Quality control (QC) of germplasm identity and purity is a critical component of breeding and conservation activities. SNP genotyping technologies and increased availability of markers provide the opportunity to employ genotyping as a low-cost and robust component of this QC. In the public sector available low-cost SNP QC genotyping methods have been developed from a very limited panel of markers of 1,000 to 1,500 markers without broad selection of the most informative SNPs. Selection of optimal SNPs and definition of appropriate germplasm sampling in addition to platform section impact on logistical and resource-use considerations for breeding and conservation applications when mainstreaming QC. In order to address these issues, we evaluated the selection and use of SNPs for QC applications from large DArTSeq data sets generated from CIMMYT maize inbred lines (CMLs). Two QC genotyping strategies were developed, the first is a "rapid QC", employing a small number of SNPs to identify potential mislabeling of seed packages or plots, the second is a "broad QC", employing a larger number of SNP, used to identify each germplasm entry and to measure heterogeneity. The optimal marker selection strategies combined the selection of markers with high minor allele frequency, sampling of clustered SNP in proportion to marker cluster distance and selecting markers that maintain a uniform genomic distribution. The rapid and broad QC SNP panels selected using this approach were further validated using blind test assessments of related re-generation samples. The influence of sampling within each line was evaluated. Sampling 192 individuals would result in close to 100% possibility of detecting a 5% contamination in the entry, and approximately a 98% probability to detect a 2% contamination of the line. These results provide a framework for the establishment of QC genotyping. A comparison of financial and time costs for use of these approaches across different platforms is discussed providing a framework for institutions involved in maize conservation and breeding to assess the resource use effectiveness of QC genotyping. Application of these research findings, in combination with existing QC approaches, will ensure the regeneration, distribution and use in breeding of true to type inbred germplasm. These findings also provide an effective approach to optimize SNP selection for QC genotyping in other species.


In this paper we evaluate our new approach based on the Continuous Bag-of-Words and Skip-gram models enriched with global context information on highly inflected Czech language and compare it with English results. As a source of information we use Wikipedia, where articles are organized in a hierarchy of categories. These categories provide useful topical information about each article. Both models are evaluated on standard word similarity and word analogy datasets. Proposed models outperform other word representation methods when similar size of training data is used. Model provide similar performance especially with methods trained on much larger datasets.


This paper is focused on optimizing the cutting conditions for the surface roughness, inner-diameter error and roundness obtained in hard turning of an inner ring bore. The hard-turning experiments were conducted on hardened and tempered AISI 52100 bearing rings using the L9 orthogonal array on a CNC lathe. The cutting speed, feed rate and number of the machined part were selected as control factors. The optimum cutting conditions were determined using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. S/N ratios were calculated using the lower-the-better approach. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also employed to determine the level of the effect of the control factors for the surface roughness, inner-diameter error and roundness. The statistical analysis showed that the feed rate was the most significant factor for the surface roughness while the cutting speed was the most significant factor for the roundness and inner-diameter error. Finally, the optimum cutting conditions were further confirmed with confirmation tests.


The authors have previously developed a dose-based IMRT verification system, but its usefulness is limited by the image acquisition and storage time of the Varian PoralVision EPID. In this study, the authors investigate the applicability of the EPID's frame-averaging feature to acquire /spl sim/1 sec images and averages over them before storage. However, the frame-averaged image cannot be converted to a dose map due to the nonlinearity of the EPID response. To circumvent this, the authors convert the dose rate from intensity-modulated (IM) beams to EPID readings and then sum over the simulated /spl sim/1 sec images to produce the intended frame-averaged image (IFAI). Frame-averaged images (EFAI) are measured with an EPID for the same IM fields. The authors also simulated frame-averaged image (SFAI) by acquiring a series of individual images under the normal mode and summing them offline. The IFAI, EFAI and SFAI are then compared using a linear regression method, whose standard deviation of errors, /spl sigma/, is a measure of the goodness of match. Artificial malfunctions were also introduced into IM beam delivery to test the sensitivity of this approach. The results indicate that SFAI agrees with IFAI with a mean /spl sigma/=3% and a standard deviation (SD)<0.6%. EFAI, however, shows less agreement with IFAI with a mean /spl sigma/=4.1% and a SD of 1.5%. Most, but not all, simulated malfunctions were detectable using EFAIs. It is concluded that the frame-averaging feature of Varian Mark II EPID shows promise for treatment verifcation, but that more investigation is required to validate this approach for clinical application.


The behavior of sand-rubber mixtures is controlled by the mechanisms taking place at the grain scale. Here, we use a mixture of shredded tire and a silica sand with similar grain sizes to investigate granular behavior under one-dimensional compression. A mini-oedometer operating inside an X-ray scanner was used to assess the evolution of the microstructure under loading and unloading. New insights are presented on the development of the contact surfaces between sand and rubber and the evolution of the void space.


OBJECTIVE
First clinical virological evaluation of anti-HIV treatment with HIV reverse transcriptase (RT) and protease inhibitors.

DESIGN
Descriptive.

SETTING
Academic Medical Centre of the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

METHOD
From January 1, 1996, until May 1, 1997, HIV-RNA levels were determined in sequential serum or plasma samples obtained sequentially of 384 patients over a period of 3.1 years on average (minimum 0.5, maximum 10 years). Of these patients 318 had sustained treatment for at least 6 months. The effect on HIV-RNA serum or plasma levels was evaluated in this particular group, of which 224 (70.4%) had been pretreated with antiretroviral drugs (experienced patients) and 94 (29.6%) had not (naive patients).

RESULTS
Of the naive patients 8.5% were treated with a combination of two, 89.4% with three and 2.1% with four anti-HIV drugs. Preceding their current treatment, an average of more than two other anti-HIV regimens had been administered to the experienced patients. From 1987 until May 1997 a total of 834 treatments were registered among the 224 patients: 202 mono, 223 double, 340 triple, 60 quadruple and 9 other combination treatments. After six months 84% of the triple combination treatments in the naive patients and 61% in the experienced patients resulted in RNA levels < or = 10(3) copies/ml (p = 0.008). Of 68 patients who failed on treatment 36 (52.9%) showed resistance associated mutations in HIV reverse transcriptase. In 6/43 (14%) of these patients resistance associated mutations in protease were found as well. Genotypic resistance could not always be confirmed phenotypically.

CONCLUSION
Our preliminary results indicate that in a majority of cases triple combination treatment including at least one HIV protease inhibitor was successful. Nevertheless, in 16% of the therapy-naive and 39% of the therapy-experienced patients the anti-HIV effect of treatment was insufficient.


There is an increasing interest in using administrative data to estimate the treatment effects of interventions. While administrative data are relatively inexpensive to obtain and provide population coverage, they are frequently characterized by lack of clinical detail, often leading to problematic confounding when they are used to conduct observational research. Propensity score methods are increasingly being used to address confounding in estimating the effects of interventions in such studies. Using data on patients discharged from hospital for whom both administrative data and detailed clinical data obtained from chart reviews were available, we examined the degree to which stratifying on the quintiles of propensity scores derived from administrative data was able to balance patient characteristics measured in clinical data. We also determined the extent to which measures of treatment effect obtained using propensity score methods were similar to those obtained using traditional regression methods. As a test case, we examined the treatment effects of ASA and beta‐blockers following acute myocardial infarction. We demonstrated that propensity scores developed using administrative data do not necessarily balance patient characteristics contained in clinical data. Furthermore, measures of treatment effectiveness were attenuated when obtained using clinical data compared to when administrative data were used. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT Women living with HIV are increasingly incarcerated and experience suboptimal HIV health outcomes post release from incarceration. Drawing on cohort data with cisgender and trans women living with HIV (Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS: Women's Longitudinal Needs Assessment), we used path analysis to investigate pathways from recent incarceration to optimal antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence. We tested direct effects between recent incarceration, mediating variables, and ART adherence, along with indirect effects between incarceration and ART adherence through each mediator. We assessed model fit using chi-square, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA), and comparative fit index (CFI). Our hypothesized model fit well to the data (χ2(1)=1.100; p=.2943; CFI = 1.000; RMSEA = 0.007). Recent experiences of homelessness, criminalized substance use, and gender-based violence each fully mediated the pathway between recent incarceration and optimal ART adherence. Findings highlight the need for safe and supportive housing, supports for criminalized substance use, and trauma and violence–informed care and practice post release from incarceration.


PURPOSE
Designed to avoid postoperative hypotony that often occurs after trabeculectomy and to maintain long lasting filtration, the MESH is a thin porous expended polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) implant that mimics the physiological meshwork. The aim of this study is to assess the tolerance, biocompatibility and effectiveness of this device during 6 months in the rabbit.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We used an ePTFE with about 5 microns pore size (Zytex). The head of the implant is 3,0 mm wide and 1,5 mm long and fits in the anterior chamber. The tail is 2,0 mm wide and 3,0 mm long and fits in the subconjunctival space. The MESH is 250 microns thick. 24 Dutch pigmented rabbits were selected because their dark pigmented iris contrasts with the ePTFE implant giving a better visualization. All the animals were cared for in accordance with ARVO resolutions. Surgery was performed on the right eye by the same surgeon (P.H.), the left eye serving as control for IOP measurements. The animals were distributed in 3 groups: one with MESH alone (MESH), one with MESH and Mitomycin C (MMC), one with MESH and 5-FU (5-FU). Follow-up was performed every week (W) during 6 months including IOP measurement, slit lamp observation, photography and bleb assessment. Histological study was done at POD 0, 15, 30, 90 and 180 one eye in each group. Student t test and alternate Welch t test were used for statistics.

RESULTS
Filtering bleb: no bleb was visible before W3. A bleb was found between W3 and W6, decreasing between W6 and W9 with no more change after W10. The MESH implant: no change appears in the color of the MESH during the study. Some iris pigments or synechiae were seen in some cases. No extrusion occurred. Intraocular pressure: IOP was lower than in the control eye. The statistical analysis showed a significant lower pressure for the MESH alone at W5 (p = 0.0069), for the 5-FU group at W1 (p = 0.0326), W2 (p = 0.0488), W4 (p = 0.0312). With Mitomycine C we found very significant results at W1 (p = 0.0073), W2 (p = 0.0136), W4 (p = 0.0497), W9 and W11 (p = 0.0174). After W12 the groups were joined and IOP was significantly decreased at W17 (p = 0.0376) and W23 (p = 0.0462). Histology confirmed the correct position of the MESH, its biocompatibility and its ability to drain aqueous humor even if there is colonization of the pores by fibroblast-like cells.

CONCLUSION
The present study has shown that the filtering bleb appeared after 3 weeks without major hypotony. The material was integrated only in the intrascleral tunnel and was stable. After 6 months the Mesh was well tolerated. The new concept has a simple surgical technique, less invasive than trabeculectomy and required less surgical time. This technique reduced IOP and produced long survival blebs in rabbits. This device appears suitable for the surgical treatment of open angle glaucoma.


The focus of this paper is two-folded within the theme of collaboration between education and industry. Firstly it unfolds how learning for design-engineer students can be established and facilitated in a dynamic setting with industrial partners and secondly how industrial partners can benefit from student collaboration. The paper is based on research activities carried out in the context of a 3rd semester project at the Industrial Design Msc. program at The School of Architecture, Design & Planning at Aalborg University. At School of Architecture, Design and Planning the teaching style is Problem Based Learning (PBL). In PBL, student's focuses on a complex problem that does not have a single correct answer – in this case the addressed problem was concerned with the innovation approach of a medium-sized company. Traditionally innovation projects and strategic planning has emerged from top managers offices and has been based on i.a. technological an economic factors. An alternative approach has emerged that suggests that innovation is most successfully initiated by the research and design resources with-in a company. The two approaches are denoted as respectively top-down and bottom-up (Munnecke & Van der Lugt, 2006). Practicing the top-down approach was familiar and integrated within the company, while the student introduced the bottom-up approach during the project. The project also investigated how these different approaches could work together. It was hereby investigated how to exploit the knowledge and competencies of both the top managers and the research and design resources. The paper presents a number of activities carried out in a case context, illustrating methodologies applied and experiences gained in how to integrate the top-down and bottom-up approach to innovation. Based on the students' work a set of guidelines is provided on how to plan and carry out activities that supports the integration of the two approaches. The construction of the collaboration offered mutual benefit for both involved parties. The student was offered a realistic case with actual problems to address. Here she could practice her the future role and get knowledge of constraints within industry together with applying her trained skills and demonstrate her professional competence in facilitating an organizational change with, for the company, new ways of working. The company received a fresh, theoretical strong and practical oriented suggestion for new bottom up ways of working together with concrete and pragmatic methodologies for bridging their exciting top down approach with a bottom up approach. Their learning was also stretched over the entire project as an iterative and event oriented approach was applied. This is a good example of the mutual benefits that can arise when collaboration between education and industry is established.


We propose a new algorithm to rapidly determine earthquake source and
ground-motion parameters for earthquake early warning (EEW). This algorithm uses
the acceleration, velocity, and displacement waveforms of a single three-component
broadband (BB) or strong-motion (SM) sensor to perform real-time earthquake/noise
discrimination and near/far source classification. When an earthquake is detected, the
algorithm estimates the moment magnitude M, epicentral distance Δ, and peak
ground velocity (PGV) at the site of observation. The algorithm was constructed
by using an artificial neural network (ANN) approach. Our training and test datasets
consist of 2431 three-component SM and BB records of 161 crustal earthquakes in
California, Japan, and Taiwan with 3.1 ≤ M ≤ 7.6 at Δ ≤ 115 km. First estimates become
available at t_0 = 0.25 s after the P pick and are regularly updated. We find that
displacement and velocity waveforms are most relevant for the estimation of M and
PGV, while acceleration is important for earthquake/noise discrimination. Including
site corrections reduces the errors up to 10%. The estimates improve by an additional
10% if we use both the vertical and horizontal components of recorded ground
motions. The uncertainties of the predicted parameters decrease with increasing time
window length t_0; larger magnitude events show a slower decay of these uncertainties
than small earthquakes. We compare our approach with the τ_c algorithm and find that
our prediction errors are around 60% smaller. However, in general there is a limitation
to the prediction accuracy an EEW system can provide if based on single-sensor
observations.


Dendrimers represent a distinct class of polymers—highly branched and uniform, with a relatively small size when compared to their mass. They are composed of the core, from which branched polymeric dendrons diverge and they are end‐capped with selected ter‐ minal groups. Recently, dendrimers have attracted considerable attention from medici‐ nal chemists, mostly due to their well‐defined and easy‐to‐modify structure. This chapter aims to compile dendrimer applications and activities especially for prevention and fighting off infections caused by bacteria and fungi, viruses, and parasites/protozoa. Our goal in this review is to discuss selected modifications of dendrimers of potential value for pharmaceutical chemistry.


Grid systems differ from traditional distributed systems in terms of their large scale, heterogeneity and dynamism. These factors contribute towards higher frequency of fault occurrences; large scale causes lower values of Mean Time To Failure (MTTF), heterogeneity results in interaction faults (protocol mismatches) between communicating dissimilar nodes and dynamism with dynamically varying resource availability due to resources autonomously entering and leaving the grid effects execution of jobs. Another factor that increases probability of failure of applications is that applications running on grid are long running computations taking days to finish. Incorporating fault tolerance in scheduling algorithms is one of the approaches for handling faults in grid environment. Genetic Algorithms are a popular class of meta-heuristic algorithms used for grid scheduling. These are stochastic search algorithms based on the natural process of fitness based selection and reproduction. This paper combines GA-based scheduling with fault tolerance techniques such as checkpointing (dynamic) by modifying the fitness function. Also certain scenarios such as checkpointing without migration for resources with different downtimes and autonomous nature of grid resource providers are considered in building fitness functions. The motivation behind the work is that scheduling-assisted fault tolerance would help in finding the appropriate schedule for the jobs which would complete in the minimum time possible even when resources are prone to failures and thus help in meeting job deadlines. Simulation results for the proposed techniques are presented with respect to makespan and flowtime and fitness value of the resultant schedule obtained. The results show improvement in makespan and flowtime of the adaptive checkpointing approaches over static checkpointing approach. Also the approach which takes into consideration the last failure times of resources perform better than the approach based only on the mean failure times of resources.


Indonesia is located in equator line with it's avarage temperature is 35°C. Its humidity is high, it can reach 85% (hot humid tropical climate). There are two things that cause extreme climate. Firstly the position between 2 continent and two ocean. Secondly big different between the area of continent and ocean. This condition makes disadvantage for human being in doing their activities becaused of up and down of the temperature that is not comfort for the human body. The best range of temperature for Indonesian people in doing their activities is 22,8°C - 25,8°C and the humidity 70%. Easiest step to create thermal comfort in building is using air condition system. How ever it affects to the electrical energy used. This paper proposes to solve the thermal comfort in building by architectural solution, designing building by considering orientation to wind direction and sun, using of architecture element and building material, and also elements of landscape.


In one-dimensional conductors, Coulomb interactions result in correlated electronic systems called Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLL). The TLL physics also applies to other many-body phenomena, providing complementary viewpoints while benefiting from the powerful TLL framework. One such phenomenon is the low-energy conductance suppression of a quantum coherent conductor embedded in a dissipative circuit, an effect called dynamical Coulomb blockade. Here we investigate the basic class of mesoscopic circuits constituted by a short single-channel quantum conductor in series with a resistance R. Remarkably, such circuits can be mapped on a TLL of interaction parameter 1/(1+Re^2/h), with an impurity. From this mapping, generalized to realistic dissipative circuits, a scaling law for the suppressed conductance is derived at R=h/e^2, and small deviations computed for R \neq h/e^2. We find that the scaling law is obeyed by our data for arbitrary quantum channels, emulated by a Ga(Al)As quantum point contact, and by the recent data of Mebrahtu et al. [Nature 488, 61 (2012)] obtained using a carbon nanotube. This demonstrates a highly tunable test-bed for TLL physics, and consolidates a recently proposed phenomenological expression for the conductance of a quantum channel in a linear circuit.


Illicit drugs are marketed both via dark web platforms and social media, but there are also research reports buying these drugs online. This study is intended to analyse the risk factors for the purchase of online illicit drugs. We assumed that social interactions, low levels of self-control, and impaired mental health would be correlated with online opioid sales following criminological and addiction analysis research. Moreover, online drug sales are expected to be related to low self-control and daily drug consumption. Participants in this nationwide study were aged 15 to 25 years and lived in Germany (N=1,732) and France (N=1,732). Measures of impulsivity, ability sensitivity, social association, psychological tension, and repetitive activity (drinking, gambling, and Internet use) predicted online drug use. 4% of German and French respondents reported buying drugs online of which, 63% did so via social media services. Online opioid purchases were associated with lower self-control, elevated social anxiety, heavy gambling, and Internet use, as shown by multinomial logistic regression and binary intervention regression models. It was not a risk factor to have online friends, but close social links with offline friends served as a security factor. The results indicate that more attention should be paid to mainstream social media services as a source for buying drugs as there are many psychological and self-control issues among online drug consumers.


Background: Since the past 10 years, the call center industry has expanded rapidly in India. Effective and healthy voice is a primary need for these professionals. Voice problems may threaten both the working ability and occupational health and safety of call center operators (CCOs). Western literature reports higher prevalence of voice problems in CCOs: Yet such investigations are not reported in India. Hence, the present study was focused on investigating the prevalence of voice problems among CCOs and its impact on their working performance. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional survey study was conducted using self-reported questionnaires. Data for the present study were obtained through convenient sampling by distributing 2000 questionnaires in 11 voice-based call centers in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. The results of the study are analyzed and discussed, based on 1093 eligible questionnaires. Results: The career and point prevalence of voice problems in CCOs were observed to be 59% and 27%, respectively, with no significant gender difference ( P > 0.05). The impact of the voice problem in terms of missing work was found to be significantly greater in female CCOs as compared with their male counterparts. Conclusions: This study supports the findings in the literature that CCOs are at greater risk of developing voice problems and that voice problems affect their performance. Thus, there is a great need to identify the risk factors associated with these voice problems and educate the CCOs and employers/organizations about the consequences of voice problems for monitoring effective functioning of CCOs.


This thesis is based on an econometric investigation of the relationship between industry
linkages and Foreign Direct Investment in Nigeria. Unique data obtained from a survey of
Nigerian firms conducted by the World Bank Enterprise Survey Department was employed
for the estimations based on manufacturing and service firms. This study also constructed an
input-output table to measure both horizontal and vertical linkages. This study is divided into
four parts. Firstly, the study investigated spill-over effects from FDI to domestic firms through
horizontal and vertical linkages using the augmented Cobb-Douglas models as well as the
Ordinary Least Square and Fixed Effect techniques. The results of the estimation show
evidence of the positive effects of foreign presence on domestic firms and the presence of
large technology gaps. Also, the results indicate that there is a productivity spill-over in both
horizontal and vertical linkages. Firms with technology level below its foreign competitors
tend to benefit from the technology brought by FDI. Secondly, the study investigates Nigerian innovative outcomes of domestic firms'
performance by using the Crepon Duget Mairesse model coupled with augmented Cobb-
Douglas function. The result showed that firm-level innovation activity in Nigeria appears to
be high and even larger than in similar countries around the region, but the extent of
innovativeness is low and incremental. This suggests that in contrast with OECD countries,
some of the innovations implemented are so minor, or are based on imitation, to the extent
that they do not have a significant impact on productivity (survival innovation). Thirdly, the study theoretically and empirically investigates the impact of Export-platform
FDI on backward linkages; by doing this, a three-country model is developed and tested. The
results from the various hypotheses tested indicate that there is a significant relationship
between FDI and backward linkages in Nigeria; and the role of the trade agreement, local
content requirement and market size is very critical for spill-overs and productivity. Lastly, the study also looks at how FDI loosens the financial constraints of domestic firms
through the use of the Euler framework, and the consideration of the industry linkages. The
results show that private domestic firms do have financing constraints and the flow of inward
FDI alleviates the financing constraints by signalling. This study provides new evidence on
the relationship between industry linkages and FDI in Nigeria.


This guide is used in supplement with Prof. Baskerville's Soc class for Fall 2017 in order to augment materials and learning objectives.


During orchestral performance, conductors play a role in which they provide their interpretations of the musical composition, communicating these interpretational intentions via their body movement. Pedagogical sources propose movement emblems for stock actions by which a conductor may deliver compositional and interpretational features in conducting practise. This thesis reports a mixedmethods study which provides empirical observations on the kinematic features evident in conducting practise, and which aims to explore the connection between such movements with compositional features and conductors' interpretative intentions. Six conductors' interpretational intentions were collected in interviews, and their conducting movements were recorded using a Qualisys motion capture system, while they worked on excerpts of repertoire by Mozart, Dvořák, and Bartók with a small string ensemble. In the interviews, conductors reported their general thoughts and beliefs about conducting. They were also prompted to identify the compositional events which they sought to highlight in their conducting, and to describe the conducting strategies they intended to use to highlight these musical events. The resulting qualitative data were thematically analysed. The conductor-identified compositional features were also used to guide kinematic investigations, using an innovative analysis method original to this project, Deviation Point Analysis (DPA). Conductors' movements are described using four dependent variables of baton tip (movement distance, speed, acceleration, and jerk). Results are reported for two-way repeated measures ANOVAs (repertoire x trial), and for t-tests revealing significant differences between cross-correlation coefficients for within-conductor trial pairs and between-conductor trial pairs. Further examination of the data using DPA serves to distinguish time-points with observable kinematic deviations from the conducting trials. These kinematic deviations were compared with conductors' stated intentions. Prominent clusters of kinematic deviations were seen to be associated with key musical events which conductors intended to emphasize temporal, melodic, dynamic, and instrumental aspects. Minor clusters of kinematic deviations were seen to be connected with interpretational intentions in a less stable manner, some occurring remotely from the conductor-identified locations. DPA method and findings are fully reported. The implications, advantages and limitations of this novel analysis approach are also discussed.


The knowledge of the mean level of the received signal in a multipath environment and its variations about the mean is fundamental when designing a wireless communications system. In this paper, a comparison between measurements and simulations carried out by the authors is presented in order to show that ray-tracing techniques make it possible to estimate with sufficient accuracy not only the signal mean level but also its variations about the mean. Furthermore, a new method, based on ray-tracing, is proposed to estimate the signal statistics in a local area starting from the signal information at one single point.


Because soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] is the world's most important source of high quality vegetable protein, development of high yielding genotypes with increased seed protein concentration is a major soybean breeding objective. A major impediment to this objective is the often observed negative correlation between yield and protein. Seed density is a component of grain yield that is correlated positively with seed protein concentration. If genotypic correlations between seed density and yield are low, selection for increased density could provide an efficient way to improve protein concentration without affecting seed yield. The objective of this study was to investigate direct and correlated responses to selection on density of seeds sampled from male-sterile plants in three different random-mating populations. Seed density was determined for 192 male-sterile plants in each population. In each population, 15 plants with the highest and 15 plants with lowest seed density were selected. Seeds of each selection were increased in the winter and tested the following summer at three locations in North Carolina with two replications per location. In those tests, the previously selected high and low density groups were not significantly different in seed density, seed weight, yield, or concentrations of protein and oil. Thus, single plant selection for seed density was ineffective for increasing seed density or seed protein concentration. An alternative selection method is proposed in which the selection unit is a selfed half-sib or S 1 family. Desired gains selection indices for increased density and seed weight may increase both protein and yield in all three populations. This selection system has appeal because measurement of seed density and seed weight is relatively inexpensive, requiring less economic and land resources than actual measurement of yield and protein. It is recommended as a low-cost way to improve initially unadapted populations.


Why should educators care about speech recognition technology? One reason is that it will eventually be so widespread as to be practically inescapable. From IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems that include "homework hotlines," where parents call in to check their student's progress or schedule appointments with teachers, to speech therapy software such as IBM's Speech Viewer, speech recognition technology is already making inroads into the educational environment. While the technology certainly exists to bring speech recognition into the classroom, there are many obstacles that must still be overcome. To understand these problems and better appreciate the benefits this technology brings, a little background is in order.(*) The Challenges Voice and speech recognition has been around since the early 1970's, when research was conducted on these technologies at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). While commercial applications existed in the 80's and early 90's, they were cost and technology prohibitive. Today's technology, though, has brought voice and speech recognition out of the laboratories, once and for all. However, some of the problems that plagued early pioneers attempting to enable consistent, reliable speech recognition still remain. For example, every person speaks differently, with various noises or disturbances in their speech. Pausing, clearing the throat, coughing or using sounds like "uh," "um" and "ah" all conspire to send the "listening" computer into confusion. Fast talkers tend to run their words together even more than speakers with normal pacing. Quite often there is background noise that "pollutes" incoming voice signals, making it difficult for the computer to accurately identify sounds. And, many words sound alike, putting the burden of understanding meaning onto the computer -- which is natural language processing (NLP), where computers not only recognize speech, but understand what those words mean. All of these challenges have been met to some extent, as a look at current speech recognition products will verify. But before we look at what's available, we should understand the types of speech recognition systems that exist. One or Multiple Persons Speaker-dependent speech recognition systems have been pretty much the norm for commercial applications. This type of system is trained through repetition to recognize a vocabulary of words (up to a few thousand) from a particular user and is based on a template representation of speech. Users train speaker-dependent systems in their voice patterns by speaking voice samples or words that must be recognized. The computer then stores these templates or voice prints on the system. Later, when speech recognition is enabled, the system compares the spoken commands with the stored voice prints. When the voice print and spoken commands match, the system instructs the computer to execute the command. Other types of speaker-dependent systems include those that match phonemes, multiple words or triphones, and are used for larger vocabularies. Most of the software packages integrating speech recognition that are available are based on speaker-dependent systems. Speaker-independent speech recognition systems are more like what are typically envisioned in science fiction works. These systems have the ability to recognize speech regardless of who it comes from. These types of systems, as you can imagine, were quite rare until recently, and can still be difficult to create, as they must be able to accurately recognize words from any speaker. Stop and Start and Stop Speaking or Keep on biking? Speaker-dependent and speaker-independent speech recognition systems can further be divided into two additional types of systems, based on what type of speech signal can be input: discrete and continuous. Discrete speech recognition systems make users separate each spoken word with a pause. …


This paper explores a recently proposed and rarely reported subspace learning method, Spectral Regression Discriminant Analysis (SRDA) [1, 2], on silhouette based human action recognition. The recognition algorithm adopts the Bag of Words (BoW) model combined with the action representation based on Histogram of Body Poses sampled from silhouettes in the video sequence. In addition, we compare the performance of SRDA for dimensionality reduction with several traditional subspace learning methods, such as Principle Component Analysis (PCA), supervised Locality Preserving Projections (LPP), unsupervised LPP and Neighbourhood Preserving Embedding (NPE). Experimental results show that Histogram of Human Poses combined with SRDA or its kernel version, SRKDA, can achieve 100% recognition accuracy for the Weizmann human action dataset, which is better than any published results on the same dataset.


I explore the circulation of Islamic legal texts and ideas between the Indian Ocean and Eastern Mediterranean worlds, which shared a "cosmopolis of law". In the study, I primarily focus on the internal and external dynamics of legal textual circulation, its respective impacts on the intellectual trajectories of the Muslim communities over time and place, and the evident textual traditions developed in the Islamic world. I focus mainly on such Shāfiʿīte manuals like Minhāj of al-Nawawī (1233–1277), Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj of Ibn Hajar (d. 1566) and Fatḥ al-Muʿīn of al-Malaybārī (d. 1583?). I ask how these interconnected texts help us a) understand the dis-continuity within the Shāfiʿī school, b) answer why certain textual genealogies became more significant in the traditional legalist synthesis of texts and practices of both everyday religious lives of laypersons and legal engagements of fuqahā, and c) analyze the school's spread across the Indian Ocean and eastern Mediterranean worlds. I also ask how a particular school emerged into a standard form of legal practices in South and Southeast Asian and East African coasts. In the context of scholarly-mercantile connections at such nodal points as Damascus, Cairo, Mecca, Ḥaḍramawt, Zanzibar, Malabar and Java, I read this textual corpus.


Abstract The soybean aphid,Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), is a major pest of soybean,Glycine max (L.) Merr. Since 2000, whenA.glycines was detected in the United States, several studies on this insect have been done in different areas, but there is no report of any studies of stylet penetration behavior byA.glycines on resistant and susceptible soybean. Assessment of feeding behavior of this aphid species was compared on four resistant entries (K1639, Pioneer® 95B97, Dowling, and Jackson) and a susceptible check (KS4202) by using the electrical penetration graph (EPG) technique. Feeding behavior ofA.glycines adults was recorded during a 9-h period. The average time needed to reach the first sieve element phase byA.glycines was 3.5 h in KS4202, whereas it was 7.5 h in the resistant entries. The total duration in the sieve element phase was longer than an hour in KS4202, and only 2 to 7 min in the resistant entries. These results suggest that morphological or chemical factors in the phloem tissue of resistant plants affect stylet penetration activities ofA.glycines. In the majority of the recordings, however, the aphid stylet reached the xylem phase before penetrating the sieve element, and the time that aphids spent ingesting xylem sap was not different among all entries. Therefore, it is possible that xylem sap in the resistant entries may contain toxic substances that change aphid behavior and that affect further activities in the sieve element phase.


Background Decision analysis and game theory [1], [2] have proved useful tools in various biodiversity conservation planning and modeling contexts [3]–[5]. This paper shows how game theory may be used to inform group decisions in biodiversity conservation scenarios by modeling conflicts between stakeholders to identify Pareto–inefficient Nash equilibria. These are cases in which each agent pursuing individual self–interest leads to a worse outcome for all, relative to other feasible outcomes. Three case studies from biodiversity conservation contexts showing this feature are modeled to demonstrate how game–theoretical representation can inform group decision-making. Methodology and Principal Findings The mathematical theory of games is used to model three biodiversity conservation scenarios with Pareto–inefficient Nash equilibria: (i) a two–agent case involving wild dogs in South Africa; (ii) a three–agent raptor and grouse conservation scenario from the United Kingdom; and (iii) an n–agent fish and coral conservation scenario from the Philippines. In each case there is reason to believe that traditional mechanism–design solutions that appeal to material incentives may be inadequate, and the game–theoretical analysis recommends a resumption of further deliberation between agents and the initiation of trust—and confidence—building measures. Conclusions and Significance Game theory can and should be used as a normative tool in biodiversity conservation contexts: identifying scenarios with Pareto–inefficient Nash equilibria enables constructive action in order to achieve (closer to) optimal conservation outcomes, whether by policy solutions based on mechanism design or otherwise. However, there is mounting evidence [6] that formal mechanism–design solutions may backfire in certain cases. Such scenarios demand a return to group deliberation and the creation of reciprocal relationships of trust.


Many have questioned the reliability and accuracy of Wikipedia. Here a different issue, but one closely related: how broad is the coverage of Wikipedia? Differences in the interests and attention of Wikipedia's editors mean that some areas, in the traditional sciences, for example, are better covered than others. Two approaches to measuring this coverage are presented. The first maps the distribution of topics on Wikipedia to the distribution of books published. The second compares the distribution of topics in three established, field-specific academic encyclopedias to the articles found in Wikipedia. Unlike the top-down construction of traditional encyclopedias, Wikipedia's topical coverage is driven by the interests of its users, and as a result, the reliability and completeness of Wikipedia is likely to be different depending on the subject-area of the article.


Purpose: To determine the nature, sources, prevalence, and consequences of distress and burnout among genetics professionals.Methods: Mailed survey of randomly selected clinical geneticists (MDs), genetic counselors, and genetic nurses.Results: Two hundred and fourteen providers completed the survey (55% response rate). Eight discrete sources of distress were identified forming a valid 28-item scale (α = 0.89). The greatest sources of distress were compassion stress, the burden of professional responsibility, negative patient regard, and concerns about informational bias. Genetic counselors were significantly more likely to experience personal values conflicts, burden of professional responsibility, and concerns about informational bias than MDs or nurses. Burnout scores were lower among those practicing more than 20 years and nurses. Distress scores were positively correlated with burnout and professional dissatisfaction (P < 0.0001). Eighteen percent of respondents think about leaving patient care, and burnout was the most significant predictor. Predictors of burnout included greater distress, fewer years in practice, working in university-based settings, being a genetic counselor or an MD, and deriving less meaning from patient care.Conclusions: Genetic service providers experience various types of distress that may be risk factors for burnout and professional dissatisfaction. Interventions to reduce distress and burnout are needed for both trainees and practitioners.


In this paper, we draw on current research in the general field of leadership studies in order to suggest that process per-spectives are relevant and rewarding for inquiry into project leadership. Departing from a process ontology we argue that project leadership can be studied as series of social activities and events in which actors, projects and organizational contexts are all in constant an mutually interacting flux, rather than as traits, styles and competences of individual project managers. From such a per-spective, project leadership is seen as the ongoing social production of direction through construction and re-construction of actors' space of action. This involves processes of continuous construction and reconstruction of (1) past project activities and events, (2) positions and areas of responsibility related to the project, (3) discarded, ongoing and future issues to be dealt with in the project, and (4) temporal rhythm and pace. Drawing on an in-depth ethnographic case study of an organizational change project, we show how the space of action and hence the direction of the project is in constant flux and becoming.


In this paper, we explore the space-time video super-resolution task, which aims to generate a high-resolution (HR) slow-motion video from a low frame rate (LFR), low-resolution (LR) video. A simple solution is to split it into two sub-tasks: video frame interpolation (VFI) and video super-resolution (VSR). However, temporal interpolation and spatial super-resolution are intra-related in this task. Two-stage methods cannot fully take advantage of the natural property. In addition, state-of-the-art VFI or VSR networks require a large frame-synthesis or reconstruction module for predicting high-quality video frames, which makes the two-stage methods have large model sizes and thus be time-consuming. To overcome the problems, we propose a one-stage space-time video super-resolution framework, which directly synthesizes an HR slow-motion video from an LFR, LR video. Rather than synthesizing missing LR video frames as VFI networks do, we firstly temporally interpolate LR frame features in missing LR video frames capturing local temporal contexts by the proposed feature temporal interpolation network. Then, we propose a deformable ConvLSTM to align and aggregate temporal information simultaneously for better leveraging global temporal contexts. Finally, a deep reconstruction network is adopted to predict HR slow-motion video frames. Extensive experiments on benchmark datasets demonstrate that the proposed method not only achieves better quantitative and qualitative performance but also is more than three times faster than recent two-stage state-of-the-art methods, e.g., DAIN+EDVR and DAIN+RBPN.


We investigate the variations on channel capacity for a multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system due to the presence of pedestrians. Capacity dynamic range is measured for 2 times 2, 3 times 3, and 4 times 4 antenna configurations in line-of-sight (LoS) and non-LoS (NLoS) environments using fixed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and fixed transmitted (Tx) power. It was found that the fixed SNR capacity increased while fixed Tx power capacity decreased in both environments in the presence of pedestrians. The results show larger dynamic range values for LoS over NLoS and similar dynamic range values for different antenna configurations.


List of participants Introduction Part I. Broad Patterns and Processes: 1. Impact of infectious diseases on wild animal populations: a review F. M. D. Gulland 2. Microparasites: observed patterns A. P. Dobson and P. J. Hudson 3. Mathematical models for microparasites of wildlife J. A. P. Heesterbeek and M. G. Roberts 4. Microparasite group report C. Dye 5. Macroparasites: observed patterns P. J. Hudson and A. P. Dobson 6. Mathematical models for macroparasites of wildlife M. G. Roberts, G. Smith and B. T. Grenfell 7. Macroparasite group report G. Smith 8. Critical evaluation of wildlife disease models N. D. Barlow Part II. Insects and Plants: 9. Nonlinearities in the dynamics of indirectly-transmitted infections (or, does having a vector make a difference?) C. Dye and B. G. Williams 10. Model frameworks for plant-pathogen interactions J. Swinton and R. M. Anderson 11. The dynamics of insect-pathogen interactions C. J. Briggs, R. S. Hails, N. D. Barlow and H. C. J. Godfray Part III. Impact of Ecological and Genetic Heterogeneity: 12. Environmental influences on host immunity S. Lloyd 13. Modelling the immuno-epidemiology of macroparasites in wildlife host populations B. T. Grenfell, K. Dietz and M. G. Roberts 14. Spatial dynamics of parasitism D. Mollinson and S. A. Levin 15. Spatial dynamics group report B. M. Bolker 16. Genetic diversity in host-parasite interactions C. M. Lively and V. Apanius 17. Genetics and evolution of infectious diseases in natural populations group report A. P. Read 18. Beyond host-pathogen dynamics M. Begon and R. G. Bowers 19. Glossary C. Watt, A. P. Dobson and B. T. Grenfell.


E-learning is becoming mainstream and novel driving force for the learning and training. Industry and educational institutions are investing heavily in this electronic mode of training and education because of its accessibility, ease of training, up-to-the-minute learning, effectiveness of cost and flexibility. Besides its advantages, low level of uptake in this mode of learning is perceived due to lower quality of these systems. Therefore, this work intends to gather the proposed Critical Success Factors (CSFs) from state-of-the-art literature regardless of the dimension and/or perspective in which these CSFs have been proposed. Moreover, this study scrutinizes the coverage and effect of CSFs on the quality of e-learning systems according to their severity and importance for higher education institutions. Intensive literature review has been done for identification and collection of CSFs regardless of their perspective. Empirical investigations were conducted to extract the CSFs influencing quality of e-learning systems. Cronbach's Alpha and factor analysis method has been utilized to ensure the reliability and ranking the identified factors.


Multichip modules provide shorter interconnection lengths between the chips, higher speeds and lower costs. This higher system performance is the driving force for advances in MCM packaging technology. A potential limitation is the ability to remove heat from these packages. With higher chip densities, the thermal management of multichip modules poses a real challenge to the package manufacturer. There is a need to define the junction-to-ambient and junction-to-case thermal resistances for multichip modules in a more rigorous manner while reducing the number of thermal tests needed to evaluate an MCM and provide information to predict junction temperatures under arbitrary powering up of the individual dice. For high reliability, it is critical that maximum specified operating junction temperatures are not exceeded. Experiments were performed for non-uniform powering up of an MCM mounted on a vertical board in natural convection. The package tested was a 208-lead Amkor PMCM. The average chip temperature due to multiple sources within the module was considered as the reference temperature for evaluating the junction temperature rise of the particular chip. The concept of superposition of temperatures was found to capture the effect of the background heating of the chip due to its neighbors as well as the individual power dissipation from the chip in question. This approach offers a more refined methodology for evaluation of non-uniformly powered multichip modules compared to previous methods.


PURPOSE High allelic ratio (HAR) FLT3/ITD (AR > 0.4) mutations confer poor prognosis in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (AML). COG AAML1031 studied the feasibility and efficacy of adding sorafenib, a multikinase tyrosine kinase inhibitor to standard chemotherapy and as single-agent maintenance therapy in this population. MATERIALS AND METHODS Patients were treated in three cohorts. The initial safety phase defined the maximum tolerated dose of sorafenib starting in induction 2. Cohorts 2 and 3 added sorafenib in induction and as single-agent maintenance. Clinical outcome analysis was limited to n = 72 patients in cohorts 2/3 and compared with n = 76 HAR FLT3/ITD+ AML patients who received identical chemotherapy without sorafenib. Sorafenib pharmacokinetics and plasma inhibitory activity were measured in a subset of patients. RESULTS The maximum tolerated dose of sorafenib was 200 mg/m2 once daily; dose-limiting toxicities included rash (n = 2; 1 grade 3 and 1 grade 2), grade 2 hand-foot syndrome, and grade 3 fever. Pharmacokinetics/plasma inhibitory activity data demonstrated that measured plasma concentrations were sufficient to inhibit phosphorylated FLT3. Although outcomes were superior with sorafenib in cohorts 2 and 3, patients treated with sorafenib also underwent hematopoietic stem-cell transplant more frequently than the comparator population. Multivariable analysis that accounted for both hematopoietic stem-cell transplant and favorable co-occurring mutations confirmed sorafenib's benefit. Specifically, risk of an event was approximately two-fold higher in HAR FLT3/ITD+ patients who did not receive sorafenib (event-free survival from study entry: hazard ratio [HR] 2.37, 95% CI, 1.45 to 3.88, P < .001, disease-free survival from complete remission: HR 2.28, 95% CI, 1.08 to 4.82, P = .032, relapse risk from complete remission: HR 3.03, 95% CI 1.31 to 7.04, P = .010). CONCLUSION Sorafenib can be safely added to conventional AML chemotherapy and may improve outcomes in pediatric HAR FLT3/ITD+ AML.


Ontologies and Big Data Considerations for Effective Intelligence is a key source on the latest advancements in multidisciplinary research methods and applications and examines effective techniques for managing and utilizing information resources. Featuring extensive coverage across a range of relevant perspectives and topics, such as visual analytics, spatial databases, retrieval systems, and ontology models, this book is ideally designed for researchers, graduate students, academics, and industry professionals seeking ways to optimize knowledge management processes.


The purpose of the study described in this article was to identify the relationship between RN staffing factors in the OR and surgical patient outcomes. The study addressed two main questions: whether the level of RN staffing in the OR is related to postoperative complications, mortality, and length of stay (LOS) and whether certification, RN agency use, 24-hour staffing, and the performance of multi-disciplinary code drills are related to complication mortality, and LOS. According to this study, selected organizational factors in ORs had a significant influence on patient outcomes.


The morphology of small tidal inlets common to the coast of southern California responds dynamically to tidal, wave, and stream stormflow processes, and they often become unstable. This paper analyzes inlet morphology in relation to process and material parameters, and compares spatial and temporal patterns of morphodynamics at three small southern California tidal inlets. Topographic surveys and velocity measurements were made, and aerial photographs acquired for the inlets to the Tijuana River Estuary, Los Penasquitos Lagoon, and San Dieguito River. Analyses of these data and corresponding hydrologic data from archives showed that the morphology of these small inlets changes rapidly to variations in tidal range. Spring tidal flows and stream stormflows are effective at scouring littoral sediment from inlets and restoring inlet stability, The inlets were most unstable and occasionally closed when high waves coincided with neap tide conditions. Inlets with cobble-size bed sediment tend to be less stable than those with sandy beds due to bed armouring.


Aim:The present investigation was undertaken to compare the tissue dissolving ability of adult and young intact human pulp tissues using different sodium hypochlorite concentrations. Materials and methods: A total of 72 intact human pulps extirpated during routine RCT from two age groups (36 adult and 36 young pulps) were experimented with. Each group was divided into 4 equal subgroups of nine pulps each (n=9). Extirpated pulps were placed separately in glass test tubes and submerged in the specified body warm sodium hypochlorite solutions of different concentrations namely, 2.6%, 1.3%, and 0.7%. The fourth subgroup of pulps was submerged in distilled water to act as a control. Closed test tubes were then subjected to ultrasonic agitation until complete dissolution occurred. Time lapse until pulp tissue dissolution was recorded and results were statistically analyzed. Results: Distilled water was not able to dissolve any of the tested pulp tissues. All the experimented sodium hypochlorite concentrations dissolved pulp specimens completely. Time needed ranged from a minimum of 2.67±1 minutes in young pulp specimens at 2.6% cone. to a maximum of9.67 ±3.7l minutes in adult pulp specimens at 0.7% cone. An inverse relation was found between sodium hypochlorite concentrations and the time needed for complete pulpal dissolution both in adult and young pulps. Young pulps dissolved in less time as compared to adult pulps. The difference was found to be statistically significant. Recommendation: Within the limits of this study it is recommended to use a 2.6% concentration of sodium hypochlorite for the adult pulps and 1.3% for the deciduous teeth during cleaning and shaping to affect complete pulp tissue dissolution in 3 minutes for the former and 4 minutes for the later cases.


The postsynaptic effects evoked in lumbar motoneurons by stimulation of different muscle and cutaneous nerves of hindlimbs were studied by means of intracellular recording in the frog isolated spinal cord. The data obtained confirm presence of monosynaptic connections between primary afferents and spinal motoneurons. Monosynaptic EPSPs were shown to be due to low threshold muscle afferent volleys in homonymous nerves and did not generate spike discharges. The mean amplitude of monosynaptic EPSPs was 1.1 +/- 0.12 mV, time-to-peak 1.76 +/- 0.16 msec, time constant of decay from 6.0 to 15.0 msec. EPSPs with no synaptic delay were recorded in some motoneurons which suggest existence of an electrical mechanism of transmission.


Background Heart failure (HF) is a major public health issue in Canada that is associated with high prevalence, morbidity, and mortality rates and high financial and social burdens. Telemonitoring (TM) has been shown to improve all-cause mortality and hospitalization rates in patients with HF. The Medly program is a TM intervention integrated as standard of care at a large Canadian academic hospital for ambulatory patients with HF that has been found to improve patient outcomes. However, the cost-effectiveness of the Medly program is yet to be determined. Objective This study aims to conduct a cost-utility analysis of the Medly program compared with the standard of care for HF in Ontario, Canada, from the perspective of the public health care payer. Methods Using a microsimulation model, individual patient data were simulated over a 25-year time horizon to compare the costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) between the Medly program and standard care for patients with HF treated in the ambulatory care setting. Data were sourced from a Medly Program Evaluation study and literature to inform model parameters, such as Medly's effectiveness in reducing mortality and hospitalizations, health care and intervention costs, and model transition probabilities. Scenario analyses were conducted in relation to HF severity and TM deployment models. One-way deterministic effectiveness analysis and probabilistic sensitivity analysis were performed to explore the impact on the results of uncertainty in model parameters. Results The Medly program was associated with an average total cost of Can $102,508 (US $77,626) per patient and total QALYs of 5.51 per patient compared with the average cost of Can $97,497 (US $73,831) and QALYs of 4.95 per patient in the Standard Care Group. This led to an incremental cost of Can $5011 (US $3794) and incremental QALY of 0.566, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of Can $8850 (US $6701)/QALY. Cost-effectiveness improved in relation to patients with advanced HF and with deployment models in which patients used their own equipment. Baseline and alternative scenarios consistently showed probabilities of cost-effectiveness greater than 85% at a willingness-to-pay threshold of Can $50,000 (US $37,718). Although the results showed some sensitivity to assumptions about effectiveness parameters, the intervention was found to remain cost-effective. Conclusions The Medly program for patients with HF is cost-effective compared with standard care using commonly reported willingness-to-pay thresholds. This study provides evidence for decision makers on the use of TM for HF, supports the use of a nurse-led model of TM that embeds clinically validated algorithms, and informs the use of economic modeling for future evaluations of early-stage health informatics technology.


We present
a deep learning method for identifying all the functional groups of unknown
compounds using a combination of FTIR and MS spectra without the use of any database,
pre-established rules, procedures, or peak-matching methods. We derive patterns
and correlations directly from spectral data representing
multiple functional groups as a multi-class, multi-label problem. For
practical usability, we introduce two new metrics (Molecular F1 score and Molecular Perfection rate) to measure the
performance by identifying all functional groups on molecules. Our optimized
model has a Molecular F1 score of 0.92 and a Molecular Perfection rate of 72%. Backpropagation
of our model reveals IR patterns typically used by human chemists suggesting
"learning" of known spectral features. We show that the introduction of new
functional groups does not decrease model performance. Finally, we show redundancy
in FTIR and MS data by encoding combined data in a latent space that retains
the accuracy of the original model. Our results reveal the importance of deep
learning for rapid identification of functional groups to realize autonomous
analytical processes in the future.


The seasonal change of the water budget in the Congo river basin is investigated by using hydrometeorological data averaged over long-term periods. Vapor flux convergence is calculated using the global objective analysis data of the ECMWF from 1985 to 1988. Precipitation and river discharge data mainly cover the periods 1920-1960 and 1932-1959, respectively. Evapotranspiration is estimated as precipitation minus vapor flux convergence on the monthly basis. The atmospheric water balance terms are related to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) derived from the NOAA/AVHRR averaged from 1985 to 1987. On the monthly basis, the NDVI and evapotranspiration are in phase with the seasonal change of precipitation in the evergreen forest region, which mainly covers the northern part of the basin. In contrast, the NDVI and evapotranspiration lag precipitation by one month in the southern deciduous forest region covering the southern part of the basin. As for the entire basin, the lag-relationship between the NDVI/evapotranspiration and precipitation is similar to that for the southern deciduous forest region. In the dry season of the southern deciduous forest region, evapotranspiration exceeds precipitation in the entire basin, causing a decrease of the basin storage to its minimum value. In addition, from the viewpoint of the seasonal change of precipitation and evapotranspiration, it is concluded that the feature of the seasonal change of the water budget in the entire basin mainly reflects the characteristics of the southern deciduous forest region.


Present day email is provided by centralized services running in the cloud. The services transparently connect users behind middleboxes and provide backup, redundancy, and high availability at the expense of user privacy. In present day mobile environments, users can access and modify email from multiple devices with updates reconciled on the central server. Prioritizing updates is difficult and may be undesirable. Moreover, legacy email protocols do not provide optimal email synchronization and access. Recent phenomena of the Internet of Things (IoT) will see the number of interconnected devices grow to 27 billion by 2021. In the first part of my dissertation I am proposing a decentralized email architecture which takes advantage of user's a IoT devices to maintain a complete email history. This addresses the email reconciliation issue and places data under user control. I replace legacy email protocols with a synchronization protocol to achieve eventual consistency of email and optimize bandwidth and energy usage. The architecture is evaluated on a Raspberry Pi computer. There is an extensive body of research on Social Network Analysis (SNA) based on email archives. Typically, the analyzed network reflects either communication between users or a relationship between the email and the information found in the email's header and the body. This approach discards either all or some email attachments that cannot be converted to text; for instance, images. Yet attachments may use up to 90% of an email archive size. In the second part of my dissertation I suggest extracting the network from email attachments shared between users. I hypothesize that the network extracted from shared email attachments might provide more insight into the social structure of the email archive. I evaluate communication and shared email attachments networks by analyzing common centrality measures and classification and clustering algorithms. I further demonstrate how the analysis of the shared attachments network can be used to optimize the proposed decentralized email architecture.


Shipworms are ecologically and economically important mollusks that feed on woody plant material (lignocellulosic biomass) in marine environments. Digestion occurs in a specialized cecum, reported to be virtually sterile and lacking resident gut microbiota. Wood-degrading CAZymes are produced both endogenously and by gill endosymbiotic bacteria, with extracellular enzymes from the latter being transported to the gut. Previous research has predominantly focused on how these animals process the cellulose component of woody plant material, neglecting the breakdown of lignin – a tough, aromatic polymer which blocks access to the holocellulose components of wood. Enzymatic or non-enzymatic modification and depolymerization of lignin has been shown to be required in other wood-degrading biological systems as a precursor to cellulose deconstruction. We investigated the genomes of five shipworm gill bacterial symbionts obtained from the Joint Genome Institute Integrated Microbial Genomes and Microbiomes Expert Review for the production of lignin-modifying enzymes, or ligninases. The genomes were searched for putative ligninases using the Joint Genome Institute's Function Profile tool and blastp analyses. The resulting proteins were then modeled using SWISS-MODEL. Although each bacterial genome possessed at least four predicted ligninases, the percent identities and protein models were of low quality and were unreliable. Prior research demonstrates limited endogenous ability of shipworms to modify lignin at the chemical/molecular level. Similarly, our results reveal that shipworm bacterial gill-symbiont enzymes are unlikely to play a role in lignin modification during lignocellulose digestion in the shipworm gut. This suggests that our understanding of how these keystone organisms digest and process lignocellulose is incomplete, and further research into non-enzymatic and/or other unknown mechanisms for lignin modification is required.


Famotidine has been used for the treatment of peptic ulcers and Zollinger Ellison syndrome and is also useful in reflux and erosive oesophagitis. To evaluate the effects of Famotidine 20 mg given twice daily in the symptomatic relief of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease with normal oesophagus or mild endoscopic oesophagitis, patients were followed over a period of six weeks. 70% of the patients had complete day-time heartburn relief during the study and 75% had complete night-time heartburn relief during the study. Famotidine was found to be safe and there were no serious clinical or laboratory adverse experiences.


Rapid social and technological change have largely influenced the way in which individuals and families inhabit their dwellings, leading to new functional and formal lifestyle demands within the domestic realm.

 "The current information society is more closely linked
 to time than space. Its networks produce systems that
 are discontinuous in space but continuous in time…the
 most consistent systems are those capable of distributing
 their activities homogeneously in time, thus avoiding the
 generation of another parallel space…specifically for one
 concrete use." (Guallart, 2004, p.25)

In a time where change and transformation are omnipresent and highly influential, how can we design habitats that respond directly to the changing social order, by transforming into the appropriate space which supports the changing occupants, activities, and functions of a home?

This thesis proposes a flexible housing typology, which has the ability to transform and adapt to socio-cultural and technological changes over time.


Power Doppler ultrasonography (PDUS) is a valid technique to detect, quantify and monitor synovial vascularisation in chronic inflammatory arthropathies.1,–,5 Despite this, its reliability is a major issue, and a consistent body of evidence emphasising the influence of several factors in PDUS variability has been published in the last few years.6,–,9 Thus, the minimisation of all potential sources of variability emerges as a crucial need.

Since in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) joint stiffness and pain show a clear circadian variation,10 we aimed at determining whether the PDUS signal of metacarpophalangeal (MCP) joints might vary according to the time of day in RA patients.

A total of 10 RA patients with active disease (DAS28 >3.2) despite disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or biological treatment, recruited from the two rheumatology departments involved, underwent three PDUS examinations of MCP joints, during the same day, at three different times: T0, between 7:00 and 10:00; T1, 4–6 …


This article responds to Martin Guggenheim's book review of Bartholet's book, Nobody's Children: Abuse and Neglect, Foster Drift, and the Adoption Alternative (Beacon Press, 1999). Nobody's Children challenges the family preservation tradition that has dominated child welfare policy, and argues that we should take adoption seriously, for the first time in our history, as an option for abused and neglected children. It describes and critiques various reform moves that child welfare traditionalists are promoting, including family group decision making, community partnerships, and new permanency initiatives such as subsidized guardianships. It also describes reform moves that the author sees as moving in genuinely new and promising directions, which include early intervention in the form of intensive home visitation, and new adoption-friendly programs. Guggenheim in his book review attacks Bartholet's book and defends family preservation, arguing that she is too ready to give up on troubled families, to transfer children from poor black families to more privileged white families, and to sacrifice our nation's traditional respect for parental privacy and autonomy. Bartholet's Reply, in turn, claims that Guggenheim mischaracterizes her arguments and misconceives the evidence and the issues.


The formation of multiple proteoforms by post-translational modifications (PTMs) enables a single protein to acquire distinct functional roles in its biological context. Oxidation of methionine residues (Met) is a common PTM, involved in physiological (e.g., signaling) and pathological (e.g., oxidative stress) states. This PTM typically maps at multiple protein sites, generating a heterogeneous population of proteoforms with specific biophysical and biochemical properties. The identification and quantitation of the variety of oxidized proteoforms originated under a given condition is required to assess the exact molecular nature of the species responsible for the process under investigation. In this work, the binding and oxidation of human β-synuclein (BS) by dopamine (DA) has been explored. Native mass spectrometry (MS) has been employed to analyze the interaction of BS with DA. In a second step, top-down fragmentation of the intact protein from denaturing conditions has been performed to identify and quantify the distinct proteoforms generated by DA-induced oxidation. The analysis of isobaric proteoforms is approached by a combination of electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) at each extent of modification, quantitation of methionine-containing fragments and combinatorial analysis of the fragmentation products by multiple linear regression. This procedure represents a promising approach to systematic assessment of proteoforms variety and their relative abundance. The method can be adapted, in principle, to any protein containing any number of methionine residues, allowing for a full structural characterization of the protein oxidation states.


Abstract Vector autoregression was utilized to investigate dynamic relationships existing between prices of purebred bulls and prices of slaughter steers, utility cows, feeder calves, and cow-calf pairs. Results suggest purebred bull prices respond most quickly to an increase in utility cow prices (proxy for slaughter bull prices). Feeder calf prices exhibited the most pronounced positive effect on the price of herd sires, with a lagged response which took over two years to build.


Franconi's syndrome are the presence of cystin crystals in the sternal marrow, deposits of crystals in the cornea and conjunctivae (and possibly extensive retinal degeneration with pigmentation). The other five monographs will have a wider appeal than to the specialist. A. Lichtenstein (Stockholm) sums up in favour of the 'free diet' in diabetes in childhood and rightly emphasizes that, in the initial stages of treatment, very careful control and flexibly adjusted changes in the insulin dosage are necessary. A subject of the greatest current interest, combined immunizations, especially against pertussis and diphtheria, is very fully dealt with by Joseph Lapin (New York). The neurotoxic reactions, encephalopathies following pertussis inoculations, receive ample discussion, while those following diphtheria immunization, paralysis in the arm injected, are less adequately examined. W.G.W.


The nature of the observed market structure and R&D competition in genomics research is used as the basis for a comparative analysis of research under a mixed oligopoly, pure oligopoly and monopoly when the timing of the innovation outcome is uncertain (as in an R&D race), the winner-take-all assumption is relaxed and the profits in later stages are a function of the R&D expenditures of prior stages. The sufficient conditions under which a mixed oligopoly performs more R&D than the pure oligopoly and monopoly markets are derived and are shown to be a function of a) that public firm's objective is strictly greater than in the winning state then in the losing state, b) profits for the winning and losing private firms in the private duopoly are equal, post innovation, and c) the objective function of the firms in the mixed duopoly are increasing in research faster than they are for firms in the other two cases. It is suggested that when these conditions are met, the public firm can play a role in increasing the level of research in genomics.


Constant function market makers (CFMMs) are the most popular type of decentralized trading venue for cryptocurrency tokens. In this paper, we give a very general geometric framework (or 'axioms') which encompass and generalize many of the known results for CFMMs in the literature, without requiring strong conditions such as differentiability or homogeneity. One particular consequence of this framework is that every CFMM has a (unique) canonical trading function that is nondecreasing, concave, and homogeneous, showing that many results known only for homogeneous trading functions are actually fully general. We also show that CFMMs satisfy a number of intuitive and geometric composition rules, and give a new proof, via conic duality, of the equivalence of the portfolio value function and the trading function. Many results are extended to the general setting where the CFMM is not assumed to be path-independent, but only one trade is allowed. Finally, we show that all 'path-independent' CFMMs have a simple geometric description that does not depend on any notion of a 'trading history'.


Invasive species are a costly problem on roadsides in Georgia that require chemical and cultural control. Currently, agronomists manage invasive weeds with mowing and herbicide applications on grassy roadsides but alternative strategies are needed to enhance the potential for long-term control. Restoration through the establishment of sustainable native plant communities may be an effective alternative for invasive weed control on Georgia roadsides. Species selection, seeding timing, seeding rate, and location could influence the establishment of native species under roadside conditions and warrant further investigation. In field experiments, the native species blackeyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta L.), indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash), lanceleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata L.), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata L.) and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa L.) had high potential for successful establishment on Georgia roadsides. Seeding of native species in the spring generally had faster initial establishment than fall seeding. Greenhouse studies indicated that Johnsongrass (Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers.), a problematic roadside weed, had a higher competitive growth than indiangrass during establishment. Mowing 60 days after seeding reduced Johnsongrass and indiangrass biomass 88% and 4% at 30 days after mowing, respectively. Results suggest that sequential mowing following regrowth may reduce the competitiveness of Johnsongrass with


Coronary artery disease and associated ischemic heart disease are prevalent disorders worldwide. Further, systemic hypertension is common and markedly increases the risk for heart disease. A common denominator of systemic hypertension of various etiologies is increased myocardial load/mechanical stress. Thus, it is likely that high pressure/mechanical stress attenuates the contribution of cardioprotective but accentuates the contribution of cardiotoxic pathways thereby exacerbating the outcome of an ischemia reperfusion insult to the heart. Critical events which contribute to cardiomyocyte injury in the ischemic-reperfused heart include cellular calcium overload and generation of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species which, in turn, promote the opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, an important event in cell death. Increasing evidence also indicates that the myocardium is capable of mounting a robust inflammatory response which contributes importantly to tissue injury. On the other hand, cardioprotective maneuvers of ischemic preconditioning and postconditioning have led to identification of complex web of signaling pathways (e.g., reperfusion injury salvage kinase) which ultimately converge on the mitochondria to exert cytoprotection. The present review is intended to briefly describe mechanisms of cardiac ischemia reperfusion injury followed by a discussion of our work focused on how pressure/mechanical stress modulates endogenous cardiotoxic and cardioprotective mechanisms to ultimately exacerbate ischemia reperfusion injury.


In an 11-year retrospective study of 45 patients (60 feet) with juvenile hallux valgus, a multiprocedural approach was used to surgically correct the deformity. A Chevron osteotomy or McBride procedure was used for mild deformities, a distal soft tissue procedure with proximal first metatarsal osteotomy was used for moderate and severe deformities with MTP subluxation, and a double osteotomy (extra-articular correction) was used for moderate and severe deformities with an increased distal metatarsal articular angle (DMAA). The average hallux valgus correction was 17.2 degrees and the average correction of the 1-2 intermetatarsal angle was 5.3 degrees. Good and excellent results were obtained in 92% of cases using a multiprocedural approach. Eighty-eight percent of patients were female and 40% of deformities occurred at age 10 or younger. Early onset was characterized by increased deformity and an increased DMAA. Maternal transmission was noted in 72% of patients. An increased distal metatarsal articular angle was noted in 48% of cases. With subluxation of the first MTP joint, the average DMAA was 7.9 degrees. With a congruent joint, the average DMAA was 15.3 degrees. In patients where hallux valgus occurred at age 10 or younger, the DMAA was increased. First metatarsal length was compared with second metatarsal length. While the incidence of a long first metatarsal was similar to that in the normal population (30%), the DMAA was 15.8 degrees for a long first metatarsal and 6.0 degrees for a short first metatarsal. An increased DMAA may be the defining characteristic of juvenile hallux valgus. The success of surgical correction of a juvenile hallux valgus deformity is intimately associated with the magnitude of the DMAA. Moderate and severe pes planus occurred in 17% of cases, which was no different than the incidence in the normal population. No recurrences occurred in the presence of pes planus. Pes planus was not thought to have an affect on occurrence or recurrence of deformity. Moderate and severe metatarsus adductus was noted in 22% of cases, a rate much higher than that in the normal population. The presence of metatarsus adductus did not affect the preoperative hallux valgus angle or the average surgical correction of the hallux valgus angle. Constricting footwear was noted by only 24% of patients as playing a role in the development of juvenile hallux valgus. There were six recurrences of the deformities and eight complications (six cases of postoperative hallux varus, one case of wire breakage, and one case of undercorrection).


Language abilities gradually decline as we age, but the mechanisms of this decline are not well understood. The present study investigated comprehension of subject vs. object who and which direct questions (DQs), embedded questions (EQs) and relative clauses (RCs) in 39 cognitively healthy native speakers of Spanish. The elderly participants (n = 21) were further classified according to their scores on a general cognitive test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), into a group with low MoCA scores, LM (n = 10), and a group with normal MoCA scores, NM (n = 11). A mixed-model, repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the elderly participants achieved significantly worse accuracy and speed than the young participants (Y) in all tasks. Accuracy was significantly lower and reaction times significantly longer in the LM group compared to the NM group in DQs and RCs. Accuracy in comprehension of EQs was also worse in LM compared to NM, with no significant difference in RTs between the two groups. The results are explained within the competition model and reliance on a language-specific cueing strategy. Reliance on cueing strategies in sentence comprehension may be an effective indicator of cognitive decline associated with aging.


This paper provides the discussion regarding the nature, origins and diversity of innovation ecosystems with particular emphasis on the context of the emerging economies and "smart specialisation" paradigm of regional development. Bridging the research economy and commercial economy ("Valley of Death") remains one of the key concerns of the mature, institutionalised innovation ecosystems. However, many of the emerging innovation ecosystems still suffer from underdeveloped institutional frameworks and fragmented ties of actors, which is a more pronounced challenge than "Valley of Death". It is important to take into consideration the specific needs of different innovation ecosystems in the context of the current EU innovation and regional policies (recently synergised under "smart specialization"). The development of sustainable innovation ecosystem requires a different mentality than the traditional institutional-regulatory approach adopted in the context of national innovation systems. It means the search for delicate balance between the supply-side and demand-side interventions, public and private, openness and ownership, long-term and short-term perspectives, quality of elements and their relationships, adequate policy actions and smooth functioning of the "invisible hand". The emerging innovation ecosystems need to complement their entrepreneurial profiles with stronger institutional frameworks and innovation support mechanisms, whereas the mature institutionalised innovation ecosystems should not over-rely on institutional, supply-side solutions, but strengthen the entrepreneurial culture that is even more critical to innovation success. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.27.4.14403


"Extreme" adaptive optics systems are optimized for ultra-high-contrast applications, such as ground-based extrasolar planet detection. The Extreme Adaptive Optics Testbed at UC Santa Cruz is being used to investigate and develop technologies for high-contrast imaging, especially wavefront control. A simple optical design allows us to minimize wavefront error and maximize the experimentally achievable contrast before progressing to a more complex set-up. A phase shifting diffraction interferometer is used to measure wavefront errors with sub-nm precision and accuracy. We have demonstrated RMS wavefront errors of <1.3 nm and a contrast of >10-7 over a substantial region using a shaped pupil. Current work includes the installation and characterization of a 1024-actuator Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS) deformable mirror, manufactured by Boston Micro-Machines, which will be used for wavefront control. In our initial experiments we can flatten the deformable mirror to 1.8-nm RMS wavefront error within a control radius of 5-13 cycles per aperture. Ultimately this testbed will be used to test all aspects of the system architecture for an extrasolar planet-finding AO system.


As genomes evolve over hundreds of millions years, the chromosomes become rearranged, with segments of some chromosomes inverted, while other chromosomes reciprocally exchange chunks from their ends. These rearrangements lead to the scrambling of the elements of one genome with respect to another descended from a common ancestor. Multidisciplinary work undertakes to mathematically model these processes and to develop statistical analyses and mathematical algorithms to understand the scrambling in the chromosomes of two or more related genomes. A major focus is the reconstruction of the gene order of the ancestral genomes.
There has been a trend in increasing the phylogenetic scope of genome sequencing without finishing the sequence for each genome. With less interest in completing the sequence, there is an increasing number of genomes being published in scaffold or even contig form. Rearrangement algorithms, including gene order-based phylogenetic tools, require whole genome data on gene order or syntenic block order. Then, for gene order-based comparisons or phylogeny, how can we use rearrangement algorithms to handle genomes available in contig or scaffold form only? For contig data, we develop a model for the behaviour of the genomic distance as a function of evolutionary time, and discuss how to invert this function in order to infer elapsed time. We show how to correct for the effect of chromosomal fragmentation in sets of contigs. We apply our methods to data originating mostly in the 12-genome Drosophila project [15]. We compare ten Drosophila genomes with two other dipteran genomes and two outgroup insect genomes.
For scaffolds, our method involves optimally filling in genes missing in the scaffolds, and using the augmented scaffolds directly in the rearrangement algorithms as if they were chromosomes, while making a number of corrections, e.g., we correct for the number of extra fusion/fission operations required to make scaffolds comparable to full assemblies. We model the relationship between scaffold density and genomic distance, and estimate the parameters of this model while comparing the angiosperms genomes Ricinus communis and Vitis vinifera.
A separate question arises of what the biological consequences of breakpoint creation are, rather than just their structural aspects. The question I will ask is whether proximity to the site of a breakpoint event changes the activity of a gene. I propose to investigate this by comparing the distribution of distances to the nearest breakpoint of genes that change expression in human versus the distribution of genes that do not change expression in human, compared to other primate species (e.g. macaque or chimpanzee).
Keywords: chromosome rearrangement, comparative genomics, phylogenomics, phylogenetic tree, inversion, reciprocal translocation, transposition, DCJ, breakpoint, gene expression.


The reduction of the E8 gauge theory to ten dimensions leads to a loop group, which in relation to twisted K-theory has a Dixmier-Douady class identified with the Neveu-Schwarz H-field. We give an interpretation of the degree two part of the etaform by comparing the adiabatic limit of the eta invariant with the one loop term in type IIA. More generally, starting with a G-bundle, the comparison for manifolds with String Structure identifies G with E8 and the representation as the adjoint, due to an interesting appearance of the dual Coxeter number. This makes possible a description in terms of a generalized WZW model at the critical level. We also discuss the relation to the index gerbe, the possibility of obtaining such bundles from loop space, and the symmetry breaking to finite-dimensional bundles. We discuss the implications of this and we give several proposals. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


Abstract While significant progress has been made to implement the Digital Earth vision, current implementation only makes it easy to integrate and share spatial data from distributed sources and has limited capabilities to integrate data and models for simulating social and physical processes. To achieve effectiveness of decision-making using Digital Earth for understanding the Earth and its systems, new infrastructures that provide capabilities of computational simulation are needed. This paper proposed a framework of geospatial semantic web-based interoperable spatial decision support systems (SDSSs) to expand capabilities of the currently implemented infrastructure of Digital Earth. Main technologies applied in the framework such as heterogeneous ontology integration, ontology-based catalog service, and web service composition were introduced. We proposed a partition-refinement algorithm for ontology matching and integration, and an algorithm for web service discovery and composition. The proposed interoperable SDSS enables decision-makers to reuse and integrate geospatial data and geoprocessing resources from heterogeneous sources across the Internet. Based on the proposed framework, a prototype to assist in protective boundary delimitation for Lunan Stone Forest conservation was implemented to demonstrate how ontology-based web services and the services-oriented architecture can contribute to the development of interoperable SDSSs in support of Digital Earth for decision-making.


Most species reproduce seasonally, even in the tropics where activity occurs year-round. Squamate reptiles provide ideal model organisms to clarify the ultimate (adaptive) reasons for the restriction of reproduction to specific times of year. Females of almost all temperate-zone reptile species produce their eggs or offspring in the warmest time of the year, thereby synchronizing embryogenesis with high ambient temperatures. However, although tropical reptiles are freed from this thermal constraint, most do not reproduce year-round. Seasonal reproduction in tropical reptiles might be driven by biotic factors (e.g., peak periods of predation on eggs or hatchlings, or food for hatchlings) or abiotic factors (e.g., seasonal availability of suitably moist incubation conditions). Keelback snakes (Tropidonophis mairii, Colubridae) in tropical Australia reproduce from April to November, but with a major peak in May-June. Our field studies falsify hypotheses that invoke biotic factors as explanations for this pattern: the timing of nesting does not minimize predation on eggs, nor maximize food availability or survival rates for hatchlings. Instead, our data implicate abiotic factors: female keelbacks nest most intensely soon after the cessation of monsoonal rains when soils are moist enough to sustain optimal embryogenesis (wetter nests produce larger hatchlings, that are more likely to survive) but are unlikely to become waterlogged (which is lethal to eggs). Thus, abiotic factors may favor seasonal reproduction in tropical as well as temperate-zone animals.