A tragedy of good intentions gone hopelessly wrong, "Wind from an Enemy Sky" tells the story of the Little Elk People, a fictional Northwestern tribe. Through the eyes of Antoine, grandson of the tribal leader, we see the tribe attempt to overcome their demoralization at the hands of advancing white civilization. The Indians respond to the building of a dam by trying to gain the return of a sacred medicine bundle. McNickle's ability to depict psychologically complex characters of both races, such as Bull, the aging leader of the Little Elk, and Rafferty, the Indian Agency Superintendent, results in a convincing story and leads the reader to hope that tragedy can be averted. At the same time, McNickle provides a sensitive portrait of the religious depth and human warmth of Indian culture. But although whites and Indians grow in their understanding of one another, the mistakes of the past compound to bring about the violent final confrontation, envisioned in the dreams of the mysterious Two Sleeps.


Although the frequency of sport dreams has been studied, studies looking at the relationship between sport disciplines and dream content are quite rare. The present findings are based on 11,463 dreams of an academic who practiced during several years quite intensely circus arts (juggling, unicycling, and acrobatics). The overall percentage of sport dreams (6.12%) is comparable with previous findings. Circus art dreams were unique to the dreamer (not found in a large sample of student dreams) and occurred most often during the period of intense practice. One of the most intriguing questions is whether these sport dreams reflect sleep-dependent memory consolidation processes, i.e., whether dreaming about sport is related to performance improvements.


In recent years, great advances in understanding the opportunities for nonlinear vibration energy harvesting systems have been achieved giving attention to either the structural or electrical subsystems. Yet, a notable disconnect appears in the knowledge on optimal means to integrate nonlinear energy harvesting structures with effective nonlinear rectifying and power management circuits for practical applications. Motivated to fill this knowledge gap, this research employs impedance principles to investigate power optimization strategies for a nonlinear vibration energy harvester interfaced with a bridge rectifier and a buck-boost converter. The frequency and amplitude dependence of the internal impedance of the harvester structure challenges the conventional impedance matching concepts. Instead, a system-level optimization strategy is established and validated through simulations and experiments. Through careful studies, the means to optimize the electrical power with partial information of the electrical load is revealed and verified in comparison to the full analysis. These results suggest that future study and implementation of optimal nonlinear energy harvesting systems may find effective guidance through power flow concepts built on linear theories despite the presence of nonlinearities in structures and circuits.


Many real time applications, such as video conferencing, require the transmission of messages from a sender to multiple receivers subject to Quality of Service (QoS) delivery constraints (e.g. bounded delay). This requires the underlying multicast protocol to find a QoS constrained minimum cost communication path (tree). However, finding such a tree is known to be computationally expensive. We present a fast heuristic, called QDMR, for generating delay constrained low cost multicast routing trees. A salient feature of QDMR is that it dynamically adjusts its low cost tree construction policy based on how far the current on-tree node is from violating the QoS delay bound. This QoS dependent (adaptive) tree construction, together with the capability to merge least delay paths into the low cost tree in case of stringent delay requirements, lead to the following properties: (1) QDMR guarantees to find a feasible multicast tree if such tree exists; (2) this delay bounded multicast tree is very rapidly generated; and (3) the tree has low cost. Through analysis and extensive simulations, we confirm the premise of QDMR by comparing it to many existing multicast algorithms.


PURPOSE: Injuries result from complex interactions between a variety of internal and external risk factors. Due to the complex-systems nature of injuries it is not possible to place responsibility for injury risk management solely within a single domain of professional practice. Instead, an interdisciplinary collaboration between technical/tactical coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, team doctors, physical therapists and sport scientists is more likely to have a meaningful impact on injury risk. The purpose of this study is to describe the development and application of a multidisciplinary model for reducing team injury risk in professional rugby union. METHODS: Epidemiological injury data was collected from a team of professional rugby union players over the course of 5 consecutive season. Following each season, a multidisciplinary audit was conducted to identify areas where risk mitigation strategies could be applied within the team environment. These strategies took the form of technical/tactical, strength and conditioning, player monitoring medical and therapeutic interventions that were all applied concurrently (Figure 1). The effectiveness of this program was assessed against the total team injury burden per season, as well as the burden from contact and non-contact injuries. 95% confidence intervals were calculated using standard equations, and values were considered significantly different if the 95% confidence intervals did not overlap. RESULTS: Overall team injury burden decreased significantly (9, 95%CI 5 to 13 %) from 2012 to 2016. Non-contact injuries were also significantly reduced (39, 95%CI 34 to 44 %), while contact injury burden was increased to a lesser degree (21, 95%CI 15 to 27 %) during the same period. Specific examples of multidisciplinary interventions are provided. CONCLUSIONS: The range of skills required to effectively manage injury risk in professional collision sport crosses disciplinary boundaries. The evidence presented here points to the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary approach to reducing injury risk. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: The multidisciplinary model of injury risk management will encourage increased collaboration across professional disciplines within sport. This model will likely be applicable across a range of team and individual sports.


The emerging sub-field of dynamic medical optical tomography shows great potential for conferring significantly enhanced early diagnosis and treatment monitoring capabilities upon researchers and clinicians. In previous reports we have showed that adoption of elementary time-series analysis techniques can bring about large large improvements in localization and contrast in optical tomographic images. Here we build upon the earlier work, and show that well-known techniques for extraction and localization of signals embedded in a noisy background, and for deconvolution of signal mixtures, also can be successfully applied to the problem of interpreting dynamic optical tomography data sets. A general linear model computation is used for the signal extraction/localization problem, while the deconvolution problem is addressed by means of a blind source separation technique extensively reported.


In this work, we analyze the spatial and temporal features of electromagnetic X-waves propagating in free space and generated by planar radiating apertures. The performance of ideal X-waves is discussed and compared to practical cases where the important effects related to the finiteness of the radiating aperture and the wavenumber dispersion are taken into account. In particular, a practical device consisting of a radial waveguide loaded with radiating slots aligned along a spiral path is considered for the practical case in the millimeter-wave range. A common mathematical framework is defined for a precise comparison of the spatiotemporal properties and focusing capabilities of the generated X-wave. It is clearly shown that the fractional bandwidth of the radiating aperture has a key role in the longitudinal confinement of an X-wave in both ideal and practical cases. In addition, the finiteness of the radiating aperture as well as the wavenumber dispersion clearly affect both the transverse and the longitudinal profiles of the generated radiation as it travels beyond the depth-of-field of the generated X-wave. Nevertheless, the spatiotemporal properties of the X-wave are preserved even in this "dispersive-finite" case within a defined region and duration related to the nondiffractive range and fractional bandwidth of the spectral components of the generated X-wave. The proposed analysis may open new perspectives for the efficient generation of X-waves over finite radiating apertures at millimeter waves where the dispersive behavior of realistic devices is no longer negligible. Published by AIP Publishing.


This study examines China's ambitions to strengthen propaganda by creating a platform called Xuexi Qiangguo. Though platform studies have explored the important role of the U.S.-based platforms, we know very little about the intervention of state power in the design and operation of digital platforms. Using a mixed-methods approach, this article examines the technology, content, and users of Xuexi Qiangguo. The results suggest that the power the platform wields operates through its restrictive control modes, platformized persuasion modes, and user datafication. We reveal that online activities are largely limited to information learning and knowledge testing, and meantime, the platform constantly rates and ranks user behavior. Consequently, Xuexi Qiangguo enables state power to penetrate institutional structures and power relations into the online environment, replacing the conventional multisided markets with state–citizen relations. Our study enriches the understanding of the way in which states operate a platform to reinforce ideological persuasion and citizen assessment.


This study estimates the effect of living in a very deprived neighbourhood, as identified by a high density of social housing, on the educational attainment of fourteen years old (9th grade) students in England. Neighbourhoods with markedly high concentrations of social housing have very high unemployment and extremely low qualification rates, as well as high building density, rooms over-crowding and low house prices. In order to identify the causal impact of neighbourhood deprivation on pupil attainments, I exploit the timing of moving into these neighbourhoods. The timing of a move can be taken as exogenous because of long waiting lists for social housing in high-demand areas. This is a new strategy that by-passes the usual sorting and reflection problems. Using this approach, there is no evidence for otherwise negative effects, which has potentially wide-ranging implications for social housing policy.


ABSTRACTThis article examines the notions of "intuitive" and "counterintuitive" beliefs and concepts in cognitive science of religion. "Intuitive" states are contrasted with those that are products of explicit, conscious reasoning. In many cases the intuitions are grounded in the implicit rules of mental models, frames, or schemas. I argue that the pathway from intuitive to high theological concepts and beliefs may be distinct from that from intuitions to "folk religion," and discuss how Christian theology might best interpret the results of studies in cognitive psychology of religion.In Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR), religious concepts and beliefs have been characterized as "intuitive" or "counterintuitive" by psychologists (Barrett 2004; Bloom 2004; Kelemen 2004) and anthropologists (Boyer 2001); and others (Pyysiainen 2004, following Sperber 1997) have made use of a notion of "intuitive" representations in their accounts of religious cognition. The word 'intuition' and its variants are, of course, used in several different ways in ordinary language, and have also been used in multiple technical ways in philosophy, psychology, and other academic disciplines. I shall first examine recent uses of these terms in CSR, clarifying them in relation to existing usages in philosophy and psychology which contrast "intuitive" states and processes with those that are products of conscious, explicit reasoning. I shall then outline an account of how intuitions are produced in the mind via the rules of what have variously been called mental models, schemas, or frames. In Section 3,1 shall examine a few possible implications of this model-based account of intuition for CSR-particularly, the possibility that a study of the cognitive processes that produce "high theological" or "theologically correct" religious views might (somewhat surprisingly) be undertaken separately from the study of "folk" concepts and beliefs. Whereas the first three sections are explorations in the philosophy of a particular area of cognitive science, the final section will explore two questions from the standpoint of religious belief (and more specifically, Christian theology). First, what sort of religious epistemology enjoys the best fit with the theories in CSR discussed in the article? And, second, what sorts of further research questions are suggested, in turn, by this religious epistemology?1. Overview of UsageOne cannot read very far in the literature of contemporary CSR without encountering claims that particular concepts and particular beliefs are "intuitive" or "counterintuitive." Indeed, it might seem that there is fundamental disagreement about whether particular concepts and beliefs -say, about the existence of disembodied spirits-should be deemed intuitive or counterintuitive. On examination, however, it will turn out that these apparent disagreements are only apparent, and that the parties to them actually share important assumptions about the nature of intuition, and about what makes a concept or a belief intuitive or counterintuitive.1.1 Kelemen, intuitive teleology and intuitive theismBoston University psychologist Deborah Kelemen argues that teleological understanding comes early to children, and indeed predominates their understanding of nature (Kelemen 2004). Young children prefer explanations of natural objects and phenomena in terms of what they are for to causal explanations. By age five, they understand that natural objects do not have human makers, but nevertheless view them in teleological terms (Kelemen 1999a, b, 2003, 2004). And evidence from six to ten-year olds suggests that they relate their assignments of purpose to nonhuman intentional causation (Evans, 2000, 2001; Gelman and Kremer, 1991; Kelemen 2004). She suggests that "these research findings tentatively suggest that children's explanatory approach may be accurately characterized as intuitive theism" (2004, 199). What Kelemen seems to mean by this is that normal cognitive development includes an earlyarising capacity and disposition to explain objects and events in teleological terms that imply a designer and/or fabricator, that these explanations persist in the absence of a perceptible candidate for such a role, and by mid-childhood dispose the child to attribute the causation of some natural objects and events to unperceivable agents. …


Background Leukemia cells have strong proliferation and anti-apoptosis capabilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of silencing the leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein1 (LRG1) gene, which was found to regulate tumor proliferation and apoptosis in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines. Material/Methods Plasmid interference technique was used to silence the LRG1 gene in the KASUMI-1 cell line. The cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was used to test the effect of transduction on cell viability. Cell cycle and apoptosis were detected by flow cytometry. Western blot and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) were applied to detect the expression levels of proteins and mRNA, respectively. Results KASUMI-1 cells with the CD34+CD38− phenotype were sorted by flow cytometry. After transfection of the siLRG1 plasmid, the level of LRG1 expression was downregulated and cell viability was reduced. Silencing of LRG1 gene blocked KASUMI-1 cells in G0/G1 phase and promoted apoptosis. Further experiments found that LRG1 gene silencing significantly downregulated cell cycle-associated proteins and anti-apoptotic proteins, while upregulating pro-apoptotic proteins. Downregulation of LRG1 gene expression also inhibits signal transduction of the JAK-STAT pathway. Conclusions LRG1 gene silencing regulates the expression of cyclin and apoptosis-related proteins to reduce cell viability and promote apoptosis, probably through inhibition of the JAK-STAT pathway.


We present a novel method for analyzing social behavior. Continuous videos are segmented into action `bouts' by building a temporal context model that combines features from spatio-temporal energy and agent trajectories. The method is tested on an unprecedented dataset of videos of interacting pairs of mice, which was collected as part of a state-of-the-art neurophysiological study of behavior. The dataset comprises over 88 hours (8 million frames) of annotated videos. We find that our novel trajectory features, used in a discriminative framework, are more informative than widely used spatio-temporal features; furthermore, temporal context plays an important role for action recognition in continuous videos. Our approach may be seen as a baseline method on this dataset, reaching a mean recognition rate of 61.2% compared to the expert's agreement rate of about 70%.


An instrument for the performance of electrochemical corrosion measurements has been developed, which includes a 16-bit built-in microprocessor. Electrochemical corrosion measurements, by their very nature, benefit by being placed under microprocessor control. These measurements include pretimed equilibration periods, examination of corrosion potentials for stability, initiation of scans at potentials relative to the corrosion potential, and reversal of scans at selected potentials or current densities or both. Similarly, the calculations usually performed on electrochemical corrosion rate data can be performed and even optimized through the use of a built-in microprocessor. The instrument described here utilizes the microprocessor as completely as possible-to define the measurement, perform the experiment, and replay the data in a format that is most meaningful to the operator. This paper will describe in detail how the microprocessor is utilized to set up an experiment, acquire, validate, and store the experimental data, and then recall all, or selected portions, of that data. Typical applications of the instrument will be described in detail showing how the device can be used for the evaluation of potentiodynamic polarizations, cyclic polarizations, Tafel plots, polarization resistance plots, galvanic corrosion measurements, corrosion behavior diagrams, sensitization tests, and current integration measurements of a number of typical alloys in a variety of corrosive environments. The advantages enjoyed by a microprocessor-based device as compared to an analog instrument will be described.


The term "digital stories" describes a simple creative process through which people with relatively little computer experience come to tell a personal story or collect one from the field in a 2-3 minute video. In recent years, their use in higher education has been related to meaningful technology integration for increasing student engagement and developing 21st century employability skills, integration of new and old literacies, social and collaborative learning, and constructing new understandings of contexts in the process of theorizing personal experiences. The study continues the authors' previous research by proposing a method of embedding employability skills in the curriculum of Romanian for Academic Purposes to first year undergraduates studying sociology at Babes-Bolyai University. A research scenario is provided for a complex investigation of the ways teaching methodology can help digitally native students integrate 21st century skills with view to their transition from secondary to higher education and further, into the job market. Formative and summative assessments cover digital, media, communication, and collaboration competencies in relation to the processes and final product. A quantitative analysis is performed on data collected from project pages hosted by the e-learning platform logs (wiki) and compared with learning outcomes. Additionally, a selection of relevant case studies is described to illustrate findings and the potential of this instrument. The results are expected to bring further evidence of the benefits and challenges of new teaching practices within Web 2.0 based learning settings and of their significant role in the development of a wide array of skills needed in the academic and work environments.


The abundant faunal remains from the Takarkori rock shelter in the Tadrart Acacus region of southwestern Libya are described. The material that covers the period between 10,200 to 4650 years cal BP illustrates the more humid environmental conditions in the Central Sahara during early and middle Holocene times. Particular attention is focussed on the aquatic fauna that shows marked diachronic changes related to increasing aridification. This is reflected in the decreasing amount of fish remains compared to mammals and, within the fish fauna, by changes through time in the proportion of the species and by a reduction of fish size. The aquatic fauna can, in addition, be used to formulate hypotheses about the former palaeohydrographical network. This is done by considering the possible location of pre-Holocene relic populations combined with observations on the topography and palaeohy-drological


Tissue remodeling during maturation, wound healing, and response to vascular stress involves molecular changes of collagen and elastin in the extracellular matrix (ECM). Two optical techniques are effective for investigating these changes--laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy and polarizing microscopy. LIF spectroscopy integrates the signal from both elastin and collagen cross-linked structure, whereas birefringence is a measure of only collagen. Our purpose is (1) to evaluate the rat tail tendon (RTT) spectroscopy against data from purified extracted protein standards and (2) to correlate the two optical techniques in the study of RTT and skin. Spectra from tissue samples from 27 male rats and from extracted elastin and collagen were obtained using LIF spectroscopy (357 nm). Birefringence was measured on 5-mum histological sections of the same tissue. Morphometric analysis reveals that elastin represents approximately 10% of tendon volume and contributes to RTT fluorescence. RTT maximum fluorescence emission intensity (FEI(max)), which includes collagen and elastin, increases with animal weight (R(2)=0.64). Birefringence, when plotted against weight, increases to a plateau (nonlinear correlation: R(2)=0.90), tendon having greater birefringence than skin. LIF spectroscopy and collagen fiber birefringence are shown to provide complementary measurements of molecular structure (tendon birefringence versus FEI(max) at R(2)=0.60).


Background: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFU) are among the most invalidating and costly complications of diabetes. We evaluated the effect of a blend of arginine, glutamine and Beta -hydroxy- Beta -methyl-butyrate on the healing of these lesions in a group of 22 diabetic subjects who served as their own control. A nutritional supplement containing arginine, glutamine and beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (Ar-Gl-HMB) dramatically improved the healing of diabetic foot ulcers in two studies. Glutamine and Arginine have an antibacterial and immunopotentiating action and should reduce the use of antibiotics. We evaluated the use and the cost of antibiotics using the data from two case controlled studies of diabetic subjects with recurrent neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers. Methods: We identified 22 subjects with type-2 diabetes who had been treated in the past for neuropathic ulcers of the foot (Event 1, E1), and who subsequently suffered recurrent ulcers with similar characteristics (E2). In E2 the treatment was the same but the subjects received a supplementation of Ar-Gl-HMB, and experienced 50% reduction of time to healing. Results: During E1 we used 83 courses of antibiotics, versus 36 during E2 (Wilcoxon SR test = 0.002). The cost for treatment E1 was 17123.77 € , versus  8537.8 € in E2. The difference persists also adding the cost of the supplement of 2586 € (8537.8 + 171223.77 = 1123.8 € ).   Conclusions: The cost of the antibiotic treatment was reduced by 50% with the use of the formula. Because the time to healing was shortened, both the direct costs (medication, surgery, nursing time, etc) and the indirect costs (hospitalization, days of work lost) were decreased .The use of a highly specialized nutrition reduces the cost of the antibiotic treatment by about 50% and the auxiliary economic and social burden of disease. doi:10.4021/jem64w


»Risikokalkulationen: Finanzmathematik und Verbriefung seit den 1970ern«. The article investigates the history of securitization in order to analyze more general transformations in the social and political approaches towards various types of credit risks. The history of securitization reveals a longterm shift in the conventions addressed when dealing with risks. Socio-political conventions were gradually replaced by financialized, market-oriented conventions in which investors would take responsibilities and replace other actors, like the state or private corporations, which were previously involved. The first part of the article examines the epistemic and economic origins of securitization. In the second part, the analysis focuses on the golden age of securitization, from the 1980s to the mid-2000s, discussing decisive factors for its expansion. The third part reflects the role of securitization in the financial crisis of 2007/08 and debates the extent to which mathematical expertise can be made responsible for the collapsing securities market.


ABSTRACT Transition economy research has emerged during the last two decades as a new lens for the examination of marketing and business phenomena. This study examines major theoretical and practical issues that must be addressed when conducting marketing research in transition economies. The paper is both conceptual in terms of integrating different streams of cultural research for transition economy study, and prescriptive in terms of recommendations for conducting marketing studies. Three inter-related fields of study, individualism/collectivism; value types; and World Values Surveys; serve as frameworks for developing a marketing research agenda in markets in transition. The existence of non-trivial differences between people, and therefore consumers, within transition versus developed economies is also reviewed. The relevance of such research is considered from the perspective of both academic and practitioner applications.


Acoustic emission (AE) characteristics have been studied for single-edge-notched monolithic thin aluminum (Al) plates and glass fiber/Al hybrid laminates. Traveling microscope was used for observing the plastic deformation and damage zone around the initial notch tip. Frequency characteristics of AE signals processed by fast Fourier transform (FFT) from monolithic Al could be classified into two different types. Type I signal had a relatively low frequency band of 96~260kHz, while Type II signal had broad band frequencies of 192~408kHz. In case of glass fiber/Al hybrid laminates, AE signals with high amplitude (>80dB) and long duration (>2msec) were additionally confirmed on FFT frequency analysis, which corresponded to macro-crack propagation and/or delamination between aluminum layer and glass fiber layer. Also, distributions of the first and the second peaks in frequency spectrum were related with local fracture behaviors of the hybrid laminates. AE source location determined by signal arrival time showed the extent of fracture zones. On the basis of the above AE analysis, characteristic features of fracture processes of single-edge-notched glass fiber/aluminum laminates were elucidated according to different fiber orientations.


Abstract : The Behind-Armour (BA) debris cloud created behind the target after a projectile impact can easily be observed using x-ray technology. Some countries use this technology to evaluate the lethality of the threat since the number of fragments, mass and velocity can be estimated. Usually, two orthogonal x-ray stations are located behind the target in order to obtain orthogonal images at two different times. Since only projected images of BA debris are recorded on films (two dimensions), a major issue to solve concerns the available information. An analysis of these x-ray films becomes time-consuming when the fragments must be matched from one station to another or from corresponding horizontal and vertical views. Also, the distances seen on the films are projected distances that are different from the real distance travelled by fragments. This memorandum presents equations, methods and tools that can be used to rapidly locate fragments in space (three dimensions) in order to accurately compute their velocity, trajectory and finally assess their mass based on x-ray films only.


This paper covers the general approach followed by AFCEN, the French Society for Design, Construction and In-Service Inspection Rules for Nuclear Island Components in updating the nuclear code RCC-M, from the technical and organizational points of view. The main evolutions introduced in recent editions of RCC-M code are presented and commented on, with a focus on the 2018 edition of the code, which marks the end of the 3-year program carried out to demonstrate the conformity with European essential safety requirements for pressure equipment and French requirements for nuclear pressure equipment.
 In addition, the main on-going activities are presented, as well as the future activities of the RCC-M subcommittee, in the frame of the 4-year editorial program that has been launched in 2019, in line with the AFCEN 4-year strategic plan. They encompass all fields covered by the code: design and analysis rules, material procurement, fabrication and nondestructive testing. The paper highlights how the industrial experience is integrated into the RCC-M code, and also how the new projects needs are taken into account.


Several authors have demonstrated that significant improvements can be obtained in wavelet-based signal processing by utilizing a pair of wavelet transforms where the wavelets form a Hilbert transform pair. This paper describes design procedures, based on spectral factorization, for the design of pairs of dyadic wavelet bases where the two wavelets form an approximate Hilbert transform pair. Both orthogonal and biorthogonal FIR solutions are presented, as well as IIR solutions. In each case, the solution depends on an allpass filter having a flat delay response. The design procedure allows for an arbitrary number of vanishing wavelet moments to be specified. A Matlab program for the procedure is given, and examples are also given to illustrate the results.


Cellulose acetate is a chemical of great industrial importance. Its uses range
from the manufacture of textiles to cigarette filters.
Cellulose acetate is not biodegraded easily. The aim of this project was to
identify, micro-organisms that would attack cellulose acetate and to propose a
possible mechanism for the biodegradation process.
Discarded cigarette filters were taken from the street and they were plated onto
Sabouraud medium, a selective medium for fungi. The growth observed was
on the outside of the filters. The middle portion of discarded cigarette filters
was opened asceptically, and added in flasks containing nutrient broth. Eighty
percent of the flasks showed no signs of bacteriological growth after 24 hours,
showing that the inside of the filters was sterile. It would appear, that
cigarette filters are a very effective barrier towards microbial penetration.
Cigarette filters were laid on potting compost, sand and tile surfaces, in order
to monitor their progress over a period of 12 months. These experiments took
place under moist and warm conditions, in order to enhance biological
growth. The sand and tile experiments were abandoned after a relatively short
period as no obvious changes could be seen.
The experiments on compost did not show any visible signs of biodegradation
for 7 months. After that period, algal growth developed on the filters exposed
to light, and a slight decrease in the degree of substitution (the average number
of acetyl groups per anhydroglucose unit) was observed.
Cellulose acetates with varying degrees of substitution were synthesised and
used as carbon source for the growth of the fungus Aspergillus jilmigatus, a
common soil species. Previous experiments had shown that this species was
the predominant one growing on the filters.
It was found that biodegradability varied with the degree of substitution. The
higher the degree of substitution, the slower the biodegradation.
Biodegradation could not be shown in cellulose acetate with a degree of
substitution of 2.5, the material from which cigarette filters are made.
The degradation products were analysed by means of FTIR spectroscopy, IH
and \3C NMR, solution viscosity and GPC. From the results obtained, it could
be deduced that the biodegradation proceeded by a mild de-acetylation
(esterase) prior to de-polymerisation (cellulase).


This paper describes the sedimentology of the Semirara Formation in the type locality, Semirara Island, which lies south of Mindoro on the western side of the Philippines volcanic arc. The history of sedimentation is set within the evolution of a series of rift basins which were compressed and inverted during collision with the arc. The Semirara Formation is mostly composed of continental clastic deposits of Upper Miocene age. The outcrop is dominated by fluvial channel sandstones interbedded with thick coals and estuarine and floodplain siltstones_ Palaeocurrent analysis indicates that the rivers flowed towards the North and the petrography of the sandstones indicates that they were derived from a continental landmass rather than the volcanic arc. It is suggested that the PalawanlMindoro microcontinent was being uplifted and eroded during the late Miocene and shedding sediments into a series of rapidly subsiding basins which developed under an extensional regime within the Palawan block, prior to collision with the Philippines volcanic arc. At the present day the basins are partially inverted following collision with the arc, beginning in late Miocene times. Inversion occurred in a regional sinistral strike slip regime and spread southward away from the northern edge of the indenting microcontinent. Coal in the Semirara Formation is currently being worked in an open cast coal mine, associated sandstones and organic rich mudstones form potential reservoir and source rocks for petroleum exploration in the three basins described. The sandstones are mostly fluvial channel sandstones deposited by a variety of rivers which can be summarised as four types: 1) Mixed load meandering rivers, 2) Sandbed meandering rivers, 3) Large sand-bed braided rivers and 4) Shallow braided streams. The fluvial sandstones are interbedded with thick coal seams, up to 20 m thick, and siltstones which are interpreted as freshwater swamp and floodplain deposits. Occasional marine incursions are also recognised indicating an overall depositional setting on a coastal plain.


Background 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase Type-2 (11β-HSD2) is an unidirectional enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of glucocorticoid hormones cortisol and corticosterone (B) into their corresponding inactive forms, cortisone, and 11-dehydrocorticosterone (DH-B). We have provided evidence that 11β-HSD2 is expressed as messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein in human adrenocortical cells, where its activity is inhibited in vitro by the main glucocorticoid agonists, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and angiotensin-II. It seemed worthwhile, therefore, to study the gene expression and activity of 11β-HSD2 in cortisol-secreting adrenocortical adenomas. Methods Three adrenal adenomas that produced Cushing syndrome were recruited. Three normal adrenal glands were obtained from patients who underwent unilateral nephrectomy with ipsilateral adrenalectomy for renal cancer. 11β-HSD2 gene expression was studied by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in adenoma and normal adrenocortical tissue. Cortisol, B, cortisone, and DH-B production by adenoma and adrenal slices in vitro was assayed by quantitative high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and the activity of 11β-HSD2 was evaluated by measuring the conversion of [3H]-cortisol to [3H]-cortisone. Results RT-PCR allowed the detection of the 11β-HSD2 mRNA in the three adrenal adenomas and normal adrenal cortices examined. Under basal conditions, adenoma slices secreted higher amounts of cortisol and B, but markedly lower amounts of cortisone and DH-B than adrenal slices. ACTH raised cortisol and B production from both specimens, and it lowered cortisone and DH-B yield. The level basal conversion of [3H]-cortisol to [3H]-cortisone was notably less in adenomas than in adrenals, and ACTH decreased it in both tissues. Conclusions Collectively, our findings indicate that cortisol-secreting adrenal adenomas express the 11β-HSD2 gene, but the activity of the enzyme is suppressed in adenomas when compared with the normal adrenal cortex. We advance the hypothesis that the elevated local concentration of steroid hormones that occur in adenomas down-regulates 11β-HSD2 activity, thereby contributing to their abnormal steroidogenic function.


INTRODUCTION
Erectile dysfunction (ED) and other related sexual dysfunctions in men have recently been shown to associate with a range of conditions and biopsychosocial factors. However, few studies have been able to control for these related factors simultaneously.

AIM
To determine the prevalence of and associated risk factors for ED and low solitary and dyadic sexual desire.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Erectile function (International Index of Erectile Function-erectile function) and sexual desire (Sexual Desire Inventory 2), as well as associated sociodemographic, lifestyle, biological, and clinical risk factors.

METHODS
Data were collected from 1,195 randomly selected, community-dwelling men as part of the Florey Adelaide Male Ageing Study.

RESULTS
The prevalence of ED, low solitary, and dyadic sexual desire was 17.7%, 67.7%, and 13.5%, respectively. Increasing age, abdominal fat mass, obstructive sleep apnea risk, and the absence of a regular partner were associated with both degrees of ED severity. Insufficient physical activity, low alcohol consumption, and hypertension were associated with mild ED only, and voiding lower urinary tract symptoms, diabetes, and lower plasma testosterone were independently associated with moderate to severe ED. Increasing age, lower alcohol consumption, insufficient physical activity, and a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, or insomnia were associated with both low dyadic and solitary sexual desire. Postschool qualifications and lower plasma testosterone were associated with low dyadic desire, whereas lower education and income, unemployment, and migration were associated with low solitary sexual desire. The absence of a regular partner and postschool qualifications were associated with higher solitary sexual desire.

CONCLUSIONS
While ED and low dyadic and solitary sexual desire share some risk factors, we were able to demonstrate that unique factors exist for each of these domains. Attention should first be given to addressing these modifiable risk factors.


Paracetamol is used to treat several conditions like headache, muscle aches, arthritis, backache, toothaches, colds, and fevers. There are several side effects which result from administration of paracetamol, as it may affect liver, kidney and even heart. Unexplained deaths and electrocardiographic changes associated with paracetamol poisoning have also been reported and wasn't been clearly discussed. Material and methods: The experimental study was carried out on 15 rats. The animals were divided into 3 groups, each group consists of 5 rats: Group1: Healthy control rats. Group 2: Rats received (0.5) ml of paracetamol/kg BW (oral).Group 3: Rats received (0.5) ml of paracetamol/kg BW (oral), and vitamin C (200 mg/kg BW). The animals were anesthetized by ether, the chest was opened to expose the heart for intracardiac perfusion with 10 ml of isotonic solution until the coming fluid is clear of blood, then 10% neutral buffered formalin. Each group is divided into two subgroups. The first subgroup was processed for light microscopy, and the second subgroup was processed for electron microscopy Treatment was done once daily for continuous 30 days. Results were in the form of presence of muscle disruption, invasion of muscle fibers by inflammatory cells, severely dilated and congested blood vessels, numerous and giant mitochondria. But, in group III there was some amelioration in the form of decrease in disruption of muscle fibers, decrease in congestion of blood vessels and mitochondria appeared in a normally arranged manner. The statistical analysis showed hypertrophy of muscle fibers in group II, and slight resolution in the hypertrophy in group III.


It is an important prerequisite for the profound understanding of traditional architecture culture to analyze the changes of traditional culture and master the development trails of local culture. The unique geographical position and brilliant culture background of the ancient Huizhou result in Huizhou architecture. Further exploration of Huizhou architecture culture connotation in the background of traditional culture changes can help us better understand its value. Only by deeply analyzing and grasping local culture can rural-urban builders better protect and follow the tradition and then make some creation and development.


A new challenge emerged at the beginning of the 21st century: how to welcome cultural diversity in the context of new intercultural processes and the international order. To pursue this goal, it is essential to retrace the development of the historical creation of social, religious and cultural identities. The perception of specific identities, especially religious ones, as security risks (in particular, the global threat of terrorism) is just one of the challenges this project faces. Such perceptions create insecurity in contemporary societies. Moreover, a critical analysis of the identity construction process can undermine the often drawn equation between religion and risk. The interdisciplinary project proposed here addresses issues of growing historical importance in the present day: starting from an analysis of the structure, the living conditions and the religious practices of the Uyghur community, their symbiotic-conflictual relationship with the Han Chinese dominant national group will be taken into consideration, as well as internal or external processes against Chinese State-imposed cultural and educational models. Islam is the element that the Chinese Nation-State exploits to legitimize restrictive and violent policies against the Uyghur people: while it publicly pursues "modernizing" and "war on terror" objectives in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the ultimate goal is that of maintaining control over the territory and its natural resources. In a frame of decolonial studies, we intend to highlight the coloniality of the People's Republic of China: we also intend to evaluate how identities have historically been built in a territory that must face constant social and environmental pressure in the context of global geopolitics, a scenario that generates a Han-Uyghur/Chinese-Uyghur identity conflict. These local and regional socio-political tensions, in the last third of the 20th century, forced or encouraged Uyghur emigration from their region and from China, leading to the birth of exiled communities.


Abstract The Istria 'Depression' or sub-basin of offshore Romania lies at the intersection of the trans-European Tornquist–Teisseyre 'Zone' and the Black Sea back-arc basin, just outboard of the East Carpathian orogenic welt. Its Late Mesozoic–Cenozoic succession records an extraordinary polyphase history of subsidence and sedimentation, interrupted by several quite spectacular second-/third-order erosional unconformities, reflecting the interplay between these tectonic domains. The unconformities divide the succession into a number of stratigraphic sequences. The sub-basin first developed as a transtensional rift in the Triassic–Early Jurassic, evolving into a narrow oceanized trough in the later Jurassic. This was tilted west during the Early Cretaceous, and the residual Late Jurassic topography was filled and buried by a west-facing clastic–evaporite wedge. Following Late Aptian–Albian(?) rifting, post-rift subsidence and spreading in the Western Black Sea imposed a strong easterly tilt, encouraging the partial evacuation of its Early Cretaceous sedimentary fill by gravity-driven mass wastage. The incised valley topography was subsequently infilled and buried during the later Cretaceous and Early Cenozoic. During the mid-Late Cenozoic, the Black Sea Basin experienced intermittent periods of partial to complete isolation from the world ocean and significant base-level drawdown. The first major sea-level fall occurred in the Eocene when the Istria 'Depression' was deeply incised, to be healed by Oligocene shales during the subsequent rise. Yet another period of drawdown and exposure occurred in the mid-Miocene, with extensive shelf-margin mass wastage and erosion, followed by re-flooding and deposition of a transgressive backstepping sequence in the middle-late Miocene. Messinian drawdown in the Mediterranean caused a further period of isolation and falling base level. The shelf margin was again exposed, and experienced widespread mass wastage and slumping. Rising sea level eroded the earlier slumped sequence and the margin was healed by a lowstand prograding wedge in the late Miocene–early Pliocene. This was followed by shelf sedimentation in the Plio-Pleistocene periodically interrupted by canyon-incision events, testifying to continued climatically or tectonically imposed base-level fluctuations. Several direct and indirect tectonic factors were responsible for valley/canyon incision within the Istria Depression and erosion of the Romanian Black Sea shelf margin. These include: (1) the local structural framework; (2) direct tectonic uplift and tilting; and (3) more indirect tectonically imposed isolation encouraging significant base-level falls.


This paper studies the impact of LBO restructuring risk on corporate credit spreads. Using an extensive dataset of LBOs, CDSs and bonds, we first study the reaction of credit spreads of target firms to LBO announcements in the US during the years 2001-2015. We find that CDS spreads increase by almost 60% for investment grade bonds and we document a significant negative reaction in the prices of corporate bonds. We then proceed to show that LBO risk is priced ex-ante by investors in debt markets. Results of a panel regression imply that firms more likely to undergo an LBO have significantly higher spreads. Moreover, we show that intra-industry CDS spreads increase in response to an LBO announcement, consistent with investors updating the probability of future LBOs when an LBO occurs. Based on this empirical evidence, we propose an extended structural Merton (1974) model incorporating LBO risk to study the impact on credit spreads over time and across maturities. Model estimation implies an increase of 30-35 bps in credit spreads due to LBO risk in periods with high LBO activity. The average contribution of LBO risk to credit spreads is as high as 15 bps at a 10-year maturity.


A wireless mesh network is a self organized set of nodes that are connected by wireless links. Communicating parties that are not in wireless range of each other relay packets via intermediate nodes. A common approach to wireless mesh routing is reactive routing, where a fixed path between the communicating endpoints is established on-demand when a new session is initiated. This paper proposes a distributed algorithm which guarantees service even when some wireless mesh nodes deliberately change, discard, or misroute data packets to disrupt service. When a misbehaving route is encountered, the proposed algorithm starts a process in which a "virtual" cost penalty is iteratively added to suspicious nodes and a new shortest route is derived until the disrupted path is replaced with one that avoids the misbehaving nodes. The algorithm enables proactive calculation of several alternative routes. The proactively calculated routes can be used to perform multipath routing that drastically enhances the robustness of the algorithm versus adversaries that dynamically change their behavior. Our algorithm can co-exist with common reactive wireless routing protocols. Furthermore, although every intermediate nodes may be malicious, the proposed algorithm does not impose costly authentication of messages from the participating intermediate nodes. This means that existing deployed infrastructures of wireless mesh nodes can be software-modified to work with the algorithm. We show that the proposed algorithm quickly converges to efficient alternative routes and present a bounded complexity for its time, communication, and computation overhead. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The neuroendocrine effects of 5-hydroxytryptamine-1A (5-HT1A) receptor stimulation remain uncertain in humans, in respect to both anterior and posterior pituitary hormone release. This is important because these endocrine responses are often used as indications of 5-HT1A receptor sensitivity. The link between receptor stimulation and subsequent hormone release is more direct with posterior pituitary hormones because there is no intermediate hypothalamic peptide in the pathway. Theoretically, therefore, posterior pituitary hormones should be more valid indicators of central 5-HT1A receptor sensitivity. We used the 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist ipsapirone (20 mg) as an oral serotonergic challenge drug in a random-order, double-blind placebo-controlled study of 12 healthy men. Blood sampling occurred at 30 min intervals up to 180 min after the administration of drug or placebo. Ipsapirone caused clear and significant elevations in adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH), cortisol (CORT), prolactin (PRL), and growth hormone (GH) release. Peak hormone and ipsapirone blood levels both occurred at 60 min after ipsapirone administration. Release of the posterior pituitary hormone oxytocin was also stimulated, but less robustly and with more baseline variation. Temperature fell significantly more after ipsapirone than placebo. These results contrast with previous studies, which found no effect of ipsapirone on PRL and GH release in humans, but are in accordance with data using other 5-HT1A agonist drugs. The presence of an oxytocin response to ipsapirone suggests that oxytocin is a potential marker for serotonergic function in neuroendocrine challenge studies, but this awaits further study.


Abstract Purpose: To compare topologic features between eyes of patients with plateau iris configuration (PIC) and eyes of patients with primary open angle glaucoma with narrow angle (POAGNA), and to identify any characteristics that could contribute to clarify the importance of the plateau iris component in the mechanism of angle closure. Methods: Twenty eyes of 11 patients with PIC and 45 eyes of 27 patients with POAGNA were prospectively examined by ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) under light and dark conditions. All eyes were examined in the superior (SQ) and inferior (IQ) quadrants. Measurements of the following UBM parameters were done and compared between the two groups: anterior chamber depth (ACD); iris-lens contact distance (ILCD); angle opening distance at 250 µm (AOD250) and 500 µm (AOD500) from the scleral spur; trabecular-ciliary process distance (TCPD); iris-ciliary process distance (ICPD); iris thickness measured along the same line as the TCPD (ID1); iris-zonule distance (IZD); iris thickness measured 2 mm from the iris root (ID2); and the maximum iris thickness near the pupillary edge (ID3). Results: Statistically significant differences between PIC and POAGNA eyes under light and dark examinations were found in ACD, P = 0.003; ILCDSQ, P < 0.001; TCPDSQ light, P = 0.020; TCPDSQ dark, P < 0.001; ICPDSQ, P < 0.001; IZDSQ light, P = 0001; IZDSQ dark, P = 0,021; ILCDIQ, P < 0.001; TCPDIQ, P < 0.001 ICPDIQ, P < 0.001; and IZDIQ light, P < 0.001. The iris thickness was similar in PIC and POAGNA eyes in both superior and inferior quadrants, except for ID3SQ and ID3IQ both in light and dark conditions that showed statistically significant differences (respectively P = 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0,021 and P = 0.003). Statistically significant differences between light and dark examinations of PIC eyes were also found in the IZDSQ ( P = 0.033) and ID3SQ ( P = 0.038), and in POAGNA eyes in the ILCDSQ ( P = 0.013), AOD250SQ ( P = 0.034), AOD500SQ ( P = 0.008), ICPDSQ ( P = 0.046), ID1SQ ( P = 0.037), ID3SQ ( P = 0.047), and ILCDIQ ( P < 0.001). Conclusions: Eyes with PIC presented a shallower ACD in comparison to eyes with POAGNA. The ILCD was significantly higher in PIC group. The TCPD, ICPD, IZD and ID3 were significantly higher in POAGNA group. When the illumination conditions were changed from light to dark ILCD, AOD250 and AOD500 decreased in POAGNA group.


Recent studies have provided evidence for the existence of transcriptional channelopathies, which result from dysregulated expression of nonmutated channel genes. Examples of this new class of disorders are provided by peripheral nerve injury which triggers spinal sensory neurons to turn off some previously active sodium channel genes and turn on other previously silent sodium channel genes, a set of changes that can produce hyperexcitability of these cells, and by changes in sodium channel gene expression that may perturb cerebellar function in multiple sclerosis.

Keywords:

ion channel;
gene transcription;
neurological disease;
voltage-gated sodium channel


This research aimed to explore how newly forming Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were tackling health inequalities (HIs) (if at all) in the UK. In 2010 the current coalition government was formed between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Shortly after this, the White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS (Department of Health, 2010a) was published. This was the starting point for a large variety of policy documents being published outlining the healthcare changes that were to happen within the UK. Following the ?pause? a number of amendments to the initial policy proposals were outlined (Department of Health 2011). These included the newly named GPCCs being restructured and renamed as CCGs. Additionally, the Government took on board the recommendations of the Future Forum (June 2011) to make tackling HIs a duty for CCGs. The concept of HIs itself is very complex with a wide variety of definitions that have been discussed within the literature. It was acknowledged early on within this project that because of the complexities and variations in people?s understandings and interpretations of HIs that a fundamental element of understanding how CCGs are tackling health inequalities would be underpinned by individual?s own and organisational conceptualisations of HIs. Three CCGs in the North of England were recruited and qualitative methods, including interviews, observations and document analysis were used to collect data, over a period of 12 months from January 2012-December 2012. The timing of the project meant that data collection was conducted when the NHS was in a state of flux; CCGs were in shadow form, preparing themselves for the authorisation process. Interviews and observations ascertained that HIs were being conceptualised and tackled differently across the three CCGs. There were several common themes that were evidentially important to CCG members when describing the wider influences on their HI understandings and strategies to tackle HIs. These included history, relationships and the role of Public Health. The history of both organisations and relationships were acknowledged by all CCGs in shaping how they had developed under the current policy agenda and how they planned to tackle HIs (if at all). The role of Public Health was a key finding from this research, three different roles were identified, defined and explored in practice, examining how the roles influenced the HIs agenda differently. The Public Health roles of ?service provider?, ?co-owner? and ?critical friend? have the potential to shape working relationships between Public Health and the CCG and shape the HIs agenda. Weick?s (1995) concept of sensemaking was used to examine how these main findings helped define the HIs agenda. Overall, HIs conceptualisation, strategies to tackle HIs and wider organisational relationships with PH and the LA are not consciously developed by these organisations. History and local contexts help generate schemata that underpin action.


One of the main REST design principles is the focus on media types as the core of contracts on the Web. However, not always is the service designer free to select the most appropriate media type for a task, sometimes a generic media type like application/rdf+xml (or in the worst case a binary format like image/png) with no defined or possible hypermedia controls at all has to be chosen. With this position paper we present a way how the hypermedia constraint of REST can still be fulfilled using a combination of Link headers, the OPTIONS method, and the HTTP Vocabulary in RDF.


Today, international sales contracts are frequently governed by the 1980 UN Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG). The CISG is in force in more than 60 states all over world - both industrial nations and developing countries. It has been widely applied in international commercial transactions in the past twenty years. More than 1,700 decisions by state courts and arbitral tribunals have been reported so far. In short, the CISG has been one of the success stories in the field of the international unification of private law. The authors introduce the reader to the mechanics of that highly successful Convention by describing and analyzing the areas that the Convention covers, in particular its scope of application, the rules on the formation of contract, and the actual sales provisions. The book is primarily aimed at students, academics, and practitioners who have not yet studied the Convention in detail. From a comparative perspective, the book will be of particular interest as it combines a civil law view and a common law view on the CISG.


Abstract:Primary care is crucial as a foundation to healthcare in the United States, and has benefited from the increasing use of mid-level providers to achieve universal and quality primary healthcare. We investigated nurse pracitioners (NPs) as independent providers in primary care through a grounded theory study including interviews with both NPs and physicians. Subsequent content analysis revealed a spontaneous theme among NPs: a focus on current trends in advanced practice nurse education. Nurse practitioner (NP) participants voiced concerns regarding the amount of clinical training required for the NP degree in two areas: clinical experience requirements for applying to graduate nursing programs, and clinical experience in graduate programs before practicing as advanced practice nurses. Nursing education organizations should make as a priority gathering information on the perceptions and clinical needs of NPs in practice. This will aid in creating educational programs that graduate NPs ready to practice as independent primary care providers.


In the years following the American Civil War, the Empire of Brazil attracted between 4,000 and 20,000 Southerners who could not accept defeat. They saw the coming of racial warfare, social anarchy, and economic collapse as inevitable consequences of the demise of the antebellum Southern social structure. Moreover, they refused to accept what they styled "Yankee Rule" and "Negro Equality." Strongly attached to a self-sufficient way of life based on aristocratic manners, extensive agriculture, antidemocratic politics, and the enslavement of human beings of African origin, the vast majority of Southern emigres chose to move to a country where social inequality prevailed. Besides being the only independent Western nation to maintain slave-based staple agriculture after 1865, Brazil was full of fertile lands where Southern planters thought they could grow cotton, and was ruled by a slaveholding oligarchy which preserved many customs that resembled the traditions of the Old South. When moving to the Empire of Brazil, defeated Confederates claimed they were seeking independence. It was, however, a quite unique form of independence: one that presupposed that all people were not created equal and that the law was a privilege to protect men of property, especially those who owned other human beings.


The ice fixed abrasives (IFA) polishing is a potential polishing process in the semiconductor industry to realize superior surface finish and planarity for semiconductor wafers. The key question in IFA polishing is how to keep suitable ambient temperature and melting rate in production process in order to avoid premature failure of the IFA pad. In this paper, effects of ambient temperature (T), pressure in cylinder (Pc), rotary speed of IFA pad (v) and eccentricity of pressure head (e) on temperature distribution and melting rate of the IFA pad are researched. The results show that T should be kept at about 10 °C in order to control the melting rate of the IFA pad effectively and keep longer polishing time. And suitable Pc, e can be kept at 0.075 MPa or 0.1 MPa and 20 mm or 30 mm, respectively. In order to increase IFA polishing efficiency, the rotary speed of IFA pad can be increased appropriately. All the results provide the basis for choosing suitable processing parameters in IFA polishing.


Middle-of-the-line (MOL) interconnect and contact resistances represent significant impacts to high-end IC performance at ≤ 10 nm nodes. CVD W-based metallization has been used for all nodes since the inception of damascene. However, it is now being severely challenged due to limited scaling of the traditional PVD Ti/CVD TiN barrier and ALD nucleation layers. This study reports the use of alternate barriers, along with metal-to-metal contact interface cleans, to reduce contact resistance for W-based MOL metallization. As well, we report the first use of Co metal for MOL contacts and local interconnects, with successful integration below a Cu BEOL dual damascene V0/M1 module. Metal line resistances are compared among the various options, and the challenges with each option are highlighted.


This paper showcases mathematics taught during art lessons at lower secondary school, where children selected mathematics as the best instrument to reach their selected artistic objectives. Children connected basic geometry transformations with artistic expression, then described and (on certain level) formalized them, and finally, applied their discoveries to create personal monograms. This approach has tangential connections with contextual learning, and operates by fostering algorithmical thinking and strong emotional motivation. It can be also seen as a


[first paragraph of article] Results of the ALDOsterone receptor blockade in Diastolic Heart Failure (ALDO-DHF) were recently presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) meeting in Munich . The multicenter, double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled phase IIb mechanistic study was conducted to test the hypothesis that 12 months treatment with spironolactone would improve cardiac function and structure as well as exercise capacity and quality of life in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). HFpEF continues to be a challenging form of heart failure – one in which no therapy has yet been proven to improve outcome and with a prevalence that continues to rise at an alarming rate. An extensive review on HFpEF – including various drugs in current use as well as those under trial – was published in the last issue of the journal.


Relational aggression refers to harming others through damaging or manipulating peer relationships. In a cohort of students surveyed annually from middle to high school, this study identified groups of adolescents who followed distinct trajectories of perpetration and of victimization of relational aggression, compared the proportion of boys and girls in each trajectory, and examined the overlap between perpetration and victimization trajectories. The sample consisted of 620 randomly selected sixth graders. Students completed yearly surveys from Grade 6-12. We used group-based trajectory modeling to identify the trajectories. Adolescents followed three developmental trajectories of perpetration and three similar trajectories of victimization: Low (lowest aggression), Moderate, and High Declining (high in middle school, with a steep decline in high school). All trajectories declined from Grade 6-12. The largest groups were the Low perpetration (55%) and Low victimization (48%). Relational aggression trajectories differed by gender: more boys reported perpetration, and more girls reported victimization. For perpetration, slightly more boys than girls were classified in the two trajectories of higher aggression. For victimization, significantly fewer girls than boys were classified in the Low trajectory, and significantly more girls than boys were classified in the Moderate trajectory. There was substantial overlap of the perpetration and victimization trajectories. These findings highlight the importance of implementing programs to reduce relational aggression for boys and for girls.


We examine the impact of COVID-19 on employment in South Korea as of June 2020. To estimate the causal effect, we use two complementary methods. First, using individual-level data without residence information, we estimate the effects by controlling for detailed characteristics of individuals. Second, using aggregate data without individual characteristics, we exploit the regional variation in the intensity of COVID-19 to measure the effects. We find that the COVID-19 pandemic decreased the employment rate by 0.82%p and increased the unemployment rate by 0.29%p. These estimated effects are 90%–140% larger than those of the 2008 Financial Crisis.


This paper combines grasp analysis and manipulation planning techniques to perform fast grasp planning in complex scenes. In much previous work on grasping, the object being grasped is assumed to be the only object in the environment. Hence the grasp quality metrics and grasping strategies developed do not perform well when the object is close to obstacles and many good grasps are infeasible. We introduce a framework for finding valid grasps in cluttered environments that combines a grasp quality metric for the object with information about the local environment around the object and information about the robot's kinematics. We encode these factors in a grasp-scoring function which we use to rank a precomputed set of grasps in terms of their appropriateness for a given scene. We show that this ranking is essential for efficient grasp selection and present experiments in simulation and on the HRP2 robot.


In discussing the paradoxical violation of expected utility theory that now bears his name, Maurice Allais noted that individuals tend to "greatly value" payoffs that are certain. Allais' observation would seem to imply that people will undervalue insurance relative to the predictions of expected utility theory because as conventionally constructed, insurance offers an uncertain benefit in exchange for a certain cost that certainty-loving individuals will overvalue. Pursuing this logic, we implemented insurance games with cotton farmers in Burkina Faso. On average, farmer willingness to pay for insurance increases significantly when a premium rebate framing is used to render both costs and benefits of insurance uncertain. We show that the impact of the rebate frame on the willingness to pay for insurance is driven by those farmers who exhibit a well-defined discontinuous preference for certainty, a concept that we adapt from the u-v model of utility and measure with a novel behavioral experiment. Given that the potential impacts of insurance for small scale farmers are high, and yet demand for conventionally framed contracts is often low, the insights from this paper suggest welfare-enhancing ways of designing insurance for low-income farmers.


Heterogeneous Networks have been introduced in the LTE-Advanced system by 3GPP to improve the overall network capacity. However, for Macro-Pico scenario, the coexistence of macro eNodeBs (MeNBs) and additional low power nodes (LPNs) may lead to much higher interference, which requires intensive investigation on pico eNodeB (PeNB) deployment issues. On the other hand, Cell Range Extension (CRE) is a promising technique to utilize the LPN resources more effectively and improve the cell edge performance, where the bias value should be properly set. In this paper, the main factors affecting the system performance are studied first. Then a system-level simulation test-bed is established to provide the performance of Macro-Pico network, based on which the key issues for pico cell deployment are investigated. Results show that if good principles are applied in PeNB deployment, i.e. large macro-to-pico distances, relatively high transmit power, high deployment density and an optimal value of CRE bias, the gain of introducing pico cells could be significantly enhanced in terms of both cell edge performance and the overall system throughput.


Abstract Purpose: Ionizing irradiation has several long-term effects including progressive cognitive impairment. Cognitive deterioration generally appears to be caused by abnormalities in the hippocampal dentate gyrus, with abnormal function of parvalbumin-expressing interneurons (PV neurons) in the cerebral cortex. PV neurons are vulnerable to oxidative stress, which can be caused by ionizing irradiation. We speculated that selective impairment of specific brain regions due to ionizing irradiation may alter the degree of cognitive impairment. Methods: We irradiated mature mouse brains with 20 Gy-ionizing irradiation. Subsequently, we analyzed behavioral abnormalities and changes in the number of PV neurons. Results: PV neuron density was significantly lower in some cortical regions of irradiated mice than in control mice. Within 1 week of irradiation, both body weight and temperature of irradiated mice decreased. In the forced swim test, irradiated mice spent significantly less time immobile than did control mice. However, irradiated mice did not display any abnormalities in the elevated plus maze test, Y-maze test, tail suspension test, and social interaction test between 3 to 6 days after irradiation. Conclusions: These results suggest that high-dose irradiation is less likely to cause brain dysfunction in the subacute phase. Moreover, the vulnerability of PV neurons appears to be brain-region specific.


Education is a human right of nations, wealth of nations, and the might ofnations ever in the world. Therefore, every country is obliged to protect this right. Manycountries have included this right in their constitutions and also are practicing throughtheir socio economic and cultural policies. Since independence, Sri Lankangovernments, in their development efforts, have taken many progressive steps toimprove education. As a result, the country has gained admirable achievements ineducation such as higher literacy rate i.e. 92% for adults and 97% for youths. Yet, it isimpossible to evaluate the prevailing education system as "extremely well" due to somedrawbacks among which "school dropout" is a serious issue. The objective of this studyis to analyze the problem of school dropout in Sri Lanka from a sociological point ofview. Secondary data gathered through available literature was used for the study.Sociological theories and concepts were applied to identify causes for the schooldropouts. In 2009, over 45,000 students dropped out of schooling. It is serious in plantationsector as 20% per year. Furthermore, boys" dropout rate is higher than girls. Lack offacilities, socio-economic deprivations have been hurdles for education in lower classfamilies. At the same time, this study mainly argues that as socio-cultural changes aresevere in present society, a complex set of factors associated with the family context hasmainly contributed to this problem in many families rather than poverty and lack offacilities. Keywords: Education, School Dropout, Socio-cultural Changes, Socio-economicDeprivation


This study investigates rice productivity in the coastal area of the Mekong River Delta, Vietnam focusing on relationships with the influences of seawater intrusion and recent changes in the land use at regional scale. We examined the statistical data on rice production at 30 districts of 4 provinces in the coastal area for the years 2003–2005, together with the average salinity concentration observed at 48 points in canals and rivers during the dry season. As an index of the extent of seawater intrusion to be compared with rice statistical data in each district, average salinity of each district was derived by using spatial interpolation from the data in the observation points. It was shown that seawater intrusion was the major factor leading to regional differences in rice cropping systems and land use patterns in the region. Rice cropping intensities, which is defined as the ratio of planted area to district area, decreased with increasing salinity level in canal water, but rice yields averaged over the district are independent of the salinity level. To avoid salinity stress to rice growth, rice cultivation in the coastal area is mainly undertaken during the period when seawater intrusion is weakened by the seasonal decrease in salinity in the rainy season. Specifically, in districts with high salinity, the salinity-free duration required for rice cultivation is short. There, rice cropping intensities are potentially limited by the salinity. In addition, recently, the area of paddy fields in the coastal area has been decreased through land use conversion to aquaculture, especially shrimp farms. Intensity of aquaculture, which requires brackish water, was also limited by seawater intrusion. Thus, rice production in the coastal area of the Mekong Delta was limited by the interrelationship between seawater intrusion and land-use diversification.


Hundreds of genes have been identified as being involved in the control of lifespan in the four common model organisms (yeast, worm, fruit fly and mouse). A major challenge is to determine if longevity-associated genes (LAGs) are model-specific or may play a universal role as longevity regulators across diverse taxa. A wide-scale comparative analysis of the 1,805 known LAGs across 205 species revealed that (i) LAG orthologs are substantially over-represented, from bacteria to mammals, especially noted for essential LAGs; (ii) the effects on lifespan, when manipulating orthologous LAGs in different model organisms, were mostly concordant, despite of a high evolutionary distance between them; (iii) the most conserved LAGs were enriched in translational processes, energy metabolism, development, and DNA repair. The least conserved LAGs were enriched in autophagy (Fungi), G-proteins (Nematodes), and neuroactive ligand-receptor interactions (Chordata). The results also suggest that antagonistic pleiotropy is a conserved principle of aging.


Aquaculture is considered as the key to ensuring enough food protein to feed the growing world population (FAO, 2014). It is expected that the global food demand will increase to 70% in 2050. Aquaculture is touted as the fastest growing food-producing sector in the world. The accelerated growth of the aquaculture sector has resulted in the expansion of aquaculture feed production. However, at present, the aquaculture feed industry is confronted with pressing issues such as the limited availability and escalating cost of dietary fishmeal (FM) and fish oil (FO). FM has traditionally been used in aquaculture feed due to its high protein quality and palatability. However, the success of the aquaculture industry will depend in part on the reduction or replacement of FM use in aquaculture feeds using less expensive alternative protein sources. Several alternative feed ingredients, including plant-derived materials, have been tested in aquaculture feeds for several fish species of economic importance. Meanwhile, other non-conventional protein sources such agricultural wastes and byproducts have been found to hold enormous potentials in future fish feed formulations.


Trophic niche of Dendropsophus minutus (Anura: Hylidae) in southern Brazil. The feeding biology of the Neotropical tree frog Dendropsophus minutus is described based on identifcation of the items consumed by the anuran. Samples were collected monthly samplings for one year in an Araucaria forest in the state of Paraná in southern Brazil. Of the total of 101 gastrointestines examined, 51 were empty or contained digested remains or plant items. The 50 samples of gastrointestinal contents contained three classes and 10 orders of arthropods. The results suggest that D. minutus is a generalist predator that feeds on arthropods, primarily those in the orders Araneae, Lepidoptera, and Diptera. The diet varies seasonally depending upon prey activity, which determines the breadth of the trophic niche of the frog.


Variations in the morphometric features of honeybees encountered in this study were within the range for A. mellifera adansonii (below 8mm), while the mean annual honey yield of the races ranged between 9kg in race 1 in the 2010 and 19kg of honey in race 4 in 2008 season. There were significant differences (P<0.05) in honey production among the respective races. Races 3 and 4 produced higher volumes of honey compared with the other races while the lowest volume of honey was recovered from colonies formed by race 1. In addition, positive correlation (P <0.01) was established between honey yield and antenna length (AL, 0.071) (P< 0.05), maximum width of abdomen (MWA, 0.084), proboscis length (PL, 0.078), length of pollen basket (LPB, 0.079), width of pollen basket (WPB, 0.186), length of hind wing (LHW, 0.167), length of Forewing (LFW, 0.164), length offemur (LF, 0.143), length of tarsi (M, 0.229) and length of radial cell of the forewing (LRC,0.109).


This study aims to find out: 1) To find out how the 2013 curriculum implementation on Geography subjects at SMA 4 Watampone, 2) To find out what barriers teachers face in implementing the 2013 curriculum in 4 watampone public high schools, 3) For find out what efforts are made by the teacher to overcome obstacles in the implementation of the 2013 Curriculum on geographic subjects at SMA 4 Watapone. Data collection uses interviews, documentation and observation. The results of the study show that: 1). Implementation is the implementation or application carried out by a teacher in creating and growing various activities in accordance with the plans that have been programmed to achieve previously determined. The implementation of the 2013 curriculum at Watampone 4 Public High School has been running but it is still not in accordance with the standard set by the government, because in implementing the 2013 curriculum. Judging from the standard learning process that uses a scientific approach and learning processes that apply 5 M have not run properly, and are seen again from the existing facilities in the school, it is not yet complete in accordance with the requirements of the government that has been fixed, right. 2). Obstacles or constraints faced by teachers in the process of implementing the 2013 curriculum on Geogarfi subjects at SMA 4 Watampone namely the completeness of learning tools consisting of learning implementation plans (RPP), teaching material materials, student worksheets (LKPD), learning media , evaluation and assessment of facilities and infrastructure. 3). Teachers' Efforts to Overcome Obstacles in the Implementation of the 2013 Curriculum on Geography Learning in Watampone 4 High School, namely 1) Geography teachers are involved directly in 2013 curriculum development. 2) Evaluation of KTSP as the previous curriculum is needed. 3) Material adjustment geography in the 2013 curriculum.4) More intensifying geography teacher training in the implementation of the 2013 curriculum.5) Balanced geographic learning between theory and field learning, 6) Changing the mindset to the 2013 Curriculum mindset.7) Striving for school principals to be more attentive and motivating teachers, 9) improving facilities and infrastructure, 10) Making the best use of reference book resources, 11) Motivating oneself to be more enthusiastic, 12) Improving socialization of relations between fellow teachers, 13) Following socialization and training related to 2013 Curriculum is more active. etc.


Chilling stress is one of the most important environmental factors that limit the growth, distribution and yield of rubber tree in China. The effects of chilling stress on the grated plants of two rubber trees clones, GT1 and Wenchang217, were studied by physiological methods in controlled light chamber in order to explore the physiological mechanism of cold tolerance in rubber tree. Our results show a significant change in the tested physiological parameters after chilling treatment between two rubber clones. In comparison with the case of rubber tree clone GT1, the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased while superoxide dismutase, especially peroxidase and catalase decreased significantly in the seedlings of rubber tree clone Wenchang217 in response to chilling stress. As the cold tolerance ability of rubber tree clone GT1 is stronger than that of rubber tree clone Wenchang217, activation of oxidative quenching enzyme system should be one of the important factors that determine the cold tolerance of rubber tree. Keywords: Chilling stress, cold tolerance, Hevea brasiliensis Muell. Arg., physiological parameter, seedling


Numerous pharmaceutical substances and their metabolites have been identified in the aquatic environment. Due to their unique environmental fate and lack of appropriate biomonitoring techniques, the potential risk of these compounds to public and environmental health has largely been undetermined.

Recent interest in quantifying pharmaceuticals in waste effluents and aquatic environments has identified the need to develop bioanalytical assays that will accurately reflect presence of these compounds. The goal of this research was to investigate the use of DNA microarrays as a bioanalytical tool for analysis of pharmaceutical contamination in re-use waters.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series

ISBN: 9781843397373 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780403861 (eBook)


The academic libraries need to change the user perception about the libraries which is more to bad perception. Hence, to change that perception the academic libraries need to identify the issues that always occur in the libraries because it can easier the analysis process. Therefore, by doing the analysis, the libraries will know their problem such as lack in management and easier for them to overcome it. The first issue that always occurs in the academic library is about the collections. The other issue is the lack of the facilities. Besides that, the academic libraries do not develop the strategic planning. Furthermore, by developing the strategic planning, it can make the staff aware about their responsibilities, easy for the academic libraries to achieve their vision and mission and the management of the libraries will be more effective. In addition, the other issue is the relationship between the academic libraries and user is not strong enough. If the libraries want to gain a lot of benefits the director should play the important role. The customers and stakeholder also need to cooperate to ensure that all the efforts to change the library are successful.


In this thesis we advance the state of the art in intensional type systems for low-level code. The need for powerful, carefully designed type-systems for low-level code is well-documented. We argue for an intensional , or semantic, such system, one which is distinguished by the use of a modality of type approximation to solve the problems of self-reference that arise in the models of recursive types, impredicative type quantification, and unrestricted mutable references.


The costs of addiction are well documented, but the potential benefits of recovery are less well known. Similarly, substance use issues among both active duty military personnel and veterans are well known but their recovery experiences remain underinvestigated. Furthermore, little is known about whether and how addiction and recovery experiences differ between veterans and non-veterans. This knowledge can help refine treatment and recovery support services. Capitalizing on a national study of individuals in recovery (N = 3,208), we compare addiction and recovery experiences among veterans (n = 481) and non-veterans. Veterans' addiction phase was 4 years longer than non-veterans and they experienced significantly more financial and legal problems. Dramatic improvements in functioning were observed across the board in recovery with subgroup differences leveling off. We discuss possible strategies to address the specific areas where veterans are most impaired in addiction and note study limitations including the cross-sectional design.


An organization exists in the context of other entities (such as other organizations and governmental, political and social entities) in its organizational environments. The organization's focal entities become its task environments that require its immediate attention and it has to interact with all such entities so that it is able to satisfy their expectations from it, and, in turn, by pursuing its strategy, it achieves its own goals. This is the model that describes the situation of any organization, including a multinational corporation (MNC) in its international and multi-cultural setting. Often, the negotiation process for meeting an organization's needs may involve managing inherent conflict, disagreement or competing for constrained resources, thus making negotiation an arduous process. The very basis of give-and-take interactions and negotiations across different cultures, that typify an MNC in its multi-cultural setting, becomes the foundation for cross cultural negotiations. Such negotiations provide the MNC the method of communicating with its diverse entities and seek the services from them for it to achieve its goals. Because an MNC operates in an international and multi-cultural setting, its many entities are of diverse nature and cross cultural communication and negotiation skills become the critical. The inter-organizational interactions of an MNC in its international and multicultural setting become the basis of its day-to-day operations.


We present a case of a severe mechanical complication (superior vena cava [SVC] perforation) that developed after subclavian vein catheterization using an ultrasound-guided static approach in a patient who underwent right lower lobectomy with video-assisted thoracic surgery. The use of ultrasound during catheterization is reported to reduce mechanical complications. Despite the use of ultrasound in our patient, surgical exploration showed that the catheter placed in the right subclavian vein penetrated the superior portion of the SVC. At the end of the surgery, the catheter was removed under direct visualization. The surgeon attempted to stop bleeding in the SVC by compressing with gauze. However, bleeding could only be stopped by administering a hemostatic matrix. It is concluded that to reduce the incidence or size of iatrogenic perforation of the SVC, catheters with the smallest possible diameter should be used, and the dilator should only be inserted deep enough to enter the vein. If the static approach is used, the modifiedSeldinger technique is useful and to provide training to improve the ultrasound experience, especially if the dynamic approach is used.


Elucidating how rice (Oryza sativa) takes up nitrate at the molecular level could help improve the low recovery rate (<50%) of nitrogen fertilizer in rice paddies. As a first step toward that goal, we have cloned a nitrate transporter gene from rice called OsNRT1. OsNRT1 is a new member of a growing transporter family called PTR, which consists not only of nitrate transporters from higher plants that are homologs of the Arabidopsis CHL1 (AtNRT1) protein, but also peptide transporters from a wide variety of genera including animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. However, despite the fact that OsNRT1 shares a higher degree of sequence identity with the two peptide transporters from plants (approximately 50%) than with the nitrate transporters (approximately 40%) of the PTR family, no peptide transport activity was observed when OsNRT1 was expressed in either Xenopus oocytes or yeast. Furthermore, contrasting the dual-affinity nitrate transport activity of CHL1, OsNRT1 displayed only low-affinity nitrate transport activity in Xenopus oocytes, with a Km value of approximately 9 mM. Northern-blot and in situ hybridization analysis indicated that OsNRT1 is constitutively expressed in the most external layer of the root, epidermis and root hair. These data strongly indicate that OsNRT1 encodes a constitutive component of a low-affinity nitrate uptake system for rice.


This book presents the findings of a Department for International Development (DFID) funded project (R6540). It has been written for practitioners, municipal staff, non-government organizations and students interested in promoting micro-enterprises for the collection of solid waste. The project has identified guidelines based on a thorough understanding of the existing processes. More than twenty cases were studied in four cities in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders have been investigated, some of which (including sweepers) have not been considered in the past.


In recent years considerable research has examined the impact of historical return patterns on the measured risk of both traditional and alternative investments. At the heart of this analysis is the industry's failure to take the strategy autocorrelation of a security or asset into account when measuring the asset's underlying risk or in estimating the current risk environment (Lo [2002]). As the authors show in this article, the industry's failure to take autocorrelation into account has produced estimates of equity volatility that are much lower than they should be, and estimates of CTA volatility that are much higher. Given the results reported in this article, an equity volatility of 16% really should be closer to 20%, and a CTA volatility of 10% should be closer to 6% or 7%.


The velocity profiles and turbulence characteristics are measured for a row of square jets inclined at 30° to the streamwise direction. The jet spacing-to-width ratio is 3.0 and no temperature (density) difference between the jets and the crossflow is introduced. Measurements are made using a three-component LDV system operating in coincidence mode which provides three components of velocity and all six turbulent Reynolds stresses at each location. Jet-to-crossflow velocity ratios (blowing ratios) of 1.5. 1.0, and 0.5 are used and the jet Reynolds number is fixed at about 5000 for all velocity ratios. The results are compared with previous data from normal jets at the same blowing ratios so that the influence of inclination on vortex formation can be shown. Calculations are carried out for all cases using a non-orthogonal finite volume computer code with the k-e turbulence model. It is shown that the flow field at the jet exit is strongly influenced by the crossflow as well as by the inlet conditions at the entrance to the jet orifice. Therefore it is very useful to extend the computational domain into the plenum. Computational results compared with experimental results for a velocity ratio of 0.5 agree reasonably well. Some under-prediction of the streamwise flow velocity is observed. The computed turbulence kinetic energy values also drop below the experimental values downstream and near the wall. Agreement is not as good for the higher velocity ratios, particularly for the turbulence kinetic energy. Strong non-isotropy of the turbulence field can be observed from the experimental data.Copyright © 1996 by ASME


This paper demonstrates methods that may be combined to characterize otherwise undetectable spatial heterogeneity in stated preference willingness to pay (WTP) estimates that may occur at multiple geospatial scales. These include methods applicable to large-scale analysis with diffuse policy impacts and uncertainty regarding the appropriate scales over which spatial patterns should be evaluated. Illustrated methods include spatial interpolation and multiscale analysis of hot/cold spots using local indicators of spatial association. An application to threatened and endangered marine species illustrates the empirical findings that emerge. Findings include large-scale clustering of nonuse WTP estimates at multiple scales of analysis. (JEL D61, Q51)


The term "second shift" from Hochschild's (1989) classic volume is commonly used by scholars to mean that employed mothers face an unequal load of household labor and thus a "double day" of work. We use two representative samples of contemporary U.S. parents with preschoolers to test how mothers employed fulltime and married to a full-time worker (focal mothers) differ in time allocations and pressures from fathers and from mothers employed parttime or not at all. Results indicate focal mothers' total workloads are greater than fathers' by a week-and-a-half, not an "extra month" per year. Focal mothers have less leisure, but do not experience more onerous types of unpaid work, nor get less sleep than fathers. Focal mothers feel greater time pressures compared with fathers; however, some of these tensions extend to other mothers of young children. Finally, these families may be engaged in fewer quality activities with children compared with families where mothers are not employed fulltime.


ORC (Orc1-6) is an AAA+ complex that loads the AAA+ MCM helicase to replication origins. Orc1, a subunit of ORC, functionally interacts with budding yeast Pch2, a meiosis-specific AAA+ protein. Pch2 regulates several chromosomal events of gametogenesis, but mechanisms that dictate Pch2 function remain poorly understood. We demonstrate that ORC directly interacts with an AAA+ Pch2 hexamer. The ORC-Pch2 assembly is established without Cdc6, a factor crucial for ORC-MCM binding. Biochemical analysis suggests that Pch2 utilizes ORC's Cdc6-binding interface and employs its non-enzymatic NH2-terminal domain and AAA+ core to engage ORC. In contrast to phenotypes observed upon Orc1 impairment, nuclear depletion of other subunits of ORC does not lead to Pch2-like phenotypes, indicating that ORC integrity per se is not required to support Pch2 function. We thus reveal functional interplay between Pch2 and ORC, and uncover the repurposing of ORC to establish a non-canonical and meiosis-specific AAA+ assembly.


As predictive models seep into several real-world applications, it has become critical to ensure that individuals who are negatively impacted by the outcomes of these models are provided with a means for recourse. To this end, there has been a growing body of research on algorithmic re-course in recent years. While recourses can be extremely beneficial to affected individuals, their implementation at a large scale can lead to potential data distribution shifts and other unintended consequences. However, there is little to no research on understanding the impact of algorithmic recourse after implementation. In this work, we address the aforementioned gaps by making one of the first attempts at analyzing the delayed societal impact of algorithmic recourse. To this end, we theoretically and empirically analyze the re-courses output by state-of-the-art algorithms. Our analysis demonstrates that large-scale implementation of recourses by end users may exacerbate social segregation. To address this problem, we propose novel algorithms which leverage implicit and explicit conditional generative models to not only minimize the chance of segregation but also provide realistic recourses. Extensive experimentation with real-world datasets demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed approaches.


AIM: To compare and evaluate the clinical efficacy of the combination of propofol and pethidine (PP) versus midazolam and fentanyl (MF) for moderate sedation in colonoscopic procedure. METHODS: 1032 patients were randomly assigned to group PP (518) and group MF (514). Primary outcome variable was the successfully completed colonoscopy. Secondary outcome variables were patient tolerance, discomfort during insertion, patient and endoscopist satisfaction, procedural pain, recovery time and sedation-related complications during and immediately after procedure. RESULTS: All endoscopies were completely successful except 33 patients in group MF and 11 patients in group PP (p=0.019). Additional propofol dose, procedural pain and recovery time in group MF was significantly higher than in group PP. Tolerability of the patient, comfort during insertion, patient and endoscopist satisfaction and sedation-related complications in group MF were significantly lower than in group PP. No serious complications were observed in both gropus. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of propofol and pethidine for deep sedation shows an advantage over midazolam and fentanyl for moderate sedation used for colonoscopy in term of procedure completion rate, ease of endoscopy, as well as patient's and endoscopist's satisfaction. However, the combination of propofol and pethidine for deep sedation produces a higher complication rate than in the combination of midazolam and fentanyl for moderate sedation.