This study addresses for the first time on an experimental level the question of whether different modalities of conscious monitoring of attention (normal condition, attention focalization on the input, attention focalization on the output, condition with two voices) may affect the number and the type of mistakes made by simultaneous interpreters in different situations. The major results of the study are the following: (i) While the overall number of mistakes is influenced either by the translation direction, or by any of the four tested attention focalization modalities, a particular type of mistakes, i.e. those leading to loss of information, occur more often during active SI (from L1 into L2, i.e. from A to B) of difficult texts; (ii) during passive SI of difficult texts, missing information mistake are less frequent when interpreters listen to the incoming message with their left ear only; (iii) in active SI of difficult texts, attention should not be focussed on the incoming message in particular, so as to avoid so-called added mistakes. These results show that during simultaneous interpretation, conscious attention focalization on the input or on the output does not influence the interpreter's overall performance, however with an important exception: during active interpretation it could be useful for interpreters to focus their attention on the output, since this may help them to reduce in particular false starts, pauses, hesitations, corrections, additions and morphosyntactic mistakes.


The formation of the new states of Jharkhand, Uttaranchal and Chhattisgarh is testimony to the strength of India's democracy. Power has been decentred and regionalist movements have been accommodated. It is not clear, however, that these formal accomplishments will provide for the empowerment of the adivasi (tribal) populations of Jharkhand. New Delhi and Patna were active over many decades in producing Jharkhand as a detribalising territory, and the new government is insensitive to the demands that poorer households are pressing for improved land rights. It is no coincidence that the successful decentring of the nation that was engineered in 2000 has been accompanied by a rising tide of Naxalism in Jharkhand, and by a turn to non-parliamentary popular movements.


Human osteoclasts derived from CD14+ precursors were cultured on discs of stoichiometric hydroxyapatite (HA) and carbonate substituted hydroxyapatite (CHA) of varying carbonate contents. Resorption of the ceramic increased with increasing carbonate content up to 2.35 wt. %. Development of osteoclasts is qualitatively different on ceramics compared to dentine, occurring in discrete, confluent subpopulations, which suggests local cell signalling may be important in the process. Resorption appears to drive further development of osteoclasts. Controlling carbonate content may be one way of controlling the rate of resorption of synthetic HA ceramics.


Quantum data locking is a protocol that allows for a small secret key to (un)lock an exponentially larger amount of information, hence yielding the strongest violation of the classical one-time pad encryption in the quantum setting. This violation mirrors a large gap existing between two security criteria for quantum cryptography quantified by two entropic quantities: the Holevo information and the accessible information. We show that the latter becomes a sensible security criterion if an upper bound on the coherence time of the eavesdropper's quantum memory is known. Under this condition, we introduce a protocol for secret key generation through a memoryless qudit channel. For channels with enough symmetry, such as the d-dimensional erasure and depolarizing channels, this protocol allows secret key generation at an asymptotic rate as high as the classical capacity minus one bit.


Gerald Finzi is one of the best-known modern English composers. While he is especially famous as a song-writer, for his sensitive settings of poets such as Hardy and Wordsworth, he also wrote in other genres; notable works include the exquisite cantata Dies Natalis, and his cello concerto. He also exerted a major influence in the musical world as a whole, championing the neglected Ivor Gurney and reviving eighteenth-century composers with the amateur orchestra he founded. In this lively and sensitive study of his life and works, Diana McVeagh, the renowned Elgar and Finzi scholar, has made use of interviews with the main figures in his life, correspondence with contemporaries such as Vaughan Williams, Edmund Blunden, Arthur Bliss, Edmund Rubbra, Howard Ferguson and Herbert Howells, and her access to previously unpublished material in the form of his widow, Joy's, unpublished journal.The Finzi that emerges is a multi-faceted and complex character. The author shows how he developed from a solitary, introverted youth into a man with strong views and a myriad of interests: everything from education, pacifism, vegetarianism, to the Arts and Crafts movement, the English pastoral tradition, English apple varieties, and the significance of ancestry, friendship and marriage in an artist's life. She also discusses every work within the narrative of Finzi's life, and shows what makes his output so outstanding.


Historically, the mortality rate of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) approached 100%. However, by the 1980's, new therapy was instituted with a vast improvement in survival to 90%. The exact pathogenesis of TTP remains elusive. Yet, despite incomplete understanding of the pathophysiology, outcome has improved due to increased awareness of the symptomatology leading to earlier diagnosis and better supportive care, in addition to effective therapy with plasma exchange. TTP represents a disease in which prompt diagnosis and treatment can lead to a critical difference in clinical outcome.


ABSTRACT Japan has been criticised internationally for its reluctance to accept refugees. In the late 1970s, however, the Japanese government decided to implement special measures to accept refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Between 1978 and 2005, 11,319 Indo-Chinese refugees were resettled in Japan. In this article, I analyse newspaper discourses on the acceptance of Indo-Chinese refugees and the subsequent arrivals of Chinese asylum seekers in Japan. While opening Japan's borders and accepting Indo-Chinese refugees was perceived favourably as a process Japan should experience from the 1970s to the late 1980s, asylum seekers arriving by sea in Japan were perceived as a threat in 1989, when many Chinese were found to be included among them. I explore these changing newspaper discourses with reference to the concepts of national identity, kokusaika and governmental belonging. Any discussion of the acceptance of others into a nation becomes inextricably bound up with the notion of national identity. In the case of Japan in the 1970 and 1980s, the concept of kokusaika (internationalisation) was pertinent because it intersected with such discussions. A theoretical perspective is offered by Ghassan Hage's notion of 'governmental belonging', whereby those in a dominant position claim the power to position others in the nation.


In the two decades since the United States Congress passed the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, there has been a surge of interest in making urban transportation systems more sustainable. Many agencies, representing all levels of government, have searched for strategies to reduce private automobile use, including policies to shift local driving to pedestrian and bicycle modes. Progress has been made in a number of communities, but the automobile remains the dominant mode of transportation in all metropolitan regions. Sustainable transportation advocates are especially interested in routine travel, such as shopping and other errands, because it tends to be done frequently and for distances that could be covered realistically by walking or bicycling. According to the 2009 National Household Travel Survey, Americans made more trips for shopping than for any other purpose, including commuting to and from work. One-third of these shopping trips were shorter than two miles (3.2 km). However, 76% of these short shopping trips were made by automobile, while only 21% were made by walking and 1% by bicycling. In order to identify effective strategies to change travel behavior, practitioners need a greater understanding of why people choose certain modes for routine travel. Choosing to walk or bicycle rather than travel by automobile may help individuals get exercise, save money, interact with neighbors, and reduce tailpipe emissions. Yet, in some communities, non-motorized modes may also require more time and physical effort to run a series of errands, be less convenient for carrying packages and traveling in bad weather, and be perceived as having a higher risk of traffic crashes or street crime than driving. A mixed-methods approach was used to develop a more complete understanding of factors that are associated with walking or bicycling rather than driving for routine travel. An intercept survey was implemented to gather travel data from 1,003 customers at retail pharmacy stores in 20 San Francisco Bay Area neighborhoods in fall 2009. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 26 survey participants in spring and summer 2010 to gain a deeper understanding of factors that influenced their transportation decisions. The methodological approach makes several contributions to the body of research on sustainable transportation. For example, the study: Explored multiple categories of factors that may be associated with walking and bicycling, including travel, socioeconomic, attitude, perception, and shopping district characteristics. Few studies of pedestrian or bicycle mode choices have included all of these categories of factors. Statistical models showed that variables in all categories had significant associations with mode choice. Documented and analyzed short pedestrian movements, such as from a parking space to a store entrance or from a bus stop to home. These detailed data provided a greater understanding of pedestrian activity than traditional travel survey analyses. Walking was used as the primary mode for 65% of respondent trips between stops within shopping districts, and 52% of all respondents walked along a street or between stops at some time between leaving and returning home. Maps of respondent pedestrian path density revealed distinct pedestrian activity patterns in different types of shopping districts. Used four different approaches to capture participant travel mode information. Respondents reported the primary mode of transportation they were using on the day of the survey, the mode they typically used, and all modes that they would consider using to travel to the survey store. They also mapped all stops on their tour and said what modes they used between each stop. These four approaches revealed nuanced travel habits and made it possible to correct inaccuracies in self-reported primary travel mode data. Measured and tested fine-grained local environment variables in shopping districts rather than around respondents' homes. These variables characterized the shopping district area (e.g., sidewalks, bicycle facilities, metered parking, and tree canopy coverage), the main commercial roadway (e.g., posted speed limit, number of automobile lanes, and pedestrian crossing distance), and the survey store site (e.g., number of automobile and bicycle parking spaces and distance from the public sidewalk to the store entrance). This dissertation adds to the small number of studies that have explored how the characteristics of activity destinations are related to travel behavior. The study results contribute to the body of knowledge about factors that may encourage people to shift routine travel from automobile to pedestrian or bicycle modes. After controlling for travel factors such as time and cost, socioeconomic characteristics, and individual attitudes, mixed logit models showed that automobile use was negatively associated with higher employment density, smaller parking lots, and metered on-street parking in the shopping district. Walking was positively associated with higher population density, more street tree canopy coverage, lower speed limits, and fewer commercial driveway crossings. The exploratory analysis of a small number of bicycle tours found that bicycling was associated with more extensive bicycle facility networks and more bicycle parking. However, people were more likely to drive when they perceived a high risk of crime. Results also suggest the magnitude of mode shifts that could occur if short- and long-term land use and transportation system changes were made to each study shopping district. The mode choice model representing travel only to and from the study shopping districts (N = 388) was used to estimate respondent mode shares under the following three scenarios: 1) double population and employment densities in each study shopping district, 2) double street tree canopy coverage in each study shopping district, and 3) eliminate half of the automobile parking 3 spaces at the survey store. Based on the model, the combination of these three changes could increase pedestrian mode share among the 388 sample respondents from 43% to 61% and decrease automobile mode share from 50% to 31%. This shift could eliminate 129 (13%) of the 983 respondent vehicle miles traveled (208 of the 1,580 respondent vehicle kilometers traveled), and 110 (36%) of the 308 times respondents parked their automobiles in the shopping district. The mode choice model of walking versus driving within survey shopping districts (N = 286) was used to test the combination of the following scenarios: 1) cluster separated stores around shared parking lots, 2) consolidate commercial driveways so that there are half as many driveway crossings along the main commercial roadway, 3) reduce all main commercial roadway speed limits to 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour), and 4) install metered parking in all shopping districts. These changes could increase the percentage of the 286 sample respondents walking between shopping district activities from 32% to 54%. This shift could eliminate 29 (38%) of the 76 respondent vehicle miles traveled (47 of the 122 respondent vehicle kilometers traveled), and 105 (22%) of the 469 times respondents parked their automobiles in the shopping district. Note that these forecasted mode shifts are illustrative examples based on cross-sectional data and do not account for the process of modifying travel behavior habits. Qualitative interviews provided a foundation for a proposed Theory of Routine Mode Choice Decisions. This five-step theory also drew from survey results and other mode choice theories in the transportation and psychology fields. The first step, 1) awareness and availability, determines which modes are viewed as possible choices for routine travel. The next three steps, 2) basic safety and security, 3) convenience and cost, and 4) enjoyment, assess situational tradeoffs between modes in the choice set and are supported by many of the statisticallysignificant factors in the mode choice models. The final step, 5) habit, reinforces previous choices and closes the decision process loop. Socioeconomic characteristics explain differences in how individuals view each step in the process. Understanding each step in the mode choice decision process can help planners, designers, engineers, and other policy-makers implement a comprehensive set of strategies that may be able to shift routine automobile travel to pedestrian and bicycle modes.


Category: Midfoot/Forefoot, Healthcare economics Introduction/Purpose: Hallux rigidus is the most prevalent arthritic condition of the foot. Treatment of end-stage disease traditionally consists of a first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ) arthrodesis, however the use of a synthetic cartilage implant is becoming more common. With the high prevalence of disease and implementation of new treatment modalities, healthcare consumers should be aware of the costs associated with management. The purpose of this study was to determine access to the cost and variability in price of first MTPJ arthrodesis and synthetic cartilage implantation. Methods: Forty academic centers were contacted using a standardized patient script. The patient was a 59-year-old female who had failed conservative treatment of hallux rigidus. Each institution was contacted up to three times in an attempt to obtain a full bundled operative quote for a first MTPJ arthrodesis and synthetic cartilage implantation. Results: Twenty centers (50%) provided a quote for first MTPJ arthrodesis and 15 centers (38%) provided a quote for synthetic cartilage implantation. Only 14 centers (35%) were able to provide a quote for both procedures. The mean bundled price for MTPJ arthrodesis was $21,767 (range, $8,417 – $39,265). The mean bundled price for synthetic cartilage implantation was $21,546 (range, $4,903 – $74,145). There was no statistically significant difference between the bundled price for first MTPJ arthrodesis and synthetic cartilage implantation. Conclusion: There was limited availability of consumer prices for first MTPJ arthrodesis and synthetic implantation, therefore impeding healthcare consumers' decision making. There was a wide range of quotes for both procedures, indicating potential cost savings.


As people get older, polypharmacy increases and there is an increased risk of adverse drug events, drug interactions, low medication adherence, increasing economic burden, hospital admissions and even drug-related deaths.1 It has also been stated that the problems of inappropriate pharmacotherapy are expected to grow in the future as new drugs are introduced, new uses for old drugs are found and as the population lives longer with an increased risk of chronic medical conditions. Poor communication of medical information suggests that 40 –85% of elderly patients have at least one error in their medications when they are transferred between primary and hospital care.2–6 In order to improve quality in the use of medications in society, and for individual patients, there is a need to identify problems and errors in structures and processes to improve the outcome of care and to reduce errors.7

A systematic analysis of potential problems and limitations during the standard patient medication care process was performed by the Drug and Therapeutics Committee at Lund University Hospital in 1999. This followed admission, hospital stay and post discharge. After confirmation of the problems, a project was initiated. The aim was to build a model based on systematic training, activities and responsibilities, to identify, solve and prevent drug related problems (DRPs) in the healthcare process, starting from when a patient is admitted to hospital. For patient based clinical pharmacy services, we identified no systematic research or models focusing on all of these aspects.

Herein is an overview of the results which have been published in 17 separate publications.2–6 8–19 Readers are encouraged to follow-up specific results by referring to tables 2 and 3 for the referenced summary.

A systematic analysis of …


This paper mainly addressed the kinematics simulation of the Slider-Crank mechanism. After proposing a mathematical model for the forward displacement of the slider-crank mechanism, the mathematical models for the forward velocity and acceleration of the slider-crank mechanism are constructed, respectively and the simulation models for the forward kinematics of the slider-crank mechanism are constituted in the Matlab/Simulink simulation platform. Finally the forward kinematics simulation of the slider-crank mechanism was successfully accomplished based on Matlab/Simulink. Examples of the simulation for the forward kinematics of a slider-crank mechanism are given to demonstrate the above-mentioned theoretical results.


Quantum Radar is a promising technology that could have a strong impact on the civilian and military realms. In this study we introduce a new concept design for implementing a Quantum Radar, based on the time and polarization correlations of the entangled photons for detection and identification and tracking of high-speed targets. The design is focused on extracting high resolution details of the target with precision timing of entangled photons that provides important operational capabilities like distinguishing a target from a decoy. The quantum entanglement properties guarantee the legitimacy of the photons captured by the search telescope. Time correlations of the photon detection events can be extracted via cross-correlation operation between two sets of photon detection time-tags for the entangled photons. The fact that the wavelengths of the entangled photons can be tuned also makes the Quantum Radar concept an enticing candidate for tracking stealth objects. We present the proof-of-principle test results of the Quantum Radar and discuss the technical challenges and limitations of the design.


In Corynebacterium glutamicum , the transcriptional regulator RamB negatively controls the expression of genes involved in acetate metabolism. Here we show that RamB represses its own expression by direct interaction with a 13-bp motif in the ramB promoter region. Additionally, ramB expression is subject to carbon source-dependent positive control by RamA.


We describe a set of techniques for Arabic cross-document coreference resolution. We compare a baseline system of exact mention string-matching to ones that include local mention context information as well as information from an existing machine translation system. It turns out that the machine translation-based technique outperforms the baseline, but local entity context similarity does not. This helps to point the way for future cross-document coreference work in languages with few existing resources for the task.


Objectives To present the long-term (4-year) efficacy and safety of secukinumab in Taiwanese patients with active AS in the MEASURE 1 extension study. Methods This post hoc analysis reports data from Taiwanese patients originally randomized to subcutaneous secukinumab 150 or 75mg or placebo every 4 weeks (following intravenous loading dose) who were invited to enter the 3-year extension study. Assessments at Week 208 included ASAS20/40 responses and other clinically relevant endpoints. Efficacy data are presented as observed. Safety analyses included all patients who received ≥1 dose of secukinumab. Results Of the 57 Taiwanese patients in the core trial, 48 entered the extension study and 87.5% patients (42/48) completed 4 years of treatment. Thirteen Taiwanese patients (including placebo-switchers) were escalated from 75 to 150mg (approved dose) at some point starting from Week 172. ASAS20/40 responses were sustained through 4 years in the Taiwanese patients who were originally randomized to secukinumab 150mg. Clinical responses were improved in those patients who received dose-escalation from 75 to 150mg during the study. No unexpected safety signals were reported. Conclusion Secukinumab 150mg demonstrated sustained efficacy over 4 years in Taiwanese patients with active ankylosing spondylitis. The safety profile of secukinumab was consistent with previous reports. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01863732.


Detecting danger is one of the foremost tasks for a neural system. Larval parasitoids constitute clear danger to Drosophila, as up to 80% of fly larvae become parasitized in nature. We show that Drosophila melanogaster larvae and adults avoid sites smelling of the main parasitoid enemies, Leptopilina wasps. This avoidance is mediated via a highly specific olfactory sensory neuron (OSN) type. While the larval OSN expresses the olfactory receptor Or49a and is tuned to the Leptopilina odor iridomyrmecin, the adult expresses both Or49a and Or85f and in addition detects the wasp odors actinidine and nepetalactol. The information is transferred via projection neurons to a specific part of the lateral horn known to be involved in mediating avoidance. Drosophila has thus developed a dedicated circuit to detect a life-threatening enemy based on the smell of its semiochemicals. Such an enemy-detecting olfactory circuit has earlier only been characterized in mice and nematodes.


This investigation evaluates the performance of digital terrain models (DTMs) generated in different vertical datums by aerial LiDAR and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry techniques, for the determination and validation of local geoid models. Many engineering projects require the point heights referring to a physical surface, i.e., geoid, rather than an ellipsoid. When a high-accuracy local geoid model is available in the study area, the physical heights are practically obtained with the transformation of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) ellipsoidal heights of the points. Besides the commonly used geodetic methods, this study introduces a novel approach for the determination and validation of the local geoid surface models using photogrammetry. The numeric tests were carried out in the Bergama region, in the west of Turkey. Using direct georeferenced airborne LiDAR and indirect georeferenced UAV photogrammetry-derived point clouds, DTMs were generated in ellipsoidal and geoidal vertical datums, respectively. After this, the local geoid models were calculated as differences between the generated DTMs. Generated local geoid models in the grid and pointwise formats were tested and compared with the regional gravimetric geoid model (TG03) and a high-resolution global geoid model (EIGEN6C4), respectively. In conclusion, the applied approach provided sufficient performance for modeling and validating the geoid heights with centimeter-level accuracy.


Iris yellow spot virus (IYSV) vectored by Thrips tabaci threatens profitable onion production in eastern Africa. Host plant resistance is considered to be the first line of defence against insect-transmitted virus diseases. Hence, information on resistance to IYSV and T. tabaci among common onion cultivars in Kenya is crucial for the development of integrated pest management strategies. This study evaluated the resistance to thrips and IYSV among widely grown onion cultivars in Kenya, viz. Red Pinoy, Red Creole, Bombay Red, Green Bunching and Texas Grano, over two growing seasons. Strawcoloured, diamond-shaped necrotic lesions typical of IYSV infection were observed 2 weeks after transplantation. Observations on thrips numbers per plant, IYSV disease incidence and severity, and virus intensity were undertaken to assess the resistance. Varieties differed significantly with respect to both IYSV disease incidence and thrips numbers per plant from fourth week to physiological maturity. Red Pinoy, Green Bunching and Red Creole were highly susceptible to the virus and thrips, while Texas Grano and Bombay Red were moderately resistant. There were significant differences among the varieties with regard to IYSV intensity, with the highest and the least virus intensity positively correlated with disease severity being recorded in Red Pinoy and Texas Grano, respectively. Among the varieties, Texas Grano produced the highest yield in both seasons, while Red Pinoy produced the least. Hence, Texas Grano and Bombay Red could be recommended as moderately resistant cultivars to thrips and IYSV to be grown in Kenya for markets where pungency is not preferred and preferred, respectively. Regions with high levels of thrips population and IYSV infestation are not suitable for the cultivation of Red Pinoy.


ABSTRACT The thiazolylazo compounds and their Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) complexes of barbituric acid, uracil, thiouracil, citrazinic acid, chromotropic acid, gallic acid, pyrogallol and salicylic acid were prepared and characterized by 1H NMR, IR and the effect of pH on the electronic absorption spectra. The mode of ionization, the electronic transitions and the dissociation constants were discussed. The stoichiometries of the complexes were of 1:1, 2:1 and 3:2 (M:L). The copper complexes are of isotropic ESR spectra (except that of gallic acid which showed a complicated one) and are of magnetically diluted behaviour with orbital contribution. Detailed DTA data were obtained and discussed.


Ongoing developments in digital, computer, and communication technologies are likely to have profound long-term consequences for the nature of work and employment (Brynjolfsson & McAfee 2016). One significant area of development concerns the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT can be described as everyday objects, such as cars, fridges or watches, having internet connectivity allowing them to send and receive data. The IoT is predicted to be a major IT-enabled business trend over the next 10 years. Peppet (2014) suggests the potential for 200 billion connected devices by 2020 and a trillion by 2025, and Mishra et al. (2016) note that according to McKinsey (2013), IoT has a potential global economic impact of $36 trillion. A recent Computing (2016) report indicates that in the UK, applications of the IoT in work settings are most likely to
involve the use of tracking devices for internal deployment to achieve cost optimization. For example, an English county police force are deploying an IoT platform to create connected vehicles and 4G streaming cameras that are lightweight and wearable and can stream high definition video. Internet-connected police cars allow police officers to use laptops, mobile phones and tablet computers in their vehicles giving them access to important information while working remotely (Palmer, 2015). Thus, the IoT has the potential to have significant impacts on the organization and management of mobile workers. This study will examine the impact of IoT technologies on mobile work in UK organizations. The main emphasis of the project is to develop user-centric considerations of digital technologies to counterbalance techno-centric research on this topic: the users in this study are defined as both organizations and individual workers. This is partly because various concerns have been raised regarding surveillance implications of these technologies for workers (O'Connor, 2015). This exploratory study has two aims: 1) to understand organizational drivers for the adoption of IoT for mobile work; 2) to explore how IoT technologies impact on mobile workers.


The purpose of this study is to investigate a new method for the joint estimation of optical flow and disparity in a sequence of stereoscopic images. For a sequence of two pairs of stereoscopic images, the problem involves the estimation of four fields, two fields of image motion and two of disparity. Stereoscopy relates the four fields, and there is no relation between any three of these fields except through the fourth. We present a new method where three of the fields are estimated independently by anisotropic diffusion to preserve their boundaries, and the fourth deduced using the integrability constraint. Neither spatial nor temporal correspondence is explicitly referenced. Extention of the scheme over time requires the estimation of only two fields and an application of the integrability constraint at each time step. When motion or disparity in any of the fields is of large extent, the scheme is activated via multiresolution. Several experiments confirm the advantage of the method both in terms of accuracy and speed of execution.


A small literature on the relationship between employee training and firm performance is currently emerging. This line of research is particularly promising given the underexplored potential of training to drive productivity, wages, and employment. Until recently, training was regarded as a costly and risky investment because workers may leave their firm after being trained. However, studies on labor and education economics have found that training results in high returns for firms and that the costs of training can be recouped in a relatively short time. These results follow from different econometric identification approaches, including a small but growing number of randomized controlled trials. Moreover, most training is of a general nature and therefore applicable in other firms, which is at odds with the original theory of training but consistent with novel models that emphasize labor market power. There are a number of possibilities for future research, including a better understanding of the heterogeneity and patterns of training contents and formats across firms and workers, the differentiation of the effects of training along such dimensions, the role of labor market competition in driving training, the extent to which the productivity effects of training are shared with employees, the role of labor market institutions (including minimum wage, collective bargaining, and occupational licensing) in the dimensions above, and the firm performance effects of training provided to unemployed job seekers (as opposed to employees). Evaluation of the public training programs developed during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and new forms of training in the context of the growth of remote work also merit further investigation.


Valence- and conduction-band offsets can be induced at GaAs(100) polar homojunctions by means of ultrathin Si intralayers. The microscopic interface dipole responsible for the creation of such offsets can be varied by changing the Si intralayer thickness; the consequently variable band discontinuities represent a tunable parameter with potential applications in band-gap engineering. Even though the existence and the direction of these discontinuities are in agreement with theoretical predictions, the existing models overestimate the amount of the offset and cannot explain its dependence on the intralayer thickness. The presence of Si outdiffusion can be a possible explanation for this partial disagreement.


A wide variety of problems involving analysis of systems can be rewritten as a semidefinite program. When solving these problems optimization algorithms are used. Large size makes the problems unsolvable in practice and computationally more effective solvers are needed. This paper investigates how to exploit structure and problem knowledge in some control applications. It is shown that inexact search directions are useful to reduce the computational burden and that operator formalism can be utilized to derive tailored calculations.


Constant droughts especially in the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) have led to recurrent crop failures and livestock losses. Households have therefore resulted to other alternatives which can provide both food and income. Trade in indigenous fruits contributes to livelihoods through income generation and as a safety net for consumption and income smoothing. This paper presents the analysis of economic returns from harvesting and marketing indigenous fruits and the socio economic factors that influence participation in trade of indigenous fruits. The results are based on a survey conducted in Nuu division, Mwingi District, where 120 randomly selected households were interviewed using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Logistic regression model, Gross Margin Analysis, and Benefit cost ratios were used during the analysis. Data was processed and analyzed using SPSS20. The Gross margins depicted harvesting of indigenous fruits for trade as a profitable venture. High benefit cost ratios of greater than 3.0 were reported in all the three fruits under study. Higher returns to labour and other associated costs were notably reported in the distant market as compared to the local market. The analysis of socioeconomic factors influencing participation in indigenous fruits' trade identified household size, gender, form of employment and market distance to be significant variables. Respectively, market distance and household size negatively and positively influenced participation in harvesting indigenous fruits for trade. The female headed households and low income earners were more likely to participate in trade of indigenous fruits.


Abstract. The multi-platform POSEIDON-Pylos observatory of the south-east Ionian Sea operates since 2007 delivering near real time data for a variety of meteorological, water column and near seabed oceanographic parameters. It has been designed to contribute to long term monitoring of air–sea interaction and thermohaline processes of this key area of the Eastern Mediterranean where water masses of different origin interact and transform at various temporal and spatial scales. An inductive mooring line, with CTD instruments adjusted on, provides salinity, temperature and pressure real-time data down to 500 m depth. Recorded data, for the years 2008–2010, were extracted from the instruments internal logger providing more enhanced timeseries in terms of resolution and continuity. The reprocessed datasets are analyzed in combination with atmospheric, currents buoy measurements and CTD profiles obtained during maintenance visits on the site. The delayed mode analysis shows the hydrodynamic properties of the area and reveals the dynamic picture of the south Ionian upper thermocline as well as the variation of T & S in deeper layers. One can also observe seasonal atmospheric and circulation patterns, other synoptic and seasonal scale signals as well as important inter-annual variability such as a strong signal of Levantine Intermediate Waters (LIW) at intermediate depths during the spring of 2009.


Intraluminal injections of lectins, including concanavalin A (Con A), wheatgerm lectin, and soybean lectin, Con A-Sepharose 4B beads, calcium ionophore A23187 or peanut oil into the left uterine horns of mice on day 4 of pseudopregnancy induced the formation of deciduomata and significantly increased the weight and alkaline phosphatase activity of uterine tissue on day 7 of pseudopregnancy. In contrast, injections of these materials into the uterine horns of non-pseudopregnant mice that had not been previously mated failed to induce similar responses. Tranylcypromine blocked the decidual cell reaction artificially induced by lectins, calcium ionophore A23187 and peanut oil in pseudopregnant mice. However, uterine responses observed after individual and concurrent injections with indomethacin, iproniazid, propranolol or progesterone indicated that this deciduoma-blocking effect may not be solely related to the ability of tranylcypromine to inhibit prostacyclin biosynthesis but may also involve catecholamines and luteolytic prostaglandins which interfere with decidualization on day 4 and day 6 of pseudopregnancy, respectively. A role for prostaglandins and uterine beta-adrenergic receptors, however, was implicated in the induction of decidualization because both indomethacin and propranolol blocked the response to peanut oil. The results suggested that the embryonic signal responsible for the induction of the decidual cell reaction in mice may involve surface interactions between the embryo and uterine luminal epithelium resulting in a stimulation of the uterus via glycoprotein receptors. A role for calcium was implicated in this phenomenon.


Herpetic keratitis is caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV) and is a common cause of corneal blindness. Following a primary ocular herpetic infection, latency of the virus occurs, followed by subsequent recurrences of herpetic keratitis. Such recurrences may lead to structural damage of the cornea. Recurrent herpetic keratitis is a common indication for corneal transplantation. Recurrences of herpetic keratitis in the corneal graft may lead to corneal graft rejection. Several antiviral agents for HSV are available, including the thymidine analogs. Prolonged use of thymidine analogs may lead to toxicity of the ocular surface, including epithelial keratitis, corneal ulcers, follicular conjunctivitis, and punctal occlusions. Availability of topical antiviral agents that are safe and effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic keratitis is highly desirable. Ganciclovir is a potent inhibitor of members of the herpes virus family. The drug has been used systemically for the treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis. Its hematologic toxicity secondary to systemic administration led to its limited use in herpetic infections. On the other hand, topical ganciclovir has been shown to be as safe and effective as acyclovir in the treatment of herpetic epithelial keratitis. Furthermore, topical ganciclovir can reach therapeutic levels in the cornea and aqueous humor following topical application. Several clinical trials have shown that topical ganciclovir 0.15% ophthalmic gel is safe and effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic epithelial disease. Long-term use of ganciclovir ophthalmic gel in patients with penetrating keratoplasty following herpetic keratitis has prevented recurrences of the disease. Topical ganciclovir ophthalmic gel is well tolerated, does not cause toxic effects on the ocular surface, and does not cause hematologic abnormalities. Clinical studies have underscored the potential role of ganciclovir ophthalmic gel in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic epithelial keratitis. Future randomized, controlled, multicenter, prospective clinical trials are needed to assess the long-term safety and efficacy of topical ganciclovir in the treatment and prevention of herpetic keratitis and uveitis.


To evaluate the impact of rituximab on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) in a US-based observational cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Patients with active RA, prior exposure to ≥ 1 tumor necrosis factor inhibitor (TNFi) and who newly initiated rituximab were identified. Changes in PROs were assessed 1 year after rituximab initiation. PRO measures included Clinical Disease Activity Index (CDAI); patient global disease activity, pain and fatigue (vi-sual analog score; 0 – 100); morning stiffness (hours); modified Health Assessment Questionnaire (mHAQ; 0 – 3); and EuroQoL EQ-5D. Of the 667 patients who newly initiated rituximab, baseline PRO and clinical measures indicated that patients were substantially impacted by their RA disease and quality of life; 54% of patients had high disease activity. One year after rituximab initiation, 49.0, 47.1, 49.8, and 23.2% of patients reported clinically meaningful improvements in patient global, pain, fatigue, and mHAQ, respectively. Morning stiffness and EuroQol EQ-5D domains improved in 48 and 19 – 32% of patients, respectively. These real-world registry data demonstrated that patients with long-standing, refractory RA experienced improvements in PROs 1 year after initiating rituximab.


Biological nutrient removal (BNR) of nitrogen and phosphorus has been widely used in wastewater treatment practice to control eutrophication in receiving water bodies.
The most widely used nitrogen removal methods are biological nitrification (aerobic transformation of NH4-N to NO2-N and NO3-N), and denitrification methods (anoxic reduction of NO3-N to N2).
Simultaneous nitrification-denitrification process (SND), in compare to conventional biological nitrogen removal process, can offer several advantages including reducing carbon source and alkalinity consumption, low energy consumption, high nutrients removal efficiencies, and simplifying the treatment system.
P removal is achieved through enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) under alternating anaerobic–aerobic conditions.
Biological nutrient removal (N and P) in batch anoxic experiments was investigated. The initial concentration of P and N were 10-18 mg PO43—P/L and 48±2 mg NH4+-N/L. Sodium acetate was used as carbon source, at C/N 1 to C/N 7.
Results indicated that the increase of C/N ratio improved efficiency of N removal in a range from 14.3 % at C/N 1 to 89,7 % at C/N 7. And also, the highest P removal of 61% was achieved at C/N 4. Supplement expulsion was accomplished by synchronous nitrification and denitrification, and phosphorus evacuation.
 Supplements are substances fundamental for development of people, plants, and creatures. Supplements are taken in by living beings and advance development. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous are fundamental supplements to most sea-going life forms.
 Nitrogen and Phosphorous are the principle supplements of concern. A few offices have gotten a fixation or Mars limit for supplements and other will later on. The MPCA is creating water quality based effluents limits for water squander treatment plants that release upstream of healthy water. This will bring about more offices accepting severe profluent limits for supplements as new water bodies are examined and resolved to be debilitated. The MPCA is likewise growing new water quality measures as a feature of the triangle water quality guideline amendments. These modifications will incorporate eutrophication principles for stream frameworks that may require future nitrogen and phosphorus limits for point source releases. Evacuating extra nitrogen and phosphorus will be a reality for much wastewater treatment offices. Phosphorus and nitrogen can be expelled naturally by modifying conditions inside the wastewater treatment office; be that as it may, the procedures to evacuate both are not basic.
Phosphorous:
Ordinarily impact wastewater has an all-out prosperous focus from 5-9mg/L and is required in the waste stream for organic development and treatment. Wellsprings of Phosphorus incorporate human waste, overflow, manures, cleansers, food industry water conditioners and phosphoric corrosive.

Phosphorus is a component in every single living thing; anyway it is never found in essential structure and is entirely shaky. There are various kinds of phosphorus in wastewater that incorporate orthophosphate, polyphosphate and naturally conceived phosphates. Commonly in National contamination release end framework license subtleties with all out phosphorus a mix of various types. A few offices have a fixation limit in there. NPDES grant for Phosphorus; others have a mass restrain and some have both.
Supplements might be expelled synthetically, genuinely (through sifting) or naturally. Both Phosphorus and nitrogen can be evacuated natural. In the two cases, it is commonly more financially savvy to utilize natural supplement evacuation innovation than compound or physical expulsion. Be that as it may, there are different elements to weigh when choosing a treatment innovation, Such as solids taking care of capacity and existing mechanical hardware.
Nitrogen can be evacuated by nitrification and de-nitrification process at Nitrification changes over smelling salts nitrogen into nitrite nitrogen as an initial step and afterward changes over nitrite nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen in a subsequent advance. At long last denitrification changes over nitrates to nitrogen gas.Natural Phosphorus expulsion, some of the time called Enhanced Biological Phosphorus evacuation. All in all terms, natural phosphorus evacuation is a procedure of controlling the conditions wherein microorganisms live to oblige phosphate collecting creatures capacity to take up more suit phosphate gathering living beings capacity to take up more orthophosphate then they initially discharged considering phosphorus expulsion by squandering it.
There are various conditions and factors engaged with natural supplement expulsion. Counting supplement proportions, stacking rates, squandering rates, broke up oxygen and maintenance times, among others.
Industry-Specific Water Treatment:
At the point when a large number of gallons of wastewater loaded down with harmful substances like ammonium nitrogen, phenolic mixes, cyanide, thiocyanate, and polynuclear fragrant hydrocarbons, are released into surface water bodies, they vigorously corrupt the water. In addition, hydrolytic and fermentative procedures associated with natural supplement expulsion from such wastewater lead to continuous advancement of water with nitrogen and phosphorus content. This thusly prompts increment in eutrophication in freshwater bodies. Eutrophication by supplement release to regular water bodies brings about grave ramifications for oceanic life just as for water-flexibly frameworks for mechanical and residential employments. Ammonium nitrogen is one such supplement that can prompt water eutrophication, and can likewise represent a danger to nature, oceanic life, and human wellbeing whenever released to water bodies without legitimate treatment. Supplement expulsion from wastewater is progressively a test to plant administrators because of expanded release measures by administrative bodies and contamination control sheets. Ordinary natural treatment forms, albeit conservative for treatment of colossal amounts of wastewater, regularly flop because of high centralization of ammonium nitrogen and the nearness of poisonous substances like cyanide and phenol in high focus. In this manner another innovation to recuperate nitrogen is required. NH4-N in high fixation might be isolated and recouped by including magnesium and phosphate salt, which on response with ammonium nitrogen, encourage out as MAP hexahydrate, a helpful result. Guide, generally known as struvite, is a white crystalline substance comprising of equivalent molar convergences of magnesium, ammoniacal-N, and phosphorus. The proportion of Mg2+:: and the pH of the arrangement are the two primary factors that decide the struvite precipitation (struvite is a top notch grade moderate discharging manure since it is sparingly dissolvable in water and is utilized as a base material in the phosphate business for making heat proof boards, and as a coupling material in concretes; productive recuperation of struvite requests appropriate improvement of the procedure). In traditional enhancement, analysts as a rule center around the each factor in turn way to deal with discover the impact of one parameter on the yield while keeping different parameters steady. In any case, this methodology doesn't contemplate cross-impacts from different factors and prompts poor advancement that requires higher utilization of reagents and furthermore brings about wasteful compound change. In the reaction surface philosophy (RSM), the common communications of the parameters are streamlined through a focal composite structure (CCD) of trials. RSM is helpful for creating, improving, and enhancing forms. In old style factorial plan, a scope of parameters (maximum cutoff points and lower limits) can't be resolved, yet in RSM with the assistance of CCD, a fixed range might be acquired. It is exceptionally troublesome in old style factorial plan to build up a numerical model for association of parameters, yet it is conceivable in RSM. Additionally, RSM is quicker and more affordable than traditional techniques. As of late, layer based innovations have picked up ubiquity and are promising for the reusing of wastewater. Among the layer procedures, NF and RO are equipped for accomplishing an elevated requirement of cleansing because of their high selectivity for the little natural particles and particles present in wastewater. Notwithstanding, treatment of ammoniacal wastewater has neglected to pick up energy to a great extent because of the way that it generally tedious and unrewarding. Consequently new methodologies should be embraced that make such waste-treatment plans alluring to plant administrators. This area manages the advancement of another film coordinated procedure for struvite recuperation from coke wastewater as far as adequacy of precipitation of as struvite from coke wastewater, the related energy, streamlining viewpoints, the impacts of working parameters on struvite precipitation, and the physicochemical properties of the created struvite.


The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite mission will measure water surface elevation, its spatial and temporal derivatives, and inundated area. These observations can be used to estimate river discharge at a global scale. SWOT will measure a given area on mid-latitude rivers two or three times per 22-day repeat cycle. In this paper, we suggest an interpolation-based method of estimating water height for times without SWOT observations (i.e., in between SWOT overpasses). A local space-time ordinary kriging (LSTOK) method is developed. Two sets of synthetic SWOT observations are generated by corrupting two different types of true river height with the instrument error. The true river heights are extracted from: 1) simulation of the LISFLOOD-FP hydrodynamic model, and from 2) in situ gage measurements from five USGS gages. Both of these synthetic SWOT observations datasets are important for the following reasons. The model-based dataset provides a complete spatiotemporal picture of river height that is unavailable from in situ measurements, but neglects the effects of e.g. human management actions on river dynamics. On the other hand, the gage-based dataset samples only five locations on the river (1,050 km in length), but represents all effects of human management, tributaries, or other influences on river heights, which are not included in the model. The results are evaluated by a comparison with truth and simple linear interpolation estimates as a first-guess. The model-based experiment shows the LSTOK recovered the river heights with a mean spatial and temporal root mean square error (RMSE) of 11 cm and 12 cm, respectively; these accuracies show a 46% and 54% improvement compared to the RMSEs of the linear interpolation estimates. The gage-based experiment shows a temporal RMSE of 32 cm on average; the LSTOK estimates show a 23% improvement over the linear interpolation estimates. The degradation in performance of the LSTOK for the gage-based analysis as compared to the model-based analysis is apparently due to the effects of human management on river dynamics. Further work is needed to model the effects of human management, and to extend the analysis to consider river tributaries and the main stem of the river simultaneously.


ABSTRACT Located on the fringe of the last tropical rainforests of Sumatra, rubber agroforests are known to conserve the main ecological functions of the primary forest, including a large part of its biodiversity. Nowadays these smallholder plantations are under threat. The regular rise of natural rubber and crude palm oil prices has been a major incentive for farmers to convert their agroforests into clonal rubber and oil-palm plantations. However, some areas seem to resist conversion. A multidisciplinary approach combining perception surveys and satellite-image analysis was designed to find out the reasons for these differences. In 12 villages grouped in 3 categories according to their agroforest conversion rate between 1993 and 2005, farmers were queried about the pros and the cons of the major cropping systems, their attitude towards conservation, and how they envisaged the future of their landscape. This method enabled us to elaborate the most likely scenarios of landscape evolution for the coming years.


Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease with an onset that can be prevented or delayed by implementing actions related to lifestyle. The rights to food and health are fundamentals human rights expressed on the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights of the United Nations (ICESCR). Both rights advocate for people to live in optimal conditions, however gaps in opportunities to health care access, availability or access to healthy foods and adequate housing to live a life with dignity are obstacles for achieving the expression of these rights. This talk aims to discuss and bring to the table the fact that persons affected by diabetes type 2 have the right to enjoy the best quality of life possible, and what are the most influential factors for the achieving of these rights. Social determinants of health and ethics and policies will be discussed, in a concise manner to introduce care givers, health care practitioners and community leaders related to health on what is important outside of health care system, and what is needed to be taken into account when addressing and taking care of type 2 diabetic patients. The elevated economic and psychological costs of suffering this disease, and the less costly prevention implying lifestyle changes, justify to make an effort to prevent the onset and complications of those at risk, by understanding the human rights of these patients and the policies to be implemented to achieve this goal.


This research study presents enhancements to the hydro-environmental model Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC), improving the predictive capabilities of the impacts of tidal range renewable proposals and dissolved phosphate concentrations in estuaries.

Refinements to the representation of turbines and sluice gates, including updates to the discharge relationships used and momentum conservation were applied to the Severn Tidal Power Group's Cardiff-Weston Barrage, providing an accurate assessment of the barrage's potential impacts and highlighting the importance of correct hydraulic structure representation. The Severn Barrage was found to have minor impacts on peak water levels as far-field as the west coast of Scotland. The refinements reduced predicted peak water levels by up to 1 m upstream of the barrage.

The applicability of the updated model in assisting with the design and optimisation of tidal lagoons was then tested by running a suite of different configurations of the Bridgwater Bay Lagoon, varying the turbine numbers from 60 to 360. It was demonstrated that additional turbines can negatively impact energy output, by reducing average generating time and generating over a lower head difference.
Previous laboratory and field studies demonstrated a link between salinity and phosphate sorption to sediments due to the competition for sorption sites between seawater anions and phosphate. Since sediment-associated
nutrients are not readily available for biological uptake, the dissolved proportion of phosphate is of particular importance when trying to predict the grown of phytoplankton and the potential for eutrophication.
The salinity-linked sorption relationship was incorporated into the EFDC model to improve the prediction for dissolved phosphate across the estuary by taking into account the salinity variation.

The refinement to the numerical calculation for the phosphate partition coefficient in the model caused a measurable change to the predicted dissolved phosphate levels, bringing them closer to measured data from the estuary.


Neural algorithmic reasoning studies the problem of learning algorithms with neural networks, especially with graph architectures. A recent proposal, XLVIN, reaps the benefits of using a graph neural network that simulates the value iteration algorithm in deep reinforcement learning agents. It allows model-free planning without access to privileged information about the environment, which is usually unavailable. However, XLVIN only supports discrete action spaces, and is hence nontrivially applicable to most tasks of real-world interest. We expand XLVIN to continuous action spaces by discretization, and evaluate several selective expansion policies to deal with the large planning graphs. Our proposal, CNAP, demonstrates how neural algorithmic reasoning can make a measurable impact in higher-dimensional continuous control settings, such as MuJoCo, bringing gains in low-data settings and outperforming model-free baselines.


A considerable body of work exists in the geological literature dealing with the formation of buckle folds, (i.e. folds formed by compression either parallel or at a low angle to the layering or fabric of the rock) and a summary of much of this is presented in Price & Cosgrove 1990. In addition, fractures associated with these folds have been reported and discussed extensively for many decades, (e.g. Stearns 1964). This in part reflects the fact that the formation of folds and their associated fracture patterns frequently plays an important role in controlling the migration and concentration of fluids within the crust and thus has important implications regarding the disposition of water, hydrocarbons and zones of mineralization. However, there are many mechanisms other than buckling operating in the crust which can give rise to folds. One of the most important is that of 'forced folding' defined by Stearns (1978) as 'folding in which the final overall shape and trend [of the fold] are dominated by the shape of some forcing member below' and these folds and their associated fracture patterns have received relatively little attention in the literature. The present volume is an attempt to redress this imbalance. Unlike buckle folds, which are only generated during layer parallel compression, forced folds can be formed in any tectonic environment and are equally common in extensional and compressional regimes. The dominant mechanism operation during forced folding is 'bending', defined as the flexuring of a layer or surface by a compression acting at


We propose an online image search engine based on local image features (key points), which runs fully on GPUs. State-of-the-art visual image retrieval techniques are based on bag-of-visual-words (BoV) model, which is an analogy for text-based search. In BoV, each key point is rounded off to the nearest visual word. On the other hand in this work, thanks to the vector computation power of GPUs, we utilize real values of key point descriptors. We match key points in two steps. The idea in the first step is similar to visual word matching in BoV. In the second step, we do matching in key point level. By keeping identities of each key point, closest key points are accurately retrieved in real-time. Image search has different characteristics than textual search. We implement one-to-one key point matching, which is more natural for images. Our experiments reveal 265 times speed up for offline index generation, 104 times speedup for online index search and 20.5 times speedup for online key point matching time, when compared to the CPU implementation. Our proposed key point-matching-based search improves accuracy of BoV by 9.5%.


The Scalable Processor-Independent Design for Electromagnetic Resilience (SPIDER) is a new family of fault-tolerant architectures under development at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). The SPIDER is a general-purpose computational platform suitable for use in ultrareliable embedded control applications. The design scales from a small configuration supporting a single aircraft function to a large distributed configuration capable of supporting several functions simultaneously. SPIDER consists of a collection of simplex processing elements communicating via a Reliable Optical Bus (ROBUS). The ROBUS is an ultra-reliable, time-division multiple access broadcast bus with strictly enforced write access providing basic fault-tolerant services using formally verified fault-tolerance protocols including Interactive Consistency (Byzantine Agreement), Internal Clock Synchronization, and Distributed Diagnosis. The conceptual design of the ROBUS is presented in this paper including requirements, topology, protocols, and the block-level design. Verification activities, including the use of formal methods, are also discussed.


A 72-year-old man with calcific aortic stenosis and complete heart block was noted to have an intermittent diastolic murmur. Using combined echocardiography and phonocardiography, it was demonstrated that the murmur occurred while the mitral valve was closing. This suggested that antegrade flow across a closing mitral orifice is of etiologic importance in the production of the murmur. Atrial sounds were also recorded and probably have a similar etiology. It is postulated that reduced ventricular compliance resulting in a more rapid rate of mitral valve closure was of etiologic importance in the genesis of the murmur.


Delayed coking is a refining process that consists of the upgrading of petroleum residues into lighter and more valuable hydrocarbon fractions by promoting thermal cracking on the residue stream. Petroleum coke is a by-product of this process and depending on its morphology it can be used as fuel for steam generation, cement calcination or as feed stock for the manufacturing of aluminum and steel. Delayed cokers are very complex systems and require a considerable amount of hardware such as fired heaters, coke drums, a main fractionator and a hydraulic decoking system. In a typical delayed coker petroleum residues are passed through fired heaters before they are charged, in an alternating fashion, into large drums as boiling product. In the drums some of this effluent thermally cracks into lighter fractions (vapors) and these are removed from the drum overhead and returned to the coker fractionator before they are sent to a gas plant for further refining. The heavier product that stays behind slowly forms into coke and it is allowed to fill the drum over time. The time it takes to do this is usually referred to as the coking cycle. Once the drum is full and the feed is switched to start filling an empty drum, a series of activities such as sludging, quenching and steam-outs are performed on the full drum prior to removing the coke. Very high pressure water is used to cut this solid coke out and after some preparations this drum is empty and ready for a new coking cycle to begin again. As stated above, delayed coking is thus a combination of a continuous process through the fractionation tower and furnace and a batch process in the drums. As a result of this configuration the high pressure decoking pump only needs to operate a portion of the total cycle time. Regardless of its "part-time" operation the water jet coke cutting pump is still a very important component of the hydraulic decoking system because it not only provides the required cutting pressure necessary to cut the coke but also contributes to the quality of coke removed and the duration of the decoking cycle. Recent history shows that the majority of new hydraulic decoking installations use electric motor drives with fixed speed operation. The pump generally requires one operating speed to produce the necessary pressure to cut the coke and its flow, pressurization, and depressurization duties are controlled by a decoking control valve. During noncutting cycles operators typically shut off the motor to minimize power consumption of the system or they keep the motor running (rarely done), depressurize the line and operate this valve on bypass to recirculate the water through a holding tank until the coke cutting is resumed. Both operating alternatives have their disadvantages with regards to reliability (the first) and energy consumption (the second). This paper explores the use of a hydrodynamic variable speed drive (HVSD) with an electric motor-driven pump as a way to increase the flexibility and reliability of the hydraulic decoking system. The HVSD or variable speed coupling (VSC) is able to seamlessly vary the speed of the pump and accomplish the following: • Keep the motor running and operate the pump at minimum idle speed during noncutting cycles, avoiding periodic motor shutdowns and start ups • Eliminate the need for soft starter or special motor design considerations to handle periodic start ups • Reduce work and extend life of the decoking control valve by helping with depressurization duties during noncutting cycles and cutting tool mode shifting • Efficiently adjust cutting pressures depending on feed stock quality to avoid coke pulverization. This paper also describes the function of the variable speed coupling and how its unique design features are suited for the start up and intermittent operation of the water jet coke cutting pump. Field data and operator experience from two existing installations are collected and evaluated and the advantages of variable speed operation over fixed speed operation of the decoking pump are highlighted.


In this work we present the effective field theory of primordial statistical anisotropies generated during anisotropic inflation involving a background U(1) gauge field. Besides the usual Goldstone boson associated with the breaking of time diffeomorphism we have two additional Goldstone bosons associated with the breaking of spatial diffeomorphisms. We further identify these two new Goldstone bosons with the expected two transverse degrees of the U(1) gauge field fluctuations. Upon defining the appropriate unitary gauge, we present the most general quadratic action which respects the remnant symmetry in the unitary gauge. The interactions between various Goldstone bosons leads to statistical anisotropy in curvature perturbation power spectrum. Calculating the general results for power spectrum anisotropy, we recover the previously known results in specific models of anisotropic inflation. In addition, we present novel results for statistical anisotropy in models with non-trivial sound speed for inflaton fluctuations. Also we identify the interaction which leads to birefringence-like effects in anisotropic power spectrum in which the speed of gauge field fluctuations depends on the direction of the mode propagation and the two polarization of gauge field fluctuations contribute differently in statistical anisotropy. As another interesting application, our EFT approach naturally captures interactions generating parity violating statistical anisotropies.


This thesis gives several applications of effective field theory to processes involving heavy particles. The first is a standard application of heavy quark effective theory to exclusive B decays. It involves two sum rules giving constraints on the curvature of the B->D Isgur-Wise function. This thesis calculates order alpha corrections to these constraints, increasing the accuracy of the resultant constraints on the physical form factors.

The second application involves matching SCETI onto SCETII at one loop. Keeping the external fermions off their mass shell does not regulate all IR divergences in both theories. The work described here gives a new prescription to regulate infrared divergences in SCET. Using this regulator, we show that soft and collinear modes in SCETII are sufficient to reproduce all the infrared divergences of SCETI. We explain the relationship between IR regulators and an additional mode proposed for SCETII.

Next we consider top production at large energies. The production process is characterized by three disparate energy scales: the center-of-mass energy (E), the mass (m), and the decay width (Gamma). At the scale E we match onto massive soft-collinear effective theory (SCET). The SCET current is run from E to m, thereby summing Sudakov logarithms of the form log^n(m/E), where n=2,1. At the scale m, the top quark mass is integrated out by matching SCET jet functions onto a boosted version of heavy quark effective theory (bHQET). The jet functions in bHQET are then run from m to Gamma, summing powers of single logarithms of the ratio m/Gamma.

Under certain assumptions factorization formulas can be derived for differential distributions in processes involving highly energetic jets, such as jet energy distributions. As a final topic, we show how to test these assumptions using semileptonic or radiative decays of heavy mesons, by relating the jet P+ distribution derived under these assumptions to other differential distributions in these decays, which are better understood.


An efficient method for separating chlorophyll a from spinach leaves by column chromatography and solvent extraction techniques has been developed. The purity and identity of the chlorophyll a have been confirmed by UV-Vis, IR and mass spectrometry. Yields from 100 g of freeze-dried spinach were 23 – 24 mg of chlorophyll a . KEY WORDS: Chlorophyll a , Spinach leaves, Separation, Column chromatography, Solvent extraction, Pheophytin a Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2008 , 22(2), 301-304.


This paper provides a comparative perspective of public procurement policies for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in the United States and Europe. Public procurement is increasingly recognized as a strategic function of public administration because of the huge amount of resources it consumes, as well as the important policy objectives it seeks to promote, including SME-related objectives. Progress towards meeting SME procurement participation goals, however, remains elusive on both sides of the Atlantic. Policy makers and administrators have little comparative research upon which to draw regarding the effectiveness of various policy approaches, a shortcoming this paper seeks to address. An institutional perspective is adopted which helps explain similarities and differences in U.S. and European SME policies.


The textile and garment industry fulfils a pivotal role in the Indian economy. It is a major foreign exchange earner and, after agriculture, it is the largest employer with a total workforce of 35 mn. In 2005 textiles and garments accounted for about 14% of industrial production and 16% of export earnings. In cotton yarn production India has made a mark in the world textile scenario. It is the largest exporter of the cotton yarns in the world. Besides yarn exports, India's growing garment industry is working as a driving force to improve the yarn quality and to increase the production of cotton yarn. This has resulted in an overall improvement in the quality of all textile products including yarn and fabric. The WTO era has seen remarkable improvement in export of textiles. To help the mills in bench marking, SITRA has conducted a survey on the cotton yarn quality for fine and superfine yarns, in which 58 mills from all over India have taken part.


In this thesis I explore some of the brightest transient phenomena we observe in the highnenergy sky. I consider some of the observational difficulties we encounter in studying
these highly variable sources, in particular the importance of the level of photon statistics, especially in the difficult region that sits between 10 and 100 GeV, where we have the overlap between the energy domain of space telescopes and the energy range more suited to ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. The specific sources I study here belong to various classes of gamma-ray emitters: Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), compact binaries, and powerful flare events in the Sun's magnetosphere.

The first chapter provides an introduction to the field of high energy gamma-ray astronomy. There, I cover the basic gamma-ray emission mechanisms and give an overview of the sources that I have investigated as well as a description of the telescopes and instruments involved in my gamma-ray observations of these sources. The second and third chapters discuss the work I have done together with colleagues in the H.E.S.S. Collaboration to enable the delivery of the first results from phase II of H.E.S.S. for two bright AGNs and the gamma-ray binary PSR B1259-63. The fourth chapter covers my work on analysing the gamma-ray emission from solar flares in order to put constraints on hadronic models of the are emission. The fifth chapter discusses the evidence for multiple components in the high energy spectrum of the blazar AGN called Mrk 501.
The sixth chapter highlights the importance of the study of the cut-off region in bright gamma-ray sources detected by the Fermi- LAT, investigating also the possible improvements
that will be brought about by the next generation of ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. Finally, the conclusions summarise my findings and explore future perspectives in the field.


The FDA Green Book is a list of all drug products that have been approved by the FDA for use in veterinary medicine. The Green Book, as published, lacks structural information corresponding to approved drugs. To address this gap, we have compiled the structural data for all FDA Green Book drugs approved through the end of 2019. Herein we discuss the relevance of this data set to human drugs in the context of structural classes and physicochemical properties. Analysis reveals that physicochemical properties are highly optimized and consistent with a high probability of favorable drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic properties, including good oral bioavailability for most compounds. We provide a detailed analysis of this data set organized on the basis of structure and function. Slightly over half (51%) of vet drugs are also approved in human medicine. Combination drugs are biologics are also discussed.


High-resolution MERLIN observations of a newly discovered four-image gravitational lens system, B01281437, are presented. The system was found after a careful re-analysis of the entire CLASS data set. The MERLIN observations resolve four components in a characteristic quadruple-image configuration; the maximum image separation is 542 mas and the total flux density is 48 mJy at 5 GHz. A best-fitting lens model with a singular isothermal ellipsoid results in large errors in the image positions. A significantly improved fit is obtained after the addition of a shear component, suggesting that the lensing system is more complex and may consist of multiple deflectors. The integrated radio spectrum of the background source indicates that it is a gigahertz peaked spectrum source. It may therefore be possible to resolve structure within the radio images with deep VLBI observations and thus to constrain the lensing mass distribution better.


The popularity of CRISPR-based gene editing has resulted in an abundance of tools to design CRISPR-Cas9 guides. This is also driven by the fact that designing highly specific and efficient guides is a crucial, but not trivial, task in using CRISPR for gene editing. Here, we thoroughly analyse the performance of 17 design tools. They are evaluated based on runtime performance, compute requirements, and guides generated. To achieve this, we implemented a method for auditing system resources while a given tool executes, and tested each tool on datasets of increasing size, derived from the mouse genome. We found that only five tools had a computational performance that would allow them to analyse an entire genome in a reasonable time, and without exhausting computing resources. There was wide variation in the guides identified, with some tools reporting every possible guide while others filtered for predicted efficiency. Some tools also failed to exclude guides that would target multiple positions in the genome. We also considered a collection of over a thousand guides for which experimental data is available. For the tools that attempt to filter based on efficiency, 65% to 85% of the guides they reported were experimentally found to be efficient, but with limited overlap in the sets produced by different tools. Our results show that CRISPR-Cas9 guide design tools need further work in order to achieve rapid whole-genome analysis and that improvements in guide design will likely require combining multiple approaches.


The performance of 18 frontal lobe lesion (FL) and 10 frontal lobe dementia (FLD) patients on an associative memory test was compared with the performance of their matched normal controls. The FL group was severely impaired on cued and free recall and was moderately impaired on a recognition condition. Left FL patients performed the poorest on the cued and free recall conditions. The FLD patients were moderately impaired on the free recall condition only but there was a subgroup of FLD patients with additional left temporal atrophy who appeared severely impaired on both cued and free recall. These findings indicate that both left frontal and temporal lobe damage can impair associative learning and that this impairment is more strikingly seen with free rather than cued recall.


Elite athletics, particularly endurance sports, are characterised by a high prevalence of bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) and exercise-induced asthma (EIA). Findings in several studies suggest short-term high intensity physical activity to cause a transient increase in BHR. Recent studies in Oslo have shown that regular physical endurance training over several years, particularly when combined with such climatic factors as low air temperatures, may result in an increased risk of BHR and EIA among elite athletes--e.g., cross-country skiers. Inhalation beta 2-agonists and steroids have been used by many athletes in endurance sports, particularly skiers. Athletes with symptoms of BHR or EIA should be examined with lung function tests and exercise testing, and the effect of antiasthmatic drugs should be ascertained. Inhaled beta 2-agonists have no beneficial effect upon physical performance in nonasthmatic athletes, and may have a slight limiting effect upon physical endurance.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) who do not respond to Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy have limited treatment options: the standard of care is radical cystectomy. N-803 (also known as ALT-803) is an IL-15-based immunostimulatory protein complex (IL-15R&agr;Fc) that promotes proliferation and activation of natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T cells, but not regulatory T cells. Preclinical data have shown that when combined with BCG, N-803 activates cytotoxic lymphocytes and reduces tumor burden. Phase Ib data in BCG-naïve patients with NMIBC demonstrate that intravesical administration of N-803 with BCG induced complete response in all patients, without recurrences for the study duration of 24 months. METHODS: An open-label, single-arm multicenter Phase 2 study of intravesical BCG plus N-803 in patients with BCG-unresponsive high-grade NMIBC (NCT03022825) was opened. The study has two cohorts: Cohort A, patients with BCG-unresponsive carcinoma in situ (CIS) [with or without Ta or T1 disease] and Cohort B, patients with BCG-unresponsive high-grade Ta/T1 disease. All treated patients receive intravesical N-803 plus BCG, similar to a standard induction and maintenance treatment schedule. The primary endpoint for Cohort A is incidence of complete response (CR) of CIS at any time, and the primary endpoint for Cohort B is disease-free rate at 12 months. RESULTS: To date, forty-six patients have enrolled in this phase 2 trial (Cohort A (CIS), n=23, Cohort B (Papillary), n=23). Of eleven evaluable patients in Cohort A, nine patients (82%) have a reported CR. In addition, seven out of nine (78%) patients in Cohort A demonstrated CR at their 6-month response assessment. Of thirteen evaluable patients in Cohort B, ten patients (77%) showed no evidence of disease at their 3-month response assessment; of these, none (0/8) evaluated beyond 3 months have had disease recurrence. Three serious adverse events (grade 2-3) have been reported (E coli infection, anemia, and bacteremia), with no immune-related AEs. CONCLUSIONS: Nine out of eleven (82%) patients with BCG-unresponsive CIS of the bladder demonstrated a complete response. Ten out of thirteen patients with BCG-unresponsive papillary NMIBC show no evidence of disease at first assessment. Intravesical N-803 plus BCG was well-tolerated and no patients experienced immune-related AEs. Source of Funding: This study was funded by Altor BioScience, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NantCell, Inc.


Stereoscopic microwear and 3D surface texture analyses on the cheek teeth of ten Upper Triassic to Lower Cretaceous tritylodontid (Mammaliamorpha) taxa of small/medium to large body size suggest that all were generalist feeders and none was a dietary specialist adapted to herbivory. There was no correspondence between body size and food choice. Stereomicroscopic microwear analysis revealed predominantly fine wear features with numerous small pits and less abundant fine scratches as principal components. Almost all analyzed facets bear some coarser microwear features, such as coarse scratches, large pits, puncture pits and gouges pointing to episodic feeding on harder food items or exogenous effects (contamination of food with soil grit and/or dust), or both. 3D surface texture analysis indicates predominantly fine features with large void volume, low peak densities, and various stages of roundness of the peaks. We interpret these features to indicate consumption of food items with low to moderate intrinsic abrasiveness and can exclude regular rooting, digging or caching behavior. Possible food items include plant vegetative parts, plant reproductive structures (seeds and seed-bearing organs), and invertebrates (i.e., insects). Although the tritylodontid tooth morphology and auto-occlusion suggest plants as the primary food resource, our results imply a wider dietary range including animal matter.


Previously, we have shown that the yeast γ-tubulin, Tub4p, forms a 6S complex with the spindle pole body components Spc98p and Spc97p. In this paper we report the purification of the Tub4p complex. It contained one molecule of Spc98p and Spc97p, and two or more molecules of Tub4p, but no other protein. We addressed how the Tub4p complex binds to the yeast microtubule organizing center, the spindle pole body (SPB). Genetic and biochemical data indicate that Spc98p and Spc97p of the Tub4p complex bind to the N-terminal domain of the SPB component Spc110p. Finally, we isolated a complex containing Spc110p, Spc42p, calmodulin and a 35 kDa protein, suggesting that these four proteins interact in the SPB. We discuss in a model, how the N-terminus of Spc110p anchors the Tub4p complex to the SPB and how Spc110p itself is embedded in the SPB.


This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (α-tocopherol acetate) on egg production, egg quality, lipid peroxidation status (measured as MDA), and some serum metabolites in laying hens (Hy-Line) maintained at a low ambient temperature (6°C). One hundred and twenty laying hens (18-wk-old) were divided into four groups, 30 hens per group. The laying hens were fed either a basal diet or the basal diet supplemented with either 250 mg of L-ascorbic acid/kg of diet, 250 mg of α-tocopherol acetate/kg of diet or 250 mg of L-ascorbic acid plus 250 mg of α-tocopherol acetate/kg of diet. Although feed consumption of the hens was similar (P > 0.05) among treatments, supplemental vitamin C and E significantly increased final body weight, egg production, and improved feed efficiency (P < 0.05). Egg weights were also greater (P < 0.05) in hens supplemented with the combination of vitamin C and E than that of hens supplemented either vitamin or no vitamin (control). Haugh unit did not change upon each vitamin supplementation, but the combination of the vitamin supplement yielded a higher Haugh unit (P < 0.05). Each dietary supplement of vitamin C and vitamin E improved the egg quality (P < 0.05) resulting in a greater specific gravity, thicker egg shell, and heavier egg shell weight. Separately or as a combination, supplemental vitamin C and E decreased MDA, glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride concentrations (P < 0.05). Results of the present study showed that supplementing vitamin C and vitamin E, particularly as a combination, improved the performance of cold-stressed laying hens, offering a potential protective management practice in preventing cold stress-related losses in performance of laying hens. Results of the present study also indicated that the effects of vitamin C and vitamin E are additive.


Between the months of March and June 1997, an extended observational study was carried out on 32 patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit of "Hospital General Universitario" in Alicante for postoperative care after undergoing heart surgery which included extracorporeal circulation. The variables analyzed were of a socio-demographical nature and related to the type of operation in order to homogenize the samples. The main variables under study were pain while resting and pain while carrying out these exercises: coughing, deep breathing, stimulated inspirometer, and clapping; the number of balls the patient could raise; collaboration with the physical therapist and the kind of analgesic administered. The pain measuring instrument was the visual analogous scale. The patients with the highest pain levels when performing the protocolary extubation exercises raised fewer balls in the stimulated inspirometer exercise and did not collaborate with the physical therapist. The patients who receive more doses of sedatives collaborate with the respiratory physical therapist. All those patients who receive an analgesic at a set hour raise one or two balls in the inspirometer exercise and all collaborated with the physical therapist.


Abgenix has acquired rights to ABX-CBL, an antibody in phase II trials for the potential treatment of graft versus host disease (GvHD). The antibody, previously known as CBL-1 was discovered by the CV Cancer Center. Abgenix planned to continue phase II trials in GvHD in 1998 after completing a confirmatory clinical study required by a manufacturing process change. ABX-CBL will also be evaluated in kidney and other organ transplant rejection indications. In January 1998, Abgenix announced that it had commenced a phase II trial of the antibody at eight clinical centers to confirm the results of previous phase II trials. The study will involve 48 patients. Results of the trial were expected by the third quarter of 1998. However, by December 1998 they had not been reported. ABX-CBL could also potentially be used to treat inflammation and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. In a clinical trial, ABX-CBL was administered to ten patients with acute steroid-resistant GvHD. The overall response rate was 90%, with GvHD completely resolved in five patients and improved by at least two grades in four others. The antibody was well-tolerated and did not exacerbate post-transplant immunodeficiency. In another study involving 43 patients who developed GvHD after kidney transplant, ABX-CBL was effective in reversing the first rejection and preventing recurrence of rejection. It was shown to be well tolerated with no serious adverse events reported.


In this paper we consider the design of minimum mean square error (MMSE) transceivers for non-regenerative multiple input multiple output (MIMO) relay systems. Our design utilises Tomlinson Harashima precoding (THP) at the source along with linear processors in each stage of the network. Assuming full channel state information (CSI) is available at each node in the network the various processors are jointly optimised to minimise the system arithmetic mean square error (MSE) whilst abiding by average power constraints at both the source and relay terminals in the network. Simulations show that the proposed schemes outperform existing methods in terms of bit error ratio (BER).


Inflammatory mediators such as TNF and bacterial LPS do not cause significant apoptosis of endothelial cells unless the expression of cytoprotective genes is blocked. In the case of TNF, the transcription factor NF-κB conveys an important survival signal. In contrast, even though LPS can also activate NF-κB, this signal is dispensable for LPS-inducible cytoprotective activity. LPS intracellular signals are transmitted through a member of the Toll-like receptor family, TLR4. This family of receptors transduces signals through a downstream molecule, TNFR-associated factor 6 (TRAF6). In this study, we demonstrate that the C-terminal fragment of TRAF6 (TRAF6-C) inhibits LPS-induced NF-κB nuclear translocation and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase (JNK) activation in endothelial cells. In contrast, LPS activation of p38 kinase is not inhibited by TRAF6-C. TRAF6-C also inhibits LPS-initiated endothelial apoptosis, but potentiates TNF-induced apoptosis. LPS-induced loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential, cytochrome c release, and caspase activation are all blocked by TRAF6-C. We demonstrate that TRAF6 signals apoptosis via JNK activation, since inhibition of JNK activation using a dominant-negative mutant also inhibits apoptosis. JNK inhibition blocks caspase activation, but the reverse is not true. Hence, JNK activation lies upstream of caspase activation in response to LPS stimulation.


Inflammation is a protective response to infection or injury; however, persistent microtraumas at the tissue level may result in chronic low-grade inflammation that plays both direct and indirect roles in the development of many diseases and aging. The purpose of this review is to describe the underlying physiology of low-grade inflammation and highlight potential inflammation lowering effects of physical activity (PA). Unique contributions of this review are to introduce the concept of inflammation phenotype flexibility in contrast to the low-grade inflammation state and describe how PA influences inflammation phenotype by altering muscle, gut, adipose, and postprandial metabolism. Pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages and cytokines—such as tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6—contribute to low-grade inflammation. Among the mechanisms that commonly contribute to low-grade inflammation are dysfunctional adipose tissue, a leaky gut, gut microbiota that promotes inflammation, and large postprandial glycemic and lipidemic responses. Physical activity may lower inflammation by decreasing M1 macrophages in visceral adipose tissue, decreasing adipose tissue volume, production of anti-inflammatory myokines, promotion of butyrate-producing members of the gut microbiota, improved gut barrier function, and lowering of postprandial glycemic and lipidemic responses. While exercise has many anti-inflammatory mechanisms, phenotype conversion is complex, multifaceted, and difficult to achieve. Our understanding of how PA influences inflammation must include acute exercise-induced anti-inflammatory effects, contribution to the inflammation state from multiple sources in the body, and phenotypic shifts underpinning low-grade inflammation.


in each image plane. Planes with scores higher than an empirically determined threshold value were selected as standard planes by the AM. Two evaluation criteria were used to evaluate the performance of the AM: Positive Predictive Value = True Positive Planes/(True Positive Planes + False Positive Planes), and Sensitivity = True Positive Planes/(True Positive Planes + False Negative Planes). Results: The automated method showed accurate prediction of the manually labelled planes with an average sensitivity of 91.29% and a positive predictive value of 76.29%. Through closer inspection, all false positive planes selected by the automated method contained both the SB and UV in the correct position but had not been selected by the expert because of stricter criteria imposed. Conclusions: Our results show that machine learning can be used to automatically select a correct AC plane from a fetal 3D volume, and is an early first step in the direction of automated fetalsonography. Such an automated method has the potential for reducing the time needed to complete an ultrasound examination or to perform offline examinations. Further work will be needed to evaluate this and to extend it to other areas of fetal biometry.


Differences in the activity of maternally and paternally derived genomes in maize endosperm have been observed at three levels of genetic manipulation. When the balance of entire chromosome sets departs from the standard ratio of two of maternal origin to one of paternal origin, development is impaired, often leading to seed failure. At the level of individual chromosomes, absence of a paternal representative for 8 of the 19 chromosome arms tested causes a marked reduction in kernel size. Replacement of the missing arms by ones of maternal origin does not complement this defect. At the gene level, some alleles of R confer solid coloration on the aleurone layer when transmitted maternally but patchy coloration (mottled) when transmitted via pollen. In contrast with the endosperm, no effect of parentage on R phenotype has been detected in embryonic and seedling tissues. Furthermore, gynogenetic and androgenetic haploid plants are viable in maize and are similar in appearance. The detection of parental effects in the endosperm, but not the embryo, points to the few cell divisions of the gametophytes as a critical stage in imprinting. Chromosomally based epigenetic variation originating at this stage would be reflected as imprinting effects. A separate fertilization establishes a line of genetic descent in the embryo that appears to be relatively free of imprinted genes.


Optic neuropathies are frequently associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and the associated vision loss has a severe impact on the patient's quality of life. Our understanding of disease progression of one of the most frequent mitochondrial disorders, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), together with results of recent clinical trials might provide us with new insights that are relevant not only to the progression of the disease but more importantly also for therapeutic intervention. One of the crucial hallmarks of LHON is the occasional recovery of vision in some patients. This rare and spontaneous process highlights that blindness in LHON patients is not irreversible per se and suggests that this process could potentially be induced by pharmacological intervention. Strikingly, spontaneous recovery of vision has been reported in some patients several years after disease onset, which indicates the presence of an extended time window where recovery is still possible, before over time the terminal loss of retinal neurons renders visual recovery impossible. Several recent encouraging trials in LHON and related disorders support this view and extend this model to other optic neuropathies that are not associated with spontaneous recovery. This concept provides hope not only to mitochondrial optic neuropathy patients, but also to patients that suffer from one of the major ocular disorders such as glaucoma.