Within the process of plot development, authors create a complete story universe and develop the traits of its inhabitants. The inherit complexity of the story universe only adumbrates in the storyline, but it is crucial for its attractiveness and emotional impact. Interactive storytelling systems exploit the power of the author’s imagination by generating a variety of plots from a rich story u...

As a foundation for the definition of bidirectional protocol mappings between the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), this document specifies the architectural assumptions underlying such mappings as well as the mapping of addresses and error conditions.

Contaminated sediment management is complex and multivariate, involving a careful balance of science, politics and economics. As is true for most such complex issues, there is not a single correct way to address a problem, but rather the approach should be driven by the ecological, political and economic goals of all interested parties. However, because the choices made have far-reaching implic...

Stem cells are cells with the ability to divide for indefinite periods and to give rise to specialized cells.  Stem cell therapy has now been emerged as an extraordinary promise to treat a wide range of diseases and conditions.  However, except blood stem cell transfer by bone marrow transplant which has been used as an standard practice for more than 50 years, nearly all of therapeutic potenti...

Six species of Gastrocopta have been identified from the Pilbara region, Western Australia, by means of comparative analyses of shell and mtDNA variation. Three of these species, Gastrocopta hedleyi, Gastrocopta larapinta and Gastrocopta servilis, have been recorded in the Pilbara for the first time. Gastrocopta sp. CW1 is probably new to science and might be endemic to the region. By contrast,...

In the taiga-tundra ecotone (TTE), site-dependent forest structure characteristics can influence the subtle and heterogeneous structural changes that occur across the broad circumpolar extent. Such changes may be related to ecotone form, described by the horizontal and vertical patterns of forest structure (e.g., tree cover, density and height) within TTE 10 forest patches, driven by local site...

INTRODUCTION The speed of diagnosis impacts on prognosis and survival in all types of cancer. In most cases survival and prognosis are significantly worse in rural and remote Australian populations who have less access to diagnostic and therapeutic services than metropolitan communities in this country. Research suggests that in general delays in diagnosis were a factor of misdiagnosis, the con...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether blood haemoglobin concentration in preschool-age children (< 5 years of age) is geographically heterogeneous in sub-Saharan Africa and describe its association with environmental variables that drive anaemia of different etiologies. METHODS Data were obtained on 24 277 preschool-age children in western Africa (2862 cluster sites) and 25 343 in eastern Africa (29...