Social triad—a group of three people—is one of the simplest and most fundamental
social groups, which serves as the basis of social network analysis.
Triadic closure, a closing process of an open triad, is a useful principle and
model to understand and predict network evolution and community growth,
which has been widely used in web mining and solving social issues like
political movements, professional organizations and religious denominations.
Extensive network and social theories have been developed to understand the
triadic structure, for example, triadic closure facilitates cooperative behavior
and "friend of my friends are my friends". However, over the course of a triadic
closure—the transition from open triads to closed triads are much less well
understood. Furthermore, the interaction dynamics in networks, particularly in
a triad is still unclear.
In order to fill the gap in triadic closure studies, in this thesis, we trace
the whole process during and after triadic closure. Starting from open triads,
we study the problem of group formation in online social networks and try to
understand how closed triads are formed from open triads in dynamic networks.
Secondly, we focus on triadic closure's influence on networks, especially its
influence on tie strength dynamics of social relations. We investigate whether
the new established third link will affect the tie strength dynamics of open
triads after triadic closure.
Employing a large microblogging network as the source in our study, we
first focus on open triads closing process. By investigating the impact of different
factors from three aspects: user demographics, network characteristics,
and social perspectives, we find some interesting phenomena including: male,
celebrity and gregarious users are more inclined to closing triads; structural
hole spanners are eager to close open triads for more social resources, but they
are also reluctant to have two disconnected friends to be linked together.
Then, we examine triadic closure and its influence – tie strength dynamics
of triads after closure, especially whether and how the formation of the third
tie among three users in a triad affects the strengths of the existing two ties using two dynamic networks from Weibo and mobile communication. We
find that the closure of 80% social triads weakens the strength of the first two
ties. Surprisingly, we discover that although males are easier to get closed,
the decrease in tie strength among three males is more sharp than that among
females, and celebrities are more willing to form triadic closure. However, the
tie strengths between celebrities are more likely to be weakened as the closure
of a triad than those between ordinary people. We also demonstrate that while
strong ties result in weakened relationships in open triads, they can promote
the stronger ties in closed social triads.
Further, we formalize a prediction problem to predict triadic closure. We
propose a probabilistic graphical method to solve the triadic closure prediction
problem by incorporating user demographics, network topology, and social
information. With better instantiating attribute factors, we also extended our
model with kernel density estimates. Unlike triadic closure prediction, the
prediction for triadic tie strength dynamics is far more complicated when time
dynamics is took into account. We further propose a dynamic probabilistic
graphical to solve the problem of triadic tie strength dynamics prediction with
the consideration of user demographics and temporal as well as structural
correlations.
Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed model offers a greater
predictability for both prediction tasks. We demonstrate that our methodology
offers a better-than-82% potential predictability for inferring the dynamics
status of social triads in both networks, and the leveraging of the kernel density
estimate together with structural correlations enables our models to outperform
baselines by up to 30% in terms of F1-score.
The triadic closure and its influence studied in this thesis will be a good
guide to practical applications, like friend recommendation and new friend
invitation for online microblogging services.


Mutations in exon 5 of the ROMK1 gene (KCNJJ) have recently been observed in antenatab Bartter syndrome patients. This study describes a homozygous deletion removing KCNJJ exons 1 and 2 observed in a consanguineous family with antenatab Bartter syndrome. Absence of the untranslated exon 1 led to the deletion of transcription elements located in this exon that may cause the disease. Deletion of exon 1 transcription elements should lead to the absence of hROMK2-K5 transcripts, whereas hROMKJ transcripts should normally be transcnipted. Consequently, probably only hROMK2-K5 transcripts are expressed in the medublary thick ascending limb of Henle.


This work presents the analysis and development of a low cost GSM telephone system. A review of
radio receiver and·transmitter architectures showed the superheterodyne as having a better performance over
the direct conversion radio in terms of selectivity and complexitY.. A low power bidirectional transceiver was
developed based on the superheterodyne architecture. The specifications of the bidirectional transceiver were
computed using specifications of the component modules in the spreadsheet approach. The resulting design
was optimized using Matlab programs and simulated using the Genesys simulation software. The results show
the front end of the transceiver as the most critical part of the transceiver. Both the generic and proposed
transceivers had frequency response from 1700MHz to 1900MHz, the same dynamic range and noise figure but
the proposed transceiver achieved these results with a 50% reduction in power amplifier and low noise amplifier
chi!JS and the 75% reduction in the number of voltage oscillator chips. This reduction in component count fed to
a 40.59% reduction in power requirement and a reduction in the overall cost of the proposed transceiver. The
reduced power consumption of the architecture enables the use of solar energy as an alternative source of
power supply for the transceivers.


Pain prevalence studies are important as they illustrate the magnitude of pain problems in a certain patient population, such as patients living with a spinal cord injury (SCI). Strikingly, reported pain prevalence rates in SCI patients are found to vary greatly, while determinants for the differences between pain prevalence reports remain unclear. We here aim to identify determinants for the differences (heterogeneity) in pain prevalence reports through a systematic review of all SCI pain prevalence reporting studies. Literature search was done using Medline, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, ISI Web of Knowledge and Embase. Data abstraction was performed while blinded and was followed by meta‐(regression)‐analyses. We identified 82 studies. Study design‐related determinants of SCI pain prevalence reports were pain definition strictness (mild, moderate or high), primary study goal (pain study or not), data source (retrospective or not), and in a limited number of cases response/attrition rates. While correcting for these items, population characteristics correlating with pain prevalence rates were both proportion of patients with a depression and average time after injury (positive correlations). Between‐study heterogeneity may remain even after the identification/correction of above‐mentioned causes of heterogeneity.Pain after SCI does seem to relate to the duration of the injury and depression, yet major causes of bias in reported pain prevalence are found to be related to the primary study goal (pain study or not), choice of pain definition and the use of retrospective data.


We study models of mobile robots with limited capabilities that are deployed either on a cycle or an infinite line or on a segment. Robots start moving at the same time and when two robots collide their speeds and movement directions are instantaneously updated. Each of them has a collision detector and a clock to measure the times of its collisions. They do not have any knowledge on the total number of robots and do not have a common sense of direction. Besides, they neither have visibility nor control over their movements. We investigate the feasibility of the localization task in the cycle and the segment by bouncing robots: every robot should figure out the starting position and initial velocity of all the other robots. We consider two different scenarios when robots have common masses and speeds and robots of arbitrary masses and speeds. We give complete characterizations of all feasible configurations for the cycle in both scenarios. We study the survivability of bouncing robots. We say a robot survives if it never returns to its starting position. Non-surviving robots disappear from the environment. We provide sufficient and necessary conditions to have surviving robots in the cycle and in the segment. Finally we investigate communication protocols for bouncing robots that only communicate at the time of their collisions. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions for bouncing robots to perform gossiping, broadcasting and convergecast.


The ability of natural and synthetic hinokitiol, as well as a water soluble derivative (hinokitiol sodium salt), to protect wood against fungal attack was examined. Synthetic and natural hinokitiol provided similar protection. All three materials exhibited similar antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger and Penicillium citrinum on yellow poplar wafers at concentrations of 1 mg/mL or greater. Fungal attack by Gloeophyllum trabeum or Trametes versicolor was completely inhibited in soil block tests in wood treated with any of the three extracts at concentrations of 20 mg/mL or greater. The water soluble hinokitiol sodium salt was highly susceptible to leaching, and blocks subjected to leaching had little resistance to fungal attack. The results suggest that further formulation development will be necessary to produce a water-soluble hinokitiol system that can resist leaching and retain biological activity.


Abstract Apolipoprotein E (apo E) is a human glycoprotein with 299 amino acids, and it is a major component of very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and a group of high-density lipoproteins (HDL). Phylogenetic studies are important to clarify how various apo E proteins are related in groups of organisms and whether they evolved from a common ancestor. Here, we aimed at performing a phylogenetic study on apo E carrying organisms. We employed a classical and robust method, such as Maximum Likelihood (ML), and compared the results using a more recent approach based on complex networks. Thirty-two apo E amino acid sequences were downloaded from NCBI. A clear separation could be observed among three major groups: mammals, fish and amphibians. The results obtained from ML method, as well as from the constructed networks showed two different groups: one with mammals only (C1) and another with fish (C2), and a single node with the single sequence available for an amphibian. The accordance in results from the different methods shows that the complex networks approach is effective in phylogenetic studies. Furthermore, our results revealed the conservation of apo E among animal groups.


The extent of competition in the real estate brokerage industry has been the subject of much debate among scholars, policy makers, and the popular press over the past few years. Critics have claimed that "traditional" full-service brokers have restricted competition from discount and limited-service providers in order to maintain artificially high commission rates. Other analysts have countered that the brokerage industry is highly competitive, and that the emergence of alternative service offerings has given home buyers and sellers more information and more choices than ever before. Despite the intensity of the debate, relatively little is known about the current structure of commission rates or the extent to which they vary in ways that are consistent with price competition. This paper uses Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data from seven metropolitan areas to examine variations in buy- side commission rates within markets, across markets, and over time. Our results challenge the prevailing notion of a "fixed commission" world. Although our parameter estimates vary from market to market, our regression analysis suggests that commission rates vary in ways that are both predictable and consistent with market-driven pricing.


The aim of this study is to research environmental factors and their impact among manufacturing companies in Umea. In order to capture the essence of environmental impacts , two research questions were asked; which environmental factors are considered, and in what context are they evaluated among manufacturing companies in Umea, and how are stakeholders an implication on corporate environmental efforts for manufacturing companies in Umea?First and foremost relevant theories were discovered, using several databases. Second, they were incorporated into a conceptual framework, where their relationship and characteristics were displayed. The theories were then transformed into themes, which became the foundation of the interview guide.The study was conducted by interviewing six manufacturing companies with more than 10 employees in Umea. The interviews were semi-structured, and a mixture of telephone interviews and in-person interviews. An analysis of the empirical material was undertaken, by analyzing the data using the theories found during the information search.Almost all participating companies consider environmental factors in one way or another, according to the findings of this study. Further, the customers were concluded to be the most important stakeholder in leading to environmental reform among the companies. However, other stakeholders were also recognized by the respondents, and had an impact in for the stakeholders' specific circumstances.


This commentary traces contemporary discourses on the relationship between artificial intelligence and labour and explains why these principles must be comprehensive in their approach to labour and AI. First, the commentary asserts that ethical frameworks in AI alone are not enough to guarantee workers' rights since they lack enforcement mechanisms and the representation of different stakeholders. Secondly, it argues that current discussions on AI and labour focus on the deployment of these technologies in the workplace but ignore the essential role of human labour in their development, particularly in the different cases of outsourced labour around the world. Finally, it recommends using existing human rights frameworks for working conditions to provide more comprehensive ethical principles and regulations. The commentary concludes by arguing that the central question regarding the future of work should not be whether intelligent machines will replace humans, but who will own these systems and have a say in their development and operation.


Plants of the usually perennial autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa that colonized railways became vernalization insensitive, early and perpetually flowering, and constitutively heat and cold stress tolerant. Weediness in ephemeral plants is commonly characterized by rapid cycling, prolific all-in flowering, and loss of perenniality. Many species made transitions to weediness of this sort, which can be advantageous in high-disturbance or human-associated habitats. The molecular basis of this shift, however, remains mostly mysterious. Here, we use transcriptome sequencing, genome resequencing scans for selection, and stress tolerance assays to study a weedy population of the otherwise nonweedy Arabidopsis arenosa, an obligately outbreeding relative of Arabidopsis thaliana. Although weedy A. arenosa is widespread, a single genetic lineage colonized railways throughout central and northern Europe. We show that railway plants, in contrast to plants from sheltered outcrops in hill/mountain regions, are rapid cycling, have lost the vernalization requirement, show prolific flowering, and do not return to vegetative growth. Comparing transcriptomes of railway and mountain plants across time courses with and without vernalization, we found that railway plants have sharply abrogated vernalization responsiveness and high constitutive expression of heat- and cold-responsive genes. Railway plants also have strong constitutive heat shock and freezing tolerance compared with mountain plants, where tolerance must be induced. We found 20 genes with good evidence of selection in the railway population. One of these, LATE ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL, is known in A. thaliana to regulate many stress-response genes that we found to be differentially regulated among the distinct habitats. Our data suggest that, beyond life history regulation, other traits like basal stress tolerance also are associated with the evolution of weediness in A. arenosa.


Automatic speech recognition (ASR) using multi-band decomposition provides high recognition rates especially in noisy environments. The discrete wavelet transform (DWT) is known to be an efficient tool for decomposing signals into frequency sub-bands. The concept of feature recombination (FC) as applied to the recognition of spoken Arabic numerals is suggested. Utterances are decomposed using DWT before cepstral coefficients of the resulting sub-bands are calculated. The obtained coefficients are concatenated to form a single feature vector that is used as an input to the speech classifier, e.g. a hidden Markov model (HMM), to compute the likelihood. Simulation results have demonstrated that the achieved correct recognition rates using the suggested method are comparable with the full-band ASR (conventional) system.


This letter addresses the polarimetric synthetic aperture radar target detection using the magnitude of the (2, 3) term in the sample averaged coherency matrix. The theoretical analysis demonstrates that such term reveals the difference between the nonreflection symmetric targets and natural clutters. The statistical models for such term are derived within different degrees of homogeneity. Based on the statistical models, an automatic constant-false-alarm-rate detection scheme is completed. The parameter estimation and the solution for the detection threshold are given in detail. Experimental results demonstrate the capability of the proposed approach for detecting ships, oil stores, buildings, etc., in homogeneous and heterogeneous areas.


Purpose: Total scatter factor is one of the most important parameters in commissioning for stereotactic radiosurgery. We compared total scatter factors which were measured by various detectors. Methods: We attached circular collimators (7.5mm, 10.0mm, 12.5mm, 15.0mm, 17.5mm, 20.0mm, 25.0mm and 30mm diameters at isocenter) for stereotactic radiosurgery (BrainLAB) to Varian Clinac 21EX and irradiated 400MU of 10MV (600MU/min) to the detectors at 3cm depth in the water or water equivalent phantom. Total scatter factor was measured by PinPoint 3D chamber (PTW31016), diode detectors (Edge detector (Sun Nuclear), SFD (iba)) and GAFCHROMIC Film EBT2 (ISP). Data were analyzed using MATLAB (MathWorks). Results: We obtained total scatter factors of 0.74 (Edge detector), 0.71 (SFD), 0.67(EBT2), 0.62 (PinPoint 3D Chamber) in 7.5mm diameter collimator. These scatter factors were normalized by largest collimator (30mm) reading of each detector. For the decision of total scatter factors, we normalized these values by 15mm diameter collimator, and averaged diode detectors and EBT2 less than 15mm. We adopted PinPoint 3D chamber's data for 15mm and over. Conclusions: To obtain total scatter factor precisely, we need to take a measurement with various detectors and evaluate the results carefully. As the next step, we are preparing for Monte Carlo simulation to compare with measured data.


In many instances, taxpayers can select among various available tax outcomes by simply filing (or not filing) a tax election. Oftentimes, taxpayers file tax elections on a protective basis. When a taxpayer believes that filing an election may not be necessary but files it just in case, the taxpayer files a "protective tax election." While existing academic literature explores various aspects of tax elections, the filing of tax elections on a protective basis has not been addressed. This Article begins to fill that gap.
            In some circumstances, the tax outcome that follows from making a protective tax election is not necessarily what the taxpayer intends to claim. A taxpayer might plan to claim a given tax outcome but be wary of a risk that the claim will fail. The taxpayer files a protective tax election to opt for the taxpayer's second choice. In other words, the taxpayer uses the election to ensure that, if the taxpayer's intended claim does fail, the alternative tax treatment imposed upon the taxpayer is more favorable than what would befall the taxpayer in the absence of the protective tax election. This Article adopts the phrase "Favorable Fallback Protective Tax Elections" to refer to protective tax elections filed under these circumstances.
            The policy implications of Favorable Fallback Protective Tax Elections are numerous. The policy disadvantages of such elections include their potential to trap unwary taxpayers as well as their propensity for encouraging well-advised taxpayers to take more aggressive reporting positions. One policy advantage of such elections is the possibility that they may encourage taxpayers to reveal useful information to the IRS.
            This Article explores the various uses of protective tax elections, assesses their policy advantages and disadvantages, and recommends ways to amplify their advantages and mitigate their disadvantages.


The inter-element phase calibration plays an important role in the overall calibration scheme for synthetic aperture radiometer. The traditional relative phase calibration approach is to use correlated noise injection network, which will be difficult to be implemented in millimeter wave band due to the complexity of the waveguide divider network. A novel self-calibration method for interferometric radiometers with rotating thinned array, especially for the geostationary interferometric microwave sounder(GIMS), has been proposed in this paper. By using this approach, neither dedicated hardware nor dedicated calibration working model is needed to achieved the relative phase calibration. The self-calibration approach is inherently merged with the nominal observation working model of GIMS, thanks to the continuous array rotating of GIMS instrument. A running average scheme has been introduced into the self-calibration approach to enhance the SNR of the calibration data, which is normally very low with the natural earth scene. The method is demonstrated by both simulation and field imaging experiment.


We examined the involvement of Mn(II) in the conversion of phenylalanine to benzaldehyde in cell extracts of lactic acid bacteria. Experiments performed with Lactobacillus plantarum demonstrated that Mn(II), present at high levels in this strain, is involved in benzaldehyde formation by catalyzing the conversion of phenylpyruvic acid. Experiments performed with various lactic acid bacterial strains belonging to different genera revealed that benzaldehyde formation in a strain was related to a high Mn(II) level.


Assuming satisfactory fixation of metallic bone-plates and no subsequent accidental high impact loading, the major cause of implant failure during the lifetime of the patient will be that of corrosion fatigue. The mechanisms of corrosion fatigue are various and component life depends on a large number of interacting variables. These variables are noted and the particular importance of changing pH in a saline environment for implants is discussed. It is known, for example, that very low pH of body fluids results from shock and/or locally in the crevice between implant and bone. Some in vitro test results for stainless steel type 316, titanium 130, and titanium alloy 318, at a "walking pace" of 1.7 Hz, simulating normal and extreme conditions possibly met in practice, are reported. Further, since it is commonplace for some bone-plates to be drilled for fitting, the combined effect of this procedure and a changing local environment has been investigated. The life of stainless steel 316 was not affected by the hole drilling, but its use as an implant material is questionable because of poor resistance to corrosion fatigues at "lower-than-normal" pH. A small reduction in the life of titanium 130 resulted from the hole drilling operation. However, this material was generally superior to stainless steel at low pH. Titanium 318 showed by far the best resistance to corrosion fatigue but its performance was drastically reduced by hole drilling. Some early failures were also noted as the result of fretting with T318. Good implant design, and cautious modifications when fitting, is required here for the realization of the full potential of T318.


The aim of these experiments was to investigate the expression of cyclin D1 and of oestradiol receptors as well as the level of [(3)H]oestradiol binding in leiomyoma and adjacent myometrium from human uteri at different menstrual phases and at an early stage of menopause. [(3)H]oestradiol binding was determined by saturation analysis, while the oestradiol receptor (ER) alpha and beta and cyclin D1 levels were determined by Western blot analysis of 16 samples of human leiomyomas and corresponding myometria at different hormonal stages. In leiomyomas during all phases of the menstrual cycle, ERalpha expression, high affinity oestradiol binding and cyclin D1 expression were all elevated in comparison with adjacent myometrium. ERbeta expression and low affinity oestradiol binding were enhanced in leiomyomas only during the proliferative phase. During menopause, ERbeta expression and low affinity binding were enhanced in leiomyomas, while the ERalpha expression was not significantly enhanced and cyclin D1 levels were similar to that in myometrium. Only the oestradiol binding exhibited any menstrual cycle-related changes. Our data suggest the involvement of cyclin D1 in the growth of leiomyomas during the menstrual cycle. In menopause, there appears to be a switch from ERalpha to ERbeta expression in leiomyomas, and the induction of cyclin D1 is decreased. The regression of tumour may ensue from these changes at menopause.


The moisture content of wood depends on the relative humidity and the temperature of air surrounding it. The cells of timber contain large amount of water in cell cavities as free water and in cell walls as bound water. Wood shrinks in three directions when it is dried below fiber saturation point (FSP). The least shrinkage occurs along the length of the piece, the greatest shrinkage occurs along tangential (T) direction to the growth rings and intermediate shrinkage occurs along radial (R) direction (perpendicular to the growth rings). When wood is used for furniture and joinery work it should be dimensionally stable with lower T/R shrinkage ratio. The present study was conducted to calculate T/R shrinkage ratios of commonly used local timbers for furniture and joinery work. Teak, Mahogany, Pine, Rubber, Kempus and Jak timbers. These timbers were collected at large scale furniture manufacturing factory at Dompe. It was found that Kempus timber had the highest T/R value of 2.989 and Jak timber had the lowest value of 1.086 among the species tested. The T/R values for Mahogany, Teak, Rubber and Pine were 1.213, 1.342, 1.352 and 1.5857 respectively. This indicates that Jak, Mahogany, Teak and Rubber which have T/R ratio close to 1 are better to use for manufacturing of furniture. Samples of Teak, one of the most common timber species used for joinery work were collected from four different locations: Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Monaragala and Ampara. According to the results, Monaragala district Teak had highest T/R value of 2.2081 and Anuradhapura district Teak had the lowest T/R value of 1.246 indicating that Teak timbers in Anuradhapura are more dimensionally stable than Teak timbers in other regions. The T/R values for Teak in Ampara and Kurunegala were respectively 1.558 and 1.342. The results indicate that when selecting timber for furniture manufacturing it is important to select timbers with lower T/R such as Jak, Mahogany, Teak and Rubber to reduce cracks, gaps, and weak joints in usage of timber for furniture production. However, other properties such as density, durability, appearance and availability should also be considered. Keywords: Shrinkage, Moisture content, Commercial timber


ABSTRACT Forest fires are one of the most important factors in environmental risk assessment and it is the main cause of forest destruction in the Mediterranean region. Forestlands have a number of known benefits such as decreasing soil erosion, containing wild life habitats, etc. Additionally, forests are also important player in carbon cycle and decreasing the climate change impacts. This paper discusses forest fire probability mapping of a Mediterranean forestland using a multiple data assessment technique. An artificial neural network (ANN) method was used to map forest fire probability in Upper Seyhan Basin (USB) in Turkey. Multi-layer perceptron (MLP) approach based on back propagation algorithm was applied in respect to physical, anthropogenic, climate and fire occurrence datasets. Result was validated using relative operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Coefficient of accuracy of the MLP was 0.83. Landscape features input to the model were assessed statistically to identify the most descriptive factors on forest fire probability mapping using the Pearson correlation coefficient. Landscape features like elevation (R = −0.43), tree cover (R = 0.93) and temperature (R = 0.42) were strongly correlated with forest fire probability in the USB region.


The high-quality of financial reporting provides suitable information for economic decision-making of the country whilst, the low quality of financial reporting causes a serious impact on the economy. This research aims to classify financial reporting quality (FRQ) as well as determines the drivers of FRQ. This study uses a panel dataset from 2014 to 2020 that is collected from the Vietnamese listed companies. The study applies machine learning algorithms to classify and assess FRQ of non-financial companies on the Vietnamese stock exchange. New contribution considers the FRQ, on the auditor's opinion and the variance between pre-audit and post-audit profit. This research classifies FRQ into normal and poor categories, and a rate of 9.35% in the sample is considered poor FRQ. This research shows that the return on assets' ratio and the ownership concentration have the most important influence on FRQ. Furthermore, the results which are predicting FRQ by using the random forest algorithm have an accuracy rate of 94%. This study is valuable for the forecast of FRQ and for the support of stakeholders in decision-making. With the high accuracy of machine learning techniques and its usage, it can help analysts and investors in generating reliable accounting information for decision-making purposes. Corporate sector needs to pay attention towards financial ratios and reinforcement of corporate governance.


The streamlined Diesel engine rounded the curve and emitted the hoarse, frog-like sound that has replaced the clear loneliness of the steam locomotive's whistle. The orange, black and yellow length of the engine throbbed between tree-shaded streets, gradually slackening its pace until it gently came to rest before a smoky red brick depot. Thus began in 1942 the literary career of a young college teacher who was to become an honored authority in his academic field and a leading educator of his era. Unpromising as the passage might seem, the words opened Death Like Thunder, the first of six detective novels that would appear over the next decade, books that would help to support the man and his family in his first college teaching and in his work toward a doctoral degree and membership on the faculty of a prestigious Southern university. General students in literature classes would come to hear of C. Hugh Holman (1914-81) and to depend on his Handbook to Literature; and scholarly students of the writings of Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner, Ellen Glasgow, William Gilmore Simms, and other American authors would repeatedly come upon the distinguished literary history and criticism that Hugh Holman published throughout an exemplary teaching and administrative career. But few of these students and scholars would know that early in his life Hugh Holman created a body of detective fiction worthy of attention for its qualities of time and place as well as its authorship. The train that arrives to open Death Like Thunder has reached the fictitious setting of Abeton, South Carolina, seat of Hart County and in 1942 a town of five thousand citizens who swelter in the humid heat of a Southern afternoon in September. Abeton has a cotton mill, a boarding house, a telegraph office, a jail, a tavern, several lawyers' offices, and the Abeton Cafe; but the action of Death Like Thunder centers around two other Abeton institutions--Abeton College and the Hart County courthouse. The college, consisting of "red brick buildings with Corinthian columns," is dominated by the three-story administration building ("the one with the tall steeple") and the gracious home of the college president--"a huge old house [set] back among giant live oaks and raising its green-shingled, Victorian third storey above their gnarled limbs." The dingy courtroom on the second floor of the courthouse is the realm of law and justice for the people of Hart County--"a sorry stage on which to play a drama of life and death, a pitifully commonplace conclusion to the spectacular and gaudy act of murder." Despite the perfunctory warning affixed to Death Like Thunder that "names and designations of characters and institutions are entirely fictitious, and any similarity to persons or institutions now existing is entirely coincidental," Hugh Holman clearly modeled Abeton, South Carolina, on the town of Clinton, in Laurens County, in the Piedmont area of northwestern South Carolina, where he had lived since the early 1930's. And Abeton College--"a denominational liberal arts college" for men--is clearly modeled on Presbyterian College in Clinton, which Holman attended to receive the Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1936 and the Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1938 and where he remained after graduation to serve as Director of Public Relations to 1939, Director of Radio to 1941, and Instructor in English, beginning in 1941. In creating the plot for Death Like Thunder, Holman drew upon knowledge gained from two of his Presbyterian College positions--Director of Radio and Instructor in English--for the crime that shakes Abeton College involves a radio scriptwriter accused of murdering a college faculty member. The hero of Death Like Thunder, Michael Leiter of New York City, "a young man, somewhere in his middle twenties, dressed in tan trousers, a loud checked brown sports coat, and a shirt and tie that matched perfectly," having lost the authorship of "Cry Murder," a nationally broadcast radio detective show, has reluctantly arrived at Abeton College to establish a radio department and to produce public-service radio programming for stations to broadcast throughout South Carolina. …


Following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Plata v. Brown , the author toured prison systems in Western Europe with a University of Maryland study abroad program and then again with corrections and public officials from three states. The goal of the first trip was to compare and contrast competing correctional systems. The second trip was designed to expose relevant public officials to different penological values and practices. Both groups quickly appreciated the profound differences in conditions and philosophies. Even though imprisonment in these European countries is a last resort, prisons are designed to be as "normal" as possible. The State's responsibility goes past the constitutional minimum under the Eighth Amendment to provide food, clothing, shelter and personal safety. Reintegration into the community—not punishment—is the primary objective. These values translated to conditions and programs that are more humane and effective than those typically found in the United States. Correctional leaders used this experience to put into place programs limiting the housing of the mentally ill prisoners in segregation, improving reentry programs, and "normalizing" some prison units. Direct and personal exposure to European prison and criminal justice systems promoted humane and effective prisons at home.


The complexities of the English language can be daunting for even the most fluent speakers, and for Canadians this is doubly so with the mixture of British and American traditions. Almost anyone engaged in formal writing will sometimes need to consult a usage guide for advice, but Canadians have always been forced to choose between a British or an American source. With the Guide to Canadian English Usage, writers will have an authoritative reference based on Canadian sources who provide pithy direction on numerous details of the language. From the indefinite article to zoology, alphabetically arranged entries clarify issues of word choice, punctuation, spelling, and abbreviation. Throughout it offers guidance on Canadianisms, confusibles, difficult expressions, First Nation names, foreign phrases, grammar, inclusive language, punctuation, spelling, and troublesome pronunciations. Each entry explains the problem at hand, outlines a range of prescriptions, and then either recommends a particular usage or reviews the alternatives from which the now-informed reader can choose. All entries feature a wide range of fascinating quotations from Canadian sources.This A-Z guide to the way Canadians use the English language is an essential reference for students, business people, and anyone engaged in formal writing.


In this paper, we argue that a drastic impact of Brexit on UK CCPs should in principle be avoided, for the simple reason that they have so far provided efficient clearing services to counterparties located in other EU countries, so that their disruption would not be in the interest of Europe as a whole. Nonetheless, we do not go as far as arguing that the relocation of part of the OTC derivatives clearing which presently occurs in London to other EU countries should be avoided as certainly inefficient. While believing that clearing efficiency would be optimized through concentration of the clearing services in a small number of clearing houses, we acknowledge that the information presently available on the EU clearing economy does not always support the status quo. We also admit that a relocation of part of the clearing business to other EU financial centres could be efficient in the long-run if given conditions materialize, such as the shifting of a substantial mass of derivatives transactions to one or more CCPs in the Continent at a reasonable cost. We further argue that EU and national politics could determine an impact of Brexit on OTC derivatives' clearing that is disruptive of the status quo without bringing net social benefits. Indeed, the protection of national interests and local constituencies could prevail over an informed view of the efficiency and stability of the clearing industry, which would imply leaving the choices to be made in one direction or the other to market participants.
As a policy solution, we advocate a reform of EMIR strengthening the supervision of CCPs, including those located in third countries, along the lines recently proposed by the European Commission. Nevertheless, we suggest some amendments to the Commission's proposal that are directed to avoid the disruption of the clearing industry which would be caused by the proposed regulatory requirements. A similar reform would entitle not only ESMA and the national competent authorities, but also the central banks of issue, the ECB in particular, to effectively supervise third-country CCPs and protect the financial stability of the Union. Moreover, the central banks of issue would be able to provide liquidity to CCPs and their clearing members, particularly in stress situations. However, we advocate a clearer recourse to substitute (or comparative) compliance for third country CCPs and reject the idea of a location requirement that under the Commission's proposal could be imposed to third country CCPs in extreme circumstances.


There doesn´t exist yet a saddle which is mainly designed for therapeutic riding. What the therapist do nowadays is, that they use either normal saddles and add different devices with screws on, or they use a vaulting girth. Both of them are not the ideal solution and a saddle designed for therapeutic riding is needed. The goals were, to design a saddle where the child sits safer on the horse and the exercises can be done smooth, the therapist should have a stressfree job and the horse should feel comfortable through the entire therapy session.


On these pages you will meet Monroe Nathan Work, who lived from 1866 – 1945. This website is a rebirth of one piece of his work, although he did many great things. In his career, he felt compelled to document every known lynching that was happening in the United States. You might already be familiar with what lynching is, and this website will examine it more. Of course, it starts with an act of injustice: by sentencing someone outside the law with no process or trial. Even worse, at the turn of the century the methods of lynching had become commonplace, fueled by hatred — and unspeakably cruel. It was Mr. Work's meticulous recordkeeping that preserves the names that are now an important part of our history.


Eye gaze tracking system has been widely researched for the replacement of the conventional computer interfaces such as the mouse and keyboard. In this paper, we propose the long range binocular eye gaze tracking system that works from 1.5 m to 2.5 m with allowing a head displacement in depth. The 3D position of the user's eye is obtained from the two wide angle cameras. A high resolution image of the eye is captured using the pan, tilt, and focus controlled narrow angle camera. The angles for maneuvering the pan and tilt motor are calculated by the proposed calibration method based on virtual camera model. The performance of the proposed calibration method is verified in terms of speed and convenience through the experiment. The narrow angle camera keeps tracking the eye while the user moves his head freely. The point-of-gaze (POG) of each eye onto the screen is calculated by using a 2D mapping based gaze estimation technique and the pupil center corneal reflection (PCCR) vector. PCCR vector modification method is applied to overcome the degradation in accuracy with displacements of the head in depth. The final POG is obtained by the average of the two POGs. Experimental results show that the proposed system robustly works for a large screen TV from 1.5 m to 2.5 m distance with displacements of the head in depth (+20 cm) and the average angular error is 0.69°.


We developed models to predict congenital cytomegalovirus infection for women with primary infection and absence of ultrasonographic findings. OBJECTIVE: To develop and internally validate a noninvasive method for the prediction of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection after primary maternal CMV infection. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of a multicenter randomized placebo-controlled trial of CMV hyperimmune globulin to prevent congenital infection. Women were eligible if they had primary CMV infection, defined as detectable plasma CMV-specific immunoglobulin (Ig)M and CMV-specific IgG with avidity less than 50% before 24 weeks of gestation or IgG seroconversion before 28 weeks, and were carrying a singleton fetus without ultrasonographic findings suggestive of CMV infection. Antibody assays were performed in a single reference laboratory. Congenital infection was defined as CMV detection in amniotic fluid, neonatal urine or saliva, or postmortem tissue. Using backward elimination, we developed logit models for prediction of congenital infection using factors known at randomization. The performance of the model was assessed using leave-one-out cross-validation (a method of internal validation). RESULTS: Of 399 women enrolled in the trial, 344 (86%) had informative data for this analysis. Congenital infection occurred in 68 pregnancies (20%). The best performing model included government-assisted insurance, IgM index 4.5 or higher, IgG avidity less than 32%, and whether CMV was detectable by polymerase chain reaction in maternal plasma at the time of randomization. Cross-validation showed an average area under the curve of 0.76 (95% CI 0.70–0.82), indicating moderate discriminatory ability. More parsimonious one-, two-, and three-factor models performed significantly less well than the four-factor model. Examples of prediction with the four-factor model: for a woman with government-assisted insurance, avidity less than 32%, IgM index 4.5 or higher, and detectable plasma CMV, probability of congenital infection was 0.69 (95% CI 0.53–0.82); for a woman with private insurance, avidity 32% or greater, IgM index less than 4.5, and undetectable plasma CMV, probability of infection was 0.03 (95% CI 0.02–0.07). CONCLUSION: We developed models to predict congenital CMV infection in the presence of primary maternal CMV infection and absence of ultrasonographic findings suggestive of congenital infection. These models may be useful for patient counseling and decision making.


Aim: The aim of present study deals with preparation and stabilization of Hydrochlorothiazide nanocrystals using silk sericin. Materials and Methods: Nanocrystals of BCS class II drugs were primed by antisolvent precipitation method in ratio of HCTZ: Sericin (1:0.5, 1:1, 1:1.5, 1:2). Further Nanocrystals were investigated by particle size, zeta potential, drug content, ATRFTIR, XRD, DSC, SEM, in vitro dissolution study and stability study. Zeta potential (1:0.5) shows higher value -18.8 than other batches which means optimized P1 batch have more stability than other batches. Low loss of drug content in lyophilized P1 batch resulted in excellent revival of nanocrystals. In FTIR, principle peaks of pure drug HCTZ were retained in (1:0.5) P1 batch which are almost identical. Further XRD proved that HCTZ existed in crystalline state in the HCTZ nanocrystals. DSC of HCTZ and HCTZ nanocrystals peaks were found to be nearly indistinguishable. Nanocrystals were found to be sharp needle in shape. Results: Nanocrystals of P1 batch displayed enhanced dissolution performance than other batches as its % drug dissolution was found to be 89.39. % crystallinity of nanocrystals was somewhat increased but not any noteworthy difference after 3 months storage as % crystainity of P1 batch after storage for 3 months was found to be 44.01 to 45.07 hence it was increased to some extent, but difference was not noteworthy. Conclusion: Result verified that, sericin improves solubility and stability of nanocrystals. Thus, sericin play important role in stabilization of nanocrystals of poorly soluble drugs.


Innovations in intelligent narrative technologies have continued to accelerate, but elude adoption by a broad and diverse audience of storytellers. Authoring accessibility for these technologies is an open challenge, largely due to tensions between story adaptability and author control, explainability, and pre-dictability. We describe ongoing efforts on the Villanelle project, an approach to autonomous character authoring that integrates scripting with generativity, using a logic-based foundation that unifies these approaches with reasoning principles that carry through the authoring process. We outline our proposal for thinking about authoring languages rather than tools, describe our proposal for such a language, and discuss current implementation progess, including a block-based authoring tool and two ongoing game projects using the framework. We discuss key design challenges and a future roadmap for accessible autonomous character authorship.


This study aims to query the current trendy luxurious housing sites in Turkey from the point of ecologically sustainable principles and make comparative analysis between Turkish and Scandinavian ecological-technological (eco-tech) solutions in this manner. For this, the study investigated how eco-tech principles contribute to the urban design, for instance, features of sustainable community development such as sustainable transport, compact settlements, alternative energy, ecological protection, eco-technologies, local economy and 3 'R' s policy etc. Afterwards, four projects from İstanbul and Ankara are evaluated according to the eco-tech principles and Scandinavian solutions are served as good examples, four different best practices from Finland and Sweden. As a result of site survey, spatial studies and interpretations, a comparison is made between case studies in this context. Considering that urban design is part of the planning process, the ecological sustainability principles should be considered together, key strategies and specific recommendations are put as techniques, in a dynamic interrelationship. These key strategies are developed under 4 headings: human ecology in a community and neighborhood scale, energy, land-resource and water conservation. Each strategy is defined separately seeking to embed design, policy making and implementation at sustainable housing development process.


Software has become an integral part of everyday life. Every day, millions of people perform transaction through various applications run by these software as internet, ATM, mobile phone, they send email etc. People use software bearing in mind that it is reliable and can be trust upon and the operation they perform is secured. Now, if this software have ensemble security hole then how can they be safe for use. Security brings value to software in terms of people's trust. The value provided by secure software is of vital importance because many critical functions are entirely dependent on the software. With limited budget and time to release software into the market, many developers often consider security as an after though. So in this work we have given a model to improve the security in SDLC model by using different method.


A diffuse generalized lymphoma histologically classified as mixed histiocytic-lymphocytic type and associated with profound immunologie abnormalities is reported. The patient had an autoimmune hemolytic anemia, an autoimmune thrombocytopenia, polyclonally increased IgG and IgM, polyclonal secretion of kappa and lamda chains into urine, very low serum complement C3 and antibodies against glomerulus and smooth muscle. When studied with the modern surface-marker techniques, the lesion was found to be composed of entirely lymphoid cells of the B-lymphocyte series. The proper classification of this tumor could be a primitive immunoblastic sarcoma. The relationship of the present tumor to the non-neoplastic angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathia is discussed. The necessity of applying the surface-marker techniques in the classification of malignant lymphomas is emphasized.


Understanding the factors responsible for structuring ecological communities is a central goal in community ecology. Previous work has focused on determining the relative roles of two classes of variables (e.g., spatial and environmental) on community composition. However, this approach may ignore the disproportionate impact of variables within classes, and is often confounded by spatial autocorrelation leading to collinearity among variables of different classes. Here, we combine pattern-based metacommunity and machine learning analyses to characterize metacommunity structure of zooplankton from lakes in the northeast United States and to identify environmental, spatial, and geographic covariates associated with metacommunity structure. Analyses were performed for the entire metacommunity and for three zooplankton subsets (cladocerans, copepods, and rotifers), as the variables associated with community structure in these groups were hypothesized to differ. Species distributions of all subsets adhered to an environmental, spatial, and/or geographic gradient, but differed in metacommunity pattern, as copepod species distributions responded independently of one another, while the entire zooplankton metacommunity, cladocerans, and rotifers replaced one another in discrete groups. While environmental variables were nearly always the most important to metacommunity structure, the relative importance of variables differed among zooplankton subsets, suggesting that zooplankton subsets differ in their environmental tolerances and dispersal-limitation.


Price indexes are commonly used in time-to-time economic series to adjust for changes in price levels across years. This paper estimates price parities within the U.S., defined as an adjustment for differences in price levels across geographic areas at one point in time. The term parity is more frequently used in international comparisons, where purchasing power parities (PPPs) are divided by the exchange rate to denote differences in price levels across countries. The method described here for calculating regional PPPs is based on micro-level price data from the Consumer Price Index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and on the American Community Survey of the Census Bureau. It uses a Bayesian spatial smoothing approach to obtain individual county price levels that are aggregated to regional price parities (RPPs) for 363 metropolitan areas and 51 states in the United States. An example of their relevance is given by comparing the Personal Income and Gross Domestic Product estimates produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis for the year 2005 at national prices and at regional price parities.


Objective To evaluate the impact of an antimicrobial stewardship programme (including audit, education, prescribing guidance, pharmacist referral system and microbiology ward rounds) introduced in November 2009. Method An evaluation of four point prevalence surveys (PPS) conducted on a single day in January 2009, January 2010, November 2010 and May 2011 and three snap-shot prescribing surveys (SSPS) conducted on a single day in November 2009, February 2010 and May 2010. All inpatients on the days of the surveys were included. Patients' medical notes, medication charts and laboratory data were reviewed and data was collected on diagnosis, antibiotic(s) prescribed, route of administration, duration of treatment, documentation of an indication and duration/review date and compliance with local prescribing guidelines. The data were analysed using Excel. Results The total number of patients included across all surveys was 1410. 503patients (35.7%) were prescribed treatment courses of antibacterials. Over the course of four PPS a sustained reduction in cephalosporin use was observed from 26/61 (42.6%) patients prescribed antibacterials in January 2009 to 5/61 (8.2%), 6/77 (7.8%) and 5/60 (8.3%) in the subsequent three PPS. Meropenem use decreased from 9/61 (14.8%) in January 2009 and 15/61 (17.2%) in January 2010 to 9/77 (12%) in November 2010 and 6/60 (10%) in May 2011. The proportion of patients on intravenous antibiotics remained high at 49/61 (82%), 45/61 (74%), 64/77 (83%) and 38/60 (63.3%). However, the number of patients receiving intravenous antibiotics for >48 h decreased from 40/49 (82%) to 33/45 (73%), 37/64 (58%) and 18/60 (30%). Over the course of the three SSPS, the documentation of an indication on patients' medication charts has increased from 5/53 (9%) patients prescribed antibacterials in November 2009 to 30/60 (50%) in May 2011. The documentation of a duration/review date on patients' medication charts has increased from 7/53 (13%) in November 2009 to 27/60 (45%) in May 2011. Conclusion A programme of antimicrobial stewardship has been successfully introduced in accordance with national requirements.1 A sustained reduction in agents at high risk of causing Clostridium difficile associated disease, agents with a broad spectrum of activity and the duration of intravenous therapy has been achieved in line with national recommendations.2 3 The quality of antibacterial prescribing has also improved in line with national guidance.2 3 There has been little impact on the proportion of patients treated with intravenous agents although this may be expected in paediatrics.


Understanding dispersal mechanisms in benthic formainifera has wide implications for explaining their geological and biological distribution in space and time, including evolutionary and genetic trends. Because they lack a planktonic larval stage (although a few have a meroplanktonic life stage), their mode of dispersal in the marine environment has been subject to much speculation, and a range of alternative mechanisms have been suggested (for a review, see Alve (1999) and further discussion in Hayward et al. (1999)). In the present note, we suggest a mechanism which is more efficient and probably more widespread than most of those previously proposed. We hypothesize that many species produce 'propagules' (small juveniles, perhaps just the proloculus) released in large numbers following reproduction that may enter a resting stage. Propagules can be widely dispersed by normal physical processes (currents, sediment transport) and ultimately settle over a range of habitats and conditions. Growth and reproduction commence only in those individuals and species that reach a suitable environment. We have two lines of evidence from completely different shallow-water environments (Norwegian fjord and the Florida Keys, USA) that strongly support our hypothesis. Observations Surface sediments from a box core were collected at 60 m water depth in the inner part of Oslofjord 10 September 1999. Some of the sediment was processed immediately after collection, and the remaining bulk sample was transferred to a transparent container with ambient seawater, sealed, and placed on a window ledge until 30 March 2000. Those sub-samples processed immediately after collection contained no live …


As London became the first major city of the 19th century, new models of representation emerged in the journalism, poetry, fiction and social commentary of the period. Simon Joyce argues that such writing reflected a persistant worry about the problem of crime but was never able to contain it. Such commentators as Wordsworth, Dickens, Mayhew, Stevenson, Conan Doyle, Booth and Wilde all struggled with the same questions about how to represent London and the relations among its varied populations, yet their accounts often undermined one another. Whereas Victorian social science presumed a correlation between criminal activity, geographical residence and social class, the popular literature of the period often sought just as strenuously to deny the link, giving rise to privileged and pathological offenders like Dorian Gray and Dr Jekyll. This is turn shifted attention away from the urban slums that had been the setting for the so-called Newgate novels of the 1830s and 1840s. By 1900, crime appears as a distinctively modern problem, requiring large-scale solutions and government intervention in place of an older approach that was rooted in personal morality or philanthropic paternalism. Illustrating "literary geography" - in which physical space is not merely a backdrop for the plot but an integral element in shaping textual meaning - this work reveals how certain geographical patterns can not only give weight to interpretive meanings already suggested in the texts but also enable us to read them in a new and surprising light.


Formic acid has been used in various countries for the control of parasitic mites of honey bees (Apis mellifera), particularly the Varroa mite (Varroa jacobsoni) and the tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi). Its corrosivity and consequent fear of liability have precluded commercial interest in the United States, and its rapid vaporization requires frequent reapplication. We have developed a gel formulation of formic acid which provides controlled release over 2-3 weeks and improves the convenience and safety of handling of formic acid. The strong acidity of formic acid restricts the choice of gelling agents; vegetable gellants such as agar are destroyed, and bentonite clay derivatives do not gel, even with high-shear mixing. Polyacrylamides lead to viscous liquids lacking thixotropic properties. High-molecular-weight poly(acrylic acids) and fumed silicas provided gels with suitable physical characteristics. The poly(acrylic acid) gels were difficult to mix and gave slower and nonlinear release behavior, while the fumed silica gels were easy to prepare and linear in formic acid vaporization.


The collision of a seamount or microcontinental block with an arc may produce complex strain distributions and changes in the tectono-magmatic setting. Slab rollback and associated upwelling of asthenosphere occurred ca. 440 Ma near the margin of East Gondwana in response to subduction zone lock-up following arc collision ca. 455 Ma. World-class porphyry copper gold deposits (e.g., Cadia) formed in the backarc during extension and magmatism associated with slab rollback. Upwelling of the asthenosphere also provided the heat engine for generation of hydrothermal fluids. The result was elevated fluid pressures and compressional brittle deformation associated with orogenic gold mineralization (e.g., Bendigo) inboard of the East Gondwana margin.


An e-consultation is an asynchronous consultation performed by a specialist without a face-to-face patient visit. E-consultations have been available to primary care providers at the Mayo Clinic for several years. We reviewed e-consultations performed by specialists at the Mayo Clinic for the first six months of 2013. We included only "internal" e-consultations, originating from within the Rochester practice. During the study period a total of 3242 e-consultations were completed at the Mayo Clinic. After excluding those relating to patients who did not give research consent, 3008 e-consultations remained. We categorized our internal e-consultations into eight types. The most frequently used types were the first e-consultation processes to be implemented: the primary care to specialist e-consultation and the specialist to specialist e-consultation, accounting for 74% of the total. As these two types of e-consultation became widely used, the staff discovered that the e-consultation process could be adapted to meet specific practice needs and six more e-consultation types emerged. For example, intra-specialty e-consultations and surgical e-consultations accounted for 16% of the total. E-consultations appear to have improved access to specialists, and they are integrated into care processes when timely expert opinions are needed. As e-consultations evolve, it will be important to develop a standard, well-defined terminology to compare outcomes of these processes across practices.


Abstract In this study, we present and provide validation data for a tool that predicts forced vital capacity (FVC) from speech acoustics collected remotely via a mobile app without the need for any additional equipment (e.g. a spirometer). We trained a machine learning model on a sample of healthy participants and participants with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to learn a mapping from speech acoustics to FVC and used this model to predict FVC values in a new sample from a different study of participants with ALS. We further evaluated the cross-sectional accuracy of the model and its sensitivity to within-subject change in FVC. We found that the predicted and observed FVC values in the test sample had a correlation coefficient of .80 and mean absolute error between .54 L and .58 L (18.5% to 19.5%). In addition, we found that the model was able to detect longitudinal decline in FVC in the test sample, although to a lesser extent than the observed FVC values measured using a spirometer, and was highly repeatable (ICC = 0.92–0.94), although to a lesser extent than the actual FVC (ICC = .97). These results suggest that sustained phonation may be a useful surrogate for VC in both research and clinical environments.


The dynamics of any diploid multilocus genetic system with two alleles and uniform dynamics per locus can be deduced from that of the corresponding single-locus system by trinomial sampling to produce the frequencies of the different mutant classes, provided that fitness is multiplicative, and there is linkage equilibrium (allowing for physical linkage, however). The component processes that can be considered are mutation, gene conversion, gamete production (with recombination) and random mating, and selection. If mutations occur according to Bernoulli trials, outcrossing sexual systems have a genetic load exactly deducible from that of the single-locus system.


While much has been written on the growth of information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services in India, little is known about the people who work in these industries, about the nature of the work itself, and about its wider social and cultural ramifications. The papers in this collection combine empirical research with theoretical insight to fill this gap and explore questions about the trajectory of globalization in India. The themes covered include: (a) sourcing and social structuring of the new global workforce; (b) the work process, work culture, regimes of control and resistance in IT-enabled industries; (c) work, culture and identity; (d) nations, borders and cross-border flows.


We present a first‐principles theoretical study of carbon–carbon coupling in CO2 electroreduction on the copper 2 1 1 surface. Using DFT, we have determined kinetic barriers to the formation of a CC bond between adsorbates derived from CO. The results of our nudged elastic band calculations demonstrate that kinetic barriers to CC coupling decrease significantly with the degree of hydrogenation of reacting adsorbates. We also show that this trend is not affected by the electrical fields present at the solid‐electrolyte interface during electrocatalysis. Our results explain how copper can catalyze the production of higher hydrocarbons and oxygenates in the electrochemical environment, despite producing only single carbon atom products in gas‐phase catalysis, and how CC bonds can be formed at room temperature in the electrochemical environment, whereas substantially higher temperatures are needed in the Fischer–Tropsch catalysis. The unique feature of the electrochemical environment is that the chemical potential of hydrogen (electrons and protons) can be varied through the applied potential. This allows a variation of the degree of hydrogenation of the reactants and thus the activation barrier for CC coupling.


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As the demand for carbon-free fuel sources has increased, hydrogen gas has become a promising alternative since it can be produced from water. However, efficient production of H2 requires the use of expensive metal catalysts such as platinum. Because of the cost and low availability of these metals, scientists have turned to nature as inspiration for the development of metal catalysts that use cheaper, more abundant transition metals. One such example of a natural H2 catalyst is the mono-iron hydrogenase enzyme, which heterolytically cleaves H2 into a proton and hydride. The active site of this enzyme contains a central iron atom surrounded by a nitrogen-bound pyridone, an acyl carbon, and a cysteine thiolate donor. This unique arrangement of ligands allows the enzyme to activate H2 with the help of the substrate, methenyl-H4MPT . Previous research by the Rose Group has led to the development of a functional biomimetic model of the mono-Fe hydrogenase active site that is capable of activating H2. This biomimetic model can accept a hydride from the substrate, but the reverse reaction of hydride transfer to the substrate had yet to be observed. To achieve this, obtaining more information about the role of the substrate in H2 activation was necessary. This research therefore focused on the synthesis of a model imidazolium substrate based on methenylH4MPT . In reactivity studies with an enzyme model, it was determined that altering the Lewis acidity of the model substrate promoted hydride transfer from the model complex. With this insight, it is hoped that the interaction between the endogenous substrate and the mono-iron hydrogenase active site can be better understood. Table of


We present an approach to automating workflows for reproducible science than can be run on or off the NeSI cluster with minimal alteration. This mechanism allows us to us the same workflow methodology for jobs that can be run locally as those utilising the NeSI facilities.We outline the core methodology, and I discuss number of workflow approaches we are implementing to standardise our workflows, code engineering, and metadata production.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to test, in a trial cohort of sedentary adults at risk of Type 2 diabetes, whether theory of planned behaviour (TPB) cognitions about becoming more physically active predicted objective and self-reported activity levels and change.

DESIGN
Participants of a randomized controlled trial underwent measurement at baseline, 6 and 12 months.

METHODS
Participants (N= 365, 30-50 years) were recruited via their parent or family history registers at 20 general practices in the UK. Energy expenditure was measured objectively at baseline and 1 year. Participants completed questionnaires assessing physical activity and beliefs about becoming more physically active over the next year at baseline, 6 and 12 months.

RESULTS
Between baseline and 12 months, objective energy expenditure in the cohort increased by an average of 20 minutes of brisk walking per day. Based on the 252 participants who provided complete data, affective attitude and perceived behavioural control consistently predicted intention, but intention and perceived behavioural control failed to predict physical activity levels or change (p-values > .05).

CONCLUSIONS
Failure of the theory to predict behaviour and behaviour change may be due to inapplicability of the theory to this at-risk population or to trial participation and intensive measurement facilitating behaviour change without affecting measured cognitions, or lack of correspondence between cognitive and behavioural measures. A wide range of potential personal and environmental mediators should be considered when designing physical activity interventions among at-risk groups. High-quality experimental tests of the theory are needed in clinical populations.


The addition of viscoelastic braces in structures for vibration reduction was proposed and implemented in the past decade in metal models or full-scale structures. Viscoelastic braces provide energy dissipation, while the structures remain by-and-large elastic. In reinforced concrete structures, the seismic response is by-and-large inelastic, which is often accompanied by permanent deformations and damage. The addition of viscoelastic dampers can dissipate energy at the early stages of cracking of the concrete elements and reduce the development of damage. However, the addition of viscoelastic dampers may stiffen the structure unnecessarily producing increased inertial forces and base shears when subjected to seismic motion. The quantification of the influence of viscous and elastic stiffness properties of dampers during the inelastic response of reinforced concrete structures is thus the subject of this investigation. Models for analysis of inelastic response with damage indexing for reinforced concrete structures that include viscoelastic braces are developed and calibrated using experimental data produced by shaking table tests. These models are then used to determine the variation of expected damage in the presence of damping and quantify the hysteretic energy dissipation along with the damping energy.


NEURON SOMA SIZE IN THE LEFT AND RIGHT HIPPOCAMPUS OF A GENIUS
 D.W. Zaidel*

 Dept Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA

 Underlying brain features of a genius are not understood. It is not
 known if there is a smooth continuum between a genius and the thousands
 of the brightest minds alive today. The few postmortem studies of brains
 of remarkable mathematicians or physicists typically emphasized the
 neocortex. In the present study, the hippocampus of Albert Einstein (AE)
 was investigated postmortem. The importance of the hippocampus is
 established for long-term, explicit, implicit, and episodic memory, and
 establishment of semantic associations. A single microscope slide
 (Nissl-stained stained in Harvey[Image]s lab not long after AE[Image]s
 death at age 76 years) was available for the left and right sides. Soma
 size of pyramidal neurons in coronal sections of AE[Image]s left and
 right hippocampi were photographed, then digitized and systematically
 measured on a computer in hippocampal subfields CA1, CA2, CA3, CA4, and
 subiculum. An atypical left-right asymmetry emerged in AE, with soma
 size being consistently and significantly larger in the left than in the
 right side in all homologous subfields except for CA2, whereas in 10
 ordinary adults, aged 22 to 84 years, there was minimal and inconsistent
 soma size asymmetry in direction (left vs right) or extent. However, the
 soma size variability revealed similarities in both AE and the ordinary
 adults, particularly in hippocampal subfields CA1 and CA2, bilaterally.
 The direction of the cell size asymmetry in AE[Image]s hippocampi could
 simply reflect age-related changes in combination with unusual neuronal
 connectivity of prenatal or experiential origin. This is difficult to
 ascertain, and the relationship between the hippocampal status at the
 time of his death and its role in his genius in his most creative years
 is a matter for debate.


A critical issue in case-based reasoning (CBR) is to retrieve a usefully similar case to the problem. There are three approaches to case retrieving: nearest-neighbor, inductive, and knowledge-guide. This article utilizes a hybrid approach using grey incidence theory to case-based retrieval process in an attempt to increase the overall classification accuracy. We propose a new approach based on the absolute degree of grey incidence to calculate the degree of nearest-neighbor matching, use grey incidence order to priority analysis. The case which has the highest degree of grey incidence is the nearest neighbor case to the input case. When there is no case whose degree of grey incidence is higher than others on all attributes, we propose using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to calculate the weight of every index, calculating the integrated degree of grey incidence (weighted sum) to find the nearest-neighbor case. Thus a new frame-work of CBR based on grey incidence analysis is built. It is an effective method for case indexing and retrieving because it is very easy to apply and its effect is good.


Limited research has examined factors associated with home food availability. This study investigated the associations among demographics, body mass index category, stress, and home food availability among low-income overweight or obese pregnant women. This cross-sectional study enrolled 332 participants who were non-Hispanic black or white. We performed logistic regression modeling for unprocessed food, processed food, overall ultra-processed food, and three subcategories of ultra-processed food (salty snacks, sweet snacks and candies, and soda). Black women were less likely than white women to have large amounts of processed foods (OR = 0.56), salty snacks (OR = 0.61), and soda (OR = 0.49) available at home. Women with at least some college education or at least a college education were more likely to have large amounts of unprocessed food (OR = 2.58, OR = 4.38 respectively) but less likely to have large amounts of soda (OR = 0.44; OR = 0.22 respectively) available at home than their counterparts. Women with higher stress were less likely to have large amounts of unprocessed food available at home (OR = 0.58) than those with lower stress. Home food availability varied by race, education, and levels of stress in low-income overweight or obese pregnant women.


Future generations of mobile phones, including advanced video and digital communication layers, represent a great challenge in terms of real-time embedded systems. Programmable multicomponent architectures can provide suitable target solutions combining flexibility and computation power. The aim of our work is to develop a fast and automatic prototyping methodology dedicated to signal processing application implementation onto parallel heterogeneous architectures, two major features required by future systems. This paper presents the whole methodology based on the SynDEx CAD tool, that directly generates a distributed implementation onto various platforms from a high-level application description, taking real-time aspects into account. It illustrates the methodology in the context of real-time distributed executives for applications based on video codecs and telecommunication physical layers.


Graphene based materials e.g., graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and graphene nano platelets (GNP) as well as Barium titanate (BaTiO3) are emerging reinforcing agents which upon mixing with epoxy provides composite materials with superior mechanical, electrical and thermal properties as well as shielding against electromagnetic (EM) radiations. Inclusion of the aforementioned reinforcing agents has shown to improve the performance, however, the extent of improvement has remained uncertain. In this study, a computational modelling approach was adopted using COMSOL Multiphysics software in conjunction with Bayesian statistical analysis to investigate the effects of including various filler materials e.g. GO, RGO, GNP and BaTiO3 in influencing the direct current (DC) conductivity (σ), dielectric constant (ε) and thermal properties on the resulting epoxy polymer matrix composites. The simulation of epoxy composites were performed for different volume percentage of the filler materials by varying the geometry of the filler material. It was observed that the content of GO, RGO, GNPs and the thickness of graphene nanoplatelets can alter the DC conductivity, dielectric constant, and thermal properties of the epoxy matrix. The lower thickness of GNPs was found to offer the larger value of DC conductivity, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity than rest of the graphene nanocomposites, while, the RGO showed better dielectric constant value than neat epoxy, and GO, GNP nanocomposites. Similarly, BaTiO3 nanoparticles content and diameter were observed to alter the dielectric constant, DC conductivity and thermal properties of modified epoxy in several order magnitude than neat epoxy. In this way, the higher diameter particles of BaTiO3 showed better DC conductivity properties, dielectric constant value, thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity. Moreover, this research provides guidance for further computational examination on the selection of GNP and BaTiO3 materials for the enhancement of the electrical and thermal properties of the epoxy matrix.


Here we present the results of the study of the longhorn beetles fauna of Western Podillya, Ukraine. We identified 142 species of Cerambycidae that constitute almost 50.2% of all known longhorn beetles species found in Ukraine today. We found three types of the Cerambycidae fauna that exist in the Western Podillya: the Northern Roztocha- Kremenets fauna, the Central Opillya-Medobory fauna, and the Southern Pokuttya-Khotyn fauna. The Cerambycidae fauna in the Western Podillya macroregion is divided in the latitudinal direction. Also we present the catalogue of Cerambycidae of Western Podillya. 6 species we report as new for Western Podillya.


Better use of plant genetic resources is critical to meeting the challenges of increasing food production and of alleviating poverty. All countries depend on plant genetic resources originating beyond their borders, which means that international cooperation is essential to secure continued access to these resources. International agreements are also necessary to guarantee their conservation. Both aims can be achieved only if there is an effective mechanism for sharing benefits with the countries that maintain these resources. This paper concludes that a multilateral system, within the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity, is required to guarantee these objectives. Because of the importance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, and their millennia- old history of evolution and exchange between and within farming cultures, they deserve special attention in the international debate on biodiversity. For agriculture, a multilateral approach is preferable, but can co-exist with bilateral arrangements for other uses. The paper argues that in addition to national conservation efforts, there is a continuing need for international collections, maintained on behalf of the world community, such as those housed in the CGIAR centres. Furthermore, there is a need for a set of international agreements and cooperation mechanisms under a common legal framework, as well as an intergovernmental policy forum and an international fund. This would guarantee conservation of, and access to, plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and ensure the sharing of benefits. Broadening of plant breeding strategies is also required to allow the strengthening of linkages between conservation and development, and to ensure that benefits reach the farmers who continue to maintain and develop genetic resources.


ABSTRACT As the number of features with smartphones is increasing, user interfaces have been advanced considerably with innovative ways for providing useful, multitasking interfaces. In particular, the z-axis of the user interface has been considered to help multitaskers control their smartphone more easily. However, relatively little research has been conducted on the significance of the z-axis on task switching. The main research goal of this study is to explain how a z-axis can affect the experience of multitasking on a mobile device. In particular, the authors focused on a hover interface because of its high functional relevance to multitasking as a form of task switching. Theoretically, the authors provide a conceptual model based on the concept of spatial presence. Systemically, they suggest the important system factors for implementing z-axis interface technology: controllability and naturalness. With regards to users, the authors assume that if the experience with the z-axis interface is increased, users' intention to multitask is also increased, even when the task complexity is high. The influence of controllability on perceived spatial presence by the hover interface was negatively validated, and the influence of naturalness was positively validated. In addition, the influence of perceived spatial presence on users' behavioral multitasking intention was positively validated. Finally, the influence from perceived spatial presence to users' behavioral multitasking intention in the high level of task complexity was significantly stronger than in the low level. Implications and limitations of the study results are discussed in the final section of the article.


Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) has a key etiological role in development of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS). v-Cyclin is a KSHV-encoded homologue to D-type cyclins that associates with cellular cyclin-dependent kinase 6 (CDK6). v-Cyclin promotes S-phase entry of quiescent cells and has been suggested to execute functions of both D- and E-type cyclins. In this study, expression of v-cyclin in cells with elevated levels of CDK6 led to apoptotic cell death after the cells entered S phase. The cell death required the kinase activity of CDK6 because cells expressing a kinase-deficient form of CDK6 did not undergo apoptosis upon v-cyclin expression. Studies on the mechanisms involved in this caspase-3-mediated apoptosis indicated that it was independent of cellular p53 or pRb status, and it was not suppressed by Bcl-2. In contrast, the KSHV-encoded v-Bcl-2 efficiently suppressed v-cyclin-/CDK6-induced apoptosis, demonstrating a marked difference in the antiapoptotic properties of c-Bcl-2 and v-Bcl-2. In KS lesions, high CDK6 expression was confined to a subset of cells, some of which displayed signs of apoptosis. These results suggest that v-cyclin may exert both growth-promoting and apoptotic functions in KS, depending on factors regulating CDK6 and v-Bcl-2 levels.


The quality of point clouds is often limited by noise introduced during their capture process. Consequently, a fundamental 3D vision task is the removal of noise, known as point cloud filtering or denoising. State-of-the-art learning based methods focus on training neural networks to infer filtered displacements and directly shift noisy points onto the underlying clean surfaces. In high noise conditions, they iterate the filtering process. However, this iterative filtering is only done at test time and is less effective at ensuring points converge quickly onto the clean surfaces. We propose IterativePFN (iterative point cloud filtering network), which consists of multiple IterationModules that model the true iterative filtering process internally, within a single network. We train our IterativePFn network using a novel loss function that utilizes an adaptive ground truth target at each iteration to capture the relationship between intermediate filtering results during training. This ensures that the filtered results converge faster to the clean surfaces. Our method is able to obtain better performance compared to state-of-the-art methods. The source code can be found at: https://github.com/ddsediri/IterativePFN


Recent background research highlighted that data was limited into the characterisation of low carbon steels at hot and cold temperatures against 7.62mm Ball and Armour Piercing (AP) ammunition. However, available data indicates that the strength of steel plates increases with decreasing temperature. This paper looks further at this phenomenon with Hot and Cold targets that were environmentally conditioned at the specific temperature for 24 hours, prior to ballistic evaluation. The steels used were DH36, S275 and S355 and the target temperatures were Hot (>+50°C), Ambient (~12°C) and Cold (<-20°C). The target plates were 10mm thick. All shots were fired horizontally with a 12m stand-off from the end of a remotely operated gun barrel to the front face of the target plate. The targets were placed inside an ISO container (to prevent wind chill, etc. on the conditioned plate firings) and bounded at the rear with 1 tonne sandbags backed with a large Pendine block wall.


Fourier and nonlinear regression analysis of a 4000+ yr paleoclimate proxy record in western Canada shows strong periodicities of ∼1500 yr and several weaker century- to millenial-scale periodicities. In conjunction with the 23 708 yr Milankovitch periodicity, these produce a model of climate fluctuation through the postglacial consistent with recognized paleoclimatic fluctuations of the past 15 000 yr in the northern mid-latitudes. These results suggest that postglacial climatic anomalies such as the Little Ice Age and the Younger Dryas were at least in part periodic phenomena rather than the result of unique, aperiodic events. Projecting these periodicities into the future suggests that even in the absence of anthropogenic climate forcing, a natural warming trend will continue until ca. a.d. 2400.


Visible laser diodes are important for applications as a light scu~rce in optical memory and printing. In A1,Gal -,As DH laser, the !Qort wavelength emission is believed to be limited by decrease ir the internal quantum efficiency pi of the AlGaAs active layer as the composition of x approaches the direct-indirect crossover region. Multi-quantum-well  (MQW)  laser  diodes  have  been denonstrated superior to conventional DH laser diodes in many asrects such as low threshold current density, optical gain anisotropy, and high output power capability. In this paper we demonstrate tha the MQW laser diodes are promising to improve the short wavele.lgth limit in the Al-Ga-As material system, because of the enhancerlent of qi due to the confinement of electrons and holes into thin QW layers. There are two different approaches to achieve short wavelellgth emission from the MQW structure; one is a GaAs-MQW with decreasing the GaAs well thickness, and the other is an A1,Gal ~ ,AsMQW with constant A1,Gal -,As well thickness but with increa,;ing x . An experimental comparison on photoluminescence (PL) :fficiency between these two MQW structures gives a conclusion ha t the Al,Ga, -,As-MQW is superior to the GaAs-MQW in intensity and width of the PL spectrum in the range of X from 700 to 550 nm. PL intensity in the former does not decrease down to 65


The history of outdoor advertising extends back many thousands of years. At all times, the city environment included various kinds of advertising. In the XXth century, due to industrial and trade development, architectural objects and outdoor advertising objects came into sharp contradiction, which had grown into an open conflict by the end of the XXth century. In the West this process was faster than in Russia because of the peculiarities of social development of the latter. New techniques of outdoor advertising made this conflict sharper in the XXIst century. At the same time, the nature of architecture changed considerably. Buildings and constructions lost their cultural and historical implication. Fusion of architectural objects and outdoor advertising objects is observed everywhere. This trend will probably eliminate the existing conflict, though architecture will lose its historical roots and patrimonial features.


Mendelian Randomization (MR) is a popular method in epidemiology and genetics that uses genetic variation as instrumental variables for causal inference. Existing MR methods usually assume most genetic variants are valid instrumental variables that identify a common causal effect. There is a general lack of awareness that this effect homogeneity assumption can be violated when there are multiple causal pathways involved, even if all the instrumental variables are valid. In this article, we introduce a latent mixture model MR-PATH that groups instruments that yield similar causal effect estimates together. We develop a Monte-Carlo EM algorithm to fit this mixture model, derive approximate confidence intervals for uncertainty quantification, and adopt a modified Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) for model selection. We verify the efficacy of the Monte-Carlo EM algorithm, confidence intervals, and model selection criterion using numerical simulations. We identify potential mechanistic heterogeneity when applying our method to estimate the effect of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol on coronary heart disease and the effect of adiposity on type II diabetes.


The long-standing question of finding the momentum representation for the s-wave zero-range interaction in three spatial dimensions is here solved. This is done by expressing a certain distribution, introduced in a formal way by S. Tan [Ann. Phys. 323, 2952 (2008)], explicitly. The resulting form of the Fourier-transformed pseudopotential remains very simple. Operator forms for the so-called Tan's selectors which, together with Fermi-Huang pseudopotential, largely simplify the derivation of Tan's universal relations for the Fermi gas, are here derived and are also very simple. A momentum cut-off version of the pseudopotential is also provided, and with this no apparent contradiction with the notion of integrals in Tan's methods is left. The equivalence, even at the intermediate step level, between the pseudopotential approach and momentum-space renormalization of the bare Dirac delta interaction is then shown by using the explicit form of the cut-off pseudopotential.


The precise effect of low estrogen levels on urinary bladder contractility remains controversial. The present study was designed to analyze the effect of 17β-estradiol in bladder smooth muscle contractility and the involvement of specific estrogen receptor stimulation in this effect. Castrated male and female pig detrusor strips were mounted for tension recording in an organ bath, superfused with Krebs solution at 37°C and stimulated electrically and pharmacologically. In order to verify the acute effect of 17β-estradiol on muscle contractility, the strips were incubated with different concentrations of the hormone. Muscle contractions were induced by potassium chloride, acetylcholine chloride and electrical field stimulation. The involvement of the estrogen receptor in the effects of 17β-estradiol was assessed by incubation of some strips with the selective estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182.780 before estradiol was applied. Estradiol at a dose of 30 µmol/l elicited a lower amplitude of contractions induced by EFS, Ach and KCl in female as well as in castrated male pig bladder smooth muscle strips. The effects of 17β-estradiol were stronger in contractions induced by potassium chloride than those induced by other forms of stimulation. Pre-treatment with the pure estrogen receptor antagonist had no effect on 17β-estradiol-induced inhibition of muscle contractility. These observations suggest that 17β-estradiol induces lower amplitude of contraction of female as well as castrated male pig detrusor which is not mediated by the classic estrogen receptor. Furthermore, we can conclude that estradiol has a stronger inhibitory effect on the depolarization of muscle cell membrane compared to a muscarinic receptor-induced contraction.


The expression of genes encoding conglutin gamma and a leginsulin-like protein has been examined in narrow-leafed lupin, Lupinus angustifolius L. Conglutin gamma is a homologue of basic 7S globulin (Bg), the insulin and leginsulin binding protein from soybean. Accumulation of conglutin gamma mRNA, as assessed by northern assays and reverse-transcription PCR, was tightly regulated both spatially and temporally in lupin plants and was detected almost exclusively in developing seeds. Similar tissue and temporal specificity was demonstrated when 1.8 kb of the promoter region from the conglutin gamma gene was used to drive the expression of a beta-glucuronidase reporter gene in transgenic plants. In stably transformed tobacco the conglutin gamma promoter produced strong, temporally regulated and seed-specific expression of the reporter gene which was localised to the embryo tissues and to a layer of cells adjacent to the seed coat. A truncated 0.29 kb promoter fragment produced much reduced levels of expression and a loss of embryo specificity. Leginsulin-like mRNA was similarly detected in lupins only in developing seeds. The leginsulin-like gene detected in L. angustifolius showed 96% sequence identity to leginsulin from soybean within the 280 bp region amplified from lupin by PCR. The results demonstrate that both components of a Bg-leginsulin putative signal transduction pathway are present in the seeds of lupin.


Most people have an orderly working visual system but why do we perceive certain pictures different from reality? And do we all perceive these so called visual illusions in the same way? In this report the Kanizsa figures, the Muller-Lyer illusion, the Shepard illusion and the Thatcher illusion will be discussed. In the Kanizsa figures illusory contours are perceived and the brightness of the central area is perceived as being different from the surroundings while they in fact have the exact same brightness. The susceptibility to this illusion differs between adults and infants. In the Muller-Lyer illusion the perceived length of a line is influenced by attaching arrows to the ends of a line. Sex-related differences affect the susceptibility to this illusion. Although the table tops of the Shepard figures have the exact same size, one table top is perceived as being longer and smaller than the other. In these Shepard figures individuals with the neurodevelopmental disorder autism have a different susceptibility to the illusion compared to individuals without autism. Finally in a Thatcherized face the eyes and the mouth region are turned upside-down. People can immediately observe these changes but when the face is inverted this strong perceptual effect is lost. In these Thatcherized faces not only individuals with autism but also individuals with Williams Syndrome have a different susceptibility to the illusion than typically developing individuals. Some of these visual illusions can be used to manipulate human behaviour and may help to create safer situations.