Haematology of Australian Mammals is a valuable guide to collecting and analysing the blood of Australian mammals for haematological studies and diagnosis and monitoring of disease.

It outlines general principles for selecting sites for blood collection and for handling and analysing samples to achieve quality results. Chapters then describe the morphology and function of haematological cells, with reference to the known characteristics of Australian mammals in health and the changes that may be encountered in response to common diseases. Haemoparasites that have been encountered in Australian mammals are discussed next, along with comments on their pathogenicity. Lastly, haematological values from previously published studies are compiled into species-specific tables, providing a convenient reference to compare to the results of clinical cases.

Written descriptions and colour photomicrographs of haematological cells from more than 100 species aid the identification of cells and the detection of abnormalities. Information is provided throughout for representative species from all the major groups of native Australian mammals including monotremes, polyprotodont marsupials, diprotodont marsupials, rats and mice, bats and marine mammals.


Inhibitory activities of FUT-187 on trypsin-like serine proteases were compared using camostat mesilate (camostat), and 4-(4-guanidino benzoyloxy)-phenyl acetic acid methanesulfonate (GBPA) known as an active metabolite of camostat in the blood. Ki values of FUT-187 on the competitive inhibition mechanism were 0.097 microM for trypsin, 0.029 microM for pancreatic kallikrein, 0.61 microM for plasma kallikrein, 0.57 microM for plasmin, 2.5 microM for thrombin, 20.4 microM for factor Xa and 6.4 microM for C1r. However, FUT-187 acted as a noncompetitive inhibitor for factor XIIa and an uncompetitive inhibitor for C1s, and Ki values for these proteases were 0.021 and 0.18 microM, respectively. Ki values of camostat for these proteases were in the range of 0.037 to 96.4 microM, and those of GBPA for the above proteases except trypsin and plasma kallikrein were higher than those of FUT-187. The inhibitory activity of FUT-187 on trypsin was not reduced by the addition of the serum at 10%, whereas, that of GBPA was reduced (4.3 fold) in terms of IC50 values. The concentration of FUT-187 required to double APTT (activated partial thromboplastin time) was 1.09 microM, while GBPA, by concentrations up to 1 mM failed to double APTT. The kinin formation by glandular kallikrein in the rat plasma was inhibited by FUT-187 with IC50 value of 0.024 microM, while camostat revealed no inhibition by concentrations up to 1 microM. The complement-mediated hemolyses in the classical and alternative pathways were also inhibited by FUT-187 with IC50 values of 0.17 and 3.5 microM, respectively, the corresponding values for camostat being 350 and 150 microM, respectively. It is concluded that FUT-187 is a potent and selective inhibitor of trypsin-like serine proteases, and its inhibitory activities are stronger than those of camostat on glandular kallikrein, factor XIIa and C1s in complement pathway.


Effective and deterrent methods of combating VAT fraud are crucial for the undisturbed functioning of EU internal market, provision of sound legal framework for taxpayers and protection of the integrity of the fiscal systems of the Member States. Artificial intelligence, algorithms and other technological developments involving big data analysis provide potent tools, which can assist tax administrations in enforcing taxpayers' compliance and preventing fraudulent activities with an unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness. However, reliance on such tools in exercise of State's powers must respect fundamental rights of taxpayers, such as the right to fair trial. This article examines the potential risks and necessary guarantees for the consistency with the provision of the VAT Directive and for the protection of the right to fair trial in the context of new technologies and enforcement of tax laws. The issue is analysed from the perspective of European Union Law and is based on an example of a Polish algorithm-based automated system of detection of VAT fraud.


OBJECTIVES
To estimate (1) the average number of patients per practitioner in Pediatric Research in Office Settings, the national practice-based research network of the American Academy of Pediatrics; (2) the total number of active patients cared for in the network; and (3) the age-sex distribution of patients seen in pediatric practice.

SETTING
Eighty-nine practices in 31 states with 373 Pediatric Research in Office Settings practitioners (59% of Pediatric Research in Office Settings members).

METHODS
Practices were asked to enumerate the number of patients visiting the practice during the 2-year period from January 1, 1991, through December 31, 1992. Patients making multiple visits were counted only once, resulting in a patient count rather than a visit count. Age-sex registers were completed using computer billing records or medical record sampling.

RESULTS
Study participants cared for 529513 active patients (50.7% male). Each practitioner cared for an average of 1546 patients. The number of patients per practitioner was significantly higher in less-populated areas and in solo practices. Children aged 12 years and younger comprised 81% of the patients seen by Pediatric Research in Office Settings practitioners, and more than half of the children were aged 6 years or younger. Before age 5 years, boys accounted for a slightly, but significantly, higher number of patients, whereas after age 14 years, girls comprised a significantly larger proportion of patients.

CONCLUSIONS
The average number of 1546 patients per practitioner derived from these private practice data is in line with health maintenance organization-based estimates. Pediatric practitioners predominantly serve younger children. These data provide the only current national estimates of the size and age-sex distribution of independent pediatric practices, and can help pediatricians and health service researchers plan for the future provision of health care to children.


We numerically investigate the optical field enhancement by a metal/dielectric multilayered zone plate. The optical field enhancement at the focal point of a zone plate originates not only from surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs)-assisted diffraction process along the propagation direction of incident light, but also from multiple scattering and coupling of surface plasmons (SPs) along the metal/dielectric multilayer films. By comparing multilayered zone plates to a conventional monolayered zone plate, we present the effects associated with the number of building blocks and different dielectric materials in the building block on the efficiency of the transmission.


Unpredictable drought conditions combined with extreme heat stress are major constraints limiting the production of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), one of the most important rain-fed crops in West Asia and North Africa. Yield and yield stability might be improved by raising levels of both heterozygosity and heterogeneity, which could be achieved through increased outcrossing in barley landrace populations. Selection for outcrossing-related traits such as high anther extrusion, large anther sizes, and vigorous stigmas may increase the level of outcrossing. This investigation was conducted to quantify the genetic variance and calculate correlation coefficients for spikelet traits related to mating characteristics. For this purpose, F 3 -line populations derived from nine crosses between genotypes showing contrasting expression of anther extrusion were produced. F 3 -line populations were grown in field trials at three locations in Jordan during the 2001-2002 growing season. Anther extrusion was higher in the more favorable environment than in environments with low and variable precipitation. Anther extrusion and outcrossing-related spikelet traits were influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Early heading F 3 -lines within populations showed a tendency toward higher anther extrusion, presumably because of escape from drought stress expected later in the growing season. The variation of outcrossing-related spikelet traits in F 3 -line populations was continuous, suggesting a polygenic inheritance, and exhibited transgressive segregation in some populations toward high anther extrusion. Most populations showed intermediate to high broad sense heritabilities for anther extrusion and anther length. However, low to intermediate heritabilities were detected for all other outcrossing-related traits. Positive genetic correlations were recorded between anther extrusion and anther and stigma size. Results suggest that outcrossing-related spikelet traits may respond to selection in particular in the case of anther extrusion and anther and stigma size.


The Italian Zecomix platform is a gasification pilot-scale plant integrated CCS technology, whose flexibility allows operating each unit alone. For quantitative analysis of the gaseous species an analytical system based on commercially available instruments and sampling lines at various points of plant was properly designed. A Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometric (FTIR) with portable low resolution and gas chromatographic tools were used. The fluidized bed calciner/ carbonator unit was fed with naturally occurring dolomite (about 300 kg) from quarry of Biella (Italy) and tested for CO2 capture. Carbonation reaction was conducted at around 700 ̊C under simulated reformed synthesis gas containing 30% of CO2. Based on GC and FTIR results a CO2 retention better than 70% was achieved. The application of grain model establishing the carbonation reaction was kinetically controlled within 50 seconds and the reaction rate constant was comparable to that obtained at laboratory-scale level by thermogravimetric analyzer.


The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) practices, competitive strategies cost leadership and differentiationand firm performance in the Palestinian economy. Within this study total quality management has been conceptualized as soft and hard practices, in congruence with the literature. An empirical analysis based upon an extensive validation process was applied to refine TQM, competitive strategies and financial performance scales. Data were collected through surveying 202 in Palestinian industrial small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Structural Equation Modeling was carried out to test the anticipated relationships. Results derived from this study show that TQM practices have indirect, positive and significant relationship with financial performance through competitive strategies. In addition, a direct, positive and significant relationship between competitive strategies and financial performance was observed. Results derived from this study might help managers to implement TQM practices in order to effectively allocate resources and improve financial performance.


There has been an increase in research in developing machine learning models for mental health detection or prediction in recent years due to increased mental health issues in society. Effective use of mental health prediction or detection models can help mental health practitioners re-define mental illnesses more objectively than currently done, and identify illnesses at an earlier stage when interventions may be more effective. However, there is still a lack of standard in evaluating bias in such machine learning models in the field, which leads to challenges in providing reliable predictions and in addressing disparities. This lack of standards persists due to factors such as technical difficulties, complexities of high dimensional clinical health data, etc., which are especially true for physiological signals. This along with prior evidence of relations between some physiological signals with certain demographic identities restates the importance of exploring bias in mental health prediction models that utilize physiological signals. In this work, we aim to perform a fairness analysis and implement a multi-task learning based bias mitigation method on anxiety prediction models using ECG data. Our method is based on the idea of epistemic uncertainty and its relationship with model weights and feature space representation. Our analysis showed that our anxiety prediction base model introduced some bias with regards to age, income, ethnicity, and whether a participant is born in the U.S. or not, and our bias mitigation method performed better at reducing the bias in the model, when compared to the reweighting mitigation technique. Our analysis on feature importance also helped identify relationships between heart rate variability and multiple demographic groupings.


More than 40,000 women in the U.S. die each year of metastatic breast cancer. Notably, obese postmenopausal women are at increased risk of developing hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer. Approximately two-thirds of breast cancer patients have tumors that express estrogen receptors and require estrogen for tumor growth. Estrogens are synthesized from androgens in a reaction catalyzed by cytochrome P450 aromatase (aromatase), encoded by the CYP19 gene. After menopause, peripheral aromatization in adipose tissue is largely responsible for estrogen production. The increased breast cancer risk in obese postmenopausal women has been attributed, in part, to elevated levels of circulating estrogen related to both increased adipose tissue and elevated aromatase expression. Given the epidemic of overweight and obese subjects in the U.S., there is a pressing need to develop mechanism-based strategies to reduce the cancer risk among this sector of the population. Chronic inflammation increases the risk of multiple tumor types. A link between obesity, breast inflammation and HR-positive breast cancer was previously unknown. Obesity causes subclinical inflammation in visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissue, characterized by macrophages surrounding dead adipocytes forming crown-like structures (CLS). Recently, we found increased numbers of CLS, activation of the NF-κB transcription factor, increased levels of pro-inflammatory mediators including PGE2 and elevated aromatase levels in the mammary glands of obese mice. In vitro models were utilized to demonstrate the importance of COX-2-derived PGE2 for the induction of aromatase. These preclinical findings raised the possibility that the obesity-inflammation-aromatase axis is important for breast carcinogenesis. Importantly, these findings have now been translated to women. Breast tissue was obtained from women who underwent surgery. CLS of the breast (CLS-B) were found in nearly 50% of patient samples. The severity of breast inflammation, defined as the CLS-B index, correlated with both body mass index and adipocyte size. Consistent with our preclinical findings, increased NF-κB binding activity, increased levels of pro-inflammatory mediators and elevated aromatase expression were found in the inflamed breast tissue of overweight and obese women. Notably, levels of COX-2 and PGE2 correlated with levels of aromatase and the progesterone receptor, an estrogen receptor-α regulated gene. The discovery of the connection between obesity, breast inflammation and changes in the expression of genes linked to breast cancer provides a mechanistic rationale for the development of behavioral, dietary and pharmacological strategies to reduce the risk of breast cancer. Recently conducted caloric restriction experiments provide proof-of-principle evidence that obesity-related mammary gland inflammation including related molecular changes can be reversed. Moreover, treatment with celecoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor, suppressed both the elevated levels of PGE2 and aromatase activity found in the mammary glands of obese mice. A clinical trial is underway in an attempt to translate these promising preclinical findings. Citation Format: Andrew J. Dannenberg. Obesity, inflammation and breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2013 Oct 27-30; National Harbor, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2013;6(11 Suppl): Abstract nr PL05-02.


Large-scale biogeographical shifts in vegetation are predicted in response to the altered precipitation and temperature regimes associated with global climate change. Vegetation shifts have profound ecological impacts and are an important climate-ecosystem feedback through their alteration of carbon, water, and energy exchanges of the land surface. Of particular concern is the potential for warmer temperatures to compound the effects of increasingly severe droughts by triggering widespread vegetation shifts via woody plant mortality. The sensitivity of tree mortality to temperature is dependent on which of 2 non-mutually-exclusive mechanisms predominates—temperature-sensitive carbon starvation in response to a period of protracted water stress or temperature-insensitive sudden hydraulic failure under extreme water stress (cavitation). Here we show that experimentally induced warmer temperatures (≈4 °C) shortened the time to drought-induced mortality in Pinus edulis (piñon shortened pine) trees by nearly a third, with temperature-dependent differences in cumulative respiration costs implicating carbon starvation as the primary mechanism of mortality. Extrapolating this temperature effect to the historic frequency of water deficit in the southwestern United States predicts a 5-fold increase in the frequency of regional-scale tree die-off events for this species due to temperature alone. Projected increases in drought frequency due to changes in precipitation and increases in stress from biotic agents (e.g., bark beetles) would further exacerbate mortality. Our results demonstrate the mechanism by which warmer temperatures have exacerbated recent regional die-off events and background mortality rates. Because of pervasive projected increases in temperature, our results portend widespread increases in the extent and frequency of vegetation die-off.


Modern information retrieval (IR) has come to terms with numerous new media in efforts to help people find information in increasingly diverse settings. Among these new media are so-called microblogs. A microblog is a stream of text that is written by an author over time. It comprises many very brief updates that are presented to the microblog's readers in reverse-chronological order. Today, the service called Twitter is the most popular microblogging platform. Although microblogging is increasingly popular, methods for organizing and providing access to microblog data are still new. This review offers an introduction to the problems that face researchers and developers of IR systems in microblog settings. After an overview of microblogs and the behavior surrounding them, the review describes established problems in microblog retrieval, such as entity search and sentiment analysis, and modeling abstractions, such as authority and quality. The review also treats user-created metadata that often appear in microblogs. Because the problem of microblog search is so new, the review concludes with a discussion of particularly pressing research issues yet to be studied in the field. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


It was hypothesized that altruism could be displayed by individuals scoring high on measures of the "dark triad traits" (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy) if these individuals believed that the presumed altruism would in some way benefit them personally. However, measures of empathy, which are typically correlated with altruistic tendencies, would remain low in these individuals. Survey testing of a subclinical population of 281 college undergraduates confirmed these hypotheses for one of the dark triad constructs: Narcissism scores were found to be positively correlated with reciprocal altruism (p<0.02) and self-reported altruistic acts (p<0.003), whereas they were negatively correlated with affective empathy (p<0.0001).


Calixarenes are cyclic oligomers synthesized from phenols and formaldehyde. We designed and synthesized a variety of new host molecules from calixarenes. They acted as cyclic ionophores with crown-like functions by introducing ionophoric groups. In particular, calix [5] arene and calix [6] arene with carboxylate groups acted as "super-uranophiles" exhibiting the record-breaking uranyl affinity (K=1018.4-19.2 M-1) and uranyl selectivity (1010.6-17). Inclusion of organic guest molecules in solution was effected for the first time by using water-soluble calixarenes which had either anionic, cationic, or neutral hydrophilic groups. Chiral, water-soluble calixarenes changed their conformation upon inclusion of guest molecules, which was conveniently detected by the CD spectra and provided several lines of important information for the host-guest-type complex formation. Through these studies, it was demonstrated that the moderate rigidity and the remaining conformational freedom are important characteristics of the complex formation with calixarene-based host-molecules.


Alpha‐hydroxy acid (AHA) agents, such as glycolic acid and lactic acid, have been used as therapeutic agents for more than a quarter of a century. Recently, they have been used as agents to rejuvenate photo‐aged skin. It is believed that these AHA agents induce the epidermis to remodel and accelerate desquamation, thus exerting their therapeutic effects. In this study, we investigated the histological differences in skin treated with glycolic, lactic, citric and acetic acids once daily for 6 weeks. The melanin pigments in the basal layer were less prominent in the glycolic and lactic acid‐treated skin than in the citric and acetic acid‐treated skin. The melanin deposits in the horny layers were equal for all AHA. However, the melanin deposits in the squamous layers were less prominent in the glycolic and lactic acid‐treated skins than in the citric and acetic acid‐treated skins; this was analogous to observations of the basal layers. Collagen I and procollagen I were increased after treatment with glycolic, lactic and citric acid in the upper dermis, but were not increased with acetic acid treatment. However, the staining of the epidermis and dermis for matrix metalloproteinase‐1 (MMP‐1) after treatment was not significantly different among the agents. Our data suggest that longer treatment intervals with glycolic and lactic acid can cause improvements in both the epidermal and dermal components and support the usefulness of AHA for rejuvenating photo‐damaged skin.


We present specific heat data on three samples of the dilute Ising magnet LiHoxY1−xF4 with x = 0.018, 0.045 and 0.080. Previous measurements of the ac susceptibility of an x = 0.045 sample showed the Ho moments to remain dynamic down to very low temperatures [1, 2] and the specific heat was found to have unusually sharp features [1, 3]. In contrast, our measurements do not exhibit these sharp features in the specific heat and instead show a broad feature, for all three samples studied, which is qualitatively consistent with a spin glass state. Integrating C/T , however, reveals an increase in residual entropy with lower Ho concentration, consistent with recent Monte Carlo simulations showing a lack of spin glass transition for low x [4].


Optical and thermal remote sensing data have been an important tool in geological exploration for certain deposit types. However, the present economic and technological advances demand the adaptation of the remote sensing data and image processing techniques to the exploration of other raw materials like lithium (Li). A bibliometric analysis, using a systematic review approach, was made to understand the recent interest in the application of remote sensing methods in Li exploration. A review of the application studies and developments in this field was also made. Throughout the paper, the addressed topics include: (i) achievements made in Li exploration using remote sensing methods; (ii) the main weaknesses of the approaches; (iii) how to overcome these difficulties; and (iv) the expected research perspectives. We expect that the number of studies concerning this topic will increase in the near future and that remote sensing will become an integrated and fundamental tool in Li exploration.


Many techniques for isolation, expansion and handling of stem cells are being developed rapidly, and preclinical evidence has shown the possibility to use this technology for refractory diseases in the near future. Among refractory digestive diseases, Crohn's disease and liver cirrhosis may be two main diseases where stem cell therapy can be applied for anti-inflammation and regeneration of tissue. Currently, with respect to these two diseases, clinical trials using hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow or adipose tissue have shown some evidence of clinical benefits to immune modulation, suppression of inflammation and regeneration of functional cells. However, for the development of practical stem cell therapy, we need more data on underlying mechanisms, effective subpopulation of stem cells and its sources, and effective parameters for monitoring and estimation. With technical advances, the research on embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells will also contribute to the new therapeutic strategies for digestive regenerative medicine. In the future, a variety of stem cell therapies may be therapeutic options for refractory digestive diseases, but many technical challenges remain to be solved. (Korean J Gastroenterol 2011;58:139-143).


The politics of cultural and national identities have long been marked by the presence of heroes to stimulate a sense of pride and faith in a particular community. While governmental policies help negotiate the borders through which a community stands on, narratives and mythology often shape the psychology and ideology of a nation. For such a reason perhaps, the identification of Hang Tuah as a symbol of 'Malayness' has long been a subject of fantasy for various scholars in the field of Southeast Asian studies (Kassim, 1966; Khoo G. C., 2006; Maier, 2004; Shaharuddin, 2014; Siti, 1993). In spurring this discourse forward, this report would study wiraism within Puteri Gunung Ledang (2004) and observe how "a feudal hero such as Hang Tuah can figure as a national hero in postcolonial Malaysia" (Khoo, 2006: p. 18) through the effective use of both verbal and non-verbal cues. The study will use gestalt as a lens in approaching the film and examine the construction of wiraism through the use of dialogue(s), cultural form(s) and colour(s) and contrast, in examining how the film "shifts the understanding of Hang Tuah in the perception of the Malay audience" (Putten & Barnard, 2007, p. 247).


The purpose of this study had identify and analyze the youth lifestyle Smartphone users in Malang. The usefulness of this research can be used as the basis for the company's consideration in developing Smartphone products produced and tailored to the consumer'lifestyle. Population in this study is that consumers Smartphone users in Malang, with characteristics that respondents who have entered in the category of age and adolescents, using judgmental sampling techniques can then be determined as many as 100 sample. Data analysis techniques used in this research is the analysis of the cluster. From the results of research and discussion, it can be concluded that the cluster I have a characteristic that is the willingness of respondents to support the work ruitn performed, work or routine activities are carried out, the development of information media, the activities undertaken by a person as a source of income, neighborhood closest to a person , always had a desire to buy the latest products, more priority to the purchase of  goods after the wants rather than needs, support penampilandan add relationships / peer. Cluster III has the characteristic that the respondent wishes to keep up with technology, where it makes the respondent is always working to get information lengkao by utilizing technological developments.


In such decentralized federal systems as Switzerland, where regional entities have their own laws and are vested with many responsibilities, nurses' associations generally operate in the same manner. Below, how the Swiss Nurses' Association works with its branches and prepares its nurses to work at the local level.


The study accessed the tree species composition within the Kano State University of Science and Technology Wudil, Kano State, Nigeria with the view of providing information that will help in the management and conservation of tree species within the campus. The study area was stratified into four (4) sections from which total enumeration of tree species was carried out. Results from the study shows that, there are 8267 tree stands, representing 43 tree species cutting across 21 family and 37 genera. Azadirachta indica recorded the highest frequency and percentage frequency of 3959 and 47.89% respectively while Borassus aethiopum , Celtis integrifolia and Sclerocarya birrea recorded the lowest frequency and percentage frequency of 1 and 0.01% respectively. The family Fabaceae recorded the highest frequency and percentage frequency of 11 and 52.38% respectively while Anonaceae , Apocynaceae , Arecoideae ,  Balanitaceae , Bignoiaceae , Ebenaceae , Lamiaceae , Rhamnaceae , Sapotaceae , Ulmaceae and  Verbenaceae  recorded the lowest number of representation of 1 and 4.76% frequency and percentage frequency respectively. Notwithstanding the large number of tree stands recorded, majority of which were exotic trees, the various distribution pattern of the various parameters accessed was typical of savanna vegetation. Concerted effort should be made for the conservation of these species, most especially the indigenous ones, some of which might be extinct in the campus if adequate measures are not taken. Keywords: Tree species composition, Savanna, Indigenous tree species, Forest Conservation


The differentiation method of model reduction is shown to be equivalent to forming successive ratios of multipoint Taylor polynomial approximation of the numerator and denominator of the transfer function, respectively. This reformulation allows the method to be applied entirely through a Routh-type array structure. Strong links are seen to exist between the method and other stability preserving methods via this Routh-type structure. >


This paper presents an electromagnetic actuation-based optoelectronic active catheter tracking system for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The system incorporates a radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonator array actuated by the Lorentz force induced due to the strong dc magnetic field available in MRI environment. Power transfer to the system and the actuation detection are done optically via fiber optic cables that replace conventional conductive transmission lines; thereby, enabling the tracking system to function safely under MRI. The complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) receiver, optically powered by a supply unit housing an on-chip silicon photovoltaic cell, detects the location of the catheter tip. The RF MEMS resonator array transmits the position data by transducing the electrical signal into a resonant mechanical vibration linearly. The optical reading of this actuation can be done by diffraction grating interferometry or laser doppler vibrometry. The fabricated resonator array is tested with the optically powered CMOS chip (0.18-μm UMC technology) in laboratory conditions. The driving electrical current supplied by the chip for resonator actuation is 25-μA rms, where the magnetic field provided by the experimental setup is 0.62 T. The resonator array is observed to be functional with real-world application by showing a frequency response of 10 dB, which will be enhanced further under the stronger magnetic field available in 3-T MRI.


We have identified previously six nuclear matrix proteins (NMPs) that are bladder cancer specific. In this study, we analyzed the expression of one of these proteins, BLCA-4, in bladder tumors and normal bladder tissue. We also examined the appearance of BLCA-4 in the urine as a biomarker for bladder cancer. BLCA-4 was isolated from nuclear matrix preparations of bladder tumors, and its peptide sequence was determined. The antibodies generated against the resulting BLCA-4 peptides were then used to detect its presence in immunoblots and in urine samples by immunoassay. We analyzed tissue samples of bladder tumor and normal donor bladders and urine obtained from 51 normal individuals and 54 patients with pathologically confirmed bladder cancer. The BLCA-4 peptide sequences do not resemble any known human protein sequences. On immunoblot analysis, BLCA-4 expression was detectable in tumor and normal tissues from patients with bladder cancer but not in any of the normal bladder tissue obtained from organ donors. Using a prospectively determined cutoff level of 13 A (absorbance) units/mg protein, all 51 normal individuals tested were negative for BLCA-4 expression, whereas 53 of 55 samples from patients with bladder cancer were positive. These results suggest that BLCA-4 is present throughout the bladder in both the tumor and morphologically normal areas in bladder cancer patients. BLCA-4 is a very sensitive (96.4%) and specific (100%) marker for bladder cancer. BLCA-4 is a bladder cancer-specific marker that can be detected using a urine-based assay and can be used in the diagnosis of bladder cancer.


High-level synthesis (HLS) has gained considerable traction over recent years, as it allows for faster development and verification of hardware accelerators than traditional RTL design. While HLS allows for most bugs to be caught during software verification, certain non-deterministic or data-dependent bugs still require debugging the actual hardware system during execution. Recent work has focused on techniques to allow designers to perform in-system debug of HLS circuits in the context of the original software code; however, like RTL debug, the user must still determine the root cause of a bug using small execution traces, with lengthy debug turns. In this work, we demonstrate techniques aimed at reducing the time HLS designers spend performing in-system debug. Our approaches consist of performing data dependency analysis to guide the user in selecting which variables are observed by the debug instrumentation, as well as an associated debug overlay that allows for rapid reconfiguration of the debug logic, enabling rapid switching of variable observation between debug iterations. In addition, our overlay provides additional debug capability, such as selective function tracing and conditional buffer freeze points. We explore the area overhead of these different overlay features, showing a basic overlay with only a 1.7% increase in area overhead from the baseline debug instrumentation, while a deluxe variant offers 2×--7× improvement in trace buffer memory utilization with conditional buffer freeze support.


The effect of ammonia etching (AE) pretreatment on the formation of catalyst nanoparticles from homogeneous Ni films deposited by sputtering coater for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) growth is investigated systematically. It is shown that the size and distribution of the nanoparticles depend mainly on the AE pretreatment temperature and time. It is observed that Ni catalyst film is agglomerated by AE pretreatment, resulting in the formation of Ni nanoparticles. We have found a critical temperature and time for AE pretreatment processes to obtain catalyst nanoparticles with the appropriate size and high density. The densely aligned CNTs were successfully grown at 800-850 °C on such nanoparticles by thermal Chemical vapor deposition (CVD).


In this article I respond to Stephen Bradshaw's reprinted article in which he investigated significant issues in the development of Māori contemporary dance in the forty years prior to 2002 when the article was published. Bradshaw offered a personal perspective as practitioner and narrated some of the meetings between those involved in Māori and contemporary dance, specific wānanga in which Māori artists investigated culturally appropriate ways of using theatre dance arts, and discussing examples of cultural exchange. Bradshaw engaged with key issues and definitions relating to inter-cultural and intra-cultural exchange and offered an understanding of continuum Māori dance that was timely and insightful. My purpose in the article is to respond to Bradshaw's work as a current contemporary dance practitioner myself and to engage with how I interpret 'being kaitiaki' . I offer examples of my experiences in defining myself as a Māori contemporary dancer, in my activism and in my use of social media as a site for activism.


Abstract The true economic value of ecosystem services may not be reflected in market transactions, because there is no real transaction for ecosystem services in the market. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the cost of time and travel to define the value people place on something in the absence of a market price. This study estimates the recreational value of Ghaleh Rudkhan forest park in the north of Iran using the individual travel cost method. This method is considered to be a substitute approach for the market. The data required were collected using questionnaires. Therefore, 271 questionnaires were randomly distributed between the visitors of the recreational site in 2016. In this study, a linear function is used to estimate the effects of explanatory variables including economic and social variables on the number of visits to estimate the recreational value of the forest park. Results showed that a consumer surplus of each person for their visit was 21500 Rials and the annual recreational value of the park was 78390595 Rials per ha. Furthermore, the variables such as travel expenses, income, distance, family size and visitor's age are effective factors in the recreational use of the park. The results of this study can improve the quality of environmental services of the Ghaleh Rudkhan forest park and could expand the variety of services that they could supply based on the demand of the people.


Critical work exploring Girl in a Blue Dress (2008), Gaynor Arnold's biofictional account of Charles and Catherine Dickens' marriage, predominantly focuses on the long-silenced wife's opportunity to speak at last, as the Catherine Dickens character (re-christened Dorothea Gibson by Arnold) determines to complete her late husband Alfred Gibson's unfinished final novel. However, the significance of confronting and constructing memory in the novel has garnered surprisingly little critical attention; this absence is particularly remarkable since the novel is typically touted as an autobiography or memoir. My article traces the import of Dorothea's memories in her quest to construct a narrative of her interaction with Alfred in which she appears as a valid player in her own story, rather than as a "footnote" to her husband's overarching narrative. Exploring the ontological slippage between history and story, I argue that through its merging of memory and narratorial agency, this fiction simultaneously effaces—and restores—the facts. Thus reconciled to her past, Dorothea can focus on her future, and the confidence she has discovered through productively remembering ultimately inspires her to work on Alfred's as yet unfinished final novel. A "footnote" no longer, Dorothea thus transitions from confronting the story of her past to constructing the story of her future, as she appropriates Alfred's authorial voice to claim co-creatorship of an entirely new narrative. In fine Bakhtinian form, she assumes control of words bearing Alfred's signature; he may have invented the fictions of his life with Dorothea and his final novel, but it is she who (quite literally) has the last word. By positioning the wife as narratorial detective inspecting memories to uncover the truth of her failed marriage, Arnold invites readers to reconsider (with Dorothea) how facts have been twisted into a convenient fiction and imbues Dorothea with the self-assurance to pursue narrative authority. Paradoxically, through extricating the facts from the fiction of her life, Dorothea is inspired to write fiction herself in an attempt to regain her life. Likewise, Arnold also demonstrates the narrator's prerogative to celebrate the slippage between fact and fiction: she rehabilitates Catherine Dickens by inviting readers to consider the truth of her history through the memorable mode of story.


Nerve grafts are used to repair segmental defects in peripheral nerves. However, autografts and even allografts are limited for clinical use. Xenotransplantation offers a potentially unlimited source for tissue transplantation. We have conducted a systematic review of the literature, aiming to clarify the latest and more appealing proposals and discoveries in nerve xenotransplantation. A total of 22 articles were retrieved, all of them experimentally controlled studies in animals. There are no current studies in humans. Fresh xenografts provoke an immune response that leads to graft rejection. Immunosuppressive drugs or pretreatment of the grafts are the preferred methods against immune rejection. Recently, investigative groups have proposed the use of acellular nerve xenografts, which do not elicit immune rejection while they do allow and promote axonal regeneration. The addition of human stem cells increases nerve growth. Limits to the analyzed studies are the absence of trials in humans and the short length of the nerve defects that have been successfully repaired. Further investigations and clinical trials are needed before nerve xenografting is accepted as a valid method of nerve repair.


Background—The hypothesis that the failing heart may be energy-starved is supported in part by observations of reduced rates of adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP) synthesis through the creatine kinase (CK) reaction, the primary myocardial energy reservoir, in patients with heart failure (HF). Although murine models have been used to probe HF pathophysiology, it has not been possible to noninvasively measure the rate of ATP synthesis through CK in the in vivo mouse heart. The purpose of this work was to exploit noninvasive spatially localized magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques to measure ATP flux through CK in in vivo mouse hearts and determine the extent of any reductions in murine HF. Methods and Results—The Triple Repetition Time Saturation Transfer (TRiST) magnetic resonance spectroscopy method of measuring ATP kinetics was first validated in skeletal muscle, rendering similar results to conventional saturation transfer magnetic resonance spectroscopy. In normal mouse hearts, the in vivo CK pseudo–first-order-rate constant, kF, was 0.32±0.03 s−1 (mean±SD) and the rate of ATP synthesis through CK was 3.16±0.47 &mgr;mol/g/s. Thoracic aortic constriction reduced kF by 31% (0.23±0.03 s−1, P<0.0001) and ATP synthesis through CK by 51% (1.54±0.25 &mgr;mol/g/s, P<0.0001), values analogous to those in failing human hearts. Conclusions—Despite the small size and high murine heart rate, the ATP synthesis rate through CK is similar in vivo in murine and human hearts and comparably reduced in HF. Because murine thoracic aortic constriction shares fundamental energetic similarities with human HF, this model and new magnetic resonance spectroscopy approach promise a powerful means to noninvasively probe altered energetics in HF.


Between 1975 and 1980, 13 women, 7 of whom were sex workers, were murdered in the North of England. Aside from the femicide itself, the case was infamous for police failings, misogyny, and victim blaming. The article begins with a discussion of the serial murder of women as a gendered structural phenomenon within the wider context of violence, gender, and arbitrary justice. In support of this, the article revisits the above case to interrogate police reform in England and Wales in the wake of the murders, arguing that despite procedural reform, gendered cultural practices continue to shape justice outcomes for victims of gender violence. In addition, changes to prostitution policy are assessed to highlight how the historical and ongoing Othering and criminalization of street sex workers perpetuates the victimization of this marginalized group of women.


Received: Apr. 2012 Accepted: Jul. 2012 Corresponding author: Robabe Baha e-mail: email@example.com Background & Objective: Nursing students usually experience various types of stress. Lack of stress coping strategies result in more stress, incompatibility, manifestation of disorders, and mental health problems. This study carried out to assess the methods of coping with stress among nursing students. Methods & Materials: In this cross-sectional study, 358 male and female bachelor of nursing students studying at Tehran University of Medical Sciences during the first semester of 2011-2012 were selected. Data were collected using the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situation and a demographic questionnaire. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in the SPSS-14. Results: There were 66.2% female and 33.8% male students in the study. The age of the students ranged 17-29 years. Most of the students aged 20-22 years (45%), were single (90.8%), were habitants of Tehran (53.1%), had an average economic status (72.1%), and were employed (20.9%). Of all, 19.3% had experienced stressful events in the last three months. A small number of the students (4.7%) suffered from chronic diseases. The nursing students mostly used problem-oriented coping style (56%). The emotionoriented method was used among 45.99% of the students and the avoidanceoriented style was used among 39.34% of the students. There were no statistically significant relationship between the coping styles and the demographic characteristics. Conclusion: The problem-oriented, emotion-oriented, and avoidanceoriented styles were the most frequent styles used by the students, respectively. The mental health, particularly among nursing students who deal with patients and have important role in the health system, is important and requires special attention. The stress coping styles should be inserted in the educational curriculum of the nursing schools.


In this paper, a robust detection scheme is proposed for high data rate single-carrier multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) underwater acoustic communications. The new scheme adopts turbo block decision-feedback equalization, where the soft-decision equalizer performs successive soft interference can- cellation of both the intersymbol interference in the time domain, and the multiplexing interference in the space domain. Attributed to the inherent advantage of the block decision-feedback equalizer (BDFE) over other conventional equalizers, the MIMO turbo detection algorithm provides high performance with fast conver- gence speed. With the interblock interference properly removed, the MIMO BDFE is performed with overlapped information blocks without guard intervals, thus a high transmission efficiency is guaranteed and the performance degradation at the tail of each block is prevented. The MIMO channel is treated as time invariant over each small block, and is estimated with either the pilot symbols in the training mode or the previously detected symbols in the decision-directed mode. The proposed detection scheme has been tested by extensive experimental data and proved to be robust to different transmission environments. The experimental results for the undersea 2008 Surface Processes and Acoustic Communications Experiment (SPACE08) and the 2008 Gulf of Mexico Experiment (GOMEX08) are both reported.


Increasing prevalence rates of chronic disease requires a more sophisticated view of the effects of food on health. This review examines the evidence base for the effects of food on health and discusses food based health strategies.


"Black and Gold" is a pictorial history of the Boston Bruins, one of the NHL's Original Six teams and among hockey's most popular franchises. Celebrating their 85th season in 2008-09, the Bruins are a storied team with a long and rich history, and a fascinating cast of characters. Home to players such as Orr, Esposito, Schmidt, Bucyk, Cheevers, O'Reilly, Bourque and Neely, Boston has captured five Stanley Cups as well as numerous division and conference titles.Featuring four decades of pictures from long-time team photographer Steve Babineau, and accompanying text by NESN broadcaster Rob Simpson, "Black and Gold" will document much of the rich history of the team, including magic moments from the past, star players and coaches such as Ray Bourque, Cam Neely, Terry O'Reilly, Don Cherry, and Joe Thornton, as well as Bruins goalies, grinders, and the old Boston Garden. This epic collection of photographs and commentary from the last four decades, featuring many never-before-seen shots, will be sure to bring back memories for every Bruins fan who bleeds black and gold.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa has emerged as a major pathogen in nosocomial infections. Biofilm formation allows the microorganism to persist in hospital water systems for extended periods, which have been associated with nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of P. aeruginosa colonization of hospital tap waters by nested PCR assay. A total of 44 water samples were collected from 11 hospitals and analyzed for the presence of Pseudomonas spp. and P. aeruginosa by specific primer sets of 16S rRNA gene. Some physicochemical parameters and heterotrophic plate count (HPC) of samples for possible association with P. aeruginosa contamination were also determined. The nested PCR revealed 32% of the water samples being positive for P. aeruginosa. From the 11 hospitals surveyed, 82% (9 of 11) of the hospitals water systems were positive for P. aeruginosa. No correlation was seen between the presence of P. aeruginosa and HPC as well as physicochemical parameters. Identification of contaminated sources could be a key priority in waterborne nosocomial infections. PCR assay was used in the study provides simple, rapid, and reliable identification of P. aeruginosa in hospital water systems, which could eliminate the infections of P. aeruginosa through implementation of immediate control measures.


Sorting of tomatoes has been an issue faced by producers as well as sellers due to the sheer volumes handled and the delicate nature of the fruit. This paper describes the development of a low cost machine vision system using webcams and image processing algorithms for defect detection and sorting of tomatoes. In the case of agricultural products, good efforts and appropriate techniques are necessary to distinguish between defected and good ones when using machine vision for sorting. Tomatoes having two major defects namely Blossom End Rot (BER) and Cracks could be separated from good tomatoes with calyx. The sorting decision was based on three features extracted by the image processing algorithms. The color features were used for detecting the BER from good tomatoes and shape factor combined with the number of green objects was used for differentiating the calyxes from crack defects. Two methods, rule based and neural network approaches, were developed for decision based sorting. A control system was developed with a belt conveyor to transport the tomatoes and a cylinder pushrod coupled to a solenoid was used to push the defective tomatoes after determining their defect by the algorithms. The color image threshold method with shape factor were found efficient for differentiating good and defective tomatoes. The overall accuracy of defect detection attained by the rule based approach and the neural network method were 84 and 87.5% respectively. The inspection speed of 180 tomatoes min -1 was achieved by the algorithms and the prototype developed. Comparison of the results obtained by the rule based and neural network approaches are also presented in this paper.


The high costs of mesh generation in mesh-dependent solution, weakness in capturing singularities, the need of modeling all over the domain, the need of problem dependent fundamental solutions, etc. are some of weaknesses in the common numerical mesh-dependent methods for solving continuum mechanics boundary value problems. In this study, aiming for eliminating some of these shortcomings, one of the well-known Radial Basis Functions (RBF) methods, Multiquadric (MQ), is developed for dynamic analysis of 2D reservoirs of rigid dams in frequencydomain. To this end, the Helmholtz equation and the governing complex boundary conditions are reproduced using MQ function in the frequency domain. The results show that with the use of real and complex forms of the MQ function, the computational time will be respectively optimized for frequencies smaller and larger than the natural frequency of the reservoir. Also, to determine the most important factors affecting both the accuracy and convergence of MQ method, first the inefficiency of some of the previously introduced methods is proved, and then a new high-speed algorithm is presented. It is shown that the optimal shape parameter for MQ method can be formulated in terms of the frequencies of seismic records. This advantage simplifies the application of MQ method in this particular problem and reduces the computational time, considerably. The high accuracy of the present method is shown in two different examples, where the effects of sediment absorption may either be considered or not. The high accuracy compared to the exact solutions achieved in this paper is due to a continuous estimation function defined all over the domain and also due to the simple algorithm used for finding the optimal shape


Because substance abuse (i.e., alcohol, drug, and tobacco) constitutes a major health risk for adolescents in the western world, efforts aimed at preventing substance use and abuse have proliferated in the past ten years. Initial efforts were based on "health belief' approaches to curriculum development, emphasizing knowledge and attitude modification with the hope of behavioral change. Subsequent prevention programs included strategies for remediating skill deficits, primarily with respect to behaviors that would encourage resisting peer pressure to use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs. These strategies have been somewhat successful in preventing cigarette smoking, but have met with mixed results in drug and alcohol use prevention, and are currently untested in the prevention of smokeless tobacco use. What is missing in nearly all these strategies is direct manipulation of positive or negative consequences for the use or nonuse of substances. This paper reviews a variety of recent studies on prevention of drug and alcohol use and analyzes components of various preventive programs.


In adaptive ultrasound imaging, accurate estimation of the array covariance matrix is of great importance, and biases the performance of the adaptive beamformer. The more accurately the covariance matrix can be estimated, the better the resolution and contrast can be achieved in the ultrasound image. To this end, in this paper, we have used the forwardbackward spatial averaging for array covariance matrix estimation, which is then employed in minimum variance (MV) weights calculation. The performance of the proposed forwardbackward MV (FBMV) beamformer is tested on simulated data obtained using Field II. Data for two closely located point targets surrounded by speckle pattern are simulated showing the higher amplitude resolution of the FBMV beamformer in comparison to the forward-only (F-only) MV beamformers, without the need for diagonal loading. A circular cyst with a diameter of 6 mm and a phantom containing wire targets and two cysts with different diameters of 8 mm and 6 mm are also simulated. The simulations show that the FBMV beamformer, in contrast to the F-only MV, could estimate the background speckle statistics without the need for temporal smoothing, resulting in higher contrast for the FBMV-resulted image in comparison to the MV images. In addition, the effect of steering vector errors is investigated by applying an error of the sound speed estimate to the ultrasound data. The simulations show that the proposed FBMV beamformer presents a satisfactory robustness against data misalignment resulted from steering vector errors, outperforming the regularized F-only MV beamformer. These improvements are achieved without compromising the good resolution of the MV beamformer and resulted from more accurate estimation of the covariance matrix and consequently, the more accurate setting of the MV weights.


In the mid-nineteenth century, a new icon was added to the imagery of Englishness, alongside the established symbols of national identity such as Britannia and John Bull.1 By 1858, the Beefeaters at the Tower of London were established enough as national symbols to cause controversy when it was suggested that as well as their ceremonial red and gold uniforms, they should have a work-a-day (and less expensive) uniform for all but state duties. Within a few years, this new uniform had also taken its place in the national gallery of images and representations of the nation. This essay examines the Victorian period as an epoch of crisis and the response by the monarchy in creating a visual image of historical continuity based on loyalty to the Crown and constitution. By the end of the nineteenth century, the distinctive Tudor costume of the Yeoman Warders and their highly visible role at the Tower of London made them iconic symbols of national identity in Britain.


Background: Most MRI studies in Alzheimer's disease (AD) have focused on cortical and hippocampal atrophy. This study, however, examines regional volumetric and shape abnormalities of subcortical and limbic structures in AD.
Methods: Thirty-six patients with AD and 36 matched controls were included in the study. All subjects were right-handed, evaluated using standard clinical assessment scales and genotyped at ApoE locus. Structural T1- weighted images were acquired using 3 Tesla MRI. Vertex-wise shape analysis was performed, with age, gender and total brain volume used as covariates of no interest. Data on the volumes of the hippocampus, amygdala, caudate, putamen and thalamus were statistically analyzed.
Results: The bilateral hippocampus, amygdala, caudate, putamen and thalamus of AD patients were significantly lower in volume than controls. With respect to ApoE4 carrier status, there were no within-group volumetric differences in either AD or controls. Vertex-wise shape analysis of AD patients revealed significant surface reductions at the bilateral hippocampus, amygdala, caudate and putamen. No shape-wise difference was observed between ApoE4 carrier and non-carrier subjects in either group. Correlation analysis revealed a significant negative correlation between the Hindi mental status examination score, and shape analysis of atrophy of the hippocampus, caudate and putamen.
Conclusions: Significant volume reductions and shape differences were observed in subcortical and limbic structures in AD patients. The observed atrophy of neocortical and deep grey matter structures in AD patients indicates ongoing degenerative processes in the amygdala, caudate and putamen – similar to the hippocampus – which may contribute to cognitive and/or other clinical features in AD.


An 18 mm thick three-pass slot weld specimen in austenitic stainless steel, manufactured for the purpose of benchmarking Finite Element weld residual stress simulation codes, is currently undergoing extensive non-destructive characterization within a research network. First results from the non-destructive full three dimensional spatially resolved macro-strain mapping in this specimen are presented here. Focussed high-energy synchrotron radiation together with the spiral slit technique was used to obtain depth-resolved information about the variation of lattice parameters. The results show a strong concentration of tensile strain, transverse to the weld at mid-depth of the weld. The maximum longitudinal strains were observed beneath the weld. Furthermore significant weld start- and stop-effects were observed.


Understanding the motion behavior of dynamic environments is vital for autonomous driving, leading to increasing attention in class-agnostic motion prediction in LiDAR point clouds. Outdoor scenes can often be decomposed into mobile foregrounds and static backgrounds, which enables us to associate motion understanding with scene parsing. Based on this observation, we study a novel weakly supervised motion prediction paradigm, where fully or partially (1 %, 0.1%) annotated foreground/background binary masks are used for supervision, rather than using expensive motion annotations. To this end, we propose a two-stage weakly supervised approach, where the segmentation model trained with the incomplete binary masks in Stage1 will facilitate the self-supervised learning of the motion prediction network in Stage2 by estimating possible moving foregrounds in advance. Furthermore, for robust self-supervised motion learning, we design a Consistency-aware Chamfer Distance loss by exploiting multi-frame information and explicitly suppressing potential outliers. Comprehensive experiments show that, with fully or partially binary masks as supervision, our weakly supervised models surpass the self-supervised models by a large margin and perform on par with some supervised ones. This further demonstrates that our approach achieves a good compromise between annotation effort and performance.


Evidence for an intriguing pattern has recently emerged, that of higher-empathy individuals — who have shown prosocial and self-sacrificing behaviour in other contexts (Batson, 1991; Batson & Ahmad, 2001) — becoming retaliatory under threat, such that joint resources are destroyed and conflict escalates (Gilin Oore, Maddux, & Galinsky, 2008). We investigate this phenomenon by contrasting how trait perspective taking and empathy may restrain versus escalate conflict, respectively. Perceptions of relational conflict were reported by health care workers seeking services (including education, coaching, mediation) through a conflict training and resolution program. Preliminary results (n=64; data collection still in progress) replicate the expected patterns of empathy-escalation versus perspective taking-restraint under threat: Workers reported significantly higher relational conflict the higher their empathy levels, with negative emotions — a proxy for emotionality — trending toward mediation of the effect. In contrast, higher perspective takers showed lower relational conflict perceptions, mediated by cognitive flexibility. We develop hypotheses to guide future research regarding how empathizing with others may ironically lead to greater conflict escalation under threatening or distressing circumstances.


Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a perennial shrub from South America that produces steviol glycosides which are 200-300 times sweeter than sugar. Stevioside and rebaudioside A are the main sweetening components of its leaves. Steviol glycosides are diterpenoids whose biosynthetic pathways have four steps in common with gibberellic acid formation. The most important enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway expressed by the gene UGT76G1 is referred to as UDP-glycosyltransferase 76G1. It converts stevioside into rebaudioside A. The former has a bitter aftertaste and is a poorer sweetener but is most abundant. This enzyme can be produced in a next generation recombinant way by Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Trichoderma longibrachiatum produces the enzyme β-1,3-glucanase enzyme, which can perform a transglycosylation between stevioside to gain rebaudioside A. In our study, a full-factorial statistical experimental design that applies different glycosyl donors, temperatures, enzyme-to-substrate ratios and pH's as factors in order to achieve higher Reb A ratios in S. rebaudiana extracts after transglycosylation is reported. The presented statistical design was appropriate to indicate relevant and significant factors, providing a good basis for an upcoming experimental design of a real-world optimization.


Saving and growth are strongly positively correlated across countries. Recent empirical evidence suggests that this correlation holds largely because high growth leads to high saving, not the other way around. This evidence is difficult to reconcile with standard growth models, since forward-looking consumers with standard utility should save less in a fast-growing economy because they know they will be richer in the future than they are today. We show that if utility depends partly on how consumption compares to a 'habit stock' determined by past consumption, an otherwise-standard growth model can imply that increases in growth can cause increased saving. (JEL D91 E21 O40)


The clinical, immunopathologic, and virologic features of the lymphoproliferative diseases occurring after renal transplantation have been characterized. Clinically, patients may present with an infectious mononucleosislike illness or with localized solid tumor masses. These lymphoproliferative diseases have unique histologic features that can be classified as polymorphic diffuse B-cell hyperplasia (PDBH) or polymorphic B-cell lymphoma (PBL). Immunologic cell-typing studies have shown that the majority are polyclonal B-cell proliferations, but monoclonal B-cell tumors have also been documented. These B-cell proliferations may, however, evolve from a benign polyclonal B-cell hyperplasia to a monoclonal malignant lymphoma. The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been implicated as the cause of these disorders. Serologic studies frequently demonstrate evidence of a primary or reactivation infection, touch imprints from involved tissue may stain for the presence of EBNA (Epstein-Barr nuclear antigen), and EBV DNA hybridization studies demonstrate the presence of EBV-specific DNA sequences within tumor cells. Since EBV induces a polyclonal B-cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo, the polyclonality of these diseases also implicates EBV. Acyclovir, a new synthetic antiviral agent that inhibits EBV DNA replication may be effective in some patients during the polyclonal growth phase but is ineffective once the tumor evolves into a monoclonal lymphoma. We have identified several factors that may be useful in predicting responsiveness to acyclovir therapy.


Downey and Kirk's hypothesis that ventricular systole inhibits coronary blood flow by forming vascular waterfalls was examined in conscious chronically instrumented dogs by studying the effect of right ventricular systole on right coronary blood flow. Diastolic and systolic pressure-flow relations were constructed at resting-level flow and peak flow reactive hyperemia from phasic pressure and flow tracings recorded in nine dogs with right ventricular pressures ranging between 14 and 154 mmHg. Linear relations were found between aortic pressure and right coronary flow during diastolic and during systole when peak ventricular pressure was less than systemic. At resting-level flow and when peak ventricular pressure was less than one-half systemic, systole translated the diastolic relation to a higher zero-flow-intercept pressure and did not alter the slope of the relation. We interpret the data as showing that ventricular systole inhibits coronary blood flow by augmenting a vascular waterfall mechanism that exists during diastole.


Past analysis has shown that there is a quantifiable correlation between the amount, types and quality of systems engineering efforts used during a program and the success of the program. For any given program, an amount, type and quality of systems engineering effort can be selected from the quantified correlations. The optimal nature of these selections, however, has not yet been explored. An ongoing project, Systems Engineering Return on Investment (SE-ROI), aims to quantify the correlations by gathering data on current and completed programs. It is the purpose of this paper to advance an ontology that can support useful quantification of the desired correlations. This ontology is based on a review of current systems engineering standards, historical systems engineering activities, and data gathered on the COSYSMO and Value of Systems Engineering projects. In this paper, the ontology is further explored to create broadly-based definitions of key terms such as "systems engineering effort," "amount of effort," "type of effort," "quality," "success," and "optimum." The SE-ROI project is continuing to convert the ontology into a methodology for measuring Return on Investment. This measurement will yield more specific relationships between systems engineering activities, such as requirements management effort, and the cost/schedule compliance of the program. 1


Transpiration efficiency, the shoot biomass produced per unit of transpired water, is generally considered to be a constant property for a given crop in a given environment. To determine whether deep-banded organic amendments affect the transpiration efficiency (TE) of wheat plants and to provide a possible explanation for any changes in the TE, two-column experiments were carried out under controlled environment conditions. A Sodosol soil with physically constrained subsoils and a well-structured Vertosol were subjected to treatments including a control, fertilizer nutrients alone, and fertilizer-enriched organic amendments. The addition of fertilizer-enriched organic amendments in Sodosol consistently increased the canopy TE compared to the control and inorganic fertilizer treatments. The instantaneous TE, at the leaf level, was also increased by the organic-based amendments due to greater reductions in stomatal conductance and transpiration rates during periods of moderate water-deficit stress and the subsequent recovery from this stress. Shoot nitrogen (N) status could not explain the increases in TE following the addition of organic amendments relative to inorganic amendments. The increases in canopy TE were directly associated with increases in the absolute abundance of indigenous Bacillus (R2 = 0.92, p <0), a well-known genus comprising many strains of plant beneficial rhizobacteria, in subsoil below the amendment band. In contrast, there were no differences in the canopy TE and instantaneous leaf TE between the organic and fertilizer amendments in the Vertosol with a well-structured subsoil. The positive effect of organic amendments on TE in the Sodosol should be attributed to their direct or indirect effect on improving the physical structure or biological properties of the subsoil.


The inverse problem of reconstructing the acoustic, or electromagnetic, field from inexact measurements on a part of the boundary of a domain is important in applications, for instance for detecting the source of acoustic noise. The governing equation for the applications we consider is the Helmholtz equation. More precisely, in this thesis we study the case where Cauchy data is available on a part of the boundary and we seek to recover the solution in the whole domain. The problem is ill-posed in the sense that small errors in the Cauchy data may lead to large errors in the recovered solution. Thus special regularization methods that restore the stability with respect to measurements errors are used.In the thesis, we focus on iterative methods for solving the Cauchy problem. The methods are based on solving a sequence of well-posed boundary value problems. The specific choices for the boundary conditions used are selected in such a way that the sequence of solutions converges to the solution for the original Cauchy problem. For the iterative methods to converge, it is important that a certain bilinear form, associated with the boundary value problem, is positive definite. This is sometimes not the case for problems with a high wave number.The main focus of our research is to study certain modifications to the problem that restore positive definiteness to the associated bilinear form. First we add an artificial interior boundary inside the domain together with a jump condition that includes a parameter μ. We have shown by selecting an appropriate interior boundary and sufficiently large value for μ, we get a convergent iterative regularization method. We have proved the convergence of this method. This method converges slowly. We have therefore developed two conjugate gradient type methods and achieved much faster convergence. Finally, we have attempted to reduce the size of the computational domain by solving well–posed problems only in a strip between the outer and inner boundaries. We demonstrate that by alternating between Robin and Dirichlet conditions on the interior boundary, we can get a convergent iterative regularization method. Numerical experiments are used to illustrate the performance of the methods suggested.


The subject of this paper is the detection and mitigation of data injection attacks in randomized average consensus gossip algorithms. It is broadly known that the main advantages of randomized average consensus gossip are its fault tolerance and distributed nature. Unfortunately, the flat architecture of the algorithm also increases the attack surface for a data injection attack. Even though we cast our problem in the context of sensor network security, the attack scenario is identical to existing models for opinion dynamics (the so-called DeGroot model) with stubborn agents steering the opinions of the group toward a final state that is not the average of the network initial states. We specifically propose two novel strategies for detecting and locating attackers and study their detection and localization performance numerically and analytically. Our detection and localization methods are completely decentralized and, therefore, nodes can directly act on their conclusions and stop receiving information from nodes identified as attackers. As we show by simulation, the network can often recover in this fashion, leveraging the resilience of randomized gossiping to reduced network connectivity.


Hematopoiesis first arises during early embryogenesis when passive diffusion of oxygen and nutrients becomes insufficient to support the developing organism. Early hematopoietic development is largely focused on the production of red blood cells and tightly linked to concomitant vascular development. As a result of their coordinated functions, both the hematopoietic and cardiovascular systems are essential for fetal survival, unlike other organ systems. Beyond these initial functions, the fetal hematopoietic system evolves to generate a diverse output of mature elements, including erythrocytes, platelets, macrophages, other myeloid cells, innate lymphocytes, as well as T and B lymphocytes arising from progenitors that have gained the capacity to rearrange antigen receptor genes. During fetal life, subsets of hematopoietic progenitors acquire long-term self-renewal potential as assessed after transplantation into lethally irradiated hosts, a functional property that has been used historically to define hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) (1-4).


Objectives: (1) To examine toddler sleep in a low-income sample by comparing sleep diaries and actigraphy and (2) to assess whether toddlers are meeting the National Sleep Foundation recommendations (11–14 hours of sleep/24 hours and bedtime before 9 PM). Methods: A convenience sample of mother-toddler dyads was recruited from 2 health care sites serving low-income communities. An actigraph was placed on the toddler's ankle and was worn for 3 days and nights. Mothers concurrently completed a sleep diary. Bedtime, nighttime sleep duration, nap duration, and 24-hour sleep duration were collected by both measures. Actigraphy data were analyzed using a combination of manufacturer's scoring algorithm and manual editing. Descriptive statistics and paired samples t-tests were conducted to examine the differences between sleep estimates by a sleep diary and actigraphy. Results: Twenty toddlers (aged 13–42 months) were included in the analyses. Based on actigraphy, 1 toddler went to bed by 9 PM on all 3 nights. Six toddlers achieved 11 to 14 hours of sleep measured in a 24-hour period for 1 of the 3 days, but when sleep was averaged across the study, none achieved this goal. Compared with actigraphy, sleep diaries underestimated bedtime by 1 hour, overestimated nighttime sleep duration by 2.5 hours, and overestimated 24-hour sleep duration by 2.3 hours, on average for all 3 nights. Conclusion: Mothers reported significantly earlier bedtimes and longer sleep durations for their toddlers compared with actigraphy, suggesting that objective measures differ from sleep diaries in assessing sleep in toddlers from low-income families. Findings should not be generalized to populations of low-income families without replication.


We study effects of nonmagnetic impurities in a spin-1/2 frustrated triangular antiferromagnet with the aim of understanding the observed broadening of 13C NMR lines in the organic spin liquid material κ-(ET)2Cu2(CN)3. For high temperatures down to J/3, we calculate local susceptibility near a nonmagnetic impurity and near a grain boundary for the nearest-neighbor Heisenberg model in high-temperature series expansion. We find that the local susceptibility decays to the uniform one in few lattice spacings, and for a low density of impurities we would not be able to explain the line broadening present in the experiments already at elevated temperatures. At low temperatures, we assume a gapless spin liquid with a Fermi surface of spinons. We calculate the local susceptibility in the mean field and also go beyond the mean field by Gutzwiller projection. The zero-temperature local susceptibility decays as a power law and oscillates at 2kF. As in the high-temperature analysis we find that a low density of impurities is not able to explain the observed broadening of the lines. We are thus led to conclude that there is more disorder in the system. We find that a large density of pointlike disorder gives broadening that is consistent with the experiment down to about 5 K, but that below this temperature additional mechanism is likely needed.


After 14 years of civil war and violence followed by the momentous and rather unusual elections of 2005, in which a woman defeated a footballer for the presidency, Liberia has seen over six years of state reconstruction and relative peace. Two recent announcements have, however, served as a warning to the extent of progress. The most recent is President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's declaration that she will, despite previous statements to the contrary, stand for re-election in 2011 due to shortcomings in progress. The announcement preceding Johnson- Sirleaf's was made in the form of the report of the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It recommended that Johnson-Sirleaf, and indeed many others accused of involvement in the war, should be barred from public office for the next 30 years, and still more should stand trial on charges of war crimes. Four important questions arise. First, what was the mandate and findings of the TRC? Second, how has Liberia and the wider international community reacted to the final report? Third, has the TRC fulfilled its mandate and contributed to a process of reconciliation? Finally, and in a much broader sense, where does the TRC stand relative to the much wider liberal peace model? Key words: Liberia, truth, reconciliation, peacebuilding


Abstract The decision of the South African Constitutional Court in Shilubana and Others v Nwamitwa ([2008] ZACC 9 (CC), the Shilubana case) appears to herald a more sympathetic understanding of customary law, but it also reveals the fact that customary law applies exclusively to the black community in South Africa while other racial communities are imagined and protected in terms of the rights in sections 30 and 31 of the Final Constitution (FC). This paper contends that this distinction is not only wrong but of no significant difference. It is further contended that protection of all racial communities should proceed on the basis of sections 30 and 31 of the FC because the framework of these two sections appears better suited for the protection of all communities if South African courts show a more sympathetic understanding of communal norms and institutions. This comment argues that the Shilubana case is a tentative but welcome example of this trend. In the case the CC upheld a decision of the Valoyi Tribe to appoint a woman as a traditional leader. This was a development of its customary law of traditional succession that had hitherto operated on the basis of male primogeniture. In recognizing a gender neutral traditional leadership institution, the Court demonstrated that institutions established by communal norms can exist and function on the basis of equality and other rights which are the hallmarks of a liberal constitution. With reference to that decision this comment undertakes an overview of group rights in the FC. It considers the exclusive association of customary law with the 'black' community and questions whether this association has enhanced the group rights of the black community. It assesses the interpretation of the rights of members of cultural, linguistic and religious communities under sections 30 and 31 of the FC as interpreted in the Shilubana case and other cases to ascertain how far they advance group rights. It concludes by urging a unified interpretation of 'communities' and a more beneficial interpretation of 'group rights' that recognizes that all racial groups have their own customary laws and deserve a more sensitive recognition of their communal norms.


Although whooping cough no longer carries a high mortality, symptoms may persist for several months so that both the child and its family suffer weeks of anxiety and disturbed sleep.1 The prevalence and severity of the disease have declined since the turn of the century. Publicity about the adverse effects of whooping cough vaccination steeply reduced the uptake of immunisation in England and Wales - from 78% in 1971 to 37% in 1974.2 The subsequent epidemics of whooping cough in 1977–79 and 1982–83 were the largest since vaccination began. The epidemic which started in September 1985 could well be of similar magnitude. The uptake of immunisation has now somewhat improved and is currently about 65% (information from Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre). This article discusses whether antibiotics can help in whooping cough, either in treatment of the illness or preventing its spread.


We consider approaches for similarity search in correlated, high-dimensional data sets, which are derived within a clustering framework. We note that indexing by "vector approximation" (VA-File), which was proposed as a technique to combat the "Curse of Dimensionality," employs scalar quantization, and hence necessarily ignores dependencies across dimensions, which represents a source of suboptimality. Clustering, on the other hand, exploits interdimensional correlations and is thus a more compact representation of the data set. However, existing methods to prune irrelevant clusters are based on bounding hyperspheres and/or bounding rectangles, whose lack of tightness compromises their efficiency in exact nearest neighbor search. We propose a new cluster-adaptive distance bound based on separating hyperplane boundaries of Voronoi clusters to complement our cluster based index. This bound enables efficient spatial filtering, with a relatively small preprocessing storage overhead and is applicable to euclidean and Mahalanobis similarity measures. Experiments in exact nearest-neighbor set retrieval, conducted on real data sets, show that our indexing method is scalable with data set size and data dimensionality and outperforms several recently proposed indexes. Relative to the VA-File, over a wide range of quantization resolutions, it is able to reduce random IO accesses, given (roughly) the same amount of sequential IO operations, by factors reaching 100X and more.


Traumatic anterior dislocation of the hip is rare even in children. Very uncommon also is the perineal variant of the inferior type of anterior dislocation with concomitant avulsion fracture of the greater trochanter. We report such a case highlighting the peculiarity of its management. No similar case of triumvirate injury of the hip has been reported in sub Saharan West Africa. Open reduction of the hip under general anaesthesia was done after two failed attempts at close reduction.
One year after, radiograph of the hip showed no deformity of the head of femur nor evidence of avascular necrosis.
 Keywords : Child, anterior hip dislocation, trochanteric, avulsion fracture, perineal Nigerian Journal of Surgical Sciences Vol. 16 (2) 2006: pp. 68-71


One of the most discussed questions in WAD is: can an injury of the cervical spine occur in low velocity collisions? Before this question can be answered, the term 'low velocity' and the kind of collisions must first be defined. From the study of Meyer et al. (1994) it is known that the speed change due to collision, Dv, is a suitable parameter to express the biomechanical stress acting on a person in a car collision. This study also showed that from a biomechanical point of view, a bumper car collision is comparable to a normal car collision. In the case of a rear-end collision, Meyer et al. found that the biomechanical stress acting on persons exposed to bumper car collisions (Dv) at a fun fair in Germany can be as high as 15 km/h. In literature, one case could be found of an 8-year-old girl with 'whiplash' after being exposed to a bumper car collision at a fun fair (Kamieth 1990). In the Netherlands, a 13-year survey of persons who were admitted to emergency units of hospitals by the 'Consument en Veiligheid' foundation, showed 14 persons with WAD complaints after being exposed to bumper car collisions at a fun fair. In comparison to the enormous amounts of bumper car collisions, these figures are negligible. With regard to these data, one could argue that low velocity collisions can be defined as those where Dv is below 15 km/h. However, it should be noted that the kind of collision is important. From the work of Becke et al. (1999) and Becke and Castro (2000), we know that in side collisions with a Dv of just 3 km/h, head contact with the side window of the car is possible; it can be expected that in such cases the cervical spine will also be exposed to some biomechanical stress (notice however, that not every head contact is automatically equal to an injury of the cervical spine!). In conclusion, before using expressions like 'low velocity collisions', its definition with regard to Dv as well as the kind of collision, has to be discussed. With regard to the most common collisions that causes WAD, rear-end collisions, low velocity collisions can arguably be defined as collisions where Dv is below 15 km/h (this is for clarity, and does not mean that those collisions can not cause symptoms; this will be discussed later!).


This is the first of two articles discussing the status of Palestinian women after the 2006 Hamas electoral victory. The other article is entitled The Future of Palestinian Women's Rights: Lessons from a Half-Century of Tunisian Progress, 64 Wash & Lee L. Rev. 1551 (2007). The unexpected parliamentary electoral victory by the Islamist party Hamas in January 2006 shocked the world. This article speculates about how one aspect of Palestinian society may change in the long term under a Hamas-dominated regime - women's rights. Since Hamas is an Islamic organization, it may incorporate Islamic Shari'a law into the Palestinian legal system more broadly than the previous more secular government led by the Fatah party. Part I describes selected aspects of the current legal status of Palestinian women in the areas of custom and religious practices. Part II examines the relevant constitutive documents as they relate to gender equality: The Basic Law of Palestine, and the draft constitution. Part III details the role of Hamas in the new Palestinian government and speculates briefly how Hamas' policies will influence Palestinian constitutionalism, including women's rights. The part provides an overview of Islamist movements in general and places Hamas within the wider spectrum of such movements across the Middle East. Then, it examines the history of Hamas as a political organization. Next, it explores Hamas' political position in part by looking at its Electoral Platform drafted for the fall 2005 campaign. Part IV provides some suggestions with respect to changing the Basic Law or the Draft Constitution to enhance women's rights. Due to the ongoing violence in the region, it is unlikely that these proposals will be considered at this time.


The inclined surface cracks are under the mixed mode I,II,III loading conditions. In order to study the surface crack growth the stress intensity factors of the front of half-circular surface crack are calculated according to fracture analysis code-3D(FRANC3D). And the influences of inclination angle of the surface crack and the orientation angle on I,II,III mode stress intensity factors were analyzed. I mode stress intensity factor increases along the crack front with increasing inclination angle. And I mode stress intensity factor of the same inclination angle is symmetrical with respect to the orientation angle of 90 degree. II,III mode stress intensity factors are the maximum when the inclination angle is equal to 45 degree. And the behavior of II,III mode stress intensity factors along crack front for the inclination angle of 15 and 30 degree is identical with that of inclination angle of 75 and 60 degree, respectively.


A "stage-1" intercalated film has been made by the ion exchange of "cationic C60" (pyrrolidinium-functionalised C60, C60(Py)n+) into centimetre-wide, micrometre-thick air-dried graphene oxide (G-O) films composed of tens of thousands of layers of stacked/overlapping G-O platelets, denoted [C60(Py)n+]G-O films. Spontaneous intercalation by ion exchange of one layer of cationic C60 between adjacent G-O layers expands the interlayer spacing of the films from 0.74 nm to 1.46 nm. The films remain intact in water and various organic solvents, which is likely due to a strong affinity between C60(Py)n+ and G-O. Membranes made of the films showed a 6.8 times faster water vapour permeation rate (allowing the vapour to transport through the membrane almost freely) and a 10.5 times faster liquid water permeation rate than G-O membranes. Heating the films at 2000 °C under applied pressure or at 2700 °C without physical confinement converted them into highly graphitised structures.


Regenerative potential is expressed to a maximum extent in echinoderms. It is a commonphenomenon in all the classes, extensively employed to reconstruct external appendages and internalorgans often subjected to amputation, self-induced or traumatic, rapidly followed by completesuccessful re-growth of the lost parts. Regeneration has been studied in adult individuals as well as inlarvae. In armed echinoderms, regeneration of arms is obviously frequent: in many cases, the detached body fragments can undergo phenomena of partial or total regeneration independently of the donor animal, and, in a few cases (asteroids), the individual autotomised arms can even regenerate to produce new complete adults, offering superb examples of cloning strategies. In the species examined so far most results throw light on aspects related to wound healing, growth, morphogenesis and differentiation, even though in most cases many crucial questions remain unanswered. The present paper provides an overview of the current understanding of the phenomenon and covers the main biological aspects of regeneration giving an idea of the "state of the art" across the phylum in terms of experimental approaches and representative models.


THERE are many instances in literature of characters stepping out of the books which create them. What I mean is that many people recognise and know about Robinson Crusoe, Oliver Twist, or Peter Pan who have certainly never read the stories in which they feature. Another example is Aslan, who is widely known to be a lion and can perhaps be associated with Narnia even though little else about the Narnian Chronicles may be known. Nor is there likely to be much argument that he is the dominant character in the Narnian tales. C. S. Lewis always resisted making any simple equation that Aslan is Jesus Christ. In his first novel, The Pilgrim's Regress, he came closest to allegory but he spent the remainder of his prolific career retreating from anything so explicit. He discussed the specific case of Narnia on several occasions in his letters. For example, on May 29, 1954, he wrote to some fifth-graders: You are mistaken when you think that everything in the books 'represents' something in this world. Things do that in The Pilgrim's Progress but I'm not writing in that way. I did not say to myself 'Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia': I said 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as He became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would have happened.' If you think about it, you will see that it is quite a different thing. (Hooper 425) Although allegory is disavowed, Aslan is clearly a character redolent of divinity and with godlike connotations. This is explicitly reinforced by Lewis when, less than a month after writing to the fifth-graders, on June 19, he replied, when the idea of a cartoon version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was suggested to him: "I am sure you understand that Aslan is a divine figure, and anything remotely approaching the comic (above all anything in the Disney line) would be to me simple blasphemy" (438). It is obvious that C. S. Lewis took the character of Aslan very seriously and intended that he should be suggestive of the Christian Son of God. Consequently as a writer he placed himself under extraordinary constraints in depicting such a character when inappropriate treatment would apparently be construed by him as blasphemy. It is interesting therefore to study Aslan's appearances and speech in the Narnian Chronicles and to consider the special ways in which he is presented. Given his dominance in the reader's memory of the tales, it may come as a surprise to realise that Aslan's appearances are actually strictly limited: (1) Number of pages in book Magician's 9-171 Lion 9-171 Horse 11-175 Prince 11-190 Voyage 7-189 Silver 9-191 Last 7-172 Pages where Aslan is physically present Magician's 108-71 Lion 117-65 Horse 128-72 Prince 124-87 Voyage 123-88 Silver 23-27, 186-89 Last 139-71 What is immediately evident is that Aslan is actually present in the stories relatively little--at most for one third of the novel, but more often for much less. Of course, for a number of these pages even though he is present, he may be taking little part in what is happening. On the other hand, during the substantial parts of the tales where he is not present, he is often referred to and spoken of, so that he is never forgotten about for long. However, what the table above also shows is that Aslan's appearances are, with one exception, reserved for the final stages of each story. The Chronicles have an essentially simple structure and Aslan is used right at the very end to sort things out and to bring closure, a deus ex excelsis rather than a deus ex machina. The sole exception is The Silver Chair, a quest story where Aslan sets the children off on their journey, giving Jill Pole four signs to guide them, their ultimate successful completion of the quest being rewarded by Aslan's re-appearance to provide some final assistance. …


This paper considers the nature of Polish foreign trade, both before and after the economic transformation in 1989. The paper discusses the context of trade within the COMECON and state central planning systems, which confined trade to specially designated foreign trade organizations (FTOs) and placed it under the direction of the bureaucracy or nomenklatura. The paper discusses the impetus for reform that occurred after 1989 in the Balcerowicz Plan, its major macro strategies, the derivative traits of the command-and-control economy, and the concrete actions undertaken in the economy as a whole and specifically in the conduct of foreign trade. The paper considers these issues within two important "change†contexts: Poland's impending membership in the European Union and the virtual collapse of the Soviet Union's market and its currency which brought about significant currency exchange difficulties. The paper concludes with a discussion of the positive changes that have occurred in Polish trade in both imports and exports in the context of developed, EU, and developing nations.


In order to estimate and predict the screw performance in the process of machining, a screw life monitoring system was built. Current signal was processed and features sensitive to cutting force were selected, a virtual force sensor was constructed to model the relation between cutting force and current by BPNN. Cutting force was indirectly calculated by the model, so the rating life of screw in different condition could be known and residual life also be reckoned by historical database. A three-way vibration sensor was installed on screw pair base; screw condition could be induced by HMM which input was 15 vibration signal features. As machining condition changed, corresponding new HMM would be built by adaptive method. Finally, the residual life of screw could be gotten by multi-HMM and BPNN. The experimental results show the model proposed in the paper is effective and high precision.


Abstract Recently more trans characters, even as main protagonists, star in film and media representations, perhaps in tandem with an increased recognition of trans rights globally. In this article we argue that the visual and aural grammars of cinema perform a double movement of inclusion and elision, making for a fascinating if utterly frustrating uptake of trans presence that is at once, perforce, also an absence. Our case study of the Rayon character in Dallas Buyers Club is an example of a recent sexualized representation of trans femininity. Our textual analysis will deconstruct this character's presence and absence on the level of the film's aesthetical and technical aspects demonstrating how cinematic grammar implicates cisgenderism.