There is increasing concern regarding the impact of the consumption of cannabis by construction site workers on workplace safety and performance. This preliminary study explores the use of cannabis as a psychotropic drug and its consequences and effects on construction workers, considering the decriminalisation of its private use and personal consumption in South Africa. These consequences and effects can be characterized as being behavioural, perceptual, physiological, emotional and cognitive. This study is a precursor for a more detailed ongoing study. The article was developed based on a review of empirical and theoretical studies previously published in a wide range of journals and commissioned reports. Literature relating to drug and substance use in the construction workplace was obtained from research databases. The keywords "cannabis" and "construction industry" were used to search the databases. Of the number of related articles found, a total of 41 articles and reports were cited in the study. The study reveals that cannabis use has short-term health effects such as acute mental illnesses, which could result in impaired reasoning and perceptions. Long-term effects of frequent and continuous cannabis use include respiratory infections and hyperactivity. Theo Haupt • An appraisal of the use of cannabis on construction sites 149 Furthermore, the after-effects of the use and abuse of cannabis by construction workers poses numerous threats to the workplace safety of the construction industry. The article identifies loss of concentration and low productivity on site, abnormal and irrational behaviour, absenteeism from work and poor work quality as impacts of cannabis use on construction sites. The article highlights the need for site supervisors and construction employers to introduce improvement mechanisms to control the use of cannabis on construction sites.


We used SWOT-AHP (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats–analytical hierarchy process) technique to measure perceptions of four stakeholder groups: employees, local promoters, community leaders and end-users, about a nontraditional cookstove (NTCS) in Honduras. These stakeholder groups are part of an ongoing NTCS dissemination project led by Proyecto Mirador. We found that all stakeholder groups have a positive perception about the existing NTCS. Employees and local promoters stakeholder groups share similar perceptions. Smokeless cooking was selected as a prime strength, closely followed by reduction in forest logging and greenhouse gas emissions by all stakeholder groups. Availability of financial resources and responsible management were identified as crucial opportunities. Time spent in wood preparation and NTCS maintenance were identified as principal weaknesses. A long waiting time between a request and installation of NTCS and the risk of losing existing financial resources were acknowledged as major threats. Design improvements that can reduce maintenance and wood preparation time, a secure long-term source of funding through a market mechanism or direct/indirect government involvement, and early execution of pending orders will help in increasing adoption of NTCSs in rural Honduras.


Students most at risk for reading-related disabilities frequently struggle with word recognition and oral language, including, in the earliest grades, specific skills related to phonological awareness and vocabulary. Classroom teachers' delivery of high-quality differentiated supplemental instruction may promote reading acquisition for these students. The current study examined whether the Targeted Reading Intervention, a webcam-coaching literacy professional development program for kindergarten and first grade classroom teachers, was more effective in producing reading gains for students who had the lowest scores on fall measures of phonological awareness and/or vocabulary as compared with students with higher scores. Findings revealed that students who participated in the Targeted Reading Intervention and who scored lowest on the fall vocabulary measure had the highest scores on spring decoding measures.


Recently, research has begun to investigate the reasons for differences in homeownership rates between Asian and whites. This paper extends this research by examining the heterogeneity that exists across Asian groups in the United States. We find that there are important differences across geographic area, across time, and across groups in the importance of various factors on homeownership propensities. After controlling for household mobility and other socioeconomic characteristics, we find most Asian groups have homeownership rates similar to whites, but Chinese households have homeownership rates 20 percentage points higher than their household characteristics would predict. Part of this may be due to differences in support unmeasured in the data, but future research is needed to better understand the source of this differential.


The Nile's waters are vital for the livelihood of over 200 million people in its basin. Rapidly rising populations and consequent environmental stresses have lead to water scarcity and complex protracted negotiations. Peter Schutte and Bart Hilhorst describe an interactive process called Food for Thought (F4T), in which a group of 25 representatives from all Nile countries participated in a joint scenario building exercise to consider future water demands, particularly for agricultural needs. The authors share details of this process, demonstrating that scenario thinking can increase the appreciative understanding of a complex problem in a relatively short period of time, surface hidden assumptions, clarify desired futures, and foster trusting relationships among a diverse set of stakeholders and experts by encouraging a wider perspective.


ABSTRACT Objective: To compare the efficacy and safety of oral rivaroxaban with that of enoxaparin/vitamin K antagonist (VKA) in patients with cancer among 8282 patients with acute venous thromboembolism (VTE) enrolled in the EINSTEIN programme. Rationale: Patients with cancer and VTE constitute a medical challenge for physicians because anticoagulant treatment is indicated to prevent recurrent VTE but is associated with a high risk of major bleeding. Methods: EINSTEIN DVT and EINSTEIN PE were randomized, event-driven, non-inferiority, open-label phase III studies. Patients were treated for 3, 6 or 12 months with rivaroxaban (15 mg twice daily for 21 days followed by 20 mg once daily) or enoxaparin/VKA (international normalized ratio 2.0–3.0) and followed for suspected recurrent VTE, bleeding and mortality. Cancer patients were classified as: active cancer at baseline (diagnosis or treatment within 6 months before enrolment or recurrent/metastatic cancer) or diagnosed during the study (n = 655); or a history of cancer (n = 469). Results: Recurrent VTE occurred with a similar incidence in the rivaroxaban and enoxaparin/VKA groups in patients with active cancer (hazard ratio [HR] 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.35–1.30) and patients with a history of cancer (HR 0.98; 95% CI 0.28–3.43). In patients with active cancer, the risk of major bleeding was significantly reduced in the rivaroxaban group (HR 0.42; 95% CI 0.18–0.99), whereas it was similar between treatments in patients with a history of cancer (HR 0.23; 95% CI 0.03–2.06). Mortality occurred with a similar incidence between treatments in patients with active cancer (HR 0.93; 95% CI 0.64–1.35) and patients with a history of cancer (HR 1.12; 95% CI 0.30–4.22). Rivaroxaban Enoxaparin/VKA HR (95% CI) Recurrent VTE, n (%) Active cancer 16/354 (4.5) 20/301 (6.6) 0.67 (0.35–1.30) History of cancer 5/233 (2.1) 5/236 (2.1) 0.98 (0.28–3.43) Major bleeding, n (%) Active cancer 8/353 (2.3) 15/298 (5.0) 0.42 (0.18–0.99) History of cancer 1/231 (0.4) 4/236 (1.7) 0.23 (0.03–2.06) Mortality, n (%) Active cancer 58/354 (16.4) 53/301 (17.6) 0.93 (0.64–1.35) History of cancer 5/233 (2.1) 4/236 (1.7) 1.12 (0.30–4.22) Conclusions: Rivaroxaban had similar efficacy to enoxaparin/VKA in patients with VTE and active cancer or a history of cancer, but was associated with a significant reduction in major bleeding in patients with active cancer. Disclosure: M.H. Prins: is a consultant advisor for Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), LEO, and ThromboGenics; T. Lensing, F. Misselwitz, A.F. Pap, M. Trajanovic and S.D. Berkowitz: is an employee of Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals; P. Prandoni: has received consultant fees from Bayer Pharma, Daiichi Sankyo, Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim and Sanofi-Aventis; A.T. Cohen: has received consultancy and clinical trial funding from Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, BMS, Daiichi, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Mitsubishi Pharma, Pfizer, Portola, Sanofi-aventis, Schering-Plough & Takeda; B.L. Davidson: has received travel support from Bayer Healthcare, and is a steering committee member for Bayer HealthCare and Daiichi Sankyo;P. Wells: has received research support from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer; has participated on scientific advisory boards for Bayer Schering Pharma, Pfizer & Boehringer Ingelheim; and has received honoraria from Bayer Schering Pharma, Pfizer & Biomerieux.


Background: Over the last decades the interface between work and family life and its influence on health has received increasing attention. Work-family-conflict (WFC) and Family-work-conflict (FWC) have been identified as two crucial constructs, with women seeming to perceive more conflict. Past research has identified some external variables (e.g., work stressors) that impact WFC and FWC, but less is known about person-related variables and resources. Methods: 284 women in two-earner families filled in questionnaires assessing WFC, FWC, work and family characteristics, personality (big five, self-esteem) and resources (individual/family coping, social support). Findings: Personality variables accounted for a significant rise in explained variance on both WFC (r2corr=.24) and FWC (r2corr=.21); emotional stability showed the highest significant correlations (beta =-.44/-.24). Resources explained further 5%/4% of variance. Social support mediates the relation between extraversion and WFC, while adaptive family coping mediates the relation between emotional stability and WFC. Discussion: Personality and coping should be considered as important variables with regard to WFC and FWC.


Background: Demand for treatment for Internet-related troubles in adolescents is rising. The profiles of patients in a clinical population are not accurately known and we hypothesize motivation could be useful for characterization. We describe a sample of outpatients, differentiate between two groups based on their motivation, and describe the clinical differences found between them. Methods: Outpatients referred to our Adolescent Addiction Unit with "Internet addiction" as a presenting complaint were evaluated using specific criteria for Internet addiction and, if included in the study, also using DSM- IV-TR Axis I and II. They were categorized into two groups: "sheltered," defined as having high levels of interpersonal problems and motivated to use the Internet as a way to escape, to avoid, to cope, or to feel sheltered; and "non-sheltered," not showing this motivation. We prospectively assessed qualitative and quantitative data on clinical presentation, Internet applications and use profile, treatment and, progress. We conducted a descriptive analysis of differences. Results: A total of 34 out of 54 subjects met diagnostic criteria for Internet addiction (IA) (mean age 15.38; SD=1.26; 76.5% male). Seventeen subjects (50%) reported using the Internet as a shelter. Diagnoses were mainly internalizing in the sheltered group and externalizing and behavioral in the non-sheltered. Sheltered subjects were significantly younger, had more comorbid disorders, more previous interpersonal problems and an increased loss of contact with friends, used the Internet more often to cope with interpersonal problems, had received prior treatment more frequently, and more often required a combined approach to treatment. Moreover, their motivation was less likely to be a feeling of offline boredom or recreational and they had greater massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) use and night-time use and increased school failure and loss of contact with peers. Conclusions: We found two IA adolescent profiles that could be defined by using the Internet as a shelter, showing high levels of social isolation and having differences in presentation, Internet use characteristics, comorbidity, treatment and progress.


Most network intruders launch their attacks through stepping-stones to reduce the risks of being discovered. To uncover such intrusions, one prevalent, challenging, and critical way is to compare an incoming connection with an outgoing connection to determine if a computer is used as stepping-stone. In this paper, we present four models to describe stepping-stone intrusion. We also propose the idea applying signal processing technology to stepping-stone intrusion detection. We present the preliminary results of applying correlation coefficients to detecting stepping-stone intrusion. The contribution of this paper is that we are the first to apply correlation coefficient to stepping-stone detection, and more importantly, it does not have to monitor a session for a long time to conclude if there is a stepping-stone intrusion. Applying DFT and Z-transform to stepping-stone detection is under way.


This article scrutinises the ways in which young children are described and supported as active participants for change within the Australian and Swedish national steering documents for early childhood education. A critical theory lens was applied, in combination with document analysis that looked for concepts related to environment and sustainability – i.e. the environmental, social, economic and political dimension of development, human place in nature, and environmental stewardship. Concepts concerned with critical thinking and children as active participants for change were used as specific dimensions of curriculum interpretation. The analyses show that, while both the Australian and Swedish curricula deal with content connected to environmental, social and cognitive dimensions, there is limited or no discussion of the political dimensions of human development, such as children as active citizens with political agency. In other words, children are not recognised as competent beings or agents of change for sustainability within these early childhood curriculum frameworks. Hence, these supposedly contemporary early childhood education documents lack curricular leadership to support children to contribute their voices and actions to civic and public spheres of participation as equal citizens.


A molecular linkage analysis of four large families with the Lowe oculocerebrorenal syndrome (LS) provided a subregional localization of LS to the distal long arm of the X chromosome at Xq24-q26. Probes from two loci that identify restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and map to Xq24-q26 showed no recombination with LS. A maximum likelihood recombination distance (theta) = 0.00 was obtained for DXS10 with the logarithm of the odds (lod) of 6.450. For DXS42, theta = 0.00 with a lod of 5.087. Assignment of the gene or genes for LS to Xq24-q26 has the potential of improving carrier detection and providing prenatal diagnosis in families at risk for the disease.


It was shown, with the aid of osmotic inhibition of germination, that the action of the far-red-absorbing form of phytochrome (Pf) in promoting germination can be completed even if the seed is held under conditions where germination is not possible. An effect of the continuing action of Pf beyond the point of complete germination promotion was demonstrated by enhancement of germination rate after removal of the osmotically active solute. Previous reports that the rate of growth in water of seeds freed from the expansion-restricting endosperm is independent of the state of phytochrome were confirmed. However, a marked, phytochrome-mediated enhancement of the growth potential of such seeds was demonstrated through restricting water uptake by incubation in an osmoticum. An experimental system, utilizing the appearance of a geotropic curvature in the radicle of the excised axial portion of the seed, was developed for more detailed studies of the phytochrome-enhanced growth potential. It was possible to demonstrate the light effect in water as well as in osmotica; this apparently is not possible with de-endospermed entire seeds. As in intact seeds, the effect of the continuing action of Pf is to enhance the rate of the response. Secretion of a chemical inhibitor of growth by the endosperm as a possible mechanism of induction of light sensitivity has been ruled out. The phytochrome-dependent rate of appearance of geotropic curvature in osmotica is paralleled in time by a similar dependence of the rate of early extension growth of the embryonic axis. Only the first small increment of growth is a differentially responsive to red (R) and far-red (F); the rate of later increase in length is independent of the light regime. It was shown that the high concentrations of gibberellic acid required for germination promotion in the intact seed are due at least in part to a diffusion barrier in the endosperm, and that the occasional reports in the literature of the ineffectiveness of kinetin are probably due to the same phenomenon. It was shown that gibberellin, like red light, enhances the growth potential of the axis, but kinetin does not. The difference in rates of response obtained after R-irradiation or gibberellin treatment, together with other results reported in the literature, strongly suggests that gibberellic acid and red light promote germination by different means. The idea that kinetin promotes germination by yet another mechanism, probably operating in the cotyledons, was supported through two different experimental approaches. The phenomenon of temperature-dependent dark germination was examined in detail, using a wide range of both temperatures and incubation times. With the aid of the half-seed system, it was demonstrated that the promotive effect of low temperature on germination could not be due to a low optimum temperature for early growth of the radicle, since the rate of that process increased with increasing temperature, up to the highest temperature used. It was shown that phytochrome does not function at high temperatures. This fact is of considerable importance in interpreting the phenomenon of thermodormancy, since in the literature only a small part of the effect of high temperature has been ascribed to an effect on phytochrome, and at that, only to an acceleration of dark reversion of Pf to the red-absorbing form of phytochrome (Pr). Partial denaturation of phytochrome may also make some contribution. It was shown that the germination-promoting effect of low temperature depends on the presence of Pf, and concluded that low temperatures act by delaying or preventing transformation of Pf. Support for the assumption that Pf, not Pr, is the active form of phytochrome in lettuce seeds was drawn from the same evidence. Attempts to stimulate germination by repeated irradiation with F over relatively prolonged incubation times resulted in failure, as have similar attempts reported in the literature. However, an enhancement of growth potential in the half-seed system by the maintenance of a small amount of Pf over long periods at ordinary temperatures by repeated irradiation with F was demonstrated. It was observed that cold storage of the dry seed prevents or delays loss of dark dormancy during post-harvest storage. No change in the response of the half-seed in osmoticum to R and F was observed in seeds that has lost dark dormancy; that is, no internal change took place to measurably increase the growth potential of the embryonic axis. This suggests that the endosperm is the seat of changes responsible for after-ripening of photoblastic lettuce seed.


Abstract Idiopathic scoliosis (IS) is the most common 3-dimensional deformation abnormality of the spine with direct effects on the thoracic cage and can potentially affect respiratory function. The purpose of the present study was to recognize whether the 3-dimensional displacement of the spine and trunk as a consequence of IS directly influences and diminishes respiratory function in children with mild IS. The study involved 68 children aged 10 to 12 years with mild thoracic or thoracolumbar IS who were the outpatients of the local Center for Corrective Gymnastics. The study consisted of 2 interrelated parts: the body posture examination using a Moiré topography and the spirometric examination including measurements of basic ventilatory parameters (vital capacity [VC], forced vital capacity [FVC], forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], and FEV1/FVC). For the majority of subjects, the results of VC were within the normal range and did not confirm the existence of features characteristic for ventilatory functional restriction. The VC does not depend on the curvature angle value or the degree of rotation of vertebral bodies. It was observed that VC in children with mild IS of 20 to 30 degree depended on thoracic kyphosis, that is, length, depth, and the thoracic kyphosis length/depth indicator. The results of performed study showed that in children with mild IS the lung volumes are reduced not only by an increased angle of the lateral curvature but also by the degree of loss of normal thoracic kyphosis. The regular respiratory function testing and back-shape analysis are advisable in children with thoracic and thoracolumbar mild IS.


Summation of a large class of the functional series, which terms contain factorials, is considered. We first investigated finite partial sums for integer arguments. These sums have the same values in real and all p-adic cases. The corresponding infinite functional series are divergent in the real case, but they are convergent and have p-adic invariant sums in p-adic cases. We found polynomials which generate all significant ingredients of these series and make connection between their real and p-adic properties. In particular, we found connection of one of our integer sequences with the Bell numbers.


The use of microwave observations has been highlighted as a complementary tool for evaluating land surface properties. Microwave observations are less affected by clouds, water vapor, and aerosol and also contain valuable soil moisture information. However, a critical limitation in microwave observations is the coarse spatial resolution attributed to the complex retrieval process. The objective of the current study is to develop an independent (from ground observations) downscaling approach that merges information from higher spatial resolution MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (~1 km) with lower spatial resolution AMSR-E (~25 km) to obtain soil moisture estimates at the MODIS scale (~1 km). We compare the developed (UCLA) method against a range of previous published approaches. Various key factors (i.e., surface temperature, vegetation indexes, and albedo) derived from MODIS provide information on relative variations in surface wetness conditions and contribute weighting parameters for downscaling the larger AMSR-E soil moisture footprints. Evaluation of the various downscaled soil moisture products is undertaken at the SMEX04 site in southern Arizona. Results show that the UCLA downscaling technique, as well as the previously published Merlin method, significantly improves the limited spatial variability of the current AMSR-E product. Spatial correlation (R) values improved from -0.08 to 0.34 and 0.27 for the Merlin and UCLA methods, respectively. The evaluated triangle-based methods show poorer performance over the study domain. Results from the current study yield insight on the integration of multiscale remote sensing data in various downscaling methods and the usefulness of MODIS observations in compensating for low-resolution microwave observations.


Health systems worldwide are trying to shift towards a learning system to deliver people-centred, holistic and equitable health care. Large-system transformation (LST) initiatives that capitalise on key features of complex adaptive systems may be more likely to achieve the desired shift.
By LST initiatives, I mean "interventions aimed at co-ordinated, system wide change affecting multiple organisations and care providers, with the goal of significant improvements in the efficiency of health care delivery, the quality of patient care, and population-level patient outcomes" (p 422) [1].
This research had three aims: (1) to identify the key elements that support successful implementation of LST initiatives; (2) to construct a maturity matrix that describes different stages of maturity for each of these elements; and (3) to investigate and report on contextual factors that influence successful implementation of LST initiatives. Collectively, the three aims revealed the programme architecture that underpins efforts to successfully implement LST initiatives in the New Zealand health system.
The realist logic of enquiry, nested within the macro framing of complex adaptive systems, formed the overall methodology for this research. This research used insights from a New Zealand LST initiative (the System Level Measures programme), evidence from literature, and evidence from knowledge of those working in the health system, to analyse and describe this programme architecture.
The research resulted in three key sets of findings.
First, the research found that a set of 10 key elements needs to be present in the New Zealand health system and work in harmony to increase the chances of successful implementation of LST initiatives. These are: (i) an alliancing way of working; (ii) a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi; (iii) an understanding of equity; (iv) clinical leadership and involvement; (v) involved people, whanau and community; (vi) intelligent commissioning; (vii) continuous improvement; (viii) an integrated health information; (ix) analytic capability; and (x) dedicated resources and time.
Second, a self-assessment maturity matrix for the key elements was developed with New Zealand health system leaders to provide a practical tool for them and informal trust-based networks (such as Alliances) to improve their understanding of the different stages of maturity for the key elements, to assess their readiness for change, and to develop capacity and capability needed for system transformation.
Third, a realist logic of enquiry was used to investigate how the key elements work in different contexts to influence the successful implementation of LST initiatives. At a local level, (i) the history of working together and quality of relationships, (ii) distributed leadership from commissioners of health services, and (iii) the maturity of informal trust-based networks, such as Alliances, emerged as key contextual factors that influenced successful implementation of these initiatives. The key mechanism of trust was triggered with a positive history of working together, which built strong relationships and facilitated a distributed leadership style among health system agents through informal networks. The high-trust environment built and nurtured over time strengthened relationships among health system agents, which then provided the foundation for health system transformation.
At a national level, the distributed health system leadership, the application of 'new power' approach to design and implementation of LST initiatives, and the system accountability environment emerged as key contextual factors. The existing accountability framework, which solely focussed on financial performance of District Health Boards and outputs, suffocated the notion of a learning system as health system leaders placed more effort on achieving targets and outputs rather than on continuous improvement. A culture of continuous improvement supported the notion of a learning system; it encouraged iterative learning using methods such as plan-do-study-act cycles and fostered innovation. Use of 'new power' values such as collaborative policy design and implementation harnessed the intrinsic motivation of health system agents and built trust between policy makers and health service providers, which lead to sustained collective engagement with transformation efforts. A collective engagement to achieve a shared vision built strong and resilient health system leadership.
The research concluded that transformation of health systems depended on senior system leaders' understanding of the programme architecture that underpins efforts to successfully implement LST initiatives.


The contemporary American jury is more inclusive than ever before, although multiple obstacles continue to make racial and ethnic representation a work in progress. Drastic contraction has also occurred: The rate of jury trials is at an all-time low, dampening the signal that jury verdicts provide to the justice system, reducing the opportunity for jury service, and potentially threatening the legitimacy of judgments. At the same time, new areas of jury research have been producing important explanations for how the jury goes about reaching its verdict in response to challenging questions, like how to assess damages. Yet the persistent focus on individual juror judgments as opposed to decision making by the jury as a group leaves unanswered important questions about how jury performance is influenced by a primary distinctive feature of the jury: the deliberation process.


One of the most fundamental challenges when accessing gestural patterns in 3D motion capture databases is the de ̄nition of spatiotemporal similarity. While distance-based similarity models such as the Gesture Matching Distance on gesture signatures are able to leverage the spatial and temporal characteristics of gestural patterns, their applicability to large 3D motion capture databases is limited due to their high computational complexity. To this end, we present a lower bound approximation of the Gesture Matching Distance that can be utilized in an optimal multi-step query processing architecture in order to support e±cient query processing. We investigate the performance in terms of accuracy and e±ciency based on 3D motion capture databases and show that our approach is able to achieve an increase in e±ciency of more than one order of magnitude with a negligible loss in accuracy. In addition, we discuss di®erent applications in the digital humanities in order to highlight the signi ̄cance of similarity search approaches in the research ̄eld of gestural pattern analysis.


Lead oxide is an important glass modifier not only for affecting the chemical and mechanical stabilities of glasses, but also for improving their thermal and optical properties. Since specific properties are associated with the presence of PbO, its crystallization is important to enhance the material performance. Although considerable advances have been achieved regarding the fabrication of glass-ceramic from lead-based glasses, the spatial confinement of the crystallization remains challenging. Direct laser writing (DLW) has been considered an essential technique to overcome this issue, since material properties can be changed in localized and pre-determined regions. Although DLW with femtosecond laser pulses has been widely used for glass processing, its usage for phase transformations and control of the architecture of crystals has not been much exploited. This paper reports the design and control of β-PbO and 3PbO·H2O crystalline phases in a lead borate glass using fs-DLW followed by chemical etching at room temperature. We demonstrated that the etching in aqueous KOH solution is responsible for the glass crystallization, whereas the grooves produced by fs-laser pulses enable the selective crystallization in a pre-determined 2D pattern. The method described herein is important as it can control phase transformation at the micrometer scale and also permits the growth of lead oxide and lead oxide hydrate phases, which are not achieved by heat treatment. The morphologies of these microcrystals correspond to the structure of the respective compounds, being an octahedral euhedral crystal for 3PbO·H2O and thin sheets for β-PbO crystalline phases.


We previously demonstrated by Western blotting and immunocytochemistry that a GnRH agonist (leuprorelin acetate, LA) was able to induce a post-transcriptional increase in GnRH receptor (GnRH-R) expression at the plasma membrane of androgen-sensitive (LNCaP) and -insensitive (PC-3) prostate cancer (PCa) cells. In the present study, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to gain a deeper insight into the effects of LA on the behaviour of GnRH-R in highly invasive and poorly differentiated PC-3 cells. The use of this powerful, non-destructive technique allows to identify and study the biological features of the living cell surface, as ligand-receptor interactions. Here, we investigated for 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 days, the effect of LA (10-11 and 10-6 M) in PC-3 cells on: i) amount of LA/GnRH-R binding events (i.e. GnRH-R quantification), ii) strength of the analogue-receptor binding, iii) receptor topography. Briefly, analogue molecules were immobilized onto conical AFM tips and the single agonist/receptor interactions were measured by force-distance cycles. In agreement with our previous results, the number of GnRH-R augmented during 30 days due to the effect of LA treatment. The increasing rate of GnRH-R was dose-dependent until the 24th day and reached the maximum (~70%) after 30 days of treatment with the highest dose of LA (10-6M). At least 2 different receptor bound strengths have been detected, probably due to the presence of two GnRH-R classes. The majority of the sites showed a relatively low bound strength (~37 piconewton). A LA/GnRH-R complex lifetime of ~ 9s and ~3.4 s for the higher and lower bound strength receptors, respectively, has been determined. Regarding GnRH-R topography, a homogeneous distribution of the binding events has been found on untreated and LA-treated PC-3 cell surfaces. The persistence of high receptor levels at the androgen-insensitive cell surface may warrant the maintenance of the response to the analogue in androgen-unresponsive PCa also, which might be useful in clinical practice. Moreover, the definition of parameters as ligand/receptor bond strength and lifetime could shed light on the poorly understood molecular basis of LA/GnRH-R interaction and might be used to address structural/chemical agonist optimizations. Supported by Takeda Italia Farmaceutici SpA


Dataset bias remains a significant barrier towards solving real world computer vision tasks. Though deep convolutional networks have proven to be a competitive approach for image classification, a question remains: have these models have solved the dataset bias problem? In general, training or fine-tuning a state-of-the-art deep model on a new domain requires a significant amount of data, which for many applications is simply not available. Transfer of models directly to new domains without adaptation has historically led to poor recognition performance. In this paper, we pose the following question: is a single image dataset, much larger than previously explored for adaptation, comprehensive enough to learn general deep models that may be effectively applied to new image domains? In other words, are deep CNNs trained on large amounts of labeled data as susceptible to dataset bias as previous methods have been shown to be? We show that a generic supervised deep CNN model trained on a large dataset reduces, but does not remove, dataset bias. Furthermore, we propose several methods for adaptation with deep models that are able to operate with little (one example per category) or no labeled domain specific data. Our experiments show that adaptation of deep models on benchmark visual domain adaptation datasets can provide a significant performance boost.


: A patient was bitten on the hand by a spider and subsequently hemorrhagic herpes zoster developed at the site of the bite as well as over most of the area distal to the elbow (innervated by cutaneous nerves C5-C8). Mild systemic symptoms of nausea, abdominal cramping, and visual disturbances responded to the intravenous administration of calcium gluconate. There was residual paresthesia of the C5-C8 dermatome but no atrophy. This is the first reported case of herpes zoster precipitated by a spider bite.


Abstract This paper investigates the impact of supply of subsidized sale flats on private housing prices in Hong Kong, and their cause-and-effect relationships. Using quarterly data for 1978-2003, the results show that private property prices move independently of the supply of subsidized sale flats and that such supply does not "Granger cause" private housing prices. The study also found evidence that the cessation has not restored the market or resulted in any increase in housing prices. The demand or prices in the private sector is not influenced by the implementation of the moratorium nor does the production and sale of subsidized sale flats pose a direct threat to the private sector in Hong Kong. Finally, the regression analysis shows that the stock of private domestic accommodation, transaction volume of private residential flats, household income, and unemployment rate are important in explaining property market behavior. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.) As a consequence of high population density and limited land resources, Hong Kong's property prices dramatically increased in the pro-1997 period. In July 1997, in an attempt to suppress the ever-inflating property prices and to promote home ownership from 50% to 70% in ten years, the then Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), People's Republic of China (PRC) announced the aggressive plan of building 85,000 housing units per year, of which 50,000 would be public housing units. Prior to 1997, the supply of housing units, both public and private, was not more than 50,000 a year. The large amount of government land released by the HKSAR administration in the fall of 1997 completely reversed the cutback in the annual land supply of 50 hectares embedded in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. "Unforeseen" consequences soon followed. Private housing prices dropped by 40% within one year of the announcement of the 85,000-unit policy and by some 65% by the third quarter of 2003 from the 1997 peak. The property market slump caused much difficulty in the economy. There were about 106,000 residential mortgage loans in negative equity with a total value of HK$165 billion at the end June 2003 [Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), 2003], compared to 65,000 loans amounting to HK$127 billion in 2001(HKMA, 2001). This represented 22% of all residential mortgage loans and 31% of total mortgage loan value in 2003. Further, there were persistent reductions in government revenues. In 2000, the government received HK$15.8 billion through land disposal. However, in 2001 it received only HK$3 billion (HKMA, 2001). The 85,000-unit policy was just one of the more visible components of the overall public housing program in recent years. Other initiatives included the selling of Housing Authority rental flats to sitting tenants and the cessation of production and sale of the Home Ownership Scheme/Private Sector Participation Scheme (HOS/ PSPS) flats between September 24, 2001 and June 30, 2002, and indefinitely from 2003 onwards. Housing Authority members agreed that such measures had to be in place to avoid an overlap between HOS/PSPS and the private property market. In his Statement on Housing, the Chief Secretary, Tsang (2001) called for the need for certainty after the moratorium. He argued that would-be property owners would no longer face additional downward price pressure from an over-supply of new HOS/ PSPS flats. Clearly, the implementation of the moratorium was intended to stabilize residential property prices by limiting the public sector supply. While the government made appropriate adjustments in line with public opinion by implementing the moratorium, it apparently ignored the housing needs of the lower-income classes. There might be no correlation or causality between supply of HOS/PSPS flats and private residential prices, yet this still needs to be confirmed by statistical tests. The association or relationships were not known before the study, which was specifically designed to explore the impact of HOS/PSPS, if any. …


Online Social Networks (OSNs) have been the subject of a great deal of study in recent years. The majority of this study has used simple models, such as node-and-edge graphs, to describe the data. In this paper, we argue that such models, which necessarily limit the structures that can be described and omit temporal information, are insufficient to describe and study OSNs. Instead, we propose that a richer class of Entity Interaction Network models should be adopted. We outline a checklist of features that can help build such a model, and apply it to three popular networks (Twitter, Facebook and YouTube) to highlight important features. We also discuss important considerations for the collection, validation and sharing of OSN data.


A new spinelized Ni catalyst (Ni-UGSO) using Ni(NO3)2·6H2O as the Ni precursor was prepared according to a less material intensive protocol. The support of this catalyst is a negative-value mining residue, UpGraded Slag Oxide (UGSO), produced from a TiO2 slag production unit. Applied to dry reforming of methane (DRM) at atmospheric pressure, T = 810 °C, space velocity of 3400 mL/(h·g) and molar CO2/CH4 = 1.2, Ni-UGSO gives a stable over 168 h time-on-stream methane conversion of 92%. In this DRM reaction optimization study: (1) the best performance is obtained with the 10–13 wt% Ni load; (2) the Ni-UGSO catalysts obtained from two different batches of UGSO demonstrated equivalent performances despite their slight differences in composition; (3) the sulfur-poisoning resistance study shows that at up to 5.5 ppm no Ni-UGSO deactivation is observed. In steam reforming of methane (SRM), Ni-UGSO was tested at 900 °C and a molar ratio of H2O/CH4 = 1.7. In this experimental range, CH4 conversion rapidly reached 98% and remained stable over 168 h time-on-stream (TOS). The same stability is observed for H2 and CO yields, at around 92% and 91%, respectively, while H2/CO was close to 3. In mixed (dry and steam) methane reforming using a ratio of H2O/CH4 = 0.15 and CO2/CH4 = 0.97 for 74 h and three reaction temperature levels (828 °C, 847 °C and 896 °C), CH4 conversion remains stable; 80% at 828 °C (26 h), 85% at 847 °C (24 h) and 95% at 896 °C (24 h). All gaseous streams have been analyzed by gas chromatography. Both fresh and used catalysts are analyzed by scanning electron microscopy-electron dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDXS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) coupled with mass spectroscopy (MS) and BET Specific surface. In the reducing environment of reforming, such catalytic activity is mainly attributed to (a) alloys such as FeNi, FeNi3 and Fe3Ni2 (reduction of NiFe2O4, FeNiAlO4) and (b) to the solid solution NiO-MgO. The latter is characterized by a molecular distribution of the catalytically active Ni phase while offering an environment that prevents C deposition due to its alkalinity.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of government trade liberalization on the economic complexity of eight developing economies named Group D8 member countries during the period 2002-2017; using the PVAR method. immediate reaction test results show that, over a period of 10 years, economic complexity increases with positive shock from variables of trade freedom, foreign direct investment and gross fixed capital formation, but in the long run, the effect of imports of intermediary and capital goods is initially increasing and, after a short period, has a positive downward effect. The results of the analysis of variance also show, the variables of economic complexity, import of intermediate and capital goods, gross fixed capital formation, trade freedom and foreign direct investment respectively have the most impact on economic complexity, respectively


Databases often inaccurately identify entities of interest. Two operations, consolidation and link formation, which complement the usual machine learning techniques that use similarity-based clustering to discover classifications, are proposed as essential components of KDD systems for certain applications. Consolidation relates identifiers present in a database to a set of real world entities (RWE's) which are not uniquely identified in the database. Consolidation may also be viewed as a transformation of representation from the identifiers present in the original database to the RWE's. Link formation constructs structured relationships between consolidated RWE's through identifiers and events explicitly represented in the database. Consolidation and link formation are easily implemented as index creation in relational database management systems. An operational knowledge discovery system identifies potential money laundering in a database of large cash transactions using consolidation and link formation.


The study compares two destinations associated with literature and films. These are Daguanyuan in Beijing, China, and Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand. Both have proven to be enduring tourist attractions. Both are based on popular novels, namely Dream of the Red Mansions and The Lord of the Rings respectively. Both novels have attracted large audiences for television series or films. The question examined in the paper is whether, while both sites reflect different cultures, do they represent a form of tourism described in Asian academic literature as "contents tourism". The study finds similarities in the reasons given for visits by tourists, which gives credence to concepts of a cosmopolitan or global culture, but context is thought to be important. The study explores the notion of "contents tourism" but concludes that this may only apply to specific circumstances and to highly committed "fans" (as in Otaku pilgrimage), and there is not yet a need to abandon older notions of "film tourism". Keywords: Contents tourism, film tourism, globalization, interpretation, culture.


High concentrations of Na+ or [Co(NH3)6]3+ can induce the B to Z conformational transition in alternating (dC-dG) oligo and polynucleotides. The use of short DNA oligomers (dC-dG)4 and (dm5C-dG)4 as models can allow a thermodynamic characterization of the transition. Both form right handed double helical structures (B-DNA) in standard phosphate buffer with 115 mM Na+ at 25 °C. However, at 2.0 M Na+ or 200 μM [Co(NH3)6]3+, (dm5C-dG)4 assumes a left handed double helical structure (Z-DNA) while the unmethylated (dC-dG)4 analogue remains right handed under those conditions. We have previously demonstrated that the enthalpy of the transition at 25 °C for either inducer can be determined using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Here, ITC is used to investigate the linkages between temperature, water activity and DNA conformation. We found that the determined enthalpy for each titration varied linearly with temperature allowing determination of the heat capacity change (ΔCp) between the initial and final states. As expected, the ΔCp values were dependent upon the cation (i.e., Na+ vs. [Co(NH3)6]3+) as well as the sequence of the DNA oligomer (i.e., methylated vs. unmethylated). Osmotic stress experiments were carried out to determine the gain or loss of water by the oligomer induced by the titration. The results are discussed in terms of solvent accessible surface areas, electrostatic interactions and the role of water.


This paper describes a novel approach based on online unsupervised adaptation and clustering using temporal-difference (TD) learning. Temporal-difference learning is a reinforcement learning technique and is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives when interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. The adaptation progresses based on rewards that represent correctness of outputs. The adapted models gradually accumulate and cluster with the environmental conditions and can immediately adapt by selecting the optimal model from the clusters. We conducted speech recognition experiments by a connected digit recognition in noisy environments including the variation of speakers and noises. The results verify that the proposed method has a higher recognition performance than the conventional adaptation method.


The systematic excavation of funerary sites carried out by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma during the last years, has allowed the collection of a considerable amount of bio-archaeological data. This work try to highlights the role of the woman in the roman society as work force, examining several biomechanical stress markers in the skeleton. The sample consist of 1041 individuals, coming from areas surrounding the urban centre and the rural environment nearby the City and chronologically framed in I-III century AD. Considering together the biological and the archaeological data, we tried to understand the occupational activities in which the women could be involved.  Key words:  W oman - Work forces - Roman Imperial Age


This article describes the evaluation of the radiopharmaceutical 64Cu-CB-TE2A-c(RGDyK) (64Cu-RGD) as an imaging agent for osteolytic bone metastases and their associated inflammation by targeting of the αvβ3 integrin on osteoclasts and the proinflammatory cells involved at the bone metastatic site. Methods: The 64Cu-RGD radiotracer was evaluated in the transgenic mouse expressing Tax (Tax+), which spontaneously develops osteolytic tumors throughout the vertebrae and hind limbs, using biodistribution studies and small-animal PET/CT. Histologic analysis was also performed on Tax+ mouse tails, using hematoxylin and eosin and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase to confirm the presence of osteolytic bone lesions and the presence of osteoclasts, respectively. Additionally, a proof-of-principle study was conducted with a small group of Tax+ animals presenting with osteolytic lesions. These animals were treated with the bisphosphonate zoledronic acid and imaged with 64Cu-RGD to determine whether this radiopharmaceutical was sensitive enough to detect a response to the bisphosphonate therapy. Results: Biodistribution studies using 64Cu-RGD demonstrated that Tax+ mice between the ages of 6 and 12 mo had a greater accumulation of activity in their tail vertebrae than did the wild-type (WT) cohort (P = 0.013). Additionally, Tax+ mice between the ages of 6 and 12 mo had significantly more tracer activity associated with their tail vertebrae than did Tax+ mice older than 12 mo (P = 0.003), suggesting that earlier bone metastases cause an increased recruitment of αvβ3-expressing cells. Small-animal PET/CT with 64Cu-RGD was conducted on Tax+ and WT mice. On the basis of standardized uptake value analysis, Tax+ mice had approximately 2-fold more tail-associated activity than did WT animals (P = 0.0157). Additionally, decreases in uptake were observed in the tails of Tax+ mice after treatment with the osteoclast inhibitor zoledronic acid, and histologic analysis of Tax+ mouse-tail vertebrae revealed the presence of Tax+ tumor cells, osteoclasts, and proinflammatory cells within the bone microenvironment. Conclusion: Together, these data suggest that 64Cu-RGD has the potential to effectively image osteolytic bone metastases and monitor the physiologic changes in the bone metastatic microenvironment after osteoclast-inhibiting bisphosphonate therapy.


After nearly fifty-nine years of Independence, Nigeria is by all standards of measurement, a poor country. Poverty is endemic in Nigeria. As a result of this, money politics and vote buying have taken the centre stage in political activities. This is because parties and candidates have shown by their conduct during political campaigns, that good party manifestoes and integrity of candidates jostling for public offices are no longer sufficient to guarantee electoral success; thus, the resort to vote buying. On the other hand, the electorates too have obviously demonstrated cynical electoral behaviour by the readiness to sell their votes to the highest bidder. This uncharitable practice constitutes a blemish on public policy and on the electoral process. Politicians influence the electorate with money, food and other items by politicians. The paper argued that democracy does not thrive in a poverty infested environment and thus attributes the major challenges facing the present democratic experiment in Nigeria to the existence of poverty on a large scale. The paper observed that electioneering in Nigeria has been marred by contradictions that threaten objectivity in voting for a preferred candidate during elections. It concluded that to sustain Nigeria's nascent democracy, the political class must embrace good governance through prudent use of available resources, provision of critical infrastructures and social amenities, conduct of free and fair elections, and the promotion of accountability, transparency and the rule of law.


Cognitive and socioeconomic factors don't fully explain gaps Much is known about how adult science literacy varies internationally and over time, and about its association with attitudes and beliefs. However, less is known about disparities in science literacy across racial and ethnic groups (1). This is particularly surprising in light of substantial research on racial and ethnic disparities in related areas such as educational achievement, math and reading ability (2), representation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations (3), and health literacy (4). Given the importance of science literacy to securing and sustaining many jobs, to understanding key health concepts to enhance quality of life, and to increasing public engagement in societal decision-making (5), it is concerning if the distribution of science literacy is unequally stratified, particularly if this stratification reflects broader patterns of disadvantage and cultural dominance as experienced by minorities and educationally underserved populations. We describe here such disparities in science literacy in the United States and attempt to explain underlying drivers, concluding that the science literacy disadvantage among black and Hispanic adults relative to whites is only partially explained by measures of broader, foundational literacies and socioeconomic status (SES).


A balanced strategy for OFDMA radio resource allocation based on game theory concepts is presented. Its main novelty with respect to state-of-the-art methods is that resource allocation is based on application-oriented Mean Opinion Score (MOS), rather than the aggregate system data rate. Thus, users' data flows cooperate in a proactive way in order to jointly maximize the Quality of Experience (QoE). Experimental results show that the MOS achievable by the proposed resource allocation strategy is higher than the one provided by uncoordinated strategies based on water-filling and cooperative strategies based on pure data rate maximization.


Background: The clinical picture of Rheumatoid arthritis is mainly related to the affection of peripheral joints. The present study was planned with an objective to study clinical and laboratory profile of patients presenting with rheumatoid arthritis. Methodology: The present study was a cross-sectional study conducted on cases of rheumatoid arthritis. Special emphasis was placed on the clinical presentation grading at the time of presentation with associated etiological factors and exacerbating factors. All the patients were also subjected to necessary blood investigations and relevant radiological investigations. Results: Among the total 100 cases of RA, maximum incidence of rheumatoid arthritis was seen in the age group of 31 – 40 years (46%) and 41-50 years (30%). The commonest clinical features noted was joint pain (100%), commonest joint involved was proximal interphalangeal and metacarpophalangeal joints (96%), commonest upper limb deformity was ulnar deviation of digits (40%) and commonest radiological changes were juxta articular osteopenia and soft tissue swelling (74%). Rheumatoid arthritis factor was positive in 76 % (76 cases) and Anti CCP was positive in 94% (94 cases) of the patients. Conclusion: It is concluded from the present study that most common predisposing factors were family history and smoking and commonest exacerbating factor was climatic changes. The most common clinical features are morning stiffness, joint pain, joint swelling and limitation of joint movement.


This paper proposes a high-capacity scheme for reversible data hiding (RDH) in encrypted images. The proposed scheme is based on a new preprocessing method by bit plane partition. Specifically, the values in the less significant bit planes are reversibly hidden into the other bit planes. Consequently, the room in the less significant bit planes can be vacated to generate a preprocessed image, from which the original image can be recovered by extracting the hidden bit values and writing them back. After encrypting the preprocessed image with a stream cipher, the vacated room can be used to accommodate extra data, which can be retrieved without image decryption. In addition, the embedding capacity can be further increased by adopting an efficient most significant bit (MSB) prediction method before image encryption. Compared with the state-of-the-art RDH schemes for encrypted images, the experimental results show that higher embedding capacity can be achieved with our proposed one. The numerical results are provided to show the performances of the proposed scheme in different cases of bit-plane partition and MSB prediction.


Understanding the dynamics driving the transformation of snowfall crystals into blowing snow particles is critical to correctly account for the energy and mass balances in polar and alpine regions. Here we propose a fragmentation theory of fractal snow crystals that explicitly links the size distribution of blowing snow particles to that of falling snow crystals. We use discrete element modeling of the fragmentation process to support the assumptions made in our theory. By combining this fragmentation model with a statistical mechanics model of blowing snow, we are able to reproduce the characteristic features of blowing snow size distributions measured in the field and in a wind tunnel. In particular, both model and measurements show the emergence of a self‐similar scaling for large particle sizes and a systematic deviation from this scaling for small particle sizes.


The vegetation of the Windmill Islands oasis, Wilkes Land, continental Antarctica is dominated by lichens. Aspects of the ecology and physiology of lichens were studied during three summers and a winter period on the well vegetated Clark and Bailey Peninsulas in an attempt to explain patterns in lichen distribution. Most studies were done at a knoll on Clark Peninsula. This knoll has an extensive range of substratum nutrient levels and a variety of microhabitats, resulting in a variety of niches in a small area. At this site 29 identifiable species
of lichen occur in seven sociations, most dominated in varying degrees by the macrolichens Pseudephebe minuscula, Umbilicaria decussata, Usnea sphacelata and Usnea antarctica. The crustose lichen Buellia frigida dominates sites on exposed boulders and a separate suite of species inhabits dead and dying moss. There are a suite of species which are restricted to sites with high nutrient levels, although the distribution of the dominant species is relatively insensitive to substratum nutrition. Exposure limits all species to various extents, with all lichens being intolerant of late-lying snow.
The nitrogen and phosphate content of lichen thalli is clearly related to that of the substratum on which they are growing. Monthly sampling of Usnea sphacelata and Umbilicaria decussata from eight sites identified a consistent trend in thallus nitrogen content with %N increasing throughout the winter and then dropping sharply with the onset of the melt and increasing during the summer. Lichen integrity during the middle of winter and before and after an unusual winter event were assessed by investigating the distribution of mineral nutrients within the lichen thallus. Although the distribution of minerals in the thalli differed between species and sites there was no effect of month and therefore the unseasonal rewetting and subsequent refreezing had little effect on membrane integrity.
The most important time for lichen photosynthetic activity was early summer from late October to early December. The increasing temperatures and insolation at this time lead to a great deal of snow melt and hence an increase in the availability of free water. Humidity was therefore high so that activation of photosynthesis was possible through water vapour uptake alone. During the bulk of the summer lichens are photosynthetically inactive. At this time the air is too dry for lichens to absorb sufficient water from the atmosphere to initiate photosynthesis and hence they rely on direct moistening from summer snow falls and run off. The photosynthesis of the major species as a function of thallus water content was related to their observed distribution patterns.
Together, substratum nutrient levels, microclimate and photosynthetic characteristics of species can describe a great deal of the observed distribution patterns of lichens in the Windmill Islands.


Tumors evolve a variety of mechanisms to escape immune detection while expressing tumor-promoting molecules that can be immunogenic. Here, we show that transposable elements (TE) and gene encoded, tumor-associated antigens (TAA), which can be both highly immunogenic and tumor-promoting, are significantly upregulated during the transition from pre-malignancy to malignancy in an inducible model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Coincident with the increased presence of TEs and TAAs was the downregulation of gene transcripts associated with antigen presentation, T cell recruitment and intrinsic anti-viral responses, suggesting a unique strategy employed by PDAC to possibly augment tumorigenesis while escaping detection by the immune system. In vitro treatment of mouse and human PDAC cell lines with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-azacytidine (Aza) resulted in augmented expression of transcripts for antigen presentation machinery and T cell chemokines. When immunocompetent mice implanted with PDAC were therapeutically treated with Aza, we observed significant tumor regression that was not observed in immunocompromised mice, implicating anti-tumor immunity as the principal mechanism of tumor growth control. Analysis of PDAC tumors, immediately following Aza treatment in immunocompetent mice, revealed a significantly greater infiltration of T cells and various innate immune subsets compared to control treatment, suggesting that Aza treatment enhances tumor immunogenicity. Thus, augmenting antigen presentation and T cell chemokine expression using DNA methyltransferase inhibitors could be leveraged to potentiate adaptive anti-tumor immune responses against PDAC.


This paper contributes to the modeling and analysis of unsignalized intersections. In classical gap acceptance models vehicles on the minor road accept any gap greater than the critical gap, and reject gaps below this threshold, where the gap is the time between two subsequent vehicles on the major road. The main contribution of this paper is to develop a series of generalizations of existing models, thus increasing the model's practical applicability significantly. First, we incorporate driver impatience behavior while allowing for a realistic merging behavior; we do so by distinguishing between the critical gap and the merging time, thus allowing multiple vehicles to use a sufficiently large gap. Incorporating this feature is particularly challenging in models with driver impatience. Secondly, we allow for multiple classes of gap acceptance behavior, enabling us to distinguish between different driver types and/or different vehicle types. Thirdly, we use the novel M X /SM2/1 queueing model, which has batch arrivals, dependent service times, and a different service-time distribution for vehicles arriving in an empty queue on the minor road (where 'service time' refers to the time required to find a sufficiently large gap). This setup facilitates the analysis of the service-time distribution of an arbitrary vehicle on the minor road and of the queue length on the minor road. In particular, we can compute the mean service time, thus enabling the evaluation of the capacity for the minor road vehicles.


Between 1760 and 1820, the Georgians pioneered modern tunnelling, constructing 47 tunnels for canals across the UK. In 1789, the then longest canal tunnel in the UK was completed after 5 years and 4 months of construction; at 3490 m, the Sapperton tunnel conveyed the Thames and Severn Canal. But there were many failures, often involving loss of life; from these, as much as from the successes, tunnelling techniques and skills were developed. The mastery of tunnelling techniques for safely traversing through the earth remains challenging for civil engineers. Since 1965, there have been over 100 reported tunnel failures across the world. While Georgian historic structures are familiar on the skylines of today's cities, a further hidden legacy can also be discovered from the past of collective engineering experiences. This paper reviews the causes of tunnelling success and failures, bequeathed to civil engineers by their Georgian predecessors, and seeks to derive lessons for today's civil engineers.


This study aims to develop a neural network model to predict work zone capacity including various uncertainties stemming from traffic and operational conditions. The neural network model is formulated in terms of the number of total lanes, number of open lanes, heavy vehicle percentage, work intensity, and work duration. The data used in this paper are obtained from previous studies published in open literature. To capture the uncertainty of work zone capacity, this paper provides two recent methods that enable neural network models to generate prediction intervals which are determined by mean work zone capacity and prediction standard error. The research first builds a Bayesian neural network model with the application of black-box variational inference (BBVI) technique. The second model is based on a regular artificial neural network with an application of the recently proposed Monte-Carlo dropout technique. Both of the neural network models construct prediction intervals under various confidence levels and provide the coverage rates of the actual work zone capacities. The statistical accuracy (MAPE, MAE, MSE, and RMSE) of the models is then compared with traditional estimation methods in predicted mean work zone capacity. BBVI produces better statistical results than the other three models. Both of the models provide predicted work zone capacity distribution and prediction intervals, whereas traditional models only provide a single estimate.


Security requirements in sensor systems include resiliency against physical and side-channel attacks, low energy for communication, storage, and computation, and the ability to realize a variety of public-key protocols. Furthermore, primitives and protocols that enable trusted remote operation in terms of data, time, and location are essential to guarantee secure sensing. By integrating physically unclonable functions (PUFs) directly into sensor hardware and using device aging to securely match groups of sensors, we enable a variety of ultra low power security protocols for trusted remote sensing, including authentication and public key communication.


This study aimed at understanding the experiences of students that were enrolled in the Obstetric Nursing Program offered by the University of Sao Paulo College of Nursing. Data were collected through interviews with the former students, who had different life histories after their graduation. The proposal of this research was based on Alfred Schutz' Social Phenomenology framework, considering that people express, in their actions socially experienced, the meaning of these experiences. Results showed two social types: the ones who continue in the area because they like what they do and the ones who do not work in the area as they were disappointed with the lack of professional autonomy. The reasons mentioned offer important guidelines that must be analyzed by the ones who are still working in the area, by the class associations and the ones who are responsible for the capacitation of these professionals.


Abstract Bailey, D. T., DeFedericis, H-C. C., Greene, K. F., Iijima, H., Budzinski, E. E., Patrzyc, H. B., Dawidzik, J. B. and Box, H. C. A Novel Approach to DNA Damage Assessments: Measurement of the Thymine Glycol Lesion. Radiat. Res. 165, 438– 444 (2006). A different approach to the measurement of DNA damage has been developed based on the fact that many lesions can be excised from DNA in the form of modified dinucleoside monophosphates. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is used in conjunction with isotopically labeled internal standards to quantify the lesion. The method has several advantages, including high sensitivity for the detection of dinucleoside monophosphates. The method was applied to the measurement of the 5,6-dihydroxy-5,6-dihydrothymine (thymine glycol) lesion in the DNA of mouse fibroblast cells exposed in culture to various treatments including ionizing radiation, UVC light and buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), an inhibitor of glutathione synthesis. The application of the method to the measurement of other DNA lesions is discussed.


Migration and refugee resettlement has been and continues to be, an important element of population growth for Australia. In recent times, more than 35,000 refugees escaping the Sudan civil war have settled in Australia—with approximately 6,500 people now living in Queensland. With each wave of immigration, the capacity of new citizens to adapt and succeed in their new home has been a key societal concern. Often, there has been some focus on how law-abiding the new immigrant communities will be and their perceived level of involvement with the criminal justice system. In this paper, a summary is provided of the finndings from four interdependent studies designed to explore Sudanese Australian experiences with the Queensland criminal justice system and to challenge some misconceptions.

The studies provide an analysis of media representations of Sudanese Australians, views of the Queensland police regarding the relative level of offending by Sudanese people, and a survey and focus groups conducted with Sudanese Australians. Ensuring that Sudanese Australians are given a voice and a way of communicating their experiences and concerns in dealing with Australian criminal justice and civil systems, is an important dimension of the research.


Dietary practices of sixty-one nursing mothers who had been breast-feeding their infants an average of four months were examined in relation to their knowledge of nutrition and their attitudes about nutrition, taking vitamin supplements, meal preparation, and meal planning. The women were fairly knowledgeable about nutrition, and most exhibited an attitude that "nutrition is important". Nutritional knowledge, as measured by performance on a reliable test instrument, correlated well with the attitude that "nutrition is important" and with education. Nutritional knowledge also correlated well with four dietary factors used as dependent variables. Associations between nutrition-related attitudes and dietary factors were much less strong. Path analysis was used to test the knowledge-to-attitudes-to-behavior paradigm. Results, using multiple regression analysis, indicated that this model was not supported by the data. Rather, path analysis supported the model of attitudes-to-knowledge-to-behavior. This research suggests that nutrition education programs should adopt, as a primary goal, that of instilling positive attitudes about nutrition and demonstrating to learners that "nutrition is important". Once such attitudes have been formulated, ability to learn and comprehend nutritional facts and concepts will be facilitated, thus resulting in improved dietary intake of crucial nutrients.


: Current literature data on the clinical course, diagnosis and treatment of gastrinoma, one of the most frequent neuroendocrine tumors of the thyroid, as well as 23 cases with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome treated by the authors are analysed in detail. Peculiarities of the clinical course, difficulties of syndrome diagnosis, principles of updated topical diagnosis of gastrinoma, conservative and surgical treatments including treatment of multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome are described.


In most cases unique identifiers are required to join data from different databases. If global unique keys are absent or corrupted the supplement of data extracted from different sources becomes difficult. The main question is: does a given record relates to an entity, which is identical to an entity corresponding to another record, or not? This leads to a classification problem with at least two classes: identical and not identical. Classifying pairs of records needs a three-step procedure. The first step is to define suitable common properties (attributes) of data for all different sources. Secondly, to allow comparisons the values of the records are transformed to these common properties. Finally, the classification is performed on an almost finite subset, the range of an appropriate comparison function. Different classification techniques can be applied like Association Rules, Classification Trees, Neural networks or Record Linkage techniques. The unknown parameters of the classification rules are computed by sampling and supervised learning. Unbiased error rates can be estimated for instance by cross validation. Special attention must be paid to control the computing complexity of the identification process. The approach is illustrated for data from two library databases and from the planned German administrative record census, which will become a substitute of a regular census.


Our paper presents a distant supervision algorithm for automatically collecting and labeling 'TEAD', a dataset for Arabic Sentiment Analysis (SA), using emojis and sentiment lexicons. The data was gathered from Twitter during the period between the 1st of June and the 30th of November 2017. Although the idea of using emojis to collect and label training data for SA, is not novel, getting this approach to work for Arabic dialect was very challenging. We ended up with more than 6 million tweets labeled as Positive, Negative or Neutral. We present the algorithm used to deal with mixed-content tweets (Modern Standard Arabic MSA and Dialect Arabic DA). We also provide properties and statistics of the dataset along side experiments results. Our try outs covered a wide range of standard classifiers proved to be efficient for sentiment classification problem.


Purpose: To evaluate safety and clinical results of intravitreal antiangiogenic agents for choroidal neovascularization in pediatric patients. Methods: Retrospective, multicenter, interventional case series. A total of 45 eyes of 39 pediatric patients with choroidal neovascularization of various etiologies were treated with intravitreal injection of antiangiogenic agents (1.25 mg per 0.05 mL of bevacizumab or 0.5 mg per 0.05 mL of ranibizumab). Results: There were 24 girls and 15 boys with group median age of 13 years (range, 3–17 years). Mean follow-up period was 12.8 months (range, 3–60 months). Median visual acuity in terms of logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution at presentation and last follow-up was 0.87 and 0.7, respectively (P = 0.0003). Mean and median number of injections received over the follow-up period was 2.2 and 1, respectively. At the last follow-up, 22 eyes (48%) gained more than 3 lines of vision and 27 eyes (60%) had final visual acuity 20/50 or better. Nine eyes (20%) did not improve and had severe vision loss (20/200 or worse). Conclusion: Intravitreal antiangiogenic therapy for choroidal neovascularization in pediatric patients seems temporarily safe and effective in majority of affected eyes. Because of the rarity and character of this condition, it is unlikely that any clinical trials will soon take place to study this or other treatment option.


: Tooth eruption in 212 randomly selected Swedish urban children has been investigated from birth to 16 years as part of a prospective longitudinal study of growth and development. The ages and the order of eruption of the deciduous and permanent teeth were in agreement with those reported in other contemporary studies. The good agreement with another longitudinal study of the tooth eruption of Swedish children born during the same period is an indication that the present sample was representative of contemporary Swedish children. In the deciduous dentition a probable male advancement was found, while girls were consistently the advanced sex as regards the eruption of permanent teeth. Sex differences have also been found in the relation between dental development and other criteria of somatic growth and development. The correlations were low or moderate with, in general, higher values for girls than boys. A positive association with somatic growth was observed both for the deciduous and the permanent dentition but with intriguing sex differences for various body measurements.


Echolocating bats can avoid obstacles in complete darkness relying on their sonar system. Under experimental conditions, these animals can infer the 3D position of obstacles. However, in cluttered and complex environments their ability to locate obstacles is likely to be largely reduced, and they might need to rely on more robust cues that do not degrade as the complexity of the environment increases. Here, we present a robotic model of two hypothesized obstacle avoidance strategies in bats, both of which model observed behavior in bats: a Gaze Scanning Strategy and a Fixed Head Strategy. Critically, these strategies only employ interaural level differences and do not require locating obstacles. We found that both strategies were successful at avoiding obstacles in cluttered environments. However, the Fixed Head Strategy performed better. This indicates that acoustic gaze scanning, observed in hunting bats, might reduce obstacle avoidance performance. We conclude that strategies based on gaze scanning should be avoided when little or no spatial information is available to the bat, which corresponds to recent observations in bats.


Taenia solium cysticercosis is difficult to eliminate without interventions or societal development. Atahualpa is a rural Ecuadorian village with documented low migration rate, where domestic pig raising is common and human cysticercosis is endemic. To assess neurocysticercosis (NCC) prevalence, 1,273 villagers aged ≥ 20 years underwent neuroimaging studies, which showed calcified lesions in 121 (9.5%) individuals, but no active disease. Likewise, positive reactions, apparently nonspecific, were found in only 3/200 subjects by the use of a monoclonal antibody-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect T. solium antigens in urine. Only 2/418 pigs reacted to three antibody bands on serum western blot and none to more than three bands. This is the first time that spontaneously arrested T. solium transmission is documented in a known endemic village. Understanding why active transmission stopped could provide insights on potential targets for control interventions. Atahualpa could provide an optimal scenario for longitudinal studies on the consequences of calcified NCC.


We examine the spatial patterns of near-surface air temperature (Ta) over a melting glacier using a multi-annual dataset from McCall Glacier, Alaska. The dataset consists of a 10-year (2005–2014) meteorological record along the glacier centreline up to an upper glacier cirque, spanning an elevation difference of 900 m. We test the validity of on-glacier linear lapse rates, and a model that calculates Ta based on the influence of katabatic winds and other heat sources along the glacier flow line. During the coldest hours of each summer (10% of time), average lapse rates across the entire glacier range from −4.7 to −6.7°C km−1, with a strong relationship between Ta and elevation (R2 > 0.7). During warm conditions, Ta shows more complex, non-linear patterns that are better explained by the flow line-dependent model, reducing errors by up to 0.5°C compared with linear lapse rates, although more uncertainty might be associated with these observations due to occasionally poor sensor ventilation. We conclude that Ta spatial distribution can vary significantly from year to year, and from one glacier section to another. Importantly, extrapolations using linear lapse rates from the ablation zone might lead to large underestimations of Ta on the upper glacier areas.


Heparanase (HPSE) has been defined as a multitasking protein that exhibits a peculiar enzymatic activity towards HS chains but which simultaneously performs other non-enzymatic functions. Through its enzymatic activity, HPSE catalyzes the cutting of the side chains of heparan sulfate (HS) proteoglycans, thus contributing to the remodeling of the extracellular matrix and of the basal membranes. Furthermore, thanks to this activity, HPSE also promotes the release and diffusion of various HS-linked molecules as growth factors, cytokines and enzymes. In addition to being an enzyme HPSE has been shown to possess the ability to trigger different signaling pathways by interacting with transmembrane proteins. In normal tissue and in physiological conditions, HPSE exhibits only low levels of expression restricted only to keratinocytes, trophoblast, platelets and mast cells and leukocytes. On the contrary, in pathological conditions, such as in tumor progression and metastasis, inflammation and fibrosis, it is overexpressed. With this brief review, we intend to provide an update on current knowledge about the different role of HPSE protein exerted by its enzymatic and not-enzymatic activity.


We discuss the diagnostics available to study the 5–10 MK plasma in the solar corona, which is key to understanding the heating in the cores of solar active regions. We present several simulated spectra, and show that excellent diagnostics are available in the soft X-rays, around 100 Å, as six ionization stages of Fe can simultaneously be observed, and electron densities derived, within a narrow spectral region. As this spectral range is almost unexplored, we present an analysis of available and simulated spectra, to compare the hot emission with the cooler component. We adopt recently designed multilayers to present estimates of count rates in the hot lines, with a baseline spectrometer design. Excellent count rates are found, opening up the exciting opportunity to obtain high-resolution spectroscopy of hot plasma.


The oncology literature proliferates, and pundits have identified a new "growth industry." Multiauthored texts abound and now cover virtually every aspect of cancer. The publisher of the current effort proclaims it mandatory reading for anyone involved in cancer patient care. As with many "one size fits all" products, this book leaves much to be desired. It represents the second publication in a series titled Fundamentals of Cancer Management . Editor John Laszlo and colleagues at the Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Durham, NC, attempt a detailed discussion of cancer care complications. An excellent early chapter reviews the economic complications of cancer. Commendable efforts explore ethical and psychosocial ramifications of cancer, with special attention to pediatric oncology and terminal care. Editor Laszlo has produced a comprehensive 84-page chapter on complications of chemotherapy. The remainder of the book does not satisfy. The chapter on radiation therapy describes complications and says little about management.


The meteorological and oceanographic situation during a 6 d drift experiment in the German Bight at the end of April 1991 is evaluated by combining field data, observation network data and results of different numerical models. By combining all available data, it was possible to represent the complex state of the physical situation during the course of the drift experiment and to gain essential information for the interpretation of chemical and biological measurements performed during the drift experiment. This examination shows that the drift experiment can be subdivided into 2 parts. During the first part the situation was dominated by a high pressure system over Scandinavia. This high was associated with weak easterly winds which transported polluted air masses into the region of the experiment. The prevailing easterly winds led to a strong vertical shear in the oceanic circulation between the upper water levels. This shear caused water masses of different origin to coincide within the drift experiment region. During the second phase the region was influenced by a low which led to precipitation and thereby to a washout of contaminants from the atmosphere. Under the influence of the prevailing northerly winds during the second phase, the vertical shear of the oceanic circulation diminished and a cyclonic circulation established itself over the whole water column, as model results showed.


This research project developed an evaluation framework for estimating the cost-benefit analysis of integrating PT with walking and cycling. The research was based on a review of the available international evidence of public transport access and egress behaviour. Where evidence was available, analysis of trip chains from the New Zealand Household Travel Survey highlighted patterns of public transport access and egress in a New Zealand context and, importantly, provided an indication of the mode shift and trip generation impacts of improved access to public transport. This research report is accompanied by a spreadsheet evaluation tool, which can be employed to estimate the dollar value of improvements to the integration of public transport, walking and cycling. The research compared the monetary appraisal values from international business case guidance with the NZ Transport Agency's Economic evaluation manual, and the evaluation tool is consistent with this guidance. The report includes a review of how walking and cycling at either end of a PT trip is represented in data collection, transport planning and modelling, and makes practical recommendations to aid integrated planning in the future.


In this paper we discuss the issue of primary and secondary actions to direct mail offers. Primary action refers to the first responses consumers make toward a direct offer or solicitation. It might represent an order for a product, a request for a catalog or credit card, or a pledge to donate to a charity. As little money changes hands on primary actions, companies are also interested in secondary actions, i.e., bad debts, returns, or payments. A company concentrating solely on the prediction of primary actions might lose money on customers who do not ultimately pay. We present a model which jointly models primary and secondary action and incorporates the correlation between the two action probabilities. We also show how optimal selection should take place incorporating predicted primary and secondary action jointly. In an empirical study, the new joint model yields superior profits when compared to a split model assuming the independence of primary and secondary actions.


Great earthquakes rarely occur within active accretionary prisms, despite the intense long‐term deformation associated with the formation of these geologic structures. This paucity of earthquakes is often attributed to partitioning of deformation across multiple structures as well as aseismic deformation within and at the base of the prism (Davis et al., 1983). We use teleseismic data and satellite optical and radar imaging of the 2013 M_w 7.7 earthquake that occurred on the southeastern edge of the Makran plate boundary zone to study this unexpected earthquake. We first compute a multiple point‐source solution from W‐phase waveforms to estimate fault geometry and rupture duration and timing. We then derive the distribution of subsurface fault slip from geodetic coseismic offsets. We sample for the slip posterior probability density function using a Bayesian approach, including a full description of the data covariance and accounting for errors in the elastic structure of the crust. The rupture nucleated on a subvertical segment, branching out of the Chaman fault system, and grew into a major earthquake along a 50° north‐dipping thrust fault with significant along‐strike curvature. Fault slip propagated at an average speed of 3.0  km/s for about 180 km and is concentrated in the top 10 km with no displacement on the underlying decollement. This earthquake does not exhibit significant slip deficit near the surface, nor is there significant segmentation of the rupture. We propose that complex interaction between the subduction accommodating the Arabia–Eurasia convergence to the south and the Ornach Nal fault plate boundary between India and Eurasia resulted in the significant strain gradient observed prior to this earthquake. Convergence in this region is accommodated both along the subduction megathrust and as internal deformation of the accretionary wedge.


Social work understanding of children's citizenship has received little analysis and traditional models tend to view children as passive recipients of care or welfare, rather than as active meaning makers. This is particularly so for looked after children. In contrast, we draw upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu to develop a model of understanding children's citizenship that on the one hand accounts for the structural flow of governance from modern welfare states that shape children's lives, while recognising the agency and capacity for action among children. This article applies the model to those in the care system. To capture the everyday agency of children, we build upon Bourdieu's notion of habitus with ideas of lived citizenship, as defined by Delanty and Lister, and recognition theory classically outlined by Honneth. Furthermore, we contribute to the existing work on habitus to develop a model adapted from the pragmatism associated with the work of Boltanski. In so doing, analysing the critical and justificatory account making of children themselves, social workers are able to engage positively with all children by drawing on a variety of their social worlds.


The inhibition effect of anisaldehyde on the corrosion of aluminium in sulphuric acid was investigated by weight loss method and characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analyses. The effect of different inhibitor concentrations was studied at varying temperature (308, 313 and 318 K). It was found that the percentage of inhibition efficiency (% I.E.) increases with increase of inhibitor concentration and decreases with increase in temperature. The values of activation energy and half-life were found to be higher in inhibited acid solution compared to uninhibited acid solution, while that for the rate constant reduced from uninhibited to inhibited acid solution. The negative values of Gibbs free energy of adsorption confirmed the spontaneity of the process. Other thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy and entropy were also evaluated and discussed. The investigation of adsorption isotherm model indicates that the inhibitor fitted to Langmuir isotherm model. Result of SEM analysis shows how the inhibitor reduced the acid attack on the aluminium surface, and FTIR analysis result of the corrosion product proves the formation of thin layer of inhibitor molecules on aluminium surface.


Academic writing is used a lot in the academic field and general writing as a distinct genre discourse in the linguistic and socio-cultural fields. Good writers generally use well-formed sentences; they often establish connections between sentences. Writing an essay is still a critical problem for most EFL undergraduate students since they are still not able to establish connections between sentences. The purpose of this study is to investigate the usage of conjunctions as cohesive devices in expository essays produced by EFL fourth-year undergraduate students majoring in the English language at the Department of English language and literature, Hashemite University in Jordan. A corpus of 30 expository essays were collected by using a simple purposive sampling technique to answer the questions of the study based on the theory of cohesion analysis by refining the grammatical cohesive related aspect based on Halliday and Hasan's (1976) taxonomy of conjunction. The results show that additive conjunction covers the largest proportion of (57.70%) followed by causal conjunction (6.44%), adversative conjunction (3.64%), and temporal conjunction (3.64%). On the other hand, the analysis reveals that students use additive conjunction (17.93%), causal conjunction (5.32%), adversative conjunction (3.36%), and temporal conjunction (1.96%) inappropriately. This study contributes to the written discourse and pedagogy within the field of teaching English for academic writing. The study recommends that grammatical cohesive devices and their function should be explained to the students through explicit teaching, not as separated grammatical items but as discourse semantic resources of text creation.


The founders of B Lab are on a mission to create a new sector of the economy, and are specifically focused on a three objectives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations (B=Benefit) that legally expand their corporate responsibilities to include consideration of diverse stakeholder interests, 2) advancing the public policies necessary to create a new corporate form called a Benefit Corporation, and 3) creating an investment rating system to help drive institutional investment to the emerging asset class of "impact investments." The case considers the challenges associated with achieving each one of these objectives, let alone all three at the same time. Is B Lab's tripartite strategy its secret sauce or its albatross? Learning Objective: To understand processes of institutional change and the challenges of balancing social benefit and business value.


We study encodings of the lambda-calculus into the pi-calculus in the
unexplored case of calculi with non-determinism and failures. On the sequential
side, we consider lambdafail, a new non-deterministic calculus in which
intersection types control resources (terms); on the concurrent side, we
consider spi, a pi-calculus in which non-determinism and failure rest upon a
Curry-Howard correspondence between linear logic and session types. We present
a typed encoding of lambdafail into spi and establish its correctness. Our
encoding precisely explains the interplay of non-deterministic and fail-prone
evaluation in lambdafail via typed processes in spi. In particular, it shows
how failures in sequential evaluation (absence/excess of resources) can be
neatly codified as interaction protocols.


This thesis investigates the theoretical and empirical relationships between a firm's R&D investment intensity and the systematic risk of its common stock in Sweden. This is done by examining 38 Swedish firms between 1997 and 2005. An overlapping set of 5-year window is chosen to apply to calculate the variables of the samples. In this thesis, three factors are introduced as a proxy of main constituents of systematic risk: intrinsic business risk, degree of financial leverage and degree of operating leverage. And we use these three constituents to analysis the relationship between R&D investment and systematic risk. The results from Monte Carlos simulations and correlation analysis of our sample show that, in Sweden, firms with higher R&D intensity do face higher stock price volatility in the stock market. At the same time, we attempt to test the relationship among R&D and systematic risk's three constituents, but find that R&D intensive firms have more financial leverage which is opposite to our expect, which might due to the shortage of data and limitation of our sample selection, and R&D intensive firms do not have obvious relations directly with intrinsic business risk, degree of financial leverage or degree of operating leverage.


Streptococcus gordonii Wicky becomes competent only after stimulation with conditioned medium from strain Challis as a source of competence factor (CF). A 3.2-kbp genomic fragment from Challis was found to impart spontaneous competence on Wicky by a complementation assay. Wicky clones containing the fragment secreted a heat-sensitive activity that induced competence in Wicky and in a comA insertion mutant of Challis. Activity was localized to a putative open reading frame, comX, with the potential to encode a 52-amino-acid peptide. comX had no similarity to known sequences, and a comX::ermAM insertion mutant of Challis transformed normally and secreted CF. These data suggest that a CF-independent pathway for competence induction exists in S. gordonii.