Search

There is growing awareness about the potential benefit of harnessing citizen science for research, particularly in the biological and environmental sciences. Data quality is a major constraint in the use of citizen-science data, in particular, imperfect observations. In this paper, we fit species distribution models to presence-only data (presences and counts, with no absences observed) by exploiting the uncertainty in reported presences, instead of generating pseudo-absences as is common in previous presence-only studies. This approach allowed us to extend the suite of models to include those commonly fit to presence/absence and abundance data. We fit several models to a case study data set of jaguar encounters reported by citizens in the Peruvian Amazon. The true species distribution for the case study data is unknown, and thus we also undertake an extensive simulation study to evaluate model performance. We analyze the sources of error by studying the bias and variance of the models and discuss the predictive performance of each model and its ability to recover the true species distribution. The simulation study shows that, although several approaches are capable of recovering the species distribution, the choice of a modelling approach is a complex one and depends on factors such as inferential aim, model complexity, sample size, and computational resources. This study also addresses some issues in dealing with compound-imperfect observations arising from citizen-science data, and we discuss further steps needed in this research area.

The structure of the indigo@silicalite pigment, an analog of ancient Maya Blue, has been determined by combining X-ray Laue microdiffraction and powder diffraction techniques. After the adsorption ...

© 2014 Informa UK, Ltd. Myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous population of cells that have been implicated as inhibitors of lymphopoiesis in patients with malignancies. They have a consensus phenotype of CD33+/CD11b+/HLA-DRlo/-and can be further divided into CD15 + granulocytic (G-MDSC) and CD14 + monocytic (M-MDSC) subsets. We characterized MDSCs in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and found a significant increase in G-MDSCs in the blood of patients with progressive MM. Flow-sorted MDSCs from patients with MM induced the generation of regulatory T cells (Treg). MDSCs from both patients with MM and aged-matched controls demonstrated a dose-dependent inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation in carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE)-tracking experiments. Granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) administered to induce stem cell mobilization caused an increase in the number of MDSCs in the peripheral blood of patients with MM and a concentration of these immune-suppressive cells in peripheral blood stem cell collections. MDSCs are likely to cause immune dysfunction in patients with MM.

Identifying check points in cell signal transduction pathways has led to the development of new cancer therapies; however, relatively few studies have determined the diagnostic and prognostic significance of analysing phosphorylated signaling proteins in patient blood and bone marrow (BM) samples. This is the first comprehensive phospho-flow study of both constitutive and cytokine-induced pSTAT3, pSTAT5, pAKT and phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (pERK) expression in malignant plasma cells of patients with monoclonal gammopathies. In diagnostic BM samples from 65 patients with multiple myeloma (MM), interleukin (IL)-6-induced pSTAT3 proved to be a new and independent prognostic biomarker for improved survival. When combined with the International Staging System, 6 subgroups demonstrated stratified median survivals from 9 to 72 months (χ(2)=34.3; P

Summary In Australia, manufacture of blood, tissues and biologicals must comply with the federal laws and meet the requirements of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Manufacturing Principles as outlined in the current Code of Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP). The Therapeutic Goods Order (TGO) No. 88 was announced concurrently with the new cGMP, as a new standard for therapeutic goods. This order constitutes a minimum standard for human blood, tissues and cellular therapeutic goods aimed at minimising the risk of infectious disease transmission. The order sets out specific requirements relating to donor selection, donor testing and minimisation of infectious disease transmission from collection and manufacture of these products. The Therapeutic Goods Manufacturing Principles Determination No. 1 of 2013 references the human blood and blood components, human tissues and human cellular therapy products 2013 (2013 cGMP). The name change for the 2013 cGMP has allowed a broadening of the scope of products to include human cellular therapy products. It is difficult to directly compare versions of the code as deletion of some clauses has not changed the requirements to be met, as they are found elsewhere amongst the various guidelines provided. Many sections that were specific for blood and blood components are now less prescriptive and apply to a wider range of cellular therapies, but the general overall intent remains the same. Use of ’should’ throughout the document instead of ’must’ allows flexibility for alternative processes, but these systems will still require justification by relevant logical argument and validation data to be acceptable to TGA. The cGMP has seemingly evolved so that specific issues identified at audit over the last decade have now been formalised in the new version. There is a notable risk management approach applied to most areas that refer to process justification and decision making. These requirements commenced on 31 May 2013 and a 12 month transition period applies for implementation by manufacturers. The cGMP and TGO update follows the implementation of the TGA regulatory biologicals framework for cell and tissue based therapies announced in 2011. One implication for licenced TGA facilities is that they must implement the 2013 cGMP, TGO 88 and other relevant TGOs together, as they are intricately linked. This review is intended to assist manufacturers by comparing the 2000 version of the cGMP, to the new 2013 cGMP, noting that the new Code extends to include human cellular therapy products.

In 2013, the vast majority of the monitored climate variables reported here maintained trends established in recent decades. ENSO was in a neutral state during the entire year, remaining mostly on the cool side of neutral with modest impacts on regional weather patterns around the world. This follows several years dominated by the effects of either La Niña or El Niño events. According to several independent analyses, 2013 was again among the 10 warmest years on record at the global scale, both at the Earths surface and through the troposphere. Some regions in the Southern Hemisphere had record or near-record high temperatures for the year. Australia observed its hottest year on record, while Argentina and New Zealand reported their second and third hottest years, respectively. In Antarctica, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reported its highest annual temperature since records began in 1957. At the opposite pole, the Arctic observed its seventh warmest year since records began in the early 20th century. At 20-m depth, record high temperatures were measured at some permafrost stations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range. In the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, anomalous meridional atmospheric circulation occurred throughout much of the year, leading to marked regional extremes of both temperature and precipitation. Cold temperature anomalies during winter across Eurasia were followed by warm spring temperature anomalies, which were linked to a new record low Eurasian snow cover extent in May. Minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. Including 2013, all seven lowest extents on record have occurred in the past seven years. Antarctica, on the other hand, had above-average sea ice extent throughout 2013, with 116 days of new daily high extent records, including a new daily maximum sea ice area of 19.57 million km2 reached on 1 October. ENSO-neutral conditions in the eastern central Pacific Ocean and a negative Pacific decadal oscillation pattern in the North Pacific had the largest impacts on the global sea surface temperature in 2013. The North Pacific reached a historic high temperature in 2013 and on balance the globally-averaged sea surface temperature was among the 10 highest on record. Overall, the salt content in nearsurface ocean waters increased while in intermediate waters it decreased. Global mean sea level continued to rise during 2013, on pace with a trend of 3.2 mm yr-1 over the past two decades. A portion of this trend (0.5 mm yr-1) has been attributed to natural variability associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation as well as to ongoing contributions from the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and ocean warming. Global tropical cyclone frequency during 2013 was slightly above average with a total of 94 storms, although the North Atlantic Basin had its quietest hurricane season since 1994. In the Western North Pacific Basin, Super Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest tropical cyclone of 2013, had 1-minute sustained winds estimated to be 170 kt (87.5 m s-1) on 7 November, the highest wind speed ever assigned to a tropical cyclone. High storm surge was also associated with Haiyan as it made landfall over the central Philippines, an area where sea level is currently at historic highs, increasing by 200 mm since 1970. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide all continued to increase in 2013. As in previous years, each of these major greenhouse gases once again reached historic high concentrations. In the Arctic, carbon dioxide and methane increased at the same rate as the global increase. These increases are likely due to export from lower latitudes rather than a consequence of increases in Arctic sources, such as thawing permafrost. At Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the first time since measurements began in 1958, the daily average mixing ratio of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 ppm on 9 May. The state of these variables, along with dozens of others, and the 2013 climate conditions of regions around the world are discussed in further detail in this 24th edition of the State of the Climate series. © 2014, American Meteorological Society. All rights reserved.

How do we ensure that companies with the potential to grow do so? Does a lack of finance prevent firms from growing and benefiting the wider economy? These are important questions if we are looking for economic growth. There has been much focus and debate on the funding issues affecting small and medium sized entities (SMEs), but this report takes that debate a stage further by investigating ‘high growth SMEs’. One of the 14 published policies of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in the UK is ‘Making it easier to set up and grow a business’. This report aims to provide evidence for the debate on how this policy can be achieved and covers both supply and demand issues for high growth SMEs. It does so by a review of the existing literature, an analysis of the Small Business Survey, undertaken by BIS, and a series of in-depth interviews with a small number of high growth SMEs. The study finds that although high growth SMEs are 9% more likely to apply for finance than other SMEs, they are no more or less likely to be successful. Importantly, these firms are identified as highly ‘reluctant borrowers’ rather than ‘discouraged borrowers’ – that is they are just unwilling to borrow, even to fund growth. This reluctance stems from a lack of trust of banks and a resistance to any dilution in their own autonomy. A number of policy implications are drawn from this research by the authors, with recommendations for both the supply and the often neglected demand-side of funding. Most importantly, though, there is a need to consider how ‘reluctant borrowers’ may be transformed into ‘willing borrowers’ and how demand for finance may be stimulated in the future.

Part 1: Digital Games and Interactive Entertainment; International audience; Over the last decade, people involved in game development have noted the need for more formal models and tools to support the design phase of games. In this paper we present an initial investigation into whether workflow patterns – which have already proven to be effective for modeling business processes – are a suitable way to model task succession in games. Our preliminary results suggest that workflow patterns show promise in this regard, but some limitations, especially with regard to time constraints, currently restrict their potential.

The paper examines how the localization of multinationals can be linked to the globalization of local business networks, particularly whether domestic linkages with foreign subsidiaries can facilitate the internationalization of local suppliers. Detailed interviews were held with 16 suppliers and 8 foreign investors in both the Scottish oil-gas and electronics industries. The results highlight the importance to suppliers of 'piggy-backing' multinationals into new markets, but show its greater significance in the oil-gas industry. The paper concludes that piggy-backing is dependent on the strength and value of domestic links between suppliers and subsidiaries. Industry-specific factors determine the intensity of these linkages. The implications for such developments are being absorbed by planning and economic development policy-makers at regional and national levels, as supplier and investor development is increasingly being placed within a wider policy framework of cluster development.

While export development has been a long-standing government task, it has traditionally been characterized by a focus on some, but not all, of the barriers facing exporters, particularly those relating to a firm's environment. In response to more complex understanding of internationalization, new policy approaches have emerged in recent years which concentrate on the firm's internal organization. The Global Companies Strategy of Scottish Enterprise is an example, providing intensive and integrated assistance to particular companies. The policy is also distinctive in distinguishing between different types of internationalization, placing a special economic development value on 'globalization' of a few companies rather than 'internationalization' of the corporate base as a whole.

Introduction:The discussions in this theme provided an opportunity to share specific experiences with disasters that occurred outside of the Asia-Pacific Rim.Methods:Details of the methods used are provided in the preceding paper. The chairs moderated all presentations and produced a summary that was presented to an assembly of all of the delegates. Since the findings from the Theme 7 and Theme 3 groups were similar, the chairs of both groups presided over one workshop that resulted in the generation of a set of action plans that then were reported to the collective group of all delegates.Results:The main points developed during the presentations and discussion included: (1) disaster response planning, (2) predetermined command and organizational structure, (3) rapid response capability, (4) mitigation, and (5) communications and alternatives.Discussion:The action plans presented are in common with those presented by Theme 3, and include: (1) plan disaster responses including the different types, identification of hazards, training based on experiences, and provision of public education; (2) improving coordination and control; (3) maintaining communications assuming infrastructure breakdown; (4) maximizing mitigation through standardized evaluations, creation of a legal framework, and recognition of advocacy and public participation; and (5) providing resources and knowledge through access to existing therapies, using the media, and increasing decentralization of hospital inventories.Conclusions:Most of the problems that occurred outside the Asia-Pacific rim relative to disaster management are similar to those experienced within it. They should be addressed in common with the rest of the world.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of regional development policies designed to promote and develop regional clusters. Regional policymakers in Europe strive to develop local clusters to promote regional economic growth mainly through supply chain development initiatives, particularly in regions dominated by branch plants of large multinational enterprises. This article explores the role played by two large firms in developing linkages with local suppliers in the small regional economy of Fyrstad, west Sweden. Using a case-study approach, the investigation examines the main methods through which Saab Automobile and Volvo Aero Corporation develop suppliers within the local automotive and aerospace clusters. Overall, the research discovers that local sourcing is low and local supply chains are dominated by small, low value-added suppliers providing basic parts and repair services. The region lacks high-technology, fast-growing first and second-tier suppliers. The research also shows that the problems facing the supply chain in the automotive cluster are different from the aerospace cluster and that supplier linkages within the aerospace cluster appear to be more beneficial for long-term regional development. Finally, policy recommendations to aid each cluster are highlighted.

Historical and reconstructed snow cover data from stations in Canada, the United States, the former Soviet Union, and the People’s Republic of China were used to reconstruct monthly snow cover extent (SCE) fluctuations over midlatitudinal (∼40°–60°N) regions of North America (NA) and Eurasia back to the early 1900s using an areal snow index approach. The station distribution over NA allowed SCE to be reconstructed back to 1915 for 6 months (November–April), along with estimates of monthly mean snow water equivalent (SWE) from gridded daily snow depth data. Over Eurasia, SCE was able to be reconstructed back to 1922, but major gaps in the station network limited the approach to 3 months (October, March, and April). The reconstruction provided evidence of a general twentieth century increase in NA SCE, with significant increases in winter (December–February) SWE averaging 3.9% per decade. The results are consistent with an observed increasing trend in winter snow depth over Russia and provide furth...

The use of weapons by human beings to inflict physical harm on each other is an integral part of our heritage, and likely predates the development of speech. As we enter a new millennium, injuries from penetrating weapons remain a grave and enduring threat to human health. These types of injuries are so common that they have become routine in our societies. In Canada, more than 1,200 deaths result from firearms each year, and in the United States, firearms claim more than 40,000 lives annually. According to current trends injuries from firearms are likely to become the leading cause of trauma deaths early in the next century, surpassing vehicular deaths. Yet these deaths represent just a fraction of those worldwide that result from using conventional weapons. Around the globe, weapons are a serious, escalating, poorly understood (but frequently deployed) threat to the health of human beings. The number of civilians injured has risen steadily since World War II, with at least nine times as many civilians as military personnel being killed by the weapons of war worldwide. The proliferation of conventional military firepower in uncontrolled hands, the introduction of more unconventional weapons, and increasing numbers of civil and ethnic conflicts (often with civilian targets) all promise even greater suffering. Nationally and internationally, physicians and medical associations are beginning to formalize the long-recognized concept that weapons present a grave health issue. In 1996, the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma publicly endorsed education, debate, research, and legal reforms directed at firearm violence in the United States. In 1996, the General Assembly of the World Medical Association acknowledged that physicians have an ethical responsibility to understand, document the use of, and attempt to control weapons through applicable international humanitarian law. This assembly called on the world’s national medical associations to support and encourage research into the health effects of weapons use, and to publicize the results of the longterm health effects of such use. As leaders and educators in the health sciences, it is the responsibility of physicians to concern themselves with this knowledge. Wounds and particularly their definitive treatment are clearly surgical in domain. Of all physicians, surgeons are in the best position to educate and counsel members of the legal profession, government officials, and the public. Weapons injuries are a global problem that warrants understanding, along with documentation that is comprehensible, reproducible, and applicable to physicians and health care systems everyThe views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Canadian forces, Department of National Defense, or the government of Canada.

A review of Mladen Ovadija’s the Dramaturgy of Sound and Postdramatic Theatre for 'New Theatre Quarterly 31.2

The paper examines the role played by foreign direct investment in developing local linkages in Singapore’s electronics industry. Backward material linkages have developed as a result of two processes: the development of indigenous local suppliers, mostly within the fabricated parts sector, and foreign investment by overseas suppliers, especially in the hard disk drive sector. The economic development potential of these suppliers varies, and local suppliers in contract manufacturing offer the best hope for future indigenous growth within the supply base. Public policies targeted towards supplier development and upgrading the quality of multinationals play a significant role in facilitating local linkage development in Singapore.

In 1995 the Atmospheric Environment Service of Canada (AES) made a major effort to digitize paper records of daily and weekly snow depth that were not in the Canadian Digital Archive of Climate Data. This resulted in the extension of the snow depth record back to the late 1940s at many stations, and the filling of missing data from a number of stations, particularly in the Arctic. This paper describes the database, the methods used both for quality control and to reconstruct missing data, and presents an analysis of the spatial and temporal characteristics of the data over the 1946–1995 period. Principal component analysis of monthly snow depths revealed that snow depths varied coherently over relatively large regions of Canada, with dominant centres of action located over the West Coast, Prairie, Yukon‐Mackenzie, southern Ontario, northern Quebec and Maritime regions. In many cases, nodes of coherent snow depth variations were associated with corresponding nodes of coherent snow cover duration f...

A flow cytometric technique has been developed to detect individual plasma cells in PBSC harvests and to establish light chain restriction as a surrogate marker of their clonality. Plasma cells were identified by high intensity CD38 (CD38++) and cytoplasmic immunoglobulin (cIg) expression. The ratio of cytoplasmic kappa to lambda expression was used to detect light chain restriction. All 25 PBSC harvests studied contained CD38++/cIg plasma cells (mean 0.7%, range 0.03-2%). Harvests from non-myeloma patients also contained plasma cells (mean 0.4%, range 0.01-1.5%). Most of the plasma cells detected in the harvests from myeloma patients were immature (CD45+/CD45++) rather than mature (CD45-). When the total plasma cell population was studied, definite isotype restriction could be detected in only 16% of harvests. Light chain restriction was found in 53% of harvests when the mature plasma cells (CD45-) were analysed but only in 9% of harvests when immature (CD45+/CD45++) plasma cells were analysed. Five percent of patients with myeloma had detectable light chain restriction in peripheral blood CD19+ cells. There was concordance between the ratio of malignant (CD19-/CD56+) to normal (CD19+/CD56-) plasma cells and light chain expression in 86% of patients studied. This study has demonstrated that the majority of plasma cells in PBSC harvests from patients with myeloma are not only immature but are also predominantly polyclonal and that monoclonality is best detected in mature plasma cells.

The dysregulation of specific oncogenes due to either mutation or activation has previously been reported in a small number of patients with myeloma but the extent of oncogene dysregulation during the course of the disease is not known. The oncoprotein phenotype of plasma cells in 146 bone marrow samples from 81 patients with multiple myeloma was determined by dual colour flow cytometry using a predetermined panel of 8 monoclonal antibodies. High intensity CD38 expression was used to distinguish the plasma cell population and the cells were permeabilised to detect intracellular antigen expression. In situ hybridization using biotinylated cDNA probes for c-myc and bcl-2 was used to determine mRNA expression and to validate the flow cytometric assay. The normal range of expression for each of 6 oncoproteins (c-myc, c-fos, c-neu, bcl-2, p-ras, p53 mutant) and 2 tumour suppressor gene products (p53 wild and Rb) was determined in plasma cells from 33 normal bone marrows. Disease progression was associated with the concurrent abnormal expression of at least one oncogene and one tumour suppressor gene where as stable disease was associated with a normal expression of at least one or both (chi2 = 34.1; p0.001). At diagnosis there was a correlation between serum beta2 microglobulin and the concurrent overexpression of both an oncoprotein and a tumour suppressor gene product. Longitudinal studies of 33 different patients over 4 years, suggests that the progressive evolution of myeloma is a multistep process of genomic instability producing ongoing alterations in the expression of both oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes.

Observed and reconstructed snow-cover duration data from stations covering southern Canada, the Great Plains, the former Soviet Union and China were used to reconstruct spring snow-covered area over North America (NA) and Eurasia from 1915 to 1985. A combination of nine regions from NA and five from Eurasia were able to explain 81% and 67%, respectively, of the variance in satellite-derived sprint; snow-covered area (SCA) for each continent. The results suggested sprint; SCA had decreased significantly in Eurasia this century, but there was no evidence of a similar long-term decrease in NA spring SCA. Considerable caution should be used when interpreting these results because of the short period of calibration, and because of the less-than-optimal distribution of station data. Nonetheless, the reconstructed results are consistent with observed spring-temperature trends, which show a significant increase over Eurasia, but none Over NA.

Background Ninety percent of global trauma deaths occur in under-resourced or remote environments, with little or no capacity for injury surveillance. We hypothesized that emerging electronic and web-based technologies could enable design of a tablet-based application, the electronic Trauma Health Record (eTHR), used by front-line clinicians to inform trauma care and acquire injury surveillance data for injury control and health policy development. Study Design The study was conducted in 3 phases: 1. Design of an electronic application capable of supporting clinical care and injury surveillance; 2. Preliminary feasibility testing of eTHR in a low-resource, high-volume trauma center; and 3. Qualitative usability testing with 22 trauma clinicians from a spectrum of high- and low-resource and urban and remote settings including Vancouver General Hospital, Whitehorse General Hospital, British Columbia Mobile Medical Unit, and Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Results The eTHR was designed with 3 key sections (admission note, operative note, discharge summary), and 3 key capabilities (clinical checklist creation, injury severity scoring, wireless data transfer to electronic registries). Clinician-driven registry data collection proved to be feasible, with some limitations, in a busy South African trauma center. In pilot testing at a level I trauma center in Cape Town, use of eTHR as a clinical tool allowed for creation of a real-time, self-populating trauma database. Usability assessments with traumatologists in various settings revealed the need for unique eTHR adaptations according to environments of intended use. In all settings, eTHR was found to be user-friendly and have ready appeal for frontline clinicians. Conclusions The eTHR has potential to be used as an electronic medical record, guiding clinical care while providing data for injury surveillance, without significantly hindering hospital workflow in various health-care settings.

Copyright @ 2013 The authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. The use of human and veterinary pharmaceuticals is increasing. Over the past decade, there has been a proliferation of research into potential environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals in the environment. A Royal Society-supported seminar brought together experts from diverse scientific fields to discuss the risks posed by pharmaceuticals to wildlife. Recent analytical advances have revealed that pharmaceuticals are entering habitats via water, sewage, manure and animal carcases, and dispersing through food chains. Pharmaceuticals are designed to alter physiology at low doses and so can be particularly potent contaminants. The near extinction of Asian vultures following exposure to diclofenac is the key example where exposure to a pharmaceutical caused a population-level impact on non-target wildlife. However, more subtle changes to behaviour and physiology are rarely studied and poorly understood. Grand challenges for the future include developing more realistic exposure assessments for wildlife, assessing the impacts of mixtures of pharmaceuticals in combination with other environmental stressors and estimating the risks from pharmaceutical manufacturing and usage in developing countries. We concluded that an integration of diverse approaches is required to predict 'unexpected' risks; specifically, ecologically relevant, often long-term and non-lethal, consequences of pharmaceuticals in the environment for wildlife and ecosystems.

International audience; The use of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) end-capped with anthracene (P3HT-A) in a blend with [6,6]-phenyl C61 butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) is demonstrated to physically stabilize bulk-heterojunction photovoltaic solar cells. Bulk heterojunction-based devices are known to undergo phase separation of donor and acceptor materials during operation resulting in the formation of large (μm scale) PCBM crystals that dramatically decrease the photovoltaic characteristics of the cell. By way of a facile UV-curing step, the P3HT-A chain most likely reacts with PCBM fullerene via a [2+2] cyclo-addition to stabilize the blend. Photovoltaic devices based on P3HT-A and PCBM have been optimised in terms of thermal annealing to obtain initial devices to determine the UV-curing protocols. UV-exposure was found to improve device stability while simultaneously having a minimal effect on device efficiency. Optical microscopy demonstrates that the few reactions of P3HT-A with PCBM are efficient enough to prevent the formation of micro-sized PCBM crystals responsible for the failure of solar cells.

This report documents the research study conducted on advanced suspension and control algorithms for U.S. Army ground vehicles. It is extremely important to isolate the vehicle body and its contents from terrain-induced vibrations. This enhancement will provide our Warfighters a less-disruptive environment, enabling them to improve their operational effectiveness. Reduced vibration enabled through a well-designed suspension system with an efficient control algorithm will permit higher vehicle speeds as well as better target-aiming accuracy in theater. Military vehicles with a high center of gravity and large variations in gross weights can greatly benefit by using advanced suspension technologies with active, adaptive preview-sensor-based control algorithms. The objective of this research study is to develop a preview-sensor-based control algorithm that can effectively work with advanced semi-active dampers, such as the magnetorheological fluid damper. This report provides a record of the research findings from this research project on advanced suspension and control algorithms for Army ground vehicles.

Real-time remote sales assistance is an underdeveloped component of online sales services. Solutions involving web page text chat, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with configurations of physically complex artefacts. Recently, there has been great interest in the application of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments for remote sales of physical artefacts. However, there is a lack of analysis and development of appropriate software services to support these processes. We extend our previous work with the detailed design of configuration context services to support the management of an interactive sales session using augmented reality. We detail the context and configuration services required, presenting a novel data service streaming configuration information to the vendor for business analytics. We expect that a fully implemented configuration management service, based on our design, will improve the remote sales experience for both customers and vendors alike via analysis of the streamed information.

In various industrial and scientific fields, conceptual models are derived from real world problem spaces to understand and communicate containing entities and coherencies. Abstracted models mirror the common understanding and information demand of engineers, who apply conceptual models for performing their daily tasks. However, most standardized models in Process Management, Product Lifecycle Management and Enterprise Resource Planning lack of a scientific foundation for their notation. In collaboration scenarios with stakeholders from several disciplines, tailored conceptual models complicate communication processes, as a common understanding is not shared or implemented in specific models. To support direct communication between experts from several disciplines, a visual language is developed which allows a common visualization of discipline-specific conceptual models. For visual discrimination and to overcome visual complexity issues, conceptual models are arranged in a three-dimensional space. The visual language introduced here follows and extends established principles of Visual Language science.

The structure and dynamics of a modern business environment are very hard to model using traditional methods. Such complexity raises challenges to effective business analysis and improvement. The importance of applying business process simulation to analyse and improve business activities has been widely recognised. However, one remaining challenge is the development of approaches to human resource behaviour simulation. To address this problem, we describe a novel simulation approach where intelligent agents are used to simulate human resources by performing allocated work from a workflow management system. The behaviour of the intelligent agents is driven a by state transition mechanism called a hierarchical task network (HTN). We demonstrate and validate our simulator via a medical treatment process case study. Analysis of the simulation results shows that the behaviour driven by the HTN is consistent with design of the workflow model. We believe these preliminary results support the development of more sophisticated agent-based human resource simulation systems.

International audience; Honeycomb-structured porous polymer films based on photosensitizer-grafted polystyrene are prepared through the breath figure process. Rose Bengal (RB) photosensitizer is first attached to a well-defined poly(styrene-stat-4- vinylbenzyl chloride) statistical copolymer, synthesized by nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization. The RB grafted poly(styrene-stat-4-vinylbenzyl chloride) (ca. 20 000 g mol-1 molar mass, 1.2 dispersity) leads to porous polymer films, with a hexagonal pore pattern, while a simple mixture of poly(styrene-stat-4-vinylbenzyl chloride) and the insoluble RB photosensitizer produced unstructured, nonporous films. The RB-grafted honeycomb films, compared with the corresponding nonporous flat films, are more efficient for oxidation of organic molecules via singlet oxygen production at a liquid/solid interface. The oxidations of 1,5-dihydroxynaphthalene to juglone and α-terpinene to ascaridole are followed in ethanol in the presence of both types of films. Oxidation of the organic molecules is a factor 5 greater with honeycomb compared to the nonporous films. This gain is ascribed to two factors: the specific location of the polar photosensitizer at the film interface and the greater exchange surface, as revealed by fluorescence and scanning electron microscopies.

Real-time sales assistant service is a problematic component of remote delivery of sales support for customers. Solutions involving web pages, telephony and video support prove problematic when seeking to remotely guide customers in their sales processes, especially with transactions revolving around physically complex artefacts. This process involves a number of services that are often complex in nature, ranging from physical compatibility and configuration factors, to availability and credit services. We propose the application of a combination of virtual worlds and augmented reality to create synthetic environments suitable for remote sales of physical artefacts, right in the home of the purchaser. A high level description of the service structure involved is shown, along with a use case involving the sale of electronic goods and services within an example augmented reality application. We expect this work to have application in many sales domains involving physical objects needing to be sold over the Internet.

Communication processes are vital in the lifecycle of BPM projects. With this in mind, much research has been performed into facilitating this key component between stakeholders. Amongst the methods used to support this process are personalized process visualisations. In this paper, we review the development of this visualization trend, then, we propose a theoretical analysis framework based upon communication theory. We use this framework to provide theoretical support to the conjecture that 3D virtual worlds are powerful tools for communicating personalised visualisations of processes within a workplace. Meta-requirements are then derived and applied, via 3D virtual world functionalities, to generate example visualisations containing personalized aspects, which we believe enhance the process of communication between analysts and stakeholders in BPM process (re)design activities.

A one-dimensional thermodynamic sea ice model is used to perform multiyear simulations of land-fast sea ice and its snow cover. The model is applied to two locations in the Canadian high Arctic: Resolute and Alert, Northwest Territories. The sites are chosen because meteorological observations and ice and snow depth measurements spanning the period 1955–1990 are available. Bulk formulae are used to convert standard meteorological observations into surface fluxes, snowfall is specified from observed annual accumulation, and a crude oceanic mixed layer is included to allow heat storage during ice-free summer months. The model is successful at reproducing seasonal and interannual variability in maximum ice thickness, snow depth, freeze-up, and breakup dates. Sensitivity studies demonstrate the relative importance of variables such as air temperature and snowfall rate on interannual variability of maximum ice thickness and the duration of the ice-free season. Multiple equilibria, corresponding to thin, seasonal ice and thick, perennial ice, are shown to exist in the model. Climate sensitivity experiments illustrate the potential effects of changes in air temperature and snowfall on ice thickness and open water duration in the Canadian Archipelago.

For patients with multiple myeloma the most important laboratory correlate of prognosis and disease activity is the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) plasma cell labelling index (LI). However, the traditional immunofluorescent microscope LI technique, like other manual enumeration assays, can suffer from poor precision and accuracy. In this study the LI of different subpopulations of plasma cells (CD38++) as determined by flow cytometry was correlated with disease state. The mean LI of the total CD38++ population was significantly higher (2.7 +/- 0.4%) than the LI determined by the traditional slide technique (0.6 +/- 0.1%) for 65 samples tested. Primitive plasma cells (CD38++, CD45++) had a higher labelling index than mature plasma cells (CD38++, CD45-) (7.0 +/- 1.3% v 1.8% +/- 0.3%) and in one patient the LI of the primitive plasma cells was 46%. In addition, the LI of the mature plasma cells was lower than the total plasma cell population. As expected, there was a significant difference between the LI of patients in plateau phase and progressive disease but this difference was greatest when the LI of the primitive plasma cells was studied (9.2 +/- 2.9% v 2.2 +/- 0.7%; z = 19.9, P < 0.001). This study has raised some concerns about the sensitivity and accuracy of the traditional labelling index and has shown that the increased LI associated with progressive disease is almost entirely attributable to an increase in the LI of the primitive plasma cell subpopulation and that the LI of primitive plasma cells provides a more clinically significant correlation with disease status than the traditional assay.

Seasonal snow cover information over southern Canada was reconstructed from daily snowfall and maximum temperature data back to 1915 using a simple mass balance approach with snowmelt estimated via a calibrated temperature index method. The reconstruction method was able to account for 70%–80% of the variance in annual snow cover duration (SCD) over most of southern Canada for the 1955–1992 calibration period. The data were used to construct regional SCD anomaly series in four regions spanning the continent. The regional SCD series were characterized by high interannual variability, with most of the variance concentrated at periods less than 5 years. Spring (MAM) snow cover variability was characterized by a prominent spectral peak with a period of approximately 4 years, which appeared to be linked to tropical Pacific sea surface temperature variability. There was no evidence of statistically significant long-term trends in snow cover in any of the regions, but the data suggested that winter (DJF...

Animal models of cardiovascular disease are key players in the translational medicine pipeline used to define the conserved genetic and molecular basis of disease. Congenital heart diseases (CHDs) are the most common type of human birth defect and feature structural abnormalities that arise during cardiac development and maturation. The zebrafish, Danio rerio, is a valuable vertebrate model organism, offering advantages over traditional mammalian models. These advantages include the rapid, stereotyped and external development of transparent embryos produced in large numbers from inexpensively housed adults, vast capacity for genetic manipulation, and amenability to high-throughput screening. With the help of modern genetics and a sequenced genome, zebrafish have led to insights in cardiovascular diseases ranging from CHDs to arrhythmia and cardiomyopathy. Here, we discuss the utility of zebrafish as a model system and summarize zebrafish cardiac morphogenesis with emphasis on parallels to human heart diseases. Additionally, we discuss the specific tools and experimental platforms utilized in the zebrafish model including forward screens, functional characterization of candidate genes, and high throughput applications.

Historical and reconstructed snow-cover data show evidence of a gradual increase in snow cover over the continental interior of North America (NA) during much of the 20th century, primarily in response to increasing snowfall. A rapid decrease in Canadian-prairies snow cover after 1970 is not observed over the Great Plains. Analysis of snow-cover-climate relationships revealed systematic increases in the sensitivity of snow cover to Northern Hemisphere (NH) temperatures over the 1940-65 period. This change is mainly due to an increase in snowfall-temperature sensitivity during this period. Seasonal analysis revealed that the observed increase in snow-cover and snowfall temperature sensitivity is primarily a spring phenomenon. A marked increase in the importance of the spring period is observed around 1960, which coincides with a well-documented change in atmospheric circulation over NA. The post-1960 period is characterized by a significant inverse relationship between snow cover and hemispheric air temperature over the Canadian prairies and northern Great Plains regions.

A range of different tumour-induced T cell responses are present in patients with multiple myeloma. T cell subpopulations play important roles in tumour immunology, and these involve both suppressor and regulatory networks. It is likely that T cell function is altered by tumour-derived factors leading to tumour escape. Immunotherapy trials have generally been ineffective because the strategies behind tumour vaccination have underestimated the complex nature of the cellular and molecular factors involved in the immune response in vivo in patients with myeloma. Restoration of a cytotoxic T cell response by either active or passive immunotherapy when used concurrently with protocols to overcome tumour resistance hold some promise for future immunotherapy not only for patients with multiple myeloma but also for many other malignancies.