P‐SV conversions provide new insights into the lithosphere of the western Eger (Ohře) Rift, a presently active CO2 emanation area, Quaternary volcanic field, and earthquake swarm region in central Europe. Gas and isotope (He and C) mapping of free gas phases in mineral springs and mofettes proved the origin of CO2‐ dominated gases from a subcrustal magmatic fluid reservoir. Analyzing teleseismic data from several seismic networks in the western Bohemian Massif, the source region of these gases was investigated. Moho Ps conversions have 3 to 4.5 s delay. Crustal thicknesses vary between 27 and 38 km; vp/vs ratios vary between 1.63 and 1.81. Beneath the western Eger Rift an approximately 40 km wide Moho updoming up to 27 km exists. Locally observed weak conversions indicate a complex Moho transition zone in this area. A local "6 s phase" possibly originates at a discontinuity in approximately 50 to 60 km depth or may represent multiples from velocity inversions at the base of the upper crust. Moho updoming and the distribution of the "6 s phase" coincide with the CO2 degassing fields and the positions of Quaternary volcanoes at the surface. We hypothesize the release of CO2‐dominated fluid/magma from isolated melt reservoirs in the depth range of 60 to 30 km, separation of CO2 from the melt at 29 to 21 km depths, and CO2 transport through the crust. The geophysical indications may point to presently active magmatic underplating beneath the study area, supporting the results of gas geochemical and isotope investigations. This is the first attempt that combines seismic and gas geochemical data for a tectonic model. Our model may be transferable to other continental rift areas worldwide.


Compliance with international law is always dependent upon a domestic political decision to engage in the behavior that constitutes compliance. This article articulates the importance of the interdependence between home state domestic politics and foreign state domestic politics in determining compliance. International legal commitments allow the formation of domestic coalitions between those who will benefit by their own state's compliance with the international legal rule in question, and those who will benefit from other states' compliance with the international legal rule. The theory developed in this paper is based on established approaches to international relations in the political science literature, in particular the "liberal" theory of international relations associated with Andrew Moravcsik, the two-level game theory approach associated with Robert Putnam, and the "second image reversed" approach associated with Peter Gourevitch. The two extensions of these approaches made in this article, (i) from international relations more broadly to international law, and (ii) from adherence to compliance, raise some questions, and bear some important fruit. These extensions help to illuminate the problem of compliance. This article extends the rationalist approach to compliance with international law into the domestic politics of the target state. The model advanced in this article allows the formalization and contextualization of a variety of factors that have heretofore been viewed alone as explanatory variables in the decision to comply. Policy makers can use this model as an analytical template by which to assess whether their counterparties would comply with any undertakings they may make.


Previous work on policy learning for Malaria control has often formulated the problem as an optimization problem assuming the objective function and the search space have a specific structure. The problem has been formulated as multi-armed bandits, contextual bandits and a Markov Decision Process in isolation. Furthermore, an emphasis is put on developing new algorithms specific to an instance of Malaria control, while ignoring a plethora of simpler and general algorithms in the literature. In this work, we formally study the formulation of Malaria control and present a comprehensive analysis of several formulations used in the literature. In addition, we implement and analyze several reinforcement learning algorithms in all formulations and compare them to black box optimization. In contrast to previous work, our results show that simple algorithms based on Upper Confidence Bounds are sufficient for learning good Malaria policies, and tend to outperform their more advanced counterparts on the malaria OpenAI Gym environment.


MEK1/2 inhibitors are clinically approved for the treatment of BRAF-mutant melanoma, where they are used in combination with BRAF inhibitors, and are undergoing evaluation in other malignancies. Acquired resistance to MEK1/2 inhibitors, including selumetinib (AZD6244/ARRY-142866), can arise through amplification of BRAF or KRAS to reinstate ERK1/2 signalling. We have found that BRAF amplification and selumetinib resistance are fully reversible following drug withdrawal. This is because resistant cells with BRAF amplification become addicted to selumetinib to maintain a precise level of ERK1/2 signalling (2%-3% of total ERK1/2 active), that is optimal for cell proliferation and survival. Selumetinib withdrawal drives ERK1/2 activation outside of this critical "sweet spot" (~20%30% of ERK1/2 active) resulting in a p57-dependent G1 cell cycle arrest and senescence or expression of NOXA and cell death with features of autophagy; these terminal responses select against cells with amplified BRAF. ERK1/2-dependent p57 expression is required for loss of BRAF amplification and determines the rate of reversal of selumetinib resistance. Growth of selumetinib-resistant cells with BRAF amplification as tumour xenografts also requires the presence of selumetinib to "clamp" ERK1/2 activity within the sweet spot. Thus, BRAF amplification confers a selective disadvantage or "fitness deficit" during drug withdrawal, providing a rationale for intermittent dosing to forestall resistance. Remarkably, selumetinib resistance driven by KRAS amplification/upregulation is not reversible. In these cells ERK1/2 reactivation does not inhibit proliferation but drives a ZEB1-dependent epithelialto-mesenchymal transition that increases cell motility and promotes resistance to traditional chemotherapy agents. Our results reveal that the emergence of drug-addicted, MEKi-resistant cells, and the opportunity this may afford for intermittent dosing schedules ("drug holidays"), may be determined by the nature of the amplified driving oncogene (BRAF vs. KRAS), further exemplifying the difficulties of targeting KRAS mutant tumour cells.


This chapter shows the environmental measurement factors that define the indicators within an architecture composed of Goods, Networks and Services (GNS). These references are obtained from the energy consumptions in the measurement processes. This lets obtaining several analyses important from the behavior in the energy consumption schemes. The application of these factors was determined from the energy generation processes, whose units are in metrics ade-quate for electricity and heat according to each system observed, and the same from the energetic consumption of the same data centers that helped to determine these characteristics. These indicators applied in an environment of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) define comparisons and be specified as the basis characterizing the analysis of energetic performance. The tests show the energy consumption and carbon footprint. This experiment seeks to increase the quality of services and decrease the energy consumption. This let us use efficiently the computational resources minimizing the environment impact. To achieve this target, it was used to apply indicators in green computing environment, like it can be mentioned: The Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Data Center Effectiveness (DCE). With the use of these indicators can derive a generic model of energy consumption for a GNS system.


We report a rare case of localized form of primary amyloidosis (amyloidoma) of the urinary bladder with CT and MR findings. Clinically, it is difficult to distinguish from invasive transitional cell carcinoma and inflammatory lesion. We think that the MR intensity on T2-weighted images is helpful in making the diagnosis.


Spectral factorization is a classical tool in signal processing and communications. It also plays a critical role in X-ray crystallography, in the context of phase retrieval. In this work, we study the problem of sparse spectral factorization, aiming to recover a one-dimensional sparse signal from its autocorrelation. We present a sufficient condition for the recovery to be unique, and propose an iterative algorithm that can obtain the original signal (up to a sign change, time-shift and time-reversal). Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


: The article explores Vladimir Arsen'ev's rationalization of the economic activities that he observed during expeditions in the Russian Far East, predominantly in the Ussuri region. It analyzes his categorization of the local population, which was derived from nonmatching taxonomies and included concepts such as nationality, religion, race, and subjecthood. Disentangling this categorization helps to outline the main contexts that influenced Arsen'ev, such as postwar political and military concerns, challenges of settler colo-nialism, and nationalizing empire. The article shows how Arsen'ev's intertwined life experiences as a military officer and geographer, colonization official, ethnographer, and resource-conscious naturalist outlined the limits of his imagination and provided the ground for his intellectual innovations.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is accompanied by decreases in serum endogenous enkephalin/endorphins and alterations in inflammatory cytokines. This retrospective analysis of serum levels was conducted in 53 patients with established relapsing-remitting MS treated with the disease-modifying therapies (DMT) glatiramer acetate, dimethyl fumarate or with the biotherapeutic low dose naltrexone (LDN) to elevate enkephalins, an off-label alternative. Opioid growth factor (OGF), an inhibitory endogenous opioid involved in modulating cellular replication, was measured and correlated to serum β-endorphin, IL-17A and TNFα. Results revealed that MS leads to a significant reduction in OGF levels in subjects on DMTs, but patients on LDN had OGF levels comparable to non-MS controls. Individuals on DMTs had significantly elevated TNFα levels, while IL-17A levels were significantly elevated only in patients taking dimethyl fumarate. A direct correlation was established between OGF and IL17A indicating a potential interaction between the OGF-OGFr axis and pro-inflammatory T-helper cells providing insight into the disease etiology.


Particular aspects concerning the magnetoelastic behavior of an Fe-rich glass-covered amorphous ferromagnetic microwire (diameter about 20 /spl mu/m) are reported in both the as-prepared state and after various heat treatments. The main feature of such behavior is that related with the bistable behavior exhibited by the microwire. The magnetization process takes place by a single and large Barkhausen jump at a given applied field. For the as-prepared material, the value of this switching field (H*/spl ap/112 Am/sup -1/) is about one order of magnitude larger than that reported for Fe-rich amorphous wires with a diameter of about 125 /spl mu/m (H*/spl ap/8 Am/sup -1/). The effect of the thermal treatment as well as the stress dependence of H* for as-obtained and treated microwire are also reported and discussed in terms of the stress distribution within the microwire.


We describe the results of performing data mining on a challenging medical diagnosis domain, acute abdominal pain. This domain is well known to be difficult, yielding little more than 60% predictive accuracy for most human and machine diagnosticians. Moreover, many researchers argue that one of the simplest approaches, the naive Bayesian classifier, is optimal. By comparing the performance of the naive Bayesian classifier to its more general cousin, the Bayesian network classifier, and to selective Bayesian classifiers with just 10% of the total attributes, we show that the simplest models perform at least as well as the more complex models. We argue that simple models like the selective naive Bayesian classifier will perform as well as more complicated models for similarly complex domains with relatively small data sets, thereby calling into question the extra expense necessary to induce more complex models.


The scope of this qualitative study was to understand the experience of the couple who lost a child stricken by cancer,focusing on the impact of death on the marital relationship. The methodological strategy used in this paper was the case study, seeking to describe the process of elaboration of mourning and the impact of the son's death on the parents' marital relationship. The couple who participated in the study had been together for 39 years and had lost their youngest son three years earlier. The spouses were interviewed individually and then together. Semi-structured interview scripts were used for this purpose. It was established that the religious community to which the couple belongs has been the main source of support in dealing with the mourning process, although its precepts may prevent the free expression of their suffering, particularly in the wife's case. Although the couple has remained together, the marital relationship was shaken after their son's death. The couple had difficulty in talking about their marriage, though the wife pointed to the absence of their son as one of the reasons for the change in their marital relationship. The marital relationship and religiosity/spirituality emerged as important dimensions to be addressed by health staff in attending bereaved families.


In the information-technology powered twenty first century a general demand for more effective communication is driving people to question the present, examine the past and to prognosticate the future. The 'unique global media-information system' - the Internet- is the central fact of a vast new complexity of communication (mediated and unmediated) that is driving social-economic-political-religious- technological change (see http://www.5systems.net) at a rate never experienced before. The premise of this paper is that the Internet can be better understood as the first complex global media with both democratic and authoritarian possibilities, the full extent of which are still emergent. In respect of the symposium question, this paper suggests that Internet embedded communication theory can be used progressively as part of a widening and deepening approach to intercultural conversation, dialogue and debate. In theory, the localising nature of the Internet can be read as part of a greater movement towards communitarian and community centred self-governance, local democracy and social self-sufficiency. There is considerable scope for a new theory of society founded in localised 'in-community communication' practice supported by international human rights and effectively responsive to the asymmetric global information environment and congruent with newly democratised local structures of self-governance.


Summary
1.The decline of managed honeybees and the rapid expansion of mass-flowering crops increase the risk of pollination limitation in crops and raise questions about novel management approaches for wild pollinators in agroecosystems. Adding artificial nesting sites, such as trap nests, can promote cavity-nesting bees in agroecosystems, but effectiveness could be limited by the availability of floral resources in the surrounding landscape and by natural antagonists.

2.In two European regions, we exposed artificial trap nests in paired field boundaries adjacent to oilseed rape (OSR) fields or non-flowering crops for two years within 32 landscapes covering two independent gradients of OSR cover and semi-natural habitat (SNH) cover in the landscape. We analysed the effects of local and landscape-wide floral resource availability, land-use intensity, landscape complexity and natural antagonists on community composition and population dynamics of trap-nesting bees.

3.Number of brood cells showed a strong, three-fold increase in response to the additional nesting sites. Species richness and abundance of cavity-nesting bees that were active during OSR flowering increased significantly with increasing amount of early-season landscape-wide floral resource availability, such as the cultivation of OSR. Later foraging species benefited instead from the availability of late-season alternative flower resources or SNH cover once the mass-flowering had ceased. Density-dependent parasitism increased following mass-flowering, while no density-dependent effect was found during mass-flowering.

4.Structural equation modelling revealed that the influence of floral resource availability on community growth rate was mediated by community size. Community size showed a strong negative effect on community growth rate. Despite positive density-dependent parasitism, antagonists had only weak regulating effects on community growth rate.

5.Synthesis and applications. Trap-nesting bee populations grow markedly with the increasing availability of food resources in the landscape and effectiveness of trap nests is only marginally limited by natural antagonists. Thus, trap nests could be a simple pollinator-supporting strategy to accompany the current expansion of mass-flowering crops, and to ensure pollination services for insect-pollinated crops. Trap nests benefit not only early season active generalist bees during oilseed rape flowering but also species with later phenology if accompanied by other pollinator-supporting practices.

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There were 1,724 lung cancer cases registered at the Yunnan Tin Corporation in the period 1954-1986, of which 90% had a history of working underground. Previous exposure to radon, and radon daughters and arsenic is considered to be responsible for the high incidence of lung cancer in these miners. Arsenic may come from inhalation of arsenic-containing ore dust or other environmental arsenic pollution. It appears that radon exposure accounts to a greater extent than arsenic for the increase of lung cancer in these miners. Pathological study was made of 100 surgically resected lung cancer specimens. In this way the distribution and composition of dust retention was determined in relation to peripheral lung cancer.


Phased array microphone system has been developed in JAXA's 2m x 2m low-speed wind tunnel. The wind tunnel is a conventional facility for aerodynamic testing with closed test section, not designed for aeroacoustic measurement which doesn't have anechoic room and low noise treatment. Therefore, one of the purpose of this testing is the availability of aeroacoustic wind tunnel in a noisy-closed wind tunnel to realize simultaneous measurement of aerodynamic and aeroacoustic data in future. Basic performances of the microphone system in the tunnel were checked using the known acoustic sound from speaker and aerodynamic noise by a small delta-shaped blade, and it was confirmed that the sound source could be observed and the location was identified. NACA0012 wing model was tested and the trailing edge noises from the wing model were observed clearly with the microphone array system and the noise depended on angle of attack and wind speed, which showed correlation with oil flow and hot film results.


Using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey assessment and student interviews we examine changes in introductory physics student's beliefs towards physics in general and toward reasoning and consistency checks when problem solving in particular. We present our results in relationship to previously done assessments and both what our results say about influencing student's beliefs on physics and the reasoning behind student responses. CAN WE INFLUENCE HOW STUDNETS VIEW PHYSICS?


The melting curve of iron is crucial for modelling of the earth's internal heat structures and to understand melting of solids at high pressures. However, the measured melting temperatures of iron at high pressures are disparate so far. We measured the shocked interface (porous iron/sapphire window) temperatures of a kind of porous iron. By using a model for shock temperature measurement [High Pressures Res. 2 (1990) 159] and the previous results of sound velocity measurements [Chin. Phys. Lett. 18 (2001) 852], we determine the melting temperatures of iron at shock compression high pressures of 145 and 171 GPa. They are consistent with the results reported by other shock compression experiments. Based on the possible different melting mechanisms of iron in diamond anvil cell and in shock compression, the corrected melting temperatures of iron at high pressures become more consistent.


Objectives: The purpose of this study is to find out differences in oral health status, defined as their oral health and oral health quality of life among the elderly depending on their income and education levels. Methods: This study used 922 senior citizens over 65 from the data (2015) of the 6th National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHNS). The regression analysis was adopted to identify factors affecting their oral health status which has effect on their oral health quality of life. The statistical package SPSS 21.0 was employed. Frequency analysis, chi-squared analysis and regression analysis were used, and the significance level or Cronbach''s alpha value was 0.05. Results: Depending on income levels, there were differences in their oral health status as to whether they use oral hygiene products, take dental examinations, join private health- insurances, and delay dental treatments or not. And educational levels also made significant differences in their oral health status as to whether they smoke, drink alcohol, how many times they brush teeth a day, whether they use oral hygiene products, take dental treatments, and join private healthinsurances. Regression analysis on the relationship between their oral health status and the oral health quality of life showed that there were significant differences depending on whether they take dental treatments, delay dental medical treatments, smoke, take oral examinations, how many times they brush teeth a day, and whether they use oral hygiene products, or join private health-insurances. Conclusions: The study shows that a comprehensive plan is needed to raise attention on proper oral health-care and ultimately to improve the quality of life by considering the daily number of tooth brushing, oral hygiene product use, regular dental treatments, and other medical uses.


The presence of a zero texture in the neutrino mass matrix can indicate the presence of an underlying symmetry which can generate neutrino mass and mixing. In this paper, for the first time, we study the four-zero textures of the low energy neutrino mass matrix in the presence of an extra light-sterile neutrino, i.e., the $3+1$ neutrino scheme. In our analysis, we find that out of the 210 possible four-zero textures only 15 textures are allowed. We divide the allowed four-zero textures into two classes---$A$ in which the value of mass matrix element ${M}_{ee}$ is zero and class $B$ in which ${M}_{ee}$ is nonzero. In this way, we obtain ten possible four-zero textures in class $A$ and five possible four-zero textures in class $B$. In our analysis, we find that for normal hierarchy the allowed number of textures in class $A$ ($B$) is nine (three). For the case of inverted hierarchy, we find that two textures in class $A$ are disallowed, and these textures are different from the disallowed textures for normal hierarchy in class $A$. However, we find that all the five textures in class $B$ are allowed for the inverted hierarchy. Based on analytic expressions for the elements ${M}_{\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\beta}}$, we discuss the reasons for certain textures being disallowed. We also discuss the correlations between the different parameters of the allowed textures. Finally, we present the implications of our study on experimental searches for neutrinoless double beta decay.


Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud platforms are incredibly complex: they rent hundreds of different types of servers across multiple geographical regions under a wide range of contract types that offer varying tradeoffs between risk and cost. Unfortunately, the internal dynamics of cloud platforms are opaque along several dimensions. For example, while the risk of servers not being available when requested is critical in optimizing the cloud's risk-cost tradeoffs, it is not typically made visible to users. Thus, inspired by prior work on Internet bandwidth probing, we propose actively probing cloud platforms to explicitly learn such information, where each "probe" is a request for a particular type of server. We model the relationships between different contracts types to develop a market-based probing policy, which leverages the insight that real-time prices in cloud spot markets loosely correlate with the supply (and availability) of fixed-price on-demand servers. That is, the higher the spot price for a server, the more likely the corresponding fixed-price on-demand server is not available. We incorporate market-based probing into SpotLight, an information service that enables cloud applications to query this and other data, and use it to monitor the availability of more than 4500 distinct server types across 9 geographical regions in Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud over a 3 month period. We analyze this data to reveal interesting observations about the platform's internal dynamics. We then show how SpotLight enables two recently proposed derivative cloud services to select a better mix of servers to host applications, which improves their availability from ~70-90% to near 100% in practice.


Charlotte Wainwright, David Marsden, Funa Ye, Hannah Rowan, James Balmforth, Joe Farley, KatherineMelancon, Kyle Zeto, Lawrence Lek, Martin Lang, The No Collective & Tom Davies.

Semblances of the natural occur in much of the work-surrounding a contemporary conversation on the aesthetisization of this as a lifestyle choice. The continued presence of representational distanciation in art and design (that which functions as an analogue of action) is increased via the context in which work is shown. And surprisingly this is evermore the case as image becomes participatory, as pictorial language becomes expressly relational.


A polarization-dependent loss measurement of Zn indiffusion (ZI) waveguide on a Y-cut LiNbO/sub 3/ substrate is firstly reported. The measured results show that the waveguides support either a single extraordinary polarization or both extraordinary and ordinary polarizations depending on the fabrication process parameters. For the single extraordinary polarization waveguide, the measured propagation loss at 1.32-/spl mu/m wavelength is 0.9 dB/cm and the best measured polarization extinction ratio is 44 dB at a distance of 1.5 cm from the input end, which are quite good for being a waveguide polarizer. Moreover, the voltage-length product measured for the ZI Mach-Zehnder modulator shows that the substrate electrooptic coefficient is not degraded.


In this paper a simple and robust method for estimation of distorted video quality is proposed and assessed, which is perceived by human observer in mobile video streaming applications. Increasing bandwidth of mobile communication systems expand the variety of offered multimedia services such as video streaming. However, the quality of these services is very dependent on rapidly varying mobile communication conditions. Most widely used video quality estimation methods, such as Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Structural Similarity (SSIM), and Video Quality Metric (VQM) are based on the presence of full or reduced reference video. These methods could be used to assess video quality of video transmission system only during test stage and in the limited number of scenarios. In order to assess user experienced video quality in real conditions, methods with no reference must be employed. Such existing methods as video quality metric use bit-error rate that has low correlation with by human perceived video quality. More precise methods usually are too complex and require too much processing power that cannot be tolerated in handheld mobile devices. In this paper it is shown that developed no reference low complexity video quality estimation method based on H.264/AVC video stream packet structure delivers estimate of received video quality comparable with results of subjective MOS tests. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.22.2.14596


Collaborative tagging has emerged as an efficient way to semantically describe online resources shared by a community of users. However, tag descriptions present some drawbacks such as tag scarcity or concept inconsistencies. In these situations, tag recommendation strategies can help users in adding meaningful tags to the resources being described. Freesound is an online audio clip sharing site that uses collaborative tagging to describe a collection of more than 140,000 sound samples. In this paper we propose four algorithm variants for tag recommendation based on tag co-occurrence in the Freesound folksonomy. On the basis of removing a number of tags that have to be later predicted by the algorithms, we find that using ranks instead of raw tag similarities produces statistically significant improvements. Moreover, we show how specific strategies for selecting the appropriate number of tags to be recommended can significantly improve algorithms' performance. These two aspects provide insight into some of the most basic components of tag recommendation systems, and we plan to exploit them in future real-world deployments.


Human adipose tissue-derived stromal/stem cells (hASCs) are a valuable source of cells for clinical applications, especially in the field of regenerative medicine. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the interest in hASCs has greatly increased over the last decade. However, in order to use hASCs in clinically relevant numbers, in vitro expansion is required. Single-use stirred bioreactors in combination with microcarriers (MCs) have shown themselves to be suitable systems for this task. However, hASCs tend to be less robust, and thus, more shear sensitive than conventional production cell lines for therapeutic antibodies and vaccines (e.g., Chinese Hamster Ovary cells CHO, Baby Hamster Kidney cells BHK), for which these bioreactors were originally designed. Hence, the goal of this study was to investigate the influence of different shear stress levels on the growth of humane telomerase reversed transcriptase immortalized hASCs (hTERT-ASC) and aggregate formation in stirred single-use systems at the mL scale: the 125 mL (=SP100) and the 500 mL (=SP300) disposable Corning® spinner flask. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations based on an Euler–Euler and Euler–Lagrange approach were performed to predict the hydrodynamic stresses (0.06–0.87 Pa), the residence times (0.4–7.3 s), and the circulation times (1.6–16.6 s) of the MCs in different shear zones for different impeller speeds and the suspension criteria (Ns1u, Ns1). The numerical findings were linked to experimental data from cultivations studies to develop, for the first time, an unstructured, segregated mathematical growth model for hTERT-ASCs. While the 125 mL spinner flask with 100 mL working volume (SP100) provided up to 1.68 × 105 hTERT-ASC/cm2 (=0.63 × 106 living hTERT-ASCs/mL, EF 56) within eight days, the peak living cell density of the 500 mL spinner flask with 300 mL working volume (SP300) was 2.46 × 105 hTERT-ASC/cm2 (=0.88 × 106 hTERT-ASCs/mL, EF 81) and was achieved on day eight. Optimal cultivation conditions were found for Ns1u < N < Ns1, which corresponded to specific power inputs of 0.3–1.1 W/m3. The established growth model delivered reliable predictions for cell growth on the MCs with an accuracy of 76–96% for both investigated spinner flask types.


It was recently shown that the pleiotropic response to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in chick embryo liver includes the induction of cytochrome P450-mediated arachidonic acid epoxygenation, as well as 7-ethoxyresorufin deethylation (EROD) and aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylation (AHH). The TCDD-induced arachidonic acid metabolism in avian liver microsomes is catalyzed by a 55 kDa P450, TCDDAA, whereas the TCDD-induced AHH and EROD are catalyzed by a different 54.5 kDa P450, TCDDAHH. In this study, we investigated the distribution and inducibility of TCDDAA and TCDDAHH in hepatocytes and nonparenchymal cells. Sonicates of freshly isolated hepatocytes from embryos treated with solvent alone (control) metabolized [14C]arachidonic acid principally to a single metabolite, omega-OH arachidonic acid. Treatment with TCDD increased total arachidonic acid metabolism 2.9-fold and epoxygenase products [epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and EET-diols] 36-fold. After treatment, EETs and EET-diols constituted 59% of the total metabolites. EROD in hepatocyte sonicates was increased 32-fold by TCDD treatment. The same pattern of arachidonate metabolites and degree of increase in arachidonate metabolism and EROD by TCDD treatment was observed in the hepatocyte sonicates and liver microsomes. TCDD treatment increased arachidonic acid metabolism and EROD activity 3.6- and 50-fold, respectively, in the nonparenchymal cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Located at the meeting point between telecom operators and over-the-top service providers, metro networks are particularly well suited for the introduction of radical acceleration of dynamics in the optical networks, leveraging elastic building blocks such as transponders and optical nodes. In this paper, we review innovative solutions which could be used to address some of the challenges of metro networks in the short-medium term (e.g., 2–5 years from now). In particular, we discuss the most valuable application scenarios for elastic optical networking. We then highlight a few features of next generation metro networks and outline the main road toward this next generation with network experiments and associated use cases.


In current medical practice, the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease remains essentially clinical. This practice determines that the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is done in an already advanced neuropathological stage of the disease. The aim of this study is to review the validity of cerebrospinal fluid protein biological markers in the early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. The a-synuclein and DJ-1 proteins, due to their role in the hereditary Parkinson's disease, have been the most widely studied cerebrospinal biomarkers. Nevertheless, they have had divergent results mostly owing to different processing, identification and control of laboratory techniques. The new proteomic techniques, directed to the detection of multiple undifferentiated proteins in cerebrospinal fluid (eg. ceruloplasmin, chromogranin B, apoH), are promising. The early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is imperious as it is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that causes extensive morbidity. Most of current scientific research in Parkinson's disease is focused on the discovery of neuroprotective drugs. Thus, the definition of biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is highly relevant.


The explosive growth in Internet use by men who have sex with men (MSM) to find sexual partners has been noted in the research literature. However, little attention has been given to the impact of participating in this online sexual marketplace for MSM of color, despite race and ethnicity as frequently used selection criterion in personal ads or profiles. Six focus group discussions (n = 50) and 35 in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with African American, Latino, or Asian and Pacific Islander MSM in Los Angeles, which included discussion of their use of Internet sites to meet or interact with other MSM. Men reported race and ethnicity as a pervasive and powerful factor in facilitating or derailing Internet-mediated sexual encounters. The racialized interactions that MSM of color reported ranged from simple expressions of race-based preferences, to blatantly discriminatory or hostile interactions, and often demeaning race-based sexual objectification. Experiences of rejection and a perceived hierarchy of value in the sexual market based on race had definite costs for these MSM using these online sites. Furthermore, the private and solitary nature of seeking partners online meant that there was little to buffer the corrosive aspects of those negative experiences. These online dynamics have implications for the power balance in Internet-mediated sexual liaisons, including sexual decision making and sexual risk.


This paper presents a feasible and a low-cost IoT based monitoring system for precision agriculture, with emphasis to viticulture. A field/crop data are acquired by self-powered measuring station and sent to remote collector, located in the home or office. The collector accepts the data and forward them via home/office WiFi to commercial or open IoT servers (as ThingSpeak) for further visualization, analyze and react back. Using available APIs, any web application on any server can communicate with IoT server, and thus with field station. Every authorized person or farmer, who has computer or gadget with Internet access can monitor parameters of interest and control back associated processes as irrigation or ventilation. Principle of operation, hardware and software architecture as well as preliminary results are shortly elaborated.


A nanoporous Ni/NiO/C nanocomposite with a gyroid nanostructure was fabricated by using a nanoporous polymer with gyroid nanochannels as a template. The polymer template was obtained from the self-assembly of a degradable block copolymer, polystyrene-b-poly(L-lactide) (PS-PLLA), followed by the hydrolysis of PLLA blocks. Templated electroless plating followed by calcination was performed to create a precisely controlled Ni/NiO gyroid nanostructure. After carbon coating, a well-interconnected nanoporous gyroid Ni/NiO/C nanocomposite can be successfully fabricated. Benefiting from the well-interconnected nanoporous structure with ultrafine transition metal oxide and uniform carbon coating, the gyroid nanoporous Ni/NiO/C nanocomposite electrodes exhibited high specific capacities at various rates (1240 mA h g−1 at 0.2 A g−1, 902 mA h g−1 at 2 A g−1 and 424 mA h g−1 at 10 A g−1) and excellent cyclability (809 mA h g−1 at 1 A g−1 after 1000 cycles, average coulombic efficiency 99.86%). This research demonstrates a universal approach for constructing a nanostructured electrode with explicitly controlled block copolymer phase separation.


For nearly twenty years Robert H. Phelps ran interference for, cheered on, and sometimes scolded star reporters and top editors at the "New York Times". Starting his career as a cub reporter for the "Providence Journal-Bulletin", Phelps joined the "New York Times" as a copy editor, eventually serving as the "Times" news editor for the Washington bureau. Along the way he struggled with balancing his moral ideals and his personal ambition. In this compelling memoir, Phelps interweaves his personal and professional experiences with some of the most powerful stories of the era. With candor and keen observation, Phelps chronicles both the triumphant and the tragic events at the "Times". He explains the missed lessons of the "Pentagon Papers", why the "Times" played catch-up with the "Washington Post" on the Watergate scandal but eventually surpassed it on covering that seminal story, and how the "Times" failed to report a key element of the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention. Phelps offers mixed appraisals of such luminaries as A. M. Rosenthal, James B. Reston, E. Clifton Daniel, and Max Frankel, and expresses great admiration for Seymour Hersh, Neil Sheehan, and Bill Beecher, three unlikely scoop artists. As Phelps settled in at the "New York Times", journalism became the religion he had searched for since his adolescence. Over his tenure of nearly two decades, however, Phelps found that journalism's stark emphasis on fact was insufficient to address many of life's dilemmas and failed to provide the sustaining guidance he envied in his wife's Catholic faith.


beta-glucuronidase, cathepsin D, acid and alkaline phosphatases were studied in rhesus monkey endometrium during the menstrual cycle (day -6 to day +10) and pre-implantation stages (day +3 to day +6) of gestation, with day 0 considered as the day of ovulation. Acid hydrolases exhibited low levels in proliferative phase endometria followed by their gradual rise in the secretory phase of the menstrual cycle. Despite no shifts in the levels of serum progesterone and estradiol-17 beta, the pre-implantation period was, however, associated with distinct changes in enzyme profiles characterized by lower absolute levels (P less than 0.05) of acid phosphatase and beta-glucuronidase on days 3 to 6 of gestation, whereas cathepsin D activity declined significantly (P less than 0.05) on days 5 and 6. Alkaline phosphatase showed a characteristic rise during the pre-ovulatory period with a gradual lowering of its level in post-ovulatory phase endometria of a non-fertile cycle; in contrast, during early gestation, alkaline phosphatase activity showed a marked elevation (P less than 0.05) on days 5 and 6 of gestation. The significance of these findings is discussed.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the timing and route of nutritional support strategy affect length of hospitalization in dogs with naturally occurring septic peritonitis.

DESIGN
Retrospective study encompassing cases from 2000 to 2009.

SETTING
University teaching hospital.

ANIMALS
Forty-five dogs that survived septic peritonitis.

INTERVENTIONS
None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Nutritional strategy for each dog was categorized as either enteral nutrition (EN: free choice voluntary eating or assisted tube feeding) or central parenteral nutrition (CPN). Early nutritional support was defined as consistent caloric intake initiated within 24 hours postoperatively. Consistent caloric intake occurring after 24 hours was defined as delayed nutritional support. Data reflective of nutritional status included body condition score, serum albumin concentration, and duration of inappetence before and during hospitalization. Body weight change from the beginning to the end of hospitalization was calculated. A modified Survival Prediction Index 2 score was calculated for each dog at admission. Additional clinical data recorded for comparison of illness severity included indicators of severe inflammation (eg, presence of toxic changes in neutrophils and immature neutrophils), coagulopathy (eg, prolonged prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time), the use of vasopressors and blood transfusions, and presence of concurrent illnesses. Nutrition-related complications were classified as mechanical, metabolic, or septic complications. Multivariate linear regression analyses were used to determine the relationship of nutritional strategy with hospitalization length, while considering the presence of nutrition-related complications, the nutritional status- and illness severity-related variables. While controlling for other variables, dogs that received early nutrition had significantly shorter hospitalization length (by 1.6 days). No statistically significant association was found between route of nutrition and hospitalization length. The presence of concurrent illnesses and nutrition-related metabolic complications were also associated with longer hospitalization length (by 2.1 and 2.4 days, respectively).

CONCLUSION
Early nutritional support in dogs with septic peritonitis is associated with a shorter hospitalization length.


Introduction: Smartphone surely has become an indispensable technical companion for the humans, nowadays most of the routine activities are highly dependent upon using the smartphones, especially the educational activities. Smartphone owns most of our time due to fast and ease of access that it offers. Unfortunately, uncontrolled use of these devises may reflect passively on human and student's health. Objective: The purpose of this study was to find out whether smartphone usage at bedtime effects the sleep quality and academic performance of Majmaah university students. Methodology: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among the students of Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia studying in the various colleges from February – April 2020. The data was collected by a self-prepared questionnaire from 373 participants using consecutive sampling method. Results: We found that 96.5% of the participants were using smartphones at bedtime, 45% of those using smartphones at bedtime had poor sleep quality, and the top purpose of using the smartphone was for social interaction, followed by study purpose, then the games, and finally for watching films. Also, 80% of those with a GPA below 2.5 were having difficulty in initiation the sleep, and 47.5% of those who had difficulty in initiation the sleep found that this difficulty is affecting their academic performance. Conclusion: Our study found that the usage of smartphone at bedtime is highly prevalent among the students of Majmaah university, Using the smartphone at bedtime has affected the sleep of the students and increased the chances of getting insomnia and poor sleep quality which is affecting their academic performance. This relationship is attributed to the blue light coming from smartphone primary as well as other factors such as thinking about what is going on in the social media or video games arena.


This workshop will refine the methods and concepts of sociotechnical systems. Through interactive training we will provide the workshop participants a mix of qualitative interpretation with quantitative, data driven approaches. The workshop will be divided into two parts. First, a conceptual grounding exercise featuring the motivations of participants in sociotechnical research, followed by small group discussions (led by organizers) about the sui generis of "traces" in our work. The second part will be four different technical breakout skills sessions about data collection, preparation, and analysis from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. This advanced methods workshop builds upon the established base of people and practices to further the impact of sociotechnical research. It is directed towards scholars with exposure to Sociotechnical Systems research and ideas as well as researchers from other domains including science and technology studies, data science, social computing, new media literacies, HCI, critical information studies, and infrastructure studies.


Microphone arrays are beneficial for distant speech capture because the signals they capture can be exploited with beamforming to suppress noise and reverberation. The theory for the design and analysis of microphone arrays is well established, however the performance of a microphone array beamformer is often subject to conflicting criteria that need to be assessed manually. This paper describes BFGUI, a interactive graphical tool for MATLAB, for simulating microphone arrays and synthesizing beamformers, and whose parameters can be modified and performance metrics monitored in real-time. Primarily aimed at teaching and research, this tool provides the user with an intuitive insight into the effects of microphone types, number and geometry, and the influence of design constraints such as regularization and white noise gain on derived metrics. The resulting directivity pattern, directivity index and front-back ratio are examples of such metrics. Multiple analytic microphone models are supported and external measured microphone directivity patterns can also be loaded. The designs can be then exported in a variety of formats for processing of real-world data.


Nowadays, with the value of traditional HRM being challenged, more and more companies have been directing their HR transformation towards human resource business partner (HRBP) model. However, studies on HRBP model fall behind practice and look fragmented, resulting in a lack of integration and systemization. This paper provides a clear definition of HPBP model and adopts mapping knowledge domain method to make a scientometrics analysis of 115 articles from the WOS database. As a result, it builds an integrative research framework of HRBP model. This research framework suggests that HRBP model has its roots in strategic human resource management theories, and its intellectual base includes five different streams of works; its core theme is that HRM becomes a corporate business partner", and its research focus contains the effectiveness of HRBP model, the change of HRM function/professionals, and the implementation of HRBP model. Furthermore, this paper concludes with suggestions for future research in order to help advance the field. In general, this paper links classic theories to a new phenomenon, to provide a common discourse system for scholars and practitioners who are concerned about HRBP model.


Unrepresented patients are those who have no surrogate or advance directive to guide medical decision making for them when they become incapacitated. While there is no perfect solution to the problem of making medical decisions for such vulnerable patients, 3 different approaches are noted in the literature: a physician approach, an ethics committee approach, and a guardianship approach. Recent policies and laws have required an approach that is "tiered" with respect to both who is involved and the gravity of the medical treatment questions at issue. In a general sense, some variant of a tiered approach is likely the best possible solution for jurisdictions and health institutions-both those already with and those without a tiered approach-to the challenging puzzle of treating unrepresented patients.


The effects of withdrawal symptoms on "interrogative suggestibility" (Gudjonsson, 1983, 1984a) were investigated in this present study. Interrogative suggestibility, as measured by the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS1 & GSS2) has been identified by Gudjonsson as being a relatively stable personality trait of an individual, however at the same time being influenced by situational characteristics such as the physical environment and the individual's physical and mental health conditions. Gudjonsson has also been able to identify norms for different groups of individuals, with the forensic group in general being more suggestible than the normal adult population. In this present study, suggestibility in opiate addicts was specifically investigated. It was hypothesised that opiate addicts as a group would be more suggestible than the normal adult population due to their situational circumstances e. g. poor physical and mental health conditions and personality traits e. g. low self-esteem, and similar to forensic populations. It was also hypothesised that opiate addicts would be particularly vulnerable during the period of acute opiate withdrawal due to increased levels of anxiety, uncertainty, physical and psychological disturbances. In order to evaluate these hypotheses, scores on interrogative suggestibility and various other psychological factors were compared between a group of patients undergoing a methadone detoxification programme in an inpatient drug treatment unit (DETOX group, N=21), and a group of residents at various residential rehabilitation houses who have come off drugs and are no longer suffering from withdrawal syndromes (REHAB group, N=19). Significant differences were found between the two groups on measures of suggestibility, and withdrawal symptom related factors i. e. withdrawal symptoms, health problems, General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Spielberger state anxiety scores, with the DETOX group having greater physical and psychological problems, and higher suggestibility than the REHAB group. Suggestibility scores for the REHAB group were similar to, and those for the DETOX group higher than, those of a forensic population. From these results it is argued that opiate withdrawal syndrome acts as a major situational factor influencing opiate addicts' suggestibility levels. These findings are discussed in relation to the context of police interrogative situations and the reliability of confessions made by suspects dependent on opiates. Criticisms of the present study are also made with some suggestions for future research.


Molecular markers now provide appropriate complements to conventional breeding
methods in most crops in ICRISAT's germplasm conservation and crop improvement
mandates. Where appropriate molecular markers are available, they are effective and
sometimes appropriate, tools for crop improvement research addressing biological
components in agricultural production systems. Molecular markers offer specific
advantages in the assessment of genetic diversity and in trait-specific crop improvement.
Molecular markers are almost infinitely superior to conventional morphological marker
genes for mapping or tagging gene blocks associated with economically important traits.
Gene tagging and QTL mapping in turn permit marker-assisted selection (MAS) in
backcross, pedigree and population improvement programs, which can be especially
useful for crop traits that are otherwise difficult or impossible to deal with by
conventional means. Near-isogenic products of marker-assisted backcrossing programs
can in turn provide not only improved cultivars, but also useful genetic tools facilitating
improved understanding of mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance or mechanisms of host
plant resistance to pests and diseases that are critical components of integrated crop
management systems. Finally, when relatively high-density marker-based fingerprinting
of elite breeding lines is possible, this can be combined with pedigree information and
multi-environment performance data sets to greatly enhance the ability of conventional
breeding programs to design new cultivars, identify desirable recombinants, and track
factors controlling complex traits and trait combinations.


Background Impetigo is a mild bacterial skin infection of childhood that is usually managed empirically in primary care. Objective To establish the prevalence and associations of impetigo in general practice (GP) registrars' consultations. Methods Cross-sectional analysis of the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) study data. Results Impetigo was managed in 0.24% of problems and 0.43% of consultations. Patient variables associated with impetigo presentations were younger age and impetigo as a new problem, while patients with non–English-speaking backgrounds were less likely to present with impetigo. Associated registrar variables were being new to the registrar and practicing in outer regional/remote locations. Compared with all other problems/diagnoses, impetigo more often involved information seeking, ordering pathology, and prescription of medication, but less often involved follow-up or referral. Conclusions Impetigo accounts for 0.43 per 100 GP registrar consultations in Australia. Association with outer regional/remote areas may reflect climate and socioeconomic factors that predispose to impetigo. Associated pathology requests may reflect a lack of confidence in GP registrars' management of impetigo. Cultural differences may exist regarding health-seeking behavior relating to impetigo.


Climate change has become a global issue affecting the environment and human health. Due to population growth and their increased energy consumption, generation of greenhouse gases (GHG) has increased significantly. The transportation sector was proven to be the fastest growing major contributor to global climate change accounting for 20% of the total GHG emissions in the United Arab Emirates. The goal of this project is to make road projects in the city of Abu Dhabi more sustainable towards the environment. The project aims to estimate the carbon footprint associated with road projects in the city of Abu Dhabi following a comprehensive approach that considers all activities within the life cycle of roads. The objectives of the project are to: (1) conduct an extensive literature review of road construction; carbon footprint emissions from road projects; and review local sustainability initiatives that are related to road transport, (2) calculate the carbon footprint of road construction and operation phases for three road cases in Abu Dhabi city, including development of a framework for carbon footprint calculation of road projects, and (3) delineate sustainability issues in road projects and conduct scenario modeling to evaluate potential mitigation measures of reducing the carbon footprint associated with these projects.
This report is referred to as Technical Report III. It reports on all the tasks of the project, with emphasis on model development and scenario analysis. Although the other two objectives have been covered in previous submissions, the report is considered stand-alone as it provides an updated review of the literature, a description of the developed carbon footprint assessment model, and an updated analysis of the three considered case studies. The report then explains the scenario modeling exercise that was carried on and suggests potential mitigation measures to reduce carbon footprint produced by road projects.
Review of the literature regarding carbon footprint of road projects revealed that road transportation is a major contributor to GHG emissions, and its contribution continues to steadily grow despite the latest development in greener practices, technologies, and policies. To remedy this, a number of mitigation measures have been implemented, which have consistently shown to reduce emission levels. However, countries located in the GCC region have shown particularly high road transport GHG emission output; especially, as GHG emission output is normalized by the road length. The literature also revealed that road projects produce GHG emissions at different stages, but road operation is the single, largest GHG producer throughout a road project's life-cycle. Nonetheless, road construction and rehabilitation may still offer ways to minimize loss of resources, reduce waste generation, and enable the recycling of materials.
A number of assessment tools capable of estimating carbon footprint from road-related projects have been developed over the past several years. However, some of these tools are meant to be used on a macro-level by helping decision makers assess the carbon footprint of transport policies. Others are focused on assessing emissions produced by either private vehicles, public transit, or freight transportation. Further, other assessment tools may only estimate emissions based on a single project stage (e.g., construction phase). Another limitation of the developed assessment tools is that they are limited in their geographical usefulness and cannot be applied to achieve the objectives of this project. As such a comprehensive model (referred to as RoadCO2) was developed to estimate the carbon footprint of road projects along the road life cycle (i.e.,pre-construction, construction, operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation phases).
RoadCO2 is a web-based model with a database that covers almost all activities that emit GHGs during the road life cycle including those originating from direct or indirect sources. The model follows the conventional Bill of Quantity (BOQ) format for entry of data related to the preconstruction, construction, maintenance and rehabilitation phases. The model can be utilized for planning, screening, sustainability evaluation, and for research purposes. While the model currently uses the IPCC emission factors, it is structured in a way to be able to accommodate local emission factors once available.
The RoadCO2 model was used to estimate GHGs emissions from three road projects located in the Abu Dhabi Emirate. These case studies are: (1) Al Rahba City Internal Roads and services, (2) upgrading of Al Salam Street to an expressway, and (3) widening of the Eastern Corniche Road. Results obtained through the model demonstrate that the operation phase is the main contributor to GHG emissions, with a share of more than 80% of the total due to emissions from vehicles and road lighting. Emissions from the construction of the investigated road cases were found to be 43, 350, and 16 thousand ton CO2 eq, respectively. Of these, road works contributed the most to GHG emissions, followed by stormwater works. Other categories considered in the construction phase contributed almost equal proportion to total GHG emissions, but vary from one project to another.
The relative contribution of material and equipment (including their transport to the sites) to GHG emissions of the studied cases varies. For the case of Al Rahab City, about 30% of the emissions was due to material use while 70% was due to equipment use. For the case of Al Salam Street and the Corniche Road, a higher relative contribution of material to GHG emissions was found (about 80%) as compared to emissions due to the use of equipment. This is mainly due to the high usage of concrete and steel in constructing the tunnel for Al Salam Street case and due to the high contribution of road works as well as the use of concrete for relocating the existed sub-surface network of utilities in the case of the Corniche Road.
In the operation phase, the traffic operating in the 2.18-km section of Al Salam Street project produces over 31,068 ton CO2 eq/year, whereas traffic operating on the road network within Al Rahba City produces about 2,891 ton CO2 eq/year. This significant difference is in line with the major dissimilarities between the two transportation facilities. Emissions from passenger cars dominate in Al Rahba city internal roads, whereas light and heavy vehicles dominate in the case of Al Salam Street. Street lighting was also found to be a major contributor to GHG emissions of Al Salam Street and the Corniche Road case studies. However, both irrigation and sequestration were found to have very low impact on the overall GHG emissions rates.
The estimated annual carbon emissions from Al Salam Street is 46,000 ton CO2 eq while emissions from Al Rahba Roads contribute about 10,000 ton CO2 eq. If one is to consider the effect of road works and the activities of the operation phase excluding those associated with vehicle movement, the emission rates associated with the three case studies conducted in this project expressed in kg CO2 eq/m/yr would be 30 for the case of Al Rahba City, 89.2 for the case of Al Salam Street, and 62.1 for the case of the Eastern Abu Dhabi Corniche Road. These values are in the upper range of those reported for some European countries, due possibly to several factors among which are higher irrigation rates of road-planted trees in the UAE, a lower role of sequestration, and higher emissions from use of concrete made of Portland cement.
Thirteen different scenarios were explored to assess their impact on reducing GHG emissions during the construction and operation phase of road projects. The baseline for the investigated scenario are the three investigated case studies. The explored scenarios either altered the activity data or the emission factor associated with the activity. Results showed that the use of LED lights would have a significant impact on reducing GHG emissions of road projects, followed by the use of 25% solar energy for lighting, followed by almost equal impact of using ground granulated blast furnace slag in concrete mix, complete utilization of TSE for irrigation, and increasing the use of LNG by 25% for LDV. When some of the explored individual scenarios were combined, a significant potential impact could be achieved, with an overall GHG emission reduction of 15 to 40% during the road lifecycle. It was found through scenario analysis that recycling asphalt, recycling aggregate, and reducing water usage for road irrigation do not cause a great potential to reduce GHG emissions for road infrastructure. However, these alternatives may offer other environmental benefits and could save valuable resources.
This report suggests several recommendations for possibly other studies that could build up on the achievements made under this project and could result in better estimation of the emitted GHG during the road life cycle.


Reservoirs are unstable environments as a very rapid change from a riverine to lacustrine environment occurs in terms of hydrology, climatology and ecology. These changes have a very significant influence on the growth and reproduction of fish populations. In this study, the effects of different phases of reservoir ontogeny on fish growth in Gelingullu Dam Lake, a typical Central Anatolian reservoir, were monitored. The growth of mirror carp introduced into Gelingullu Dam Lake was studied both during an initial phase, from 1995 to 1996, and during a later pre-depression phase, from 1998 to 2000. The growth parameters were compared in order to determine the ontogeny of the reservoir in terms of fish growth. According to the results, mean length and weight for 18-month-old mirror carp in 1995 were respectively 37.7 cm and 1550 g. The same parameters decreased to 23.6 cm and 374 g in 1999. Over 5 years, a significant decrease in both the length and weight of mirror carp was observed. These decreases are probably due to the gradual change from the impoundment phase to the depression phase in the reservoir.


The application of genomics to population health has the potential to revolutionize the practice of medicine. Indeed, discoveries into the genomic basis of cancer and other common chronic diseases have resulted in new and improved predictive tests for identifying individuals at increased risk for these conditions and long before their onset occurs. When used properly, information gained from predictive genomic tests can be combined with other leading indicators (e.g., environmental and behavioral risk factors) to inform medical management decisions, preventive health practices, and risk-reducing strategies. However, genomics remains an emerging science and the translation of genomic discoveries into improved population health management remains elusive. There are divides in the translational science continuum at several junctures, and many of these divides could be narrowed or closed with additional data. For example, we know relatively little about how to effectively communicate with the public about the complex interplay among genomics, behavior, and health. Moreover, there is a need to develop better methods of counseling and educating the public in light of newly emerging knowledge about the genomic basis of health and disease. We assert that the discipline of psychology, and health psychology in particular, is well-poised to continue to make significant contributions to this growing area of science and practice. Through a focus on health-related social and behavioral research, psychology can lead the way in overcoming divides in communication, understanding, and action about genomics for the betterment of both individual and public health practices.


This study develops a symmetric two-country New-Keynesian general equilibrium model with endogenous growth, Calvo-style price and wage rigidities, and international trade of final consumption goods and intermediate goods. The equilibrium implications of two financial market structures are compared: financial autarky and complete markets. In the case of financial autarky, no international bond is traded. In the case of complete markets, the households have access to a full set of international nominal state-contingent bonds. We find that assuming complete markets instead of financial autarky leads to higher co-movement of most macroeconomic growth rates across countries, higher co-movement of inflation rates across countries, lower uncovered interest rate parity regression coefficients, and a lower correlation between exchange rate growth and consumption growth differentials. These results are mostly in line with US and UK data from 1950-2015, which are split into two samples, 1950-1970 and 1971-2015, in order to be compared to the model with financial autarky and the model with complete markets, respectively.


The main features of the ultraviolet spectrum of acrolein have been studied by a multireference perturbative treatment and by a time dependent density functional approach. The valence and Rydberg transition energies have been calculated and the assignment of the experimental bands has been clarified. The different relaxation trends of the three lowest singlet and triplet excited states have been analyzed by unconstrained geometry optimizations. This has allowed, in particular, the characterization of a twisted 3(*) state, which is crucial for the interesting photophysics and photochemistry of the acrolein molecule and, more generally, of the ,-enones. Solvatochromic shifts in aqueous solution have been investigated using a combined discrete/continuum approach based on the so called polarizable continuum model. The experimental trends are well reproduced by this approach and a closer degeneracy in the triplet manifold has been detected in solution with respect to gas phase. ©2003 American Institute of Physics. (Less)


BACKGROUND
Merkel cell carcinomas (MCCs), clinically aggressive neuroendocrine skin cancers, are divided into Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV)-positive and -negative tumors, which show different clinicopathological features and may develop through different mechanisms of carcinogenesis. Aberrant expression of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) as a genomic modulator was demonstrated through pathogen-related NF-κB signal in Helicobacter pylori-associated gastric cancer, adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (HTLV-1), hepatoma (HCV), and Burkitt lymphoma (EBV).

METHODS
To elucidate the relation of aberrant AID expression in MCPyV-positive and -negative MCCs, we evaluated immunohistochemical expressions of AID and AID-regulating factors between 24 MCPyV-positive and 17 MCPyV-negative MCCs.

RESULTS
AID expression was significantly higher in MCPyV-negative MCCs than MCPyV-positive ones (P = 0.026), although expression of NF-κB p65 (phospho S536) (AID-enhancer) was significantly higher in MCPyV-positive MCCs than MCPyV-negative ones (P = 0.034). Expressions of PAX5 and c-Myb were not significantly different between these subgroups. Expressions of AID and AID-regulating factors were not correlated to prognosis of MCC patients.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that although pathogen-induced AID expression through upregulation of NF-κB may be relevant to carcinogenesis of MCPyV-positive MCCs, the significantly higher aberrant AID expression in MCPyV-negative MCCs is consistent with the fact that MCPyV-negative MCCs have an extremely higher mutation burden than MCPyV-positive ones.


A human solution to the problem of cooperation is the maintenance of informal reputation hierarchies. Reputational information contributes to cooperation by providing guidelines about previous group-beneficial or free-rider behaviour in social dilemma interactions. How reputation system emerges, however, remains a puzzle. The dissertation tests two dimensions of a reputation system that affect the establishment of a credible reputation system: (i) if direct benefit can be earned for reputation it has to be a scarce resource or (ii) if it is not earned for direct benefits good reputation should not be restricted. Four different setups were tested in a laboratory experiment in which participants played two-person Prisoner's Dilemma games without partner selection, could observe some other interactions, and could communicate reputational information about possible opponents to each other. Reputational information clearly influenced cooperation decisions. Although cooperation was not sustained at a high level in any of the conditions, the possibility of exchanging third-party information was able to temporarily increase the level of strategic cooperation when reputation was a scarce resource and reputational scores were directly translated into monetary benefits. Competition for monetary rewards or unrestricted non-monetary reputational rewards helped the reputation system to be informative. Finally, high reputational scores are reinforced further as they are rewarded with positive messages, and positive gossip was leading to higher reputations. Communication about previous acts and passing on reputational information could be valuable for conditional action in cooperation problems and pose a punishment threat to defectors. It is an open question, however, what kind of mechanisms can make gossip honest and credible and reputational information reliable, especially if intense competition for reputations does not exclusively dictate passing on honest information. The dissertation proposes two mechanisms that could support the honesty and credibility of gossip under such a conflict of interest. One is the possibility of voluntary checks of received evaluative information from different sources and the other is social bonding between the sender and the receiver. The efficiency of cross-checking and social bonding was tested in a laboratory experiment where subjects played the Prisoner's Dilemma with gossip interactions. Although individuals had confidence in gossip in both conditions, it was found that, overall, neither the opportunities for cross-checking nor bonding were able to maintain cooperation. Meanwhile, strong competition for reputation increased cooperation when individuals' payoffs depended greatly on their position relative to their rivals. Results suggest that intense competition for reputation facilitates gossip functioning as an informal device promoting cooperation. To build and maintain an informative reputation system people has to be able to differentiate between honest and dishonest signals of cooperative intentions. Previous theories suggest that signals have to be costly to be honest. This dissertation challenges this claim, and empirically test an alternative explanation of credible signalling. Accordingly, signals have to be costly for dishonest signallers and beneficial to honest signallers in order to get meaning and remain informative. Results of a laboratory decision-making experiment with human participants confirm the alternative, or corrective explanation. In everyday life humans cooperate in different contexts despite the individual costs prosocial actions imply. Theory suggests that prosocial behaviour persists because the costs implied are compensated by reputational and other social benefits. Namely, prosocial individuals are more likely to receive friendship nominations and less likely to experience exclusion threats or avoidance than others. The dissertation tests if such beneficial network dynamics occur in a unique dataset from twenty primary school classes in northern Italy. Social preferences of 420 students in grades 4 and 5 were elicited with incentivised social dilemma games, and full class-networks were traced in two subsequent occasions. The dynamics of friendship and negative ties in classrooms were analysed with Stochastic Actor Oriented Models, and a meta-analysis of the results was conducted. The key result is that, while no evidence was observe related to homophily in friendship nominations and being prosocial does not lead to more friendship nomination, individuals are significantly more likely to send negative tie nominations to peers with different offers in the dictator game. The dissertation finds that social network dynamics support cooperation through avoidance between prosocial and selfish students rather than because prosocial individuals are rewarded with friendship.


To ask an eating disorder pediatrician like me to defend the thesis that complete weight restoration in children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa is core to their recovery nearly leaves me speechless. That weight recovery is essential and primary has been so obvious to me as a clinician for so long it is like being challenged to argue that earth is not the centre of the solar system. But let us examine the issues involved and ask ourselves how this also might apply to adult patients, who may have been ill for a very long time. In childhood-onset anorexia nervosa weight loss or failure to gain weight appropriate for age and stage is perhaps the core feature of the illness. Data from around the world submitted to the DSM-5 (the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth edition) committee on childhood eating disorders made it abundantly clear that the cognitive features typical of the adult forms of the illness, such as fear of fat, can be entirely absent, and in fact they will likely no longer included as necessary to make the pediatric diagnosis (O'Toole, Desocio, Munoz, & Crosby, 2011). But weight loss in the context of inability/unwillingness to eat enough to balance output and/or grow will remain (Bravender et al., 2011). This focus on weight loss as such and away from implied motivation and intentionality more accurately reflects the involuntary, brain-based nature of the illness, complements of the strengthening presence of neuroscience in the discussions. Weight loss at any age, or failure to gain weight in children, affects the whole organism, but most critically it affects the brain. Apart from simple starvation/hunger-induced cognitive slowing, distractability and heightened anxiety, once the brain suffers the effects of malnutrition the reproductive hormones in self-defense, believing there to be a famine, including but not limited to luteinising hormone, follicle stimulating hormone and estradiol, shut down. Cognitive impairment is the rule, and importantly, the brain will not return to its functional baseline, much less acquire new information (learn), until these hormones are restored (Chui et al., 2008; Katzman & Zipursky, 1997). And they will not be restored without adequate weight restoration. The fact that many underweight children with anorexia nervosa will continue to do well in school despite their emaciation is more of a tribute to the perseverative nature of their focus on homework and task completion than on intellectual functioning. The clinician is lulled by this apparent 'ability' into believing that it is possible to do meaningful psychological work despite the fact that the brain is now 'off line'. And what of the rest of the body? What of the bones, the hair, the skin, the intestines, the bone marrow, and the liver, in inadequate weight restoration? These organs are not expendable, peripheral body parts. They work as a whole to relay information back to Command Central (the brain)


It is not uncommon for today's users to have access to more than one device, including PC's, PDA's and mobile phones. If the user wants to access services from a remote location, he has to manually customize a connection to each of these services. This thesis aims to make these kinds of services available without complex configuration, using a modular framework. As an example, new hardware or software might be needed in order to integrate home services and mobile devices. These circumstances make it hard for a regular user to deploy new services at home. At the same time people become more and more mobile, and users are moving from being passive consumers to interactive participants of the Internet. The general idea of ubiquitous communication between hosts in the Internet is brought down to a practical level by creating a use case where a user would like to search and retrieve files present in his home network while at a remote location. Solutions to non trivial challenges such as NAT and firewall implications, bandwidth restrictions, modular system architecture, and usability are examined to make a modular service platform meeting the demands of more interactive and mobile environments. The XMPP protocol, mostly known as an instant messaging and presence protocol, is utilized to create a web of trust between services and users. To achieve the goal of making a modular service platform, providing connectivity that allows services and users to be mobile, a working prototype has been made. The prototype consists of a modular service platform, enabling services to be added as plug-ins. The service platform is divided in two parts; one part enabling connectivity using a third party solution, and one part enabling a modular framework to add services as plug-ins. The functionality was tested with a network search as an example service, developed as a plug-in using the modular service platform.


Much of the power of modern Web comes from the ability of a Web page to combine content and JavaScript code from disparate servers on the same page. While the ability to create such mash-ups is attractive for both the user and the developer because of extra functionality, code inclusion effectively opens the hosting site up for attacks and poor programming practices within every JavaScript library or API it chooses to use. In other words, expressiveness comes at the price of losing control. To regain the control, it is therefore valuable to provide means for the hosting page to restrict the behavior of the code that the page may include. This paper presents ConScript, a client-side advice implementation for security, built on top of Internet Explorer 8. ConScript allows the hosting page to express fine-grained application-specific security policies that are enforced at runtime. In addition to presenting 17 widely-ranging security and reliability policies that ConScript enables, we also show how policies can be generated automatically through static analysis of server-side code or runtime analysis of client-side code. We also present a type system that helps ensure correctness of ConScript policies. To show the practicality of ConScript in a range of settings, we compare the overhead of ConScript enforcement and conclude that it is significantly lower than that of other systems proposed in the literature, both on micro-benchmarks as well as large, widely-used applications such as MSN, GMail, Google Maps, and Live Desktop.


As magnetic tape or other web-like material is wound onto a roll, air moving with the incoming stream and the roll becomes forced into the converging wedge at the stream's point of tangency. The spiral-shaped air bearing so formed can extend many wraps into the roll's interior. When the roll is subsequently brought to rest, the entrained air discharges from it, and the roll's radius gradually decreases until all adjacent tape layers have come into direct contact. In the present paper, a model is developed for this transient discharge process, and for the rate at which the roll stabilizes following steady-state winding. Predictions of the model are compared with results from laboratory experiments in which the roll's radius is measured through laser interferometry during the steady entrainment, and transient discharge, stages of winding. Parametric effects of the tape's tension, speed, width, and surface roughness are specifically addressed with a view towards reducing the time required for the roll to stabilize.


The publication of the fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 1 report in September 2013 was highly debated on Twitter. In this paper we focused on tweets that mention "IPCC", and in particular the content and sentiment of the tweets sent by tweeters that were identified as unconvinced or as convinced towards the scientific basis of global warming. Our results indicate that the content and sentiment of those convinced reflect mainly information sharing activities instead of expressing opinions or participation in the debate. Climate change science is, however, challenged by some unconvinced tweeters who tend to use more negative words in their tweets. Our theoretical contribution is on the processes of meaning making around the IPCC report in relation to different groups of tweeters. We identify how certain words may be given different meanings by different groups, and how certain words have a differentiating function between the groups and integrating function within the groups. Our results increase our knowledge about the content of climate change debate in social media and on Twitter in particularly and contribute to research interested in how words function as differentiating and integrating meanings between and within social groups.


ABSTRACT This study uses 1H dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) methods to determine asphaltene aggregates and the interaction between asphaltene extracted from MC800 asphalt and alkylbenzene solvents, as well as elemental analysis for the characterization of asphaltene. The asphaltene sample was characterized using the elemental analysis of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), nitrogen (N), and sulfur (S). The results show that asphaltenes have the highest carbon content. The sulfur and hydrogen contents are nearly the same and nitrogen content is the smallest. The DNP data provided good results for characterizing asphaltene behavior in alkylbenzene solvents. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


The Energy-Loss Function (ELF) of silicon has been used to calculate differential and total inelastic cross-sections of incident electrons. The model has been validated in the 16.7 eV-50 keV incident energy range by comparing the stopping powers, mean free paths and ranges to experimental and evaluated ICRU data. The cross sections were then used to simulate low-energy electron tracks in silicon using the Geant4-DNA toolkit. Generation of low-energy electrons are clearly seen. The obtained ranges are consistent with experimental data.


Fertilizer amount real-time for the precision seeder system is researched in order to prevent from occurring abnormal fertilizer and breaking fertilizer phenomenon during seeding. Real-time amount of fertilizer operated was indirectly measured through indirect method of measurement, and optical-electrical sensors are used to monitor fertilizer evacuation and jammed conditions. Real-time testing error for the fertilizer amount is less than 6.48 percent and false alarm probability is zero through production experiment in farm. Both abnormal fertilizer and breaking fertilizer problems are solved systematically in actual production.


Purpose: Narrative skill, a child's ability to create a temporally sequenced account of an experience or event, is considered an important domain of children's language development. Narrative skill is strongly predictive of later language and literacy and is emphasized in curricula and educational standards. However, the need to transcribe a child's narrative and the lack of psychometrically justified scoring methods have precluded broad consideration of narrative skill among practitioners. We describe the development and validation of the Narrative Assessment Protocol-2 (NAP-2), an assessment of narrative skill for children ages 3–6 years, which uses event-based frequency scoring directly from a video recording of a child's narrative.Method: The NAP-2 underwent a rigorous development process involving creation of four wordless picture books and associated scripts and identification of a broad item pool, including aspects of narrative microstructure and macrostructure. We collected two narratives from each of 470 children using the NAP-2 elicitation materials and scored each with the 60 items in the initial item pool.Results: Cross-validated exploratory factor analyses indicated a single narrative skill factor. Rasch measurement analysis led to selection of 20 items that maintained high reliability while having good fit to the model and no evidence of differential item functioning across books and gender.Conclusions: The NAP-2 offers a psychometrically sound and easy-to-use assessment of narrative skill for children ages 3–6 years. The NAP-2 is available freely online for use by speech-language pathologists, educational practitioners, and researchers.Supplemental Material S1. Items from the Narrative Assessment Protocol (Original Version). Supplemental Material S2. Complete Narrative Assessment Protocol-2 item pool tested. Bowles, R. P., Justice, L. M., Khan, K. S., Piasta, S. B., Skibbe, L. E., & Foster, T. D. (2020). Development of the Narrative Assessment Protocol-2: A tool for examining young children's narrative skill. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_LSHSS-19-00038


A shift in equity management would define the style of a company in terms of its fundamental ability to create wealth. From an economic value added perspective, a growth company invests for rapid economic profit change, while a value company looks to create wealth through downsizing or restructuring a low-to-negative economic profit spread business. In either case—EVA growth or value—these company types (among profiles between the extremes) represent good stocks when actual expectations of economic profit growth exceed expectations already imbedded in share price. This economic profit style of investing emphasizes the fundamentals of wealth creation and reconciliation of share price with the level realistically achievable.


The paper provides estimates of the effect of economic inequality on middle class well being in Switzerland. Economic well being is proxied by a person's satisfaction with his/her income. Two inequality indicators are used, one standard (the Gini coefficient of the pre-tax income distribution) and one novel (the number of luxury car registrations per 1000 population). Identification is through cross-sectional variation of these indicators at various levels of spatial aggregation. Results using data from the Swiss Household Panel confirm the existence of a robust inverse relationship between inequality and satisfaction among the middle class.


The yolk platelets of mature eggs and young embryonic cells of all amphibian species studied (Rana pipiens, Triturus pyrrhogaster, Diemictylus viridescens, Rana nigromaculata, and Bufo vulgaris) have a superficial layer of fine particles or fibrils (ca. 50 A in diameter), a central main body with a crystalline lattice structure, and an enclosing membrane approximately 70 A in thickness. Electron micrographs of the main body reveal hexagonal net (spacing ca. 70 A), square net (spacing ca. 80 A), and parallel band (spacing from 35 to 100 A but most frequent at ca. 70 A) patterns. The crystalline structure is believed to be a simple hexagonal lattice made of closely packed cylindrical rods. Each rod is estimated to be about 80 A in diameter and 160 A in length.


ABSTRACT Geophysical and vibrocore information was used to interpret the distribution, character and evolution of post-glacial sediments in the Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy. Sedimentological evidence provided information on the environment of deposition of the sediments found. Results show that the Minas Basin seabed has not been subaerially exposed since glacial times and that deposition has taken place under continuously marine conditions. During the approximate period 8,600 years B.P.-6,300 years B.P. the Minas Basin was non-tidal and sedimentation occurred predominantly in the deeper parts of the embayment. From 6300 Y.B.P. to the present tidal activity has been increasing linearly; the present tidal activity is the most energetic condition to have occurred in the system. During this period d position was progressively more predominant in the marginal regions, developing the sandflats, mudflats and salt marshes visible today. The progressive inundation of the Minas Basin margins is a function of an increase in tidal range (50%) and a rise in apparent mean sea-level (50%).


The Bridge River gold camp, 180 km north of Vancouver, Canada, produced more gold than any other camp in British Columbia over its 70 years of operation (130 metric tons or 4 million oz), mainly from the Bralorne and Pioneer deposits. A compilation of new and existing lead isotope ratios from 20 widespread and diverse deposits in the Bridge River camp shows a distinct clustering of data. This is interpreted to be the expression of a single protracted but episodic mineralizing event coinciding with the emplacement of the Coast Plutonic Complex during early Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary time (90-45 Ma). The timing of this event is constrained at Bralorne by a premineral albitite dike set (91.4 + or - 1.4 Ma by U-Pb on zircon) and a late intramineral hornblende porphyry dike set (85.7 + or - 3 Ma by K-Ar on hornblende). Late lamprophyre dikes that crosscut the mineralized veins, dated at 43.5 + or - 1.5 Ma by K-Ar on biotite, set a lower age limit for the mineralization. The host rocks, the Bralorne intrusions, have no genetic relation to the mineralization since they are Early Permian (270 + or - 5 Ma by U-Pb on zircon).The conclusion that all mineralization is related to a coherent event is in accord with recognition of a districtwide mineral zoning scheme by Woodsworth, Pearson, and Sinclair. In this scheme, a sequence from high-temperature Au-As-W-Mo through intermediate Sb-Ag-Au-As to low-temperature Sb-Hg vein assemblages as generated from southwest to northeast within the thermal aureole of the Coast Plutonic Complex. Stable isotope and temperature data from other workers support this northeastly decreasing gradient in mineralization temperature.Clustered lead isotope data define a trend that plots between model Pb isotope curves of Doe and Zartman for the upper crust and the mantle. This trend is interpreted to be a mixing line, between primitive mantle-type lead and more radiogenic lead, by one or a combination of two postulated processes: between two groups of rocks (more primitive oceanic volcanics and more radiogenic upper crustal volcanic arc-clastic rocks) by a meteoric thermal system generated by the emplacement of the Coast Plutonic Complex, or between less and more radiogenic magmas during the emplacement of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic volcanics and intrusion hosting the deposits. The accreted nature of the host oceanic and arc terranes is emphasized by the differences between the model proposed and the upper crustal shale curve model of Godwin and Sinclair, which represents much of the locally adjacent autochthonous portion of the Canadian Cordillera.


The effect of plastic deformation by drawing and rolling in the martensite state and final annealing on the structure, grain size, martensitic transformations and shape memory properties of TiNiCo wires is described in the paper. The wires were cold worked by 30 and 40% and then annealed at the temperature range 300-600oC. The structure, phase composition and transformation behaviour of samples after processing and annealing were studied using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) method and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) technique. The marformed and annealed at 400 and 450oC wires exhibited a very good superelastic behaviour. The obtained wires were used for production of the shape memory staples with the recovery temperatures close to the human body temperature and as well as for small superelastic staples for fixation of mandible bone fractures.


Abstract Human leucocyte antigen (HLA) compatibility is the main factor determining the occurrence of graft‐vs‐host disease (GVHD) in patients. It has also been shown that minor histocompatibility antigen differences as well as genetic polymorphisms that are not sequenced by standard methodology for HLA typing can play a role. We used mixed lymphocyte cultures (MLCs) as a functional cellular test and investigated gene expression changes driven by HLA incompatibility in an effort to better understand the mechanisms involved in the disease. Gene expression profile of HLA matched and HLA mismatched MLC identified differentially regulated genes and pathways. We found that a great number of genes related to immune function were differentially regulated; these genes were also found to be associated with GVHD and graft rejection. The majority of differentially regulated genes were interferon‐gamma (IFNγ)‐inducible genes and IFNγ neutralisation in MLCs abrogated their induction. The microRNA‐155, a recently identified target for acute GVHD (aGVHD), was also found to be significantly induced in HLA mismatched MLC but not in the matched setting and its induction was not diminished by blocking IFNγ. In this proof‐of‐principle study we show gene expression changes in mismatched MLC that represent alloreactive responses, correlate with markers involved in GVHD and can potentially be useful in the study of the biological processes involved in this disease.


The term 'Second Sophistic' was already coined in Antiquity to denote a movement of literary and cultural renewal in the Greek and Hellenistic world during the first two centuries AD. The expression was not wholly complimentary; for whereas the 'First Sophistic' was seen to have been primarily concerned with more 'serious' topics like philosophy and politics, the 'Second Sophistic' was more interested in culture and 'the arts'. Up until fairly recently modern scholarship too treated this as a negative feature and considered the monuments of the Second Sophistic to be un-original and decadent. But more recent scholarship has a more positive view of the achievements of the Second Sophistic, and the movement is now becoming more and more appreciated as one of the great cultural renaissances in Antiquity. At the same time the question has been raised whether the movement of renewal in the fourth and fifth centuries, linked in part with the rise of Christian literature and a 'pagan' reaction to it (including authors like Libanius, Themistius, Julian, Himerius, John Chrysostom and Synesius), could be termed a 'Third Sophistic'. This article discusses some recent literature on this topic and argues for a new approach to the question.