We discuss a transistor-level test methodology for C2MOS asynchronous pipelines. Unlike their static CMOS counterparts, wherein testing for stuck-at faults and compliance to a few timing constraints typically suffices, dynamic asynchronous pipelines present new challenges which require more elaborate test solutions. More specifically, many gate-level input/output stuck-at faults of a static pipeline style translate into transistor-level stuck-open/stuck-short faults in the dynamic C2MOS version. Therefore, test methods for transistor-level faults are required for dynamic asynchronous pipelines. To this end, we propose a methodology for testing both gate-level stuck-at faults and transistor-level stuck-open/stuck-short faults in C2MOS pipelines. The proposed method does not employ additional hardware and is capable of detecting both gate-level and transistor-level faults, as we demonstrate on the C2MOS version of MOUSETRAP


The need for faster and practical cryptography is a research topic for decades. In case of elliptic curve cryptography, which was proposed by Koblitz and Miller in 1985 as a more efficient alternative to RSA, the applications in real life started after 2000s. Today, most of the popular applications and protocols like Whatsapp, Signal, iOS, Android, TLS, SSH, Bitcoin etc. make use of Elliptic curve cryptography. One of the important factor for high performance elliptic curve cryptography is the finite field multiplication. In this paper, we first describe how to choose proper prime fields that makes use of Topelitz-matrices to get faster field multiplication, then we give parameter choice details to select prime fields that supports Toeplitz-matrix vector product operations. Then, we introduce the safe curve selection rationale and discuss about security. We propose new curves, discuss implementation and benchmark results and conclude our work.


We describe the design of Ravel-XL, a hardware accelerator for assigned-delay compiled-code logic gate simulation. After a brief review of the underlying Ravel simulation algorithm, we describe the major factors that influenced the hardware design, particularly the interaction between the instruction execution and operand bandwidth requirements. The initial CMOS VLSI implementation of the accelerator contains a 2K word data cache, occupies approximately 1.9 cm/sup 2/ of die area with 256 pins and approximately 900,000 transistors. Simulation results predicts operation at a clock rate of 33 MHz. This provides a speedup of about 50 over the software implementation of Ravel, about 50 over a compiled event-driven simulator, and about 500 over an interpreted event-driven simulator. We conclude with some planned design improvements that will allow an approximate doubling of the clock rate.<<ETX>>


The objectives of this study were to screen activity of citrus essential oil fractions (EOs) alone and in combination with organic acids against 2 species of Listeria. Five citrus EOs were initially screened by disc diffusion assay for antibacterial activity. Cold pressed terpeneless Valencia orange oil (CP terpeneless oil) had the strongest bacteriostatic (MIC) and bactericidal (MBC) properties at 0.55% and 1.67%, respectively. Four organic acids were tested for effectiveness against Listeria. Citric and malic acids proved to be the most effective with MBC of 1.1% alone. Assays were conducted to determine synergistic effects of EOs and citric or malic acids. There was a significant decrease in MIC and MBC to 0.04% EO plus 0.12% malic or citric acid. EOs from citrus paired with organic acids offer the potential as an all-natural antimicrobial for improving the safety of all-natural foods.


Today patients with gallstones are treated surgically, by means of drugs, or by endoscopy. However, only cholesterol stones can be dissolved with bile acids. Besides the cholesterol stones in the gallbladder, insoluble pigment stones or insoluble stones with a high inorganic calcium content will be found. In every patient, the solubility of the gallbladder stones must be established by mineralogical analysis. Sonography is very helpful in detecting gallbladder stones, but it is impossible to perform a mineralogical analysis with this method. Plain radiography is likewise insufficient. The only way to obtain a relatively accurate selection of patients with soluble gallstones is the performance of roentgenography after cholecystography. Cholecystography for mineralogical analysis must always follow detection of gallstones by sonography.


This paper presents the implementation of a heterogeneous Hadoop cluster based on the Zynq ZedBoard development platform with GZIP FPGA offloading for high-speed and energy efficient computing. We have developed the first open source FPGA GZIP compressor, designed for educational and research purposes, that can reach 1 Gbps compression speed using a 125 MHz clock. The core uses only 10% of the Zynq-7020 SoC FPGA resources and is 5.7x faster than the ARM CPU which runs at 667 MHz. We implemented an eight-node Hadoop distributed cluster and performed the Wordcount and Terasort benchmarks using software and hardware GZIP compression during the Map stage. Results show an almost 2x more energy-efficient cluster when compression is done using our GZIP FPGA core than using the software compression. The performance of the Hadoop cluster is limited by the 512 MB of RAM and the low read-write speed of the SD cards which act as hard drives for each node.


Background: To examine longitudinal neurocognitive decline among Latino, non-Latino Black, and non-Latino White people with HIV (PWH) and factors that may explain ethnic/racial disparities in neurocognitive decline. Methods: Four hundred ninety nine PWH (13.8% Latino, 42.7% Black, 43.5% White; baseline age: M = 43.5) from the CNS HIV Anti-Retroviral Therapy Effects Research (CHARTER) study completed neurocognitive, neuromedical, and laboratory assessments every 6–12 months with up to 5 years of follow-up. Longitudinal neurocognitive change was determined via published regression-based norms. Survival analyses investigated the relationship between ethnicity/race and neurocognitive change, and baseline and time-dependent variables that may explain ethnic/racial disparities in neurocognitive decline, including socio-demographic, HIV-disease, medical, psychiatric, and substance use characteristics. Results: In Cox proportional hazard models, hazard ratios for neurocognitive decline were increased for Latino compared with White PWH (HR = 2.25, 95% CI = 1.35 to 3.73, P = 0.002), and Latino compared with Black PWH (HR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.14 to 3.04, P = 0.013), with no significant differences between Black and White PWH (P = 0.40). Comorbidities, including cardiometabolic factors and more severe neurocognitive comorbidity classification, accounted for 33.6% of the excess hazard for Latino compared with White PWH, decreasing the hazard ratio associated with Latino ethnicity (HR = 1.83, 95% CI = 1.06 to 3.16, P = 0.03), but did not fully account for elevated risk of decline. Conclusions: Latino PWH may be at higher risk of early neurocognitive decline compared with Black and White PWH. Comorbidities accounted for some, but not all, of this increased risk among Latino PWH. Future research examining institutional, sociocultural, and biomedical factors, including structural discrimination and age-related biomarkers, may further explain the observed disparities.


We examine spatial convergence in biological well-being in the
Habsburg Monarchy, circa 1890-1910, on the basis of evidence of the
physical stature of 21-year-old military recruits, disaggregated into 15
Districts. We find that the shorter the population in 1890, the faster
its height grew thereafter. Hence, there was convergence in physical
stature between the peripheral areas of the monarchy (located in today's
Poland/Ukraine, Romania, and Slovakia) and its core (located
in today's Austria, Czech Republic, and Hungary). The difference
in trends between the trend in height in the Polish District of Przemysl
and in Vienna was about 0.9 cm per decade, in favor of the former.
Convergence among the core Districts themselves was minimal or
non-existent, whereas the convergence among the peripheral Districts
was more pronounced. Spatial convergence also took place between
the peripheral regions and the more developed ones. The pattern is
somewhat reminiscent of modern findings on convergence clubs in the
global economy.


Neurological studies reveal that theory of mind is a part of social intelligence in human beings and a requirement for language acquisition. Appropriate use of language is one important aspect of social life. Theory of mind is defined as understanding mental representations, and effective language use relies on monitoring the probable mental states of the listener, and making inferences about the mental states of the speaker. As the ability to understand our own minds and those of others is central to what it means to be a human, considering theory of mind and language as separate abilities in human mind may make little sense. The aim of this article is to illustrate the possible cause-effect relationship between language and theory of mind and the mutual role they play in human social life, by adopting the Relevance Theoretic Pragmatics framework based on a definition of relevance and two general cognitive and communicative principles. As a remarkable part of assessing the theory of mind and its intimate relation with language lie in developmental psychology, a great deal is taken from research on child psychology.


We study numerically the process of vortex nucleation at the wake of a moving object in superfluids using a generalized and non-local Gross-Pitaevskii model. The non-local potential is set to reproduce the roton minimum present in the excitation spectrum of superfluid helium. By applying numerically a Newton–Raphson method we determine the bifurcation diagram for different types of non-linearities and object sizes which allow for determining the corresponding critical velocities. In the case of a non-local potential, we observe that for small object sizes the critical velocity is simply determined by the Landau criterion for superfluidity whereas for large objects there is little difference between all models studied. Finally, we study dynamically in two and three dimensions how rotons and vortices are excited in the non-local model of superfluid.


Abstract
 This paper is the first in an expected series of publications treating the Araceae of the Lita–San Lorenzo Region of northwestern Ecuador. An introduction to the physical and ecological characteristics of the area is given, and Anthurium Schott sect. Polyneurium Engl. is redefined and typified. Thirty-four species in section Polyneurium are fully described of which 13 are new species of Anthurium: A. bruxellense Croat, A. chuchubiense Croat, A. cornejoi Croat, A. decursivum Croat, A. hannoniae Croat, A. impolitoellipticum Croat, A. kinsingeriae Croat, A. longeinternodum Croat, A. mansellii Croat, A. pandurilaminum Croat, A. pseudotalamancae Croat, A. triangulohastatum Croat, and A. waramirezii Croat. In addition, six seemingly new but (sometimes) sterile species for the region are fully described but not formally named.


This paper introduces a model developed for modeling the steady-state and the dynamic behavior of the Trans Bay Cable Project as Voltage-Sourced Converter based on the Modular Multilevel Converter design. The model is intended for time domain simulations in an electromechanical simulation program with a balanced positive sequence network representation. Typical applications are transient stability studies and performance analysis of the HVDC link within a large scale AC network. The new developed model is validated against a much more accurate electro-magnetic model comprising all parts of the complex converter control and the protection circuits.


New p-extended porphyrin dyes YD26–YD29 with long alkoxyl chains at the ortho positions of the mesophenyls, and meta di-tert-butylphenyl-substituted porphyrins YD12–CN, and YD13–CN were synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells, and their optical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties were investigated and compared with those of YD12 and YD13. The absorption spectra of YD26–YD29 showed a slight red shift of Soret bands and blue shift of Q bands as compared to the meta-substituted porphyrins due to the electron-donating effects of dioctyloxy substituents at the ortho-positions of the meso-phenyl rings. Replacement of the carboxyl with a cyanoacrylic acid as the anchoring group results in significant broadening and red shifts of the absorptions, which is due to the strong electronic coupling between the pull unit and the porphyrin ring facilitated by the CRC triple bond. The electrochemical studies and quantum-chemical calculations (DFT) indicated that the ortho alkoxy-substituted sensitizers exhibit lower oxidation potential, i.e. a higher HOMO energy level, and their HOMO–LUMO gaps are comparable to the meta-substituted analogues. The photovoltaic measurements confirmed that the ortho-octyloxy groups in the two meso-phenyls of YD26 and YD27 play a significant role in preventing dye aggregation thereby enhancing the corresponding short-circuit current density and open-circuit voltage. The power conversion efficiency (Z) of YD26 is 8.04%, which is 11% higher than that of YD12, whereas the efficiency of YD27 is 6.03%, which is 135% higher than that of YD13. On the other hand, the poor performance of YD28 and YD29 is due to the floppy structural nature and limited molecular rigidity of the cyanoacrylic acid anchor.


The application of abscisic acid solution to developing spikes of wheat (cv. Gabo) via wicks threaded through peduncles at the stage of meiosis in pollen mother cells caused pollen sterility without affecting female fertility. The concentration of abscisic acid measured in the spikelets of plants treated in this manner was close to that induced by water stress, which produced a similar level of pollen sterility. After pollen mother cell meiosis, treatment with abscisic acid had no effect on pollen fertility, as has been shown previously with water stress. Abscisic acid applied immediately before meiosis reduced fertility, in contrast to the effect of water stress, but this may have been due to persistence of the hormone in the plant. High temperature during pollen mother cell meiosis had no effect on the endogenous abscisic acid content of the spikelets, even where the treatment caused a complete inhibition of grain set.


The Bureau of the Census reports for 2002 were used to develop business data for "average" dental establishments in each of the counties in California. On average, between 1997 and 2002, when compared to national information, the number of California statewide dental establishments increased at a greater rate, had a smaller resident population per establishment, reported lower gross receipts, had fewer employees, and paid lower salaries to employees.


Previous studies from several laboratories have provided evidence that interaction of hyaluronan (HA) with the surface of endothelial cells may be involved in endothelial cell behavior. We have recently characterized a mAb, mAb IVd4, that recognizes and neutralizes HA- binding protein (HABP) from a wide variety of cell types from several different species (Banerjee, S. D., and B. P. Toole. 1991. Dev. Biol. 146:186-197). In this study we have found that mAb IVd4 inhibits migration of endothelial cells from a confluent monolayer after "wounding" of the monolayer. HA hexasaccharide, a fragment of HA with the same disaccharide composition as polymeric HA, also inhibits migration. In addition, both reagents inhibit morphogenesis of capillary-like tubules formed in gels consisting of type I collagen and basement membrane components. Immunocytology revealed that the antigen recognized by mAb IVd4 becomes localized to the cell membrane of migrating cells, including many of their lamellipodia. Treatment with high concentrations of HA hexamer causes loss of immunoreactivity from these structures. We conclude that HABP recognized by mAb IVd4 is involved in endothelial cell migration and tubule formation.


We examine how credit ratings affect capital structure of Norwegian listed firms. The data sample comprises 216 companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in the period 2004 to 2010. Three concerns for credit rating are investigated. The first identifies which effect access to the public market, measured by having a credit rating, have on leverage. Secondly, we examine how being near a change in rating level influences decisions regarding leverage. Finally we investigate how firms decide upon leverage after a change in rating. The empirical analysis consists of regressions on panel data models that explain variation in leverage. We model three tests and include proxies for credit rating considerations to capture their influence on capital structure. Overall we identify that firms are affected of participating in the bond market and take credit ratings into consideration when deciding about capital structure. Participating in the bond market is found to provide a 6.94% higher long term debt ratio than other listed firms. Long term debt is increased by more tangible assets and reduced with increased size. Furthermore, access to capital is found to be most influential for high yield firms, confirming their reliance on the bond market for achieving necessary capital. For firms participating in the public debt market we find no evidence that credit ratings explain variation in leverage. However, concerns for credit ratings are found to influence leverage adjustments. Firms participating in the public debt market are found to reduce long term debt when being near a change in rating. Firms issuing new bonds during the period are found to make larger reduction in long term debt, as well as they reduce their total debt as well. We conclude that Norwegian firms are especially concerned about their credit ratings when making new debt issues.


The point of departure of this paper are assertion statements about advantages and unsuitable elements of the use ofpartnering in the construction industry today. Next, the view is turned towards the manufacturing industry for inspiration on how a learning environment is formed by making strategic partnering suitable for the nature of the construction industry. It is argued that effectiveness and efficiency in the construction industry can be improved by giving the partnering cooperation a strategic focus which involves the development of competing Resource Basins, i.e. groups of long term cooperating companies in the supply chain, or rather, in the supply network. The suggested way to form a learning environment combines some of the advantages from the production philosophies Supply Chain Management, Agile Manufacturing and Extended Enterprise in connection with Virtual Enterprise with the characteristics of construction. The idea is to establish a joint grounding in a group of companies. The solidarity and cooperation between the companies exist independently of specific projects. It forms a learning environment in the resource basin in which knowledge gained from different projects is collected and distributed to all the members of the resource basin. At the beginning of a specific project, i.e. a potential customer knocks at the door, the most suitable resources from the basin are assigned to the job. These resources form a project group for this project. This differs from a traditional project group in the building sector because these resources already are thoroughly familiar with each other, i.e. they have shared common cooperation values, and they have developed integrated logistic systems, quality systems, information systems, continuous improvement systems etc. Finally, barriers and thoughts about how this learning environment can be brought into the construction industry are discussed.


A mechanism of basic serum blood antioxidant ceruloplasmin interaction with membrane surface of the monolayer from distearoyl phosphatidylcholine was investigated. It was shown that an important component of this interaction is an arising of a bond within negatively charged side chains of ceruloplasmin aminoacids and phosphate groups of monolayer film and change of packing density due to this interaction.


Self-efficacy beliefs are an important psychosocial determinant of pain behaviour and predict the outcome of pain management programmes. Participants in these programmes are challenged to live a life as normal as possible despite the pain. In view of the continuous presence of pain, self-efficacy measurement should take this into account. The pain self-efficacy questionnaire (PSEQ) asks participants to take the pain into account when rating their self-efficacy beliefs. In the present study, this questionnaire is examined on its psychometric qualities. Also this study examines self-efficacy as an independent predictor of outcome measures after controlling for pain intensity. 278 Chronic pain patients participate in this study, divided over two different samples. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported a one factor solution. Internal consistency was excellent and test-retest reliability was adequate. Regression analysis showed that pain self-efficacy was an independent predictor of disability and quality of life after controlling for pain intensity. Furthermore, the PSEQ could discriminate between workers and non-workers and between patients who used medication and those who did not.


Osteochondral lesions of the talus are a common occurrence especially in sports, occurring 6.5% of all ankle sprains. Inherently talar cartilage is unable to repair itself secondary to the lack of blood supply, and it is incapable of healing through the typical inflammatory phase. Such damage can be irreversible and lead to the onset of osteoarthritis. There are many surgical repair options for osteochondral lesion of the talus. However, a trial of conservative therapy is warranted especially because studies have shown that this does not adversely affect the outcome of the surgery. Ideally, the treatment options should focus on restoring the articular cartilage surface, normal hyaline cartridge, and improvement of patient's symptoms and function. Conventional surgical techniques, such as drilling and microfractures, try to address these goals through bone stimulation. However, these reparative techniques form disorganized fibrocartilage regenerate, which lacks the durability and many of the mechanical properties of the hyaline cartilage that normally covers the articular surfaces. In addition, poorer outcomes have been associated with lesions that are larger than 1 cm2. There have been recent advances in surgical techniques to address these issues. The autologous chondrocyte implantation and matrix-based chondrocyte implantation use cells that are harvested from the body for the repair of chondral defect. These biological approaches for the treatment of chondral defects of the talus are introduced here.


The model of categorial grammars is a sufficiently flexible model to give an account of several languages and several forms of organisation of the linguistic units of these languages (coordination, subordination, etc). However, the research tasks were limited almost exclusively to European languages. A language like Arabic, in spite of the richness of the tradition of its schools of thought, which go back for several centuries, remains unexplored by this current. In our article, we show how the model of Applicative Combinatory Categorial Grammar can give an account of categorial annotation of Arabic, in particular of certain forms of Arabic coordination.


The article is devoted to the urgent topic of the organization of control activities. The purpose of the article is to reveal problems and substantiate proposals on its improvement. The major shortcomings include duplication of authority of the control bodies, fragmentation of control functions, weak inter-institutional cooperation. The results of non-optimal organization lead to higher costs of financial and human resources inspection, increase of administrative pressure on the national economy. The author gives specific examples, substantiates need for an explicit use of the terms "control", "supervision", "audit", "monitoring" in legislation.Special attention is paid to the organization of the state (municipal) financial control. This is an area of the most acute issues of delineation of competence and interaction and coordination between control authority established by the legislative (representative) and executive powers. The author examines the legal nature of the external financial control bodies, highlights the objectives of their activity and analyzes their authority. The author proposes measures to optimize the interaction of external and internal control. The model of the organization of financial control that would prevent duplication of control bodies and optimize the number of their employees is proved.


The 2H2O NMR powder line shapes and relaxation times, T1 and T2, of the liquid crystal Lα, the intermediate Pβ′ and the gel Lβ′ phases of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC)/2H2O-system are analysed. The water structure and dynamics of the lipid/water interfaces of DPPC in the hydration regime, where all water molecules are associated to the interface, are described in terms of orientational order parameters and correlation times. The line shape of the ripple phase (Pβ′) is analysed assuming model parameters of the gel or liquid crystalline phase. The narrow line shape of the ripple phase is partly due to an extra average of the quadrupole interaction because of lateral diffusion along the curved surface, reducing the splitting with a factor 0.5–0.2 depending on the nature of the curved ripple surface. However, more importantly, an extra reduction of the quadrupole splitting may be due to the same reorganization of water, among bound sites with different signs of the order parameter, which also explains the increase in the quadrupole splitting with temperature observed in the liquid crystalline phase. The linewidths in 14N MAS NMR spectra clearly indicate slow dynamics of the polar headgroup in the ripple phase. The results indicate that the headgroup hydrations of the ripple and liquid crystalline phases are similar, while the acyl chains are still in their gel state in the ripple phase. The increased headgroup area introduces a stress, as confirmed by the slow headgroup dynamics, which causes the bilayer to curve in the ripple phase.


or acquired. Acquired Brown's syndrome has been described in collagen vascular diseases including rheumatoid arthritis and Still's disease.' 2 Two case reports have described Brown's syndrome in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in adults,' 4 but no cases of Brown's syndrome in a juvenile with SLE haxe been reported to date. A 14 year old girl was referred to the ophthalmic department w-ith a two day history of diplopia and arthralgia of her hands. She had a three vear historv of SLE that had been complicated by rashes, arthritis, cerebral vasculitis (two years previously), and was recently under investigation for haematuria. She had been receiving prednisolone in variable doses since the diagnosis


Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 318 successfully drilled a Middle Miocene (~ 17 – 12.5 Ma) record from the Wilkes Land Margin at Site U1356A (63 °18.6138′S, 135 °59.9376′E), located at the transition between the continental rise and the abyssal plain at 4003 mbsl. We present a multiproxy palynological (dinoflagellate cyst, pollen and spores), sedimentological and organic geochemical (TEX86, MBT/CBT) study, which unravels the environmental and climate variability across the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO, ~17-15 Ma) and the Mid Miocene Climate Transition (MMCT). Several independent lines of evidence indeed suggest a relatively warm climate during the MCO. Dinocyst and pollen assemblage diversity at the MCO is unprecedented for a Neogene Antarctic record and indicates a temperate, sea ice-free marine environment, with woody sub-antarctic vegetation with elements of forest/shrub tundra and peat lands along the coast. These results are further confirmed by relatively warm TEX86-derived Sea Surface Temperatures and mild MBT-derived continental temperatures, and by the absence of glacially derived deposits and very few ice-rafted clasts. A generally colder but highly dynamic environment is suggested for the interval 15-12.5 Ma.


The Northern Territory Government plans to convert pastoral leases in the Daly River region to agriculture. Prior to this development it is important to understand the sediment dynamics of the system and the potential impacts on the river of water abstraction for irrigation. The Daly River is one of the iconic river systems of northern Australia. There is considerable debate about the effects that potential development of the river basin may have on the river channel. It has been suggested that there has been considerable siltation in the estuary since 1880, and recent observations of the channel indicate that there are instabilities in the channel plan-form. The question as to whether these instabilities are driven by hydrological or anthropogenic influences is crucial to the decision on future development and how it should be managed. This paper proposes the application of rational regime techniques to alluvial reaches of the Daly River to help determine if the channel dimensions are in equilibrium or are being subjected to a change from a previous equilibrium state. Considerable work has been carried out in idealised laboratory free-form channels to investigate and test rational regime approaches. However, much less has been done to apply these methods to field conditions. There are several reasons for this. For example, the argument about the so-called channel-forming discharge, the scepticism that such systems may yield to a pseudo-deterministic approach, and the fact that to solve the equations which describe the system, an extremal hypothesis has to be applied with little theoretical justification.


In a multisystem environment where a mobile node can utilize multiple interfaces and simultaneously connect to multiple providers, new opportunities exist for efficient location management strategies spanning heterogeneous cellular wireless networks. In this paper, an integrated framework is developed for location management in such a multi-system, fourth generation (4 G) wireless networks. This information-theoretic framework allows each individual sub-system to operate fairly independently, and does not require the knowledge of individual sub-network topologies. An efficient location management in such a loosely coupled network is designed by having a mobile node view its movement as a vector-valued sequence, and then transmit this sequence in an entropy coded form to the network. We demonstrate how an intelligent, integrated paging strategy must consider the joint residence probability distribution of a mobile node in multiple sub-networks. We prove that the determination of an optimal paging sequence is NP-complete, and also propose an efficient greedy heuristic to compute the paging sequence, both without and with bounds on the paging delay. Three different location tracking strategies are proposed and evaluated; they differ in their degrees of centralized control and provide tradeoff between the location update and paging costs. Simulation experiments demonstrate that our proposed schemes can result in more than 50% savings in both update and paging costs, in comparison with the basic movement-based, multi-system location management strategy.


There may, however, be a subtle distinction between the needs of a patient who has become hypothyroid spontaneously or as a result of treatment directed towards thyrotoxicosis and the needs of a patient who has thyroid cancer. In the first instance thyroxine could be regarded as replacement treatment. In patients with differentiated thyroid cancer, however, it is generally considered advisable to give a dose of thyroxine which completely suppresses TSH. The figure shows values for serum T3 and T4 in a series of 20 patients who had undergone total thyroidectomy by a combination of surgery and iodine-131 treatment. Most of these patients were taking a maintenance dose of 200 ig of thyroxine daily, but a few were taking 250 [tg and one was taking 350 tg and had been doing so for many years. All patients had raised serum T4 values whereas all but one had normal serum T3 values. Most patients with thyroid cancer are in fact maintained on 200 Ftg of thyroxine daily. On this dose serum T4 values will be raised, serum T3 will be normal, and serum TSH will be suppressed. This can if necessary be confirmed by doing a thyrotrophin releasing hormone test, which in my experience always gives a flat response in these circumstances. I would suggest that patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma should be maintained on a suppressive dose of thyroxine and that in these patients a raised serum T4 is not an indication for reducing the dose. AW G GOOLDEN Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 OHS


The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is the next generation very-high energy gamma-ray air-shower Cherenkov observatory. CTA will consist of many segmented-mirror telescopes of three different diameters, placed in two arrays, one in the Northern hemisphere and one in the South, thus covering the whole sky. The total number of mirror tiles will be of the order of 10000, corresponding to a reflective area of ~10^4 m^2. The Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in T\"ubingen is developing procedures to coat glass-substrate-based mirror tiles, is participating to the CTA mirror prototype testing, and is prototyping Active Mirror Control alignment mechanics, electronics and software. We will present the current status of our work and plans for future developments.


Expression of urease, which is encoded by the ureABC operon, is regulated in response to nitrogen availability in Bacillus subtilis. Three ureABC promoters were identified in primer extension experiments and by examination of beta-galactosidase expression from ure-lacZ fusions. P1, a low-level constitutive promoter, lies immediately upstream of ureA. The P2 promoter is transcribed by the E sigmaH form of RNA polymerase and initiates transcription 270 bp upstream of the ureA start codon. The transcriptional start site for the sigmaA-dependent P3 promoter is located 839 bp upstream of the ureA start codon. To identify transcription factors that control ureABC expression, regulation of the P2 and P3 promoters was examined in wild-type and mutant strains. During rapid growth in minimal medium containing glucose and amino acids, CodY represses expression of the P2 and P3 promoters 30- and 60-fold, respectively. TnrA activates expression of the P3 promoter 10-fold in nitrogen-limited cells, while GlnR represses transcription from the P3 promoter 55-fold during growth on excess nitrogen. Expression of the ureABC operon increases 10-fold at the end of exponential growth in nutrient sporulation medium. This elevation in expression results from the relief of CodY-mediated repression during exponential growth and increased sigmaH-dependent transcription during stationary phase.


Context: Drugs that are easily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) and have a short half-life are eliminated quickly from the blood circulation, require frequent dosing. To avoid this, the oral controlled release (CR) formulations have been developed in an attempt to release the drug slowly into the GIT and maintain a constant drug concentration in the serum for longer period of time. Such oral drug delivery devices have a restriction due to a short gastric retention time (GRT), a physiological limitation. Therefore, devices which prolong gastric retention by retaining the CR system in the stomach for a longer time have been developed and explored over the past couple of years. Objectives: A mucoadhesive microsphere is one potential strategy for prolonging GRT. The present review will give a comprehensive study of research done on the formulation of microspheres using mucoadhesive polymers, the in vitro evaluation techniques employed with a special discussion on recent in vivo techniques used. Results and Conclusion: Mucoadhesive microspheres interact with mucous of GIT and are considered to be localized or trapped at the adhesive site by retaining a dosage form at the site of action, or systemic delivery by retaining a formulation in intimate contact with the absorption site which may result in prolonged gastric residence time as well as improvement in intimacy of contact with underlying absorptive membrane to achieve better therapeutic performance of drugs.


The review presents materials on the scientific principles underlying the development, preclinical and clinical research, registration and control of the safety of biosimilar medicines produced using genetic engineering techniques. The number of biosimilars used in the clinic, defined as «biosimilars», is steadily increasing. The features of biotechnological preparations are presented, that requires a special approach to assessing the newly developed preparation evidence of similarity with the original (reference) preparation. To ensure the effectiveness and safety of their use, the procedure for registration of such medicines is determined by the regulatory framework governing the requirements for proof of similarity with previously approved biological medicinal products. The data concerning the differences in the nature and scope of studies at the stages of quality assessment, preclinical and clinical development of biosimilar and original drugs are performed. The issues related to extrapolation of clinical trial results and the issues of medicines interchangeability are reported. The modern information on international experience of biosimilar medicines registration, scientific achievements and regulatory requirements concerning evidence of similarity in assessing the quality, effectiveness and safety of biosimilar biotechnological medicines («biosimilars») has been reported.


To the Editor. —The article "Socioeconomic Status and Risk for Substandard Medical Care" 1 highlighted an important concern about the provision of medical care to the medically indigent and concluded that "the uninsured are at greater risk for suffering medical injury due to substandard medical care." The authors analyzed over 30000 hospital records from 1984 and properly cited a number of limitations of their study. Unfortunately, they did not discuss that federal "antidumping" statutes (commonly referred to as COBRA [Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act] legislation) were not enacted until 1986. This legislation carries significant civil penalties for noncompliance. The absence of such legislation in 1984 makes generalization of conclusions to the current time problematic at best because a significant number of injuries were judged to be due to negligent care. Furthermore, that negligent injuries were highly likely to occur in the emergency department deserves comment. Though the authors properly cited the


In recent years, the increasing concern about the labour market implications of technological change has led economists to look in more detail at the structure of work content and job tasks. Incorporating insights from other traditions of task analysis, in particular from the labour process approach (Braverman, 1974), as well as from recent research on skills, work organisation and occupational change (see for instance Green, 2013; Cohen, 2016; FernAindez-MacAas and Hurley, 2017), in this paper we propose a new comprehensive and detailed taxonomy of tasks. Going beyond existing broad classifications, our taxonomy aims at connecting the substantive content of work with its organisational context by answering two key questions: what do people do at work and how do they do their work? For illustrative purposes, we show how our approach allows a better understanding of the impact of new technologies on work, by accounting for relevant ongoing transformations such as the diffusion of artificial intelligence and the unfolding of digital labour platforms.


Precision measurements of the relative analyzing powers of five electron beam polarimeters, based on Compton, Moller, and Mott scattering, have been performed using the CEBAF accelerator at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Laboratory). A Wien filter in the 100 keV beam line of the injector was used to vary the electron spin orientation exiting the injector. High statistical precision measurements of the scattering asymmetry as a function of the spin orientation were made with each polarimeter. Since each polarimeter receives beam with the same magnitude of polarization, these asymmetry measurements permit a high statistical precision comparison of the relative analyzing powers of the five polarimeters. This is the first time a precise comparison of the analyzing powers of Compton, Moller, and Mott scattering polarimeters has been made. Statistically significant disagreements among the values of the beam polarization calculated from the asymmetry measurements made with each polarimeter reveal either errors in the values of the analyzing power or failure to correctly include all systematic effects. The measurements reported here represent a first step toward understanding the systematic effects of these electron polarimeters. Such studies are necessary to realize high absolute accuracy (ca. 1%) electron polarization measurements, as required for some parity violation measurements planned at Jefferson Laboratory. Finally, a comparison of the value of the spin orientation exiting the injector that provides maximum longitudinal polarization in each experimental hall leads to an independent and very precise (better than 10−4) absolute measurement of the final electron beam energy.


This paper aims to present a general perspective on the relationship between drugs and society, and, at the same time, to develop an analysis of the decriminalization of drugs in Portugal, as well as of the regulated cannabis market in Uruguay. So, methodologically, it is based on both a review of the literature about that subject and an investigation of the primary sources of the Portuguese and Uruguayan drug policy. Among the results found out, it can be highlighting the following sample: 1) the prohibitionist policy on drugs is one of the cases that most reveals ambivalence when it is considered the production of social rules; 2) the so-called drug problem is not and never has been a police problem, except in the sense that the police are themselves the problem it is, rather, a problem of lack of knowledge and wrong policy approach; 3) the prohibitionist drug policies have failed; 4) Portugal is an example of a well-implemented drug decriminalization policy; 5) the philosophy of Uruguayan drug policy assumes that human rights obligations take precedence over drug control efforts. Conclusively, it is advocated, for example, the implementation of policies that regulate illicit drugs, from production through to distribution.


A group of researchers in the United States who have set themselves the task of locating the fortunes deposited in Swiss banks by victims — mostly Jewish — of Nazi persecution have laid their hands on a series of documents originating from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the American intelligence service which was the predecessor of the CIA. These documents, bearing dates in 1944 and 1945, contain allegations concerning individuals who worked for the ICRC during the Second World War .


In order to study the uptake and metabolism of PP(i) by bone, (32)PP(i) was added to the medium surrounding explanted mouse calvaria maintained in organ culture. Most of the PP(i) was hydrolysed during incubation, but there was a measurable entry of intact PP(i) into bone. When (32)P(i) was added to the medium, synthesis of PP(i) and organic phosphates from P(i) was observed in bone. There was no detectable passage of PP(i) from bone into the medium. These results are discussed in terms of two models of pyrophosphate hydrolysis and exchange. Some quantitative estimates about the fate of PP(i) in bone were made.


Eye gaze tracking (EGT) systems have been implemented previously in laboratory environments. However, they present usability obstacles that prevent their broad commercial acceptance. In response, a cursor control system was created that integrates an electromyogram-based control with EGT-based control. This system allows a user to perform small cursor displacements and left click operations by the monitoring and classifying of electromyogram (EMG) signals emitted during facial movements. This functionality will compensate for the limitations in cursor positioning accuracy and in click execution reliability experienced with EGT systems. The EMG/EGT system, an EGT system and a mouse were tested using point-and-click trials. Trial time and error rate results underwent statistical and Fitts' law analyses. Statistical analysis revealed that the EMG/EGT system was slower than the two other inputs, but was significantly less error-prone than the EGT-only system. Fitts' law analysis showed that the EMG/EGT system was not well matched with Fitts' model.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common causes of dementia all around the world. It is characterized by the deposition of amyloid-β protein (Aβ) and the formation of neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), which contribute to neuronal loss and cognitive decline. Microglia, as innate immune cells in brain, plays dual roles in the pathological process of AD. Expression in different subtypes of microglia is diverse in AD genes. Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2) is a transmembrane glycoprotein mainly expressed on microglia in the central nervous system (CNS). Soluble TREM2 (sTREM2), a proteolytic product of TREM2, which is abundant in the cerebrospinal fluid, shows a dynamic change in different stages and ameliorates the pathological process of AD. The interplay between the different subtypes of apolipoprotein and TREM2 is closely related to the mechanism of AD and serves as important regulatory sites. Moreover, several therapeutic strategies targeting TREM2 have shown positive outcomes during clinical trials and some novel therapies at different points are in progress. In this review, we mainly talk about the interrelationships among microglia, TREM2, and AD, and hope to give an overview of the strategies of AD.


The liver is known to induce tolerance rather than immunity through tolerogenic antigen presentation or elimination of effector T cells. In particular, hepatic dendritic cells (DC) are known to be little immunogenic for CD8 T cells. Here, we investigated whether this peculiar phenotype resulted from interaction with resident hepatic cell populations. Contact of DC with liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) but not hepatocytes or B cells vetoed antigen‐presenting DC to fully activate naive CD8 T cells. This MHC‐independent regulatory effect of LSEC on DC function was not connected to soluble mediators but required physical contact. Because interaction with third‐party LSEC still allowed antigen‐presenting DC to stimulate expression of initial activation markers on naive CD8 T cells and to stimulate activated CD8 T cells, we hypothesize that LSEC controlled the DC costimulatory function. Indeed, contact with LSEC led to reduced DC expression levels of CD80/86 or IL‐12, but supplementation of these signals failed to rescue the ability to prime naive CD8 T cells, indicating involvement of further molecules. Taken together, our results reveal a novel principle operative in hepatic tolerance induction, in which LSEC not only tolerize T cells themselves but also suppress neighboring APC normally capable of inducing T cell immunity.


The link between globalisation and government expenditure has remained contentious in the literature particularly from a disaggregated perspective. Hence, this study examines the compensation hypothesis by analysing the relationship between globalisation and government size in Nigeria for the period 1981 to 2018. Globalisation is proxied by trade and nancial openness while government size is measured by nal consumption expenditure by the general government (FCE), share of government expenditure on economic services (ECO), share of government expenditure on social and community services (SCS), and share of government expenditure on transfers (TRF). The study employed the error correction modelling technique and the results of the study support the validity of the compensation hypothesis for three models (FCE, SCS, and TRF) but not for the ECO model. The study concludes that the compensation hypothesis cannot be claimed to hold for the Nigerian economy using aggregate data but rather the validity of the compensation hypothesis is component specic with respect to government expenditure. Also, results of this study showed that the ndings of previous studies based on aggregate data cannot be generalised for all the components of government expenditures.


Common eiders (Somateria mollissima) are large sea ducks with a circumpolar distribution and have high cultural significance to sport hunters and indigenous peoples in many countries. Their gregarious habits, including colonial breeding and forming large flocks during migration and winter, make eiders susceptible to environmental stressors during breeding and non-breeding seasons. Our objective was to assess whether low adult survivorship could be contributing to suspected local population declines in Nova Scotia, Canada. We banded molting male and breeding female common eiders along the marine coastline of Nova Scotia and recaptured them in later years. We found that from 1997 to 2011, when males and females were banded, male survival (S) was high (S = 0.92; 95% CI = 0.87–0.95), whereas female survival was approximately 10% lower (S = 0.83; 95% CI = 0.78–0.87) and at a level comparable to what has been reported in other regions of the world where eider populations are thought to be in decline. Recovery rates (f) of harvested male and female eiders were indistinguishable (f = 0.013; 95% CI = 0.010–0.016), suggesting that lower female survival is attributable to factors other than hunting. Supplementary analyses using a longer-term data set for females only (1978–2011) and including live recapture data indicated that female survival rates have not changed markedly during the past 40 years and that the emigration rate from colonies is low (∼6%). We conclude that to successfully conserve this population, sources of non-harvest female mortality should be investigated and used to develop targeted management solutions. We speculate that one of those sources of mortality is predation on females at breeding colonies, notably from eagles and mustelids. © 2016 The Wildlife Society.


Screening a large number of biologically derived molecules for potential fuel compounds without recourse to experimental testing is important in identifying understudied yet valuable molecules. Experimental testing, although a valuable standard for measuring fuel properties, has several major limitations, including the requirement of testably high quantities, considerable expense, and a large amount of time. This paper discusses the development of a general-purpose fuel property tool, using machine learning, whose outcome is to screen molecules for desirable fuel properties. BioCompoundML adopts a general methodology, requiring as input only a list of training compounds (with identifiers and measured values) and a list of testing compounds (with identifiers). For the training data, BioCompoundML collects open data from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, incorporates user-provided features, imputes missing values, performs feature reduction, builds a classifier, and clusters compounds. BioCompoundML then collects data for the testing compounds, predicts class membership, and determines whether compounds are found in the range of variability of the training data set. This tool is demonstrated using three different fuel properties: research octane number (RON), threshold soot index (TSI), and melting point (MP). We provide measures of its success with these properties using randomized train/test measurements: average accuracy is 88% in RON, 85% in TSI, and 94% in MP; average precision is 88% in RON, 88% in TSI, and 95% in MP; and average recall is 88% in RON, 82% in TSI, and 97% in MP. The receiver operator characteristics (area under the curve) were estimated at 0.88 in RON, 0.86 in TSI, and 0.87 in MP. We also measured the success of BioCompoundML by sending 16 compounds for direct RON determination. Finally, we provide a screen of 1977 hydrocarbons/oxygenates within the 8696 compounds in MetaCyc, identifying compounds with high predictive strength for high or low RON.


This research is based on the rememberance momentum of 10 years reformationof Indonesia that has been reported by the mass media in Indonesia not only by electronic media but also publish media wich is most of them have contents about evaluating how the right direction. Of this country will be achieve after reformation movement since 1998 until 2008, among them that is Tempo and Gatra. Both of these national magazines surely have their own discourse to frame this event according to the point of view or self-interest of both medias. So that the statement of problem in this study is how is the comparison of framing politic news in Tempo and Gatra magazines in special covered edition of 10 years reformation. Therefor the purpose of study is analyze and to know the frame comparison of both medias about news construction political problem of 10 years reformation in Tempo and Gatra magazines.
This research have the characteristic of qualitative comparative by using the framing analysis research method of Robert N Entman, by using the four sets of equipment, those are: Define problem, Diagnouse causes, Make moral jugdement, Treatment recomendation. The scope and limitation of this study is news report and interview about the movement of 10 years reformation from political side and related to the society circumstance.
Data resources that have been gathered by the political news or interview with the figure that have been done by Tempo and Gatra magazine. After get the data or interview by Robert N Entman's model. That is frame analyzing by finding the determining of problem definition sources and making moral decision which is ended by giving the solution recommendation that have been given by the reporter of Tempo and Gatra magazine. Research theory in this study is refers to the hierarchy of influence wich is extended by Pamela shoemaker and Stephen D. Reese, that is media in producing the news until it is delivered to the society was trough so many levels in layers in its formation.
By the result of the research showed that there is a frame difference between Tempo and Gatra magazine in perceive this problem. The differences is Tempo magazine seen 10 years reformation of Indonesia as the economic problem because of be hidden by the close relationship between the leader and biggest entreprenaurs of sociopolitical system who still have power until today were indicated to the corruption between them. On the other hand, Gatra seen as political problem because the government has less attention the society prosperity who still live in proverty more focused to the political party and its group which is make it "enlarge"


The writer and verbalizer can cause major communication issues within a piece of writing. At the writing center, many students don't mean what they write; they mean what they verbally say. The writer tries to sound smart while the verbalizer tries to make sense. Many times, students will say "But I know what I want to say!" However, they simply cannot write it down. Communication between the writer and the verbalizer fails because of the attempt to sound smart, and the fear of the written word and its permanence. Freshmen struggle in learning an essay format different than what they learned in high school, and this freedom may be intimidating. However, with a writing tutor's acknowledgment of these issues, stress and fear can be relieved from students. This can be done through making the writer and verbalizer work together by reading the written word aloud, and even further, reminding the student they are not alone in the struggle.


We discuss peculiarities of bulk and surface polaritons propagating in a composite magnetic-semiconductor superlattice influenced by an external static magnetic field. Three particular configurations of magnetization, namely the Voigt, polar and Faraday geometries are considered. In the long-wavelength limit, involving the effective medium theory, the proposed superlattice is described as an anisotropic uniform medium defined by the tensors of effective permittivity and effective permeability. The study is carried out in the frequency band where the characteristic resonant frequencies of the underlying constitutive magnetic and semiconductor materials of the superlattice are different but closely spaced. The effects of mode crossing and anti-crossing in dispersion characteristics of both bulk and surface polaritons are revealed and explained with an assistance of the concept of Morse critical points from the catastrophe theory.


Researchers in cognitive science have increasingly begun to focus on questions surrounding the capacity to represent artifact kinds (see Lawrence & Margolis, in press). Of specific interest to researchers in cognitive development have been the dual questions of what information is at the core of early artifact representations, and to what extent this information changes over development. Some researchers argue that adults and even young children represent information about an object's 'designed function' (e.g. the use intended by the designer) as central to artifact representations (e.g. Diesendruck, Markson & Bloom, 2003; Kemler Nelson, Herron & Morris, 2002). Others have stressed the importance of shared conventional use (Siegal & Callanan, 2005, April); and non-accidental use (Matan & Carey, 2001). An issue that is often obscured within this debate has been the possible differences between the information that is important for categorising artifacts versus that important to determining the function of artifacts. The current paper provides evidence for a dissociation between these questions (see also German & Johnson, 2002; Jaswal, 2005), while extending the range of kinds of information to include information about shared conventional use (as well as idiosyncratic use by one owner).


The Pinarbasi ophiolite is located in Central Anatolia and emplaced onto the Tauride platform in Late Cretaceous. It comprises remnants of lower part of oceanic lithosphere, namely mantle tectonites tectonically underlain by high-grade metamorphic sole rocks and ultramafic to mafic cumulates. Number of isolated microgabbro-diabase and pyroxenite dikes cut the mantle tectonites at different structural levels. The mantle tectonites are dominated by harzburgite and dunite, whereas the cumulates consist of wehrlite, clinopyroxenite, olivine gabbro, troctolite and gabbronorite. The metamorphic sole rocks in the Pinarbasi ophiolite crop out as thin slices beneath the sheared serpentinites and display inverted metamorphic gradient from amphibolite to greenschist facies. The rock types in the metamorphic sole are calcschists, epidote + plagioclase + amphibole schists, plagioclase + amphibole schists, amphibole schists, plagioclase amphibolites, amphibolites. The isolated microgabbro-diabase dikes are tholeiitic in character (Nb/Y = 0.03-0.07). The REE patterns, multi-element and tectonomagmatic discrimination diagrams suggest that the isolated dikes formed in a subduction-related environment. The metamorphic sole rocks exhibit two distinct geochemical features. The first group is alkaline (Nb/Y = 1.5-2.6), whereas the second group is tholeiitic (Nb/Y = 0.05-0.22) in nature. The REE patterns, multi-element and tectonomagmatic discrimination diagrams suggest that the protholith of the first group is similar to within-plate alkali basalts, whereas the second group is more akin to island arc tholeiitic basalts. All the evidences suggest that the Pinarbasi ophiolite and the isolated dikes formed in a suprasubduction zone tectonic setting. The alkaline amphibolites were formed as a result of metamorphism of the seamount type basaltic rocks in intraoceanic subduction zone whereas the tholeiitic amphibolites were formed as result of intraoceanic thrusting in a supra-subduction zone (SSZ) basin during the closure of the Inner Tauride Ocean in Late Cretaceous.


SIR,-Reports in the last few years that isoniazid in very large doses can produce pulmonary tumours in several strains of mice led to speculation that it might be carcinogenic for man. The need for investigation of the question has most recently been pointed out in these columns (12 June, p. 1508). The difficulties of obtaining valid information are, however, perhaps not at first obvious. It could be as tragic for the world to discard isoniazid on the basis of spurious evidence that it was carcinogenic for man as it would be to fail to detect its carcinogenicity. The soundness of investigations of the question thus becomes of tremendous importance. It seems odd that such techniques as randomization and double-blind readings, which are widely accepted as essential for the control of bias, are never mentioned in the published reports on the carcinogenicity of the drug in mice. In man any investigation requires comparison of the incidence of cancer (or cancer mortality) in a large group of persons who have received isoniazid and in another entirely similar group who have not received isoniazid. Thus the suggestion that the experience of tuberculosis patients treated with isoniazid be measured against the experience of a " so-called " control group, either (i) the general population, or (ii) tuberculosis patients not treated with isoniazid, has serious defects, and wholly spurious correlations between isoniazid and cancer might result. It is not satisfactory to use the general population, because tuberculosis patients differ from the general population in at least four critical respects in addition to the fact that they have received isoniazid. Firstly, they have tuberculosis, a disease which itself has been suspected since at least 1846 of predisposing to cancer. Second, cigarette consumption has been reported to be greater in tuberculosis patients than in matched Controls. Third, they have been under roentgenographic surveillance during diagnosis and treatment, with a consequent increase in radiation over the general population, and, even more, greater opportunity for the detection of cancer. Finally, if, as generally accepted, the lessprivileged members in the general population have more tuberculosis and also, as reported, more cancer, comparison of the incidence of cancer in tuberculosis patients with that in the general population may show a relationship actually linked neither to tuberculosis nor to isoniazid. Proposal number (ii) would require the comparison of patients who have been treated since 1952 with patients who have not been treated since that year, when isoniazid fir-it became available. There are several irremediable defects in such a proposal. First the general increase in incidence of certain types of cancer alone should produce a higher incidence of that disease in tuberculosis patients who have received isoniazid than in those observed before the drug became available. Further, the survivors of tuberculosis in the chemotherapy era are very probably qualitatively different as well as more numerous than survivors of the earlier generation, when only the hardiest recovered.


Experiences with autistic and primitive mental states have significant implications for our understanding of obsessionality. Consequently, obsessionality is seen as an attempt at a massive simplification of experience, in order to deal with the pain inherent in the encounter with intense emotional experience and with the separateness of an enigmatic object that eludes one's omnipotent control. Moreover, early loss and a precocious awareness of separateness often play roles in the withdrawal to obsessional thinking and verbosity, and to an illusion of omnipotent control of the object. Interpretations focusing on conflicting desires, or linking repressed and displaced parts of the personality with the defenses against them, do not reach these patients in a way that facilitates psychic change. An alternative approach, it is suggested, is to work at primitive, nonsymbolic levels of mental functioning, where experience cannot be verbally communicated and dynamically interpreted, but must first be lived in the here and now of the analysis. This is illustrated through the analysis of a person trying to cope with the experience of early loss by deadening emotion and finding shelter in obsessionality.


Abstract Celebrity endorsement has been prevalent as an advertising strategy, and many advertisers invest enormous amounts of money into celebrity endorsements. While previous studies have found that the success and failure of celebrity endorsements are related to their attractiveness, expertise, and trustworthiness, it is not known how and which sources of celebrity endorsements can explain firm value, which is a very important factor for firm sustainability. By text mining and sentiment analysis, this research found that increasing the positive source of the celebrity's attractiveness and expertise has a positive impact on firm value, whereas the loss of the celebrity's trustworthiness severely deteriorates firm value. Once a celebrity has lost his/her trustworthiness, the negative impact is almost never recovered, given that the negative interaction effect between the positive impact of celebrity expertise and the loss of his/her trustworthiness is over seven times greater than the positive effects from his/her expertise.


Islamic banking has a recent origin as compared to its conventional counterparts. Islamic banking is sporadically progressing from being a relatively new sector in local and international finance to one viable economy can hardly do without. Islamic banking is enjoying stable growth even in the world of financial crisis at an average rate of 15% growth. The growth has not been exceptional in the Kenyan scenario despite the small population of the Muslim community. Basing on this, it is important to look into the strategic factors affecting the growth of Islamic banks in Kenya. The study reviewed literature on sharia law and Islamic bank growth. The study adopted a descriptive study design in the empirical part of the study. Self-developed short structured questionnaires were distributed to the various respondents. The study's population was derived from two Islamic banks customers in Nakuru town having a customer base of 6929 persons. Data collected was edited, coded and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Descriptive statistics presented in tables and charts were used to summarize and organize data and to describe the characteristics of the sample while inferential statistics were used to test the hypothesis. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to test the hypothesis. The study found that sharia compliance significantly influences the growth of Islamic banks in Kenya. The researcher recommended that Islamic banks administration should enhance its level of sharia compliance by putting systems in place that would enhance this.


Targeting the FOXP3-TIP60 interaction may modulate Treg activity in IPEX and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. TIPing the balance of autoimmunity Individuals with mutations in Foxp3 develop an autoimmune syndrome called immunodysregulation polyendocrinopathy enteropathy X-linked syndrome (IPEX). However, the severity of IPEX varies depending on the specific Foxp3 mutation. Now, Bin Dhuban et al. find that the most common IPEX mutation, p.A384T, disrupts FOXP3 binding to the histone acetyltransferase TIP60 (KAT5), resulting in abrogated regulatory T (Treg) cell suppressive capacity, but maintained repression of proliferation and inflammatory cytokine production. Allosteric modifiers that help stabilize TIP60-FOXP3 interactions by inhibiting the autoacetylation of TIP60 molecules correct this disruption. These data suggest that targeting this interaction may be a therapeutic avenue in treating IPEX and other autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. CD4+FOXP3+ regulatory T (Treg) cells are critical mediators of immune tolerance, and their deficiency owing to FOXP3 mutations in immunodysregulation polyendocrinopathy enteropathy X-linked syndrome (IPEX) patients results in severe autoimmunity. Different FOXP3 mutations result in a wide range of disease severity, reflecting the relative importance of the affected residues in the integrity of the FOXP3 protein and its various molecular interactions. We characterized the cellular and molecular impact of the most common IPEX mutation, p.A384T, on patient-derived Treg cells. We found that the p.A384T mutation abrogated the suppressive capacity of Treg cells while preserving FOXP3's ability to repress inflammatory cytokine production. This selective functional impairment is partly due to a specific disruption of FOXP3A384T binding to the histone acetyltransferase Tat-interacting protein 60 (TIP60) (KAT5) and can be corrected using allosteric modifiers that enhance FOXP3-TIP60 interaction. These findings reveal the functional impact of TIP60 in FOXP3-driven Treg biology and provide a potential target for therapeutic manipulation of Treg activity.


The human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax imposes unique challenges to its control and elimination. Primary among those is the hypnozoite reservoir of infection in endemic communities. It is the dominant source of incident malaria and exceedingly difficult to attack due to both inability to diagnose latent carriers and the potentially life-threatening toxicity of primaquine in patients with an inborn deficiency of G6PD, the only therapeutic option against hypnozoites. Large segments of endemic populations are not eligible for primaquine, and alternative strategies for managing the threat of relapse in any group have not been optimized or validated. Association of risk of primaquine failure against latent P. vivax with impaired alleles of P450 2D6 exacerbates the substantial pool of primaquine ineligibles. Resistance to chloroquine against acute P. vivax malaria commonly occurs; alternative therapies like ACTs are effective but seldom evaluated as a partner drug to primaquine in the essential radical cure. Many of the Anopheles mosquito vector of P. vivax in South and Southeast Asia, where >90% of infections occur, thrive in a diversity of habitats and exhibit wide ranges of feeding and breeding behavior. This chapter explores many of these challenges and possible approaches in controlling and eliminating endemic vivax malaria.


The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) refers to one of the greatest increases in biodiversity during the Phanerozoic. Recent studies have shown that this taxonomic increase can be attributed to elevated origination rates around the Dapingian–Darriwilian boundary in the Middle Ordovician, while extinction rates stayed relatively constant throughout the Ordovician. Even though this global pattern of origination and extinction appears similar across diverse groups and geographical areas, earlier studies suggested that hard substrate taxa may have diversified prior to the GOBE, during the Early Ordovician. Here, we quantify Ordovician diversification dynamics of hard substrate taxa while simultaneously accounting for temporally varying sampling probabilities. Diversification rates of hard substrate taxa, both as a whole and when analysed as separate groups, appear to be very similar to those of free‐living benthic taxa. The observation that the diversification dynamics of many different taxonomic and ecological groups show the same temporal pattern, suggests a common cause of Ordovician diversification dynamics.


Psychological research has offered valuable insights into how to combat misinformation. The studies conducted to date, however, have three limitations. First, pre-emptive ("prebunking") and retroactive ("debunking") interventions have mostly been examined in parallel, and thus it is unclear which of these two predominant approaches is more effective. Second, there has been a focus on misinformation that is explicitly false, but misinformation that uses literally true information to mislead is common in the real world. Finally, studies have relied mainly on questionnaire measures of reasoning, neglecting behavioural impacts of misinformation and interventions. To offer incremental progress towards addressing these three issues, we conducted an experiment (N = 735) involving misinformation on fair trade. We contrasted the effectiveness of prebunking versus debunking and the impacts of implied versus explicit misinformation, and incorporated novel measures assessing consumer behaviours (i.e., willingness-to-pay; information seeking; online misinformation promotion) in addition to standard questionnaire measures. In general, we found debunking to be more effective than prebunking, although both were able to reduce misinformation reliance. We also found that individuals tended to rely more on explicit than implied misinformation both with and without interventions.


1 Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology, ENAC-IIE-LBE, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland 2 DTU Environment, Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark A well-established bacterial consortium that dechlorinates tetrachloroethene (PCE) to tri- (TCE) and cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE) in a stepwise manner has been shown to harbor two distinct populations of Sulfurospirillum spp. [1]. A genotyping method has been developed to distinguish both populations on the basis of small differences in the sequence of their respective reductive dehalogenase gene (pceA) [2]. Individual subcultures of the two Sulfurospirillum populations revealed that one of them (strain SL2-1) has a reduced dechlorination potential (PCE to TCE), while the other (SL2-2) is able to dechlorinate PCE to cis-DCE. Recent work on both the individual subcultures and the two in competition allowed investigation of the reasons for the interplay and long-term stability of both Sulfurospirillum spp. in the consortium. The kinetic parameters of PCE dechlorination were assessed for both strains by varying the PCE concentration and following growth based on chloride release and increase of the pceA gene copy number. Modelling of the data obtained revealed clear differences in affinity for PCE and maximal dechlorination rate of both strains. Moreover, inhibitory effects were observed for both populations at high PCE concentration, though it is unclear whether PCE or the dechlorination products (TCE and cis-DCE, respectively) are responsible for this. The succession of both populations in PCE and TCE dechlorination was confirmed by competition experiments at low and high PCE concentrations. We think that the obtained strain-specific kinetic parameters reflect the activity of the respective PceA enzyme, both in terms of dechlorination rate and extent. References [1] Maillard et al. (2011), Biodegradation 22:949 [2] Buttet et al. (2013), Appl Environ Microbiol 79:6941


In this article (Clin Cancer Res 2013;19:5240–9), which was published in the September 15, 2013, issue of Clinical Cancer Research (1), a listing of the Grant Support was mistakenly included in the Acknowledgments section. The correct Grant Support listing should read as follows: "This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Leukemia Lymphoma Society of Canada, Charles Bruneau Foundation, and Centre d'excellence en Oncologie p ediatrique et en soins palliatifs. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute ALL treatment protocols are supported by the National Cancer Institute/NIH grant 5 P01CA068484." The authors regret this error.


This paperexamines whether subjective expectations of unemployment are reliable indicators of the probability of becoming unemployed, and investigates their association with wage growth. We find that workers' fears of unemployment are increased by their previous unemployment experience and by the unemployment experiences of a close friend, and are associated with other objective indicators of insecure jobs. We then show that unemployment fear predicts future unemployment, above and beyond observed objective variables. High fears of unemployment are found to be associated with significantly lower levels of wage growth for men, but to have no significant link with wage growth for women.


The purpose of licensure is to assure competent practitioners, particularly where irreparable harm to clients may occur in its absence. At the same time, there may be an advantage to greater supply, because that can lead to lower prices. In the case of attorneys, additional supply can improve attorney access not just to the poor, but to the middle class now lacking it. Regrettably, the legal profession --which openly operates in cartel fashion as its own public regulator -- has violated thesebasic precepts in extemis, with California serving as a preeminent example.

First, state bars -- in combination with the American Bar Association national cartel -- require 4 years of largely irrelevant higher education for law school entry, most of which have little or nothing to do with law and include subjects ranging from "Sex and the human body" to "yoga." Meanwhile, the rest of the world requires 1 or 2 years of lead-in). Second, the entire 7 year total travail -- driven by high tuition increases lacking competitive check -- now costs from $190,000 to $380,000 in tuition and room &board per student. Third, attorneys will practice in one of 24 dispararate areas of law, from admiralty to probate with different applicable law and often entirely disparate courts. 1 But attorney training focuses on traditional subjects only partially relevant to the majority of them, with scant attention to legislation and administrative proceedings. Even less attention is paid to the actual area of law a student will choose and have to know in order to practice competently. Upon graduation, students take an increasingly expensive preparatory course -- to pass a supply constricting bar examination that only tangentially relates to underlying competence. In the largest state of California that examination then flunks about 2/3 of its takers.

Meanwhile, the bars regulating attorneys in the respective states:
(a) Do not rank negligent acts as a normal basis for discipline (outside of extreme incapacity).
(b) Do not require malpractice insurance -- effectively denying consumer remedies for negligence since plaintiff malpractice attorneys require insurance or other payment assurance.
(c) Where setting up "client security funds" to compensate injured clients -- most only include theft in that coverage (not malpractice, even where there is a judgment).
(d) Upon licensure as an attorney, state bars sometimes require "continuing legal education" by programs advocating for their remunerative purchase -- but do not consistently require them to be in the area of an attorney's actual practice.
(e) Most significantly, they never test attorneys in the area of actual practice relied upon by consumers -- ever. Even in areas of law where clients are unable to gauge competence and a single case can mean ruination.
(f) They confront modern technology approaches to provide legal information and assistance not to stimulate and regulate for accuracy, but as an affront warranting elimination in favor of exclusive reliance on counsel.

Finally, no area of state regulation more ostentatiously violates federal antitrust law than does the legal profession. Following the North Carolina 2005 Supreme Court case holding that any state body controlled by "active participants" in the profession regulated was not a legitimate sovereign entity for antitrust purposes, the legal profession continues to violate that holding. That Sherman Act coverage includes the per se violative offense of price fixing from supply control (i.e. licensing). The only defense is to provide "active supervision" by a state body not so conflicted. In theory, that could be a state supreme court. However, such courts tend to be inherently passive and not amenable to "active" supervision as mandated, or they delegate information gathering and decisions impermissibly to attorneys -- because that is their unsurprising mindset.


After outlining why a systematic review of research in English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education (HE) is urgently required, we briefly situate the rapidly growing EMI phenomenon in the broader field of research in which content and language have been considered and compare HE research outputs with those from other phases of education. An in-depth review of 83 studies in HE documents the growth of EMI in different geographical areas. We describe studies which have investigated university teachers' beliefs and those of students before attempting to synthesise the evidence on whether teaching academic subjects through the medium of English as a second language (L2) is of benefit to developing English proficiency without a detrimental effect on content learning. We conclude that key stakeholders have serious concerns regarding the introduction and implementation of EMI despite sometimes recognising its inevitability. We also conclude that the research evidence to date is insufficient to assert that EMI benefits language learning nor that it is clearly detrimental to content learning. There are also insufficient studies demonstrating, through the classroom discourse, the kind of practice which may lead to beneficial outcomes. This insufficiency, we argue, is partly due to research methodology problems both at the micro and macro level.


The ordering of communication channels was first introduced by Shannon. In this paper, we aim to find a characterization of the Shannon ordering. We show that W' contains W if and only if W is the skew-composition of W' with a convex-product channel. This fact is used to derive a characterization of the Shannon ordering that is similar to the Blackwell-Sherman-Stein theorem. Two channels are said to be Shannon-equivalent if each one is contained in the other. We investigate the topologies that can be constructed on the space of Shannon-equivalent channels. We introduce the strong topology and the BRM metric on this space. Finally, we study the continuity of a few channel parameters and operations under the strong topology.


The aim of this study was to determine the fatty acid profile in 4 types of fat deposits in Polish Holstein-Friesian (PHF) and Limousine × Polish Holstein-Friesian (LM × PHF) bulls. The experimental materials included samples of intramuscular, intermuscular, subcutaneous, and internal fat collected from the carcasses of 28 PHF bulls and 26 LM × PHF bulls. Determined fatty acids (FAs) were divided into saturated (SFAs) and unsaturated (UFAs) FAs, including monounsaturated (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated (PUFAs) FAs. The UFA/SFA, MUFA/SFA, PUFA/SFA, and PUFA n-6/PUFA n-3 ratios were calculated. Internal fat was characterized by the highest SFA concentrations, and subcutaneous fat had the highest MUFA content. Intramuscular fat was marked by a high proportion of PUFA and the highest PUFA/SFA ratio. The subcutaneous fat of PHF bulls had the highest n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio.


Objectives To determine trends in the relative prevalence of aetiologies of urethral discharge (UDS), vaginal discharge (VDS) and genital ulcer (GUS) syndromes, and in the seroprevalence of syphilis, HSV-2 and HIV. Methods Consecutive male (UDS/GUS) and female (VDS/GUS) patients were enrolled at Alexandra Health Centre, Johannesburg from January to April each year during 2007–2010. Urethral swabs (UDS), endocervical swabs/vaginal smears (VDS), genital ulcer swabs/smears (GUS) and sera (all) were collected with written informed consent. Real-time PCR assays were used to detect Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) and Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) from UDS/VDS swabs, and herpes simplex virus (HSV), Treponema pallidum (TP) Haemophilus ducreyi (HD) and Chlamydia trachomatis L1-3 (LGV) from ulcer swabs. Slides were stained for bacterial vaginosis/candidiasis (BV/CA, VDS) and granuloma inguinale (GI, GUS). Sera were tested for syphilis (rapid plasmin reagin, RPR; Omega Diagnostics), for HSV-2 (HerpeSelect IgG; Focus Diagnostics) and for HIV (Determine; Abbott Laboratories). χ2 for linear trend analyses were undertaken with summary data (Prism v.2, GraphPad Software). Results 928 UDS, 805 VDS and 455 GUS patients were recruited overall. Trends in the relative prevalence of most syndrome aetiologies were non-significant between 2007 and 2011—NG (UDS, 71%–79%; VDS 11%–17%), CT (UDS, 20%–25%; VDS, 27%–37%), MG (UDS, 10%–13%; VDS, 11%–14%), BV (VDS, 30%–36%), CA (VDS, 26%–31%), HSV (GUS, 53%–75%), TP (GUS, 4%–7%), HD (GUS, 0%–2%), LGV (0%–2%). There were no cases of GI. There was, however, significant decreasing trends for TV detection among UDS (4%–13%, p=0.003) and VDS (19%–34%, p=0.001) patients. Serologically, VDS patients had a decreasing trend in RPR seropositivity (1–8%, p<0.001) and, importantly, HIV coinfections decreased among both UDS (29%–39%, p=0.011) and GUS (60%–75%, p=0.032) patients. Non-significant variations in seropositivity were observed for RPR tests among UDS (1%–3%) and GUS (4%–11%) patients, for HSV-2 among all groups (UDS, 50%–60%; VDS, 74%–84%; GUS, 81%–87%), and for HIV among VDS (48%–59%) patients. Conclusions These data suggest significant decreases in the prevalence of HIV coinfection in UDS/GUS patients and of trichomoniasis as a cause of UDS/VDS. Though the HIV trends are encouraging for men, the lack of a similar trend for women with VDS is of public health concern.


Ten in the morning is not the most usual time for a press view to open, nor is the requirement to show ID and Vaccination Pass, but at the Palazzo Cipolla (lit. "Onion Palace") on the Corso del Rinascimento in the centre of Rome, this was the  the routine to see an intriguing show of work by David Quayola, an Italian digital artist, long resident in London, but here displaying a variety of pieces made over the last fourteen years. Suffice to say there was not an ice filled dustbin of Peroni bottles in sight.


The recent global financial crisis has raised important questions about governments' "too big to fail" policies and their potential impact on bank risk-taking. It is now clear that certain banks in almost all countries are considered to be too big to fail and will receive taxpayer-funded bailouts if failure appears imminent. An important question that arises is whether larger banks, that enjoy this status, have in fact taken on more risk than their smaller counterparts who face much more credible threats of wind-up or bankruptcy should they get into financial difficulty.
This study confirms that larger banks take on higher levels of risk than smaller ones and this finding persists when returns are measured before interest and taxes. The higher risk levels are driven by the lower capital to assets ratios and higher variances in return on assets of the larger banks. There is some evidence that large banks also generate higher returns on assets. The findings will be of interest to regulators and central banks since they can potentially contribute to better allocation of supervisory resources and more appropriate intervention strategies, such as requiring these riskier large banks to hold higher levels of capital or to pay additional taxes as has been proposed by the International Monetary Fund. This study appears to be the first using this methodology on a sample of banks that ranges from the very smallest to the very largest and includes both publicly-traded and privately-owned institutions.


Blindness is a serious complication that can occur
after facial trauma and may represent the loss of one of the most useful senses
in the human relationship with the world—the sight. This study aims to review the
pathophysiology of blindness related to facial trauma in order to identify the
mechanisms by which it develops and to recognize the signs and symptoms
required to establish proper diagnosis and treatment. Blindness following
facial trauma may occur due to mechanisms that involve injury to the eyeball,
optic nerve and eyelids. The leading causes of blindness resulting from
facial trauma, and which may be altered by medical interference, are related to
retrobulbar hemorrhage and traumatic optic neuropathy, which require extremely
rapid diagnosis and can be accomplished with the resources available in most
trauma-based emergency services. The authors conclude that loss of vision
tends to be irreversible in direct eyeball and optic nerve lesions, but can be
prevented in retrobulbar hemorrhage and traumatic optic neuropathy. Eyeball and, especially, sight accuracy evaluation should be included in the initial care of trauma patients, so that the
lesions that might lead to loss of vision are diagnosed and treated early.


New Robertsonian (Rb) populations of the house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) carrying different combinations of centric fusions are reported in France, Switzerland, and Germany. In Alsace (France), the diploid number varied from 2n = 38 to 34; four fusions were present, with Rb(4.12) homozygous in all populations whereas Rb(5.10), Rb(5.7), or Rb(10.14) were found to be segregating. In Switzerland, only all-acrocentric mice (2n = 40) were present in Bern while Rb(5.7) and Rb(9.16) occurred in Basel. In the Konstanz locality from southern Germany, all the mice were homozygous for nine Rb fusions: Rb(1.18), Rb(2.5), Rb(3.6), Rb(4.12), Rb(7.15), Rb(8.17), Rb(9.14), Rb(10.11), and Rb(13.16). The phylogenetic relationship of these new Rb populations with those already known is discussed.


The demand for higher power density at low costs leads to an increasing importance of thermal management in electrical machines. Different approaches are employed to develop cooling strategies. However, a truly quantitative analysis is barely used, partly due to the huge data quantity generated by the flow simulation. In many cases only visual postprocessing under consideration of a few variables is implemented. The present paper provides an overview about a method suitable for investigating transport phenomena induced by forced convection. Different configurations are retained to check the generality of the approach. Based on the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy generation in the fluid field is considered. As an example of external flow, a semi-infinite plate is examined. For internal flows, two rotating, concentric cylinders are then analysed. Finally, transport processes in the flow between these cylinders located in a rectangular domain (Ω) are analyzed. In addition, the outer cylinder has two openings along the main stream direction. The straight flow imposed at the inlet velocity of the domain (Ω) is influenced by the rotational motion of the inner cylinder as well as by the opening angle (β) at the outer cylinder and the radius ratio between the two cylinders (Π). The thermal boundary conditions are isothermal or isoflux and isothermal or adiabatic for the inner and outer cylinder, respectively. In a first step, numerical calculations of the Nusselt number (Nu) are discussed. This methodical approach can be a first step to analysing transport phenomena under consideration of physically-based indicators.


Carbon monoxide is the second most abundant molecule on icy grains in the interstellar medium. It also exists on Pluto, Triton, comets, and possibly in other icy bodies of the outer solar system like Kuiper Belt objects. With the intense radiation fields that permeate virtually all unprotected regions of space, carbon monoxide ices can be processed through energetic particle bombardment (planetary magnetospheric particles, solar wind, Galactic cosmic ray particles, and UV photons). In the present study we have investigated the effects by condensing a 1 μm layer of carbon monoxide ice on a substrate at 10 K and irradiated the sample with energetic (keV) electrons. These simulate the energetic electrons trapped in magnetospheres of planets and reproduce the irradiation effects of typical Galactic cosmic ray particles. A series of new carbon-chain (C3, C6) and carbon oxide species were observed including the linear isomers of C2O, C3O, C4O, C5O, C6/7O, CO2, C3O2, C4O2, and C5O2. A reaction model was proposed that outlines different reaction pathways to each of these products. Using this model, the kinetics of each route of reaction was quantified, and from this, the mechanisms and dynamics of the reactions can be understood. This work should aid in the astronomical detection of new molecular species in solar system ices as well as building up a comprehensive reaction model to describe the chemical inventory of ices on interstellar dust grains.


One of the first applications of satellite remote sensing imagery was to detect the size and shape of urbanized areas. Under many circumstances the mere identification of what is really urban is not clear. Smaller towns, diffuse development and varying degrees of spatial connectivity combined with the lack of an agreed upon definition of urban complicate the task. The proximity of urban development to spectrally similar fallow agricultural areas is a primary challenge of map- ping urban development with satellite imagery. As sensors on satellites became more sophisticated and technically advanced, urban applications of remote sensing used higher spatial resolution im- agery. However, moderate spatial resolution is widely used on non-urban applications because the synoptic spatial and retrospective temporal coverage is superior that offered by high resolution sensors. The most widely available imagery over the longest time period is provided by the Land- sat missions. However, the 30 m spatial resolution of Landsat imagery combined with the spectral heterogeneity of urban land cover results in most urban areas being imaged as spectrally mixed pixels. Spectral mixture models may provide a physically based solution to the urban spectral het- erogeneity because it is possible to reduce the dimensionality of the multispectral reflectance by converting it to areal fractions of land cover components, thus making interpretation easier. The spectral ambiguity of urban land cover is unavoidable but the challenge of mapping urban extent may be mitigated by using multiple sensors to image different characteristics of the urban envi- ronment. Wide field synoptic imagery provided by the Defence Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line Scanner (DMSP-OLS) indicates the presence of urbanized areas by imaging noc- turnal lights. This sensor has been used by the Earth Observation group at NOAA NGDC to pro- duce annual global composites of temporally stable nighttime lights since 1992 (1). The present analysis was based on a three component linear mixture model incorporating substrate, vegetation and dark targets, directly used for visualization on false color composites of red, green & blue re- spectively. Fraction composites suggest the location and extent of urban development - both at the periphery and within Sao Paulo's urban agglomeration and its surroundings - but the spectral am- biguities with non-urban land cover remain a challenge. OLS night light imagery helps to differen- tiate non-urban substrate (i.e. exposed soil) from urbanized surfaces with different degrees of de- velopment, according to the intensity of the emitted light. Winter and summer image pairs were se- lected for quality and consistency of solar illumination for two time intervals: 1986 - 2005 and 2000 - 2010. Changes over both time periods were quantified in terms of changes in endmember fractions. The results show increases of substrate, greater than 10% of the pixel area, with equiva- lent reduction of vegetation and/or shadow fractions. From these increases in substrate fraction, together with the presence of night lights of higher intensity and concentration, we infer an in- crease in urbanized land cover. A quantitative and visual analysis of these changes at different spa- tial scales is presented.


The lumbar vertebral columns from 60 sows and 30 slaughter weight pigs were examined grossly for pathological changes. Asymmetry of lumbar articular facets and minor periarticular osteophytes were seen in the slaughter weight group. Degeneration of intervertebral discs or vertebral osteophytes were not present. In contrast, 38% of 60 sows had vertebral osteophytes and 40% had degeneration of intervertebral discs. Extensive ankylosing spondylosis was present in two sows. Other vertebral lesions observed in sows include asymmetry and arthrosis of articular facets, fissures and areas of cavitation in the annulus fibrosus and vertebral end plate, and vertebral osteomyelitis and/or vertebral fracture. Extravertebral skeletal lesions, some of which could be related to a clinical history of lameness or posterior paralysis, include sacroiliac arthrosis, pelvic deformity, polyarthritis, femoral osteomyelitis, sacroiliac dislocation and epiphyseolysis involving the femoral head or tuber ischii.