Accumulating evidence suggests that alterations in immune function may be important in the etiology of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC). To identify genetic markers in immune-related pathways, we evaluated 3,985 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 230 candidate gene regions (adhesion-extravasation-migration, arachidonic acid metabolism/eicosanoid signaling, complement and coagulation cascade, cytokine signaling, innate pathogen detection and antimicrobials, leukocyte signaling, TNF/NF-kB pathway or other) in a case-control study of 344 PTC cases and 452 controls. We used logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (OR) and calculate one degree of freedom P values of linear trend (PSNP-trend) for the association between genotype (common homozygous, heterozygous, variant homozygous) and risk of PTC. To correct for multiple comparisons, we applied the false discovery rate method (FDR). Gene region- and pathway-level associations (PRegion and PPathway) were assessed by combining individual PSNP-trend values using the adaptive rank truncated product method. Two SNPs (rs6115, rs6112) in the SERPINA5 gene were significantly associated with risk of PTC (PSNP-FDR/PSNP-trend = 0.02/6×10−6 and PSNP-FDR/PSNP-trend = 0.04/2×10−5, respectively). These associations were independent of a history of autoimmune thyroiditis (OR = 6.4; 95% confidence interval: 3.0–13.4). At the gene region level, SERPINA5 was suggestively associated with risk of PTC (PRegion-FDR/PRegion = 0.07/0.0003). Overall, the complement and coagulation cascade pathway was the most significant pathway (PPathway = 0.02) associated with PTC risk largely due to the strong effect of SERPINA5. Our results require replication but suggest that the SERPINA5 gene, which codes for the protein C inhibitor involved in many biological processes including inflammation, may be a new susceptibility locus for PTC.


Abstract According to the EC Directive on Takeover Bids, defensive measures should be authorised by the general meeting of the target company. The incumbent board can, nonetheless, search for a competing bid, a so-called "white knight". The rationale underpinning this exception is that competing bids always benefit target's shareholders. In this paper I will tackle this rationale, arguing that even competing bids could generate a pressure to tender on target's shareholders and, therefore, in this case should not be considered as a benefit for them.


Autism is a complex neurobehavioral disorder that causes problems in thinking, feeling, language, and the ability to communicate with other people. Over the past two decades, there has been a great deal of interest in autism disorder. This problem is recognized worldwide, and various measures are taken both nationally and internationally to improve the lives of affected individuals and families. The oral health care of such patients can be complicated since they cannot express their problems and can show unpredictable behaviors during treatment. The aim of the literature review was to collect information about the general oral health status of patients with autism, the difficulties that may be encountered during treatment, and the precautions that can be taken and the treatment approaches. This article reviews the dental literature from 1943 to the present.


Acute transverse myelitis is defined as an acquired neuroimmune disorder of the spinal cord, which occurs as a consequence of a primary event, or directly related to an autoimmune inflammatory disease, an infectious or post-infectious disease. Amongst infectious etiologies, Borrelia spp., a tick-bourne anthropozoonosis of the ixodidae family, prevails. Approximately 10 to 15% of patients with Lyme disease undergo neurologic manifestations, with an assorted and uncertain array of clinical syndromes. Transverse myelitis accounts for up to 5% of Lyme neuroborreliosis. We describe the case of a traveler from endemic zone for Lyme disease, with encephalomyelitis secondary to acute infection by Borrelia burgderfori, with complete resolution of symptoms after concluding adequate antibiotic treatment.


The virulence of 135 single-spore isolates of Pyrenophora tritici-repentis , collected from durum wheat fields representing most of the major agro-ecological zones of Morocco from 2013 to 2015, was assessed on six international differential wheat genotypes under controlled conditions. Races 1, 5, 6 and 7 were identified with races 5 and 6 being most frequent, representing 47% and 44% of isolates tested, respectively. Only eight isolates (6%) collected at two research stations and a farm field near a station in 2014 and 2015 were race 1, while three isolates collected in 2014 in a farm field in north-eastern Morocco were race 7. The uniform race structure in farm fields may be due to overreliance on a limited and narrow genetic base for durum wheat crops in Morocco. However, the identification of four races is significant since P. tritici-repentis can generate new combinations of virulence, thereby increasing race diversity. Combined with the low wheat diversity this may lead to future severe disease epidemics.


Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide, and the most common cancer among women in developing countries. The causal role of human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in invasive cervical cancers is acknowledged beyond reasonable doubt, and the ability to vaccinate against HPV can drastically reduce the incidence of cervical cancer worldwide. There are currently marketed HPV vaccines that make use of HPV L1 virus-like particles (VLPs), and while these VLP vaccines confer immunogenicity, they are expensive, thermosensitive, and require multiple doses. Expression of the HPV L1 protein in Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria has the potential to reduce production costs, while lyophilization creates a thermostable powdered vaccine formulation, and atomic layer deposition (ALD) generates a platform for a single-administration prime-boost vaccination. By using E. coli cells for protein expression, endotoxin is therefore present and must be removed prior to vaccine injection. This is done through protein purification and further development into a powderized vaccine particle. The research project described in this thesis details the tracing of endotoxin levels throughout HPV16 L1 vaccine purification and particle production. Endotoxin is removed by the multi-step purification and it is hypothesized that it is removed in varying extents during the different steps. It is also hypothesized that endotoxin is not reintroduced during particle production. In order to test these hypotheses, and determine which stages yield the most removal or reintroduction of endotoxin, an endotoxin assay is run with samples at each stage of the protein purification, spray drying, and ALD coating processes. The endotoxin assay is crucial in determining where, if anywhere, endotoxin is reintroduced after purification. The results of the endotoxin assay are used to effectively fine-tune the vaccine development process in order to create a safe and effective second generation HPV vaccine.


Assessing the stock status of mixed and/or multi-species fishery resources is challenging. This is especially true in highly diverse systems, where landed catches are small, but comprise many species. In these circumstances, whole-of-ecosystem management requires consideration of the impact of harvesting on a plethora of species. However, this is logistically infeasible and cost prohibitive. To overcome this issue, selected 'indicator' species are used to assess the risk to sustainability of all 'like' species susceptible to capture within a fishery resource. Indicator species are determined via information on their (1) inherent vulnerability, i.e. biological attributes; (2) risk to sustainability, i.e. stock status; and (3) management importance, i.e. commercial prominence, social and/ or cultural amenity value of the resource. These attributes are used to determine an overall score for each species which is used to identify 'indicator' species. The risk status (i.e. current risk) of the indicator species then determines the risk-level for the biological sustainability of the entire fishery resource and thus the level of priority for management, monitoring, assessment and compliance. A range of fishery management regimes are amenable to the indicator species approach, including both effort limited fisheries (e.g. individually transferable effort systems) and output controlled fisheries (e.g. species-specific catch quotas). The indicator species approach has been used and refined for fisheries resources in Western Australia over two decades. This process is now widely understood and accepted by stakeholders, as it focuses fishery dependentand/or independentmonitoring, biological sampling, stock assessment and compliance priorities, thereby optimising the use of available jurisdictional resources.


This paper explores the notion of 'ethnic group' focussing, in particular, on attempts to transform the concept into an empirical indicator in population censuses. The latter is seen to be riven with difficulties, not least the fact that such measures tend to be attempting to address two conflicting agendas – one requiring an ascriptive, the other a subjective, measure. Illustrating the core arguments with the decennial census in Britain, the paper explores the contested political terrain underpinning the introduction of such a question, and then demonstrates that the construction of an 'ethnic group' indicator takes the form of a complex dialectical process involving negotiation and re-negotiation on the part of a myriad of social actors and structural forces at macro-, meso- and micro-levels. Finally, it reflects on broader concerns arising from the reification of the measure, not least its material effects in the context of debates and policies on 'multiculturalism'.


Background: Patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc)–associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) have a far worse prognosis than those with idiopathic PAH (IPAH). In the intact heart, SSc-PAH exhibits depressed rest and reserve right ventricular (RV) contractility compared with IPAH. We tested whether this disparity involves underlying differences in myofilament function. Methods: Cardiac myocytes were isolated from RV septal endomyocardial biopsies from patients with SSc-PAH, IPAH, or SSc with exertional dyspnea but no resting PAH (SSc-d); control RV septal tissue was obtained from nondiseased donor hearts (6–7 per group). Isolated myocyte passive length-tension and developed tension-calcium relationships were determined and correlated with in vivo RV function and reserve. RV septal fibrosis was also examined. Results: Myocyte passive stiffness from length-tension relations was similarly increased in IPAH and SSc-PAH compared with control, although SSc-PAH biopsies had more interstitial fibrosis. More striking disparities were found between active force-calcium relations. Compared with controls, maximal calcium-activated force (Fmax) was 28% higher in IPAH but 37% lower in SSc-PAH. Fmax in SSc-d was intermediate between control and SSc-PAH. The calcium concentration required for half-maximal force (EC50) was similar between control, IPAH, and SSc-d but lower in SSc-PAH. This disparity disappeared in myocytes incubated with the active catalytic subunit of protein kinase A. Myocyte Fmax directly correlated with in vivo RV contractility assessed by end-systolic elastance (R2=0.46, P=0.002) and change in end-systolic elastance with exercise (R2=0.49, P=0.008) and was inversely related with exercise-induced chamber dilation (R2=0.63, P<0.002), which also was a marker of depressed contractile reserve. Conclusions: A primary defect in human SSc-PAH resides in depressed sarcomere function, whereas this is enhanced in IPAH. These disparities correlate with in vivo RV contractility and contractile reserve and are consistent with worse clinical outcomes in SSc-PAH. The existence of sarcomere disease before the development of resting PAH in patients with SSc-d suggests that earlier identification and intervention may prove useful.


As the biggest Chinese free trade agreement (FTA) to the date of its signature, the China-Korea FTA provides an amazing case study for the development of China's recent FTAs. This paper analyzes major challenges in its rule development, implementation, and interpretation. The author argues, first, that rule development encounters market liberalization, regulatory cooperation and coherence, as well as sectoral challenges. Second, the fundamental issue for rule implementation and interpretation is the lack of a 'systemic' response to the relationship among FTA chapters, and to the relationship among the China-Korea FTA, domestic law, and international law. Finally, the relationship between the China-Korea FTA and World Trade Organization (WTO) law deserves special attention, which consists of five categories of circumstances. A number of questions are analyzed: which WTO rules apply to the China-Korea FTA? Do WTO rules apply to WTO-plus obligations? Can WTO jurisprudence be applied to the China-Korea FTA? The issue of the applicability of WTO rules and jurisprudence to FTA obligations including WTO-plus obligations remains open. These challenges are not unique to the China-Korea FTA and are likely to exist in other Chinese FTAs.


Microcircuit response to nuclear radiations has become an increasingly important concern over the past year. This discussion will consider transient radiation effects (TRE); a companion discussion will cover space radiation effects. The interesting effects occur in two areas: displacement effects resulting from fast neutron irradiation, and ionizing effects caused by prompt pulses composed of x-rays and ?-rays. Fast neutron degradation of microcircuit performance is dominated by transistor current gain reduction. Current gain degradation in microcircuit transistor elements follows the same laws as current gain reduction in discrete transistors of similar base region design and geometry.


W.C. Rounds and G.-Q. Zhang have recently proposed to study a form of resolution on algebraic domains [Rounds and Zhang, 2001]. This framework allows reasoning with knowledge which is hierarchically structured and forms a (suitable) domain, more precisely, a coherent algebraic cpo as studied in domain theory. In this paper, we give conditions under which a resolution theorem — in a form underlying resolution-based logic programming systems — can be obtained. The investigations bear potential for engineering new knowledge representation and reasoning systems on a firm domaintheoretic background.


It is generally acknowledged that harmonic distortion levels on distribution networks are slowly but steadily increasing due to the proliferation of non-linear loads. While customer complaints relating to harmonic distortion levels are relatively uncommon, and measured levels of harmonic distortion are typically well within the limits specified by national regulations and international standards, the increasing trend may mean that more active management by utilities will soon be required. Effective management of harmonic distortion levels will require knowledge not only of the level of disturbance, but also of how the disturbance levels vary with time, location, and the connected load. Accepted methods of assessing harmonic levels that rely on (typically 95%) cumulative probability statistics are inadequate for this level of insight. In this paper voltage total harmonic distortion levels (THDnu) from a distribution network power quality survey are analysed in terms of variation with time, the relationship of the measured THDnu levels to system load and the physical characteristics of the monitored sites.


We propose a fully nonlinear framework to construct consistency relations for testing generic cosmological scenarios using the evolution of large scale structure. It is based on the covariant approach in combination with a frame that is purely given by the metric, the normal frame. As an example, we apply this framework to the ΛCDM model, by extending the usual first order conditions on the metric potentials to second order, where the two potentials start to differ from each other. We argue that working in the normal frame is not only a practical choice but also helps with the physical interpretation of nonlinear dynamics. In this frame, effective pressures and anisotropic stresses appear at second order in perturbation theory, even for ``pressureless'' dust. We quantify their effect and compare them, for illustration, to the pressure of a generic clustering dark energy fluid and the anisotropic stress in the DGP model. Besides, we also discuss the effect of a mismatch of the potentials on the determination of galaxy bias.


Estimation of heterogeneous treatment effects is an active area of research in causal inference. Most of the existing methods, however, focus on estimating the conditional average treatment effects of a single, binary treatment given a set of pre-treatment covariates. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the heterogeneous causal effects of high-dimensional treatments, which poses unique challenges in terms of estimation and interpretation. The proposed approach is based on a Bayesian mixture of regularized logistic regressions to identify groups of units who exhibit similar patterns of treatment effects. By directly modeling cluster membership with covariates, the proposed methodology allows one to explore the unit characteristics that are associated with different patterns of treatment effects. Our motivating application is conjoint analysis, which is a popular survey experiment in social science and marketing research and is based on a high-dimensional factorial design. We apply the proposed methodology to the conjoint data, where survey respondents are asked to select one of two immigrant profiles with randomly selected attributes. We find that a group of respondents with a relatively high degree of prejudice appears to discriminate against immigrants from non-European countries like Iraq. An open-source software package is available for implementing the proposed methodology.


Elevated antibody (Ab) titers to measles virus (MV) is a frequent finding in MS. Although MV-Abs are synthesized intrathecally, it is not known whether this is due to polyclonal activation of B cells recruited from the blood, recognition of MV antigens within the CNS, or cross-reactivity with myelin antigens. This study examined these possibilities using purified MV polypeptides. We examined Ab reactivity to each polypeptide in serum and CSF from 21 MS patients, 5 with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE), and 11 patients with other neurologic diseases (OND), and serum from 5 patients with acute MV infection and 11 normal controls. The serum of all subjects tested contained reactivity with MV and the 5 polypeptides. Of 21 MS patients, 20 had CSF reactivity with MV compared with 3/11 ONDs and 5/5 SSPE patients. Intrathecal MV-Ab synthesis was present in 11/21 MS patients, 5/5 SSPE, and in none of the ONDs. Nine of 21 MS patients had intrathecal synthesis of Ab to 2 MV polypeptides. Serum and CSF reactivity in MS patients was skewed towards the F polypeptide. The results are consistent with the concept of polyclonal B cell activation within the CNS, but the heightened response to F could also reflect cross-reactivity with a relevant antigen in MS.


Experiential education is widely considered an effective pedagogy to foster learning for our rapidly changing world. Despite this, residential fieldtrips are on the decline. Recent advances in full-immersion virtual reality (VR) technology offer great potential to make situated experiential education, such as fieldtrips, more accessible to educational institutions, however, research on VR technology's effectiveness in this context is lacking. This article documents exploratory action research which examines the effectiveness of full-immersion VR technology for experiential education by adopting a user experience (UX) analytical frame. Six university staff and five students who participated in a trial of a virtual environment developed for sustainable tourism education, discussed their user experience through semi-structured interviews. The UX lens which distinguished between three UX facets during the analysis, beyond the instrumental, emotion and affect, experiential, serves to identify research areas requiring attention and assists in the technology's improvement prioritisation. Interviews revealed many positive perspectives thus lending support to VR technology's suitability to foster experiential education, however, several negative experiences were also identified; principally motion sickness. The exploratory findings suggest that more research is warranted to more comprehensively examine VR technology's capacity to foster experiential education and locate VR's place in the education landscape.


Millions of individuals in our nation's rural and urban regions have access to work prospects thanks to the handloom, a traditional industry in India. The handloom business has suffered since modernization. The creations of new technology capitalist rule, a decline in salaries, a rise in the price of yarn, as well as other issues, are the concerns. This current study is mainly textual. The handloom industry has significant marketing related challenges. In selling the fabric to the consumer, intermediaries are important. Due to improper marketing, the cotton industry has supplanted the handloom industry's traditional market in India, where it dominates textile manufacturing. This handloom industry needs to develop a comprehensive marketing plan. Our research deals with doing a descriptive analysis of a comparable organization that aspires to conserve Thanjavur's hand woven legacy. The inquiry would encourage research on the benefits it provided for the weavers and the existing environment


Sodium stearate modified montmorillonite(SSTA-MMT) is prepared by using the anion surfactant sodium stearate, and its structure is characterized by X-ray and FI-IR diffraction. The results show that sodium stearate can be intercalated into the interlayers of montmorillonite and the layer spacing is expanded from 12.74 to 48.05 Å with the loading concentration of sodium stearate increasing from 5 % to 100 % CEC of Na-MMT. The adsorption of methylene blue onto SSTA-MMT experiments show that the adsorption kinetic of methylene blue onto SSTA-MMT can be best described by the pseudo-second-order model and that the adsorption isotherm of methylene blue is in good agreement with the Langmuir equation.


In the Port and Tanker Safety Act of 1978 the U. S. Congress directed the Department of Transportation to perform a study of the desirability and feasibility of a shore station system for monitoring vessels, including fishing vessels, offshore within the 200 nm U. S. Fishery Conservation Zone (FCZ), and provide a report of the findings and recommendations to Congress in October 1980. This paper presents a summary of the study. Coast Guard missions that a Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) would directly benefit are: Port and Environmental Safety, Enforcement of Laws and Treaties, and Search and Rescue. Most other missions would receive indirect benefits. The benefits to the mariner are operating cost savings, due to improved efficiency, and improved safety at sea. A VMS concept called the Offshore Traffic Information System (OTIS) was developed which utilizes computer correlation techniques to derive vessel movement data augmented with vessel reports and remote sensor data. A major function of OTIS is to provide timely vessel information to the decision makers and field personnel for effective use of resources. Vessel owners and masters indicated 80 percent of the large commercial vessels would cooperatively report to a vessel monitoring system, while 22 percent of the small commercial and domestic fishing vessels and 12 percent of the recreational vessels would participate. Alternative OTIS implementations were evaluated in terms of cost, effectiveness, benefits and implementation considerations. A hybrid system of 20 percent cooperative vessel reporting and 80 percent remote sensing for noncooperative vessels was recommended.


MANET's use wireless medium for communication, thus two nodes arranged in a multi-hop fashion can communicate directly if and only if they are within their transmission radius. MANET's have adopted many conventional routing algorithms, swarm intelligence (SI) has recently captured much attention because many new researches have proposed its adoption for MANET routing. Many researchers have proposed numerous Swarm Intelligence (SI) based algorithm. In this paper routing protocols for MANET are discussed which are bio-exhilarated. This paper also discusses various optimization techniques which have been used for routing in MANET's.


Tissue homeostasis is ensured by the correct balance between cell proliferation and death, the latter mainly occurring through a multi-step program, named apoptosis, which ultimately leads to the breakdown of cellular DNA and proteins. Apoptosis is activated under physiological developmental conditions, during metamorphosis and atrophy of tissues and organs, sexual differentiation and cell turnover, and can also be triggered by various external stimuli, including DNA damage, growth factor deprivation and metabolic stress. The main features of apoptosis will be described in detail. Although apoptosis is recognised as the main type of programmed cell death, cells may die by alternative mechanisms, e.g. autophagy and necrosis. Their properties will be discussed in this review.


Abstract Eight species belonging to Bulbothrix Hale from NE Argentina were studied. Among them, Bulbothrix affixa (Hale & Kurok.) Hale is a new continental record, and five species, viz. B. cassa Jungbluth, Marcelli & Elix, B. coronata (Fée) Hale, B. isidiza (Nyl.) Hale, B. laeviuscula (Räsänen) Benatti & Marcelli, and B. tabacina (Mont. & Bosch) Hale, are new citations for the country. The specimens are described, commented, and illustrated. A key for species identification is also presented.


This paper is a story about lifelong learning in a Swedish context. The need for lifelong learning is a recurring issue in the political discussions and media reporting. According to Delors (1996), lifelong learning is a prerequisite for modern society. A common way to discuss lifelong learning is to make a difference between formal, informal and non-formal learning. According to Dunn (2003), non-formal learning is about skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviors that people acquire in their daily lives. We on the other hand believe that all kinds of learning always include the above concepts and that the discussion of lifelong learning is about creating certain subject. Our aim is to visualize desirable subjects through discourse analyze (Foucault,1980). The empirical material consists of curricula and syllabi for a project at the University of Gavle in which individuals with intellectual disabilities are offered education at post-secondary level.


This study examines the poverty, and growth experience of six villages in rural Ethiopia, from 1989 to 1995. The time period was one of relative peace politically, which promoted considerable change in economic policies pertaining to the rural sector. As a result, local growth out-performed the average growth rate in gross domestic product. The focus of the study is the link between economic reforms, growth, and changes in poverty. The author poses the question: Can the observed reduction in poverty be explained by reform-induced higher returns to physical, and human capital, or simply by better weather? To find the answer, a profit function framework is employed to explain growth using prices, and endowments of land, labor, human capital, and location characteristics, with controls for shocks (for example, ill health and drought). The analysis finds that, on average, the poor has benefited more from the reforms than have the non-poor. But the experience of the poor is mixed, with some out-performing all other households, and others persisting in poverty. Although economic reforms do not deliver similar benefits to all the poor, there are high costs for withholding reforms. The study also highlights the effects of shocks on households, and the need for social protection measures, in a poverty reduction strategy.


While influenza vaccination in the prior year is a strong predictor of subsequent vaccination, many families do not have static vaccination patterns. This study examined factors guiding influenza vaccination decisions among parents whose children sporadically received the influenza vaccination (flu-floppers). We administered surveys to 141 flu-flopper families. Surveys included 21 factors associated with vaccine decision making. A conceptual framework of "passive" and "active" decision making was used to assess parental motivators behind vaccine decisions. The most common reason for vaccinating was a desire to prevent influenza (45%). The most common reason for not vaccinating was a belief that influenza vaccination is not effective (29%). Most parents (88%) reported an active reason in years when their child was vaccinated, while only 43% reported an active reason when their child was not vaccinated (P < .00001). These findings may guide efforts to increase influenza vaccination rates in children most amenable to vaccination.


Reducing patient radiation dose, while maintaining a high-quality image, is a major challenge in Computed Tomography (CT). The purpose of this work is to improve abdomen tumor low-dose CT (LDCT) image quality by using a two-step strategy: a first patch-wise non linear processing is first applied to suppress the noise and artifacts, that is based on a sparsity prior in term of a learned dictionary, then an unsharp filtering aiming to enhance the contrast of tissues and compensate the contrast loss caused by the DL processing. Preliminary results show that the proposed method is effective in suppressing mottled noise as well as improving tumor detectability.


A set of large-scale laboratory experiments were conducted to study the migration of meandering channel. Factors affecting the change of banklines, including the ratio of centerline curvature to channel width, bend angle, and Froude number were tested in the experiments. The effect of each factor on the evolution of channel plan form was evaluated and quantified. The channel bankline displacement was modeled by a hyperbolic function with the inclusion of the initial migration rate and the maximum migration distance. A three-dimensional numerical model was also employed to explain some findings in the laboratory tests. It is found that the maximum migration distance along a bend satisfies a Gaussian distribution. A set of equations were developed for predicting the maximum migration distance. With the maximum migration distance being developed as a function of several geometric and flow parameters, a hyperbolic-function model can be applied to estimate the maximum bankline migration distance when the channel reaches equilibrium.


By reviewing the literature, I examined the validity of earlier explanations of the differences in body size, fecundity and other life history parameters amongst testudines. I concluded that while many life history parameters, such as survivorship, growth and age to maturity are similar for marine, terrestrial and freshwater turtles, the large body size and high fecundity of marine species are exceptional. In general, high fecundity is considered to occur because of high mortality during the early life stages. Yet, mortality of sea turtles to one year of age has been considered to be significantly lower than that of the less fecund freshwater turtles. Estimates of mortality however were based largely on beach-based studies as few empirical data on hatchling survival after entry into the sea have been available.

This study quantified survivorship of hatchlings after entry into the sea and during reef crossing at Heron and North-West Islands, two coral cays at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. Predation rates were quantified by two independent methods.

The first method involved following individual hatchlings (n=1740) tethered by a 10 m monofilament nylon line, as they swam from the water's edge towards the reef crest. Predation rates under particular combinations of environmental variables (tide, time of day, and moon phase) were measured in 84 separate, 10 minute trials, with 20 hatchlings in each. Predation rates varied from 0 to 85% with a mean of 31% (S. E. ± 2.5%).

A series of nested logistic regression models was used to examine the effect of the environmental variables. Tide and moon phase had a significant effect on predation rate: Predation was lowest during the combination of new moon and high tide and was highest during low tide around the full moon.

The second method estimated hatchling mortality by quantifying, from a collection of 232 reef fishes, the proportion whose foreguts contained turtle hatchlings. Of the 89 fishes which had identifiable stomach contents, hatchlings were found in the guts of six specimens of Lutjanus carponotatus and one of Epinephelus spp. Extrapolating from data obtained in an unrelated study on the biomass of these species per unit area of reef flat, I estimated that these two species together consumed approximately 3800 (95% confidence interval 1593-7220) hatchlings, or 84% (42 - 100%) of the hatchlings that had entered the water during the study period. Around full moon, the same lunar phase during which the fish were collected by spearing, predation rates obtained by the tethering experiments varied, depending on the state of the tide, between 30-70%.

Although predation rates were significantly influenced by environmental variables, no correlation could be found between the timing of emergence from the nest and periods of reduced risk of predation in the water. Frequency distribution of emergence events were similar between nights that differed markedly in the times of high and low tides (Kolmogorov-Smirnov two sample test statistic = 0.20, p = 0.68). Three possible models predicting the timing of emergence were generated and tested against the observed pattern. Hatchlings did not emerge uniformly throughout the diet cycle (Uniform emergence model, X² = 59.986, df = 6, p < 0.001) but emerged primarily in the early evening. The timing of emergence was found to be associated with changes in sand temperature gradients within the top ten centimeters of the sand column (Thermal gradient model, X² = 4.239, df = 3, p 0.25) and not, as previously believed, by a given temperature of the surface of the sand (Threshold model, X² = 12.736, df = 4, p < 0.025). I concluded that nocturnal emergence is more likely an adaptation to reduce mortality caused by physiological stress of the day time heat than a predator avoidance mechanism. These findings were supported by experimental manipulation of temperature gradients within the top 10 cm of the sand column in an artificial hatchery.

Behavioral and morphological adaptations increasing survivorship after the hatchlings enter the water were identified: 1) qualitative observations suggest that rapid early dispersal of hatchlings increases their probability of survival; 2) experimental trials showed that predation was significantly greater upon hatchlings painted black on the ventral surface than on those displaying the natural, countershaded pattern (McNemar's symmetry test, X² = 6.231, df =1, p = 0.013).

Using a population model based on the Lefkovitch stage class matrix, the intrinsic growth rate of the eastern Australian green turtle population was found to be more sensitive to changes in survivorship in the pelagic and juvenile stages than to changes in any other stages of the life cycle. This is primarily due to the relatively low annual survivorship and the associated long duration of those two stages. Change in hatchling survivorship in the shallow water reefal habitats was also found to have a significant effect on the intrinsic growth rate of the population and was similar in effect to the doubling of fecundity. Restricting the release of hatchlings to periods of high tides would result in an approximately 2% increase in annual population growth rate.

Sea turtle biologists consider that hatchlings spend as short a time as possible in nearshore waters because of the high predation pressure in those habitats. The results of this study lend substantial support to that view. However, one species, Natator depressus, the only species of sea turtle without a pelagic phase in its life cycle, has apparently overcome the problem of predation in shallow water coastal habitats by producing larger, but fewer, hatchlings. No other sea turtle has taken up this evolutionary option and the costs and benefits of a life cycle involving a pelagic phase remain subject to speculation.


USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) uses different economic models to estimate the impact of higher input prices on consumer food prices. The present study compares three ERS models. In the first two models, neither consumers nor food producers respond to market prices. We refer to these two models as short-run models. In the third model, both consumers and food producers respond to changing prices, and we refer to this model as a long-run model. Given published parameter estimates, we simulate the impact of a higher energy price on consumer food prices, and our empirical findings are consistent with our understanding of market responses. In the short run, we find that the full effect of an increase in the price of energy is fully (or nearly fully) passed on to consumers, because neither food producers nor consumers can immediately respond to changing prices. In the long run, however, the price response of food producers and consumers serves to mitigate the increase in consumer food prices.


The spatial resolution achievable in time-resolved optical transillumination imaging through a turbid (scattering and absorbing) medium has been reassessed theoretically. The temporal point spread function was constructed assuming a delta function input pulse, a approximately 50 mm thick medium and a small detector with zero risetime. Temporal profiles were derived from an indeterministic Monte Carlo simulation for different time scales. From the temporal point spread function (TPSF), an analytic edge response function from which the spatial resolution was determined was derived. Previous analytical methods for determining the spatial resolution are approximations for very short flight times (sub-100 ps time region). The results show that a spatial resolution of about two millimetres is possible under ideal signal-to-noise ratio conditions and with detector gate times of the order of ten picoseconds. If this predicted spatial resolution can be achieved in an imaging system, it may be possible to improve the diagnosis of breast tumours.


Alterations in gene copy number have been shown to cause disease in humans. Two of the most common inherited peripheral neuropathies, Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1A (CMT1A) and hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies (HNPP), are two such diseases resulting from alteration in gene copy number of the dosage sensitive peripheral myelin protein 22 (PMP22) gene. Many complicated and laborious diagnostic tests exist for the diagnosis of these diseases. The aim of our study was to develop the first quantitative multiplex real-time PCR assay for the diagnosis of CMT1A and HNPP. A total of 160 individuals who were known to have CMT1A, HNPP, or were normal from previous testing were assayed by our multiplex real-time PCR method. The results confirmed the previously determined gene copy number of all patient and control individuals tested. The range of ratio values between the disease and control groups were easily defined. The assay is accurate, simple, and cost effective and can detect a 50% change in gene copy number. This represents an ideal assay for any small diagnostic laboratory.


Background & Aim: Varicocele is the dilation of the pampiniform venous plexus of testis more than 2 mm and is one of the most common causes of sperm abnormalities in infertile men. The main diagnostic test for varicocele is ultrasonography that evaluates the vein diameter in B mode exam and venous reflux in color Doppler exam, but there is no single agreement on the importance of these two findings in different references. This research was performed to evaluate the effect of these two factors on sperm analysis test. Patients & Method: This descriptive analytical cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the relation of diameter and reflux to sperm analysis in patients with varicocele. With the help of sonography, maximum diameter of pampiniform venous plexus, presence and duration of reflux during valsalva maneuver were measured in 62 patients with varicocele. Then the patients were referred to the laboratory unit for sperm analysis(S/A). Results: The mean age of the patients was calculated to be 25.6 years(SD=5.08). 85.5% of the cases had left side involvement and 14.5% showed bilateral involvement. Mean diameter of left venous plexus and its mean reflux time were 3.62 mm and 2.30 seconds, while mean diameter of right venous plexus and its mean reflux time were 2.93 mm and 1.06 seconds respectively. Reflux was absent in 20.96% of them. Regarding routine criteria such as motility, morphology, sperm count, and the like, 54.66% was presented with abnormal S/A, of which abnormal morphology had the highest frequency(41%). The analysis of data revealed a direct significant statistical relationship between the diameter of left venous plexus and its reflux time, which means the reflux time increased significantly with increasing diameter of vein(PV=0.00, r=0.378). A reverse statistically significant relationship was observed between left side vein diameter and sperm motility(PV=0.019, r=-0.297) and between left side reflux time and sperm motility(PV=0.009, r=-0.325), which means motility decreases with increasing diameter and reflux time. In addition, the results of t-test showed a statistical difference between left side vein diameter and its reflux time for both groups with motility <50 and motility>50(PV=0.35, PV=0.002), which indicates that both vein diameter and reflux time were apparently more for the group with motility<50 than the normal group, but left side diameter and its reflux time showed no relation to other parameters of S/A such as abnormal morphology and sperm count, and the same was found about right side diameter and its reflux time. Moreover, no relation was detected between presence or absence of reflux and S/A abnormalities, and bilateral or unilateral involvement bore no relationship to sperm count, motility and abnormal morphology. Conclusion: We noticed that the presence or absence of reflux is not a suitable factor to determine prognosis or sperm abnormalities.


Contained density currents with high volume of release reflect against the boundaries of the reception environment commonly leading to oscillatory flow. These flows exist in sediment clarifiers, compromising their operations, and deposited signatures of contained turbidity currents are found as part of the infill of sedimentary basins; for operation of the former and interpretation of the latter it is essential to understand the dynamic processes of these flows. Six lock‐exchange experiments with different initial densities were made in a horizontal flume, where the volume of the saline mixture in the lock was equivalent to the volume of the ambient fluid. A further two tests, with a repeated initial density, were made: one with high volume of release and very long duration; and another with low volume of release. Firstly, the movement of the current is discussed, including the oscillations within the experimental tank involving the density current and an upper layer counter‐current. It is shown that the cyclic behaviour is self‐similar with the reduced gravity of the initial density in the lock. Secondly, entrainment and water mixing processes are characterized. The time evolution of mixing is characterized qualitatively by analysing the background potential energy of the density distributions to show that mixing occurs even in the earlier stages of the current, and mainly within the first cycle of the oscillation. Quantified analysis reveals that, in currents with high volume of release, entrainment discharge is one order of magnitude higher, mainly due to the larger interface between the ambient fluid and the current. A model for the evolution of the mixing process is proposed for density currents with high volume of release. Finally, the dynamics of the head of the current is analysed. The entrainment in the head, when compared to the entrainment in the remainder body of the flows, is less important for the configuration with a larger lock.


Known to produce out-of-body states and profound changes in sensory perception, mood, and thought, DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a potent short-lasting tryptamine that has experienced growing appeal in the last decade, independent from ayahuasca, the Amazonian visionary brew in which it is an integral ingredient. Investigating user reports available online as well as a variety of other sources consulted in extended cultural research, this article focuses on the "breakthrough" event commonly associated with the DMT trance. The DMT breakthrough event coincides with significant revelatory outcomes associated with perceived contact with "entities" and the transmission of information often in the form of visual language. Examination of the breakthrough event offers insight on the liminal phenomenology of DMT and other tryptamines, a liminality that is given primary expression in reported travels in "hyperspace." The article examines user reports of DMT "hyperspace" observing a transitional process that, unlike conventional passage rites, is private, individualized, internal, and "ritual like." As an exploratory discussion of an under-researched phenomenon, the article enters this virtual terrain through a discussion of the gnostic, therapeutic, and recreational modalities of DMT use, before exploring ritual-like modes of transmission and concluding with comments on the ontological significance of the DMT trance.


Today's societies are characterised by a host of opportunities and challenges. The pace of life is quicker than ever before, and the changes and developments in societies, science and technology come about faster every day. One of the major challenges for human beings is to make a myriad of choices on a daily basis, which will define their place in society, in life and in the world altogether. To make prudent and sensible decisions is, therefore, one of the key competencies for a successful and good life. This study revisits the idea of an education focused on the personal development and well-being of human beings instead of economic growth. Drawing on philosophical ideas about the good life – especially Schmid's art of living concept Lebenskunst – and recent research in positive psychology, an argument is made for a shift of focus in education and schooling towards a good life and an art of living for today's students. Possible implications of this change of focus for educational practice are discussed, including suggestions for curricula and school subjects, the structure of schools and learning environments, teaching methods, and teacher training. The original contributions to knowledge in this study are: a critique of Schmid's concept from an educational point of view; a comparison of positive psychology research and philosophical concepts of the art of living with a focus on Schmid's work; the development of an educational approach to the art of living, including a discussion of schooling in relation to the art of living; and consequent first steps towards the development of an education for life concept.


Home haemodialysis (HHD) has gained popularity in recent years, due to improved clinical outcomes associated with frequent or prolonged haemodialysis sessions, best achievable at home. However, several barriers to HHD are perceived by the physician and patient, among which lack of experience and education, logistic difficulties and reimbursement issues seem to be the most important ones. HHD, in particular when performed with intensified frequency or duration, is associated with improved quality of life, blood pressure control and survival. Serious adverse events are rare; however, more vascular access complications arise due to frequent needling. This emphasises the importance of comprehensive education and training. This review aims to provide the physician with a detailed state of the art overview on HHD in the Netherlands, discussing potential barriers and benefits, and offering practical advice.


T

his paper investigates the gain of bilateral trade between China and U.S. in manufacturing sectors when both countries play a role in asymmetric (biased) growth of  international trade. Our model includes a special case of Biased Growth Theory in international trade. We collected labor productivity, export and import data by using classification of manufacturing industries, for U.S. and China in 1993, 1998, 2002 and 2006. The results according to Cost-Benefit analysis and econometric model indicated that the China's manufacturing sector is Import-Biased Growth and U.S. manufacturing sector is Export-Biased Growth. Therefore, The Terms of Trade between U.S. and China in manufacturing sector has been changed in favor of China.


This paper analyzes the statistical properties of the very high frequency (VHF)-band radar backscattering from coniferous trees by incorporating forest ground truth data into a physical-optics (PO) model that assumes horizontally transmit and receive polarizations and dominant double-bounce scattering from vertical stems standing on an undulating ground surface. The analysis shows that a statistically adequate model for the tree backscattering amplitude can be presented as a mixture of generalized gamma or lognormal distribution, and the mixture model can be reduced to a single density model if the trees with trunk volumes exceeding an appropriate threshold are to be taken into account. The generalized gamma density is shown to provide an appreciably better fit to the exceedance functions associated with the PO model data than that for the lognormal density. The results can be used to design statistically adequate models of forest clutter for VHF synthetic aperture radar systems.


Background: We received the LAP-BAND Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) from the US Food and Drug Administration in December 2004 to conduct a prospective longitudinal trial examining the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) in morbidly obese adolescents ages 14 to 17 years. Objectives: To report the short-term results of LAGB in the first 10 adolescents with complete 9 months of follow-up. Patients and Methods: Baseline characteristics and outcome data were analyzed in 10 patients enrolled between March 2005 and February 2006. Results: All of the patients were girls. Their mean body mass index (±SD) was 50 ± 13 kg/m2, and excess weight was 171 ± 79 pounds. Comorbidities included depression (3 patients), sleep apnea (3), hypertension (6), dyslipidemia (7), insulin resistance (9), metabolic syndrome (9), and steatohepatitis (in 4 of 5 patients with liver biopsy). Operative time was 45 ± 9 minutes, and discharges were within 23 hours of surgery. Band-related complications were as follows: 2 dehydration, 1 pouch dilation, and 1 port revision. All of the patients lost weight, with a 9-month excess weight loss of 30% ± 16% (range 14%–57%). Hypertension and the metabolic syndrome were resolved in 100% of patients (P = 0.04) and 80% of the patients (P = 0.01), respectively, along with significant improvement in the Pediatric Quality of Life and Beck Depression Inventory scores and a trend toward improvement in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol abnormalities (P = 0.08). Conclusions: At short-term follow-up, weight loss occurred with minimal complications, leading to early resolution of major obesity-related comorbidities. Continued evaluation of the long-term safety and efficacy of LAGB as a surgical adjunct to a comprehensive obesity treatment program is warranted.


This report presents a stochastic multistage model that addresses strategic subsea separator investment decisions with reservoir uncertainty. Since strategic decisions in the petroleum industry have long-term consequences and are taken under considerable uncertainty regarding the future and the nature of the petroleum asset in question, optimization tools that take uncertainty into account may provide the decision-maker with more robust support than deterministic models. The model presented is formulated to maximize the present value of oil and gas production from an asset, given uncertainty captured by sets of different scenarios representing different realizations of the underlying reservoir. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer program where investment decisions can be made in a subset of the modelled time periods. Depending on the flexibility of installed equipment, recourse decisions in later stages allow modification of the subsea separator configuration to increase capacity and efficiency. The underying production model is kept as simple as possible with linear constraints and only one linearization using SOS2 sets in order to be able to deal with the problem stochastically. Fico-Xpress is used to implement the program, which is also attempted solved using the progressive hedging heuristic with promising results. Computational results show that real options in the form of flexibility in subsea separator configuration has theoretical value both due to the ability to hedge against reservoir uncertainty and due to the possibility to adapt equipment to the development of the maturing oil field.


Abstract : Time synchronization between two sites using differential GPS has been investigated by a number of researchers. When the two sites are widely separated, the common view period of any GPS satellite becomes shorter; low elevation observations are inevitable. This increases the corrupting effects of the atmospheric delay and, at the same time, narrows the window for such time synchronization. This difficulty can be alleviated by synchronization. This difficulty can be alleviated by using a transit site located midway between the two main sites. The main sites can now look at different GPS satellites which are also in view at the transit site. However, a ground transit site may not always be conveniently available, especially across the Pacific Ocean; also, the inclusion of a ground transit site introduces additional errors due to its location error and local atmospheric delay. An alternative is to use a low earth orbiter (LEO) as the transit site. A LEO is superior to a ground transit site in three ways: (1) It covers a large part of the earth in a short period of time and, hence, a single LEO provides worldwide transit services; (2) it is above the troposphere and thus its inclusion does not introduce additional tropospheric delay error; and (3) it provides strong dynamics needed to imrpove GPS satellite positions which are of importance to ultraprecise time synchronization. (Author)


We propose two types of autonomic and distributed cooperative behaviors of peers for peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks. Cooperative behaviors of peers are mediated by query trails, and allows the exploration of better trade-off points between file search and storage load balancing performance. Query trails represent previous successful search paths and indicate which peers contributed to previous file searches and were at the same time exposed to the storage load. The first type of cooperative behavior is to determine the locations of replicas of files through the medium of query trails. Placement of replicas of files on strong query trails contributes to improvement of search performance, but a heavy load is generated due to writing files in storage to peers on the strong query trails. Therefore, we attempt to achieve storage load balancing between peers, while avoiding significant degradation of the search performance by creating replicas of files in peers adjacent to peers on strong query trails. The second type of cooperative behavior is to determine whether peers provide requested files through the medium of query trails. Provision of files by peers holding requested files on strong query trails contributes to better search performance, but such provision of files generates a heavy load for reading files from storage to peers on the strong query trails. Therefore, we attempt to achieve storage load balancing while making only small sacrifices in search performance by having peers on strong query trails refuse to provide files. Simulation results show that the first type of cooperative behavior provides equal or improved ability to explore trade-off points between storage load balancing and search performance in a static and nearly homogeneous P2P environment, without the need for fine tuning parameter values, compared to replication methods that require fine tuning of their parameters values. In addition, the combination of the second type and the first type of cooperative behavior yields better storage load balancing performance with little degradation of search performance. Moreover, even in a dynamic and heterogeneous P2P environment, the two types of cooperative behaviors yield good ability to explore trade-off points between storage load balancing and search performance.


Online Controlled Experiments (OCE) are the gold standard to measure impact and guide decisions for digital products and services. Despite many methodological advances in this area, the scarcity of public datasets and the lack of a systematic review and categorization hinder its development. We present the first survey and taxonomy for OCE datasets, which highlight the lack of a public dataset to support the design and running of experiments with adaptive stopping, an increasingly popular approach to enable quickly deploying improvements or rolling back degrading changes. We release the first such dataset, containing daily checkpoints of decision metrics from multiple, real experiments run on a global e-commerce platform. The dataset design is guided by a broader discussion on data requirements for common statistical tests used in digital experimentation. We demonstrate how to use the dataset in the adaptive stopping scenario using sequential and Bayesian hypothesis tests and learn the relevant parameters for each approach.


From the diagram, which inscribes the line (διά-γράφειν), to the choreography (χορεία-γραφία), which inscribes the choir into the written form, we remark but a short step from the scène of the dance to the scène of the writing. The writing of dance, and likewise the writing of the body, makes the invisible visible within the movement. Bridging between notation, as capacity for mobilisation of new intuitions, and diagrammatization of forms and movements to compel the thought of new gestures, the diagram stands out as a scène or 'picture' whose axes (points, lines, arrows, circles, volumes…) simultaneously structure mobility in order to grasp the pulsating movement. The twentieth-century artistic avant-gardes will not remain indifferent to this ideography that, through leap and condensation, makes the materialization of the idea, the idea in the writing, possible.


Tumors of the nasal cavity and sinuses are rather infrequent, being squamous carcinoma the predominant type, which accounts for the 80 percent of the totality of them. Maxillary sinus is the most affected, followed by nose cavity. Half of cases are originated on turbinates. We present the clinical case of a woman patient diagnosed of microcytic carcinoma of the right nasal cavity originated at the level of middle turbinate. The mass filled the width of the fossa getting in touch with the nasal septum, without encroaching it. According its extent the tumor was classified as T2, N0, M0 and treated with radiotherapy only. Microcytic carcinoma is an exceptional histological type in nasal cavity and next to its numeric meagerness in this location makes this case a very peculiar one.


On 25 February 2010, the Court of Justice rendered its decision in the X Holding case. The Court ruled that the Dutch tax consolidation regime is compatible with the freedom of establishment. The territoriality principle justifies the limitations on the regime's scope of application in an intra-European Union (EU) context. Accordingly, today, it seems clear that the Dutch tax consolidation regime in its current design may be kept in place. However, the Court of Justice did not provide a clear answer to the underlying question of how the proportionality test should be interpreted under primary EU law where EU Member States raise the territoriality principle as a justification for an obstacle imposed. In this article, I address the question of how the proportionality test should be interpreted in this respect.


The aim of the study was to survey the evidence-based information in initial briefs for healthcare environments. The focus was on the initial brief, when the aim is foremost to express design requirements and specifications from the user's point of view. The study audit 29 briefs by using a new developed instrument to examine the content and quality of information in briefs (CQB-I) (Content and Quality of Briefs Instrument), a new developed and tested instrument. The rationale behind the study is that the brief is one important outcome of a design process that has not been studied as much as necessary. Despite the stated importance of a well developed brief, there exist few studies of the content and quality of the briefs created in design process of new healthcare spaces. The use of Evidence-Based Design (EBD) to support designers to make decisions based on available knowledge about the impact of design solutions on people, costs and management has been addressed recently. Briefing (programming) should enable the communication of the end user's need into design requirements and thus it is of utmost importance that this is communicated through a brief. The brief should also be a significant base for expressed outcomes for a building performance evaluation. The analysis showed that a majority of the briefs included some kind of evidence-based information. Though, in most of them the information was very sporadic and the information mainly addresses local statistics such as of the number of patients, beds, personnel, and length of stay. There were only two briefs that contain evidence-based information throughout the entire brief.


Precise and efficient tool setting technique and accurate tool shape monitoring are of essential importance in ultra-precision diamond turning operation. The traditional way of tool setting are typically laborious, inefficient and rely heavily on experience. A big part of the tool setting is done by using a contact probe such as LVDT. The contact tool setting station can normally, depending on the resolution of the probes, place the tool tip to within a 1~10μm positioning accuracy. However, it is running the risk of damage the delicate tool tip and has the ambiguity introduced by contact point of tool and touch probe. The optical/non-contact way of setting the tool do have the advantage of not having to touch the tool, but its resolution is limited by the optical diffraction limit and the resolution of the CCD device used (mm/pixel). A non-contact precision tool setting system is developed and built in this study using edge-detection image processing and sub-pixel dividing techniques in conjunction with CNC controller of the precision turning machine to improve the system presently available. Depending on the sampling distance of the images, the error band gets wider when the sampling step becomes larger. In the case of 0.1μm sampling distance the obtained error band was within ±0.1μm and the results showed that tools of different shapes namely round, half-round and sharp tool could all be positioned to within an error band of ±0.1μm by using the developed tool setting system.


A video introduction by BPP that explains the highly innovative Online Classroom (OCR) service that is used to deliver on-line courses.


Résumé Abstract Fertility remains higher and contraceptive levels are substantially lower in Sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere in the developing world. In this paper we use information on individuals and couples provided in recent Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS, fifth wave) undertaken in Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, and Zambia. We use bivariate and multivariate techniques to examine the determinants of contraceptive use among married women (aged 15-49), focusing on the impacts of women's education and empowerment. Our results show that education was an important determinant of contraceptive use, but mattered less in choice of method effectiveness. The impact of education was similar in all the countries studied with the exception of Kenya, where it was non-existent. Empowerment was less important in determining contraceptive use. Efforts to increase contraceptive use in general and the use of modern methods more specifically need to focus on providing basic education for all women and on changing gender roles.


Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) is released following a variety of stimuli including hypertonicity in the fetus. To study the effect that cortisol has on fetal ANF release, seven chronically instrumented fetal sheep at gestational ages ranging from 110-132 days were studied in two experiments. In one experiment (CORTISOL), a continuous cortisol (with EtOH vehicle) infusion was maintained. In the other experiment (CONTROL), the vehicle was infused alone. Ninety minutes from the start of this infusion, a hypertonic saline bolus (12 meg/kg) was given. Osmolality, ANF, cortisol, pH, PO2, PCO2, mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and hematocrit (HCT) were followed over a 120-min period. Following hypertonic saline, serum osmolality increased from 290.6 +/- 2.3 mOsm/kg to 310.4 +/- 2.5 mOsm/kg (P < 0.01). Baseline values for pH, PO2, and HCT were 7.37 +/- 0.01, 22.5 +/- 1.6 mmHg, and 33.9 +/- 1.2 respectively. Each of these variables fell following hypertonic saline infusion. MAP rose from 40.6 +/- 1.7 mmHg to 47.0 +/- 2.4 mmHg (P < 0.01). However, there were no differences between CONTROL and CORTISOL experiments in any of the above changes. Cortisol levels in the CONTROL group did not change during the course of the experiment, but in the CORTISOL group rose from 8.2 +/- 4.4 ng/ml to 33.0 +/- 9.9 ng/ml (P = 0.02). Plasma ANF levels prior to hypertonic saline were similar (124.8 +/- 17.7 pg/ml and 127.6 +/- 26.1 pg/ml) in the CONTROL and CORTISOL groups respectively and rose following hypertonic saline to a maximum of 155.3 +/- 16.6 pg/ml and 189.2 +/- 42.7 pg/ml (P = 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The Helping Relationship presents a variety of topics carefully chosen to give the reader compelling material related to helping clients. The authors represent a range of professions including psychology, psychiatry, and pastoral counselling. Together they offer insights based on original research, clinical experience, and personal theory. Topics key to psychotherapy include transference and countertransference, supervision, and mentoring. The current trend toward manualized therapy and empirically supported treatments are discussed in the context of the helping relationship. Overall, The Helping Relationship provides a range of material related to the reason for the helping relationship: that is, to help the client.


Accurate and timely diagnosis is crucial for an e'ective medical treatment. Teaching €les are widely used by radiologists as a resource in the diagnostic process and to teach students of radiology. Teaching €les contain images, recorded discussion and notes, external references, augmenting annotations, and patient history. Most hospitals maintain an active collection of teaching €les for their internal purposes, but many publically available teaching €les are available through online sources that typically provide a basic keyword search interface but liŠle else that can help physicians €nd the most relevant examples. Other secondary sources (e.g., journals or radiology textbooks) might also be referenced from a teaching €le or provide an independent source of information; however, journal and textbook search capabilities, if available, can be very ad hoc and even more limited than for public teaching €le repositories. Œerefore, in order to access multiple resources, radiologists need to manually navigate each particular source and aggregate the search results into a full answer. In this paper, we describe our integration of multiple public data sources into a uni€ed medical resource repository and the design of advanced search features that make it easier to €nd relevant teaching €les as well as journals or textbooks. Our approach supports incorporating diverse public data that can be further combined with a hospital's in-house teaching €les to provide an integrated radiological knowledge repository. We tested our Integrated Radiological Image Search (IRIS) engine using a set of representative queries. Our search engine €nds more accurate and relevant results compared to search engines available for public data sources. Œe IRIS engine is tailored to facilitate understanding of natural language queries, including negation statements, synonym terms, adjectives, and di'erent sources of text. In addition, the search engine is designed to allow further integration of a module for image-based search to allow €nding of visually similar cases.


Face verification has been widely studied during the past two decades. One of the challenges is the rising concern about the security and privacy of the template database. In this paper, we propose a secure face verification system which employs a user dependent one way transformation based on a two stage hashing algorithm. We first hash the face image using a two stages robust image hashing technique, then the result hash vector is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Both the hashing and the encryption/decryption keys are generated from the user claimed ID, using a modified password-based key driven algorithm. The proposed system is tested on the ORL (AT&T) face database.


This thesis addressed the bystander intervention gap in the workplace bullying literature. Bystanders are employees, other than the bully or target, who are present when bullying occurs. They are well placed to intervene but often they do not. Previous research suggested that increased bystander intervention may lead to a reduction in workplace bullying. Although suggestions for bystander intervention in workplace bullying were found in the literature none had been implemented or measured.
As field research this thesis addressed a real-world problem. The participating employees were from a large, mainland UK organisation where workplace verbal bullying had been identified as a problem. Therefore a strategy for bystander intervention in workplace verbal bullying was designed, implemented and measured.
The new Responsible Intervention Decision Strategy (RIDS)model combined existing theories on the bystanders' decision process and responsibility to support bystander
intervention. This quantitative study developed and validated a new 15 item Responsible Bystander Intervention in Verbal Bullying (RBI-VB) metric. The concise metric was incorporated into a practical, single-page survey to test the RIDS model in the field.
Shop-floor employees participated in pre and post-intervention surveys (N = 1501) and one of four conditions. The RBI-VB metric demonstrated that responsible bystander intervention was positively correlated to bystander willingness to intervene in workplace verbal bullying. This could be increased with RIDS-based training or the in-house campaign; and was positively correlated to self-reported bystander intervention.
The study is limited as it took place within a single UK organisation. However, the findings demonstrated the efficacy of the RIDS model and the practical application of the RBI-VB metric for baseline measurements, monitoring and to assess bystander intervention programmes. Willingness to intervene can be increased and this relates to actual intervention but most bystander intervention was carried out by previous targets of workplace verbal bullying. The implications are discussed.


The response of a viscous incompressible nondiffusive fluid containing a dilute suspension of small spherical particles and occupying a semi-infinite region bounded by an infinite plate, when the latter is slowly moved parallel to itself in a prescribed manner normal to the direction of stratification, is studied. In particular, when the system density decays exponentially with distance from the plate, the problem is equivalent to the axial flow of the same system in a long tube. When the particle density vanishes, the problem reduces to the unsteady diffusion of vorticity in a long cylinder, with the "diffusivity" a function of the stratification length, whose solution is well known. A degeneracy occurs in the solution as the density approaches uniformity and this is examined using asymptotic expansions and some exact and asymptotic results for an impulsively moved plate are given. It is found that, for a given stratification, the ratio of the wall stress with particles to that without, increases first and then, after the non-equilibrium overshoot, it continues to increase with time; this is in contrast to the case of uniform density, when the ratio goes asymptotically to a constant value. When the particle density vanishes and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid goes to infinity at very large distances from the plate, the fluid there acquires, in a finite time, a finite velocity that strongly depends on the stratification length.


The study presented in this article examined the contribution of parents' extrafamilial resources in childhood to children's completed years of schooling in young adulthood, controlling for human and financial resources. The sample consisted of 901 black and white children observed in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics at ages 11-16 and again at age 22. The findings indicated that human and financial resources of the family are strongly associated with children's schooling and that parents' access to time or money help from friends is significantly associated with the years of schooling completed by children from high-income (but not low-income) families. Help from friends affects college attendance but not high school completion and is not uniform across the socioeconomic spectrum of families. Some residential mobility appears to increase the college attendance of children from high-income families, but it is detrimental to the college attendance of children from low-income families


During the years of Ukraine's independence, the provision of fodder to the livestock industry and their effective use remained a difficult and unsolved problem. The military aggression of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, economic, geopolitical, climatic instability, global food crisis exacerbated the pre-war problems and led to the emergence of new threats and challenges in fodder production. The purpose of the study is to assess the state and main trends of the feed market of Ukraine, the problems of the feed industry in the context of modern threats and challenges. The research uses generally accepted methods of scientific economic research, in particular: bibliometric, scientific abstraction and hypothesis, systematic and economic analysis, monographic, analysis and synthesis, complex, abstract-logical, induction and deduction, comparison and logical generalization. The main problems of Ukrainian fodder production were considered: the increase in the cost of material resources, energy resources, the increase in the cost of harvesting and storage of domestically produced fodder, the shortage of labor force due to migration and mobilization, extreme climatic conditions that affect the yield of fodder crops, the quantity and quality of fodder, non-compliance with crop rotation, low feed quality, regional redistribution of feed production and consumption, shortage of working capital, problems with reimbursement of value added tax, delays in customs clearance of imported material resources, high inflation, fixed exchange rate, problematic insurance/letter of credit instruments under export contracts, destruction of the main supply chains in Ukraine, change in the geography of exports, blockade of sea ports, high cost of created logistics chains, difficult access to the market of European countries from the point of view of import and product certification, limitation of throughput capacity of European logistics centers, etc. Attention is focused on the problems of fodder production in the de-occupied and front-line territories: a shortage of resources due to the loss of funds and property due to shelling and theft by the Russian military, the destruction of crops, the inability to export products, the death of farm animals due to military actions, damage and destruction of agricultural infrastructure and equipment, the impossibility of conducting technological operations, negative consequences for the land fund as a result of mining, artillery shelling, movement of heavy equipment, etc. The main results of the research can be used for scientific developments and in the practical activities of agricultural producers, assessing the impact of risks and threats on the fodder production industry of Ukraine

https://bsagriculture.com.ua/web/uploads/pdf/Ukrainian Black Sea Region Agrarian Science, Vol 27, No 2-51-62, 2023.pdf


Aberrant expression of TALI occurs frequently in human T-cell acute lymphohlastic leukemia. The effect of TALI expression in the T-cell lymphoid precursor, however, remains unclear. In the current study, we have developed I \l I stable transfectants in a human immature T-cell lymphoid cell line. Whereas no effect on proliferation, cell culture density, or cell cycle was detected, the transfectants were more resistant than the parental cell line to apoptosis induced by chemotherapeutic agents includ ing etoposide, daunoruhicin, doxorubicin, cytosine arabinoside, methotrexate and vincristine and also to apoptosis induced by Fas/CD95 crosslinking. This effect was independent of the cytostatic effects of the drugs. The basic domain-deleted transfectants did not demonstrate altered sen sitivity, suggesting that DNA binding was necessary for resistance to apoptosis. The ability to alter the response to a wide range of cell deathinducing stimuli suggests that TALI acts at a late stage of the apoptotic cascade. These data therefore provide direct evidence of an antiapoptotic effect of ectopie TALI expression in response to cytotoxic agents, thus providing insight into its oncogenic function in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and a novel experimental model to further investigate the un derlying mechanisms. These data also have potential practical significance for cytotoxic therapy of this disorder.


Rhinella schneideri (or Bufo paracnemis), popularly known in Brazil as cururu toad, is also found in other countries in South America. The cardiovascular effects of this poison are largely known and recently was shown that it is capable to affect the neuromuscular junction on avian and mice isolated preparation. In this work, we used transmission electron microscopy to investigate the ultrastructure of the motor nerve terminal and postsynaptic junctional folds of phrenic nerve-hemidiaphragm preparations incubated for either 5 or 60 min with the methanolic extract of R. schneideri (50 µg/mL). In addition, the status of the acetylcholine receptors (AChR) was examined by TRITC-α-bungarotoxin immunofluorescence location at the endplate membrane. The results show that 5 min of incubation with the gland secretion extract significantly decreased (32 %) the number of synaptic vesicles into the motor nerve terminal, but did not decrease the electron density on the top of the junctional folds where nicotinic receptors are concentrated; however, 60 min of incubation led to significant nerve terminal reloading in synaptic vesicles whereas the AChR immunoreactivity was not as marked as in control and after 5 min incubation. Muscle fibers were well-preserved but intramuscular motor axons were not.  The findings corroborated pharmacological data since the decrease in the number of synaptic vesicles (5 min) followed by recovery (60 min) is in accordance with the transient increase of MEPPs frequency meaning increased neurotransmitter release. These data support the predominant presynaptic mode of action of the R. schneideri, but do not exclude the possibility of a secondary postsynaptic action depending on the time the preparation is exposed to poison.


The article considers the state of the modern location of livestock sectors in the Central Chernozem region. Revealed changes in the distribution of livestock animals, production of major livestock products in the region for the period from 1990 to 2015. The factors and conditions that determined these changes and prospects for the industry development are determined. For the post-reform years, there has been an unprecedented decline in the number of livestock and poultry. Thus, a herd of cattle as a whole in the central-chernozem area in 2015, in comparison with 1990, decreased by 4.4 times. The state of the pig industry in the region was also characterized by a negative dynamics of the number of pigs until 2005, when it declined by 3.4 times. The greatest damage in the years of reforms was borne by sheep, where the number of sheep in 2015 to the level of 1990 decreased by 5, 5 times. The decisive factors in the sharp drop in the levels of livestock and poultry, in the production of livestock products and the deep crisis of the industry were the ill-considered until the end of the reform of the collective-farm and state farming system, the loss-making of most types of products because of low sales prices that did not reimburse the costs of agricultural producers for its production. Evaluation of structural shifts in the distribution of livestock production showed that the volume of meat production in the Central Black Earth region has significantly increased the share of poultry meat from 14, 1 in 1990 to 46.6% in 2015, pork from 38.8 to 46.4%. At the same time, the specific weight of beef decreased significantly from 46.3 to 6.4% and lamb from 2.5 to 0.5%. Analyzing the efficiency of the location of livestock production in the central black earth region, it should be noted that it was determined not only by territorial and sectoral peculiarities, but primarily by organizational and economic factors, among which one of the priority is the effective management of an agricultural area in a given region of the central black earth region.


In this paper we estimate the trade effects of the euro adoption in Central European countries using a modified gravity model. In particular, we analyze the ex post implications of accession of Slovenia and Slovakia to the Eurozone. We employ a gravity model that controls for an extended set of trade theory and policy variables. Trade theory variables include both the country size and factor proportion variables. Trade policy variables include the membership in GATT/WTO, CEFTA, OECD, EU and Europe Agreements. The gravity model is estimated using the panel data approach on a sample of CEE countries trading with the rest of the world during the period 1992-2009 using the fixed effects, random effects and Hausman-Taylor estimators. It seems that elimination of exchange rate volatility resulted in trade expansion for the CEE countries but the accession to the Eurozone did not have any significant effects on exports of Slovakia and Slovenia.


Modular multilevel converters (MMCs) are widely used in different applications such as high voltage direct current (HVDC) applications. The HVDC station loss is highly related to the converter switching pulse pattern which is generated by modulation algorithm and cell selection methods. This paper formulates the switching pulse pattern generation, as a versatile optimisation problem. The problem constraints and objectives are formulated for HVDC applications and compared with similar problems in the field of computer science. To overcome the computational complexity in solving the introduced optimisation problem, a heuristic method is proposed for cell selection algorithm. The method utilizes the current level in order to obtain lossless switching at zero-current crossings. The study of the proposed method, in a time-domain simulation platform, shows that the method can reduce the switching converter losses by 60% compared to carrier-based modulation, maintaining the same capacitor voltage ripple. Although this paper focuses on HVDC, the mathematical model is applicable for any MMC application.


A thermophilic, acidophilic procaryote lacking a cell wall has been isolated from a coal refuse pile which had undergone self-heating. Electron micrographs, chemical assays for hexosamine, and the inability of vancomycin to inhibit growth confirm the lack of a cell wall. The apparent ability of the organism to reproduce by budding and the low guanine plus cytosine content of its DNA indicate a relation to the mycoplasmas. The temperature optimum of the organism is 59�C, and growth occurs over a range of 45� to 62�C. No growth occurs at 37�C or at 65�C. The optimum pH for growth is between 1 and 2, and growth occurs between pH 0.96 and 3.5 but does not occur at pH 0.35 and only poorly at pH 4.0. We propose to call this organism Thermoplasma acidophila. The existence of this organism extends considerably the range of habitats in which mycoplasma may occur.


Habitat fragmentation results in smaller and more isolated populations that may be at higher risk of extirpation or further decline in comparison with their more continuously distributed progenitors. Risks to fragmented populations have frequently been considered from the perspective of population genetics, however, disruption of normal plant demography may be an equal or greater threat to population persistence. We compared demographic performance and tree health in continuous and fragmented forest plots with similar tree size structure and local climatic and physiographic conditions in order to determine if fragments are characterized by poor health and reproduction. We found that beech forest fragments showed lower seedling density, more tree crown damage and also higher percentage of dead trees. However, mortality of juveniles in the youngest age class was substantially lower in fragments such that long-term population structure remained similar between the two forest types. If reduced mortality compensates for reduced seedling establishment, as our data suggest, then fragmented populations should show greater long-term persistence than would be predicted based on comparison of young age cohorts alone. However, despite such demographic compensation, the decreased health of adult trees may pose an increasing future threat to the fragmented populations. Our results demonstrate the importance of integrating demographic patterns over long time periods and not relying on single year or cohort comparisons and may partly explain population genetic differences previously reported for the same populations. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


This paper presents PW-MAC (Predictive-Wakeup MAC), a new energy-efficient MAC protocol based on asynchronous duty cycling. In PW-MAC, nodes each wake up to receive at randomized, asynchronous times. PW-MAC minimizes sensor node energy consumption by enabling senders to predict receiver wakeup times; to enable accurate predictions, PW-MAC introduces an on-demand prediction error correction mechanism that effectively addresses timing challenges such as unpredictable hardware and operating system delays and clock drift. PW-MAC also introduces an efficient prediction-based retransmission mechanism to achieve high energy efficiency even when wireless collisions occur and packets must be retransmitted. We evaluate PW-MAC on a testbed of MICAz motes and compare it to X-MAC, WiseMAC, and RI-MAC, three previous energy-efficient MAC protocols, under multiple concurrent multihop traffic flows and under hidden-terminal scenarios and scenarios in which nodes have wakeup schedule conflicts. In all experiments, PW-MAC significantly outperformed these other protocols. For example, evaluated on scenarios with 15 concurrent transceivers in the network, the average sender duty cycle for X-MAC, WiseMAC, and RI-MAC were all over 66%, while PW-MAC's average sender duty cycle was only 11%; the delivery latency for PW-MAC in these scenarios was less than 5% that for WiseMAC and X-MAC. In all experiments, PW-MAC maintained a delivery ratio of 100%.


There is a substantial body of research evidence regarding the importance of leadership development to organizational success, Charan, Drotter and Noel (2001), Fullmer and Goldsmith (2001), McCall and Hollenbeck (2002), McCauley, Moxley and Van Velsor (1998), Viceri and Fulmer (1997, Whetton and Cameron (2005). There is no more important task with regard to leadership development than identifying the competencies and metacompetencies that comprise leadership. However, to date, there has not been agreement regarding just what are the Global Leadership Competencies that should be taught and learned. In this paper leadership is defined as, "Influencing others to accomplish organizational goals," (Tubbs, 2005). Based on the model presented in this paper, the rationale is advanced that some aspects of leadership are more or less fixed at a young age while others are able to be developed even well into adult life (i.e., the Global Leadership Competencies). This paper describes the model and identifies fifty Global Leadership Competencies in the form of a taxonomy of Global Leadership Competencies and Meta-competencies Most importantly, leadership development efforts must be targeted on the outermost circle in the model..


Many new products (e.g., PDA phones) share features with multiple categories, but are also substantially different from each of these categories. When consumers encounter such a product, they may create a new subcategory (e.g., smart phones) to accommodate it. In such situations, consumers must decide where within the category structure to position the new subcategory (e.g., under the PDA category or under the phone category). We develop a spreading activation model that we call the Category Activation Model (CAM) to predict where within a category structure consumers are likely to position a subcategory that they have created to accommodate a new, hybrid product. Based on this model, we hypothesize that the probability that an individual will position a new category subordinate to a particular category i is proportional to the relative number of categories that are already subordinate to i. We report the results of three studies that support this hypothesis, and provide evidence that accessibility is an underlying mechanism.


Prions are unorthodox pathogens that cause fatal neurodegenerative diseases in humans and other mammals. Prion propagation occurs through the self-templating of the pathogenic conformer PrP Sc , onto the cell-expressed conformer, PrP C . Here we study the conversion of PrP C to PrP Sc using a recombinant mouse PrP Sc conformer (mouse protein-only recPrP Sc ) as a unique tool that can convert bank vole but not mouse PrP C substrates in vitro . Thus, its templating ability is not dependent on sequence homology with the substrate. In the present study, we used chimeric bank vole/mouse PrP C substrates to systematically determine the domain that allows for conversion by Mo protein-only recPrP Sc . Our results show that that either the presence of the bank vole amino acid residues E227 and S230 or the absence of the second N-linked glycan are sufficient to allow PrP C substrates to be converted by Mo protein-only recPrP Sc and several native infectious prion strains. We propose that residues 227 and 230 and the second glycan are part of a C-terminal domain that acts as a linchpin for bank vole and mouse prion conversion.


This thesis is concerned with three language debates that reached their most crucial peaks in Sweden at the beginning of the twenty-first century: (i) the debate on the promotion of the Swedish language, (ii) the debate on language testing for citizenship, and (iii) the debate on mother tongue instruction. The main scope of the thesis is to take a theoretically multi-pronged approach to these debates trying to shed light on the following aspects: Why did such debates emerge when they did? Which discourses were available in those specific historical moments? Who are the social actors that intervened in these debates? What is at stake for them? What do they claim? What systems of values, ideas and beliefs – i.e. ideologies – underlie such claims? What are the effects in terms of identities, objects of political intervention, commonsensical knowledge and authority that these discourses and ideologies produce?Taking Sweden as a case in point, the thesis adds to the existing literature another example of how language debates are the manifestation of conflicts between different language ideologies that struggle for hegemony, thus attempting to impose one specific way of envisaging the management of a nation-state in a time of globalisation. In their outer and most patent facets, these struggles deal with the relationships between languages in today's Sweden, and how the state, through legislation, should – or should not – regulate such relationships in order to (re)produce some kind of linguistic order. However, the thesis also illustrates that when social actors appeal to a linguistic order, they not only draw boundaries between different languages in a given society, but they also bring into existence a social world in which the speakers of those languages come to occupy specific social positions. These linguistic and social hierarchies, in turn, are imbricated in an often implicit moral regime of what counts as good or bad, acceptable or taboo in that society.


Although there has been a lot of research on problem-solving and emotion-regulation independently, little work has been done on how these constructs are related. The current investigation sought to explore differences in problem-solving, emotion-regulation, emotion-dysregulation and help-seeking based on task difficulty. Preschool children between 3-5 years of age participated in six frustration-inducing problem-solving tasks, three of which were possible (but difficult) and three of which were impossible for them to solve. Problem-solving, emotion-regulation, emotion-dysregulation, and help-seeking behaviors were coded for each task. I hypothesized that childrens behavior in each of these four areas would vary according to task difficulty, as well as within each task as they struggled more. I also aimed to investigate each of the constructs to see if they are domain-specific (i.e., traits of the children) or domain-general (i.e., products of the situation). Results revealed that childrens help-seeking and emotion-dysregulation differed according to task difficulty. Problem-solving and emotion-dysregulation demonstrated some domain-specificity. Finally, younger and older preschoolers differed in their help-seeking.


The purpose of the MAP mission is to determine the geometry, content, and evolution of the universe via a 13' full width half-maximum (FWHM) resolution full-sky map of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation with uncorrelated pixel noise, minimal systematic errors, multifrequency observations, and accurate calibration. These attributes were key factors in the success of NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission, which made a 7° FWHM resolution full sky map, discovered temperature anisotropy, and characterized the fluctuations with two parameters, a power spectral index and a primordial amplitude. Following COBE, considerable progress has been made in higher resolution measurements of the temperature anisotropy. With 45 times the sensitivity and 33 times the angular resolution of the COBE mission, MAP will vastly extend our knowledge of cosmology. MAP will measure the physics of the photon-baryon fluid at recombination. From this, MAP measurements will constrain models of structure formation, the geometry of the universe, and inflation. In this paper we present a prelaunch overview of the design and characteristics of the MAP mission. This information will be necessary for a full understanding of the MAP data and results, and will also be of interest to scientists involved in the design of future cosmic microwave background experiments and/or space science missions.


NAIn Madagascar, the inequalities gap between urban and rural areas implies to draft rural specific policies. Nevertheless, the only focusing on growth might have a limited impact on persistent poverty. All households have not the same capacity to catch new opportunities generated by growth, and those with weakest resources could be durably excluded. Thanks to an applied study on income diversification in rural Madagascar, this paper shows these households are unable to carry out forms of income diversification that protect from poverty. On the contrary, they are forced to choice diversification forms associated with chronic poverty.


Aim at the problem of supervised learning needing much labeled data for training, this paper proposes a new method based on Semi-Supervised learning. Firstly, to construct a classifier of certain accuracy, small-scale training data was used.Secondly, with the self-expanding idea, we applied the method of information entropy to select some new instances of higher credibility from candidate instances, which were to be predicted by the classifier. Finally, with the expansion of training data, training classifier re-iteratively, classification performance tended to be stable iteration termination, which achieved the entity relation extraction of tourism field by semi-supervised learning. The experiments result show that the new classifier which applies information entropy to iteratively expand training data to be trained makes the precision rate increase by 7% and the F-score increase by 15%.