The phonetic diversity of r-sounds, or rhotics, both cross-linguistically and within many languages, e.g. Spanish (Lipski 1994), German (Ulbrich 1972), and Swedish (Muminovic and Engstrand 2002), presents a challenge for phonologists. If there are no phonetic features that are shared by all rhotics (Lindau 1985; Ladefoged and Maddieson 1996:244), it is hard to assign them a shared featural representation that accounts for their similar patterning across and within languages, and does justice to their variable nature. Phonologists have attempted to characterise rhotics in highly abstract ways, as featurally (almost) empty (e.g. Harris 1994; Giegerich 1999; Wiese 2001), or by assigning them an abstract feature [rhotic] (Hall 1997) or a shared structure (Walsh Dickey 1997). Such top-down approaches, however, are inevitably ad- hoc, largely circular, and sometimes not even descriptively adequate (Gąsiorowski 2006). Lindau's (1985) solution is to characterise rhotic unity in terms of "family resemblance" (see also Magnuson 2007 for an expanded version). That is, while it is not true that all r-sounds share some phonetic property, it is true that every r-sound shares something with at least one other: rhotics form a network of speech sounds with overlapping features. However, while less arbitrary than the top-down approaches, it is equally unrestrictive: many other speech sounds share properties with some rhotics, but do not function as rhotics themselves. Without a theory of which sounds can be in the rhotic set, "family resemblance" fares no better than calling rhotics "empty" or "[+rhotic]". Ladefoged and Maddieson in fact suggest giving up the search for unity among rhotics altogether, as it "seems to rest mostly on the historical connections between these subgroups and the choice of the letter r to represent them all" (1996:245), a solution dubbed "shockingly informal" by Gąsiorowski (2006). I propose a formalisation of Ladefoged and Maddieson's suggestion, by characterising rhotics not in terms of family resemblances, but family relationships. This is more restrictive, in that relationships between r-sounds are not established on the basis of phonetic similarity, but a diachronic link between two variants. Such links can be established by examining languages with extensive r-variation and inspecting very closely the phonetic detail of r- sounds, their linguistic distribution over contexts, and any sociolinguistic variation. The primary data in this talk come from a large-scale corpus of urban-accented Standard Dutch containing over 20,000 r-tokens from ~400 speakers from six Dutch and four Flemish cities. The realisation of /r/ in Dutch is notoriously variable across speakers and linguistic contexts, and in line with recent studies (Smakman 2006) the corpus distinguishes between some twenty r-variants. Age-related and geographical patterns in the data enable establishing the origin of specific variants in others. Specifically, this origin often lies in what happens to particular r- sounds in casual speech processes. For example, in casual speech, an alveolar trill may fail to be realised as such, given that it requires very precise articulatory settings in combination with narrow aerodynamic margins (Sole 2002). The result can be an alveolar approximant or fricative, which may subsequently come to function as an r-variant itself. This approach anchors the unity among r-variants within a theory of sound change, but locates it outside the phonology. I suggest that this is where it should be, and that top-down featural approaches to r are best replaced by a bottom-up one. Instead of requiring, a priori, that r-sounds form a category /r/ within a language, such a category is formed by speakers on the basis of multi-level evidence, including phonological alternations and sociolinguistic variation. For example, when speakers encounter two apparently phonetically unrelated phones, such as [ʁ] and [ɻ], in an allophonic relationship, as is the case for many Dutch speakers in the corpus, they may set up representations at multiple levels in a hierarchical system (as per Ladd 2006), reflecting both their phonetic differences and their phonological identity. In other words, while the phonetic unity between such different r-sounds is one that can be traced diachronically (as a family relationship), their phonological unity (in representation) need not refer to this relationship, but is forged synchronically by speakers.


This study investigates Southern Brazilian travestis' manipulation of gender identity through the manipulation of the Portuguese grammatical gender system. We argue that
the embodiment of feminine features onto biologically male bodies enables travestis to wander through various ideologies about masculinity and femininity and incorporate these ideologies in their linguistic construction of identity. Travestis use masculine forms to refer to themselves or other travestis when: (1) producing narratives about the time before their body transformations took place; (2) reporting speech produced by others when talking about travestis; (3) talking about themselves within their family relationships; and, perhaps the most unveiling category, (4) distinguishing
themselves from 'other' travestis they do not identify with – a face-saving strategy. Thus, the study shows how southern Brazilian travestis use the grammatical gender
system in Portuguese as a linguistic resource to manipulate their identity/ies and the identity/ies of the community they belong to.


Groundwater in remote valleys of the Great Basin (NV, USA) has been approved by the State Engineer for pumping and export. Deep rooted shrubs such as greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) are partially dependent on this groundwater to meet plant water needs. To assess the impact of a falling water table on greasewood, we monitored evapotranspiration, reference evapotranspiration and precipitation, along with daily groundwater levels for 6·2 years. Groundwater levels declined 130 cm in a highly linear fashion (p < 0·001) over this period. Groundwater oscillations ceased in 2007 followed by a 2225‐day quiescent period but then returned to daily oscillations late in 2013 for a 32‐day period. The oscillation signature in 2013 coincided with the water level transitioning from sediment with 89% sand to a new horizon with only 8% sand. In 2013, we detected a soil water content depression at both 800 and 900 cm starting in early May that lasted 137 days, ending prior to the groundwater oscillation period when significant rainfall occurred in late August and early September. Soil water storage increase in the surface zone during the active growing period of 2013 was highly correlated (R2 = 0·77, p < 0·001) to changes in the lower unsaturated zone, suggesting a link between soil water storage zones based on precipitation and plant water extraction. Although the water table declined below 10·7 m and groundwater decoupling did not occur, the current rate of decline driven solely by groundwater pumping for the irrigation of alfalfa fields would suggest extensive pumping for diversion outside of the basin would not be sustainable with regard to maintaining healthy greasewood plants that have a finite rooting depth. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract does not appear. First page follows.
 Stored eggs kept under optimum conditions of temperature and humidity and free from
 molds and putrefactive bacteria may, nevertheless, exhibit tendencies toward undesirable
 changes which cause the eggs to lose much of their original appearance and attractiveness.
 One of the most prominent of these changes is the slow liquefaction of the firm, jelly-like
 white. As a result of this liquefaction the egg white appears watery. This condition
 is found very objectionable in the market egg and frequently results in a lowering
 of grade and price of the egg with a corresponding loss to the owner.
 Up to the present time investigations of egg white have not differentiated between
 the thick and the thin varieties in kind studied or in results obtained. Accordingly,
 there has existed no experimental evidence which would serve as a basis for an explanation
 of the progressive liquefaction often encountered in stored eggs.
 The results of investigation of thick and thin white can hardly be considered comparable
 until the amount of dry matter present in each of these substances is known and any
 variation in this dry matter is taken into account. To establish a basis of comparison
 of thick and thin white, as a first step in studies on watery whites, the distribution
 of dry matter in thick and thin white, and its possible variability in different eggs
 were investigated.


This article describes the development and implementation of a computerized nursing recruitment program. This system offers a fast, efficient, individualized, item-selectable mechanism for tracking and monitoring recruiting activities. Included in this system are easily accessible functions that provide precise information regarding the activities and costs relating to recruitment transactions. It is user-focused and coded for accurate storage and retrieval of information. This program has multiple implications for improving or revising recruitment activities. Nursing administrators can obtain detailed reports of the operations of the recruiting office, and internal audits can be easily generated to identify areas of efficiency as well as areas needing revision. It is written to be integrated with other management systems, thus providing a rapid and comprehensive network of communication that is cost-effective and precise.


The question whether RM codes are capacity-achieving is a long-standing open problem in coding theory that was recently answered in the affirmative for transmission over erasure channels [1], [2]. Remarkably, the proof does not rely on specific properties of RM codes, apart from their symmetry. Indeed, the main technical result consists in showing that any sequence of linear codes, with doubly-transitive permutation groups, achieves capacity on the memoryless erasure channel under bit-MAP decoding. Thus, a natural question is what happens under block-MAP decoding. In [1], [2], by exploiting further symmetries of the code, the bit-MAP threshold was shown to be sharp enough so that the block erasure probability also converges to 0. However, this technique relies heavily on the fact that the transmission is over an erasure channel. We present an alternative approach to strengthen results regarding the bit-MAP threshold to block-MAP thresholds. This approach is based on a careful analysis of the weight distribution of RM codes. In particular, the flavor of the main result is the following: assume that the bit-MAP error probability decays as N-δ, for some δ > 0. Then, the block-MAP error probability also converges to 0. This technique applies to transmission over any binary memoryless symmetric channel. Thus, it can be thought of as a first step in extending the proof that RM codes are capacity-achieving to the general case.


Nitrogen (N)-doped arginine carbon dots (Arg CD) were successfully synthesized using arginine as the amine source and citric acid as the carbon source via a one-pot green synthesis microwave-assisted technique in 2 min. Ag and Cu nanoparticles (NP) were generated within N-doped Arg CDs as composite Arg-Ag CDs and Arg-Cu CDs to render enhanced antibacterial properties. TEM analysis revealed that Arg CDs are in graphitic structures with d spacing ranging from 0.5 nm to 10 nm. The minimum inhibition concentration (MIC) values of Arg CDs with 6.250 mg/mL were decreased by about 100-fold for Arg-Ag CDs and ten-fold for Arg-Cu CDs with 0.062 and 0.625 mg/mL MIC values against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The highest antibacterial susceptibility was observed for the Arg-Ag CD composite with 0.125 and 0.312 mg/mL minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values against Gram negative S. aureus and Gram positive Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria strains, respectively. It was found that the metal NPs within Arg CDs significantly increased the antibacterial properties of CDs making them available in the treatment of infections caused by different bacterial species. Furthermore, Arg-Ag CD and Arg-Cu CD composites were tested for Acetylcholinesterase (AChE, E.C. 126.96.36.199) that break down acetylcholine (ACh) into choline and acetic acid leading to the loss of ACh which plays an essential role as neurotransmitter in Alzheimer disease. It was found that Arg-Cu CDs inhibited 74.9 ± 0.8% and Arg-Ag CDs inhibited 52.1 ± 3.8% of AChE at a 1.82 mg/mL concentration versus no inhibition for Arg-CD. Moreover, the chelating activity of Arg-Cu CDs and Arg-Ag CDs were tested for Fe(II) and it was found that almost 100% chelating was attained at 116 μg composites versus no measurable chelation for bare Arg CDs, suggesting the potential neurodegenerative disease treatment properties of these composite CDs in the brain.


In this paper, a sentiment analysis model based on the bi-directional GRU, Attention and Capusle fusion of BI-GRU+Attention+Capsule was designed and implemented based on the sentiment analysis task of the open film review data set IMDB, and combined with the bi-directional GRU, Attention and Capsule. It is compared with six deep learning models, such as LSTM, CNN, GRU, BI-GRU, CNN+GRU and GRU+CNN. The experimental results show that the accuracy of the BI-GRU model combined with Attention and Capusule is higher than the other six models, and the accuracy of the GRU+CNN model is higher than that of the CNN+GRU model, and the accuracy of the CNN+GRU model is higher than that of the CNN model. The accuracy of CNN model was successively higher than that of LSTM, BI-GRU and GRU model. The fusion model of BI-GRU +Attention+Capsule adopted in this paper has the highest accuracy among all the models. In conclusion, the fusion model of BI-GRU+Attention+Capsule effectively improves the accuracy of text sentiment classification.


In March 1991, the Judicial Conference of the United States designated the Southern District of Texas as one of ten pilot district courts under the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 required to submit and implement a civil justice expense and delay reduction plan by December 31, 1991. The Advisory Group's Report and Plan are published in this volume and form the basis for the critical commentary following the Report. The procedural recommendations and new local rules set forth in the Report and Plan became effective in the Southern District on January 1, 1992. In essence, the Southern District has become a laboratory district for implementing sweeping procedural reform aimed at reducing civil litigation cost and delay. In this respect, the Southern District is a vanguard district for a procedural revolution that will spread across all ninety-four federal district courts over the next two years. The importance of the Southern District as a pilot district, then, can hardly be underestimated, as many eyes will be focused on the district to scrutinize whether the proposed procedural reforms achieve the stated goals of litigation cost and delay reduction. The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 is effectuating a nationwide procedural revolution that is probably unparalleled since the enactment of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in 1938. The Act mandates local, grassroots rulemaking by amateur advisory groups — a novel process that essentially circumvents the usual judicial rulemaking committees that accomplish civil rule reform, which also have been in place since 1938. In this respect alone, the Civil Justice Reform Act is quite extraordinary. There can be little doubt that as various federal districts publish and implement their civil justice reform plans, these efforts will generate a large body of commentary and debate in the foreseeable future. In the short run, however, some aspects of both the legislation and the reform movement it has engendered are of particular note. First, the Civil Justice Reform Act needs to be understood against a backdrop of civil justice reform efforts that have been simmering for the last few years in all three branches of the federal government. On the legislative side, the Act requires seemingly precipitous and urgent reform, a mandate that indicates Congress's frustration with the glacial pace of procedural reform that is usually accomplished through third-branch deliberative rulemaking. The Civil Justice Reform Act demonstrates that Congress is going to have procedural justice reform, and is going to have it now. The Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 must be understood as part of a more sweeping effort to impose complete procedural reform at the federal level. The executive branch, not content with the rule reform forced by Congressional legislation, has been pressing for additional reforms through a variety of its own initiatives. For example, an October 1991 executive order has imposed similar civil justice reform measures on all executive-branch departments and agencies. Further, Vice-President Dan Quayle's infamous August 1991 attack on the legal profession, delivered to the annual meeting of the American Bar Association, was based on a report from the President's Council on Competitiveness entitled Agenda for Civil Justice Reform in America. This "agenda" for civil justice reform contains substantially the same package of procedural reforms set forth in the Civil Justice Reform Act and the President's executive order on civil justice reform. The pattern of similar, if not identical, recommendations across all three branches of government is rather striking. Second, in addition to understanding the Civil Justice Reform Act in the context of a larger contemporary reform movement, it is important to focus on the types of reform measures that the legislation requires or strongly recommends. In this regard, the almost-exclusive emphasis of the Act is on tighter managerial control over pretrial proceedings, curbing discovery abuse, and recourse to alternative dispute resolution. These areas of emphasis raise interesting problems relating to party autonomy and control over the conduct of litigation, as well as party access to federal courts and the right to an adjudicatory model of dispute resolution. Nevertheless, with a series of Congressional mandates from the Civil Justice Reform Act, the Advisory Group for the Southern District has recommended an array of innovative pretrial procedures and new local rules on early pretrial conferences and alternative dispute resolution. Third, an important issue that is beyond the scope of this introductory comment concerns the questionable constitutionality of Congress's intercession in the procedural rulemaking arena. Equally troubling is Congress's further delegation of procedural rulemaking authority to local, non-expert advisory groups. Thus, Congress's sweeping intrusion into the judiciary's rulemaking function is the most revolutionary aspect of the Civil Justice Reform Act. The creation of ninety-four local rulemaking advisory groups, with continuing existence beyond their initial task of drafting and implementing civil justice reform plans, severely undercuts the jurisdiction and authority of the federal judiciary's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. It is unclear what the continued purpose and vitality of that body will be in light of the Civil Justice Reform Act. We might ultimately discover that, with regard to procedural rulemaking, the executive and legislative branches have sent forth too many procedural cooks.


Minimal residual disease (MRD) as a tool to monitor response to therapy is both a criterion for detailed risk stratification and an independent prognostic factor in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Immunological assays particularly flow cytometry (FC) are priority methods in MRD monitoring. Multicolor flow cytometry makes it possible to most fully characterize the immunophenotype of tumor B lymphoblasts and reveal leukemia-associated immunophenotypes not only according to the CD58 and CD38 antigens but also as an additional criterion of aber-rancy. This allows you to identify and select individual criteria for further monitoring of minimal residual disease for each patient with ALL. The aim of this chapter is to compare immunophenotyping features of normal B-cell precursors and B-lymphoblasts in acute leukemia and to show possibilities of use of a leukemia-associated immunophenotype in monitoring of the MRD.


In this research, composites of a well-known metal-organic framework, CuBTC, and activated carbon (AC) are synthesized through solvothermal method and their performance is evaluated from viewpoint of CO 2 /H 2 separation. For this purpose, different amounts of functionalized AC are incorporated in CuBTC structure and a volumetric-chromatographic technique is employed to measure the selectivity of CO 2 over H 2 . XRD patterns, BET surface area, and FESEM images are employed to determine textural properties of as-synthesized samples. It is demonstrated that, while crystalline structure of CuBTC is not affected by incorporation of AC particles, adding proper amounts of functionalized AC to CuBTC matrix can cause higher CO 2 /H 2 separation factor at low pressure and 298 K. Obtained results suggest that adding 0.050 g AC to CuBTC can increase the CO 2 /H 2 selectivity up to around 32 which is double the separation factor of bare CuBTC (i.e. ≈ 15). Enhanced hydrogen separation behavior might be attributed to the presence of carbonyl and nitrile functional groups exhibiting CO 2 adsorption affinity on the surface of AC added to the optimum CuBTC structure.


In the latter half of the 20th century, the clinical importance of variation in the virulence of strains of GAS has been clearly demonstrated. Although still obscure, the pathogenesis of ARF requires immunologically significant infection of the throat by virulent GAS strains. These strains contain large hyaluronate capsules and large M-protein molecules. The latter contain epitopes cross-reactive with host tissues, and also contain superantigenic toxic moieties. In areas where ARF has become rare, GAS pharyngitis continues to be common but is caused predominantly by GAS strains of relatively low virulence. These, however, may colonize the throat avidly and stubbornly. Molecularly distinct pyoderma strains may cause acute glomerulonephritis, but they are not rheumatogenic even though they may secondarily infect the throat. In developing countries with a very high incidence of rheumatic heart disease, identification of the prevalent rheumatogenic GAS strains and development of a multivalent vaccine against them is currently an interesting strategy. Pending vaccine development, intense primary and secondary penicillin prophylaxis should continue to be sharply focused on populations with the highest prevalence of RHD as such measures may often succeed in driving away the most virulent rheumatogenic clones of GAS from their midst.


Amir Aharoni, Department of Life Sciences and the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN), Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel. The size of the microbial world is beyond our imagination. In last year's crystal ball article, Tom Curtis compared the size of the microbial world to the size of the universe pointing out that the number of microorganisms in the world is billions of times larger than the number of stars in the sky (Curtis, 2007). There is little doubt that such unlimited microbial biodiversity holds great promise for enriching our repertoire of known enzymes, with many novel enzymes awaiting discovery. The development of new sophisticated sequencing technologies, including the 454 pyrosequencer and Solexa technology, allow for accumulation of extremely large amounts of sequence information. Such rapidly accumulated information will allow microbiologists, bioinformaticians and system biologists to perform extensive surveys on microbial lineages, lead to the description of new metabolic pathways and allow for the identification of new regulatory mechanisms. These data also represent an invaluable resource in our quest for new enzymes. Still the question of how do we actually find these precious needles in the large haystack arises. Namely, what will be the best way to find new enzymes in the huge space that is the microbial world? The discovery of new enzymes is of ultimate importance for fundamental knowledge regarding enzyme evolution, enzyme structure-function relationships, basic mechanisms of enzyme catalysis and even for the identification of novel protein folds. Novel enzymes could also serve as corner stones in catalysing industrial chemical synthesis reactions, thus serving as 'clean' alternatives for producing chemicals by large-scale chemical synthesis. Currently, new highly robust enzymes are urgently needed as biocatalysts in many different industries, including the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. The dream of significantly expanding the repertoire of known enzymes, both for research and industrial applications, is currently the subject of intensive research and will keep many scientists busy in years to come (Ferrer et al., 2007). One of the main methods for the identification of novel enzymes is by virtual sequence homology screens. Using this approach, new enzymes are identified by comparing vast number of sequences from genomic/metagenomic sources to the sequences of known enzymes (Ferrer et al., 2007). In this process, the immense repertoire of millions of proteins predicted from the microbial sequence database is compared with known enzymes to identify new homologues. One of the obvious limitations of such an approach is that it exclusively relies on existing gene annotations that are difficult to predict and often prone to errors due to their reliance on machine-based techniques (Hallin et al., 2008). No doubt that improved annotation will enable more accurate gene function predictions from microbial sequencing data. However, the main conceptual drawback of such an approach is that truly novel enzymes that are only remotely related to known existing enzymes will never be found. Genetic drift can significantly alter any obvious homology between functionally similar enzymes, thereby restricting the search to only related enzymes with similar sequences. An unbiased manner to mine natural microbial biodiversity for new enzymes is by functional screening for the desired enzymatic activity. Such direct screening for new enzymes will allow the identification of novel enzymes that are not related by sequence homology to any other known enzyme. A prerequisite for any functional screening procedure is the availability of high-quality genomic/ metagenomic libraries and the use of an adequate host organism that is able to express the target genes to yield functional proteins. Currently, most functional screens rely on spatial separation between the different samples either on agar plates (by direct screening of colonies) or using microtitre plates. To perform such screens for large libraries, access to heavy robotic systems usually accessible only for large laboratories, is a prerequisite. Even with the aid of robotics, however, the number of genes that can be screened is on the order of ~10. Given the unlimited amount of diversity in the microbial world, this number will allow sampling of only a tiny fraction of the functional enzymes out there awaiting to be discovered. To allow for a more efficient route for functional mining of new enzymes, we must adopt high-throughput approaches that will allow us to rapidly screen 10–10 samples. These numbers are clearly far beyond reach of Microbial Biotechnology (2009) 2(2), 128–156 doi:10.1111/j.1751-7915.2009.00090.x


This article uses the example of an Australian fertility clinic's efforts to recruit sperm donors from Canada to explore the issue of how ethical understandings can be built into market infrastructures. Australian fertility clinics lack sufficient sperm donors to meet current demand in part because of two ethical principles built into Australian law: a ban on payment for gametes and an insistence that sperm donor identity be available to the resulting child when the child reaches an appropriate age. The ethics oversight committee in New South Wales was willing to relax the first principle to permit the payment of substantial expenses to Canadian donors in order to uphold the second principle of mandatory identity disclosure. While it is still unclear whether these efforts will succeed in recruiting many donors, this article treats these practices as a case study in the creation of ethical understandings pertaining to the use of new technologies. Fertility services have been expanding as part of a global market in which the infertile can comparison shop on the internet, and arrange delivery of sperm through overnight express. At the same time, the use of such services is subject to a welter of conflicting, and often religiously driven, regulations. Under what circumstances are the resulting markets likely to lock in ethical norms, and under what circumstances are they likely to develop in accordance with the lowest common denominator of consumer preferences? This article identities four axes to examine in determining the efficacy of efforts to instill new ethical understandings. The first regulatory decision is the one to permit or ban the enterprise. We consider the circumstances in which bans are most likely to create unregulated underground markets that produce wholesale circumvention of the prohibition. The second is comparative regulation. Is regulation of the still nascent fertility industry engaged in a "competition in laxity" in which the jurisdiction that creates the most favorable regulatory environment captures the lion's share of the business? The third factor is subsidization. Access to subsidized health cares services is likely to persuade many to stay in their home countries if there is any possibility of securing services there. Finally, we consider the role of trust in facilitating acceptance of new norms. Canadians, for example, may be more comfortable than Australians with identity disclosure if they have greater confidence, if only because of distance, that the child will not show up on their doorsteps.


OBJECTIVE. We evaluated the efficacy of a comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics (CBIT) program to reduce tic severity and improve occupational performance in children with tic disorder using a one-group pretest-posttest design. METHOD. Thirty children with tic disorder completed an eight-session CBIT program. The program focused on habit reversal, relaxation training, and function-based approaches to address how the environment and social situations (antecedents and consequences) sustain or influence tic severity. RESULTS. We observed significant reduction in the number of tics and improvement in scores on the Parent Tic Questionnaire, Subjective Units of Distress Scale, and Child Occupational Self Assessment after CBIT compared with scores at baseline. CONCLUSION. Findings provided support that CBIT reduced the number of tic expressions, tic severity, and level of distress associated with tic and improved these children's self-perception of their competence in and importance of performing everyday activities (i.e., occupational performance).


A first tentative step towards synthesis of age was made in three pilot studies of speaker age. The first was a perceptual study, where results showed that some speakers are more typical for their age than others, and that listeners are able to age estimate single word stimuli considerably better than chance. In the second study an auditive and acoustic analysis of the same material indicated that older voices contain more variability, that some cues, including spectral quality and VOT, may be more important than others (e.g. F0), and that combinations of several cues are probably used for age perception. In the third study, natural, synthesized and resynthesized stimuli were used in a second listening test. Results indicated that spectral information and duration are more important than F0 for age perception. The results from these studies will be used in future research with more data and formant synthesis.


Surface treatment of a Co-Cr-W-C based alloy by pack boronizing is performed in this study. Treating at temperatures between 950 and 1050oC for up to 5 hrs produces a layer-like boride coating. The phase and composition analysis of the boronized layer is carried out by means of optical and SEM, EPMA and XRD. The growth of overall boronized layer is observed to obey the parabolic law, suggesting that it occurs via a diffusion-controlled process. Along with the microstructural features of the boronized layer, some brief results of the improvements of the wear property of Co-Cr-W-C alloy by boronizing treatment are presented.


Introduction There is increasing effort to identify people with undiagnosed COPD. However there is insufficient data on the profile of such patients to determine whether their characteristics and trajectory differ from those with established disease. Aim We compare the clinical characteristics of patients identified from a primary care COPD case-finding trial, with established cases on practice registers. Methods Interim baseline data from a primary care cohort of COPD patients from 71 UK practices were used. Patients with established COPD, as well as newly identified cases were invited. Baseline assessment includes spirometry, anthropometry, exercise capacity as well as questionnaires to obtain socio-demographic, occupational, lifestyle and health data Results 1,071 patients with spirometry confirmed COPD (LLN criteria) were included; 89 identified through case-finding. Compared with established cases, the newly identified were more likely to be female (47 vs 37%), younger (mean age 63.2 vs 68.9) and current smokers (42.0 vs 31.3%). They had less severe obstruction (55.1% vs 17.2% GOLD stage I), lower CAT score (mean 15.4 vs 20.2) and fewer comorbidities (10.1 vs 15.6% had ≥3 comorbidities). Restricting analyses to 812 with moderate/severe disease (GS II-III), newly identified patients still had lower CAT (p=0.04), fewer exacerbations (p≤0.01) and lower BODE (p≤0.01). All analyses adjusted for age, sex, smoking and disease severity. Conclusions Patients identified through case finding have milder disease. Longitudinal studies are needed to assess prognosis and longer term benefits of early diagnosis.


Cross-kingdom RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process allowing plants to transfer small regulatory RNAs to invading pathogens to trigger the silencing of target virulence genes. Transient assays in cereal powdery mildews suggest that silencing of one or two effectors could lead to near loss of virulence, but evidence from stable RNAi lines is lacking. We established transient host-induced gene silencing (HIGS) in wheat, and demonstrate that targeting an essential housekeeping gene in the wheat powdery mildew pathogen (Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici) results in significant reduction of virulence at an early stage of infection. We generated stable transgenic RNAi wheat lines encoding a HIGS construct simultaneously silencing three B.g. tritici effectors including SvrPm3a1/f1, a virulence factor involved in the suppression of the Pm3 powdery mildew resistance gene. We show that all targeted effectors are effectively downregulated by HIGS, resulting in reduced fungal virulence on adult wheat plants. Our findings demonstrate that stable HIGS of effector genes can lead to quantitative gain of resistance without major pleiotropic effects in wheat.


Abstract 1 H NMR studies were performed on two β-carboline derivatives interacting with human serum albumin. The spin–lattice relaxation rates of the two derivatives, having side chains of different length and polarity, were used to demonstrate a diverse motional behavior in solution together with slightly different relaxation pathways. Single- and double-selective excitation made it possible to evaluate dynamics in the free and protein-bound states. Occurrence of a relatively long hydrophilic chain interacting with the proton-acceptor nitrogen of the β-carboline moiety was shown to yield lower association constants, slower dissociation rates, and diverse interacting modes with the indole hydrophobic site of the protein.


'Show me a woman who wasn't raped!' These words, thrown down like a gauntlet by a genocide survivor disrupted the narrative of transitional justice as the panacea to redressing gross human rights violations committed against civilian women. The challenge to 'show me a woman' is made from a local perspective of intimacy between perpetrators and victims sharing homes and community space. In this study it represents the binary position of victims who seek justice and those 'legal people' who dispense justice. The latter hear survivor testimony only to the extent that it complements the legal parameters set by their mandates and prosecutorial strategy. Ultimately, so few survivors of armed conflict can tailor their war narrative to fit the stringent requirements of international criminal law that prosecutors struggling to select credible victims and witnesses are left asking 'Show me a woman who was raped.' Narratives of violence and the way it is shaped by local and international constructions of masculinity and femininity are complex and intersecting. The author acknowledges that political scientists, anthropologists and other social scientists have developed a substantial body of work demonstrating this in the African context and beyond. She argues that in comparison, legal scholars deny any complexity in the reconstruction of gender and violence by transitional justice processes: The gendered dimensions of armed conflict are evident in the Rwandan genocide and civil war and Sierra Leonean civil war. The experience of civilian women in armed conflict is visible in the case law of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the Sierra Leone Special Court and in the final report of the Sierra Leone Truth Commission - crimes such as sexual slavery and genocidal rape are prosecuted and adjudicated upon. The author does not claim otherwise. Rather she asks the reader to interrogate the process of international justice for gender stereotypes in its analysis of violence against women that produce an essentialising outcome to the extent that; adding a rape charge is regarded as sufficient proof that gender has been mainstreamed into the legal construction of gender based violence. With this study the author specifically urges legal scholars and practitioners to examine and acknowledge their personal and institutional assumptions of legitimacy, impartiality and knowledge in the administration of justice in the wake of armed conflict. The author introduces an interdisciplinary discussion about the humanitarian yet flawed responses to women, gender, and violence seen in transitional justice processes. She concludes that dominant justice narratives lead to rape convictions, but also entrench harmful stereotypes about masculinity(s) and femininity(s) that conceal the nature and root causes of gender based violence in 'peace' and war and prevent a thorough gender analysis that correctly categorizes crimes against men and women committed in Africa's civil wars. Throughout this study, the use of narratives, particularly personal narratives taken from field observation in Rwanda and Sierra Leone, serves to enhance the dynamic and unpredictable nature of gender relations as well as the problematic and hegemonic relationship between the legal-justice process and victims and witnesses of gross human rights violations.


With a new 1/8-rate linear phase detector (PD), a 5-Gbit/s clock and data recovery (CDR) circuit is implemented in a digital 0.18-mum CMOS technology. The outputs of the PD have much wider pulse than those of the conventional linear PDs. Thus, the design of circuits such as the PD and charge becomes much easier, and the maximum data rate is no longer limited by the speed of phase detection. The CDR shows 6.8-ps rms and 57.4-ps peak-to-peak jitter in the recovered clock and 10-12 bit error rate for 231-1 pseudorandom binary-sequence input while consuming 144 mW from a 1.8-V supply.


ABSTRACT The private rental sector (PRS) is making a surprising comeback. A central argument in our paper is that we see the rise of PRS and the associated stagnation of homeownership as springing from the contradictions inherent to financialized homeowner societies. Rather than a feature of either mature or late homeowner societies, contradictions of the promotion of homeownership through the expansion of mortgage markets paved the way for a revival of the PRS. Our case is the Netherlands, but our argument has a wider remit. We sketch the dominant trends in Dutch housing policy and present an overview of the rise of PRS and Buy-To-Let in Dutch cities. We identify how housing policies and realities have driven a shift from a debt-driven to a wealth-driven model of financialization, in which the demand for PRS as an investment class and as a place to live has become central.


Studies investigating associations between air pollution exposure and health outcomes benefit from the estimation of exposures at the individual level, but explicit consideration of the spatio‐temporal variation in exposure is relatively new in air pollution epidemiology. We address the problem of estimating spatially and temporally varying particulate matter concentrations (black smoke = BS = PM4) using data routinely collected from 20 monitoring stations in Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne between 1961 and 1992. We propose a two‐stage strategy for modelling BS levels. In the first stage, we use a dynamic linear model to describe the long‐term trend and seasonal variation in area‐wide average BS levels. In the second stage, we account for the spatio‐temporal variation between monitors around the area‐wide average in a linear model that incorporates a range of spatio‐temporal covariates available throughout the study area, and test for evidence of residual spatio‐temporal correlation. We then use the model to assign time‐aggregated predictions of BS exposure, with associated prediction variances, to each singleton pregnancy that occurred in the study area during this period, guided by dates of conception and birth and mothers' residential locations. In work to be reported separately, these exposure estimates will be used to investigate relationships between maternal exposure to BS during pregnancy and a range of birth outcomes. Our analysis demonstrates how suitable covariates can be used to explain residual spatio‐temporal variation in individual‐level exposure, thereby reducing the need to model the residual spatio‐temporal correlation explicitly. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Three of the arguments made by Temin (2008) in his review of Great Depressions of the Twentieth Century are demonstrably wrong: that the treatment of the data in the volume is cursory; that the definition of great depressions is too general and, in particular, groups slow growth experiences in Latin America in the 1980s with far more severe great depressions in Europe in the 1930s; and that the book is an advertisement for the real business cycle methodology. Without these three arguments — which are the results of obvious conceptual and arithmetical errors, including copying the wrong column of data from a source — his review says little more than that he does not think it appropriate to apply our dynamic general equilibrium methodology to the study of great depressions, and he does not like the conclusion that we draw: that a successful model of a great depression needs to be able to account for the effects of government policy on productivity.


The analytical review article presents the data reflecting the need for significant differentiation of the methodology of sports training for male and female athletes, which unfortunately is ignored in sports practice and is not adequately reflected in the vast majority of publications in the field of theory and methodology of sports training. This differentiation can be attributed to the following main components: the physique, strength qualities and flexibility; the energy systems; the peculiarities of the psyche and behavioral reactions; the menstrual cycle; female athlete triad; hyperandrogenism; pregnancy and parturition; and age dependence of sports performance. The clearly insufficient consideration of the peculiarities of the female body not only does not allow to fully use the natural talent of athletes for achieving the highest attainable sports performance, but also may with high probability disturb the normal age-related development and produce serious health problems in female athletes.


The statistics usually reported in epidemics are morbidity and mortality, together with the economic costs. However, the consequences of epidemics are much wider, affecting the very roots of society and modifying doctors' practice.

Recent widespread reports of severe pneumonia in Mexico could have been the first signs of the much feared flu pandemic. The combination of social and medical circumstances around the initial cases that led to the public announcement of an epidemic was a powerful catalyst for a range of reactions and even economic crisis—in a country whose economy is already in difficulty. There is an old popular saying here, "If the United States sneezes, Mexico gets pneumonia." Now we can say "Mexico gets swine flu": the first cases of swine flu were detected in the United States, but the epidemic has been most severe in Mexico.

Doctors are used to dealing not just with patients' illnesses but also the patients' feelings of vulnerability and related fears, of varying sorts and magnitudes. But in an epidemic there are also community and family worries to contend with, in addition to those of the …


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Have you ever looked down a microscope and wanted to frame the image for your bedroom wall? "Stem cells: a biological repair kit" is an exhibition of the photographs usually only found in research reports. These pictures are magnified images of stem cells produced by scientists around Australia. The photos are all entries in the Australian Stem Cell Centre's national photographic competition, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the world.

Up Close and Endodermal

The exhibition comprises more than 20 photos of magnified stem cells, including human embryonic stem cells, adult human stem cells, and animal stem cells in various stages of differentiation. Many of the images feature immunofluorescent labelling, making for a stunning technicolour display. Although some of the photos seem better suited to the pages of a histology textbook than a gallery wall, demonstrating biological features with little artistic flair, many entrants have realised the aesthetic potential of highly magnified cells to evoke a variety of forms. In Lincon Stamp and Joan …


In this paper, we seek to understand the timescale in which the photospheric motions on the Sun braid coronal magnetic field lines. This is a crucial ingredient for determining the viability of the braiding mechanism for explaining the high temperatures observed in the corona. We study the topological complexity induced in the coronal magnetic field, primarily using plasma motions extracted from magneto-convection simulations. This topological complexity is quantified using the field line winding, finite time topological entropy (FTTE), and passive scalar mixing. With these measures, we contrast mixing efficiencies of the magneto-convection simulation, a benchmark flow known as a "blinking vortex", and finally photospheric flows inferred from sequences of observed magnetograms using local correlation tracking. While the highly resolved magneto-convection simulations induce a strong degree of field line winding and FTTE, the values obtained from the observations from the plage region are around an order of magnitude smaller. This behavior is carried over to the FTTE. Nevertheless, the results suggest that the photospheric motions induce complex tangling of the coronal field on a timescale of hours.


The X International Fusarium Workshop took place in Alghero, Italy, from August 30 through September 2, 2008, in conjunction with the Fusarium Genomics Workshop 2008. As local organisers, we had both the honour and the pleasure of welcoming an international group of over 230 colleagues to a lively conference that included topic areas ranging from genomics and systematics to diagnostics and disease management. The two keynote speakers were Professor Lester W. Burgess (University of Sidney, Australia) and Dr. Marie- Josee Daboussi (Universite Paris-Sud Orsay, France). Professor Burgess gave an overview of the present status of the mycogeography and ecology of Fusaria, with a special emphasis on the Fusarium species recovered from Australia, a large island continent ideally suited for such studies. Ecological investigations have contributed to understand how climate affects the distribution of species in grassland soils, and showed that some important pathogens can be isolated as endophytes from tropical grasses remote from cropping areas. Dr. Daboussi's keynote address targeted Fusarium transposable elements, particularly those found in F. oxysporum. An exhaustive analysis of their representation, diversification, and chromosomal distribution based on recently available genome sequence provides evidence that this species has been subjected to invasion and proliferation of active transposable elements, providing a major challenge to our vision of the Fusarium genome. At the end of her talk, Dr. Daboussi announced to our International Society that she would retire at the end of 2008. As scientists and Fusarium community members, we expressed our concern about the loss of research on transposable elements in plant pathogenic fungi in general and particularly in Fusarium species. Dr. Daboussi's laboratory has been the center of research activity on fungal transposable elements and genome plasticity for the past two decades. Most of what we know on fungal transposons is the direct result of studies made in her laboratory or by researchers who have passed through her laboratory as students, postdocs or visiting scientists. It is a pity that after Dr. Daboussi's retirement her research group will be dispersed among different projects, with dramatically negative consequences and a waste of skills, energies and knowledge that ground more than 20 years of collective experience. Organised by the Fusarium Committee of the International Society of Plant Pathology, the Fusarium workshops are held every 5 years in conjunction with the International Congress of Plant Pathology. The next workshop is being planned for the 2013 Beijing Meeting by the newly elected Fusarium Committee Chair Ulf Thrane and Vice-Chair David Geiser. We wish to thank all session leaders who kindly agreed to summarise the main achievements presented by the Fusarium community during the Workshop.


The cytoskeleton is formed by three types of filamentous proteins - microtubules, actin filaments, and intermediate filaments (IFs) - and enables cells to withstand external and internal forces. Vimentin is the most abundant IF protein in humans and assembles into 10 nm diameter filaments with remarkable mechanical properties, such as high extensibility and stability. It is, however, unclear to which extent these properties are influenced by the electrostatic environment. Here, we study the mechanical properties of single vimentin filaments by employing optical trapping combined with microfluidics. Force-strain curves, recorded at varying ion concentrations and pH values, reveal that the mechanical properties of single vimentin IFs are influenced by pH and ion concentration. By combination with Monte Carlo simulations, we relate these altered mechanics to electrostatic interactions of subunits within the filaments. We thus suggest possible mechanisms that allow cells to locally tune their stiffness without remodeling the entire cytoskeleton.


Recently, considerable attention has been directed to violence and misbehavior in U.S. schools. In turn, schools have looked for solutions to address such concerns, one of which is the use of law enforcement officers. The aim of this research is to explore how law enforcement officers define their actual roles, as well as their perceived roles in an educational setting. Also, this study examines the process for establishing these roles within the school environment. A total of 26 law enforcement officers were contacted by phone and participated in an in-depth interview. Each interview was transcribed into NVivo, and subsequently coded to identify general themes and common phrases. The findings suggest that officers working in the school environment are taking on many roles, some of which they do not consider appropriate. In addition, who establishes these roles varies considerably. The findings are discussed in terms of their deviation from prior literature as well as needed future research endeavors.


Plasmonic terahertz detection by a double-grating gate field-effect transistor structure with an asymmetric unit cell is studied theoretically. Detection responsivity exceeding 8 kV/W at room temperature in the photovoltaic response mode is predicted for strong asymmetry of the structure unit cell. This value of the responsivity is an order of magnitude greater than reported previously for the other types of uncooled plasmonic terahertz detectors. Such enormous responsivity can be obtained without using any supplementary antenna elements because the double-grating gate acts as an aerial matched antenna that effectively couples the incoming terahertz radiation to plasma oscillations in the structure channel.


49 couples where the female partner had formerly been suffering from carcinoma of the genitals, were examined with regard to the structure of their mutual relationship as partners and the extent of their subjective physical complaints and symptoms. Both the former cancer patients and their partners displayed very marked physical complaints. This can be interpreted as a sign of exaggerated attention being paid to the subject's own body. The highly developed sense of mutual empathy ceased when sexuality was involved; this can point to the existence of conflicts. Mutual relations within a couple were predominantly symmetrical. Unsatisfactory types of relationship were also identified. Results are interpreted with regard to possibilities of psychotherapeutic consultation by the treating physician.


AIM
To compare the results of short-wavelength automated perimetry (SWAP) in diabetic patients without retinopathy and healthy subjects and show if it is possible to detect an abnormal function of the retina in diabetic patients before vascular changes on the retina develop. Further, the effect of diabetes duration and long-term glycaemic control on the visual field was examined.

METHODS
The study group included 22 patients with diabetes type 1 or 2, without any signs of retinopathy. The control group consisted of 21 healthy subjects. Short-wavelength automated perimetry was performed on the Humphrey Field Analyzer (HFA 860, Carl Zeiss Meditec), SITA SWAP, 24-2 test. In diabetic patients, the duration of diabetes and the level of glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) was registered. The visual field indices MD (mean deviation) and PSD (pattern standard deviation) were compared between both groups by the Mann-Whitney test. The correlation between the visual field indices, HbA1c and duration of diabetes was assessed by the Spearman correlation coefficient.

RESULTS
The mean value of MD in the study and control group was -3.64±3.66 dB and -1.48±2.12 dB respectively, the values in the study group were significantly lower (p < 0.05). Mean PSD in the study group was 2.92±1.04 dB and 2.23±0.33 dB in the control group, again the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Patients in the study group suffered from diabetes for 17±9.4 years in average. The mean value of HbA1c in the study group was 60.64±16.63 mmol/mol. A significant correlation was found only for PSD and HbA1c (p > 0.05). The duration of diabetes had no effect on either of the visual field indices.

CONCLUSION
Short-wavelength sensitivity of retina seems to be affected in diabetic patients without clinically significant retinopathy suggesting a neuroretinal impairment at early stages of the retinopathy. We found no association between the visual field and the control or duration of diabetes.


This thesis is concerned with the processes by which speakers produce felicitous, well-formed sentences, and the processes by which hearers comprehend these sentences. In particular, the focus is on how we can properly account for these grammatical encoding processes given that languages vary in myriad ways. This core aim, however, is hampered by the fact that only a fraction of the world's linguistic diversity has hitherto been included in psycholinguistic research. Therefore, the questions at the core of this research are those that are raised as we aim to conduct more cross-linguistic work on sentence formulation in typologically distinct languages. These questions are necessarily both theoretical and methodological in nature, involving an exploration of the challenges faced when trying to apply existing approaches to underrepresented, typologically divergent languages. In terms of theory, this work draws attention to specific ways in which standard theories of grammatical encoding fail to account for languages that differ from well-researched Western European languages. In terms of methodology, this work considers how a restricted view of linguistic variation may be reflected in the choices we make during the design, data processing and analysis of sentence production studies, as well as suggestions for addressing this issue.


The relationship between congenital heart defects (CHD) and chromosomal aberration has been well discussed. Payne et al. suggested that CHD may often be frequently due to a singlegene defect.1 It is known that 22q11.2 deletion syndrome is often associated with tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and aortic arch anomlies.2,3 The relationship between CHD and chromosome 8 aberration has also been reported. Deletions in the distal region of chromosome 8p (del8p) are associated with CHD, typically in the form of atrioventricular septal defect.4,5 San Luis Valley recombinant chromosome 8 syndrome (SLV Rec8), which is characterized by both deletion of the short arm of chromosome 8 (8p23.1–8pter) and duplication of the long arm of chromosome 8 (8q22.1–8qter), is strongly associated with TOF.6–8 Forty-two out of 45 patients with SLV Rec8 exhibited CHD, 17 of them having TOF.8 We now report two Japanese patients with TOF who showed a chromosomal abnormality: inverted duplication of the short arm of chromosome 8 (inv dup 8) within deletion of 8p23.1–8pter.


Abstract:  We explored anti‐inflammatory potential of melatonin against the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐induced inflammation in vivo and in vitro. RAW 264.7 and BV2 cells were stimulated by LPS, followed by the treatment with melatonin or vehicle at various time intervals. In a mouse model of meningitis induced by LPS, melatonin (5 mg/kg) or vehicle was intravenously injected at 30 min postinsult. The activity of matrix metalloproteinase‐2 (MMP‐2) and metalloproteinase‐9 (MMP‐9) was determined by gelatin zymography. Nuclear factor‐kappa B (NFκB) translocation and binding activity were determined by immunocytochemistry and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). Our results showed that either pretreatment or cotreatment with melatonin at 50–500 μm effectively inhibited the LPS‐induced proMMP‐9 activation in the RAW 264.7 and BV2 cells, respectively (P < 0.05). This melatonin‐induced proMMP‐9 inhibition remained effective when treatment was delayed up to 2 and 6 hr postinsult for RAW 264.7 and BV2 cells, respectively (P < 0.05 for both groups). Additionally, melatonin significantly attenuated the rises of circulatory and cerebral MMP‐9 activity, respectively (P < 0.05) and reduced the loss of body weight (P < 0.05) in mice with meningitis. Moreover, melatonin (50 μm) effectively inhibited nuclear factor‐kappa B (NFκB) translocation and binding activity in the LPS‐treated RAW 264.7 and BV2 cells, respectively (P < 0.05). These results demonstrate direct inhibitory actions of melatonin against postinflammatory NFκB translocation and MMP‐9 activation and highlight its ability to inhibit systemic and cerebral MMP‐9 activation following brain inflammation.


: Post-infarction remodeling was studied in 41 patients with the post-infarction aneurysm of the left ventricle and initially reduced contractive function of the left ventricle myocardium: ejection fraction from 17 to 35%. The ultrasonic pre- and postoperative investigation allowed assessment of the index of the ultimate diastolic volume, index of the ultimate systolic volume, ejection fraction, long axis of the left ventricle, apical short axis, papillary short axis, mitral short axis. In addition, impaired obliquity of the left ventricle cavity and relative thickness of the left ventricle wall and intervenricular septum at different levels were determined. Surgical remodeling using resection of aneurysm and plasty by Dor-II-Jatene method facilitated normalization of indices of the cavity geometry and reestablishment of the contractive ability of the left ventricle.


In this paper, we used three working electrodes of platinum, gold, glassy carbon which constituted the microbial electronic tongue to identify microorganisms. The main purpose of this article is to classify sulfate-reducing bacteria and iron bacteria with the reference of broth culture. The accuracy of classification was compared based on directly processing (raw data processed by Back- Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), raw data processed by Partial LeastSquares (PLS) and raw data processed by Principal Components Analysis (PCA)) and two-stage processing (Principal Components Analysis (PCA) outputs processed by BPNN,PLS(score) outputs processed by BPNN and PLS(ypred) outputs processed by BPNN). The result showed that the performance of both PLS (ypred) and BPNN were optimum, which proved that the combine of linear and nonlinear model will get the best result for classification of bacterial.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the structure of the fish assemblage in the ten years following the closing of the lake of the Itá Hydroelectric Power Plant. Seasonal collections were conducted from 2001 to 2010. During this period, 44,834 fish were captured, totaling 3,818.01 kg, among 8 orders, 24 families and 84 species. In general, profound changes were not observed in the fish assemblage in the ten years after the formation of the Itá lake. Few species changed in dominance over time, while many were rare in the environment. The ichthyofauna in the reservoir was dominated by small and medium size opportunist species that conduct short or no migratory movements. Among the most abundant, six species were responsible for more than 50% of the numeric representation: Steindachnerina brevipinna, Astyanax fasciatus, Apareiodon affinis, Hypostomus isbrueckeri, Iheringichthys labrosus and Loricariichthys anus. The increase in the representation of the later species stood out. The biomass was dominated by Steindachneridion scriptum, Prochilodus lineatus, I. laborsus, Schizodon nasutus, Hoplias malabaricus, Acestrorhynchus pantaneiro, Hoplias lacerdae, H. isbrueckeri and L. anus. Despite the presence of large migrators in the region of the reservoir, their vulnerability was revealed by the low numeric abundance and accidental capture. The k-dominance curve of numerical abundance and biomass indicates a moderately disturbed community, in which the representation of small species was also important to the amounts of biomass.


We have performed the atomistic simulations of the adhesion process of a boron atom on a tungsten(110) surface on the basis of the generalized simulation annealing formalism. The interatomic potentials used in these simulations were obtained from ab initio total energy calculations on the basis of the recursion procedure. The nonempirical calculations have been carried out in the framework of density functional theory in the coherent potential approximation.


The author provides a critical response to the social scientific literature that cast political interest and cleavages as the projection of sociocultural dynamics onto the political scene. Sociopolitical cleavages in general, and nationalism in particular, are thus viewed as having taken form outside the partisan arena, and only subsequent to their societal formation do they take on political importance. Through a comparison of the development of political nationalism in interwar Scotland and Flanders, the author argues for the importance of political forces in defining and shaping the political and social meaning and significance of nationalism. In Scotland, despite the potential popular appeal of nationalism, it does not emerge as a significant and autonomous political cleavage, principally due to configurations of partisan programs and alliances, and a politically unfavorable "demographic geometry." In Flanders, on the other hand, markedly different political conditions fostered the development and societal significance of nationalism. Hence, political nationalism did not emerge as a necessary concomitant to societal and cultural change; it was in part the result of political conditions and institutions that could foster or constrain the sociopolitical significance and meaning of nationalism.


This paper considers the constitutional questions posed by trigger warnings in higher education. Specifically, I look at the relationship between trigger warnings and First Amendment rights. I show that trigger warnings, a hot button issue in academia and the cultural discourse today, are neither exempt from constitutional concerns nor do they automatically violate First Amendment rights. The Court often interprets the First Amendment's central goal as promoting the pursuit of truth through the uninhibited free flow of ideas. The Court defines institutes of higher education as crucial spaces to forward this pursuit. Do trigger warnings aide or hinder the pursuit of truth in the college classroom? I explore two legal frameworks to consider this question. The first considers trigger warnings as a prior restraint on a professor's academic freedom, which is protected under the First Amendment. The second considers trigger warnings as a constitutionally permissible form of accommodation for women in higher education. This paper concludes with suggestions of how trigger warnings can be effectively and legally used in higher education. Trigger warnings can risk infringing on a professor's First Amendment rights; trigger warnings can also be benign and, sometimes, considerate teaching tools. A balance is possible between the two.


We explore the proposition that expected longevity affects retirement decisions and accumulated wealth using micro data drawn from the Health and Retirement Study for the United States. We use data on a person's subjective probability of survival to age 75 as a proxy for their prospective lifespan. In order to control for the presence of measurement error and focal points in responses, as well as reverse causality, we instrument subjective survival probabilities using information on current age, or age at death, of the respondent's parents. Our estimates indicate that increased subjective probabilities of survival result in increased household wealth among couples, with no effect on the length of the working life. These findings are consistent with the view that retirement decisions are driven by institutional constraints and incentives and that a longer expected lifespan leads to increased wealth accumulation.


Recently, a particular structure for linear-phase finite-impulse response (FIR) filters with a variable bandwidth has received attention. In this structure, the overall transfer function is a weighted linear combination of fixed subfilters, with the weights being directly determined by the bandwidth. An advantage of this structure is that there are only a few adjustable parameters (weights), which results in a simple updating routine. However, in this paper, it is demonstrated that the use of a number of fixed regular overdesigned filters, each taking care of a part of the frequency region, in fact results in a lower overall arithmetic complexity. The price to pay is an increased group and phase delay.


Collaborative practice has been promoted as a method of dispute resolution in family law. It represents a shift away from litigation, towards a formally contracted negotiation process involving lawyers, relevant professionals and their clients. This article is particularly interested in whether collaborative practice might be appropriate in some matters involving the coercive control type of family violence. Overseas and Australian academic literature is examined to learn about the principles and processes of collaborative practice in general and how they apply to matters involving family violence. The article also looks at the experiential-based views of a small, targeted, sample of lawyers. The authors' findings identify: the importance of screening and suitability criteria; how collaborative practice can be modified to deal most effectively with a power imbalance; and its potential benefits and risks. The authors conclude that with diligent, on-going assessment, management, monitoring and support by lawyers and other professionals trained in both collaborative practice and family violence, it may be a feasible option that could provide the victim with safety and a "voice".


The objective was to analyze variations in dental arch width in relation to oral habits. Maxillary and mandibular intercanine and intermolar distance were determined in relation to certain oral habits in 1297 children (ages 3 to 6 years). After an oral examination, the parents of each child completed a questionnaire about oral habits, including the use of a dummy or a bottle (or both), finger sucking, mouth breathing, breastor bottle-feeding, and duration of these habits. Data were subjected to statistical analysis by the chi-square test for qualitative variables and analysis of variance for quantitative variables with homogeneous variances. Statistical significance was P , .05. In general, the maxillary arch was larger than the mandibular arch with regard to both the intercanine and the intermolar distances and more significantly so in boys. In relation to age, a significant increase was found only for the mandibular intercanine distance (P 5 .001). When arch width was analyzed in relation to various oral habits, the maxillary intercanine distance was less in children who used a dummy, especially one of a round design (P 5 .003). The maxillary intercanine distance was also less in children who breathed through their mouth (P 5 .002). In most cases, dummy use and mouth breathing were associated with a reduction in the intercanine distance in the maxillary arch. A dummy habit leads to a reduction in maxillary arch width, and mouth breathing causes a reduction in the size of both arches. (Angle Orthod 2006; 76:441–445.)


Background and Hypothesis:Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) is a multifactorial degenerative disease of the joint affecting 20-50% of all joint injuries with a total annual cost of $15 billion. There are no current disease-modifying therapies for PTOA. Mechanical stress due to ligament tear or impact injury triggers the release of inflammatory mediators in the joint. Resulting collagen damage, loss of proteoglycans, and cell death triggers further release of inflammatory mediators and reactive oxygen species. This cycle of inflammation leads to PTOA. We hypothesize that inhibition of Ca2+/CaM dependent protein kinase kinase 2 (CaMKK2), a kinase associated with the inflammatory effects in PTOA, will mitigate the disease-propagating mechanisms.
Methods:We utilized a rabbit model of PTOA which involved surgical transection of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) to generate joint instability. Rabbits were then treated tri-weekly with either STO-609 (CaMKK2 inhibitor, 0.033 mg/kg) or saline (control) for 16 weeks. Rabbits were sacrificed at 16 weeks post-surgery. Tibiofemoral joints were harvested for staining with safranin O fast green (SO) and PTOA grading via Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) guidelines. Apoptosis was assessed with terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). RNA isolation of cartilage and subchondral bone tissue was conducted for qRT-PCR. Gene expression of MMP-13, IL-6, IL-1B, ACAN, COL2A1 was quantified and normalized to GAPDH.
Results:Histology and gross morphology showed increased PTOA severity in saline controls compared to STO-609 treated rabbits. There was no significant difference in chondrocyte apoptosis in STO-609 treated rabbits compared to saline controls based on TUNEL staining. Gene expression analyses are in progress.
Potential Impact:This study addresses the unmet clinical need for novel disease-modifying therapeutics for PTOA. Preliminary results show that inhibition of CaMKK2 has the potential to decrease cartilage degradation after joint injuries.


The synthesis of new molybdenum cluster selenocyanide anionic complexes [Mo6Se8(CN)6]7- and [Mo6Se8(CN)6]6- is reported. The [Mo6Se8(CN)6]7- ion was obtained by excision of the cluster core [Mo6Se8] from a Chevrel phase in the reaction of Mo6Se8 with KCN at 650 degrees C; the [Mo6Se8(CN)6]6- ion is formed by oxidation of [Mo6Se8(CN)6]7-. New cluster salts K7[Mo6Se8(CN)6] x 8H2O (1) and (Me4N)4K2[Mo6Se8(CN)6] x 10H2O (2) were isolated and their crystal structures were solved. Compound 1 crystallizes in the cubic space group Fm3m (a=15.552(2) A, Z=4, V=3761.5(8) A3), compound 2 crystallizes in the triclinic space group P1 (a=11.706(2), b=11.749(2), c=12.459(2) A, alpha=72.25(1), beta=77.51(1), gamma=63.04(1), Z=1, V=1448.5(4) A3). Compound 1 is paramagnetic due to an availability of 21 electrons per Mo6 cluster; cyclic voltammetry reveals a quasi-reversible transition [Mo6Se8(CN)6]7- <--> [Mo6Se8(CN)6]6-, E1/2=0.63 V.


The lamellipodium, an essential structure for cell migration, plays an important role in the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. Although Rac1 recognized as a key player in the formation of lamellipodia, the molecular mechanisms underlying lamellipodial motility are not fully understood. Optogenetic technology enabled us to spatiotemporally control the activity of photoactivatable Rac1 (PA-Rac1) in living cells. Using this system, we revealed the role of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) in Rac1-dependent lamellipodial motility in PC-3 prostate cancer cells. Through local blue laser irradiation of PA-Rac1-expressing cells, lamellipodial motility was reversibly induced. First, outward extension of a lamellipodium parallel to the substratum was observed. The extended lamellipodium then showed ruffling activity at the periphery. Notably, PI(3,4,5)P3 and WAVE2 were localized in the extending lamellipodium in a PI3K-dependent manner. We confirmed that the inhibition of PI3K activity greatly suppressed lamellipodial extension, while the ruffling activity was less affected. These results suggest that Rac1-induced lamellipodial motility consists of two distinct activities, PI3K-dependent outward extension and PI3K-independent ruffling.


This theoretical paper taps into Ball' view of the terrors of performativity in order to critique examination mafiarisation in Zimbabwe. Of late, the education system in this country has experienced a number of trajectories, characterised by examination leaks, cheating, and a decline in confidence in Zimbabwean education. I critique examination mafiarisation, using Ball's perspective, and in so doing, I attempt to answer two questions: What are the causes of examination mafiarisation? What can be done to mitigate cheating in examinations? The argument of the paper is that the curriculum faces ambivalence, because of an overemphasis on performativity. Consequently, teachers, learners, and parents have resorted to immoral behaviour to ensure performativity is enacted. I also argue for a need to embrace a rebalancing of pedagogy, which is characterised by social justice education, promotion of morality, comprehensive education, and task-based assessment, to regain credibility for what was once perceived to be a thriving educational system.


The simulation of many naval hydrodynamics problems, such as a ship's motions in waves, is often performed using potential flow solvers which are usually based on a Boundary Element Method (BEM) that use semi-empirical corrections to account for viscous/turbulent effects. However in some cases, viscous/turbulent flows near the ships hull and breaking waves must be accurately modeled to capture the salient physics. Navier-Stokes (NS) solvers can and have been used to model such flows, but they are computationally expensive, often requiring several orders of magnitude more computational resources relative to potential flow methods, rendering them impracticable for many engineering applications. The overall goal of this work is to develop a naval hydrodynamics solver that leverages a medium-fidelity potential flow solver to model the entire domain combined with a high-fidelity Navier-Stokes (NS) solver to model the flow within a smaller region, where better accuracy is required. This hybrid solver provides improved simulation fidelity relative to a potential flow solution alone while a significant computational efficiency improvement relative to a NS solver alone is gained. Within the NS domain both the velocity and pressure are expressed as the sum of an inviscid (I) and viscous perturbation (P) components. The underlying inviscid solution serves to drive the perturbation component, which in turn provides a correction so that the total solution reproduces the NS equations. Considering that most naval hydrodynamics flows occur at high Renyolds numbers, the viscous region of the flow is often small, and can be applied to a reduced domain around a hull or to localized regions within the flow. Outside of these regions the salient viscous effects will become small and the inviscid solver provides the full NS solution. In this work the NS domain is simulated using the particle based Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). This relatively new computational tool has proved to be accurate and efficient for simulating a variety of complex fluid flow and fluid-structure interaction problems. It shows the potential for a competitive advantage over traditional finite volume NS solvers when implemented in parallel on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). The LBM is well suited for the GPU architecture because its kernel is simple and local, so at each time step relatively small number of operations is required at each node and nodes only communicate with their neighbors. This is opposed to finite volume solvers which typically require high order derivatives and a global pressure correction step, where all nodes need to communicate and more complex memory access is required. Using the LBM our hybrid method can make efficient use of a computer's resources by simulating the BEM using the central processing unit (CPU) nodes and simulating the LBM using a relatively inexpensive GPU addition, allowing for simulations that would otherwise require a large and expensive CPU cluster. The goal of this thesis is to develop a LBM that can solve for the perturbation component of our hybrid method, which requires a modification to the LBMs governing equations, boundary, and initial conditions. The first chapter describes the fundamental developments towards this goal of developing what we refer to as a perturbation LBM (pLBM) and presents several low Reynolds number validations of the method's accuracy and convergence. The second chapter focuses on higher Reynolds number applications of the method. Since the LBM is far less established than other methods, this required that we develop an accurate turbulent wall boundary condition for standard LBM, which is currently an active area of research in the LBM community. Next the turbulent wall model and a large eddy simulation (LES) turbulent closure schemes are expressed for the pLBM by using the standard LBM methodology as a foundation and a validated for turbulent applications is presented. The third chapter focuses on the hybrid modeling of the nonlinear free surface and adapting the pLBM tool to simulate ship geometries. A hybrid volume of fluid (hVOF) free surface capturing scheme is developed which models the total free surface using a combination of the inviscid and perturbation flow within the pLBM. Finally, pLBM is coupled to a BEM solver to simulate the steady flow around a ship and the hVOF is used to simulate nonlinear and breaking waves.


: In the rat vas deferens alpha-adrenoblocking agent phentolamine (1-10(-6)M) and beta-adrenoblocking agent propranolol (1-10(-6)M) activated uptake of exogenous noradrenaline--H-3 by 37 and 47% respectively and synthesis of noradrenaline--H3 from thyrosin-H3 by 72 and 48%. The rate of noradrenaline-H3 synthesis from DOPA-H3 or dopamine-H3 remains unaltered. Regulating effect of the adrenoblocking agents is carried out by means of uptake of tyrosine-H3 and noradrenaline-H3 into adrenergic neuron, i.e. at the main stages sustaining a necessary level of mediator. The rate of noradrenaline biosynthesis is supposed to be independently regulated by means of both types of adrenoreceptors in an adrenergic neuron.


Lowly aggregated load profiles such as of individual households or buildings are more fluctuating and relative forecast errors are comparatively high. Therefore, the prevalent point forecasts are not sufficiently capable of optimally capturing uncertainty and hence lead to non-optimal decisions in different operational tasks. We propose an approach for short-term load quantile forecasting based on convolutional neural networks (STLQF-CNN). Historical load and temperature are encoded in a three-dimensional input to enforce locality of seasonal data. The model efficiently minimizes the pinball loss over all desired quantiles and the forecast horizon at once. We evaluate our approach for day-ahead and intra-day predictions on 222 house-holds and different aggregations from the Pecan Street dataset. The evaluation shows that our model consistently outperforms a naïve and an established linear quantile regression benchmark model, e.g., between 21 and 29 % better than the best benchmark on aggregations of 10, 20 and 50 households from Austin.


Hybrid-electric propulsion system promises avenues for a greener aviation sector. Ground research work was performed in the past for the feasibility assessment, at the system level, for such novel concepts and the results showed were promising. Such designs, however, possess unique challenges from an operational point of view, and for sizing of the sub-system components; necessitating further design space exploration for associating with an optimal operational strategy. In light of the above, the paper aims at presenting an operational analysis and performance assessment study, for a conceptualised parallel hybrid design of an advanced geared turbofan engine, based on 2035 timeframe technology level. It is identified that the hybrid power operation of the engine is constrained with respect to the requirement of maintaining an adequate surge margin for the low pressure side components; however, a core re-optimised engine design with consideration of electrical power add-in for the design condition, relieves such limit. Therefore such a design, makes it suitable for implementation of higher degree of hybridisation. Furthermore, performance assessment is made both at engine and engine-aircraft integrated level for both scenarios of hybrid operation and the benefits are established relative to the baseline engine. The performance at engine level engine specific fuel consumption (SFC), thrust specific power consumption (TSPC), and overall efficiency, shows improvement in both hybridised scenarios. Improvement in SFC is achieved due to supply of the electrical power, whereas, the boost in TSPC, and overall efficiency is attributed to the use of higher efficiency electrical drive system. Furthermore, it is observed that while the hybridised scenario performs better at engine level, the core re-optimised design exhibits a better saving for block fuel/energy consumption, due to the considerable weight savings in the core components.


Satisfying customers need has become an inevitable phenomenon for businesses to survive in this high competitive era. The persistent complaints of waiting queue by customers have continuously posed a threat to call centres globally. Call centres are an important function of most companies' day to day business activities. They are often the link between a company and its customers and hugely impact the customer's perspective or point of view of a company. The queue experienced by customers at call centres is increasingly becoming alarming as many customers are irritated by the long time spent on the queue before their calls are been answered. It is imperative that an investigation be carried out into what criteria are been used to route calls to any particular call centre agent at any given time and how average handling time influences waiting queues at call centres. It is important to conduct a comparative analysis to evaluate existing routing rules for waiting time rules to determine the optimal among the waiting time rule. This study used a collection of java programs to simulate existing rule for waiting time routing rules. The JAVA program evaluator evaluates each of the waiting time routing rules using the call canter's raw data, collected from the data logging system of Global  Communications, one of the biggest telecommunication company in Nigeria.  The study simulated four rules, Java program were developed for each of the four routing rules since their procedure varies from one another. The result from our simulation was able to determine the optimal rule among the existing waiting time routing rules. Keywords: Call center, Queuing system, Routing rules, Average Speed of Answer


Background and Objectives: Enterotoxins and toxic shock syndrome toxin–1 (TSST-1) are an important virulence factor of S. aureus . The purpose of this study was to analyze the presence of S. aureus enterotoxin (sea-see) and tst genes in the samples that collected from different sources with PCR method. Methods: During 5 months from 150 collected samples, 80 strains were identified as S. aureus . PCR reaction was used for investigation on the presence of genes for staphylococcal enterotoxins (A-E) and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1). Results: Fifty three samples (66.25%) out of 80 samples were positive for one or more ETs and TSST-1 genes. of these positive strains, 17 (32.07%) were positive for sea 39 (73.58%) for seb, 30 (56.6%) for sec, 2 (3.7%) for sed, 21 (39.62%) for see, and 14 (26.41%) for tst. Enterotoxins and tst in 40 samples (75.47%) observed. Conclusion: In this study, high prevalence of S. aureus, its enterotoxin, and tst genes were observed in clinical samples, food samples, and healthy people. This fact emphasizes on the role of human as original source and carrier of S. aureus. Also, use of PCR reaction for detection of these genes in S. aureus that isolated from various sources is recommended


In health care delivery worldwide, infections acquired in health care setting are the most challenging factors. Infections due to antibiotic resistant bacteria have increased day by day in both developed and developing countries. This study is performed to screen the bacterial pathogens present in pus samples taken from patients of different wards of hospital. Isolation of bacteria was determined by standard microbial techniques. Total number of samples is 383 in which 252 were males and 131 were females. 265 samples have growth (259 were suitable for culturing and other 6 were not suitable for culturing) and 118 samples have no growth. Most samples have single growth, while some samples have mixed growth. The predominant genera were coliform including Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas. Staphylococcus aureus has small number of cultures. These bacterial pathogens show resistant to most of the commonly used antibiotics. The resistant pattern was high in both gram negative and gram positive bacteria. Some organisms show multi-drug resistant pattern.

 Key words: No growth, bacterial, patients, genera.


In this paper, the coexistence issue between macro/micro WCDMA system and macro WIMAX system has been investigated. Monte Carlo simulation method is used to evaluate the impact of inter-system interference produced by coexistence of systems in the same geographical area in adjacent frequency. Based on the analysis of the interference, we come to the conclusion whether WCDMA and WIMAX systems could coexist and give the proposals of interference mitigation method in the case of coexistence of two systems.


Summary Aware that T and B cells in autoimmune thrombocytopenia are abnormal, including the existence of clonal B cell populations, we sought to characterize this clonal phenomenon in various immunological thrombocytopenias using platelet antibody light chain analysis, flow cytometry, Southern blot analysis, and PCR. Using a monoclonal antibody‐antigen capture ELISA, we analysed sera from 21 of 26 patients with autoimmune, alloimmune. or drug‐induced immunological thrombocytopenia for the light chain phenotypes of their platelet antibodies. Alloantibodies and drug‐dependent antibodies from four and 14 patients, respectively, were found that expressed a predominant type of light chain, suggesting that these platelet‐reactive antibodies were monoclonal or oligoclonal in nature. 14 of the 26 patients were available for light chain B cell phenotyping studies. Of these 14 patients, thrombocytopenia was due to autoimmunity in two, drug‐induced immunity in four, and alloimmunity in eight. We detected clonal populations of B cells in all 14 patients by flow cytometry. Although six of these latter patients possessed platelet antibodies with clonal characteristics, light chain phenotypes of antibodies in five patients were opposite to those of their B cells. Eight of these patients were further examined for immunoglobulin gene rearrangement using Southern and/or polymerase chain reaction analysis. In all eight patients we detected clonal or oligoclonal B cell populations. Only two of these patients had malignancies (chronic lymphocytic leukaemia) that would be expected to have detectable clonal B cells, and thus the mechanism for clonal expansion in the other six patients did not appear to he related to an obvious neoplastic process. Prior to these studies, detection of clonal B cells in thrombocytopenic patients without known malignancies was limited to individuals with autoimmune thrombocytopenia, prompting the speculation that this particular autoimmune disorder arises from B cell dysregulation, rather than from expansion of specific autoantibody producing B cell clones. In contrast, the current studies provide evidence that clonal B cells are common to patients with any form of immunologically‐mediated thrombocytopenia. Moreover, the majority of the platelet antibodies (86%) present in these disorders exhibited monoclonal characteristics in that there was an apparent restriction in light chain usage.


The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provided the first opportunity for the Trump administration to translate its "America First" trade policy into specific treaty design. In this article, we evaluate how radical these changes have been by systematically comparing the USMCA to its predecessors. We find that, first, the USMCA copies 57 percent of its text from the Transpacific Partnership (TPP), which Trump had repudiated and unsigned once he took office. Compared to U.S. treaty practice generally, the USCMA is more of a continuation rather than a departure from prior texts. Second, we systematically investigate where the USMCA diverges from the TPP. We find that USMCA treaty design differences can be grouped in five categories: (1) structural remnants of NAFTA, such as bi-national panels to review trade remedies; (2) "America First" elements, such as tighter rules of origins; (3) modernizations, e.g. by incorporating TPP innovations on digital trade; (4) additions on non-U.S. policy priorities, such as gender rights, promoted by the other USMCA states; and finally (5) changes of a more technical nature. In sum, contrary to Trump's rhetoric, the USMCA does not usher in a new generation of trade agreements, but it does engage in targeted innovations that are driven by varying policy considerations that include but are not limited to his "America First" agenda.


Leptospirosis is a common zoonosis worldwide. Leptospires are water borne spirochaetes which cause widespread immune-mediated capillary endothelial damage. A biphasic illness occurs with an acute infection followed by a secondary immune phase. We report the case of a 34 year old man who developed serologically confirmed leptospirosis during a fishing trip in France. This led to Weil's disease with hepatorenal dysfunction. After 3 weeks of antibiotic treatment, he was making a sustained recovery when he developed a rapid onset of headache without meningism, altered mental function, bilateral cortical visual impairment and focal seizures. At the onset of his symptoms there was a small rise in blood pressure from 170/90 to 161/111 millimeters of mercury. Renal and hepatic function were improving. He had started to pass urine. The seizures resolved with phenytoin. No other treatment changes were made. MRI with diffusion weighting revealed nonhaemorrhagic subcortical white matter lesions maximal in the occipital lobes. The patient's symptoms rapidly improved over days and this was paralleled by resolution of the white matter lesions. We postulate that secondary immune-mediated capillary endothelial damage, a common mechanism underlying PRES, may have been a factor in producing vasogenic oedema in the while matter in this patient. Metabolic dysfunction and hypertension may have contributed. Early imaging facilitated conservative management with full recovery.


Long-term selection for increased 12-day litter weight in two replicate lines (W(2), W(3)) of mice resulted in an apparent selection limit at about 17 generations. Quadratic polynomial and exponential models were fitted to the data in order to estimate the plateaued response and half-life of the selection process. Using the polynomial results, the half-life estimates were 4.5 and 8.6 generations for W(2) and W(3), respectively. The plateaued responses were 5.1 and 5.8 g which, when expressed in phenotypic standard deviation units, became 1.1 and 1.3. The exponential model provides similar estimates. A negative association between 12-day litter weight and fitness was not considered to be an adequate explanation for the plateau since there was no decrease in fertility of the selected lines. Evidence that exhaustion of genetic variability was not the cause of the plateau came from the immediate response to reverse selection. It was proposed that the plateau may be due to a negative genetic correlation between direct and maternal genetic effects, which would be expected to occur after many generations of selection. There were positive correlated responses in both replicates for adult body weight, which was in agreement with the positive genetic correlation between preweaning and postweaning body weight. The expected positive correlated response for number born was realized in only one of the replicates.


Inland waters receive substantial amounts of organic carbon from adjacent watersheds. Only about half of the carbon exported from inland waters reaches the oceans, while the remainder is lost en route. This thesis identifies flocculation as an important and significant fate of carbon in the boreal landscape. Flocculation reallocates organic carbon from the dissolved state into particles which are prone to settle. Thus, flocculation relocates organic carbon from the water column to the sediment.The dissolved organic carbon (DOC), mainly originating from terrestrial sources, in a set of Swedish lakes was found to determine the extent of sedimentation of particulate organic carbon. A major fraction of the settling particles were of allochthonous origin. This implies that allochthonous DOC was the precursor of the settling matter in these lakes. The gross sedimentation was of the same magnitude as the evasion of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.Sunlight, especially in the photosynthetically active region, stimulated flocculation of DOC. The effect of light appeared to involve a direct photochemical reaction. Iron was involved in the flocculation but it could not be unravelled whether the iron catalyzes the flocculation or just co-precipitates with the settling matter. Microbial activity was identified as the main regulator of the flocculation rates. Accordingly, alteration of temperature, oxygen concentration and pH did not affect flocculation only indirectly, via their effects on microbial metabolism.A comparison of fluorescence characteristics of organic matter collected in sediment trap and in the sediment surface layer revealed that autochthonous organic carbon was preferentially lost in the sediments while allochthonous matter increased. The recalcitrant nature of the flocculated matter could favour sequestration of this matter in the lake sediment. Hence, the lakes will act as sinks of organic carbon due to a slower mineralization of the flocculated matter in the sediments.