaijan. We estimate the present motions of the South Caspian Basin to be ~ 13-17 mm yr- to the SW relative to Iran (a maximum value) and ~ 8-10 mm yrto the NW or NNW relative to Eurasia. We suspect that these motions are all relatively recent, and may have begun only in the Pliocene (3-5 Ma). The South Caspian Basin will ultimately be destroyed by subduction or underthrusting and its present situation may represent an intermediate stage between that of the eastern Mediterranean and that of the seismically active slab beneath the Hindu Kush. ~~~1 I ~~~~~~~NTRODUCTIO ~N


Abstract THIS EDITORIAL INTRODUCES A SPECIAL EDITION OF CONJUNCTIONS THAT EXPLORES HOW CULTURAL PARTICIPATION POLICIES, PROJECTS, AND PRACTICES COULD BE IMPROVED THROUGH RECOGNISING THE PERVASIVENESS OF PAST FAILURES. IT INTRODUCES CURRENT POLICY DEBATES ON CULTURAL PARTICIPATION AND POSITS THAT THE DOMINANT FOCUS ON 'CULTURAL DEFICITS' AND 'NON-PARTICIPANTS' RATHER THAN ON HOW ACTIVITIES ARE CURRENTLY FUNDED HAS RESULTED IN A FAILURE TO INCREASE THE NUMBER AND DIVERSITY OF PEOPLE PARTICIPATING IN STATE SUBSIDISED CULTURAL ACTIVITIES. IT FURTHER SUGGESTS THAT A CULTURE OF EVALUATING SUCCESS, RATHER THAN CRITICALLY REFLECTING ON FAILURE, RESULTS IN CULTURAL PARTICIPATION POLICIES AND PROJECTS THAT REPLICATE PAST FAILURES AND MAINTAIN AN INEQUITABLE STATUS QUO. THIS SPECIAL EDITION ATTEMPTS TO CHALLENGE EXISTING NARRATIVES OF UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS BY OFFERING ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVES THAT CONSIDER FAILURE FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND AT DIFFERENT POINTS IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CULTURAL PARTICIPATION POLICIES AND PROJECTS. IN DOING SO IT HIGHLIGHTS THE EXTENT TO WHICH SUCCESS AND FAILURE COEXIST AND THE RICHNESS OF INSIGHT THAT COMES FROM CONSIDERING BOTH. THIS MATTERS BECAUSE IT IS ONLY SUCH OPEN AND HONEST CRITICAL REFLECTION THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO FACILITATE THE SOCIAL LEARNING NEEDED FOR THOSE WHO CAN EXERT THE MOST POWER IN THE CULTURAL SECTOR TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE EXTENT OF THE STRUCTURAL CHANGE REQUIRED FOR CULTURAL PARTICIPATION TO BE SUPPORTED MORE EQUITABLY.


Use of synthetic herbicides to control weeds poses serious threats to sustainable agricultural production around the globe. The phytotoxic effect of different plant water extracts (i.e., sorghum, sunflower and mulberry) against weeds has been previously studied; however, their combined effects at different rates are yet to be explored. In this study, mixtures of allelopathic water extracts of sorghum + sunflower and sorghum + sunflower + mulberry were sprayed each at 12, 15, 18 and 21 L ha-1 at 40 and 55 days after sowing in wheat to control wild oats (Avena fatua), little seed canary grass (Phalaris minor), lamb's quarters (Chenopodium album) and swine cress (Coronopus didymus). A synthetic herbicide Affinity 50 WP (Carfentrazoneethyl 0.75% + Isoproturon 50% applied at 1000 g a.i., ha-1) and a weedy check were kept as a control treatment. The increasing order of water extract dose 12-21 L ha-1 showed substantial reduction in total weed density and their dry biomass production of both narrow and broad-leaved weeds in all the treatment combinations. Mixture of sorghum + sunflower + mulberry water extracts each at 18 L ha-1 applied at 40+55 DAS resulted in an 87.14% decrease in total weed dry matter with a 19.5% increase in grain yield of wheat and higher net benefits of Rs. 100525 with 777.5% marginal rate of return. Nonetheless, application of sorghum + sunflower water extracts each at 12 L ha-1 at 40+55 DAS was more economical than the other treatments in terms of higher marginal rate of return of 799.82%. Based on this study, it can be suggested that the use of allelopathic plant water extracts in a mixture may act as a potential weed control strategy in wheat.


The main objective of this project has been to reconstruct agricultural land use around Lewes, East Sussex between 1931 and 1959. The key aims were to contribute to the debate around theories of productivism and to demonstrate the power of GIS as a tool for historical reconstruction.
The data for 1931 included the field sheets and one inch maps from the First Land Utilisation Survey, and significant differences were identified between these two sources. The data for the early 1940s included the maps and forms from the National Farm Survey along with a Luftwaffe aerial photograph. Using these, some farms were reconstructed successfully, although there were issues with the consistency of the data. The remaining datasets were aerial photographs from 1945/7 and 1959 along with the parish summaries of the 4th June agricultural census data.
In terms of the productivism debate, a fuller definition of pre-productivism was proposed as a result of examining the 1931 data. The shift towards productivism in this part of East Sussex was considered by looking at the snapshots of land use provided by the different datasets. A clear growth in arable land, an increase in farm size and intensification in terms of livestock farming was identified.
Finally the use of GIS allowed the integration of disparate datasets and the mapping of different types of land use in a way that has not previously been attempted for this area.