Abstract While fake news has been a common problem for well over a century, the emergence of social media and smartphones has escalated its spread. This study adopts a qualitative approach to explore the readiness of academic librarians in curbing fake news. Data was drawn from interviews with reference library staff and head librarians who were purposively selected from 12 academic libraries and evaluated through the lens of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions [IFLA] guide on 'how to spot fake news'. The study revealed that although academic librarians were aware of fake news, they do not grasp the complexity and intricacies of the phenomenon. Therefore, the study recommends regular on-the-job training for academic librarians in identifying fake news. The Library and Information Science departments of universities in Ghana should review their curriculum to include training and education on problematic information. There should be collaboration between libraries and social media organization on curbing fake news. We support the call for information literacy, critical thinking and media literacy instructions to be embedded in all subjects with academic librarians as co-instructors.


Previous papers have shown that a ripple carry adder composed of several full adder cells can be completely tested by a minimum test set of size 8 independent of the number of cells in the ripple carry adder under single faulty cell assumption. The fault model assumed is that faults in a cell can change the cell behavior in any arbitrary way, as long as the cell remains a combinational circuit. In this paper, we assume that any number of cells can be faulty at any time. A minimum test set of size 11 which can detect arbitrary length ripple carry adders under this fault model is presented. For general (N, p) adders in which each cell is a p-bit adder, a minimum test set of size 3 × 22P − 1 is also presented.


A study was conducted to examine the effects of diets supplemented with organic selenium, (Se) and zinc, (Zn) on the performance of Cochin exotic breeder hens. Forty-two week old hens (n=120) and males (n=12) were assigned to four treatment groups of 10 females and 1 male each. Birds with no mineral supplementation (Group 1); feed supplemented with .33 ppm Se (Group 2) feed supplemented with 20 ppm Zn (Group 3), and feed supplemented with .33 ppm Se and 20 ppm Zn (Group 4). Eggs were collected for 21 days to determine egg production and egg weight. Fertility and embryonic mortality were determined by candling eggs on days 12 and 18. Hatchability was calculated on day 21 based on fertility and egg set. Results showed that egg production did not increase significantly, although birds provided feed containing Se or Se and Zn produced 4% and 6%, respectively, more eggs than the control hens Egg fertility was similar for most treatments, but fertility of hens provided the Zn-supplemented diet, was significantly lower than fertility of other treatment groups. Hatchability based on fertile eggs was 4.6% and 3.0% higher than the control and for eggs from hens provided feed supplemented with Se or Se+Zn, respectively. Early and late embryonic mortality was significantly (P<0.05) lower in eggs from hens provided diets containing Se+Zn, than in eggs from the control hens or hens fed diets containing Se or Zn only. In conclusion, supplementing diets of exotic hens with Se and Zn increased egg production and significantly reduced early and late embryonic death. Addition of these minerals to the diets might provide exotic bird producers a method to increase the performance of these birds.


A 9-year-old boy, a 15-year-old boy, and a 6-year-old girl were infected with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). They had no physical complaints and a virus genotype that was favourable to treatment with peginterferon-alpha and ribavirin. The younger boy and the girl had liver fibrosis and were treated for 6 months; the virus was eradicated from the boy's plasma and the fibrosis diminished, while the girl's plasma virus was again present shortly after the end of treatment. In the older boy with no fibrosis, treatment was temporarily suspended due to behaviour problems. HCV infection is a frequent cause of chronic hepatitis in children. A better understanding of its natural history, improvements in the efficacy of treatment, and more favourable outcomes seen in children compared with adults have gradually changed the consideration to treat children with chronic HCV infection over the last 10 years. The decision whether or not to treat depends primarily on the degree of liver damage, virus genotype, and the psychological condition and motivation of the patient. Screening patients at risk for chronic HCV infection and careful follow-up for liver damage in those with HCV infection have become even more important given the new insights regarding treatment.


Two factors contribute to Burkitt lymphoma (BL) pathogenesis, a chromosomal translocation leading to c-myc oncogene deregulation and infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). Although the virus has B cell growth–transforming ability, this may not relate to its role in BL since many of the transforming proteins are not expressed in the tumor. Mounting evidence supports an alternative role, whereby EBV counteracts the high apoptotic sensitivity inherent to the c-myc–driven growth program. In that regard, a subset of BLs carry virus mutants in a novel form of latent infection that provides unusually strong resistance to apoptosis. Uniquely, these virus mutants use Wp (a viral promoter normally activated early in B cell transformation) and express a broader-than-usual range of latent antigens. Here, using an inducible system to express the candidate antigens, we show that this marked apoptosis resistance is mediated not by one of the extended range of EBNAs seen in Wp-restricted latency but by Wp-driven expression of the viral bcl2 homologue, BHRF1, a protein usually associated with the virus lytic cycle. Interestingly, this Wp/BHRF1 connection is not confined to Wp-restricted BLs but appears integral to normal B cell transformation by EBV. We find that the BHRF1 gene expression recently reported in newly infected B cells is temporally linked to Wp activation and the presence of W/BHRF1-spliced transcripts. Furthermore, just as Wp activity is never completely eclipsed in in vitro–transformed lines, low-level BHRF1 transcripts remain detectable in these cells long-term. Most importantly, recognition by BHRF1-specific T cells confirms that such lines continue to express the protein independently of any lytic cycle entry. This work therefore provides the first evidence that BHRF1, the EBV bcl2 homologue, is constitutively expressed as a latent protein in growth-transformed cells in vitro and, in the context of Wp-restricted BL, may contribute to virus-associated lymphomagenesis in vivo.


A review of some Niger Delta oil field reservoirs indicates that most of the reservoirs are at the mature stages, thereby vulnerable to challenges such as; coning due to reduced size of the oil column, low oil production and lack of access to the residual oil trapped between existing wells of the mature field. Due to coning occurrences in the Niger-Delta oil field, most wells have been shut-in and a lot of recompletions are being made in order to combat this problem. To proffer solutions to these technical challenges of mature oil field, this study seeks to review the potentials of Radial Drilling Technology and its viable application to optimising oil production from mature oil field. Radial Drilling Technology involves a method and apparatus for milling through the walls of a well casing at a 90 o angle to provide horizontally jetted radials of few inches diameter into the formation strata to a maximum of 330 ft. from the vertically extending well casing. The technology uses a combination of coil tubing operations, with milling bit and high pressure jet drilling assembly. Radial Drilling unlike the conventional drilling can get past the near well-bore well damage zone, allowing contact to the un-accessed part of the formation, thereby having potential to mop up oil from previously un-accessible zone with respect to optimising production from mature oil field. Keywords: Radial drilling, Mature field, Coning, Reservoir intervention Cite this Article Onwukwe SI, Ogbuagu CI, Obah B . Review of Radial Drilling Technology and Viable Prospect in Mature Field Development in the Niger Delta. Journal of Petroleum Engineering and Technology (JoPET). 2015; 5(2):       60-66p.


With the Internet becoming the dominant channel for marketing and promotion, online advertisements are also increasingly used for illegal purposes such as propagating malware, scamming, click frauds, etc. To understand the gravity of these malicious advertising activities, which we call malvertising, we perform a large-scale study through analyzing ad-related Web traces crawled over a three-month period. Our study reveals the rampancy of malvertis-ing: hundreds of top ranking Web sites fell victims and leading ad networks such as DoubleClick were infiltrated. To mitigate this threat, we identify prominent features from malicious advertising nodes and their related content delivery paths, and leverage them to build a new detection system called Mad-Tracer. MadTracer automatically generates detection rules and utilizes them to inspect advertisement delivery processes and detect malvertising activities. Our evaluation shows that MadTracer was capable of capturing a large number of malvertising cases, 15 times as many as Google Safe Browsing and Microsoft Forefront did together , at a low false detection rate. It also detected new attacks, including a type of click-fraud attack that has never been reported before.


Objective: Diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM2) is one of the main sociosanitary problems; there are many treatments for it. Recently, it has been approved the first drug of a new family of oral hypoglycemic agents (OHA): dapagliflozin. We aimed to review the available scientific evidence on dapagliflozin, in order to analyze its effectiveness, safety and cost and to estimate its role in the current pharmacotherapy of DM2. Methods: Effectiveness and safety of dapagliflozin were analyzed by an evaluation of the scientific evidence. The cost of different OHA was calculated based on the defined daily dose (DDD) and their ex-factory prices. Results: Seven randomized clinical trials were identified: 2 monotherapy (840 patients) and 5 in combination with other hypoglycemic agents (3184 patients). In the seven trials, dapagliflozin reduced HbA1c; all were compared with placebo, unless in a trial of combination therapy in which was compared with an active drug (glipizide). The most common side effects were genitourinary infections and hypotension, although it should be taken into consideration the increase of the bladder cancer. Besides the DPP-4 inhibitors, dapagliflozin is one of the OHA more expensive (annual cost of DDD= 729.3 euros). Conclusions: Dapagliflozin does not provide advantages over pharmacotherapy for DM2. Its lack of experience of use, the absence of significant clinical benefits and its high cost make it necessary to restrict its use.


While additive manufacturing has seen tremendous growth in recent years, a number of challenges remain, including the presence of substantial geometric differences between a three dimensional (3D) printed part, and the shape that was intended. There are a number of approaches for addressing this issue, including statistical models that seek to account for errors caused by the geometry of the object being printed. Currently, these models are largely unable to account for errors generated in freeform 3D shapes. This paper proposes a new approach using machine learning with a set of predictors based on the geometric properties of the triangular mesh file used for printing. A direct advantage of this method is the simplicity with which it can describe important properties of a 3D shape and allow for predictive modeling of dimensional inaccuracies for complex parts. To evaluate the efficacy of this approach, a sample dataset of 3D printed objects and their corresponding deviations was generated. This dataset was used to train a random forest machine learning model and generate predictions of deviation for a new object. These predicted deviations were found to compare favorably to the actual deviations, demonstrating the potential of this approach for applications in error prediction and compensation.


In a global environment where most unfriendly acts between nations fall below the threshold of a use of force, the doctrine of countermeasures can be an important tool for states. However, in the realm of cyber operations, the rules governing the application of countermeasures result in unrealistic constraints on states. Particularly when compared with the much lesser constraints on the exercise of self-defense, limitations such as the prohibitions on anticipatory and collective countermeasures, the requirement to provide prior notice, and the unavailability of countermeasures to confront non-state actors highlight this imbalance. Cyber countermeasures are uniquely situated to become an effective means of countering cyber threats and remedying violations of international law, but the limitations disincentivize states from employing them and encourage resort to more aggressive responses by redefining opposing state and non-state actions as more serious to avoid such limitations and provide greater freedom of action. Relaxing the limitations on cyber countermeasures is one way to allow states to take more proportional and less forceful actions to prevent otherwise illegal acts, and bring violators back into compliance.


1,2,3,4-Tetrahydro-beta-carboline (TH beta C) is an endogenous or environmental neurotoxic factor putatively involved in the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). As part of our efforts to characterize the mechanism of the reported protection of smoking against PD, we have examined the interaction between TH beta C and cigarette smoke. We found that TH beta C reacts in vitro and under physiological conditions with some components of cigarette smoke to form N2-(cyanomethyl)-TH beta C (CM-TH beta C), N2-(gamma-cyanoethyl)-TH beta C (CE-TH beta C), N2-(1'-cyanopropyl)-TH beta C (CP-TH beta C), N2-(1'-cyanobutyl)-TH beta C (CB-TH beta C) and N2-formyl-TH beta C (F-TH beta C). Significant differences in the recovery of some of these TH beta C-derivatives were obtained for Burley and Bright tobacco. Several of the reported compounds showed reversible and competitive MAO-A inhibitory properties. The detection of some of these compounds in rat brain after chronic administration of TH beta C and a solution of cigarette smoke proved that the reported interactions also occur in vivo. These results are discussed as a potential mechanism of neuroprotection in the development of PD.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by a loss of pigmented dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) pars compacta and loss of pigmented noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC). Diagnosing PD can be challenging, especially in the early stages particularly when the typical movement disorder symptoms such as tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability are not easily identifiable. Despite well-established PD clinical diagnostic criteria there is a misdiagnosis rate of up to 15% by neurology specialists and 25 % by general practitioners. The only approved diagnostic test to confirm suspected PD in a tremulous patient is dopamine transporter single photon emission tomography (DaTScanTM). This test is costly (£800 – 1500 in the UK) and has limited geographical availability in the UK. It involves exposure to ionising radiation and can only be used to assess the integrity of the dopaminergic system. Therefore there is a strong need for better and more accessible diagnostic tests for PD. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of three different MRI techniques as potential biomarkers of PD. MRI at 3T field strength was used in this thesis to demonstrate PD pathology in the pigmented brain stem nuclei of SN, LC and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The objective was to develop new, easily accessible and affordable disease markers to help clinicians to establish the correct diagnosis early.

A promising technique, which is based on the assessment of free motion of water-associated protons in tissue, is termed diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). The amount of free motion in all directions of protons in tissues like the brain can be described using mean diffusivity (MD) as a measure. Diffusion in tissues like the brain is often limited ("restricted") in certain directions. For example diffusion across the myelin sheaths of nerve-fibres in the brain white matter is constrained, whereas along the direction of the nerve fibre protons can diffuse freely. This is termed anisotropic diffusion and can be described using fractional anisotropy as a measure (FA). Microstructural PD pathological processes may alter these measures of diffusivity especially in the area of the early affected brain region of the SN. In a prospective case control study of 30 patients and 22 controls diffusion tensor imaging alterations of the SN were investigated by measuring regional alterations of fractional FA and MD. In addition, a systematic literature review and meta-analysis was performed to determine the evidence for nigral DTI alterations throughout the literature. The case control study did demonstrate a small but significant increase of nigral MD; however the meta-analysis did not confirm this result when synthesizing effect sizes of nine identified relevant studies. No significant PD induced FA alterations were found in the prospective case control study. The meta-analysis of nigral FA changes did likewise not show significant FA decrease after correcting for studies with unusual high FA measures in the control arm population. In summary the meta-analysis and the results of the case control study did not confirm that standard DTI measurements of the SN are reliable biomarkers of PD pathology.

In a further case-control study MRI sequences tracking the neuromelanin content of the pigmented brain stem nuclei like the SN, LC and the ventral tegmental area were investigated. PD induced decline of neurons in these nuclei causes depigmentation due to loss of neuromelanin content. In this study (including data from 24 PD patients and 20 controls) I found that only little neuromelanin related signal could be observed in the ventral tegmental area and there was no significant difference between patients with PD and controls. However, there were significant signal alterations of the SN and LC signal when comparing between the two groups. The neuromelanin related signal loss was most pronounced in the posterior SN even in the earlier stages of the disease. The signal loss in the anterior SN was less severe and correlated with the unified PD rating scale (UPDRS) and Hoehn and Yahr score as a measure of disease severity. The neuromelanin related signal reduction was significant but less extensive in the region of the LC when compared to the SN. The signal alterations in the LC did not correlate with the UPDRS or the Hoehn and Yahr score.

In the third part of the experimental section of this thesis, a further prospective case-control study of 19 participants (10 patients with PD) and retrospective study of 105 clinical cases (9 patients with PD) was performed. A high resolution SWI/T2* 'iron sensitive' sequence was used to assess MRI changes of the nigrosome-1. Nigrosomes are little islands of dopaminergic cells with physiologically low iron content. The healthy hyperintense signal of the linear shaped nigrosome-1 surrounded by the iron containing low signal SN regions has great resemblance to the appearance of a swallow tail. The PD induced pathological signal reduction within nigrosome-1 resulted in a loss of the typical 'swallow tail appearance'. Visual qualitative assessment of the MRI scans for absence and presence of nigrosome-1 revealed high sensitivity and specificity (80-100% and 86-89% respectively) to allow differentiation of PD from healthy controls and non-PD patients.

In summary I found that standard nigral DTI is not reliable as a PD biomarker. Nigrosome and neuromelanin weighted MRI offers great potential for development into a clinically useful biomarker. Comparing the two techniques, nigrosome imaging has some advantages over neuromelanin weighted imaging: the high resolution SWI/T2* sequence is shorter (2-5 min versus 7-14 min neuromelanin MRI. However, further optimization of neuromelanin MRI sequences may be able to shorten the acquisition time. A further advantage of nigrosome MRI is that the images can be visually assessed for pathological alterations without the need for complicated analysis or data processing. A disadvantage of high resolution SWI/T2* is that it is more prone to artefacts. An advantage of neuromelanin weighted MRI is that changes especially in the anterior substantia nigra correlate to measures of disease severity like the UPDRS, although there is some early evidence from pilot studies that nigrosome imaging (at field strengths of 7T) may also be useful to assess disease severity related changes. Which of the two techniques is better suited to monitor longitudinal progressive PD related changes has to be assessed in future studies.

In conclusion standard nigral DTI measures have no proven value as a reliable diagnostic marker of PD. High resolution T2*/SWI MRI and neuromelanin weighted MRI of PD induced alteration of pigmented brain stem neurons distinguish PD from non-PD and control subjects with high sensitivity and specificity. Neuromelanin related alterations especially of the anterior SN correlate to disease severity measures like the UPDRS and therefore have potential as disease progression marker. The easy applicability of the 'swallow tail sign' to indicate a healthy nigrosome-1 in the SN may well prove a useful marker to help the clinical diagnosis of PD. If future studies confirm a similar diagnostic accuracy as the current clinical gold standard DaTScanTM, nigrosome MRI may replace DaTScanTM in the standard clinical setting.


The original construction of the FAST Track included a segment of steel ties, which remained in service from September to December 1976. A number of performance measurements were made during this period to determine the ability of the ties to maintain geometry, fastener strength, and lateral resistance. This report describes the performance of the steel ties in terms of these measurements. During the service period, problems developed with the steel ties, which included bending and cracking of the rail fastener tabs, rapid widening of track gage, and as much as six inches of lateral track shift.


This thesis focuses on output-only modal identification tests and on the opportunities they provide in the field of seismic protection of structures.
The problem of a good measurement process, in order to obtain high quality data and reliable results, is investigated. Reliability of estimates is assessed above all towards the problem of damping estimation, due to the fundamental role it plays in determining the structural response to dynamic loads, such as earthquakes.
Specific attention is focused on the relationship between experimental tests and numerical modelling, and on the opportunities given by model updating procedures in the field of earthquake engineering.
Finally, an algorithm for fully automated modal parameter identification and tracking is described, pointing out the importance of Operational Modal Analysis in the field of Structural Health Monitoring.


In this Scoping Review, we present the evidence recorded in the literature about that oral microbiota can generate a carcinogenic action, acting through three main mechanisms: on the extracellular space, activating intracellular signaling pathways and/or generating direct action on DNA, and that the principal pathogens studied are Fusobacterium Nucleatum and Porphyromona Gingivalis. Nowadays, there is sufficient evidence about the association between oral microbiota and several types of cancer, however, there is not much knowledge about the mechanisms by which this microbiota participates in its development. We present a compilation of different mechanisms of action used by oral cavity bacteria in the process of carcinogenesis in four different types of cancer. It is of great importance to increase the knowledge about the etiological role of the oral microbiota in the development of cancer disease because it would be established as a new carcinogenic agent and its knowledge could be used as a valuable tool in the detection and treatment of this disease.


The main purpose of this technique was to help understand the complex flow patterns synthesis of Triassic sandstones reservoirs, main hydrocarbon producer in Southern Tunisia. Compilation and mapping of chemical analysis of available formation water, static pressure, total dissolved solids with possible classification and potential level distribution at top TAGI formation was accomplished. The obtained results provide the basic information to understanding the relationship between recharge and discharge zones, origin and causes of variation in chemical composition and genetic water types of these subsurface waters. Therefore for better assessment of possible and additional hydrocarbon accumulation It was essential to integrate the above results with facies distribution, tectonic events, fluids attributes and their hydrodynamic effects on entrapments and highlight the most likely trends of additional hydrocarbon accumulation (exploration leads). This study can assist moreover to understand and to may explain why we have inefficiently drilled wells, by using fluids migration paths in respect to hydrocarbon draining area and perhaps to allow outlining the remaining prospective plays for accurate drilling. In other hand, this method may increase the successful ratio of drilling if we have regular and sufficient chemical formation water analyses.


In the context of global transformations, the analysis of cultural production can
be a fruitful way of eviscerating the complex negotiations of identity
construction for what Stuart Hall calls 'new ethnicities' (1988). The
sociological study of creative literature is an area that has been little explored
and holds the possibility of offering significant insights into the strategies and
ideologies of identity. This chapter offers a comparative study of contemporary
Chinese American and British Chinese literature to uncover how the processes
of identity construction in narrative fiction are shaped by their different
national and political contexts.


"A first-rate study of New York City's complex politics, with careful attention to interesting battles--such as the fight for an Olympic Stadium in Manhattan and the effort to redevelop Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn--and to important themes--such as the changing patterns of immigration and ethnic diversity and the conflicting interests among the city's many business organizations."-Jameson W. Doig, Princeton University "This study is essential reading for students and scholars who want to understand New York City politics--its structure and decision-making process."-Jewel Bellush, professor emerita, Hunter College, CUNY Most experts consider economic development to be the dominant factor influencing urban politics. They point to the importance of the finance and real estate industries, the need to improve the tax base, and the push to create jobs. Bruce F. Berg maintains that there are three forces which are equally important in New York City politics: * Economic development. * The city's relationships with the state and the federal governments, which influence taxation, revenue, and public policy responsibilities. * New York City's racial and ethnic diversity, resulting in calls for representation, recognition, and equity in the delivery of services. Berg's focus is on all three forces, as well as the interplay among them. Along the way, Berg covers a range of topics, including the Dinkins, Giuliani, and Bloomberg administrations; the battles over sports arenas; party politics; rising immigrant groups and the role of their leaders; changes to the city's charter; and New York City politics in the post-9/11 era. An engaging look at the complex nature of urban politics, this book is the only one of its kind to offer a comprehensive narrative of the challenges, frustrations, and successes of New York's governing institutions, and their prospects for meeting the city's long-term needs. Bruce F. Berg chairs the political science department at Fordham University, where he is an associate professor.


Holter monitoring was performed in 15 patients surviving over 3 months after homotopic cardiac transplantation. The frequency and types of arrhythmias occurring in the grafted innervated heart were studied according to its postoperative period duration. The follow-up lasted 3 to 29 months. Supraventricular arrhythmias were detected in 80%, whereas ventricular ones were found in 86.7%. Ventricular arrhythmias accompanied chronic graft rejection in 2 patients. It was ascertained that Holter monitoring was of greater diagnostic value than routine ECG recording. Innervation is not essential in the occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias.


CFD simulation tools are increasingly used nowadays to design more fuel-efficient and clean Internal Combustion Engines (ICE). Within this framework, there is a need to benefit from a turbulence model which offers the best compromise between prediction capabilities and computational cost. The Hybrid Temporal LES (HTLES) approach is here retained within the perspective of an application to ICE configurations. HTLES is a hybrid Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes/Large Eddy Simulation (RANS/LES) model based on a solid theoretical framework using temporal filtering. The concept is to model the near-wall region in RANS and to solve the turbulent structures in the core region if the temporal and spatial resolutions are fine enough. In this study, a dedicated sub-model called Elliptic Shielding (ES) is added to HTLES in order to ensure RANS in the near-wall region, regardless of the mesh resolution. A modification of the computation of the total kinetic energy and the dissipation rate was introduced as first adaptions of HTLES towards non-stationary ICE configurations. HTLES is a recent approach, which has not been validated in a wide range of applications. The present study intends to further validate HTLES implemented in CONVERGE code by examining three stationary test cases. The first validation consists of the periodic hill case, which is a standard benchmark case to assess hybrid turbulence models. Then, in order to come closer to real ICE simulations, i.e., with larger Reynolds numbers and coarser near-wall resolutions, the method is validated in the case of a channel flow using wall functions and in the steady flow rig case consisting in an open valve at a fixed lift. HTLES results are compared to RANS k-ω SST and wall-modeled LES σ simulations performed with the same grid and the same temporal resolution. Unlike RANS, satisfactory reproduction of the flow recirculation has been observed with HTLES in the case of periodic hills. The channel flow configuration has underlined the capability of HTLES to predict the wall friction properly. The steady flow rig shows that HTLES combines advantages of RANS and LES in one simulation. On the one hand, HTLES yields mean and rms velocities as accurate as LES since the scale-resolving simulation is triggered in the core region. On the other hand, hybrid RANS/LES at the wall provides accurate pressure drop in contrast with LES performed on the same mesh. Future work will be dedicated to the extension of HTLES to non-stationary flows with moving walls in order to be able to tackle realistic ICE flow configurations.


In any given medical setting across the general Dental practice spectrum, there comes a need for the medical care teams concerned to have a full understanding of the regulations, guidance provided by the governing bodies, as well as the legal and ethical constraints associated with managing and administering medicines for dental emergency cases.Dental Care Teams are required to have full understanding and preparedness for any potential emergency cases, this can be a challenging task for the dental care teams concerned with delivering the health care for the patients they look after and provide care for. This presentation has been designed to help these clinicians to understand and effectively manage these cases by following a step-by-step procedures whilst adhering to regulations and guidance available. It is also designed to aid better understanding of emergency drug box pharmacology, the mode of action and its implications in dentistry.


This study presents the investigation of the relations between dimensions of depressive mood and sensations seeking in 55 hospitalized depressed subjects. The concept of sensation seeking, identified by M. Zuckerman as a personality dimension, has been defined as the need for the subject to reach his optimal level of activation. The four subscores of sensation seeking, relatively independent, are identified in the sensation seeking scale; they stand at different levels on the dimensions of activation and pleasure which are emotional dimensions. These emotional dimensions are investigated in the exploration of the emotional components of depressive mood; the different symptomatic regroupings, such as blunted affect or impulsivity, do not have the same relations with these dimensions. The sensation seeking concept appears fruitful to investigate the different troubles of affective dynamic, which stand on the expressive and behavioral level, and on the subjective level. As in several studies with normal populations, we find again the same inverse relation between age and sensation seeking, and men obtain higher scores on the Thrill and Adventure seeking factor and on the Desinhibition factor. Globally, depressed subjects have lower scores of sensation seeking than normal subjects (paired by age and sex); but the weakness of sensation seeking is not proportional to the intensity of depression (Hamilton Depressive Scale) and to the the intensity of anxiety (Covi Brief Anxiety Scale). Interesting relations appear with the depressive mood factors, which agree with previous studies of sensation seeking in psychology and psychopathology.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


There is a critical need for research that describes the extent to which impairments of varying type, severity and distribution impact performance in Paralympic sports. It is important with evidence-based judgment on how the impairments aect performance. In the following, we present a complementary evidence-based tool for classication.Let us start with an example. We recently presented a study (Holmberg et al., 2012)1 that utilized two full-body musculoskeletal simulation models of cross-country skiing (double-poling). The models were identical except that one carried no muscles in the right lower leg and foot; thus mimicking a lower leg prosthesis. It was hypothesized that a lower leg prosthesis would inuence muscular work throughout the whole body. Results showed that to generate the same motion and external work, an able-bodied skier only had to produce about 80% metabolic muscle work compared to a disabled skier (with a non-active right lower leg prosthesis).In reality there is always psychological factors present and it is probably not possible to nd two human beings (one fully functional and one impaired) with the same tness, size, strength and technique. Thus, it is hard to nd the unbiased eect of an impairment on performance in a speci c sport. The example above shows the strength of using simulations because a musculoskeletal model yields quantitative data on the unbiased eect of dierent functional impairments.In cross-country skiing, athletes with functional impairments are, in 'competition format' classification, assigned to dierent categories with weight factors. Athletes perform their race and the result list is presented as race time multiplied by weight factor. In the future, musculoskeletal simulations may assist in answering how a specic functional impairment aects performance and thereby improve the fairness in assigning weight factors for classication.


Fire regimes in savannas and forests are changing over much of the world. Anticipating the impact of these changes requires understanding how plants are adapted to fire. In this study, we test whether fire imposes a broad selective force on a key fire-tolerance trait, bark thickness, across 572 tree species distributed worldwide. We show that investment in thick bark is a pervasive adaptation in frequently burned areas across savannas and forests in both temperate and tropical regions where surface fires occur. Geographic variability in bark thickness is largely explained by annual burned area and precipitation seasonality. Combining environmental and species distribution data allowed us to assess vulnerability to future climate and fire conditions: tropical rainforests are especially vulnerable, whereas seasonal forests and savannas are more robust. The strong link between fire and bark thickness provides an avenue for assessing the vulnerability of tree communities to fire and demands inclusion in global models.


Photograph taken by Henry Norford Whitehead.
Source of descriptive information - Negative register and inscriptions on negative
Quantity: 1 b&w original negative(s).
Physical Description: Silver gelatin glass negative, 1/2 plate


Sympathetic fibers destined for the eye join the abducens nerve for a short distance within the cavernous sinus; thus, a unilateral sixth nerve palsy with an ipsilateral Horner's syndrome is of significant localizing value. We report two cases of cavernous sinus lesions producing an ipsilateral abducens palsy and Horner's syndrome: one case due to an intrinsic and the other to an extrinsic lesion of the sinus region.


The distributed computation of Nash equilibria is assuming growing relevance in engineering where such problems emerge in the context of distributed control. Accordingly, we present schemes for computing equilibria of two classes of static stochastic convex games complicated by a parametric misspecification, a natural concern in the control of large-scale networked engineered system. In both schemes, players learn the equilibrium strategy while resolving the misspecification: 1) Monotone stochastic Nash games: We present a set of coupled stochastic approximation schemes distributed across agents in which the first scheme updates each agent's strategy via a projected (stochastic) gradient step, whereas the second scheme updates every agent's belief regarding its misspecified parameter using an independently specified learning problem. We proceed to show that the produced sequences converge in an almost sure sense to the true equilibrium strategy and the true parameter, respectively. Surprisingly, convergence in the equilibrium strategy achieves the optimal rate of convergence in a mean-squared sense with a quantifiable degradation in the rate constant; 2) Stochastic Nash–Cournot games with unobservable aggregate output: We refine 1) to a Cournot setting where we assume that the tuple of strategies is unobservable while payoff functions and strategy sets are public knowledge through a common knowledge assumption. By utilizing observations of noise-corrupted prices, iterative fixed-point schemes are developed, allowing for simultaneously learning the equilibrium strategies and the misspecified parameter in an almost sure sense.


The most common time-domain measure of frequency stability, the Allan variance, is typically estimated using a frequency counter. Close examination of the operation of modern high-resolution frequency counters shows that they do not make measurements in the way commonly assumed. The consequence is that the results typically reported by many laboratories using these counters are not, in fact, the Allan variance, but a distorted representation. We elucidate the action of these counters by consideration of their operation in the Fourier domain, and demonstrate that the difference between the actual Allan variance and that delivered by these counters can be very significant for some types of oscillators. We also discuss ways to avoid, or account for, a distorted estimation of Allan variance.


We present a maximum-likelihood method for fitting two-dimensional model distributions to stellar data in colour–magnitude space. This allows one to include (for example) binary stars in an isochronal population. The method also allows one to derive formal uncertainties for fitted parameters, and assess the likelihood that a good fit has been found. We use the method to derive an age of 38.5+3.5−6.5 Myr and a true distance modulus of 7.79+0.11−0.05 mag from the V versus V−I diagram of NGC 2547 (the uncertainties are 67 per cent confidence limits, and the parameters are insensitive to the assumed binary fraction). These values are consistent with those previously determined from low-mass isochronal fitting, and are the first measurements to have statistically meaningful uncertainties. The age is also consistent with the lithium depletion age of NGC 2547, and the Hipparcos distance to the cluster is consistent with our value.

The method appears to be quite general and could be applied to any N-dimensional data set, with uncertainties in each dimension. However, it is particularly useful when the data are sparse, in the sense that both the typical uncertainties for a data point and the size of structure in the function being fitted are small compared with the typical distance between data points. In this case binning the data will lose resolution, whilst the method presented here preserves it.

Software implementing the methods described in this paper is available from http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/people/timn/tau-squared/.


Fertility and endocrine function rely on a tightly regulated synchronicity within the hypothalamic-pituitary gonadal (HPG) axis. FSH/cAMP/MAPK/ Sox9 axis signaling and its regulated specific miRNAs are thought to regulate vertebrate gonadal development and sex differentiation, and yet the regulatory networks are largely unknown. Here we construct small RNA and mRNA libraries from sexually matured ovary and testis of zebrafish to identify specific miRNA-target pairs. Integration of Targetscan prediction and in vivo induced gene expression highlight four specific miRNAs that conditionally target three G protein–coupled receptor (GPCR) x-Sox9 signaling genes, and implicate two regulatory circuits of miR430a-Sox9a in the testis and miR218a-Sox9b in the ovary. Co-injected Sox9a-miR430a mixture increases the proportion of spermatogonia but degenerates primary oocyte, while Sox9b-miR218a mixture induces renewal of ovarian follicles. Co-immunoprecipitation and mass-spectrometry analyses further reveal that miR430a and Sox9a synergistically activate testicular PKC/Rock1 signals while miR218a and Sox9b constrict ovary PKC/PI3K/Rock1 signaling. These results clarify specific miRNAs-GPCR regulatory networks of Sox9a/Sox9b switch, and also provide mechanistic insight into gonadal rejuvenation and plasticity.


Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) allow you to control things directly with your mind. Unfortunately, such input devices based on observations of the body are plagued by noise, non-stationarities, and ambiguity. In the lab, we can protect systems somewhat from these influences, but in 'the real world', BCIs could use a little help.
How important is good control anyway? How well can users even assess their level of control? Fourteen participants evaluated three sets of mental tasks each for five weeks. Most important to them was good task recognition and easy task execution. When people know the input they provide, they have a good perception of their level of control. Eighty-seven participants played a browser game with varying levels of control. The actual amount of control explained 72% of the control they thought they had.
Post-processing is a simple solution to improve the recognition of brain signals and make it easier to provide. Post-processing changes the way detected brain signals are actually being used in an application. Although post- processing is standard practice with other inputs, this is not yet the case with BCIs. Of the more than 200 BCIs published about until 2006 only 15% used post-processing, according to an earlier literature study. A follow-up review shows that post-processing methods are still under-appreciated in BCI research, even though the improvements using these methods look very promising! To stimulate conscious use of and discussion about these post- processing methods, I provide a method overview with guidelines for appli- cation. At the same time, it is important to test these methods in practice. The goal of an experiment with eighteen participants was to reduce the nec- essary effort with post-processing. Although it did reduce the amount of active task execution time, this did not result in the expected reduction in perceived effort. Switching between the active and passive tasks cost more effort.
This work confirms the importance of good control to the user and offers BCI researchers and developers a solution: post-processing. An overview and guidelines are provided to stimulate deliberate use and discussion. The research also shows how essential user tests are.


It is generally accepted that a protein corona is rapidly formed upon exposure of nanoparticles to biological fluids and that both the amount and the composition of adsorbed proteins affect the dispersion properties of the resulting particles. Hereby, the net charge and overall charge density of the pristine nanoparticles are supposed to play a crucial role. In an attempt to control both charge and charge distribution, we report on the coating of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with different polyelectrolytes. Starting from orthogonally protected polydehydroalanine, the material can be easily transformed into a polyanion (poly(tert-butoxycarbonyl acrylic acid), PtBAA), polycation (poly(aminomethylacrylate), PAMA), or even a polyzwitterion (polydehydroalanine, PDha). While coating of SPIONs with PtBAA and PDha was shown to be successful, approaches using PAMA have failed so far. The dispersion properties of the resulting hybrid particles have been investigated using dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta-potential, and TEM measurements – the amount of adsorbed polymer was quantified using vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA).


The purpose of this qualitative research study was to gain an understanding of parental grief experiences within the context of an early hearing detection and intervention program and to examine parents' perception of the professional support they received. Through focus group interviews, eight mothers and seven fathers, whose infants were diagnosed with a hearing loss at birth through a universal newborn hearing screening and who were confronted immediately with a health care system necessitating decisions about early intervention, were invited to share their emotional journey and their experiences of being supported. Parents shared emotions associated with grief and processing grief, their emotional and informational needs, and what influenced their decision making process. Differences between spouses were also examined. The findings are presented through three central themes. The first theme revealed that grief was a part of parents' emotional journey. Specifically parents shared feelings of grief related to the loss of what they had anticipated, and mothers shared feelings of loss associated with their anticipated experience of motherhood. The grief experience was different for mothers and fathers. The second theme revealed that as parents processed their grief, they experienced a paradox of emotionally moving forward and staying in place. Parents shared feelings of happiness and joy when they spoke about their children yet they also shared experiences that reflected a continuance of grieving. The final theme indicated the ways in which parents discussed being emotionally supported and the differences in support needs between husbands and wives. The discussion of these themes addressed the paradoxes that existed and the notion that parents were uncomfortable living with these paradoxes. Implications for professionals who support parents throughout their EHDI program experience were also described, including the provision of information and how that information impacts parents' need for emotional support. The implication that professionals must provide parents the space to feel their emotions related to grief was also explored.


Saline water supply has been successfully practiced for toilet flushing in Hong Kong since 1950s, which saves 22% of freshwater in Hong Kong. In order to extend the benefits of saline water supply into saline sewage management, we have recently developed a novel biological organics and nitrogen removal process: the Sulfate reduction, Autotrophic denitrification, and Nitrification Integrated (SANI®) process. The key features of this novel process include elimination of oxygen demand in organic matter removal and production of minimal sludge. Following the success of a 500‐day lab‐scale trial, this study reports a pilot scale evaluation of this novel process treating 10 m3/day of 6‐mm screened saline sewage in Hong Kong. The SANI® pilot plant consisted of a sulfate reduction up‐flow sludge bed (SRUSB) reactor, an anoxic bioreactor for autotrophic denitrification and an aerobic bioreactor for nitrification. The plant was operated at a steady state for 225 days, during which the average removal efficiencies of both chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS) at 87% and no excess sludge was purposefully withdrawn. Furthermore, a tracer test revealed 5% short circuit flow and a 34.6% dead zone in the SRUSB, indicating a good possibility to further optimize the treatment capacity of the process for full‐scale application. Compared with conventional biological nitrogen removal processes, the SANI® process reduces 90% of waste sludge, which saves 35% of the energy and reduces 36% of fossil CO2 emission. The SANI® process not only eliminates the major odor sources originating from primary treatment and subsequent sludge treatment and disposal during secondary saline sewage treatment, but also promotes saline water supply as an economic and sustainable solution for water scarcity and sewage treatment in water‐scarce coastal areas. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109: 2778–2789. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The global hull motion performance of the HVS semisubmersible for dry tree application is investigated with model tests. The HVS semisubmersible, which has been validated for low heave motion and VIM (Vortex Induced Motion) response, was modified for dry tree application. As a base case, the modification includes a keel plate with riser keel guides at the level of the pontoons. The keel plate is optimally designed to increase the hull heave period to compensate for the heave period reduction in the HVS semisubmersible due to the riser tensioners for the dry tree application. The plate also provides additional viscous damping that decreases the heave response at the heave natural period.The model tests were performed to investigate the in-place hull motion performance for the Gulf of Mexico environmental conditions. The pneumatic riser tensioners were modeled using a spring with dual stiffness. Because of the water depth limit in the wave basin, a truncated mooring was used to simulate the full scale prototype mooring system.An alternate modification to the HVS semisubmersible that includes pontoon plates was also tested and the measured response was compared to the response of the base case. The measured hull responses were correlated with MLTSIM, a Technip in-house nonlinear time-domain 6-DOF motion analysis program.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Despite moral criticism of the institution of slavery from the second half of the 18th century, slavery, racism, and liberalism would be mutually defined throughout the 19th century. The slave economy in the Americas grew in the 19th century as a result of the expansion of the world market, sustained by constitutional states, including two national ones: the Brazilian Empire, a constitutional monarchy, and the United States, a republic. In these national states, representative systems would shape the legitimacy of the institution of slavery, relating the adoption of citizenship rights to processes of racialization.
 In Brazil's late colonial period, more than one-half of the free population was defined as "black" or "brown," and manumission rates were as high as 1 percent per year. Under Portuguese colonial rule, this population of color was denied access to public offices and ecclesiastical positions, but allowed to own slaves. The rallying cry of "equality for people of all colors" served as a cornerstone of popular nationalism in the liberal uprisings of the late Brazilian colonial period. Popular liberalism also called for the passage of laws that would recognize the Brazilian-born sons and daughters of enslaved people as free persons.
 After independence, the Brazilian Empire experienced more than twenty years of political struggles and localized civil wars around the construction of representative political institutions. The Brazilian coffee production boom inaugurated in 1830, allowed the consolidation of the monarchical order in Brazil with the rise to power of a conservative party, the Party of Order, in 1837. From 1837 to 1853, this conservative party consolidated a slave-based national identity. During these years of conservative pro-slavery leadership, political strategies to legitimate the continuation of the Atlantic slave trade were developed and illegal enslavement was tolerated and even encouraged.
 Liberalism, race, and slavery shaped the history of the Atlantic world in a very interconnected way. Despite the non-race-based legitimation of slavery in a Catholic and constitutional monarchy, race was a central issue in 19th-century monarchical Brazil. Slavery was legitimated as a historical institution in the Brazilian Constitution of 1824 in the right to own property. The same constitution guaranteed civil rights to the freedmen born in the country and their descendants, denying, however, Brazilian citizenship for free Africans and political citizenship to former slaves born in Brazil. Eventually, after the end of the transatlantic slave trade in 1850, the state bureaucracy adopted a norm of racial silence for the free population, racializing slave experience and reinforcing the precariousness of freedom of the Brazilian citizens of African descent. These practices shaped crucial aspects of structural racism still present in 21st-century Brazilian society.


We have applied optical emission spectroscopy together with computerized tomography (CT) to study the transition between E and H modes in inductively coupled plasma. Measurements were performed in pure Ar and in CF4(5%)/Ar mixture in the pressure range between 5 and 300 mTorr. It was found that the radial and azimuthal CT images of the E (capacitively coupled) mode are quite different from those of the H (inductively coupled) mode. The E mode structures show clearly the presence of capacitive coupling, while the structure of the H mode corresponds to that of the predicted induced fields. The differences diminish at low pressures due to the non-local transport of electrons. The contributions of direct and stepwise excitation are separated by using two different energy levels, 2p1 and 2p9, of Ar. In addition, the measurements obtained in electronegative gas mixture with large losses of electrons of moderate and small energy show more clearly the kinetics of excitation in the two modes and the regions where high-energy electrons are produced.


This paper describes one method of implementing a GPS C/A code digital receiver. Digital designs promise exceptionally low-power, low-cost, and miniaturized receivers in the near future. This has been made possible through recent advances in digital signal processing and very large scale integration (VLSI) techniques. The receiver described here attempts to minimize analog circuitry, which is difficult to integrate, and maximize the use of digital signal processing hardware and techniques. The digital signal processing has been carried out with a combination of standard integrated circuits and a commercially available digital signal processor. The signal processor is used to control digital code- and carrier-tracking loops via numerically controlled oscillators (NCOs). Hardware and software implementations of these and other receiver functions, including correlation, 50 baud data extraction, and pseudoranging, are described in detail. All receiver software and hardware was designed and developed using a desk-top computer as the host development system.


Background— Although US cholesterol concentrations have dropped, ≈50% of adults have total cholesterol concentrations ≥5.18 mmol/L, putting them at "borderline-high risk" for heart disease. Whether the decline has continued into the 21st century is unknown. We assessed 20-year trends in cholesterol, hypercholesterolemia, lipid-lowering drug use, and cholesterol awareness, treatment, and control from Minnesota Heart Survey (MHS) data. Methods and Results— Five independent, cross-sectional, population-based surveys of 2500 to 5000 adults were conducted in the Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minn, area from 1980 to 2002. Mean (nonfasting) total cholesterol concentrations have continued a 20-year decline, punctuated by an intervening lull. Age-adjusted mean total cholesterol concentrations in 2000 to 2002 were 5.16 and 5.09 mmol/L for men and women, respectively (in 1980 to 1982, 5.49 and 5.38 mmol/L for men and women, respectively) However, the decline has not been uniform across all age groups. Middle-aged to older people have shown substantial decreases, but younger people have shown little overall change and recently had increased total cholesterol values. The mean prevalence of hypercholesterolemia in 2000 to 2002 was 54.9% for men and 46.5% for women and has decreased significantly for both during the study. Age-adjusted mean high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations in 2000 to 2002 were 1.09 and 1.40 mmol/L for men and women, respectively, and were not different from the prior survey. Lipid-lowering drug use rose significantly for both sexes aged 35 to 74 years. Awareness, treatment, and control of hypercholesterolemia have increased; however, more than half of those at borderline-high risk remain unaware of their condition. Conclusions— Although hypercholesterolemia prevalence continued to fall, significant population segments still have cholesterol concentrations near or at the level of increased risk.


Primary care is the first point of contact with the NHS for many people. It includes services provided
outside hospitals by general practitioners, practice nurses, community nurses, health visitors, dentists,
opticians, pharmacists etc. This report is concerned mainly with gay and bisexual men's experiences
of, and interactions with General Practice (GP) surgeries. Two concerns prompted this research. First,
research which continually indicates that men are less likely to access primary care services than
women (Lloyd & Forrest 2001; Manfield et al. 2003) which contrasts with unreported findings from
our Gay Men's Sex Survey (henceforth GMSS) revealing relatively high uptake of primary care services
among gay and bisexual men. Second, recent government policy (Department of Health 2001; 2002;
2003a; 2003b) has sought to increase the role of GP staff in delivering sexual health services.
This report addresses three main questions. First, what are the patterns in usage of GP and other
health services among gay and bisexual men across the UK? Second, what factors mediate
their use and disclosure of their sexuality to their GP? Finally, what factors need to be taken into
account when we consider the GP surgery as a site for sexual health services? This research not
only investigates the various ways in which gay and bisexual men regard their relationships
with their doctors and other General Practice staff, but also examines the many barriers to direct
communication about sexuality in GP surgeries.


The tidal waves of modern electronic/electrical devices have led to increasing demands for ubiquitous application-specific power converters. A conventional manual design procedure of such power converters is computation- and labor-intensive, which involves selecting and connecting component devices, tuning component-wise parameters and control schemes, and iteratively evaluating and optimizing the design. To automate and speed up this design process, we propose an automatic framework that designs custom power converters from design specifications using Monte Carlo Tree Search. Specifically, the framework embraces the upper-confidence-bound-tree (UCT), a variant of Monte Carlo Tree Search, to automate topology space exploration with circuit design specification-encoded reward signals. Moreover, our UCT-based approach can exploit small offline data via the specially designed default policy and can run in parallel to accelerate topology space exploration. Further, it utilizes a hybrid circuit evaluation strategy to substantially reduce design evaluation costs. Empirically, we demonstrated that our framework could generate energy-efficient circuit topologies for various target voltage conversion ratios. Compared to existing automatic topology optimization strategies, the proposed method is much more computationally efficient—the sequential version can generate topologies with the same quality while being up to 67% faster. The parallelization schemes can further achieve high speedups compared to the sequential version.


Abstract While the field of ethnic and racial studies has increased dramatically in recent years, issues of methodology have to date remained relatively unexplored. Despite a long tradition of ethnographic research on racialized and ethnic minorities in North America and Europe, comparatively little has been written on what it means to research and write race ethnographically. This Introduction maps the key issues and controversies surrounding ethnography and race in Britain, the United States and mainland Europe, and traces the different anthropological and sociological/urban perspectives on the ethnographic method in relation to race and ethnicity.


Six Volumes of the series on Sacred Books of the East are devoted to the study of China's main religions. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are the three main religions of China. Translated in six Volumes are the main texts of these religions.


In this paper, we address the"dual problem"of multi-view scene reconstruction in which we utilize single-view images captured under different point lights to learn a neural scene representation. Different from existing single-view methods which can only recover a 2.5D scene representation (i.e., a normal / depth map for the visible surface), our method learns a neural reflectance field to represent the 3D geometry and BRDFs of a scene. Instead of relying on multi-view photo-consistency, our method exploits two information-rich monocular cues, namely shading and shadow, to infer scene geometry. Experiments on multiple challenging datasets show that our method is capable of recovering 3D geometry, including both visible and invisible parts, of a scene from single-view images. Thanks to the neural reflectance field representation, our method is robust to depth discontinuities. It supports applications like novel-view synthesis and relighting. Our code and model can be found at https://ywq.github.io/s3nerf.


Fascioloides magna (Bassi 1875) was recovered from 227 of 312 (73%) white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in southern Texas between 1971 and 1975. Deer from age classes more than 1 year old had infection rates of from 64 to 84%. Few dead flukes were found. Flukes occurred exclusively in the livers of infected animals and were paired in 256 of 301 (85%) fibrous hepatic capsules. The prevalence of immature flukes with an average of one immature per infected liver was similar in all age classes, suggesting a relationship between fluke pairing and maturation.


Estimates of methane (CH4) concentrations in the lower troposphere over the land surfaces of the world, and in more detail for China, were derived from data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS). Derivation of CH4 estimates is described, and these were validated with reference to CH4 concentrations analyzed for air samples in three regions of China and the observations from three global baseline sites. The values of sample points and three global baseline sites were extracted from remotely sensed images. The correlation coefficients between remotely sensed geographical point estimates of CH4 and observations were equal to 0.779 and 0.763. Seasonal and monthly variation of CH4 concentrations for the 2010-2011 year and the spatial variation of these concentrations for the troposphere over China derived from remotely sensed data were mapped and interpreted with reference to possible sources of CH4 emission. Methane concentrations were about 15 ppb higher in winter than summer. The changes in concentrations were about 50 ppb in Inner Mongolian Plateau between September and October 2010, northwest China between February and March 2011. Variations of CH4 concentration are considered with reference to mixing of atmospheric gases by oceanic influences and to sources of CH4 emissions including vegetation cover particularly wetland, crop, and pastoral land use.


Province! Western Cape Premier Hernus Kriel, centre, chairs the first meeting of the Cabinet of provincial unity. From left: Patrick McKenzie (Police), Martha Olckers (Education), Lerumo Kalako (Conservation), Allan Boesak (Economic Affairs), Gerald Morkel (Housing, Leader of the House), Mr Kriel, Kobus Meiring (Finance), Lampie Fick (Agriculture Development), Peter Marais (Local Government), Ebrahim Rassol (Health Services) and Leonard Ramatlakane (Roads and Public Transport).


This research propose to examine the effect organization culture, tranformational leadership, and compensation, on employee performance. Ninety eight respondents from PT Telkom Region IV Semarang, completed 65 items self-reported measures. The data collected survey method and questionares distributed to respondent. The statistic method used was Multiple Regression. As expected, result indicated that tranformational leadership and compensation has a positive effects on employee performance, while organization culture didn't have effect on employee performance, it's mean that 'the telkom way 135' which made since 2003 couldn't employee perform, because before it telkom had strong organization culture. Furthermore, results show that tranformational leadership have a stronger effect on employee performance than compensation. Keywords: Organization Culture, Transformational Leadership, Compensation, and Employee Performance


We study the problem of diverse promoting recommendation task: selecting a subset of diverse items that can better predict a given user's preference. Recommendation techniques primarily based on user or item similarity can suffer from the risk that users cannot get expected information from the over-specified recommendation lists. In this paper, we propose an entropy regularizer to capture the notion of diversity. The entropy regularizer has good properties in that it satisfies monotonicity and submodularity, such that when we combine it with a modular rating set function, we get submodular objective function, which can be maximized approximately by efficient greedy algorithm, with provable constant factor guarantee of optimality. We apply our approach on the top-K prediction problem and evaluate its performance on Movie-Lens data set, which is a standard database containing movie rating data collected from a popular online movie recommender system. We compare our model with the state-of-the-art recommendation algorithms. Our experiments show that entropy regularizer effectively captures diversity and hence improves the performance of recommendation task.


Chestnut short‐tailed bats, Carollia castanea, and Seba's short‐tailed bats, C. perspicillata (Phyllostomidae), were radio‐tracked (N= 1593 positions) in lowland rain forest at Tiputini Biodiversity Station, Orellana Province, Ecuador. For 11 C. castanea, mean home range was 6.8 ± 2.2 ha, mean core‐use area was 1.7 ± 0.8 ha, and mean long axis across home range was 438 ± 106 m. For three C. perspicillata, mean home range was 5.5 ± 1.7 ha, mean core‐use area was 1.3 ± 0.6 ha, and mean long axis was 493 ± 172 m. Groups of less than five C. castanea occupied day‐roosts in earthen cavities that undercut banks the Tiputini River. Carollia perspicillata used tree hollows and buildings as day‐roosts. Interspecific and intraspecific overlap among short‐tailed bats occurred in core‐use areas associated with clumps of fruiting Piper hispidum (peppers) and Cecropia sciadophylla. Piper hispidum seeds were present in 80 percent of the fecal samples from C. castanea and 56 percent of samples from C. perspicillata. Carollia perspicillata handled pepper fruits significantly faster than C. castanea; however, C. castanea commenced foraging before C. perspicillata emerged from day‐roosts. Evidence for exploitative competition between C. castanea and C. perspicillata is suggested by our observations that 95 percent of ripe P. hispidum fruits available at sunset disappear before sunrise (N= 74 marked fruits). Piper hispidum plants produced zero to 12 ripe infructescences per plant each night during peak production. Few ripe infructescences of P. hispidum were available during the dry season; however, ripe infructescences of C. sciadophylla, remained abundant.


Invertebrates include more than 80% of all animals, yet they are severely under-represented in studies of southern African diversity. Site biodiversity estimates that ignore invertebrates, not only omit the greatest part of what they are attempting to measure, but also neglect major contributors to essential ecosystem processes. All available information on spider species distribution in the South African Savanna Biome was compiled. This is the largest biome in the country, occupying over one third of the surface area. A total of 23 739 records from 1260 localities were recorded in the South African Savanna Biome until the end of 2010. This included 1230 species represented by 381 genera and 62 families. The last decade has seen an exponential growth in the knowledge of the group in South Africa, but there certainly are several more species that have to be discovered, and the distribution patterns of those listed are partly unknown. Information is summarised for all quarter-degree squares of the biome and reveals considerable inequalities in knowledge. At a large scale the eastern region is much better surveyed than the western parts, but at finer scales throughout the region, several areas have little information. The Salticidae is the most diverse family (162 spp.) and also has the most endemic savanna species (42 spp.). An endemicity index indicates that 366 species are endemic to the biome, with 322 species that are near endemics, i.e., also occurring in an adjacent biome. An abundance index (1–3) was also calculated for each species based on numbers sampled. A rarity index for each species gives a preliminary indication of their conservation importance. Patterns of guild composition are summarised and species known to play a role as predators in agro-ecosystems found within the biome are also discussed.


We discuss Beauty, a machine-microbial artwork, currently in development by Phylum, an experimental research collective specializing in cultural production informed by the intersections of science, technology and the arts (and of which two of the authors are members). The work is based upon an artificial intelligence agent that uses deep reinforcement learning to interact with and alter cultures of pattern-forming social bacteria in order to make them more aesthetically pleasing.


The flight version of the Objective Crystal Spectrometer (OXS) on the SPECTRUM-X- GAMMA satellite is presented. The spectrometer is a panel that is placed in front of one of the SODART telescopes. It is composed of an array of the three Bragg crystals, LiF(220), Si(111) and RAP(001) for high resolution spectroscopy in the energy bands that encompass the H- and He-like emission line features from the cosmically important elements Fe, S, Ar and O. An energy resolution (E/(Delta) E) of 1250 will be obtained for He-like Fe emission, > 3000 for He-like S and Ar, > 700 for He-like O. In addition, the Si crystals will be coated with a multilayer that will allow spectroscopy with an energy resolution of approximately 80 in the energy band immediately below the C-K absorption edge of 0.284 keV. All the flight crystals are available and detailed calibrations have been obtained for each crystal. They confirm our specifications for the overall performance of the OXS. An estimate of the effective area in the 4 energy windows that are available to OXS yields > 100 cm2 from 5 to 7.4 keV, > 200 cm2 from 2.3 to 4.6 keV, approximately 10 cm+2) from 0.55 to 0.81 keV and approximately 100 cm2 from 0.175 to 0.28 keV.


Emerging economies are prone to crises triggered by external shocks. During these crises, should the central bank stabilize the currency or domestic interest rates? If the choice is outside the central bank's control, as in a currency board, are there good policy substitutes? We argue that these questions are best analyzed in a 'vertical' framework, where the supply of external funds faced by the country is inelastic during the crisis and monetary policy affects mostly the domestic cost of scarce international liquidity. This is in contrast to the standard 'horizontal' framework where supply is elastic at the (now higher) international interest rate. In this vertical view, raising domestic interest rates during a crisis has relatively limited output consequences, while not doing so causes a sharp exchange rate overshooting. This asymmetry naturally leads to the widely observed fear of floating. However, while this response is ex-post rationalizable, it has negative ex-ante consequences as it exacerbates the structurally insufficient private sector incentives to insure against crises. Ex-ante, optimal monetary policy is countercyclical, and increasingly so as financial development falls. The silver lining for countries with limited financial development that cannot (or should not) overcome this conservative-central-bank time inconsistency problem, is that since the main role of monetary policy in the vertical view is one of incentives, it can be substituted by ex-ante measures to induce the private sector to insure against crises.


A theoretical model was developed to evaluate the reduction of flexural waves which is generated by a line force applied on an infinite plate using a compliant baffle. The compliant baffle layer placed between the plate excited by a line force and a signal conditioning plate is designed for reducing pressure fluctuations from the vibrating plate. The baffle layer considered here is the compliant‐tube array, modeled by Junger [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 1010 (1985)] to represent a homogeneous (dispersive) fluid layer. Effects of various parameters such as the aspect ratio of the compliant tube, the distance between tubes, and the damping of the tube material on the flexural wave reduction are presented. Calculations made for the nondispersive fluid layer are compared with those made for the dispersive fluid layer.


We propose and analyze a novel method of reducing cross-talk noise in angle-multiplexed volume holographic optical storage. The method records each hologram by using a reference beam that extends uniformly within a narrow spatial frequency bandwidth but reads the memory by using a plane wave. Our result shows that the signal-to-noise ratio obtained by the proposed method can be 20 dB higher than that obtained by the conventional method with planar reference waves. In addition, the extended reference method has a larger tolerance for angle misalignment during readout than the conventional method. Results of numerical simulation are presented and discussed.


The unique contribution of this book, however, is not its text as much as its superb illustrations from which an enormous amount can be easily learned. The gruesome pictures of some of the late complications, and the growing acceptance of the relationship between these complications and diabetic control, may serve to stimulate greater efforts at control. The colour photographs, covering all aspects of diabetes, are supplemented by diagrams, photomicrographs and reproductions of X-ray pictures, which add to the completeness of the book, and draw attention to some of the recent techniques available as guides to management. Information gained from this colour atlas is likely to be more easily recalled than from a written text, especially when rare conditions are encountered, and thus it will be of enormous value to clinicians.


Data are described on identification, isolation and purification of restricting endonuclease Sau 6782 as well as on estimation of the enzyme recognition site. Conditions were developed for growing of Staphylococcus aureus 6782 strain, which enabled to produce a maximal yield of the restricting activity containing minimal level of nucleases. The procedure for isolation and purification of restrictase Sau 6782 involved affinity chromatography on Blue Sepharose and cation exchange chromatography on phosphocellulose PII. The enzyme preparation obtained was free from impurities of unspecific nucleases. The yield of the Sau 6782 restrictase constituted 1,000 un from 1 g of the culture cells. Restrictase Sau 6782 recognized the nucleotide sequence 5'...GATC...3' and was the isoshizomere of the Sau 3A enzyme.


Abstract Recurrent pediatric high-grade glioma (pHGG) is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in children. Immunotherapy is a successful treatment approach for a growing number of cancers and is being investigated as a treatment strategy for pHGG. Immunotherapy has shown the most benefit in tumors with increased infiltrating T cells at baseline. Our recently published results revealed that neoadjuvant checkpoint inhibition in recurrent adult glioblastoma was associated with upregulation of a T cell and interferon-γ-related gene expression signature (Tcell-IFNγGES) and was correlated with a significantly extended overall survival (OS). In this study, we examined the immune landscape in recurrent pHGG and the association of Tcell-IFNγGES in the tumor with survival. We analyzed tumor RNAseq data collected at time of recurrence from a historical cohort of 42 pHGG patients from the Children's Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium. We found a significant transcriptional enrichment of Tcell-IFNγGES in 54% of the tumors. The survival of patients with high Tcell-IFNγGES was observed to be significantly higher than patients with low Tcell-IFNγGES, (log-rank p=0.05). The 3-year OS for patients with low versus high Tcell-IFNγGE was 28.5% (95%, CI:13.7%-59.5%) compared to 50.2% (95%, CI:33.1%-76.1%). When patients were stratified by age, gender and race, low Tcell-IFNγGES was found to be a poor OS prognostic factor (hazard ratio=2.4 (1.14–5.14), p=0.02). This indicates a strong relationship of decreased Tcell-IFNγGES and increased risk of death. Future investigations are necessary to validate these findings, and to explore the value of Tcell-IFNγGES as a predictive biomarker for response to immunotherapy in pHGG.


Background: Trauma including accidents are today's world concern forming a major non-communicable epidemic accounting for mortality and morbidity. The aim of the study was to determine and account the types of fractures and dislocations presented to Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences (BRIMS), Bidar, Karnataka, India. Methods and Material: This study is of retrospective in nature with a review of hospital inpatient case sheets of orthopaedic department in our hospital presented between July 2011 to Dec 2011. The data gathered was analysed by percentages. Results: Out of 132 cases analysed males (82.56%), outnumbered female (17.42%); 67.42 % of cases were between 18-45 years age group; femur (22.17 %) was the most commonly involved bone followed by tibia (13.21%), foot (10.85%); tibia & fibular (8.96%) involvement. Less common were spine (0.47%), vertebra (0.94%) and scapula (0.94%). Fracture-dislocation was more common in lower limb (59.91% - ankle joint was most common-50%) compared to upper limb (30.66%- shoulder joint: 12.5%). Conclusions: Among of 132 cases admitted 212 fractures & dislocation was noted. Male (82.56%) was more common than females (17.42%). Age group most commonly involved was between 18-45 years (67.42%). Fracture was more common in femur (22.17%) & dislocation was common in hip (42.86%) because of high velocity injury. Approach towards the prevention of accidents by effective safety education, good roads and early intervention which is the need of the hour. Effective drugs should be made available in the casuality so that crush injuries are managed without complications like septicemia and tetanus.


Understanding the relative importance of factors driving savanna–forest dynamics is vital as changes in the extent of tropical forests can have major impacts on global climate and carbon balance, biodiversity, and human well‐being. Comparison of aerial photographs for 50 rainforest patches in Kakadu National Park had previously revealed a landscape wide expansion of rainforest boundaries between 1964 and 2004. Here, we used generalized linear and mixed effects models to assess the role of fire, buffalo impact, and patch characteristics in determining the rate of boundary change. The analysis was conducted at both the patch scale, and within‐patch (plot) scale, to capture the different processes operating. At the patch scale, the rate of change was best explained by rainforest type and historical buffalo impact. Fire activity, patch size, and fragmentation were not important predictors of the rate of change. At the plot scale, distance from rainforest edge was the most important predictor of the probability of change, while the fragmentation and aspect of the boundary were unimportant. Rainforest expansion has occurred through a process of margin extension rather than eruption of new patches. The rainforest expansion is consistent with having been driven primarily by shifts in global change phenomena, such as increased rainfall and atmospheric CO2, rather than changes in disturbance regime. It appears that the current fire regimes are not sufficiently destructive to limit the overall expansion of the rainforest patches. Rainforest type and historical buffalo impact have mediated the rate of change at the patch scale.


Pathways leading to a carbon neutral future for the German energy system have to deal with the expected phase-out of coal-fired power generation, in addition to the shutdown of nuclear power plants and the rapid ramp-up of photovoltaics and wind power generation. An analysis of the expected impact on electricity market, security of supply, and system stability must consider the European context because of the strong coupling—both from an economic and a system operation point of view—through the cross-border power exchange of Germany with its neighbors. This analysis, complemented by options to improve the existing development plans, is the purpose of this paper. We propose a multilevel energy system modeling, including electricity market, network congestion management, and system stability, to identify challenges for the years 2023 and 2035. Out of the results, we would like to highlight the positive role of innovative combined heat and power (CHP) solutions securing power and heat supply, the importance of a network congestion management utilizing flexibility from sector coupling, and the essential network extension plans. Network congestion and reduced security margins will become the new normal. We conclude that future energy systems require expanded flexibilities in combination with forward planning of operation.


A comparative study between alumina added niobia ceramics and two alumina zirconia composites from nanostructured TZP (7% and 14% weight) was made. On this composites the zirconia were yttria stabilized and the alumina were submicron structured. As sintering aid a mixture of magnesia, niobia and talc were used on all samples. The sintering was performed at 1450 oC during 60 minutes. The characteristic grain size and shape of an alumina and zirconia powders, aggregates and agglomerates were characterized. The sintering ceramics were evaluated through hardness, fracture toughness and 4 point bending test. Weibull statistic was applied on the flexural results. Although the fracture toughness result from ZTA were lower, and seems to be affected by the liquid fase, the hardness and Weibull modulus were higher than alumina niobia. The grains size and the homogeneity of its distributions on the microstructure of this ceramics was correlated to these higher values. The results from these alumina zirconia composites showed a potential to apply as a ballistic armor material.


Abstract. Hidayah N, Lubis R, Wiryawan KG, Suharti S. 2019. Phenotypic identification, nutrients content, bioactive compounds of two jengkol (Archidendron jiringa) varieties from Bengkulu, Indonesia and their potentials as ruminant feed. Biodiversitas 20: 1671-1680. Agricultural waste is abundant in tropical countries. Many farmers in these countries have been using this waste as the main sources for feeding livestock. Ones of them are jengkol (Archidendron jiringa) by-product like peels and leaves have not been utilized optimally. The aims of this study were to explore the peel and leaves of two varieties of jengkol, i.e., jengkol gajah and jengkol padi, from Bengkulu Province and to assess their potentials as ruminant feed. Variables observed were phenotypic identification, nutrients content, and bioactive compounds. Phenotypic identification was completed using non-experimental examination through survey and observation methods to identify the phenotypic characters of jengkol in four districts in Bengkulu. The peel of jengkol padi had a blackish purple color and was thicker than that of jengkol gajah. The leaves of jengkol gajah was longer (10.2-15.5 cm), but jengkol padi had wider leaves (6-7.5 cm). The proportion of weight of jengkol peel (59.99%) is higher than seed (40.01%). Jengkol peel had high fiber content (33.07-35.28%) while the leaves were rich in protein and total digestible nutrient (TDN) (15.17-19.26% and 63.87-65.82%). In nutrient content comparison, the peel of jengkol padi was better (crude protein (CP:8.41%, ether extract (EE):0.79%, crude fiber (CF): 35.28% and total digestible nutrient (TDN): 52.81% but jengkol gajah had better nutrient in its leaves (CP:19.26%, EE:2.50%, CF:26.66% and TDN:51.56%).The saponin content (26.52%), total phenol (2.99%), and tannin (1.22%) in the peel were higher than those in the leaves, while the leaves had higher flavonoids content (2.0%) than the peels. Bioactive compounds in jengkol gajah were higher than those in jengkol padi. Based on this study, both jengkol gajah and jengkol padi are potential as ruminant feed in which the peel can be a source of fiber and saponins, while the leaves are potentially used as a source of protein, fiber and saponins.


The "family doctor" has been identified as the professional most likely to be contacted by the general public with concerns about communication disorders; yet the family practice physician is unlikely to refer patients with communicative disorders to speech-language pathologists or audiologists for nonmedical evaluation and treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine attitudes of family practice residents about referral patterns for communication disorders using a survey format. Thirty-nine residents estimated that they had referred an average of 1.5 patients to a speech-language pathologist and 2.2 patients to an audiologist during a six-month interval. The findings indicated that these residents did not routinely refer patients to speech-language pathologists. When they did refer, a limited view of communication problems was used.


Autosomal dominant osteopetrosis (ADO), is a heritable disorder that results from a failure of osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. The etiology of the disorder is unknown. A previous linkage study of one Danish family mapped an ADO locus to chromosome 1p21. We have studied two families from Indiana with ADO. The present study sought to determine if the ADO gene in these families was also linked to chromosome 1p21. We used six microsatellite repeat markers, which demonstrated linkage to the 1p21 ADO locus in the Danish study, to perform linkage analysis in the new kindreds. Multipoint analysis excluded linkage of ADO to chromosome 1p21 (logarithm of the odds score < -7.00) in both families. In addition, no haplotype segregated with the disorder in either family. In summary, the present investigation ruled out linkage of ADO to chromosome 1p21 in two families from Indiana. Our results demonstrate that there is locus heterogeneity of this disorder; therefore, mutations in at least two different genes can give rise to the ADO phenotype.


Patient-based measures of the quality of primary care are increasingly important. However, their effective use requires bias to be minimised. Scores on the General Practice Assessment Survey (GPAS) differ according to whether patients are surveyed in the surgery or by post. It is not clear whether these differences relate to the mode of administration or to the types of patients who complete the scale in postal and surgery samples. Regression indicates that the bias reflects both effects and should be considered when GPAS scores are being interpreted.


We present two separate improvements to the handling of fluorescence effects in modern uni‐directional spectral rendering systems. The first is the formulation of a new distance tracking scheme for fluorescent volume materials which exhibit a pronounced wavelength asymmetry. Such volumetric materials are an important and not uncommon corner case of wavelength‐shifting media behaviour, and have not been addressed so far in rendering literature. The second one is that we introduce an extension of Hero wavelength sampling which can handle fluorescence events, both on surfaces, and in volumes. Both improvements are useful by themselves, and can be used separately: when used together, they enable the robust inclusion of arbitrary fluorescence effects in modern uni‐directional spectral MIS path tracers. Our extension of Hero wavelength sampling is generally useful, while our proposed technique for distance tracking in strongly asymmetric media is admittedly not very efficient. However, it makes the most of a rather difficult situation, and at least allows the inclusion of such media in uni‐directional path tracers, albeit at comparatively high cost. Which is still an improvement since up to now, their inclusion was not really possible at all, due to the inability of conventional tracking schemes to generate sampling points in such volume materials.


The predominant factor limiting the detectability of distant targets is veiling due to atmospheric scattering, known commonly as haze. It has been suggested that yellow filters (in this case, the macular pigments, MP) that absorb this haze could extend visual range. This hypothesis was tested on 27 subjects with a wide range of MP optical densities. Visibility was measured by varying the amount of simulated blue haze needed to veil a sine-wave grating (7.5 cyc/deg). Visibility for this target under xenon light and shortwave deficient (SWD) light was also assessed. MP was significantly related to energy at threshold for both haze (r = 0.59, p < 0.01) and xenon (r = 0.60, p < 0.01) backgrounds, but not the SWD background. Thus, subjects with higher levels of MP could withstand more light before losing sight of the target, which is consistent with previous modeling by Wooten and Hammond (2002). INDEX WORDS: Macular pigment, lutein, zeaxanthin, visibility, atmospheric haze VISIBILITY THROUGH SIMULATED ATMOSPHERIC HAZE AND ITS RELATION TO MACULAR PIGMENT


Almost half of American families did not adjust their consumption following receipt of the 2001 or 2008 tax rebates. Another 20 percent, with low income and more likely to rent, spent a small but significant amount. Households with large spending propensity held high levels of mortgage debt. The heterogeneity is concentrated in a few nondurable categories and a handful of "new vehicle" purchases. The cumulated predictions of the heterogeneous response model tend to be smaller and more accurate than their homogeneous response model counterparts, offering new insights on the evaluation of the two fiscal stimulus programs.


Abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare the responses of the Syrian hamster and rat pineal glands in organ culture to vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). The endpoints in these studies were the activities of pineal N‐acetyltransferase (NAT) and hydroxyindole‐O‐methyltransferase (HIOMT), as well as pineal and medium melatonin levels. When rat pineal glands were incubated with either VIP (1 μM) or isoproterenol (1 μM), a β‐adrenergic agonist, a significant increase in NAT and HIOMT activities and melatonin levels were observed within 3 hr. Conversely, during the day, VIP (1 μM) was ineffective in stimulating these parameters in hamster pineal gland after incubation times of either 2, 4, 6, or 8 hr. In another experiment, hamster pineal glands were collected from animals killed in the late dark period (after 30 min light exposure). In these glands, isoproterenol promoted NAT activity and melatonin production; however, VIP was ineffective in stimulating either NAT or HIOMT activities; likewise, VIP had no stimulatory effect on pineal melatonin levels at night. Finally, when hamster pineal glands at night were incubated with either 0, 10 nM, 100 nM, 10 μM, or 100 μM VIP, no changes in any parameter of melatonin synthesis were measured. The results indicate that the hamster pineal gland, unlike that of the rat, may not respond to VIP with an increased melatonin production.


Two new foraminiferal taxa are described from a site at Chichiriviche de La Costa, Venezuela, at 40 m water depth. The new miliolid foraminiferal genus, Neopateorislopsis n.gen. and its species, N. chichirivensis n. gen., n. sp. is proposed and described herein. The new genus is related to Neopateoris Bermudez and Seiglie 1963, but differs from it by the presence of ribs along all chambers and the lack of apertural teeth. The new lituolid species Haplophragmoides venezuelanus n. sp. is described herein, characterized by its thin wall, large aperture, and evolute coiling.


Land grabbing has gained momentum in Latin America and the Caribbean during the past decade. The phenomenon has taken different forms and character as compared to processes that occur in other regions of the world, especially Africa. It puts into question some of the assumptions in the emerging literature on land grabbing, suggesting these are too food-centered/too food crisis-centered, too land-centred, too centred on new global food regime players – China, South Korea, Gulf States and India – and too centred on Africa. There are four key mechanisms through which land grabbing in Latin American and the Caribbean has been carried out: food security initiatives, energy/fuel security ventures, other climate change mitigation strategies, and recent demands for resources from newer hubs of global capital. The hallmark of land grabbing in the region is its intra-regional character: the key investors are (Trans-)Latin American companies, often in alliance with international capital and the central state. Initial evidence suggests that recent land investments have consolidated the earlier trend away from (re)distributive land policies in most countries in the region, and are likely to result in widespread reconcentration of land and capital.