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Object The interhemispheric transcallosal approach offers an excellent surgical corridor for the treatment of deep-seated midline lesions. The approach typically requires the sacrifice of one or more middle-third superior sagittal sinus (SSS) cortical bridging veins, which introduces the risk of venous infarction and associated neurological injury. The authors studied the incidence of venous infarcts following this operative approach in a pediatric population. Methods The authors performed a retrospective review of surgical cases involving pediatric patients treated at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles between 1990 and 2007, in which an interhemispheric transcallosal operative procedure was performed and one or more middle-third SSS cortical bridging veins were occluded. Postoperative MR imaging studies done 1–3 days following the procedure were analyzed and compared with preoperative studies. Results Sixty-three patients met the inclusion criteria. No patient developed MR imaging evidence of venous infarction. Conclusions The occlusion of one or more middle-third SSS cortical bridging veins related to the interhemispheric transcallosal approach resulted in no incidence of cerebral venous infarction in this pediatric population.

An HIV incidence estimation was performed among men who have sex with men (MSM), drug users (DUs), sex workers (SWs), and pregnant women (PW) from Argentina. Volunteers older than 18 years old without a previous HIV-positive diagnosis were included. HIV-positive samples were analyzed by the Serological Testing Algorithm for Recent HIV Seroconversion (STARHS) to estimate incidence. By partial RT-PCR and sequencing of the HIV pol gene, an HIV subtype and resistance profile were determined. A total of 12,192 volunteers were recruited from October 2006 to September 2008. A higher HIV prevalence was detected among trans SWs (33.9%, 38/112), male SWs (10.8%, 12/111), and MSM 10.4% (161/1549). HIV incidence estimates by STARHS was also higher on trans SWs (11.31 per 100 person-years), male SWs (6.06 per 100 person-years), and MSM (6.36 per 100 person-years). Antiretroviral primary resistant mutations were detected in 8.4% of the study group, with a higher frequency in female DUs (33.3%). Phylogenetic analysis showed that 124 (57.9%) samples were subtype B, 84 (39.3%) intersubtype BF recombinants, 5 (2.3%) subtype C, and 1 (0.5%) subtype F in the pol region. Subtype B was most commonly found in MSM and male SWs whereas the intersubtype BF recombinant was more prevalent in female DUs, female SWs, and PW. Given the high HIV prevalence and incidence found in most of these groups, monitoring the continuing spread of the HIV epidemic is essential for determining public health priorities, assessing the impact of interventions, and estimating current and future health care needs.

El presente volumen especial de Romance Notes esta dedicado a notas sobre las literaturas en lenguas "minoritarias" o "minorizadas" en Espana y Latinoamerica, mostrando la innegable relevancia alcanzada por esta produccion textual dentro de registros hegemonicos literarios y culturales mas amplios. Por medio de este volumen, buscamos poner en dialogo dicha produccion textual y ofrecer al lector una discusion que tienda un puente entre ambas latitudes del Atlantico. En efecto, al margen de sus respectivas diferencias geograficas, linguisticas y contextuales, como se vera en varias de estas notas, la gestacion epistemologica de esta produccion literaria en lenguas minoritarias o minorizadas muestra evidentes similitudes. Se trata en este sentido de iluminar tales semejanzas y diferencias critico-discursivas con el objetivo de desarrollar acercamientos y ampliar la discusion en torno a dicha produccion literaria. La importancia del volumen reside en priorizar el rol de la lengua no solo como instrumento para el desarrollo de la cultura, sino tambien como producto de esta y transmisora de los valores por los cuales una cultura se percibe como unica en el mundo. Cabe recordar que la manera en que nos percibimos a nosotros mismos afecta no solo la percepcion que tenemos de nuestra propia cultura, sino tambien la de otras, al igual que la de sus politicas y la de su produccion social de bienestar. La lengua es, por tanto, inseparable de nosotros mismos como comunidad de seres humanos con una forma especifica y caracter, una historia y una relacion especifica con el mundo. No es casualidad que el surgimiento de las literaturas en lenguas minoritarias o minorizadas se este desenvolviendo dentro de lo que hoy consideramos un mundo globalizado. Como se sabe, en la actualidad presenciamos lo que ha llamado James Tully "extranas multiplicidades"; es decir, la emergencia dentro de los estados-naciones modernos de las llamadas "minorias" (o "mayorias" subalternizadas en otros casos) que buscan tanto un reconocimiento constitucional como tambien derechos civiles especificos, como por ejemplo, la oficializacion de los idiomas. En Espana, lenguas como el catalan, el gallego y el euskera han sufrido prohibicion legal con el objeto de evitar su uso en el ambito publico, como ocurrio durante el proceso de centralizacion y castellanizacion llevado a cabo desde principios del siglo xviii, con la promulgacion de los Decretos de Nueva Planta por Felipe V, hasta el establecimiento de las dictaduras de Miguel Primo de Rivera (1923-1930) y de Francisco Franco (1939-1975) durante el siglo XX, en las que se impidio la utilizacion de otra lengua que no fuera el castellano. Experiencias similares ocurren en Latinoamerica a partir de la constitucion de los estados-naciones modernos los cuales a pesar de apropiarse de la economia simbolico-cultural de los pueblos indigenas, impusieron y difundieron imaginarios que desplegaban a la nacion como cultural y linguisticamente homogenea. Es decir, el castellano como el idioma nacional, el sujeto criollo-mestizo como el sujeto nacional. De ahi que para las elites intelectuales lo indigena era un "problema" que necesitaba ser resuelto con politicas de asimilacion. En esa saga, los idiomas indigenas se emplearon contra los indigenas mismos a modo de suministrar un complejo de inferioridad sobre su idioma y su cultura. No obstante, a traves de incesantes luchas y con la llegada de la democracia, las lenguas minoritarias o minorizadas han ganado cierta presencia dado que han conquistado ciertos espacios a nivel publico, alcanzando algunas de sus demandas a proposito de su oficializacion. En algunos paises latinoamericanos las cupulas hegemonicas ahora publicamente asumen la diversidad y hasta reconocen el caracter "pluricultural, plurilingue y plurinacional" del estado-nacion moderno. Sin embargo, estos logros siguen estando relegados principalmente a los ambitos territoriales en los que estos idiomas minoritarios o minorizados se hablan, co-existiendo como lenguas co-oficiales del castellano, idioma que permanece como la lengua hegemonica y dominante. …

3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), popularly known as “ecstasy” is a synthetic, psychoactive drug used recreationally for its euphoric and “energy increasing” effects. MDMA has been linked to several severe adverse effects including the development of serotonin syndrome and sudden death. Individuals of Asian descent have been shown to have a predisposition for these severe adverse effects. We present a case of a young Asian-American male who following MDMA ingestion presented with severe rhabdomyolysis (CK 130,350 U/L), multiple organ failure and severe serotonin syndrome with one of the highest recorded temperatures ‘108.9 °F (42.7 °C)’ in a survivor of severe serotonin syndrome. The patient initially received supportive care including ventilatory support; he eventually needed hemodialysis, but went on to make a full recovery within 3 weeks. This case shows and emphasizes the importance of ‘aggressive’ supportive care on patient prognosis particularly for patients on the extreme end of the serotonin syndrome.

Pilosocereus leucocephalus produces flowers in discrete pulses, suggesting this cactus might exhibit pulsed flowering—a rare flowering pattern among angiosperms. In this study, we (1) describe the phenology of P. leucocephalus, (2) explore the influence of temperature, rainfall, and plant size on the flowering pattern, and (3) assess the effect of flowering phenology on the reproductive success of this cactus. Flowering phenology was characterized using the coefficient of variation in addition to traditional descriptors of flowering phenology: flowering onset, flowering duration, number of pulses and flowers, as well as flowering synchrony. The association between temperature, rainfall, plant size, and reproductive success (fruit set) with phenological descriptors was assessed using mixed-effects models. The flowering phenology of P. leucocephalus was confirmed as pulsed but was unexpectedly asynchronous. This cactus flowers during the warmest part of the year. We found a significant relationship between temperature and flower production. Plant size has a strong effect on all the flowering phenology descriptors we studied, except flowering synchrony. Of the phenological descriptors evaluated, only flowering onset has a significant and positive relationship with fruit set. These results strongly suggest that flowering phenology in P. leucocephalus (1) is mainly controlled by temperature and plant size and (2) influences its reproductive success.

AIDS Behav (2010) 14:1045–1054 DOI 10.1007/s10461-010-9695-y ORIGINAL PAPER The Contribution of Male and Female Partners’ Substance Use to Sexual Risks and STDs Among African American HIV Serodiscordant Couples The NIMH Multisite HIV/STD Prevention Trial for African American Couples Group Published online: 25 May 2010 O Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract Growing evidence suggests that drug and alcohol use are fueling the heterosexual transmission of HIV among African Americans. This study aims to examine the relative contribution of drug and alcohol use of male and female partners to risks of heterosexual transmission of HIV among 535 African American HIV serodiscordant couples (N = 1,070 participants) who par- ticipated in an HIV prevention trial. Associations found between use of drugs and alcohol by one or both partners and sexual risk indicators varied by type of substance and whether male or female partner or both partners reported use. The findings suggest multiple ways in which substance use of male and female partners may be contributing to the heterosexual transmission of HIV and other STDs among African Americans and underscore the need for HIV pre- vention strategies to address dyadic patterns of substance use that lead to sexual risks. The NIMH Multisite HIV/STD Prevention Trial for African American Couples Study Group Facilitators Jeffery Brently, MSW - Columbia Rebecca D. Cheraquit, MSSW - Columbia Deborah Gray - Columbia Linda Hakim - Columbia Bright Sarfo - Columbia Kijana Saunders - Columbia Dawn Simmons, MSW - Columbia Keisha Wilson, MSW - Columbia Nikia D. Braxton, MPH - Emory Christina Camp, PhD - Emory Anita Conner, MPH - Emory Jevon Gibson - Emory Alvin Harmon, PhD - Emory Teaniese Latham, MPH - Emory Tiffany Pennick-Walters, MPH - Emory Kenneth Rucker - Emory Shammara Steinback, MPH - Emory Phillip Williams - Emory Richard Williams, PhD - Emory Shauni Williams - Emory Kevin Chancy, PsyD - UCLA Frank Levels - UCLA Nathaniel Thomas, PhD - UCLA Reginald Bennett, MS - Penn Shirley Bryson, MSW - Penn Salema Curtis, MPH - Penn Michelle Jones, MS - Penn Phyllis Jones, MSW - Penn Malachi Moore, MS - Penn Charles Patterson, MA - Penn Marcia Penn, MS - Penn Alicia Samuel, M.Ed. - Penn Steering Committee Nabila El-Bassel, DSW (PI) - Columbia Gina Wingood, ScD, MPH (PI) - Emory Gail E. Wyatt, PhD (PI) - UCLA John B. Jemmott, III, PhD (PI) - Penn Willo Pequegnat, PhD - NIMH J. Richard Landis, PhD (PI) - DCC Co-Investigators Scarlett Bellamy, ScD - DCC Louisa Gilbert, PhD Candidate - Columbia Robert H. Remien, PhD - Columbia Susan Witte, PhD - Columbia Elwin Wu, PhD - Columbia Ralph DiClemente, PhD - Emory Hector Myers, PhD - UCLA Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, RN, FAAN - Penn David Metzger, PhD - Penn Data Coordinating Center (DCC - Penn) Shawn Ballard, MS Trina Brown Quincy Greene Christopher Helker, RN, MSPH Nancy Robinson, PhD Lynne Allen-Taylor, PhD Dina Appleby, MS Evelyn Crowley, PhD Project Directors Angela Ankoma MSSW, MPH - Columbia Deidre Ashton, MSSW - Columbia Dawn A. Goddard, MSS - Columbia Tamu Daniel, MPH - Emory Tina Henderson, PhD - UCLA Inna Rivkin, PhD - UCLA Cynthia M. Green, MA - Penn

AIDS Behav (2010) 14:1011–1022 DOI 10.1007/s10461-010-9699-7 ORIGINAL PAPER Concordant and Discordant Reports on Shared Sexual Behaviors and Condom Use Among African American Serodiscordant Couples in Four Cities The NIMH Multisite HIV/STD Prevention Trial for African American Couples Group Published online: 25 May 2010 O Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract This paper examines the concordance of reported shared sexual behaviors, including condom use, among 535 heterosexual, African American, serodiscordant couples and identifies factors that might predict discordant reports. Percentages of agreement, Kappa and McNemar’s statistics and conditional probability indices are used to measure concordance. Logistic regression models identify predictors of couples’ discordant sexual reports. Analyses revealed Kappa statistics for reporting anal sex, fellatio and cunnilingus indicated moderate to substantial agreement. The effects of demographics and the couples’ relationship contexts on concordance of reported sexual behaviors were found to vary somewhat by gender and type of sexual behavior. Findings showed that concordance of reporting between the couples was consistent for the past 90 and 30 days. Findings from this paper provide new scientific insights into the knowledge base of self-reported couples’ data and suggest that these data can be used to evaluate their accuracy and serve as a proxy for validity. The NIMH Multisite HIV/STD Prevention Trial for African American Couples Study Group Facilitators Jeffery Brently, MSW - Columbia Rebecca D. Cheraquit, MSSW - Columbia Deborah Gray - Columbia Linda Hakim - Columbia Bright Sarfo - Columbia Kijana Saunders - Columbia Dawn Simmons, MSW - Columbia Keisha Wilson, MSW - Columbia Nikia D. Braxton, MPH - Emory Christina Camp, PhD - Emory Anita Conner, MPH - Emory Jevon Gibson - Emory Alvin Harmon, PhD - Emory Teaniese Latham, MPH - Emory Tiffany Pennick-Walters, MPH - Emory Kenneth Rucker - Emory Shammara Steinback, MPH - Emory Phillip Williams - Emory Richard Williams, PhD - Emory Shauni Williams - Emory Kevin Chancy, PsyD - UCLA Frank Levels - UCLA Nathaniel Thomas, PhD - UCLA Reginald Bennett, MS - Penn Shirley Bryson, MSW - Penn Salema Curtis, MPH - Penn Michelle Jones, MS - Penn Phyllis Jones, MSW - Penn Malachi Moore, MS - Penn Charles Patterson, MA - Penn Marcia Penn, MS - Penn Alicia Samuel, M.Ed. - Penn Steering Committee Nabila El-Bassel, DSW (PI) - Columbia Gina Wingood, ScD, MPH (PI) - Emory Gail E. Wyatt, PhD (PI) - UCLA John B. Jemmott, III, PhD (PI) - Penn Willo Pequegnat, PhD - NIMH J. Richard Landis, PhD (PI) - DCC Co-Investigators Scarlett Bellamy, ScD - DCC Louisa Gilbert, PhD Candidate - Columbia Robert H. Remien, PhD - Columbia Susan Witte, PhD - Columbia Elwin Wu, PhD - Columbia Ralph DiClemente, PhD - Emory Hector Myers, PhD - UCLA Loretta Sweet Jemmott, PhD, RN, FAAN - Penn David Metzger, PhD - Penn Data Coordinating Center (DCC - Penn) Shawn Ballard, MS Trina Brown Quincy Greene Christopher Helker, RN, MSPH Nancy Robinson, PhD Lynne Allen-Taylor, PhD Dina Appleby, MS Evelyn Crowley, PhD Project Directors Angela Ankoma MSSW, MPH - Columbia Deidre Ashton, MSSW - Columbia Dawn A. Goddard, MSS - Columbia Tamu Daniel, MPH - Emory Tina Henderson, PhD - UCLA Inna Rivkin, PhD - UCLA Cynthia M. Green, MA - Penn

Shifting and permanent cultivation, selective logging, cattle production and coffee plantations are among the most important factors in montane cloud forest conversion and disturbance. Although shaded-coffee plantations can contribute to the preservation of local species richness, abundance of organisms could be determined by habitat resource availability in agricultural landscapes. We compared abundance of Sturnira and Artibeus bats (Phyllostomidae, Stenodermatinae), in shade coffee plantations and disturbed cloud forest fragments, which represent habitats with different chiropterochorous plant density. We also investigated the relationship between bat species abundance and food plant richness, abundance and diversity. We captured 956 bats, 76% in cloud forest fragments and 24% in shaded coffee plantations. Abundance of Sturnira spp. (small bats) was greater in cloud forest than in coffee plantations, but Artibeus spp. (large bats) abundance was similar in both habitats. Chiropterochorous plant abundance was positively related with bat abundance for Sturnira spp., while chiropterochorous plant richness and diversity were negatively related for Artibeus spp. This suggests that frugivorous bats with different morphological and ecological characteristics respond differentially to anthropogenic activities. For landscape management purposes, the maintenance and augmentation of diverse food resources, for frugivorous bats with different foraging requirements in coffee plantations, will benefit the resilience of bats to modification of their natural habitat.

Considering Michel de Certeau's ideas about spatial stories, my objective is to analyze the exiled subject and the construction of collective memory (in Maurice Halbwachs's terms) in Merce Rodoreda's Quanta, quanta guerra… (1980). I first analyze the exiled subject taking into account how the novel, in the tradition of the Bildungsroman, narrates the travel story of its protagonist, Adria Guinart, from his departure from home to his return as the mythic hero in search of a truth, or as the picaresque antihero of the Quest-Romance. Concurrently, I study the construction of collective memory from the protagonist's individual memory, as he passes from infancy—when he runs away from home to go to war—to adulthood—when the war ends—where he undergoes a wide range of experiences to become a man.

This study compares the post-dispersal predation of seeds from the cacti Myrtillocactus geometrizans and Opuntia pilifera by diurnal vertebrates, nocturnal vertebrates, and ants under nurse plants in three plant associations found in the semiarid scrubland of Tehuacan Valley (Mexico). Experiments on seed removal showed that, regardless of cactus species and plant association, ants were the main seed predators. Predation of M. geometrizans seeds varied depending on plant association and predator type, but it could not be associated with the abundance of granivore guilds; seed predation was more prominent in scrublands dominated by Beaucarnea gracilis . For O. pilifera , seed predation by ants was more intense in scrublands dominated by Neobuxbaumia tetetzo , but there was a significant interaction between plant association and predator type. These results support the existence of spatial variability in interactions between seeds and granivores above the microhabitat scale, which—to varying degrees of intensity—influences the distribution of seeds dispersed by frugivorous animals. This among-plant association variability in seed–granivore interactions, in addition to the within-plant association variability (e.g. nurse canopy vs. open area), should be taken into account when studying the causes of differential recruitment of plant species in arid environments.

Fruit flies are the main pest problem with guava production in Calvillo, mainly for quarantine restrictions that prevent guava fresh fruit exportation. The Calvillo-Canones is the most important guava producing region in Mexico and currently it is considered a low prevalence zone for fruit fly, a condition achieved as a result of a fruit fly management program that started in 1993. To support this program, a digital geodatabase system is being developed for the Calvillo region with cartographic and satellite images, topographic cartography at the 1:20,000 scale, geostatistical and climatic information, in combination with spatial and temporal fruit fly trapping information over the last five years. The information was reviewed and validated in ArcGIS 9.1 followed by some preliminary analysis of fruit fly infestation and distribution. Our preliminary results showed no relationship of fruit fly trapping with slope, altitude, orientation and landscape elements, suggesting that other factors such as pesticide applications and alternate hosts may be strongly involved. Integrating fruit fly information with cartographic, topographic, socioeconomic and biological data can help to better understand fruit fly spatial and temporal dynamics for decision support management in the guava producing region of Calvillo.

Axonal elongation is one of the hallmarks of neuronal polarization. This phenomenon requires axonal membrane growth by exocytosis of plasmalemmal precursor vesicles (PPVs) at the nerve growth cone, a process regulated by IGF-1 activation of the PI3K (phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase) pathway. Few details are known, however, about the targeting mechanisms for PPVs. Here, we show, in cultured hippocampal pyramidal neurons and growth cones isolated from fetal rat brain, that IGF-1 activates the GTP-binding protein TC10, which triggers translocation to the plasma membrane of the exocyst component exo70 in the distal axon and growth cone. We also show that TC10 and exo70 function are necessary for addition of new membrane and, thus, axon elongation stimulated by IGF-1. Moreover, expression silencing of either TC10 or exo70 inhibit the establishment of neuronal polarity by hindering the insertion of IGF-1 receptor in one of the undifferentiated neurites. We conclude that, in hippocampal pyramidal neurons in culture, (1) membrane expansion at the axonal growth cone is regulated by IGF-1 via a cascade involving TC10 and the exocyst complex, (2) TC10 and exo70 are essential for the polarized externalization of IGF-1 receptor, and (3) this process is necessary for axon specification.

The biogeography of plant-animal interactions is a novel topic on which many disciplines converge (e.g., reproductive biology, biogeography, and evolutionary biology). Narrative reviews have indicated that tropical columnar cacti and agaves have highly specialized pollination systems, while extratropical species have generalized systems. However, this dichotomy has never been quantitatively tested. We tested this hypothesis using traditional and phylogenetically informed meta-analysis. Three effect sizes were estimated from the literature: diurnal, nocturnal, and hand cross-pollination (an indicator of pollen limitation). Columnar cactus pollination systems ranged from purely bat-pollinated in the tropics to generalized pollination, with diurnal visitors as effective as nocturnal visitors in extratropical regions; even when phylogenetic relatedness among species is taken into account. Metaregressions identified a latitudinal increase in pollen limitation in columnar cacti, but this increase was not significant after correcting for phylogeny. The currently available data for agaves do not support any latitudinal trend. Nectar production of columnar cacti varied with latitude. Although this variation is positively correlated with pollination by diurnal visitors, it is influenced by phylogeny. The degree of specificity in the pollination systems of columnar cacti is heavily influenced by ecological factors and has a predictable geographic pattern.

Myrmecochory sensu stricto is uncommon in Neotropical forests. In these ecosystems the role of ants as secondary dispersers of non-myrmecochorous seeds is well known, however, the primary dispersal of this type of seed by ants has been poorly documented. Only a few anecdotal observations scattered throughout the literature report the removal of these seeds from fruit on the plant by ants. We show experimentally that ants are able to remove more pulp and seeds from fruit on the branches than do flying vertebrates in Pilosocereus leucocephalus, a columnar cactus bearing typically ornithochorous fruit. In addition, experiments emulating seed cleaning revealed that cleaned seeds germinate earlier. These results suggest a possible role of ants as primary cactus dispersers; one that requires more extensive research on seed fate and seedling establishment success.

Tuberculosis (TB) pleural disease is complicated by extensive tissue destruction. Matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and -9 are implicated in immunopathology of pulmonary and central nervous system TB. There are few data on MMP activity in TB pleurisy. The present study investigated MMP-1, -2 and -9 and their specific inhibitors (tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-1 and -2) in tuberculous effusions, and correlated these with clinical and histopathological features. Clinical data, routine blood tests, and pleural fluid/biopsy material were obtained from 89 patients presenting with pleural effusions in a TB-endemic area. MMP-1, -2 and -9 were measured by zymography or western blot, and TIMP-1 and -2 by ELISA. Pleural biopsies were examined microscopically, cultured for acid-alcohol fast bacilli and immunostained for MMP-9. Tuberculous pleural effusions contained the highest concentrations of MMP-9 compared with malignant effusions or heart failure transudates. MMP-9 concentrations were highest in effusions from patients with granulomatous biopsies: median (interquartile range) 108 (61-218) pg x mL(-1) versus 43 (12-83) pg x mL(-1) in those with nongranulomatous pleural biopsies. MMP-1 and -2 were not upregulated in tuberculous pleural fluid. The ratio of MMP-9:TIMP-1 was significantly higher in TB effusions. Tuberculous pleurisy is characterised by a specific pattern of matrix metalloproteinase-9 upregulation, correlating with the presence of granulomas and suggesting a specific role for matrix metalloproteinase-9 in inflammatory responses in tuberculous pleural disease.

With the increasing number of web sites, the time spent by users reviewing the results also increases. In addition, the nature of web content is semantically heterogeneous and oriented to people who will be able to understand it. Frequently the results from search engines do not correspond to the expected topic. One approach to improve the results is to match the content of the web pages with a formal vocabulary on the topic (ontology) and with the informal vocabulary (common terms of the topic but not in the ontology). This paper describes a web search method that takes advantage of ontologies to reduce the search area of certain topics. With this approach the relevance of search engine results is enhanced by filtering the content through the integration of domain ontologies, the WordNet thesaurus, and a hierarchical similarity measure. Thus, the improvement on the relevance of results reduces the time required to review such results.

I consider myself Un negrito, and I also have blood of the Taino, as well as the blood of the conquerors, the Spanish, and Other Europeans along the way. Piri Thomas In New York City's Spanish Harlem--el barrio--in the 1960s and 1970s, guessing was the only way Puerto Ricans could figure out their culture and history. In his introduction to Boricuas (1995), Roberto Santiago points out that school was the place where they learned about everyone else except themselves. They learned about the Fourth of July and how the United States was founded by English people who proclaimed that, in this nation, all men were created equal. They learned about how the Europeans shared dinner with the Indians on Thanksgiving. They learned about Christianity and how people who hold Christian values treated one another with love and respect. They learned about the environment and how important it was to keep the air and water clean. But who they were as a people was never a consideration; it was a question that seldom entered their minds. Every other group - the Italians, the Irish, the Jews, the African-Americans - seemed to have an idea who they were (xiii-xiv). By looking for an idea of what a Puerto Rican is, Down These Mean Streets (1967) is the journey of Piri Thomas, a black-skinned Puerto Rican, from hatred of everything white or white-like to a more complex understanding of race. Down These Mean Streets is a hybrid text of testimonial and imaginative literature, initiating the Nuyorican stage of continental Puerto Rican writing. In this novelized autobiography, Thomas deals with many of the issues society stereotypically associates with Latino minorities: poverty, educational failure, gang membership, drug addiction, welfare, petty crime, sexual perversity, and prison life (Sanchez 118-19). Thomas tells the reader not only how poverty in the ghetto leads him to drugs, youth gangs, and a series of criminal activities for which he will serve seven years in prison, but also how he faces a racism that he does not understand. Thomas's autobiographical account corresponds to the category of radicalized African-American works, such as Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcom X (1965) and Elridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice (1967), emerging at the time as a reaction to the perceived shortcomings of the non-violent Civil Rights Movements of the fifties and early sixties (Hiraldo 88). Besides the African-American literary tradition, Down These Mean Streets is also a book claimed by other literary traditions, such as U.S. Latino/a literature or Hispanic literature of the U.S. and Puerto Rican literature written in English. (1) The categorization of Thomas's literary production as an African-American, U.S. Latino, or Puerto Rican exceeds any classification, making the reader consider it as something more universal that transcends borders, literary traditions, and time as it might present or deal with issues concerning these societies back then or today. (2) The aim of this paper is to study Chapter 18 ("Barroom Sociology") of Down These Mean Streets as a subtext that constructs Piri Thomas's autobiographical account rhetorically. In this chapter, Thomas writes of an encounter among three men - including himself - in a nightclub in the South: Gerald Andrew West is a college-educated light-skinned African-American from Pennsylvania who is passing for a Puerto Rican to make, he says, "the next step to white" (191). He complains that whites allow him to be "Negro," but "Negroes" do not allow him to be white. The second man, Brew, is a dark-skinned African-American from Harlem who talks the talk of an angry black nationalist of the 1960s. He asks Gerald, "[W]hat kinda Negro is yuh?" (187). The third man, Piri, an angry and confused dark-skinned Puerto Rican from Spanish Harlem, is passing for "Negro," accepting the gaze of a social system that blackens him. By narrating "Piri's" encounter with Gerald in his trip to Dixie, I will show that this chapter frames the writing of Thomas's autobiography both at a formal level and a content level, since Thomas ends up writing the story that Gerald proposes to write: a book on the situation of black men (or Afro-Caribbean men, in the case of "Piri") and of his experience in the South (or in New York City). …

TRAS las elecciones de 1869 y la proclamacion de la I Republica espanola en 1873, aparecen en Cataluna diferentes propuestas politicas que ponen de manifiesto un cambio en la conciencia catalana. Mientras Francesc Pi i Margall (1824-1901) defendio un federalismo basado en terminos de universalidad y democracia, Valenti Almirall (1841-1904) sostuvo un federalismo que tenia sus raices en el particularismo cultural y en las tradiciones locales. El gobierno de la provincia de Barcelona considero proclamar un estado catalan para iniciar la federacion de Espana, proyecto del cual fue rapidamente disuadido. A pesar de la restauracion de la monarquia, el federalismo republicano continuo siendo importante como fuerza politica en Cataluna. Durante la decada de los 1880 tuvo lugar una serie de congresos catalanistas (el primero en 1880 y el segundo en 1883) que intentaron presentar una sintesis de las diferentes caracteristicas del catalanismo. Como resultado se acordo establecer la Academia de la Llengua Catalana para estandarizar el catalan; se adopto una politica de defensa del derecho civil catalan; se fundo el Centre Catala, cuerpo de coordinacion de las organizaciones catalanistas; se discutio el estatus de cooficialidad que debia tener el catalan junto al castellano y se proclamo a Cataluna como entidad politica con competencias sobre las divisiones administrati vas provinciales del gobierno de Espana. Se logro convertir, entonces, el catalanismo en un movimiento politico coherente. En cuanto al grado de aceptacion o de institucionalizacion del catalanismo como iniciativa politica hay que decir que este tuvo una mayor trascendencia legal tras la publicacion de La

In this article I suggest that Santiago Rusinol's Llibertat! explores a theatre of ideas and current affairs which resonates with Henrik Ibsen's. Through it, the conflicts and the message of Rusinol's play denounce the mediocrity and bourgeois intolerance of his society. It is not correct to frame Rusinol's theatrical aesthetics solely within symbolist theatre, as many critics do; instead, it must be seen as an appropriation of Ibsen's ideology in order to rethink how Rusinol's play has been categorized by the critics in the last few decades. The stress on ironical distancing, the individualization of the characters and the specificity of the kind of society portrayed are the characteristics that reveal the influence of the aesthetics of Ibsen's theatre of ideas. Rusinol uses irony and parody in order to show the status of Ibsen's man: from man to the universe and society, like a divided soul. Rusinol's is a social drama that fulfils the expectations people had of him that he would renew Catalan t...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Most studies on cactus recruitment have focused on the role of woody plants as seedling facilitators. Although the spatial association of cacti with objects had been described, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unknown. The aims of this study were to identify which mechanisms facilitate the establishment of a columnar cactus under the shade and protection of objects and to compare these mechanisms with those involved in plant-plant facilitation. METHODS Three split-split-plot field experiments were conducted to compare the effects of two microhabitats (inside rocky cavities and beneath plant canopies) on seed removal, germination, seedling survivorship and dry weight. Flat, open spaces were used as the control. For each microhabitat, the effect of seed or seedling protection and substrate limitation were explored; aboveground microclimate and some soil properties were also characterized. KEY RESULTS The permanence of superficial seeds was greater inside rocky cavities than beneath woody plant canopies or on flat, open areas. Germination was similar in cavities and beneath plant canopies, but significantly higher than on flat, open areas. Seedling survivorship was greater beneath plant canopies than inside cavities or on flat, open spaces. CONCLUSIONS The mechanisms of plant facilitation are different from those of object facilitation. There are seed-seedling conflicts involved in the recruitment of P. leucocephalus: nurse plants favour mainly seedling survivorship by providing a suitable microenvironment, while nurse objects mainly favour seed permanence, by protecting them from predators.

In this article, the author analyzes how Salvador Espriu in La pell de brau (re)builds the myth of Sepharad that refers to the Hebrew name of the assembly of the medieval Hispanic kingdoms. La pell de brau is a work that opens the "collective cycle" toward a "we" framed within a specific historical context. The poet criticizes the unified vision of the Spanish nation and of the Catholic religion. The (re)construction of the myth of Sepharad not only reflects the crisis of the subject in search of an identity in an intolerant Spain after the civil war but also subverts the myth of the Spanish nation as created by the doctrine of National Catholicism under Franco.

Under the hypothesis that bat diversity would be lower in the early stages of secondary succession and that species affected negatively by habitat modification would be more frequent in later successional stages, we evaluated how bats use 12 vegetation stands representing four stages of secondary succession, following disturbance caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and selective logging. We compared bat richness, abundance and diversity, and found that none of these variables was different among stages or rainy seasons. However, of the 10 most common bat species, two were significantly more abundant in stands at the early stages of secondary succession, while the opposite was true for three other species. Canopy cover mainly explains these patterns. Rainy season had no effect on the abundance of the common species. The results of this study indicate that although some frugivorous species were very abundant in the younger stands, the majority of the rare species were captured in older stands. The absence of rare and habitatspecialized species from young successional stages close to primary forest suggests that, for effective bat conservation in landscapes modified by human activity, areas with original vegetation should be maintained to ensure the survivorship of sensitive-to-deforestation species.

With the aim of quantitatively evaluating the usefulness of phyllostomid bats as ecological indicators, we compared intra-family levels and feeding guilds between tropical old-growth forest and patches of secondary vegetation growing where the land had been used for shifting agriculture. There were significant differences between vegetation types in bat species composition, with the frugivore guild most abundant in secondary vegetation and the animalivore guild most abundant in the old-growth forest. These results are congruent with the findings for other Neotropical zones and appear to be associated with the type of soil management that allows secondary vegetation to grow. Using the Indicator Value method, two subfamilies, five genera and five species were found to have a significant indicator value. However, these numbers only represent a small proportion of the five subfamilies, 20 genera and 28 species recorded, indicating that under the disturbance conditions that characterize the study area...

In this article I consider Rodolfo Usigli’s El gesticulador using Brechtian theatrical theory to explain the Mexican author’s reference to clasico and the universality he attributes to his piece. El gesticulador can be understood as an example of man producing himself and his circumstances. As Brecht affirmed, “Man makes himself.” I will show that, like the German playwright, Usigli utilizes impersonification to isolate a particular form of crisis of history. This impersonification – here, of the general Cesar Rubio – created by a history professor and expert in the Mexican Revolution, shows the audience class struggle, its contradictions and the necessity of social change. (AJS-V, Article in Spanish)

A major concern of users of cloud storage services is the lost of control over security, availability and privacy of their files. That is partially addressed by end-to-end encryption techniques. However, most of the solutions currently available offer rigid functionalities that cannot be rapidly integrated into customized tools to meet user's requirements like, for example, file sharing with other users. This paper presents an end-to-end architecture that enables users to build secure and resilient work-flows for storing and sharing files in the cloud. The workflows are configurable structures executed on the user-side that perform processing operations on the files through chained stages such as data compression for capacity overhead reduction, file assurance for ensuring confidentiality when sharing files and information dispersion for storing files in n cloud locations and retrieving them even during outages of m cloud storage providers. The users can set up different workflows depending on their requirements because they can organize the processing units of each stage in either pipeline to improve its performance or stack for improving functionality. The stages and their processing units are connected using I/O communication interfaces which ensure a continuous data flow from the user/organization computers to multiple cloud locations. Based on our architecture, we developed a prototype for a private cloud infrastructure. The experimental evaluation revealed the feasibility of enabling flexible file sharing and storage user-defined workflows in terms of performance.

Flea beetles of alligator weed, Alternanthera philoxeroides (Martius) Grisebach (Amaranthaceae), were collected in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. Species in the genera Disonycha Chevrolat, Agasicles Jacoby, Systena Chevrolat and Phenrica Bechyné were frequently found on this weed. Phenrica littoralis (Bechyn6) was the most abundant within this genus. The male is described and the holotype female is redescribed adding new diagnostic characters of the mouthparts, hind wings, metendosternite, and male and female genitalia. Larva and pupa are described and illustrated for the first time providing data for future phylogenetic studies in the subtribe Disonychina.

Data assurance is one of the biggest concerns in adopting Cloud Computing. In Cloud Storage environment organizations outsource the storage and management of their documents for great flexibility and economic savings. However, contracting data storage to a third-party even in private cloud deployment could lead to potential security and privacy risks. Encryption of remotely stored documents before outsourced to the cloud has been the most widely used technique to bridge the privacy gap, nevertheless, this technique impose important limitations when users want to have workflows for sharing documents with others users, because data must be decrypted by the cloud storage before being sent or the private keys used to encrypt the documents must be shared. Both cases may lead to a lack of access control to the information. In this paper we present a digital envelope scheme over a configurable workflow architecture allowing secure document sharing in private cloud storage environments. Our scheme uses three main ideas: the encryption of the main information by using cryptographic systems, the construction of a documentsharing envelope by using attribute based encryption and digital signature mechanisms, and the development of a well-defined assurance workflow to transport the information through the different security phases. Based on our scheme, we developed a prototype and conducted a proof of concept in a private cloud environment. Experimental results revealed that the overhead of the assurance represents in average only a fraction (no more than 15%) of the sharing operations.

The growth of private clouds causes that more efforts be needed to manage this type of infrastructure and efficient monitoring tools be required by both providers and consumers. Cloud monitoring involves the handling of large amounts of data generated by hundreds or thousands of virtual and physical resources. These resources require distributed monitoring systems in order to be properly monitored and avoid overloaded scenarios. Many of the cloud resources need specific monitoring services that can be different, these differences impact in how they should be distributed by the monitoring systems in order to keep load balancing. In this paper we propose a distribution scheme for cloud monitoring systems, where a set of collectors extract the information of cloud resources in order to reduce the response time when obtaining a global state view of the cloud. Furthermore, we propose a scheme called Policy Aware Allocation (PAA) for load balancing in collectors, where the needs of monitoring for each resource are considered when allocating cloud resources into collectors. The propose schemes were implemented in a distributed monitoring platform. We tested the distribution scheme using different number of collectors and the experiments revealed a reduction in response time when the monitored resources are distributed. For load balancing, we compared our PAA with a standard round robin method, our proposal showed the best results improving load balancing in distributed monitoring systems even when failures occur.

Relational databases RDBs have been widely used as back end for information systems. Considering that RDBs have valuable knowledge interwoven in between stored data, how to access, represent and share this knowledge becomes an important challenge. Topic maps TMs emerge as a good solution for this problem. However, manual development of TMs is a difficult, time-consuming and subjective task if there is no common guideline. The existing TMs building approaches mainly consider the meta-information contained in a RDB, without considering the knowledge residing in the database content its current state. Other approaches require a predefined configuration for applying a specific data transformation. This paper proposes an automatic method for TM construction based on learning rules. Our method considers the background knowledge of the RDBs during the building process and was implemented and applied on a representative set of 15 RDBs. The resulting TMs were validated syntactically using a standard tool and validated semantically through the inference of information using a formal query language. In addition, an analysis between the relational data input and its representation output was conducted. The results found in our experiments are encouraging and put in evidence the soundness of the proposed method.

Cloud monitoring has become a key tool for organizations to ensure that their critical processes are being effectively managed in a private cloud infrastructure. A cloud monitoring tool should include complex tasks such as information extraction, management and planning of alerts in order to keep the service up during failures. However, current available solutions for private clouds only support some of these tasks. In this paper we present a distributed architecture for monitoring private clouds that unifies a set of monitoring tasks in a single service. This service includes the following configurable tools: Collectors, Metasensors, Distributors and Visualizer. A collector is a software tool that gathers monitoring information from physical and/or virtual machines (PM and/or VM) by using a set of special monitoring tools dubbed Metasensors. Collectors include a neural network-based component to classify the type of current workload on the monitored resource. This classification allows system administrators to define thresholds and create alerts to prevent saturation scenarios. A distributor is a tool that assigns the resources to be monitored (PMs and VMs) to collectors and concentrates the information gathered and processed by collectors in order to obtain the current workload status information of the private cloud infrastructure. This information can be showed to system administrator by using our visualizer tool. Our distribution approach avoids data centralization and provides the service with load balancing and fault tolerance. We developed a prototype based on our architecture and conducted an experimental evaluation as a proof of concept. The evaluation revealed the feasibility of our architecture in terms of performance and precision.

The establishment of polarity necessitates initial axonal outgrowth and, therefore, the addition of new membrane to the axon's plasmalemma. Axolemmal expansion occurs by exocytosis of plasmalemmal precursor vesicles (PPVs) primarily at the neuronal growth cone. Little is known about the SNAREs family proteins involved in the regulation of PPV fusion with the neuronal plasmalemma at early stages of differentiation. We show here that five SNARE proteins (VAMP2, VAMP4, VAMP7, Syntaxin6 and SNAP23) were expressed by hippocampal pyramidal neurons before polarization. Expression silencing of three of these proteins (VAMP4, Syntaxin6 and SNAP23) repressed axonal outgrowth and the establishment of neuronal polarity, by inhibiting IGF-1 receptor exocytotic polarized insertion, necessary for neuronal polarization. In addition, stimulation with IGF-1 triggered the association of VAMP4, Syntaxin6 and SNAP23 to vesicular structures carrying the IGF-1 receptor and overexpression of a negative dominant form of Syntaxin6 significantly inhibited exocytosis of IGF-1 receptor containing vesicles at the neuronal growth cone. Taken together, our results indicated that VAMP4, Syntaxin6 and SNAP23 functions are essential for regulation of PPV exocytosis and the polarized insertion of IGF-1 receptor and, therefore, required for initial axonal elongation and the establishment of neuronal polarity. Fil: Grassi, Diego Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Plonka, Florentyna Bustos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Oksdath Mansilla, Mariana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Nieto Guil, Alvaro Fernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Sosa, Lucas Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba; Argentina Fil: Quiroga, Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Centro de Investigaciones en Química Biológica de Córdoba; Argentina

Los objetivos de este estudio han sido restituir la guía anterior de la dentición primaria, mediante el uso de la matriz de acetato que es una de las alternativas de toda esta gama para la reconstrucción; alinear los dientes de acuerdo al biotipo facial, logrando una estética apropiada y permitir también una correcta fonación; devolver una de las funciones de los dientes anteriores que es la de corte y así favorecer la correcta masticación; lograr recuperar la autoestima, pues el niño era objeto de burlas por parte de sus compañeros de clases y amigos del vecindario. El paciente fue de sexo masculino, de 5 años y 3 meses de edad que acudió a la Clínica de la Segunda Especialidad de Odontopediatría de la Universidad Continental en Huancayo, éste presentaba lesiones cariosas amplias en el sector anterosuperior; al elaborar la Historia Clínica, la madre informa que el paciente padece de Asma desde la edad de 12 meses. En la anamnesis relató que la alimentación fue lactancia mixta y amamantamiento nocturno con ausencia de limpieza bucal; el estudio radiográfico confirmó lo observado clínicamente: caries amplias mesiales y distales a nivel de la corona. Al finalizar la intervención se puede mencionar que los resultados fueron óptimos en la parte clínica, estética y funcional. La matriz de acetato es una alternativa óptima para la confección de las coronas de resina y así se reestableció la guía anterior, masticación, fonación, estética, logrando recuperar el autoestima y la confianza perdida en sí mismo debido a las burlas en su entorno escolar, consiguiendo un cambio positivo en su personalidad.

Finite Difference Time Domain Method (FDTDM) is a powerful tool to model electromagnetic propagation; once the medium has been defined by its conductivity (, permittivity ( and permeability (, for each position in the computational volume, is possible to “see” the propagation electromagnetic behavior. We have used FDTDM to model waveguides, slot antennas, field effects over different materials and even propagation effects in nanometric spaces. As obstacles produce reflection, refraction and diffraction phenomena, modifying scattering field in free space zones, knowledge of propagation behavior is very useful to define antenna positions and other system characteristics, for WiFi, cellular telephony and other mobile communication systems. We present in this paper, results of EM propagation modeling inside a building, where furniture, structure, walls and any other obstacle has been defined by their EM constants:  Modeling shows how EM field is distributed all over the chosen zone, giving an almost exact quantification of field magnitude in each point. Modeling uses Yee algorithm to transform Differential Maxwell Equations into Finite Difference Equations, capable to be handled by the computer program developed by us. The source we used was a 2.4 GHz WiFi access point, allowing us to compare computational results with direct measurements in the experimental area. Each computational point was a 0.6 cm (per side cube, over a zone of 9x4x3 m. Results are presented in both, as images showing field distribution in representative areas of analysis zone, and linear graphics comparing acquired computational and measurement data, showing a no more than 3 dB difference between them.

Cloud-based storage is a popular outsourcing solution for organizations to deliver contents to end-users. However, there is a need for contingency plans to ensure service provision when the provider either suffers outages or is going out of business. This paper presents SkyCDS: a resilient content delivery service based on a publish/subscribe overlay over diversified cloud storage. SkyCDS splits the content delivery into metadata and content storage flow layers. The metadata flow layer is based on publish-subscribe patterns for insourcing the metadata control back to content owner. The storage layer is based on dispersal information over multiple cloud locations with which organizations outsource content storage in a controlled manner. In SkyCDS, the content dispersion is performed on the publisher side and the content retrieving process on the end-user side (the subscriber), which reduces the load on the organization side only to metadata management. SkyCDS also lowers the overhead of the content dispersion and retrieving processes by taking advantage of multi-core technology. A new allocation strategy based on cloud storage diversification and failure masking mechanisms minimize side effects of temporary, permanent cloud-based service outages and vendor lock-in. We developed a SkyCDS prototype that was evaluated by using synthetic workloads and a study case with real traces. Publish/subscribe queuing patterns were evaluated by using a simulation tool based on characterized metrics taken from experimental evaluation. The evaluation revealed the feasibility of SkyCDS in terms of performance, reliability and storage space profitability. It also shows a novel way to compare the storage/delivery options through risk assessment. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. The work presented in this paper has been partially supported by EU under the COST programme Action IC1305, Network for Sustainable Ultrascale Computing (NESUS).

The access to medical information (journals, blogs, web-pages, dictionaries, and texts) has been increased due to availability of many digital media. In particular, finding an appropriate structure that represents the information contained in texts is not a trivial task. One of the structures for modeling the knowledge are ontologies. An ontology refers to a conceptualization of a specific domain of knowledge. Ontologies are especially useful because they support the exchange and sharing of information as well as reasoning tasks. The usage of ontologies in medicine is mainly focussed in the representation and organization of medical terminologies. Ontology learning techniques have emerged as a set of techniques to get ontologies from unstructured information. This paper describes a new ontology learning approach that consists of a method for the acquisition of concepts and its corresponding taxonomic relations, where also axioms disjointWith and equivalentClass are learned from text without human intervention. The source of knowledge involves files about medical domain. Our approach is divided into two stages, the first part corresponds to discover hierarchical relations and the second part to the axiom extraction. Our automatic ontology learning approach shows better results compared against previous work, giving rise to more expressive ontologies.

Ecological data often do not conform to the assumptions of standard probability distributions and this has important implications for the validity of statistical inference. A common reason for this is that the variability of ecological data is often much higher than can be accounted for by the standard probability distributions that underpin most statistical inference in ecology. This leads to an underestimation of variances and bias in statistical tests unless the overdispersion is accounted for. Consequently, having methods for dealing with overdispersion is an essential component of the ecologist’s statistical toolbox. This chapter introduces statistical methods known as mixture models that can deal with overdispersion. Mixture models are powerful because not only can they account for overdispersion, but they can also help to identify the actual ecological or observation processes that drive overdispersion. The chapter begins by discussing the causes and consequences of overdispersion in ecological data and how overdispersion can be identified. Mixture models are then described and illustrated using two different case studies from survival analysis and the analysis of population abundance. The chapter ends with a discussion of some of the limitations of mixture models and pitfalls to look out for.

The role of a hypercoagulable microvasculature in the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) after heart transplantation in humans is not well understood. The aim of this study was to identify an animal model by which to further evaluate the role of coagulation in the pathogenesis of CAV.Adult male PVG (RT-1(c)) rats were transplanted into ACI (RT-1(av1)) recipients (n = 29). ACI donors into ACI recipients (n = 31) and rats with a sham operation (n = 33) served as controls. All rats received cyclosporine (10 mg/kg/day) on Days 0 to 9 after surgery. Grafts and native hearts were harvested at 10 days to 3 months after surgery. Hearts were processed for immunohistochemistry and light microscopy. A hypercoagulable microvasculature was defined as presence of microvascular fibrin and capillary antithrombin. CAV was defined as the presence of concentric intimal proliferation and chronic inflammatory infiltrate in the arterial intima, and assessed by computer-assisted image analysis.Donor and recipient hearts from PVG-ACI rats showed high levels of fibrin (donors 7.5% to 21.9%, recipients 5.1% to 20.2%) and antithrombin (donors 5.2% to 27.9%, recipients 3.3% to 20.8%) at 10 days to 3 months post-transplant. ACI-ACI donor and recipient hearts had lower deposition of fibrin (donors 0.9% to 9.9%, recipients 0% to 4.0%) and antithrombin (donors 1.4% to 15.2%, recipients 0.8% to 4.5%). Hearts from sham-operated rats had negligible amounts of fibrin (0% to 1.5%) and antithrombin (0% to 2.8%). There was a strong association (p0.001) between presence of fibrin and capillary antithrombin and development of CAV.A hypercoagulable microvasculature in a rat model of heart transplantation was associated with development of CAV, as found in humans.

Anaerobic treatment of wastewater from the pharmaceutical industry, which contained about 3.2 g/L of sulfate, was carried out in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor. After a startup period of 120 days, a chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of more than 90 % was obtained along with an organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.5 g COD/(L day). During the same period, the sulfate removal was about 90 %. However, the performance of the reactor was affected when the loading rate was increased to 2.09 g COD/(L day). It was found that the accumulation of sulfides, combined with a decrease in the pH, affected the reactor performance. In batch reactor studies with pharmaceutical wastewater it was observed that methane production began only after the initiation of nitrate consumption. The denitrification process can inhibit sulfate reduction at high nitrate concentrations, but compared to reactors without nitrate, the sulfate reduction process and sulfide formation were quickly initiated at low nitrate concentrations. The methanogenic activity was however affected by the presence of more than 2 g/L of sulfate.