Recent terrorist attacks have increased the need to examine the public's response to such threats. This study focuses on the content of Twitter messages related to the 2016 terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market. We complement the collective sense-making perspective with the terror management theory (TMT) perspective to understand why people used Twitter in the aftermath of the attack. We use structural topic modeling to analyze our dataset of 51,000 tweets. Our results indicate that people used Twitter to make sense of the events and as part of typical reactions in TMT, that is, to validate their own worldviews and maintain their self-esteem. In accordance with TMT, we found that people used Twitter to search for meaning and value, show sympathy for victims and their families, or call for tolerance, but also to express nationalistic sentiment and greater hostility toward values and views other than their own. We further show that topics varied over the course of the attack and in the days that followed. Whereas in the first two days there were many emotion-related tweets and operational updates, subsequent days saw more opinion-related tweets. Our findings contribute to the literature on collective behavior in the aftermath of terrorist attacks.


Treatment resistant depression (TRD) and suicidal behavior are among the most important public health problems and are commonly associated with significant disability and psychosocial impairment. Although there have been recent advances in identifying the neurobiological correlates of these complex conditions, their pathophysiology still remains unclear. Compared to non-suicidal subjects, higher mean concentrations of inflammatory mediators have been found in both the periphery and brain of individuals at risk for suicide. Several lines of evidence suggest that neuroinflammation is accompanied by a dysregulation of the kynurenine pathway (KP) in both TRD and suicidal individuals, resulting in an imbalance of neuroactive metabolites. In particular, neuroinflammation may trigger an increased production of the N-Methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor agonist quinolinic acid and a concomitant reduction of neuroprotective metabolites, potentially causing downstream effects in glutamatergic systems resulting in depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior. This systematic review of the current literature is mainly aimed to summarize the most important evidence pertaining to KP metabolism abnormalities in TRD and suicidal behavior. Targeting the KP enzymes may provide innovative approaches in the management of both TRD and suicidality.


The research work is centered on unemployment and inflation in Nigeria. Its main objective was to ascertain if the trade-off thesis holds in Nigeria. To achieve this, various data on unemployment and inflation were collected from 1988-2013, also other variables such as government expenditure, interest rates, and the gross domestic product were included. The result of the test revealed that unemployment and inflation are inversely related, thus confirming the existence of the Phillips curve in Nigeria, with inflation having a significant impact on unemployment in Nigeria. The work recommended that; Government should strive to develop the agricultural sector, Massive investments should be carried out in the real sector, free flow of information between employers and employees should be enhanced and that special attention be given to policy implementation.


Hip spine syndrome is often associated with hip arthrosis and degenerative spine disease affecting the older generation. However, it can also present in young athlete as well. This is a case of 32-years-old male, active body builder with herniated disc L3, L4 and L5 for 5 years presented with acute onset excruciating pain over the anterior portion of his left hip that was affecting his daily living. His clinical examination revealed a classical positive finding of Femoral Acetabular Impingement (FAI) with positive hip provocation tests and MRI confirmed the diagnosis of acute left labral tear of the hip. Patient was offered intra-articular anesthetic hip injection while planning for surgical intervention. The pain did not resolve despite intra-articular injection. This led to the surgeon with the high index of suspicion that the pain was not arising from the left hip but from the spine. Patient was then counselled for laminectomy. Post-operatively, there was a big improvement is seen in pain and disability outcome. A systematic approach is discussed in this report to guide physicians who manage cases of complex Hip Spine Syndrome.


Educational Aspirations and Perceptions of Health Occupation Graduates from Community Colleges The major purpose of this study was to investigate whether associate degree health occupation graduates perceived that the factors proposed in Dougherty's (1987) model on the continuance of education were valid. A second purpose was to profile selected characteristics of this population. The sample consisted of licensed health care practitioners for whom an associate degree might be an entry level of preparation. The data were collected through the use of a questionnaire constructed to determine educational aspirations degree and to assess perceptions of the factors identified by Dougherty (1987). The data were analyzed using % tests and the chi-square test of independence. Of the factors which were tested, the lack of financial aid was perceived to constitute a barrier to continuing education toward a baccalaureate degree. The vocational orientation of the associate degree, the appropriateness of the amount of credit awarded, difficulties in social integration, and adequateness of academic preparation were not perceived as barriers or as hindrances to continuation of education. Findings concerning the perceptions of a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. negative attitude by four year college/university officials, difficulty moving to another school, and availability of sufficient financial aid to continue were not significant at the 0.05 level. A majority of associate degree graduates either had completed or planned to complete a baccalaureate degree with men and those age 25 or over at the time they received their associate degree more likely to have earned a baccalaureate than women or those under 25. Satisfaction with occupation was not associated with educational aspirations. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.


Recently many researchers devote themselves to scheming new protocols for sensing, mining and managing spectrum efficiently. In this paper, we identify the trends that mobility of cognitive users should be considered in near future and fixed cooperation models have limited value in multiple cognitive user networks. Associated with smart antenna communication system approach, we propose an intelligent cooperation model which is based on adaptive election rules. Besides, we present how to search useful relay notes when cognitive user are finding good partners to detect primary user. Furthermore, we illustrate this new method and show you how to accelerate the process of searching optimal relay user and promote detection agility. Finally, we simulate our algorithm by using network simulation platform and conclude with several open research issues of this new algorithm


Bayesian optimization is a class of global optimization techniques. It regards the underlying objective function as a realization of a Gaussian process. Although the outputs of Bayesian optimization are random according to the Gaussian process assumption, quantification of this uncertainty is rarely studied in the literature. In this work, we propose a novel approach to assess the output uncertainty of Bayesian optimization algorithms, in terms of constructing confidence regions of the maximum point or value of the objective function. These regions can be computed efficiently, and their confidence levels are guaranteed by newly developed uniform error bounds for sequential Gaussian process regression. Our theory provides a unified uncertainty quantification framework for all existing sequential sampling policies and stopping criteria.


Solving large optimization problems within the energy and cost budget of mobile SoCs in real-time is a challenging task and motivates the development of specialized hardware accelerators. We present an evaluation of different linear solvers suitable for least-squares problems emanating from image processing applications such as image domain warping. In particular, we estimate implementation costs in 28 nm CMOS technology, with focus on trading on-chip memory vs. off-chip (DRAM) bandwidth. Our assessment shows large differences in circuit area, throughput and energy consumption and aims at providing a recommendation for selecting a suitable architecture. Our results emphasize that DRAM-free accelerators are an attractive choice in terms of power consumption and overall system complexity, even though they require more logic silicon area when compared to accelerators that make use of external DRAM.


With the rise of online eTextbooks and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a huge amount of data has been collected related to students' learning. With the careful analysis of this data, educators can gain useful insights into the performance of their students and their behavior in learning a particular topic. This paper proposes a new model for predicting student performance based on an analysis of how students interact with an interactive online eTextbook. By being able to predict students' performance early in the course, educators can easily identify students at risk and provide a suitable intervention. We considered two main issues the prediction of good/bad performance and the prediction of the final exam grade. To build the proposed model, we evaluated the most popular classification and regression algorithms on data from a data structures and algorithms course (CS2) offered in a large public research university. Random Forest Regression and Multiple Linear Regression have been applied in Regression. While Logistic Regression, decision tree, Random Forest Classifier, K Nearest Neighbors, and Support Vector Machine have been applied in classification. Based on the findings of the experiments, the algorithm with the best result overall in classification for this data was Random Forest Classifier with an accuracy equal to 91.7% while in the regression it was Random Forest Regression with an R² equal to 0.977.


Severe obesity increases the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, and moderate acute weight loss with a very low-calorie diet in obese subjects with the metabolic syndrome leads to significant metabolic benefits. Adiponectin has been implicated in both the pathogenesis of obesity-related insulin resistance and increased inflammation. We analyzed the relationship of the adipocyte-derived hormone adiponectin with indices of inflammation, adiposity, and insulin resistance in obese subjects with (MS+, n = 40) and without (MS-, n = 40) the metabolic syndrome and examined the acute effects of rapid weight loss. MS+ subjects had significantly lower adiponectin (7.6 +/- 0.6 vs. 10.4 +/- 0.6 microg/ml; P = 0.003) and significantly higher TNF-alpha (3.3 +/- 0.2 vs. 2.8 +/- 0.3 pg/ml; P = 0.004) levels compared with MS- subjects matched for age and body mass index. Plasma adiponectin and TNF-alpha levels were inversely related to the number of metabolic syndrome factors in a stepwise manner. After 4-6 wk of weight loss, there was marked improvement in glucose, insulin, leptin, and triglycerides, whereas adiponectin and TNF-alpha concentrations did not change. Thus, increases in plasma levels of adiponectin or reductions in TNF-alpha are not required for marked improvements in glucose/insulin and lipid metabolism with acute weight loss.


Storage of bananas at low temperature is limited due to the development of chilling injury (CI). The purpose of this paper was to investigate the influence of different protection materials on occurrence of CI and the characteristics of banana in postharvest. Current paper also investigated temperatures variations in bags. The experiments were conducted with fruits of Musa spp., cultivars Prata (AAB) and Nanica (AAA). Comprised a completely randomized 2x3x6 factorial design, two cultivars, three temperatures (5°C or 10°C for 10 hours and 20°C constant) and five protection materials (blue transparent polyethylene, white non-woven fabric, white opaque polyethylene, bubble wrap, white laminated non-woven fabric) and control (without protection). The different protection materials kept the temperature inside at 1°C higher than environment. The critical temperature for occurrence of chilling injury was 5ºC for 'Prata' banana and 10ºC for 'Nanica' banana. White laminated non-woven fabric induced lower CI index and tended to maintain the peel color characteristics (L*, C* and ho) higher, compared to other protection materials. 'Nanica' fruits stored at 20ºC bagged with white laminated non-woven fabric exhibited lower incidence of Crown rot. Other physicochemical characteristics evaluated were not influenced by low temperature and protection material, only by cultivar.


We propose Bayesian inference in hazard regression models where the baseline hazard is unknown, covariate effects are possibly age-varying (non-proportional), and there is multiplicative frailty with arbitrary distribution. Our framework incorporates a wide variety of order restrictions on covariate dependence and duration dependence (ageing). We propose estimation and evaluation of age-varying covariate effects when covariate dependence is monotone rather than proportional. In particular, we consider situations where the lifetime conditional on a higher value of the covariate ages faster or slower than that conditional on a lower value; this kind of situation is common in applications. In addition, there may be restrictions on the nature of ageing. For example, relevant theory may suggest that the baseline hazard function decreases with age. The proposed framework enables evaluation of order restrictions in the nature of both covariate and duration dependence as well as estimation of hazard regression models under such restrictions. The usefulness of the proposed Bayesian model and inference methods are illustrated with an application to corporate bankruptcies in the UK.


At present, there is no low pressure methanol synthesis from CO2/H2 with high yield despite the presence of an upstream process of aqueous phase reforming (APR) of biomass derivatives on an industrial scale for CO2/H2 production at ca. 2 MPa. This is due to the intrinsic thermodynamics of the system which leads to particularly high CO levels at low pressure through reversed water gas shift reaction (RWGS) for most studied catalysts. Here we report a new Pd@Zn core–shell catalyst that offers a significantly higher kinetic barrier to CO/H2O formation in CO2 hydrogenation to reduce the CO levels but facilitates CH3OH formation at or below 2 MPa with CH3OH selectivity maintained at ca. 70% compared to ca. 10% over industrial Cu catalysts. The corresponding methanol yield at 2 MPa reaches 6.1 gmethanol gactive metal−1 h−1, which is comparable to the best reported value among a wide variety of catalysts under 5 MPa. It is thus believed that this active Pd based catalyst opens up a promising possibility for low pressure and temperature methanol production using a renewable biomass resource for fossil-fuel-starved countries.


Eggs are important as food and also as raw material for the food industry. However they show high levels of cholesterol, mainly when they are dehydrated. Cholesterol can be oxidized during processing and/or storage to cholesterol oxides which are toxics. The oxidative stability of cholesterol in commercial whole egg powder was evaluated by the occurrence of "free" 7-ketocholesterol (free 7-k) quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography, after total lipid extraction and separation on Florisil column. Free 7-k occurred in all samples analyzed (three different lots from five brands), 84,01±5,34 mg/g lipid (n=5). It was not possible to accompany cholesterol oxidation in whole egg powder stored until 224 days, at room temperature, but a significant correlation (r=0.8093) was observed between free 7-k and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, attesting the actual oxidation of cholesterol to toxic keto derivative.


A Project Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of a
Master of Arts Degree in Development Studies.


In order to clarify the taxonomic position of serotypes 20, 22 and 26 of Streptococcus suis, biochemical and molecular genetic studies were performed on isolates (SUT-7, SUT-286(T), SUT-319, SUT-328 and SUT-380) reacted with specific antisera of serotypes 20, 22 or 26 from the saliva of healthy pigs as well as reference strains of serotypes 20, 22 and 26. Comparative recN gene sequencing showed high genetic relatedness among our isolates, but marked differences from the type strain S. suis NCTC 10234(T), i.e. 74.8-75.7 % sequence similarity. The genomic relatedness between the isolates and other strains of species of the genus Streptococcus, including S. suis, was calculated using the average nucleotide identity values of whole genome sequences, which indicated that serotypes 20, 22 and 26 should be removed taxonomically from S. suis and treated as a novel genomic species. Comparative sequence analysis revealed 99.0-100 % sequence similarities for the 16S rRNA genes between the reference strains of serotypes 20, 22 and 26, and our isolates. Isolate STU-286(T) had relatively high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with S. suis NCTC 10234(T) (98.8 %). SUT-286(T) could be distinguished from S. suis and other closely related species of the genus Streptococcus using biochemical tests. Due to its phylogenetic and phenotypic similarities to S. suis we propose naming the novel species Streptococcus parasuis sp. nov., with SUT-286(T) ( = JCM 30273(T) = DSM 29126(T)) as the type strain.


The morphology of latent ion tracks induced by high energy heavy ions in Al2O3 have been studied using a combination of high resolution TEM (HRTEM), exit wave reconstruction, geometric phase analysis and numerical simulations. Single crystal αAl2O3 crystals were irradiated with 167 MeV Xe ions along the c-axis to fluences between 1 x 10 10 and 1 x 10 13 cm -2 . Planar TEM lamella were prepared by FIB and geometrical phase analysis was performed on the phase image of the reconstructed complex electron wave at the specimen exit surface in order to estimate the latent strain around individual track cores. In addition to the experiments, the material excitation in a SHI track was numerically simulated combining Monte-Carlo code describing the excitation of the electronic subsystem with classical molecular dynamics of the lattice atoms. Experiment and calculation both demonstrated that the relaxation of the excess lattice energy results in the formation of a cylinder-like disordered region of about 4 nm in diameter consisting of an underdense core surrounded by an overdense shell. Modeling of the passage of a second ion in the vicinity of this disordered region revealed that this damaged area can be restored to a near damage free state. The estimation of a maximal effective distance of recrystallization between the ion trajectories yields values of about 6 6.5 nm which are of the same order of magnitude as those estimated from the saturation density of latent ion tracks detected by TEM.


We propose a new technique to investigate the dynamical transitions among the traffic phases. A type of the control signals has been designated at a given site (signal point) of the single-lane highway. Under the effect of the control signal, the velocity of the vehicle that passes the signal point will be changed periodically. Our method is tested for the deterministic NaSch traffic model. The simulation results demonstrate that the disorder states in the deterministic NaSch traffic model can be suppressed, and the different types of periodic states would occur.


This paper reveals how factors associated with household recycling systems affect household recycling behaviour, and how household recycling behaviour affects the provision of household recycling systems by the local authorities (LA). The main objective is to reveal and explain the interaction and symbiosis effects between household recycling system and household recycling behaviour. Using a mixed methodology stance, the first approach is a qualitative research stage supported the symbiosis effect between the LAs and the householders. The second approach is quantitative research stage employed multiple regression analysis that juxtaposed the existence of interactions between personal factors and situational factors which the representation of LAs and the householders respectively. Finally, co-examination between the first and second stages revealed the need to use symbiosis effect perspective in understanding backward movement between householders and household recycling waste systems. This study has found that a "symbiosis effect" perspective appears to be a robust framework to bring together effective household waste recycling systems and sustainable development considerations to enhance both sustainability and the economy. Further, the study provides empirical evidence examining both situational and personal factors of households and their interactions, which were previously not well-understood. This study has incorporated behavioral aspects in the reverse logistics process that should help improve the LAs' planning processes.


In this study, the interaction of a parabolic notch with a generalized anti-plane singularity is studied and its analytical solution is derived. The singularity may be either an anti-plane concentrated force or a screw dislocation, and separate solutions for each of these are found. The driving force present on the screw dislocation due to the notch free boundary is obtained. It is found that a dislocation-free zone may exist beneath the notch root surface when the screw dislocation is placed on the notch geometric symmetry axis, as the driving force will pull dislocations to the free boundary where they will be annihilated. The solutions developed in this study may be used as building blocks to model the damage of material near a parabolic notch under anti-plane load conditions, and therefore serve as a step in quantifying crack nucleation conditions.


States' unfunded pension obligations to their current and retired employees have exploded in recent years to levels that are estimated to be between $750 billion and $4.4 trillion. In theory, this massive debt should have implications for states' ability to meet their financial obligations and a measurable impact on funding costs. Yet, we find no evidence that municipal bond markets are pricing the risks to states' fiscal health arising from these large obligations.


Delirium is a serious consequence of many acute or worsening chronic medical conditions, a side effect of medications, and a precipitant of worsening functional and cognitive status in older adults. It is a syndrome characterized by fluctuations in cognition and impaired attention that develops over a short period of time in response to an underlying medical condition, a substance (prescribed, over the counter, or recreational), or substance withdrawal and can be multi-factorial. We present a narrative review of the literature on nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic approaches to prevention and treatment of delirium with a focus on older adults as a vulnerable population. Older adult patients are most at risk due to decreasing physiologic reserves, with delirium rates of up to 80% in critical care settings. Presentation of delirium can be hyperactive, hypoactive, or mixed, making identification and study challenging as patients with hypoactive delirium are less likely to come to attention in an inpatient or long-term care setting. Studies of delirium focus on prevention and treatment with nonpharmacological or medication interventions, with the preponderance of evidence favoring multi-component nonpharmacological approaches to prevention as the most effective. Though use of antipsychotic medication in delirium is common, existing evidence does not support routine use, showing no clear benefit in clinically significant outcome measures and with evidence of harm in some studies. We therefore suggest that antipsychotics be used to treat agitation, psychosis, and distress associated with delirium at the lowest effective doses and shortest possible duration and not be considered a treatment of delirium itself. Future studies may clarify the use of other agents, such as melatonin and melatonin receptor agonists, alpha-2 receptor agonists, and anti-epileptics.


Global warming impact in increasing temperature and becomes threat for cocoa production because growth of cocoa depends on the amount of water available in the environment. The objective of this study was to describe cocoa hybrid that may potentially be developed as drought-resistant cocoa hybrid. The study used 14 types of cocoa hybrids and ICCRI 06H as control. Those plants were approximately 4 years old and the hybrids were planted in Sumber Asin Experimental Station and Kendeng Lembu Plantation. The variables being observed to evaluate 2015 El-Nino effect were percentage of growing plants, tree diameter, jorquette height, flush and flower intensity in 2016. Analysis of variance, correlation and additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) biplot were used to find out which hybrids were potentially drought-resistant. The finding showed that there was significant interaction between the genotypes (hybrids) and environment towards the percentage of growing plants, tree diameter, flush and flower intensity. The correlation between the variables showed that there was significant, negative correlation between the percentage of growing plants and height; even though there was significant correlation between the two, it was quite low. There was significant correlation between the tree diameter and the jourquette height while there was not any between the tree diameter and the percentage of growing plants. The AMMI analysis classified the drought tolerant hybrids into two groups, (1) cocoa hybrids adaptive to both normal as well as the temperature and water scarcity (drought), was ICCRI 03 x KW 617, and (2) drought tolerance cocoa hybrids, was KW 516 x KW 617.


Maneuver detection is a very important task for maintaining the catalog of the orbital objects and space situational awareness. This paper mainly focuses on the typical maneuver scenario where space objects only perform tangential orbital maneuvers during a relative long gap. Particularly, only two classical and commonly applied orbital transition manners are considered, i.e. the twice tangential maneuvers at the apogee and the perigee or one tangential maneuver at an arbitrary time. Based on this, we preliminarily estimate the maneuvering mode and parameters by analyzing the change of semi-major axis and eccentricity. Furthermore, if only one tangential maneuver happened, we can formulate the estimation problem of maneuvering parameters as a non-linear least squares problem. To obtain a more sensible and accurate result, the prior knowledge is incorporated into the iterative solving process calculated by SOCP algorithm. Finally, the performance and efficiency of our method are validated by the theoretical analysis and some observations.


Long-term psychosocial and emotional difficulties and mental fatigue after stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) is common and there is a need for rehabilitation and support. Mindfulness can contribute to well-being and can be delivered in groups and also on Internet. The aim of this feasibility study was to evaluate whether an eight-month mindfulness program, Train 4 Good, could be successfully delivered live on Internet (10 participants) for participants suffering from long-term mental fatigue after a TBI or stroke. A face-to face group was used for comparison (10 participants). The program Train 4 Good, includes cultivation of the four mental states of the Brahma Viharas; metta/loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity. The Train 4 Good program was designed to enable people suffering from long-term mental fatigue and emotional distress after an acquired brain injury to further explore meditation, enhance well-being and to deepen their meditative practice after having completed a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Significant improvement in self-compassion (Self Compassion Scale short form) was achieved after the Train 4 Good program. In conclusion, we suggest that it is possible to deliver the Train 4 Good program live on Internet for people suffering from mental fatigue and emotional distress after an acquired brain injury with a similar alleviation of self-compassion as for a face-to-face group. Mindfulness programs can be a valuable option for rehabilitation after an acquired brain injury when the fatigue and emotional burden can become long-lasting or lifelong. Development of longer mindfulness programs is warranted, since mental health problems only improve slowly and long-term support is requested.


This paper concerns the problem of mixed H2/H∞ control of a class of nonlinear continuous-time systems with time delays, which can be represented by a delayed fuzzy hyperbolic model (DFHM). The main advantage of using DFHM over T–S fuzzy model is that no premise structure identification is needed and no completeness design of premise variables space is needed. In addition, a DFHM is not only a kind of valid global description but also a kind of nonlinear model essentially. Based on delay-independent Lyapunov functional approach, some sufficient conditions for the existence of such a DFHM-based mixed H2/H∞ controller are provided, which are given in terms of the feasibility of a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Simulation results show the validity of the proposed method.


Eighteen alfalfa ( Medicago sativa ) cultivars were evaluated as to dry forage and crude protein yields at the Lajas Research and Development Center; there were 6 cuttings during a 232-day period. Dry forage yields ranged from 4,673 kgfha for Tanverde (lowest) to 11,675 kg/ha for Maracay (highest) cultivar. Good yields were also obtained with Florida 66, Moapa, Peruvian, Certified Mesa Sirsa, and Hayden PX-1 cultivars. Stand persistence declined markedly after the fifth harvest due to Phytophthora root rot infestation. Maracay, Florida 66, and Certified Mesa Sirsa showed the best persistence through the sixth cutting. Mean overall values for neutral-detergent fiber, acid-detergent fiber, lignin, cellulose, silica, crude protein, phosphorus, and potassium contents for the 18 cultivars were 34.86, 29.13, 10.22, 17.08, 1.42, 21.86, 0.36, and 2.08%, respectively. Insects were not a major problem in this study.


Hemicelluloses are among the most abundant renewable polymers in nature, and their processing into biodegradable polymeric materials via extrusion was recently reported as a novel alternative technique for solvent casting. A simple heat-treatment step conducted after the extrusion of corn cob xylans was found to enhance the mechanical properties of strips by altering their moisture absorption behavior. Depending on the heat-treatment temperature, which varied between 60 °C and 150 °C, xylan-based strips with an ultimate tensile strength greater than 120 MPa, elongation at break of around 30% and elastic modulus of approximately 1.2 GPa were obtained. The equilibrium moisture content of the strips decreased with increasing heat-treatment temperature. Considering that water acts as a plasticizer for hemicellulose based materials, the changes in the mechanical properties were found to be associated with the changes in the equilibrium moisture contents of the strips.


Dissecting Dystrophies Defects in α-dystroglycan lead to various congenital muscular dystrophies, and its ability to bind to extracellular matrix (ECM) is dependent on formation of a specific O-linked sugar structure. Previous efforts to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying α-dystroglycan's ability to bind to the ECM led to the identification of a phosphorylated O-mannosyl trisaccharide on α-dystroglycan and to the demonstration that addition of this residue is a prerequisite for formation of the ligand-binding motif. However, the biosynthetic pathway that leads to production of the phosphorylated O-mannosyl glycan has not been delineated. Yoshida-Moriguchi et al. (p. 896, published online 8 August) elucidate the functions of three genes recently found to cause dystroglycan-related disorders and explain the defects in the production of the phosphorylated O-mannosyl glycan that underlie the pathologies of patients with the relevant mutations. An atypical kinase genetically associated with muscular dystrophies recognizes a unique trisaccharide structure. Phosphorylated O-mannosyl trisaccharide [N-acetylgalactosamine–β3-N-acetylglucosamine–β4-(phosphate-6-)mannose] is required for dystroglycan to bind laminin-G domain–containing extracellular proteins with high affinity in muscle and brain. However, the enzymes that produce this structure have not been fully elucidated. We found that glycosyltransferase-like domain–containing 2 (GTDC2) is a protein O-linked mannose β 1,4-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase whose product could be extended by β 1,3-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase2 (B3GALNT2) to form the O-mannosyl trisaccharide. Furthermore, we identified SGK196 as an atypical kinase that phosphorylated the 6-position of O-mannose, specifically after the mannose had been modified by both GTDC2 and B3GALNT2. These findings suggest how mutations in GTDC2, B3GALNT2, and SGK196 disrupt dystroglycan receptor function and lead to congenital muscular dystrophy.


Manevís classical potential is known to successfully modify Newtonian celestial mechanics, in accordance with the general-relativistic description. The idea of replacing the exact solution of Einsteinís equations, describing orbiting bodies, with a classical potential is widely used today. These models are not restricted to planetary motion only, but also include numerous interesting astrophysical phenomena such as accretion of matter around black holes or massive stars. There are different known potentials, which originate from metrics, describing a rotating/non-rotating black hole (or a massive body in general). A brief review of these results is given in this contribution, together with an example for the Manev potential, related to the Parametrized Post-Newtonian (PPN) metric, commonly used in general relativity for the description of the solar system.


Viet Nam is rapidly transitioning economically, in large part due to the pro-trade policies that have attracted international capital. A necessary component for Viet Nam to further integrate into the world economy is to develop a system of industrial relations that will ensure industrial stability and reassure international manufacturers that there is no risk of embarrassment resulting from revelations of brutal or unsafe working conditions. Positive signs for rapid labor reform were visible as recently as early 2016 with the Trans-Pacific Partnership ("TPP"), a trade agreement intended to integrate trade among twelve countries (including Viet Nam), which would have set international benchmarks and a fixed deadline for labor reform.
Notwithstanding the withdrawal of the U.S. from TPP negotiations, labor reform in Vietnam continues, as there is currently a vigorous debate within the country over which direction reform should take. This article describes the existing labor regime in Viet Nam, and how the ILO and the TPP jump-started the most recent wave of labor reform. It then analyzes Vietnamese labor law, specifically as compared to ILO norms, and evaluates current proposals for reform.


Aim: The aim of this case report is to explain the clinical and laboratory procedures for fabricating ultra-thin lithium-disilicate pressed veneers using a mixed analog/ digital workflow. Summary: Four ultra-thin pressed lithium-disilicate veneers were produced for maxillary fractured incisors with the help of virtual smile design, digital wax-up and intraoral mock-up. With initial photos from the patient, the smile design could be performed considering the patient's individual face form. An intraoral scan was taken for the digital wax-up, which was guided by the contour line of smile design on the face photo. A printed model and template were manufactured for the mock-up. After a guided minimally invasive preparation and digital impression, the final veneers were designed as an exact copy of the mock-up. Wax pattern was designed on computer and fabricated by milling machine. Finally, lithiumdisilicate veneers were pressed, individualized and cemented using an adhesive technique. Key learning points: 1. digital workflow is convenient for a predictable procedure making ultra-thin lithium-disilicate pressed veneers. 2. the virtual smile design – digital wax-up – intraoral mock-up scheme presents an opportunity for effective communication with the patient and laboratory. 3. smile design software recommends an ideal smile curve for the patient with the help of definitive points and reference lines on the face. 4. guided preparation through mock-up preserves the greatest amount of enamel structure, which is important with regards to adhesive cementation. 5. when pressing lithium-disilicate veneers, a mixed analog/digital workflow using CAD and a milled wax pattern results in better physical properties and marginal fit than fully digitally milled veneers.


BACKGROUND
Anxiety disorders affect many people around the world and women are more affected than men. Physical exercise might be an important nonpharmacological tool to ameliorate these disorders. The aim of this study was to compare state anxiety level and enjoyment between a dance exergame session and a traditional aerobic exercise.

METHODS
Twenty healthy young women completed 3 visits, on separate days. At the first visit, participants performed a graded exercise testing and familiarization procedures. In other two visits, participants completed two exercise sessions (dance exergame and traditional aerobic exercise), with similar intensities and duration. Each session lasted approximately 45 minutes. State anxiety level was evaluated before, immediately post- and 10 minutes post sessions. Enjoyment was evaluated immediately post sessions.

RESULTS
There was a significant interaction between session and time (p<0.001), a main effect of time (p=0.007) but no significant main effect of session (p=0.057) on state anxiety level. State anxiety level immediately post (p<0.001) and 10 minutes post-session (p<0.001) were significantly lower than pre-dance exergame session. There were no significant changes between pre-, immediately post and 10 minutes post-traditional aerobic exercise session (p>0.05). State anxiety level at immediately post dance exergame session was significantly lower than immediately post traditional aerobic exercise session (p=0.026). Dance exergame session was significantly more enjoyable than traditional aerobic exercise session (p<0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Dance exergames might be used as a tool to reduce anxiety level in young women.


BACKGROUND ♦ Achievement in high performance sport requires an appropriate 'state of mind', which is trained alongside the physical skills. ♦ However, quantification of mental state during coaching is often difficult. ♦ With the advent of a new generation of portable compact EEGs and wireless eye tracking devices, one can measure the neurocognitive activity of an athlete's brain and their visual focus simultaneously in ecologically representative training scenarios. AIM/OBJECTIVES ♦ We present evidence suggesting that the 'state of mind' of an athlete can be measured and compared with target-based performance measures. METHOD ♦ Measurements were taken from intermediate, county level, near elite and elite archers investigating: o quantification of EEG brain wave signals comparing archers of different abilities o correlation of EEG data across shots as a function of marksmanship o prototyping real-time EEG data feedback using sound during training o synchronous EEG and eye tracking ♦ Archery was chosen to demonstrate the real-time and in-situ quantification of neural activity compared with target-based measures of performance that archery provides, over a range of timespans and skills. ♦ Mental performance was explored during stages of a shot, across shots within a set, or across different sessions. RESULTS ♦ Results demonstrate that there are significant and measurable changes in EEG patterns during a shot with evidence suggesting that the patterns vary as a function of skill level, but not simply as a function of score. ♦ Significance of each of these outcomes for goal-directed learning and performance enhancement are discussed. DISCUSSION ♦ This may provide coaches and athletes with real-time EEG feedback to identify differing mental skill execution compared to a baseline or aspirational measurement from another athlete. ♦ Future work includes injury recovery/prevention and welfare, rehabilitation, and work with mobility-challenged non-athletes.


Recording of Abdullah Minapin reciting an account of The Wazir of Shiri Badat in the Nagar dialect of Burushaski. In this story, Abdullah's relative moves to the kingdom of a godlike Shiri Badat, who appoints Abdullah's ancestor to the position of a minister (Wazir). Shiri Badat tastes a goat who was fed human milk, and grew enamored with the taste, and demanded from then on to be sacrificed young boys to eat. Abdullah's ancestor, Demsing, was horrified, and begged the King's daughter to tell the town's people how to kill the tyrant, and she relented.


Sickel cell disease is common in urban areas of Britain and it is estimated that in London alone there are nearly 2000 patients. One hundred and eighty four patients with sickle cell disease are known to the Central Middlesex Hospital, and 155 of those attend the sickle cell clinic regularly. The commonest cause for admission to hospital is acute painful or vaso-occlusive crisis, which accounts for 80% of all acute admissions; 12% of admissions are for acute chest syndrome. Comparison of clinical features in Brent and in Jamaica shows that the Brent patients with homozygous sickle cell anaemia are admitted with painful crises more frequently than Jamaican patients. However, the frequency of admissions for chest syndrome and priapism, and the incidence of splenomegaly are similar. Leg ulcers are uncommon in Brent. Patients with sickle cell haemoglobin C disease appeared more severely affected in Jamaica than in Brent. During the past two years 3165 newborn babies have been screened for sickle cell disease at the Central Middlesex Hospital: five babies with homozygous sickle cell anaemia and three babies with sickle cell haemoglobin C disease were detected. The overall incidence of sickle cell trait was 3.2% and of haemoglobin C trait 0.8%. A significant number of babies with sickle cell disease are born in London every year. It is essential that such babies are detected at birth and offered prophylaxis against pneumococcal infection, which is one of the major causes of infant mortality. Sickle cell disease is becoming an important blood disease in Britain and firm guidelines for the management of acute and chronic complications are required.


The aim of this thesis is to devise new optimisation techniques for restricted continuous facility location problems. In this work, forbidden regions and barriers are considered as the main restriction types for locations. In the first search paper, a general modelling framework for restricted facility location problems is introduced with arbitrarily shaped forbidden regions or barriers. Phi-objects are canonically closed sets of points and efficient tools in mathematical modelling of 2D and 3D geometric optimisation problems. Point sets that contain isolated points, points that are removed from an object (deleted points) and objects with self-intersection of their frontiers are not classified as phi-objects. In the first research paper, the phi-objects are used to model real objects mathematically. It is shown that the proposed modelling framework can be applied to both median and center facility location problems, either with barriers or forbidden regions. The instances from the existing literature for this class of problems are solved to optimality using the new framework. Further, a realistic multi-facility problem instance derived from an archipelago vulnerable to earthquakes is also solved to optimality. This problem instance is significantly more complex than any other instance described in the literature. In the second research paper, a new formulation based on multi-commodity flows with unknown destination is described and adapted to the problem type at hand. The proposed model is defined on a discretised space and this discretisation technique can also be applied to deterministic and stochastic continuous restricted location problems using any distance metric. As a solution method for the presented formulation, a solution algorithm, based on Benders Decomposition, is developed to take advantage of the discrete network structure. Extensive computational experiments, which are derived from a well-known and complex instance from the literature are carried out, on both deterministic and stochastic multi-facility restricted location problems. Results are analysed to evaluate the performance of the proposed solution technique. In the third research paper, capacitated versions of the restricted facility location problems are studied. To the best of our knowledge, these have not been studied before. Similar to the second research paper, the continuous space is discretised and a model developed on a discrete space. Various acceleration techniques for Benders Decomposition are tested to improve the efficiency of solving the problem instances. A large number of deterministic instances is generated from three core instances. Two of these are well-known instances in the literature. The other instance is newly proposed in this paper. Numerical results are presented to determine the most efficient solution approach for the approximated continuous problem.


Current approaches for service discovery are based on semantic knowledge, such as ontologies and service behavior (described as a process model). However, these approaches have high selectivity rate, resulting in a large number of services offering similar functionalities and behavior. One way to improve the selectivity rate is to cope with user preferences defined on quality attributes. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for service retrieval that takes into account the service process model and relies both on preference satisfiability and structural similarity. User query and target process models are represented as annotated graphs, where user preferences on QoS attributes are modelled by means of fuzzy sets. A flexible evaluation strategy based on fuzzy linguistic quantifiers is introduced. Finally, different ranking methods are discussed.


This study reports on EFL teachers' personal beliefs regarding motivational strategies, and details how teachers apply motivational strategies in the EFL Saudi classrooms. A discussion is included about the extent to which motivational strategies influence EFL learners' attitudes toward language learning, because of the need of using motivational strategies in EFL classrooms at Taif university, this research used a mixed approach research design, and accordingly, the researcher used one questionnaire that was adapted Dornyie & Cheng (2007) to ask about eighteen teachers' beliefs concerning motivational strategies and used a similar questionnaire with 150 first-year students to evaluate how their teachers apply the motivational strategies in the EFL classroom. Students' attitudes toward L2 learning were further measured by another adapted questionnaire of Eshghinejad (2016). Also, 10 students divided to high and low achievement were interviewed to provide in-depth investigation and to seek reliable results. The findings revealed that the EFL teachers believed in and used motivational strategies in their classrooms. In addition, there was a statistically significant correlation between what they believe and what they practice. From the data on learners' attitudes, results reflected that the students have positive attitudes toward language learning especially in the emotional aspects. The interviews revealed that high and low achieving students reported positive attitudes to the behavioral and cognitive aspects, while they showed little to the emotional aspects of language learning.


It is known that the underlying spaces of all abelian quotient singularities which are embeddable as complete intersections of hypersurfaces in an affine space can be overall resolved by means of projective torus-equivariant crepant birational morphisms in all dimensions. In the present paper we extend this result to the entire class of toric l.c.i.-singularities. Our proof makes use of Nakajima's classification theorem and of some special techniques from toric and discrete geometry.


Heavy metals resistant bacteria were obtained from wastewater samples in mining sites of Itogon, Benguet, Philippines.
The isolates were cultured in a medium with different concentrations of copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn)
and lead (Pb). Out of the 150 initial isolates, the 4 isolates, which survived in each 100 ppm of Zn, Cr, Pb, and Ni exhibited
high metal resistance and were identified at the Philippine Genome Center (UP Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines) as
isolates A). Acinetobacter sp. junii, B). Acinetobacter sp. tandoii, C). Bacillus cereus, D). Bacillus toyonensis. Sample
digestion with HCl showed higher heavy metal reduction results compared with the undigested, thus suggesting that acid
treatment gave better extraction of metal components prior to Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Biosorption of heavy
metals were highest in 75 ppm of lead. Results showed that the isolate Bacillus toyonensis can reduce lead by 92.43 % in 5
days at room temperature.


For the second year in a row, our first place winner is The University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. This year's competition included a fine selection of heavy hitters. Once again, selecting the winners proved to be a welcome challenge to the judging team, headed by Donald E.L. Johnson, publisher. Congratulations to all! While not receiving award recognition, the following entries also were named as commendable: Bon Secours New Jersey Health System, Jersey City, N.J.; Meridian Health System, Wall, N.J.; Novant Health, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Claremore Regional Hospital, Claremore, Okla.; Covenant Health System, Lubbock, Texas; Firelands Community Hospital, Sandusky, Ohio; Columbus Regional Hospital, Columbus, Ind.; St. Cloud Hospital, St. Cloud, Minn.; and Saint Luke's-Shawnee Mission Health System, Kansas City, Mo.


Knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) lesions often occur after rotation injuries and afterward persistent decrease in knee stability usually enhances progression of gonarthritis. Among many ACL reconstructive techniques there is Puddu method described in 1980. It a kind of ACL reparation procedure by transposition of distal insertion of semitendinous and gracile muscle tendons on lateral femoral condyle, what preserves intact active knee stabilisators. The aim of this study was to present Puddu's method of ACL reconstruction as experienced by the authors. According to own material it was concluded that using Puddu's technique enables to maintain fragments of torn ACL in expectation to faster graft rebuilt with at least partially retained prioprioception. We confirmed that this technique improves static and dynamic knee joint stability.


This book helps the reader get started with administration of Oracle SOA Suite. It covers the key concepts to perform the role of the administrator for Oracle SOA platform during and after SOA implementation. Below is a list of topics that are covered in detail in this book: Introduction to Oracle SOA Suite for an administrator Oracle SOA administration tools Choosing the right SOA deployment architecture Installing Oracle SOA Suite for a development environment, testing, and production Deploying Oracle SOA composites Key administration task for Oracle SOA operation phase Administration activities beyond Oracle SOA Enabling change control for Oracle SOA Key differences in managing Oracle SOA Best practices for Oracle SOA administration Performance tuning and testing tips for Oracle SOA


The distribution and nematophagal ability of local isolates of Paecilomyces variotii against the root-knot nematode (RKN), Meloidogyne javanica, was investigated under laboratory conditions. Eighty RKN-infected root samples from fig trees, tomato, aubergine and cucumber were collected from three geographical areas of Jordan (Safi, Central Jordan Valley and Jerash). Paecilomyces variotii occurred in 10% of the samples and was found in both females and egg masses of M. javanica. The local isolates of P. variotii, as nematode antagonists, resulted in egg parasitism of about 61.4% compared to 68.5% for P. lilacinus. Moreover, both species were able to parasitize females and freed eggs and to reduce hatch of second stage juveniles. Under laboratory conditions, P. lilacinus parasitized females on agar plates significantly more than local isolates of P. variotii. Isolates of Paecilomyces lilacinus and P. variotii parasitized heat-killed eggs to similar extents, but at rates higher than those of live eggs inside egg masses, suggesting that both species possess high saprophytic ability.


Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) are considered as a solid-state sensor alternative to photomultiplier tubes in experiments using liquid xenon (LXe) as a radiation detection medium. The main requirements are single-photon detection of the vacuum ultraviolet scintillation light from LXe at 178 nm with high resolution and detection efficiency and low noise rates. Further requirements for dark matter and double beta decay searches are ultra-low radioactivity levels of all the components including the substrates and cold electronics. Here we describe our characterisation of Hamamatsu 6×6 mm2 SiPMs in the temperature range 110–300 K in nitrogen gas, as well as long-term measurements in cold nitrogen gas at 172 K and liquid xenon at 185 K. After we introduce the experimental setups, the data acquisition schemes and analysis methods, we show the single-photon response, the gain versus bias voltage, as well as the dark and correlated noise rates. We demonstrate the long-term stability at cryogenic temperatures, and conclude that SiPM arrays are promising candidates for photosensor arrays in liquid xenon detectors. Furthermore, we study the radioactivity of the raw SiPM materials with gamma spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and conclude that SiPMs are suitable for use in low-background experiments.


SIR,-Severe purulent conjunctivitis in newborn infants (ophthalmia neonatorum) is usually caused by TRIC agent 2 or by Neisseria gonorrhoeae.34 However, thorough bacteriological examination of such cases is important, as the following report indicates. A healthy baby, whose mother was Greek, developed severe conjunctivitis on 25 May 1970 at the age of five days. The conjunctivitis affected the right eye, which showed lid oedema, purulent exudate, and chemosis. Culture of pus yielded an abundant growth of Neisseria meningitidis in pure culture. Conjunctival smears stained with Giemsa revealed abundant neutrophils and intracellular diplococci; TRIS agent inclusion bodies within epithelial cells were not detected. The meningococcus fermented glucose and maltose but not sucrose. Agglutination tests with meningococcal group C sera (Burroughs Wellcome, Commonwealth Serum Laboratories) yielded positive results. When tested by the disc diffusion method on heated blood agar, the meningococcus was sensitive to sulphadiazine (25 micrograms (jg) per disc), sulphadimidine (25 ,g), sulphamethoxazole (25 Mg), penicillin (0 6 jig = 1 unit), ampicillin (2 jig), tetracycline (10 ag), chloramphenicol (10 Mug), and erythromycin (2 ,g). By the plate titration method, using horse blood agar and Mueller-Hinton medium with 5% horse serum, respectively, the minimal inhibitory concentration of penicillin G was 0 05 ,ug per ml (= 0-08 units per ml) and of sulphadiazine 0-2 Mig per ml (0-02 mg per 100 ml). The conjunctivitis was treated by the instillation of chloramphenicol drops and this resulted in clinical improvement and bacteriological cure. However, on the following day, 26 May, the infant showed mucopurulent nasal discharge, and culture of this exudate yielded abundant growth of a meningococcus, also sensitive to penicillin and other antibiotics. Oral penicillin was consequently administered. The source of infection was not established in this case. It was considered that infection probably originated from a meningococcal carrier, either the baby's mother or a member of the attendant hospital staff. Because of suspected endometritis the mother had been treated with ampicillin after delivery; culture of cervical and urethral swabs collected subsequently failed to yield neisseria. As the work of C. Brons5 and R. D. Stuart' showed, meningococcal conjunctivitis occurs in infancy and childhood and may readily be confused with gonococcal infection, as such cases cannot be distinguished clinically. Unless cultures are made and the identity of the isolate established, a false diagnosis of gonococcal conjunctivitis may be made. An unusual feature of the present case was the early age of onset, as we know of no fully documented report of meningococcal conjunctivitis in the first four weeks of life.-I am, etc., D. HANSMAN Pathology Department, Women's Hospital, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia


Aims: Urine retention following surgery can lead to performance and basic disorders in gall bladder. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of feet reflexology on urinary retention relieving after surgery. Materials & Methods: This clinical trial was done in 2014 on 70 patients with urinary retention following surgery that was not able to urinate despite routine nursing measures. The patients were divided into two interventional and control groups based on random allocation (permutation blocking method). Reflexology was performed for intervention group for 30min (15min for each foot); and general reflexology was carried out for control group for the same duration. Data collected using a researcher-made checklist. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 using descriptive statistics, independent-T, Man-Whitney, and Chisquare tests. Findings: There was a significant difference between intervention and control groups regarding urinary retention after surgery (p=0.04) and retention time (p<0.001). However, a significant difference was not found between two groups in volume of excreted urine (p=0.2). Conclusion: Feet reflexology has positive effect on urinary retention after surgery.


The classical theory of production concentrated on a combination of three factors — land, capital and labour. Then Alfred Marshall introduced a fourth factors, organisation and entrepreneurship. The vital concept of Marshall's economics is organic growth. He developed the theory of organic growth of society in his economics. In the theory of organic growth. Labour and Organisation; the labouring class and the entrepreneur play an important role. Then Marshall wanted to increase ' the standard of life' in the labouring class and raise the ability of the entrepreneur. Marshall was very interested in the labouring class and it is starting point of his economics. It can be said that Marshall's economics is labour economics. He wanted the labouring class to escape the poverty trap and advance into the gentleman class. This thesis was clarified that Marshall pointed out some methods of increase "the standard of life". In this thesis, the definition of an entrepreneur which had been neglected in economic theory was clarified. The great economist in the past did not always have an economic theory, which included the concept of the entrepreneur. Again in modern economic theory, the concept of the entrepreneur was neglected, since the theories which centered around equilibrium did not pay attention to the entrepreneur. However, Marshall's economic theory has a theory of the entrepreneur and he discussed some functions of the entrepreneur. Marshall wanted the entrepreneur to raise the entrepreneurial ability. Marshall wanted to make up the circle leading to an increased standard of life in the labouring class and the entrepreneurship, leading to high productivity and thus perpetuating organic growth. In this thesis it was clarified that Marshall regarded the entrepreneur and the labouring class as a vital factor of production which causes organic growth.


This study explores the links between women's work, gendered labour markets, and women's institutional political participation in 25 European countries. Although employment is a standard predictor of (women's) political participation, previous research has treated women's work mostly as a characteristic of individual women, disregarding the broader structural inequalities that are behind women's work patterns. Using data from the fifth round of the European Social Survey, in combination with detailed information on work-family policies and labour market structures of the countries included, this study aims to contribute to a more contextual understanding of the effects of employment. My research explores whether the effects of employment status, working hours, and job level are shaped by the context, in which they are embedded. Although labour markets and political systems vary considerably across countries and existing research has provided inconsistent findings, the context-dependency of employment effects has not yet been systematically assessed. Moreover, little research has focussed on direct effects of the labour market; therefore, this study explores the effects of two labour market characteristics that have a particularly gendered meaning: work-family policies and gendered structures in the labour market.

The findings indicate that the effects of employment are more complex than often assumed in the literature. Employment can not only affect, for example, mothers and non-mothers differently, but there is also an indication that some employment effects are shaped by the labour market context. Contextual characteristics also affect women's political participation directly by redistributing resources and shaping women's experiences in the work-place. Overall, the findings show that the political effects of work should be understood within the wider context.


Allicin is an extract purified from Allium sativum (garlic), and previous research has indicated that Allicin has an inhibitory effect on many kinds of tumor cells. The aim of the present study was to explore the anticancer activity of Allicin on human glioma cells and investigate the underlying mechanism. MTT and colony-formation assays were performed to detect glioma cell proliferation, and explore the effect of Allicin at various doses and time-points. The apoptosis of glioma cells was measured by fluorescence microscopy with Hoechst 33258 staining, and then flow cytometry was used to analyzed changes in glioma cell apoptosis. Reverse transcription‑quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were used to detect the effect of Allicin on the expression levels of Fas/Fas ligand (FasL), caspase‑3, B‑cell lymphoma 2 and Bcl‑2‑associated X protein. Allicin suppressed the proliferation and colony formation ability of U251 cells in a dose‑ and time‑dependent manner. A cytotoxic effect of Allicin was observed in glioma cells in a dose‑dependent manner. Changes in nuclear morphology were observed in U251 cells with Hoechst 33258 staining. The activity of caspases were significantly elevated and Fas/FasL expression levels were increased following treatment with Allicin, at both the mRNA and protein level. These results demonstrated that Allicin suppresses proliferation and induces glioma cell apoptosis in vitro. Both intrinsic mitochondrial and extrinsic Fas/FasL‑mediated pathways react in glioma cell after treating with Allicin, which then activate major apoptotic cascades. These results implicate Allicin as a novel antitumor agent in treating glioma.


As for the information need of the supplier production status in order allocation, parameter of production load rate was introduced to represent the status within the order delivery time. Analysis on the characteristics of the production load rate was made at first after its definition was given. Then after a key resource collection was built based on the key process of production, together with introduction of the algorithm of the load as far as the key resource collection and different scheduling modes are concerned, the calculation model of the supplier production load rate was built. Furthermore, the practicability of the algorithm was illustrated by the example.


Methodologies to calibrate loads and validate power distribution system models are presented in this paper. The calibration methodology makes use of information contained in historical load and measurement data to adjust loads including the system losses and forecast future load conditions. This unified methodology has been applied to calibrate the loads of distribution systems with varying degrees of complexity. The test results demonstrate that the calibrated loads can be used to provide simulation and prediction of system behavior for both normal and faulted conditions. The validation methodology quantifies the accuracy and uncertainty of the calibrated model and enables both the model developer and the model user to have quantitative support to decide whether the model is adequate for its intended purpose. Validation results are also useful in pinpointing which portion of the model needs to be improved. Load calibration and model validation methodologies are important and timely topics as power systems are entering the era of smart grid and more measurement data will be available for model development, calibration and validation.


The development of methods of seismic imaging beneath basalt is still hindered by a lack of knowledge about the elastic properties of basaltic sequences and the degree of three-dimensional heterogeneity. The SeiFaBa project (2002-2005) is funded by the Sindri Group as part of the programmes for licensees within the Faroese area and will address these issues. The first year included drilling of a new 700-m deep well, Glyvursnes-1, near Tórshavn with full core, reaming of the existing 660 m deep Vestmanna-1 well farther north, and the acquisition of a wide range of wireline logs in both wells. The two wells represent almost half of the exposed lava sequence and are central to a number of co-ordinated experiments. These are targeted at creating firm data-derived models for seismic wave propagation through basalt by combining detailed analysis at core, log and seismic scales. After initial tests in 2002 the main part of the seismic programme was carried out June to September 2003. The work was centred on Glyvursnes-1 and included both VSP, offset-VSP and surface seismic experiments. Detailed studies of well logs and core material from the above and other wells have been initiated. The aim is to better understand the sonic response of basalt lavas in terms of physical and compositional properties and thus also seismic signatures of flood basalt successions.


A Flash Translation Layer (FTL) provides a block device interface on top of flash memory to support existing disk based file systems. Due to the erase-before-write feature of flash memory, an FTL usually performs out-of-place updates and uses a garbage collection procedure to reclaim stale data. Superblock FTL is one of the well-known FTLs, which achieves good performance in terms of both garbage collection overhead and RAM usage. The use of fine-grained mapping information allows a logical page within a superblock, i.e., a set of contiguous logical blocks, to be placed at any page offset of the physical blocks allocated for that superblock. In addition, the fine-grained mapping information is stored in the spare area of NAND flash memory to reduce the RAM usage. Generally, the FTL performance improves with larger superblocks. However, the spare area management approach of the FTL prevents it from supporting large superblocks. In this paper, we propose an FTL that incorporates a novel spare area management approach to enable the support of large superblocks. The simulation results from four traces show that the proposed FTL reduces the garbage collection overhead by up to 89%, when compared to the Superblock FTL. In addition, it results in shorter response time.


Intestinal homeostasis is key to the maintenance of good health. The small intestine plays important roles in absorption, digestion, hormonal and immune functions. Crypt base columnar (CBC) stem cells residing at the bottom of crypts are nurtured by Paneth cells, and together create the stem cell niche, the foundation of intestinal homeostasis. CBC stem cells replicate to replenish their number, or differentiate into a variety of epithelial cells with specialized functions. Notch signaling is a cell-cell signaling pathway that regulates both the proliferation and differentiation of CBC stem cells. NOTCH1 and NOTCH2 stimulated by canonical Notch ligands DLL1 and DLL4 mediate Notch signaling in the intestine that, in concert with other signaling pathways including the WNT and BMP pathways, determines cell fates. Importantly, interactions between Notch receptors and canonical Notch ligands are regulated by O-glycans linked to Ser/Thr in epidermal growth factor-like (EGF) repeats of the Notch receptor extracellular domain (NECD). The O-glycans attached to NECD are key regulators of the strength of Notch signaling. Imbalances in Notch signaling result in altered cell fate decisions and may lead to cancer in the intestine. In this review, we summarize the impacts of mutations in Notch pathway members on intestinal development and homeostasis, with a focus on the glycosyltransferases that transfer O-glycans to EGF repeats of NOTCH1, NOTCH2, DLL1 and DLL4.


Acoustic wave responses arising from changing viscoelastic properties of polymer film overlays are investigated when induced by a photo-cross-linking reaction and vapor absorption. When a polymer film is present on the surface of an acoustic wave device, changes in the viscoelastic properties of the film induce changes in wave propagation velocity and attenuation, providing two sensor responses. Film changes which occur during polymer cross-linking allow photopolymerization to be monitored in real time using acoustic devices. A photoaction spectrum of photoresist reveals the cross-linking wavelength with maximum quantum yield. Changes in the viscoelastic properties of a polysiloxane film induced by vapor absorption are found to be unique for each of several species, making differentiation of species with a single film possible. A Maxwell model for polymer viscoelasticity, in combination with mass loading effects, provides a sound theoretical basis for explaining observed results for both polysiloxane and polybutadiene/polystyrene copolymer films.<<ETX>>


This paper presents an asymptotic capacity analysis for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications with insufficient transmit radio frequency (RF) chains and sufficient receive RF chains, which is named as iMIMO communications. We characterize the iMIMO channel capacity by the maximum mutual information given any vector inputs subject to not only an average power constraint but also a sparsity constraint. It is proven that an optimized Gaussian mixture input distribution is capacity-achieving in the high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) regime. The optimal mixture coefficients and the covariance matrices of the Gaussian mixtures are derived and also the corresponding asymptotic capacity. Furthermore, we discuss the impact of insufficient receive RF chains on the achievable spectral efficiency. We investigate the superiority of the capacity-achieving technique, which is an optimized non-uniform subspace modulation (NUSM), by comparing it with the best subspace selection (BSS) and the uniform subspace modulation (USM). The comparison results reveal that the optimized NUSM is optimal in the high SNR regime. Numerical results are presented to validate our analysis.


Behavioral statescan be transferred to others, leading people to behave in ways similar to those around them. Can this phenomenon of behavioral contagion be seen in the workplace? Using employees' organizational social media data and their workplace hierarchical network structure, we studied contagion across a large multinational corporation, focusing on an important workplace behavior - employee engagement. We measured employees' engagement based on their word choice in organizational social media, and we applied a longitudinal statistical technique which controls for homophily, employees' traits and prior expressions of engagement. We found that engagement and disengagement spread from one employee to another with direct peers exerting the strongest influence. While engagement-spread was more powerful laterally among people at the same organizational level, disengagement-spread followed the vertical managerial chain. Further, we found that disengaged co-workers exerted a stronger influence on employee's future engagement compared to the engaged co-workers. Our results suggest the need for organizations to sense and address workplace disengagement promptly. Moreover, our findings offer opportunities for using workplace interventions to promote engagement and mitigate disengagement.


Background: The underuse of total joint arthroplasty in appropriate candidates is more than 3 times greater among women than among men. When surveyed, physicians report that the patient's sex has no effect on their decision-making; however, what occurs in clinical practice may be different. The purpose of our study was to determine whether patients' sex affects physicians' decisions to refer a patient for, or to perform, total knee arthroplasty. Methods: Seventy-one physicians (38 family physicians and 33 orthopedic surgeons) in Ontario performed blinded assessments of 2 standardized patients (1 man and 1 woman) with moderate knee osteoarthritis who differed only by sex. The standardized patients recorded the physicians' final recommendations about total knee arthroplasty. Four surgeons did not consent to the inclusion of their data. After detecting an overall main effect, we tested for an interaction with physician type (family physician v. orthopedic surgeon). We used a binary logistic regression analysis with a generalized estimating equation approach to assess the effect of patients' sex on physicians' recommendations for total knee arthroplasty. Results: In total, 42% of physicians recommended total knee arthroplasty to the male but not the female standardized patient, and 8% of physicians recommended total knee arthroplasty to the female but not the male standardized patient (odds ratio [OR] 4.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.4–7.3, p < 0.001; risk ratio [RR] 2.1, 95% CI 1.5–2.8, p < 0.001). The odds of an orthopedic surgeon recommending total knee arthroplasty to a male patient was 22 times (95% CI 6.4–76.0, p < 0.001) that for a female patient. The odds of a family physician recommending total knee arthroplasty to a male patient was 2 times (95% CI 1.04–4.71, p = 0.04) that for a female patient. Interpretation: Physicians were more likely to recommend total knee arthroplasty to a male patient than to a female patient, suggesting that gender bias may contribute to the sex-based disparity in the rates of use of total knee arthroplasty.


This paper aims to assess the future of CAP reforms after 2020 in Poland. We provide a comparative analysis in which the impact of uniform and coupled support scenarios are assessed and compared against alternative environmental regulation measures. An agricultural supply model AROPAj is used to highlight the difference between scenarios. Coupled support for protein and legume crops reduces inequality between farm groups. Although crop diversification increases, no drastic land use change has been noticed, thereby reducing N-fertiliser use and GHG emissions. Results vary according to regions and the type of farming and economic size.


In this work, two mathematical models are proposed for a class of enzymatic hydrolysis of lignocellulosic material; one is for a quick evaluation of performance, and the other one is for behavior description. The parameters of the performance model, which is a first order linear differential equation, are used to determine the yield and the velocity of the process. On the other hand, to describe the behavior of the process, a Michaelis-Menten kinetics is recalled, where it is considered an inhibitory effect that becomes present with the reducing sugar formation. To construct and characterize model features, two different substrate-enzyme systems were performed in an automatized stirred tank reactor; along the experiments, samples were frequently taken out to obtain reducing sugar trajectories. The substrate of one of the systems was wheat straw pretreated with acid, and of the other one was the same wheat straw but pretreated with alkali; a commercial enzyme complex was used in both systems. The parameter identification was performed by minimizing squared errors between experimental trajectories and model predictions: the parameters identified for the performance model allowed a quantitative comparison between the two systems, and the descriptive model made evident the presence of an inhibitory effect along the reducing sugar formation.


Background : Cerebral Palsy is permanent sequela of severe nonprogressive insult to the immature brain of children. In Nigeria, kernicterus from neonatal jaundice and hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy form severe birth asphyxia have been identified as among the leading causes of this scourge. Poor management of these causative conditions by doctors possibly by imbibing wrong beliefs and practices may be a major contributor to continuation of the scourge of cerebral palsy. Aim : The objective of this study is to determine if doctors practicing in Delta state of Nigeria are part of the wrong beliefs and practices that militate against effective management of the two prominent causes of cerebral palsy in Nigeria. Methods : A survey of 116 doctors randomly selected from 600 doctors in both public and private health institutions in Delta state of Nigeria was done by means of a structured questionnaire. Results : The result of the survey showed that 75% of the doctors have wrong beliefs and practices regarding the management of neonatal jaundice while 89.7% have similar wrong beliefs and practices with respect to the management of birth asphyxia. Conclusion : Medical practitioners should be re-educated possibly through the continuing medical education (CME) which is a pre-requisite to renewing the practicing license while long term measures require strengthening medical school teaching and learning modules to emphasize key points in the undergraduate medical training programs.

 Key words : Neonatal jaundice, birth asphyxia, cerebral palsy, health institutions, practice, CME


In this paper we present a novel framework for geolocalizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) using only their onboard camera. The framework exploits the abundance of satellite imagery, along with established computer vision and deep learning methods, to locate the UAV in a satellite imagery map. It utilizes the contextual information extracted from the scene to attain increased geolocalization accuracy and enable navigation without the use of a Global Positioning System (GPS), which is advantageous in GPS-denied environments and provides additional enhancement to existing GPS-based systems. The framework inputs two images at a time, one captured using a UAV-mounted downlooking camera, and the other synthetically generated from the satellite map based on the UAV location within the map. Local features are extracted and used to register both images, a process that is performed recurrently to relate UAV motion to its actual map position, hence performing preliminary localization. A semantic shape matching algorithm is subsequently applied to extract and match meaningful shape information from both images, and use this information to improve localization accuracy. The framework is evaluated on two different datasets representing different geographical regions. Obtained results demonstrate the viability of proposed method and that the utilization of visual information can offer a promising approach for unconstrained UAV navigation and enable the aerial platform to be self-aware of its surroundings thus opening up new application domains or enhancing existing ones.


Over the past two decades, the international community has struggled to deal constructively with the problem of mitigating climate change. This is considered by many to be the preeminent public policy challenge of our time, but actual policy responses have been relatively modest. This essay provides an abbreviated narrative history of international policy in this domain, with a special emphasis on aspects of the problem, proposed solutions, and unresolved issues that are of interest to international economists and informed observers of the global economic system. We also discuss the potential conflict that could emerge between free trade principles on the one hand and environmental policy objectives on the other.


In the current competition, especially the increasingly competitive tobacco products, Bokor Mas must continue
increase production and find out what the customer satisfaction factor
so that consumers were satisfied with cigarette products Bokor Mas. Companies must constantly
make customers feel satisfied, because if consumers are not satisfied then the consumer
will be able to switch to another product but if consumers are satisfied then the consumer will be loyal
and will buy more product. Based on the background that has been disclosed, then
research problem formulation can be made of the factors
anything that affects
customer satisfaction with tobacco products Bokor Mas. The purpose of this study was to
know the factors
that affect customer satisfaction with tobacco products Bokor
Diamond in the village of New Miji III Sub Soldiers Kulon Mojokerto regency.
Consumer satisfaction is the level of one's feelings after comparing the performance or
results which he felt compared hoped. Satisfaction can be reached if the need
and wishes can be fulfilled. The hallmark of consumer satisfaction is to provide
great opportunity to re-purchase the product in the future
and will say things
that both of these products to others. Satisfaction
influenced by consumers in addition to product quality is also influenced by an easy purchase
and equitable distribution and is also influenced by information that can be accepted by consumers.
In its efforts to increase consumer satisfaction, the company could theoretically
include the practice of Public Relations optimally as a means of delivering information
to the producer to the consumer. Activities that can be supported by the Public Relations, among others
publicity, perikalanan, exhibitions, sales promotion and so forth where aktifitasaktifitas
is able to support the efforts of information to consumers.
This research method using a case study, because the research findings were correct
only form of data and is not intended to be generalized, therefore approach
qualitative results. Sources of information and data from this study is the informant, document,
and research subjects. The subject of this research is that consumers of cigarettes Bokor Mas. Engineering
collecting data using interviews, observation and documentary techniques. Data analysis
This research uses descriptive, primarily descriptive verbal. Based on data analysis
description of the factors
are deemed to affect consumer satisfaction.
From the results of this study can be obtained from the data factors
affecting satisfaction
consumer of tobacco products Bokor Mas is a cheap and affordable prices. From
the price offered the consumer can choose from the price of Rp 1200 to Rp 6400. Quality
a distinctive taste that has a distinctive taste because of the cloves and processed
choice of quality tobacco. Creating loyal consumers using and buying cigarettes
Bokor Mas. Packaging is attractive, practical and a lot of choices is one characteristic
which makes consumers are not bored and can choose whichever is appropriate packaging. And from
practical packaging that can be brought kemanamana.
Last marketing or distribution channels
equitable so that consumers of cigarettes Bokor Mas could easily buy that and
anytime.


We describe the design, implementation and on going evaluation processes of "NukaBot", a system built to realize Human to Microbe Interaction, aimed to assist production of fermented food. Our system senses, records and analyzes in real time the fermentation process inside a "nukadoko", a traditional method to produce vegetable pickles in Japan that involves a highly complex network of microbes. The flora of a nukadoko mainly consists of lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and gram-negative bacteria. The novelty of our system lies in providing an intuitive user interface that lets its user chat with a virtual persona attributed to the nukadoko. The NukaBot thus enables non-specialists to discern the complex dynamics of the microbial communities within a nukadoko in daily situations.


This paper focuses on distributed state estimation using a sensor network for monitoring a linear system. In order to account for physical constraints on process states and inputs, we propose a moving horizon approach where each sensor has to solve a quadratic programming problem at each time instant. We discuss conditions guaranteeing convergence of all estimates to a common value by characterizing the dynamics of the unobservable component of the state. Furthermore, we highlight how the performance of the state estimation scheme depends upon various observability properties of the system and discuss how different communication protocols impact on the quality of the estimates.


The impulsive behavior of piston plays a key role in the Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) of internal combustion engines. There have been several studies on the identification and quantification of piston impacting action under various operation conditions. In the current study, the dynamics of piston secondary motion are briefly explored, since this is fundamental to understanding the aggressive oscillations, energy loss and noise generation. Concepts of controlling piston secondary motion (and thus, impacts) are investigated and a new passive control approach is presented based on the nonlinear energy absorption of the highly transient oscillations. The effectiveness of this new method on the improvement of piston impact behavior is discussed, using a preliminary optimization exercise (with respect to engine excitation/speed, damping and stiffness of the nonlinear oscillator) that leads to the conceptual design of a nonlinear energy absorber.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


One major problem of swine production is the huge volume of manure generated; this involve difficulties in proper handling of the residue when applied to the soil, given that such elements can be toxic to the environment. This study examined the vertical movement of the P, K and mineral N in the soil profile cultivated with Cynodon dactylon cv. Tifton 85 which was submitted consecutively to rates of Liquid Swine Manure (LSM) application (four years). The experiment was done using a randomized block design with four replications in a split-plot arrangement, where the whole plots were semiannual applications (November, 2002 to September, 2006) of increasing levels of LSM (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 180 m3 ha-1); while the sub-plots were the soil samples at different depths (0-10, 10-20, 20-40, and 40-60 cm). The N-NO3- leaching was observed when application of LSM exceeded 90 m3 ha-1 twice annually or during the year, suggesting a limit level for fertilizer on Tifton 85 pastures. Phosphorous and potassium accumulation was observed at higher LSM rate, mainly at the 0-10 cm soil layer since the soil P levels increased up to the highest evaluated depth at the 180 m3 ha-1 LSM level. LSM meets the Tifton 85 nutritional requirement regarding N, P and K when applied semi-annually at the rate of 90 m³ ha-1 without causing pollution effects; although the grass production responds up to 180 m3 ha-1 levels.

 Key words: Cynodon dactylon, environmental contamination, mineral nitrogen, organic fertilizers.


HYBRID INORGANIC/ORGANIC NANOSTRUCTURED TANDEM SOLAR CELLS: SIMULATION AND FABRICATION METHODS Patrick Michael Boland Jr. Old Dominion University, 2011 Director: Dr. Gon Namkoong Organic solar cell technologies continue to be an extremely active area of scientific research. With their promise of providing low-cost, easily-processable, multiapplication photovoltaics, these devices could very possibly be the most viable and practical form of renewable energy among many being explored. However, significant technological obstacles remain that must be overcome if this technology is to successfully realize the goal of providing abundant energy while simultaneously reducing dependence on fossil fuel-based sources. Compared with inorganic solar photovoltaics, power conversion efficiencies in organics are still too low to compete economically. Much research has been accomplished over the past three decades in an attempt to optimize the performance characteristics of planar organic solar cell devices. Unfortunately, the limitations of device physics and the optical and electrical characteristics inherent in semiconducting polymers restrict the achievable efficiency for this type of structure. A "next generation" approach to surmounting this shortcoming is to stack multiple planar devices in such a way that enhanced performance is achieved. This tactic requires hybridization through the inclusion of inorganic metal oxide components that serve a number of functions such as electron and/or hole transporters/blockers and optical spacers. In this work, these "tandem" devices are modeled and their functionality simulated using computer-based algorithms in an effort to ascertain the ideal structural, optical, and electrical properties that must be designed into actual hybrid inorganic/organic photovoltaic devices. Additionally, several solar cells are fabricated and the methods described to show the many factors to be accounted for and controlled to achieve high-efficiency devices. Results produced in this study show that hybrid inorganic/organic solar cells can significantly improve power conversion efficiency over standard planar devices simulated results show efficiencies over 9% are possible. Such factors as electron and hole mobilities, structural layer thicknesses, and choice of polymer and fullerene materials were found to be critical to the optimization of these structures. A key finding is that charge carrier mobilities in the subcells must be balanced so that space charge current limitations are avoided, thereby ensuring the maximum achievable current through the tandem structures. Hybrid inorganic/organic solar cells have tremendous promise as an alternative means of renewable energy production. Modeling and simulation are valuable tools that allow for the assessment of a multitude of various interdependent factors that impact the performance of these devices. By conducting this type of analysis prior to fabricating actual solar cells, considerable time and materials resources can be conserved while, at the same time, rapid prototyping can be accomplished and improvements in performance characteristics realized more quickly.


In this study, we explore the value of using a recently proposed multimodal learning method as an initialization for anomaly detection in abdominal ultrasound images. The method efficiently learns visual concepts from radiological reports using natural language supervision and constrastive learning. The underlying requirement of the method is simply the availability of image and textual descriptions pairs. However, in abdominal ultrasound examinations, radiological reports are associated with several images and describe all organs observed during the examination. To address this shortcoming, we automatically construct image and text pairs using 1) deep clustering for abdominal organ classification on ultrasound images and 2) natural language processing tools to extract the corresponding description on the report. We show that pre-training the model with these constructed pairs yields representations that better separate normal classes from abnormal ones on ultrasound images for the kidneys, compared to ImageNet-based representations, with a 10% improvement in macro-average accuracy.


The 'personal is political' has long been recognised as the definitive slogan of second-wave feminism but can it still inform our understanding of the contemporary practice of feminism? Questioning the importance of this claim now invites us to critically reflect upon the trajectory Western feminism has followed in light of the efforts made by the Women's Liberation movement to politicise formerly unquestioned aspects of social relations. In this paper, the significance of this feminist slogan will be assessed by locating it within two broadly defined historical periods. Firstly we identify the critical work performed by the ideas expressed in the slogan in the early years of the 1970s and then assess their continued relevance within the context of the early 21st century. Drawing upon the empirical analysis of young women's experience of and relationship to feminism via their engagement with social media in Britain, this research critically assesses digital spaces as places where young women explore their personal experiences. We aim to understand how this may constitute a contemporary form of feminist practice consistent with the claim that 'the personal is political'.


Background Mosquito feeding behaviour determines the degree of vector–host contact and may have a serious impact on the risk of West Nile virus (WNV) epidemics. Feeding behaviour also interacts with other biotic and abiotic factors that affect virus amplification and transmission. Methodology/Principal Findings We identified the origin of blood meals in five mosquito species from three different wetlands in SW Spain. All mosquito species analysed fed with different frequencies on birds, mammals and reptiles. Both 'mosquito species' and 'locality' explained a similar amount of variance in the occurrence of avian blood meals. However, 'season of year' was the main factor explaining the presence of human blood meals. The differences in diet resulted in a marked spatial heterogeneity in the estimated WNV transmission risk. Culex perexiguus, Cx. modestus and Cx. pipiens were the main mosquito species involved in WNV enzootic circulation since they feed mainly on birds, were abundant in a number of localities and had high vector competence. Cx. perexiguus may also be important for WNV transmission to horses, as are Cx. pipiens and Cx. theileri in transmission to humans. Estimates of the WNV transmission risk based on mosquito diet, abundance and vector competence matched the results of previous WNV monitoring programs in the area. Our sensitivity analyses suggested that mosquito diet, followed by mosquito abundance and vector competence, are all relevant factors in understanding virus amplification and transmission risk in the studied wild ecosystems. At some of the studied localities, the risk of enzootic circulation of WNV was relatively high, even if the risk of transmission to humans and horses was less. Conclusions/Significance Our results describe for first time the role of five WNV candidate vectors in SW Spain. Interspecific and local differences in mosquito diet composition has an important effect on the potential transmission risk of WNV to birds, horses and humans.


This thesis addresses a number of topics which are not normally combined: John Rawls, homelessness, and social policy. The research is a piece of applied philosophy which seeks to address claims about a disconnection between philosophical frameworks and tangible political problems. It argues that there is a role for philosophers, and philosophical frameworks, within the policy-making process. By applying philosophy to policy we can create normative accounts of the development and impact of legislation.
The philosophical framework used within this research is John Rawls' conception of justice as fairness. The work outlines the liberal principle of legitimacy and argues that Rawls' concept of reasonableness can, and should, be used to justify the intervention of policy in individuals' lives. The concept of reasonableness can be used as a regulatory mechanism in order to test whether social policy meets a standard of social justice. The metric used for this standard is whether the worst off in society have the capacity to create and pursue a conception of the good, a central capability of citizens as effective agents. Through modifying or emphasising certain Rawlsian concepts, the research develops the Difference Principle as a regulatory test to be applied to social policy.
The final part of the research provides this initial application. The Housing (Wales) Act is used as a case study to assess whether the test as developed is able to create normative interpretations of specific pieces of legislation. It identifies a particular legal tool – the Pereira Test – as problematic on a normative account. The application of the Difference Principle demonstrates that this particular legal tool undermines individuals' ability to safeguard their fundamental interests, and their capacity to create and pursue a conception of the good.