It can be argued that participatory evaluation and social pedagogy share several intercon - nections given their respective developments and evolutions. In this paper we explore affinities between these two domains of inquiry in order to understand points of intersection and departure at deeper levels that has occurred to date. Following a recent review and integration of more than 100 empirical studies of participatory evaluation (Cousins & Chouinard, 2012) we re-examine a selection of emergent themes th - rough a social-pedagogical lens. We highlight similarities and differences and then lay out a set of issues for considerations for participatory evaluation and in the interest of opening an dialogue among those enga - ged in research and practice within either sphere if interest.


This chapter provides an overview of the recent developments in the process of Asian economic integration. In particular, it focuses on the integration initiatives undertaken within the framework of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN was not only the first regional integration arrangement in Asia, it also remains the centre for current and future economic integration initiatives in the wider East Asian region. The progress that has been made by ASEAN's member countries in establishing an ASEAN free trade agreement (AFTA) is analysed. Given the important and reasonably successful integration initiatives in other parts of the world, such as the EU and NAFTA, academics and politicians have devoted much attention to the possibilities of both deepening and widening economic collaboration in the (East) Asian region. Ten ASEAN countries already decided to establish and ASEAN Economic Community by the year 2020 and some other countries seem eager to join. The chapter takes a closer look at recent initiatives taken in that direction. It also devotes attention to the role ASEAN plays in the regional monetary integration and cooperation schemes adopted in the region. Empirical tests, using the optimum currency area (OCA) theory, are reviewed to determine whether a common currency would be beneficial for certain groups or sub-groups of Asian countries. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on the viability of a wider East Asian Trade Area and East Asian monetary union in the long term and on the role ASEAN would have to play in its establishment.


The competition of Social Institutions in Jombang is very fast, Each institution competes to gain the trust of the community in order to channel the assets of the agency. Strictly speaking, competition for Social Institutions requires a lot of effort to maintain the weaknesses of protection. The success of this business is largely determined by the ability of the institution to provide quality services. The purpose of this research is to study the factors of service quality for muzakki (case study in LSPT). Data collection conducted in this study is by collecting, interviewing, library research, questionnaire collection using a Likert scale and non probolity sampling methods, namely incidental sampling with slovin formula as many as 104. The method used is multiple regression. The results showed that X1 (physical evidence) had a significant effect on muzaki satisfaction where the significance value was greater than 5%, that is 0.05 with t count (2.692)> t table (1.983). X2 (reliability) is significant with the value of t arithmetic (2.762)> t table. (1,983). X3 (responsiveness) has a significant effect on the value of t arithmetic (3.393)> t table (1.983). X4 is not significant to satisfaction with t arithmetic (- 2,413)> t table (1,983). X5 (Empathy) has a significant effect on muzakki satisfaction with t arithmetic (2.582)> t table (1.983)


This course examines slavery and its abolition in the East and North Africa from 600 C.E. to the 20th Century. It addresses slavery as a discourse and a question of political economy. We begin with an overview of slavery in late antiquity to contextualize the evolution of this practice after the rise of Islam in the region. We then examine how it was practiced, imagined, and studied under major empires, such as the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Fatimids, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the Safavids. In addition to examining the Qur'anic discourse and early Islamic practices of slavery, to monitor change over time we address various forms of household, field, and military slavery as well as the remarkable phenomenon of "slave dynasties" following a chronological order. We discuss, through primary sources, theoretical, religious, and moral debates and positions on slavery, including religious scriptures, prophetic traditions, religious law, and a plethora of narratives from a range of genres. We highlight a distinct theme each week to focus on until we conclude our discussion with the abolition of slavery in the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics of discussion include various forms of male and female slavery, Qur'anic and prophetic discourse on slavery, legal and moral views on slavery, slavery as represented in religious literature, political, military, and economic structures of slavery, issues of race and gender as well as slave writings to reflect on the experiences of slavery from within. The goal is to enable students to understand the histories of slavery in the Middle East and eventually compare it to that of other regions and cultures, such as European and Atlantic slavery. No second language required.


Phase‐change memory (PCM), a nonvolatile electrical memory based upon the local structure of chalcogenide compounds such as (Ge2Sb2Te5) , is playing an ever increasing role in society. In PCM, information is stored via structure, specifically crystalline or amorphous phases. As generation of the amorphous state requires a melt‐quench process, the energy required for switching is relatively large. Interfacial PCM (iPCM) is a form of PCM that greatly improves energy efficiency consisting of a short‐period (GeTe)–(Sb2Te3) superlattice. Unlike conventional PCM, iPCM is believed to switch between two crystalline states. The large energy reduction to switch iPCM and the absence of a melt‐quenched phase has led to speculation that electrical fields may play a role in the switching process. Herein, ab initio molecular dynamics is employed to explore electric field effects on proposed iPCM structures. Structures are terminated by van der Waals (vdW)‐bonded layers to avoid dangling bonds. Unlike previous speculation in the literature, the effect of electrical fields on Ge atoms is minimal with Te–Te vdW gaps experiencing the largest change. The electric‐field‐induced rearrangements vary; however, for all structures, a dilation in the vdW gap is observed possibly facilitating the proposed switching mechanisms.


The authors show their experience in the use of the laparoscopic approach in 18 cases of unilateral exploratory anorchia. They highlight the advantages that this method offers in efficiency, speed, security and minimal aggression compared with conventional exploration of the inguinal channel in the search of the undetectable testis. In the 18 cases studied through the insertion of 5 mm lense in the umbilical area, it was established that a testicular hypoplasia was present in 8 cases. In another 5 cases testicular agenesia was diagnosed, and in the remaining 5, intraabdominal testis were found. In four of these testicles, a laparoscopic approach helped in their correct placement and also in the removal of the fifth in a patient with recurrent leukemia.


In recent years, there has been growing recognition of a need for a general, non-language-specific assessment tool that could be used to evaluate general speech and language abilities in children, especially to assist in identifying atypical development in bilingual children who speak a language unfamiliar to the assessor. It has been suggested that a non-word repetition task (NWRT) may be a suitable candidate to fill this role, as it does not rely on knowledge of particular words for performance, and it may be possible to devise non-words that are not specific to any given language. The current study reports performance on a Welsh non-word repetition task by typically developing Welsh–English bilingual children with varying levels of exposure to Welsh in the home (Only Welsh at Home, Only English at Home, or Welsh and English at Home). The focus of the study was on repetition of initial consonants and consonant clusters in novel words. Both quantitative and qualitative differences were found across groups, according to level of exposure to Welsh, on sounds unique to Welsh, but not on sounds shared by Welsh and English. The data suggest that level of knowledge of the language tested has an important impact on children's performance on non-word repetition and that the use of the NWRT as a universal speech and language assessment tool should be adopted with caution.


Patients with cognitive problems usually present to medical attention because of concern from relatives. Lack of insight though far from universal in patients with cognitive disturbance, is a very characteristic feature. This is self evident and what follows conversely is also of diagnostic utility ie if the patient self refers to a doctor complaining of cognitive problems, the problem is much more likely to psychological than neurological in origin. Cognition, a distributed function, has several aspects that can be clearly dissected out by a careful history. For example, patients who repeat themselves frequently and are unable to retain new information are said to have an amnestic pattern of disturbance, which usually localises to the temporal lobes. Cognitive deficits such as apathy, difficulty in processing and set shifting between tasks reliably points towards a subcortical rather than cortical localisation. Patterns of cognitive disturbance can be anatomically classified with a degree of localising accuracy more commonly associated with  "standard" neurological symptoms such as weakness or unsteadiness


BTES (borehole thermal energy storage)systems exchange thermal energy by conduction with the surrounding ground through borehole materials. The spatial variability of the geological properties and the space-time variability of hydrogeological conditions affect the real power rate of heat exchangers and, consequently, the amount of energy extracted from / injected into the ground. For this reason, it is not an easy task to identify the underground thermal properties to use when designing.
At the current state of technology, Thermal Response Test (TRT) is the in situ test for the characterization of ground thermal properties with the higher degree of accuracy, but it doesn't fully solve the problem of characterizing the thermal properties of a shallow geothermal reservoir, simply because it characterizes only the neighborhood of the heat exchanger at hand and only for the test duration.
Different analytical and numerical models exist for the characterization of shallow geothermal reservoir, but they are still inadequate and not exhaustive: more sophisticated models must be taken into account and a geostatistical approach is needed to tackle natural variability and estimates uncertainty.
The approach adopted for reservoir characterization is the "inverse problem", typical of oil&gas field analysis. Similarly, we create different realizations of thermal properties by direct sequential simulation and we find the best one fitting real production data (fluid temperature along time).
The software used to develop heat production simulation is FEFLOW 5.4 (Finite Element subsurface FLOW system). A geostatistical reservoir model has been set up based on literature thermal properties data and spatial variability hypotheses, and a real TRT has been tested. Then we analyzed and used as well two other codes (SA-Geotherm and FV-Geotherm) which are two implementation of the same numerical model of FEFLOW (Al-Khoury model).


Summary In the emerging biometrics technology, speaker identification in real environment is one of the key issues for enhancing the density of human computer interaction. In this paper, we propose an optimizing factor through a fuzzy membership function for correcting the reliability in different modalities reliability measure in a bimodal fusion process for speaker identification. In the bimodal speaker identification system, we have also applied our proposed extended modified convection reliability function to account optimal reliability simultaneously for audio and visual information integration. For creating mismatch in between train and test stage, babble noises and artificial illumination have been added to test speeches and lip images, respectively. Local PCA have been applied at features level at both classifiers system for reducing the dimension of features vector at different level of signal distortion. We have applied particle swarm optimization (PSO) for optimizing the proposed fuzzy membership function based optimizing factor and modified convection function's optimizing parameters. The speaker identification experiments have been performed using VidTimit database. Experimental results show that our proposed method enhanced the identification accuracy in comparison with the baseline system thus demonstrated the validation of the proposed approach and most notably maintains the consistency of the integration process.


Parkinson's disease [PD] is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's disease, affecting 1% of the population over the age of 55. The underlying neuropathology seen in PD is characterised by progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta with the presence of Lewy bodies. The Lewy bodies are composed of aggregates of α-synuclein. The motor manifestations of PD include a resting tremor, bradykinesia, and muscle rigidity. Currently there is no cure for PD and motor symptoms are treated with a number of drugs including levodopa [L-dopa]. These drugs do not delay progression of the disease and often provide only temporary relief. Their use is often accompanied by severe adverse effects. Emerging evidence from both in vivo and in vitro studies suggests that caffeine may reduce parkinsonian motor symptoms by antagonising the adenosine A2A receptor, which is predominately expressed in the basal ganglia. It is hypothesised that caffeine may increase the excitatory activity in local areas by inhibiting the astrocytic inflammatory processes but evidence remains inconclusive. In addition, the co-administration of caffeine with currently available PD drugs helps to reduce drug tolerance, suggesting that caffeine may be used as an adjuvant in treating PD. In conclusion, caffeine may have a wide range of therapeutic effects which are yet to be explored, and therefore warrants further investigation in randomized clinical trials.


ABSTRACT This paper examines the comparative static effects of rules-based disciplines for government supported export credit arrangements. The arrangements provide traders in the country offering the guarantees more favourable borrowing conditions. This may provide an advantage relative to rival exporters since the supported trader may offer better financial terms to importers. Rules that discipline implicit interest rate subsidies are appropriate when an importing country does not face liquidity constraints when borrowing. However, these rules may not be appropriate with liquidity constraints because of the potential for additionality and benefits for all exporting countries. Rules on benchmarks for insurance premiums are always appropriate because insurance subsidies unambiguously have the potential to distort markets.


Glass formation in the system PbO–PbF2 has been investigated. The structure of these glasses has been studied using X-ray diffraction. Densities, heat capacities, glass-transition and crystallization temperatures and Vicker's microhardnesses have been measured. D.c. conductivities of these glasses have also been measured as a function of temperature. A structural model has been developed which suggests the existence of [PbO2F4]-type units over the entire composition range. It is suggested that covalent linkages of the type—O—Pb—O— play a crucial role in determining the composition limits to glass formation. The structural model has been shown to be consistent with other physical properties of the glasses.


This paper explores Walter Benjamin's relationship with French Surrealism from sources rarely studied or practically unknown until now. First, I will set out the direct link between the theses on "profane illumination" and the "organization of pessimism" in Der Surrealismus. Die letzte Momentaufnahme der europaischen Intelligenz , and various texts by Pierre Naville, one of the most active figures in the Surrealist movement between 1925 and 1929. Second, I will consider Benjamin's commentaries in Pariser Passagen and convolute "S" of the Passagen-Werk about Surrealist writings and Martin Heidegger's Sein und Zeit , flagging up the implications of this confrontation for Benjamin's ideas of secularization of mysticism and messianism. Lastly, I will seek to refine the meaning of Benjamin's "anthropological materialism" and its relevance to those sections of the Passagenarbeit that are dedicated to the evolution of social movements since the French Revolution.


This study presents the first results on the evaluation and selection of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the genetic characterization of native chicken populations in southern Africa. Blood samples for DNA extraction were obtained from five chicken lines from South Africa (Koekoek, New Hampshire, Naked-Neck, Lebowa-Venda and Ovambo), and from one population each from Mozambique and Botswana. Twenty-three markers were found to be polymorphic in most of the lines studied. The mean number of alleles observed for all markers was 6.1, and varied from 2.3 (Koekoek) to 4.3 (Mozambique population). The lowest heterozygosity was found in the Koekoek line (31.4%), and the highest in the populations from Mozambique (60.7%) and Botswana (61.2%). It was concluded that this particular set of microsatellite markers can be of use a measure of genetic variability in native chicken lines in southern Africa, and should be evaluated as diagnostic tools for breed identification.
(South African Journal of Animal Science, 2000, 30(1): 1-6)


PURPOSE
Before initiating an intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) program for gynecologic malignancies we prospectively evaluated the potential benefits of IMRT by dose volume histogram comparison of IMRT and 3D conformal radiotherapy plans.

METHODS
Plans of ten consecutive patients with cervical and endometrial cancer were evaluated. For each patient a 4-field box technique was compared to an IMRT plan. Both plans were normalized to deliver 50.4 Gy to the PTV in six patients and 45 Gy in the remaining four. Isodose distributions and dose volume histograms were compared in seven dose levels.

RESULTS
IMRT reduced the volume of small bowel receiving more than 45 Gy in all patients. The average absolute volume of small bowel receiving 45 Gy was significantly reduced from 318 cc to 33 cc. No significant increase in the volume of small bowel receiving less than 20 Gy was observed. Rectum, bladder and bone marrow volumes receiving high doses were also significantly reduced with IMRT.

CONCLUSIONS
IMRT significantly reduces the volume of normal tissues irradiated to high doses without compromising the target coverage. This may potentially lead to a reduction in treatment related toxicities.


We propose a mixture autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (MAR-ARCH) model for modeling nonlinear time series. The models consist of a mixture of K autoregressive components with autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity; that is, the conditional mean of the process variable follows a mixture AR (MAR) process, whereas the conditional variance of the process variable follows a mixture ARCH process. In addition to the advantage of better description of the conditional distributions from the MAR model, the MARARCH model allows a more flexible squared autocorrelation structure. The stationarity conditions, autocorrelation function, and squared autocorrelation function are derived. Construction of multiple step predictive distributions is discussed. The estimation can be easily done through a simple EM algorithm, and the model selection problem is addressed. The shape-changing feature of the conditional distributions makes these models capable of modeling time series with multimodal conditional distributions and with heteroscedasticity. The models are applied to two real datasets and compared to other competing models. The MAR-ARCH models appear to capture features of the data better than the competing models.


Communicating the knowledge and science of product engineering, analysis and manufacturing planning is an area of continued research driven by the digital economy. Virtual Reality (VR) is a generally accepted interactive digital platform which industry and academia have used to model engineering workspaces. Interactive services that generate a sense of immersion, particularly the sense of touch to communicate shape modelling and manipulation, is increasingly being used in applications that range from Design For Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) and Process Planning (PP) to medical applications such as surgical planning and training. In simulation, the natural way for solid modelling is the use of primitive geometries, and combinations of them where complex shapes are required, to create, modify or manipulate models. However, this natural way makes use of Booleans operands that require large computational times which make them inappropriate for real time VR applications. This work presents an insight on new methods for haptic shape modelling focused on Boolean operands on a polygon mesh. This is not meant as a contrast to point/meshediting methods, instead it is focused on idealising polygonal mesh modelling and manipulation for use with haptics. The resulting models retain a high level of geometric detail for visualisation, modelling, manipulation and haptic rendering.


Background: Pembrolizumab is currently the standard treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the association between immune-related adverse events (irAEs) and peripheral blood cell counts remains unclear. We aimed at identifying peripheral blood cell counts that may predict the development of pembrolizumab-induced irAEs. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data on consecutive patients with advanced NSCLC who received pembrolizumab monotherapy as first-line or later-line therapy at the National Cancer Center Hospital and Keio University Hospital. We used data between December 2015 and November 2018. The primary endpoint was the relationship between peripheral blood cell count data and early-onset irAEs during the 6-weeks study period. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. Results: In total, 92 patients were evaluated, of whom 45 (48.9%) had at least one irAE during the first 6-weeks after treatment initiation. The ROC curves revealed that the optimal cutoff of pretreatment absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for onset of irAEs were 1459, 2.320, 1.538, and 165, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed that pretreatment ALC>1450 and LMR>1.6 were significantly associated with a reduced risk for onset of any irAEs, whereas pretreatment NLR>2.3 and PLR>165 were significantly associated with an increased risk. Conclusions: The findings suggest that considering the routine availability of blood cell count data before the initiation of treatment with pembrolizumab, it may be useful in identifying early-onset irAEs during the 6-weeks study period in clinical practice.


After a brief review of alternative techniques, this correspondence presents an approach to multiple-match resolver design which is significantly faster than ones which have hitherto been published. The approach involves the repeated use of a standard functional block to build resolver tree structures capable of generating addresses or logic vectors. Several example designs are shown to illustrate the concept, but the basic intent is to provide a method which can be used effectively under many logic family and physical constraints. For activity vectors of N bits, the scheme produces resolvers with speeds of around log2 N unit gate propagation delays.


OBJECTIVE: To explore the association of length of clinical training and ability to read critically clinical research papers in groups of residents of internal medicine. MATERIAL AND METHODS: An instrument to evaluate critical reading was developed validated by four experts in clinical epidemiology. It contains four abstract from international medical journals. Each article was followed by 20 questions of false/true/ do not know options: 42 were interpretation items and 38 were judgement items. Each article had a semantic differential scale from 1 to 10 of global value of the paper. Seventy internal medicine residents participated: 20 in their first year of residency, 31 in the second year and 19 in the third year. RESULTS: There were no differences between overall scores according to year of training (global median score of 22.5 out of 80 as a maximum). Globally the interpretation items reached a median of 22 versus 9 in the in the judgement items (p < 0.01). A tendency to underestimate the validity of the articles by the residents was observed, i.e. their overall validity was significantly lower than that of the experts (p < 0.001). Finally, there was a correlation of 0.45 between the scores in this study and those obtained during their medical studies. CONCLUSION: These groups of residents were not influenced by length of their training during their internal medicine residency and their ability to judge clinical investigation papers.


Abstract In this research, identity theory was adapted to reassess a conceptualization of recreation specialization. Past work has conceptualized the construct principally in terms of a combination of three components: conative (behavior, skill, centrality), cognitive (identity) and affect (attraction). Based on the tenets of identity theory, it was hypothesized that the identity-related facet influences other conative and affective specialization facets. Analyses of data drawn from hikers along the Appalachian Trail provided empirical support for the reconceptualization. The data illustrate that processes underlying the expression and affirmation of identity influences respondents' attraction to hiking, hiking's role in their lives, their perceived skill, and behavioral involvement with the activity. Given these theoretical considerations, it is suggested that in addition to reconsidering the structure of specialization's conceptualization, future research should also consider more specifically isolating identity's influence on other facets of the construct. Beyond the hypothesized temporal structure, an identity-based approach may also have implications on measurement and a need to develop additional indicators for a range of leisure contexts.


Background: One of the most difficult issues that families with HIV-infected children and their medical providers face is disclosing their HIV status to their child. Despite emerging evidence of the benefits of disclosure, its prevalence is low, and the predictors for non-disclosure remain clinical dilemma. Therefore, this study aimed to explore determinants of HIV status disclosure among 5-14 years age children in Dessie town, Ethiopia.

Methods: Health facility based unmatched case-control study was conducted from January 1 to February 30, 2019. Interviewer based questionnaire was used for data collection from a total of 387 children on ART /care givers pairs. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were carried out using SPSS version 23 software.

Result: A total of 374 children/caregiver pairs were included in the study, making 96.6% 96.6% of response rate. In multivariable logistic regression model, presence of organizational support (AOR=27.77, 95% CI: 12.472, 61.819), child age of 10 to 14 years (AOR= 3, 95% CI; 1.423, 6.536) and conducting of discussion with health care providers (AOR=17.65, 95% CI; 6.611, 47.002) predicted children's HIV disclosure status.

Conclusion: Presence of organizational support, child age of 10 to 14 years, and care givers discussion with health care providers were statistically significantly associated with HIV status disclosure. Further qualitative and community based research may reveal more on these and other factors; organizational support strategy may address some of these determinants.


The factor graph framework is a convenient modeling technique for robotic state estimation where states are represented as nodes, and measurements are modeled as factors. When designing a sensor fusion framework for legged robots, one often has access to visual, inertial, joint encoder, and contact sensors. While visual-inertial odometry has been studied extensively in this framework, the addition of a preintegrated contact factor for legged robots has been only recently proposed. This allowed for integration of encoder and contact measurements into existing factor graphs, however, new nodes had to be added to the graph every time contact was made or broken. In this work, to cope with the problem of switching contact frames, we propose a hybrid contact preintegration theory that allows contact information to be integrated through an arbitrary number of contact switches. The proposed hybrid modeling approach reduces the number of required variables in the nonlinear optimization problem by only requiring new states to be added alongside camera or selected keyframes. This method is evaluated using real experimental data collected from a Cassie-series robot where the trajectory of the robot produced by a motion capture system is used as a proxy for ground truth. The evaluation shows that inclusion of the proposed preintegrated hybrid contact factor alongside visual-inertial navigation systems improves estimation accuracy as well as robustness to vision failure, while its generalization makes it more accessible for legged platforms.


Hysteria was the Sphinx of nervous disorders. In ancient times the
cause of hysteria was supposed to be sited in the womb. However
the French Neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot favoured the ovaries as
the site of the origin of hysteria, and he recommended the
therapeutic compression of the ovaries in order to terminate
hysterical fits. To this end, the treatment of hysteria in women
was carried out by the surgical removal of one ovary. This
surgical intervention was not without risk in the 19th century,
but more to the point it did not help the patients. Most German
Neurologists doubted this "hysteric ovary" theory, but it was
not until after 1901 that Steinhausen was able to prove by
statistical analysis, that the "hysteric" ovary did not exist at
all. Statistical data analysis also helped to support the connection
between Syphilis and Tabes dorsalis, which usually became
clinically manifest several years after infection. In those days
neither cerebrospinal fluid analysis nor serology were available.
Apart from several nonspecific suspected causes of Tabes - it was
the use of the newly invented sewing machine that came under
suspicion as the trigger of Tabes dorsalis.


The objective of this work is to generate a large number of images for specified object class. The approach is to employ text, metadata and visual features and to use to gather many high quality images from the web. Candidates images are obtained by text based web search. The web page and the images are downloaded. The task is to remove irrelevant images and to re-rank. First, the images query page is downloaded. Second, it extracts images URL from downloaded page and place it in the database then ranking is done based on text surrounding and metadata features. SVM and Naive bayes classifier algorithm are compared for ranking. The top ranked images are used as training data and an SVM visual classifier is learned to improve re-ranking. The principal idea of the overall method is in combining text or metadata or visual features in order to achieve a completely automatic ranking of images. Key Terms: Image retrieval, object recognition, computer vision, weakly supervised.


Abstract. The continuation of valuable, long-term glacier observation series is threatened by the accelerated mass loss which currently affects a large portion of so-called "benchmark" glaciers. In this work we present the evolution of the Careser Glacier, from the beginning of systematic observation at the end of the 19th century to its current condition in 2012. In addition to having one of the longest and richest observation records among the Italian glaciers, Careser is unique in the Italian Alps for its 46 yr mass balance series that started in 1967. In the present study, variations in the length, area and volume of the glacier since 1897 are examined, updating and validating the series of direct mass balance observations and adding to the mass balance record into the past using the geodetic method. The glacier is currently strongly out of balance and in rapid decay; its average mass loss rate over the last 3 decades was 1.5 m water equivalent per year, increasing to 2.0 m water equivalent per year in the last decade. Although these rates are not representative at a regional scale, year-to-year variations in mass balance show an unexpected increase in correlation with other glaciers in the Alps, during the last 3 decades. If mass loss continues at this pace, the glacier will disappear within a few decades, putting an end to this unique observation series.


The health belief model (HBM) posits that messages will achieve optimal behavior change if they successfully target perceived barriers, benefits, self-efficacy, and threat. While the model seems to be an ideal explanatory framework for communication research, theoretical limitations have limited its use in the field. Notably, variable ordering is currently undefined in the HBM. Thus, it is unclear whether constructs mediate relationships comparably (parallel mediation), in sequence (serial mediation), or in tandem with a moderator (moderated mediation). To investigate variable ordering, adults (N = 1,377) completed a survey in the aftermath of an 8 month flu vaccine campaign grounded in the HBM. Exposure to the campaign was positively related to vaccination behavior. Statistical evaluation supported a model where the indirect effect of exposure on behavior through perceived barriers and threat was moderated by self-efficacy (moderated mediation). Perceived barriers and benefits also formed a serial mediation chain. The results indicate that variable ordering in the health belief model may be complex, help to explain conflicting results of the past, and a good focus for future research.


We propose that a controlling parameter of static stress drop during an earthquake is related to the scaling properties of the fault-surface topography. Using high resolution laser distance meters, we have accurately measured the roughness scaling properties of two fault surfaces in different geological settings (the French Alps and Nevada). The data show that fault-surface topography is scale dependent and may be accurately described by a self-affine geometry with a slight anisotropy characterized by two extreme roughness exponents ( H R ), H ||=0.6 in the direction of slip and H ⊥=0.8 perpendicular to slip.

Disregarding plastic processes like rock fragmentation and focusing on elastic deformation of the topography, which is the dominant mode at large scales, the stress drop is proportional to the deformation, which is a spatial derivative of the slip. The evolution of stress-drop fluctuations on the fault plane can be derived directly from the self-affine property of the fault surface, with the length scale ( λ ) as std Δσ ( λ )∝ λ H R -1.

Assuming no characteristic length scale in fault roughness and a rupture cascade model, we show that as the rupture grows, the average stress drop, and its variability should decrease with increasing source dimension. That is for the average stress drop Δσ ( r )∝ r H R -1, where r is the radius of a circular rupture. This result is a direct consequence of the elastic squeeze of fault asperities that induces the largest spatial fluctuations of the shear strength before and after the earthquake at local (small) scales with peculiar spatial correlations.


We have witnessed the prevalence of smart devices in every aspect of human life. However, the ever-growing smart devices present significant challenges in terms of usability, security, and performance. First, we need to design new interfaces to improve the device usability which has been neglected during the rapid shift from hand-held mobile devices to wearables. Second, we need to protect smart devices with abundant private data against unauthorized users. Last, new applications with compute-intensive tasks demand the integration of emerging mobile backend infrastructure. This dissertation focuses on addressing these challenges. First, we present GlassGesture, a system that improves the usability of Google Glass through a head gesture user interface with gesture recognition and authentication. We accelerate the recognition by employing a novel similarity search scheme, and improve the authentication performance by applying new features of head movements in an ensemble learning method. As a result, GlassGesture achieves around 96% gesture recognition accuracy. Furthermore, GlassGesture accepts authorized users in nearly 92% of trials, and rejects attackers in nearly 99% of trials. Next, we investigate the authentication between a smartphone and a paired smartwatch. We design and implement WearLock, a system that utilizes one's smartwatch to unlock one's smartphone via acoustic tones. We build an acoustic modem with sub-channel selection and adaptive modulation, which generates modulated acoustic signals to maximize the unlocking success rate against ambient noise. We leverage the motion similarities of the devices to eliminate unnecessary unlocking. We also offload heavy computation tasks from the smartwatch to the smartphone to shorten response time and save energy. The acoustic modem achieves a low bit error rate (BER) of 8%. Compared to traditional manual personal identification numbers (PINs) entry, WearLock not only automates the unlocking but also speeds it up by at least 18%. Last, we consider low-latency video analytics on mobile devices, leveraging emerging mobile backend infrastructure. We design and implement LAVEA, a system which offloads computation from mobile clients to edge nodes, to accomplish tasks with intensive computation at places closer to users in a timely manner. We formulate an optimization problem for offloading task selection and prioritize offloading requests received at the edge node to minimize the response time. We design and compare various task placement schemes for inter-edge collaboration to further improve the overall response time. Our results show that the client-edge configuration has a speedup ranging from 1.3x to 4x against running solely by the client and 1.2x to 1.7x against the client-cloud configuration.


Genetic variations represent major risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD). While familial early onset AD is associated with mutations in the amyloid precursor protein and presenilin genes, only the e4 allele of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene has so far been established as a genetic risk factor for late onset familial and sporadic AD. It has been suggested that the C→T (224Ala→Val) transition within exon 2 of the cathepsin D gene (CTSD) might represent a risk factor for late onset AD. The objective of this study was to investigate whether possession of the CTSD exon 2 T allele increases the risk of developing AD, and to determine whether this modulates the amyloid pathology of the disease in conjunction with, or independent of, the APOE e4 allele. Blood samples were obtained from 412 patients with possible or probable AD and brain tissues from a further 148 patients with AD confirmed by postmortem examination. CTSD and APOE genotyping were performed by PCR on DNA extracted from blood, or from frontal cortex or cerebellum in the postmortem cases. Pathological measures of amyloid β protein (Aβ), as plaque Aβ40 and Aβ42(3) load and degree of cerebral amyloid angiopathy were made by image analysis or semiquantitative rating, respectively. CTSD genotype frequencies in AD were not significantly different from those in control subjects, nor did these differ between cases of early or late onset AD or between younger and older controls. There was no gene interaction between the CTSD T and APOE e4 alleles. The amount of plaque Aβ40 was greater in patients carrying the CTSD T allele than in non-carriers, and in patients bearing APOE e4 allele compared with non-carriers. Possession of both these alleles acted synergistically to increase levels of plaque Aβ40, especially in those individuals who were homozygous for the APOE e4 allele. Possession of the CTSD T allele had no effect on plaque Aβ42(3) load or degree of CAA. Possession of the CTSD T allele does not increase the risk of developing AD per se, but has a modulating effect on the pathogenesis of the disorder by increasing, in concert with the APOE e4 allele, the amount of Aβ deposited as senile plaques in the brain in the form of Aβ40.


Self-focusing and self-defocusing of 1.6-nsec CO(2) laser pulses were observed in SF(6) gas for several selected 10-microm P-branch lines. The lines P(8), P(10), P(14), and P(16) self-focused, P(28) defocused, and either effect occurred at P(20), depending on the incident energy. The self-focusing was found to depend on incident fluence rather than on intensity and weakly on He buffer. Under the appropriate conditions beam filamentation occurred.


Bovine fetal lung tissue culture cells were infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus. The cells released substances into the supernatant fluid that suppressed the proliferative response of bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells which had been stimulated with concanavalin A. Activity could be found in low molecular weight fractions (less than or equal to 2,000 daltons). During the assay, these fractions were required to inhibit the response of leukocytes to concanavalin A. Addition of indomethacin to the infected tissue culture cells inhibited generation of immunosuppressive supernatants; addition of indomethacin to the suppressive supernatants did not block their activity. The possible involvement of prostaglandins in this immunosuppressive activity is discussed.


Wnt signaling pathways are transmitted via 10 homologous frizzled receptors (FZD1-10) in humans. Reagents broadly inhibiting Wnt signaling pathways reduce growth and metastasis of many tumors, but their therapeutic development has been hampered by the side effect. Inhibitors targeting specific Wnt-FZD pair(s) enriched in cancer cells may reduce side effect, but the therapeutic effect of narrow-spectrum Wnt-FZD inhibitors remains to be established in vivo. Here, we developed a fragment of C. difficile toxin B (TcdBFBD), which recognizes and inhibits a subclass of FZDs, FZD1/2/7, and examined whether targeting this FZD subgroup may offer therapeutic benefits for treating breast cancer models in mice. Utilizing 2 basal-like and 1 luminal-like breast cancer models, we found that TcdBFBD reduces tumor-initiating cells and attenuates growth of basal-like mammary tumor organoids and xenografted tumors, without damaging Wnt-sensitive tissues such as bones in vivo. Furthermore, FZD1/2/7–positive cells are enriched in chemotherapy-resistant cells in both basal-like and luminal mammary tumors treated with cisplatin, and TcdBFBD synergizes strongly with cisplatin in inhibiting both tumor types. These data demonstrate the therapeutic value of narrow-spectrum Wnt signaling inhibitor in treating breast cancers.


OBJECTIVE
To localize and demonstrate the effect of curcumin on vascular endothelial growth factor in diabetic mice kidney induced by streptozotocin.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
Diabetic mice were induced by streptozotocin (60 mg/kg BW). Male mice were divided into three groups, control mice, diabetic mice (DM) and diabetic mice treated with curcumin (DMC) (200 mg/kg BW). At 4 and 8 weeks, animals were sacrificed and kidneys were processed by immunohistochemistry technique.

RESULTS
At the end of 4 and 8 week experiments, glomeruli were slightly enlarged and showed diffuse thickening of the glomerular capillary walls in diabetic mice. Administration with curcumin presented the better improvement and recovery of cells and tissues compared with diabetic mice. Immunohistochemical staining for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) demonstrated that VEGF was mainly detected in the podocytes and renal tubules. There was an increase in VEGF expression in diabetic mice as compared to control. Treatment with curcumin significantly inhibited the expression of VEGF in the kidney tissue of diabetic mice in both 4 and 8 weeks. Comparing the diabetic mice between 4 and 8 week experiments, the expression of VEGF in the podocytes and renal tubules at 8 week were significantly stronger than at 4 week which represented time-dependent change. Nevertheless, the intensity of VEGF was not different in DMC mice when it was compared between 4 and 8 weeks.

CONCLUSION
VEGF immunoreactivity of the podocytes and the renal tubules at 4 and 8 weeks in DM mice showed strong intensity more than in control mice. However, the intensity of VEGF in DMC mice was less when it was compared with DM mice. Moreover, VEGF was a key modulator of angiogenesis and a potent mitogen for endothelial cells. These results demonstrated the potential use of antiangiogenic curcumin as a novel therapeutic agent in diabetic mellitus and maintain normal structure of the kidney.


The use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to locally increase the temperature at the nanoscale under the remote application of alternating magnetic fields (magnetic particle hyperthermia, MHT) has become an important subject of nanomedicine multidisciplinary research, focusing among other topics on the optimization of the heating performance of MNPs and their assemblies under the effect of the magnetic field. We report experimental data of heat released by MNPs using a wide range of anisometric shapes and their assemblies in different media. We outline a basic theoretical investigation, which assists the interpretation of the experimental data, including the effect of the size, shape and assembly of MNPs on the MNPs' hysteresis loops and the maximum heat delivered. We report heat release data of anisometric MNPs, including nanodisks, spindles (elongated nanoparticles) and nanocubes, analysing, for a given shape, the size dependence. We study the MNPs either acting as individuals or assembled through a magnetic-field-assisted method. Thus, the physical geometrical arrangement of these anisometric particles, the magnetization switching and the heat release (by means of the determination of the specific adsorption rate, SAR values) under the application of AC fields have been analysed and compared in aqueous suspensions and after immobilization in agar matrix mimicking the tumour environment. The different nano-systems were analysed when dispersed at random or in assembled configurations. We report a systematic fall in the SAR for all anisometric MNPs randomly embedded in a viscous environment. However, certain anisometric shapes will have a less marked, an almost total preservation or even an increase in SAR when embedded in a viscous environment with certain orientation, in contrast to the measurements in water solution. Discrepancies between theoretical and experimental values reflect the complexity of the systems due to the interplay of different factors such as size, shape and nanoparticle assembly due to magnetic interactions. We demonstrate that magnetic assembly holds great potential for producing materials with high functional and structural diversity, as we transform our nanoscale building blocks (anisometric MNPs) into a material displaying enhanced SAR properties.


Executive summary Reducing rolling resistance of tires remains a prime importance for the tire industry. With rising gasoline prices, awareness of the Kyoto protocol as a given, the Euro 5 norm demanding for decreasing carbon dioxide emission, the International Energy Agency focusing on tires to reduce fuel consumption and the California Energy Commission releasing legislation on tire efficiency, the challenge to tire engineers and compounders to address fuel efficiency, i.e. reduced rolling resistance of tires, remains highly actual. Several approaches (varying polymers, fillers, etc.) have been tried or explored but each approach has its own advantages and drawbacks in terms of balance between performance and cost. 1-3 Recently Teijin Aramid has introduced chemically activated aramid fiber granules (Sulfron) that reduce compound hysteresis significantly, which translates into better rolling resistance or fuel economy. 3-10 This paper presents the results on our latest research in this area focusing on improvement in rolling resistance, heat build-up, flex and dynamic properties. Compounds have been engineered to improve the hysteresis characteristics with a positive effect on wear and tear resistance. Tire test data are presented to demonstrate the improvement in rolling resistance, durability and wear characteristics. A mechanistic view will be provided to explain the advantages.


This note provides sufficient robust stability conditions for continuous time polytopic systems. They are obtained from the Frobenius-Perron Theorem applied to the time derivative of a linear parameter dependent Lyapunov function and are expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMI). They contain as special cases, various sufficient stability conditions available in the literature to date. As a natural generalization, the determination of a guaranteed H2 cost is addressed. A new gain parametrization is introduced in order to make possible the state feedback robust control synthesis using parameter dependent Lyapunov functions through linear matrix inequalities. Numerical examples are included for illustration


An intermediate-resolution analytical model of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium utilization in the plant-soil system was developed and tested. Starting from specified natural or artificial sources in the soil, element transport to root absorption surfaces was modeled in terms of diffusion, mass flow, and soil buffering mechanisms. Element uptake was described by carrier theory formalism, and assimilation was based on four premises about the roles of N, P, K, and photosynthate in cell chemistry. There were three main objectives of the model. The first was to predict the first-order interactive growth response of particular plant species to any combination of these macronutrients supplied in the soil medium. Species parameters required by the model include root absorption rate and certain cell chemistry reaction rates. The second objective was to make the model sufficiently general to describe a broad range of species. It was built upon common denominator principles of physiology condensed from available experimental data on corn (Zea mays L.), bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), pine (Pinus elliottii Var. elliottii), etc. In this generic sense it is a measure of what plants have in common. The third objective was to use the model to test several well-known theories of plant growth. The model was validated against reported experiments on ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), oat (Avena sativa), a legume (Stylosanthes humilis), and rutabaga (Brassica napobrassica, Mill.), in which dry matter yield was measured as a function of factorial application of N, P, and K to the soil. The model shows that much of the deficient, optimal, toxic, and interactive response of plants to N, P, and K can be explained in terms of strong linear response of cell chemistry to low nutrient concentrations and inhibition by N, P, and K at high nutrient concentrations. Applying the model in a test of plant response to suboptimal nutrient concentrations, the model strongly confirms the Liebig Law of the Minimum and refutes the opposing multi-limiting-element Baule Product Law. The model also shows that the Liebig theory of linear growth response to nutrient concentration and the opposing, nonlinear Mitscherlich Law of Diminishing Return are not necessarily in disagreement, but rather may apply to different parts of the nutrient concentration range. And the model confirms that the effects on growth of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels are more often additive on the reciprocal scale than on either the logarithmic or untransformed scales.


BACKGROUND
There is insufficient evidence of the effects of intermittent flushing with normal saline versus heparin to prevent occlusion or increased alteplase use in pediatric patients with central venous catheters.

OBJECTIVES
The primary objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new standard flushing practice in the management of central venous access devices in pediatric patients with cancer. A secondary objective was to assess the cost of heparin flushing supplies to patients and financial impact.

METHODS
New flushing guidelines included tunneled lines flushed with saline in the push-pause method twice daily in the inpatient setting. The outpatient setting required saline lock while receiving care and heparin lock on discharge. Alteplase usage was monitored for five months in all pediatric patients with cancer who had tunneled central lines.

FINDINGS
There was no statistically significant difference in alteplase usage rate pre- to postimplementation. A formal flushing guideline was recommended using saline and lower heparin concentrations for tunneled catheters.


Oral history in Canada has flourished over the past two decades. There is a lack of knowledge, however, regarding the depth of publications in the field and the numerous scholars across the country who are engaged in oral history methods. This annotated bibliography is intended to act as a research guide for interdisciplinary scholars in the field. The bibliography was completed in the fall of 2012 by Dr. Kristina R. Llewellyn and her research assistant Dana Nowak. The authors conducted extensive searches in social sciences and humanities library databases for published works in the field of oral history with a Canadian subject focus. Keyword searches associated with oral history were inclusive of, but not exclusive to, oral tradition, narrative, storytelling, and folklore. Some additions were made to the bibliography based on the authors' knowledge of other published works. The annotations are those provided by the authors and/or publishers (some with minor grammatical changes). The bibliography is only a partial list of Canadian oral history publications. The search methods particularly limited the findings for chapters in edited collections and articles published in journals outside the social sciences and humanities. Oral History Forum d'histoire orale is committed to updating this bibliography as the field continues to develop.


Dopamine D2 receptor signalling is strongly implicated in the aetiology of schizophrenia. We have recently characterized the function of three DRD2 SNPs: rs12364283 in the promoter affecting total D2 mRNA expression; rs2283265 and rs1076560, respectively in introns 5 and 6, shifting mRNA splicing to two functionally distinct isoforms, the short form of D2 (D2S) and the long form (D2L). These two isoforms differentially contribute to dopamine signalling in prefrontal cortex and in striatum. We performed a case-control study to determine association of these variants and of their main haplotypes with several schizophrenia-related phenotypes. We demonstrate that the minor allele in the intronic variants is associated with reduced expression of %D2S of total mRNA in post-mortem prefrontal cortex, and with impaired working memory behavioural performance, both in patients and controls. However, the fMRI results show opposite effects in patients compared with controls: enhanced engagement of prefronto-striatal pathways in controls and reduced activity in patients. Moreover, the promoter variant is also associated with working memory activity in prefrontal cortex and striatum of patients, and less robustly with negative symptoms scores. Main haplotypes formed by the three DRD2 variants showed significant associations with these phenotypes consistent with those of the individual SNPs. Our results indicate that the three functional DRD2 variants modulate schizophrenia phenotypes possibly by modifying D2S/D2L ratios in the context of different total D2 density.


This paper is concerned with issues of model quality and
model limitations in the context of applications involving
the design and development of relatively complex
engineering systems. Consideration is given to the role of
simulation models throughout the whole life cycle of an
engineering system from the initial specification stage
through all stages of system procurement, including
construction, testing, commissioning and approval. Issues
of model quality, testing and validation are emphasised in
the paper. The approaches considered stress the
importance of physically-based models within
engineering system design. Generic models and libraries
of re-usable sub-models are considered, especially in the
context of model testing, validation and approval.
Practical issues concerning the management and
maintenance of models throughout the life-cycle of the
systems that they represent are also given prominence.


A mathematical model for the simulation of engine start-up thermodynamics has been developed and validated against engine test data. This numerical model has been validated using engine test results for both single and multiple combustor flameouts, and reasonable agreement between test and simulation data has been observed. Numerical simulations have then been generated for flameout cases that have not been available from engine tests, such as flame failure in different combinations of combustors, and at different engine operating conditions. The mathematical model features object modeling of engine components with three gas compositions, being air, fuel, and combustion products. The combustion system has been represented by six combustors, and the gas stream from each combustor has been divided according to the number of the gas path thermocouples downstream from the combustion system. The effects of heat transfer within the combustors and turbine have been modeled. Two sets of thermocouples have been considered, the first being thermocouples installed in multiple combustor burners, and the second being an array of thermocouple probes which are circumferentially positioned in the engine hot gas path. All thermocouples have been modeled as first order dynamic systems. The numerical simulations have been successfully used to support development of a new partial flame failure detection method, which is based on the combined measurements from both sets of thermocouples. A range of numerical simulations have been conducted in order to assess the ability of this new detection algorithm to detect different partial flame failure scenarios, and to examine the sensitivity of the detection algorithm with respect to thermocouples faults.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


OBJECTIVE —It is not known whether glycemic instability may confer a risk of microvascular complications that is in addition to that predicted by the mean blood glucose (MBG) value alone. This study has analyzed data from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) to assess the effect of glucose variability on the risk of retinopathy and nephropathy in patients with type 1 diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS —Pre- and postprandial seven-point glucose profiles were collected quarterly during the DCCT in 1,441 individuals. The mean area under the curve glucose and the SD of glucose variability within 24 h and between visits were compared with the risk of retinopathy and nephropathy, having adjusted for age, sex, disease duration, treatment group, prevention cohort, and phase of treatment.

RESULTS —Multivariate Cox regression showed that within-day and between-day variability in blood glucose around a patient's mean value has no influence on the development or progression of either retinopathy ( P = 0.18 and P = 0.72, respectively) or nephropathy ( P = 0.32 and P = 0.57). Neither preprandial ( P = 0.18) nor postprandial ( P = 0.31) glucose concentrations preferentially contribute to the probability of retinopathy.

CONCLUSIONS —This study has shown that blood glucose variability does not appear to be an additional factor in the development of microvascular complications. Also, pre- and postprandial glucose values are equally predictive of the small-vessel complications of type 1 diabetes.


Small island states formed by atolls such as Marshall Islands, Kiribati and Tuvalu require useful and efficiency method of coastal monitoring for coastal management because of lack of human resources and budget. In atoll islands, the identification of shape of sandy beach and temporally accumulation area of sand has high importance in coastal management. In this study, neural network model to classify the aerial photographs pictured by UAV was established for identifying the sand area in the coastal zone of Fongafale island in Funafuti atoll, Tuvalu. Photographs of coastal sediments especially sand, in Fongafale island were collected by digital camera. These photographs were used to make the data set for training and testing of the constructed neural network model. Additionally, aerial photographs pictured by UAV were collected to apply to the constructed neural network model. In this study the convolution neural network was constructed to classify the aerial photographs.Recorded Presentation from the vICCE (YouTube Link): https://youtu.be/trHQOmsFpD4


Biosafety regulatory frameworks are intended to serve as mechanisms for ensuring the safe use of biotechnology products without imposing unacceptable risk to human health or the environment, or unintended constraints to technology transfer. In several regulatory systems GMO risk assessment has been separated from GMO risk management. As a consequence, risk assessment can be performed on a purely scientific basis, whereas risk management can take additional aspects (e.g. socio-economic or ethical) into consideration. For instance, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the keystone of European Union risk assessment regarding food and feed safety, provides independent scientific advice and clear communication on existing and emerging risks in close collaboration with national authorities and in open consultation with its stakeholders. Risk management measures are not within the remit of EFSA, and remain the responsibility of the European Commission and Member States. © ISBR, EDP Sciences, 2007.


Original data collected in the AARP-Andrus study were used as basis for comparative study of delayed recovery by disaster type, proximity, and relocation. Disaster samples included 109 flooded, 100 dioxin-contaminated, and 145 affected by both disasters at Times Beach or a total of 354 S's. Proximity (had or still resided on confirmed dioxin sites), and disaster type were significantly associated with delayed recovery. Relocation was not associated with recovery; however, lack of permanent relocation and attitudes toward relocation were found to affect recovery among the dioxin sample; with younger persons reporting greater effects than elders. Data support other studies on chemical disasters; and add the components of examining effects of relocation and proximity, and the prolonged effects of man-made disasters vs. natural disasters.


This paper investigates the costs of the three most popular types of employee share ownership schemes in the UK. It offers a method of establishing these costs and provides some rough calculations of their actual size for a set of large firms in the UK. It ends with some observations on how managers perceive the costs of employee chare ownership. Overall for the sample of 55 firms, the cost of employee chare ownership was equivalent to a shareholder loss, or 'dilution', of equity at a rate of 0.25% per annum. In absolute terms, the sample of companies spent somewhere more than u250 million on their employee share ownership schemes in 1988; this amounted to 2.19 per cent of recorded profits, and 1.30 per cent of the wage bill. Where companies had all three schemes in a mature form, their costs accounted for 2.58 per cent of the profits, and 1.48 per cent of the wage bill. In contrast, the managers whom we interviewed tended to see the schemes run by their companies as essentially costless, and even as a cheap way of raising money. They also judged it to be virtually impossible to gauge whether their schemes produced any benefits for the firm.


In 1942 the battle-hardened troops of the Japanese army overran Burma with frightening speed, sweeping a tide of refugees before them. For five months British and Indian troops tried to stem the invasion, but with inadequate equipment and numbers they were no match for the enemy. This unexpected invasion triggered the exodus of half a million people who abandoned their homes and set off on foot for India. They included the elderly, pregnant women, children and exhausted soldiers. Ill-equipped and ill-provisioned they were not prepared for a trek of several hundred miles through dense jungle and ridge upon ridge of steep mountains, Disease, starvation and exhaustion claimed thousands whose graves lie unmarked in some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. Whole families were wiped out, and hundreds drowned in the mud as the monsoon turned valleys into swamps and rivers into torrents. Even six months later jungle tracks were lined with the bones of those who had died trying to escape. Survivors lost everything. Scarred by their ordeal, most refused to speak of the nights sleeping among corpses, or the daily struggle for survival on the journey. Some used their diaries to expunge the sights and smells they witnessed along the way, and to record the death of friends and family. It was a terrible end to an idyllic life in this colonial outpost nicknamed the Golden Land. For the first time diaries, letters and official documents have been drawn on to bring to life this shocking episode in the British Empire's history. The author, Felicity Goodall, has retraced the routes taken by refugees through a country which was transformed from paradise to hell on earth. Her own travels bring added empathy and understanding to the story of those forced to flee when Burma became a battlefield.


An attempt was made to describe the experience of Christian religious education for its participants. This research is both ethnographic and hermeneutic. Thick descriptions gathered from ethnographic methods like participant observation, in-depth interviews, and journal keeping served as text for analysis. Weekly visits of one to four hours were made to each school, home, or community setting over the course of one school year. It became evident that for the two students (David and Rena) studied, activities in the home and school played a mom important role in structuring their experiences than did activities in church, youth groups, or their community. Five themes emerged from the research: (1) Story; (2) Community; (3) Growth; (4) Meaning; and (5) God. The findings within each theme were understood as being in dialectical tension with theoretical dispositions. This relationship between findings and theory meant that two questions had to be asked: "How does the life-world of the students inform the initial theory?"; and "What has been affirmed or rebutted in the experience of David and Rena as a result of the theory?" The research is concluded with a definition formed by interpretation of the research themes. That is, Christian religious education is attending to and cooperating with God's activities with others. Such education is characterized by love, trust, responsibility, and discipleship. Its goal is to promote right relationships with God and others. (BZ) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** THE MEANING OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION


Object of this research is the role of legal aid institutions in the City of Malang the protection of children victims of violence. in Indonesia rights violations - the right to become children of the commonly made in the ordinary and the mass media. in organizing and implementing child protection, the role of the community, including in this case the legal aid institutions KAI in Malang City.
Understanding of child protection was all activities to ensure and protect the child and the rights - rights that can live, grow, grow, and to participate optimally in accordance with the dignity and the dignity of humanity, and to protection from violence and discrimination. In this implicit understanding that the children protected from all forms of violence, the treatment is wrong, penelantaran, and exploitation.
Take this research problem formulation, among others, how to form - the form of role-KAI LBH Malang City in order to hold legal protection for child victims of violence? what efforts KAI LBH Malang City in the framework of the implementation of legal protection for child victims of violence? and what factors support and obstacle-KAI LBH Malang City in order to organize legal protection for child victims of violence?
The purpose of this research, among others, to know the form - the form of the role of legal institutions in order to help carry legal protection for child victims of violence, uoaya done by legal aid institutions in the framework of providing legal protection for child victims of violence, and factors - factors that support institutions and resistor legal assistance in the framework of providing legal protection for child victims of violence.
Research using this method juridical sociological approach that is the law is valid and what happens in reality in the community. Sources of data obtained from the location of the research or data that is collected directly from the field, in the form of interviews with informants and documents relating to.


We developed pyridoxal conjugated gold nanoparticles (CAPy-AuNPs) for the selective colorimetric detection of Cr3+ and iodide ions in an aqueous medium. The CAPy decorated AuNPs showed selective aggregation in the presence of Cr3+ and I− ions, resulting in a distinct color change from red to blue, which was in response to the surface plasmon resonance absorption of dispersed or aggregated nanoparticles. An assay was used to detect the concentrations of Cr3+ and I− in real samples, such as liquid milk, milk power, river and tap water, and urine, and the recoveries ranged from 90 to 123.6%, indicating that the method could be used for extensive practical applications in complicated environmental and biological samples.


The purpose of this research is to study the management system of information technology which supports the education of five private universities in Thailand, according to the case studies which have been developing their qualities and standards of management and education by service provision of information technology to support the excellence performance. The concept to connect information technology with a suitable system has been created by information technology administrators for development, as a system that can be used throughout the organizations to help reach the utmost benefits of using all resources. Hence, the researcher as a person who has been performing these duties within higher education is interested to do this research by selecting the Control Objective for Information and Related Technology 5 (COBIT 5) for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) of America, or the National Award which applies the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) to the organization evaluation. Such evaluation is called the Education Criteria for Performance Excellence (EdPEx) focuses on studying and comparing education quality development for excellent performance using COBIT 5 in terms of information technology to study the problems and obstacles of the investigation process for an information technology system, which is considered as an instrument to drive all organizations to reach the excellence performance of the information technology, and to be the model of evaluation and analysis of the process to be in accordance with the strategic plans of the information technology in the universities. This research is conducted in the form of descriptive and survey research according to the case studies. The data collection were carried out by using questionnaires through the administrators working related to the information technology field, and the research documents related to the change management as the main study. The research can be concluded that the performance based on the APO domain process (ALIGN, PLAN AND ORGANISE) of the COBIT 5 standard frame, which emphasizes concordant governance and management of strategic plans for the organizations, could reach only 95%. This might be because of some restrictions such as organizational cultures; therefore, the researcher has studied and analyzed the management of information technology in universities as a whole, under the organizational structures, to reach the performance in accordance with the overall APO domain which would affect the determined strategic plans to be able to develop based on the excellence performance of information technology, and to apply the risk management system at the organizational level into every performance process which would develop the work effectiveness for the resources management of information technology to reach the utmost benefits. Keywords—COBIT 5, APO, EdPEx Criteria, MBNQA. Kemkanit Sanyanunthana is with the Program in Information Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Suan Dusit University, Bangkok, Thailand (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).


In bilaterians and cnidarians, embryonic and epithelial cell-polarity are regulated by the interactions between Par proteins, Wnt/PCP signaling pathway, and cell-cell adhesion. Par proteins are highly conserved across Metazoa, including ctenophores. But strikingly, ctenophore genomes lack components of the Wnt/PCP pathway and cell-cell adhesion complexes; raising the question if ctenophore cells are polarized by mechanisms involving Par proteins. Here, by using immunohistochemistry and live-cell imaging overexpression of specific mRNAs, we describe for the first time the subcellular localization of selected Par proteins in blastomeres and epithelial cells during the embryogenesis of the ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi. We show that these proteins distribute differently compared to what has been described for other animals. This differential localization might be related with the emergence of different junctional complexes during Metazoa evolution. Data obtained here challenge the ancestry of the apicobasal cell polarity and raise questions about the homology of epithelial tissue across the Metazoa.


It is well known that the performance of adaptive arrays is affected by calibration errors. In particular, target cancellation occurs when there are calibration errors and/or the target signal is present during the computation of the array covariance matrix. Due to the mismatch between the presumed steering vector and the true signal vector, the target is not properly protected by the steering vector, it is interpreted as an interference, and the array proceeds to cancel it. Signal cancellation effects are particularly evident when the SMI method is employed. Researchers have suggested one of two main approaches to mitigate the signal cancellation problem: (1) modification of the beamformer constraints to widen the desired signal protection region and lessen the effects of calibration errors, and (2) modifications of the steering vector. In this work we analyze the robustness of eigenanalysis-based adaptive beamforming and compare its performance to the SMI method. It is shown that the eigenanalysis-based method is more robust to array pointing errors and to the presence of the target signal during training. Analytical expressions are developed and the results are illustrated using realistic scenarios generated by the Rome Laboratory RLSTAP algorithm development tool.


BACKGROUND: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is an occupational hazard among healthcare professionals accidentally contaminated with HIV-positive blood. This study is aimed at describing the characteristics of the accidents involving blood of HIV-positive patients recorded over a sixteen-year period at a general hospital. METHODS: Epidemiological study of the accidents reported in 2001 involving biological material from an HIV-positive source by the healthcare personnel of a general hospital throughout the 1986-2001 period entailing the presence of biological material from HIV-positive serology individuals. Individual, time and place-related variables, in addition to the initial serologies and those throughout the protocolized follow-up were studied for those individuals involved in these accidents. RESULTS: A total 550 accidents entailing an HIV-positive source were reported. The average number of accidents was 34.4/year. The accidental exposure rate for the period under study was 7.5/1000 workers/year. The professional group showing the highest accident rate was the nursing staff (54.4%). Percutaneous injuries were the most frequent (80.2%). The mean exposure rate was 2.6/100 beds/year. The anatomical areas involved to the greatest degree were the fingers (75.6%). A total 53.4% of those injured completed the serological follow-up without having shown any seroconversion. CONCLUSIONS: Throughout the sixteen-year period under study, the annual incidence of accidents involving an HIV-positive source increased from the 27 accidents reported in 1986 to the 60 accidents reported in 1990, there having been a downward trend as of that point in time, to the point of 12 accidents having been recorded in 2001.


A continuum of managed care options has evolved reflecting differing health care market characteristics. Alternative health plans are increasing, outdistancing the "gold standard" staff model HMOs. A dizzying array of options, however, has led to considerable confusion. Direct contracting has evolved as a way for employers to understand what they are paying for and to managed costs. Increases in managed care, and a degree of financial distress, will encourage the development of integrated networks. National reform is unlikely to convert today's loosely structured system to a fully integrated system overnight, but will stimulate managed care in markets sooner than otherwise expected.


Accepted, October 31, 2003. OBJECTIVE: To determine the association between traumatic cerebral ischemia and intravascular thrombosis, a common finding after traumatic brain injury (TBI). METHODS: We reviewed samples of the frontal cortex and hippocampus from individuals who had sustained a fatal TBI. Sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin were reviewed and rated for severity of selective neuronal necrosis (SNN). Because intravascular fibrin microthrombi may lyse within a few days of TBI, we restricted our analysis to patients who had died within 48 hours of injury. Medical records in all cases were reviewed to rule out severe or prolonged hypotension or hypoxemia. Eleven patients with severe or global SNN were compared with 11 patients in whom SNN was mild or absent. Slides adjacent to the hematoxylin and eosin sections were stained with an immunofluorescent antibody to antithrombin III and were reviewed for intravascular microthrombosis. The number of microthrombi on each slide was counted by an investigator blinded to the hematoxylin and eosin findings, and density of intravascular microthrombi was calculated. RESULTS: Intravascular microthrombi were noted in every section, excluding control (non-TBI) brain tissue. However, the density of microthrombi varied with the degree of SNN. We found a highly significant difference in the mean density of microthrombi between patients with severe SNN (7.74 3.7/cm) and those with little or no SNN (2.58 1.0/cm). Furthermore, a good correlation was noted between the location of intravascular microthrombi and that of SNN. CONCLUSION: These data support a strong link between intravascular microthrombosis and neuronal death after brain trauma in humans and may have important implications for new therapeutic approaches.


Knowledge graphs are structured representations of real world facts. However, they typically contain only a small subset of all possible facts. Link prediction is a task of infer-ring missing facts based on existing ones. We propose TuckER, a relatively straightforward but powerful linear model based on Tucker decomposition of the binary tensor representation of knowledge graph triples. TuckER outperforms previous state-of-the-art models across standard link prediction datasets, acting as a strong baseline for more elaborate models. We show that TuckER is a fully expressive model, derive sufficient bounds on its embedding dimensionalities and demonstrate that several previously introduced linear models can be viewed as special cases of TuckER.


Given that mung beans constitute a significant nutrient source in many cultures, it is worthwhile to investigate ways to improve their nutritional and functional properties. The effect of fermentation of mung beans by Bacillus subtilis subsp. natto was investigated in various reactor designs, including static, shaking flasks, and soft elastic tubular reactors (SETR). The results showed that all three processes might affect the substrate, resulting in changes in the protein and carbohydrate fractions. We noticed an increase in soluble protein and serine levels, which we attribute to the proteases produced during fermentation. Through XRD, FTIR, and DSC analyses, it was also discovered that whereas static and shaking flask fermentation might raise relative crystallinity and peak temperature, fermentation performed on the SETR decreased these values. It was also possible to notice that SETR might induce a change in the particle size distribution of the substrate through a complex impact of mechanical forces, mixing, and microbial activity, which could be helpful to some aspects of the process. To summarize, fermentation of mung beans by Bacillus. subtilis subsp. natto could be an attractive approach for producing a food ingredient with various functional and nutritional properties. Furthermore, the SETR has been shown to be a viable technique for dealing with high solid load substrates, whether as the reactor for the entire process or as a first stage/pre-treatment step, and its applicability in bioprocesses should be explored further.


For many (minority) languages, the resources needed to train large models are not available. We investigate the performance of zero-shot transfer learning with as little data as possible, and the influence of language similarity in this process. We retrain the lexical layers of four BERT-based models using data from two low-resource target language varieties, while the Transformer layers are independently fine-tuned on a POS-tagging task in the model's source language. By combining the new lexical layers and fine-tuned Transformer layers, we achieve high task performance for both target languages. With high language similarity, 10MB of data appears sufficient to achieve substantial monolingual transfer performance. Monolingual BERT-based models generally achieve higher downstream task performance after retraining the lexical layer than multilingual BERT, even when the target language is included in the multilingual model.


There have been plenty of writings about ancient pigments, how to obtain them, what they contain, their physical and chemical properties, and how to identify them and, as they say, buckets of ink have been consumed in the process. What I feel needs emphasising here are some particular aspects that have been frequently overlooked. This paper is nothing other than a number of annotations about colours and pigments in the ancient world. The figurative expression of meaning is the first considered aspect. Blue ultramarine and purple are the two demonstrative considered examples where the "material meaning" is substituted by the "colour meaning". The second considered aspect is the formulae uncertainty. This concerns the artificial pigments as the Ceruse or the Naples Yellow where the comprehension of the recipes is fundamental to understand the ancient composition. Prices, fashion and styles in the Roman world is the last considered aspect. This has strongly conditioned the diffusion of the pigments and, of course, of the colours.


The LORAAS instrument aboard the ARGOS satellite observes line‐of‐sight ultraviolet limb intensities from ionosphere and thermosphere airglow. This study uses tomographically reconstructed electron density profiles (EDPs) from the nightside emissions. The ionospheric reconstruction is performed using a two‐dimensional O+ 1356Å radiative recombination forward model and discrete inverse theory. The forward model assumes a Chapman layer for the vertical electron density distribution from which hmF2, NmF2, and topside scale height are derived for every 90 s limb scan, which is equivalent to 5° resolution in latitude. Since ARGOS is in a near Sun‐synchronous orbit, these EDPs form a latitude slice through the equatorial anomaly structures at approximately 0230 LT. These data reflect ongoing ionospheric processes, and it is necessary to assimilate or compare with a model that contains appropriate ionospheric evolution such as the ionospheric forecast model (IFM). This study addresses the reasonableness of both the reconstructed EDPs and the IFM in describing the equatorial anomalies' diurnal and weather variability. The comparison of the LORASS EDPs with those of IFM for October 2000 show that the EDP reconstruction results compare favorably to the IFM EDPs in peak height and topside scale height. Additionally, the sector‐to‐sector climatology of the observed and modeled equatorial anomalies is similar to within the resolution of the instrument and model. The variability observed in each pass of the satellite is much larger than the IFM variability. The LORASS observation variability indicates that careful assessment of the representation error of the observations should be addressed through supplemental observations.


To keep your sales, manufacturing, distribution, and inventory moving in perfect synchronization, you need a flawless, repeatable supply chain improvement approach that maximizes process efficiency, eliminates dysfunction, and aligns disparate organizations—globally. Supply Chain Excellence, ahead of the curve in its original edition, again breaks new ground with a highly compressed timeline for using the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) framework to plan and execute supply chain improvement. In addition to the value chain processes of DCOR and CCOR, the book is now adapted for use in an SAP environment, in global enterprises, and by small businesses. Featuring examples and experience from roughly 100 projects, the completely updated third edition refines the use of the scorecard for better process analysis; extends the approach to encompass implementation and strategy; and quantifies the financial value of supply chain improvement to demonstrate its importance in achieving lasting competitive advantage.


It is a common complaint that the science of cognition does not do justice to either the reality of cognition in the wild or to the demands of engineering socio-technical systems. This article draws on examples from early functionalist/ pragmatist views in psychology, modern physics and dynamical systems theory to 15 explore the ontological basis of this complaint. Tentative steps are made toward a new way to frame an ontology of experience. In this framework, the duality (complementary nature) of control and observation is offered as an alternative to the dichotomy (independent nature) of mind and matter.


We examine the integration of IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) and IMS Learning Design (LD) in implementations of E-learning from both pedagogical and technological points of view. We propose the use of interactivity as a parameter to evaluate the quality of assessment and E-learning, and assess various cases of individual and group study for their interactivity, ease of coding, flexibility, and reusability. We conclude that presenting assessments using IMS QTI provides flexibility and reusability within an IMS LD Unit Of Learning (UOL) for individual study. For group study, however, the use of QTI items may involve coding difficulties if group members need to wait for their feedback until all students have attempted a question, and QTI items may not be able to be used at all if the QTI services are implemented within a service-oriented architecture.


Abstract. While the role of microboring organisms, or euendoliths, is relatively well known in dead coral skeletons, their function in live corals remains poorly understood. They are suggested to behave like ectosymbionts or parasites, impacting their host's health. However, the species composition of microboring communities, their abundance and dynamics in live corals under various environmental conditions have never been explored. Here, the effect of phosphate enrichment on boring microorganisms in live corals was tested for the first time. Stylophora pistillata nubbins were exposed to 3 different treatments (phosphate concentrations of 0, 0.5 and 2.5 μmol l−1) during 15 weeks. After 15 weeks of phosphate enrichment, petrographic thin sections were prepared for observation with light microscopy, and additional samples were examined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Euendoliths comprised mainly phototrophic Ostreobium sp. filaments. Rare filaments of heterotrophic fungi were also observed. Filaments were densely distributed in the central part of nubbins, and less abundant towards the apex. Unexpectedly, there was a visible reduction of filament abundance in the most recently calcified apical part of phosphate-enriched nubbins. The overall abundance of euendoliths significantly decreased, from 9.12 ± 1.09% of the skeletal surface area in unenriched corals, to 5.81 ± 0.77% and 5.27 ± 0.34% in 0.5 and 2.5 μmol l−1-phosphate enriched corals respectively. SEM observations confirmed this decrease. Recent studies have shown that phosphate enrichment increases coral skeletal growth and metabolic rates, while it decreases skeletal density and resilience to mechanical stress. We thus hypothesize that increased skeletal growth in the presence of phosphate enrichment occurred too fast for an effective expansion of euendolith growth. They could not keep up with coral growth, so they became diluted in the apex areas as nubbins grew with phosphate enrichment. Results from the present study suggest that coral skeletons of S. pistillata will not be further weakened by euendoliths under phosphate enrichment.


Software testing is a critical activity in the software development life cycle for quality assurance. Automated Test Case Generation (TCG) can assist developers by speeding up this process. It accomplishes this by evolving an initial set of randomly generated test cases over time to optimize for predefined coverage criteria. One of the key challenges for automated TCG approaches is navigating the large input space. Existing state-of-the-art TCG algorithms struggle with generating highly-structured input data and preserving patterns in test structures, among others. I hypothesize that combining multiple tribes of AI can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of automated TCG. To test this hypothesis, I propose using grammar-based fuzzing and machine learning to augment evolutionary algorithms for generating more structured input data and preserving promising patterns within test cases. Additionally, I propose to use behavioral modeling and interprocedural control dependency analysis to improve test effectiveness. Finally, I propose integrating these novel approaches into a testing framework to promote the adoption of automated TCG in industry.


ABSTRACT Mutations in two specific regions of the Fks1 subunit of 1,3-β-d-glucan synthase are known to confer decreased caspofungin susceptibility on Candida spp. Clinical isolates of Candida spp. (404 Candida albicans, 62 C. tropicalis, and 21 C. krusei isolates) sent to the French National Reference Center were prospectively screened for susceptibility to caspofungin in vitro by the broth microdilution reference method of the Antifungal Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee of the European Committee on Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AFST-EUCAST). Twenty-eight isolates (25 C. albicans, 2 C. tropicalis, and 1 C. krusei isolate) for which the caspofungin MIC was above the MIC that inhibited 90% of the isolates of the corresponding species (MIC90) were subjected to molecular analysis in order to identify mutations in the fks1 gene. Substitutions in the deduced protein sequence of Fks1 were found for 8 isolates, and 20 isolates had the wild-type sequence. Among the six C. albicans isolates harboring mutations, six patterns were observed involving amino acid changes at positions 641, 645, 649, and 1358. For C. tropicalis, one isolate showed an L644W mutation, and for one C. krusei isolate, two mutations, L658W and L701M, were found. Two media, RPMI medium and AM3, were tested for their abilities to distinguish between isolates with wild-type Fks1 and those with mutant Fks1. In RPMI medium, caspofungin MICs ranged from 0.25 to 2 μg/ml for wild-type isolates and from 1 to 8 μg/ml for mutant isolates. A sharper difference was observed in AM3: all wild-type isolates were inhibited by 0.25 μg/ml of caspofungin, while caspofungin MICs for all mutant isolates were ≥0.5 μg/ml. These data demonstrate that clinical isolates of C. albicans, C. tropicalis, and C. krusei with decreased susceptibility to caspofungin in vitro have diverse mutations in the fks1 gene and that AM3 is potentially a better medium than RPMI for distinguishing between mutant and wild-type isolates using the AFST-EUCAST method.


Background: Several studies have suggested that vitamin D (VD) deficiency (VDD) is associated with atopic dermatitis (AD). However, little is known about the relationship between AD and vitamin A (VA). The interaction between VA and VD on AD requires further study. Objective: We detected serum levels of VA and VD in children with AD to explore how VA deficiency (VAD) and VDD affect AD severity. Methods: We assessed the SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (SCORAD) index, total immunoglobin E levels and peripheral blood eosinophil counts. VA and VD levels were determined with high-performance liquid chromatography. Correlations among variables were investigated with Pearson's correlation analysis. Results: The VD and VA levels were significantly lower in children with AD than in normal children (p < 0.001, p = 0.0423). Both VD and VA levels were negatively correlated with SCORAD scores. The SCORAD scores were significantly higher in AD patients with both VDD and VAD (co-deficiency) than in other AD patients. Significant inverse correlations were observed between peripheral blood eosinophil counts and serum VA and VD levels. Conclusions: VA and VD co-deficiency may exacerbate AD symptoms in children, but the specific mechanism underlying this relationship requires further study. These findings may indicate the need for studies evaluating the use of VD and VA as potential treatments for AD patients.


Meprins, multimeric metalloproteases expressed in kidney and intestinal epithelial cells as well as in certain leukocytes and cancer cells, have the ability to hydrolyze a variety of growth factors, vasoactive peptides, cytokines, and extracellular matrix proteins. The meprin B isoform exists primarily as a cell-surface homooligomer composed of disulfide-linked, multidomain β-subunits. To gain insight into how the tertiary and quaternary structure of meprin B affects function, the disulfide-bonding pattern and sites of domain-domain interactions were investigated using sedimentation equilibrium ultracentrifugation, cross-linking, and mass spectrometry techniques. Three symmetrical intersubunit disulfide bonds were identified in the noncatalytic interaction domains; two in the MAM (meprin, A-5 protein, protein-tyrosine phosphatase μ) domain and one in the TRAF (tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor) domain. These disulfide bridges are unique for the known homophilic interactions of these domains. Mutation of any of the intersubunit cysteine residues resulted in the inability of meprin B to form disulfide-linked dimers. The four cysteines of the protease domain formed intradomain disulfide bonds. The MAM domain also had one intradomain disulfide bond and one free cysteine. Cross-linking studies of the meprin B dimer with the amine-reactive cross-linker disuccinimidyl suberate revealed inter- and intradomain contacts within the protein, including prosequence-prosequence, protease-TRAF, protease-epidermal growth factor, and TRAF-TRAF interactions. From these observations, a model of the meprin B dimer structure is proposed that provides insight into the relationship between structure and function of this isoform.