A dark-purple marine bacterium that inhibits the germination of marine algal spores and the settlement of invertebrate larvae has been characterized and assessed for taxonomic assignment. Two strains, designated UL12T and UL13, were isolated from the surface of the common marine alga Ulva lactuca. Based on 16S rDNA sequencing, UL12T and UL13 were found to show the highest similarity (97%) to members of the genus Pseudoalteromonas. DNA-DNA hybridization studies demonstrated less than 28% genomic DNA relatedness between these isolates and closely related Pseudoalteromonas species and greater than 65% homology between UL12T and UL13. The two isolates were found to display identical characteristics and are strict aerobes, motile by means of single polar flagella, exhibit non-fermentative metabolism and require sodium ions for growth. The isolates hydrolyse gelatin and can utilize citrate, maltose, mannose and glucose but not trehalose, sucrose, fructose, lactose or glycerol as sole carbon sources. The molecular evidence together with the phenotypic characteristics show that this bacterium constitutes a new species within the genus Pseudoalteromonas. The name Pseudoalteromonas ulvae sp. nov. is proposed for this bacterium and the type strain is UL12T (= UNSW 095600T = NCIMB 13762T).


Cellular inflammation is not just an immediate response following pathogenic infections or resulting from damage due to injury, it is also associated with normal physiological functions, including wound healing and tissue repair. The existence of such a definitive role in normal physiology and in disease pathology indicates the presence of a regulatory mechanism that is tightly controlled in normal cells. A tight control over gene expression is associated with regulatory mechanisms in the cells, which can be either inducible or epigenetic. Among other intracellular mechanisms that contribute to epigenetic gene regulation, DNA methylation has been shown to maintain a tight control over gene expression through the actions of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs). With a clear role in developmental and tissue-specific temporal gene regulation, the involvement of DNMTs is evident in normal and pathological conditions. In this review article, inflammation in tendons associated with disease pathology and tissue repair or regeneration at the musculoskeletal joints is critically reviewed. More specifically, the review focuses on known epigenetic mechanisms and their role in the clinical presentation of the disease in human joint disorders associated with tendon inflammation, with an emphasis on the gene regulatory mechanisms that are controlled through DNA methylation, histone deacetylation, and microRNAs.


This paper applies philosopher Graham Harman's object-oriented theory of "vicarious causation" to an analysis of the multi-modal media phenomenon known as "Game of Thrones." Examining the manner in which George R.R. Martin's best-selling series of fantasy novels has been adapted into a board game, a video game, and a hit HBO television series, it uses the changes entailed by these processes to trace the contours of vicariously generative relations. In the course of the resulting analysis, it provides new suggestions concerning the eidetic dimensions of Harman's causal model, particularly with regard to causation in linear networks and in differing types of game systems.


ABSTRACT
In this dynamic scanning protocol, ultrasound examination of the knee is described using various maneuvers to assess different conditions. Real-time patient examination and scanning videos are used for better simulation of the daily clinical practice. The protocol is prepared by several/international experts in the field of musculoskeletal ultrasound and within the umbrella of EURO-MUSCULUS/USPRM.


BACKGROUND: There is a substantial gap in the number of people reporting they believe organ donation is a good thing and the number of people willing to identify themselves as potential donors by checking the box when applying for a driver's license, signing a donor card, or joining a state registry. Despite overwhelming support for the idea of organ donation there are still myths and misinformation surrounding organ donation that prevent people from becoming "official" donors. One common source of inaccurate information is primetime television. American medical and crime dramas perpetuate the myths and capitalize on the fears of viewers, especially those who have not already designated themselves as organ donors, which ultimately can dissuade them from registering as donors. METHODS: A comprehensive search of the literature was performed using Web of Science, CINAHL, MEDLINE-PubMed, and Psychinfo using the keywords; organ donation, television, and attitudes. The final articles were assessed using GRADE. RESULTS: Two studies were included in this review having met inclusion criteria. One study surveyed 580 college students before and after viewing either a medical or crime drama with an organ donation storyline to determine how entertainment television influences the decision of whether or not to become an organ donor. The second study measured the same outcome but asked subjects to recall shows they had viewed over the past year that had organ donation storylines. Both studies found that viewers who were opposed to becoming organ donors and those who were undecided were likely to take the information presented on television as the truth and thus less likely to register as organ donors. CONCLUSION: American primetime medical and crime dramas are often a major source of information for viewers regarding organ donation. Unfortunately, the information viewers are receiving is not only inaccurate but often outright deceptive, playing on the worst fears many people have about the organ donation process. This misinformation has led to a loss of potential organ donors. Would honest and accurate information in television programs lead to more viewers registering to donate their organs?


Abstract The group of gas accumulations known as the Camelot Fields straddle Blocks 53/1a and 53/2 of the UK Sector of the Southern North Sea on the southern margin of the Sole Pit Trough. The Camelot North Field was discovered in 1967 and development commenced from the Camelot A platform in 1989 (wells Al to A5). The Camelot Northeast Field came on-stream from the B platform (53/2-7 well) in 1992. The Cador accumulation, in the north of Block 53/1a, was subsequently developed through the A6 horizontal well in 1993. The current estimate of gas initially in place (GIIP) for the field is 280 billion cubic feet. Ultimate recovery factors are expected to be as much as 90% and since more than 80% of the GIIP has already been recovered, the Camelot Fields have proven to be prolific producers. This paper focuses on field history after 1988 and, in particular, on the recent exploratory drilling on the southern field margin beneath the South Leman Graben. In this area depth conversion is a major challenge with large velocity contrasts, low relief structures and thin hydrocarbon columns. Recent well results, following mapping of the new 3D seismic data set, indicate that fault reactivation occurred in late Cretaceous to early Tertiary times. Fault movements associated with this event resulted in trap readjustments and/or gas leakage and have exerted an important additional control on hydrocarbon spill points.


We have obtained three-level cw laser operation at 985 nm with a Yb-doped S-FAP bulk crystal pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser. An output power of 250 mW for an incident pump power of 1.45 W has been achieved, which is the highest cw output power ever obtained, to our knowledge, at this wavelength with a Yb-doped crystal. The experimental results are in good agreement with the numerical model that we have developed.


A high variability in functional tests and activities used during the pulmonary rehabilitation has been observed in post-intensive care unit (ICU) patients, and the best battery of tests to adopt has not been described yet. We tested in patients admitted in a post-ICU Step Down Unit the ability to perform the more frequent functional volitional tests. The relations of each single volitional test with general disability and dyspnea at discharge were also evaluated. Ten volitional tests including: bedside spirometry test (ST: FEV1%, FVC%), maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), maximal expiratory pressure (MEP), Peak Expiratory Flow during Cough (PCEF), Quadriceps Muscle Strength (QMS), latissimus Dorsi and teres Major Strength (DMS), Brachial biceps Muscle Strength (BMS), effort tolerance measured by sit-to-stand test, Takahashi test and 6-Min Walking Test (6MWT), were evaluated in post-ICU patients at entry and discharge from in-hospital rehabilitation. General disability was assessed by Barthel Index, while dyspnea by Borg scale. At admission, >70% of subjects performed muscle strength test, while <25% performed respiratory and effort tolerance tests. At discharge, feasibility of spirometry, respiratory muscle strength and effort tolerance tests improved (all, p<0.001); 6MWT was the least feasible. At discharge, cardiorespiratory patients were more capable to perform tests compared to neurological ones. All outcome measures, with exception of FEV1%, and FVC%, were significantly related to the disability score. Peripheral muscle exercises showed the highest feasibility, spirometry and leg effort tolerance the lowest. Motor disability was explained mainly by the peripheral muscle strength. The study of non-volitional outcome measures and tests linked to a protocol-driven intervention should be performed in this specific population.


Europe has traditionally been studied as a political, economic and cultural unity that historically developed in connection with the ideas of Christianity, civilization, and empire. After the New World was "discovered," Europe's imperial and civilizing mission was no longer contained within its western boundaries but also occurred within an expanded sense of geography. This is to say that the status of civilized and civilizing Europe was not defined solely from within its geographical limits but also in contrast to its colonial world. Much of the work of describing the discovery, interpreting the exploration, and articulating the connection of the newly-found territories to the motherland in Europe was done through the writings of explorers, ambassadors, soldiers, adventurers, and missionaries. The recovery and analysis of these various kinds of travelers' narratives about foreign and exotic places where they went and lived have brought a new perspective to our understanding of the historical development of the imperialized world.


Because of the close relation between sodium (Na) and calcium (Ca) tubular reabsorption, restriction of sodium intake has been proposed in hypercalciuric stone formers. We simultaneously measured urinary concentrations of both ions in 30 recurrent stone formers (19 male, 11 female, mean age 40,8 +/- 10,2 years) with fasting hypercalciuria, before and after reduction of calciuria using long-term thiazide (TZ) treatment associated with moderate restriction of calcium intake, without concomitant Na restriction. No recurrence of stones was observed in this group with a 12 to 49 month follow-up. UCa strongly correlated with UNa in both conditions. However, UCa significantly decreased with TZ (128 +/- 32 vs 73 +/- 26 mumol/kg/day, p less than 0.001), whereas neither UNaV (190 +/- 60 vs 202 +/- 57 mmol/day) nor diuresis significantly varied. We conclude that calciuria can be lowered without reduction in Na intake in hypercalciuric stone formers controlled by thiazide treatment.


PANalytical is a company that is specialized in creating analytical devices for all kinds of customers. They aim to be customer focused and innovative compared to their competition. One of the device PANalytical produces is the Zetium. The Zetium is a device that analyses material compositions using X-ray fluorescence technology. The software of the Zetium is controlled on a separate computer. PANalytical wants to combine the software en the Zetium into one device by placing an transparent interactive display technology on the transparent cover of the Zetium. There are other solution to combine the software and the Zetium, but placing it on the transparent cover appears to be the best option. If the Zetium is compared to the concurrent of PANalytical it turns out that the concurrent already combined the software with the device, but not with the innovative idea to use the transparent cover.
There are different kinds of transparent display technologies. LCD, OLED and projection. LCD is not suitable to use on the cover. Projection has a lot of flaws but is possible immediately but it will not be interactive. The most promising option is OLED, but the problem is that it is not really far developed and still very expensive. There are many kinds of input methods. The most promising at this moment is projected capacitive. In the future it would be attractive to use gesture input. In order to use non-interactive projection immediately some adjustments has to be made to the Zetium, so that a digiboard projector will fit into it.
By making sketches on the cover of the Zetium it turned out that blue and orange were the best colors to use in the new interface. Red must be used for warning signals. Out of all kinds of sketches four concepts appear to be most promising. One round design, one skeumorfistic design, one diagonal design and a clean design. Eventually the clean design seems to be the best concept to use as a final design with influences of the other concepts. This concept is
eventually developed to a final design with all elements in it, that are needed to do an analysis of a material.
This design is unfortunately not suitable for the near future, because this interface will only be projected so it will not be interactive. It is also not extensive enough for the far future, because than more elements will be possible. That is why some scratches are made for this different time eras and these time eras are set out in a roadmap with associated technology and human interaction.
When the design is tested it turns out to be a promising design, with not that many flaws. It looks 'cool' and 'high-tech' on the cover of the Zetium. Unfortunately it also turns out that doing a large number of analysis on the cover is not very convenient because of the uncomfortable posture the user has to have while doing the analysis. Also typing vertically is not ideal. In the future something must be devised in order to solve these problems.


The day 4 IgM antibody (AB) response to sheep red blood cells was suppressed in adult female B6C3F1 mice subchronically (14 day) exposed to 1,2,3,6,7,8-hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (1,2,3,6,7,8-HCDD) at concentrations reflecting the levels of this dioxin isomer as a contaminant in technical-grade pentachlorophenol. Hepatic microsomal parameters were also measured in these mice and indicated the characteristic induction of mixed-function oxidase enzyme activities, particularly aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase. The response to sheep red blood cells was also suppressed when measured in vitro by culturing the antigen with spleen cells from a second group of mice subchronically exposed to 1,2,3,6,7,8-HCDD. Enumeration studies with fluorescent-labeled antisera in these animals indicated a dose-related suppression in the number of T-lymphocytes with no effect on B-lymphocytes. 1,2,3,6,7,8-HCDD directly suppressed several in vitro AB responses when added to cultures of spleen cell suspensions from untreated B6C3F1 mice. The rank order of sensitivity was determined to be: polyclonal AB response to LPS greater than or equal to T-independent AB response to DNP-Ficoll greater than T-dependent AB response to sheep red blood cells. Subsequent studies indicated that the suppression by 1,2,3,6,7,8-HCDD could be produced after only a 30-min preincubation. The suppression of all in vitro AB responses was abolished when the dioxin was preincubated with a metabolic activation system: crude liver homogenate (B6C3F1 mice pretreated with the mixed-function oxidase inducer; Aroclor 1254) plus NADP and isocitrate. The suppression of the T-dependent AB response was still evident when the metabolic activation system was heat-inactivated (as verified by an inability to activate cyclophosphamide) prior to the preincubation.


The retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (pRB) can inhibit cell cycle progression and promote differentiation. pRB interacts with a variety of transcription factors, including members of the E2F and C-EBP protein families and MyoD, and can either repress or activate transcription depending on the promoter under study. These biological and biochemical activities of pRB have been mapped previously to a core domain, referred to as the pRB pocket. Using a panel of synthetic pRB pocket mutants, we found that the acute induction of a G1/S block by pRB is linked to its ability to both bind to E2F and to repress transcription. In contrast, these functions were not required for pRB to promote differentiation, which correlated with its ability to activate transcription in concert with fate-determining proteins such as MyoD. All tumor-derived pRB mutants tested to date failed to bind to E2F and did not repress transcription. Despite an inability to bind to E2F, pRB mutants associated with a low risk of retinoblastoma, unlike high-risk mutants, retained the ability to activate transcription and promote differentiation. Thus, the pRB pocket participates in dual tumor suppressor functions, one linked to cell cycle progression and the other to differentiation control, and these functions can be genetically and mechanistically dissociated.


The need for a good forecast estimate is imperative for managing flows in a supply chain. For this, it is necessary to make forecasts and integrate them into the flow control models, in particular in contexts where demand is very variable. However, forecasts are never reliable, hence the need to give a measure of the quality of these forecasts, by giving a measure of the forecast uncertainty linked to the estimate made. Different forecasting models have been developed in the past, particularly in the statistical area. Before going to our application on real industrial cases which highlights a prospective study of demand forecasting and a comparative study of sales price forecasts, we begin, in the first section of this chapter, by presenting the forecasting models, as well as their validation and monitoring.


Municipal authorities officially established urban brothels in late medieval Austria as a necessary evil in order to control the lust of unmarried men and thus protect women from sexual abuse. During the course of the fifteenth century, brothels began to flourish in cities all over Austria until their abolition during the period of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the sixteenth century. This paper focuses in particular on four Tyrolean brothels (Bolzano, Hall, Innsbruck and Merano) and on the relevant sources of late medieval brothels in general, taking into account both their potential as well as their limitations. Certain sources allow a closer look into the daily life of both the prostitutes and the brothel keepers. Court cases sometimes provide information about the names of people and their daily business. Second, it concentrates on everyday life in these brothels. Prostitution was handled as a "safety valve" to provide a sexual outlet for unmarried men; they are, therefore, an instrument to guarantee the pax urbana. Furthermore, the brothels provided the possibility of controlling extramarital sexuality. For this reason, the municipal authorities also tried to prohibit clandestine types of prostitution – no doubt to also protect their own financial interests.


Social security can be a tool of justice and social welfare which ensures a stable life in today's social and economic situation. Social security can support people facing difficulties and uncertainties that can not be solved individually efficiently. In this case becomes very important if the overarching welfare state social welfare efforts also became the ideological basis of the concept of social security. Currently there are several types of social security which has been distributed to the public. However, in some areas, the social security is less targeted and less appropriate benefits for the current situation. Therefore, we need a proper decision support system that will be shared social security is expected to be appropriate and well targeted. Analytical Hierarchy Process is a method of decision support is very appropriate to help resolve the issue. Analitical method hierarchy process using several criteria and alternatives tailored to the circumstances and conditions of that time. Criteria and alternative routes can be modified to the circumstances in the future that is different from the current, so that the decisions taken on the methods of analitical hierarchy process is felt to be very appropriate in representing the circumstances at various times, which in turn distribute social security was expected to be appropriate and well targeted.


The susceptibility of Native Americans to infectious disease has been postulated as a major factor for their population decline after European contact. To investigate if a preexisting genetic component contributed to this phenomenon, we analyzed 50 exomes of both ancient and modern individuals from the Northwest Coast of North America, dating from before and after European contact. We confirmed the genetic continuity between the ancient and modern individuals and modeled the population collapse after European contact, inferring a 57% reduction in effective population size. We also identified signatures of positive selection on immune-related genes in the ancient but not the modern group. The strongest selection signal in the ancients came from the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene HLA-DQA1, with alleles that are close to fixation. The important immune function of HLA-DQA1 supports an ancient adaptation to the environments of the Americas. The modern individuals show a marked decrease in the frequency of the associated alleles (the most pronounced variant showing a 64% difference). This decrease is likely due to the environmental change associated with European colonization, which resulted in a shift of selection pressures, whereby negative selection may have acted on the same gene after contact. Furthermore, the selection pressure shift could correlate to the European-borne epidemics of the 1800s, suffered in the Northwest Coast region. This is among the first studies to examine a single population through time and exemplifies the power of such studies in uncovering nuanced demographic and adaptive histories.


The article is devoted to the matter description of penal persecution as a decisive instrument in the fight against crime and to the comparison of former and present (valid since 2003 05 01) key institutions of procedural form. Penal persecution procedural forms are compared to legal procedure which worked before 2003. The article looks into differences between interrogation, preliminary investigation and pre-trial investigation as well as the former and present interaction and procedural status of subjects – interrogator, investigator, head officials and prosecutor – in the penal persecution. The comparison is carried on the basis of certain law sources with the analysis of penal persecution practice results. The author states that the present rules of procedure contain certain confusion and are not properly balanced because they refuse some institutions which have previously well justified themselves and also ignore suggested ways of improvement. Besides, the interaction among different subjects executing the penal persecution is not working as it has to and therefore brings some misunderstandings and often breach of human rights and freedoms. At the same time the demand for material and other organizational resources is growing. Concentration of responsibilities delegated to certain police institutions purely on pre-trial investigation work reduces the strength of other institutions. On the other hand, the qualification of pre-trial investigation has been put on the same level with responsibilities that do not need higher professional skill and experience which resulted in the falling of pre-trial work prestige as well as to the decrease of police staff professionalism. At the end of the article the author presents recommendations of how to solve the listed problems.


Nanoparticles are used immensely due to its small size and physical properties which are reportedly shown to change the performance of any other material which is in contact with these tiny particles. These particles can be prepared easily by different chemical, physical and biological approaches. But the biological method is the most efficient approach for the preparation of nanoparticles because it is eco friendly and less time consuming. The leaves extracts of Azadirachta indica and Ocimum sanctum acts as a capping agent, reducing agents, and posses antibacterial activities and healing properties. In this study, simple and rapid approach was applied for the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from Azadirachta indica(neem) and Ocimum sanctum (Tulsi) leaves extracts. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized using UV – Visible Spectroscopy, XRD, and SEM. The size of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles was found to be within the range of 20-60 nm. To identify the compounds for the reduction of silver ions, the functional groups present in plant extract were investigated by FTIR. The nanoparticles were tested for their antibacterial potential against drug – resistant bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and against pathogenic fungus, Rhizopus oryzae, and Aspergillus Niger. It was found that the biosynthesized nanoparticles had an inhibitory effect towards these microbes. The toxicity analysis of silver nanoparticles was determined by treating the Moong seeds (V. radiata) with different concentrations of silver nanoparticles. The results showed that 25% of silver nanoparticles solution had the better effect towards the seed germination and oxidative stress enzyme activity.


Background: Globally, the routinely used case-based reporting and IgG serosurveys underestimate the actual prevalence of COVID-19. Simultaneous estimation of IgG antibodies and active SARS-CoV-2 markers can provide a more accurate estimation. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 16416 people covering all risk groups was done between 3-16 September 2020 using the infrastructure of Karnataka in 290 hospitals across all 30 districts. All participants were subjected to simultaneous detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgG using a commercial ELISA kit, SARS-CoV-2 antigen using a rapid antigen detection test (RAT), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for RNA detection. Maximum-likelihood estimation was used for joint estimation of the adjusted IgG, active, and total prevalence, while multinomial regression identified predictors. Findings: The overall adjusted prevalence of COVID-19 in Karnataka was 27.3% (95% CI: 25.7-28.9), including IgG 16.4% (95% CI: 15.1 - 17.7) and active infection 12.7% (95% CI: 11.5-13.9). The case-to-infection ratio was 1:40, and the infection fatality rate was 0.05%. Influenza-like symptoms or contact with a COVID-19 positive patient are good predictors of active infection. The RAT kits had higher sensitivity (68%) in symptomatic participants compared to 47% in asymptomatic. Interpretation: This is the first comprehensive survey providing accurate estimates of the COVID-19 burden anywhere in the world. Further, our findings provide a reasonable approximation of population immunity threshold levels. Using the RAT kits and following the syndromic approach can be useful in screening and monitoring COVID-19. Leveraging existing surveillance platforms, coupled with appropriate methods and sampling framework, renders our model replicable in other settings.


In a recent paper [M. Chrysos, I. A. Verzhbitskiy, F. Rachet, and A. P. Kouzov, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 044318 (2011)], we showed that, in CO(2), the 2ν(3) transition generates a Raman line spectrum that is 98% depolarized, a property in agreement with general symmetry rules. Here, we present an extensive analysis, experimental and theoretical, of the isotropic remnant of this overtone. The isotropic spectrum turned out to be 45 times less intense than its anisotropic counterpart and to have a moment that is 350 times smaller than the moment of the anisotropic spectrum, in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Once the measured intensity (along with other data exclusively experimental) was fed back into the formula of the moment, a value for the CO(2) mean-polarizability asymmetric stretch derivative ∂(2)α/∂q(3)(2) was returned that matches the best ab initio prediction to better than 4%. Agreement, in order of magnitude, was found between the intensity reported herein and that reported in the sole prior study of this overtone [G. Tejeda, B. Mat, and S. Montero, J. Chem. Phys. 103, 568 (1995)].


The recent introduction of the WebGL API for leveraging the power of 3D graphics accelerators within Web browsers opens the possibility to develop advanced graphics applications without the need for an ad-hoc plug-in. There are several contexts in which this new technology can be exploited to enhance user experience and data fruition, like e-commerce applications, games and, in particular, Cultural Heritage. In fact, it is now possible to use the Web platform to present a virtual reconstruction hypothesis of ancient pasts, to show detailed 3D models of artefacts of interests to a wide public, and to create virtual museums. We introduce SpiderGL, a JavaScript library for developing 3D graphics Web applications. SpiderGL provides data structures and algorithms to ease the use of WebGL, to define and manipulate shapes, to import 3D models in various formats, and to handle asynchronous data loading. We show the potential of this novel library with a number of demo applications and give details about its future uses in the context of Cultural Heritage applications.


The experimental design methodology is widely used to quantify uncertainty in the oil and gas industry. This technique is adapted for uncertainty quantification on non-spatial parameters, such as bubble point pressure, oil viscosity, and aquifer strength. However, it is not well adapted for the case of geostatistical (spatial) uncertainty, due to the discrete nature of many input parameters as well as the potential nonlinear response with respect to those parameters. One way to handle spatial uncertainty is called the joint modeling method (JMM). This method, originally proposed in a petroleum context by Zabalza (2000), incorporates both non-spatial and spatial parameters within an experimental design framework. The method consists of the construction of two models, a mean model which accounts for the non-spatial parameters and a dispersion model which accounts for the spatial uncertainty. Classical Monte-Carlo simulation is then applied to obtain the probability density and quantiles of the response of interest (for example the cumulative oil production). Another method to quantify spatial uncertainty is the distance kernel method (DKM) proposed recently by Scheidt and Caers (2007), which defines a realization-based model of uncertainty. Based on a distance measure between realizations, the methodology uses kernel methods to select a small subset of representative realizations which have the same characteristics as the entire set. Flow simulations are then run on the subset, allowing for an efficient and accurate quantification of uncertainty. In this work, we extend the DKM to address uncertainty in both spatial and non-spatial parameters, and propose it as an alternative to the joint JMM. Both methods are applied to a synthetic test case which has spatial uncertainty on the channel representation of the facies, and non-spatial uncertainties on the channel permeability, porosity, and connate water saturation. The results show that the DKM provides a more accurate quantification of uncertainty with fewer reservoir simulations. Finally, we propose a third method which combines aspects of the DKM and the JMM. This third method again shows improvement in efficiency compared to the JMM alone.


Mining traffic to identify the dominant flows sent over a given link, over a specified time interval, is a valuable capability with applications to traffic auditing, simulation, visualization, as well as anomaly detection. Recently, Estan advanced a comprehensive data mining structure tailored for networking data-a parsimonious, multidimensional flow hierarchy, along with an algorithm for its construction. While they primarily targeted offline auditing, use in interactive traffic visualization and anomaly/attack detection will require real-time data mining. We suggest several improvements to Estan's algorithm that substantially reduce the computational complexity of multidimensional flow mining. We also propose computational and memory-efficient approaches for unidimensional clustering of the IP address spaces. For baseline implementations, evaluated on the New Zealand (NZIX) trace data, our method reduced CPU execution times of the Estan method by a factor of more than eight. We also develop a methodology for anomaly/attack detection based on flow mining, demonstrating the usefulness of this approach on traces from the Slammer and Code Red worms and the MIT Lincoln Laboratories DDoS data


Recent studies show that wavelet-based image fusion methods provide a high spectral quality in fused satellite images. However, images fused by most wavelet-based methods have less spatial resolution because the critical downsampling is included in the wavelet transform. We propose a useful fusion method based on contourlet and local average gradient (LAG) for multispectral and panchromatic satellite images. Contourlet represents edges and texture better than wavelet. Because edges and texture are fundamental in image representation, enhancing them is an effective means of enhancing spatial resolution. Based on LAG, the proposed fusion method reduces the spectral distortion of the fused image further. Experimental results show that the proposed fusion method is able to increase the spatial resolution and reduce the spectral distortion of the fused image at the same time.


The study aims at revealing the educational model of environmental conservation from the aspects of Islamic values. The method was qualitative (phenomenology at existing models). This study conducted at Nurul Haramain Islamic Boarding School. The data were collected using in-depth interview, the documents study, and participatory observation. Analysis of the data was performed through data reduction, data display, and verification. The result of application reveals that environmental conservation education activities were through teaching, modelling, coercion, and meeting carried out based on the values of Islam which are understood as the Shadaqah Jariah. Spiritual values as a basic grounding environmental conservation education are human values as caliph in maintaining the earth.


The objective of this thesis is to investigate the role of home country legal institutions and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) on the reporting quality, pricing and performance of foreign initial public offerings (IPOs) in US capital markets. The specific characteristics of foreign IPOs as have been recognized within the recently expanding literature on cross-listed firms make the focus of this research highly interesting and relevant given the growing number of firm that chose to make their initial public offering in foreign markets, typically the US markets. Using a unique dataset of foreign issuers in the US, this thesis addresses some of the unresolved issues of the impact of institutional differences on information asymmetry in foreign IPOs. To do this, I look at different agency problems over the life cycle of new issuers.

Specifically, the first empirical study of this thesis explores the earnings quality in foreign IPOs in the US and the relation to home country institutions. The second empirical study of this thesis investigates the effects of the home country institutions on the level of underpricing of foreign IPOs in the US, and whether underpricing is significantly different after the enactment of SOX. The third empirical study investigates the effects of the home country institutions on the long-run stock performance of foreign IPOs in the US, and whether performance is significantly different post the enactment of SOX.

The main findings of this thesis suggest that home country legal institutions matter to the reporting characteristics, to the costs of capital at the initial listing date and to the aftermarket stock performance of foreign IPOs in the US. Furthermore, there is mixed evidence regarding the effects of SOX on the reporting characteristics, to the cost of capital at the initial listing date and to the aftermarket stock performance. In contrast with some previous research on cross-listed firms, the results of this study suggest that although foreign IPOs may abandon their home capital markets by listing in the US, their reporting characteristics and costs of capital are nonetheless influenced by home country institutions.


Cauliflower (cv. Sereno F-1) was collected from Babia Village Development Committee Sunsari, Washed and cut into 4.2 cm x 3 cm x 1.2 cm size pieces. Effects of blanching media (plain and acidified water), pre-drying treatments (30 min dipping in 1% potassium metabisulphite (KMS) and 1% KMS + 2.5% starch solutions) and drying temperatures (55 o , 65 o and 75 o C in cabinet drier)on physical, chemical and organoleptic properties of dried cauliflowers were studied. Acidified water blanching significantly improved Vitamin C retention in blanched and dried samples as well as the smell of the dried sample. Vitamin C retention, rehydration ratio, color and smell did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) in dried cauliflowers treated with sulfite and sulphited starch solutions, whereas non-enzymatic browning significantly increased in sulphited starch treated sample. Drying temperatures had no significant effects on rehydration and browning but Vitamin C retention and sensory attributes were significantly improved (p < 0.05) in 75 O Cdried sample. It was concluded that dehydrated cauliflower of better quality could be prepared by blanching cauliflower pieces in acidified water for 5 minutes, dipping in 1% KMS solution for 30 minutes followed by cabinet drying at 75 O C to 5% moisture level.


A high strength low alloy wear-resistant steel was quenched at 900°C and tempered at varying temperatures. The microstructures were observed utilizing optical and electron microscope. Results show that microstructures consist of predominantly martensite and lots of bainite in the as-quenched specimens. When the specimen was tempered at 250°C, no obvious change in the microstructure was observed. It has an optimized strength and elongation in this condition of heat treatment. With the increase of tempering temperature, the lath or plate of martensite were coalescenced. The strength of the steel is thus greatly reduced and the elongation was accordingly increased.


There are a variety of prominent factors associated with total expected profit of a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC). In a forward flow, volatility in transportation cost, inventory cost, and forecasting the market's demand are the most challenging issues for decision makers, while determining the rate of returned products and efficiency in recycling the returned products are crucial parameters to predict in reverse flow. In this thesis, it is aimed to develop and apply
mixed-integer linear programming (MILP), scenario-based analysis, and fully fuzzy programming (FFP) methods to maximize the profit for a multi-echelon, multi-components, multi-product, multi-period battery CLSC in Vancouver, Canada. Furthermore, the proposed model is extended to multi-objective to consider the green factors related to plants and battery recovery centers. Fuzzy analytic network process (Fuzzy ANP) is utilized to convert the qualitative factors to the measurable parameters. Then, distance technique and ℇ-constraint method are utilized for solving the multi-objective problem.


Manganese oxide mineralization on the eastern coast of Baja California Sur is intimately related to the Neogene tectonic evolution of the Gulf of California. Manganese is closely associated with the CuCo-Zn mineralization of the Boleo district and nearby deposits of Santa Rosalia region and Concepcion peninsula. Trace element and rare earth element geochemistry of the manganese oxides provides clear evidence of a hydrothermal origin and excludes the hydrogenous nature for these deposits. Lead isotope data suggest that metal sources for the manganese mineralization along the eastern coast Baja California Sur are mostly the Miocene Andesite of Sierra Santa Lucia volcanics and the Peninsular Ranges batholith rocks. The strontium isotope data indicate that the mineralizing fluids involved in the manganese mineralization from Boleo district resulted from the interaction of two end-members: (1) the Sierra Santa Lucia volcanic rocks and (2) the gypsum member of the Boleo Formation. The geological observations and the available isotope and geochronological data suggest a southward migration of the hydrothermal processes in response to the evolving tectonic context of the opening of the Gulf of California.


ABSTRACT We describe here the characterization of five isolates of Mycobacterium simiae-like organisms representing a novel group based on whole-cell fatty acid analysis and genotypic evaluation. Two of the five isolates in this study, W55 and W58, were previously considered to belong to M. simiae serotype 2. Analysis of cellular fatty acids by gas-liquid chromatography indicated a close clustering of this group, which was well differentiated from the other M. simiae-like species. Molecular characterization was performed by nucleic acid sequencing of the small subunit rRNA gene and the gene encoding the 65-kDa heat shock protein and genomic DNA hybridization. Sequence analysis of the entire 16S rRNA gene showed a unique sequence most closely related to those of M. triplex and M. simiae. The hsp65 partial gene sequence was identical for the five isolates, with 97% identity to the M. simiae type strain. However, qualitative whole genomic DNA hybridization analysis confirmed that this group is genetically distinct from M. simiae and M. triplex. Antimicrobial susceptibilities for this group resemble those of M. simiae and M. lentiflavum. We conclude that this group represents a unique Mycobacterium species for which we propose the name Mycobacterium sherrisii sp. nov.


. In current bio-engineering, most cell manipulations are manually done by skilled operators. The operations are tedious and time consuming, yet with very low yield rate. The cell manipulation is highly expected to be automated. In this research, we have developed an automated micro-manipulation system, in which a vision control scheme has been proposed and implemented for feedback control of the tool position and tool path. In this paper, a path control scheme using potential approach with configuration space and Laplacian potential field is newly proposed to automatically generate the tool path for moving. The performance of the new control scheme is demonstrated with simulation.


Digital continuous-system simulation languages are discussed. It is demonstrated how sophisticated automated formula manipulation can be used to automatically generate state-space models from an object-oriented description of a physical system. The two major complications, algebraic loops and structural singularities, occur frequently as a consequence of couplings between submodels (objects), and these difficulties can often be dealt with by automated formula manipulation. A software tool, Dymola, in which the various formula manipulation techniques have been implemented, is presented. Dymola is an object-oriented continuous-system modeling language and a model manipulator that can be used to generate models in several simulation languages.<<ETX>>


The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was developed in order to identify the respiratory syncytial virus by using the reference strain. The high sensitivity and specificity obtained show the PCR utility for detecting the RSV genoma and its application on the diagnosis.


Craniofacial clefts are rare entities, with an incidence reported as 1.43 to 4.85 per 100,000 births. The Tessier number 3 cleft, the most medial of the oblique clefts, can manifest as clefting of the lip between the canine and lateral incisors, colobomas of the nasal ala and lower eyelid, and inferior displacement of the medial canthus-frequently disrupting the lacrimal system with extreme variability in expressivity (Eppley).Literature on cleft lip repair is extensive and has evolved to incorporate anthropometric techniques, based on identifiable landmarks and anthropometric measurements that are compared with contralateral unaffected anatomy or population means and tracked over time to assess impact on growth. Recent focus has been placed on "subunit" repair that repairs "like with like." These approaches have resulted in a remarkable reproducibility of methods and outcomes.Facial cleft surgery publications are sparse due to the rarity of the disorders, and consensus has yet to develop on standardized landmarks, reference measurements, and principles of repair. The authors describe a method of correcting incomplete unilateral Tessier 3 cleft based on the principles described above. Intraoperative photographs, including secondary revisions, as well as immediate and long-term postoperative results are presented.


OBJECTIVE
To determine prevalence and correlates of overweight among adolescents attending alternative high schools (AHS).

METHODS
AHS students (n=145) from 6 schools completed surveys and anthropometric measures. Cross-sectional associations were assessed using mixed model multivariate logistic regression.

RESULTS
Among students, 42% were overweight, with female, low-income and racial/ethnic minorities disproportionately affected. The odds of being overweight were significantly associated with self-described health status, social support, family meals, intentions to eat healthy at school, and use of healthy weight management strategies.

CONCLUSIONS
Overweight was prevalent among AHS students and requires further study. Correlates provide targets for future research.


It is widely accepted that a theory of truth for arithmetic should be consistent, but ω-consistency is less frequently required. This paper argues that ω-consistency is a highly desirable feature for such theories. The point has already been made for first-order languages, though the evidence is not entirely conclusive. We show that in the second-order case the consequence of adopting ω-inconsistent truth theories for arithmetic is unsatisfiability. In order to bring out this point, well known ω-inconsistent theories of truth are considered: the revision theory of nearly stable truth T# and the classical theory of symmetric truth FS. Briefly, we present some conceptual problems with ω-inconsistent theories, and demonstrate some technical results that support our criticisms of such theories.


Scientific discovery via numerical simulations is important in modern astrophysics. This relatively new branch of astrophysics has become possible due to the development of reliable numerical algorithms and the high performance of modern computing technologies. These enable the analysis of large collections of observational data and the acquisition of new data via simulations at unprecedented accuracy and resolution. Ideally, simulations run until they reach some pre-determined termination condition, but often other factors cause extensive numerical approaches to break down at an earlier stage. In those cases, processes tend to be interrupted due to unexpected events in the software or the hardware. In those cases, the scientist handles the interrupt manually, which is time-consuming and prone to errors. We present the Simulation Monitor (SiMon) to automatize the farming of large and extensive simulation processes. Our method is light-weight, it fully automates the entire workflow management, operates concurrently across multiple platforms and can be installed in user space. Inspired by the process of crop farming, we perceive each simulation as a crop in the field and running simulation becomes analogous to growing crops. With the development of SiMon we relax the technical aspects of simulation management. The initial package was developed for extensive parameter searchers in numerical simulations, but it turns out to work equally well for automating the computational processing and reduction of observational data reduction.


Since a few decades volcanic Long Period (LP) events have been recorded on many active volcanoes and their study has been recognized as an important tool to characterize volcanic activity. LP event analyses through moment tensor (MT) inversions have led to kinematic descriptions of various source mechanisms. The main challenge in these inversions is to " strip out " the propagation effect in order to isolate the source; hence the velocity model used controls the accuracy of the retrieved source mechanism. We first carry out several synthetic tests of inversions on Mt. Etna volcano (Italy). Four geological models with topography are considered with increasing complexity: the most complex model is used to generate synthetic data, while the other three models are used to calculate the Greens' functions for inversions. The retrieved solutions from the three velocity models are similar. The MT solutions for a deeper source are well retrieved, while a shallower source test suffers from high uncertainties and strong misinterpretation of the source orientation. The homogeneous model gives the lowest misfit value, but source location and mechanism decomposition are inaccurate. When a complex model different from the true one is used, a high misfit value and a wrong solution is obtained. We then incorporate our findings into the MT inversion of an LP event recorded on Mt Etna in 2008. We obtain very different solutions among the three models in terms of source location and mechanism decomposition. The overall shape of the retrieved source time functions are similar, but some amplitude differences arise, especially for the homogeneous model. Our work highlights the importance of including the unconsolidated surface materials in the computation of Green's functions especially when dealing with shallow sources.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To explore the healthcare needs of older Arab migrants, focussing on Arab-Australians and their socio-cultural characteristics.

BACKGROUND
Disparities in accessing healthcare services and addressing healthcare needs are evident among ethnic minorities including Arab migrants, particularly, older people. Racial stereotyping can also affect their ability to use these services. Arabs are a populous and diverse group with a long history of global migration. Australia is one of the most multicultural societies in the world, and Arab-Australians constitute an important ethnic minority group.

DESIGN
Systematic review.

METHODS
The electronic databases Academic Search Complete (EBSCO), MEDLINE (Ovid), Ageline, ProQuest, CINAHL, PubMed, PsychINFO and Google Scholar were searched from 1990-October 2012. Search terms included health care needs, aged care, ethnic, cultural, linguistics, social, ethnic groups, culturally and linguistically diverse, nonEnglish speaking, ageing, elderly, Arabs, Arabic-speaking and Australia.

RESULTS
Eight articles reviewing the healthcare issues of Australians from Arabic-speaking background were identified using the search strategy. An additional eight articles were identified through hand searching.

CONCLUSIONS
Racial stereotyping can alter health-seeking behaviours and healthcare treatment. Increasing the understanding of specific cultural attributes of Arab-Australians will contribute to improving health outcomes.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Healthcare providers and policymakers need to adopt more effective ways of communication with Arab-Australians to provide more culturally competent care and achieve better health outcomes.


A formula is derived for the effective bistatic radar cross-section of a rain cell with Gaussian reflectivity profile assuming antennas with Gaussian radiation patterns. The size and location of the rain cell are arbitrary, as is the bistatic scattering geometry. The expression is analytical, avoiding the need for numerical integration, and general, allowing treatment of cases with only partial beam intersection. Using a recently proposed model, sidelobe contributions and multiple cells embedded within widespread rain debris can be incorporated.


In the years between the two World Wars, Italian publishing houses Rizzoli, Mondadori, and Vitagliano worked on the model of a specific 'popular' weekly. They built up a combination of periodicals constituting a complete and integrated offer, experimenting marketing strategies — such as frequency, distribution, price, and advertising message — and editorial formulae capable of attracting a large readership. This article analyzes these strategies and formulae in weeklies, so-called rotocalchi, such as Il Secolo Illustrato, Novella, Lei (by Rizzoli), Le Grandi Firme, Grazia (by Mondadori) and Excelsior (by Vitagliano). As the analysis shows, their publishers and editors focused on a product based on both a precise interpretation of the concept of 'popularity' and an interpretation of the expression 'popular culture' that was different from that of the past, when 'popular' cultural products were such because they were destined for the uneducated and less well to-do classes. Rizzoli, Mondadori, and Vitagliano abandoned this static view and the hierarchy of cultural systems and adopted a different, more modern, more flexible, and more dynamic approach. In their case, rather than being associated with a distinct sector of the audience, the popular cultural product looked towards an undifferentiated group of readers: it was 'for everyone'. In this meaning, 'popular' no longer had a qualitative significance — 'for the people' — but a quantitative one: 'as widespread as possible'. By the same token, they did not limit themselves to pleasing an audience that already existed, but tended to 'build' their own, winning over those who were not yet part of it.


Abstract We argue that certain intercollegiate activities such as mock trial effectively combine competitive and cooperative elements to provide unique educational opportunities. After a survey of other Mock Trial coaches, we conclude that competition does not automatically result in negative educational outcomes. Instead, mock trial teams appear to mix competition with cooperation to gain positive educational benefits. "I am the champion of education in the competitive forum. Competition, clearly, is not the best fit for some; they're adequately served by all the rest our university offers. But there are students who flourish in the competitive arena and, for them, the educational product is truly profound." Undergraduate mock trial team coach Introduction Competition gets almost no respect in pedagogical literature. "Cooperative" or "collaborative" approaches are in vogue, while the rigors of competition as a learning process and tool are disparaged as unhealthy (Kohn 1992; Slavin 1995). Despite the persistence of this kind of argument in educational circles, colleges and high schools sponsor all sorts of teams (athletic, artistic and academic) that compete against other schools on a regular basis. How are we as undergraduate educators to understand this apparent disparity between educational theory and practice regarding competition at the collegiate level? Based on our own experiences, our first reaction is to question whether competition is always an impediment to learning and to investigate how it might actually enhance education. To consider this issue, we look at a program with which we are very familiar: the world of intercollegiate mock trial teams competing under the auspices of the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA). We will examine whether mock trial teams can provide a useful mix of cooperation and competition to spur learning. Kohn's Argument Against Competition Kohn's influential book No Contest: The Case Against Competition, arguing that competition imposes uniformly negative consequences on society, ignited a debate within the fields of education and psychology over the virtues and the vices of competition. Kohn's major thesis is stated succinctly as "trying to do well and trying to beat others are two separate things" (Kohn 1992, 55). He believes that many individuals have been socialized into enjoying (or at least tolerating) competition, and he decries the negative psychological costs of competition imposed upon individuals and society, such as diminished empathy with others, increased aggression, and distrust of others. Kohn ultimately ties these negative costs of competitiveness to world problems such as war, inequality, and political corruption. He argues that refocusing educational efforts and measurements of success to emphasize cooperation over competition will lead to a better student and eventually a better world. His views echo in a crop of recent studies (e.g., Hancock 2001; Wang and Yang 2003; Lam et al 2004) which, while less polemical than Kohn's, nevertheless caution against competitive approaches in various educational settings. However, some recent educational research indicates that the relationships between competition, cooperation, and learning are not so clear. Studies of gifted secondary school students (Bergin and Cook 2000; Feldhusen et al 2000) suggest that competitive learning may be preferred and deemed beneficial among this population. Recently, a few other scholars (Ediger 2001; Spader 2002; Ghaith 2003) have presented some benefits of competition in the college classroom environment. The relationship between competition and educational methods seems more complex and situational than Kohn and his followers suggest. Does Mock Trial Provide a Useful Counter Example? Mock Trial provides a useful test case to investigate the effects of cooperative learning within a competitive environment. Mock trial requires students to cooperate on matters of strategy and tactics before and during trial. …


This paper applies Simon's (1996) sciences of the artificial to elaborate a set of structures and processes for developing design theory. Goals, kernel theory, and artifacts inform an inter-related prototyping cycle of design, evaluation, and appropriation / generation to produce strategic design theory. The paper identifies DSR project types to provide signposts for starting and ending the cycle, artifact and evaluation iteration to facilitate the process and provide a chain of evidence, a simplified format for representing design theory iterations, and stopping rules to end the cycle. We use a detailed example to illustrate the ideas, discuss related work, and identify limitations and future research opportunities.


Standard filter paper discs were used to determine the sensitivity of 943 strains of E. coli isolated in 1970-1974 from patients' purulent-inflammatory foci with respect to benzylpenicillin, streptomycin, levomycetin, tetracycline, erythromycin and monomycin. An increase in the specific weight of the cultures resistant to the 6 drugs from 4.7 +/- 1.7 per cent in 1970 to 16.0 +/- 2.6 per cent in 1974 was observed. Strains resistant to 5--6 antibiotis were more often isolated from the urine (64.6 per cent) and the wound content (48.9 per cent) and rarer from the abdominal cavity exudate (23.1 per cent), bile (28.0 per cent) and sputum (30.1 per cent). Most often certain combinations of resistance to benzylpenicillin, streptomycin, tetracycline and erythromycin were found in the E. coli strains tested.


Understanding the heterogeneity of groups along the vaccine hesitancy continuum presents an opportunity to tailor and increase the impact of public engagement efforts with these groups. Audience segmentation can support these goals, as demonstrated here in the context of the 2009 H1N1 vaccine. In March 2010, we surveyed 1569 respondents, drawn from a nationally representative sample of American adults, with oversampling of racial/ethnic minorities and persons living below the United States Federal Poverty Level. Guided by the Structural Influence Model, we assessed knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to H1N1; communication outcomes; and social determinants. Among those who did not receive the vaccine (n = 1166), cluster analysis identified three vaccine-hesitant subgroups. Disengaged Skeptics (67%) were furthest from vaccine acceptance, with low levels of concern and engagement. The Informed Unconvinced (19%) were sophisticated consumers of media and health information who may not have been reached with information to motivate vaccination. The Open to Persuasion cluster (14%) had the highest levels of concern and motivation and may have required engagement about vaccination broadly. There were significant sociodemographic differences between groups. This analysis highlights the potential to use segmentation techniques to identify subgroups on the vaccine hesitancy continuum and tailor public engagement efforts accordingly.


This work analyzes the operation of a dithered quantizer of picture luminance. It is shown that the addition of dither before quantization restores some of the pictorial information which a coarse quantizer would otherwise discard. Two-dimensional ordered dither patterns are described which are considerably more effective for this purpose than random distributions of the same dither samples. The patterns of dither can also be designed so that noise artifacts on the output picture are less visible than with equivalent random dither and so that (contrary to the random case) it is not necessary to subtract the same dither pattern at the receiver for substantially best results.


The aim of this work was to evaluate water-lecithin-dispersions (WLDs) as carriers for amphotericin B (AmB) and to compare the drug solubility in WLDs and O/W lecithin-based submicron emulsions (SMEs) in order to evaluate the influence of lecithin content on the dosage form solubilization of the active compound. WLDs and different SMEs with either 1.2 or 2.4% of lecithin were prepared. WLD with 2.4% lecithin show a 10-fold increase in solubilization of AmB compared with 1.2% lecithin WLD. SMEs with 1.2% lecithin show an increase of over 400 times in solubilization compared with WLD containing the same concentration of lecithin, whereas SMEs with 2.4% lecithin show an increase of over 40 times compared with the corresponding WLD. Drug solubilization in SMEs with 2.4% lecithin is not significantly greater than in those containing 1.2% lecithin. The content of surfactant Brij 97 ® had a significant influence on drug solubilization in SMEs (P < 0.05). Results indicate that indicate that SMEs are proper systems to solubilize AmB. It can be assumed that solubilization is due to the formulation microstructure and not to the separate components themselves.


Despite the recent success of multi-task learning and pre-finetuning for natural language understanding, few works have studied the effects of task families on abstractive text summarization. Task families are a form of task grouping during the pre-finetuning stage to learn common skills, such as reading comprehension. To close this gap, we analyze the influence of multi-task learning strategies using task families for the English abstractive text summarization task. We group tasks into one of three strategies, i.e., sequential, simultaneous, and continual multi-task learning, and evaluate trained models through two downstream tasks. We find that certain combinations of task families (e.g., advanced reading comprehension and natural language inference) positively impact downstream performance. Further, we find that choice and combinations of task families influence downstream performance more than the training scheme, supporting the use of task families for abstractive text


evaluation of primary care organization and performance in Brazil. Health Policy Plan 2007;22:167e77. 24. Aquino R, Oliveira NF, Barreto ML. Impact of the family health program in infant mortality in Brazilian municipalities. Am J Public Health 2009;99:87e93. 25. Chen H. Theoryddriven evaluations. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1990. 26. Sanson-Fisher R, Bonevski B, Green L, et al. Limitations of the randomized controlled trial in evaluating population-based health interventions. Am J Prev Med 2007;33:155e61. Review. 27. Habitch J, Victora C, Vaughan J. Evaluation designs for adequacy, plausibility and probability of public health programme performance and impact. Int J Epidemiol 1999;28:10e18.


Descriptive metadata should match users' expectations of the information that is available to search against. The methodology used for the research discussed in this presentation focuses on how users describe books outside of the context of an existing search interface. It represents an effort to isolate and identify salient types of information and then to compare them with library data and standards to determine how much users' descriptions and catalogers' descriptions overlap. This presentation will focus on an analysis of the methodology used in this and other similarly constructed studies, preliminary findings based on the data that was gathered during the pilot study, and ideas for how the type of information gathered through these types of studies could be used to assess metadata practices and inform the creation of descriptive metadata standards.


Cloze was officially introduced in a journal on Journalism as a technique for estimating text readability and as "a new psychological tool for measuring the effectiveness of communication" (Taylor, 1953: 415). Different varieties of cloze have since been developed and experimented upon as measures of such diverse traits as reading comprehension and language proficiency. The findings of numerous corrleational studies on cloze as a measure of either skill is at best unsatisfactory and indeed contradictory. The present study seeks to find an answer to the question of whether standard cloze (with different text difficulty levels) is a valid measure of EFL reading comprehension (with IELTS Reading Paper as the criterion). 76 junior and senior students majoring in English Language and Literature at Urmia University participated in the study, where they sat 3 versions of standard 5-th deletion rate cloze tests as well as the Reading Paper of an Institutional IELTS (UCLES, 1995, 1997). While the results are in accordance with most previous research findings that cloze is a valid measure of EFL reading comprehension, serious problems are identified and discussed on the appropriacy of such a validation technique as correlation.


Cure fraction models have been widely used to model time-to-event data when part of the individuals survives long-term after disease and are considered cured. Most cure fraction models neglect the measurement error that some covariates may experience which leads to poor estimates for the cure fraction. We introduce a Bayesian promotion time cure model that accounts for both mismeasured covariates and atypical measurement errors. This is attained by assuming a scale mixture of the normal distribution to describe the uncertainty about the measurement error. Extending previous works, we also assume that the measurement error variance is unknown and should be estimated. Three classes of prior distributions are assumed to model the uncertainty about the measurement error variance. Simulation studies are performed evaluating the proposed model in different scenarios and comparing it to the standard promotion time cure fraction model. Results show that the proposed models are competitive ones. The proposed model is fitted to analyze a dataset from a melanoma clinical trial assuming that the Breslow depth is mismeasured.


A primary motivation for our research in digital ecosystems is the desire to exploit the self-organising properties of biological ecosystems. Ecosystems are thought to be robust, scalable architectures that can automatically solve complex, dynamic problems. However, the computing technologies that contribute to these properties have not been made explicit in digital ecosystems research. Here, we discuss how different computing technologies can contribute to providing the necessary self-organising features, including Multi-Agent Systems (MASs), Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs), and distributed evolutionary computing (DEC). The potential for exploiting these properties in digital ecosystems is considered, suggesting how several key features of biological ecosystems can be exploited in Digital Ecosystems, and discussing how mimicking these features may assist in developing robust, scalable self-organising architectures. An example architecture, the Digital Ecosystem, is considered in detail. The Digital Ecosystem is then measured experimentally through simulations, considering the self-organised diversity of its evolving agent populations relative to the user request behaviour.


The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of the aminoglycoside-supersusceptible Pseudomonas aeruginosa tolA mutant PAO1715 was compared with its parent strain PAO1670 and tol+ revertant PAO1716. Electrophoretic separation of purified LPSs from the three isolates showed similar LPS banding patterns. Analysis of the Western blots of these LPSs from the three isolates with O-antigen-specific monoclonal antibody indicated that the ladder pattern consisted of doublet bands, which presumably reflected a modification of core or lipid A; the level of one of the bands in the doublet was in much lower amounts in the isolate from the tolA mutant than in that from the parent or revertant. Results of competitive displacement experiments, in which the cationic spin probe 4-dodecyldimethylammonium-1-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine bromide was displaced from its LPS-binding site by polycations, revealed that the tolA mutant had a much higher affinity for gentamicin, polymyxin, Ca2+, and Mg2+ than did the parent or revertant. The order of affinity for all samples was polymyxin B much greater than gentamicin C much greater than Ca2+ greater than Mg2+. Both gentamicin and polymyxin induced rigidification of all of the LPS samples, but for the sample from the tolA mutant, rigidification occurred at substantially lower concentrations. Dansyl polymyxin titration experiments with intact cells demonstrated that the increased affinity of the LPS from the tolA mutant for polycations was reflected in an increase in the affinity of binding to the cell. Together these data suggest that the tolA mutant is supersusceptible to aminoglycosides by virtue of an LPS change which increases the binding affinity of the LPS for polycations, including gentamicin.


We used a kinematic analysis for assessing locomotor impairments and evaluating the time course of recovery after focal injury to the forepaw area of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) in rats. The animals were trained to traverse a beam that was rotated at various speeds. Changes in orientation of the body and independent movement of the anterior and posterior parts of the body were reconstructed using a 3D motion analysis. In addition, we used electrophysiological cortical mapping to search for neurophysiological changes within the spared cortical zones surrounding the lesion. Neuronal recordings were performed in the same animals prior to and 3 weeks after the lesion induction. Our findings show that a focal lesion that destroyed about 60% of the forepaw representational zone was sufficient to cause conspicuous impairments in the rats' ability to produce adequate motor adjustments to compensate for the lateral shift of the beam and to avoid falling. The main deficits were reflected in a lack of appropriate coordination between the anterior and posterior parts of the body and an inability to maintain a regular gait during locomotion. Skilled locomotion was fully recovered within a 2-3 week period. Functional recovery cannot be ascribed to a restitution of the lost sensory representations. A permanent decrease of forepaw representation was recorded despite the re-emergence of restricted representational sectors in the peri-lesion zone. We suggest that alterations may have occurred in other cortical and subcortical areas interconnected with the injured area. It is also conceivable that the functional recovery involved an increased reliance on all the available sources of sensorimotor regulation as well as the use of behavioral strategies.


BACKGROUND
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) viremia is described as persistent HCV RNA among HCV exposed individuals. HCV viremic rate is defined as the proportion of anti-HCV positive and HCV RNA positive individuals to total anti-HCV positive individuals. Knowledge about HCV viremic rate increases understanding HCV epidemiology and provides the likelihood of HCV viremia infection in a given population. The aim of this study was to evaluate HCV viremic rate and demographic parameter correlations among HCV confirmed Iranian blood donors.

METHODS
In this analytical, cross-sectional study, serologically confirmed HCV positive blood donors, who were referred to the Iranian blood transfusion centers around the country from November 2015 to September 2017, were included. HCV RNA RT-PCR was carried out by an in-house qualitative assay. Penalized logistic regression was performed for data analysis. STATA software version 13 was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS
Out of 239 subjects, HCV RNA was amplified in 161 (67.36%, 95% CI 61.21% -73.51%). No statistical associations were found between age, gender, education and marriage status with HCV viremic rate. First time donation was found to be associated with HCV viremia status (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 3.26; 95% CI 1.07-9.87).

CONCLUSION
The results of this study show the likelihood of active HCV infection occurrence among HCV confirmed Iranian blood donors, as the majority are in the active phase of HCV infection. The viremic rate was associated with first time donation. More effective donor selection process and paying special attention to maintenance of non-infected first time donors as a resource of regular donations are needed to improve blood safety. Follow-up studies on viremic first time blood donors are recommended to clarify impact of factors on the occurrence of HCV viremia.


Investigations have been made on the fabrication of accurate and uniform T-bar circuits. Chrome masks are preferable to emulsion masks, and furthermore, a minimum exposure and intimate contact have been demonstrated to be necessary for accurate and uniform pattern imaging on the AZ1350 resist. A newly developed chemical etchant, a nitric acid-base solution without ferric chloride, can almost eliminate undercutting of permalloy elements. Application of spin-on-glass prior to Permalloy evaporation can result in excellent step coverage at the places where T-bar circuits overlap conductors. Large memory chips having a capacity of 16 × 103bits and a storage density of 105bits/cm2have successfully been fabricated.


Gramicidin, an antimicrobial peptide active against Gram positive bacteria, is commonly used in pharmaceutical preparations for topical use. Considering that only the turbidimetric method has been described in the literature, the present study sought to develop and validate an agar diffusion method for the dosage of gramicidin. The method was developed and validated using the Kocuria rhizophila ATCC 9341 as a test microorganism. Two designs were used: a 3x3 parallel-line model, and a 5x1 standard curve. The validation demonstrated that the method follows the linear model (r2= 0.994), presenting a significant regression between the zone diameter of growth inhibition and the logarithm of the concentration within the range of 5 to 25.3 µg/mL. The results obtained for both designs were precise, having a relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) for intra-day precision of 0.81 for the 3x3 assay and 1.90 for the 5x1 assay. For the inter-day precision, the R.S.D. was 1.35 for the 3x3 and 2.64 for the 5x1. The accuracy was verified and results confirmed to be accurate, having a tolerance interval of 95%, which lay within permitted limits and appropriate trueness. In addition, the method was considered selective, with limit of detection and upper and lower limits of quantification of 2.00, 5.00 and 25.3 µg/mL, respectively. No difference in precision between the designs used in the agar diffusion method was evident (p>0.05). The method proved to be appropriate for the microbiological dosage of the raw material gramicidin.


The work sought, through a systematic review research, to study the production on mental health of health workers in the post covid-19 pandemic. Thus, a review of the narrative was carried out, which is characterized by critical analysis of the bibliographic production of the research topic, considering the period chosen for the study. A total of 987 works were found, 891 were excluded because 96 of which the abstracts were read, 19 were selected for the sample that actually dealt with the mental health of health professionals and only 11 were selected to compose the study because it was about post impacts. pandemic. The results showed that the mental health of health workers has always been a reality due to the precariousness of the system, however, it was aggravated by the health emergency and the sociopolitical and economic context and an ongoing necropolitics in the country.


Cultural heritage plays a considerable role in society. It reflects and shapes the values, beliefs and aspirations that define national identity. It is also a source of pride for new generations and gives a sense of belonging to communities.

The remains of old architectural structures, which are surviving the creep of modern concrete buildings in historical locations in Ras Al Khaimah, are signs of a rich cultural heritage that has evolved more elaborately compared to many cities in the region. The lack of records on these houses and their urban forms, however, increases the likelihood of potential knowledge loss related to the Emirati heritage that they embody.

The aim of this paper is to raise awareness among the community, especially the youth, about the importance of cultural heritage in Ras Al Khaimah through engaging academic institutions. One way to preserve this cultural heritage is through documentation of the current physical conditions for select historic houses in the Old Town area of Ras Al Khaimah using architectural drawings, images, and photos. A pilot experiential learning project that engaged American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK) architecture students in a documentation process for six buildings highlights the potential for similar approaches at other academic institutions and demonstrates how collaborative partnerships may result between various stakeholders and academic researchers, students, and practitioners in a mutual effort to preserve cultural heritage.


Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs), formed by computers embedded in vehicles and the traffic infrastructure, are expected to develop in the near future to improve traffic safety and efficiency. To this end, VANETs should be designed to be resistant against various abuses and attacks. In this paper, we first review the existing proposals to provide security, privacy, and data aggregation in vehicle-to-vehicle communication. We then address the fundamental issue of achieving these conflicting properties in a unified solution, having observed that separate efforts cannot fulfill the VANET design objectives. A set of new mechanisms are suggested for efficiently managing identities and securely compressing cryptographic witnesses, which are among the major obstacles to the deployment of strong security mechanisms in VANETs.


Background: Air pollution is associated with total mortality. This association may be confounded by uncontrolled time-varying risk factors such as influenza epidemics. Methods: We analyzed independent data on influenza epidemics from 7 European cities that also had data on mortality associated with particulates (PM10). We used 10 methods to control for epidemics (5 derived from influenza data and 5 from respiratory mortality series) and compared those results with analyses that did not control for these epidemics. Results: Adjustment for influenza epidemics increased the PM10 effect estimate in most cases (% change in the pooled regression coefficient: −1.9 to 38.9 for total mortality and 1.3 to 25.5 for cardiovascular mortality). A 10-μg/m3 increase in PM10 concentrations (lag 0–1) was associated with a 0.48% (95% confidence interval = 0.27–0.70%) increase in daily mortality unadjusted for influenza epidemics, whereas under the various methods to control for epidemics the increase ranged from 0.45% (0.26–0.69%) to 0.67% (0.46–0.89%). The corresponding figures for cardiovascular mortality were 0.85% (0.53–1.18%) with no adjustment and from 0.86% (0.53–1.19%) to 1.06% (0.74–1.39%) with the methods of control. Conclusions: The association between air pollution and mortality is not weakened by control for influenza epidemic irrespective of the method used. To adjust for influenza epidemics, one can use methods based on respiratory mortality counts instead of counts of influenza cases if the latter are not available. However, adjustment for influenza by any method tested did not markedly alter the air pollution effect estimate.


This thesis examines how information costs, minimum quality standards and electoral incentives affect international trade and trade policy choice. First, a new pairwise matching model with two-sided information asymmetry is developed to analyse the impact of information costs on endogenous network-building and matching by information intermediaries. The framework innovates by examining the role of information costs on incentives for trade intermediation, thereby endogenising the pattern of direct and indirect trade. The model is extended to analyse the strategic interaction between two information intermediaries who compete in commission rates and network size, giving rise to a fragmented duopoly market structure. Second, unilateral minimum quality standards are endogenously determined as the outcome of a non-cooperative standard-setting game between the governments of two countries. Cross-country externalities from the implementation of minimum quality standards are shown to give rise to a Prisoners' Dilemma structure in the incentives of policy-makers leading to inefficient policy outcomes. The role of minimum quality standards as non-tariff barriers is examined and the scope for mutual gains from reciprocal adjustment in minimum standards analysed. Asymmetric externalities make a cooperative agreement at the world optimum infeasible. Third, a new multi-jurisdictional political agency model is developed to analyse electoral incentives for trade protection in an electoral college. A unique equilibrium is shown to exist where political incumbents build a reputation for protectionism through their policy decisions in their first term of office. A spatial dimension is introduced that shows how trade policy incentives hinge on the distribution of swing voters across decisive, swing states. The empirical analysis augments a benchmark test of the "Protection for Sale" mechanism to include a measure of how industries specialise geographically in swing and decisive states. The findings lend support to the theory.


ABSTRACT From February 26, 2020 to March 11, 2021, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in 11,439,558 cases and 277,102 deaths in Brazil. Among them, 2,195,130 cases and 63,965 deaths occurred in Sao Paulo State, Southeast Brazil. The recent emergence and rise of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 is of concern because of their higher transmissibility and possible association with more severe disease. Cases of SARS-CoV-2 reinfections have been described since December 2020 in Brazil. This report describes two cases of COVID-19 reinfection, that occurred five and six months after the first infection, during the second wave of the pandemic in Sao Paulo State. Both patients presented mild symptoms in the two COVID-19 episodes and different lineages of SARS-CoV-2 were identified: B.1.1.33 and B.1.1.28 lineages in case 1 and B1.1.128 and P. 2 lineages in case 2.


We have quantified floristic changes in alpine snowbeds and wetland vegetation during three decades and analyzed to what extent these changes are related to initial variations in snow cover duration and distance to groundwater level. Vascular plant species richness and total plant cover were estimated along three transects in northern Norway. Three different vegetation zones were identified along the original transects: relatively dry snowbeds, wet snowbeds and wetlands. The resampling shows major changes in species richness and plant cover. In general, there was a net immigration of species and 13 new species were found. Five rare species with initial low cover were lost. In the dry and wet snowbeds, species richness and total plant cover increased, mostly because of invasion by shrubs, graminoids and herbs. A general trend was that species indicating high soil moisture were strongly reduced. In the wetland zones there were no significant floristic changes but hygrophilous species had decreased and were replaced by graminoids and shrub species with lower water requirements. These floristic changes were significantly related to snow and soil moisture conditions, important factors for rate and direction of change. Contrasting vegetation responses within very short distances demonstrate the importance of detailed knowledge of the actual microhabitats when effects of climate change in alpine habitats are considered.


This paper is a four section investigation of various communication principles to demonstrate the capabilities of using MATLAB and Software Defined Radio (RTL-SDR R820T) to receive, decode, analyse and resample a radio frequency signal. A novel MATLAB model system is developed to identify signals based on the signal characteristics in the spectrum analysers. The bandwidth, frequency, modulation and demodulation techniques of the signal were also identified. The section two is a design developed around multiplex and down-conversion to baseband In-phase/Quadrature phase (IQ) for multiple channel Frequency Modulated (FM) and Amplitude Modulated Double Sideband Transmitted Carrier (AM-DSB-TC) signal received. The functional description of sampling, decimation and interpolation form part of the contribution of this paper. The final section of the paper presents a short research on the potential benefits and a survey into the future of Software Defined Radio (SDR). Keywords: Modulation, Decimation, Demodulation, Interpolation, Frequency, MATLAB/Simulink


Recently discovered intrinsic magnetic topological insulators (IMTIs) constitute a unique class of quantum materials that combine magnetism and nontrivial topology. One of the most promising applications of these materials is Majorana fermion creation; Majorana fermions are expected to arise when a superconductor is in contact with the surface of an IMTI. Here we study the adsorption of Pb ultrathin films on top of IMTIs of various stoichiometries. By means of XPS we figure out the formation of the Pb wetting layer coupled to the surface atoms for low coverages and overlayer growth on top upon further deposition. Investigation of the adsorbed surfaces by means of ARPES shows the Dirac cone survival, its shift in a binding energy, and the Pb electronic states appearance. The obtained results allow the Pb/IMTI interfaces to be constructed for the understanding of the proximity effect and provide an important step toward quantum device engineering based on IMTIs.


The research aimed to determine the impact of e-governance on achieving institutional excellence at the University of Ha'il from its faculty members' viewpoint regarding the Kingdom's vision 2030. The study was conducted on a random sample of (152) faculty members from various university faculties. Data were collected using the questionnaire as a means of data collection after confirming its suitability for measurement. The questionnaire was distributed electronically, due to the study suspension because of the Corona pandemic. The study relied on the social survey method. Means and standard deviations, simple correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis were used in the data analysis. The study found that the University of Ha'il practices e-governance. Besides, there is a statistically significant positive correlation between e-governance and institutional excellence. The combined dimensions of e-governance explain (78.9%) variance in institutional excellence. The most investigative dimension of e-governance was the infrastructure's availability, followed by transparency mechanisms, accounting accountability, effective participation, and job empowerment. The least of those dimensions was the human resource development dimension. It is suggested after analyzing the data that universities pay attention to practicing e-governance. It increases their competitiveness and promotes the chances of distinguishing their performance. There is a dire need to validate the necessity of refining the faculty members' skills concerning implementation and dealing with various electronic transactions. Keywords—E-governance; University Performance Excellence; Faculty Members; University of Ha'il.


The numerical solution of the RLW equation is obtained by using a splitting up technique and both quadratic and cubic B-splines. Both quadratic and cubic B-spline collocation methods are applied to the resulting equation. Solutions without splitting the RLW equation are also obtained with the method of the cubic collocation method. Results are substantiated by studying propagation of a solitary wave and undular bore development. Comparison is made with results of the proposed schemes.


This case study investigates how teachers render digital professional development in digital environments by interviewing with three preparatory school English language teachers voluntarily engaged in online professional development.  In order to examine their process of teacher learning in online settings, we drew on Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2012) regarding the motivation as to how they engage and learn in the course of online professional development. An exploratory approach was adopted based on the interviews, and the motivational factors of the participants together with how they exploit technology were presented in three different cases. The study revealed that all the teachers were intrinsically motivated, and the need for developing competence, exercising autonomy, and assessing relatedness were key motivational reasons behind their online professional learning. Instagram, MOOCs, YouTube and websites were the online sources mentioned by the participants when they turn to the Internet for help. The discussion focuses on implications of this study for encouraging language teachers to engage in online professional development drawing on self-determination theory.


In electrical impedance tomography (EIT) currents are applied through the electrodes attached on the surface of the object, and the resulting voltages are measured using the same or additional electrodes. Internal conductivity distribution is recalculated from the measured voltages and currents. The problem is very ill posed, and therefore, regularization has to be used. The aim is to reconstruct, as accurately as possible, the conductivity distribution s in phantom using finite element method (FEM). In this paper are proposed variations of the regularization term, which are applied to non-destructive identification of defects (voids or cracks) in conductive material.


JAMES DAVID WILSON: Statistical analysis of relational data: mining and modeling complex networks (Under the direction of Andrew B. Nobel and Shankar Bhamidi) Networks have created many new and exciting areas of scientific inquiry, particularly in the field of statistics. The relational and often complex nature of network data requires the development of new statistical techniques that address analysis, modeling, and simulation. In this dissertation, we make contributions to the development and application of statistical methodology on network data. This work is divided into two related areas. The first part of the dissertation is devoted to the problem of community detection: the unsupervised clustering of vertices in a network. Community detection is a common and important first step in the analysis of networks because networks tend to cluster into densely connected groups of vertices that often closely associate with important physical patterns of a modeled system. We develop and evaluate two novel significance-based detection techniques the Extraction of Statistically Significant Communities (ESSC) algorithm, and Multilayer Extraction. The ESSC algorithm is a hypothesis testing approach for undirected networks, while Multilayer Extraction is a scorebased approach that identifies significant vertex-layer communities in multilayer networks. The performance and potential use of both methods are investigated through simulations and real data applications, and large graph consistency is established for the Multilayer Extraction algorithm. The second part of the dissertation is devoted to the simulation and modeling of networks with weighted edges. The generalized exponential random graph model (GERGM) was recently proposed to model networks with continuous-valued edges; however, current estimation algorithms for the GERGM only allow inference on a restricted family of model specifications. We develop a Metropolis-Hastings estimation method that greatly extends the family of weighted graphs that can be modeled under the GERGM framework. We show that new flexible model specifications are capable of avoiding the common problem likelihood degeneracy. Furthermore, new specifications


The modem business economy is characterized by increased collaboration among different organizations across nation al boundaries. Post-Soviet Russia is one of the regions that is witnessing rapid economic growth and development of international business relations. Because of the challenges in intercultural communication the current study focuses on the problem of power distance, specifically in the workplace (in post-Soviet Russia). A phenomenological perspective, based on qualitative methodology, guided this research into the meaning of power experiences for individuals. Symbolic interactionism was used as a research paradigm of the study to view humans as active participants of the workplace, who engage in the power relationships actively-reacting to controversies of interactions and constant change in the everyday situations. The researcher developed and conducted several sets of interviews with employees, with relatives/friends of employees, and with country experts. The data were collected from employees of four companies in one of Central Russian regions (where intercultural connections develop especially rapidly)-with two private, two public, two prereform, and two postreform companies. These four companies were selected to examine influences of two dimensions, public versus private and older traditional versus newer entrepreneurial organizations. Analysis included transcribing of the interviews, identification and categorizations of the statements of meaning, description of participants' experiences, and identification of social processes. The results were grouped into gender, age, and ethical themes depending on three major dimensions (ownership, generation, gender). The major findings included: (a) contrary to previous research older managers appear not to be more aversive to risk-taking behaviors, (b) younger superiors are better accepted in the private postreform companies, but are less often appointed to such positions as compared to the other three settings, (c) public companies hold to the Soviet egalitarian gender ideas, but attitudes and hiring practices remain traditional in preferring male leaders, (d) although recognizing that female superiors can be as good as male superiors, young employees emphasize the "natural calling" of the women (that women's primary focus should be family), (e) emphasis on the importance of ethical leaders was common to all company types.


A B S T R A C T An evaluation of cell-mediated immunity in man is described that combines the advantages of an in vitro technique, lymphocyte transformation, with the use of contact sensitization to a primary immunogen, dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB). DNCB, when coupled to autologous or allogeneic peripheral blood leukocytes, forms a complex, DNCB-antigen, that induces lymphocyte transformation specifically in leukocyte cultures from subjects sensitized to DNCB. Sequential studies of lymphocyte transformation to DNCB-antigen show that specifically reactive lymphocytes are first detected at about 10 days after in vivo application of a sensitizing dose of DNCB and reach a peak at about 14-21 days.