The t(8;21) is perhaps the most frequent chromosomal translocation associated with acute myeloid leukemia. The translocation creates a fusion protein that consists of the DNA binding domain of the RUNX1 transcription factor fused to the MTG8 transcriptional co-repressor to create a potent transcriptional repressor. Here, we discuss the possibility that the t(8;21) fusion protein represses tumor suppressors that regulate the RAS signaling pathway and the p53 oncogenic checkpoint.


A large number of previous studies demonstrate that excess PbI2 in perovskite films is essential for solar cells to achieve high efficiency due to defect passivation, but few studies consider its negative impact on the devices' long-term stability. Herein, we introduced CaI2 instead of PbI2 with much less additive content into the CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) film and obtained a dense, uniform and surface-smooth morphology with much enlarged crystal grains. It has been demonstrated that addition of only 0.5% CaI2 additive to MAPbI3 is enough to enlarge the average grain size from 260 nm to 550 nm; accordingly, the defect density is decreased from 5.76 × 1016 cm−3 to 3.35 × 1016 cm−3 and the photoluminescence (PL) lifetime is increased from 65 ns to 133 ns; as the reference, addition of 5% PbI2 additive to MAPbI3 results in an average grain size of 410 nm, a defect density of 4.06 × 1016 cm−3 and a PL lifetime of 98 ns. In all of these key parameters, CaI2 as a new passivator of the MAPbI3 film, is found to be more effective than conventional PbI2. As a consequence, the champion cell based on MAPbI3(CaI2)0.005 achieved a high efficiency of up to 19.3%, superior to those based on pristine MAPbI3 (16.1%) and MAPbI3(PbI2)0.05 (18.0%). In addition, 10 times less additive of CaI2 than PbI2 made the perovskite film much less deviated from the ideal stoichiometry of MAPbI3, which is found to be essential for the device to achieve long-term stability.


Background: Free muscle transfer for facial reanimation has become the standard of care in recent decades and is now the cornerstone intervention for dynamic smile reanimation. We sought to quantify smile excursion and quality-of-life (QOL) changes in our pediatric free gracilis recipients following reanimation.Methods: We quantified gracilis muscle excursion in 17 pediatric patients undergoing 19 consecutive pediatric free gracilis transplantation operations, using our validated SMILE program, as an objective measure of functional outcome. These were compared against excursion measured the same way in a cohort of 17 adults with 19 free gracilis operations. In addition, we prospectively evaluated QOL outcomes in these children using the Facial Clinimetric Evaluation (FaCE) instrument.Results: The mean gracilis excursion in our pediatric free gracilis recipients was 8.8 mm ± 5 mm, which matched adult results, but with fewer complete failures of less than 2-mm excursion, with 2 (11%) and 4 (21%), respectively. Quality-of-life measures indicated statistically significant improvements following dynamic smile reanimation (P = .01).Conclusions: Dynamic facial reanimation using free gracilis transfer in children has an acceptable success rate, yields improved commissure excursion, and improves QOL in the pediatric population. It should be considered first-line therapy for children with lack of a meaningful smile secondary to facial paralysis.


Encouraging results were obtained by using left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) in patients with end-stage heart failure (HF) that exhibits extremely high mortality and who were not candidates for heart transplantation. By using this so-called destination therapy (DT), a substantial percentage of these patients achieved sufficient improvement in cardiac function to permit the explantation of the device. The combination of mechanical and pharmacological therapy increased the frequency and durability of myocardial recovery as compared with other therapeutic approaches. Although cardiac transplantation, LVADs, and cardiac resynchronization therapy have provided a major advance in DT, their limitations stimulate the search for alternative therapies. We discuss the limitations of these 3 treatment options for end-stage HF. Also, we propose and discuss the possible advantages of a new intracorporeal procedure that works continuously as intraaortic balloon counterpulsation without an extracorporeal or intracorporeal computer-controlled mechanism.


The focus of this project was to determine whether the soil at an industrial facility was contaminated above background concentrations in Ontario, and whether there was an unacceptable level of risk to the health of humans and the environment. The sampling plan, analysis and data interpretation were developed using guiding documents from the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, the Canadian Council of the Ministers of the Environment, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. An emphasis was placed upon quality control, and a rigorous protocol for sub-sampling, to produce representative sub-samples for analysis. The results revealed that the soil at the site was within the range of background values for Ontario, and there was not an unacceptable level of risk to the health of humans and the environment for the elements analyzed.


Blush is a type of decorative cosmetics used in the cheek area there used with the aim of adding aesthetic value to the face so that the face looks prettier, fresher and has more dimension. Currently there are many blush preparations on the market that contain hazardous chemicals, then a blush preparation made from kesumba keling seed extract containing bixin as natural coloring is made. The purpose of this study was to formulation and evaluate blush cream preparations by utilizing the acetone and maceration is concentrated with a rotary vacuum evaporator. Blush cream formula made using dyes from kesumba keling seed extract with a concentration of 0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 3% into the chosen base formula that produced color in successive orange-yellowish, soft-orange, dark-orange and orange-brownish color. Evaluations undertaken include organoleptic, homogeneity test, dispersion test, pH test, viscosity test and preferences test. The results obtained are based on parameters test, namely the four formulas enter the required value range. Aseptability test results showed that the preparation of blush cream with a concentration of 2% of the most preferred color of kesumba rivet seed extract and at a concentration of 0.5% was the easiest to spread.


The paper makes three observations: 1) that preference is a partial ordering in one-dimension; 2) that a product, or a service, may be high-dimensional; consequently, and 3) transitivity, or its lack, results from choice of the direction for projection from high to low dimensions. The mass customization of cellular telephone designs gives the paper a context. The dimensions of the product space are: function, size, styling, color, etc. The medium for presentation (i.e., screen or paper), however, is necessarily two-dimensional (2-D). A criterion for projection is to preserve the information (such as, the similarity between the products, manifested as clusters, and the market opportunities, manifested as voids) from the high dimension. Drawing upon an analogy from the deformation mechanics of materials, the equilibrium conditions are formulated as distance and curvature. Distances give the clustering information; curvature gives the shape information. Projection is then seen as the process that minimizes the deformation in the projected geometry. The findings then become apparent. There are infinitely many ways to project. In most projections, intransitivity of preference results.


Objective. To determine the factors, including a preparation test, that best predict pharmacy students' performance on the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA). Methods. Two cohorts of third-year pharmacy students completed a 100-item locally created PCOA pre-test, the PCOA Prep. This PCOA Prep was a cumulative knowledge test that was administered in the fall semester. In the spring semester, the students completed the 200-item PCOA and a separate survey on study habits and confidence. A retrospective review of students' demographics data, pre-pharmacy admission variables, and pharmacy school factors were collected. Correlation and regression analyses were conducted to evaluate which factors predicted students' PCOA total scaled score as well as scores in areas 1-4. Results. One hundred seventy-nine students were included in the study. The majority were female (55%), white (54%), and 28 (SD=5.4) years old on average. Students' average score on the PCOA Prep test was 80.7% (SD=7.8). The stepwise multiple linear regression model for the PCOA total scaled score included the PCOA Prep test, cumulative GPA at the end of the didactic curriculum, race/ethnicity, Pharmacy College Admission Test (PCAT) Verbal, PCAT Biology, and a class identifier. Including the PCOA Prep test explained more variance than the model without the test. Conclusion. This study revealed that student performance on a locally created cumulative knowledge test best predicted the PCOA Total Scaled Score. These results offer insights into additional contributing factors that influence students' PCOA performance and how colleges and schools of pharmacy could identify at-risk students who may need knowledge remediation prior to beginning advanced pharmacy practice experiences.


Recognition of β-cell antigens by autoreactive T cells is a critical step in the initiation of autoimmune type1 diabetes. A complete protection from diabetes development in NOD mice harboring a point mutation in the insulin B-chain 9–23 epitope points to a dominant role of insulin in diabetogenesis. Generation of NOD mice lacking the chromogranin A protein (NOD.ChgA−/−) completely nullified the autoreactivity of the BDC2.5 T cell and conferred protection from diabetes onset. These results raised the issue concerning the dominant antigen that drives the autoimmune process. Here we revisited the NOD.ChgA−/− mice and found that their lack of diabetes development may not be solely explained by the absence of chromogranin A reactivity. NOD.ChgA−/− mice displayed reduced presentation of insulin peptides in the islets and periphery, which corresponded to impaired T-cell priming. Diabetes development in these mice was restored by antibody treatment targeting regulatory T cells or inhibiting transforming growth factor-β and programmed death-1 pathways. Therefore, the global deficiency of chromogranin A impairs recognition of the major diabetogenic antigen insulin, leading to broadly impaired autoimmune responses controlled by multiple regulatory mechanisms.


Fevers of unknown origin can have different aetiologies. The overlapping symptomatology of rickettsial infection and other endemic diseases that cause fever leads to a misdiagnosis or under-diagnosis of spotted fever group of Rickettsia (SFGR). To better understand the epidemiology of this vector-borne disease in Angola, a comprehensive seroprevalence study was conducted investigating the exposure to SFGR in a sample of 92 febrile, Malaria and Yellow Fever negative human plasma specimen, collected to the study of the national surveillance of febrile syndromes between 2016 and 2017, in Angola. The seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against SFG Rickettsia in humans was calculated by gender, and aimag (province). All data were analyzed through a logistic regression. Spatial data sources included Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) products acquired by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). The main objective of this work was the development of a GIS open source application – QMOD to automatize the extraction of LST and NDVI products from MODIS data. The application was created as a simple graphic interface composed by two input fields (the text file with the coordinates of the sampling points (in sinusoidal coordinate system and the folder with the MODIS images), the field to define the buffer distance, and the output file. The application was tested considering MOD11A1 (LST product), MOD13Q1 and MYD13Q1 (NDVI product), free download from the USGS. FOSS4G-Europe 2018 Academic Program Running Head Title OSGeo Journal Volume 18, Issue 1 2 QGIS 2.18.17 was used for geospatial operations and the Python language was employed for the development of the GIS open source application under QGIS software. The process includes the circumscription of the major clusters where human data were collected. Then, a convex hull (minimum convex bounding geometry) was created around each sampling site with a 10 km buffer zone to accommodate the mobility among the nomadic people being samples. Counts of seropositive and seronegative humans were calculated within each of these sampling clusters along with the mean, maximum, and minimum values of NDVI and LST, and percent area of each land cover class. The application was tested in a set of 92 points in Angola and a buffer of 10 km considering the Universal transverse Mercator (UTM) Zone 33S projection (EPSG:32733) was applied for each point. The LST and NDVI statistical values were extracted for each sampling cluster. Variations in ecological niches, abundance of vegetation and land surface temperature, for ticks and fleas between different provinces could be in part responsible for the geographic differences in seroprevalence observed with SFGR.


This volume is part of an integrated series of studies of Winchester's archaeology. It provides a record and analysis of medieval environmental evidence from the less studied extra-mural areas of Winchester and assesses what these new discoveries add to the understanding of the city's past. The report includes the most comprehensive study of animal remains from a medieval English town published up to this time. The study is based on excavations from the 1970s and early 1980s, which, by examining sites on the defences and in the historic suburbs, enlarged the scope of previous extensive investigations within the city walls. The volume consists of seven chapters, of which the first forms an overall introduction, covering the nature of the sample and how it was retrieved; the methodologies employed during analysis; and the influence of site and context on the interpretation of the dataset. The locations of the sites themselves and an outline of the structural sequences within them are linked to the changing history and archaeology of the medieval city as a whole. A small sample of molluscan remains from the western suburb is also discussed. Chapter 2 deals with plant remains from all phases of all of the sites. The contents of four large charred grain deposits are presented in detail, and examined within the framework of the results from an extensive soil sampling programme. The implications, both for actual cultivation and use of plants in medieval Win- chester, and for their survival in the archaeological record are assessed. Faunal assemblages are examined in a further three chapters which between them cover the period from the 10th to the 17th century AD, with the late Saxon and high medieval assemblages being particularly important. Inferences concerning inter- and intra-site variability are addressed through description of the remains as groups by context, feature, and phase: species-by-species discussion brings together observations concerning animal husbandry as a whole. A sixth chapter discusses a specific topic – the patholo- gies of the Winchester sheep and the implications. Finally, all of the evidence is reassembled and synthesised in a seventh chapter which considers Winchester's medieval economy and society – the food, craft, and status of the title – through time and in relation to other towns and settlements, drawing on the documentary record. Throughout the volume, as here, description and discussion are backed up by the presentation of quantified data, in the form of tables and charts, both within the text and as appendices. In addition, the question of how far individual assemblages might represent a whole time period, site, area, or settlement is a constant theme. Thus, this volume will be essential reading for all those concerned with the animals, plants, and envi- ronment of a medieval town, as well as being of value to urban archaeologists and to those with an interest in the history and archaeology of Hampshire. It sheds new light on the management of the animal and plant resources in and around one of England's foremost cities, as well as providing glimpses of everyday life in Winchester through its keeping, buying, consuming, and disposal of the familiar fowls and fish, plants and animals, over a period of almost a thousand years.


ZrO2 nano-powders were prepared by a microemulsion process with the water-in-oil system of water/cyclohexane/Triton X-100/hexyl alcohol. The influence of cosurfactant content and the heterogeneous distillation process on the structure and properties of the particles was studied. XRD analysis showed that the cosurfactant content has little influence on the crystal phase of ZrO2. With the increasing mass ratio of cosurfactant to surfactant from 0.3 to 0.5 and 0.7, the average size of ZrO2 powders increases from 23.3 to 25.2 and 27.5 nm. The heterogeneous distillation process can effectively inhibit the formation of hard agglomeration during evaporation and increase the specific surface areas of ZrO2 powders.


The shear behavior of aluminum alloys containing increased amounts of Si or Mg compared with the 6061 alloy has been investigated by carrying out isothermal and non-isothermal tests in the mushy state during solidification. In isothermal conditions, it is shown that (i) an increase in Mg content leads to a more resistant semi-solid alloy compared with the 6061 alloy for the same solid fraction and (ii) an increase in Si content leads to a more brittle mushy alloy. In non-isothermal conditions, stress increases continuously with decreasing temperature with the formation of cracks for some compositions. This study shows that an increase in Mg content seems to be the most appropriate solution to reduce the formation of cracks in a solidifying 6061 alloy.


TRAINING MODEL FOR INCORPORATING INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARDS INTO THE K-12 CLASSROOM Elizabeth G. Jamerson Old Dominion Univeresity, 2015 Director: Dr. John M. Ritz School divisions have been implementing interactive whiteboards, as well as other instructional technologies, in ever-increasing numbers with the intent to improve student performance. The benefits of these technologies have been hotly debated, with some researchers claiming that interactive whiteboards improve student achievement, while others claim that the technologies have no effect on student progress. Other researchers concluded that interactive whiteboards are tools which can improve student achievement only if they are used effectively. Research has further suggested that teachers need high quality professional development that incorporates both formal and informal elements to assist teachers incorporate interactive whiteboards into the K-12 classroom. The purpose of this study was to develop a model for providing effective professional development for teachers for incorporating interactive whiteboards, into the K-12 classroom. Three research objectives guided this study: (1) identify best practices for providing teacher professional development that incorporates formal training, (2) identify best practices for providing teacher professional development that incorporates informal training, and (3) integrate best practices for professional development into a model for incorporating interactive whiteboards, into the -12 classroom. Data for this study were collected from a review of literature to identify best practices to create a draft model of professional development and from a survey of Virginia Society for Technology in Education members who serve as instructional technology resource teachers to refiie the proposed model. Forty instructional technology resource teachers completed the survey. Closed form questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Open-form questions were analyzed and coded to identify themes. The findings of this study suggested that professional development for incorporating interactive whiteboards and other instructional technologies should be carefully planned prior to implementation and should utilize both formal and informal methods. Best practices dictated that professional development should be sustained, ongoing, hands-on, job-embedded, scaffolded, individualized, differentiated by technology skill level of participants, differentiated by subject/grade level, and evaluated routinely using a variety of methods. The study determined that the professional development should conform to theories of adult learning by providing choices and relevancy, include troubleshooting tips, foster awareness of the many features of the interactive whiteboards, go beyond technological fluency but also focus on pedagogy and lesson planning, be validated through portable credentials, have administrative buy-in, provide time for reflection and practice, reflect budget constraints, provide options to overcome barriers to engaging in professional development, and identify ways to motivate learners.


Six patients with advanced prostatic cancer who had been treated by long-term administration of LH-RH agonistic preparations (Buserelin or Leupron) were tested for their pituitary-testicular endocrine functions. Serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), testosterone (T), prolactin (PRL), estradiol (E2) and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) were measured consecutively. In all medically castrated patients, serum levels of LH, FSH, T, DHT and E2 were suppressed and particularly serum T levels were below the castration level of 1.0 ng/ml. On the other hand, serum PRL levels were unchanged after the long-term treatment with the agonists. Serum LH and FSH levels failed to respond to LH-RH stimulation after the treatment, whereas serum T responded to stimulation by human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) to various degrees. It was remarkable that, in 4 out of 6 medically castrated patients treated up to more than 3 years, serum T response levels above 1.0 ng/ml were noted. It is suggested that testicular endocrine function to secrete T and DHT in patients under treatment with long-term LH-RH agonist administration are still preserved in response to hCG stimulation.


The reign of the Tokugawa shoguns was a time of statebuilding and cultural transformation, but it was also a period of ikki: peasant rebellion. James W. White reconstructs the pattern of social conflict in early modern Japan, both among common people and between the populace and the government. Ikki is the first book to cover popular protest in all regions of Japan and to encompass nearly three centuries of history, from the beginnings of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 1590s to the Meiji restoration. White applies contemporary sociological theory to evidence previously unavailable in English. He draws on the long historical record of peasant uprisings, using narrative interpretation and sophisticated quantitative analysis. By linking the texture of conflict to the political and economic regime the shoguns created, he casts doubt on competing interpretations of a contained, orderly society.


Thermal fingerprints for seeds of 20 crop wild relatives of Brassicaceae stored for 8 to 44 years at the Plant Germplasm Bank—Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew's Millennium Seed Bank—were generated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and analyzed in relation to storage stability. Relatively poor storing oily seeds at −20 °C tended to have lipids with crystallization and melting transitions spread over a wide temperature range (c. 40 °C) that spanned the storage temperature, plus a melting end temperature of around 15 °C. We postulated that in dry storage, the variable longevity in Brassicaceae seeds could be associated with the presence of a metastable lipid phase at the temperature at which they are being stored. Consistent with that, when high-quality seed samples of various species were assessed after banking at −5 to −10 °C for c. 40 years, melting end temperatures were observed to be much lower (c. 0 to −30 °C) and multiple lipid phases did not occur at the storage temperature. We conclude that multiple features of the seed lipid thermal fingerprint could be used as biophysical markers to predict potential poor performance of oily seeds during long-term, decadal storage.


Summary The knowledge of digestive processes correlated with the species of plant used by stingless bees is important for development of Meliponiculture, or stingless bee keeping, which is a lucrative activity in the Brazilian Amazon. The number and state of digestion of pollen grains in the midgut and rectum, as well as the pollinic diversity and activity of some digestive enzymes, were analyzed in different life stages of the stingless bee Melipona seminigra to compare the difference of digestion process in larvae, adult workers (nurse and forager) and virgin queens of Amazon stingless bees. Pollen consumption was found to be similar for nurse workers and virgin queens, while larvae consume significantly more pollen than other stages. A survey of pollinic diversity identified eight plant families, with the majority of digested pollen collected from the Melastomataceae (97.85%), and most undigested pollen from the Fabaceae (51%). The activity of hydrolytic enzymes was analyzed in larval food, pollen stored in the colony, and the midguts of bees at different life stages, whose comparisons revealed differences between each stage and caste.


Early in 1978 the Carter Administration implemented a trigger price mechanism (TPM) to aid the distressed United States steel industry. Although the TPM by its terms is a monitoring system, the controversy it has aroused suggests that its actual function extends far beyond mere monitoring of steel imports. Part I of this Comment will examine the TPM in the context of world steel trade to show how the original system actually functioned, and how the new version is likely to operate. Part II will explore the ways in which this import relief program is inconsistent with traditional United States trade law and policy.


ABSTRACT The occupational injury rate of the dairy industry (6.6 per 100 full-time workers) is twice that of the national average across all industries (3.3 per 100 full-time workers). While dairy farms are becoming larger in size and fewer in number, this rate has not changed. A scoping review was conducted to identify published reports of occupational safety interventions in the dairy industry. An additional criterion was that the study included an evaluation of the intervention. Out of 22 articles that met the first criterion (discussion of interventions specific to the dairy industry), 19 met the second of having an evaluative component. These 19 articles corresponded to 16 unique studies, because 4 articles corresponded to the same study. Of the 16 unique studies, only 3 had a comparison of treatment vs. control effects, and none measured the impact of the intervention on injuries and fatalities. Of the 16 interventions, 6 were focused on training or informational campaigns in which the evaluations primarily measured knowledge acquisition. Additionally, none of these studies had a sufficient sample size to compare injury rates as an outcome. Our study demonstrates that the literature lacks any rigorous evaluation of whether dairy safety interventions are making an impact on injury prevention. Given this, it is not possible to determine how work-related injuries and deaths can be prevented in the dairy industry. Recommendations for future research include incorporating rigorous evaluation into research designs and attempting to develop low-cost, unobtrusive methods for collecting data on intermediate and final outcomes.


This research was my contribution to the book EC Competition Law: A Critical Assessment (Hart Publ. 2007) and it is posted here with the publisher's kind permission. The paper analyzes in detail the borderline between collusion and unilateral conduct by elaborating on the concept of an agreement within the meaning of Article 81 of the EC Treaty as applied to vertical deals. Comparisons are made with US antitrust law where appropriate. By way of implication, I also address the analysis of the second prong in Article 81, namely, the consideration of when an agreement has as its object or effect the restriction of competition. Both prongs are in inverse proportion: when one of them is broadly construed, it becomes imperative to narrow down the interpretation of the other to achieve an optimal scope of Article 81. The thesis put forward in this work is that reforms in relation to the definition of agreement should be accompanied with the adoption of a more refined interpretation of when an agreement restricts competition. Only the consistent narrowing of the latter expression will take undue pressure from the definition of agreement. Finally, since all of the vertical cases discussing the concept of agreement deal with parallel trade, the paper also delves into this underlying substantive issue. The discussion concentrates on the thorny question of reimportation of pharmaceuticals within the Single market.


Local deep neural networks have been recently introduced for gender recognition. Although, they achieve very good performance they are very computationally expensive to train. In this work, we introduce a simplified version of local deep neural networks which significantly reduces the training time. Instead of using hundreds of patches per image, as suggested by the original method, we propose to use 9 overlapping patches per image which cover the entire face region. This results in a much reduced training time, since just 9 patches are extracted per image instead of hundreds, at the expense of a slightly reduced performance. We tested the proposed modified local deep neural networks approach on the LFW and Adience databases for the task of gender and age classification. For both tasks and both databases the performance is up to 1% lower compared to the original version of the algorithm. We have also investigated which patches are more discriminative for age and gender classification. It turns out that the mouth and eyes regions are useful for age classification, whereas just the eye region is useful for gender classification.


Open-end winding three-phase variable speed drives with dual-inverter supply have been extensively investigated for various applications, including series hybrid powertrains and propulsion motors. The topology is simple to realise while offering a higher number of switching states without the need for capacitor voltage balancing algorithms, when compared to the standard multi-level converters. This paper extends the open-end winding concept to a five-phase drive. A relatively simple space-vector modulation (SVM) algorithm, based on the already well understood five-phase two-level drive SVM method, is developed. The proposed modulation technique has the advantage of being straightforward to implement and, like its two-level counterpart, is able to generate output voltages with minimum low-order harmonic content. The method generates up to seventeen-level output phase voltage and therefore offers superior harmonic performance when compared to the two-level five-phase modulation. The developed scheme is verified via detailed simulations and experiments, using a five-phase induction machine operating under open-loop V/f control.


This thesis is a response to the request for proposal issued by a joint collaboration between the AIAA Foundation and ASME/IGTI as a student competition to design a new turbofan engine intended for a conceptual supersonic business jet expected to enter service in 2025. Due to the increasing competition in the aircraft industry and the more stringent environmental legislations the new engine is expected to provide a lower fuel burn than the current engine intended for the aircraft to increase the chances of commercial success.The thesis has one main and one secondary objective, the main objective is to perform a preliminary design of a jet engine, complying with the specifications stated in the request for proposal. The secondary objective is to evaluate whether the knowledge gathered from the BSc program in aeronautical engineering at Malardalen University is sufficient to perform this kind of study and to recommend courses for future students who wish to perform a similar project. Due to time restrictions a full conceptual design has not been performed and the work has mainly been focused on the thermodynamic and aerodynamic design phases.The thermodynamic analysis and optimization has been carried out using the Numerical Propulsion System Simulation (NPSS) code, where the cycle parameters such as fan pressure ratio (FPR), overall pressure ratio (OPR), turbine inlet temperature (TIT) and bypass ratio (BPR) have been optimized for cycle overall efficiency. With the cycle selected, and the fluid properties at the different flow stations known, the component aerodynamic design, sizing and efficiency calculations were performed using MATLAB, with equations and formulas found in the open literature together with literature developed at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Furthermore a number of research papers have been used for various parts of the thesis. Several aspects of the turbomachinery components have been evaluated to assure satisfactory performance. The result is a two spool low bypass axial flow engine of similar dimensions as the current engine but with increased efficiencies. A weighted fuel flow comparison of the two engines at the key operating conditions shows a fuel burn improvement of 11,8% for the new engine.The conclusions drawn by the authors on the secondary objective is that even though the knowledge might be slightly insufficient to undertake this type of task, with proper guidance and determination it's certainly not impossible.


The monocytic cell line U937-1 was cultured in the presence of eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5, n-3) (EPA) or oleic acid (18:1, n-9) (OA). EPA caused a dose-dependent inhibition of cell proliferation, whereas OA had no effect. At the highest EPA concentrations, 120 and 240 microM, inhibition of cell proliferation was accompanied by initiation of apoptosis. A concentration of 60 microM EPA caused a 35% reduction in cell proliferation without inducing apoptosis, and was therefore used for further studies. Addition of antioxidants or inhibitors of eicosanoid synthesis had no influence on the reduced cell proliferation after EPA treatment. The inhibition required continuous presence of EPA in the incubation medium as the cells resumed a normal proliferation rate when they were placed in EPA-free medium. The inhibition of proliferation was not accompanied by differentiation into macrophage-like cells, as expression of serglycin and the ability to perform respiratory burst was unaffected by EPA. Expression of CD23 mRNA increased when the cells were incubated with EPA, but to a smaller extent than after retinoic acid (RA) or PMA treatment. Furthermore, expression of the monocytic differentiation markers CD36 and CD68 was lower in cells treated with EPA or OA when compared with untreated cells. The cell cycle distribution of U937-1 cells was similar in cells incubated with EPA or PMA, whereas RA-treated cells accumulated in the G1 phase. Side scatter increased in cells incubated with EPA and OA, which was ascribed to an accumulation of lipid droplets after examination of the cells by electron microscopy. The number of droplets per cell was higher in cells exposed to EPA than OA. The cellular triacylglycerol (TAG) increased 5.5- and 15.5-fold after incubation with OA and EPA respectively. No difference in the cellular content of cholesterol compared with untreated cells was observed. The TAG fraction in EPA-treated cells contained high amounts of EPA and docosapentaenoic acid and minor amounts of docosahexaenoic acid, whereas OA-treated cells had high levels of OA in the TAG. In cells incubated with a sulphur-substituted EPA, only minor effects on cell proliferation and no accumulation of cellular TAG were observed. These findings may indicate the existence of other mechanisms for regulation of cell behaviour by very-long-chain polyunsaturated n-3 fatty acids than the well established lipid peroxide and eicosanoid pathways.


We describe a technique that facilitates the isolation of yeast genes that are difficult to clone. This technique utilizes a plasmid vector that rescues lambda clones as yeast centromere plasmids. The source of these lambda clones is a set of clones whose location in the yeast genome has been determined by L. Riles et al. in 1993. The Escherichia coli-yeast shuttle plasmid carries URA3, ARS4 and CEN6, and contains DNA fragments from the lambda vector that flank the cloned yeast insert. When yeast is cotransformed with linearized plasmid and lambda clone DNA, Ura+ transformants are obtained by a recombination event between the lambda clone and the plasmid vector that generates an autonomously replicating plasmid containing the cloned yeast DNA sequences. Genes whose genetic map positions are known can easily be identified and recovered in this plasmid by testing only those lambda clones that map to the relevant region of the yeast genome for their ability to complement the mutant phenotype. This technique facilitates the isolation of yeast genes that resist cloning either because (1) they are underrepresented in yeast genomic libraries amplified in E. coli, (2) they provide phenotypes that are too marginal to allow selection of the gene by genetic complementation or (3) they provide phenotypes that are laborious to score. We demonstrate the utility of this technique by isolating three genes, GAL83, SSN2 and MAK7, each of which presents one of these problems for cloning.


A study has been made on the evaluation of natural impulsive noises by subjective and objective procedures. One special example was used to get an indication of whether existing objective calculation methods might give sufficient agreement with subjective tests. The office noise sample studied bursts from a single typewriter operated at repetition rates between 1.5 and 15 strokes per second. A forced-pair comparison procedure of the constant stimulus type was used for the subjective evaluation. This choice has been prompted by the good results which we obtained with a corresponding method for speech quality measurements. In the subjective tests reported here, we asked for loudness and for annoyance comparisons. Two types of broad-band noise were utilized as reference signals. In addition to this, narrow-band noise centered at 1000 Hz was used to calibrate the two broad-band noises subjectively, and was also compared directly to the test noise. The subjective measurement results of this study are compared with those obtained by several well-known objective methods for noise rating and loudness evaluations.


ABSTRACT The rapid adoption of cloud computing by organizations has resulted in the transformation of the roles and responsibilities of staff in managing the information technology (IT) resources (via IT governance controls) that have migrated to the cloud. Hence, the objective of this research is to provide a set of success factors that can assist IT managers to allocate the roles and responsibilities of IT controls appropriately to staff to manage the migrated IT resources. Accordingly, we generated a set of success factors from behavioral and information systems (IS) literature. These success factors were verified using in-depth interviews of executives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The empirical intervention suggests that the role allocation is driven predominantly by people's skills, competencies, organizational strategy, structures, and policies. In addition, the research made clear that the most significant competency and skill for a person allocated to IT controls is to be able to evaluate and manage a cloud service provider, especially in terms of risks, compliance, and security issues related to public cloud technology. The findings of this study not only offer new insights for scholars and practitioners involved in assigning responsibilities but also provide extensions for IT governance framework authorities to align their guidelines to the emerging cloud technology.


Background and Purpose— Magnetic resonance imaging visible perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale (CSO-PVS) have been associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA).We aimed to further confirm this link by evaluating CSO-PVS volume in pathologically-demonstrated sporadic and genetically-demonstrated hereditary forms of the disease. Methods— We studied a retrospective hospital-based cohort consisting of 63 individuals aged >55 having brain magnetic resonance imaging and pathological assessment of CAA (mean age, 73.6±8.5; 46% female), and a separate cohort consisting of 26 carriers, and 28 noncarriers of the hereditary cerebral hemorrhage with amyloidosis–Dutch type (mean age, 46.7±12.8; 61.1% female). CSO-PVS volume was quantified on a single magnetic resonance imaging slice using a computer-assisted segmentation method and expressed as the relative volume of the intracranial volume in that particular slice (CSO-PVS relative volume). We compared CSO-PVS relative volume (1) between subjects with and without the disease in both cohorts; (2) between non-CAA, CAA without hemorrhage, and CAA with hemorrhage cases in the sporadic CAA cohort. All variables reaching P<0.1 in bivariate analyses were entered in logistic regression models. Results— In both sporadic and Dutch cohorts, cases with CAA had significantly higher CSO-PVS relative volume than cases without (median [IQR]: 3.7% [2.5–5.3] versus 1.8% [1.2–2.4], P<0.0001; 3.8% [0.6–6.2] versus 0.7% [0.4–1.6], P=0.007; respectively). In linear regression models, sporadic CAA was associated with higher CSO-PVS relative volume (P=0.008). In the sporadic CAA cohort, compared with non-CAA cases, CSO-PVS relative volume was higher in both CAA with hemorrhage and without hemorrhage (4.4% [2.6–6.1] and 3% [2.4–3.6] versus 1.8% [1.2–2.4], P<0.001 and P=0.005, respectively). Higher CSO-PVS relative volume was associated with CAA in regression models, both when hemorrhage was present (odds ratio, 2.63; [95% confidence interval, 1.33–5.18]; P=0.005) and absent (odds ratio, 4.55; [95% confidence interval, 0.98–21.04]; P=0.05). Conclusions— Increased CSO-PVS volume is a consistent magnetic resonance imaging marker of cerebrovascular amyloid deposition and a promising diagnostic tool for sporadic CAA without hemorrhagic manifestations.


Laser micromachining with the use of liquid immersion allows debris control. Use of an immersion technique potentially modifies the ablation mechanism when compared to laser material interactions in a medium of ambient air. Equipment has been developed to allow feature machining under a controllable liquid film and thereby elucidate and quantify and changes in feature topography caused. The findings of this study revealed that immersion of bisphenol A polycarbonate samples in closed thick film flowing filtered water during KrF excimer laser ablation markedly altered feature geometry, waviness and roughness laser machining in ambient air. Feature geometry definition improved with flow velocity. Waviness was found to be less regular and less predictable and roughness became fluence dependant. Variation of flow velocity during immersion resulted in modification of the surface waviness: an optimum flow velocity exists, producing maximum waviness. Surface roughness displayed a power law relationship with flow velocity. These observed effects are explained through examination of the flow – plume interaction: closed thick film flowing filtered water immersion caused a combination of photomechanical etching promoted by plume confinement, laser etching and plume distortion by rapid flow velocity. Furthermore, the influence each of these interactions varied depending on the flow velocity. This is not an eventuality possible when using an open thin film immersed laser ablation technique: film rupture and splashing limited the plume etching contribution to the confined laser ablation process. It is apparent that the changes to feature geometry, waviness and roughness observed when KrF excimer laser machining under closed thick film flowing filtered water were brought about directly by the immersion, rather than by variations in fluence level.


To tailor highly-functionalized gold nanoparticle (GNP) networks, we investigated the GNP network formation with functionalized spacer group via click chemistry. This is based on its high reactivity and mild reaction conditions. The feature of this protocol is the easy approach to versatile GNP functionalization on the basis of the excellent accessibility and good stability of functional dialkyne derivatives. We achieved the successful formation of GNP networks by reacting azide-appended GNPs and various dialkyne derivatives, supported by infrared absorption spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses. These GNP networks readily showed the unique physical properties similar to those of classical GNP networks prepared by ligand exchange reaction of bidentate functional spacers. Typically, the GNP network with the azobenzene unit as a functional spacer ( GNP3 ) showed reversible photoinduced formation of three-dimensional aggregates followed by its isomerization in the network.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As the economy forces change on consumers, and new laws force change on banks, the card market is evolving, with mixed results. Credit-card defaults are down, but so are revolving balances that yield interest income. Debit cards are increasingly popular, yet have become less profitable for many banks due to the Durbin amendment. Prepaid cards help reach the disenfranchised, but that market is still largely untapped, though growing rapidly. Trends in credit-card usage are evident in research conducted by MasterCard Advisors. "Consumers have changed their payments behaviors--if not permanently, at least for the near future," notes Ben Colvin, global practice leader for MasterCard's Retail Banking/Debit Knowledge Center. Debit has replaced credit and cash for many purchases, with its use growing among every demographic, except 25- to 29-year-olds (because they're already dedicated debit-card users). The rate of credit-card delinquencies, charge-offs, and outstanding debt has fallen. Total indebtedness is down $1.2 trillion, or about 10%, from its highest level in 2008. The percentage of credit-card debt in arrears by 30 days or more is 1.8%, or half the rate it was at year-end 2009. Credit-card issuance is up 10% this year from last, "but that is not necessarily an indication that consumers are beginning to turn back to their old habits," Colvin says. Consumers' newfound prudence means less bank profit. Increasingly, credit cards are used mostly by the affluent, who charge purchases to accrue reward-program benefits, but pay off balances every month. With debit cards, of course, the big issue is the restrictions on interchange fees. "Interchange has helped support low-cost access to products," says Kenneth Clayton, executive vice-president of legislative affairs and chief counsel at ABA. "One of the direct consequences of Durbin has been the elimination of free checking, because debit and interchange [fees] underwrote the costs of basic banking services." Merchants' opposition to the fees is unfounded, banks maintain, considering they not only benefit from the system but, in some cases, demand it. Laurie Hannigan, director of product management and database marketing for Boston-based Eastern Bank, points to the example of airlines requiring credit or debit cards for in-flight purchases. "All they accept is plastic," she says, "yet they'll argue they shouldn't have to pay for that." In addition to pushing for the Durbin amendment, retailers had a long-standing lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard and large card-issuing banks alleging price fixing in credit-card swipe fees. In July, the card companies proposed a $7.25 billion settlement of the suit, which, if it is ratified, should put the issue to rest, though at a steep cost. ABA President Frank Keating, in a statement at the time of the announcement, said: "We are hopeful that today's settlement marks the final chapter in what has always been nothing more than a legal battle between two industries over who should pay to support our nation's incredibly efficient payment system.... Let's be clear," he added, "retailers, not consumers, benefit from today's resolution." Keating acknowledged that banks may not like all the results in this case, but he felt the industry was ready to move on. That may not happen. Last month, Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.) wrote in a letter to Keating that, "Adoption of this proposed settlement would almost certainly guarantee that future congressional intervention will be necessary...." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Durban's debit impact Sen. Durbin's letter was a response to an earlier letter sent by ABA, the Independent Community Bankers of America, and two credit union associations to congressional leaders. That letter urged Congress to reject calls from some retail groups to impose even more government price controls. …


This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based intervention to reduce alcohol consumption among hazardous drinkers. A two-group parallel randomized controlled trial was conducted among adults identified as hazardous drinkers according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. The intervention delivers personalized normative feedback and some general information about alcohol. Participants can review their motivations and fears regarding reducing their alcohol intake, set individual goals and monitor their progress via a consumption diary and other tools. Within the control group, participants were provided with the same diary but could not access other services from the program. The primary outcome measure was the absolute difference in weekly alcohol intake (WAI) between baseline and 6-week follow-up. Secondary outcome measures included: relative difference in WAI; difference in excessive drinking and significant WAI reduction (decrease of 10% or more in WAI). One thousand one hundred and forty-seven people participated in the trial and 339 subjects completed it. Relative to the control group, participants in the intervention group reported a significantly greater mean absolute reduction in WAI (-3.3 versus -1.2, P = 0.03). Secondary outcomes also presented significant effects. This trial provides preliminary support to the effectiveness of this program in helping hazardous drinkers reduce their drinking, provided it is completely and regularly used.


Underreporting of induced abortions in surveys is widespread, both in countries where the procedure is illegal or highly restricted and in those where it is legal. In this study, we find that fewer than one half of induced abortions performed in the United States in 1997-2001 (47 percent) were reported by women during face-to-face interviews in the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG). Hispanic and black women and those with low income were among the least likely to report their experience of abortion. Women were also less likely to report abortions that occurred when they were in their 20s. Second-trimester abortions were more likely to be reported than first-trimester terminations. The levels of recent spontaneous abortion reported in the 2002 NSFG were consistent with the accumulated body of clinical research, although substantially more lifetime pregnancy losses were reported on self-administered surveys than in face-to-face interviews. Subsequent research should explore strategies to improve information collected on abortion, and, in the interim, research involving pregnancy outcomes should be adjusted for unreported induced abortions.


The prognostic value of tonsillar provocation tests using direct irradiation with ultramicrowaves was evaluated in this study. The results of preoperative tonsillar provocation tests among 10 IgA nephropathy cases, in which tonsillectomy was considered to be effective after a 6 month follow-up period (effective-tonsillectomy cases), were compared retrospectively to results obtained from 10 healthy controls, as well as 5 IgA nephropathy cases which showed no significant improvement after tonsillectomy (ineffective-tonsillectomy cases). The average age was 34.7 years for the effective-tonsillectomy cases, 32.6 years for the healthy controls and 22.6 years for the ineffective-tonsillectomy cases, respectively.Positive provocation results were obtained in 80% of the effective-tonsillectomy cases, 60% of the healthy controls and 80% of the ineffective-tonsillectomy cases. Changes in body temperature, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and number of white blood cells showed no statistically significant differences among these three groups. Urinary findings after the provocation test were worsened in 40% of the effective-tonsillectomy cases (2 cases of proteinuria and 2 cases of hematuria), while none of the healthy controls and 20% of the ineffective-tonsillectomy cases (one case of proteinuria and no cases of hematuria) showed positive results after the provocation test. Hematuria seemed to have the best prognostic value as a tonsillar provocation test for tonsillectomy in patients with IgA nephropathy.


Ambiguity integrity monitoring is very important for some navigation applications that utilize highprecision carrier-phase differential positioning technology, which can greatly improve the safety of navigation applications. At present, the methods of solving the ambiguity problem are relatively mature. However, in different relative positioning scenarios, the ambiguity solution varies due to the existence of different relative positioning modes, which can lead to difficulty fixing the ambiguity. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the difference in position domain integrity risk considering the cycle resolution in the carrier phase under different relative positioning modes and improve the integrity risk calculation algorithm. This paper utilized the actual Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) positioning data collected from Dongying Airport to simulate different relative positioning modes by using two different vehicles, and the influence of different relative positioning modes on ambiguity fixing was analyzed. Furthermore, we develop an improved algorithm framework for position-domain integrity risk-based ambiguity considering the cycle resolution in carrier-phase navigation systems. The improvements are as follows: (1) LAMBDA is used to analyze the ambiguity in different relative positioning modes; (2) Two vehicles are used to build a test environment and simulate relative positioning scenarios in different modes; (3) The ambiguity fixing process is investigated, the probability of correctly fixing the ambiguity is calculated, and the effects of incorrectly fixed ambiguity solutions on the position-domain integrity risk are compared; (4) An integrity algorithm framework is proposed to establish an integrity monitoring scheme suitable for the moving-base RTK relative positioning mode. The results provide a reference for more complex and high-precision positioning technology in navigation applications.


Misunderstandings are often perceived as something to be avoided yet delineate an integrative part of everyday work. This book addresses the role that misunderstandings play in collaborative work and, above all, their effects on the organisational result. As exemplified by project collaboration across three offices of a multinational corporation in India, Frauke Mörike explores how misunderstandings shape the organisational system and why they prove not only necessary but even productive for organisational functioning. In doing so, she offers new ways to think about collaboration and establishes `misunderstanding' as a key factor of insight for the field of organisational research.


Stem cell based therapies for the repair and regeneration of various tissues are of great interest for a high number of diseases. Adult stem cells, instead, are more available, abundant and harvested with minimally invasive procedures. In particular, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multi‐potent progenitors, able to differentiate into bone, cartilage, and adipose tissues. Human adult adipose tissue seems to be the most abundant source of MSCs and, due to its easy accessibility; it is able to give a considerable amount of stem cells. In this study, we selected MSCs co‐expressing CD34 and CD90 from adipose tissue. This stem cell population displayed higher proliferative capacity than CD34−CD90− cells and was able to differentiate in vitro into adipocytes (PPARγ+ and adiponectin+) and endothelial cells (CD31+VEGF+Flk1+). In addition, in methylcellulose without VEGF, it formed a vascular network. The aim of this study was to investigate differentiation potential of human adipose CD34+/CD90+ stem cells loaded onto commercial collagen sponges already used in clinical practice (Gingistat) both in vitro and in vivo. The results of this study clearly demonstrate that human adult adipose and loose connective tissues can be obtained in vivo, highlighting that CD34+/CD90 ASCs are extremely useful for regenerative medicine. J. Cell. Biochem. 114: 1039–1049, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


OF THESIS SEMI-EMPIRICAL METHOD FOR DESIGNING EXCAVATION SUPPORT SYSTEMS BASED ON DEFORMATION CONTROL Due to space limitations in urban areas, underground construction has become a common practice worldwide. When using deep excavations, excessive lateral movements are a major concern because they can lead to significant displacements and rotations in adjacent structures. Therefore, accurate predictions of lateral wall deflections and surface settlements are important design criteria in the analysis and design of excavation support systems. This research shows that the current design methods, based on plane strain analyses, are not accurate for designing excavation support systems and that fully three-dimensional (3D) analyses including wall installation effects are needed. A complete 3D finite element simulation of the wall installation at the Chicago and State Street excavation case history is carried out to show the effects of modeling: (i) the installation sequence of the supporting wall, (ii) the excavation method for the wall, and (iii) existing adjacent infrastructure. This model is the starting point of a series of parametric analyses that show the effects of the system stiffness on the resulting excavation-related ground movements. Furthermore, a deformation-based methodology for the analysis and design of excavation support systems is proposed in order to guide the engineer in the different stages of the design. The methodology is condensed in comprehensive flow charts that allow the designer to size the wall and supports, given the allowable soil distortion of adjacent structures or predict ground movements, given data about the soil and support system.


The 13 publications included in this thesis constitute a body of work situated within the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. As such, they are formed in the wake of the social model of disability, a radical, field-forming idea that dominates the disabled people's movement, disability policy and practice and disability studies in the UK. The works are clustered around two interlinked areas of concern: how disability studies is practiced and influences professional and welfare practices, and how disability policy formation emerges, shapes and impacts upon the lives and wellbeing of disabled people. The unifying argument is that disability scholarship should be aligned to the communities it produces knowledge for and about. It argues that disability studies and the practices which emerge from it should remain rooted in the social model and in the disabled people's movement.


This paper presents encouraging results of a novel optoelectronic conversion method for relative displacement. An optical modulator responding to acceleration and gravitation is used for characterization. The Si microelectromechanical system (MEMS) component comprise a spring suspended, in-plane oscillating mass carrying an array of optical apertures. Light flux modulation is achieved with a second array of complementary apertures that is fixed to the Si frame. The investigated device comprises a sandwich structure of an SMD LED, the MEMS aperture gratings, and a phototransistor. Relative displacements of the gratings generate a modulation of the LED light flux that is detected by the phototransistor. Depending on the aperture design, the relative displacement may extend over several tens of microns maintaining a sub-nm resolution. Thus, no closed-loop position control system is required, resulting in minimum complexity and energy consumption of the MEMS component. This setup simplifies the manufacturing process as much as possible, which is one of the significant advantages of the sensor principle. Furthermore, the presented prototype exhibits a promising high sensitivity of 60 nA/nm for displacement, featuring a noise level of about 8 pm/√Hz.


Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, O'Connor v. Donaldson and Bounds v. Smith, hold important implications for health sciences librarians serving in mental health facilities. The first, O'Connor, with its many ancillary holdings, puts mental health personnel on notice that patients have certain basic rights, which courts all over the country will now be required to enforce. In Bounds the court has ruled that prison authorities must assist prison inmates in preparing and filing legal papers. The ruling will most likely benefit all mentally disabled prisoners, and future litigation may expand this category to include: (1) persons committed under the criminal code, (2) persons under involuntary commitment not related to the criminal code, and (3) persons voluntarily committed. A selective annotated bibliography, consisting of background readings in mental health and the law, basic rights, law library materials, and mental health legal services, has been compiled to help librarians establish and develop legal collections in anticipation of court decisions that will expand the conditions of Bounds to include all mentally disabled patients.


Introduction: In the conventional method of practical examination candidate has to perform the given test/s directly without the need to know its clinical relevance. In this model of clinical application based biochemistry practical examination student has to solve the given case, decide which are the relevant test, perform a given test selected by examiner and then hat o interpret the result. So this method may help to foster clinical reasoning in a student in the current competency based education.
Aim: To assess the perception of first-year MBBS undergraduate students on clinical application based biochemistry practical examination.
Materials and Methods: Prior permission from the institutional Ethics Committee was obtained for the present prospective observational study. A total of 198 first year MBBS students appearing for 3rd sessional practical examination enrolled after obtaining the consent. A questionnaire which consisted of 10 questions were given to the student and asked to answer within 15 minutes. Based on the feedback, Cronbach's alpha and frequency distribution were calculated using SPSS 15.0 version.
Results: Students perception of the clinical application based biochemistry practical examination was much better compared to the conventional method.
Conclusion: Clinical application based biochemistry practical examination should be included as an essential component of practical examination. This will facilitate clinical reasoning amongst students.


An objective in the design of high performance machinery is to minimize weight so magnetic bearings are often designed to operate slightly lower than their magnetic material saturation. Further weight reduction in the bearings requires operation in the nonlinear portion of the - curve. This necessitates a more sophisticated analysis at the bearing and rotordynamic system levels during the design stage. This paper addresses this problem in a unique manner by developing a fully nonlinear homopolar magnetic bearing model. The nonlinear dynamics of a permanent magnet-biased homopolar magnetic bearing (PMB HoMB) system with a flexible rotor is analyzed. Nonlinear effects due to power amplifier voltage and current saturation and position dependent reluctances are also included in the model. A new curve fit model of the - curve is shown to have significantly better agreement with the measured counterpart than conventional piecewise linear. The modified Langmuir method, with a novel correction terms for the weak flux region, is used to form an analytical model of the experimental magnetization curve of Hiperco 50. High static and dynamic loads applied to the rotor force the magnetic bearing to operate in a flux saturated state. The response of the heavily loaded 4-DOF rotor-bearing system shows that limit cycle stability can be achieved due to the magnetic flux saturation or current saturation in the amplifier. The stable limit cycle prevents the linear model instability, creating what is experimentally observed as a "virtual catcher bearing." To the authors' knowledge this is the first explanation of this commonly observed phenomenon.


The aim of this study was to compare the chemical and volatile composition of mango wines fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae var. bayanus EC1118, S. cerevisiae var. chevalieri CICC1028 and S. cerevisiae var. cerevisiae MERIT.ferm. Strains EC1118 and MERIT.ferm showed similar growth patterns but strain CICC1028 grew slightly slowly. The ethanol level reached about 8% (v/v) for each mango wine and sugars (glucose, fructose and sucrose) were almost exhausted at the end of fermentation. There were only negligible changes in the concentrations of citric, succinic and tartaric acids, except for malic acid (decreased significantly). Different volatile compounds were produced, which were mainly fatty acids, alcohols and esters. Most volatiles that were present in the juice were consumed to trace amounts. The kinetic changes of volatiles were similar among the three yeasts but the concentrations of some volatiles varied with yeast. Strain MERIT.ferm produced higher amounts of higher alcohols, isoamyl and 2-phenylethyl acetates, whereas strain CICC1028 produced higher amounts of medium-chain fatty acids and ethyl esters of decanoate and dodecanoate. These results suggest that it may be possible to produce mango wines with differential characteristics using different S. cerevisiae strains.


This paper seeks to explore the implementation of more realistic supply channel interactions in merger simulation. In particular, a two-stage pricing game is used to conduct merger simulations in the refrigerated orange juice category. The major finding is that practical use of stage-game modeling in merger simulation will not be possible until the relationship between demand specification and retail pass-through rates is better understood.


The occurrence and prevalence of pine wood nematode disease has had a great impact on China's forestry production and ecological environment, but the quantitative evaluation of the economic losses of this biological disease is lacking from a macro-geographic scale and long-term series perspective. This study establishes a pine wood nematode disease economic loss evaluation index system, covering the loss of natural ecology, landscape aesthetics and economic production, and quantitatively evaluates the economic losses of pine wood nematode disease in mainland China at a provincial level from 1998 to 2017. The results show that the economic losses of the pine wood nematode disease in China showed a fluctuant rising trend from 1998, since 2013, it has entered a full-scale outbreak phase, and since 2015, the economic loss has increased significantly, with a growth rate higher than 40%. The average annual total economic loss is CNY 7.17 billion, of which the direct economic losses is CNY 1.53 billion, and the indirect economic losses is CNY 5.64 billion. The loss of forest material resources, the expenditure of ineffective forest management expenditure and prevention and control expenditure were CNY 817 million, CNY 649 million, and CNY 67 million, respectively. Regulate service value loss, support service value loss and cultural service loss are CNY 3.95 billion, CNY 1.41 billion, CNY 276 million, respectively. East China and South China suffered the most due to pine wood nematode disease, and the economic loss of these regions accounted for 79.9% of the total national economic losses. Among them, Zhejiang Province, Guangdong Province and Jiangsu Province lost CNY 2.14 billion, CNY 1.81 billion, and CNY 1.22 billion, respectively, accounting for 26.8%, 22.7% and 15.3% of the total national economic loss.


X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED, OMIM 305100) is a rare congenital disorder that results in the defective development of teeth, hair, nails, and eccrine sweat glands. Previous studies found that mutations in the ectodysplasin A (EDA) gene are associated with XLHED. In the present study, we investigated four Chinese families suffering from classical XLHED and investigated two additional families segregating hypodontia in an X-linked recessive manner. Mutations were characterized respectively in the EDA gene in all families, and five of these mutations were found to be novel. Among these mutations, five were missense (c.200A>T, c.463C>T, c.758T>C, c.926T>G, and c.491A>C) and located in the functional domain of EDA, and one was a splice donor site mutation in intron 5 (c.IVS5 + 1G>A), which may result in an alternative transcript derived from a new cryptic splice site. Our data further confirm that EDA mutations could cause both XLHED and isolated hypodontia and provide evidence that EDA is a strong candidate gene for tooth genesis.


This paper illustrates the flexibility of the ESTAR model to encompass a number of different characteristics found in economic and financial series, such as multiple equilibria, complex dynamics, chaotic-like behavior, and spurious trends. We then re-assess the power of the Kapetanios et al. (2003), Enders and Granger (1998), and Augmented Dickey Fuller unit root tests in the presence of nuisance parameters for parameter values typically encountered in the empirical literature. Our results show the lack of dominance of any particular test and that the power is not independent to priors about the nuisance parameters. Finally, we examine several asset price deviations from fundamentals and one hyper-inflation series and find contradictory results between the nonlinear fitted models and unit root tests. The findings highlight that new testing procedures with higher power are desirable.


Production of carrot taproots for domestic arid export fresh commodity markets is
a rapidly growing industry in Tasmania (Australia). While the total biomass of
taproots within a crop can be high, the marketable yield is much lower. Major
exporters of carrots have identified the three most important non-pathogenic
causes for low marketable yields to be: (1) large variation in taproot sizes, (2)
misshapen taproots and (3) taproots with longitudinal fractures (splits). During
this study all three issues were investigated within the context of a commercial
carrot production system on clay loam soils in a cool temperate environment.
A survey of 12 commercial carrot crops revealed the current level of variation of
individual plant and taproot sizes. This was recorded as a coefficient of variation
(CV). Field studies examining the sources of variation showed that seed quality
influenced both the CV and mean weight of plants soon after emergence.
However, the effect of seed quality on variation in weight of mature taproots was
negligible. An increase in the CV of taproot sizes was recorded with increasing
stand density. The row position in multi row planting arrangements on beds and
the uniformity of within-row spacing had only minor effects,on the CV of mature
taproot sizes under current commercial planting arrangements. The longitudinal straightness of taproots was expressed early in the development
of carrots, most likely during the downward growth of the primary taproot.
Increasing the uniformity of within-row spacing of plants was found to decrease
the proportion of misshapen roots. The length of taproots was inversely related to
the stand density and soil bulk density. Mature carrot taproots were found to be most susceptible to splitting at dawn,
decreasing to midday before increasing again later in the afternoon. The diurnal
fluctuation of taproot splitting susceptibility was consistent with the growth
pattern of the taproot, which was characterised by lateral expansion during the
night time period with small shrinkages during the daylight hours. The degree of
shrinkage during the day and the rate of night time expansion were affected by
climatic variables. Diurnal changes in water relations, and residual strain were
consistent with this patten of growth. A tangential gradient in osmotic potential
was also consistent with the circumferential stress that developed in taproots.
From the understanding of the lateral growth of taproots gained in this study; the
hypothesis that partial defoliation the day prior to harvest would reduce taproot
splitting susceptibility during harvest the following dawn was successfully tested.
Taproots that spontaneously split during growth were found to do so largely in the
weeks prior to harvest. Partial defoliation of leaves up to a week prior to
commercial harvest also reduced growth splitting and harvest splitting. The
strategic use of partial defoliation to reduce the incidence of taproot splitting is
discussed. Commercial operations trialing the defoliation treatment supported the
results presented.


There are reported changes in the indices of the immunoreactivity of the body in employees in modern productions of sulphate cellulose in dependence on the specificity of exposing factors of the production environment. At that the main adverse factor affecting the state of the immune reactivity of workers was found to be is air pollution of the working area with methyl-sulfur compounds in the pulping process, with chlorine and chlorine dioxide--in the process of bleaching, lime and limestone dust--in the process of caustic regeneration. There were shown differences in the character and severity of the immune response to the impact of different chemical compounds. The exertion of protective immune mechanisms is most pronounced in workers employed in the process of boiling and bleaching, in whom there were revealed significant changes in humoral compartment of immunity (pronounced inhibition of the IgA synthesis, which plays an important role in the state of broncho-pulmonary immunity). At the same time, the inhibition of the functional activity of phagocytic neutrophils was the most significant in workers who was experienced to the exposure to lime and limestone dust, testifying about the depression of nonspecific mechanisms of anti-infectious protection. The revealed changes in the immune system are the basis for the formation in workers certain health disorders, mainly with broncho-pulmonary pathology.


In many predictive decision-making scenarios, such as credit scoring and academic testing, a decision-maker must construct a model (predicting some outcome) that accounts for agents' incentives to "game" their features in order to receive better decisions. Whereas the strategic classification literature generally assumes that agents' outcomes are not causally dependent on their features (and thus strategic behavior is a form of lying), we join concurrent work in modeling agents' outcomes as a function of their changeable attributes. Our formulation is the first to incorporate a crucial phenomenon: when agents act to change observable features, they may as a side effect perturb hidden features that causally affect their true outcomes.
We consider three distinct desiderata for a decision-maker's model: accurately predicting agents' post-gaming outcomes (accuracy), incentivizing agents to improve these outcomes (improvement), and, in the linear setting, estimating the visible coefficients of the true causal model (causal precision). As our main contribution, we provide the first algorithms for learning accuracy-optimizing, improvement-optimizing, and causal-precision-optimizing linear regression models directly from data, without prior knowledge of agents' possible actions. These algorithms circumvent the hardness result of Miller et al. (2019) by allowing the decision maker to observe agents' responses to a sequence of decision rules, in effect inducing agents to perform causal interventions for free.


Melanomas, which originate from melanocytic cells, mainly develop in the skin but can also arise at other body sites. The disease accounts for approximately 90% of deaths related to cutaneous tumors with late stage metastatic melanoma having a very poor prognosis of 6–9 month median survival for untreated patients. Research in the last decades resulted in ground-breaking discoveries of melanoma genetics and biology. High frequency mutations in genes like BRAF, NRAS and KIT, which lead to hyper-activation of the MAPK signaling pathway, drive melanoma progression. Targeting the MAPK signaling pathway has successfully been translated into effective therapies that significantly improve patient survival. Despite the unquestionable importance of such genetic events, the involvement of epigenetic alterations for melanoma development, and resistance to aforementioned therapies is becoming increasingly apparent. In this chapter, epigenetic alterations commonly found in melanoma are introduced, with a focus on histone and DNA modifications and their relevance for melanoma development, progression and therapy response. Detailed knowledge about this emerging aspect of melanoma research will help to understand the plastic nature of melanoma and set the foundation for novel treatment strategies that target aberrant gene regulation on genetic and epigenetic levels.


The objective of this study was to develop models for predicting the cumulative number of load applications to the initiation of cracking for flexible pavements and to develop models for predicting crack propagation in flexible pavements. Crack initiation was defined as the first appearance of cracking in the wheel paths. The models are aimed for use in Pavement Management Systems. Data used in the study consisted of data from a Swedish LTPP study where over 600 test sections have been monitored during more than ten years. Every year a detailed distress survey, measurements of rut depth and the longitudinal profile have been carried out at each test section. The database contains information about traffic, climate, pavement structure, surface condition and structural strength. Pavement response based explanatory factors included, among other things, tensile strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer and other deflection based factors (i.e. surface curvature index, curvature basin factor, bearing capacity). The modelling of crack initiation models was carried out using a survival analysis approach. The modelling of crack propagation models was carried out using linear regression analysis. From the data, describing the yearly development of cracks, a Cracking Index was calculated. The same approach of developing crack models was used in the PARIS (Performance analysis of road infrastructure) project carried out within the 4th European Framework Programme Road Transport 1996-1998. Models were successfully developed to predict the cumulative number of traffic loading to the initiation of cracking in the wheel paths. The models included two independent variables to pavement response and ageing (a relationship between a response variable and the annual cumulative number of traffic loading). As response variables Surface Curvature Index 300 or Tensile Strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer can be used in the crack initiation models. Models were also developed to predict crack propagation in the wheel paths. For any given section of road, the slope of the linear model can be estimated from the level of distress at the last distress survey and the age of the pavement surface or the number of ESALs carried by the pavement at that time. All models have been validated against independent data, not used in the development phase. The results of the validation process show that the models meet the requirements for models to be used in Pavement Management Systems. (A) This publication is also available on the Internet, URL: http://www.vti.se/PDF/reports/M916.pdf


Thanks to their recreational and psychological functions as well as plant diversity, open and green spaces in a city improve the life quality of the urban inhabitants. Woody plant diversity has significant value in urban green systems. The main purpose of this study was to determine the biodiversity values and the potential of the urban green infrastructure via floristic and spatial analyses of woody plant diversity. To this aim, field studies were carried out on the open and green infrastructure in selected areas of Duzce, having different spatial characteristics. The contribution of the identified species to urban biodiversity was examined as well as the spatial characteristics of the species in terms of landscape architecture. In this study, both statistical analyses (alpha and beta diversity of the species) and GIS analyses (species density and spatial distribution) were carried out. According to the results of the research, the most common of the 173 plant species detected were Cupressocyparis leylandii and Tilia tomentosa, found in the open green areas. As a result of the study, it was found that using the floristic diversity indices and GIS jointly enabled the UFD (Urban Floristic Diversity) of the city to be defined both statistically and positionally.


The recent proliferation of Web 2.0 applications and their role in contemporary political life have inspired the coining of the term 'open-source politics'. This article analyzes how open-source politics is organized in the case of a radical political party in Denmark called The Alternative. Inspired by the literature on organizational space, the analysis explores how different organizational spaces configure the party's process of policy development, thereby adding to our understanding of the relationship between organizational space and political organization. We analyze three different spaces constructed by The Alternative as techniques for practicing open-source politics and observe that physical and digital spaces create an oscillation between openness and closure. In turn, this oscillation produces a dialectical relationship between practices of imagination and affirmation. Curiously, it seems that physical spaces open up the political process, while digital spaces close it down by fixing meaning. Accordingly, we argue that open-source politics should not be equated with online politics but may be highly dependent on physical spaces. Furthermore, digital spaces may provide both closure and disconnection between a party's universal body and its particular body. In conclusion, however, we propose that such a disconnection might be a precondition for success when institutionalizing radical politics, as it allows parties like The Alternative to maintain their universal appeal.


The belief that chronic bronchitis is more prevalent among Indians than Africans in the Caribbean area was investigated by a community survey in Guyana. Respiratory symptoms were assessed by a standard questionnaire, ventilatory capacities were measured, and chest radiographs were taken of some 800 African and Indian men and women aged 35 to 54 years living in adjacent and similar communities. Histories of morning cough, chronic cough, morning phlegm, and chronic phlegm (chronic bronchitis) were more common in Indians than Africans. Although these respiratory symptoms were much more common in smokers than non-smokers, the higher prevalence rates in Indians could not be explained by smoking habits which were similar in the two races. Chronic bronchitis occurred in 17·3% of Indian and 2·4% of African male smokers and in 16·1% and 2·2% of Indian and African female non-smokers respectively. Judging by the history, lung function, and clinical signs, chronic bronchitis was more severe in Indians than Africans. The condition was more common among field labourers on sugar estates but, although the majority of field labourers were Indian, this occupational difference only partially explained the difference in prevalence between Indians and Africans. Indians, for reasons unknown, appear to have a greater susceptibility than Africans to chronic bronchitis.


1. Acceleration of the metamorphosis of frog tadpoles is induced by injections of commercial extracts of the anterior lobe pituitary gland extract. 2. The acceleration of metamorphosis produced by iodine in solution in suitable concentrations is not so great as that produced by injections of the anterior pituitary extract. 3. Further increase in the acceleration occurs when the injected specimens are kept in suitable concentrations of iodine solution. 4. The sequence of changes is similar to that observed in the accelerated transformation of tadpoles produced by thyroid or iodine diet. 5. The highest mortality, greatest reduction in size, and most rapid transformation occurs in the highest concentration of iodine, and this is still greater in injected animals kept in iodine solutions. 6. The younger the tadpole the less chance is there of completing metamorphosis under the accelerating stimulus of injected anterior lobe or iodine. 7. There is a paling effect after initial injection less marked in older specimens which is possibly due to inhibiting influence on the posterior lobe of excess of anterior lobe secretion. Idoine has no definite pigment action. 8. Iodine appears to act independently of the anterior lobe injection in the tadpole, the acceleration being apparently the sum of their separate actions.


Flexible control strategies are required in industrial scenarios to coordinate the actions of mobile manipulators (e.g., robots and humans). Temporal planning approaches can be used as such control strategies because they can generate those actions for the agents that must be executed to reach the goals, from any given state of the world. To deploy such approaches, planning models must be formulated. Although available in the literature, these models are not generic enough such that they can be easily transferred to new use cases. In this work, a generic industrial scenario is derived from real scenarios. For this scenario, a generic planning problem is developed. To demonstrate their generality, the two constructs are configured for a new scenario, where custom grippers are assembled. Lastly, a validation methodology is developed for the generic planning problem. The results show that the generic industrial scenario and the generic planning problem can be easily instantiated for new use cases, without any new modelling. Further, the proposed validation methodology guarantees that these planning problems are complete enough to be used in industrial use cases. The generic scenario, the planning problems, and the validation methodology are proposed as standards for use when deploying temporal planning in industrial scenarios with mobile manipulators.


Expedient alkylations of 1-methyl-3H-imidazole-2-thione, a pharmaceutical active ingredient available in bulk quantities, provide high yield access to numerous protonated, or quaternized imidazoliums with chemospecific attachment of the fluoroponytail at the 2-mercapto functionality. The deprotonated primary target products represent valuable nitrogen heterocyclic bases, capable of further substitution, and salt or complex formation. Specific physicochemical characteristics that are relevant for phase and surface responsive behavior, e.g. critical micelle concentration, oleophobicity, depression of the aqueous surface tension, foam formation, emulsification of microgranular PTFE, are investigated for selected representatives and compared to the properties of common fluorosurfactants and ionic liquids. Remarkably, it is found that halogen bonding between iodide counterions of respective polyfluoroalkylmethimazolium systems and 1-iodoperfluoroalkanes, serving as the σ-hole partner of the halides, greatly affect the solubility profile of the resulting molecular adducts. Single-crystal X-ray structure determinations are carried out across the new fluorous substance classes. Strikingly, the helical arrangement of fluorine atoms along the chains typically encountered in polyfluorinated compounds is not found as the prevailing conformation. Rather, they are outnumbered by structural motifs exhibiting the rare zig-zag (linear alkane-like) chain conformation. Key derivatives are also subjected to preliminary ecotoxicological testing.


Integrated infant and young child feeding (IYCF)/micronutrient powder (MNP) programs are increasingly used to address poor IYCF practices and micronutrient deficiencies in low-income settings; however, little is known about how MNP use may affect IYCF practices. We describe how MNP use was associated with IYCF practices in a pilot program in select districts of Nepal where free MNP for children 6-23 months were added to an existing IYCF platform. Representative cross-sectional surveys were conducted in pilot districts with mothers of eligible children at 3 months (plains ecozone, n=1054) or 15 months (hill ecozone, rural only, n=654) after implementation of an integrated MNP/IYCF program. We used logistic regression to assess how IYCF practices varied by MNP use (none, 1-30, 30-60 sachets). At both time points, consuming 30-60 MNP sachets vs. none was associated with achieving minimum dietary diversity and minimum acceptable diet. In the 3 month survey consuming 30- 60 MNP sachets vs none was also associated with achieving minimum meal frequency and continued breastfeeding at 2 years. In this setting, addition of MNP to an existing platform of IYCF messaging did not appear detrimental to IYCF practices.


Motivated by networked systems in which the functionality of the network depends on vertices in the network being within a bounded distance T of each other, we study the length-bounded multicut problem: given a set of pairs, find a minimum-size set of edges whose removal ensures the distance between each pair exceeds T . We introduce the first algorithms for this problem capable of scaling to massive networks with billions of edges and nodes: three highly scalable algorithms with worst-case performance ratios. Furthermore, one of our algorithms is fully dynamic, capable of updating its solution upon incremental vertex / edge additions or removals from the network while maintaining its performance ratio. Finally, we show that unless NP ⊆ BPP, there is no polynomial-time, approximation algorithm with performance ratio better than Omega (T), which matches the ratio of our dynamic algorithm up to a constant factor.


The ambient noise field at low frequencies in the Arctic is dominated by sounds resulting from pressure ridging caused by convergences in the surface ice field. These convergences are driven by currents in the ocean and by winds on the surface, and are modulated by the ice strength and compactness. Analysis of long time series of ambient noise might therefore be a useful tool in studying the spatial and temporal changes in these factors. The SPINNAKER array recently deployed at the edge of the continental shelf north of Ellesmere Island and cabled to shore provides a unique opportunity for measuring the structure and variability of the ambient noise field. Preliminary analysis shows a number of interesting features, which will be correlated with environmental factors to monitor long‐term changes in the Arctic oceanography.


We translate print media coverage into a gauge of human sentiment and the equivalent advertisement value, and find that the tone of media coverage substantially impacts stock markets. The tone has a positive effect on both overnight and daily stock returns but not on intraday returns, while conditional variance and daily price gaps are negatively influenced. This effect is significant on days of sharp price declines. The coverage of negative events in the capital market is about double the coverage of positive events. This asymmetry is greater when distinguishing between professional and unprofessional financial print media.


In 78 children with idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, the levels of serum immunoglobulins were studied. In 45 cases with lipoid nephrosis, 7 with segmentary and focal sclerosis and in 26 with membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, a reduction in per centum values of IgG were found in similar magnitude in the groups. Levels for IgA were not found abnormal and there was an increase in values for IgM exclusively in cases of lipoid nephrosis. There was no difference between disorders shown by cases of active lipoid nephrosis at the beginning or following relapse after some time of evolution. On the other hand it was found that disorders that appeared significantly in magnitude in cases undergoing remission, but specially in those with a greater time of evolution. The difference in these findings with those reported by other authors are attributed to multifactorial causes of lipoid nephrosis and it is supposed that disorders of immunoglobulins represent a functional defect of the lymphocytes T similar to that described as "immunodeficiency linked to chromosome X with high IgM". The association of lipoid nephrosis with certain types of locus HL-A suggest that these immunity alterations might signify a predisposing factor genetically transmitted and suggest the systematic study of these abnormalities in parents and siblings of patients with this disease.


Orange-footed Sea Cucumber ( Cucumaria frondosa ; Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) is a dark-brown species that is broadly distributed in North Atlantic and Arctic waters. Here, we document the rare occurrence of colour morphs showing various degrees of albinism, from totally white to faint orange pigmentation. These unusually coloured individuals were found across a broad distribution range in eastern Canada and northeastern United States, with their occurrence in Newfoundland samples ranging from 0.2% to 0.5%. Two fully albino individuals were noticeably smaller than other colour morphs. The occurrence of rare, unusually coloured sea cucumbers is important from an ecological standpoint and may also have commercial implications.


This paper is a revised and expanded version of a presentation made at the IBA 2018 Conference in Rome, as part of a panel devoted to the subject, "How Do International Arbitrators Interpret International Contracts?"

I suspect that most issues of "contract interpretation" call for the application of what Stefan Vogenauer has termed "universal hermeneutic truths" ---that is, the search for meaning by going no further than "common sense" and how language is "commonly and naturally deployed." The arbitrator does this not only by "worrying" the text of the agreement, but more broadly by attempting to identify the underlying narrative---"the sense of the transaction." These are universal "lawyerly skills." And should an agreement run out of guidance for settling a dispute, a further step would ask us to move from "interpretation," as commonly understood, to the process of "filling a gap" in a responsible way. When we are in the realm of "default rules," or "presumptions," or "burden of proof"---similar if not identical notions---recourse has to be made to the contract law of the legal system governing the contract.

After first dispensing with some lingering red herrings [for example, the supposed dichotomy between "subjective" and "objective" standards of interpretation, on which so much ink has been spilled, or the supposed preference in some legal systems for a "textual" or "literal" rather than purposive style], I turn to the main event, which is the particular ethos and peculiar contribution of arbitral justice. However framed, the questions we are addressing begin very much to look as if they belonged to the realm of appreciation of context and of commercial reality----questions that arbitrators are thought particularly well placed to answer and which are routinely entrusted to them.
As they are not organs of the state in which they sit, arbitral tribunals are liberated, first, in their choice of the appropriate governing law. Second, (and a far more interesting subject), is their freedom in the appreciation and application of "the law." To suggest that arbitral tribunals are to be mediums channeling the voice of state courts, or parrots mimicking them---applying "the law" "strictly in the manner of the courts" of a particular jurisdiction--- is I believe misguided: How naive it would be to take as a self-evident premise the unfailing and continuing ability of judges (let alone juries) to produce, over time, reliable results, which remain responsive to the needs either of participants in the market or of the general polity? It may in fact be the peculiar contribution of arbitrators to test these rules of law, questioning and qualifying them, reconstructing commercial law incrementally by realigning arbitral decisions with changing practices.

By contrast, distinguished commentators have written that the arbitral tribunal's "insulation from consequences is not the same thing as conferral of discretion." But I fear that such a proposition could only be seriously advanced by those quite untouched by any notion of Legal Realism.