Various State Government documentation, including the Tasmanian Wildlife Tourism Strategy 2005 highlight a series of action plans to facilitate an expansion of wildlife tourism in Tasmania. Little Penguin viewing is as one of the key wildlife tourism opportunities outlined. Subsequently this research focused on the sustainability of the Tasmanian colonies of Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) which are used for current commercial wildlife tourism experiences. Little Penguins are unique to Southern Australian states and therefore Australia has a duty of care to ensure that colonies are sustainable. Sustainable development is the framework used for this thesis;
• sustaining the potential of natural and physical resources to meet the reasonably foreseeable needs of future generations;
• safeguarding the life-supporting capacity of air, water, soil and ecosystems; and
• avoiding, remedying or mitigating any adverse effects of activities on the environment.
Therefore the research aimed to contribute to the development of good practice guidelines for minimizing human disturbance to Little Penguins at commercial penguin viewing operations in Tasmania. This research identified the impacts on colonies of Little Penguins, through activities including tourism.
The study highlights twelve points which would contribute to the sustainability of Little Penguin (Eudyptula minor) colonies utilised for commercial tourism viewing opportunities in Tasmania.
• the importance of a vision, goals and leadership;
• the requirement for appropriately empowered governance and management structures;
• the need for licensing arrangements that achieve objectives; and are attached to a rigorous yearly license renewal process;
• the need for a operator code of best practice with yearly objectives;
• the requirement for impact assessments to be conducted;
• the need for management plans for each site;
• the requirement for base line data;
• the need for appropriate infrastructure;
• the need for operator investment in species and habitat protection;
• the need for community involvement;
• the importance of ongoing research; and
• the need to maintain monitoring and reporting with a view to adaptive management implementations as appropriate.


A new method for continuing the Fourier spectrum of data of finite extent has been developed. Almost perfect restoration was obtained for noise-free data. Much improved resolution was obtained for error-laden data. Many forms of peak data lend themselves easily to the application of additional constraints that further enhance resolution almost to the theoretical limit.


Unilateral use of chemical fertilizers, devoid of organic sources, has led to gradual deterioration of soil health, exacerbating the agricultural productivity. This study focuses on the review the performance, effectiveness and modality of organic manure promotion programmes intervened by MoAD, using secondary datas. Major programmes intervened are: Vermi-compost production, cattle shed improvement, organic fertilizer industries establishment and price subsidy to farmers purchasing organic fertilizers. Study shows that these programs are effective to reduce soil health deterioration by making nutrient rich manure available at local level. Moreover, it has helped to reduce dependency of fertilizers on other countries and to promote sustainable agriculture. Altogether 1495 vermi-compost pits were constructed and 33746 cattle sheds were improved all over the country till FY 2072/73. Converting farm and household organic wastes into organic manure, improvement of the nutrient content of FYM, utilization of cattle urine for plant protection measures were the benefits of these programs. Furthermore, in long run it helps to create green economy by reducing pollution by keeping environment safe and clean.


The Australian Museum has been using a 3-D laser scanner for several years as a means of recording objects and reproducing digital or physical copies. The digital data can be manipulated, studied and overlain on older scans to measure condition change. The paper outlines the various uses of this rapidly developing technology in the cultural conservation field and which applications are most effective. Also, it compares the characteristics of 3-d photography against 3-d scanning for presenting museum objects on the internet.


In numerical simulations with moving bodies, and often with complex geometries, generation of high-quality body-fitted grids is a cumbersome and time-consuming task. An alternative is to use a fixed (Cartesian) background grid, and allow the body to move freely over this. The challenge in such methods is to transfer the body-boundary conditions of the moving body to fixed grid nodes in a rational manner. In this paper, an Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) is proposed to simulate potential flow about a moving body on a Cartesian background grid. The recently developed Harmonic Polynomial Method, proven both accurate and computationally efficient, is used to represent the velocity potential in the fluid. The body-boundary conditions are interpolated by using ghost nodes inside the body with mirror interpolation points in the fluid.The method is first tested for a fixed cylinder in oscillatory flow to determine the accuracy of the proposed IBM, before considering the equivalent case of an oscillating cylinder in still fluid. Finally, a steadily-advancing cylinder is studied, which is considered as the most challenging case with respect to spurious pressure oscillations. These are known to be a challenge in many IBMs, and special attention is therefore devoted to this aspect.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


In the twentieth century, historical circumstance in the form of the Holocaust led to theodicy's returning to the forefront of the philosophical agenda, particularly in Jewish thought. As a result, post-Holocaust theology is almost always an element of introductory courses on modern and contemporary Jewish philosophy, if not introductory courses on modern Judaism simpliciter. Many working in the field of Jewish philosophy, therefore, probably first encounter Emil Fackenheim (1916–2003), and the infamous turn of phrase that ensured his immortality in the realm of Jewish thought, early on in their studies. Fackenheim was one of the most influential post-Holocaust philosophical voices in what soon became a cacophony. This German-born philosopher's (and ordained Reform rabbi's) concept of the 614th commandment—not to grant Hitler a posthumous victory (in his own words "the only statement of mine that ever became famous")—has captured the imagination of many a student and often made a lasting impression. Yet it seems that one of the concerns at the forefront of this new expansive monograph on Fackenheim's philosophy is that for the majority, this constitutes both their first and last exposure to his thought, leaving them with an extremely contracted view of his conceptual palate. The result, noted in the book's introduction, is that Fackenheim has never really been considered a Jewish philosopher worthy of mention in the same breath as Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, or even latterly Emmanuel Levinas and Joseph Soloveitchik. In this volume, a case is presented for including him on that list.


An anthracycline-resistant subline of HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60/AR) has been isolated in vitro by subculturing in progressively higher concentrations of Adriamycin. The resistant cells are capable of sustaining continuous growth in 10(-6) M Adriamycin which is more than 50 times the 50% inhibitory dose for the parent line. HL-60/AR expressed variable degrees of cross-resistance to daunorubicin, dihydroxyanthracenedione, vincristine, vinblastine, and actinomycin D, but it remained sensitive to methotrexate and 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of glycoproteins of HL-60/AR revealed two prominent glycoproteins with molecular weights of 160,000 +/- 10,000 and 110,000 +/- 10,000 which were not detected in the sensitive cells. Cellular uptake and retention of daunorubicin was studied in the resistant and sensitive cells utilizing digitized video fluorescence microscopy. The sensitive cells accumulated more drug and showed at least 2-fold greater levels of brightness than the resistant cells. Studies of total intracellular accumulation, utilizing 10(-6) M [14C]-daunorubicin as a marker, showed a 1-h accumulation of 98 +/- 20 pmol/10(6) cells in HL-60/AR versus 255 +/- 25 pmol/10(6) cells in HL-60. Exposure to nontoxic concentrations of the calcium channel blocker Verapamil (10(-5) M) led to enhanced accumulation (175 +/- 8 pmol/10(6) cells) and retention of the drug in HL-60/AR, resulting in increased cytotoxicity in HL-60/AR. These anthracycline-resistant leukemic cells may serve as a valuable experimental model in studying the phenomenon of multiple drug resistance as well as strategies to circumvent it in human myeloid leukemia.


The aim of study is to produce the synthesis of biodiesel from waste cooking oil (WCO) using ultrasonic tubular reactor at laboratory scale. The experiment was used to determine the effect of ester contents by reaction time, molar ratio of WCO to Methanol (MeOH), amount of catalyst, frequency of ultrasonic and ultrasonic output power using ultrasonic tubular reactor. Based on the optimum process by ultrasonic tubular reactor, a comparisons study of three different processes (ultrasonic tubular reactor, conventional ultrasonic cleaner and mechanical stirring) were also investigated. The optimum results of biodiesel process using ultrasonic tubular reactor are the reaction time of 5 minute, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) catalyst 1%wt of WCO, molar ratio WCO to MeOH of 1:6, frequency ultrasonic of 20 KHz and ultrasonic output power of 650 Watt. The reaction time was reduced to 12-24 times (minute) compare to mechanical stirring and the ester contents was obtained at 96.54%wt. The ternary phase diagram ultrasonic tubular reactor was to find out the liquid liquid-equilibrium base on WCO- Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) -MeOH. The results show that by increasing the residence time of the whole reactant system within the two-phase zone is good for the reaction transesterification on ultrasonic tubular reactor. The semi continuous ultrasonic tubular reactor for biodiesel process of WCO gave conversion of WCO to FAME of 98%wt with flow rate of 5.56 ml/s. Meanwhile, the pilot plan of biodiesel facilities using mechanical stirring method (capacity of 100 kg WCO/batch) was designed and the transfer knowledge about biodiesel process was a success between the university with industry in Batu Pahat.


Calls have been made for the creation of a shared knowledge base in mathematics teacher education with the power to inform the design of scholarly inquiry and mathematics teacher educators' (MTEs) scholarly practices. Focusing on mathematics methods courses, we summarize and contribute to literature documenting activities MTEs use in mathematics methods courses. We suggest two strands of a research program that have the potential to structure and inform the development of MTEs' scholarly inquiry and practices. A summary of findings from research studies exploring one type of methods course activity is shared. The research is explored for its potential to contribute to two different strands of the research program and to MTEs' practices. Recommendations and implications for inquiry that supports MTEs' practices are provided.


Accepting Inheritance with the Benefit of the Inventory. From Justinian Law to the Civil Code Summary The Justinian model, limiting the heir's liability for inherited debt by means of benefit of the inventory, found a lasting place in the later private jurisprudence and received confirmation in the modern age codification of the civil law (ABGB, Napoleonic Code, BGB). Created in the Justinian code, beneficium inventarii was also adopted in the Polish succession law. It found its way to Polish legislation by way of the "great civil codes" in force in the territory of Poland in the time of partitions and after the country regained independence in 1918. Similarly, the unified and codified succession laws of Poland after World War II stipulated, beside the simple inheritance acceptance, also the acquisition of inheritance with beneficium inventarii. Other contemporary systems of legislation also apply the solutions adopted in the Roman law with regard to limiting the liability for inherited debt, e.g. Art. 7774 of French CC; § 1975 of German BGB. Both in Justinian's legislation and in Polish laws acceptance of inheritance with the benefit of the inventory was an exception to the general rule which stipulated that the heir had unlimited liability for inherited debt. Receiving inheritance with beneficium inventarii limited the heir's liabilities for the inherited debt in accordance with the property inventory. But in Justinian's law the heir's liability was based only on the inherited assets (cum viribus hereditatis) while in Polish legislation it resulted from the active value of the legacy (pro viribus hereditatis) .


Abstract:  We treated two cases of interstitial cystitis (IC) that were resistant to some conventional therapies with hyperbaric oxygen (HBO). Both patients underwent 20 sessions of 100% oxygen inhalation (2.0 atmosphere absolute for 60 min/day × 5 days/week for 4 weeks) in a hyperbaric chamber. The period of follow up was 12 months for case 1 and 9 months for case 2. After a course of HBO, the bladder mucosal ulcer (Hunner's ulcer) disappeared, and changes from baseline in pain and urinary frequency was constitutively inhibited. There were no adverse events during the 20 treatment sessions. One woman (case 1) had mild Eustachian tube dysfunction, resulting in a transient hearing impairment. HBO seems to be an option for treatment of IC resistant to conventional therapies.


Abstract Ground spices are a source of hazards for dry-fermented meat products. Since dry-cured sausages are not subjected to heat treatment, there is a high risk of microbial cross-contamination and physical impurities. The aim of this study was to determine effects of the replacement of 3 g/kg of ground black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), and cumin (Cuminum cyminum) with their aliquots of new freon extracts, and compare them with the effect of 0.2 g/kg antioxidant addition (taxifolin extract from Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) extract, and butylated hydroxytoluene) on sensory properties, color stability, proximate composition, free amino nitrogen and pH of Bulgarian-type dry-cured "Sudjuk" sausages. The replacement of natural ground spices with aliquots of their extracts improved sensory properties and stabilized the color characteristics of the final product during 30 days of storage at 0–4°C. The addition of 0.2 g/kg rosemary extract was as effective as the addition of freon extracts on the overall assessment to the 14th day of the experiment. It was determined that the addition of antioxidants or spice extracts had no significant effect on proximate composition, pH, and free amino nitrogen accumulation of the "Sudjuk". The addition of 0.2 g/kg, taxifolin or rosemary extracts and butylated hydroxytoluene was not so efficient in improving the sensory properties and color stabilization in comparison to the new freon spice extracts. The examined spice extracts can be successfully used to improve the quality of "Sudjuk" sausages.

http://journal.pan.olsztyn.pl/pdf-98479-31237?filename=Comparison of the Effect.pdf


Background: Program similarity is a fundamental concept, central to the solution of software engineering tasks such as software plagiarism, clone identification, code refactoring and code search. Accurate similarity estimation between programs requires an in-depth understanding of their structure, semantics and flow. A control flow graph (CFG), is a graphical representation of a program which captures its logical control flow and hence its semantics. A common approach is to estimate program similarity by analysing CFGs using graph similarity measures, e.g. graph edit distance (GED). However, graph edit distance is an NP-hard problem and computationally expensive, making the application of graph similarity techniques to complex software programs impractical. Aim: This study intends to examine the effectiveness of graph neural networks to estimate program similarity, by analysing the associated control flow graphs. Method: We introduce funcGNN1, which is a graph neural network trained on labeled CFG pairs to predict the GED between unseen program pairs by utilizing an effective embedding vector. To our knowledge, this is the first time graph neural networks have been applied on labeled CFGs for estimating the similarity between highlevel language programs. Results: We demonstrate the effectiveness of funcGNN to estimate the GED between programs and our experimental analysis demonstrates how it achieves a lower error rate (1.94 x10-3), with faster (23 times faster than the quickest traditional GED approximation method) and better scalability compared with state of the art methods. Conclusion: funcGNN posses the inductive learning ability to infer program structure and generalise to unseen programs. The graph embedding of a program proposed by our methodology could be applied to several related software engineering problems (such as code plagiarism and clone identification) thus opening multiple research directions.


High plasma levels of the shed form of L-selectin (sL-selectin) are frequently detectable in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). sL-selectin can inhibit blast cell adhesion to vascular endothelium and may thereby influence the phenotype of AML. In this study, we have investigated the relationship between sL-selectin levels and clinical presentation or disease outcome in 100 patients with AML. Fifty-eight patients were found to have sL-selectin levels ≥3.12 μg/mL (≥3 SD above the mean of healthy controls: "increased"). Patients with extramedullary disease such as lymphadenopathies, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, and/or muco-cutaneous infiltration had significantly increased sL-selectin levels ( P < .001). sL-selectin levels were significantly heterogeneous in the French-American-British subtypes ( P = .0003). Patients with "normal" sL-selectin levels had higher probability of achieving complete remission (CR) than with "increased" levels: 81% versus 64%, respectively ( P = .06). When adjusting for clinically relevant covariates predictive for CR (sex, age, Auer rods), "normal" sL-selectin levels were significantly associated with CR (odds ratio, 3.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.10 to 8.58; P = .03). Moreover, patients with "increased" sL-selectin levels (≥3.12 μg/mL) had shorter event-free survival (EFS) (median 7.3 v 12 months, P = .008) and overall survival (median 1 v 2.05 years, P = .03) than patients with sL-selectin <3.12 μg/mL. Multivariate statistical analysis (adjusted for age and presence of Auer rods) indicated that sL-selectin was an independent prognostic factor for EFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.96; 95% CI, 1.21 to 3.17, P = .006) and overall survival (HR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.09 to 2.98; P = .02). Thus, plasma sL-selectin may be a useful prognostic marker in the evaluation of AML at diagnosis.

© 1998 by The American Society of Hematology.


Debate rages as to whether habitat fragmentation leads to the decline of biodiversity once habitat loss is accounted for. Previous studies have defined fragmentation variously, but research needs to address "fragmentation per se," which excludes confounding effects of habitat loss. Our study controls for habitat area and employs a mechanistic multi-species simulation to explore processes that may lead some species groups to be more or less sensitive to fragmentation per se. Our multi-land-cover, landscape-scale, individual-based model incorporates the movement of generic species, each with different land cover preferences. We investigate how fragmentation per se changes diversity patterns; within (alpha), between (beta) and across (gamma) patches of a focal-land-cover, and if this differs among species groups according to their specialism and dependency on this focal-land-cover. We defined specialism as the increased competitive ability of specialists in suitable habitat and decreased ability in less suitable land covers compared to generalist species. We found fragmentation per se caused an increase in gamma diversity in the focal-land-cover if we considered all species regardless of focal-land-cover preference. However, critically for conservation, the gamma diversity of species for whom the focal land cover is suitable habitat declined under fragmentation per se. An exception to this finding occurred when these species were specialists, who were unaffected by fragmentation per se. In general, focal-land-cover species were under pressure from the influx of other species, with fragmentation per se leading to a loss of alpha diversity not compensated for by increases in beta diversity and, therefore, gamma diversity fell. The specialist species, which were more competitive, were less affected by the influx of species and therefore alpha diversity decreased less with fragmentation per se and beta diversity compensated for this loss, meaning gamma diversity did not decrease. Our findings help to inform the fragmentation per se debate, showing that effects on biodiversity can be negative or positive, depending on species' competitive abilities and dependency on the fragmented land cover. Such differences in the effect of fragmentation per se would have important consequences for conservation. Focusing conservation efforts on reducing or preventing fragmentation in areas with species vulnerable to fragmentation.


This paper introduces a kind of high-speed real-time information collection system based on FPGA and USB. Through the software and hardware technology, the system uses the combination of EP2C8Q208C8FPGA chip of Cyclone II series, FT245BM type fast USB communication interface chip of FTDI company and HK-2000 G pulse transducer. The system realizes the collection of pulse signal, and the real-time data's storage and the show of pulse wave on PC. According to the change of the pulse condition, doctors will know better about the health condition of human body and it's beneficial to analysis the cause.


We report on ultrahigh-speed 80 nm AlInN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on (111) high-resistivity silicon substrates. The devices feature a peak measured transconductance gM = 415 mS/mm, a maximum current of 1.43 A/mm with a ratio ION/IOFF > 106, and current gain and maximum oscillation cutoff frequencies of fT = 143 GHz and fMAX = 176 GHz, which are the highest cutoff frequencies ever achieved for any GaN HEMTs on silicon substrates. The results demonstrate the outstanding potential of AlInN/GaN HEMTs grown on silicon for low-cost high-performance millimeter-wave electronics.


Several recent papers have tested the permanent income-cum- rational expectations hypothesis using data on nondurable or semi-durable consumption. We show how this approach can be extended to the case of durables. An application to panel data on automobile expenditures reveals no evidence against the permanent income hypothesis. This result is unchanged in subsamples segregated by family holdings of liquid assets.


Monitoring the attentive and emotional status of the driver is critical for the safety and comfort of driving. In this work a real-time non-intrusive monitoring system is developed, which detects the emotional states of the driver by analyzing facial expressions. The system considers two negative basic emotions, anger and disgust, as stress related emotions. We detect an individual emotion in each video frame and the decision on the stress level is made on sequence level. Experimental results show that the developed system operates very well on simulated data even with generic models. An additional pose normalization step reduces the impact of pose mismatch due to camera setup and pose variation, and hence improves the detection accuracy further.


In this Article, Professor Richard Lazarus examines the votes of the individual Justices who have decided environmental law cases before the United States Supreme Court during the past three decades. The article reports on a number of interesting statistics regarding the identity of those Justices who have most influenced the Court's environmental law jurisprudence and the sometimes curious patterns in voting exhibited by individual Justices. The article's thesis is that the Supreme Court's apparent apathy or even antipathy towards environmental law during that time results from the Justices' failure to appreciate environmental law as a distinct area of law. The Justices have instead tended to view environmental protection as merely an incidental factual context for the presentation of legal issues that share no unique environmental dimension. Professor Lazarus posits that this view of environmental law is misguided and that it has resulted in poorer Court decisions. Missing from the Court's analysis has been sufficient emphasis on the nature and normative weightiness of environmental protection concerns and their import both for judicial construction of relevant legal rules and the Court's understanding of the workings of relevant lawmaking institutions. Finally, the article describes how the 'environmental' dimension to environmental law might be restored to the nation's highest Court. This discussion includes a description of how the ecological character of the problem addressed by environmental law affects legal doctrine and lawmaking institutions and how current and future Justices might be made better aware of that relationship.


Abstract The deliberative conception of the public sphere has proven popular in the critical evaluation of the democratic role of media and communication. However, the conception has come under sustained critique from poststructuralist-influenced theorists, amongst others, for failing to fully account for the exclusions that result from it being defined as a universal norm of public sphere deliberation. This paper examines how this critique may be answered. It does so first by exploring how (sophisticated) deliberative theory can reply to the critique, and second by turning to the poststructuralist-influenced critics – specifically post-Marxist discourse theorists – and asking how they might provide a way forward. With respect to the fi rst, the paper finds that deliberative theory can, and often does, account for the exclusions in question much more than critics suggest, but that there remains concern about the conception's radical democratic status given that exponents (seem to) derive it extra-politically. With respect to the second, the paper finds that a post-Marxist discourse theory reading – that embraces radical contingency – of the deliberative public sphere conception provides a purely political framework for theorising deliberative exclusion (and associated politics), and thus offers an ontological and democratic radicalisation of the public sphere conception. However, given the embrace of radical contingency, and thus acceptance of inelminable power, the paper concludes by indicating that this radicalisation may illicit concern about its radical democratic status.


BACKGROUND Urban environmental pollutants, resulting from the inadequate control in the industries and from the use of vehicles, still represent a great danger for millions of people all around the world. PATIENTS AND METHOD We made a study in healthy young people without family history of atopy that lived in Guadalajara's downtown, as well as in another group of young people who lived in a rural area. According to the census of the year 2000, Guadalajara city has a population of 4 million habitants, and a vehicle number of about a million. The immunological parameters that we studied were: IgG, IgA and IgM immunoglobulins by nephelometry, serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-1alpha, IL1-beta and TNF-alpha by ELISAs test, and the phagocytic index in polymorphonuclears. The atmospheric parameters were: NO2, O3, SO2, CO and the suspended particles that were less than 10 micrometers (PM10). These parameters were obtained from a mobile unit found at the Instituto de Astronomia y Meteorologia de la Universidad de Guadalajara, and from an automatic station of environmental monitoring. RESULTS It stands out the high concentrations of NO2 and PM10, which in several occasions were over the standards established by the WHO. IgG, IgA and IgM immunoglobulins were lower in the subjects living in the city that in those who lived in the rural area. Phagocytic index in polymorphonuclears, as well as IL-1alpha levels were higher in the city group, though we did not find a significant difference in the immunological parameters analyzed in the studied groups. CONCLUSION Environmental pollution levels found at Guadalajara's downtown does not modify the immunological parameters studied in the peripheral blood of healthy young people. This shows that this group of population is less vulnerable than others to the exposition of moderate levels of urban air pollution.


This paper will outline the key elements of my professional identity, giving the reader a portrait of how I will operate as a social welfare worker. My practice framework includes a discussion of the values of social justice, accountability, transparency and congruence which I feel strongly about. Included is an evaluation of postmodernism, systems theory and anti-oppressive theories, three theories which have best informed my practice, and how these theories were revised, modified or confirmed (O'Connor, Wilson & Setterlund 2003:217). Issues such as the influence of the medical model in welfare work and the use of principles similar to those used during the time of the stolen generation posed a challenge to my practice on placement. I have discovered my professional identity is shaped by my belief that change is possible and can occur. I have identified closely with critical social work practice and a reflective approach.


Abstract Conventional models of equilibrium unemployment typically imply that proportional taxes on labor earnings are neutral with respect to unemployment as long as the tax does not affect the replacement rate provided by unemployment insurance, i.e. unemployment benefits relative to after-tax earnings. When home production is an option, the conventional results may no longer hold. This paper uses a search equilibrium model with home production to examine the employment and welfare implications of labor taxes. The employment effect of a rise in a proportional tax is found to be negative for sufficiently low replacement rates, whereas it is ambiguous for moderate and high replacement rates. Numerical calibrations of the model indicate that employment generally falls when labor taxes are raised.


In 1998, an efficient group signature scheme (the Lee-Chang scheme) was proposed based on the discrete logarithm problem. In this scheme, different group signatures of a signer for different messages contain some identical information. Once one group signature is identified, all previous group signatures are also identified at the same time. This is impractical for applications of group signatures. The authors propose an improvement on the Lee-Chang scheme to solve the above problem. The improved group signature scheme preserves the main merits inherent in most of the Lee-Chang scheme. The security of the improved scheme is also based on the discrete logarithm problem.


This paper investigates social preferences over employment protection regulation in a general equilibrium model of dynamic labor demand and sheds some light on the comparative dynamics of Eurosclerosis. When firing costs are low, a transition to a rigid labor market is favored by all the employed workers with idiosyncratic productivity below some threshold; when their status quo level is high, preserving a rigid labor market is favored only by the employed with intermediate productivity. A more volatile environment and a lower rate of productivity growth increase the political support for labor market rigidity only in high-rents economies.


A methodology is presented for estimating the area affected by selective logging in Amazonia's terra firme forests. Areas of land cleared for temporarily storing logs in the forest (log landings) were detected within soil fraction images derived from linear mixture models of forested areas. Based on field data, a 180m timber extraction radius was assumed for all log landings. The extraction area calculated for detected log landings provides an estimate of the area potentially affected by logging. The resultant image classifications revealed excellent agreement with field data. This methodology can be a powerful tool for the monitoring and control of logging in the Amazon.


There have been many recent dramatic advances in the real-time measurement of ultrafast non-repetitive optical signals based on the use of the dispersive Fourier transform in the frequency domain, or time-lens approaches and related techniques in the time domain. In the context of propagation in nonlinear optical fibres, these real-time methods were initially used to study modulation instability, supercontinuum generation and rogue-wave phenomena, but were rapidly applied to study instabilities in modelocked lasers. In this presentation, we will review our recent work in this area, including results studying single-pass instabilities in optical fibre, as well as recent work studying complex pulse evolution behavior observed during the generation of dissipative soliton structures in a fiber laser. These results provide a unique picture of the internal evolution of dissipative solitons in a laser system, and we anticipate further applications in understanding the underlying laser dynamics and optimizing laser performance and stability.


Between 1940 and 1970, more than 4 million African Americans moved from the South to the North of the United States, during the Second Great Migration. This same period witnessed the struggle and eventual success of the civil rights movement in ending institutionalized racial discrimination. This paper shows that the Great Migration and support for civil rights are causally linked. Predicting Black inflows with a shift-share instrument, we find that the Great Migration raised support for the Democratic Party, increased Congress members' propensity to promote civil rights legislation, and encouraged pro-civil rights activism outside the US South. We provide different pieces of evidence that support for civil rights was not confined to the Black electorate, but was also shared by segments of the white population.


In the last decades, the supply chain of printed circuit boards (PCBs) becomes distributed with growing complexity of PCB designs and the economic trend of outsourcing the PCB manufacturing. This makes the PCBs more vulnerable to security attacks, such as tampering, snooping, and electromagnetic (EM) attacks. Because of the large feature size of PCBs (compared to integrated circuits), it is challenging to protect the PCBs from those attacks or proof the suspected attacks. For the same reason, PCBs are vulnerable to non-invasive reverse engineering by X-ray tomography as well. In this paper, we propose a novel silicon carbide (SiC) coating technique to provide passive protection for PCBs from in-field tampering, snooping and EM attacks. In addition, capacitive sensors are designed based on the SiC coating, offering active defense against those attacks. The coating and sensors can be implemented on PCBs in cost-efficient ways and the area overheads are minimized. The insulating coating also allows an extra tungsten-based painting to be applied to prevent the X-ray reverse engineering.


The beginning of the 21st century told all observers of international politics about the phenomenon of a rivalry revival between the West and the Russian Federation. Moscow's resurgent imperialist aspirations are being negated both by the United States and by the countries of the European Union. In the context of world events, Washington loses its hegemonic position in favor of the reviving powers, which Russia is also included to nowadays. The territory of the Ukrainian state is the area in which the active phase of rivalry between the West and the Russian Federation currently takes place. The Donbas war is an exemplification of the Kremlin's expansionist plans, because by destabilizing the integrity of Ukraine, Russia wants to restore control over this territory. This raises the fundamental issue concerning the subjectivity of Ukraine in the international arena. Therefore, will Ukraine be able to cope with the struggle of the great powers in the context of geopolitical clash, in which it is treated as the object of struggle? The multifaceted nature of this phenomenon is the basis of this article, which presents the situation of Ukraine in the context of the geopolitical rivalry between the West and the Russian Federation.


This article seeks to position the early pioneering 3D stop motion animation of Briton Arthur Melbourne-Cooper and Russian Alexander Shiryaev within wider discourses of turn-of-the-20thcentury modernity. The discussion suggests that the significance of such work has been lost amidst the dominant discourses about the development of both the modern city and early cinema and, crucially, the ways in which the 2D 'cartoon' has been recognized as possessing the agency of modernist practice, while the 3D form has gone relatively uninterrogated and absorbed within other aspects of cinematic or cultural practice. The author argues that Melbourne-Cooper and Shiryaev self-consciously use 3D animation as a mediation between live-action photo-realist observation and the graphic freedoms of the early drawn forms, focusing on a 'symbolic body', which revises notions of the 'attraction' in early cinema, re-defines the city-space and documents the meaning in the motion of modernity.


A collaboration between AFP and the Lown Institute promotes a vision of delivering health care that is based on the evidence, balanced in its approach, and focused on the patient.


Abstract Glyphosate is used in the transition zone to control annual bluegrass in fully dormant warm-season grasses. A suspected resistant (R) biotype of annual bluegrass was identified on a golf course in South Carolina after at least 10 consecutive years of glyphosate application. Greenhouse bioassays revealed the R biotype was 4.4-fold resistant to glyphosate compared with a standard susceptible (S) biotype. Further studies were conducted to investigate the mechanism conferring glyphosate resistance in the R biotype. Leaf discs of both biotypes accumulated shikimate in response to increasing glyphosate concentration, but the glyphosate concentration resulting in 50% EPSP synthase inhibition as a result of shikimate accumulation (I50) was 4.2-fold higher in the R biotype compared with the S biotype. At the whole plant level, similar levels of shikimate accumulation were observed between biotypes at 6 and 24 h after treatment (HAT) with glyphosate, but greater shikimate accumulation occurred in the S biotype at 72, 120, and 168 HAT. Shikimate levels decreased in the R biotype after 72 HAT. There were no differences in 14C-glyphosate absorption between biotypes. However, more 14C-glyphosate translocated out of the treated leaf in the R biotype and into root tissues over time compared with the S biotype. Partial sequencing of the EPSP synthase gene revealed a point mutation that resulted in an Ala substitution at Pro106. Although other mechanisms may contribute to glyphosate resistance, these results confirm a Pro106 to Ala substitution is associated with resistance to glyphosate in the R annual bluegrass biotype. Nomenclature: Glyphosate; EPSP, 5-enolpyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate; shikimate, (3R,4S,5R)-3,4,5-trihydroxycyclohex-1-ene-1-carboxylic acid; annual bluegrass, Poa annua L.


Quantification of groundwater recharge is a basic prerequisite for efficient groundwater management. While there are several approaches to estimating groundwater recharge rates, some of the approaches proposed cannot be applied in basin-wide hydrogeological investigations due to a lack of data. Thus, some conventional recharge estimation techniques for which data are most often available have to be used in estimating groundwater recharge. In this study, water level fluctuation, the precipitation vs water level relation, and hydrological budget methods, are used to estimate recharge rates in the Kucuk Menderes River basin in Turkey. The recharge values obtained from these methods are compared and found that while some of them agree with each other, some vary at least in order of magnitude.


Our knowledge of the internal structure of asteroids is currently indirect and relies on inferences from remote sensing observations of surfaces. However, it is fundamental for understanding small bodies' history and for planetary defense missions. Radar observation of asteroids is the most mature technique available to characterize their inner structure, and Synthetic Aperture Radar Tomography (TomoSAR) allows 3D imaging of their interior. However, as the geometry of observation of small asteroids is complex, and TomoSAR studies have always been performed in the Earth observation geometry, its results in a small body geometry must be simulated to assess the methods' performances. We adopt here two different tomography algorithms and evaluate their performances in our geometry by assessing the resolution and the difference between the scatterer's position and its retrieved position. The first method, the Frequency Domain Back Projection (FDBP) is based on correcting the Fourier transform of the received signal by a phase function built from the geometry. While it can provide a good resolution, a bias remains in the imaged scatterer's position. Meanwhile, Compressive Sensing (CS) relies on the hypothesis that few scatterers lie in the same direction from the subsurface. Its application in the small body geometry is studied, which results in a slightly impoverished resolution but an improved localization of the scatterer.


ABSTRACT The recent discovery of the marquis de Mirabeau's lifelong correspondence with his Swiss friend Frédéric de Sacconay has shed new light on the development of his economic thought. Not only is it the only precise entry in his daily life leading to his fame, but it also clarifies the context in which important eighteenth-century texts have been produced and read. Amongst this collection of letters, one of them, written by Mirabeau on October 12, 1740, establishes that he possessed a manuscript of Cantillon's Essai sur la nature du commerce en général at the time. This fact renews the insight on his intellectual origins and on the genesis of the Ami des hommes. Indeed, conceived at first as a commentary of the Essai, Mirabeau's most famous work is the result of a project that dates back to his youth. Already concerned about France's decline, the future physiocrat wrote to his Swiss friend to express his nascent thoughts on agricultural sciences and commerce, thus giving his first economic statement known to date.


The National Fusion Collaboratory project is developing and deploying new distributed computing and remote collaboration technologies with the goal of advancing magnetic fusion energy research. This work has led to the development of the US Fusion Grid (FusionGrid), a computational grid composed of collaborative, compute, and data resources from the three large US fusion research facilities and with users both in the US and in Europe. Critical to the development of FusionGrid was the creation and deployment of technologies to ensure security in a heterogeneous environment. These solutions to the problems of authentication, authorization, data transfer, and secure data storage, as well as the lessons learned during the development of these solutions, may be applied outside of FusionGrid and scale to future computing infrastructures such as those for next-generation devices like ITER.


Abstract 4138

Background: The addition of high-dose rituximab to conditioning regimens has been shown to improve outcomes of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) patients (pts) in first partial (PR) or complete remission (CR)(Tam C et al. Blood 2009,113:4144). It has been suggested that absence of SOX11 expression can identify a subtype of indolent MCL with excellent outcomes that might be managed more conservatively than conventional MCL. We now report updated results of ASCT for 40 MCL pts treated at our center between 05/99 and 10/10. We also report on SOX-11 expression in a subset of these pts.

Methods and Patients: Pts had a median age of 54 years (range, 38–72), and 30% were older than 60 years. At diagnosis, 60% had IPI>1, 30% had intermediate/high MIPI, 88% had stage IV disease, and 78% had bone marrow involvement. 28% had blastic features and Ki-67 was ≥30% in 11/23 (52%) pts who were tested. Pts were treated with R-CHOP or R-hyper-CVAD × 4 cycles induction in 30% and 45% respectively (Group A). Since 2001, pts were referred to ASCT only if they failed to achieve CR with >4 cycles of R-hyper-CVAD induction (n= 10, 25%) (Group B). Prior to transplant, CR (or CR unconfirmed-CRu) was present in 62% pts; 38% were in PR, and 18% were PET+. Conditioning was R-BEAM and R-Cy-TBI conditioning in 77% and 23% respectively. Pts received R during stem cell collection with R administered at 375 mg/m2 on the day before initiating chemotherapy for stem cell mobilization, and again at 1000 mg/m2, 7 days later. Pts then received additional R at 1000 mg/m2 on days +1 and +8 after ASCT, as previously described. Pts were staged with CT, PET (whenever indicated) scans, bone marrow biopsy, and colonoscopy (if history of GI involvement) every 3 months for the first year, every 6 months for 5 years, then yearly thereafter.

Results: a. SOX11: Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue biopsy sections were assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using anti-Sox-11 rabbit polyclonal antibody (Abcam, Cambridge, MA; 1:1500). For IHC controls we used a tissue microarray including 13 cases of MCL in addition to one complete section of MCL serving as positive controls, and sections from two cases of small lymphocytic lymphoma involving lymph node serving as negative controls. The 11 cases consisted of five GI biopsies, three lymph node biopsies, two bone marrows and one testis. 10/11 showed positive staining for SOX11. The case with negative staining, a GI biopsy, had scattered positive cells.

b. Clinical outcome : Following transplantation, CR/CRu was achieved in 100% pts. With a median follow-up of 37 months (range, 6–145), 10 pts experienced recurrent disease. All progressions occurred within 3 years, with a clear plateau emerging subsequently (Figure). The projected lymphoma-free-survival at 10-year, was 65% (95%CI, 44–80). A tendency for a higher risk of relapse was observed in R-hyper-CVAD resistant pts (Group B) pts [4/10 pts (40%) vs 6/30 (20%) in Group A; HR 2.5 (95%CI, 0.7–9.2), p=0.2)], and in pts with ki-67 ≥30% [HR 2.2 (95%CI, 0.4–11), p=0.3). MIPI, blastic histology, age (> 60 years), disease status at transplant (CR/PR) and conditioning were not found to be of prognostic value in our study. 2 pts (5%) developed myelodysplasia, one of which was concurrent with progression.

![Figure][1]

Conclusions: ASCT with high-dose rituximab has the potential to cure a proportion of pts with MCL after response to induction chemotherapy. Our results are favorable despite the inclusion of pts who were resistant to R-hyper-CVAD. Randomized studies comparing this strategy to conventional chemo-immunotherapy are warranted. The prognostic significance of Ki-67 level needs to be assessed in a larger cohort of patients.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

 [1]: pending:yes


This article deals with the problem of children education and upbringing by young student families in Kyiv city and those parents' influence on the child's intellectual and physical development.

The students' family life undergoes dramatical changes when a child is born. Just from this moment the students begin to consider themselves as a full-fledged family, and their relationship reach a new level. In turn, the child needs for a proper comprehensive education, so young parents shall quickly adapt to their new role.

After the spouses' baby birth, the focus embracing education object already switches from them as persons onto their first-born child. As a rule, even before their baby birth, the expectant mother and father begin to prepare themselves to that newcomer in the family: they ask for advice from relatives and friends, get consultations with specialists, read the special sources on child care and upbringing. However, the child's birth especially when it comes to a young students' family, often entails numerous problems and becomes a strong stress factor for parents. However, this stress factor is completely offset by such positive moments as the parents' health improvement during their child upbringing. Another positive factor refers to not very significant difference in age between parents and their children, that in turn allows render much easier their communication and mutual understanding.

As everyone knows, from the earliest times, every nation appreciated as true value the human's intellect, intelligence and education. Just due to intellectual and physical abilities progress our ancestors became able to create our history and the world today we do live in. Each mankind history époque valued various knowledge, skills and abilities of a person. However, with new challenges constantly dependent on changes in society and social development, the humanit gained ever new knowledge, gradually pushing out the obsolete ones. And concurrently the principles of raising children also changed.

The basic directions of forming the child's future personality are mental development, physical and religious education. These three upbringing factors quality imply what kind of person the child will be in the future.

Namely the individual's cognitive activity, education in various science fields, physical strength and power are forms today a conscious citizen who will develop the country in the future. A more complete world perception as formed in the person also is influenced by the spiritual life aspect. Accordingly, that aspect of education also plays an integral role in the life of both individual national and the state as a whole, since moral principles and ethical norms form the human mental activity which in turn influences the person's environment.

Consequently, along many centuries, education was a major aspect in human personality forming still constant changes in society and social development generated a new need, this one for civic consciousness formation. The parents play the main role in all educational process types. Therefore, now, as the new personality main creators, they must not only remain educators of a high moral creative individual, but also form a conscious national of his motherland.

Despite the lack of prior paternity experience, young student parents should make every possible effort to educate the child in the context of creating a strong personality, which will be a moral example in the society.

On the other hand, the topic of children education at young student families within the Kyiv city boundaries is not covered by the humanities sciences. Therefore, to get this problem's more detailed study we turned to the use of ethnological research practical methods: sample survey, included observation, questionnaires and respondents interviewing.

However, switching to more specific figures and data, the vast majority of student couples (90,7%) tend to that both the father and mother should pay equal attention to their child upbringing. Similarly, young student families achieve unanimity on specific issues considering the child intellectual and physical development. Thus, 78,7% respondents believe that the child intellectual development should be both father's and mother's responsibility, and 58,7% believe that both spouses should also be responsible for the child's physical development. Student families also agreed that the atmosphere in the family also produces a direct impact on the child development. This opinion was supported by 97,3% of respondents. Although the respondents could not agree on which cultural level of parents shall be convenient and satisfying for the child's proper mental progress. Thus, 40% believe that enough shall be to visit cultural centers, 29,3% think that desirable will be to have a home library, and 21,7% consider necessary reading the special pedagogical literature.

According to this survey results, we see that in children education, modern student families are, for the most part, adherent to those traditional norms, that formed on centuries-old representations of Ukrainian nation during the traditional society period.


Many engineering problems can be formulated as optimization problems. It has become more and more important to develop an efficient global optimization technique for solving these problems. In this paper, we propose an evolutionary tabu search (ETS) for cell image segmentation. The advantages of genetic algorithms (GA) and TS algorithms are incorporated into the proposed method. More precisely, we incorporate "the survival of the fittest" from evolutionary algorithms into TS. The method has been applied to the segmentation of several kinds of cell images. The experimental results show that the new algorithm is a practical and effective one for global optimization; it can yield good, near-optimal solutions and has better convergence and robustness than other global optimization approaches.


: Ginsenosides are the major principles of Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer (Araliaceae) used as a mild oriental folk medicine. In this report, we have examined the inhibitory potency of protopanaxadiol ginsenosides (PPDGs) such as Rb1, Rb2 and Rc, and their co-treatment effect with known tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha antagonists on TNF-alpha production in either murine (RAW264.7) or human (U937) macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Rb1, and Rb2 strongly suppressed TNF-alpha production in RAW264.7 cells with an IC50 of 56.5 and 27.5 microM, respectively, and in differentiated U937 cells with an IC50 of 51.3, and 26.8 microM, respectively. The inhibitory activity of Rb1 and Rb2 was significantly increased by pharmacological agents against protein kinase C, protein tyrosine kinase, and protein kinase A, and anti-rheumatoid arthritis drugs, such as chloroquine and steroid drugs. In contrast, only cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase (cAMP PDE) inhibitors among cAMP-elevating agents did not change the inhibitory potency of PPDGs. These data suggest that PPDGs may possess potential therapeutic efficacy against TNF-alpha mediated disease and the therapeutic potency of PPDGs may be enhanced when co-treated with various kinds of known TNF-alpha antagonists but not with cAMP PDE inhibitors.


Abstract The Manutahi-1 core of Wanganui Basin, New Zealand, provides a special opportunity to investigate variations in depositional paleoenvironments by way of high-resolution paleoecologic and sedimentologic studies in a succession that accumulated under the influence of late Neogene rapid glacioeustatic sea-level oscillations. Thirty cyclothems of the Matemateaonga Formation (late Miocene–early Pliocene) have been identified through a 960 m interval of the core. Temporal patterns in both lithofacies distribution and macrofaunal paleoecology indicate a close link with environmental shifts that took place over the duration of these sixth-order sea-level cycles (∼41 kyr duration). Because foraminiferal assemblages have proven to be depauperate in the Manutahi-1 core, macrofossils, especially bivalves and gastropods, are used as the primary source of paleoecologic data. The paleoenvironmental analyses presented here have relied extensively on the transfer of ecologic data from the modern fauna to extant or closely related species observed in the core. Most notably, a relative sea-level curve has been constructed for the Matemateaonga Formation from analysis of bathymetric data for appropriate modern taxa. A range of exploratory statistical approaches, including cluster and ordination techniques, allow rapid, objective, and reproducible classification of macrofaunal associations and the elucidation of large-scale paleoenvironmental patterns. Several implications arise from this study. First, sequence boundaries and other key surfaces are confidently identified on the basis of integrated sedimentologic, taphonomic, and paleoecologic investigation. Second, changes in depositional environment and the responses of benthic communities are revealed at a range of temporal scales. The temporal pattern of paleoecologic change appears to be the result of lateral, facies-related shifting of biofacies (habitat tracking) in response to sea level, sediment flux, and other associated paleoenvironmental variables. Temporal patterns of biofacies occurrence and diversity are, however, strongly overprinted by stratigraphic and taphonomic processes.


The second edition of Ventilators and Inhalation Therapy presents the updated viewpoints of Dr. Dobkin and 20 other experts on the use of mechanical ventilators and on modalities of inhalation therapy. The book is well edited, indeed, and references are abundant and appropriate. The book is practical and clinical in its orientation. Leading off with a chapter entitled "Anesthesia and Respiration" may give the impression of a slanting of emphasis. The aim of the book is broader than that; and prolonged mechanical ventilation gets its fair share. The coverage of relevant topics is comprehensive, including a sketch of ventilation-perfusion problems; the differential of diagnosis of respiratory failure; the characteristics of mechanical ventilators, as well as mechanical hazards; inhalation therapy methods and equipment; and chest physical therapy. The important psychologic problems in patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation are dealt with very thoughtfully. The book does not pretend to present pediatric problems


Background and Aim: Negative job stress puts harmful effects on physical and psychological health of workers. However, the effects of stress can be mediated by other variables. This study examines the relationship between job stress, work pressure and the rate of reported incidents. Method: statistical research community included all workers of Isfahan Steel Company in the winter 1388 that among them, 189 individuals were selected as sample using stratified random sampling method (from the list of workers per sector) and they responded to questionnaires including 10 questions of job stress, 4 questions of work pressure and 22 questions of the rate of reported incidents. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients and hierarchical regression. Results: Results showed that there was a significant internal correlation among study variables (job stress, work pressure and the rate of reported incidents) (p<0.05). In addition, regression analysis showed that job stress on the rate of incidents reported directly and indirectly through perception of job pressure was effective (p<0.05). Similarly, in the inverse mediation analysis, job stress mediated relationship between work pressure and the rate of reported incidents (p<0.05). Conclusion: Reducing job stress by changing workers' perceptions of work pressure can lower the rate of reported incidents and also the reduction of work pressure perception by improving job stress can be effective in incidence of occupational accidents. _____________________________________________________________________________________


: This document provides an overview of professional real estate management techniques that can be applied to the operations of a health care organization's ancillary outpatient facilities, including medical office buildings. These techniques consolidate and focus real estate operations into a cohesive management structure, permitting the organization to identify areas of cost savings and cost control, identify opportunities for revenue enhancement and providing a higher level of service to physicians and other tenants. The concepts, principles, and techniques presented here can be applied to small, stand-alone hospitals, hospitals that are merging, as well as large multihospital organizations and integrated systems.


Cryogenic treated multilayered carbon fabric/oxidized multiwall carbon nanotube/epoxy (CCF/O-MWCNT/E) composite and untreated carbon fabric/epoxy (CF/E) composite were prepared by hot compression molding technique. The density and mechanical properties such as tensile properties, flexural properties, interlaminar shear strength, and microhardness of the composites were investigated as per ASTM standards. The wear and coefficient of friction behavior were investigated using computer interfaced pin-on-disc test rig at room temperature for varied load and sliding speed. The morphology of worn surfaces of the wear test composite specimens were studied by scanning electron microscope. It is found that the synergetic effect of addition of O-MWCNT to epoxy matrix and cryogenic treatment of carbon fabric improved the wear resistance and mechanical properties. Also, a thin lubricating film developed by the oxidized multiwall carbon nanotube/epoxy wear debris reduces the coefficient of sliding friction and wear rate.


The major focus of condition monitoring (CM) is in its' prognostic and fault prediction bilities, the power of which is determined by selecting the appropriate statistical techniques. Making the correct distributional and theoretical assumptions is the key to model robustness and strength of inference. Likewise a condition based rather than time interval based maintenance regime ensures near optimal performance for the duration of process operation, the ever increasing drive for environmental supremacy and the highest safety standards alongside increasing global competition forces companies to strive for the greatest possible achievements in both performance and quality. Decisions are made daily about manufacturing processes in the presence of variability, process specific knowledge allows quantification of the risks associated with various courses of action while statistics provides a common language to communicate information. A process is considered to be in
a state of statistical control if any variations in observed measurements can be attributed to chance variation only not assignable variability which it is feasible to detect and identify (loose belt, leaky valve etc). Thus a process under statistical control operating under the influence of common causes of variation only should be operating within the upper and lower control limits. Optimising process performance in all aspects it is essential that deviations from the norm and or mechanical faults are detected, quantified and corrected in a timely manner.
Condition monitoring provides a non-intrusive method of extracting data which has zero impact on the operation, (for example the analysis of signal data of reciprocating compressors) via appropriately inserted sensors, is ideal and gleans relevant information as to the state of the process under observation, enabling assessment of the current condition of the system, prediction of failures and/or remaining operating time. Through suitably established statistical models condition predictors and
reliability prognosis in systems is possible and of vital importance in maximising all aspects of
efficiency.


Although the exact etiology of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) remains unknown, there is increasing evidence that reactive oxygen species and a pro‐oxidant/antioxidant imbalance are an important part of the pathogenesis of joint tissue injury. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate the thiol status [surface‐thiols and intracellular glutathione (iGSH)] of leukocytes from RA patients and controls. Levels of surface‐thiols and iGSH of leukocytes from RA patients were significantly lower than of leukocytes from controls. CD53, a glycoprotein of the tetraspanin superfamily, which coprecipitates with the GSH recycling enzyme γ‐glutamyl transpeptidase, was elevated significantly on leukocytes from RA patients compared with leukocytes from controls. Surface‐thiols and GSH play important roles in redox buffering of cells, providing protection from oxidative stress. The chronic inflammation of RA has been associated with oxidative stress, which is shown to cause a decline in the levels of cellular antioxidant sulfhydryls (R‐SH). As antioxidant‐protective levels also decline with age, the problem is compounded in older RA patients, who did have fewer R‐SH. Chronic stress can also have an effect on telomere lengths, determining cell senescence and longevity. Although telomeres shorten with increasing age, our flow cytometry studies indicate that accelerated shortening in telomere lengths occurs with increasing age of RA patients, suggesting premature cellular aging. The paradox is that lymphocytes from RA patients are believed to resist apoptosis, and we suggest that the elevated expression of CD53, which results from the increased oxidative stress, may protect against apoptosis.


Emerging multimedia applications and Services require efficient and flexible coding (MPEG-4) and description (MPEG-7) of visual information. Object-based representations of visual information obtained by scene segmentation are particularly well-suited to this purpose. In this work, the segmentation of video sequences is addressed using a combination of features, such as motion, texture and colour. First, the Recursive Shortest Spanning Tree (RSST) is considered as a baseline segmentation tool and is adapted to perform single-feature segmentation using different visual cues. A novel motion- based RSST segmentation algorithm that incorporates multiple motion features into a single cost function is presented. Effective texture segmentation is achieved by a novel scheme relying on mathematical morphology operators. This approach is further extended to become applicable to colour texture segmentation. Second, multiple-feature segmentation of video sequences emerges as a major focus of this work. The RSST has been employed in order to perform simultaneous multiple-feature segmentation of video sequences in a hierarchical fashion. The presented work demonstrates that the performance of this approach rapidly degrades as the dimensionality of the feature space increases. To overcome this problem, a novel two-stage architecture for object-based segmentation is presented. The first stage locates perceptually meaningful objects using a hierarchy of single-feature segmentation processes. The second stage refines the boundaries of located objects using a suitable combination of features and a set of appropriate rules. This model is further simplified by minimizing the number of required sequence-dependent parameters and also by minimizing the number of inputs to the rule-based part of the algorithm. A comparative evaluation with state-of-the-art competing algorithms is favourable, demonstrating that the proposed architecture is capable of achieving accurate, meaningful and consistent segmentations which are intuitively correct and have good correspondence with a human viewer's notion of the decomposition of a natural scene to its constituent objects.


On 2 and 3 December 2004, the BIS hosted a meeting of Deputy Governors of central banks from major emerging market economies to discuss foreign exchange market intervention. Some flavour of the discussion can be gleaned from the following central bank papers, along with papers prepared by BIS staff. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the BIS or the central banks represented at the meeting. Individual papers (or excerpts thereof) may be reproduced or translated with the authorisation of the authors concerned.


For over a decade, DNA barcoding has proven an effective modern tool in taxonomy, evolutionary biology and biodiversity research. Many new species have been discovered and described with DNA barcodes as part of their diagnostic features. Using DNA barcodes, we uncovered a number of potential species within the Tanytarsus curticornis and Tanytarsus heusdensis species complexes (Diptera: Chironomidae) and detected morphological differences a posteriori that support the description of new species. Unusually large intraspecific divergence in COI p-distance (up to 10%) was observed for two species complexes. In total, eight species new to science are described and figured: T. adustus
sp. n., T. heberti
sp. n., T. madeiraensis
sp. n., T. pseudoheusdensis
sp. n., T. songi
sp. n., T. thomasi
sp. n., T. tongmuensis
sp. n. and T. wangi
sp. n.. Tanytarsus reei and T. tamaoctavus are redescribed, and T. tusimatneous is listed as a new junior synonym of T. tamaduodecimus. The diagnostic characters of the remaining species of the complexes are discussed. Keys to males and pupae are given.


An autoassociator is a feedforward neural network that has the same number of input and output units. The goal of the autoassociator is very simple; to reconstruct its input at the output layer. Despite their simplicity, autoassociators have previously been shown to be quite successful on the task of Novelty Detection applied to industrial and military domains. The purpose of this paper is to test their utility on the more general task of clustering. In particular, we apply a clustering version of the autoassociator to the domain of Network Event Correlation. The results suggest that autoassociators are indeed useful as clustering systems. They were able to successfully correlate similar types of network alerts and have the added advantage of being fast once trained, a crucial feature when used for Network Event Correlation.


Modification of proteins with metal complexes is a promising and a relatively new field which conceals many challenges and potential applications. The field is a balance of contributions from the biological (protein engineering, bioconjugation) and chemical sciences (organic, inorganic and organometallic chemistry) and requires a multidisciplinary approach. Amongst the many prominent reasons to develop protein-metal complex hybrid materials are their potential use as artificial metalloenzymes with high performance as stereoselective non-enzymatic catalysts, as a tool for the isomorphous replacement method in X-ray structure determination, as diagnostic biosensors, as well as for novel pharmaceutical and medical treatments. The introduction of organometallic complexes into proteins has been challenged in numerous cases and has shown to be a promising extension to the existing hybrid systems. A crucial difference of organometallic complexes, as compared with other inorganic complexes, is the presence of a covalent metal-carbon bond which prevents facile metal dissociation from the protein-metal complex hybrid materials. One of the challenges in this field lies in the generation of organometallic complexes that are 'biocompatible', i.e. complexes that are stable under physiological conditions. The main objective of the work described in this thesis has been the development of a versatile and straightforward method to covalently and irreversibly incorporate organometallic complexes into a protein structure in a single site-directed manner. In this work, the versatile organometallic ECE-pincer metal complex system was chosen as the metal containing component of the protein-metal complex hybrid. As metal complex anchoring functionality the p-nitrophenyl phosphonate ester group have been selected as these have shown to be highly potent and irreversible inhibitors of the large family of serine hydrolases. Cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi was selected as model enzyme to demonstrate the versatility of the developed approach. The general concept of our molecular design is a pincer metal complex covalently connected through a carbon-phosphorous bond to the phosphonate active ester. The first part of this thesis is focused on the design and synthesis of these complexes as well as on the subsequent reactivity of such compounds with cutinase. In the second part several aspects of ECE-pincer metal complexes are described that are of importance when such complexes are applied in protein modification strategies. This entails a study of the conformational behavior of SCS-pincer metal complexes in solution and solid state, as well as interesting structural features and behavior in solution of highly water-soluble pincer metal complexes having a sulfate moiety as ligand or counterion.


LMO2 regulates gene expression by facilitating the formation of multipartite DNA-binding complexes. In B cells, LMO2 is specifically up-regulated in the germinal center (GC) and is expressed in GC-derived non-Hodgkin lymphomas. LMO2 is one of the most powerful prognostic indicators in diffuse large B-cell (DLBCL) patients. However, its function in GC B cells and DLBCL is currently unknown. In this study, we characterized the LMO2 transcriptome and transcriptional complex in DLBCL cells. LMO2 regulates genes implicated in kinetochore function, chromosome assembly, and mitosis. Overexpression of LMO2 in DLBCL cell lines results in centrosome amplification. In DLBCL, the LMO2 complex contains some of the traditional partners, such as LDB1, E2A, HEB, Lyl1, ETO2, and SP1, but not TAL1 or GATA proteins. Furthermore, we identified novel LMO2 interacting partners: ELK1, nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFATc1), and lymphoid enhancer-binding factor1 (LEF1) proteins. Reporter assays revealed that LMO2 increases transcriptional activity of NFATc1 and decreases transcriptional activity of LEF1 proteins. Overall, our studies identified a novel LMO2 transcriptome and interactome in DLBCL and provides a platform for future elucidation of LMO2 function in GC B cells and DLBCL pathogenesis.


Metro Manila faces a major shortage problem that will necessitate the development of all possible sources. Structural geological study is an effective tool in maximizing the exploration of water resources. The Marikina Faults, a permeable zone which could facilitate the movement and occurrence of groundwater should be fully evaluated for such purpose. The main objectives of this paper are 1) to study the effects of geology particularly the Marikina Faults on groundwater, 2) to evaluate the groundwater resources of the Marikina Valley area, and 3) to assist urban planners in the identification and assessment of geologically favorable sites for groundwater development. The Marikina Fault zone is composed of several geologic structures in the Marikina Valley at the eastern edge of Greater Manila Area (GMA). Geological studies indicate that the study area is controlled by two fault systems: the East and the West Marikina Valley Faults. Movements along these structures strongly influenced the morphology and groundwater conditions in the study area. Hydrogeological studies show that the groundwater is confined in the Pleistocene Guadalupe Formation, Quaternary Alluvium and along the fault zones. Geochemical data indicate that there are two types of groundwater (calcium bicarbonate and sodium-rich waters) within the Guadalupe Formation west of the West Marikina Valley Fault, and three types of groundwater (calcium bicarbonate, sodium-rich and sodium chloride-rich waters) within the Marikina Valley. The Marikina Faults facilitate the movement and circulation of groundwater. These have adverse effects, however, on groundwater quality as seepage of contaminated water is enhanced.


Current deep video quality assessment (VQA) methods are usually with high computational costs when evaluating high-resolution videos. This cost hinders them from learning better video-quality-related representations via end-to-end training. Existing approaches typically consider naive sampling to reduce the computational cost, such as resizing and cropping. However, they obviously corrupt quality-related information in videos and are thus not optimal for learning good representations for VQA. Therefore, there is an eager need to design a new quality-retained sampling scheme for VQA. In this paper, we propose Grid Mini-patch Sampling (GMS), which allows consideration of local quality by sampling patches at their raw resolution and covers global quality with contextual relations via mini-patches sampled in uniform grids. These mini-patches are spliced and aligned temporally, named as fragments. We further build the Fragment Attention Network (FANet) specially designed to accommodate fragments as inputs. Consisting of fragments and FANet, the proposed FrAgment Sample Transformer for VQA (FAST-VQA) enables efficient end-to-end deep VQA and learns effective video-quality-related representations. It improves state-of-the-art accuracy by around 10% while reducing 99.5% FLOPs on 1080P high-resolution videos. The newly learned video-quality-related representations can also be transferred into smaller VQA datasets, boosting performance in these scenarios. Extensive experiments show that FAST-VQA has good performance on inputs of various resolutions while retaining high efficiency. We publish our code at https://github.com/timothyhtimothy/FAST-VQA.


This guide is a child of the Biblical Studies research guide. It provides more specific items on New Testament studies alone. In this research guide, you will find titles that are useful specifically focused on the New Testament. It includes reference wor


The associations of the adiponectin (APM1) gene with parameters of the metabolic syndrome are inconsistent. We performed a systematic investigation based on fine-mapped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) highlighting the genetic architecture and their role in modulating adiponectin plasma concentrations in a particularly healthy population of 1,727 Caucasians avoiding secondary effects from disease processes. Genotyping 53 SNPs (average spacing of 0.7 kb) in the APM1 gene region in 81 Caucasians revealed a two-block linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure and enabled comprehensive tag SNP selection. We found particularly strong associations with adiponectin concentrations for 11 of the 15 tag SNPs in the 1,727 subjects (five P values <0.0001). Haplotype analysis provided a thorough differentiation of adiponectin concentrations with 9 of 17 haplotypes showing significant associations (three P values <0.0001). No significant association was found for any SNP with the parameters of the metabolic syndrome. We observed a two-block LD structure of APM1 pointing toward at least two independent association signals, one including the promoter SNPs and a second spanning the relevant exons. Our data on a large number of healthy subjects suggest a clear modulation of adiponectin concentrations by variants of APM1, which are not merely a concomitant effect in the course of type 2 diabetes or coronary artery disease.


OBJECTIVE
As part of a longitudinal study of cognitive function in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), we documented the range and frequency of subjective neurologic and/or psychiatric (NP) complaints in Never-NP-SLE patients, and related these to cognitive function, using the latter as a primary indicator of nervous system involvement.

METHODS
Thirty patients with SLE who did not have major neurologic and psychiatric involvement underwent baseline and followup neuropsychological testing roughly 5 years apart. Within 0-13 months prior to retesting, each patient completed a 42 item questionnaire recording NP symptoms.

RESULTS
The group as a whole endorsed 26% of symptoms. Fourteen patients labelled high endorsers (> 35% of items) endorsed, on average, 42% of symptoms. There was a significant association between higher item endorsement and lower cognitive function (r = -0.46, p < 0.02) and significantly poorer cognitive performance in the high compared to low endorser groups (t = -3.07, p < 0.005). In addition, a subset of 8 items was endorsed at least twice as often by SLE patients as by patients with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 12) or healthy controls (n = 10).

CONCLUSION
These results suggest that "minor" NP symptoms and, in particular, a small subset of subjective complaints may be sufficient to raise suspicion of subclinical nervous system involvement in the absence of clinically evident NP-SLE.


BACKGROUND
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, recurrent and progressive illness with no cure. On the basis of speculative pathophysiology, it has been suggested that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) may slow or reverse the progress of the disease.

OBJECTIVES
The object of this review was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HBOT in the treatment of MS.

SEARCH STRATEGY
We searched the Cochrane MS Group trials register (July 2002), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library, Issue 2, 2002), MEDLINE (January 1966 to October 2002) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) database (July 2002), along with specialised hyperbaric resources and handsearching of relevant journals and proceedings.

SELECTION CRITERIA
All randomised, controlled trials involving a comparison between HBOT and a sham therapy in MS were evaluated.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two reviewers independently appraised all comparative trials identified, extracted data and scored them for methodological quality.

MAIN RESULTS
We identified ten reports of nine trials that satisfied selection criteria (504 participants in total). Two trials produced generally positive results, while the remaining seven reported generally no evidence of a treatment effect. None of our three a priori subgroup analyses placed these two trials in the same group and were therefore unable to account for this difference. Three analyses (of 21) did indicate some benefit. For example, the mean Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) at 12 months was improved in the HBOT group (group mean reduction in EDSS compared to sham -0.85 of a point, 95% confidence interval -1.28 to -0.42, P = 0.0001). Only the two generally positive trials reported on this outcome at this time (16% of the total participants in this review).

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS
We found no consistent evidence to confirm a beneficial effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and do not believe routine use is justified. The small number of analyses suggestive of benefit are isolated, difficult to ascribe with biological plausibility and would need to be confirmed in future well-designed trials. Such trials are not, in our view, justified by this review.


A surge of investment in Europe, North America and Australasia on children's and school travel planning has highlighted problems of the built, social and policy environment as barriers to children's active transport and independent mobility. Many aspects of the built environment can influence children's active transport, physical activity and health, including excessive trip distances, footpath provision, traffic volumes and speeds and road crossings. Research on the built environment often uses measures of neighbourhood 'walkability' that draw on these barriers/enablers, to allow planners and other actors to understand differences in the potential of built environments to support active transport. However, these measures and indices are usually derived from studies of adult, not child, travel behaviour. This paper summarises recent attempts to develop environmental measures and indices based on children's travel behaviour. It highlights their advances and limitations, and identifies possible ways forward. A new set of measures is outlined, drawn from the literature, which build upon and improve recent practice. Geographic information systems (GIS) are used to transform these measures into a composite walkability index for neighbourhood environments that more accurately reflect children's active travel potential. The method is applied to a school neighbourhood in Brisbane to demonstrate the approach. Refinements and practical applications for the method are advanced. A comparative study currently using the method to help explore built environment influences on children's independent mobility is noted. The method provides the potential for more nuanced and targeted research into children's travel and school travel planning, and for improved transport and land use planning interventions targeting travel behaviour change and children's health.


Tradition of the Text, a volume published to honour the seventieth birthday of Professor Dominique Barthelemy OP of Fribourg University, contains eighteen articles dealing mainly with aspects of the transmission of the Old Testament text and its ancient versions. lt includes the editio princeps of 4QJer (4Q72) by Emanuel Tov with seven plates. Other contributions deal with the relation of the Hebrew and Septuagint texts, the textual transmission of the Septuagint, canonical criticism, a re-edition of Hexaplaric fragments, and particular textcritical cruces (Gen 9,6; Dt 29, 19-20; lsa 33,7;Jer 52; Neh 8,8). The period following the stabilisation of the Hebrew text is dealt with in articles on the Tiqqune Sopherim in the Targumic tradition and on the Massoretic collection. Aspects of recently discovered leaves of Ephrem's commentary on the Diatessaron of Tatian are discussed for the first time. A problern of an ancient Jewish and Christian calendar is studied at the end.


Multimodal data sets are getting more and more common. Integrating these data sets, the information from each modality can be combined to improve performance in classification problems. Fusion/integration of modalities can be done at several levels. The most appropriate fusion level is related to the conditional dependency between modalities. A varying degree of inter-modality dependency can be present across the modalities. A method for assessing the conditional dependency structure of the modalities and their relationship to intra-modality dependencies in each modality is therefore needed. The aim of the present paper is to propose a method for assessing these inter-modality dependencies. The approach is based on two permutations of an analyzed data set, each exploring different dependencies between and within modalities. The method was tested on the Kaggle MLSP 2014 Schizophrenia Classification Challenge data set which is composed of features from functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and structural MRI. The results support the use of a permutation strategy for testing conditional dependencies between modalities in a multimodal classification problem.


This paper outlines methods and reasoning that advocate for the use of expert Coach and Athlete knowledge in support of mutivariate analyses in Sport Biomechanincs and related disciplines. It argues that human movement research involving the collection of multiple dependent variables suffers similar problems to other areas of behavioural science, in that models proposed for analyses are inadequately constrained by other data and are vulnerable to a-posteori modification that lacks sound theoretical or evidential justification. An approach is presented where expert accounts of how successful movements are performed are captured and analysed qualitatively, in order to present data themes that may be used to identify important events and variables for analyses when quantitatively examining movement. This paper argues for the utility of a specific mixed-methods approach to movement research involving multiple dependent variables.


Investigates the computational complexity of scheduling of biprocessor tasks on dedicated processors from a mean flow time point of view. Since the general problem is strongly NP-hard, we assume some restrictions on task lengths and the structure of scheduling graphs. In this way we identify a number of special cases that are either NP-hard or polynomially solvable.


In the course of his article, Kraig reviews a number of important ways to assure the recruitment and increase of minority teachers in the public school system. He also discusses specific programs which could stand as exemplary efforts directed at the daunting task of increasing the number of minorities in the educational pipeline, and ultimately, in the public school setting. Before examining these model programs and strategies, Kraig reviews the current and future demographic trends which suggest that the "relative population of the teaching force is not even close to being representative of the composition of the student body in terms of ethnicity." This statistical revelation enables Kraig to advance his first reason for increasing the number of minorities in education — namely, that the ethnic representation of the student population should in some way be matched by a comparable percentage in the ethnicity of those hired to teach in the public schools.


ABSTRACT Across Europe, assumptions are often made within the academic literature and by some social commentators that students have come to understand the purpose of higher education (HE) in increasingly instrumental terms. This is often linked to processes of marketisation and neo-liberalisation across the Global North, in which the value of HE has come to be associated with economic reward and labour market participation and measured through a relatively narrow range of metrics. It is also associated with the establishment, in 2010, of the European Higher Education Area, which is argued to have brought about the refiguration of European universities around an Anglo-American model. Scholars have contended that students have become consumer-like in their behaviour and preoccupied by labour market outcomes rather than processes of learning and knowledge generation. Often, however, such claims are made on the basis of limited empirical evidence, or a focus on policies and structures rather than the perspectives of students themselves. In contrast, this paper draws on a series of 54 focus groups with 295 students conducted in six European countries (Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain). It shows how understandings of the purpose of HE are more nuanced than much of the extant literature suggests and vary, at least to some extent, by both nation-state and higher education institution. Alongside viewing the purpose of HE as preparing them for the labour market, students emphasised the importance of tertiary-level study for personal growth and enrichment, and societal development and progress. These findings have implications for policy and practice. In particular, the broader purposes of HE, as articulated by the students in this study, should be given greater recognition by policymakers, those teaching in HE, and the wider public instead of, as is often the case, positioning students as consumers, interested in only economic gain.


Nail involvement in Langerhans cell histiocytosis is uncommon and is said to indicate a poor prognosis. We describe a 2-year-old boy with onycholysis, subungual hyperkeratosis, and hemorrhages on his fingernails. He also had hepatosplenomegaly and pulmonary involvement. The diagnosis of Langerhans cell histiocytosis was made by histopathologic examination of skin and liver.The role of nail involvement as an unfavorable prognostic sign is still unclear and this paper concludes that nail involvement in Langerhans cell histiocytosis is a possible sign of multisystemic involvement.


Versioning file systems retain earlier versions of modified files, allowing recovery from user mistakes or system corruption. Unfortunately, conventional versioning systems do not efficiently record large numbers of versions. In particular, versioned metadata can consume as much space as versioned data. This paper examines two space-efficient metadata structures for versioning file systems and describes their integration into the Comprehensive Versioning File System (CVFS), which keeps all versions of all files. Journal-based metadata encodes each metadata version into a single journal entry; CVFS uses this structure for inodes and indirect blocks, reducing the associated space requirements by 80%. Multiversion b-trees extend each entry's key with a timestamp and keep current and historical entries in a single tree; CVFS uses this structure for directories, reducing the associated space requirements by 99%. Similar space reductions are predicted via trace analysis for other versioning strategies (e.g., on-close versioning). Experiments with CVFS verify that its current-version performance is similar to that of non-versioning file systems while reducing overall space needed for history data by a factor of two. Although access to historical versions is slower than conventional versioning systems, checkpointing is shown to mitigate and bound this effect.


Climate protection should use environmental policy instruments that raise revenues, which can be used, for instance, to cut labour taxes to alleviate unemployment in economies suffering from high and persistent unemployment. This paper elaborates the possibilities of an employment dividend of climate policies and shows the potential importance of such a second dividend for a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of climate policy. It is argued that national attempts to reap such a double dividend may be bound to fail if resource suppliers can respond in a way that leads to a large-scale international reallocation of environmental rents. Only a internationally coordinated uniform base tax on CO2 that complements already existing emission trading systems could keep revenues from climate policy in those countries bearing the cost of fighting global warming and thus leave them with the option on a second dividend.


The diabetes-atherosclerosis relationship remains to be fully defined. Repeated prolonged hyperglycemia, increased ROS production and endothelial dysfunction are important factors. One theory is that increased blood levels of heat shock protein (HSP)60 are proinflammatory, through activation of innate immunity, and contribute to the progression of vascular disease. It was hypothesized that improvement of diabetes control in patients presenting with metabolic syndrome would lower HSP60, and anti-HSP60 antibody levels and decrease inflammatory markers. Paired sera of 17 Italian patients, before and after intensive treatment, were assayed for cytokines, HSP60 and anti-HSP60 antibodies. As expected, intensive treatment was associated with a decrease in HgbA1C (P < 0.001) and BMI (P < 0.001). After treatment, there was a significant decrease in IL-6 (P < 0.05). HSP60 levels were before treatment −6.9 + 1.9, after treatment −7.1 + 2.0 ng/mL (P = ns). Overall HSP60 concentrations were lower than published reports. Anti-HSP60 antibody titers were high and did not decrease with treatment. In conclusion, improvement of diabetic control did not alter HSP60 concentrations or antiHSP60 antibody titers, but led to a reduction of IL-6 levels.


ABSTRACT Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most prevalent diseases in the World, and one of the most important causes of mortality and morbidity. In adults 40 years and older, it affects more than 10% of the population and has enormous personal, family and social burden. Tobacco smoking is its main cause, but not the only one, and there is probably a genetic predisposition that increases the risk in some patients. The paradigm of this disease is changing in Spain, with an increase of women that has occurred in recent years. Many of the physiopathological mechanisms of this condition are well known, but the psychological alterations to which it leads, the impact of COPD on relatives and caregivers, the limitation of daily life observed in these patients, and the economic and societal burden that they represent for the health system, are not so well-known. A major problem is the high under-diagnosis, mainly due to difficulties for obtaining, in a systematic way, spirometries in hospitals and health-care centers. For this reason, the Fundación de Ciencias de la Salud and the Spanish National Network Center for Research in Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES) have brought together experts in COPD, patients and their organizations, clinical psychologists, experts in health economics, nurses and journalists to obtain their opinion about COPD in Spain. They also discussed the scientific bibliometrics on COPD that is being carried out from the CIBERES and speculated on the future of this condition. The format of the meeting consisted in the discussion of a series of questions that were addressed by different speakers and discussed until a consensus conclusion was reached.