We propose two synthetic aperture radar (SAR) complex image compression schemes based on DLWT_IQ and DLWT_FFT. DLWT_IQ encodes the real parts and imaginary parts of the images using directional lifting wavelet transform (DLWT) and bit plane encoder (BPE), while DLWT_FFT encodes the real images converted by fast Fourier transform (FFT). Compared with discrete wavelet transform-IQ (DWT_IQ), DLWT_IQ improves the peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) up to 1.28 dB and reduces the mean phase error (MPE) up to 21.74%; and compared with DWT_FFT, DLWT_FFT improves the PSNR up to 1.22 dB and reduces the MPE up to 20.32%. Moreover, the proposed schemes increase the PSNR up to 3.34 dB and decrease the MPE up to 50.43% as compared with the set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) algorithm. In addition to this, we observe a novel phenomenon, that is, DLWT with direction prediction achieves a higher clustering capability for complex SAR images than DWT. Then, coding algorithm based on DLWT requires fewer coding bits than DWT for the same number of coding coefficients, and DLWT outperforms DWT in terms of rate-distortion performance even if the K-term nonlinear approximation of DWT is better than that of DLWT.


Motivations. The graph is a data structure to represent biological data ranging from molecules and proteins to biological networks and metabolic pathways. Working on those data involves manly applying graph isomorphism algorithms. Those algorithms are computationally hard and their efficiency may depend upon the input graphs. We are building a library, SubGraphLib, of the most popular searching algorithms and benchmarks highlighting drawbacks, advantages, and best performance input cases for each method. A novel approach to find all occurrences of a query subgraph in a target graph is also proposed. This new method applies a search strategy which significantly reduces the search space without using any complex pruning rule. Results show a significant reduction of the running time with respect to other methods together with a scalable memory requirement. Methods. The best known algorithms to solve the subgraph isomorphism problem are the ones proposed by Ullmann [1] and by Cordella et al. [2] (VF2), which make use of backtracking algorithms in conjunction with some filtering rules to prune branches of the search space represented as a tree. The nodes of the tree denote pairs of matched vertices of the query and the target graphs, respectively. During the visit, the isomorphism conditions are applied to verify the partial matches. The algorithm in [1] modeled the graph isomorphism problem also as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP). A CSP is defined by a set of variables and a set of constraints among them. To each variable a set of possible values, called domain, is associated. The solution of a given CSP problem is an assignment of values to all variables such that all constraints are satisfied. More recently, Solnon [3] published a method, LAD, for propagating global neighborhood constraints together with a generalized arc consistency. Ullmann [4] proposed a new method, FocusSearch, based on bitvector representation of domains, to deal with parallel operations. In FocusSearch, domain reduction is not applied until convergence is achieved. The search phase is preceded by two steps based on vertex invariants and local AllDifferent constraints [3,4]. Search strategy is established by a static instantiation sequence based on the number of future branches. Our newly proposed algorithm, called CoreGraph, is based on a new search strategy which builds a static instantiation sequence of the query node. CoreGraph does not deal with complex filtering rule or domains. The basic idea for the construction of the search sequence is to maximize the number of branches to preceding nodes in the sequence. The sequence is recursively generated by adding those neighbors maximizing a score function. The score of each candidate node is assigned taking into account its degree, the number of its edges leading to nodes in the sequence and to their neighbors. Notice that, CoreGraph applies those filtering rules only to the query graph. Concerning the target graphs, the only information CoreGraph uses for pruning is node degree. Finally, since the search strategy does not give priority to more dense parts of the target graphs it results efficient in a large variety of query and target graphs. Results. SubGraphLib contains the original implementation of VF2, LAD, and CoreGraph and a new implementation of FocusSearch in C++ (which is originally distributed in modula2). All algorithms have been compared on benchmarks such as synthetic unlabeled graphs, molecules, and biological networks. CoreGraph and FocusSearch in all cases outperform the other algorithms in terms of execution time. In most benchmarks, CoreGraph outperforms also FocusSearch. FocusSearch results particularly efficient on regular graphs having a mesh structure. However, since FocusSearch uses initial domains to avoid label comparisons, the memory requirements do not scale with respect to graphs size. On the other hand, CoreGraph maintains a low memory profile. References 1. Ullmann, J. R. 1976. An algorithm for subgraph isomorphism. J. ACM 23, 1, 31-42. 2. Cordella, L. P., Foggia, P., Sansone, C., and Vento, M. 2004. A (sub)graph isomorphism algorithm for matching large graphs. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 26, 10, 1367-1372. 3. Solnon, C. 2010. AllDifferent-based Filtering for subgraph isomorphism. Artif. Intell. 174, 12-13, 850-864. 4. Ullmann, J. R.. 2011. Bit-vector algorithms for binary constraint satisfaction and subgraph isomorphism. J. Exp. Algorithmics15, Article 1.6 February 2011.


The introduction of advanced technologies by the Industry 4.0 phase at national enterprises is in the initial stages and requires economic support from the state. The system of financial and economic stimulation for the introduction of advanced technologies for smart-industrial development should combine monetary (monetary and credit) and fiscal (tax and budget) incentives. To ensure the validity and optimality of the choice of the list of such measures, it is relevant to build scenarios for the development of national industry using economic and mathematical modelling tools that allow assessing the impact of the identified incentives on the overall economic growth indicators. An analysis of the models by areas of incentives aimed at studying the impact of incentives on the economic performance of enterprises, industry or the overall economy of the States is carried out. The advantages and disadvantages of the DCF, VAR and GARCH models are outlined, which, along with the methods for assessing the effectiveness of individual incentives CBA, ROI, NPV, etc., may require modification to consider individual incentives, the introduction of additional factors and the accumulation of variables to assess the overall impact on the economy. Therefore, they are labour-intensive for solving the outlined problems, but can be used for intermediate calculations for certain incentive areas. For modelling the components of the financial and economic stimulation system at the national level, the most appropriate models are general economic models (Cobb-Douglas model, Solow model, AD-AS model, Samuelson-Hicks model, etc.). The modified Cobb-Douglas model, taking into account the digitalisation factor, reflects the dependence of production on the introduction of advanced smart technologies, has a number of advantages over other models and is technically convenient for long-term calculations, which is required for national industry development scenarios to assess the impact of the introduction of financial and economic stimulation for industrial development. Promising areas of research are outlined.


The recent rise of jihadist movements in West Africa, including Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates in the Sahel-Saharan region, has puzzled many observers. The easy spread of the jihadist ideology, the jihadist movements' success in massively recruiting followers among local populations as well as their ability to conquer and administer territories, are unprecedented in the region's contemporary history. This paper sheds light on the factors and processes that contribute to the emergence of these movements. It argues that the phenomenon of jihadist insurgencies in West Africa emerges as a result of a series of processes at the global, local, and individual level. At the global level, there is the formation and dissemination of the global ideology of jihadism, conceptualised by Muslim activists and scholars based on a particular understanding of Islam and the challenges that are facing contemporary Muslim societies. At the local level, the appropriation of jihadist ideologies by "Muslim activists" who then use it to formulate a discourse which taps into local social and political demands in order to mobilise followers, is key. For a wide range of reasons, certain regions of Africa have experienced weakened state capacity and increased local conflict, and it is in these areas that jihadist insurgencies have emerged. At the individual level, the process by which African individuals decide to enrol in jihadist groups include ideological, situational, and strategic motivations, and these have all been facilitated by deteriorating conditions of life in marginalised areas.


This paper proposes the practical OFDM channel estimation method with only Kalman filter theory. The method aims to achieve robust OFDM channel estimation from the canonical state space models with (i) a state equation composed of the channel gain and (ii) an observation equation composed of the pilot signal, the channel gain, and the additive noise. The remarkable features of this method are that (1) the channel gain estimation accuracy does not depend on the parameter of the AR system, (2) the maximum Doppler frequency is unknown, and (3) the proposed method can estimate the channel gain by low computational complexity, while many conventional methods based on the Kalman filter theory usually perform the channel gain estimation using the parameter estimation algorithm of the AR (auto-regressive) system and the Kalman filter algorithm. Numerical examples show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


This paper presents a general virtual ring method to design and analyze small-world structured P2P networks on the base topologies embedded in ID spaces with distance metric. Its basic idea is to abstract a virtual ring from the base topology according to the distance metric, then build small-world long links in the virtual ring and map the links back onto the real network to construct the small-world routing tables for achieving logarithmic greedy routing efficiency. Four properties are proposed to characterize the base topologies that can be turned into small-world by the virtual ring method. The virtual ring method is applied to the base topologies of d-torus with Manhattan distance, high dimensional d-torus base topologies, and other base topologies including the unbalanced d-torus and the ring topology with tree distance. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments demonstrate the efficiency and the resilience of the proposed overlays.


Habitat suitability index (HSI) models provide spatially explicit information on the capacity of a given habitat to support a species of interest, and their prevalence has increased dramatically in recent years. Despite caution that the reliability of HSIs must be validated using independent, quantitative data, most HSIs intended to inform terrestrial and marine species management remain unvalidated. Furthermore, of the eight HSI models developed for eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) restoration and fishery production, none has been validated. Consequently, we developed, calibrated, and validated an HSI for the eastern oyster to identify optimal habitat for restoration in a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, the Great Wicomico River (GWR). The GWR harbors a high density, restored oyster population, and therefore serves as an excellent model system for assessing the validity of the HSI. The HSI was derived from GIS layers of bottom type, salinity, and water depth (surrogate for dissolved oxygen), and was tested using live adult oyster density data from a survey of high vertical relief reefs (HRR) and low vertical relief reefs (LRR) in the sanctuary network. Live adult oyster density was a statistically-significant sigmoid function of the HSI, which validates the HSI as a robust predictor of suitable oyster reef habitat for rehabilitation or restoration. In addition, HRR had on average 103-116 more adults m^−2 than LRR at a given level of the HSI. For HRR, HSI values ≥0.3 exceeded the accepted restoration target of 50 live adult oysters m^−2. For LRR, the HSI was generally able to predict live adult oyster densities that meet or exceed the target at HSI values ≥0.3. The HSI indicated that there remain large areas of suitable habitat for restoration in the GWR. This study provides a robust framework for HSI model development and validation, which can be refined and applied to other systems and previously developed HSIs to improve the efficacy of native oyster restoration.


The study sought to determine path analysis of the influence of student variables and school location on senior secondary students' academic achievement in Economics. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a correlational survey design. Sample of the study consist of 377 SS2 Economics students drawn from 82 secondary schools in Ogoja Education Zone of Cross River State. Multi-staged sampling procedure was used to select fifteen schools from the urban and rural stratum. Two instruments were used for data collection namely; Students Variable Questionnaire (SVQ) and Proforma for collecting SS2 Economics Students' Scores for first term 2018/2019 academic session. Face and construct validity were employed in validating the instruments and were also tested for reliability. Using Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate the internal consistency, 0.94 for SVQ. Data collected were analyzed using IBM AMOS. Hypotheses were tested using Chi-square Goodness of Fit Index (CGFI), Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) and ANOVA. Result shows there are 7 significant causal paths out of the 9 originally designed. Also, the student variables and school location have combined influence on students' academic achievement in Economics. However, there is no significant model fit for explaining students' academic achievements in Economics International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 25, Issue 02, 2021 ISSN: 1475-7192 1356 based on the exogenous variables. Based on the findings, it was concluded that student variables and school location have high positive influence on students' academic achievement in Economics. It was recommended that Students should be motivated and encouraged to learn through using teaching methods that increase the interest and curiosity of students to learn Economics.


The focus of this dissertation is on vulnerability to poverty and on wage discrimination of Roma in South East Europe with the aim to reveal the systemic causes of poverty and labour market disadvantage. It calls attention to the interaction of various socio-economic factors that are responsible for the situation of the Roma in South East Europe. It is shown that Roma are both poorer than non-Roma and are more vulnerable to poverty. Especially, low education appears to be a key determinant of Roma household's vulnerability. The author, Susanne Milcher, further shows, that education (rather than wage discrimination) is a main factor in explaining wage income differentials between Roma and non-Roma in South East Europe. Nevertheless, wage discrimination apparently is an important factor in lowering incomes of Roma in Albania and Kosovo.


Leveraging the advances of today's commodity graphics hardware, adoption of community proven collaboration technology, and the use of standard Web and Grid technologies a flexible system is designed to enable the construction of a distributed collaborative radiological visualization application. The system builds from a prototype application as well as requirements gathered from users. Finally constraints on the system are evaluated to complete the design process.


We describe PReMod, a new database of genome-wide cis-regulatory module (CRM) predictions for both the human and the mouse genomes. The prediction algorithm, described previously in Blanchette et al. (2006) Genome Res., 16, 656–668, exploits the fact that many known CRMs are made of clusters of phylogenetically conserved and repeated transcription factors (TF) binding sites. Contrary to other existing databases, PReMod is not restricted to modules located proximal to genes, but in fact mostly contains distal predicted CRMs (pCRMs). Through its web interface, PReMod allows users to (i) identify pCRMs around a gene of interest; (ii) identify pCRMs that have binding sites for a given TF (or a set of TFs) or (iii) download the entire dataset for local analyses. Queries can also be refined by filtering for specific chromosomal regions, for specific regions relative to genes or for the presence of CpG islands. The output includes information about the binding sites predicted within the selected pCRMs, and a graphical display of their distribution within the pCRMs. It also provides a visual depiction of the chromosomal context of the selected pCRMs in terms of neighboring pCRMs and genes, all of which are linked to the UCSC Genome Browser and the NCBI. PReMod: .


We describe a new direct method for estimating structure and motion from image intensities of multiple views. We extend the direct methods of Horn- and-Weldon to three views. Adding the third view enables us to solve for motion, and compute a dense depth map of the scene, directly from image spatio-temporal derivatives in a linear manner without first having to find point correspondences or compute optical flow. We describe the advantages and limitations of this method which are then verified through simulation and experiments with real images.


A driving cycle is a representation of how vehicles are driven and is usually represented by a set of data points of vehicle speed versus time. Driving cycles have been used to evaluate vehicles for a long time. A traditional usage of driving cycles have been in certification test procedures where the exhaust gas emissions from the vehicles need to comply with legislation. Driving cycles are now also used in product development for example to size components or to evaluate different technologies. Driving cycles can be just a repetition of measured data, be synthetically designed from engineering standpoints, be a statistically equivalent transformation of either of the two previous, or be obtained as an inverse problem e.g. obtaining driving/operation patterns. New methods that generate driving cycles and extract typical behavior from large amounts of operational data have recently been proposed. Other methods can be used for comparison of driving cycles, or to get realistic operations from measured data. This work addresses evaluation, transformation and extraction of driving cycles and vehicle operations. To be able to test a vehicle in a controlled environment, a chassis dynamometer is an option. When the vehicle is mounted, the chassis dynamometer simulates the road forces that the vehicle would experience if it would be driven on a real road. A moving base simulator is a well-established technique to evaluate driver perception of e.g. the powertrain in a vehicle, and by connecting these two simulators the fidelity can be enhanced in the moving base simulator and at the same time the mounted vehicle in the chassis dynamometer is experiencing more realistic loads. This is due to the driver's perception in the moving base simulator is close to reality. If only a driving cycle is considered in the optimization of a controller there is a risk that the controllers of vehicles are tailored to perform well in that specific driving cycle and not during real-world driving. To avoid the sub-optimization issues, the operating regions of the engine need to be excited differently. This can be attained by using a novel algorithm, which is proposed in this thesis, that alters the driving cycle while maintaining that the driving cycle tests vehicles in a similar way. This is achieved by keeping the mean tractive force constant during the process. From a manufacturers standpoint it is vital to understand how your vehicles are being used by the customers. Knowledge about the usage can be used for design of driving cycles, component sizing and configuration, during the product development process, and in control algorithms. To get a clearer picture of the usage of wheel loaders, a novel algorithm that automatically, using existing sensors only, extracts information of the customers usage, is suggested. The approach is found to be robust when evaluated on measured data from wheel loaders loading gravel and shot rock.


Human T cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a horizontally transmitted virus infection of CD4+ lymphocytes which causes adult T cell leukemia-lymphoma (ATLL) and HTLV-associated myelopathy (HAM). The viral genome encodes two oncoproteins, transactivator protein (Tax) and helix basic zipper protein (HBZ), which are considered tumor initiator and maintenance factors, respectively. Tax is the primary inducer of clonal infected T cell expansion, and genetic instability. The immune response to Tax results in the selection of cells with little or no Tax expression, which have undergone genetic and epigenetic alterations that promote T cell activation, proliferation, and resistance to apoptosis. This selection of malignant cells occurs over several decades in 5% of infected individuals. Novel insights into the molecular details of each of these events has led to targeted therapies for ATLL.


Research Background: In the Literary Studies and Creative Writing fields, setting is an acknowledged concern for creative writers. In knowing this, we usually think of the authorial creation of settings in fiction, drama and poetry. But also there is the setting for the writing - the actual place where the writer settles and sits. This paper investigates the site of the writing practice. Research Contribution: This paper contends that writers make significant choices about the places in which they write. It investigates several real-life settings where significant works in English literature were written. It focuses on writers Robert Graves, DH Lawrence, Lawrence Durrell and Byron and the Mediterranean island locations they chose to write in. While visiting these writing sites, I kept a journal of my own writings, extracts from which are reproduced (in italics) throughout this piece. Research Significance: The paper investigates an area on the borders between the Creative Writing and Literary Studies disciplines barely yet investigated. The paper is published in a Category A refereed journal.


VII. IMAGE, FULL-TEXT, AND CD-ROM FILES Automated library systems are ceasing to be just bibliographic systems which point to information. Instead, they are becoming information systems which include images and full-text. At some time in the future, they may also contain multimedia-a combination of audio, video, and data. Imaging in libraries is still in its infancy, but an increasing number of libraries are anticipating the addition of imaging capability to their automated library systems. Academic libraries are interested in storing and retrieving images of course reserve readings, especially journal articles; libraries of all types hope to protect fragile manuscripts and photographs by limiting the handling of the originals; and libraries with many locations anticipate offering equal access to unique materials to users regardless of where they are. One of the major problems in imaging is that standards are still lacking. Only three major standards have been adopted. The rest are de facto standards which have yet to be adopted by national or international standards organizations. Nevertheless, libraries interested in imaging should specify adherence to de facto standards when specifying imaging. Full-text files are increasingly being mounted on automated library systems and an increasing number of them are being configured as Web servers to facilitate access from Web browsers. Alternately, many libraries are participating in the creation of community, campus, or corporate Web pages on shared Web servers. Electronic publications on CD-ROM now number in the thousands. Libraries are installing CD-ROM servers with towers accommodating a number of CD-ROM disk drives and are seeking to interface the servers with the automated library systems. Libraries are also increasingly interfacing automated library systems with CD-ROM servers and towers. This requires that the CD-ROM drives and CD-ROM products conform to a standard. The following standards and de facto standards are discussed in this chapter: GIF Graphics Interchange Format TIFF Tagged Image File Format ISO/IEC 10918-1 Digital Compression and Coding of Continuous-Tone Still Images (JPEG-Joint Photographic Experts Group) MPEG Motion Picture Experts Group ISO 8879 Standard Generalized Markup Language HTML HyperText Markup Language ISO 12083 Electronic Manuscript Preparation and Markup ISO 9660 Volume & File Structure of CD-ROM for Information Exchange GIF. Graphics Interchange Format GIF is a de facto standard which supports hardware-independent, online transmission of graphic image data. It is the most compact format for compressing images and is used to create "thumbnail" images that facilitate identification rather than study. Maximum compression to shorten image retrieval is the goal rather than quality. Compression is critical because an image of a single black-and-white image stored at a resolution of 300 dpi (dots per inch) takes up to 75 seconds to transmit at 9600 bps (bits per second)--the speed at which most installed systems currently operate. By using compression, the data transfer rate can be increased severalfold. Color control is not as good with GIF as with JPEG. It is possible to convert GIF files to JPEG without loss of information, but the reverse is not true. For that reason, GIF and JPEG files usually are created separately so that the GIF files have all of the information and the JPEG files have the color desired. GIF conformity should be specified by libraries interested in maintaining image files which include "thumbnail" displays for identification, with linkages to JPEG images. TIFF. Tagged Image File Format TIFF is a data compression format which has now substantially been replaced by other formats. …


Whole-body MRIs are commonly used to screen for early signs of cancer. In addi-tion to the small size of tumours at onset, variations in individuals, tumour types, and MRI machines increase the difficulty of finding tumours in these scans. Using patches, rather than whole-body scans, to train a deep-learning-based segmentation model with a custom compound patch loss function, several augmentations, and ad-ditional synthetically generated training data to identify areas where there is a high probability of a tumour provided promising results at the patch-level. However, applying the patch-based model to the entire volume did not yield great results despite all of the state-of-the-art improvements, with over 50% of the tumour sections in the dataset being missed. Our work highlights the discrepancy between the commonly used patch-based analysis and the overall performance on the whole image and the importance of focusing on the metrics relevant to the ultimate user − in our case, the clinician. Much work remains to be done to bring state-of-the-art segmentation to the clinical practice of cancer screening.


The analysis of dental features and patterns figures amongst the primary means for human identification established by the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). Differently from fingerprint and genetic analyses, forensic dentistry does not necessarily require a minimum number of similarities between antemortem and postmortem data. In other words, human identification could be achieved from the analysis of a single distinctive tooth or even from a single dental identifier. This study aims to report a case of dental human identification of a charred body. Police investigations were carried out and narrowed the scenario towards a single victim. Fingerprints were destroyed by the fire, hence the relatives of the victim were requested to provide any antermotem dental data. A panoramic radiograph was provided. Developing third molars were visible as well as the endodontic treatment, post and core, and the nonmetallic crown of the maxillary right central incisor (tooth #11). Postmortem radiographs were taken from the cadaver and revealed the same therapeutic dental identifiers found in tooth #11. The observed similarities and the lack of discrepancies between antemortem and postmortem data converged to the positive identification of the victim. This study illustrated the importance of Forensic Dentistry for complex cases of human identification, such as those exposed to fire. Especial attention is driven to the possibility of safely achieving positive human identification with the contribution of a single distinctive tooth.


This paper presents the participation of the IRIT laboratory (University of Toulouse) to the Microblog Track of TREC 2015. This track consists in a real-time filtering task aiming at monitoring a stream of social media posts in accordance to a user's interest profile. In this context, our team proposes three approaches: (a) a novel selective summarization approach based on a decision of selecting/ignoring tweets without the use of external knowledge and relying on novelty and redundancy factors, (b) a processing workflow enabling to index tweets in real-time and enhanced by a notification and digests method guided by diversity and user personalization, and (c) a step by step stream selection method focusing on rapidity, and taking into account tweet similarity as well as several features including content, entities and user-related aspects. For all these approaches, we discuss the obtained results during the experimental evaluation.


Hematological and serum biochemical responses to two levels of dietary energy (high energy [HE], 3300 kcal digestible energy [DE]/kg; moderate energy [ME], 2300 kcal DE/kg) and protein (high protein [HP], 16.0% crude protein; moderate protein [MP], 8.4% crude protein) during gestation in 15 collared peccaries (Tayassu tajacu) were examined. Dietary energy and protein levels influenced body weight gain during gestation. Red blood cell counts and lymphocyte concentrations were higher and neutrophil concentrations were lower among females fed an HP diet compared to those fed an MP diet. Alkaline phosphatase and alpha-2 globulin concentrations were higher among females fed an MP diet. Aspartate aminotransferase and cholesterol concentrations were higher and calcium and thyroxine concentrations were lower among females fed ME diets compared to those fed HE diets. These results suggest that physiological indices used in combination with morphological measurements can be useful in assessing collared peccary nutritional health during gestation.


EDITOR,-Colin R Paterson and colleagues have drawn attention to an important group of children that paediatricians performing neonatal examinations need to be aware of.' I would value some clarification about the content of their paper. Eight cases of osteogenesis imperfecta were described from a central register of such patients. How many patients were registered in total, and over what period of time were the cases collected? The changes in work practice suggested at the end of the paper have important implications for paediatric, orthopaedic, and radiology department workloads, hence some idea of the incidence of the condition is vital. The figures in their article suggest that 30-60 children a year are born with osteogenesis imperfecta. If all the cases described occurred in one year the incidence of iatrogenic fracture would be 1:75 000 live births compared with 1800 cases of residually unstable hips per year (that is, 1:333 live births). Although paediatricians need to be aware of this rare problem and consider asking all parents if there is a family history of brittle bones, we will no doubt continue to be held responsible for missed congenital dislocation of the hips ifwe start to take a more lax attitude to routine examination. Some of the other comments suggest that the authors have not had to do 10-15 neonatal examinations a day on a busy postnatal ward. My own practice has been to warn parents that "most babies cry after this test" even before I have touched the hips, this being the reason it is left to the end of the neonatal examination. Until a suitable long term trial of ultrasound screening of neonatal hips is undertaken, as suggested by N M P Clarke,2 it will undoubtedly continue to be paediatricians who have to balance the risks of missing congenital dislocation of the hips against causing this rare complication.


The Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) used in the learning process at all the level of the educational systems but especially into Higher Education, has specific tools. From science of education perspective, VLE's tools offers technological support to academic staff and students to optimize the teaching/learning process, student-centred, for accomplish, at the end, a real transformative learning. VLE's tools are very divers and must be well known of the academic staff for using them in a proper way in the teaching, learning and evaluation process. When a professor choose a tools of e-learning, he should have in mind the type of the course in which could it be applied to as well as the needs and possibilities of the students. The new generation of students are capable of fast information adoption and multitasking, and they call for a random access to information ("anytime, anywhere"), as they are accustomed to Google-like informational systems and multiple media operating. Through e-learning, a new educational environment can be set and an environment can be constructed in the direction of interaction, processing information, researching and problem-solving. The students are asked to actively get involved, and often work in teams. The role of the professor is to design the methods of learning and help the student develop their talents and capabilities. In order to evaluate the VLE tools used in Higher Education on practical level, the short survey among 120 students was managed. According to the survey results and the Transformative Learning Theory given by Mezirow, it is obvious that the way of learning in a modern educational system should be improved.


This article describes the problem of overcoming the crisis of the traditional evaluation system in education. It identifies priorities in the development of assessing students' practical readiness for solving professional problems. Problems are set, the goals of the development of modern community, of the society as a whole. Priority inquiries of the labor market have been identified. There is a shortage of young professionals capable of self-fulfillment in the context of a qualitatively different arrangement of living space. The necessity of transforming the assessment model of students' achievements is determined. The possibilities of applying innovative methods and means of evaluation are highlighted. The theoretical approaches in the sphere of the evaluating system of the students' achievements in higher education are generalized. The fundamental preconditions for the development of new effective forms of assessment means and its inclusion into the professional training process are revealed. Ways of improving and control implementing in the teaching process are presented based on the research analysis in the field of development of assessment means. Those ways are designed to assess objectively the level of students` achievements. The experience of implementing assessment means in the process of preparing students-musicians is described on the example of the module "Musical-Performing Training"


Helicobacter pylori colonizes the stomachs of at least half of the world's human population. The role of the oral cavity in this colonization is not clear and there are, to date, no comprehensive data that clearly demonstrate the isolation of this bacterium from the oral cavity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of H. pylori in the oral cavity of 15 patients who tested positive for H. pylori. A comprehensive dental examination of all patients was conducted. Samples were taken from supragingival and subgingival plaque, saliva, periapical exudates and tongue swabs. All samples were taken before the application of antibiotics. A total of 163 oral samples were investigated by PCR using two different H. pylori-specific primer pairs. A PCR inhibition control using a modified plasmid was always included for the most specific primer pair. In addition, a culture technique was used to confirm PCR results. Despite a PCR detection limit of 10(2) bacteria ml(-1), out of 14 patients, H. pylori could not be detected in any of the samples taken. In one patient, H. pylori-positive PCR signals were obtained in two samples using only one primer pair. H. pylori could not be cultivated from these two PCR-positive samples; therefore, no correlation to oral colonization status could be established. This study challenges the misleading preconception that H. pylori resides in the human oral cavity and suggests that this bacterium should be considered transient and independent of the oral status. To date, positive PCR results for H. pylori in the oral cavity have been overestimated and not critically interpreted in literature.


Water is a scarce resource which is becoming increasingly inaccessible. It is therefore necessary, in most parts of the world, to capture, transport and allocate it efficiently and thoughtfully. The implementation of monitored water distribution networks is often expensive. The purpose of this project is therefore to monitor leakage and consumption in a non-pressurized agricultural irrigation system using only inexpensive and easily installed pressure sensors. We modeled the water network to automatically simulate a leak randomly through the network. These simulated pressures serve as a dataset to train, test and validate a Random Forest algorithm that detects the leaks. Through pressure measures, the model can locate the junction closest to the leak with an accuracy of 96.24%. This approach therefore allows leaks detection in a water distribution system without the use of expensive flow sensors.


In this paper, calcium carbonate particles with unusual morphologies could be successfully synthesized by a precipitation reaction of sodium carbonate with calcium chloride in the presence of a novel polymer-surfactant aggregate consisting of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(propylene glycol)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG-PPG-PEG) and sodium dodecyl sulfonate (SDS). The as-prepared products were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that the SDS concentrations, the molar ratio of CO32- to Ca2+ (R), and the reactive temperature in the mixed system turned out to be important parameters for control of morphologies of the as-prepared CaCO3 particles. Various unusual crystal morphologies, such as hollow microsphere, cubic, and rombehedra, etc., can be obtained depending on the experimental conditions. Moreover, the formation mechanisms of calcium carbonate with different morphologies were discussed.


In a recent work on the wave of advance of a beneficial technology and associated hitchhiking of cultural and biological traits, we simulated the advance of neolithic agriculture into Europe. That model embraced geographical variation of land fertility and human mobility, conversion of indigenous mesolithic hunter-gatherers to agriculture, and competition between invading farmers and indigenous converts. A key result is a sharp cultural boundary across which the agriculturalists' heritage changes from that of the invading population to that of the converts. Here we present an analytical study of the cultural boundary for some simple cases. We show that the width of the boundary is determined by human mobility and the strength of competition. Simulations for the full model give essentially the same result. The finite width facilitates irreversible gene flow between the populations, so over time genetic differences appear as gradients while e.g. linguistic barriers may remain sharp. We also examine the various assumptions of the model relating to purposeful versus. random movement of peoples and the competition between cultures, demonstrating its richness and flexibility.


The challenges of social inclusion and access to the curriculum facing students with visual impairment in schools are well documented. The refreshed UK Vision Strategy (2013) seeks to improve education for students with vision impairment. In order to do this, it is important to understand how students with visual impairment experience education. This study used interpretative phenomenological analysis to examine and understand the way in which two vision-impaired students with albinism experienced inclusion and support in high school. The students, aged 16 and 15, had approximately 10% functional vision, stable from birth and had a record of additional support needs at their respective schools. They were interviewed using a simple schedule of open questions to explore their perceptions of inclusion and of using low-vision aids in school. The two main themes that emerged from the interviews were experiencing low vision in school and experiencing additional support in school. A negative cycle of inclusion was identified based on the students' internalised feelings of difference. Discrepancy was identified between the low-vision aid priorities identified by experts and those identified by students. Recommendations are made to address these issues.


The existing Chinese banking system was born out of a state-planning framework focussed on the funding of state-owned enterprises. Despite the development of a modern banking system, numerous studies of Chinese banking point to its high level of average inefficiency. Much of this inefficiency relates to the high level of non-performing loans held on the banks books. This study argues that a significant component of inefficiency relates to a defunct bureaucratic incentive structure. Using bootstrap non-parametric techniques the paper decomposes cost-inefficiency into X-inefficiency and rational inefficiency caused by bureaucratic rent seeking. In contrast to other studies of the Chinese banking sector, the paper argues that a change in the incentive structure and the competitive threat of the opening up of the banking market in 2007 has produced reduced inefficiency and improved performance.


Sixty-eight consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis B received 702 million units of recombinant interferon-alpha 2a. Of the 24 patients negative for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) in serum, the normalization of serum transaminase occurred in 14 (58%) at the completion of interferon therapy and in 13 (54%) at 12 months thereafter; it was normalized in 17 (39%) and 13 (30%), respectively, of the 44 HBeAg-positive patients. Of the HBeAg-negative patients, hepatitis B virus DNA was cleared from serum in six (25%) at the completion and in one (4%) at 12 months thereafter, in contrast to only one (2%, p < 0.05) and none of the HBeAg-positive patients, respectively. The 1896th nucleotide of G (G1896) for codon 28 for tryptophan or A (A1896) for the stop codon 28 in the precore region was determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism. The ten HBeAg-negative patients with A1896 only in the precore region had lower pretreatment levels of viral markers, which decreased more rapidly and extensively after interferon than in the 14 HBeAg-negative patients with a mixture of G1896 and A1896 or in the 44 HBeAg-positive patients. These results indicate that patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B may respond better to interferon than HBeAg-positive patients, and that the precore mutant with the stop codon 28 may be sensitive to interferon.


I would like to see a method instruction sheet enclosed with every condom that is sold. I realize that there would be those who would not read the instructions, and also people who read the instructions but not follow them, but I think there would also be a large number of responsible people who would both read and follow the instructions, and thereby achieve the maximum safety possible with this type of birth control, and reduce the number of unwanted pregnanci' s.-I am, etc.,


The Mesozoic geology of the Zangbo zone in Tibet is closely comparable to that of the zone's continuation through western Burma. Deposition of Triassic turbidites and locally Jurassic sediments on and immediately oceanward of the passive Asian margin was followed by imbrication above subducting ocean floor in the Early Cretaceous. The subducting slab became detached from the downgoing lithosphere and accreted to Asia in the late Lower Cretaceous. Emplacement of the detached slab by southward thrusting over its Triassic flysch cover to form the Zangbo and western Burma ophiolite took place respectively in or after the Cenomanian and before the Albian. Subsidence and deposition of Albian limestones and mudstones in Burma and of the Xigatse flysch in a fore-arc basin in Tibet were followed in both regions by pre-Campanian uplift and Campanian to early Maastrichtian marine deposition. Maastrichtian olistostromes resulted from underthrusting and tectonic burial of poorly consolidated Campanian sediments, their extrusion together with blocks of adjacent older rock, and downslope flow of the extruded melange. Collision of India with Asia in the Eocene was not associated with ophiolite emplacement and in the Zangbo region resulted chiefly in northward-directed thrusting of the Triassic flysch and ophiolite over the Xigatse flysch, with consequent narrowing of the fore-arc basin.


Abstract: Inhalation of Aspergillus is responsible for a variety of lung infections and diseases; Aspergillus fumigatus is the most common causative agent. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), caused by sensitivity to A fumigatus, is diagnosed primarily in persons with asthma or cystic fibrosis. Differentiating ABPA from other Aspergillus-related lung infections and diseases is often challenging. A patient's symptoms, underlying risk factors, and any prior pulmonary disease contribute to the diagnosis. Findings include pulmonary infiltrates, total serum IgE levels greater than 1000 IU/mL, IgE and IgA anti-A fumigatus antibodies, peripheral blood and pulmonary eosinophilia, and central bronchiectasis. Untreated ABPA often results in chronic bronchiectasis, pulmonary fibrosis, and dependence on corticosteroids; an accurate diagnosis of ABPA is critical to avoiding irreparable disease. (J Respir Dis. 2006;27(3):123-134)


a novel multi-function and miniaturization antenna design concept was presented in this paper. The proposed antenna has a small volume with dimension 22.2 mm(L) × 7.2 mm(W) × 2.6 mm(T). Antenna height is only less than 3 mm that is low profile can easily built in any kind of wireless device application. Antenna is printed on RF4 and then packaged as an IC type antenna, like a standard SMD component, that can effectively save development lead time and cost. The proposed antenna uses a proper matching circuit to fine-tune antenna resonant mode for multi-function operating. Now, we had successfully implemented this IC antenna in USB dongle card and mobile phone for cellular band operating, and WLAN, GPS operating in notebook.


In 2002, Nablus City in Palestine had to face more than one siege. The first siege affected all Palestinian cities; the Israeli army invaded the Palestinian territories and imposed a curfew for around a month in April. Later the same year between June and October, the city of Nablus witnessed a siege that was characterized by immobility and destruction. No one was allowed to leave their home; to do so put their lives under threat. This paper will reflect upon the role of the neighborhood in the construction of a social safety network. This network supported the inhabitants in their struggle to confront the occupational apparatus and to practice their daily activities despite the three-month siege that was imposed by the Israeli army. This paper focuses on neighborhood relations: describing their distinctive influence on peoples' lives and reflecting on the meaning of being a neighbor, the obligations of neighbors within the same district, and how these relations manifested during the siege in 2002 and afterwards.


In a paper read before the Society in April 1856, I called attention to this subject*. I should have thought further recurrence to it unnecessary had it not been that, in the first part of the fourth volume of Baron Humboldt's 'Kosmos' of which a translation has recently issued from the press, under the superintendence of General Sabine), that distinguished author, while treating very fully of volcanic action, gives the unqualified support of his great authority to the theory of upheaval as contradistinguished from that of eruption in reference to the origin of volcanic cones and craters,—a theory which, in common with Sir Charles Lyell, M. Constant Prévost, and many others, I believe to be not merely erroneous, but destructive of all clearness of apprehension as to the part which volcanic action has really played in the structural arrangement of the earth's surface. I think I shall be justified in this last observation in the opinion of any person who will peruse with attention Baron Humboldt's work, and endeavour to realize some definite idea of what the author considers volcanic action to be—how cones or craters are formed—how lava-currents conduct themselves when expelled under varying circumstances upon the earth's surface—what volcanic mountains, or what portions of any such, are the product of eruption and accumulation, and what of the mere mechanical upheaval in mass of preexisting beds. The whole subject is rendered indistinct, and I will venture to say unintelligible, by the author's adheson to the theory of "Cones and


Zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films were deposited onto glass and silicon substrates by RF magnetron sputtering using a zinc-aluminum target. Both films were deposited at a growth rate of 12.5 nm/min to a thickness of around 750 nm. In the visible region, the films exhibit optical transmittances which are greater than 80%. The optical energy gap of ZnO films increased from 3.28 eV to 3.36 eV upon doping with Al. This increase is related to the increase in carrier density from 5.9 × 1018 cm-3 to 2.6 × 1019 cm-3. The RMS surface roughness of ZnO films grown on glass increased from 14 to 28 nm even with only 0.9% at Al content. XRD analysis revealed that the ZnO films are polycrystalline with preferential growth parallel to the (002) plane, which corresponds to the wurtzite structure of ZnO.


Sociologists of law have long emphasized that law is rooted in communities, and laws are considered by these scholars as expressive types of those communities. Sociological analysis casts new light on a significant dimension of international law and enriches our understanding of social factors involved in the creation, interpretation and implementation of international rules. While sociological literature provides valuable tools for analyzing various international legal topics, it does not aim to substitute rational, political or other analyses but rather to complement them. This chapter aims to present the sociological perspective on international investment law and illustrate its practical value with regard to two significant topics in contemporary investment law: the application of human rights law to investment disputes and "precedent" in investment tribunals' jurisprudence. Section II briefly exposes the central tenets of the sociological perspective and discusses its relevance to international economics, particularly foreign investment relations. Section III briefly delineates the features of the investment community. Sections IV and V illustrate the scholarly and practical value of the sociological perspective by an analysis of two prominent questions in contemporary international investment law. Section IV presents a sociological analysis of the interaction between international investment law and human rights law. The principal argument here is that the socio-cultural distance between the particular branches of international law affects the inclination of relevant decision-makers to incorporate or reject legal rules developed in other branches of international law. Section V addresses the issue of "precedent". Investment tribunals' tendency to follow a series of consistent rulings by other investment tribunals is linked to the concepts of social norms, social control and conformity in the investment arbitration community, as well as the particular role of the influential core-group of frequent arbitrators in the investment social network. Investment tribunals' inclination to accept rulings of the International Court of Justice is linked to the concepts of social status and reference group in sociological literature. Section VI concludes that sociological literature is a valuable tool that broadens our understanding of the social factors involved in the creation and implementation of international investment law, and may bear implications for policy-making as well.


There have been numerous calls recently to increase the use of active learning in university science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) classrooms to more actively engage students and enhance student learning. However, few studies have investigated faculty and student perceptions regarding the effectiveness of active learning or the barriers to its implementation. Previous work surveying a single class in a single department has suggested that faculty and students have different perceptions of the effectiveness of active learning strategies and the barriers faculty face when implementing these teaching strategies. We expand on these previous findings by surveying a larger and more diverse sample of students and faculty in a college consisting of five departments. We find that students and faculty agree that active learning techniques are useful, effective, and should be implemented more widely, but disagree on the percentage of class time currently devoted to active learning. When we parsed the data by department, more nuanced perceptions became apparent: the perceived barriers to implementing teaching reform differed in importance by department and in some departments fewer faculty had observed and used active learning. Our findings suggest that advocates of teaching reform must recognize that not all departments or institutions face the same barriers to implementing curricular changes.


For most of the twentieth century, definitions of the family in Ireland have traditionally followed a hetero-normative and patriarchal pattern whereby husbands and wives fulfilled deeply unequal roles. Moreover, the notion of family has been too often idealized as a site of peace and unconditional love, its members being united by unbreakable bonds of mutual affection. In his fiction, Toibin is interested in the clash between selfhood and society, where one's family circle becomes an intimate but conflictive arena. Therefore, readers should not expect portraits of happy, unproblematic family relations. On the contrary, "traditional" families in his oeuvre tend to be dysfunctional and the relations between their members become strained because of emotional distance, regrets and distrust. Crucially, most of Toibin's central characters do find their sense of home and domesticity outside the traditional parameters of the family.
In this study, ColmToibin's fiction will be contextualized within the post-nationalist literary panorama in Ireland, in which the certainties of the past become under examination. Through his revisionist agenda, Toibin certainly undermines received notions of nationhood, society, domesticity and belonging. In this respect, I would claim that the concept of family in Ireland, considered for generations as a social institution regulated by Law and moral discourses, is redefined by the writer's discourse of alterity and emphasis on ambivalence. Thus, Toibin resists genealogical discourses on the family, favouring an alternative definition that is determined by context rather than essence.


We give nearly matching upper and lower bounds on the oracle complexity of finding $\epsilon$-stationary points ($\| \nabla F(x) \| \leq\epsilon$) in stochastic convex optimization. We jointly analyze the oracle complexity in both the local stochastic oracle model and the global oracle (or, statistical learning) model. This allows us to decompose the complexity of finding near-stationary points into optimization complexity and sample complexity, and reveals some surprising differences between the complexity of stochastic optimization versus learning. Notably, we show that in the global oracle/statistical learning model, only logarithmic dependence on smoothness is required to find a near-stationary point, whereas polynomial dependence on smoothness is necessary in the local stochastic oracle model. In other words, the separation in complexity between the two models can be exponential, and that the folklore understanding that smoothness is required to find stationary points is only weakly true for statistical learning.
Our upper bounds are based on extensions of a recent "recursive regularization" technique proposed by Allen-Zhu (2018). We show how to extend the technique to achieve near-optimal rates, and in particular show how to leverage the extra information available in the global oracle model. Our algorithm for the global model can be implemented efficiently through finite sum methods, and suggests an interesting new computational-statistical tradeoff.


The fluid–particle interaction inside a 150g/h fluidised bed reactor is modelled. The biomass particle is injected into the fluidised bed and the heat, momentum and mass transport from the fluidising gas and fluidised sand is modelled. The Eulerian approach is used to model the bubbling behaviour of the sand, which is treated as a continuum. Heat transfer from the bubbling bed to the discrete biomass particle, as well as biomass reaction kinetics are modelled according to the literature. The particle motion inside the reactor is computed using drag laws, dependent on the local volume fraction of each phase. FLUENT 6.2 has been used as the modelling framework of the simulations with the whole pyrolysis model incorporated in the form of user-defined function (UDF). The study completes the fast pyrolysis modelling in bubbling fluidised bed reactors.


Since the end of the nineteenth century, Muslims have pursued the idea that the Quran foreshadows new scientific discoveries. Linked to claims that the Quran's divine truth is continually substantiated, rather than disproved, by new scientific discoveries, certain verses are presented as Quranic miracles—evidence of its transcendent source. Drawing on ethnographic research with Turkish Muslims engaged in scientific exegesis, this article examines the evidentiary inquiry underlying the Quran's "scientific miracles" along two lines: first, it considers how these efforts, while invoking traditional understandings of the miraculous (i.e., arresting one in awed suspense), shift focus away from the Quran's stylistic and textual properties (requiring mastery of Arabic) and toward its signifying, universally accessible natural phenomena. Second, as the idea of scientific miracles befits apologetics typically used to defend the Quran against non-Muslims' criticisms, it asks why these efforts are directed primarily toward Muslims themselves. The article argues that the power of scientific miracles lies not only in the appeal of a universal language of evidence, but also in its use as a tool of "inner conversion," which helps enable a modern refiguring of Muslim faith, from imitation (taqlid) to substantiation with evidence (tahqiq).


Periodic measurement of flow rate in production wells is essential to monitor performance of geothermal wells and reservoir. Tracer dilution method has been introduced as a reliable, cheap and environment friendly technique to measure mass flow rate and enthalpy in two phase geothermal systems. In this study, Sodium Fluorescein is used to measure liquid phase mass flow rate in a two phase production line and in a single phase liquid injection line. The study includes the effect of flow regime and flowrate on the accuracy of tracer flow test. The test results obtained for several wells in Alaşehir and Kizildere geothermal fields are confirmed with silencer-weir box method and results of the test in a single phase liquid line is verified with orifice plate meter.


I have in this study analyzed how leaders in Statoil perceive the organization's performance appraisal system, The EvenStronger Values Survey (ESV). This study aims to uncover the perceived usefulness of ESV by determining factors affecting the effectiveness of ESV for employee development. The findings are based on a qualitative, empirical investigation. Data collection is based on semi-structured interviews of 12 leaders in Statoil. Inductive thematic analysis was carried out. The final problem of discussion and decision of theoretical framework are based on this empirical investigation. Results showed that different factors affected how effective ESV was perceived to be. The content in the survey that concerns the subject matter in ESV has to be valid and relevant for the appraisee. The feedback also needs sufficient quality that is affected by how many one has to appraise, whether the feedback is provided by qualitative comments and the perceived importance of ESV. Another factor found to affect effectiveness is how the feedback is utilized, which will depend on personal characteristics and how leaders are following up their employees after the feedback is provided. How the survey is carried out by the appraiser is found to be affected by the intended use of ESV, the interpersonal relationship and the culture in the organization. Conclusively, discussion of results against previous research indicates that these impacting factors need to be present in order for ESV to be effective and contribute to employee development. As it is today, ESV has not reached its full potential to be effective.


The production of acid-volatile selenide (apparently H2Se) was catalyzed by glutathione reductase in an anaerobic system containing 20 mM glutathione, 0.05 mM sodium selenite, a TPNH-generating system, and microgram quantities of highly purified yeast glutathione reductase. H2Se production in this system was proportional to glutathione reductase concentration and was maximal at pH 7. Significant nonenzymic H2Se production occurred in the system lacking glutathione reductase and TNPH. A concentration of arsenite (0.1 mM) which does not inhibit glutathione reductase inhibited selenide volatilization, as did bovine serum albumin (1.67 mg/ml). Both appear to inhibit Se volatilization by reacting with the selenide product(s). The selenotrisulfide derivative of glutathione (GSSeSG) was readily converted to H2Se by glutathione reductase and TPNH without the addition of glutathione. These results suggest that GSSeSG formed nonenzymically from glutathione and selenic undergoes stepwise reduction by glutathione reductase (or excess GSH) to GSSeH and finally to H2Se. The same pathway operates when glutathione is used as the reducing agent but to a lesser extent.


Biofilters have been widely implemented in the past few years due to combined ecological and economic advantages, such as improved road runoff quality, impervious surface reduction and low cost. However, poor is known about the role of microorganisms and plants on pollutants remediation in such infiltration systems. Thereby, we studied during one year trace elements (TE), total hydrocarbons (HC) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) in water, soil and plant in two experimental road side biofilters, one covered with grass, the other one being planted. We also faced the challenge to build four representative large-scale outdoor mesocosms, spiked with Cd, Pb, Zn, phenanthrene, pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene,, to better understand the biofilters functioning. Four plant species were tested for remediation in the mesocosm experiments: Juncus effusus, Iris pseudacorus, Phalaris arundinacea and grass (50% Lolium perenne and 50% Festuca L.). PAHs were extracted from soils by microwave assisted extractions and analyzed by gas chromatography while microwave-acid digestion was used to extract metals, which were then analysed by ICP. Total, fungal and bacterial biomass were investigated using Q-PCR, 16S rDNA and 18S rDNA. Fluorescein diacetate (FDA) enzymatic activity allowed us to measure the total microbial activity. The passage of runoff through the experimental swale showed a significant removal of organic and inorganic pollutants in water: from 27 to 79% for Cu, 21 to 37% for Pb, 27 to 62% for Zn, and 56 to 70% for total HC. Hg, As and Cd were under their detection limits.. Phenanthrene and pyrene concentrations in the soils of mesocosms were divided by 100 in 6 months and by 5 to 10 for benzo[a]pyrene, depending on the plant species. The mesocosm experiments showed that Juncus effusus facilitated PAH degradation and that Phalaris arundinacea had the highest shoot concentration of TE. Both in the experimental swale and in the mesocosm, grass appeared to be the best filter for suspended solids (5 to 77% removal) because of its dense rhizosphere. Swales design could be improved using a mix of plants composed of grass, Juncus effusus and Phalaris arundinaceae that respectively, trap suspended solids, facilitate PAH degradation and absorb TE. These results show that biofilters could be an alternative to hydrocarbon separators to treat road runoff .


Mayans and other indigenous groups make up approximately half of the population in Guatemala and previous research shows them to be highly disadvantaged on nearly every indicator of health and well-being. Little is known however about the HIV risk profile of these groups or how it may differ from that of the non-indigenous population. Evidence of these differences could inform resource allocation and be used to improve HIV prevention intervention strategies in the country. Data on 16205 women aged 15-49 and 6822 men aged 15-59 who participated in the 2008-2009 Encuesta Nacional de Salud Materno Infantil (ENSMI) were used to describe differences between ethnic groups on a variety of demographic and HIV variables. We then controlled for age education wealth and other background factors in a logistic regression model investigating the association between ethnicity and respondents' odds of early sexual debut higher numbers of sexual partners condom use HIV testing comprehensive HIV knowledge and accepting attitudes towards people living with HIV (PLHIV). The data show low reported levels of risky sexual behavior among indigenous women and men compared to other respondents. However the indigenous group also exhibited markedly less HIV awareness more limited understanding of HIV transmission lower prevention knowledge and more negative attitudes toward PLHIV. When controlling for other socio-demographic factors ethnicity was associated with women's early sexual debut 3+ lifetime sexual partners comprehensive HIV knowledge accepting attitudes and HIV testing. It was not associated with women's condom use at last sex. Among men ethnicity was associated with early sexual debut 10+ lifetime sexual partners lifetime history of sex worker patronage and comprehensive HIV knowledge. It was marginally associated with men's odds of having 3+ sexual partners in the past 12 months using a condom during most recent sexual encounter and HIV testing. Among men ethnicity was not associated with condom use at last sex with a sex worker or with accepting attitudes towards PLHIV. We conclude that the indigenous population in Guatemala while broadly socially vulnerable does not appear to be at elevated risk for HIV. We recommend that prevention efforts continue to focus on key populations at higher risk. Nonetheless low rates of HIV testing coupled with limited prevention knowledge particularly among the indigenous are cause for concern. Programs working in indigenous communities may wish to focus on basic HIV education and address barriers to testing. Finally while our analysis of risk factors strongly suggests that the epidemic in Guatemala remains concentrated in traditional key populations the addition of HIV biomarker data to the next national health survey would provide definitive evidence. Researchers working with other health datasets from Guatemala should also be encouraged to present their results by ethnic group so that programs and policies can be designed with indigenous communities' unique needs in mind.


The present study investigated the level of toxic heavy metals such as Pb, Cd, Cr, and Cu in tomato and in support soil samples at the flower garden in Ziway horticulture and industrial area, Ethiopia. The obtained values of reagents volume, temperature, and time for optimal procedure are the mixture of 6mL of HNO3, and 2mL of H2O2, 210 °C, 150min and 6mL of aquaregia (1HNO3:3HCl) and 2mL of H2O2, 270 °C, 180min to mineralize powdered samples of tomato and its support soils during wet digestion, respectively. The concentrations of four selected metal in the tomato and its supporting soil samples were determined by flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The mean concentration of heavy metals in tomato sample near the flower garden exhibited decreased trend in the order of Pb (0.48±0.02ppm) > Cu (0.39±0.002ppm) > Cr (0.32±0.014ppm) > Cd (0.025±0.001ppm). While, the mean concentration of heavy metals in tomato sample far from the flower garden exhibited decreased trend in the order of Pb (0.399±0.009ppm > Cu (0.16±0.011ppm) > Cr (0.11±0.08ppm)> Cd (0.013±0.0007ppm). This indicates that the tomato vegetables grown near the industrial area contain the higher level of heavy metals than those grown far from it, which could be attributed to the addition of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and other chemical repeatedly to the soils to enhance the agriculture crops. The similar trend was also observed for soil samples but with slightly higher concentrations of heavy metals. In the precision test, %RSD (relative standard deviation) for selected metals in tomato sample was in the range between 0.51% and 4.2% for tomato near the flower garden and between 2.26% and 6.9% for far from the flower garden. A significant difference was observed between the mean concentrations of all metals in tomato and its support soil samples.


Mr. Isaac Stephens is a PhD candidate in early modern British History whose dissertation, "In the Shadow of the Patriarch: Elizabeth Isham and her World in Seventeenth-Century Northamptonshire", is a micro-history of a never-married woman named Elizabeth Isham. The foundation of the dissertation is a spiritual autobiography that Isham wrote circa 1640 which gives a rare and intimate look into the life of an early seventeenth-century gentlewoman. Recently, Mr. Stephens completed an annotated t...


This paper introduces a novel method for designing personalized orthopedic casts which are aware of thermal-comfort while satisfying mechanical requirements. Our pipeline starts from thermal images taken by an infrared camera, by which the distribution of thermal-comfort sensitivity is generated on the surface of a 3D scanned model. We formulate a hollowed Voronoi tessellation pattern to represent the covered region for a web-like cast design. The pattern is further optimized according to the thermal-comfort sensitivity calculated from thermal images. Working together with a thickness variation method, we generate a solid model for a personalized cast maximizing both thermal comfort and mechanical stiffness. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach, 3D printed models of personalized casts are tested on body parts of different individuals.


A complete pre-industrial prototype implementation of an innovative system capable to detect, classify and describe passing vehicles, is presented. This work studies the architecture of a autonomous road sensor network to help reducing the impact of conventional magnetic wired systems in roads. The power supply is supported by no rechargeable batteries, for communications the IEEE 802.15.4 with ZigBee on top are used to transmit digitalized vehicle's magnetic signatures up to classification server. This information is acquired using a magnetometer translating in voltage the variation of the Earth's natural magnetic field caused by ferromagnetic components, induced by vehicles. Results show a clear and distinguish magnetic signatures among different vehicles.


A study of several autumn-flowering plants at Cheyne Beach was undertaken to compare pollen loads of their bird and mammal vectors and to investigate hypotheses concerning adaptations for bird and mammal pollination in Banksia. New Holland honeyeaters, white-cheeked honeyeaters, western spinebills and honey possums were all found to carry pollen of species of Banksia, Adenanthos, Lambertia (Proteaceae), Beaufortia and Calothamnus (Myrtaceae), whereas southern bush rats and house mice carried virtually none. Honeyeaters carried significantly larger pollen loads of the Proteaceae species than did honey possums. The honey possums carried the largest loads of Myrtaceae pollen. The loads on honey possums and southern bush rats may have been underestimated because these mammals were live-trapped and may have preened themselves prior to sampling for pollen. It was found that the two dominant banksias had divergent floral characteristics, some of which previous authors had suggested were adaptations to either bird or mammal pollination (e.g. straight styles in B. baxteri as against hooked styles in B. occidentalis). However, birds and mammals appeared to feed without preference on, and carry the pollen of, both species. The net effect of the divergent characteristics of the two banksias was that B. occidentalis transferred more pollen to vertebrate vectors and set more seed per inflorescence than did B. baxteri. Further work is needed to clarify the functional roles and adaptive significance of floral characteristics in these and other banksias.


Th is article examines the ways in which both colonial and postcolonial migration regimes in Kenya and Tanzania have reproduced forms of diff erential governance toward the mobilities of particular African bodies. While there has been a growing interest in the institutional discrimination and "othering" of migrants in or in transit to Europe, comparable dynamics in the global South have received less scholarly attention. Th e article traces the enduring governmental diff erentiation, racialization, and management of labor migrants and refugees in Kenya and Tanzania. It argues that analyses of contemporary policies of migration management are incomplete without a structured appreciation of the historical trajectories of migration control, which are inseparably linked to notions of colon iality and related constructions of (un)profi table African bodies. It concludes by recognizing the limits of controlling Africans on the move and points toward the inevitable emergence of social conditions in which conviviality and potentiality prevail.


Background Flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy are recommended screening options for colorectal cancer (CRC). Despite colonoscopy being offered for CRC screening in Germany, the uptake of this offer has been very limited. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the potential for increasing use of endoscopic CRC screening and the detection of advanced colorectal neoplasms by offering the choice between use of flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy. Methods The DARIO study includes a cross-sectional study (part I), followed by a prospective 2-arm randomized controlled intervention trial (part II) with an associated biobank study (part III). Participation is possible in part I of the DARIO study only, parts I and II, or all 3 study parts. After obtaining informed consent from the municipalities, 12,000 people, aged 50-54 years, from the Rhine-Neckar region in Germany were randomly selected from residential lists of the responsible population registries and invited to complete a standardized questionnaire to investigate the nature, frequency, timing, and results of previous CRC screening and eventual diagnostic colonoscopies. In study part II participants from study part I with no colonoscopy in the preceding 5 years are randomized into 2 arms: arm A offering screening colonoscopy only, and arm B offering both options, either screening colonoscopy or screening sigmoidoscopy. The primary endpoint is the proportion of participants in whom colorectal neoplasms >0.5 cm are detected and removed at screening endoscopy. The secondary endpoints are the detection rate of any neoplasm and use of any endoscopic screening. Part III of the study will use samples from participants in study part II to construct a liquid and tissue biobank for the evaluation of less invasive methods of early detection of colon cancer and for the more detailed characterization of the detected neoplasms. Blood, urine, stool, and saliva samples are taken before the endoscopy. Tissue samples are obtained from the neoplasms removed during endoscopy. Results A total of 10,568 from 12,000 randomly selected women and men aged 50-54 years living in the Rhine-Neckar-Region of Germany have been invited for participation. The remaining 1432 (11.93%) could not be invited because they reached the age of 55 at the time of contact. Of those invited, 2785/10,568 (26.35%) participated in study part I; 53.60% (1493/2785) of these participants were female. Study parts II and III are ongoing. Conclusions This study will answer the question if alternative offers of either screening sigmoidoscopy or screening colonoscopy will increase utilization and effectiveness of endoscopic CRC screening compared with an exclusive offer of screening colonoscopy. In addition, alternative noninvasive screening tests will be developed and validated. Trial Registration German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00018932; https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do? navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00018932 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/17516


Background: Spinal disc herniation (HNP) can be a painful condition caused by a variety of traumatic events and degenerative conditions. It is one of the most common spine conditions in adults, occurring in both cervical and lumbar regions. Although these injuries are often associated with wear and tear (or degeneration), traumatic events such as automobile accidents or lifting injuries have been described as causes.
Methodology: We conducted a prospective, nonrandomized, single-center clinical study to evaluate the safety and midterm effectiveness of autologous platelet rich plasma injections (PRP) to treat neck and Low Back Pain (LBP) caused by spinal disc herniation (HNP). All patients had failed conservative treatment for 3 months to 6 months. The autologous PRP was performed using a table top centrifuge device and a standardized individual PRP preparation protocol method. Patients were followed annually for up to 8 years post-operatively. Pain status was documented using a visual analog scale self-reported measure, as well as the Oswestry disability score.
Results: Eighty-eight consecutive patients with spinal disc herniation (HNP) were enrolled; thirty-eight were treated for cervical disc herniation, thirty-eight for lumbar disc herniation, and twelve were treated for both cervical and lumber disc herniation. The duration of follow-up ranged from 4 months to 8 years (mean of 5 years). 87% of patients reported a successful outcome. Within the cervical group, the preoperative visual analog scale showed 81% improvement (P ≤ 0.01). For the lumbar patients, the preoperative visual analog scale improved by 77% (P ≤ 0.01). No complications were reported.
Conclusion: The results are durable with successful outcomes observed 8 years after procedure.


Transparent bulk CdSe/SiO2 nanocomposites, containing semiconductor CdSe nanocrystals well dispersed in silica glass matrix, were obtained by using sol-gel method and in-situ growth technique. The nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-VIS absorption spectra and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscope measurements confirmed a cubic crystallographic structure of the nanoparticles, with mean diameter smaller than 10 nm. UV-VIS absorption spectra displayed a marked blue shift of the absorption band edge that was attributed to quantum confinement effects. XPS together with XRD proved that silica matrix plays an important role in enhancing the NCs' stability.


The morphology and ultrastructure of the Malpighian tubules of Dolycoris baccarum were analyzed by scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy in order to determine their functional organization. The Malpighian tubules are compared with similar structures of other insects based on cell structure and functional organization. The Malpighian tubules of D. baccarum extend from the midgut–hindgut region of the digestive tract. The Malpighian tubules are divided into two regions: the proximal segment is short and flattened and the distal segment is long, stringy in shape and free in hemolymph. The tubules are generally long and narrow. There is a large number of trachea around the tubules. They consist of a single layer of epithelial cells. It is observed in the TEM observation that the epithelial cells have numerous microvilli at the apical side of the cells. At the basal side of the cells, there is a great number of membrane foldings and mitochondria among them. Besides some spherites, mitochondria, lysosome‐like bodies, and large or small granules can be distinguished in the cells. With this study, we aimed to demonstrate the ultrastructure of the Malpighian tubules of D. baccarum and differences or similarities with other species.


The key role played by the stroma in breast cancer development and progression has been widely recognized.  Recently, we reported that the cross-talk between epithelial and stromal cells affects structural and functional features correlated with the invasive phenotype of breast cancer cells by co-culturing mammary cancer cells with different metastatic potential (MDA-MB-231>MCF-7) with fibroblasts isolated from breast healthy skin (normal fibroblasts, NFs) or breast tumor stroma (cancer-associated fibroblasts, CAFs) [1]. This study was designed to deepen the knowledge of the role played notably by CAFs in promoting breast tumor cell migratory skill through the analysis of the expression/activity of downstream potential target molecules and of the contribution of paracrine signalings.  Thus, we investigated the influence of fibroblasts on the expression of Stearoyl- CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1), the main enzyme regulating membrane fluidity, as well as on the level and activity of its transcription factor, SREBP1, in breast cancer cells. The ability of CAFs to promote a 2-3 fold increase in SCD1 mRNA and protein expression as well as an induction of SREBP1 DNA binding activity has been shown in the two cancer cell lines. Both siRNA-mediated and pharmacological inhibition of SCD1 impaired tumor cells migration. To clarify the possible role of tumor-stroma paracrine interaction in the previously reported improvement of cancer cell migratory ability, cocultures were set up in presence of neutralizing antibodies against hepatocyte growth factor, transforming growth factor-β or basic fibroblast growth factor. Cell tracking analysis demonstrated that the CAF-mediated increase in tumor cell migration speed was reduced or abolished by neutralizing the above soluble factors.  These results provide new insights in understanding the role of CAFs in promoting tumor cell invasiveness and may help to devise new targeted therapeutic approaches.


It has been known that there is a tracking phenomenon in the level of serum lipids. However, no study has been performed to examine the change and tracking of serum lipids in Korean adolescents. The purpose of this study is to examine the changes of serum lipids in Korean adolescents from 12 to 16 years of age, and to examine whether or not there is a tracking phenomenon in serum lipids level during the period. In 1992 serum lipids(total cholesterol(TC), triglyceride(TG), LDL cholesterol(LDL-C), HDL cholesterol(HDL-C)) were measured in 318 males, 365 females who were 12 years of age in Kangwha county, Korea. These participants have been followed up to 1996 and serum lipids level were examined in 1994 and 1996. Among the participants 162 males and 147 females completed all three examinations in fasting state. To examine the effect of eliminating adolescents with incomplete data, we compared serum lipids, blood pressure and anthropometric measures at baseline between adolescents with complete follow-up and adolescents who were withdrawn. To examine the change of serum lipids we compared mean values of serum lipids according to age in males and females. Repeated analysis of variance was used to test the change according to age. We used three methods to examine the existence of tracking. First, we analyzed the trends in serum lipids over 4-year period within quartile groups formed on the basis of the first-year serum lipids level to see whether or not the relative ranking of the mean serum lipids among the quartile groups remained in the same group for 4-year period. Second, we quantified the degree of tracking by calculating Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between every tests. Third, the persistence extreme quartile method was used. This method divides the population into quartile groups according to the initial level of blood lipids and then calculates the percent of the subjects who stayed in the same group at follow-up measurement. The decreases in levels were noted during 4 years for TC, LDL-C, primarily for boys. The level of HDL-C decreased between baseline and first follow-up for both sexes. Tracking, as measured by both correlation coefficients and persistence extreme quartiles, was evident for all of the lipids. The correlation coefficients of TC between baseline and 4 years later in boys and girls were 0.55 and 0.68, respectively. And the corresponding values for HDL-C were 0.58 and 0.69. More than 50% of adolescents who belonged to the highest quartile group in TC, HDL-C and LDL-C at the baseline were remained at the same group at the examination performed 2 years later for both sexes. The probabilities of remaining at the same group were more than 35% when examined 4 years later. The tracking phenomenon of TG was less evident compared with the other lipids. Percents of girls who stayed at the same group 2 years later and 4 years later were 42.9% and 25.7%, respectively. It was evident that serum lipid levels tracked in Korean adolescents. Researches with longer follow-up would be needed in the future to investigate the long-term change of lipids from adolescents to adults.


Sb1−x(SiO2)x granular films were prepared by the co-sputtering method with the volume fraction of SiO2, x, ranging from 0 (i.e. pure Sb) to about 30%. Systematic electronic transport studies, including resistivity, magnetoresistance, Hall effect and Seebeck effect, were carried out against the temperature, magnetic field and volume fraction x of SiO2. With the gradual increase of the SiO2 content, the mean grain size of the Sb decreases, and eventually the film becomes amorphous, as illustrated by the changes of the x-ray diffraction patterns. The temperature coefficient of resistivity also changes its sign from positive to negative, indicating a semimetal–semiconductor or insulator transition. Magnetoresistance studies using the weak localization theory revealed that the electron dephasing time follows approximately a T−2 law. This behaviour indicates that the electron–phonon (e–ph) scattering still dominates the electron dephasing processes in these granular systems with a fair number of SiO2 inclusions. The Hall coefficient decreases monotonically with temperature and with the volume fraction of SiO2. The giant Hall effect is absent in these granular films. Finally, an interesting but rather complicated behaviour of the Seebeck coefficient versus temperature was observed when the volume content of the SiO2 exceeded 18%.


The New World silversides (family Atherinopsidae) are found in marine, estuarine and inland waters of North, Central and South America, where they are ecologically important as forage fishes and sometimes economically important for commercial and recreational fisheries. This report reviews the knowledge of the reproductive attributes of temperate and subtropical atherinopsids in relation to temperature and discusses the potential effects of climate change on their reproduction and adaptive responses. Their reproductive cycles are primarily entrained by photoperiod with high temperature acting as a limiting factor. They are generally multiple spawners which release successive batches of eggs in spring, but some species can spawn also in autumn and even summer when temperatures do not increase excessively. The decoupling of temperature patterns and photoperiod with further global warming and associated asymmetric thermal fluctuations could lead to spawning at times or temperatures that are unsuitable for larval development and growth. Many members of this family show temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD), where the phenotypic sex of an individual is determined partly or wholly by the temperature experienced during gonadal sex differentiation, and high-temperature induced germ cell degeneration and decreased fertility. The predicted short-term reproductive responses of atherinopsids to climate change therefore include acceleration, shortening or overall disruption of spawning activity, and also more subtle, but nonetheless equally population-threatening, dysfunctions such as highly skewed sex ratios and partial or total loss of fertility. In the case of species with TSD, asymmetric thermal fluctuations could also cause larvae to encounter temperatures lower than normal during early development and be feminized. Such dysfunctions have been documented already in natural populations but are confined so far to landlocked, inland water habitats, perhaps because they impose more severe thermal fluctuations and limitations to migration and dispersal. The severity and recurrence of these dysfunctions with further climate change will depend both on the magnitude, speed and pattern of change and on how much (or how fast) physiological and behavioural traits can evolve to match the new conditions imposed by the climate, which is largely unknown. In this regard, compelling evidence is shown that numerous traits, including the sex determination system, are capable of rapid evolution and could mitigate the negative effects of temperature increases on population viability in atherinopsids.


In this paper, traffic systems with attachment and detachment have been studied by total-asymmetric simple exclusion processes (TASEPs). Attachment and detachment in a one-dimensional system is a type of complex geometry that is relevant to biological transport with the random update rule. The analytical results are presented and have shown good agreement with the extensive Monte Carlo computer simulations.


The biotrophic basidiomycete fungus Ustilago maydis causes smut disease in maize. Hallmarks of the disease are large tumors that develop on all aerial parts of the host in which dark pigmented teliospores are formed. We have identified a member of the WOPR family of transcription factors, Ros1, as major regulator of spore formation in U. maydis. ros1 expression is induced only late during infection and hence Ros1 is neither involved in plant colonization of dikaryotic fungal hyphae nor in plant tumor formation. However, during late stages of infection Ros1 is essential for fungal karyogamy, massive proliferation of diploid fungal cells and spore formation. Premature expression of ros1 revealed that Ros1 counteracts the b-dependent filamentation program and induces morphological alterations resembling the early steps of sporogenesis. Transcriptional profiling and ChIP-seq analyses uncovered that Ros1 remodels expression of about 30% of all U. maydis genes with 40% of these being direct targets. In total the expression of 80 transcription factor genes is controlled by Ros1. Four of the upregulated transcription factor genes were deleted and two of the mutants were affected in spore development. A large number of b-dependent genes were differentially regulated by Ros1, suggesting substantial changes in this regulatory cascade that controls filamentation and pathogenic development. Interestingly, 128 genes encoding secreted effectors involved in the establishment of biotrophic development were downregulated by Ros1 while a set of 70 "late effectors" was upregulated. These results indicate that Ros1 is a master regulator of late development in U. maydis and show that the biotrophic interaction during sporogenesis involves a drastic shift in expression of the fungal effectome including the downregulation of effectors that are essential during early stages of infection.


We present a new all-digital RF in-phase/quadrature ( ) modulator, in which the orthogonal summing of the and phase data signals is performed in separated interleaved time slots. By employing a 25% duty cycle for the and signals, the modulator can directly reconstruct the continuous-time RF output signal using four digital switch arrays with a power combiner. To verify the proposed concept and its related design procedure, a 65-nm CMOS prototype is implemented. This prototype achieves 12.6-dBm peak output power with 20% peak drain efficiency at 2 GHz. The corresponding error vector magnitude (EVM) for a quadrature phase-shift keying constellation is 3.95% without any predistortion, while providing 6-dBmoutput power in a 64 quadrature amplitude modulation constellation with a related EVM and drain efficiency of 2.36% and 10%, respectively. The proposed circuit can be used as a pre-driver or a final transmit stage. The firstever truly all-digital RF digital-to-analog converter prototype is thus experimentally demonstrated.


The design of channel codes for improving the data rate and/or the reliability of communications over fading channels using multiple transmit antennas is considered. A design criterion is provided and is then used to design space-time codes for high data rate wireless communication. These codes are trellis codes that are easy to encode and decode and have remarkable performance.


This paper presents a conceptual framework for use, by organizational researchers, knowledge management practitioners and business analysts, as a guide to building Knowledge Management (KM) models. This is accomplished through a careful selection of ten prominent KM models which have been discussed critically and used to deepen the theoretical understanding of KM implementation and development. A critical review of ten KM models offers practitioners, as well as researchers, an examination of the ontological and epistemological backgrounds and origins of existing models' in order to highlight the required components for composing effective KM models. There is limited research supporting the utilization, adaptation or even adoption of KM models that can assist managers seeking a competitive advantage through the implementation of KM processes. Authors of existing KM models claim to provide holistic KM models but when referring back to the central meaning of knowledge and management concepts those models do not generate a thorough coverage of the required characteristics and components. This paper has critically investigated ten widely acknowledged KM models but recognizes that there is a plethora of KM models emerging which have varied foci. The conceptual review of KM models is not an empirical investigation, moreover, a critical analysis that presents a conceptual framework for KM model building. In carrying out this research study, the paper presents the shortfalls of this theoretical research approach but nevertheless, the proposed conceptual framework is envisaged as having value to both practitioners and researchers. This paper sheds light on a series of concerns related to existing KM models, their origins, constructs, and contextualization. For organizational researchers, knowledge management practitioners and business analysts this research study elaborates on issues related to validity, applicability, and generalizability of KM models and defines a set of criteria for KM model building. The paper also impacts on the science of KM presenting perspectives, scope, and contexts in which knowledge is processed.