Background: The consumption of high sugar contained carbonated drinks is more prevalent among youngsters. The excess consumption of carbonated drink has been associated with many adverse health effects.

Aims & Objective: (1) To study Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) regarding consumption of carbonated drinks among medical students. (2) To suggest suitable recommendation for the health promotion.

Material and Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of students regarding carbonated drinks. The study participants were second year medical student of Medical College situated in a rural area of western Maharashtra. Self-structured pretested questionnaires were given to the 110 students for study purpose.

Results: Out of all students 52 (48%) were reported that they had started to drink carbonated drink at the age less than 10 years. Majority of students consider obesity (28.2%) as side effect associated with consumption of carbonated drink followed by bone decay (11%) and dental caries (9%).

Conclusion: The health education and primordial prevention would be the best way to adopt healthy life style and combat the problems associated with the consumption of carbonated drinks.


Hyperon production is an excellent probe of the strong interaction in the confinement domain. The spin observables provide a powerful tool in understanding the underlying physical processes. Expressions of the seven non-zero polarisation parameters of the Ω baryon from decay angular distributions have recently been derived by the Uppsala group. Simulation studies show that all strange and single charmed hyperon production channels have great prospects with the PANDA detector.


Collaborative AI agents allow for human-computer collaboration in interactive software. In creative spaces such as musical performance, they are able to exhibit creative autonomy through independent actions and decision-making. These systems, called co-creative systems, autonomously control some aspects of the creative process while a human musician manages others. When users perceive a co-creative system to be more autonomous, they may be willing to cede more creative control to it, leading to an experience that users may find more expressive and engaging.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a co-creative musical system that captures gestural motion and uses that motion to filter pre-existing audio content. The system hosts two neural network architectures, enabling comparison of their use as a collaborative musical agent. This paper also presents a preliminary study in which subjects recorded short musical performances using this software while alternating between deep and shallow models. The analysis includes a comparison of users' perceptions of the two models' creative roles and the models' impact on the subjects' sense of self-expression.


The purpose of this study was to explore the role that agricultural information and communication technologies (ICTs) might play in scaling up traditional knowledge (TK)-based agricultural production, and to investigate the ways in which local communities have used ICTs to scale up TK in agricultural production. The study also aimed to explore the degree to which agricultural ICTs can be used in Uganda in the deployment of a category of intellectual property rights (IPRs) known as geographical indications (GIs). GIs are a form of IP that have a potentially unique relevance for agricultural production. African countries have only recently paid attention to GIs as potential tools to protect their agricultural production. Uganda has enacted a GI law that is expected to play a role in the country's agricultural production. In most developing countries, including Uganda, small-scale producers' access to markets and to agricultural information is constrained by a number of limitations. Producers in developing countries often depend on traditional means of communication, and sell their products at the farm gate, while intermediaries and other stakeholders in the product chain take a large share of the value generated by the products. Improving producers' access to markets and to agricultural information has long been identified as a key issue in improving small-scale agriculture in developing countries. The use of ICTs is one approach to linking small-scale producers to markets that can enable producers to make better-informed decisions during selling and when farming. Thus, ICTs and GIs can both potentially help link producers to markets in ways that that can affect their decisions, at both production and marketing levels. Considering the knowledge-based methods of production in tradition-based agriculture, GIs systems and ICTs foster collective action and collaboration among local stakeholders thereby, supporting innovation through collaboration. In this way, the simultaneous deployment of GIs and ICTs can be an effective strategy for indigenous entrepreneurs to pursue in order to scale up collaborative innovation in agricultural production.


The model trend analysis for PM10 and PM2.5, performed within the Eurodelta-Trends experiment, covers 21 year, from 1990 through 2010, with particular focus on the period 2001-2010 for which appropriate amount of PM observations is available. Eight chemical transport models (CTM) participated in the multi-modal trend analysis: EMEP/MSC-W, CHIMERE, LOTOS-EUROS, MINNI, MATCH, WRF-Chem, CMAQ and Polyphemus (out of which six models performed trend runs for the 21-year period). The average modelled trends are somewhat smaller than the observed, though the models identify significant PM trends at more sites in the period 2001-2010. There are considerable difference in the PM trends between the regions/countries and in different seasons. Investigation of the changes in PM chemical composition during the investigated period shows that the models differ in terms of relative contribution of the individual PM components to the PM trends. For the 2001-2010 period, the effcct of inter-annual meteorological variability appears more important relative to emission changes. Finally, we look at PM trends/changes during the 1990-2010 period.


This paper derives a simple closed-form expression for computing the power spectral density (PSD) of constrained sequences whose constraints are characterized by a function of an ergodic Markov process specified in terms of a Mealy machine. A suitable matrix description of the stochastic behavior of the constrained sequence is used to express its autocorrelation sequence in a compact matrix form that simplifies the calculation of the PSD. Examples of the application of this technique in cases of practical interest are provided, including differentially encoded binary sequences, source-driven binary Huffman codes, maximum entropy (d,k) codes, and convolutional- or block-encoded sequences. A unified treatment to several widely used constrained sequences is provided


Historical disturbance regimes are often considered a critical element in maintaining native plant communities. However, the response of plant communities to disturbance may be fundamentally altered as a consequence of invasive plants, climate change, or prior disturbances. The appropriateness of historical disturbance patterns under modern conditions and the interactions among disturbances are issues that ecologists must address to protect and restore native plant communities. We evaluated the response of Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis (Beetle & A. Young) S.L. Welsh plant communities to their historical disturbance regime compared to other disturbance regimes. The historical disturbance regime of these plant communities was periodic fires with minimal grazing by large herbivores. We also investigated the influence of prior disturbance (grazing) on the response of these communities to subsequent disturbance (burning). Treatments were: (1) ungrazed (livestock grazing excluded since 1936) and unburned, (2) grazed and unburned, (3) ungrazed and burned (burned in 1993), and (4) grazed and burned. The ungrazed-burned treatment emulated the historical disturbance regime. Vegetation cover, density, and biomass production were measured the 12th, 13th, and 14th year post-burning. Prior to burning the presence of Bromus tectorum L., an exotic annual grass, was minimal (<0.5% cover), and vegetation characteristics were similar between grazed and ungrazed treatments. However, litter accumulation was almost twofold greater in ungrazed than in grazed treatments. Long-term grazing exclusion followed by burning resulted in a substantial B. tectorum invasion, but burning the grazed areas did not produce an invasion. The ungrazed-burned treatment also had less perennial vegetation than other treatments. The accumulation of litter (fuel) in ungrazed treatments may have resulted in greater fire-induced mortality of perennial vegetation in ungrazed compared to grazed treatments. Our results demonstrate that prior disturbances exert a strong influence on the response of plant communities to subsequent disturbances and suggest that low-severity disturbances may be needed in some plant communities to increase their resilience to more severe disturbances. Modern deviations from historical conditions can alter ecosystem response to disturbances, thus restoring the historical disturbance regime may not be an appropriate strategy for all ecosystems.


The 21st century New Economic Order (NEO) showed higher level of economic cooperation among nations. As a norm of International Economic Relations (IER), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement took effect in 1996. The study is a discussion of the conflict and agreement between domestic economic policies and the GATT/WTO from the point of view of Small and Medium Enterprise owners and managers. By applying the qualitative analytic descriptive method of research and the dualistic theory of international law, the study finds that GATT/WTO a) promotes fair competition, b) makes the manufacturing sector more competitive and c) boosts the economic development in the merchandising sector. The study showed that there is no significant difference between the perceptions of SMEs as regards the impact of membership of the Philippines to WTO/GATT. Being at the crossroad to economic globalization, the Philippines faces the challenges of; a) the need to highlight the congruence of national law and membership to GATT/WTO; b) putting up structures and mechanism for inclusive development; c) revisiting regional economic arrangements and d) countering regional terrorism. Nevertheless, the trajectory of economic model remains toward global trade cooperation.


Maturation of primary RNA transcripts of eukaryotic genes often involves the removal of introns and joining of exons. The fidelity of RNA splicing is dependent on the identity of the nucleotide (nt) sequences at exon/intron boundaries. Most importantly, the highly conserved intronic 5'GT and 3'AG sequences are essential for correct splicing. Substitution of GT by any other nt leads to incomplete mRNA and a disruption of protein structure. We describe here the results of our transfection experiments in COS-1 cells with a CYP21 genomic construct that contained an IVS 2+1G-->A mutation. Analysis of the transcripts by RT-PCR revealed that two different transcripts were generated by this mutant genome. In all the splicing products, we found that the entire exon 2 was deleted. Surprisingly, 30% of the transcripts from this mutant CYP21 genome were accompanied by an inclusion of 3' intron 2 sequences due to the use of a different splice acceptor site. This is the first report of the molecular characterization of a splice donor site mutation in CYP21 via transcription in COS-1 cells.


We describe physicochemical properties in DNA of altered-size nucleobases that retain Watson-Crick analogous hydrogen-bonding ability. Size-expanded analogues of adenine and thymine (xA and xT, respectively, which are expanded by benzo-fusion) were incorporated into natural DNA oligonucleotides, and their effects on helix stability were measured. Base stacking studies revealed that the two stretched analogues stack much more strongly than do their naturally sized counterparts. In contrast to this, pairing studies showed that single substitutions of the new bases are destabilizing to the natural helix as compared to A or T in standard A-T pairs in the same context, unless multiple adjacent substitutions are used. Interestingly, the size-expanded bases displayed selective recognition of the hydrogen-bonding complementary partners, suggesting that Watson-Crick analogous pairs were still formed despite local backbone strain. In an attempt to compensate for the added size of the expanded adenine, we tested a formamide deoxynucleoside, which Leonard proposed as a shortened thymine analogue (F(o)). Data showed, however, that this compound adopts a conformation unfavorable for pairing. On the basis of the combined thermodynamic data, we estimate the energetic cost of the 2.4 A stretching of an isolated base pair in DNA at ca. +1 to 2 kcal/mol. Notably, during the pairing studies, the two size-expanded nucleobases were found to display significant changes in fluorescence on formation of stacked versus unstacked structures, suggesting possible applications in probing nucleic acid structures and biochemical mechanisms.


This paper describes an implementation of network Mach IPC optimized for clusters of processors connected by a fast network, such as workstations connected by an Ethernet or processors in a non-shared memory multiprocessor. This work contrasts with earlier work, such as the netmsg server, which has emphasized connectivity (by using robust and widely available protocols such as TCP/IP) and con gurability (with an entirely user-state implementation) at the expense of performance. The issues addressed by this work are support for low latency delivery of small and large messages, support for port capabilities and reference counting, and integration with the existing local Mach IPC implementation. Low latency for small messages requires careful bu er and control ow management; this work is compared with other fast RPC work described in the literature. Low latency for large messages, particularly for faster networks, requires an avoidance of copying, which can be achieved through virtual memory support; the modi cations that were necessary to make Mach's virtual memory support inexpensive enough to be useful for this purpose are described. The distributed implementation of port capabilities, port reference counts, and port migration is discussed, and compared with that in the netmsg server. Finally, performance data is presented to quantify the speedup achieved with the described implementation.


An increasing number of information systems integrate semantic data stores for managing ontologies. To access these knowledge bases most of the available implementations provide application programming interfaces (APIs). The implementations of these APIs normally do not support any kind of network protocol or service interface. This works fine as long as a monolithic system is developed. If the need arises to integrate such a knowledge base into a service-oriented architecture a different approach is needed. In this paper we propose an architecture to address this issue. A first demonstrator was fully implemented in the European project PESCaDO. Several services access and work on a central knowledge base access service which supports multi-threaded access for parallel instantiated ontologies.


Obsjective: To evaluate the effect and safety of noninvasive ventilation assisted interventional bronchoscopy for hypoxemia patients with central airway stenosis. Methods: 10 cases of patients with hypoxemia central airway stenosis undergoing interventional bronchoscopy , including 5 cases of malignant tumor, 4 cases of bronchial tuberculosis, 1 case wth tracheal stenosis caused by tracheotomy. Patients covered with full mask and then connected with noninvasive ventilator (MAQUET Servo ). Intravenous injection of dezocine and midazolam for sedation and analgesia. With ventilation, bronchoscope went through the nose or mouth for interventional therapy. Results: All cases were treated successfully, including cryotherapy in 8 cases, argon plasma coagulation in 6 cases, balloon dilatation in 5 cases, 2 cases of electrocautery. The procedure time was 58.4 ± 16.4 minutes. The degree of airway stenosis and partial pressure of arterial oxygen were significantly improved after operation. During the argon plasma coagulation in one patient, the SpO2 dropped to 85% as the fraction of inspired oxygen lowered from 1.0 to 0.30, which was transient and not life-threatening. The treatment did not cause serious complications. Sedation produced anterograde amnesia in all patients who expressed an intent to return for repeated interventional bronchoscopy if needed. Conclusion: With the sedation and analgesia, noninvasive ventilation assisted interventional bronchoscopy for hypoxemia patients with central airway stenosis is safe and effective, carries high satisfaction rate.


Abstract. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a pre-operational three dimensional variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system for the North/Baltic Sea. Univariate analysis for both temperature and salinity is applied in a 3DVAR scheme in which the horizontal component of the background error covariance is modeled by an isotropic recursive filter (IRF) and the vertical component is represented by dominant Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs). Observations of temperature and salinity (T/S) profiles in the North/Baltic Sea are assimilated in the year of 2005. Effect of the 3DVAR scheme is assessed by a comparison between data assimilation run and control run. The statistical analysis indicates that the model simulation is significantly improved with the 3DVAR scheme. On average, the root mean square errors (RMSE) of temperature and salinity are reduced by 0.2 °C and 0.25 psu in the North/Baltic Sea. In addition, the bias of temperature and salinity is also decreased by 0.1 °C and 0.2 psu, respectively. Starting from an analyzed initial state, one month simulation without assimilation is carried out with the aim of examining the persistence of the initial impact. It is shown that the assimilated initial state can impact the model simulation for nearly two weeks. The influence on salinity is more pronounced than temperature.


Few would quarrel with the influence and significance of popular culture on society. However culture is vaporous, hard to capture, harder to gauge. Besides pure democracy, the arts remain one of the most effective and accepted forms of societal indicia. A song, dance or a painting may provide tremendous information on the cultural mores and practices of a society. Hence, in an agrarian community, a song may be a mundane hymn recital, the celebration of a harvest or the mourning of lost lives in a draught. Similarly placed as songs and dance, popular movies serve functions beyond mere Id satisfaction. A movie can reaffirm old truths and crystallize new beliefs. Hence we do not find it awkward when a movie depicts a crooked politician accepting a bribe or a television anchor disdainfully chasing TRP's. This happens because we already hold politicians in disrepute, and have recently witnessed sensationalistic news stories which belong in a Terry Prachet book rather than on prime time news. With its power and influence Hindi cinema has often dramatized courtrooms, judges and lawyers. This article argues that these dramatic representations define to some extent an Indian lawyer's perception in society. To identify the characteristics and the cornerstones of the archetype this article examines popular Bollywood movies which have lawyers as its lead protagonists. The article also seeks solutions to the lowering public confidence in the legal profession keeping in mind the problem of free speech and censorship. Finally, this article aims to put up a looking glass to lawyers, tinted by drama, action, romance and the frequent song and dance sequences.


This atlas seeks to display spatial variations in mortality from various cancers in the EC. The geographical disaggregation is at a regional level, corresponding to counties in Britain and departements in France, for instance. Unfortunately, the maps, which are very attractively produced in colour, are in an "annex", which turns out to be a separate paperback volume: I cannot see why they could not have been published in a single volume with the text. The text itself comprises some useful introductory remarks on cancer mapping, including comments on sources of bias (such as international variations in coding practice). A series of brief vignettes on each country follows. These have some value, but the descriptions are rather simple-minded from a geographical point of view. We learn, for example, that in the UK "coal and iron have been mined for centuries" and, in Ireland, "there are many lakes"! The text also referred to a table of population data, which seems to have been omitted (though one of the maps is of variations in median age). The text discusses each of the commoner, and some rarer, cancers (a total of 23 sites are discussed and mapped). Brief remarks on the aetiology of each are offered, together with useful references. Some of the remarks are rather sweeping, such as the observation that "employment in 'electricity' related occupations is associated with an increased risk of adult leukaemia" (p 110). The maps show age-standardised rates, the statistical significance of which are flagged in accompanying tables (though we are referred to another publication for details of how significance is established). Seven classes are used in the maps. As the authors note, "presence of a group of areas with higher or lower than average cancer mortality which are contiguous ... is always of interest" (p 10). Ideally, we need to go beyond the maps to see whether the patterns are random or spurious; in other words, we need to accompany each map with a test for spatial autocorrelation. That said, there are some intriguing geographical puzzles; for instance, why are rates of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma so high in the UK, Netherlands, and Denmark? Geographers, statisticians, and epidemiologists are well aware of the problems of this kind of mapping, notably that of small numbers. For some of these cancers, even in the quite large areas mapped here, such numbers are indeed small. Notwithstanding these problems the authors have performed a useful function in assembling and mapping this data set. It is a pity, however, that it is the "old" EC that is mapped. Greece (who joined in 1981), Portugal and Spain (1986) are missing. It does seem rather odd that a country that has been a member for 12 years has been left out!


Abstract. Based on time series data of 500 hPa potential field from NCEP/NCAR (National Center for Environmental Forecast of American/National Center for Atmospheric Research), a novel consideration of empirical orthogonal function (EOF) time–space separation and dynamic system reconstruction for time series is introduced. This method consists of two parts: first, the dynamical model inversion and model parameter optimization are carried out on the EOF time coefficient series using the genetic algorithm (GA), and, second, a nonlinear dynamic model representing the subtropical high (SH) activity and its abnormality is established. The SH activity and its abnormal mechanism is studied using the developed dynamical model. Results show that the configuration and diversification of the SH equilibriums have good correspondence with the actual short–medium term abnormal activity of the SH. Change of SH potential field brought by the combination of equilibriums is more complex than that by mutation, and their exhibition patterns are different. The mutation behavior from high-value to low-value equilibriums of the SH in summer corresponds with the southward drop of the SH in the observed weather process. The combination behavior of the two steady equilibriums corresponds with disappearance of the "double-ridge" phenomenon of the SH. Dynamical mechanisms of these phenomena are explained.


Editorial Note from the editors: Consensus paper on MLVA development, validation, nomenclature and quality control – an important step forward for molecular typing-based surveillance and outbreak investigation Eurosurveillance editorial team (eurosurveillance@ecdc. Citation style for this article: Eurosurveillance editorial team. Note from the editors: Consensus paper on MLVA development, validation, nomenclature and quality control – an important step forward for molecular typing-based surveillance and outbreak investigation. Molecular methods have greatly contributed to refining classical infectious disease epidemiology by adding a new dimension to tracing the source of an outbreak. In the last three decades, a multitude of such methods have been developed and a number of them have become firmly established in the tool set of epidemi-ologists, while others have become obsolete with the appearance of newer techniques. Pulsed-field gel elec-trophoresis (PGFE), for example, has for more than 20 years played a major role in the investigation of food-borne outbreaks. It has recently become more and more complemented by multiple-locus variable-number of tandem repeats analysis (MLVA). A factor contributing to the success of PGFE, besides its high discriminatory power, has been a consensus on how the method could be applied a standardised manner for food-borne pathogens, enabling investigators to compare their results with those of other laboratories. Consequently PGFE has been considered the gold standard in many epidemiological studies of bacterial pathogens causing infectious disease. The application and usefulness of MLVA in outbreak investigations and molecular surveillance is well accepted and was covered recently in papers in Eurosurveillance and other journals [1-6]. For MLVA, however, a global consensus on how to apply it in a standardised fashion had been missing and rendered inter-laboratory comparability of results difficult. In this issue we present a paper that 'proposes an international consensus on the development, validation, nomenclature and quality control for MLVA used for molecular surveillance and outbreak detection based on a review of the current state of knowledge' [7]. United Kingdom) and non-European national public health institutes (Japan, South Africa, Taiwan). The paper is complemented by a proof-of-concept study that shows that researchers can compare MLVA results between different laboratories through use of a set of calibration strains in each laboratory [8]. Eurosurveillance welcomes the consensus as an important step forward for molecular typing-based surveillance and global outbreak investigations and we hope that such broad high-level consensus will lead to wide adoption of the proposed method and to similar consensus meetings on new …


We present the case of 60-year-old man with type 2 diabetes who developed blistering after two sequential exposures to linagliptin. Linagliptin is one of the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitors, a group of oral hypoglycaemic agents used commonly for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. On the first exposure to linagliptin, he developed blisters on the hands which resolved after stopping the drug. After repeat exposure, he developed two large blisters on the left foot, which burst giving rise to secondary infection, requiring hospital admission for treatment. We discuss the latest research linking DPP-4 inhibitors with adverse skin reactions and the effect of ulcers on the morbidity and mortality of patients with diabetes. This case report highlights skin reactions as an important, rare and lesser known side effect of DPP-4 inhibitors.


Based on the framework of attribute diversity (a generalization of Hill numbers of order q), we develop a class of functional diversity measures sensitive not only to species abundances but also to trait‐based species‐pairwise functional distances. The new method refines and improves on the conventional species‐equivalent approach in three areas: (1) the conventional method often gives similar values (close to unity) to assemblages with contrasting levels of functional diversity; (2) when a distance metric is unbounded, the conventional functional diversity depends on the presence/absence of other assemblages in the study; (3) in partitioning functional gamma diversity into alpha and beta components, the conventional gamma is sometimes less than alpha. To resolve these issues, we add to the attribute‐diversity framework a novel concept: τ, the threshold of functional distinctiveness between any two species; here, τ can be chosen to be any positive value. Any two species with functional distance ≥ τ are treated as functionally equally distinct. Our functional diversity quantifies the effective number of functionally equally distinct species (or "virtual functional groups") with all pairwise distances at least τ for different species pairs. We advocate the use of two complementary diversity profiles (τ profile and q profile), which depict functional diversity with varying levels of τ and q, respectively. Both the conventional species‐equivalent method (i.e., τ is the maximum of species‐pairwise distances) and classic taxonomic diversity (i.e., τ is the minimum of non‐zero species‐pairwise distances) are incorporated into our proposed τ profile for an assemblage. For any type of species‐pairwise distance matrices, our attribute‐diversity approach allows proper diversity partitioning, with the desired property gamma ≥ alpha and thus avoids all the restrictions that apply to the conventional diversity decomposition. Our functional alpha and gamma are interpreted as the effective numbers of functionally equally distinct species, respectively, in an assemblage and in the pooled assemblage, while beta is the effective number of equally large assemblages with no shared species and all species in the assemblages being equally distinct. The resulting beta diversity can be transformed to obtain abundance‐sensitive Sorensen‐ and Jaccard‐type functional (dis)similarity profiles. Hypothetical and real examples are used to illustrate the framework. Online software and R codes are available to facilitate computations.


In this study, the effects of cattle grazing intensity on soil nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes were examined in the Hulunber meadow steppe of north-eastern China. Six stocking-rate treatments (0, 0.23, 0.34, 0.46, 0.69, and 0.92 AU ha−1) with three replicates were established, and observations were conducted from 2010 to 2014. Our results showed that substantial temporal fluctuations in N2O flux occurred amongst the different grazing intensities, with peak N2O fluxes after natural rainfall. Grazing had a long-term effect on the soil N2O flux in the grasslands. After 4–5 years of grazing, the N2O fluxes under increased levels of grazing intensity began to decrease significantly by 31.4%–60.2% in 2013 and 32.5%–50.5% in 2014 compared to the non-grazing treatment. We observed a significant negative linear relationship between the soil N2O fluxes and grazing intensity for the five-year mean. The soil N2O flux was significantly affected each year in all of the treatments. Over the five years, the temporal coefficient of variation (CVs) of the soil N2O flux generally declined significantly with increasing grazing intensity. The soil N2O emission rate was significantly positively correlated with soil moisture (SM), soil available phosphorus (SAP), soil NH 4 + -N, soil NO 3 − -N, above-ground biomass (AGB), plant ground cover and height and was negatively correlated with total soil nitrogen (TN). Stepwise regressions showed that the N2O flux was primarily explained by SM, plant height, TN, soil pH, and soil NH 4 + -N. Using structural equation modelling, we show that grazing significantly directly influenced the plant community and the soil environment, which then influenced the soil N2O fluxes. Our findings provide an important reference for better understanding of the mechanisms and identifying the pathways of grazing effects on soil N2O emission rates, and the key drivers plant community and soil environment within the nitrogen cycle that are mostly likely to affect N2O emissions in the Inner Mongolian meadow steppes.


This work was devoted to study experimentally and numerically the oxygen carrier (NiO/NiAl2O4) performances for Chemical-Looping Combustion applications. Various kinetic models including Shrinking Core, Nucleation Growth and Modified Volumetric models were investigated in a one-dimensional approach to simulate the reactive mass transfer in a fixed bed reactor. The preliminary numerical results indicated that these models are unable to fit well the fuel breakthrough curves. Therefore, the oxygen carrier was characterized after several operations using Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) coupled with equipped with an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). These analyses showed a layer rich in nickel on particle surface. Below this layer, to a depth of about 10 µm, the material was low in nickel, being the consequence of nickel migration. From these observations, two reactive sites were proposed relative to the layer rich in nickel (particle surface) and the bulk material, respectively. Then, a numerical model, taking into account of both reactive sites, was able to fit well fuel breakthrough curves for all the studied operating conditions. The extracted kinetic parameters showed that the fuel oxidation was fully controlled by the reaction and the effect of temperature was not significant in the tested operating conditions range.


Abstract. Land Administration is needed to provide sustainable development of a country as it is concerned with land tenure, use, value and development. The Philippines is challenged as it has multiple land agencies having different and redundant land administration systems. Initial initiatives to have a single land agency did not prosper but recently, two (2) major national land agencies: the Land Management Bureau and the Land Registration Authority are initializing land information system linkages and data sharing. Local government units (LGU) in the Philippines are also mandated to perform land administration functions. It covers functions related to land use, value, development, and partially with land tenure.The Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) can be used in the improvement of the land administration system of a country. It has been adopted by several countries worldwide and has been a subject of many academic researches. However, only few researches were done related to the adoption of LADM in the Philippines. With this research, LADM was used to integrate the land administration system functions of an LGU, specifically the City of Makati, Philippines. The results show that LADM can be adopted in the study area. Adoption done by the researchers was limited to two-dimensional classes with proposed additional external classes not included in the original LADM.


Schumacher and Westmoreland [Phys. Rev. A 64, 42304 (2001)] have established a quantum analog of a well-known classical information theory result on a role of relative entropy as a measure of nonoptimality in (classical) data compression. In this paper, we provide an alternative simple and constructive proof of this result by constructing quantum compression codes (schemes) from classical data compression codes. Moreover, as the quantum data compression or coding task can be effectively reduced to a (quasi)classical one, we show that relevant results from classical information theory and data compression become applicable and therefore can be extended to the quantum domain.


This paper investigates the extent of intra-industry trade between Lithuania and the European Union and its role in export specialization. Lithuanian integration into the EU had an influence on the changes of intra-industry trade and export structure. The paper analyses the basic methods of intra-industry trade and export specialization measurement; the pattern of intra-industry trade between Lithuania and the EU, the influence of this form of trade on the changes of export structure. For measurement of Lithuanian intra-industry trade in the paper two approaches are adopted. The Grubel-Lloy index is used to calculate the intensity of intra-industry trade and thus to determine its relative importance compared to inter-industry trade. Secondly, the changes in trade over time are examined using an index of marginal intra-industry trade. Using these methods of measurement and Combined Nomenclature of commodities (CN) are calculated that Lithuania export specialization is based on similar goods with relatively different quality. It was determined that Lithuania has advantages in such CN groups as milk, fish products and other products. The EU has advantages in trade of product fruit, vegetables, coffee and other products.


Abstract : The Annual Report, Calendar Year 1996, summarizes development projects managed by the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity as authorized by The Surgeon General, the Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and supported by the RDTE funds from the Department of Defense.


Relevant portions of the new International System for Human Cytogenetic Nomenclature (ISCN 1995) have been reproduced in this appendix (with permission from Karger, the original publisher). The new rules supersede all previous rules and include guidelines for cancer cytogenetics as well as new recommendations for nomenclature when in situ hybridization techniques are used in the analysis of chromosomes.


Study of 'Basophil Leucocyte Response' in two polar groups of leprosy patients (tuberculoid and lepromatous) was undertaken employing Lepromin-A (Armadillo) by the method of Open Window Technique of Rebuck. Significant infiltration of Basophils at the test side is demonstrated both at 48 hours and at 72 hours in lepromatous leprosy as compared to the control groups i.e., in placebo and tuberculin positive healthy volunteers as well as against tuberculoid leprosy group (p value being less than 0.05 and 0.001). The basophils also go into degeneration and degranulation at 72 hours. .
The role of basophils in the different types of allergic reactions is discussed in context of above finding. The possible effect of high infiltration of basophils in lepromatous leprosy with its subsequent release of histamine and other factors by degranulation, and its possible role in immuno-regulation through specialised suppressor cells is postulated in the light of available data.


We introduce a generalized joint density of states (GJDOS), which incorporates the coherent factors into the JDOS, to study quasiparticle interference (QPI) in superconductors. The intimate relation between the Fourier-transformed local density of states and GJDOS is revealed: they correspond respectively to the real and imaginary parts of a generalized impurity-response function, and particularly share the same angular factors and singular boundaries, as seen from our approximate analytic results for d-wave superconductors. Remarkably, our numerical GJDOS analysis agrees well with the QPI patten of d-wave cuprates and s±-wave iron-based superconductors. Moreover, we illustrate that the present GJDOS scenario can uncover the sign features of the superconducting gap and thus can be used to explore the pairing symmetry of the A1−xFe2—ySe2 (A=K, Cs, etc) superconductors.


BACKGROUND
Plasma levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) correlate with left ventricular remodeling, but the relationship between BNP induction and coronary function remains unclear.

OBJECTIVES
The present study assessed BNP production in response to left ventricular enlargement and investigated the relationship between BNP production and coronary vasodilating function in patients with left ventricular remodeling.

METHODS
Patients (n = 63) with normal or mildly diseased coronary arteries underwent Doppler flow study of the left anterior descending coronary artery. Vascular reactivity was examined using intracoronary acetylcholine, papaverine and nitroglycerin using a Doppler guidewire.

RESULTS
Left ventricular end-diastolic dimension was positively correlated with BNP (r = 0.45, p < 0.001) in all patients. BNP was significantly and inversely correlated with percentage change in coronary artery diameter induced by acetylcholine (r = -0.56, p < 0.001) but not by nitroglycerin (r = -0.20, p = 0.28) in patients with left ventricular end-diastolic dimension > or = 55 mm (n = 32). By contrast, BNP was not significantly correlated with percentage change in coronary artery diameter induced by either acetylcholine or nitroglycerin in patients with left ventricular end-diastolic dimension < 55 mm (n = 31). Further, BNP was not correlated with the percentage change in coronary blood flow induced by acetylcholine or by papaverine in patients with or without left ventricular remodeling.

CONCLUSIONS
The elevation in plasma BNP levels that occurs in association with left ventricular enlargement is a predictor of impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation in conductance coronary arteries.


Although the financial crisis is seemly over, but its impact on the global economy is still spreading, and also make people pay more attention to the improvement and operation of the economic and financial system, the development of the logistics industry in this financial crisis has also been confronted with great challenge, in this case, the concept of logistics finance is more widely known by people. While logistics finance provides a good opportunity to the development of logistics industry, it also involves enormous risk. As the financial supervision system is incomplete, enterprise credit evaluation and supervision system is not perfected, risks of the logistics enterprises participate in the logistics finance are more obvious, and researches of this aspect will appear more valuable. Therefore, this paper established a game theory tripartite game model of logistics financial participants, on the base, risks of logistics enterprises participate in the logistics financial business were analyzed, and show the corresponding conclusions and recommendations.


A high-amplitude anomaly in seismic signal, i.e. a bright-spot, which is the main direct hydrocarbon indicator, may also occur due to interference between the reflected signals from the top and base of a thin bed (the tuning effect). In such settings the main problem is to distinguish amplitude anomalies associated with lithological changes or changes in gas saturation from anomalies originating from the tuning effect. We provide a method of interpreting the composite seismic signal produced by the interference between reflections. Such  reflections occur along the top of the Cenomanian sandstone in the area of the Grobla–Rajsko–Rylowa 3-D seismic dataset (southern Poland). The non-standard method presented here is based on interpretation of seismic data which was rotated by 270°. The results of seismic modelling were used to develop criteria for interpretation of such data. These criteria are based on the difference between information carried by the peak-to-trough amplitude and that by the total amplitude of rotated seismic data. The difference was used to define the transfer function and to remove the high-amplitude anomalies caused by the constructive interference between the reflected signals from the top and bottom of the thinning stratum. The final outcome of the study was a map showing the seismic amplitude response at the top Cenomanian reflector unaffected by the tuning effect. The map shows the extent of the area where high-amplitude anomalies do not correspond with changes in thickness and petrophysical parameters within the top part of the Cenomanian. These anomalies are caused by a lateral increase in thickness of the Turonian and/or an increase in the velocity within the bottom part of the Senonian (Coniacian) strata. The map can be used to determine precisely the boundaries of the Rajsko and Rylowa gas reservoirs as well as to locate the potential extension of the reservoir zone to the east of the Rylowa 6 borehole.


Random field models in image analysis and spatial statistics usually have local interactions. They can be simulated by Markov chains which update a single site at a time. The updating rules typically condition on only a few neighbor- ing sites. If we want to approximate the expectation of a bounded function, can we make better use of the simulations than through the empirical estimator? We describe symmetrizations of the empirical estimator which are computationally fea- sible and can lead to considerable variance reduction. The method is reminiscent of the idea behind generalized von Mises statistics. To simplify the exposition, we consider mainly nearest neighbor random fields and the Gibbs sampler.


Dialium guineense is a multipurpose species useful in many respects. It is used in agroforestry and the trade of most of its organs is source of income for rural populations. Despite the high interests of this species to populations, we do not know much about how its spatial distribution could be impacted by climate change and which strategies to implement for its sustainable use and conservation. In order to overcome these challenges, MaxEnt was used to model the ecological niche of D. guineense and different decision thresholds were used to interpret and classify the outputs. Climate will impact the distribution of D. guineense. Indeed under Africlim rcp 4.5 horizon 2055, the predicted stable areas of species distribution will be about 73% of West Africa when the threshold of the minimum training presence is considered and will decrease to 12% when the threshold of the maximum training sensitivity plus specificity is considered. Under Africlim 8.5 horizon 2055, the corresponding values for the stable areas of the species are, respectively 70 and 8% of the study area. In comparison with the global results of West Africa, in Benin, D. guineense will be less threatened by climate change. As strategies for sustainable use and conservation of the species, growing and introducing it in its favorable areas to account for its absence or low densities, is recommended. Also, building capacities to the users of the species so that they can grow it on their farms is recommended.

 Key words: Dialium guineense, ecological niche modeling, biodiversity conservation.


Three-dimensional mapping products in the form of DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) have become much more accessible in recent years, in part due to the implementation of LIDAR and IFSAR technologies. While there is considerable familiarity with one technology or the other, they are not often examined in terms of their mutually similar characteristics or equally those that are dissimilar. The purpose of this paper is to summarize those factors which will ultimately help to determine whether one technology or the other is appropriate for a particular application. We present two examples to illustrate and suggest that in many ways they can be viewed as complementary rather than competitive technologies.


The collision of convex bodies is considered for small impact velocity, when plastic deformation and fragmentation may be disregarded. In this regime the contact is governed by forces according to viscoelastic deformation and by adhesion. The viscoelastic interaction is described by a modified Hertz law, while for the adhesive interactions, the model by Johnson, Kendall and Roberts (JKR) is adopted. We solve the general contact problem of convex viscoelastic bodies in quasi-static approximation, which implies that the impact velocity is much smaller than the speed of sound in the material and that the viscosity relaxation time is much smaller than the duration of a collision. We estimate the threshold impact velocity which discriminates restitutive and sticking collisions. If the impact velocity is not large as compared with the threshold velocity, adhesive interaction becomes important, thus limiting the validity of the pure viscoelastic collision model. 1.


Proteins encoded by the early region 1A (E1A) regulate transcription of viral and cellular genes. The mechanism of this trans-regulation remains unclear but it is of considerable interest as an example of transcription regulation through cellular intermediates. We have therefore studied the effect of E1A products on the activity of the k-L chain gene enhancer. In our previous studies we have found that the k-chain enhancer is activated by E1A products in fibroblasts. Using in vivo competition experiments we found that the E1A regulatory effect involves trans-acting factors that can be titrated out by the k-chain enhancer sequences. Our transfection experiments suggest that the k3 enhancer fragment, encompassing the NF-kB binding site, is one of the sites through which the adenovirus E1A products exert their transactivation effect. The level of the nuclear factors that bind to the NF-kB binding site increases in fibroblasts that constitutively express E1A products. Understanding the mechanisms through which E1A regulates transcription should help to illuminate cellular mechanisms of gene control in normal and transformed cells.


Electronic visual prostheses have demonstrated the ability to restore a rudimentary sense of vision to blind individuals. This review paper will highlight past and recent progress in this field as well as some technical challenges to further advancement. Retinal implants have now been tested in humans by four independent groups. Optic nerve and cortical implants have been also been evaluated in humans. The first implants have achieved remarkable results, including detection of motion and distinguishing objects from a set. To improve on these results, a number of research groups have performed simulations that predict up to 1000 individual pixels may be needed to restore significant functions such as face recognition and reading. In order to achieve a device that can stimulate the visual system in this many locations, issues of power consumption and electronic packaging must be resolved.


the flight a polite request was made for a doctor who might be prepared to give assistance. Explanation and reassurance to a passenger formed the appropriate professional contribution, for which a bottle of champagne by courtesy of the captain was generous recompense. I am not sure whether such practice is customary, or whether British Airways had telepathic knowledge that the day was my wedding anniversary.


Brain capillary telangiectasia is an incidental vascular malformation found usually in pons and sometimes in extra- pontine sites. Typical MRI features are enhancement on post contrast T1 weighted images and signal loss on gradient echo images. We evaluated 10 patients with various MR techniques. Susceptibility weighted imaging was superior to GRE T2 in showing decreased signal due to susceptibility effects. Diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion tensor imaging proved not useful in the diagnosis.


In the shallow micro-tidal cove Kertinge Nor, Denmark, a series of field campaigns were conducted from April 1995 to September 1996. During these campaigns, the effect of benthic grazing on phytoplankton concentrations was studied using a dual approach. In the first approach, the density, size distribution and in situ growth of 3 dominant benthic grazers were determined to assess grazing potential and its realisation. In the second approach, the realised grazing potential was estimated from the decline in area-specific chlorophyll a (chl a) concentrations after breakdown of stratification. Forcing functions were monitored continuously during the field campaigns using meteorological data, current meters, temperature loggers and CTD point measurements. In addition, measurements from a local monitoring program in Kertinge Nor were included in the data analysis. Stratification of the water column in the cove was mainly governed by wind speed and solar radiation and occurred 50 to 75% of the time. The potential grazing pressure of the benthic suspension feeders varied but was always greater than that required to graze the entire volume of the cove per day. Using both approaches, it was estimated that realised grazing was ~50% of the potential. The lack of realisation of the grazing potential could be attributed to a lack of mixing of the water column, which resulted in strong vertical gradients in concentrations of chl a. The primary mode of decoupling between benthic suspension feeders and phytoplankton was the stratification of the water column, which created refuges for the phytoplankton.


Abstract The alkylation of rat liver DNA at short times after administration of low doses (0.5 to 4 mg/kg) of diethylnitrosamine was studied and compared to alkylation after higher doses (10 to 100 mg/kg). Ethylation of DNA as measured by the production of 7-ethylguanine was virtually complete within 30 min after i.p. injection of 0.5-mg/kg doses of the carcinogen, within 90 min after 2 mg/kg, and within 120 min after 4 mg/kg. 7-Ethylguanine levels declined only very slightly over a further 3- to 6-hr period. O 6 -Ethylguanine produced by these doses of diethylnitrosamine was removed rapidly from the DNA by an enzymatic process as indicated by a loss of from 40 to 60% of the initial O 6 -ethylguanine content within 4 hr. For this reason, a ratio of O 6 -ethylguanine to 7-ethylguanine in the ethylated DNA close to 0.71 (which was that found by reaction of DNA in vitro with N -ethyl- N -nitrosourea) was observed only at the earliest time points measured. These results indicate that the higher O 6 -ethylguanine:7-ethylguanine ratio observed at higher exposures to diethylnitrosamine in the present experiments and those of Scherer et al . (Chem-Biol. Interact., 19: 1–11, 1977) were due to rapid excision of smaller amounts of O 6 -ethylguanine from the DNA and not due to a facilitation of O 6 -ethylguanine production by a dose-dependent process as postulated by Scherer et al . The rate of loss of O 6 -ethylguanine from liver DNA after administration of low doses of diethylnitrosamine showed complex kinetics, and the half-life depended on the extent of alkylation. However, the rate of loss was comparable to that of O 6 -methylguanine from the hepatic DNA after production of similar extents of alkylation by dimethylnitrosamine. A cell-free extract was isolated from rat liver which catalyzed the removal of O 6 -ethylguanine from DNA. The activity of this enzyme was sufficient to account for the rate observed in vivo after doses of up to 4 mg of diethylnitrosamine per kg. The enzyme catalyzed the loss of O 6 -[ 3 H]ethylguanine from the acid-precipitable substrate DNA but did not lead to release of 7-ethylguanine or guanine, indicating that it was specific for the O 6 product. The same preparation produced approximately equal rates of removal of O 6 -methylguanine from methylated DNA and O 6 -ethylguanine from ethylated DNA when the substrate concentrations were similar. The loss of O 6 -ethylguanine from the acid-precipitable DNA was not accompanied by the appearance in the supernatant of either the free base or an oligonucleotide containing the O 6 derivative. It appeared that the material removed from the DNA became bound to a macromolecule in a form which could ultimately lead to the conversion of the O 6 -alkyl group to the corresponding alcohol. All of the experiments were consistent with the hypothesis that the same enzyme system is responsible for the rapid removal of both O 6 -ethylguanine and O 6 -methylguanine after administration of low doses of the corresponding dialkylnitrosamines.


The references included in this bibliography were published between July I, 1935, and June 30, 1936. These publications discuss significant issues relating to the education of teachers in elementary and secondary schools and in higher institutions. Three criteria were used in selecting from the much larger number of references published those included in this list: (i) objective analyses and statistical accounts of important aspects of teacher education; (2) comprehensive reports in the form of bulletins, yearbooks, and reports of proceedings; (3) materials which are reasonably accessible.


A case of Graves' disease with white matter abnormalities is presented here. The diagnosis as Graves' disease was made when the patient was 5 years old, and a subtotal thyroidectomy was performed when she was 10. Her neurological symptoms began at age 19 with paresthesia of her legs and lower body. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging was normal; thoracic magnetic resonance imaging revealed demyelinating lesions. Intravenous pulse steroid therapy improved her symptoms. Ten months later she described dizziness, lower body paresthesia, and ataxia. Both her cranial and thoracic magnetic resonance imagings revealed demyelinating lesions. After pulse steroid therapy, glatiramer acetate therapy was initiated with diagnosis of an autoimmune multiphasic demyelinating syndrome. Five months later, she presented with right-sided mild optic neuritis followed by rapid spontaneous remission. Antithyroglobulin antibody levels remained normal; antithyroid peroxidase antibody level was high. This presents a rare case of Graves' disease associated with multiphasic demyelinating autoimmune syndrome.


In the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2007/08, the challenges facing both academics and policymakers were to provide useful insights into the causes, timing, and consequences of financial crises. Embracing those challenges and using a large cross-country sample over the last four decades, this thesis seeks to answer a set of critical questions related to those challenges: What drives financial crises? What determines the duration of financial crises? And, how do financial crises affect human development? The first empirical chapter assesses the neglected role of the political environment in the timing of financial crises. Using a fixed-effects logit model, banking and currency crises are found to be more likely to occur within one year after elections. There is also evidence that the probability of currency crises increases when right-wing parties are in office. Moreover, time in office of incumbent chief executives reduces the likelihood of any type of financial crisis. The incidence of twin and triple crises is also lower when majority governments are in office. This chapter contributes to the literature by calling the attention to the importance of some political factors for different types of financial crises.Over the last four decades, banking crises around the globe have become longer. This, along with the unprecedented government responses to the Great Recession of 2007/08, has led to a critical question of whether political decisions were somehow to blame for these more prolonged crises. Despite growing concerns, little attention has been given to the political and institutional determinants of financial crisis duration. Employing a Weibull-based parametric duration approach, the second empirical chapter shows that, along with several economic factors that have been found in the literature, the political and institutional environment and the dynamics of duration dependence are critical to understanding the length of different types of financial crises. This analysis also shows that, to better understand the dynamics of the duration of financial crises, it is essential to look at the duration dynamics in each type of financial crisis. Finally, allowing for more flexible duration dependence patterns, we observe that the duration of banking and twin/triple crises presents a non-monotonic cubic behaviour, while the probability of debt crisis ending decreases monotonically over time.Finally, while the existing literature focuses on the effects of financial crises on the economic side, the third empirical chapter examines how financial crises affect the overall human development and its components: health, education and income. Relying on a System-GMM estimator, this study finds that financial crises are more important than some political, institutional and economic factors to explain the human development dynamics. Moreover, all types of financial crises have both short- and long-run adverse effects on human development and its components. Such deteriorations are permanent and increase the burden for future generations, especially for low-income households. Nevertheless, among different dimensions of human development, education is found to be the least affected by financial crises. Furthermore, low- and middle-income countries pay a higher price, in terms of human development, than developed countries as consequences of financial crises.


Objective: To examine child developmental outcomes in preschool-aged children exposed to antidepressant medication in pregnancy and compare their outcomes to children not exposed. Method: A prospective case-controlled study of 20 children exposed to antidepressants in pregnancy and 21 unexposed controls was available from the Victorian Psychotropic Registry. Child development outcomes at 4 years of age were assessed using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, third edition; the Movement Assessment Battery for Children; Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning–Preschool; and the Child Behavior Checklist (1.5–5 years). Maternal depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II in pregnancy and at four time points across infancy and early childhood. Results: Children exposed to antidepressants in pregnancy had no statistically significant differences compared to unexposed children on any of the measures of child development undertaken. There was a trend to slightly lower scores in motor development with a small effect size for two scales of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children: balance – Cohen's d=0.36; aiming and catching – Cohen's d=0.34. Conclusions: The finding of no effect on cognition and behaviour are consistent with other previous studies conducted with younger children. Likewise, the trend towards lower motor development is similar to earlier findings from this study and a number of other similar studies. Given this trend there is a need for future research that focuses on this area of development in older children using robust measures of motor development.


For a successful implementation of demand response in the residential sector, access to real electricity consumption data and load profiles of major household appliances is crucial. With the advancement of the communication technologies and smart load monitoring devices, access to this information become simpler. This paper investigates characteristic of different communication technologies and their suitability for use in demand response implementation in the residential sector. A smart monitoring and controlling system is integrated into a household's electric appliances to study their daily energy consumption profiles and identify their potential demand response capacity. This paper intends to draw interest on the benefits from using the smart monitoring and controlling system, for instance, it provides real-time energy consumption feedbacks, standby power consumption information and remote load control flexibility. Using these information, the total demand response opportunity and standby energy loss are calculated for selected major appliances.


Alloreactive donor T cells against host minor histocompatibility antigens (mHAs) cause graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after marrow transplantation from HLA-identical siblings. We sought to identify and expand regulatory CD4 T cells (Tregs) specific for human mHAs in numbers and potency adequate for clinical testing. Purified Tregs from normal donors were stimulated by dendritic cells (DCs) from their HLA-matched siblings in the presence of interleukin 2, interleukin 15, and rapamycin. Male-specific Treg clones against H-Y antigens DBY, UTY, or DFFRY-2 suppressed conventional CD4 T cell (Tconv) response to the specific antigen. In the blood of 16 donors, we found a 24-fold (range, 8-fold to 39-fold) excess Tconvs over Tregs reactive against sibling mHAs. We expanded mHA-specific Tregs from 4 blood samples and 4 leukaphereses by 155- to 405-fold. Cultured Tregs produced allospecific suppression, maintained demethylation of the Treg-specific Foxp3 gene promoter, Foxp3 expression, and transforming growth factor β production. The rare CD4 T conv and CD8 T cells in the end product were anergic. This is the first report of detection and expansion of potent mHA-specific Tregs from HLA-matched siblings in sufficient numbers for application in human transplant trials.


Monitoring the composition, blood flow properties, and hydration status of human skin can be important in diagnosing disease and tracking overall health. Current methods are largely limited to clinical environments, and they primarily measure properties of superficial layers of the skin, such as the stratum corneum (10–40 µm). This work introduces soft, skin‐like thermal depth sensors (e‐TDS) in designs that seamlessly couple with human skin and measure its thermal properties with depth sensitivity that can extend up to 6 mm beneath the surface. Guidelines for tailoring devices to enable measurements through different effective depths follow from a systematic set of experiments, supported by theoretical modeling. On‐body testing validates the physiological relevance of measurements using the e‐TDS platform, with potential to aid the diagnosis of deep cutaneous and systemic diseases. Specific demonstrations include measurements that capture responses ranging from superficial changes in skin properties that result from application of a moisturizer, to changes in microvascular flow at intermediate depths induced by heating/cooling, to detection of inflammation in the deep dermis and subcutaneous fat in an incidence of a local bacterial infection, cellulitis.


Among 46 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates collected in 2004, two imipenem-resistant isolates were obtained from clinical specimens taken from patients hospitalized in Busan, Republic of Korea. Two carbapenemase-producing isolates were further investigated to determine the mechanism of resistance. These isolates were analyzed by antibiotic susceptibility testing, microbiological tests of carbapenemase activity, determination of pi, transconjugation test, enterobacterial repetitive consensus (ERIC)-PCR, and DNA sequencing. Two cases of infection by A. baumannii producing the IMP-1 (3-lactamase were detected. The isolates were characterized by a modified cloverleaf synergy test and EDTA-disk synergy test. Isoelectric focusing of crude bacterial extracts revealed nitrocefin-positive bands with a pi value of 9.0. PCR amplification and characterization of the amplicons by direct sequencing indicated that the isolates carried a bla IMP-1 determinant. The isolates were characterized by a multidrug resistance phenotype, including penicillins, extended-spectrum cephalosporins, carbapenems, and aminoglycosides. These results indicate that the observed imipenem resistance of two Korean A. baumannii isolates was due to the spread of an IMP-1-producing clone. Our microbiological test of carbapenemase activity is simple to screen class B metallo-β-lactamase-producing clinical isolates to determine their clinical impact and to prevent further spread. This study shows that the bla IMP-1 resistance determinant, which is emerging in Korea, may become an emerging therapeutic problem, since clinicians are advised not to use extended-spectrum cephalosporins, imipenem, and aminoglycosides. This observation emphasizes the importance of having effective control measures in Asian hospitals, such as early detection of colonized patients, isolation procedures, and a judicious use of antibiotics.


We present an application layer quality of service (QoS) control protocol (QCP), which employs an additive-increase bandwidth feedback algorithm. The protocol enhances the communication between end nodes and "the network" by a QoS packet sent from the source for per n video frames. The destination calculates the delay jitter, throughput for per QoS interval, and sends a backward QoS packet to the source. Upon the receipt of a QoS packet, the source use the delay and the bandwidth contained in the QoS packet to adjusts its sending rate. The protocol is well suited for real-time rate-adaptive video streams. The primary goal is to be easy to implement and provide an efficient application layer QoS control. Through extensive simulations, we conclude that the protocol could be able to control the jitter, delay and loss very efficiently.


Designing and implementing human-robot interactions requires numerous skills, from having a rich understanding of social interactions and the capacity to articulate their subtle requirements, to the ability to then program a social robot with the many facets of such a complex interaction. Although designers are best suited to develop and implement these interactions due to their inherent understanding of the context and its requirements, these skills are a barrier to enabling designers to rapidly explore and prototype ideas: it is impractical for designers to also be experts on social interaction behaviors, and the technical challenges associated with programming a social robot are prohibitive. In this work, we introduce Synthé, which allows designers to act out, or bodystorm, multiple demonstrations of an interaction. These demonstrations are automatically captured and translated into prototypes for the design team using program synthesis. We evaluate Synthé in multiple design sessions involving pairs of designers bodystorming interactions and observing the resulting models on a robot. We build on the findings from these sessions to improve the capabilities of Synthé and demonstrate the use of these capabilities in a second design session.


Introduction: The consequences of HIV/AIDS are alarming. It causes not only loss of live but also social and economic disruption. Being deadly disease, HIV/AIDS has become an important issue of recent times throughout the world. To date, little is known about awareness of HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh. Objectives: To assess the level of knowledge regarding Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrom (AIDS) among the adult population of a rural community. Place and Period of study: the study was done at 'Tepir Bari, Saitalia, Tengra' village under 'Teli Hati' union of Shreepur Upazilla in Gazipur district during the study period of 27 March 2010 to 31 April 2011. Materials and Methods: This cross sectional type of study was conducted with 360 respondents. Semi structured interview schedule was used for collection of information and sampling technique was 'selective cluster sampling'. Results: Among the total 360 respondents 92.5% respondents had knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS and 7.50% had no knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The respondents who were familiar with the term of HIV/AIDS, 86.79% had gathered information from mass media. Most of respondents 83.78% consider that sexual route is the principal means of spreading HIV/AIDS. According to them the other most common ways of spreading HIV/AIDS were sharing same needle (49.55%), through blood and blood products (43.24%), vertical transmission 19.21%. Among 333 respondents,64.72% considered that the top most high risk group was commercial sex workers. 55% considered individuals sharing same needle, 40.2% thought individuals having illegal relationships, 23.33% considered unsafe blood recipients, 11.11% considered drivers, 10.28% considered frequent traveler and 15.83% respondents had no knowledge about high risk groups. Regarding the knowledge about preventing HIV/AIDS majority of respondents (64.44%) considered that the safe sexual behavior is the main way to prevent HIV/AIDS. 32.22% respondents considered using unshared needle, 28.89% respondents thought health education regarding AIDS, 26.44% individuals thought proper maintenance of religious values, 21.44% considered proper screening where as 16.11% respondents had no knowledge about preventive measures. Conclusion: Among the study subjects majority of the respondents had knowledge regarding HIV/AIDS and few had no knowledge and they need information and health education. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jafmc.v9i1.18737 Journal of Armed Forces Medical College Bangladesh Vol.9(1) 2013: 90-97


TiO 2 films were produced by low-temperature reactive magnetron sputtering and characterized by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, electrochemistry, and mechanical-indentation techniques. The TiO 2 films consisted of 20-30 nm particles. Electrochemical Li-insertion experiments revealed that the Li diffusion along grain boundaries was much faster compared to the diffusion into the TiO 2 grains. The mechanical properties of the films changed drastically after electrochemical Li insertion; the microhardness increase of the Li-inserted TiO 2 samples was in the range 70-104% with maximum values ranging between 5.8 and 6.5 GPa. Hardness measurements on a Li-extracted sample showed that the changes in mechanical properties were irreversible.


Problem statement: Plants associations differ in relation to environmental gradients. Therefore, it is necessary to study the interaction between ecological factors and vegetation. Approach: In this study vegetation and flora of Sutan-Chay Basin in Arasbaran was investigated using Braun Blanquet method as physiognomic floristic. Sampling of soil and vegetation was carried out by selecting areas with homogenous plant compositions. The surface area of releves was determined using Nested Plot method to obtain the Minimal area. Classification of releves was conducted based on the presence and cover percentage of species using cluster analysis and Jaccard index similarity. CCA was used to determine the relationship between the groups and ecological factors and the most important factors in separating the groups and distribution of the species. The classification of releves based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient and cluster analysis showed 6 different groups. Results: Dendrogram of cluster analysis based on these methods showed six associations: Astragaleto aureus-Thymetum kotschyanus, Poeto bulbosa-Festucetum ovina, Carpinetum betulus 'Quercetum macranthera, Paliuretum spina-christii, Juniperetum foetidissima. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to determine the most important environmental factors on plant groups. This method of multivariate showed that pH, TNV%, soil texture, clay percentage, altitude and aspects had higher effect on separation of plant groups, which had correlation with axes 1 and 2 of ordination. Conclusion: Among the environmental factors the altitude has most important effect on plants distribution. With understanding of relationship between ecological factors and plant associations in a given area, it is possible to apply the obtained results in management and revival of forestland and rangeland.


This study compares the three parametric statistical methods: coefficient of variation, Pearson correlation coefficient, and F-test to obtain reliability in a Delphi study that involved more than 100 participants. The results of this study indicated that coefficient of variation was the best procedure to obtain reliability in such a study.


presented as an Oral communication, Vancouver, Sept 2005. −80% (CI 95%: 0.76–0.84)in 35 were associated with a pathology. −68% (CI 95%: 0.61–0.70)of 35 were trisomies 21. We present here new data about the −28 LIAVV with defect also found in this study: −7 had abnormal kayotypes: 5 trisomies 21, 1 trisomy 18. In all these 6 cases the defect belonged to the inlet. In the 7th case, a del 22q11, the defect was an outlet defect-21 had a normal karyotype: 2 Viscero atrial heterotaxias with a complete AVSD. 3 other showed an inlet defect (partial or complete AVSD). But the remaining 16 cases were Cono truncal pathologies: the defect was actually not in the inlet but in the outlet. Conclusion: 17 cases (1del 22 q11, 16 normal karyotype) out of 28 LIAVV with defect, 61% (CI 95%:0.55–0.66) were conotruncal pathologies. All these LIAVV, found on the 4 Chamber view, were associated with an outlet defect. That means that CT pathologies actually known as being prenatally diagnosed by exploring the outlet could be highly suspected on the fetal 4 chamber view when the crux of the heart is well examined.


The extraction of natural gas and oil from shale formations using hydraulic fracturing generates large volumes of wastewater, often termed produced water. One of the biggest challenges associated with produced water management is microbial activity. Microorganisms growing in produced water may have the ability to form biofilms and produce acids and sulfides, which can contribute to biocorrosion and gas souring. This dissertation investigates the microbial ecology of microorganisms living in produced water by studying their community structure and metabolic potential as well as the active, genetic response of Pseudomonas biofilms to the biocide sodium hypochlorite to inform microbial control. First, storage guidelines for hydraulic fracturing produced waters intended for microbiological analysis were developed. Results suggested microbial communities in produced water samples to remain stable when stored at 4oC for three days or less. Next, the microbial ecology of 42 Marcellus Shale produced water samples was analyzed. Samples were dominated by the taxa Halanaerobiales, specifically the genus Halanaerobium. Subsequently, metagenomic sequencing and binning allowed the recovery and annotation of a Halanaerobium draft genome. Annotation results suggested Halanaerobium to have the metabolic potential for acid production and sulfide production through thiosulfate reduction. Microbiological assessment of produced waters from 18 Bakken Shale wells, sampled across a six-month time frame, confirmed the presence of Halanaerobium in produced water. However, the microbial community structure was found to change temporally, and the majority of the samples were dominated by the order Bacillales. Finally, the active, genetic response to the broad-spectrum biocide sodium hypochlorite, which is also used for microbial control in hydraulic fracturing operations, was assessed. Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms were exposed to sublethal concentrations of sodium hypochlorite and differential genes expression was analyzed. Results suggested genes involved in oxidative stress response pathways and multidrug efflux mechanisms to be upregulated, demonstrating genetic components to be involved in sodium hypochlorite resistance. Ultimately, findings from this dissertation enhance the current understanding of microbial community dynamics in produced water and may help to limit corrosion, control fouling and souring issues, protect well infrastructure, and minimize unnecessary biocide application.


A differential equation is an equation involving derivatives of an unknown function and possibly the function itself as well as the independent variables [1]. Differential equations have a remarkable ability to predict the world around us. They are used in a wide variety of disciplines, from Biology, Economics, Physics, Chemistry and Engineering. They can describe exponential growth and decay, the population growth of species or the change in investment return over time. The concept of differential equations is an integral part of Mathematics for understanding the physical sciences [3]. Most differential equations arise from problems in Physics, Engineering and other basic Sciences and these equations serve as mathematical models for solving numerous problems in the field of Science and Engineering. Formulating differential equation to real world problem is not easy. Firstly, those real world problems requiring differential equation need to be identified, formulate Mathematical model based on some assumption and enumeration [4]. The formulated equations are interpreted using Matlab as a tool for verification and synthesis. In the present study differential equation formulation to Rate of change of moisture, Speed of racer, One Cistern mixing problem and Sky diving are discussed and relevant synthesis are obtained and shown using Matlab tool.


Two representative lipoamide dehydrogenase mutants (lpd1 and lpd4) were used to locate the lpd gene in the linkage map of Escherichia coli by conjugation and detailed transductional analysis with phage P1. Time of entry mapping indicated that the lpd gene was between leu and proC and very close to leu. Average cotransduction frequencies between lpd and other markers were: aceF (97 %), aceE (93 %), aroP (84 %), nadC (71 %), azi (64 %), leu (8 to 41 %), ara (38 %), pan (21 %), tonA (17 %) and thr, nad and gal (< 1 %). These values, together with the contransduction frequencies for many other pairs of markers in this region and the results of three-factor crosses, established the gene order leu-azi-nadC-aroP-aceE-aceF-lpd-pan. The very close proximity of aceF and lpd suggested that they may be contiguous and that the lpd gene may be the distal gene in the pyruvate dehydrogenase operon. In this case, the expression of the lpd gene may be governed by a secondary transcriptional promoter in the aceF-lpd region in order to generate lipoamide dehydrogenase components for assembly of the α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex. Other possible mechanisms are also discussed.


A 35 kDa midgut polypeptide of rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides was isolated for the first time by immunoaffinity chromatography using immunoglobulin ligands from rabbits immunized with 35 kDa midgut polypeptide. An experimental immunization study was conducted on 12 New Zealand white rabbits using affinity purified 35 kDa midgut antigen (Aff RhGM 35 kDa Ag) with Freund's adjuvant. The humoral immune response was evaluated by ELISA. After tick challenge, reduction in the number, mass and oviposition capacity of engorged females was observed in the tick population that had fed on immunized animals. The results indicated a high efficacy of 83.3%, demonstrating the efficiency of the immune response elicited by 35 kDa midgut antigen to control the tick rhipicephalus haemaphysaloides.


Ocular involvement in chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection can be present as mild and vision-threatening ocular complications with unilateral or bilateral compromise in both gender and all ages. Precise prevalence and incidence are unknown, but ocular involve‐ ment of CHIKV infection is uncommon. Anterior uveitis is the most common syndromic manifestation; nevertheless the infection could manifest posterior segment repercussion, such as retinitis which is the other most usual clinical manifestation. At the beginning of the systemic disease, main ophthalmologic symptoms are conjunctival injection, retro-oc‐ ular pain, and photophobia. Ocular pathogenesis of CHIKV infection is not totally clari‐ fied; however, findings related to an immune dysregulation and proinflammatory processes are the most accepted theories. The diagnosis of CHIKV is based on polymer‐ ase chain reaction, virus isolation, or detection of viral antigens which should be used be‐ fore the eighth day of systemic illness. After 8 days, chikungunya serologic tests such as IgM ELISA/rapid tests or IgG paired must be used. Actual management is focused ac‐ cording to the clinical context of each patient. While in most instances recovery of vision to normal occurs, CHIKV infection can result in blindness, the visual prognosis depends on various factors, but the common one is the early onset of corticosteroid treatment.


BACKGROUND: Orthopaedic surgery often benefits from innovation in biomedical engineering, with 3D printing being one of the latest examples. Proving cost-effectiveness and improved clinical outcomes remains challenging. Because of the reduced cost and increased accessibility, it has been possible to start an orthopaedic 3D-printing laboratory in a South African tertiary hospital, exploring the place for this emergent technology in orthopaedic practice. This case series aims to illustrate the clinical use of 3D-printed anatomical models and investigate the time and cost involved in their manufacture METHODS: The design and manufacturing process is discussed, and a retrospective descriptive case series is presented of all models manufactured from January 2020 to April 2021. Using three illustrative cases, we elaborate on two main usage situations: intraoperative reference models (haptic maps) or rehearsal and templating (simulation models RESULTS: In the study, 3D-printed anatomical models were manufactured for 16 patients. For 12 patients, these were simulation models, and for the other four patients, haptic maps were made. The mean time for manufacture was 33 hours (range 8-62), and the median cost per patient was ZAR 3 257.62 (range ZAR 927.17 to ZAR 7 177.09 CONCLUSION: Considering the decreasing cost and ease of using 3D-printing technology, starting a clinician-run orthopaedic 3D-printing laboratory at a South African training hospital has become possible. In this series we illustrate how 3D printing has been used at our unit for planning and rehearsal of a wide range of orthopaedic cases, and we establish a baseline of time and cost expenditure. The cost-effectiveness of implementing 3D-printing technology in everyday orthopaedic practice warrants further investigation Level of evidence: Level 5


. The correct design and optimization of complex energy systems requires the ability to reproduce the dynamic thermal behavior of each system component. In ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems, modelling the borehole heat exchangers (BHE) dynamic response is especially relevant in the development of control strategies for energy optimization purposes. Over the last years, several models have been developed but most of them are based on steady-state approaches, which makes them unsuitable for short-term simulation purposes. In fact, in order to accurately predict the evolution of the fluid temperatures due to the ON/OFF cycles of the heat pump, it is essential to correctly characterize the dynamic response of BHE for very short time periods. The aim of the present paper is to compare the performance of an analytical steady-state model, available in TRNSYS environment (Type 557), with a novel short-term dynamic model. The new dynamic model is based on the thermal-network approach coupled with a vertical discretization of the borehole which takes into account both the advection due to the fluid circulating along the U-tube, and the heat transfer in the borehole and in the ground. These two approaches were compared against experimental data collected from a real GSHP system installed at the Universitat Polit`ecnica de Val`encia. The analysis was performed comparing the outlet temperature profiles predicted by both models during daily standard ON/OFF operating conditions, both in heating and cooling mode, and the between both approaches were highlighted. Finally, the obtained results have been discussed focusing on the potential impact that the differences found in the prediction of the temperature evolution could have in design and optimization of GSHP systems.


Within the past five years, a new form of technology-mediated public participation that experiments with crowdsourced data production in place of community discourse has emerged. Examples of this class of system include SeeClickFix, PublicStuff, and Street Bump, each of which mediate feedback about local neighborhood issues and help communities mobilize resources to address those issues. The experiments being playing out by this new class of services are derived from a form of public participation built on the ideas of smart cities where residents and physical environments are instrumented to provide data to improve operational efficiency and sustainability (Caragliu, Del Bo, and Nijkamp 2011). Ultimately, smart cities is the application to local government all the efficiencies that computing has always promised—efficiencies of scale, of productivity, of data—minus the messiness and contention of citizenship that play out through more traditional modes of public engagement and political discourse. The question then, is what might it look like to incorporate more active forms of civic participation and issue advocacy in an app- and data-driven world?


Solvatochromic measurements and 1H NMR spectroscopy have been used to investigate the overall polarity of tetraalkylammonium (R3N+–CH3 with R = n-C4H9; n-C8H17) based ionic liquids (IL) and low temperature molten salts (LTMS), respectively, as function of the counter anion. Solvent acidity (SA), solvent basicity (SB), polarizability (SP) and dipolarity (SdP) parameters have been determined according to the Catalan scale. [FeII(1,10-phenanthroline)2(CN)2] (Fe), 3-(4-amino-3-methylphenyl)-7-phenylbenzol[1,2-b:4,5-b′]difuran-2,6-dione (ABF), 3-(4-N,N-dimethylaminophenyl)-7-phenylbenzol[1,2-b:4,5-b′]-difuran-2,6-dione (DMe-ABF), 4-tert-butyl-2-(dicyanomethylene)-5-[4-(dimethylamino)benzylidene]-Δ3-thiazoline (Th), and 2-[4-(N,N-dimethylamino)benzylidene]malononitrile (BMN) have been used as solvatochromic polarity indicators. Significant correlations of the SB parameter of anion X− as a function of the chemical shift of the H-atoms of R3N+–CH3X− are presented and discussed. Thus, IL solvent basicity (SB) of the anion determines the interaction strength towards those CH-bonds in the direct vicinity of the ammonium nitrogen atom.


We implement a randomized field experiment to study the impact of reminders on dental health prevention. Patients who are due for a check-up receive no reminder, a neutral reminder postcard, or reminders including additional information on the benefits of prevention. Our results document a strong impact of reminders. Within one month after receiving a reminder, the fraction of patients who make a check-up appointment more than doubles. The effect declines slightly over time, but remains economically and statistically significant. Including additional information in the reminders does not increase response rates. In fact, the neutral reminder has the strongest impact for the overall population as well as for important subgroups of patients. Finally, we document that being exposed to reminders repeatedly does neither strengthen nor weaken their effectiveness.


Lack of knowledge on levels and trends of litter and microplastic in the Arctic, is limiting our understanding of the sources, transport, fate and effects is hampering global activities aimed at reducing litter and microplastic in the environment. To obtain a holistic view to managing litter and microplastics in the Arctic, we considered the current state of knowledge and methods for litter and microplastics monitoring in eleven environmental compartments representing the marine, freshwater, terrestrial and atmospheric environments. Based on available harmonized methods, and existing data in the Arctic, we recommend prioritization of implementing litter and microplastics monitoring in the Arctic in four Priority 1 compartments - water, aquatic sediments, shorelines and seabirds. One or several of these compartments should be monitored to provide benchmark data for litter and microplastics in the Arctic and, in the future, data on spatial and temporal trends. For the other environmental compartments, methods should be refined for future sources and surveillance monitoring, as well as monitoring of effects. Implementation of the monitoring activities should include community-based local components where possible. While organized as national and regional programs, monitoring of litter and microplastics in the Arctic should be coordinated, with a view to future pan-Arctic assessments.


An analytic model is proposed for estimating task response times in distributed systems with resource contentions. The model consists of two submodels. The first submodel is an extended queuing network model used for approximating module response times. This submodel is solved by a decomposition technique which reduces the computational complexity by two to three orders of magnitude when compared with a direct approach. The second submodel is a weighted control-flow graph model from which task response time can be obtained by aggregating module response time in accordance with the precedence relationships. Task response times estimated by the analytic model compare closely with simulation results. It is shown that resource contention delays depend on the availability of resources as well as on the invocation rates and response times of the modules that use the resources. The model can be used to study the tradeoffs among module assignments, scheduling policies, interprocessor communications, and resource contentions in distributed processing systems. >


Background: Disparities in diabetes care are prevalent, with significant inequalities observed in access to, and outcomes of, healthcare. A population health approach offers a solution to improve the quality of care for all with systematic ways of assessing whole population requirements and treating and monitoring sub-groups in need of additional attention. Description of the care practice: Collaborative working between primary, secondary and community care was introduced in seven primary care practices in one locality in England, UK, caring for 3560 patients with diabetes and sharing the same community and secondary specialist diabetes care providers. Three elements of the intervention included 1) clinical audit, 2) risk stratification, and 3) the multi-disciplinary virtual clinics in the community. Methods: This paper evaluates the acceptability, feasibility and short-term impact on primary care of implementing a population approach intervention using direct observations of the clinics and surveys of participating clinicians. Results and discussion: Eighteen virtual clinics across seven teams took place over six months between March and July 2017 with organisation, resources, policies, education and approximately 150 individuals discussed. The feedback from primary care was positive with growing knowledge and confidence managing people with complex diabetes in primary care. Conclusion: Taking a population health approach helped to identify groups of people in need of additional diabetes care and deliver a collaborative health intervention across traditional organisational boundaries.


This study explored the extent to which road space reallocation from on-street parking to an arterial cycle way may be warranted between Wellington city's southern suburbs and city centre. Latent demand and preferences for transport cycling were assessed using an intentional behaviour change model, and a study of the economic contribution of the on-street parking on Tory Street to adjacent businesses was undertaken.  This study identified a significant latent demand for transport cycling in Wellington. Transport cycling is suppressed primarily because of a perceived lack of safety. Road safety improvements were identified as the key change required to encourage the uptake of transport cycling. In particular, people in Wellington desire a continuous and connected network of separated and dedicated cycle ways. Potential cyclists indicated that they would be likely to cycle for transport more often if a cycle path connecting Wellington's southern suburbs and city centre was constructed. Contrary to what might be expected, it appears that the majority of people would support the removal of some on-street parking to provide for this cycle way. Additionally, this study found that the contribution of those who use on-street parking to adjacent retail vitality on Tory Street is minor, compared to the contribution of those who do not require parking and those who use off-street parking.  This research concludes that, considering Wellington's context and policy, the reallocation of road space from on-street parking to an arterial cycle way between Wellington's southern suburbs and city centre may well be warranted.


We test the hypothesis that individual investors contribute to the idiosyncratic volatility of stock returns because they act as noise traders. To this end, we consider a reform that makes short selling or buying on margin more expensive for retail investors relative to institutions, for a subset of French stocks. If retail investors are noise traders, theory implies that the volatility of stocks affected by the reform should decrease relative to other stocks. This prediction is borne out by the data. Moreover, around the reform, we observe a significant decrease in (i) the magnitude of returns reversals, and (ii) the Amihud ratio for the stocks a¤ected by the reform relative to other stocks. We show that these findings are also consistent with models in which individual investors, acting as noise traders, are a source of volatility. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


Since the mid-1990s, chlorophyll a (chl a) fluorescence measurement has become widespread to monitor photosynthetic performance of microalgal mass cultures. This paper aims to provide practical instructions for microalgal physiologists and biotechnologists on how fluores- cence monitoring can be used to explain changes in photosynthetic activity of microalgal mass cultures. Emphasis is placed on the 2 most common fluorescence techniques—pulse-amplitude- modulation and fluorescence induction kinetics—and the interpretation of important variables that reflect changes of photosynthesis and physiological status of microalgal cultures. In particu- lar, consideration is given to problems associated with the estimation of the photochemical yield of photosystem II and its relationship to linear electron transport rate and overall photosynthesis. Emphasis is also given to the applications and limitations of these techniques through several case studies. In model experiments with microalgal cultures, typical records and their interpretation under various culture conditions are illustrated. Changes of photosynthetic activity and selected variables monitored by chl a fluorescence techniques can thus be related to changes of cultivation conditions, physiological status and growth of microalgal cultures for a given microalgal strain and cultivation system. In this way, chl a fluorescence may be used as a rapid screening technique to monitor photosynthetic activity and subsequently to estimate growth rate in both indoor and outdoor studies. This text and results formed the basis of a key lecture at the 9 th International GAP workshop held at the University of Malaga in September 2012.