The present report aimed to perform a molecular epidemiological survey by investigating the presence of virulence factors in E. faecalis isolated from different human clinical (n = 57) and food samples (n = 55) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, collected from 2006 to 2009. In addition, the ability to form biofilm in vitro on polystyrene and the β-haemolytic and gelatinase activities were determined. Clinical strains presented a higher prevalence of aggregation substance (agg), enterococcal surface protein (esp) and cytolysin (cylA) genes when compared with food isolates. The esp gene was found only in clinical strains. On the other hand, the gelatinase (gelE) and adherence factor (ace) genes had similar prevalence among the strains, showing the widespread occurrence of these virulence factors among food and clinical E. faecalis strains in South Brazil. More than three virulence factor genes were detected in 77.2% and 18.2% of clinical and food strains, respectively. Gelatinase and β-haemolysin activities were not associated with the presence of gelE and cylA genes. The ability to produce biofilm was detected in 100% of clinical and 94.6% of food isolates, and clinical strains were more able to form biofilm than the food isolates (Student's t-test, p < 0.01). Results from the statistical analysis showed significant associations between strong biofilm formation and ace (p = 0.015) and gelE (p = 0.007) genes in clinical strains. In conclusion, our data indicate that E. faecalis strains isolated from clinical and food samples possess distinctive patterns of virulence factors, with a larger number of genes that encode virulence factors detected in clinical strains.


This research was conducted to estimate the values of parameters which described the physical characteristics of catchments area and monthly water balance components, and understand the sensitivity of the water balance components to change in the parameter value due to the physical changes occurring in Way Pia catchments area, Ceram Island.  The method used involved calculation of the regional water balance in the current time (normal) and during the time of land use change, using an evapoclimatonomy model. The main model inputs were monthly rainfall, global radiation and run off. Analyses of data were conducted with five steps as follows : (1) mathematical formulation of the evapoclimatonomy model, (2) algorithm formation and transfer to computer code, (3) establishment of parameters and calibration, (4) validation of model, and (5) experimentation of model. The current physical conditions of Way Pia catchments area were characterized by: average of parameter value of albedo, a = 0,16; rainfall threshold, Pn = 100 mm; surface run off ratio, np = 0,23; evapority, ep = 0,42; measure of soil water loss from sub surface, vN = 0,12; and measure of evapotranspiration of soil water from sub surface, vE = 0,20. Model output of the current water balance consisted of  annual value of soil moisture, m = 272 mm; total evapotranspiration, E = 1393 mm, and total run off, N = 920 mm. The land use change  in the form of land clearing will increase the parameter values of a and np, which affect on increasing of direct run off (N') of 13% as compared to current conditions.


This diploma thesis is devoted to the linkages among stock, bond and foreign exchange markets in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany and Poland during the period from the beginning of the year 2007 to the end of the year 2014. In order to complexly describe the interconnections among the markets, we utilized two kinds of spillover indices (from the generalized and structural VAR model), dynamic correlation coefficients obtained from the multivariate GARCH model and contemporaneous coefficients from the structural VAR model that was identified through heteroskedasticity in structural shocks. These methods enabled us to describe the linkages among the markets from different angles, to capture their time evolution and to obtain a notion about the transmission mechanism among these markets in Central Europe. The results, inter alia, indicate an intensifying interconnection among the markets during crisis periods, lowering impact of stock markets, increasing influence of bonds and a dominant role of German bonds and Austrian stocks. At the same time, we were able to capture the influence of the European sovereign debt crisis on the spillovers and on the intensity of linkages among the markets. We showed that the intensity of linkages among bond markets relented, probably as a result of higher emphasis on the country-specific development. The obtained results and their extensions can potentially underlie more detailed research. JEL Classification G15, C58, F37


Stock selection is the nucleus in the investment management process. It involves identifying and selecting undervalued securities which among other things requires the successful forecasting of the company specific events or an ability to predict the general behavior of security prices in the future. If the fund manager is able to identify and select the undervalued securities for the portfolio, then it will be possible for the fund manager to increase the returns of the schemes and vice versa. In practice fund managers are expected to earn superior returns for unit holders consistently as being professionals therefore possess superior skills to collect and analyze the data with the purpose to select the right type of securities for the portfolio. The present work is based on the review of tens of studies both foreign and Indian studies relating to mutual funds. The mutual fund industry in India consists of public sector, private sector and foreign funds. All the three sectors were studied to compare the selectivity and timing performance on the basis of sponsorship of funds. However, from these only active funds belongings to Growth, Income, Balanced and Tax-Saving Schemes were selected for the study. In this paper stock selectivity skills of sample fund managers were tested by using Jensen's Alpha and Fama's net selectivity measure.


The fashion style recognition is important in online marketing applications. Several algorithms have been proposed, but their accuracy is still unsatisfactory. In this paper, we share our proposed method for creating an improved fashion style recognition algorithm, component-dependent convolutional neural networks (CD-CNNs). Given that a lot of fashion styles largely depend on the features of specific body parts or human body postures, first, we obtain images of the body parts and postures by using semantic segmentation and pose estimation algorithms; then, we pre-train CD-CNNs. We perform the classification by the concatenated outputs of CD-CNNs and a support vector machine (SVM). Experimental results using the HipsterWars and FashionStyle14 datasets prove that our method is effective and can improve classification accuracy, namely 85.3% for HipsterWars and 77.7% for FashionStyle14, while those of existing methods were 80.9% for HipsterWars and 72.0% for FashionStyle14.


Imaging in cancer plays a capital role to guide the clinician in his choice of therapies. We will discuss the new techniques available to predict and evaluate treatment response in oncology. The method of reference to evaluate treatment response is based on the measure of lesion size. Functional imaging doesn't evaluate size, but rather a physiological or molecular feature, which is probably modified earlier in response to treatment. Dynamic contrast-enhanced functional imaging of microcirculation follows the biodistribution of a contrast agent and analyses tumour vascularization. Diffusion-weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging differentiates free and restrained water molecules in tissues, reflecting tumor cellularity. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy is an application of MRI that yields information on the metabolic content of a tissue. It detects relative quantities of various molecules which differ in tumour compared to normal tissue. Positon-emission tomography using (18)FDG is a nuclear medicine technique which gives information on tissue metabolism. Captation of FDG is proportional to the proliferative activity and the number of viable cells in a tumour. Human studies concerning these techniques are still quite preliminary, and the medical community must determine their potential in clinical practice to evaluate treatment response in oncology.


An adaptive nonlinear recursive least square (RLS) algorithm for amplitude estimation in class A noise is presented. For Gaussian input signal and class A noise, its mean and mean-square behaviours are studied. It is shown that the linear RLS and nonlinear RLS algorithm with the clipper function are stable in the mean and mean square. For non-Gaussian input, amplitude estimation in CDMA communication is presented. Simulation results show that the nonlinear RLS can provide good performance close to the Cramer-Rao bound and outperform the nonlinear LMS and the conventional RLS in impulse noise.


We examine how the distribution of worker earnings growth shifts following major technological advances by the firm, or its competitors, using administrative data from the US. Specifically, we find that own firm innovation is associated with a modest increase in worker earnings growth, while innovation by competing firms is related to lower future worker earnings. Importantly, these earnings changes are asymmetrically distributed across workers: both gains and losses are concentrated on a subset of workers, which implies that the distribution of worker earnings growth rates becomes more right- or left-skewed following innovation by the firm, or its competitors, respectively. These effects are particularly strong for the highest-paid workers. Our results suggest innovation is associated with a substantial increase in the labor income risk, especially for workers at the top of the earnings distribution. Our simulations reveal that the increased disparity in innovation outcomes across firms in the 1990s can account for a significant part of the rise in income inequality. In sum, our evidence is consistent with the view that innovation leads to substantial reallocation in labor income across workers through creative destruction in the product market and displacement of their human capital.


Abstract. In an effort to understand and quantify the impact of local, regional, and far-distant atmospheric mercury sources to rainfall mercury deposition in the Pensacola, Florida watershed, a program of event-based rainfall sampling was started in late 2004. Modified Aerochem-Metrics wet/dry rainfall samplers were deployed at three sites in the region around the Crist coal-fired power plant and event-based samples were collected continuously for three years. Samples were analyzed for total Hg and a suite of trace elements including Al, As, Ba, Bi, Cd, Ce, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Fe, Ga, La, Li, Mg, Mn, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Sb, Se, Si, Sn, Sr, Th, U, V, and Zn. Nutrients (ammonia and nitrate) and major anions (chloride and sulfate) were also measured on each sample. Multivariate statistical methods were used to sort these tracers into factors that represent potential source categories contributing to the rainfall chemistry. As, Hg, Sb, Se, Sn, and non sea-salt sulfate were all significantly correlated (R>0.6) with one factor which we interpret as an anthropogenic source term reflecting input from coal combustion throughout the southeastern US. Using ratios of total Hg to volatile elements, we estimate that 22–33% of the rainfall Hg results from coal combustion in the southeastern US with the majority coming from the global background.


This paper is concerned with the study of the T-norms and the quantum logic functions on BL-algebra, respectively, along with their association with the classical probability space. The proposed constructions depend on demonstrating each type of the T-norms with respect to the basic probability of binary operation. On the other hand, we showed each quantum logic function with respect to some binary operations in probability space, such as intersection, union, and symmetric difference. Finally, we demonstrated the main results that explain the relationships among the T-norms and quantum logic functions. In order to show those relations and their related properties, different examples were built.


The main objective of the paper is to trace the composition of the CAP support for Italian farms at the eve of the implementation of the CAP reform. The paper is based on three regional case studies, that represent as many farming specialisation typologies: Veneto, in the North-East, where agriculture is largely integrated in the economic system; Valle d'Aosta, in the North-West, a typical Alpine region; Puglia, in the South, where agriculture is based on Mediterranean products. The three regional cases are compared with the national average as a benchmark with regards to production specialisation, territorial disadvantages, entrepreneurial choices. It is evident that at the national level the composition of support is highly in favour of the support coming from the first pillar of the CAP. However, if the analysis is shifted to a regional level, the composition of support changes and, in some cases, it turns in favour of the second pillar support.


Study Design Case-control. Objectives To compare proximal lower limb muscle strength in chronic ankle instability (CAI), healthy controls and copers (individuals with one previous ankle and no ongoing problems), and investigate the relationship between proximal lower limb strength and balance. Background CAI is associated with altered lower kinetic chain biomechanics and balance. Proximal lower limb strength is essential for control of distal segments and may contribute to kinematic observations and balance deficits in this population. Methods and Measures Isometric strength of the hip and knee was measured using a securely fixated hand-held dynamometer in 22 CAI participants, 22 controls and 14 copers, matched for aged, sex, physical activity level, and leg dominance. The Star Excursion Balance Test was used to assess anterior, posterior-lateral (PL), and posterior-medial (PM) balance. Standardised Mean Differences (SMD) and Pearson's Correlation Coefficient are reported herein as point estimates of effect. Results There were large SMD (>1.2) for strength deficits of all hip and knee muscles in CAI participants compared to controls, with the exception of the hip internal and external rotators. Flexors and extensors of the hip and knee exhibited moderate deficits (SMD ~1) in participants with CAI compared to copers. Balance was impaired in CAI participants compared to healthy controls and copers in all movement directions. There was a strong positive correlation between abductor strength and PL balance (R=0.526), and moderate positive correlations between knee strength (R=0.434) and hip extensor strength (R=0.454) and PL balance. Conclusion Decreased proximal lower limb strength is present in CAI and is associated with impaired balance. Proximal lower limb strengthening could be considered when addressing balance deficits in this population.


The skin is a multi-layered organ, often displaying associated structures, that establishes a protective interface between the organism and the surrounding environment. In mammals, the skin provides a physical and immune barrier, while contributing to thermoregulation and water balance. Within cetaceans, the archetypal mammalian skin was drastically reshaped and remodeled, emerging as a striking feature of their successful adaptation to a fully aquatic lifestyle. In fact, cetacean skin is extremely thick, displays a high cellular turnover rate, and lacks typical mammalian pelages, as well as sebaceous glands, resulting in a smooth and drag-reducing skin. Curiously, at the genome level, the majority of cetacean skin-related innovations resulted from episodes of gene loss: spanning diverse processes such as skin keratinization and cornification, immunity and inflammation or lubrication. Here, we review how the cetacean skin was shaped by such an evolutionary mechanism, by describing the full set of genes with inactivating mutations in the various functional compartments of the skin.


E has pioneered and championed the cause of defense transparency, owing to the continent's turbulent history and a desire to avoid these mistakes again. Defense transparency has improved in Europe as a result of the roles played by private industry and media, as well as the consequences of conflict or collaboration between the governments on the continent. The conditions that have encouraged greater transparency in Europe are not entirely reflected in Asia, but steps are being taken to gradually improve defense transparency in the region. Policy Brief 2011-2


Interferon-gamma, a cytokine, is produced by lymphocytes when they are stimulated by cytokines from activated macrophages, and is essential for macrophage-mediated bactericidal operations. To investigate whether a strain of bacteria can activate macrophages and lymphocytes, the interferon-gamma levels may thus be measured. Current literature maintains that peritoneal dialysis patients with recurrent peritonitis have "unhealthy" macrophages and lymphocytes unable to produce interferon-gamma, but that the administration of interferon improves the rates of peritonitis. In an in vitro experiment, Staphylococcus epidermidis, in both its planktonic and biofilm forms, was added to a suspension of peritoneal dialysis effluents, macrophages, and healthy peripheral blood lymphocytes, which were incubated at 37 degrees C for 18 h and then centrifuged. Subsequent levels of interferon-gamma were measured in the supernatants. Three such experiments were done with peritoneal macrophages and dialysis effluents collected from each of the three different patients involved in the study. It was found that little or no interferon-gamma (0.42 +/- 0.17 U/mL) was produced when biofilm bacteria were tested, but significant amounts of interferon-gamma (9.25 +/- 4.63 U/mL) resulted in conjunction with the planktonic form of the same bacteria. To eliminate experimental errors, all conditions were left identical, appropriate control groups were added, and each of the three experiments was duplicated. These in vitro data therefore provide new insight in the role of biofilm in the pathogenesis of recurrent peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients. Further clinical studies are required.


This dissertation is about a complex of problems, related to the question: 'Can we ever act differently from how we in fact act?'In Part I, the meaning of 'can' and 'could' is discussed. It is argued that when we say that an agent could do something he didn't do (in a sense of 'could' involving control), this means, in what is called 'Decision-Contexts', that he was conditionally free to do it, and, in what is called 'Strong-Autonomy-Contexts', that he was categorically free to do it. That he was conditionally free to do it means, roughly, that if he had decided to do it he would have done it. That he was categorically free to do it means, roughly, that, given the fixity of everything causally relevant, he had control over whether he did it or not. Therefore, that he was categorically free to do it seems to imply that he could agent-cause it, i.e., that he could cause it in a way, not reducible to event causation. It is argued that categorical freedom is necessary for moral responsibility and strong autonomy, but not for making sense of our praxis of saying that someone ought to do so-and-so.In Part II, Peter van Inwagen's Consequence Argument for the incom-patibility of determinism and our ability to act otherwise is discussed. Dif-ferent versions of the argument are compared. It is concluded that the argu-ment is sound under a certain interpretation but unsound under some others.In Part III, it is argued that each member of a certain family of arguments (Galen Strawson's argument for the non-existence of moral responsibility, the Consequence Argument and the Mind argument) has as an implicit prem-ise that only event causation takes place, and that no one can do anything about that only event causation takes place. An argument is given, in the form of a series of thought-experiments, for the plausibility that this premise is false, and by doing so a first step in giving an argument for the existence of categorical freedom is taken.


Network security is a problem needing us to pay more attention in this information age. No matter by enterprise or by individual person, cloud computing technology is widely applied to remain network security. This paper introduces a security management model based on cloud computing technology, which can deal with mass security events according to the large data provided by cloud computing. This model not only has overcome the deficiency of low efficiency but also has gained great improvement in data processing, so it has gained guarantee in security and reliability. Through dividing the network areas safely based on clouding technology, this paper has successfully built a series of real-time warning assets risk models, which can help managers manage the network security, and analyze abnormal events and risks. This security system is constituted of several subsystems responsible for early warning management and emergency response. Cloud security management system is divided into five hierarchies from high to low: user interface, cloud service layer, data processing center, the data collection layer and network security equipment layer. Through the united management by cloud computing platform, the model also can process some security events, efficiently lowering the possibility of existing network risks. The security management system based on cloud computing technology successfully improve the existing management system, expand its functions and promote the enterprise computer management


that any valves present would not interfere with blood flow. At each end of the graft an end-to-end anastomosis was performed; 6/0 black silk on atraumatic curved needles was used for this procedure. The Carrel type of technique was used-intima-to-intima apposition with three equidistant stay sutures being the first step in each anastomosis. Two interrupted sutures were then placed in each interval between the stay sutures. Thus each anastomosis was made with a single layer of nine interrupted sutures. No anticoagulants were used. On removal of the pneumatic cuff from the arm, the graft filled and commenced to pulsate. There was some leakage of blood at each anastomosis, but this stopped completely in about three minutes. It was then noticed that there was a good radial pulse at the wrist and that the hand was pink and warm. Nerve and muscle repair was then performed and the skin wound was partially closed. This closure was completed as a secondary procedure eight days later.


The Mayor of Jayapura City is leading the city to be religious, advanced, modern, prosperous, and uphold local wisdom. As the capital of Papua Province, this city faces a prolonged problem of inequality from within the city, with the province of West Papua, and neighboring Papua New Guinea. The paper questions how Jayapura City, as the capital of Papua Province manages inequalities and drive the economic sector forward based on the Organizational Conflict Model of Pondy (1967). Results of indepth interview and secondary data research were analyzed based on qualitative analysis. Inequalities have hit indigenous Papuans the hardest. They are also facing the pressure of higher skilled settlers from other parts of Indonesia and encroachment from the indigenous mountain Papuans. Based on the model, we have found that the Mayor has been responsive to mitigate potential conflicts. The bureaucracy is supported by the military, police, community leaders, and academics. We argue that representative bureaucracy taking into account customary law and indigenous beliefs will reduce tension in the society and receive support in program implementation of the city.


This literature study aims to look more closely what if the Tarot cards are used as an assessment tool in transpersonal psychology. In this case, the Tarot cards used are Mantegna Tarocchi - E-series made in Italy in the year 1465. The study of literature discusses the origins of Tarot more comprehensively to do with the Transpersonal Psychology approach, where Transpersonal Psychology approach is basically see humans based body, mind / mental, soul and spirit. This literature study using historical studies, psychology, and philosophy in particular hermeneutic philosophy. Results of the study of literature shows that it is possible if the Tarot is used in the assessment of psychological, especially with the approach of Transpersonal Psychology as T arot load relationship or the principle of synchronicity between someone with a row of Tarot cards.


Investigations into the use of gold nanorods (Au-NRs) for biological applications are growing exponentially due to their distinctive physicochemical properties, which make them advantageous over other nanomaterials. Au-NRs are particularly renowned for their plasmonic characteristics, which generate a robust photothermal response when stimulated with light at a wavelength matching their surface plasmon resonance. Numerous reports have explored this nanophotonic phenomenon for temperature driven therapies; however, to date there is a significant knowledge gap pertaining to the kinetic heating profile of Au-NRs within a controlled physiological setting. In the present study, the impact of environmental composition on Au-NR behavior and degree of laser actuated thermal production was assessed. Through acellular evaluation, we identified a loss of photothermal efficiency in biologically relevant fluids and linked this response to excessive particle aggregation and an altered Au-NR spectral profile. Furthermore, to evaluate the potential impact of solution composition on the efficacy of nano-based biological applications, the degree of targeted cellular destruction was ascertained in vitro and was found to be susceptible to fluid-dependent modifications. In summary, this study identified a diminution of Au-NR nanophotonic response in artificial physiological fluids that translated to a loss of application efficiency, pinpointing a critical concern that must be considered to advance in vivo, nano-based bio-applications.


Purpose: Recently, antioxidants have taken centre stage in media and advertising messages. While 80% of Canadians think they are well-informed about nutrition, many are confused about the health effects of specific nutrients. Forty-six percent of Canadians seek information from newspapers and books, and 67% of women rely on magazines. We examined the content and accuracy of antioxidant health messages in Canadian women's magazines. Methods: The top three Canadian magazines targeted at women readers were selected. A screening tool was developed, pilot tested, and used to identify eligible articles. A coding scheme was created to define variables, which were coded and analyzed. Results: Seventy-seven percent of 36 magazine issues contained articles that mentioned antioxidants (n=56). Seventyone percent (n=40) of articles reported positive health effects related to antioxidant consumption, and 36% and 40% of those articles framed those effects as definite and potential, respectively (p<0.01). Conclusions: Th...


BACKGROUND
The incidence of arterial hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases has undergone an increase in Spain during recent years, particularly in rural areas, as a consequence of progressive population aging. A study is made of drug prescriptions associated with non-complicated arterial hypertension in a rural setting.

METHODS
Field work was initiated in four rural municipalities of Castellon province on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, with highly aged populations. Out of a total population of 1064, 60% made use of the area health care services in the course of year. Of these, 11% had at one time or other suffered one or more episodes of non-complicated arterial hypertension.

RESULTS
The drugs most commonly prescribed were calcium antagonists, angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, and diuretics, although differences in order of importance were seen depending on patients age. The cost of the active components prescribed were below the average of those commercialized within each therapeutic group.

CONCLUSIONS
To conclude, interactions were detected with other drugs used by the patients while on hypotensives. The most relevant in this sense were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents; consumption of these drug was very high, in part also due to the high incidence of osteomuscular complaints among the geriatric population of the zone.


GalVR is a navigation interface that uses galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) during walking to cause users to turn from their planned trajectory. We explore GalVR for collaborative navigation in a two-player virtual reality (VR) game. The interface affords a novel game design that exploits the differences in first and third person perspectives, allowing VR and non-VR users to share a play experience. By introducing interdependence arising from dissimilar points of view, players can uniquely contribute to the shared experience based on their roles. We detail the design of our asymmetrical game, Dark Room and present some insights from a pilot study. Trust emerged as the defining factor for successful play.


Honourable Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms and
 Chancellor PIDE, Past Presidents and Distinguished Members of the
 Society, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure to
 welcome you all to the 29th Annual General Meeting and Conference of the
 Pakistan Society of Development Economists. On behalf of the members of
 the PSDE, I would like to thank you, Honourable Prof. Ahsan Iqbal for
 having spared your precious time to open this important meeting. I would
 also like to especially thank our members and guests who have come from
 different parts of the country and from different continents to
 participate in the Conference. We are extremely pleased to see here
 today many young students— Pakistan's future economists and business
 leaders—who I am sure are enthusiastic to learn from the many leading
 specialists attending this Conference on the critical issue of 'Energy'
 that we in Pakistan face today. Let me join Dr Durr-e-Nayab in
 especially welcoming Dr Ilhan Ozturk, Professor at the Cag Universitesi
 in Turkey who will be delivering the The Mahbub Ul Haq Memorial Lecture.
 Dr Prof. Zhaoguang Hu, Vice-President and Chief Energy Specialist at the
 State Grid Energy Research Institute in Beijing who will deliver Gustav
 Ranis Lecture. Professor Mohan Munasinghe, Chairman of the Munasinghe
 Institute of Development, Sri Lanka who will be delivering The Allama
 Iqbal Lecture and Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri, Chief Executive of the Energy
 and Resources Institute, New Dehli who will deliver The Quaid-i-Azam
 Lecture this year


25 sets of GAC-20 modified asphalt mixture were designed by means of orthogonal design method. The bending and low temperature creep tests of the GAC-20 were carried out. The related models of the fractal dimension and the road performance evaluation index including low temperature bending failure strain εB and bending strength RB are established by using fractal theory. The model can be used to predict the low temperature performance of GAC-20 modified asphalt mixture according to the design gradation, which can reduce the test workload and improve the working efficiency, so as to provide the reference for engineering design.


Constructed wetlands have come into widespread use as water quality control systems in urban areas. However Published research into their water quality improvement performance has, been sporadic and often contradictory. In order to address this situation, a cooperative study was initiated in 2009 by Wollongong City Council and the University of Wollongong to investigate the pollutant reduction performance of an existing water quality control pond. The pond was monitored for a period between 2009 and 2010 and a unique method for estimating constructed wetland performance was developed to address limitations found in other studies. This method incorporated automated sampling, high temporal resolution monitoring and standard least squares procedures to fit multivariate statistical models to estimate the pollutant reduction performance. The monitoring results were used to calibrate and validate a model which is able to quantitatively assess uncertainty. Results from this study suggest the method applied could be used as a standard method for estimating the pollutant reduction performance of other similar water quality improvement systems.


Full-scale tests have been conducted for enhanced coagulation in stabilized surface waters with low turbidity, high organic content and low temperature by PAC coagulation combined with composite permanganate (CP) pretreatment, KMnO 4 preoxidation and prechlorination processes. The values of turbidity, COD, bacteria, coliform, TMn, chloroform and chloroform potential by different processes were observed. Test results show that CP pretreatment enhanced coagulation is superior to prechlorination and KMnO 4 preoxidation. This pretreatment process has the capability to reduce the above parameter values sharply with less coagulant compared to prechlorination. CP pretreatment will not increase chloroform in water and can effectively remove chloroform potential. The manganese dioxide produced during permanganate preoxidation also enhanced coagulation, which has special adsorption and oxidation for the organic matter, and at the same time it acts as catalyst to accelerate the reaction between the KMnO 4 and organics in water. CP enhanced coagulation is a cost-effective and most efficient pretreatment process.


The electronic structures and magnetic properties of Fe-Pt systems were calculated by CASTEP codes, which employed density functional theory, generalized gradient approximation (GGA), Perdew Burke Ernzerh exchange correlation, Pulay density-mixing scheme and Ultra Soft pseudo potential. The band structures and density of states (DOS) were calculated, together with band populations and magnetic properties. The calculated results of α-Fe show the validatiy of this method in predication magnetic properties. It is found that as the Pt concentration increases, Fe 4s and 3d electrons decrease while 4p electrons increase, and the magnetic moment of Fe atom increases. Pt atoms also contribute to the magnetic moment due to polarization. The calculated magnetization agrees with experimental values quite well.


SUMMARY Gametophytes of Todea barbara grown in vitro have two types of starch-containing plastids. The first type are chloroplasts having well-developed grana regions connected by intervening membranes and little deposition of starch. The other type are amyloplasts usually containing abundant starch deposits and stacks of membranes which resemble the grana of the chloroplast but are not connected. Even when little starch is present, the latter type has very few internal membranes. Membrane spacing and gross organization of the mature plastid of both types suggests similar morphological development. However, when and where in this development known physiological differences arise is not yet known.


The VirB protein, encoded by the large virulence plasmid of Shigella spp., is a key transcriptional regulator of virulence genes. Without a functional virB gene, Shigella cells are avirulent. On the virulence plasmid, VirB functions to offset transcriptional silencing mediated by the nucleoid structuring protein, H-NS, which binds and sequesters AT-rich DNA, making it inaccessible for gene expression. Thus, gaining a mechanistic understanding of how VirB counters H-NS-mediated silencing is of considerable interest. VirB is unusual in that it does not resemble classic transcription factors. Instead, its closest relatives are found in the ParB superfamily, where the best-characterized members function in faithful DNA segregation before cell division. Here, we show that VirB is a fast-evolving member of this superfamily and report for the first time that the VirB protein binds a highly unusual ligand, CTP. VirB binds this nucleoside triphosphate preferentially and with specificity. Based on alignments with the best-characterized members of the ParB family, we identify amino acids of VirB likely to bind CTP. Substitutions in these residues disrupt several well-documented activities of VirB, including its anti-silencing activity at a VirB-dependent promoter, its role in generating a Congo red positive phenotype in Shigella, and the ability of the VirB protein to form foci in the bacterial cytoplasm when fused to GFP. Thus, this work is the first to show that VirB is a bona fide CTP-binding protein and links Shigella virulence phenotypes to the nucleoside triphosphate, CTP. Importance Shigella species cause bacillary dysentery (shigellosis), the second leading cause of diarrheal deaths worldwide. With growing antibiotic resistance, there is a pressing need to identify novel molecular drug targets. Shigella virulence phenotypes are controlled by the transcriptional regulator, VirB. We show that VirB belongs to a fast-evolving, primarily plasmid-borne clade of the ParB superfamily, which has diverged from versions that have a distinct cellular role – DNA partitioning. We are the first to report that, like classic members of the ParB family, VirB binds a highly unusual ligand, CTP. Mutants predicted to be defective in CTP binding are compromised in a variety of virulence attributes controlled by VirB. This study i) reveals that VirB binds CTP, ii) provides a link between VirB-CTP interactions and Shigella virulence phenotypes, and iii) broadens our understanding of the ParB superfamily, a group of bacterial proteins that play critical roles in many different bacteria.


Exposure of metals and alloys to high temperatures leads to the formation of oxide scales, with a large impact on surface quality. The most important features of the oxide layer are its thickness, composition, structure, adherence and coherence. Temperature, time, gas atmosphere and chemical composition determine the growth of oxide layers. In this paper, the characteristics of the high temperature oxidation properties of Fe-Si alloys are discussed in terms of oxide growth mechanism, kinetics and phase morphology. The oxidation kinetics of different Fe-Si alloy steels in air, its scale structure and composition were investigated over the temperature range 900-1250°C. Oxidation experiments were performed in air, to analyse the oxidation process. Experiments were carried out in an electric furnace at temperatures ranging from 900 to 1250°C, for times between 16 and 7200s. Thus treated specimens were characterised by metallography and their scale thickness was measured by optical microscopy. Scale morphology was studied and scale composition confirmed by EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy) and EBSD (Electron Backscattered Diffraction) analysis. Results show that high temperature oxidation of Si- alloys presents the classic three layered oxide scale. On the grain boundaries in the scale, iron-silicate was found. Observations show a Sienrichment at the scale –metal interface. This enrichment is present in the form a mixed wustite-iron silicate (fayalite) phase, FeO-Fe2SiO4. A very rapid build-up of oxide occurs when a liquid phase, due to the wustite-fayalite eutectic, is present in the surface of the steel.


Several studies have investigated the importance of different orientational cues that pre-migratory, naïve bird migrants might use to develop their appropriate migratory orientation. We tested the hypothesis that, without any interplay with the magnetic compass in the pre-migratory period, celestial rotation alone cannot lead to any migratory orientation that differs significantly from due south, i.e. celestial rotation is used as a reference only and it is set by the geomagnetic compass to the species-specific migration direction. In the present study, juvenile whitethroats, Sylvia communis, trapped in the field soon after fledging, developed appropriate migratory orientation when held in outdoor cages in full view of celestial cues, but in a strong, heterogeneous magnetic field without any meaningful, magnetic directional information and tested in a strong and approximately vertical magnetic field. The migratory orientation of these birds did not differ from that of birds held in an undisturbed magnetic field, and both differed significantly from south. Thus, the birds established a deviation from south (away from celestial rotation) in the absence of meaningful magnetic information in the pre-migratory phase. This indicates that magnetic information is not necessary for establishing the appropriate migratory direction when natural celestial cues are available in the pre-migratory period.


Commercially there is a growing interest in applications of neutrons. Currently the majority of neutron sources are based at research institutions from either reactors or spallation sources. Smaller portable sources contain either fis-sile isotope or sealed fusors are available, although they either use or produce tritium, or other long lived decay products. As an alternative to the large facilities and the radio-toxicology of current portable sources research is being performed with an aim to produce a fusion based neutron source with neither of these concerns. We show that MCNPX is able to accurately reproduce ( p, n ) reactions for a number of light elements. Simulations of low energy proton reactions with light nuclei simulated with MCNPX and Geant4 are compared with experiment.


This study aimed to determine Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) presence by conventional serotyping and SE-specific real-time PCR (SE-rPCR) in poultry-derived food and avian isolates in our laboratory Salmonella spp. collection. Conventional serotyping indicated that 32 (8 chicken meat, 10 egg, 14 avian) out of 56 (57%) isolates were SE, whereas 8 (3 chicken meat, 2 turkey meat, 3 avian) (14%) isolates were serogroup B, 6 (1 chicken meat, 1 egg, 4 avian) (11%) were serogroup C1, 4 (3 chicken meat, 1 turkey meat) (7%) were serogroup C2-C3, 4 (3 chicken meat, 1 turkey meat) (7%) were serogroup E4, and 2 (avian) (4%) isolates were categorized as nonserogrouped/nonserotyped. Thirty-three (8/18 chicken meat, 10/11 egg, 15/23 avian) out of 56 (59%) Salmonella isolates were positive by SE-rPCR. SE was determined as the most prevalent serotype in both of the tests regardless of the sample type. Conventional serotyping and SE-rPCR results were in agreement in all but 1 isolate. Considerably high relative accuracy (98%), sensitivity (100%), and specificity (96%) with almost perfect agreement between the two methods (Cohen's kappa = 0.96) indicated SE-rPCR as a reliable tool in the rapid identification of SE isolates to complement conventional serotyping.


Photograph of firefighters trying to extinguish a long, light-colored brick building with large front windows that is on fire. Three firefighters are crouched on the left, spraying water into the far left window, three are standing inside the building, spraying water into center window of the building, while four more firefighters spray two hoses at the building. Three firefighters on the right are also spraying the fire and the others are standing around on the right. There is a sign on top of the building, but it's obscured by a black, cloudy stain in the top right corner of the photo.On the back of the photograph are two labels (one partially torn off), two stamps, and handwritten notes giving information about the photo


XML has replaced traditional EDI standards in the field of business document standardization. Despite of the syntax, the principal approach to develop business document standards has not changed. A standardized business document is built by a superset of all elements that may appear in any business context, leading to overloaded and complex standards. However, in a particular partnership only a small percentage of the elements is used. This results in a top-down approach starting from a generic document and specifying partner-specific subsets. Such an approach is too costly for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), because agreements on subsets must be implemented in their software systems. As an alternative we suggest a bottom-up solution that starts from a core set of elements, representing the intersection of all industry contexts. Thereby, the core set may be extended to incorporate the needs of a specific business context. In this paper we examine different mechanisms provided by XML Schema to realize such an extension. The applicability of the different mechanisms is evaluated by means of the Austrian e-Invoicing standard ebInterface, which we co-authored.


This report presents the results of wind-tunnel tests made on three model wings having different sizes of ordinary ailerons rigged up 10 degrees when neutral, the same models having previously been tested with the ailerons rigged even with the wings in the usual manner. One of the wings had ailerons of medium size, 25 per cent of the wing chord by 40 per cent of the semispan, one had long, narrow ailerons, and one had short, wide ones. These tests are part of a general investigation on lateral control devices, with particular reference to the control at high angles of attack, in which all the devices are being subjected to the same series of tests in the 7 by 10 foot wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Force tests of the usual type, free-autorotation tests, and forced-rotation tests were made showing the effect of the ailerons on the general performance of the wing, on the lateral controllability, and on the lateral stability.


Traditionally, the law has largely 'understood' and regulated prostitution on the basis of some form of moral reflection on the sale of sex. Such a reflection is evident in recent policy efforts to criminalise the sale and/or purchase of sex, as outlined in inter alia the so-called 'Honeyball Report'. The report suggests that prostitution is a violation of human dignity, which leads to a call to action to criminalise the purchase of sex. This study engages with this proposition, and poses the question: 'Does prostitution violate human dignity?
There are three core themes of dignity identified across the literature, in human rights theory and in international human rights law, as well as in Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), grounded in an understanding that human dignity is inherent and inalienable in all persons. As the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and its associated international conventions recognize, this concept of inherent human dignity is the bedrock upon which human rights are founded. Modern conceptualisations of human dignity constructed by US scholars are appraised and three key descriptive elements of dignity; Inherence, Personal Inviolability and Autonomy are drawn together to form a model, called 'IPA' dignity. Thereafter, the idea of dignity violation is explored and examined using the jurisprudence of Article 3 ECHR to demonstrate judicial recognition of the idea of violation. This 'violation' of dignity as expounded examines various ways in which dignity may be violated. The model is critiqued, and it is established that in order to answer the hypothesis question, a descriptive model of dignity requires some normative framework in order that it be utilised to assess the dignity violation of sex workers in prostitution. The model is considered in a normative usage, according to the natural law theory of John Finnis in Natural Law and Natural Rights, in which Finnis sets out a normative call to action for the promotion of certain objective goods, the collective of which amounts to a life 'worth pursuing'.
To provide a sociological context for the study, the subject of prostitution is introduced as it is understood in the academic discipline of sociology, and relevant literature therein is reviewed around the central issue of what is termed here 'the prostitution encounter'; that is, the sale/purchase of sexual services. A sociological explanatory model called the Gender and Male Violence Model (GMV) is justified as most appropriate for the study. Narratives taken from the seminal literature in the sociology of prostitution are analysed using a phenomenological method to consider the experiences of the sex worker of the prostitution encounter, and an evaluation is made as to potential modes of dignity violation within the prostitution encounter. This leads to an indication that the human dignity, modelled as IPA dignity and framed with the normative call to action of Finnis which directs that human agents should promote human flourishing and, a fortiori dignity, may be violated. Using these methods, the study concludes by indicating that prostitution may indeed violate human dignity.


Is "the writer's audience always a fiction," as Walter Ong contends, even when the writing is not poetry or fiction but scientific prose? To demonstrate the usefulness of Ong's approach to audience for analysts of nonfiction prose and for those who wish to empower student writers, we consider from a reader-response perspective two scientific articles on the same general topic written for the same discourse community in the same year. The authors of the two essays (prestigious scientists) directed their readers into two radically different roles. One makes his readers not only into "conventional" scientists but into willing novices who take note of his presentation but who do not take issue with it; the other creates disciplinary nonconformists, inquistive skeptics who have the perspectives necessary to understand the limits of scientific thought. The analysis elaborates the rhetorical nature of scientific discourse, demonstrates that even within the constraints of the journal article scientists have considerable freedom to exercise choices, and explicates how writers use cues to direct readers into fictional roles.


BACKGROUND
Despite much research to develop life-saving innovations for the agriculture, forestry, and fishing workforce, these populations continue to face the highest fatal and non-fatal injury rates in the United States, as many of these solutions are not fully adopted.

METHODS
A scoping review was conducted to provide an overview of research to practice efforts in this field. The language used to describe these initiatives, the utility of the NIH T0-T4 model, and the progress along the research to practice continuum were examined.

RESULTS
Fourteen eligible references demonstrated that progress in implementation science is lacking and that there is little consistency in how researchers apply the T0-T4 model; thus, a new model is presented.

CONCLUSIONS
Researchers in this field face several challenges when moving from research to practice. While some challenges are addressed with the proposed model, additional resources and infrastructure to support such initiatives are necessary.


Along with the popularity of mobile devices and advances in wireless technology, mobile services have become more and more prevalent. To the best of knowledge, despite the potential importance of lifestyle, little research has been performed on the effect of various lifestyle factors on mobile services diffusion, particularly in the Chinese context. This study examines the relationship between the lifestyles of Chinese consumers and the adoption of mobile services. Based on a sample of 313 respondents from the biggest city in central China, one can show that consumers with different lifestyles have different preferences related to a number of the identified mobile services. Furthermore, Chinese consumers are clustered into four lifestyle segments by two dimensions: the quality-awareness fashionable dimension and the economical dimension. The findings demonstrate that the quality-awareness fashionable dimension has stronger impact than the economical dimension toward the adoption of all the five types of mobile services.


This paper describes the history of the community in El Mezquital, from the land invasion in the mid 1980s, through its consolidation and growth, until the present, drawing principally on interviews with the inhabitants and staff from supporting agencies. It analyzes the development of the different, and sometimes conflicting, community organizations and compares their different mandates and objectives. It shows important processes of community empowerment, the changing role of women and community self-help initiatives. It also describes how, in much of the settlement, basic infrastructure and services were in place and of good quality. However, it also highlights the lack of employment opportunities, how many people still live in overcrowded conditions, and the problems of violence, drug addiction and street children. It also highlights the inadequacies on the part of government agencies - including their incapacity to respond to the needs of the community, their under-estimation of community capacity and the attempts at political manipulation.


In recent years, several automatic segmentation methods have been proposed for blood vessels in retinal fundus images, ranging from using cheap and fast trainable filters to complicated neural networks and even deep learning. One example of a filted-based segmentation method is B-COSFIRE. In this approach the image filter is trained with example prototype patterns, to which the filter becomes selective by finding points in a Difference of Gaussian response on circles around the center with large intensity variation. In this paper we discuss and evaluate several of these vessel segmentation methods. We take a closer look at B-COSFIRE and study the performance of B-COSFIRE on the recently published IOSTAR dataset by experiments and we examine how the parameter values affect the performance. In the experiment we manage to reach a segmentation accuracy of 0.9419. Based on our findings we discuss when B-COSFIRE is the preferred method to use and in which circumstances it could be beneficial to use a more (computationally) complex segmentation method. We also shortly discuss areas beyond blood vessel segmentation where these methods can be used to segment elongated structures, such as rivers in satellite images or nerves of a leaf.


This paper describes the Thinking-Talking Head; an interdisciplinary project that sits between and draws upon engineering/computer science and behavioural/cognitive science; research and performance; implementation and evaluation. The project involves collaboration between computer scientists, engineers, language technologists and cognitive scientists, and its aim is twofold (a) to create a 3-D computer animation of a human head that will interact in real time with human agents, and (b) to serve as a research platform to drive research in the contributing disciplines, and in talking head research in general. The thinkingtalking head will emulate elements of face-to-face conversation through speech (including intonation), gaze and gesture. So it must have an active sensorium that accurately reflects the properties of its immediate environment, and must be able to generate appropriate communicative signals to feedback to the interlocutor. Here we describe the current implementation and outline how we are tackling issues concerning both the outputs (synthetic voice, visual speech, facial expressiveness and naturalness) from and inputs (auditory-visual speech recognition, emotion recognition, auditory-visual speaker localization) to the head. We describe how these head functions will be tuned and evaluated using various paradigms, including an imitation paradigm.


Loss of E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell contacts can elicit a signaling pathway that leads to acquisition of an invasive phenotype. Here, we show that at the receiving end of this pathway is the proto-oncogene c-Jun, a member of the activator protein-1 family of transcription factors that play a key role in stimulation of cell proliferation and tumor promotion. Cell separation or abrogation of E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell contacts both cause a dramatic increase in accumulation of the c-Jun protein. Unlike growth factors that enhance the expression of c-Jun by activating the transcription of the c-jun gene, the cell contact-dependent increase in c-Jun accumulation is not accompanied by a corresponding increase in c-Jun mRNA or c-Jun protein stability but rather in the translatability of the c-Jun transcript. Consistently, the increase in c-Jun accumulation is not dependent on activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase or beta-catenin pathways but is mediated by signals triggered by the restructured cytoskeleton. Depolymerization of the cytoskeleton can mimic the effect of cell separation and cause a dramatic increase in c-Jun accumulation, whereas Taxol inhibits the cell contact-dependent increase. This novel mechanism of c-Jun regulation seems to underlie the robust overexpression of c-Jun in tumor cells of patients with colon carcinoma.


A dioxovanadium(V) complex of vitamin-B6 Schiff base VO2L] (1) (where H2L center dot HCl is 3-hydroxy-5-(hydroxymethyl)-4-(2-hydroxyphenypimino)methyl)-2-methylpyri din-l-ium chloride) has been prepared and structurally characterized. Its photo-induced cytotoxicity and mechanism of cell death has been studied. Single crystal X-ray structure shows five-coordinate square-pyramidal geometry of the complex having the dianionic O,N,O-donor tridentate vitamin-B6 Schiff base and two cis-oriented oxo ligands bound to V(V). DFT study shows the HOMO located on the amino-phenolic moiety, while the LUMO is on the protonated aromatic unit, i.e., the pyridiniumphenolate moiety. Vitamin-B6 transporting membrane carrier (VTC) pathway seems to be responsible for the higher cellular uptake and activity of the complex into the cervical HeLa and breast cancer MCF-7 cells in preference to the normal embryonic fibroblast 3T3 cells. The complex exhibits reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated apoptotic photocytotoxicity in visible light of 400-700 nm in the cancer cells (IC50: similar to 16 mu M), while being essentially non-toxic in the dark. Alkaline Comet assay shows damage of the nuclear DNA.


A new beta-lactam antibiotic, named thienamycin, was discovered in culture broths of Streptomyces MA4297. The producing organism, subsequently determined to be a hitherto unrecognized species, is designated Streptomyces cattleya (NRRL 8057). The antibiotic was isolated by adsorption on Dowex 50, passage through Dowex 1, further chromatography on Dowex 50 and Bio-Gel P2, and final purification and desalting on XAD-2. Thienamycin is zwitterionic, has the elemental composition C11H16N2O4S (M.W. = 272.18) and possesses a distinctive UV absorption (lambda max = 297 nm, epsilon = 7,900). Its beta-lactam is unusually sensitive to hydrolysis above pH8 and to reaction with nucleophiles such as hydroxylamine, cysteine and, to a lesser degree, the primary amine of the antibiotic itself. The latter reaction results in accelerated inactivation at high antibiotic concentrations.


Most macroeconomic forecasters underestimated global investment during the late 1990s. One potential reason was that the models they were using were insufficiently disaggregated. In this paper, an empirical model is estimated whose out-of-sample forecasts largely predicted the global investment boom of the late 1990s. The main factor behind the improved model performance is the distinction between investment in ICT assets and investment in other assets, using disaggregated investment data provided by the OECD. In line with previous studies on US and UK investment performance, ICT investment is estimated to be much more responsive to changes in the real user cost of capital. In particular, panel and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) estimates suggest very strong relative price effects on ICT investment for all G7 countries and Australia. The data also allow an examination of the effects of possible deflator mismeasurement; but within our framework, the measurement of investment using harmonised, rather than national, deflators is not found to have a material impact on forecasting performance.


This paper investigates the role of external balance sheet variables as determinants of currency crises in emerging market (EME) and advanced economies. A random effect probit model is used in a panel of 40 countries with monthly data over the January 1980-December 2004 period. The main results of the paper are as follows. First, size and, particularly, the composition of a country's external balance sheet are found to play an important role in the onset of crises. Second, EMEs seem to be more sensitive to external balance sheet variables than developed countries, and so too do economies with fixed or quasi-fixed exchange rate regimes. Third, further support is provided to standard theoretical explanations of currency crises. The likelihood of a crisis is found to increase with: the extent to which the real exchange rate rises above its trend; faster growth in broad money (relative to the level of international reserves); larger current account and budget balance deficits; lower GDP growth; and, if a neighbouring country already has a crisis. Economic fundamentals are also found to be a more important explanation of the onset of currency crises during the 1980s than during the 1990s, suggesting that more recent crises are less "fundamentally" driven.


Postpneumonectomy pulmonary oedema (PPO) develops in approximately 5% of patients undergoing pneumonectomy or lobectomy, and has a high associated mortality (>50%). In its extreme form, PPO follows a clinical and histopathological course indistinguishable from acute respiratory distress syndrome. Perioperative fluid overload, impaired lymphatic drainage following node dissection and trauma caused by surgical manipulation have been implicated in the pathogenesis of PPO. However, PPO more probably represents the pulmonary manifestation of a panendothelial injury consequent upon inflammatory processes induced by the surgical procedure, which involves collapse and re-expansion of the operative lung to permit hilar dissection and pulmonary resection. High inspired oxygen concentrations are required to overcome the effects of shunt. Animal studies have shown that pulmonary ischaemia/reperfusion can result in oedema formation, possibly due to the generation of pro-oxidant forces. Moreover, plasma taken from patients undergoing lobectomy or pneumonectomy (but not lesser resections) shows evidence of oxidative damage. Such evidence suggests either that the high inspired oxygen concentrations associated with one-lung ventilation, or ischaemia/reperfusion injury, may modulate post-pneumonectomy pulmonary oedema. Mechanisms by which redox imbalance may result in tissue damage and postpneumonectomy pulmonary oedema are discussed.


Circadian variations in serum triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), free triiodothyronine (fT3), and free thyroxine (fT4) levels were investigated in Iranian ewes. For that purpose, blood samples were collected from the jugular veins of 15 adult clinically healthy Iranian nonpregnant uniparous ewes every 6 h (0600, 1200, 1800, and 0000) during 6 days in summer with a mean ambient temperature of 40 °C. Serum T3, T4, fT3, and fT4 were measured by radioimmunoassay. There were statistically significant differences in thyroid hormone concentrations (T3, T4, fT3, and fT4) at different hours of the day. The results revealed that serum T3, T4, fT3, and fT4 levels were highest at 1800 (P < 0.05). Significant 24 h periodicity in the serum levels of T3, T4, fT4 and fT3 was observed in nonpregnant uniparous Iranian ewes. It is concluded that circadian rhythm was observed in serum thyroid hormones.


This inquiry into the monophonic Benedicamus explores: 1) the performance practice of the chant; 2) a thirteenth-century collection of twenty-six melodies for the Benedicamus; 3) the liturgical placement of the versicle; and 4) the dissemination of certain Benedicamus melodies. The article advances the thesis that the performance practice of the Benedicamus accounts on the one hand for its prestige in the liturgy and on the other hand for the fact that the monophonic Benedicamus built on preexisting material could be improvised without the aid of notated sources. It argues that certain melodies for the Benedicamus were more widely disseminated than has previously been supposed, and that these chants are interconnected with other musical forms: responsory tropes and polyphonic responsories, alleluias, and motets. The melodies examined represent both the end of the early era of monophonic Benedicamus, a tradition which was often unnotated, and the beginning of a later practice of writing out the collections of the chant.


The interference with agriculture has been recognised as the main cause for the current conflict between farmers and wild elephants in Sri Lanka, as elsewhere in the Asian elephant range. Thus compensating farmers for the damages caused by elephants is essential, if this endangered species is to survive in the long run. This paper explores the practicality of establishing an improved publicly funded insurance/compensation scheme to recompense farmers for the elephant damages. It does so by analysing results from two contingent valuation surveys undertaken in Sri Lanka. We find that possible public support of farmers plus urban dwellers significantly exceeds the financial requirement of the insurance scheme proposed in this study for perpetuity. The article also shows that it is often inappropriate from an economic viewpoint to analyse crop insurance as if it only involves the insurance of a private good because important positive externalities can arise from 'crop' damages by wildlife, e.g. elephants. The use of agricultural land by some species is essential for their long-term survival and this is often positively valued by the community as a whole


The dynamics of seasonal hypoxia, which affects the Black Sea north-western shelf since the mid 1970's until present days, is investigated by means of a 3D biogeochemical model. Comparison of the model results with in -situ data reveals that the phenomenon may have been underestimated after the mid 1990's due to the distribution of observations. We investigate the mechanism of hypoxia at seasonal scale, and identify the main drivers of its interannual variability. While high nutrients discharge caused severe hypoxia in the 1980's, it was sustained in the 1990's by the pool of organic matter accumulated during the previous years in the sediments layer. With an increasing intensity, climatic stressors intensifies the response of hypoxia to nutrient discharge, and affect the seasonal dynamics of hypoxia by extending its temporal scale.


ABSTRACT: This study is concerned with the uptake of tolerance as a response to the contemporary problems of managing diversity and developing cohesion in western societies.
Drawing upon recent work that has attempted to critically theorise its contemporary uses and reveal its paradoxical operations, political agendas and civilising tendencies, this study moves to question how tolerance takes place on the ground. More specifically, it examines the relationship between tolerance and everyday encounter to consider how it is embodied, produced, and sometimes compromised by the intimacies of everyday practice. Whilst state mobilisations and discourses of tolerance clearly inflect its practice, the study argues that current debates offer only a partial account of the politics of tolerance and its affectual geographies, which are shaped by additional constituents of agency. As a way into its everyday politics, the study focuses on three in particular – geographies of place, ways of thinking (including habit, memory and familiarity) and materialities – across three different spaces of encounter in Birmingham, UK.

The first site focuses upon a public bus service, which presents a challenging arena for throwntogetherness and a space of intense materiality and unusual intimacy, where movement is constrained and differences are negotiated on the smallest of scales. The second focuses upon a multicultural primary school, which is positioned as a key site for the pedagogical promotion of tolerance, to question how parents negotiate difference and their parental responsibilities through an account of habit and familiarity. The final chapter turns to a conflict management workshop, where encounters with difference are carefully engineered in an attempt to develop more tolerant individuals through a series of exercises designed to cultivate techniques of thought. Taken together, these three sites develop an account of tolerance that is more plural, unpredictable and in many cases more optimistic than prevalent debates would suggest and demonstrate how, as a response to difference, tolerance might work as part of a wider telos of social change and ethical praxis.


Objectives: To know the clinical profile of the students affected due to food poisoning, the possible source of infection and the causative agent for food poisoning. Background: Food-borne diseases due to microbial contamination of food, represent serious threat to the health of millions of people henceforth, we investigated into the outbreak of food poisoning in a nursing hostel of urban Mysore. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study was conducted using semi-structured questionnaire to gather information on regarding time and type of food item consumed, onset of symptoms, presenting symptoms, medical care provided and time taken for recovery. A case for the outbreak was defined as any person who had consumed lunch on 9/12/12 from the implicated kitchen and had experienced vomiting or diarrhea or pain abdomen or all the three symptoms within 24 hours of eating lunch. Results: Out of 171 inmates,46 people suffered from food poisoning within a period of 3 days,thus leading to the attack rate of 26.9%.Commonest symptom reported among the students was pain abdomen (26.9%) followed by diarrhea. Highest risk of food poisoning was associated with consumption of Kerala matta rice This association was statistically significant with relative risk of 31.49 (95% CI 10.82-95.6). Samples of 'Kerala matta rice was subjected to bacteriological analysis, which showed colonies of coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus . Conclusions: In the present outbreak, the results of investigation revealed that 'Kerala matta rice' was the food item responsible for occurrence of food poisoning due to Staphylococcus . Environmental factors that could have played an important role in bacterial proliferation and enterotoxin production are manual handling of cooked rice by the food handlers and storage of the rice at room temperature for a long duration between time of preparation and consumption.


The Middle Jurassic brachiopods from the Vivarais-Cevennes (western margin of the French South-East Basin) have been palaeontologically studied on the basis of carefully levelled material collected in numerous profiles and well situated within the Ammonite zones succession. The vertical distribution of the species has been precised. The deduced biostratigraphy confirms and improves our knowledges about the brachiopod zonation of the French Middle Jurassic. The range of the Middle Bathonian brachiopod zones has been checked and modified in order to take in account the chart newly proposed for the ammonites (including the Bremeri Zone), and of its implications for the regional biostratigraphy. The interval zone, previously correlated only with the Progracilis Zone, must be extended upward into the Subcontractus and Morrisi Zones. The Antiptychina bivallata brachiopod Zone must be correlated with the Bremeri ammonite Zone. At last, the fluctuations of the brachiopod communities are positioned within the geodynamic evolution of the Vivarais-Cevennes margin during an episode of strong tectonic decoupling between subsiding and deepening subbasins (ombilics) and more stable shoals.


OBJECTIVE. This systematic review addresses the effectiveness of occupational therapy–related interventions for adults with fibromyalgia. METHOD. We examined the literature published between January 2000 and June 2014. A total of 322 abstracts from five databases were reviewed. Forty-two Level I studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies were evaluated primarily with regard to the following outcomes: daily activities, pain, depressive symptoms, fatigue, and sleep. RESULTS. Strong evidence was found for interventions categorized for this review as cognitive–behavioral interventions; relaxation and stress management; emotional disclosure; physical activity; and multidisciplinary interventions for improving daily living, pain, depressive symptoms, and fatigue. There was limited to no evidence for self-management, and few interventions resulted in better sleep. CONCLUSION. Although the evidence supports interventions within the scope of occupational therapy practice for people with fibromyalgia, few interventions were occupation based.


Rapidly disappearing cultural borders coupled with the popularity of teamwork mean that cultural diversity workgroup research is an imperative for both practitioners and researchers. The paradoxical nature of cultural diversity effects found in past research has raised a major management concern about how to achieve and maintain culturally diverse workgroups'' full potential. This research examines these management concerns by examining how the diversity climate of openness fostered by diversity open HRM, and the combination of individualist and collectivist HRM policies and practices affect key outcomes of culturally diverse workgroups.


As the Soviet Union collapsed and China shifted to the market, it was said that communism was nothing more than the longest road between capitalism and capitalism. It now looks like the Bush-era neo-conservatism is similarly a long road back to the realism from whence it departed. The US is now talking with North Korea and Iran instead of preempting them through war.

A dissident Iranian scientist, the former top UN arms inspector and a former US secretary of state ponder this state of affairs.


This paper presents methodology and tools to understand and characterize the recovery mechanisms of the Gemini interconnect system from raw system logs. The tools can assess the impact of these recovery mechanisms on the system and user workloads. The methodology is based on the topology-aware state-machine based clustering algorithm to coalesce the Gemini-related events (i.e., errors, failure and recovery events) into groups. The presented methodology has been used to analyze more than two years of logs from Blue Waters, the 13.1-petaflop Cray hybrid supercomputer at the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). Keywords—Networks , Reliability, Fault Tolerance, Fault diagnosis


Despite low per capita emissions, with over a billion population, India is pivotal for climate change mitigation globally, ranking as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. We linked a previously published multidimensional population projection with emission projections from an integrated assessment model to quantify the localised (i.e. state-level) health benefits from reduced ambient fine particulate matter in India under global climate change mitigation scenarios in line with the Paris Agreement targets and national scenarios for maximum feasible air quality control. We incorporated assumptions about future demographic, urbanisation and epidemiological trends and accounted for model feedbacks. Our results indicate that compared to a business-as-usual scenario, pursuit of aspirational climate change mitigation targets can avert up to 8.0 million premature deaths and add up to 0.7 years to life expectancy (LE) at birth due to cleaner air by 2050. Combining aggressive climate change mitigation efforts with maximum feasible air quality control can add 1.6 years to LE. Holding demographic change constant, we find that climate change mitigation and air quality control will contribute slightly more to increases in LE in urban areas than in rural areas and in states with lower socio-economic development.


Objective: Ringer's lactate may improve early systemic inflammation during critical illnesses like severe acute pancreatitis, which are associated with hypocalcemia. Ringer's lactate is buffered and contains lactate and calcium. We, thus analyzed extracellular calcium or lactate's effects on the mechanisms, intermediary markers, and organ failure in models mimicking human disease with nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA) elevation. Methods: Meta-analyses and experimental studies were performed. Experimentally, extracellular calcium and lactate were compared in their interaction with linoleic acid (LA; a NEFA increased in human severe pancreatitis), and its subsequent effects on mitochondrial depolarization and cytosolic calcium signaling resulting in cell injury. In vivo, the effect of LA was studied on organ failure, along with the effect of calcium or lactate (pH 7.4) on severe acute pancreatitis-associated organ failure. A meta-analysis of human randomized control trials comparing Ringer's lactate to normal saline was done, focusing on necrosis and organ failure. Results: Calcium reacted ionically with LA and reduced lipotoxic necrosis. In vivo, LA induced organ failure and hypocalcemia. During severe pancreatitis, calcium supplementation in saline pH 7.4, unlike lactate, prevented hypocalcemia, increased NEFA saponification, reduced circulating NEFA and C-reactive protein, reduced pancreatic necrosis adjacent to fat necrosis, and normalized shock (carotid pulse distension) and blood urea nitrogen elevation on day 1. This, however, did not prevent the later increase in serum NEFA which caused delayed organ failure. Meta-analysis showed Ringer's lactate reduced necrosis, but not organ failure, compared with normal saline. Conclusion: Hypocalcemia occurs due to excess NEFA binding calcium during a critical illness. Ringer's lactate's early benefits in systemic inflammation are by the calcium it provides reacting ionically with NEFA. This, however, does not prevent later organ failure from sustained NEFA generation. Future studies comparing calcium supplemented saline resuscitation to Ringer's lactate may provide insights to this pathophysiology.


Depression has been the leading cause of mental-health illness worldwide. Major depressive disorder (MDD), is a common mental health disorder that affects both psychologically as well as physically which could lead to loss of lives. Due to the lack of diagnostic tests and subjectivity involved in detecting depression, there is a growing interest in using behavioural cues to automate depression diagnosis and stage prediction. The absence of labelled behavioural datasets for such problems and the huge amount of variations possible in behaviour makes the problem more challenging. This paper presents a novel multi-level attention based network for multi-modal depression prediction that fuses features from audio, video and text modalities while learning the intra and intermodality relevance. The multi-level attention reinforces overall learning by selecting the most influential features within each modality for the decision making. We perform exhaustive experimentation to create different regression models for audio, video and text modalities. Several fusions models with different configurations are constructed to understand the impact of each feature and modality. We outperform the current baseline by 17.52% in terms of root mean squared error.


The intracellular Ca2+ indicator, fura-2, was used to monitor changes in cytosolic [Ca2+] in parotid acinar cells. When parotid cells were incubated in a medium containing low [Ca2+], and [Ca2+] was restored to the physiological range, there was a small increase in cytosolic [Ca2+]. If, however, the cells were first activated by a muscarinic agonist, and receptor activation was terminated before the addition of Ca2+ by the addition of a pharmacological excess of the muscarinic-receptor antagonist atropine, the initial increase in cytosolic [Ca2+] was faster and transiently larger than in the control cells which had not been previously stimulated. This suggested that a stimulation of Ca2+ entry occurred owing to the prior emptying of the agonist-regulated intracellular Ca2+ pool. This extra Ca2+ influx seen in pool-depleted cells persisted even when the interval between the addition of atropine and Ca2+ was increased from 1 to 20 min. Also, when the pool was allowed to refill by adding atropine in the presence of extracellular Ca2+, and Ca2+ was then sequentially removed and restored, the rise in cytosolic [Ca2+] after the addition of extracellular Ca2+ was not rapid, and resembled the increase seen in unstimulated cells. These results indicate that, when the agonist-sensitive Ca2+ pool is emptied by an agonist, Ca2+ influx across the plasma membrane is increased. This influx of Ca2+ occurs independently of the concentrations of inositol phosphates and probably of any second messengers linked directly to receptor activation. It appears rather to be a consequence of the empty state of the Ca2+ pool. Further, we suggest that, whenever the agonist-sensitive Ca2+ pool is emptied by agonist activation, the plasma-membrane permeability to Ca2+ will be increased, and this may account, at least in part, for the phenomenon of receptor-activated Ca2+ entry.


Deriving effective group decision-making procedures for complex environments is hard but of fundamental importance, and the challenges grow significantly more daunting when individuals are self-interested. There is an inherent tension in striving to achieve social goals in decisions that will impact individuals who are only concerned with selfish objectives. Innumerable scenarios fit this mold, from resource allocation to coordinating behavior in the presence of global constraints. The field of mechanism design addresses such problems via specific payment schemes that disarm agent self-interest. This thesis attacks two fundamental issues in this area.
First: How can one implement a decision-making mechanism that maximizes the net welfare of a group of self-interested agents? Classic solutions typically require agents to make large payments to a central coordinator which, from the agents' perspective, purely detracts from social welfare. This thesis provides a mechanism applicable to arbitrary group decision-making problems that yields drastically higher group welfare in important settings, including resource allocation. The redistribution mechanism uses structure inherent in the domain to give payments required in the classic solution back to the agents in a way that does not yield a budget deficit or distort their incentives to participate truthfully.
Second: How can social welfare maximizing outcomes be reached with selfish agents in a setting that is dynamic and uncertain? In the real world, decisions do not exist in isolation, but rather are situated in a temporal context with other decisions. Individuals will act to maximize their utility over time, and decisions in the present influence how the world will look in the future, but rarely in completely predictable ways. This thesis addresses the problem of dynamic mechanism design for such settings and provides key results including: a characterization of the social welfare maximizing dynamic mechanisms that can be implemented in an ex post equilibrium; an extension to handle dynamically changing agent populations; an application to coordinating research preceding allocation of a resource. Finally, a dynamic redistribution mechanism unifies the two main focuses of the thesis, providing a solution with near-optimal social welfare properties for an array of important dynamic problems.


As the development of offshore oil and gas continues to move into deeper waters, the risers connecting the seabed infrastructure to the offshore platform are getting longer. This means that vortex-induced vibration (VIV) may occur at different frequencies along the riser due to current variation, making the VIV prediction challenging. To increase the VIV prediction accuracy, an empirical time-domain VIV model has been developed. The advantage of the model is that it can account for structural non-linearities such as variable tension and time-varying flow. The robustness of the time-domain VIV model has been verified with respect to the several tests, but the length/diameter (L/D) ratio of the risers used in the experiments has so far been relatively small, and the response mode number accordingly low. Therefore, additional validation is needed to understand the uncertainties for the prediction of VIV for deep-sea riser systems at high-mode order. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the use of time-domain model for high-mode VIV response prediction of deep-sea riser systems. This was done by a comparison study applying the Hanøytangen high-mode VIV test data. The main comparison was made regarding the dominating frequency and fatigue damage estimation. For selected empirical parameters, the model demonstrated a good correlation with the experiments. However, the simplified riser model that was utilized in the simulations caused some discrepancies between numerical simulations and the experimental results, which need to be further investigated.


The Magut community is a traditional artists community which is committed to preservation and development of traditional art and culture, especially Wayang Wong as local wisdom which grows in the shadow of the predicate of Yogyakarta as a cultural city. The implemented management in this community is a combination of state supported management through Taman Budaya Yogyakarta and commercial management. The depth of ancestral wisdom in the formal unity of esthetic forms and spirituality embodied in the performance needs to be preserved and developed according to the demand of the present era.


If ever there was a polyglot place on the globe (other than the Tower of Babel), America between 1750 and 1850 was it. Here three continents - North America, Africa, and Europe - met and spoke not as one, but in Amerindian and African languages, in German and English, Spanish, French, and Dutch. How this prodigious multilingualism lost its voice in the making of the American canon and in everyday American linguistic practice is the problem this volume approaches from a variety of angles. Looking at the first Arabic-language African-American slave narrative, at quirks of translation in Greek-American bilingual books, and at the strategies of Yiddish women poets and Welsh-American dramatists, contributors show how linguistic resistance opposes the imperative of linguistic assimilation. They address matters of literary authority in Irish Gaelic writing, Creole novels, and the multiple voices of the Zuni storyteller; and in essays on Haitian, Welsh, Spanish, and Chinese literatures, they trace the relationship between domestic nationalism and immigrant internationalism, between domestic citizenship and immigrant ethnicity.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the quality of Iranian university libraries.

Design/methodology/approach
This first systematic review and meta-analysis were based on the PRISMA guidelines by searching in national and international databases from 2003 to January 2017 with standard Persian and English keywords. Data searching, extracting and quality appraising were completed by two researchers, independently. Any unexpected documents were assessed by a third expert researcher. Data were extracted in accordance with the "Strength of the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology" checklist after the final selection of appraised documents. Random effects size based on Cochrane test and I2 were used for combining the obtained results from different studies together by considering the heterogeneity of studies.

Findings
Based on the meta-analysis conducted in 25 (6.42 percent) included studies, the total sample size was estimated. According to three dimensions of LibQUAL, findings of current information control, affect of service and the library as a place were estimated as 5.37 [CI95%: 5.02, 5.73], 6.91 [CI95%: 5.56, 6.26], and 5.46 percent [CI95%: 5.2, 5.73], respectively. Also, mean of service adequacy and superiority gap are equal to 0.07 [CI95%: −0.22, 0.36] and −2.06 [CI95%: −2.89, −1.23], respectively. There was a significant correlation between three dimensions of service quality and service superiority gap of LibQUAL and geographical regions of Iran (p<0.01). Also, a significant correlation was found between the gaps of services and three aspects of LibQUAL model and published years through a meta-regression test (p<0.01).

Practical implications
The results obtained from the present study showed that users are relatively satisfied with the quality of services provided by Iranian university libraries. An improvement in the quality of library services can promote the scientific level of universities.

Originality/value
The results of the present systematic review and meta-analysis study demonstrate a vital connection between primary research studies and decision-making for policymakers in Iranian university libraries to increase quality services.


Master the usage of s-parameters in signal integrity applications and gain full understanding of your simulation and measurement environment with this rigorous and practical guide. Solve specific signal integrity problems including calculation of the s-parameters of a network, linear simulation of circuits, de-embedding, and virtual probing, all with expert guidance. Learn about the interconnectedness of s-parameters, frequency responses, filters, and waveforms. This invaluable resource for signal integrity engineers is supplemented with the open-source software SignalIntegrity, a Python package for scripting solutions to signal integrity problems.


The potential desire of companies for creating values by combining data from different domains has been increased. In order to lead data-driven innovations, a market of data is expected to enhance this combination and data exchange through the communication among stakeholders. Innovators Marketplace on Data Jackets (IMDJ) is a gamified workshop for discovering the value of data by discussing the combination of Data Jackets, which supports creativity toward innovations and activates a market of data. A Data Jacket is meta-data, i.e., a summary of a dataset. Even if the data is not open, a Data Jacket enables participants to consider the latent value of datasets through creative communication. In this study, we discuss a system for structuring and reusing knowledge of data utilization, which are created in the workshops of IMDJ. By modeling and structuring knowledge not only with datasets, but also with solutions or requirements, it is expected to be possible to retrieve important information about solving problems. By implementing structured knowledge of data utilization using RDF (Resource Description Framework) and designing the interface for extracting accurate information for users, we propose the retrieval system named Data Jacket Store, and evaluate the performance.


Marketing is traditionally associated with expanding the market for a branded product in order to increase profit; brands undertake research to ensure they possess a thorough understanding of the consumer, their wants and needs. We would all perhaps expect that the brand that is closest to their consumers, most on the pulse of the market, would be expected also to be the most profitable within a competitive marketplace. While a simplification of marketing, this highlights the important irony with political marketing; that while marketing increases in use and sophistication within political campaigning and communication, voter disengagement rises contiguously. Data collected during the 2005 UK General Election, and a long term study within the political parties' heartlands, allows us to understand the nature and causes of political disengagement, and see why marketing is one root cause. The segmentation of voters, and targeting of those voters who can deliver the greatest profit, a victory in a marginal seat, leaves the majority of the electorate metaphorically out in the cold feeling unrepresented and marginalized. Through a comparison of attitudes within a safe and marginal Labour seat we find the dichotomy between opinions is stark on questions of representation, efficacy of the democratic process and interest in politics. This dichotomy filters through to voting behaviour and attachment to the parties and candidates and will often argue that they will only turn out to vote if they are asked and that support is deserved.


bleeding tendency cannot be explained on the basis of a lowered VWFR. The disproportionate increase in VIIIC compared with VIIIA and VWFR may represent a non-specific effect (sic) analogous to similar results seen after exercise.5 Nevertheless, in four patients the ratio VIIIA:VWFR was greater than 15, suggesting that the functional capacity of the factor VIII molecule (as assessed by ristocetin cofactor activity) may be impaired in some cases of renal failure. R P HERRMANN L R MARSHALL P E HURST


There are a number of reasons for the move towards sustainable development and
ecosystem based fisheries management. Public concern and awareness over the impact
of development on the environment started in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence
of the environment movement and the global sustainability debate. This was in response
to visible effects of degradation on the environment caused by human activities, and a
challenging of traditional assumptions that the natural environment had the capacity to
provide unlimited resources for continued economic and population growth. The past
two decades has been characterised by an acknowledgement that previous management
approaches have failed to effectively address the issues effecting oceans and fisheries,
and the growing realisation that a holistic approach is required to ensure the proper
governance and management of the oceans and fisheries. The overall objective of
EBFM is to sustain healthy marine ecosystems and the fisheries they support.
There is now a large literature on EBFM, but much less on implementation and no
general agreed framework for assessing EBFM. A systems approach is one way to deal
with the above difficulties. The central proposition of this thesis has argued that
managing under ESD/EBFM principles is complex and one needs to understand the big
picture in order to identify and understand the parts. This approach has been used
throughout each stage of the thesis by way of unpacking the whole into its constituent
parts and developing an understanding of the key dependencies and relationships; and
repacking by discussing the importance of integrated governance and management in
terms of consistency when translating from general concepts and definitions into
principles, criteria, objectives, and the specific approaches for implementation.
To assess management strategies in the context of the overall "fisheries system" that
links the marine ecosystem, users, scientists, government agencies and other
stakeholders, it is helpful to begin to get a sense of what such a system might look like.
To achieve this, an integrated model has been developed, which displays the broad
dimensions and interconnected and interlinked nature of ecosystems and human systems
under EBFM principles. The model was further developed in terms of the
biosocioecomic and the governance and management dimensions, which are
underpinned by a set of frameworks. These provide a framework for describing and
xii
understanding of the dimensions, components, characteristics and key drivers for each
of the dimensions.
Australia has adopted ESD and EBFM which forms the basis for governance and
management of oceans and fisheries across all jurisdictions. In moving from the more
theoretical and conceptual aspects to an application of ESD/EBFM, the model was
applied to Australia, providing empirical material through which to qualitatively assess
its application. It was argued that the conceptual model could be used to successfully
represent the real world in moving from a broad representation of ESD and EBFM to
the detailed implementation at the fisheries level in Australia. One area of the model
that requires further development, and is necessary for fully implementing EBFM,
concerns societal choice and values. Future key challenges at the international level and
nationally for Australia is the need to simultaneously govern and manage both current
and emerging issues, which will require different approaches; and the need to move to a
fully integrated assessment approach so that adaptive management can be implemented.


We describe a new method, which identifies protein fragments for soluble expression in Escherichia coli from a randomly fragmented gene library. Inhibition of E. coli dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) by trimethoprim (TMP) prevents growth, but this can be relieved by murine DHFR (mDHFR). Bacterial strains expressing mDHFR fusions with the soluble proteins green fluroscent protein (GFP) or EphB2 (SAM domain) displayed markedly increased growth rates with TMP compared to strains expressing insoluble EphB2 (TK domain) or ketosteroid isomerase (KSI). Therefore, mDHFR is affected by the solubility of fusion partners and can act as a reporter of soluble protein expression. Random fragment libraries of the transcription factor Fli1 were generated by deoxyuridine incorporation and endonuclease V cleavage. The fragments were cloned upstream of mDHFR and TMP resistant clones expressing soluble protein were identified. These were found to cluster around the DNA binding ETS domain. A selected Fli1 fragment was expressed independently of mDHFR and was judged to be correctly folded by various biophysical methods including NMR. Soluble fragments of the cell-surface receptor Pecam1 were also identified. This genetic selection method was shown to generate expression clones useful for both structural studies and antibody generation and does not require a priori knowledge of domain architecture.