Luigi Boccherini's chamber works form the largest part of his compositional output of nearly 500 works. In these works Boccherini included performance markings to a much greater extent that in his violoncello sonatas and concertos. His string quintets, in particular, present a large variety of dynamic, articulation and special-effect markings, constituting an important source for the study of eighteenth-century performance practice. Boccherini listed 125 string quintets in his thematic catalogue - composed between 1771 and 1802 - of which 113 were originally scored for two violoncellos and 12 for two violas. If we add to this number transcriptions he made for string quintet, his total output for this genre rises by at least another 24 works. The quintets were mostly composed during Boccherini's employment with the Spanish Infante Don Luis de BorbAƒÂ¶n between 1770 and 1785, and subsequently, during his employment with King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, between 1786 and 1797. This study discusses dynamic, articulation, and special-effect markings in Boccherini's string quintets in terms of their notation and use. Special attention has been given to the manuscript sources of these works and in particular to Boccherini's autographs - located at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv and the Bibliotheque nationale de France - in order to draw a clearer picture of the composer's notational habits, which are not always reflected in early and modern editions of these works. Since performance markings were not present to a great extent in eighteenth-century repertoire, particularly solo music, this study aims to add not only to the scholarship of Boccherini's individual notational and compositional practices, but also to the wider knowledge of eighteenth-century performance practice.


During an archaeological survey in Pajala parish, northernmost Sweden, clusters of quartz waste from knapping and burnt bone were discovered on a glaciofluvial gravel plateau close to Aareavaara village in the Muonio River valley. Sampled materials from a larger area and small-scale excavations (in total 6 m2) are interpreted as resulting from short-stay hunter-gatherer camps. Radiocarbon dating on burnt bones suggest an age of occupancy at ~10,700 cal. yr BP, which is more or less contemporary with 'Komsa Phase' sites on the north coast of Norway (~300–360 km northwards). The Aareavaara site should thus be the oldest known archaeological site to date in northern Sweden. A palaeoenvironmental reconstruction, based on pollen analysis of sediment cores from two nearby lakes and radiocarbon dating of macrofossils for construction of time/depth sedimentation curves, suggests a deglaciation age of the area corresponding to occupation by early man (~10,700 cal. yr BP). Aareavaara was at the time of deglaciation situated in a transitional zone between subaqueous and subaerial ice-margin retreat from the northeast towards the southwest, with higher hills and plateaux forming an archipelago in the Ancylus Lake with highest shorelines formed at ~170 m a.s.l. The hunter-gatherer camp sites at Aareavaara were thus, both in time and space, located in close proximity to the retreating ice sheet margin, but also in a waterfront location, in fact on an island in the Ancylus Lake. Our pollen data suggest a subarctic birch woodland tundra landscape characterized by open vegetation, including occasional birch trees and an abundance of willow and dwarf birch.


This study was conducted to examine the feelings, symptom management, and needs of patients with gynecological cancer receiving chemotherapy at Chiang Mai University Hospital, Chiang Mai, Thailand. During the period July 2006 and June 2007, 286 patients were recruited. The most common chemotherapeutic regimen was paclitaxel and carboplatin followed by single carboplatin and weekly cisplatin. Five severe and frequent complications were as follows: alopecia, anorexia, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. Some 41.9% could well tolerate with such complications but 50.3% had various feelings including irritability, boredom, dejection, fear, stress, and anxiety. Anorexia was the symptom that the majority of them could best manage, 17.4% by eating as much as they can and 32.6% by selecting different foods from normal, such as fruit, sweetmeats, noodles, milk. For nausea and vomiting, 31.3% managed by eating fruit, drinking sour juice, and holding sour fruit in mouth, and 16.0% used the breathing method, eating something cold, such as ice-cream, or hot food like noodles. For health needs, 41.0% needed encouragement, care, health education, and information from doctors and nurses, and 5.0% needed care and encouragement from their family, and sympathy from neighbors and colleagues. In conclusion, gynecological cancer patients receiving chemotherapy experience a variety of feelings, symptom management. and health needs. Nurses need to explain the pathology of the occurring symptoms so that the patients can understand and accept the symptoms to lessen their negative impact.


INTRODUCTION
The complications of the mixed hernia need, often, surgical treatment. In the asymtomatic patients this one treatment is controversial, due to her complex repair and the high percentage of relapse informed in the long term. The surgical classic routes, they present raised morbi-mortality related to the extent of the incisions, to long hospitable stays and slow recovery.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Between October, 2001 to November, 2007 we check 39 patients with hernia hiatal mixed with a middle ages of 65 years (35-78 years). In Lloyd-Davies s position, the content diminishes hernia and the redundant sack is resected. The diaphragmatic props are sutured by material not reabsorbable. Mesh of reinforcement intervened in 7/39 repairs. It concludes with a partial or complete antirreflux depending on the report.

RESULTS
The operative average time was of 126 min; the hospital stay of 2.46 days. The complications perioperatives are principally cardiorespiratory. A patient died for an intestinal inadvertent perforation during the intervention and of late diagnosis. We realize traffic gastroduodenal to 12 months in 28 patients (71.7%). We find relapse in 8 patients (20.5%). Four asymtomatic patients, with chance find in the radiological control. Three patients with pirosis that needs treatment and one of the relapses needed reintervention for strangulation of a gastric volvulus.

CONCLUSIONS
The laparoscopic surgery offers safety and efficiency with rapid postoperatory recovery, minor morbidity and hospitable stay. After the surgery, the long-term relapse presents similar results to the opened surgery, though the interposition of mesh can propitiate her decrease.


Application of decision support systems for conflict modeling in information operations recognition is presented. An information operation is considered as a complex weakly structured system. The model of conflict between two subjects is proposed based on the second-order rank reflexive model. The method is described for construction of the design pattern for knowledge bases of decision support systems. In the talk, the methodology is proposed for using of decision support systems for modeling of conflicts in information operations recognition based on the use of expert knowledge and content monitoring.


Fixtures are used to locate and constrain firmly a workpiece during machining operation. Flexible and efficient fixturing has become an important issue in flexible manufacturing systems and computer integrated manufacturing system. Locating planning is the basis of the fixturing design, which has a direct influence on the quality of the clamping scheme and the machining quality of workpiece. This paper presents a new approach for locating planning of workpiece. Firstly, it will automatically select the primary locating surfaces with consideration of 5 influence factors: constraint freedoms, surface feature, valid locating area, tolerance relationship and surface roughness. Then the other locating surfaces are determined by retrieving similar workpieces under the guideline of 4 locating methods which will make the best of already available locating planning. Finally the optimal locator layout is fast achieved with GA with the goal of minimal locating tolerance.


For any discrete-state sequence prediction algorithm A, it is always possible, using an algorithm B no more complicated than A, to generate a sequence for which A's prediction is always wrong. For any prediction algorithm A and sequence x, there exists a sequence y no more complicated than x, such that if A performs better than random on x, then it will perform worse than random on y by the same margin. An example of a simple neural network predicting a bit sequence is used to illustrate this very general but not widely recognized phenomenon. This implies that any predictor with good performance must rely on some (usually implicitly) assumed prior distributions of the problem.


As automatic manufacturing systems become more sophisticated, there is an increasing need for advanced robots which can be easily integrated into the overall system. These robots need to interact with both a supervisory control network and with various sensory devices. VAL-II is a new robot control system and programming language which addresses these needs by supporting network communications, general sensory interfaces, real-time trajectory modification, and concurrent user-program execution. In addition, VAL-II includes high-level computer programming facilities that allow professional programmers to develop special-purpose application programs which simplify the operator interface.


Effectively integrating multi-scale information is of considerable significance for the challenging multi-class segmentation of fundus lesions because different lesions vary significantly in scales and shapes. Several methods have been proposed to successfully handle the multi-scale object segmentation. However, two issues are not considered in previous studies. The first is the lack of interaction between adjacent feature levels, and this will lead to the deviation of high-level features from low-level features and the loss of detailed cues. The second is the conflict between the low-level and high-level features, this occurs because they learn different scales of features, thereby confusing the model and decreasing the accuracy of the final prediction. In this paper, we propose a progressive multi-scale consistent network (PMCNet) that integrates the proposed progressive feature fusion (PFF) block and dynamic attention block (DAB) to address the aforementioned issues. Specifically, PFF block progressively integrates multi-scale features from adjacent encoding layers, facilitating feature learning of each layer by aggregating fine-grained details and high-level semantics. As features at different scales should be consistent, DAB is designed to dynamically learn the attentive cues from the fused features at different scales, thus aiming to smooth the essential conflicts existing in multi-scale features. The two proposed PFF and DAB blocks can be integrated with the off-the-shelf backbone networks to address the two issues of multi-scale and feature inconsistency in the multi-class segmentation of fundus lesions, which will produce better feature representation in the feature space. Experimental results on three public datasets indicate that the proposed method is more effective than recent state-of-the-art methods.


As an initial step to clarify the mechanisms of various uterine actions of PGE2, expression patterns of the messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for four subtypes of PGE receptors, EP1, EP2, EP3, and EP4, were investigated in the mouse uterus during pseudopregnancy. Relative expression levels were investigated by Northern blot analysis of mRNA levels in uteri obtained on days 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 of pseudopregnancy (day 0 = 48 h after PMSG injection), and cellular localization was determined by in situ hybridization in uteri obtained on days 0 and 5. EP2 mRNA was specifically expressed on day 5, and its expression was confined to the luminal epithelium. On the other hand, the level of the EP3 mRNA expression progressively increased until day 5. Cell populations expressing the EP3 mRNA were confined to the longitudinal smooth muscle on day 0, but they changed to the circular smooth muscle on day 5. The expression level of EP4 mRNA was low on days 0 and 1, but it became high on days 3 and 5. On day 0, EP4 mRNA was localized to the luminal epithelium. On day 5, diffuse, but significant, EP4 expression was observed over the endometrial stroma and epithelium. No EP1 mRNA signals were observed. Transient expression of EP2 on day 5 of pseudopregnancy in the luminal epithelium suggests its involvement in blastocyst implantation signaling. EP4 in the endometrial stroma is suggested to be involved in decidual transformation of the stromal cells, whereas EP3 in the myometrium is believed to be involved in regulation of myometrial activity.


In Part 1, the development of crop-drying has been briefly reviewed and the important contribution the process can male to the nation's food supplies has been pointed out. It has been stressed that a high yield of herbage, produced at a low cost and evenly distributed over the season, is necessary to minimise the overall costs of production of dried grass. Evidence has been quoted which indicates that the greatest yield of material of high nutritive value is Obtained, when the herbage is cut before flowering, and the possibility of increasing yields and levelling their seasonal distribution by the use of chemical fertilisers has been suggested. In Part II, a two year experiment has been described in which the yields, seasonal productivity and chemical composition of four crops under four Manurial treatments were studied. The crops were vetches, barley, a ryearass by and a eocksfoot ley. The manorial treatments included a control and three treatments in which 33/4 cwt. of Nltrochalk (61 1b. of nitrogen) were applied in one, two, or three dressing during the season. The statistical layout, which involved 4 replications of 16 crop-treatments, was found to be satisfactory and significant differences in yields and percentages of dry matter and crude protein were shown between crop-treatments. The results from the annual crops were comparable in 1945 and 1946, but the yield from the lays was slightly higher in the second year. In the first year, production did, not however begin until July, while in the second year, it was spread over a full six months i.e. May - October. When treated with nitrogenous manures, significant responses in yield and in crude protein percentage were shown by all crops except vetches. Differences in, yield and composition were found to be associated with the method of distributing the nitrogenous fertilisers, This also affected the seasonal distribution of the yields. The yields attained ranged from 22 - 56 cwt. per acre of dry matter or 420 - 1,100 1b., per acre of crude protein. The crude protein percentage reached 30% with vetches and barley and 25% with the leys. By encouraging the grass species at the expense of the clovers, the nitrogenous manures affected the botanical composition of the swards. The cost of producing dried herbage under the different treatments was estimated and the value, based on the nutrient content of such crops, was assessed. Comparison of costs with food values showed that barley would be unprofitable unless only one out was taken and then the crop allowed to ripen for harvest. Vetches were shown to be on the margin of profitability while it was estimated that the lays under the best treatments would give an appreciable profit. A note on the validity of small samples as estimates of yield showed these to be fairly reliable Tor grass leys but quite unsatisfactory for the annual crops used in the experiment. In Part III, the effects of nine different manurial treatments on two separate grass swards have been described. Up to 18 cwt. Of Nirochalk (312 lb. of nitrogen) Wore applied per acre and various methods of distributing the application over the season were adopted. The simplified statistical layout adopted was found to be satisfactory. The results obtained from the two grass swards were comparable, but the old and well established long ley was shown to be superior in yield to the Italian ryegrass sward. Conclusion: Consideration of the results suggests that, provided climatic conditions in respect of rainfall and temperature are favourable, herbage for crop-drying can be produced in fairly level quantities over an extended season of six months. Production in the first three months could be obtained from established grass swards - of a predominantly ryegrass type. A leguminous crop such as vetches or red clover, supplemented perhaps by a cereal cut, would maintain production in late June and July. In the latter part of the Season established lays would again yield economic crops and at this time those containing an appreciable proportion of cocksfoot would show to advantage. Moreover, the produce from grass leys sown in spring would by then be available, and from July onwards heavy nitrogenous applications would again prove effective in increasing production. The methods described could be readily applied within a system of alternate husbandry. As a result of the adoption of such methods, while the fertility of the soil would be maintained, food production would ho increased, and the health of the country's stock Improved. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


Summary In 1995, the management of the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf proposed to establish a total quality assurance (QA) system. A revised QA-system has been introduced stepwise in the department of nuclear medicine since 1997, and certification was achieved in accordance with DIN EN ISO 9001:2000 on February 14,2001. The QA-handbook is devided into two parts. The first part contains operational (diagnostic and therapeutic) procedures in so-called standard operating procedures (SOP). They describe the indication of procedures as well as the competences and time necessary in a standardized manner. Up to now, more than 70 SOPs have been written as a collaborative approach between technicians and physicians during daily clinical routine after analysing and discussing the procedures. Thus, the results were more clearly defined processes and more satisfied employees. The second part consists of general rules and directions concerning the security of work and equipment as well as radialion protection tasks, hygiene etc. as it is required by the law. This part was written predominantly by the management of the department of nuclear-medicine and the QA-coordinator. Detailed information for the patients, documentation of the work-flows as well as the medical report was adapted to the QM-system. Although in the introduction phase of a QA-system a vast amount of time is necessary, some months later a surplus for the clinical workday will become available. The well defined relations of competences and procedures will result in a gain of time, a reduction of costs and a help to ensure the legal demands. Last but not least, the QA-system simply helps to build up confidence and acceptance both by the patients and the referring physicians.


Intelligent transportation systems (ITSs) have become increasingly important for public transportation in Shanghai, China. In response, ShanghaiGrid (SG) aims to provide abundant intelligent transportation services to improve traffic conditions. A fundamental service in SG is to locate the nearest desirable vehicles for users. In this paper, we propose an innovative protocol called ANTS to locate a desirable vehicle close to the querying user. The protocol finely mimics the efficient searching strategy adopted by a lost ant searching for its nest. Taking query locality into account, ANTS can retrieve the closest vehicles satisfying the query with high probability but incurs small query latency and modest network traffic. ANTS is a fully distributed and robust protocol and, therefore, has good scalability. Extensive simulations based on the real road network and the trace data of vehicle movements in Shanghai demonstrate the efficacy of ANTS.


The thermo-sensitive graft-polymer of Gleditsia Sinensis polysaccharide with N-Isopropyl Acrylamide (NIPAM) was prepared and cross linked with glutaraldehyde to form the hydrogel. The effect of reaction conditions on the graft rate and gel strength of Gleditsia Sinesis Polysaccharide-g-NIPAM was evaluated. The graft rate of Gleditsia Sinensis polysaccharide reached the highest value with temperature of 75°C, reaction time of 5 hours and initiator of 0.025% (ratio of initiator to hydrogel, w/w) respectively. The gel strength of hydrogel, generated by the graft-polymer using glutaraldehyde as a cross linker, had a negative correlation with the grafting rate of the polymer. The influence of ionic strength and concentration of cross linker on gel strength, contractibility and Equilibrium Degree of Swelling (EDS) were investigated. The contractibility and gel strength increased with increments of cross linker and NaCl concentration, while EDS decreased with the increasing amount of cross linker and NaCl concentration. FT-IR and XRD were employed to confirm the grafting reaction between NIPAM and Gleditsia Sinensis polysaccharide. There was a great difference of contracting behavior between the thermo-sensitive hydrogel and ordinary hydrogel, which was mainly manifested by the temperature reaching the Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST) of the polymer. The amount of water released from the thermo-sensitive hydrogel per unit time was much more than the ordinary hydrogel, which was mostly due to the conformation transition of the graft-polymer. It was found that the LCST of the polymer was obtained at 36.5°C, which indicates that the polymer has an obvious temperature dependency and could be used in living tissues as drug controlled release materials.


At first, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) and environmental standards have been aimed at protecting human health, animal and plant safety as well as the environment, wildlife and human security. However, overbearing usage of NTBs can significantly restrict trade. In this regard, many experts hold the view that agricultural exports from developing countries are adversely affected by NTBs. With respect to the present study, the objective is to quantify the actual impact of non-tariff barriers on agricultural trade in the Euro-Med area for the two years 1996 and 2008. For this purpose, a Gravity model use multilateral resistance variables (BNT TTRI) has been applied. Moreover, we have opted for a cross-sectional estimate of bilateral flows between the set of countries making up our sample. Two "dummy" variables are then introduced to specify the non-tariff barriers effects on imports of each block apart. The achieved results show that the coefficients of the standard gravity equation turn out to be significant and bear the expected signs. These indices of trade restrictiveness appear to be significant and negative, reflecting the restrictive effect of tariff and nontariff barriers on these countries 'agricultural trade. Yet, these two variables evolution has shown a degradation of their effects on such a trade. It is also worth noting that the EU imports from the SEMC have proven to be affected by the first block imposed NTBs exclusively for the year 2008. As for the SEMC imposed on EU exports, they have had a negative and significant impact for the two years: 1996 and 2008.


Algal biomass is currently being pursued as a source for conversion to jet fuel because of its renewable, biodegradable, and nontoxic fuel properties. To reduce fresh water consumption used in the production of biomass, research has shifted to growing algae on wastewater. Algal biomass grown on wastewater is noncompetitive to feed sources. In this research, the lipid extracted algal biomass of Chlorella sorokiniana is repurposed as a biosorbent to remove copper(II) from wastewater. A comparative recovery study of Cu(II) is presented with whole algal biomass and lipid extracted algae (LEA). The Fourier transform IR spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy results demonstrate the binding types of ion exchange electrostatic interaction with various surface sites of carboxyl, hydroxyl, and metal groups. The Cu capture maximum for the whole biomass and LEA is capable of removing similar quantities of Cu(II) with a sorption–desorption life of six cycles. Hence, the LEA is a viable substitute for whole algae as a means to remove Cu from wastewater while preserving the lipid for conversion into biodiesel, jet fuel, or the like. Extrapolation of these results could provide justification for using LEA as a pretreatment for heavy metal removal from wastewater, whether generated from industrial or municipal processes.


Sustainable fuel-range hydrocarbons can be produced via the catalytic decarboxylation of biomass-derived carboxylic acids without the need for hydrogen addition. In this present study, 5 wt% platinum on carbon (Pt/C) has been found to be an effective catalyst for hydrothermally decarboxylating butyric acid in order to produce mainly propane and carbon dioxide. However, optimisation of the reaction conditions is required to minimise secondary reactions and increase hydrocarbon selectivity towards propane. To do this, reactions using the catalyst with varying parameters such as reaction temperatures, residence times, feedstock loading and bulk catalyst loading were carried out in a batch reactor. The highest yield of propane obtained was 47 wt% (close to the theoretical decarboxylation yield of 50 wt% on butyric acid basis), corresponding to a 96% hydrocarbon selectivity towards propane. The results showed that the optimum parameters to produce the highest yield of propane, from the range investigated, were 0.5 g butyric acid (0.57 M aqueous solution), 1.0 g Pt/C (50 mg Pt content) at 300 °C for 1 h. The reusability of the catalyst was also investigated, which showed little or no loss of catalytic activity after four cycles. This work has shown that Pt/C is a suitable and potentially hydrothermally stable heterogeneous catalyst for making biopropane, a major component of bioLPG, from aqueous butyric acid solutions, which can be sourced from bio-derived feedstocks via acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation.


Alternate bearing in pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) is particularly severe. The developing nuts are a major sink, draining branch carbohydrates, producing inflorescence bud abscission and decreasing the following year's production. We investigated inflorescence bud drop as a function of branch crop load, embryo weight, and vegetative growth. The main objective of this study was to investigate the mechanism of alternate bearing. We also tested the efficacy of eight different foliar nutrient combinations for reducing inflorescence bud abscission: Acadian A LSC®, Acadian B, low-biuret urea, Acadian A LSC® + low-biuret urea, Acadian B + low-biuret urea, MaxCell®, MaxCell® + low-biuret urea, and untreated control (sprayed with water). The trial was conducted during the 2016 growing season on eight-year-old Kerman pistachio trees planted at 5.2 m in-row and 6.1 m between rows, on PG1 rootstock, 8 replications for each treatment. Average tree yields as dry in-shell marketable split nuts were not significantly different among treatments ranging from 27 to 31 kg tree(-1)). The treatment did not affect inflorescence bud abscission. The bud abscission percentage was significantly higher in bearing branches (~70%) versus non-bearing branches (~15%). In fruiting shoots, the percentage of inflorescence bud abscission was significantly and positively correlated with embryo growth. Length, width and weight of new wood and one-year-old wood correlated significantly and positively with nut production, and negatively with inflorescence bud abscission. The data collected support the hypothesis suggested in the literature that alternate bearing is function of crop load and carbohydrate depletion. Results reported here are the first step toward characterization of optimal shoot parameters, length, width and leaf area, for optimal and regular crop production.


Limiting the effects of global climate change requires reductions in anthropogenic GHG emissions. However, without regulations mandating decarbonization of industrial society, emission reduction strategies must provide opportunities for generating profit. Product carbon footprinting (PCF) has emerged as a means to identify emission reduction opportunities for all economic activity by analyzing the full life cycle of goods and services. The detailed emissions inventories obtained through PCF can facilitate identification of areas in a supply chain where GHG emissions can be reduced with a positive return on investment. Despite recent efforts to standardize PCF, a lack of data and data uncertainty remain barriers to restructuring supply chains and manufacturing processes to achieve cost-effective emissions reductions. We provide a basic framework to conceptually demonstrate how data gaps can be filled and uncertainty in PCF can be more accurately assessed, while simultaneously reducing the costs of conducting PCF and yielding positive return on investment.


Introduction: based on the analysis of methods for estimating time series of observed parameters of devices of public information and telecommunications networks, to develop a method for preventive identification of the state of monitoring objects using a symbolic representation of time series of their metrics. Purpose: of the study is to determine the generalized universal characteristics of the time series, according to which it is possible to evaluate the variety of observed values of metrics related to a certain area of the state of the monitoring object (the class of its technical condition). Results: preventive identification of the abnormal state of the network element is carried out by identifying "forbidden" code syllables on the code word describing the observed time series of the metric. This approach to time series processing is borrowed from symbolic dynamics, which is used in bioinformatics when analyzing complex nucleotide genomic sequences. As a generalized universal characteristic of the time series, the entropy of code words is used, describing the time series encoded by the method of symbolic representation of the data of the observed metrics. An algorithm of the method of preventive identification of an abnormal situation on a time series of its parameters is developed, consisting of four stages: at the first stage, the time series is symbolically encoded according to possible parameter values; at the second, the entropy of the code word describing the time series of the observed metric is estimated; at the third, the classifier of the states of the measurement object is trained based on the entropy of shifts; at the fourth stage, the state is classified according to a test sample of measurements, in which the measured characteristic is described by its law of probability distribution of shifts. Practical relevance: when an abnormal functional state of a network element is detected, a transition to a special monitoring mode is carried out, when the frequency of polling by the monitoring server of the network element is significantly increased in order to timely take preventive control actions on the network infrastructure and prevent failure (the occurrence of an accident). Discussion: the methodology will allow to form the order of operation of the monitoring server in the future to identify the functional state of the network element and the public information and telecommunications network as a whole.


Stereomobilization improves upon standard stereopsis measurements by utilizing temporal effects in the assessment of depth perception. Studies using optometry students have been performed to establish adult norms (Thompson and Yudcovitch, 1996 and Jahner and Moffit, 1998) and norms for jet fighter pilots (Brotherson, Rhoton, and Tipton, 1997). To create standard values for a younger population, 21 middle school students ages 10 to 12 were studied using the same protocol as the adult studies. The stereomobilization values for a disparity of 450" were not significantly different from these adult studies, but were superior in performance to the pilots studied. At 125 ms and faster, stereomobility was still operating above levels of chance or guessing.


This paper determines the demand for a forestry program amongst rural households in western Kenya. It is based on a field survey with 277 households, using a stratified random sampling approach. The study follows attribute based method to elicit farmers' preferences. Demand is measured in terms of additional number of trees that a household is willing to plant under different price schedules, including direct economic incentive to plant new seedlings. The mean willingness to plant new trees per household increases from 44 trees when farmers have to pay 10ksh/seedling, to 244 trees when farmers receive a payment of 10ksh/seedling. The paper uses fixed effects, random effects and random effect tobit models to estimate relevant parameters. Hausman specification test is returned insignificant, while implies that random effects specification is not incorrect. Price of seedlings (negative effect), availability of timber species (positive effect), gender of the respondent (men likely to plant more trees than women), and availability of agricultural labor at the household (positive) were all found to be significant. Increase in price of a seedling by 1Ksh reduced demand by nine seedlings, while addition of an adult who works full-time on the family farm will raise the demand for seedlings by 18. Furthermore, farmers in Yala River basin were likely to plant more trees than those in the Nyando River basin.


In November 2004 the Nordic Council of Ministers together with the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland decided to initiate a collaboration by approving an action plan for improv ...


Monitoring behaviour of the elderly and the disabled living alone has become a major public health problem in our modern societies. Among the various scientific aspects involved in the home monitoring field, we are interested in the study and the proposal of a solution allowing distributed sensor nodes to communicate with each other in an optimal way adapted to the specific application constraints. More precisely, we want to build a wireless network that consists of several short range sensor nodes exchanging data between them according to a communication protocol at MAC (Medium Access Control) level. This protocol must be able to optimize energy consumption, transmission time and loss of information. To achieve this objective, we have analyzed the advantages and the limitations of WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) technologies and communication protocols currently used in relation to the requirements of our application. Then we proposed a deterministic, adaptive and energy saving medium access method based on the IEEE 802.15.4 physical layer and a mesh topology. It ensures the message delivery time with strongly limited collision risk due to the spatial reuse of medium in the two-hop neighbourhood. This proposal was characterized by modelling and simulation using OPNET network simulator. Finally we implemented the proposed mechanisms on hardware devices and deployed a sensors network in real situation to verify the accuracy of the model and evaluate the proposal according to different test configurations.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence and percentage of dyslipidemia awareness among overweight and obese residents in Beijing community.

METHOD
Cross-sectional data of 9786 subjects from capital cholesterol education and intervention program (CCEIP) were analyzed. Participants were divided into 3 groups (Normal, overweight and obese) based on body mass index (BMI). Blood lipid levels were determined from overnight fasting plasma samples. Questionnaires were collected to estimate awareness of dyslipidemia.

RESULT
(1) Blood lipids levels were positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.17, 0.18, -0.26 and 0.35 between total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglyceride and BMI, respectively, all P < 0.01). (2) Prevalence of dyslipidemia increased in proportion with increase of BMI. The age-standardized prevalence of dyslipidemia of normal, overweight and obese population was 23. 9%, 43.3% and 65.4% in men and 17.9%, 29.2% and 42.3% in women. Dyslipidemia was more frequent in obese men than obese women (65.4% vs. 42.3%, P < 0.01). However, this gender difference decreased gradually with the increase of age. Risk of hypercholesterolemia, high LDL-C, low HDL-C and hypertriglyceridemia in obese men was 1.6, 2.9, 2.4, and 2.7 folders higher than in the normal body weight men and was 1.3, 1.9, 1.7 and 2.1 folders higher in obese women than in normal body weight women. (3) Unexpectedly, the percentage of dyslipidemia awareness in overweight and obese population was not significantly higher than in the normal body weight group (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of dyslipidemia was high while the percentage of dyslipidemia awareness was rather low in obese population. Aggressive intervention should be taken in obese population, especially in the young obese men, to effectively reduce dyslipidemia.


Pleural effusions are seen relatively common in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, on the other hand, hydrothorax secondary to pleuroperitoneal leak in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients is rare. Since treatment modalities differ widely from that of other causes of pleural effusion seen in CAPD patients such as uremia, volume overload, congestive heart failure, infection and malignancy, pleuroperitoneal leak should always be kept in mind in the differential diagnosis and should be excluded urgently. To draw attention to this point, in this paper, 2 children on CAPD who developed a hydrothorax secondary to a pleuroperitoneal communication are presented with an overview of diagnostic tools and treatment modalities.


The existing guidelines recommend arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) surveillance by access blood flow (Qa) measurement and the correction of hemodynamically significant stenoses to prolong access survival. Unfortunately, many studies supporting these recommendations are inadequate methodologically; therefore, both the optimal criteria for surveillance and the value of preventive stenosis repair in AVF remain controversial. Recent literature confirms that Qa measurement allows an accurate identification of both stenosis (area under the curve (AUC) ranging from 0.80-0.93) and access at risk of failure (AUC ranging from 0.82-0.98) in AVFs and suggests a Qa <700-1000 ml/min and/or a reduction in Qa >25% as optimal predictors for stenosis and a Qa <400 ml/min for incipient thrombosis. Recent prospective studies evaluated whether Qa surveillance could improve AVF patency rates compared to monitoring based on clinical and dialysis-related criteria alone. The majority of studies have historical, rather than concurrent, control groups and provide conflicting results, some showing a reduction and some showing no change in thrombosis rates by Qa monitoring. On the other hand, the few randomized controlled studies available show that Qa surveillance, when coupled with preemptive intervention, reduces the already low thrombosis rate in AVF and suggest that the functional access life can be prolonged. However, there is still the need for additional methodologically adequate studies to understand fully the role of surveillance in AVF management.


The distribution of spray deposits, applied with an experimental air-atomizing nozzle (ENS, Parker Hannifin Corp.) was examined on cabbage, corn, soybean, and chrysanthemum plants. Very small droplets (D v 0 . 5 ∼ 20 um), of a water + surfactant + fluorescent tracer mixture, were produced by the nozzle which could operate in either an electrostatically charged or an uncharged mode. A fluorometric method was developed to analyze adaxial and abaxial deposits separately with a fluorometer. Comparing microscopic and image analysis counts of fluorescent spots ("droplets") revealed that the latter technique detected less than 1/3 of the droplets present, while the quantitative fluorometer measurements showed no correlation with qualitative data on droplet density. Charging the spray produced consistently greater deposits than in the corresponding uncharged treatments. Penetration through the foliage was excellent on all crops. Abaxial deposits were much greater on corn than on the other crops with "horizontal" foliage. In some experiments, considerable "rebound" of the air-flow was observed and droplets carried upwards were possibly responsible for the higher abaxial deposits on cabbage and soybean compared to chrysanthemum where the greater foliar density dissipated the air movement and reduced the potential drift hazard.


As a new round of World Trade Organization negotiations is being launched with greater emphasis on developing country participation, a body of literature is emerging which quantifies how international trade affects the poor in developing countries. This survey summarizes and classifies thirty-five studies from this literature into four methodological categories: cross-country regression, partial-equilibrium/cost-of-living analysis, general-equilibrium simulation, and micro-macro synthesis. These categories encompass a broad range of methodologies in current use. The continuum of approaches is bounded on one end by econometric analysis of household expenditure data, which is the traditional domain of poverty specialists, and sometimes labeled the "bottom-up" approach. On the other end of the continuum are computable general equilibrium models based on national accounts data, or what might be called the "top-down" approach. Another feature of several recent trade/poverty studies – and one of the primary conclusions to emerge from the October 2000 Conference on Poverty and the International Economy sponsored by Globkom and the World Bank – is recognition that factor markets are perhaps the most important linkage between trade and poverty, since households tend to be much more specialized in income than they are in consumption. Meanwhile, survey data on the income sources of developing-country households has become increasingly available. As a result, this survey gives particular emphasis to the means by which studies address factor market linkages between trade and poverty. The general conclusion is that any analysis of trade and poverty needs to be informed by both the bottom-up and top-down perspectives. Indeed, recent "two-step" micro-macro studies sequentially link these two types of frameworks, such that general equilibrium mechanisms are incorporated along with detailed household survey information. Another methodology similar in spirit and also increasingly used involves the incorporation of large numbers of surveyed households into a general-equilibrium simulation model. Although most of these studies have so far been limited to a single region, these approaches can be readily adapted for multi-region modeling so that trade-poverty comparisons can be made across countries within a consistent framework.


OBJECTIVE In Germany, as in many other countries, nationwide data on mortality attributable to diagnosed diabetes are not available. This study estimated the absolute number of excess deaths associated with diabetes (all types) and type 2 diabetes in Germany. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A prevalence approach that included nationwide routine data from 64.9 million people insured in the German statutory health insurance system in 2010 was used for the calculation. Because nationwide data on diabetes mortality are lacking in Germany, the mortality rate ratio from the Danish National Diabetes Register was used. The absolute number of excess deaths associated with diabetes was calculated as the number of deaths due to diabetes minus the number of deaths due to diabetes with a mortality that was as high as in the population without diabetes. Furthermore, the mortality population-attributable fraction was calculated. RESULTS A total of 174,627 excess deaths were due to diabetes in 2010, including 137,950 due to type 2 diabetes. Overall, 21% of all deaths in Germany were attributable to diabetes and 16% were attributable to type 2 diabetes. Most of the excess deaths (34% each) occurred in the 70- to 89-year-old age-group. CONCLUSIONS In this first nationwide calculation of excess deaths related to diabetes in Germany, the results suggest that the official German estimates that rely on information from death certificates are grossly underestimated. Countries without national cohorts or diabetes registries could easily use this method to estimate the number of excess deaths due to diabetes.


Chemokine molecules play important roles in the immune system. However, several chemokine molecules are expressed during early development before the immune system is established. Using reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and overexpression of chemokine molecules, we identified and characterized Xenopus laevis CXC-type chemokine ligands (XCXCL13L1, XCXCL13L2, XCXCLa, XCXCLb, XCXCLd, and XCXCLe) and receptors (XCXCR1/2, XCXCR3, XCXCR5, XCXCR6, and XCXCRa) during early development. The CXC-type ligands have low identity with genes for human CXC ligands (CXCL). With the exception of XCXCRa, the CXC receptors (CXCR) identified in the present study had high (40%–65%) identity with human CXCR genes. Although the expression patterns for the CXCL and CXCR genes differed, transcript levels for all genes were very low during early embryogenesis. Overexpression of XCXCL13L1, XCXCL13L2, XCXCLa, XCXCR3, XCXCR6, and XCXCRa interfered with gastrulation and neural fold closure. The results of the present study suggest that several chemokine molecules are related to cell movements during early morphogenesis.


Nanotechnology and nanomaterials have the potential to revolutionize existing and create entirely new industries. Unique physical, mechanical, chemical, and biological properties of nanomaterials have been extensively documented in the last two decades. However, most nanomaterials are discontinuous in nature, creating problems with their processing and manipulation into devices and raising health concerns. Continuous nanofibers represent an emerging class of nanomaterials with critical advantages to applications. Continuous nanofibers are readily produced by electrospinning process comprising spinning polymer solutions in high electric fields. Electrospinning is a very economic top-down nanomanufacturing process that has been used to produce ultrafine continuous nanofibers from several hundred polymers, ceramics, carbon, and metals. The process allows integrated electromechanical nanofiber alignment and assembly into macroscopic 2D and 3D nanostructures. One issue with the classical single-jet electrospinning is its low production rate insufficient for most industrial applications. The objective of this research was to design, develop, study, and optimize a novel hybrid nanomanufacturing process for high-rate production of quality polymer nanofibers. The process combined centrifugal mechanical and electrical forces in an integrated single-step fashion. Initial design, development, and testing of the hybrid process were conducted. Comprehensive systematic parametric studies were performed on two important polymers, i.e. polyethylene oxide and polyacrylonitrile. Optimal parameters were determined for attaining the highest nanofiber production rate while maintaining high quality of the nanofibers. Nanofiber deposition density was studied and methods for obtaining a consistent deposition were determined. Exploratory analysis of several advanced process configurations, including configurations resulting in aligned nanofibers, wound nanofiber yarns, and nanofiber deposits on non-electroded surfaces was performed. The results demonstrated the feasibility of hybrid nanomanufacturing of high quality nanofibers with significant increases in nanofiber production rates, in comparison with the single-jet electrospinning. Integrated high-rate nanomanufacturing of aligned nanofiber sheets, wound yarns, and nanofilamentary deposits on non-electroded surfaces were also successfully demonstrated for the first time. The obtained results can be used to manufacture nanofibers for a broad range of applications spanning structural materials, composites, and energy, environmental, and biomedical applications.


This paper investigates the volatility transmission effect and conditional correlations among crude oil, stock market and sector stock indexes in Saudi Arabia. Using daily data from January 3, 2009 to March 21, 2012 and VAR-BEKK specification, we find significant volatility transmission between oil prices and Saudi stock market. Furthermore, our findings show that sector stock returns significantly react to oil prices changes. In addition, except telecom sector, the results show the presence of volatility transmission between stock market and sector stock market returns. Our results are important for understanding how oil prices changes affect Saudi stock market. Indeed, our findings offer insights to investors to know how the value of their portfolios may be affected by large variations observed in oil prices. Our results may have crucial implications for market participants whose optimal portfolio decisions and the risk management policy depend on the characteristics and behavior of conditional volatility.


Objectives To estimate the number of men in the U.S. military who are gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men (MSM) to inform the development of military and other federal policies. Study design We analyzed data from the National Surveys of Family Growth to estimate the number of U.S. men who were gay, bisexual, or MSM, and who had served in the military, compared to those who did not serve. We stratified using hierarchical categories of gay, bisexual, and other MSM to compare proportions in the military and general population. Results We found that 4.23% of men self-reported as gay, bisexual, or other MSM among men who served in the military, compared to 4.14% among men who had not served (p = 0.93). When stratified, we found that 0.78% self-reported as gay among men who served in the military, compared to 2.12% among men who had not served (p<0.001). Conclusions The proportion of men who identified as a gay was lower in the military than in the general population. This finding might have been influenced by historical military policies related to sexual orientation.


In this paper we develop a framework for a sequential decision making under budget constraints for multi-class classification. In many classification systems, such as medical diagnosis and homeland security, sequential decisions are often warranted. For each instance, a sensor is first chosen for acquiring measurements and then based on the available information one decides (rejects) to seek more measurements from a new sensor/modality or to terminate by classifying the example based on the available information. Different sensors have varying costs for acquisition, and these costs account for delay, throughput or monetary value. Consequently, we seek methods for maximizing performance of the system subject to budget constraints. We formulate a multi-stage multi-class empirical risk objective and learn sequential decision functions from training data. We show that reject decision at each stage can be posed as supervised binary classification. We derive bounds for the VC dimension of the multi-stage system to quantify the generalization error. We compare our approach to alternative strategies on several multi-class real world datasets.


BACKGROUND
Cancer till today remains the leading cause of death in both developed and developing countries. Plants have been beacon of therapeutic sources for curing diseases from times immemorial. Hence, the present study aimed at evaluating the antiproliferative activity of extract of Ocimum sanctum leaves on oral cancer cell line.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the antiproliferative effect and to analyze dose dependent cytotoxic activity of aqueous extract of O. sanctum leaves on KB mouth cell line. To compare the effectiveness among different variety of O. sanctum.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
KB cells (Mouth Epidermal Carcinoma Cells) were used for the present study. Aqueous and dry extract of O. sanctum with both dark (Krishna Tulsi) and light (Rama Tulsi) leaves were prepared in the institution. The antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity on KB cell line was evaluated by MTT assay. Statistical analysis with Mann-Whitney U-test and Wilcoxon matched pairs test was carried out.

RESULTS
The aqueous extract of O. sanctum of both the leaves exhibited significant cytotoxic effect against oral cancer cell line.

CONCLUSION
Aqueous extract of O. sanctum leaves was effective as an antiproliferative agent which caused apoptosis in oral cancer cell line.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Ocimum sanctum herb which is abundantly grown in India can be used for its anticancer properties for treating oral cancer. This will not only be cost-effective but will also have less or no side effects.


Effective edge capacity provisioning is an important architectural component of the emerging differentiated service Internet. We propose a set of dynamic provisioning algorithms, which are operational at the edge routers of a differentiated services core network. These edge mechanisms include: (i) ingress dynamic link sharing, which augments class based queueing techniques with bandwidth utility functions so that dynamic link sharing can be used to distribute bandwidth among traffic conditioners located at edge routers; and (ii) egress dynamic capacity dimensioning, which formulates bandwidth dimensioning at egress links to peering/transit networks taking into account measured core network traffic conditions. We demonstrate through analysis and simulation that the proposed edge provisioning architecture is efficient and effective at supporting user link sharing policies while taking into account the dynamics of traffic load measured in the core network.


Sub-Nyquist sampling for spectrum sensing has the advantages of reducing the sampling and computational complexity burdens. However, determining the sparsity of the underlying spectrum is still a challenging issue for this approach. Along this line, this paper proposes an algorithm for narrowband spectrum sensing based on tracking the convergence patterns in sparse coding of compressed received signals. First, a compressed version of a received signal at the location of interest is obtained according to the principle of compressive sensing. Then, the signal is reconstructed via sparse recovery over a learned dictionary. While performing sparse recovery, we calculate the sparse coding convergence rate in terms of the decay rate of the energy of residual vectors. Such a decay rate is conveniently quantified in terms of the gradient operator. This means that while compressive sensing allows for sub-Nyquist sampling thereby reducing the analog-to-digital conversion overhead, the sparse recovery process could be effectively exploited to reveal spectrum occupancy. Furthermore, as an extension to this approach, we consider feeding the energy decay gradient vectors as features for a machine learning-based classification process. This classification further enhances the performance of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is shown to have excellent performances in terms of the probability-of-detection and false-alarm-rate measures. This result is validated through numerical experiments conducted over synthetic data as well as real-life measurements of received signals. Moreover, we show that the proposed algorithm has a tractable computational complexity, allowing for real-time operation.


This paper describes our experience with the use of Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) technology for supporting location-based service discovery. Our goal is to allow Web Services to be associated with physical locations and then queried according to spatial criteria. This would enable location-based applications to use local UDDI registries to discover the Web Services that are relevant for the current location of a mobile user. However, the current model for Web Services discovery in UDDI does not directly support the particular requirements of location-based discovery. The main limitation is the inadequacy of the query-processing mechanism, based on exact matching between query criteria and service categorizations, to support discovery models based on proximity. We propose an approach that includes a space model that allows external entities to obtain information about the spatial structure of the local environment, a set of querying taxonomies that allow UDDI queries to include spatial criteria while maintaining conformance with the UDDI standards, and a proxy that allows application to benefit from spatial queries while maintaining the approach transparent. This approach is currently being used and evaluated in the VADE project.


This thesis presents the bit error rate performances and throughput analysis over an HF radio channel using wireless multicarrier modem for voice and data services based on differential quaternary phase shift keying or DQPSK modulation in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) affected by slow Rayleigh fading. It combines two technologies – the highfrequency or HF band in the range of 3 – 30MHz to provide wireless long-distance and repeaterless communication links (eg. as used in the military) as well as multicarrier or parallel modem technology that provides simultaneous operations with the suppression of multipath components and other phenomena introduced by the ionosphere and also other narrowband interferences. In addition to conventional military applications for the fading radio channel, this implementation is also suitable for point-to-point links in the HF rural telecommunications area. The communications infrastructure for rural populations poses several problems which includes the generally long distances involved over which communication takes place as well as the low population densities which are also sparsely distributed. Thus, very expensive infrastructures like satellite links or long-haul repeater systems need to be employed which is aggravated by the fact that rural communities are in no position to pay for such facilities. A solution would thus require low cost wireless equipments incorporating HF and multicarrier technologies connecting the widely separated communities together as well as to the outside world. It is to be noted that multicarrier communication which employs HF radio technology will do away with third party equipments as well as the per-minute costs associated with satellite services


: Necrotic enteritis toxin B (NetB) is a β -pore-forming toxin produced by Clostridium perfringens and has been identified as a key virulence factor in the pathogenesis of avian necrotic enteritis, a disease causing significant economic damage to the poultry industry worldwide. In this study, site-directed mutagenesis was used to identify amino acids that play a role in NetB oligomerisation and pore-formation. NetB K41H showed significantly reduced toxicity towards LMH cells and human red blood cells relative to wild type toxin. NetB K41H was unable to oligomerise and form pores in liposomes. These findings suggest that NetB K41H could be developed as a genetic toxoid vaccine to protect against necrotic enteritis.


The authors of this chapter studied behavioral performance and brain activities associated with word priming using a Japanese Word Stem Completion (WSC) task. They compared the results of this task with the results of a Korean character cognitive task. Their results showed facilitatory effects on subject performance. The percentage of correct answers in the non-priming (P/N) word condition was 94%, whereas the priming (P/Y) condition yielded 100% correct answers. The average reaction time during the P/N word condition was 1501 ms, whereas it was 978 ms and 3106 ms for the P/N non-word and word P/Y word conditions, respectively. In the fMRI experiment, the same tasks were performed using a block-design experimental paradigm without any overt response from the MRI scanner. As seen in the fMRI results, the bilateral middle and inferior frontal gyrus were active with a right hemispheric prevalence. In addition, the superior and inferior parietal gyrus and the supplementary motor area were activated. The prefrontal-parietal network observed in this study is consistent with the areas that were activated during an English word stem task. These results suggest that the facilitatory effects observed in the WSC test were successful for implicit memory retrieval.


The study investigated the relationship between primary school teacher's extrinsic motivation and pupils' academic performance in Cross river State, Nigeria. Ex Post Facto research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 17,221 teachers and 68,201 Primary Six Pupils in the three educational zones of the state. Proportionate Stratified random sampling procedure was used to select 100 schools that participated in the study. A simple random technique of hat and draw method was further used to select 2000 teachers and 500 pupils who formed the sample for the study. Two instruments were used for data collection. Primary School Teachers Motivation Questionnaire (PSTMQ) and objective test items in English Language, Mathematics and Primary Science to measure students' performance. These instruments were validated and split half reliability estimate was ascertained. All hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The result of the study revealed a significant relationship between the variables and pupils' academic performance in English Language, Mathematics and Primary Science. It was recommended that learning facilities should be provided and regularly maintained. Teachers' salaries/fringe benefits should be paid regularly and on time by the government as this will serve as a motivating factor for greater performance.


Their focus on top-line growth performance, ability to understand consumer preferences, and acumen in generating market insights suggest that marketers would be valuable members of boards of directors. Yet marketing's presence at the top of firms is nominal. Only 2.6% of board members have marketing experience, suggesting that directors don't see a connection between marketing experience and the ability to address firm-level marketing challenges. To date, there is no research investigating marketing experience at the board level; previous research on marketing's role in firm-level strategy development has primarily focused on CMOs. In this report, Kimberly Whitler, Ryan Krause, and Donald Lehmann investigate when and how marketing experience on the board contributes to overall firm performance by driving firm revenue growth. They develop a conceptual model to explain how marketing impacts the firm and the conditions under which marketing experience on the board of directors impacts firm financial performance. They test their model using 64,086 board member biographies and publicly available data from S&P 1500 firms.
Their findings indicate that marketing experience at the board level is considerably more valuable than the number of marketers on boards today would suggest.


The last two decades have witnessed a rising interest in modulating the physicochemical properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) through cocrystallization. The present study reports a new cocrystal of antimicrobial drug metronidazole (MNZ) using pyrogallol (PYR) as a cocrystal former, namely the MNZ–PYR cocrystal. The crystal structure of the MNZ–PYR cocrystal is studied by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and density functional theory calculations. The MNZ–PYR cocrystal shows an increased dissolution rate compared to MNZ due to the high energy conformer of PYR in the crystal lattice of the cocrystal. The formation of the MNZ–PYR cocrystal leads to a color shift from white (raw MNZ and PYR) to yellow, which is characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy and interpreted theoretically by means of time-dependent density functional theory calculations. The results suggest that the cocrystal strategy may be used for color tuning of APIs, offering opportunities for formulation development.


Making a success of your teaching placement is a vital part of achieving Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). With a focus on practical, this book provides essential guidance on how to translate the 'outstanding' criteria into practice. The authors break down the OfSTED criteria so that you can identify the skills and knowledge you need to make the most of your placements.

Packed with case studies, practical tasks and links to the (QTS) standards, the book is structured around:

•Developing professional knowledge
•Planning
•How to be an outstanding teacher
•Classroom management
•Teamwork
•Assessment
•Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
This book will help trainees make the difficult jump from 'good' to achieving an 'outstanding' on their placements.


The current study aims to present a comprehensive model for professional competence of instructors in e-learning environments. The research literature confirms that the quality of e-learning courses is highly influenced by competence of instructors, and this study provides the researchers with the opportunity to reach a consensus on a set of competencies necessary for e-instructors; which can lead to a professional development and organizational support for instructors of this domain. Through a systematic review of literature and using qualitative meta-synthesis, 7 dimensions of competency (social, ethical, managerial, personal, technological, pedagogical, and supervisory) and 21 components were extracted from twenty two papers. The content validity of this model was confirmed by five experts; the value of kappa coefficients for reliability of the model was 0.85.This model can act as a basis for planning by educational managers for selection, training, and promotion of e-learning instructors.


Myocardial aging is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Cardiac aging promotes adverse myocardial remodeling and the accumulation of poorly functioning senescent cells, leading to a decline in cardiac performance. Pathological remodeling is associated, in part, with changes occurring at the mitochondrial level exacerbating heart disease. Mitochondrial alteration during heart failure includes cellular changes in fuel utilization and alterations in mitochondrial dynamics, implicating mitochondrial biology as an important facet of cardiac aging biology. Pim kinases are protective in a cardiac context, in part by maintaining mitochondrial integrity. However, Pim protein expression diminishes during cardiac aging. Therefore, cardiac mitochondrial dynamics and metabolism were investigated in relationship to Pim kinases. The relationship between Pim1 and Dynamin Related Protein 1 (Drp1) was assessed as a novel mechanism to prevent Drp1 mediated fission. Drp1 mediates fission by mitochondrial localization during pathological challenge, sensitizing cardiomyocytes to apoptosis. Overexpressing Pim1 decreased total Drp1 levels, increased phosphorylation of Drp1 at serine 637, and inhibited Drp1 localization to mitochondria while preserving reticular morphology after simulated ischemia. Overexpression of Pim1 dominant negative (PDN) increased total mitochondrial Drp1, reduced phospho Drp1, and increased mitochondrial fragmentation. PDN hearts exhibit upregulation of BH3 only protein p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) that mediates mitochondrial Drp1 accumulation and increased sensitivity to apoptotic stimuli. Therefore, Pim1 activity prevents Drp1 compartmentalization to the mitochondria and preserves reticular mitochondrial morphology. Cellular pathological hypertrophic remodeling and fetal gene program activation was evident in Pim Triple KnockOut (PTKO) mice phenotypic of cardiac aging. Cardiomyocyte senescence manifested by increased expression of cell cycle inhibitors and decreased telomere lengths. Changes in expression of PPAR[gamma] coactivator-1 (PGC-1) [alpha] and [Beta] led to alterations in mitochondrial ultrastructure and metabolism. An energy-starved phenotype was determined with decreased ATP and increased pAMPK:AMPK ratio, confirming changes in the PPAR signaling circuit. Overexpression of PGC-1[alpha] and c-Myc rescued changes in metabolism and restored energy homeostasis. These studies confirm the significant impact of Pim kinases on mitochondrial biology and support the notion to utilize Pim as a tool to prevent cardiac aging by preserving mitochondrial dynamics and metabolism


Caroli's disease is a rare congenital condition chara-cterized by non-obstructive saccular or fusiform dilatation of larger intrahepatic bile ducts. Cholangitis, liver cirrhosis, and cholangiocarcinoma are its potential complications. The diagnosis of Caroli's disease depends on demonstrating that the cystic lesions are in continuity with the biliary tree which can be showed by ultrasonography, computerized tomography, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography or magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography. Treatment of Caroli's disease relies on the location of the biliary abnormalities. While localized forms confined to one lobe can be treated with surgery, liver transplantation is the only effective modality for diffuse forms. Although a rare disorder; Caroli's disease should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of chronic cholestasis of unknown cause.


Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of a given genotype to produce alternative phenotypes in response to its environment of development, is an important mechanism for coping with variable environments. While the mechanisms underlying phenotypic plasticity are diverse, their relative contributions need to be investigated quantitatively to better understand the evolvability of plasticity across biological levels. This requires relating plastic responses of the epigenome, transcriptome, and organismal phenotype, and how they vary with the genotype. Here we carried out this approach for responses to osmotic stress in Dunaliella salina, a green microalga that is a model organism for salinity tolerance. We compared two strains that show markedly different demographic responses to osmotic stress, and showed that these phenotypic responses involve strain- and environment-specific variation in gene expression levels, but a relative low - but significant - effect of strain × environment interaction. We also found an important genotype effect on the genome-wide methylation pattern, but little contribution from environmental conditions to the latter. However, we did detect a significant marginal effect of epigenetic variation on gene expression, beyond the influence of genetic differences on epigenetic state, and we showed that hypomethylated regions are correlated with higher gene expression. Our results indicate that epigenetic mechanisms are either not involved in the rapid plastic response to environmental change in this species, or involve only few changes in trans that are sufficient to trigger concerted changes in the expression of many genes, and phenotypic responses by multiple traits.


The solid state flow behavior (rheology) of materials constituting the Earth's mantle and
crust is of key importance in controlling the dynamics of large scale geodynamic processes,
such as mantle convection, subduction, mountain building and basin formation. Flow laws
that are calibrated using laboratory experiments can provide constraints on the rheology of
rock materials under natural conditions, given that all active deformation mechanisms and
microphysical processes affecting rheology are accounted for. Rocks invariably exhibit a
distributed grain size, with small grains that may deform by grain size sensitive (GSS)
deformation mechanisms and large grains that may deform by grain size insensitive (GSI)
deformation mechanisms. Moreover, dynamic recrystallization can affect the rheology of rock
materials by extensively modifying the grain size distribution. However, most conventional
flow laws are either fully empirical or based on a single deformation mechanism, and if grain
size is included, it is represented as a constant single value.
This thesis aims to provide an improved description of the rheology of rock materials by
incorporating distributed grain size and multiple deformation mechanisms into theoretical
flow laws. It further aims to assess the influence of dynamic recrystallization on the evolution
of grain size distribution and on composite flow behavior.
The research combines theoretical work and laboratory deformation experiments. In the
theoretical part, composite diffusion-dislocation flow laws for materials with a lognormal
grain size distribution are derived that incorporate the distribution parameters, i.e. standard
deviation and median grain size. The flow laws are used to include the distribution parameters
into a model for dynamic recrystallization in which grain size and rheology are assumed to
adjust itself to the boundary between the GSS and GSI fields. In the experimental part, the
natural calcite rock Carrara marble and synthetic polycrystalline halite (wet and dry) have
been deformed in axial compression for a systematic range of strains, strain rates, stresses and
temperatures at elevated pressure.
The results show that for an accurate description of the rheology of rock materials, the
complete grain size distribution, composite GSS-GSI flow and the effect of dynamic
recrystallization should be taken into account. Strain rate can change by orders of magnitude
due to variation of standard deviation of the grain size distribution at fixed median grain size,
which is unaccounted for in conventional flow laws that include a single-valued grain size. In
both Carrara marble and wet synthetic polycrystalline halite, dynamic recystallization by
progressive subgrain rotation and/or grain boundary migration results in a significant change
in grain size distribution and minor rheological weakening. The observed rheological
behavior and weakening can only be explained by considering changes in the relative
contribution of GSS flow relative to GSI flow due to alteration of the grain size distribution
by dynamic recrystallization. The limited weakening observed suggests that in relatively pure,
single phase materials, weakening associated with dynamic recrystallization is insufficient to
cause strain localization.


Heterogeneity of p53 protein expression is seen in blast cells of patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). p53 protein is detected in the blasts of certain AML patients but not in others. We have identified p53 protein variants with abnormal mobility on gel electrophoresis and/or prolonged half-life (t 1/2). We have sequenced the p53 coding sequence from primary blast cells of five AML patients and from the AML cell line (OCIM2). In OCIM2, a point mutation in codon 274 was identified that changes a valine residue to aspartic acid. A wild type p53 allele was not detected in these cells. Two point mutations (codon 135, cysteine to serine; codon 246, methionine to valine) were identified in cDNA from blasts of one AML patient. Both mutations were present in blast colonies grown from single blast progenitor cells, indicating that individual leukemia cells had sustained mutation of both p53 alleles. The cDNAs sequenced from blast samples of four other patients, including one with prolonged p53 protein t 1/2 and one with no detectable p53 protein, were fully wild type. Thus, the heterogeneity of p53 expression cannot be explained in all cases by genetic change in the p53 coding sequence. The prolonged t 1/2 of p53 protein seen in some AML blasts may therefore reflect changes not inherent to p53. A model is proposed in which mutational inactivation of p53, although not required for the evolution of neoplasia, would confer a selective advantage, favoring clonal outgrowth during disease progression.


This paper presents a joint model of residential neighborhood type choice and bicycle ownership. The objective is to isolate the true causal effects of neighborhood attributes on household bicycle ownership from a spurious association because of residential self-selection effects. The joint model accounts for residential self-selection because of both observed sociodemographic characteristics and unobserved preferences. In addition, the model allows differential residential self-selection effects across different sociodemographic segments. The model was estimated by using a sample of more than 5,000 households from the San Francisco, California, Bay Area. Furthermore, a policy simulation analysis was carried out to estimate the impacts of neighborhood characteristics and sociodemographics on bicycle ownership. The model results show a substantial presence of residential self-selection effects because of observed sociodemographics, such as the number of children, dwelling type, and house ownership. It is shown for the first time in the self-selection literature that ignoring such observed self-selection effects may not always lead to overestimation of the impact of neighborhood attributes on travel-related choices, such as bicycle ownership. In the current context, ignoring self-selection because of sociodemographic attributes resulted in an underestimation of the impact of neighborhood attributes on bicycle ownership. In the context of unobserved factors, no significant self-selection effects were found. However, it is recommended that such effects as well as the heterogeneity in such effects be tested for before it is concluded that there are no unobserved factors contributing to residential self-selection.


Background: In this study the protective effect of butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), a phenolic antioxidant used in foods, on Ferric-Nitrilotriacetate (Fe–NTA) induced nephrotoxicity is reported. Materials and Methods: Male albino rats of Wistar strain (4–6 weeks old) weighing 125–150 g were used in this study. Animals were given a single dose of Fe-NTA (9 mg/kg body weight,intraperitoneal) after a week of treatment with BHA (1 and 2 mg/animal/day). Results: Fe-NTA treatment enhanced ornithine decarboxylase activity to 5.3 fold, and [3H] thymidine incorporation in DNA to 2.5 fold in kidney compared with the corresponding saline treated control whereas glutathione levels and the activities of antioxidant enzymes decreased to a range of 2–2.5 fold in kidney. These changes were reversed significantly in animals receiving a pretreatment of BHA. The enhanced ornithine decarboxylase activity and DNA synthesis showed a reduction to 2.12 fold and 1.15 fold respectively at a higher dose of 2 mg BHA/day/animal, compared with the Fe-NTA treated groups. Pretreatment with BHA prior to Fe-NTA treatment increased glutathione and the activities of antioxidant enzymes to a range of 1.5-2 folds in kidney. Conclusion: The results indicate that BHA is a potent chemopreventive agent and suppresses Fe-NTA induced nephrotoxicity in male wistar rats. However, a major concern which must be addressed when extrapolating animal findings to humans is the dosage of the agent studied.


The antimicrobial efficacy of hexane, dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts of a rice-field cyanobacterium, Nostoc sp., were evaluated against cyanobacteria and phytopathogenic fungi. The maximum production of biocidal compounds was observed in cultures grown for 20 days under optimized conditions (phosphate =1.4 mg/l; light intensity ≈ 3000-4000 lux). Fractionation of the extracts showed six spots on silica-gel-coated plates. Hexane extract was the most potent biocide, showing marked (35-42%) reduction in the growth of fungi, but no negative influences on seed germination or seedling growth of wheat, rice and mung bean, emphasizing its suitability for use in agriculture. Keywords: Antifungal; extract; inhibition zone; metabolite; Pythium debaryanum; Rhizoctonia solani


The work of Sir Alec Clegg, Chief Education Officer of the West Riding of Yorkshire was grounded in progressive child-centered learning with a heuristic philosophy, his belief of individuals as agents of change, in challenging academic measurements of success through the testing of children together with an underpinning framework of the value of the arts to the curriculum for every child are recognisable as Sir Alec Clegg's practice. The love of teaching and the transformative power of education for everyone was integral to Sir Alec Clegg's beliefs, these two core values of love and transformation offer much to underpin educational policy and practice today. (Darvill 2000) (George 1999) (Brighouse 2008) (Newsam 2008) (Brundrett 2008)

Using the narrative of the individual and their social environment whilst taking the stance of Sir Alec Clegg being in an environment of his time and how he shared his narrative and in what ways he did this and what impact it had in his use of narrative leadership construction will be used as the framework to interview individuals who worked for Sir Alec Clegg and who studied in the culture that he created at Bretton Hall College, originally a Teacher Training College for Teachers of the Arts.
Through analysis of these storied life narratives that were influenced by Sir Alec Clegg's leadership style, using a Labovian approach to determine what aspects of his leadership style were predominant, how they were manifest and how they affected the learning environment will be addressed. Through this reflective retreat it will be asked how their renewal could impact educational leadership today.


The paper addresses the problems of scientific conceptualisation in order to avoid diffuse abstractedness. It proposes the use of an ontology consisting of the following categories: 1) humans, 2) human inner worlds which consist of 2a) intrasubjective parts and 2b) intersubjective parts (shared knowledge and social institutions), 3) human actions, 4) symbolic objects (signs), 5) artefacts (artificially made material objects) and 6) natural environment. This approach also includes a reflective way of using language. Words and corresponding language games are investigated in order to clarify the scientific concepts.


A new type of magnetic polymer microspheres with super paramagnetic properties were prepared by a co-precipitation method. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to analyze Fe content, micro morphology, particle size and phase structure of the products. Results indicate that the content of Fe in the microspheres is up to 5.25 *105ug/g. The main phase of the product is Fe3O4. The average particle sizes of the products are ~30nm.


Obesity is characterized by elevated infiltration of macrophages into adipose tissue, leading to the development of insulin resistance. The black soybean seed coat is a rich source of anthocyanins with antioxidative and anti-inflammatory activities. This study investigated the effects of black soybean anthocyanin extract (BSAn) on obesity-induced oxidative stress, the inflammatory response, and insulin resistance in a coculture system of hypertrophied 3T3-L1 adipocytes and RAW264 macrophages. Coculture of adipocytes with macrophages increased the production of reactive oxygen species and inflammatory mediators and cytokines (NO, MCP-1, PGE2, TNFα, and IL-6) and the release of free fatty acids but reduced anti-inflammatory adiponectin secretion. BSAn treatment (12.5, 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL) alleviated the coculture-induced changes (p < 0.001) and inhibited coculture-induced activation of JNK and ERK signaling (p < 0.01). BSAn also blocked the migration of RAW264.7 macrophages toward 3T3-L1 adipocytes. In addition, treatment with BSAn increased PPARγ expression and glucose uptake in response to insulin in hypertrophied 3T3-L1 adipocyte and RAW264.7 macrophage coculture (p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that BSAn attenuates inflammatory responses and improves adipocyte metabolic function in the coculture of hypertrophied 3T3-L1 adipocytes and RAW264.7 macrophages, suggesting the effectiveness of BSAn for obesity-induced insulin resistance.


This paper proposes a new framework to analyze the nonstationarity in the time series of state densities, representing either cross-sectional or intra-period distributions of some underlying economic variables. We regard each state density as a realization of Hilbertian random variable, and use a functional time series model to fit a given time series of state densities. This allows us to explore various sources of the nonstationarity of such time series. The potential unit roots are identified through functional principal component analysis, and subsequently tested by the generalized eigenvalues of leading components of normalized estimated variance operator. The asymptotic null distribution of the test statistic is obtained and tabulated. We use the methodology developed in the paper to investigate the state densities given by the cross-sectional distributions of individual earnings and the intra-month distributions of stock returns. We find some clear evidence for the presence of strong persistency in their time series.


Despite a large body of work on the serpentine-substrate effect on vascular plants, little work has been undertaken to describe algal communities found on serpentine soils derived from peridotite and other ultramafic rocks. We report a preliminary study describing the occurrence of algae and cyanoprokaryotes on mafic and ultramafic substrates from South Africa. Results suggest that slope and aspect play a key role in species diversity and community composition and, although low pH, nutrients and metal content do not reduce species richness, these edaphic features also influence species composition. Further, typical soil genera such as Leptolyngbya, Microcoleus, Phormidium, Chlamydomonas, Chlorococcum and Hantzschia were found at most sites. Chroococcus sp., Scytonema ocellatum, Nostoc linckia, Chlorotetraedron sp., Hormotilopsis gelatinosa, Klebsormidium flaccidium, Pleurococcus sp. and Tetracystis elliptica were unique to one serpentine site. The preliminary survey provides directions for future research on the serpentine-substrate effect on algal and cyanoprokaryote diversity in South Africa.


We provide a synthesis of all mammal taxa described from the African mainland, Madagascar and all surrounding islands in the 20 years since 1988, thereby supplementing the earlier works of G.M. Allen (1939) and W.F.H. Ansell (1989), and bringing the list of African mammals described over the last 250 years current to December 2008. We list 175 new extant taxa, including five new genera, one new subgenus, 138 new species and 31 new subspecies, including remarks, where relevant, on the current systematic position of each taxon. Names of seven species of primates are emended, according to the requirements of the ICZN. The taxonomic group in which the largest number of new taxa has been described is the Primates, with two new genera, 47 new species and 11 new subspecies, while geographically the biggest increase in new species descriptions has been on the island of Madagascar, accounting for roughly half (67) of all new species described in the past 20 years. Nearly half of all new species listed currently are assessed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (49 of 101 listed species) suggesting further research is urgently needed to help clarify the status of those recently described species.


Equivalent sized (4.5 mm2 die area), 1200 V, 4H-SiC, vertical trench Junction Field Effect Transistors (JFETs) were characterized in terms of DC and switching performance. The 100 mΩ Enhancement-Mode (EM) JFET was found to have natural advantages in safe operation being normally-off, whereas the Depletion-Mode (DM) JFET was found to have advantages with ~ twice as high saturation current, less on-resistance (85 mΩ) and no gate current required in the on-state. The JFETs were found to both have radically less (five to ten times) switching energies than corresponding 1200 V Si transistors, with the DM JFET and EM JFET having EON and EOFF of only 115 µJ and 173 µJ, respectively when tested at half-rated voltage (600 V) and 12 A.


It is well known that photoelectric measurements yield information about the statistical behavior of fluctuating light beams. The probability of n photoelectrons being ejected, in a fixed time interval, from the photosensitive surface of the photoelectric detector, upon which the light beam is normally incident, is a linear (Poisson) transform of the probability density for the intensity of the beam. With the help of some plausible assumptions, the present analysis provides solutions to the problem of inverting the Poisson transform, thus determining the probability density for the intensity from experimentally obtained photocounting distributions. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated by an actual inversion of a typical experimental counting distribution. The technique is of particular interest in connection with efforts to understand the statistical behavior of optical fields, especially of laser fields.


Abstract Introduction Head and neck surgery remains a complex field; the patients can suffer important functional or life-threating complications after treatment that need unplanned readmissions, increasing the cost related to the treatment. Objective To evaluate the incidence risk factors and causes associated with 30-day unplanned hospital readmission and visit to the emergency room (ER) after surgery for head and neck cancer. Methods Prospective, longitudinal, nonrandomized study. Results A total of 834 patients were included, 726 in the major surgery group and 108 in the minor surgery group. The 30-day readmission rate for all causes was of 7,9% for the patients treated by a major surgery and of 0% for the patients treated in the outpatient clinic for minor procedures, to a total readmission rate of 6,8%. The rate of visit to the emergency room for all causes in the first 30 days was of 14% for the patients treated by a major surgery and of 2,7% for the patients treated in the outpatient clinic. Conclusion Major surgery, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status and type of wound are conditions related to unplanned readmission or visit to the ER in the first 30 day after discharge. The most commonly associated causes are infections or wound complications. An evidence-based risk stratification of the patients can be important to improve decision-making and resource utilization. An educational strategy can provide possible ways to improve the rate of readmission and reduce the amount of money expended by healthcare systems.


 Abstract—The purpose of this study at King Saud Medical City (KSMC) is to evaluate the IT literacy level in using modern new Information technology (IT) applications among health Practitioners at King Saud Medical City, a group of tertiary -care hospitals for medicine and surgery in Riyadh , Saudi Arabia. A cross-sectional study was developed and a survey questionnaire was distributed to a sample of health care practitioners of KSMC. Main results from the research showed that a very high percentage of participants (80.9%) considered themselves as semi-full or fully skilled in using Internet and IT office applications. The Percent rate of all participants who have access to the Internet and use computer workstations regularly in their daily practice are 66.0% and 87.2% respectively with no major difference is noticed with respect to participant gender. The study statistics showed also that the most common daily application used were: browsing through Internet Search Engines & Web Sites, using PDA for medical research (Each with 55.3% of participants) followed by Using electronic mail packages e.g. MS Mail, Outlook (46.8%). Our study agrees with findings of other researchers that the majority of health care practitioners in Saudi Hospitals, as well as in developed countries, had good skills in computer, Internet and mobile technology in their daily practice and can easily cope with the development toward smart health institutions. Index Terms—IT adoption in clinical practice, E-Health literacy in healthcare institutions, saudi health system.


We use interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) observations to investigate static deformation due to the 1999 M_w 7.1 Hector Mine earthquake, that occurred in the eastern California shear zone. Interferometric decorrelation, phase, and azimuth offset measurements indicate regions of surface and near-surface slip, which we use to constrain the geometry of surface rupture. The inferred geometry is spatially complex, with multiple strands. The southern third of the rupture zone consists of three subparallel segments extending about 20 km in length in a N45°W direction. The central segment is the simplest, with a single strand crossing the Bullion Mountains and a strike of N10°W. The northern third of the rupture zone is characterized by multiple splays, with directions subparallel to strikes in the southern and central. The average strike for the entire rupture is about N30°W. The interferograms indicate significant along-strike variations in strain which are consistent with variations in the ground-based slip measurements. Using a variable resolution data sampling routine to reduce the computational burden, we invert the InSAR and GPS data for the fault geometry and distribution of slip. We compare results from assuming an elastic half-space and a layered elastic space. Results from these two elastic models are similar, although the layered-space model predicts more slip at depth than does the half-space model. The layered model predicts a maximum coseismic slip of more than 5 m at a depth of 3 to 6 km. Contrary to preliminary reports, the northern part of the Hector Mine rupture accommodates the maximum slip. Our model predictions for the surface fault offset and total seismic moment agree with both field mapping results and recent seismic models. The inferred shallow slip deficit is enigmatic and may suggest that distributed inelastic yielding occurred in the uppermost few kilometers of the crust during or soon after the earthquake.


Most quarters of the Allied camp greeted the fall of Tobruk on 21 June 1942 with incredulity. The epitome of a heroic defence conducted the year before had now deteriorated into a military debacle, resulting in thousands of Allied soldiers sent 'into the bag'. The enormity of the defeat, at first greeted in muted fashion by a stunned press, soon turned into outrage at yet another Allied military fiasco. The British and South African papers began to demand answers from politicians and military leaders for this shocking and unexpected catastrophe. The press, normally sensitive to maintaining positive home front morale, discarded their wartime cosseting approach and embarked on a quest to find a scapegoat. Those captured at Tobruk were equally outraged that their freedom had been traded cheaply with hardly a fight. To many of these prisoners of war, the blame for their ignominious surrender rested squarely with the fortress commander, Major General HB Klopper. It was of little consequence to those now languishing behind the wire that the reasons for defeat were much more intricate and went beyond the performance of one man. This article examines a selection of representative press reports in the weeks immediately preceding and following the rout, and the oral reminiscences of former prisoners-of-war taken at Tobruk, which together, have contributed towards an enduring memory of the so-called Tobruk 'debacle'.


Using data from a major online peer-to-peer lending platform, we document that, due to time pressure, investors appear to focus on interest rates and only partially account for credit ratings in their decisions. The effect is stronger for mobile-based investors than for PC-based ones. Our evidence suggests that this variation is caused by the difference in information content on the interfaces rather than differences in the devices' physical attributes per se. Investors improve their decisions by slowing down and paying more attention to credit ratings after experiencing a loan default firsthand, but not after observing others experiencing defaults.


As algorithms become increasingly responsible for discovering information, how we choose to design them will have a significant impact on our collective lived experience. One example is how algorithmic bias affects the estimated 50 million people that make up the creator economy. This group of independent creators is financially dependent on recommender systems to suggest their content. Currently, most recommender system designs produce rich-get-richer dynamics, resulting in structural inequalities that favor some over others. This article details a design anthropology approach for creating a new model of sociality and business that rewards behavioral capital.