Respiratory infectious diseases are mainly caused by viruses or bacteria that often interact with one another. Although their presence is a prerequisite for subsequent infections, viruses and bacteria may be present in the nasopharynx without causing any respiratory symptoms. The upper respiratory tract hosts a vast range of commensals and potential pathogenic bacteria, which form a complex microbial community. This community is assumed to be constantly subject to synergistic and competitive interspecies interactions. Disturbances in the equilibrium, for instance due to the acquisition of new bacteria or viruses, may lead to overgrowth and invasion. A better understanding of the dynamics between commensals and pathogens in the upper respiratory tract may provide better insight into the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases. Here we review the current knowledge regarding specific bacterial–bacterial and viral–bacterial interactions that occur in the upper respiratory niche, and discuss mechanisms by which these interactions might be mediated. Finally, we propose a theoretical model to summarize and illustrate these mechanisms.


The U.S. and Mexico have been neighbors for more than two centuries. Despite intermittent attempts by Mexico to distance itself from the US out of a concern of US protectionism and its political, cultural and economic hegemony, a process of progressive economic and social integration has taken place among the two countries which expresses itself in high levels of trade, financial and labor flows. By 2001 some analysts and think tanks believed that sufficient progress had been achieved to propose a greater intensification of economic and social relations and even the creation of a North American Community. Multiple factors, however, have combined to dramatically transform the context of the relationship. The US and Mexico face a critical juncture in their economic, security, and social relations created by the US embarkation on a global War on International Terrorism after September 11, 2001, a sudden increase in levels of drug trade-related violence in Mexico, the US financial crisis stimulated by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, challenges thrown up by the dramatic reach of the economic globalization process, failed efforts to integrate the Western Hemisphere, and the need to incorporate new social forces as a result of the beginning of democratization in Mexico and its further development in the U.S. Will the policies adopted by each country to address these challenges lead to further cooperation and deepening of economic and social integration or is the progress previously achieved likely to derail?


HIV genetic variability, phylogenetic relationships, and transmission dynamics were analyzed in 26 HIV-infected patients from Lebanon. Twenty-five specimens were identified as HIV-1 and one as HIV-2 subtype B. The 25 strains were classified into six env-C2-V3 HIV-1 subtypes: B (n = 10), A (n = 11), C (n = 1), D (n = 1), G (n = 1), and unclassifiable. Potential recombinants combining parts of viral regions from different subtypes Aenv/Dpol/Agag, Genv/Apol, and the unclassifiable-subtype(env)/unclassifiable-subtype(pol)/Agag were found in three patients. Epidemiologic analysis of travel histories and behavioral risks indicated that HIV-1 and HIV-2 subtypes reflected HIV strains prevalent in countries visited by patients or their sex partners. Spread of complex HIV-subtype distribution patterns to regions where HIV is not endemic may be more common than previously thought. Blood screening for both HIV-1 and HIV-2 in Lebanon is recommended to protect the blood supply. HIV subtype data provide information for vaccine development.


Speech enhancement is an important front-end technique to improve automatic speech recognition (ASR) in noisy environments. However, the wrong noise suppression of speech enhancement often causes additional distortions in speech signals, which degrades the ASR performance. To compensate the distortions, ASR needs to consider the uncertainty of enhanced features, which can be achieved by using the expectation of ASR decoding/training process with respect to the probabilistic representation of input features. However, unlike the Gaussian mixture model, it is difficult for Deep Neural Network (DNN) to deal with this expectation analytically due to the nonlinear activations. This paper proposes efficient Monte-Carlo approximation methods for this expectation calculation to realize DNN based uncertainty decoding and training. It first models the uncertainty of input features with linear interpolation between original and enhanced feature vectors with a random interpolation coefficient. By sampling input features based on this stochastic process in training, DNN can learn to generalize the variations of enhanced features. Our method also samples input features in decoding, and integrates multiple recognition hypotheses obtained from the samples. Experiments on the reverberated noisy speech recognition tasks (the second CHiME and REVERB challenges) show the effectiveness of our techniques.


A haploid asexual phase predominates life cycle in Mucorales, but adverse extrinsic factors along with darkness promote "sexual communication". Little is known about the physiological functions of the enzymes and products involved in the sexual phase. We hypothesise that each of the intermediate trisporoid has a specific regulatory function upon the genes linked to sex pheromone production. Real-time quantitative PCR kinetics conducted in Blakeslea trispora (Choanephoraceae), displayed a high transcriptional upregulation during sexual phase for carotenoid cleavage dioxygenase gene tsp3. In Mucor circinelloides f. lusitanicus (Mucoraceae), two putative carotenoid cleavage oxygenases (CarS and AcaA) were identified based on phylogeny and amino acid sequence similarity. Unlike Blakeslea, during sex, Mucor had no significant transcriptional up regulation for carotenoid cleavage oxygenases. CrgA, a repressor of carotenogenesis, has no regulatory function on carotenoid cleavage as transcript levels of carS or acaA were on par among wild type Mucor (-) and its crgA mutant. Heterologous co-expression of TSP3 with β-carotene overproducing plasmid through in vivo enzyme assay and LC-MS analysis led to the identification of β-apo-12'- carotenal, as first apocarotenoid in Blakeslea. Trisporin C stimulated gene transcription in Mucor (-) and had no impact upon Blakeslea. Supplementation of the first C18 trisporoid, β-apo-13-carotenone (D'orenone), entailed a positive feedback regulation on carRP/carRA and acaA/tsp3 gene expression in Mucor (-) and Blakeslea (+). Our data supports the hypothesis that mode of action of trisporoids varies among genotypes and growth phases which in turn lead to the concept of "specific chemical dialect". We successfully detected sex hormone and its highly abundant precursor β-carotene in the gametangial phase in M. mucedo (Mucoraceae) by a non-invasive, novel approach of Coherent anti- Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS).


Genome duplication requires not only unwinding of the template but also the displacement of proteins bound to the template, a function performed by replicative helicases located at the fork. However, accessory helicases are also needed since the replicative helicase stalls occasionally at nucleoprotein complexes. In Escherichia coli, the primary and accessory helicases DnaB and Rep translocate along the lagging and leading strand templates, respectively, interact physically and also display cooperativity in the unwinding of model forked DNA substrates. We demonstrate here that this cooperativity is displayed only by Rep and not by other tested helicases. ssDNA must be exposed on the leading strand template to elicit this cooperativity, indicating that forks blocked at protein–DNA complexes contain ssDNA ahead of the leading strand polymerase. However, stable Rep–DnaB complexes can form on linear as well as branched DNA, indicating that Rep has the capacity to interact with ssDNA on either the leading or the lagging strand template at forks. Inhibition of Rep binding to the lagging strand template by competition with SSB might therefore be critical in targeting accessory helicases to the leading strand template, indicating an important role for replisome architecture in promoting accessory helicase function at blocked replisomes.


Triamcinolone acetonide loaded in poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3 hydroxyhexanoate) (PHBHx) microspheres were prepared to treat cystoid macular oedema (CMO) and acute posterior segment inflammation associated with uveitis. The PHBHx microspheres were prepared by solvent evaporation technique using methylene chloride as the solvent and aqueous poly(vinyl alcohol) emulsifier as the dispersion medium. The PHBHx microspheres obtained were well formed with narrow size distribution; the average size prepared ranged from 40—200 μm depending on the formulation used. The stirring rate of the dispersion medium, emulsifier concentration, and polymer/solvent ratio parameters were varied to determine their effect on the size and size distribution of the PHBHx microspheres. Increasing the stirring rate and emulsifier concentration decreased the size and the size distribution of the microspheres, while increasing the polymer/solvent ratio caused the opposite effect. The polymer/drug ratio was the most effective parameter for controlling drug loading and release properties. More than 90% of the loaded drug was released within the first 24 h; after that, the release rate was slower for all formulations.


Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous group of cells, which can suppress the immune response, promote tumor progression and impair the efficacy of immunotherapies. Consequently, the pharmacological targeting of MDSC is emerging as a new immunotherapeutic strategy to stimulate the natural anti-tumor immune response and potentiate the efficacy of immunotherapies. Herein, we leveraged genetically modified models and a small molecule inhibitor to validate Calcium-Calmodulin Kinase Kinase 2 (CaMKK2) as a druggable target to control MDSC accumulation in tumor-bearing mice. The results indicated that deletion of CaMKK2 in the host attenuated the growth of engrafted tumor cells, and this phenomenon was associated with increased antitumor T cell response and decreased accumulation of MDSC. The adoptive transfer of MDSC was sufficient to restore the ability of the tumor to grow in Camkk2-/- mice, confirming the key role of MDSC in the mechanism of tumor rejection. In vitro studies indicated that blocking of CaMKK2 is sufficient to impair the yield of MDSC. Surprisingly, MDSC generated from Camkk2-/- bone marrow cells also showed a higher ability to terminally differentiate toward more immunogenic cell types (e.g inflammatory macrophages and dendritic cells) compared to wild type (WT). Higher intracellular levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulated in Camkk2-/- MDSC, increasing their susceptibility to apoptosis and promoting their terminal differentiation toward more mature myeloid cells. Mechanistic studies indicated that AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is a known CaMKK2 proximal target controlling the oxidative stress response, fine-tunes ROS accumulation in MDSC. Accordingly, failure to activate the CaMKK2-AMPK axis can account for the elevated ROS levels in Camkk2-/- MDSC. These results highlight CaMKK2 as an important regulator of the MDSC lifecycle, identifying this kinase as a new druggable target to restrain MDSC expansion and enhance the efficacy of anti-tumor immunotherapy.


Task scheduling in Grid becomes more complicated when user demands different QoS. In this paper, we have proposed QoS Guided Weighted Mean Time Min-Min Max-Min Selective heuristic for QoS based task scheduling. The heuristic takes single QoS parameter as requirements of tasks for deciding the match between resources and tasks. The heuristic also considers the performance of resources for scheduling. We have evaluated the heuristic in GridSim, for different task scenarios. The results are obtained and compared with other heuristics like Min-Min, Max-Min, QoS Guided Min-Min, Weighted Mean Time Min-Min Max-Min Selective. The results of the proposed heuristic are better for makespan, resource utilization and resource load balancing than other above mentioned heuristics.


Guanylate cyclases play an essential role in the recovery of vertebrate photoreceptor cells after light activation. Here, we have investigated how one such guanylate cyclase, RetGC-1, is distributed within light- and dark-adapted rod photoreceptor cells. Guanylate cyclase activity partitioned with the photoreceptor outer segment (OS) cytoskeleton in a light-sensitive manner. RetGC-1 was found to bind actin filaments in actin blot overlays, suggesting a mechanism for its association with the OS cytoskeleton. In retinal sections, this enzyme was immunodetected only in the OSs, where it appeared to be distributed throughout the disk membranes.


This paper presents an application of a mechanism that provides incentives to promote transmission network expansion in the electricity system of the Ontario province. Such a mechanism combines a merchant approach with a regulatory approach. It is based on the rebalancing of a two-part tariff within the framework of a wholesale electricity market with nodal pricing. The expansion of the network is carried out through auctions of financial transmission rights for congested links. The mechanism is tested for a simplified transmission grid with ten interconnected zones, ten nodes, eleven lines and seventy eight generators in the Ontario province. The simulation is carried out for both peak and non-peak scenarios. Considering Laspeyres weights, the results show that that prices converge to the marginal cost of generation, the congestion rent decreases, and the total social welfare increases.


Volatility forecasting is an imperative research field in financial markets and crucial component in most financial decisions. Nevertheless, which model should be used to assess volatility remains a complex issue as different volatility models result in different volatility approximations. The concern becomes more complicated when one tries to use the forecasting for asset distribution and risk management purposes in the linked regional markets. This paper aims at observing the effectiveness of the contending models of statistical and econometric volatility forecasting in the three South-east Asian prominent capital markets, i.e. STI, KLSE, and JKSE. In this paper, we evaluate eleven different models based on two classes of evaluation measures, i.e. symmetric and asymmetric error statistics, following Kumar's (2006) framework. We employ 10-year data as in sample and 6-month data as out of sample to construct and test the models, consecutively. The resulting superior methods, which are selected based on the out of sample forecasts and some evaluation measures in the respective markets, are then used to assess the markets cointegration. We find that the best volatility forecasting models for JKSE, KLSE, and STI are GARCH (2,1), GARCH(3,1), and GARCH (1,1), respectively. We also find that international portfolio investors cannot benefit from diversification among these three equity markets as they are cointegrated.


The information space, where information is generated, stored, exchanged and discussed, is not idyllic but a space where campaigns of disinformation and destabilization are conducted. Such campaigns are subsumed under the terms "hybrid warfare" and "information warfare" (Woolley and Howard, 2017). In order to enable awareness of them, we propose an information state dashboard comprising various components/apps for data collection, analysis and visualization. The aim of the dashboard is to support an analyst in generating a common operational picture of the information space, link it with an operational picture of the physical space and, thus, contribute to overarching situational awareness. The dashboard is work in progress. However, a first prototype with components for exploiting elementary language statistics, keyword and metadata analysis, text classification and network analysis has been implemented. Further components, in particular, for event extraction and sentiment analysis are under development. As a demonstration case, we briefly discuss the analysis of historical data regarding violent anti-migrant protests and respective counter-protests that took place in Chemnitz in 2018.


Ficotylus laselvae n. sp. was recovered from under the bracts of figs (syconia) of Ficus colubrinae from La Selva, Costa Rica, during a survey of nematode rainforest biodiversity and is described herein. This is only the second report of an association between the nematode suborder Tylenchina and the sycones of figs. Previous reports of most nematode associates of the sycones of figs have been from the lumen and involved transmission by female fig wasp pollinators (Agaonidae) during pollination/oviposition (e.g., Schistonchus and Parasitodiplogaster spp.). The association between F. laselvae n. sp. and Ficus colubrinae may involve an invertebrate host, but none was recovered from dissections of the bracts during this study. It is also possible that this is a rainforest understory nematode that feeds ectoparasitically in protected areas on the aerial parts of F. colubrinae. Molecular analysis using near-full-length sequences of the small subunit (SSU) rRNA and D2-D3 expansion segments of the large subunit (LSU) rRNA genes of Ficotylus laselvae n. sp. suggests that it is a member of the suborder Tylenchina (infraorder: Tylenchomorpha; family: Anguinidae) and that the closest sequenced species is F. congestae from the lumen of sycones of Ficus congesta from Queensland, Australia. Although both nematode species are associated with figs, they are morphologically divergent, suggesting that the different micro-niches that they fill provide different selective pressures for evolution of differing morphological characters or they represent different life history morphotypes of a dicyclic genus.


A brain-computer interface (BCI) is a communication system that translates brain activity into commands for computers or other devices. In other words, BCIs create a new communication channel between the brain and an output device by bypassing conventional motor output pathways consisting of nerves and muscles. This is particularly useful for facilitating communication for people suffering from paralysis. Due to the low bit rate, it takes much more time to translate brain activity into commands. Especially it takes much time to input characters by using BCI-based typewriters. In this paper, we propose a brain-operated typewriter which is accelerated by a language prediction model. The proposed system uses three kinds of strategies to improve the entry speed: word completion, next-syllable prediction, and next word prediction. We found that the entry speed of BCI-based typewriter improved about twice as much through our demonstration which utilized the language prediction model.


Abstract As individuals' relationships with information technology (IT) grow more complex and personal, our understanding of the problem of resistance to IT continues to evolve. Current approaches to resistance are based on perceived threats to work tasks and social structure. This work enhances our understanding of resistance by developing a definition and measure of the IT Identity Threat, a new construct that integrates social, task-related, and personal factors of resistance. Grounded in identity theory, the IT Identity Threat offers a parsimonious means to explain and predict IT resistance behaviors. Using data from two independent studies conducted among students and faculty at a large university in the Southeastern United States, we validate an operational measure of IT Identity Threat as a second-order construct and demonstrate that it successfully predicts resistance to IT. Our findings provide support for the IT Identity Threat construct as a simple mechanism to study resistance to IT.


Abstract. The presence of molecular iodine in the atmosphere is thought to have implications for both climate and human nutritional health, but measurement of the gas at low concentrations requires technically demanding techniques that are not widely accessible. Here, amylose coated denuder tubes and solvent traps coupled with spectrophotometric detection are evaluated and compared as relatively cheap and straightforward methods to measure gaseous molecular iodine at environmentally relevant concentrations. Denuder tubes were found to give unacceptably low and highly variable recoveries of molecular iodine from a test gas source, with values ranging from 1 to 62%. Blank concentrations were also high, being equivalent to a gas phase concentration of 5 pptv under typical operating conditions. Ethanol and hexane solvent traps gave much better performance. Optimisation of the hexane solvent trap method gave 100% recovery and an atmospheric limit of detection of 70 pptv, which is within the range of concentrations observed in the coastal marine atmosphere.


This study examined the effect of feed additives based on brown coal on the productivity indicators of laying hens. The Relict A® organo-mineral feed additive for livestock and poultry is a multi-component, gummatized product with a wide range of biological activity, accelerating the growth and development of the animal. Relict A® is an environmentally friendly supplement that does not contain hormones or synthetic compounds. The control group was fed complete feed without additives. The second, third and fourth groups were fed feed containing 0.04%, 0.06% and 0.10% of the studied additives, respectively. The amount of feed for each group of laying hens was strictly normalized in accordance with their age, according to the recommendations for this cross. The use of the Relict A® feed additive in the laying hens' rations led to an increase in the average number of eggs per laying hen, a decrease in the cost of feed for producing 1 dozen eggs, and a reduction in the time when the poultry reached the peak egg laying intensity. Feeding the additive to laying hens reduced the cost of producing 1 dozen eggs in the experimental groups, and also increased the profitability of chicken eggs in comparison with the control. The best dose was to use 0.06% of Relict A® by weight of the feed. A 26.6% increase in laying hen egg production was found.
Keywords: feed additives, laying hens, egg productivity, brown coal


The Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) has been a data format standard in National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA)'s Earth Observing System Data and Information System since the 1990s. Its rich structure, platform independence, full-featured application programming interface (API), and internal compression make it very useful for archiving science data and utilizing them with a rich set of software tools. However, a key drawback for long-term archiving is the complex internal byte layout of HDF files, requiring one to use the API to access HDF data. This makes the long-term readability of HDF data for a given version dependent on long-term allocation of resources to support that version. Much of the data from NASA's Earth Observing System have been archived in HDF Version 4 (HDF4) format. To address the long-term archival issues for these data, a collaborative study between The HDF Group and NASA's Earth Science Data Centers (ESDCs) is underway. One of the first activities was an assessment of the range of HDF4-formatted data held by NASA to determine the capabilities inherent in the HDF format that were used in practice and for use in estimating the effort for full implementation across NASA's ESDCs. Based on the results of this assessment, methods for producing a map of the layout of the HDF4 files held by NASA were prototyped using a markup-language-based HDF tool. The resulting maps allow a separate program to read the file without recourse to the HDF API. To verify this, two independent tools based solely on the map files were developed and tested.


Asian monsoon rains provide freshwater to one of the most densely populated regions on Earth. However, despite the societal and economic importance of the monsoon, its forcing mechanisms are not fully understood. Here I present a new reconstruction of monsoon variability from the last glacial period to the present as recorded in planktic foraminiferal Mg/Ca and delta18 O of a marine sediment core from the Mahanadi Basin in the northwestern Bay of Bengal. This new reconstruction reveals an increase in the intensity of the summer monsoon since the last glacial period, in agreement with known changes in northern hemisphere summer insolation. Furthermore, it suggests that the intertropical convergence zone migrated northward during the Bolling-Allerod warm period, but not northward enough to impact the waters of the Mahanadi Basin.


Optical sources in the mid-infrared have enabled an increasing number of applications in fields such as sensing, materials processing, and defence. While traditional mid-IR sources have often been based on nonlinear conversion in parametric oscillator devices, these systems are bulky, costly, and inefficient. In contrast, the past few decades have seen fluoride glass based mid-IR fibre lasers advance from small scale laboratory demonstration, to advanced developmental systems, and even recently commercial products. The majority of this class of lasers have been based on erbium, or to a lesser extent, holmium-doped gain media. Both systems have achieved multi-watt output power, and have been demonstrated as ultra-fast pulsed systems down to picoand even femto-second pulse duration. However, these systems share two fundamental limitations. One, the conversion efficiency is limited to less than 50%, which has led to a distinct slowdown in output power scalability. Two, both systems are limited in bandwidth, translating to holes in the optical spectrum which can be covered by fibre lasers. There is a third dopant element which exhibits emission in the same spectral region, but has been largely ignored: dysprosium. While the few demonstrations of dysprosium-doped mid-IR fibre lasers did not exceed performance of competing systems, there is much untapped potential remaining which is what this thesis aims to address. Specifically, two novel optical pumping schemes based on nearand mid-infrared are investigated which address the limitations of the previous dysprosium efforts, and the competing erbium and holmiumbased systems. Further, the viability of progressing these systems to operation in the pulsed regime is considered. As a whole, these investigations aim to both solidify dysprosium as a viable candidate for mid-IR fibre laser emission, and deepen the collective understanding of dysprosium as an active rare earth dopant.


Most authors on metaphysical grounding have taken full grounding to be an internal relation in the sense that it's necessary that if the grounds and the grounded both obtain, then the grounds ground the grounded. The negative part of this essay exploits empirical and provably nonparadoxical self-reference to prove conclusively that even immediate full grounding isn't an internal relation in this sense. The positive, second part of this essay uses the notion of a "completely satisfactory explanation" to shed light on the logic of ground in the presence of self-reference. This allows us to develop a satisfactory logic of ground and recover a sense in which grounding is still an internal relation.


Abstract We used 8 years of live recapture data (1998–2005) to estimate apparent annual survival for male (n  =  237) and female (n  =  296) Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) breeding on a 36-ha plot on the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta, western Alaska. Apparent annual survival (Φ) is the product of true survival and site fidelity, and estimates of Φ were corrected for the probability of encounter. Overall return rates (individual returned to the study site in a subsequent season) were lower for females (40%) than males (65%), as was Φ (± SE, females  =  0.65 ± 0.05, males  =  0.78 ± 0.03), and encounter rate (females  =  0.51 ± 0.07, males  =  0.74 ± 0.04). Results differed from previous estimates of Φ for this species as our estimates of Φ were higher for both males and females compared to estimates from another breeding site and two nonbreeding locations. Disparity among Φ estimates from breeding and nonbreeding areas highlights the need to delineate site-specific factors throughout the annual cycle that influence population dynamics of the Western Sandpiper.


A modified protocol has been identified for Pd-catalyzed intermolecular aminoacetoxylation of terminal and internal alkenes that enables the alkene to be used as the limiting reagent. The results prompt a reassessment of the stereochemical course of these reactions. X-ray crystallographic characterization of two of the products, together with isotopic labeling studies, show that the amidopalladation step switches from a cis-selective process under aerobic conditions to a trans-selective process in the presence of diacetoxyiodobenzene.


Agile Project Management (APM) must adopt dynamic project plans to better handle the uncertainty and unpredictability associated with the Agile Software Development (ASD) methodologies. For these dynamic project plans, the functional size of the evolving requirements can be measured with COSMIC measurement method. To support this measurement activity, the quality of the documentation of the user stories, which represent the user requirements, is important to be interpreted correctly. In the research reported here, the COSMIC method is used to analyze and report on the quality of the documentation of user stories.


High-sensitivity glycan profiling providing detailed structural information is very important in the search for glycan disease markers. By combining a straight-forward and fast preparation protocol of mucins with high-throughput nanoLC/MS, we have been able to study the O-glycosylation of the colon MUC2 mucin from one single biopsy (approximately 5 mg wet tissue as starting material) collected from the sigmoid colon during routine colonoscopy of 25 normal control patients. This large mucin glycoprotein was recovered from the guanidinium chloride-extracted insoluble pellet, reduced and alkylated, separated by SDS-agarose polyacrylamide composite gel electrophoresis, and transferred to a PVDF membrane. The O-linked oligosaccharides of the major MUC2 monomer band were released by reductive beta-elimination and analyzed by nanoLC/mass spectrometry and MS(n). The aim was to identify the MUC2 O-glycans of the sigmoid colon and provide a comprehensive catalog of the O-glycan repertoire. More than 100 complex O-linked oligosaccharides were identified, of which some had not been described before. Most of the oligosaccharides were based on the core 3 structure with sialic acid at the 6-position of the GalNAc and the substructure Gal beta 1-3/4-GlcNAc beta 1-3(NeuAc-6)GalNAcol was found in most glycans. The most abundant components were -Gal-(Fuc)GlcNAc-3(NeuAc-6)GalNAcol, GalNAc-(NeuAc-)Gal-4/3GlcNAc-3(NeuAc-6)GalNAcol, GalNAc-3(NeuAc-6) GalNAcol, and GlcNAc-3(NeuAc-6)GalNAcol. In contrast to the O-glycans of other mucins, the sigmoid MUC2 O-glycan repertoire and relative amounts in normal individuals were relatively constant.


Abstract Bile acids are considered a sensitive indicator for liver function in mammals and birds, and protein electrophoresis is a routine test used in mammals to differentiate inflammatory responses. The objective of this study was to establish reference intervals for bile acids and protein electrophoresis in clinically healthy panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis) under similar husbandry conditions. Blood samples from 84 captive panther chameleons were collected in January and August from the ventral coccygeal vein and processed for protein capillary zone electrophoresis and enzymatic–photometric measurements of bile acids. Reference intervals for bile acids were similar to other reptile species, but those for protein electrophoresis differed considerably, with α-globulins as the second most predominant fraction after albumin. Significant differences between males and females were found in α1- and γ-globulin fractions. Three diseased panther chameleons that died within a few months after sampling had an albumin–globulin ratio below the reference interval.


Density-functional theory calculations have been used to investigate adsorption and surface dynamics of Pt atoms on MgO(001) surfaces with surface-functional hydroxyl groups. Our calculation results show that the adsorption of Pt on hydroxylated MgO(001) is considerably enhanced by interactions among Pt, OH, and MgO surface atoms. We also find that the formation of PtOH complexes instead of Pt dimers is clearly favorable. This behavior is very similar to that of Au deposition on hydroxylated MgO(001). With regard to the surface kinetics, however, the behavior is quite different. Indeed, after the formation of PtOH on MgO(001), the surface diffusion of PtOH is found to be enhanced, as compared to that of Pt on MgO(001). This behavior is in sharp contrast with the low surface mobility previously observed for AuOH on MgO(001). Finally, the reason for this difference is discussed, based on the calculated electronic structures and charge states of Pt on hydroxylated MgO(001).


In this paper, comparison of estimation methods for exhaust gaseous emissions developed for a military aircraft engine via adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) structure is introduced. For system identification process, combustion efficiency, engine shaft RPM and air-fuel ratio are preferred to be system inputs to obtain emission indexes of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbon as system outputs. While comparing the estimation methodologies, two clustering methods in adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system structure, grid partitioning and subtractive clustering, are benefited to define membership functions. Hybrid optimisation is preferred in training parts. As a conclusion remark of the present study, estimation error values of both clustering methods are found for different number of membership functions with the common training method. Nonetheless, training time saving is the advantage of subtractive clustering method in our study.


Abstract Urbanization creates drastic changes in habitat and presents considerable challenges and new sources of predation to urban-dwelling herpetofauna. Research on lizards has documented increased rates of mortality in urban areas due to generalist predators such as raccoons, feral cats, and domestic animals. Caudal autotomy (self-amputation of the tail) is a defense mechanism used to escape predation in a wide range and large number of lizard species. The tail is autotomized to evade capture, and in most species with autotomy, the tail is regenerated partially or completely. Caudal autotomy can be used as an indirect measure of predation environment; however, few prior studies have used lizard caudal autotomy to measure the predation environment of urban areas. We compared caudal autotomy rates in the Puerto Rican crested anole, Anolis cristatellus, between urban and natural sites in four Puerto Rican municipalities. Across all municipalities, we found the frequency of caudal autotomy and regeneration to be consistently, significantly higher in urban than in natural areas. Our findings suggest that differences exist in the predation regime experienced by lizards in urban and natural habitats across the island of Puerto Rico. At this time, however, we are not able to identify the specific nature of the difference in predation regime between sites. The difference in autotomy rate that we found may be driven by higher predation pressure in urban areas, differences in the predator assemblage between sites, or simply lower predator efficiency in urban habitats.


The work is devoted to the research of the magnetic resonance properties of composite (metal-dielectric) films and revealing their relationship with the nanostructure characteristics and degree of crystallinity. The FMR line width and resonance position for two series of composite films have been investigated. First films series has a small metal crystal phase content. The second one contains metal oxide and amorphous. The results of work shows that oxidation of a metal phase displaces percolation bound to area of the big metal concentration. Strong changes of FMR properties of the films are observed below the percolation bound. The significant changes of FМR properties are connected to nanostructural transformations in the ferromagnetic granules topology and presence of metal phase oxide.


This article arises out of a broader study into the contextual influences on the professional development of academics as teachers in higher education in South Africa. Using Fairclough's critical discourse analysis we examine the website of a 'research-led' South African university. We examine the choices made in the use of website space and the presence and absence of texts which refer to teaching or the development of teaching. We compare these choices with those made about portraying other aspects of the university's self-described mission on the website as a proxy for the valuing of teaching. We recognise that marketing spaces cannot be seen to equate to the commitment of institutions, departments or individual academics, but our concern in this project was to understand what publicly accessible claims the university makes about teaching, and whether such claims are borne out by its own self-description. With regard to teaching we found that absences are more frequent than presences, especially in comparison with the way other 'core functions' of the university are presented. Taken together it is difficult to find support for the rhetoric of the valuing of teaching that is conveyed in the university's self-description. We suggest that this lack of valuing of teaching may have an effect on the choices academics make in responding to calls to invest time in developing their teaching.


The study was conducted to explore aggression in boys and girls as related to their academic achievement and residential background in Bangladesh. Stratified random sampling technique was used and total 80 respondents constituted the sample of the study. They were equally divided into boys and girls. Each group was again equally divided into high and low grade. Each subgroup was again equally divided into urban and rural residential background. Thus the study used a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design consisting of two levels of gender (boy/girl), two levels of academic achievement (high grade/low grade) and two levels of residential background (urban/rural). The Bengali version of measure of aggressive behavior (Rahman, A. K. M. R., 2003) originally developed by Buss and Perry (1992) was used for the collection of data. It was found that regardless of gender, boys expressed more aggression than girls. Similarly, regardless of academic achievement, students with high academic grade will show more aggressive behavior than low academic grade students. Finally, students of urban areas will not show significantly more aggressive behavior than rural areas students. Thus the differential treatment in gender, academic achievement and residential background provides a new dimension in understanding aggression in rural and urban boys and girls.


The wheat crop presents sensitivity to the environmental conditions culminating in the genotype x environment interaction, being crucial the use of different methodologies to guide the positioning of genotypes to certain cultivation environments. The objective of this study was to estimate the adaptability and phenotypic stability of wheat genotypes grown in the State of Rio Grande do Sul using univariate and multivariate techniques and mixed models. The yield data of 42 wheat genotypes evaluated in five environments (Cachoeira do Sul, Passo Fundo, Santo Augusto, Sao Gabriel, and Sao Luiz Gonzaga) were used in the 2012 and 2013 crop seasons. In each experiment, a randomized complete block design was used, with three replicates. In the evaluation of the genotype x environment interaction, the sum of squares relative to contribution index, the methodology based on the univariate method of Annicchiarico (1992), the multivariate method (AMMI), and the mixed models (REML and MHPRVG) were used. The favorable environments expressed by the univariate method referred to Sao Gabriel, Cachoeira do Sul, Passo Fundo, Santo Augusto, and Sao Luiz Gonzaga; for the multivariate method, only Santo Augusto was favorable to the productivity character. The genotypes CD 121 and TBIO Tibagi were adapted and stable for the univariate and multivariate methods. The genotypes TBIO Sinuelo, Quartzo, BRS 327, Mirante, Topazio, Guamirim, TBIO Seleto, Ametista, TBIO Mestre, and BRS Louro were superior through the mixed model approach. The different strategies to estimate the adaptability and phenotypic stability allowed indicating and recommending the best environments and genotypes efficiently to obtain increases in wheat grain yield.


In a world where all devices will be interconnected, the boundaries between the different devices will start to disappear. Devices will be able to access each other's applications; sessions can be suspended on one device and resumed on another device; devices can serve as each other's input and output device, and all devices will be able to connect to the Internet. This will give true mobility to the user as he/she will not be restricted to the time and location where he/she accesses an application. Of course, we need a variety of different mechanisms and technologies to enable this, such as: Remote rendering of UIs on other devices in the network. Infrastructure for discovering client and servers in a network. Mechanisms to exchange capability information between devices, and to adapt the UI based on these capabilities. Mechanisms to deal with session migration.Support for a wide range of consumer devices, ranging from mobile phones to high-end TVs.
 This requires technologies that cross different domains, i.e. the PC domain, mobile domain, and TV domain. Several major companies within these different domains have decided to work together on these issues. One of the results is a framework for remote user interfaces for both UPnP" networks and the Internet. This framework is called Web4CE (a.k.a. CEA-2014) [1], and has been accepted as the baseline remote user interface technology within the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) [2], which is a large industry-wide effort for creating true interoperability between network-enabled devices.This paper provides a short overview of the Web4CE framework, and some of the use cases that it enables.


In the presence of μ-nitridobis(triphenylphosphonium) cation, [PPN]+, it was possible to stabilize and isolate [PPN]+-salts bearing the highly labile hydrogen cyanide aggregate anions of pseudohalides X (X = N3, OCN and SCN). From a concentrated solution of the [PPN]X salts in HCN, crystals of [PPN][X(HCN)3] (X = N3, OCN) or [PPN][SCN(HCN)2] could be obtained, when the crystallization was carried out fast and at low temperatures. The reaction of liquid HCN with the PCO- salt led to formation of dicyanophosphide, which crystallized as HCN disolvate [P(CN·HCN)2]-. All synthesized salts with hydrogen-bridged pseudohalide solvate anions are thermally unstable. Immediate loss of HCN was observed in the crystals outside the HCN solution. Oligomerization begins at ambient temperature, even in HCN solution. All discussed species were characterized by means of Raman spectroscopy, single crystal X-ray analysis and quantum-chemical calculations.


Veterinarians who practise in the UK will be familiar with the RCVS declaration that you make your primary concern the health and welfare of animals committed to your care.

Part of this responsibility is the need to keep up to date and complete the required amount of CPD each year, so it is likely that many of you will be heading to Birmingham next week for the British Small Animal Veterinary Association's annual congress.

As usual there is a large selection of lectures across clinical and non-clinical topics and you would be hard-pressed not to find something of interest among them.

Likely to be popular is a stream on Friday, 6 April, focusing on brachycephalic, mainly canine, animals. Although there is a session at the end of the day to allow …


Context It is not known whether statin treatment improves clinical outcomes and reduces aortic stenosis progression in non-rheumatic calcific aortic stenosis. Objective A meta-analysis of studies was performed comparing statin therapy with placebo or no treatment on outcomes and on aortic stenosis progression echocardiographic parameters. Data sources The authors searched Medline and Pubmed up to January 2010. Data extraction Two independent reviewers independently abstracted information on study design (prospective vs retrospective or randomised vs non-randomised), study and participant characteristics. Fixed and random effects models were used. A-priori subanalyses assessed the effect of statins on low-quality (retrospective or non-randomised) and on high-quality (prospective or randomised) studies separately. Results Meta-analysis identified 10 studies with a total of 3822 participants (2214 non-statin-treated and 1608 statin-treated); five studies were classified as prospective and five as retrospective; concerning randomisation, three trials were randomised whereas seven were not. No significant differences were found in all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality or in the need for aortic valve surgery. Lower-quality (retrospective or non-randomised) studies showed that, in statin-treated patients, the annual increase in peak aortic jet velocity and the annual decrease in aortic valve area were lower, but this was not confirmed by the analysis in high-quality (prospective or randomised) studies. Statins did not significantly affect the progression over time of peak and mean aortic gradient. Conclusions Currently available data do not support the use of statins to improve outcomes and to reduce disease progression in non-rheumatic calcific aortic valve stenosis.


The Internet was originally designed to facilitate communication and research activities. However, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of the Internet in recent years for commerce, education, and entertainment, including video games. Problematic Internet use is a significant behavioral problem. Over the past decade, internet addiction and related behaviors have been attracting the attention of mental health researchers and clinicians, although this field is still in its infancy.

Behavioral addictions can induce symptoms similar to substance-related addictions such as excessive use, loss of control, craving, tolerance, and negative repercussions. These negative repercussions can range from poor achievement and social isolation to dysfunction in the family unit and even greater rates of intimate partner violence. Though there has been relatively little research on the neurobiology of behavioral addictions, studies mostly involving pathological gambling have suggested parallels with substance-related addictions.

Social isolation has increasingly become a problem in Japan and has been hypothesized to be related to internet addiction. Particularly amongst students, problematic internet use may be a major factor of social withdrawal.

In this presentation, I will describe aspects of behavioral addictions such as pathological Internet use and gaming including the epidemiology of such behaviors, their clinical assessment and treatment and their public health ramifications.


BACKGROUND
Endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm was started nine years ago at our institution. Our purpose was to evaluate the results over this period.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
From 1995 to 2003, a total of 148 patients were treated for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms by endovascular repair. The material includes 31 patients (21%) who were unfit for open surgery because of comorbidity or poor general condition. The patients have been followed up at regular intervals with clinical investigation, plain abdominal X-ray, and CT scans. Regional anaesthesia was used for 143 procedures; 5 were carried out under general anaesthesia.

RESULTS
30-day mortality following elective procedures was 2.3%. 31 endo-leaks were observed, 16 early and 15 late. Furthermore, 22 graft limb occlusions were diagnosed and thirteen of them repaired with femoro-femoral bypass. Secondary procedures were necessary in 42 (28.4%) of the patients, including 7 late conversions to open surgery. Some patients had more than one secondary procedure. With better stent grafts, the incidence of complications and secondary procedures has decreased significantly. During the last 4.5 years, only 4 secondary procedures (5.8%) have been necessary in 69 patients. In the total material the accumulated five-year survival rate was about 60%.

INTERPRETATION
Results from endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm have improved in recent years. Ongoing prospective randomised studies could give us the information we need in order to establish what role this treatment should have.


GM1‐gangliosidosis is a lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficiency of acid β‐galactosidase. Three clinical forms are recognized—infantile, juvenile, and adult—based on age of onset and severity of the symptoms. We have performed molecular analysis of a large cohort of GM1 patients (19 Brazilian and one Uruguayan), using nonradioactive single‐strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and restriction enzyme analysis of genomic DNA. Six novel mutations (R121S, V240M, D491N, 638–641insT, 895–896insC, 1622–1627insG) and two previously described point mutations (R59H, R208C) were identified. Together they accounted for 90% of the disease alleles of the patients. Two mutations, 1622–1627insG and R59H, were present in 18 of 20 patients. In addition, four polymorphisms (L10P, L12L, R521C, S532G) were identified. All cases reported are infantile GM1 gangliosidosis. This report constitutes the most comprehensive molecular study to date of this disorder in infantile patients. Since GM1‐gangliosidosis is the most common lysosomal storage disorder in Southern Brazil, molecular diagnosis will be important for genetic counseling, carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis in index families. Hum Mutat 13:401–409, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


We would like to commend Drs Yang and Wang for their forward-thinking perspectives and positive implications of the clinical measurements of molecular forms of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) (1). We share the view that these processed forms of BNP can provide beneficial clinical information for cardiovascular disease prognoses and therapeutic monitoring with an emphasis on personalized medicine. We have previously demonstrated the prognostic capabilities of BNP molecular forms in the acute setting through measurement in acute heart failure (HF) patients (2), and support the further investigation of these forms across cardiovascular conditions.


Khat, an evergreen shrub habitually ingested for its euphoric and stimulatory effects, is grown mainly in eastern Africa and south-western Arabia. Its consumption has, for a long time, been restricted to areas close to the sites of production but, because of recent improvement in efficiency and speed of transportation, khat consumption has spread to far flung lands such as North America, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and parts of Europe. In regions where it is grown, daily life seems to centre on the crop bringing together farmers, traders, middle men, consumers and transporters. Thousands of dollars change hands daily in market centres where khat business is transacted making it the most lucrative business in these regions. The economies of these regions are therefore driven and sustained by khat trade. Khat contains a psychoactive compound belonging to the phenylpropylamine group of alkaloids called cathinone which has amphetamine-like effects. It causes mild euphoria, wakefulness and a host of other effects on regular consumers. Long distance truck drivers are known to constantly chew khat in order to stay awake. Some chewers, however, derive satisfaction in the ability of khat to promote work endurance while others do it for leisure. Consumers generally prefer young leaves and shoots because they contain a more potent active ingredient cathinone which decays within 48 hours to a less potent form called cathine. Despite these positive attributes of khat, it poses serious health risks to consumers arising from the effects of its active ingredient, cathinone, on various organ systems. A number of studies have shown that cathinone has serious effects on cardiovascular, oral and digestive, and urogenital systems. Some of these effects are discussed in details in this chapter.


West of Shetland, BP North Sea discovered they had a problem with subsea tree mounted pressure and temperature sensors that whilst dual redundant, still completely failed over time. The measurements are required by the local regulatory body to comply with monitoring of asset integrity and as such once failed the subsea trees were forced to be shut in. Reinstating this production-critical monitoring equipment significantly reduces downtime and deferred production. Later in the life of the field the same damage mechanism that contributed to erosion and fouling of tree mounted sensors had also begun to reduce injectivity within the subsea injection wells and eroded the subsea insert retrievable chokes installed on those trees. BP North Sea initially planned for a campaign of choke insert replacements but later realized the ideal opportunity to incorporate stimulation treatments during the same intervention campaign
 The original retrofit package restored an injection well at a cost saving of 70% compared to conventional solutions. However, continued development led to a next generation retrofit package which allowed streamlined configurability to suit a range of choke types across the BP's subsea infrastructure. This enabled life extension whilst introducing enhanced functionality, all whilst optimizing inventory and minimizing capital investment. In parallel, well stimulation operations on 4 water injection wells yielded injectivity improvements of up to 300%, compelling BP to continue to plan further stimulations for future wells. This scenario led to the next generation of retrofit packages including an additional feature of a dedicated hydraulic access point. The access allowing more efficient stimulation operations and providing significant cost saving in terms of vessel time and in-field operations.
 The paper discusses the benefits of combining production enhancement technologies and well status monitoring sensors to enable significant improvements in field recovery. Production improvement metrics and lessons learned shall be shared to provide a robust economic justification.
 Operational lessons learned from these various activities show how modularity and product streamlining can significantly reduce operating expenditure, time in field, and overall safety of a product.
 Collaboration with invested parties can offer additional sources for product improvement which further contributes to product optimization and successful project execution.


Ingestion of microplastics (MP) by suspension-feeding bivalves has been well-documented. However, it is unclear whether exposure to MP could damage the stomach and digestive gland (gut) of these animals, causing ramifications for organism and ecosystem health. Here, we show no apparent effects of nylon microfiber (MF) ingestion on the gut microbiome or digestive tissues of the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. We exposed mussels to two low concentrations (50 and 100 particles/L) of either nylon MF or Spartina spp. particles (dried, ground marsh grass), ca. 250-500 μm in length, or a no particle control laboratory treatment for 21 days. Results showed that nylon MF, when aged in coarsely filtered seawater, developed a different microbial community than Spartina spp. particles and seawater, however, even after exposure to this different community, mussel gut microbial communities resisted disturbance from nylon MF. The microbial communities of experimental mussels clustered together in ordination and were similar in taxonomic composition and measures of alpha diversity. Additionally, there was no evidence of damage to gut tissues after ingestion of nylon MF or Spartina spp. Post-ingestive particle processing likely mediated a short gut retention time of these relatively large particles, contributing to the negligible treatment effects.


The full effect of the epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is increasingly becoming evident in pediatrics with HIV-affected and HIV-infected patients. This book provides an excellent description of the underlying pathophysiological features of the immunity of HIV infection, enabling the reader to understand the disease process and its effect on adults and children. Research remains to be done on HIV's effect on the developing immune system of the fetus and the neonate and on the decreasing risk of vertical transmission and its variations related to specific risk factors (breast-feeding, maternal CD4 + cell count, maternal viral load, and prematurity). This text teaches the prognostic importance of HIV-associated illnesses ( Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and cytomegalovirus) and signs (hepatosplenomegaly, lymphadenopathy, and diarrhea) as they apply to the current classification system and World Health Organization case definition. Two distinct phases of HIV childhood infection are delineated (rapidly progressive and slowly progressive


Collaborative privacy-preserving planning (CPPP) is a multi-agent planning task in which agents need to achieve a common set of goals without revealing certain private information. In many CPPP algorithms the individual agents reason about a projection of the multiagent problem onto a single-agent classical planning problem. For example, an agent can plan as if it controls the public actions of other agents, ignoring their unknown private preconditions and effects, and use the cost of this plan as a heuristic for the cost of the full, multi-agent plan. Using such a projection, however, ignores some dependencies between agents' public actions. In particular, it does not contain dependencies between actions of other agents caused by their private facts. We propose a projection in which these private dependencies are maintained. The benefit of our dependency-preserving projection is demonstrated by using it to produce high level plans in a new privacy preserving planner that is able to solve more benchmark problems than any other state-of-the-art privacy preserving planner. This more informed projection does not explicitly share private information. In addition, we show that even if an adversary agent knows that an agent has some private objects of a given type (e.g., trucks), it cannot infer how many such private objects the agent controls. This introduces a novel strong form of privacy that is motivated by real-world requirements.


Game-centred approaches (GCAs) were designed for the effective integration of skills into contextualized situations. Despite a plethora of research, few studies explore the articulations between pre-service teachers' experiences, conceptual understanding, pedagogical practices, the wider cultural and political realities of teaching and their impact on the learner. This paper uses Windschitl's (2002) framework of practice dilemmas to structure an analysis of various dilemmas faced by a cohort of English pre-service teachers on a one-year Postgraduate Certificate in Education learning about and implementing a GCA. Nineteen (6 male; 13 female) postgraduate students based at a university in the East of England agreed to participate in the study. Data were generated through an online discussion board, case study log and from focus group interviews. Data analysis was an inductive iterative process that integrated the multiple data sources. The analysis was conducted through a constant comparison between the different sources to identify themes that were mapped against Windschitl's (2002) heuristic. Supported by the realization of their own participation in 'traditional' physical education programmes, this cohort of pre-service teachers attempted to integrate GCAs into their practice. Significant challenges included the pre-service teachers' own fragile conceptual understandings and pedagogical expertise in GCAs, exacerbated by current institutionalized practices within most physical education programmes.


ABSTRACT Temple, N.A.; Webb, B.M.; Sparks, E.L., and Linhoss, A.C., 2020. Low-cost pressure gauges for measuring water waves. Journal of Coastal Research, 36(3), 661–667. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Waves have profound effects on coastal geomorphology, but the understanding of wave climate effects on coastal ecology is limited due, in part, to the high cost of commercial wave gauges. High-cost gauges also limit the scope of coastal wave models and the ability of coastal land managers to design effective restoration, conservation and enhancement projects. To address these limitations, a low-cost do-it-yourself (DIY) wave gauge was constructed using commercial plumbing parts, a pressure sensor, an Arduino© microcontroller and adapted accessories. Details on gauge construction, coding and an instructional video tutorial are provided. Performance of the DIY gauge was determined by measuring the agreement of raw pressure data recorded by the DIY gauge to a comparable commercial gauge in both a laboratory wave channel study featuring a series of wave tests and in a complementary field test. Agreement of raw pressure data among gauges in the wave channel study was assessed using paired t-tests and by fitting linear models. Field test data agreement was assessed by comparing the total wave field energy recorded by each gauge and by fitting a linear model to recorded raw pressure data. Pressure data agreement between the gauges was excellent in all wave channel tests with mean differences between pressure readings consistently near zero and with 95% of all differences lying within ±63 Pascals (<1 cm static water depth), on average. The greatest variability between readings occurred within tests featuring high-frequency waves, mirroring results reported by others. Still, raw DIY wave gauge data explained, on average, 91% of the variance in raw commercial gauge data in wave channel tests. Field performance testing indicated similar gauge responses with 92% total wave energy agreement. Thus, the DIY wave gauge is a viable alternative to high-cost gauges that could improve the understanding and management of coastal environments.


This project idea was selected based on a request from the owner of Him Barbershop. After having several meetings and discussions we came to the verdict that a mobile application was needed to improve the business in various aspects besides profit. The current Him Barbershop website did not provide any real benefit to its users other than the fact it was visually appealing. I decided to accept this project as I am current customer as well as the fact it satisfies a real business need and meets the requirements for my final year project.

The project involved using numerous elicitation techniques to help formulate a detailed Requirements Specification document for the Him Barbershop Mobile Application. The following techniques were utilised; survey, brainstorm, four interviews, prototype, interface analysis and a requirements workshop. All information/details/requirements gathered from these techniques were documented and analysed. The results gathered from the requirements elicitation were then used to formulate a high detailed IEEE Document for the new Him Barbershop Mobile Application. The document contains details of both functional and non-functional requirements of the Him Barbershop Mobile Application.


Static and dynamical magnetic properties of Fe nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in non-magnetic (Ag) and antiferromagnetic (Cr) matrices with a volume filling fraction (VFF) of 10% have been investigated. In both Fe@Ag and Fe@Cr nanocomposites, the Fe NPs have a narrow size distribution, with a mean particle diameter around 2 nm. In both samples, the saturation magnetization reaches that of Fe bulk bcc, suggesting the absence of alloying with the matrices. The coercivity at 5 K is much larger in Fe@Cr than in Fe@Ag as a result of the strong interaction between the Fe NPs and the Cr matrix. Temperature-dependent magnetization and ac-susceptibility measurements point out further evidence of the enhanced interparticle interaction in the Fe@Cr system. While the behaviour of Fe@Ag indicates the presence of weakly interacting magnetic monodomain particles with a wide distribution of blocking temperatures, Fe@Cr behaves like a superspin glass produced by the magnetic interactions between NPs.


This agility supply chain management is a complex project, because the running process is uncertain and dynamic. It requires realistic and feasible option mechanism and foundation process of the partnership and the problems that may come up in the cooperation process on the basis of the essence of the partnership. At present, China's enterprises are facing the challenges of the international market as its economic integration with the world. The traditional mode of operation of enterprises receives a serious impact internationally. Supply chain management theory and practice is increasingly showing its competitive advantage in the competition of global market. Supply chain management becomes a notable trend of development of China's enterprise management. Under such a circumstance, the establishment of dynamic enterprise alliance and agile supply chain has become the survival weight of China's enterprises, so the study of agile supply chain management is imperative.


Significance Glasses are disordered solids usually obtained by supercooling a liquid bypassing crystallization. A remarkable feature of glasses is that, independently of their nature and composition, they exhibit universal properties in the low-temperature range. Of interest here, the specific heat is characterized by a linear term below 1 K, ascribed to quantum tunneling between two states of similar energy. We have investigated if this ubiquitous behavior also applies to so-called "ultrastable glasses," directly synthesized from the vapor phase into low-energy positions of the potential-energy landscape. Interestingly, we find a full suppression of the linear term in the specific heat, which questions the current view of the popular tunneling model and sheds light on the microscopic origin of two-level systems in glasses. Glasses and other noncrystalline solids exhibit thermal and acoustic properties at low temperatures anomalously different from those found in crystalline solids, and with a remarkable degree of universality. Below a few kelvin, these universal properties have been successfully interpreted using the tunneling model, which has enjoyed (almost) unanimous recognition for decades. Here we present low-temperature specific-heat measurements of ultrastable glasses of indomethacin that clearly show the disappearance of the ubiquitous linear contribution traditionally ascribed to the existence of tunneling two-level systems (TLS). When the ultrastable thin-film sample is thermally converted into a conventional glass, the material recovers a typical amount of TLS. This remarkable suppression of the TLS found in ultrastable glasses of indomethacin is argued to be due to their particular anisotropic and layered character, which strongly influences the dynamical network and may hinder isotropic interactions among low-energy defects, rather than to the thermodynamic stabilization itself. This explanation may lend support to the criticisms by Leggett and others [Yu CC, Leggett AJ (1988) Comments Condens Matter Phys 14(4):231–251; Leggett AJ, Vural DC (2013) J Phys Chem B 117(42):12966–12971] to the standard tunneling model, although more experiments in different kinds of ultrastable glasses are needed to ascertain this hypothesis.


The increasing demand for natural gas affects the type of transportation, both from the strategic and the economic point of view. Long-distance pipelines are a safe and economic way to transport the gas from production sites to end users. Hence, pipes producers need to supply the market executing projects where high strength material is involved, to reduce the steel use.Among high strength steel grade pipes (X80 - X100 - X120), the X80 grade is already in use for a number of gas pipelines in the world since many years.There is a need to evaluate the suitability of extending the current Fitness For Purpose methods to X80 grade steel linepipe, since the existing guidance was developed and validated mainly on test data coming from steel pipes of grade lower than X80. Hence they could not be directly applied to X80 grade pipes, but should be experimentally verified, otherwise their straightforward extrapolation would be questionable.EPRG recognized the need to cover this gap and launched a specific project, aimed at verifying the applicability of the presently available criteria to X80 grade, with particular focus on corrosion and gouge types of defects, longitudinally oriented.The project includes the collection and review of available tests data and FFP criteria, and the identification of the most promising among those collected. Four hydraulic full scale burst tests on X80 representative pipes (helically and longitudinally welded) containing simulated corrosion and gouge defects have been carried out to experimentally verify the applicability of the criteria to the X80 grade pipes.The selected criteria for the corrosion (DNV RP-F101) and for the gouge (Battelle NG-18) defects revealed to be suitable for X80 grade pipes too, as demonstrated by the accuracy in predicting the failure pressure of the experimental tests and of the literature database. The criteria showed to be even more accurate for X80 grade than they were for lower grades.Finally, it is worth mentioning that the selected criteria did not need any correction factor for obtaining the best prediction. Such a result is a demonstration of the sound theory behind the criteria.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Formation fluid samples can be obtained as surface samples or downhole samples. However, surface sample sampling requires the well to be completed and with production to surface of reservoir fluids from a one or more zone or sometimes multiple zones produced to surface. Downhole sampling can be performed without completing the well by using a formation tester in open hole or performed after completion. In addition, surface samples acquired by flowing the well tend to integrate the fluid over large vertical intervals in the well thereby precluding measurement of fluid gradients. In contrast, wireline sample acquisition and analysis enables vertical and, with multiple wells, lateral gradients to be resolved thereby greatly improving the understanding of the reservoir fluids. Sampled reservoir fluid produced from a zone or multiple zones is not as descriptive compared to point sample using a formation tester. Finally, fluid samples can be sent to the laboratory for analysis but this usually takes a long time; wireline sample acquisition with downhole fluid analysis plays a key role in elucidation of the complexities of reservoir fluids and often time the collected sample is just analyzed using available equipment at the wellsite. Downhole fluid analysis (DFA) can be performed during sample acquisition with wireline formation testing tools. Sampling operation DFA can identify fluid type, contamination and possible phase changes thereby validating acquisition of a clean, single phase sample of the reservoir fluid if sampling is performed above bubble point pressure. Beyond simply obtaining a valid sample, DFA is used to determine many fluid parameters including compositional measurements such as weight mass fraction of percentages of CO2, C1, C2, C3-C5 or (C2-C5) and C6+ and relative asphaltene content enabling determination of gas oil ratio (GOR) or condensate gas ratio (CGR) derivation. Other currently available DFA measurements are insitu density and viscosity and calibrated fluorescence. Moreover, in special cases, the mass fraction of (diatomic) nitrogen can be determined using the 'missing mass' approach. In this paper, laboratory validated EOS-based downhole fluid characterization that delump C3-C5 (or C2-C5) and C6+ into fulllength compositional data was applied to the DFA examples in case studies to maximize the value of DFA data. Particular focus is placed on analysis of CO2 and N2 non-hydrocarbon gases. The gas samples acquired in the examples discussed here were not analyzed at laboratory and only assayed by DFA and by available well site equipment only to C4, giving CO2, N2 and hydrocarbon gas fractions. Reservoir fluid characterization is optimized for this DFA measurement by comparison with an Equation of State (EOS) analysis. Specifically, improved by using an algorithm for delumping, the DFA measurements were validated using laboratory validated Equation of State (EOS)-based analysis downhole fluid characterization algorithm. The delumped DFA measurements were used for flow assurance, hydrocarbon source and compartmentalization analysis. The gas samples' phase envelopes derived from the delumped DFA measurements are used for reservoir characterization, reservoir continuity analysis and management decisions.


Although the resting and baseline states of the human electroencephalogram and magnetoencephalogram (MEG) are dominated by oscillations in the alpha band (∼10 Hz), the functional role of these oscillations remains unclear. In this study we used MEG to investigate how spontaneous oscillations in humans presented before visual stimuli modulate visual perception. Subjects had to report if there was a subtle difference in gray levels between two superimposed presented discs. We then compared the prestimulus brain activity for correctly (hits) versus incorrectly (misses) identified stimuli. We found that visual discrimination ability decreased with an increase in prestimulus alpha power. Given that reaction times did not vary systematically with prestimulus alpha power changes in vigilance are not likely to explain the change in discrimination ability. Source reconstruction using spatial filters allowed us to identify the brain areas accounting for this effect. The dominant sources modulating visual perception were localized around the parieto-occipital sulcus. We suggest that the parieto-occipital alpha power reflects functional inhibition imposed by higher level areas, which serves to modulate the gain of the visual stream.


The aim of this study was to establish the impact of the North-West University's language policy on its library's print collections. It analyses the languages represented by books held by the North-West University Library and Information Services. The article further established the strategies used by the libraries to develop, preserve and promote African languages in support of the university's language policy. The paper employed bibliometrics and focus group interviews to gather data. The findings revealed that books in African languages that were recognised by the university were difficult to get on the market. As a result, the majority of books accessioned by the libraries were in English, followed by Afrikaans, and relatively few books in Setswana, and Sesotho. The study is the first of its kind focusing on language policy and academic libraries in South Africa. It is valuable to both policy makers and librarians in their endeavours to develop sizeable African language collections in support of the curricula and research. Among the recommendations is that African language departments at various universities should collaborate with libraries to start open access African language journals, and publish them through the institutional repositories.


Fatigue is an occupational health problem that needs special attention. Fatigue for everyone is subjective because it is related to feelings, because in addition to being influenced by physical and biological factors, fatigue is also influenced by psychological factors (psychology). This study aims to determine the factors that influence work fatigue in nurses at the Early Bross Hospital in Bekasi in 2018 with a sample of 60 respondents and data collected using a questionnaire. The object of this study was the nurse of the Bross Early Hospital. The design of this study is a descriptive analytic study using a quantitative approach. Independent variables (characteristics: age, sex, length of work). The dependent variable is work fatigue. The results obtained from this study that there is a significant effect between p-value age (0.001), p-value workload (0.001), p-value work attitude (0.001).


Objective: Describe the conceptions of resident nurses about the nurse's role in mental health services.
Method: Descriptive/reflexive study of the experience-report type, carried out from experiences of nurses from the Multiprofessional Residency Program in Mental Health, guided by the theoretical presuppositions of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform and structured from the Arch of Charles Maguerez.
Results: In-service teaching provided reflections on the residents' conceptions of nurses' performance in mental health services. The key posts were the insertion in the specific nursing care, the construction of the multiprofessional work process, the recognition of their professional identity. Therapeutic relationship and communication, receptiveness, co-responsibility of care and the construction of links with clients, family and work colleagues for the solution of the problems.
Conclusions: The Arch of Charles Maguerez facilitated the teaching process in service. In addition, it provided the perception of the action-reflection-action movement as essential to understand fundamentals of care practices in nursing and to collaborate to the insertion of the nurse and the process of changes, from the daily services of mental health.


SUMMARY We report on our recent efforts on the formulation and the evaluation of a domain decomposition algorithm for the parallel solution of two-dimensional compressible inviscid flows. The starting point is a flow solver for the Euler equations, which is based on a mixed finite element/finite volume formulation on unstructured triangular meshes. Time integration of the resulting semi-discrete equations is obtained using a linearized backward Euler implicit scheme. As a result, each pseudo-time step requires the solution of a sparse linear system for the flow variables. In this study, a non-overlapping domain decomposition algorithm is used for advancing the solution at each implicit time step. First, we formulate an additive Schwarz algorithm using appropriate matching conditions at the subdomain interfaces. In accordance with the hyperbolic nature of the Euler equations, these transmission conditions are Dirichlet conditions for the characteristic variables corresponding to incoming waves. Then, we introduce interface operators that allow us to express the domain decomposition algorithm as a Richardson-type iteration on the interface unknowns. Algebraically speaking, the Schwarz algorithm is equivalent to a Jacobi iteration applied to a linear system whose matrix has a block structure. A substructuring technique can be applied to this matrix in order to obtain a fully implicit scheme in terms of interface unknowns. In our approach, the interface unknowns are numerical (normal) fluxes.


BackgroundFrom their Scottish origins in 2009, Deep End GP networks are being established all over the UK and further afield in Ireland and Australia. Formed of primary care practitioners in areas of high blanket socioecocomic deprivation, their common goal it to mitigate health inequalities and champion the cause of primary care. As the North East is the most deprived region in England, it was important to set up a network that was sustainable and reflected the priorities of those who worked in it. The network currently consists of the 34 most deprived practices in the region. Deep End NENC is affiliated with the Newcastle University Applied Research Collaboration's (ARC) 'inequalities and marginalised communities' strand and this work will also be used to direct the ARC research priorities. This project aims to use co-design methodology to gather information from practitioners in the region that could be used to guide the initial steps of the Deep End NENC network. Co-design interviews would also serve to improve engagement and disseminate information about the network.MethodsParticipants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling, as well as a blanket communication to all Deep End practices. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were carried out with health professionals (11 GPs, 2 social prescribing link workers, 1 nurse practitioner and 1 district nurse) from Deep End practices in the NENC. Due to Covid-19 these were carried out over Zoom before transcription and thematic analysis. Findings from the interviews were communicated to the members of Deep End NENC via webinars and they also formed the part of the Deep End Steering Group spending prioritisation protocol.ResultsA coding framework was used to consider findings at patient level, practice/network level and 'upstream' political level. Themes identified were the specific clinical and social challenges in the Deep End;barriers to patient care and access to services;training and recruitment;the need to connect with others who worked in these communities to share best practice;and the need to advocate for the Deep End. The COVID-19 pandemic itself brought challenges that were felt more acutely by Deep End patients and those who cared for them.DiscussionThese interviews were successful at identifying priority areas that will form the basis of the work that Deep End NENC will focus on over the coming years. They also add to the literature around challenges facing staff who work in deprived communities.


This article deals with different aspects relating to how SMEs in the city and urban surroundings of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) go about creating a more secure environment. Security and criminality appear to be important issues for them. One-third of the entrepreneurs do not feel particularly safe at their current location. Robbery and burglary are the most important threats. Additional locks and alarm installations are the measures that are taken the most frequently to combat crime. The security issue has an important role to play when it comes to possible plans to move to a new location, thus being an important external factor which can only partially be dealt with. Some interesting sector, location and firm size effects emerged. Strikingly, these differences do not lead to any significant differences in the levels of investment in security measures: the general investment in security is about 1 per cent of a firm's sales. Copyright © 2004 SAGE Publications.


In this paper, we show that linguistically motivated pronunciation rules can improve phone and word recognition results for Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Using these rules and the MADA morphological analysis and disambiguation tool, multiple pronunciations per word are automatically generated to build two pronunciation dictionaries; one for training and another for decoding. We demonstrate that the use of these rules can significantly improve both MSA phone recognition and MSA word recognition accuracies over a baseline system using pronunciation rules typically employed in previous work on MSA Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR). We obtain a significant improvement in absolute accuracy in phone recognition of 3.77%--7.29% and a significant improvement of 4.1% in absolute accuracy in ASR.


Although Vietnamese Catholics in the United States and Cambodia have been isolated from each other for at least thirty years (1975–2005), this paper argues that they have recently established diasporic ties with each other through a global chain of Marianism. Both groups have experienced racialization in their host countries, which are in turn inflected by their local church hierarchies. These experiences have motivated them to establish ties with each other. Their US-Cambodia relationships are mediated through the Vietnamese-looking Our Lady of Lavang and Our Lady of the Mekong, which make up a global circuit of distinctively Vietnamese Marianism.


Internal conversion (IC) coupled to vibrational relaxation (VR) in molecular chromophores is a source of major energy losses in natural and artificial solar-to-chemical energy conversion schemes. The development of anti-Kasha chromophores, where dissipative IC channels are blocked, is a promising strategy to boost energy conversion efficiencies. In this contribution, we demonstrate the presence of an unusually high kinetic barrier for IC in [Ru(tpm)(bpy)(NCS)]+ (RuNCS), where tpm is tris(1-pyrazolyl)methane and bpy is 2,2'-bipyridine, by means of an arsenal of temperature-dependent spectroscopic methods including nanosecond and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopies. These studies are complemented with theoretical investigations, that provide a detailed atomistic description of the dissipation process, including the electronic structures of the excited states involved. The observed IC is mainly a hole reconfiguration within the octahedral t2g set of the Ru ion, with contributions from a Ru to NCS charge transfer. Thus, in a Marcus picture, inner and outer reorganizations contribute to the observed barrier. The results presented here show that wavefunction symmetry within a molecular chromophore can be exploited to inhibit dissipative IC. Finally, guidelines for the design of anti-Kasha chromophores that prevent dissipation in energy conversion schemes, based on minimum energy conical intersection calculations, are provided.


Based on meshing principle, a calculation method for profile curves in a kind of cycloidal pump was proposed. According to the definition of the theoretical displacement and the accurate profile coordinates of cycloidal pump, the accurate calculation method for displacement was obtained. The accuracy comparison between this method and the usual approximation equation for the displacement was also given in this paper. The results show that this method can get the precise theoretical displacement of cycloidal pump, is convenient for the scientists and technicians reference to design and manufacture directly.


This paper presents a novel unsupervised domain adaptation method for cross-domain visual recognition. We propose a unified framework that reduces the shift between domains both statistically and geometrically, referred to as Joint Geometrical and Statistical Alignment (JGSA). Specifically, we learn two coupled projections that project the source domain and target domain data into low-dimensional subspaces where the geometrical shift and distribution shift are reduced simultaneously. The objective function can be solved efficiently in a closed form. Extensive experiments have verified that the proposed method significantly outperforms several state-of-the-art domain adaptation methods on a synthetic dataset and three different real world cross-domain visual recognition tasks.


This paper analyzes the issues relating to investment protection agreements and arbitration in the light of the European Union's newly acquired exclusive external competence in investment matters. It first considers the status of existing bilateral investment treaties between Member States and third States and the transitional regime established by Regulation (EU) No 1219/2012. It then goes on to examine the developing EU policy in respect of investment protection agreements, including the relations between the competence of the EU and that of Member States and Regulation No. 912/2014 on Financial Responsibility linked to Investor-State Dispute Settlement, which implies that the EU accepts the principle that future investor protection agreements concluded by the EU will provide for investor-state arbitration. It then goes on the examine the substantive and procedural rules in the investment chapters of the agreements that the EU is negotiating with Canada, Singapore and the United States and the results of the European Commission's public consultation on such provisions. In light of the current criticism against investor state investment protection and Investor State Dispute Settlement, the article considers the possible future evolution of investor state protection and arbitration, and foresees that the current regime might face considerable changes.


In "Out of the Pits", Caitlin Zaloom shows how traders, brokers, and global financial markets have adapted to the digital age. Drawing on her firsthand experiences as a clerk and a trader, as well as her unusual access to key sites of global finance, she explains how changes at the world's leading financial exchanges have transformed economic cultures and the craft of speculation; how people and places are responding to the digital transition; how traders are remaking themselves to compete in the contemporary marketplace; and how brokers, business managers, and software designers are collaborating to build new markets. A penetrating and richly detailed account of how cities, culture, and technology shape everyday life in the global economy, "Out of the Pits" will be required reading for anyone who has ever wondered how financial markets work.


This book brings 14 papers read at a Ciba Foundation Symposium held in London in June 1967 to our attention. In the first session the development of specific neuronal connections are studied in several model systems, for example, explants of central nervous tissue or in vitro cultures of dissociated embryonic retinal cells. Other authors study the regeneration of motor nerves, retinal neurons, or retinotectal pathways in amphibians after sectioning or transplantation experiments. At the second session the normal development of movement is discussed in two papers, one on the coordinated movements in the chick embryo during incubation and hatching, the other on the development of limb innervation in amphibians. The third session is centered on the role of chemically specific signals in the development of the nervous system. The properties of the "nerve growth factor," the action of thyroid hormones on the maturation of various brain parts in tadpoles, and


The natriuretic effect of DA-1 agonists is less in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) than its normotensive control, the Wistar-Kyoto rat (WKY). To determine a mechanism of the decreased effect of DA-1 agonists on sodium transport, DA-1 receptors in renal proximal convoluted tubule (PCT) were studied by radioligand binding and by adenylate cyclase (AC) determinations. Specific binding of 125I-SCH 23982 (defined by 10 microM SCH 23390, a DA-1 antagonist) was concentration dependent, saturable, and stereoselective. The dissociation constant, maximum receptor density, and DA-1 antagonist inhibition constant were similar in SHR and WKY. The apparent molecular weight of the DA-1 receptor determined by the photoaffinity D1 probe 125I-MAB was also similar in WKY and SHR. However, DA-1 agonists competed more effectively for specific 125I-SCH 23982 binding sites in WKY than in SHR. Basal as well as forskolin, parathyroid hormone, GTP and Gpp(NH)p-stimulated-AC activities were similar. In contrast DA-1 agonists (fenoldopam, SKF 38393, SND 911C12) stimulated AC activity to a lesser extent in SHR. GTP and Gpp(NH)p enhanced the ability of DA-1 agonists to stimulate AC activity in WKY but not in SHR. These data suggest a defect in the DA-1 receptor-second messenger coupling mechanism in the PCT of the SHR.


: Radiographic contrast agents (RCA) cause a profound and long-term blockade of iodine-absorption thyroid function. It was ascertained that the thyroid gland binds both iodine that splits off from a RCA and the agent itself. The changes were found in 125I-iodine binding by the thyroid gland after preadministering the hepatotropic poison CCl4 and the liver function stimulant phenobarbital. Antithyroid action of RCA is accounted for the interaction of the thyroid gland with native molecules of RCA and by their deiodination in the liver.


Streamer characteristics have been experimentally and numerically analyzed for pulsed-corona discharge (PCD) and dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) to find out how the discharge methods determine them and how they, in turn, affect the generation of radicals in flue gases. Experiments have been performed and compared for decomposition of a nitrogen oxide (NO) using PCD and DBD, and the electric field and average electron energy in the streamer are measured in each discharge by using the line ratio of N/sub 2//sup +/ to N/sub 2//sup */. The measured results of electron energy reasonably explain in terms of "G-value" how the measured NO removal efficiencies have come out. The PCD having high electron energy turns out to be more efficient for generating N radicals, whereas the DBD containing relatively low electron energy is more effective for producing O radicals. Three-dimensional (3-D) and one-dimensional (1-D) numerical simulations have been carried out to understand the observed streamer dynamics in both the PCD and DBD reactors. The 3-D numerical simulation has successfully illustrated the images of streamer front propagation in a wire-cylinder PCD reactor. In the 1-D simulation for the DBD, the recurrence phenomena of streamers have numerically appeared during the rising phase of an AC voltage. Furthermore, these numerical models have properly predicted the electric fields that are comparable with the corresponding average electron energies estimated from the emission spectral measurements for the PCD and DBD.


This is the first description of the relationship between chronic ethanol self‐administration and the brain transcriptome in a non‐human primate (rhesus macaque). Thirty‐one male animals self‐administered ethanol on a daily basis for over 12 months. Gene transcription was quantified with RNA‐Seq in the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and cortical Area 32. We constructed coexpression and cosplicing networks, and we identified areas of preservation and areas of differentiation between regions and network types. Correlations between intake and transcription included largely distinct gene sets and annotation categories across brain regions and between expression and splicing; positive and negative correlations were also associated with distinct annotation groups. Membrane, synaptic and splicing annotation categories were over‐represented in the modules (gene clusters) enriched in positive correlations (CeA); our cosplicing analysis further identified the genes affected only at the exon inclusion level. In the CeA coexpression network, we identified Rab6b, Cdk18 and Igsf21 among the intake‐correlated hubs, while in the Area 32, we identified a distinct hub set that included Ppp3r1 and Myeov2. Overall, the data illustrate that excessive ethanol self‐administration is associated with broad expression and splicing mechanisms that involve membrane and synapse genes.


In this paper, we address the problem of retrospectively pruning decision trees induced from data, according to a top-down approach. This problem has received considerable attention in the areas of pattern recognition and machine learning, and many distinct methods have been proposed in literature. We make a comparative study of six well-known pruning methods with the aim of understanding their theoretical foundations, their computational complexity, and the strengths and weaknesses of their formulation. Comments on the characteristics of each method are empirically supported. In particular, a wide experimentation performed on several data sets leads us to opposite conclusions on the predictive accuracy of simplified trees from some drawn in the literature. We attribute this divergence to differences in experimental designs. Finally, we prove and make use of a property of the reduced error pruning method to obtain an objective evaluation of the tendency to overprune/underprune observed in each method.


Sexual violence is one of the human rights violations characterising the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. These violations include rape, sexual slavery and the abduction of women and girls by members of the insurgent group. Unfortunately, the emphasis has always been on the provision of humanitarian aid rather than redressing these violations. This article argues that although there are laws in place regulating sexual violence in Nigeria, these laws are inadequate in providing redress for the victims. Besides, the laws are rarely implemented to ensure a system of justice for victims, given the patriarchal and cultural antecedents of Nigeria. It is against this background that the article evaluates the legal framework for redressing sexual violence in the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria with a view to revealing the gap that exists therein. To achieve this aim, the article defines sexual violence and instances of such in the Boko Haram context. It also examines the legal framework for redressing sexual violence in Nigeria and the limitations of these laws in that regard. The article further considers the concept of redress and what it entails. Although the article adopts a legal approach, it is concluded that this approach is inadequate in addressing the issue at stake and that, in addition, a resort to extra-legal or other radical measures is needed. To address this challenge, the article among other things, recommends the eradication of cultural practices and negative values encouraging sexual violence; stipulation of a timeframe within which cases of sexual violence must be redressed; the appointment of an independent monitoring body to ensure the implementation of constitutional provisions in that regard; judicial independence; and advocacy by both civil society organisations and the media as tools to compel the relevant authorities to fulfil their responsibility to protect victims of sexual violence. This, it is submitted, will go a long way to address the vulnerability of Nigerian women and girls faced with sexual violence by insurgent groups.