This research proposal looks into the future at an increase in student population, an increase in basic living costs, the looming issues with densification of Wellington City, and its development to the transport infrastructure. The project aims to create accommodation for students going through university while providing a simple and cohesive mode of transport linking the CBD. The biggest motivator for Upliving is Wellington's great potential for infill buildings in spaces such as cracks between buildings; above roads; atop buildings; underutilised areas within an urban context; temporarily empty sites awaiting future development; and car parks (particularly with the development of transport infrastructure, eliminating the need for as many vehicles within the city). The development would be funded by universities in collaboration with the city to help compensate for the rising education costs and rising living costs. It will provide better transport within the city, opening up more potential for development with less infrastructure to facilitate the currently high vehicle usage. The goals of the architecture are to accommodate students, maintain a minimal building footprint, effectively use circulation spaces to minimise an inclination to damage of property, create flexible spaces, maintain a simple structure for rapid construction, provide active communal spaces, establish connections to university campuses, generally link the Wellington's CBD, use underutilised spaces, and maintain a contemporary identity that blends into the urban context. There are many aspects involved in this research portfolio, including the notion of research by design through the use of an in-depth iterative process, precedent investigations, client/occupant research, detailed design explorations of large and small scales, an outcome, and a critical reflection highlighting possible changes and a direction for further development.


The spleen of adult antigen‐free mice contains a sizable proportion (5‐15%) of activated cells in all lymphocyte sets, as marked by the membrane expression of immunoglobulins, L3T4 and Lyt‐2 antigens. The frequency of activated cells is very high in early post‐natal life, and reaches adult levels by 6 weeks of age when it is comparable to that observed in healthy unmanipulated mice raised in conventional conditions. The effector B cell compartment is quantitatively similar in antigen‐free mice and specific pathogen‐free mice, but the former is deficient in isotype diversification, since IgG‐ and IgA‐secreting cells are drastically reduced. The effector T cell compartment is slightly reduced in number, but is equally competent in providing help or suppression of syngeneic B cells. The results indicate the existence of a compartment of the immune system displaying autonomous self‐determined activity which is predominant early in life. This compartment, physically localized to the spleen, appears to be distinct from an antigen‐dependent compartment which is essential for the development of peripheral lymphoid organs draining sites of "natural" environmental immunization.


Reserpine is being widely used for the control of hypertension * and as a tranquilizing agent. 4 Its use in the management of the acutely disturbed patient is limited by the delayed action following oral administration. In an effort to obtain more rapid onset of action, large doses of reserpine were administered parenterally to nine acutely disturbed subjects. This method of administration has been discontinued because of complications and lack of therapeutic response. Our observations are presented in this report. REPORT OF CASES Case 1. —A 50-year-old white male chronic alcoholic was admitted to the hospital with tremors and hallucinations which developed after heavy drinking of 10 days' duration. One year previously he had been treated for delirium tremens. Physical examination revealed a blood pressure of 130/90 mm. Hg; pulse rate, 100; respirations, 25, and temperature, 99 F. There were no abnormal physical findings. Reserpine, 15 mg., was administered intravenously. The


This study is carried out to ascertain the perception and attitude of married women aged 18-45 on the practice of family planning. The study adopted the survey research method with questionnaire as the instrument. The research deployed multi stage technique to select 5 wards out of the 12 wards in Ardo Kola namely Ardo Kola, Jauro-Yinu, Jiru, Lamido-Borno, Mallum and then sets of questionnaire were distributed to 400 respondents that were randomly selected from the 5 wards. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentage, frequency distribution and Microsoft excel chart analysis. The study reveals among other things that married women in Ardo Kola Local government are aware of family planning/method but do not practice family planning because their husbands are not favorably disposed to the practice. The study recommends that Husbands in Ardo Kola should be enlightened properly by health care providers on the benefits derivable from family planning, and the attendant socio-economic and health problems where the practice is ignored.


Graphics processing units provide an astonishing number of floating point operations per second and deliver memory bandwidths of one magnitude greater than common general purpose central processing units. With the introduction of the Compute Unified Device Architecture, a first step was taken by nVIDIA to ease access to the vast computational resources of graphics processing units. The aim of this thesis is to shed light onto the general hardand software structures of this promising architecture. In contrast to well established high performance architectures which offer moderate on chip parallelism, graphics processing units use massive parallelism at the thread level. Thus, parallelization approaches are required which exploit a substantially finer level of parallelism as compared to OpenMP parallelization on standard multi-core and multi-socket servers. Basic benchmark kernels as well as libraries are investigated to demonstrate the basic parallelization approaches and potentials regarding peak performance and main memory bandwidth. A kernel from a computational fluid dynamics solver based on the lattice Boltzmann method is introduced and evaluated in terms of implementation issues and performance. Substantial work has to be invested in low level hand optimization to get the full capabilities of graphics processing units even for this simple computational fluid dynamics kernel. For selected verification cases, the optimized kernel outperforms a standard two socket server in single-precision accuracy by almost one order of magnitude.


Many theatre, dance and performance creators from the 60s and 70s onwards used repetition as a significant structural and aesthetic device and several of these, such as the choreographer/dancers Lucinda Childs, Steve Paxton and Trisha Brown all of whom were closely connected with Judson Dance Theatre and the New York School in the early part of their careers, can easily be described as having minimalist tendencies themselves. They used, or were directly influenced by, the minimalist aesthetic and minimalist music. However there were other (notably European) artists and companies who also used repetition in their work to whom the term minimalism is less appropriately applied. These include Pina Bausch with her Tanztheater Wuppertal, the Flemish so-called Eurokids (Jan Fabre, Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker, Jan Lauwers, Wim Wanderkeybus) and some British companies such as Impact Theatre and Forced Entertainment. Due to their use of repetition there was an acknowledged link between their work and the repetitive structures of minimalism but their work, being far more visceral and overtly theatrical and dramatic than the New York School moves well beyond the implications of the term.

Ciane Fernandes discusses in depth the meaning and effect of repetition in Bausch's work (Fernandes 2005). Her contention is that through repetition Bausch's works "explore and expose the gap between dance and theatre in aesthetic, psychological and social levels……Repetition breaks the popular image of dancers as 'spontaneous beings', revealing their dissatisfactions and desires within a chain of repetitive movements and words". Other commentators speak of the use of mechanistic repetition as an "accommodation with the threat of the machine" (Gale 2010). While there may be significant differences in the reasons and effects of the incorporation of repetition by the various European theatre makers and choreographers, one common aspect is the intention to move beyond the artificial to the real, to enable the audience to witness the real, palpable experience of the performers on stage as a means of connecting with real life – a conscious attempt to move from 'acting' to 'performing'.

In music, such repetition might not entail the same levels of physical exertion or lead to such extreme exhaustion in performance but there is something about the relentlessness, not to mention stamina, required for the performance of much minimalist music, involving repetition over long periods of time, which in a similar way generates an effect on both the performer and the audience.

This essay explores the connections and analyses the differences in the effects of experiencing repetition (for both performers and audience) in selected works of live performance and music. It begins by discussing repetition in live action performance but then focuses on the specific physical aspects of musical performance to see what, if any, similar conclusions can be drawn.


With the arrival of the carbon tax earlier this month, many people will be looking to see where they can make savings through their behaviour. Alan Pears' article in The Conversation last month pointed out some ways in which simple changes to purchase choices and behaviour can result in energy and cost savings. While these calculations present a clear financial case for changing our ways, whether people will take these economic arguments into consideration and change their behaviour accordingly requires scrutiny. For one-off or irregular behaviours such as purchasing new appliances and retrofitting they may have some bearing. However, for habitual behaviours, the case could be quite different.


Abstract. The newly-installed MFR (medium frequency radar) at Platteville (40°N, 105°W) has provided the opportunity and impetus to create an operational network of middle- latitude MFRs stretching from 81°W–142°E. CUJO (Canada U.S. Japan Opportunity) comprises systems at London (43°N, 81°W), Platteville (40°N, 105°W), Saskatoon (52°N, 107°W), Wakkanai (45°N, 142°E) and Yamagawa (31°N, 131°E). It offers a significant 7000km longitudinal sector in the North American-Pacific region, and a useful range of latitudes (12–14°) at two longitudes. Annual climatologies involving both height and frequency versus time contour plots for periods from 8h to 30 days, show that the changes with longitude are very significant and distinctive, often exceeding the local latitudinal variations. Comparisons with models and the recent UARS-HRDI global analysis of tides are discussed. The fits of the horizontal wave numbers of the longer period oscillations are provided in unique frequency versus time contour plots and shown to be consistent with the expected dominant modes. Annual climatologies of planetary waves (16 day, 2 day) and gravity waves reveal strong seasonal and longitudinal variations. Key words. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (middle atmosphere dynamics; waves and tides; climatology)


How new subduction zones form is an ongoing scientific question with key implications for our understanding of how this process influences the behavior of the overriding plate. Here we focus on the effects of a Late Cretaceous subduction-initiation (SI) event in Iran and show how SI caused enough extension to open a back-arc basin in NE Iran. The Late Cretaceous Torbat-e-Heydarieh ophiolite (THO) is well exposed as part of the Sabzevar-Torbat-e-Heydarieh ophiolite belt. It is dominated by mantle peridotite, with a thin crustal sequence. The THO mantle sequence consists of harzburgite, clinopyroxene-harzburgite, plagioclase lherzolite, impregnated lherzolite, and dunite. Spinel in THO mantle peridotites show variable Cr# (10–63), similar to both abyssal and fore-arc peridotites. The igneous rocks (gabbros and dikes intruding mantle peridotite, pillowed and massive lavas, amphibole gabbros, plagiogranites and associated diorites, and diabase dikes) display rare earth element patterns similar to MORB, arc tholeiite and back-arc basin basalt. Zircons from six samples, including plagiogranites and dikes within mantle peridotite, yield U-Pb ages of ca. 99–92 Ma, indicating that the THO formed during the Late Cretaceous and was magmatically active for ∼7 m.y. THO igneous rocks have variable εNd(t) of +5.7 to +8.2 and εHf(t) ranging from +14.9 to +21.5; zircons have εHf(t) of +8.1 to +18.5. These isotopic compositions indicate that the THO rocks were derived from an isotopically depleted mantle source similar to that of the Indian Ocean, which was slightly affected by the recycling of subducted sediments. We conclude that the THO and other Sabzevar-Torbat-e-Heydarieh ophiolites formed in a back-arc basin well to the north of the Late Cretaceous fore-arc, now represented by the Zagros ophiolites, testifying that a broad region of Iran was affected by upper-plate extension accompanying Late Cretaceous subduction initiation.


John Cockcroft's splitting of the atom and Ernest Lawrence's invention of the cyclotron in the first half of the twentieth century ushered in the grand era of ever higher energy particle accelerators to probe deeper into matter. It also forged a link, bonding scientific discovery with technological innovation that continues today in the twenty first century. The development of radar and high power vacuum electronics, especially microwave power tubes like the magnetrons and the klystrons in the pre-second world war era, was instrumental in the rapid development of circular and linear charged particle accelerators in the second half of the twentieth century. We had harnessed the powerful microwave radio-frequency sources from few tens of MHz to up to 90 GHz spanning L-band to W-band frequencies. Simultaneously in the second half of the twentieth century, lasers began to offer very first opportunities of controlling charged particles at smaller resolutions on the scale of wavelengths of visible light. We also witnessed in this period the emergence of the photon and neutron sciences driven by accelerators built-by-design producing tailored and ultra-bright pulses of bright photons and neutrons to probe structure and function of matter from aggregate to individual molecular and atomic scales in unexplored territories in material and life sciences. As we enter the twenty first century, the race for ever higher energies, brightness and luminosity to probe atto-metric and atto-second domains of the ultra-small structures and ultra-fast processes continues. These developments depend crucially on yet further advancements in the production and control of high power and high frequency microwaves and light sources, often intricately coupled in their operation to the high energy beams themselves. We give a glimpse of the recent developments and innovations in the electromagnetic production and control of charged particle beams in the service of science and society.


ABSTRACT Sedimentological and petrographic data from two Lower Liassic ooidal ironstones (the Frodingham and Pecten Ironstones) and associated mudstones from eastern England have been collected. Within these ironstones early diagenetic berthierine, siderite, and minor glauconite have a limited lateral extent, associated with an intrabasinal high (the Market Weighton Swell). This mineral assemblage passes laterally and vertically into mudstones and silty mudstones within which pyrite is the dominant early diagenetic iron mineral. The ironstones are stratigraphically condensed, having experienced low net sediment accumulation rates and shallow, high-energy conditions. Thermodynamic considerations indicate that berthierine and siderite should be stable in anoxic environments where sulfide activity is negligible. Pyrite is rare within the ironstones, suggesting that sulfate reduction was a negligible process during ironstone formation. Where pyrite is present it postdates berthierine and siderite, indicating that sulfate reduction may have been a later process in some beds. We propose that berthierine and siderite were precipitated during suboxic diagenesis, where sulfate reduction was inhibited and iron reduction was the dominant process of organic-matter oxidation. Suboxic diagenesis resulted from the extended periods of physical and biological sediment reworking during ironstone deposition, which favored the oxidation of iron minerals and aerobic egradation and loss of organic matter. Berthierine formed during early suboxic diagenesis at the expense of detrital clays and iron oxides. During later suboxic diagenesis, pore-water bicarbonate activities increased, leading to siderite precipitation. Early glauconite also formed in places, and it seems likely that it formed close to the oxic/suboxic interface. The predominance of pyrite in the mudstones indicates that sulfate reduction was the major process of organic-matter oxidation during early diagenesis.


This study examines whether the nonlinear adjustment dynamic of exchange rate to the equilibrium level as documented in Liew et al. (2003, 2004) is symmetrical or asymmetrical. Following the sequential tests as proposed in Terasvirta and Anderson (1993), this study is able to identify that the US dollar based real exchange rates of Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand exhibit LSTAR−type nonlinearity, implying that the real exchange rates of these countries have asymmetrical responds towards appreciation and depreciation. This finding provides useful guidelines in the monitoring and stabilising of ASEAN exchange rates, in order to boost the economy of this region, which has experienced different extends of negative shocks in the past few years.


Windows have typically been the least efficient thermal component in the residential envelope, but technology advances over the past decade have helped to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of window products. While the thermal performance of these advanced technology windows can be easily characterized for a particular building application, few precise estimates exist of their aggregate impact on national or regional energy use. Policy-makers, utilities, researchers and the fenestration industry must better understand these products` ultimate conservation potential in order to determine the value of developing new products and initiating programs to accelerate their market acceptance. This paper presents a method to estimate the conservation potential of advanced window technologies, combining elements of two well-known modeling paradigms: supply curves of conserved energy and residential end-use forecasting. The unique features include: detailed descriptions of the housing stock by region and vintage, state-of-the-art thermal descriptions of window technologies, and incorporation of market effects to calculate achievable conservation potential and timing. We demonstrate the methodology by comparing, for all new houses built between 1990 and 2010, the conservation potential of very efficient, high R-value ``superwindows`` in the North Central federal region and spectrally-selective low-emissivity (moderate Revalue and solar transmittance) windows in California.


In this paper, we describe our approach for information extraction from documents, which is based on supervised machine learning and collective intelligence approach. This approach is aimed at redeeming each method, because each method has merits and demerits. It provides various ways for users to input data to improve information extraction. Users can add not only supervised data but also a rule to extract values for a set of attributes. Various ways to input data allows many users to add a lot of data for quality improvement and machine learning can reduce noise of data input by users. We implemented it in event-information extraction system, and the experimental result shows effectiveness in correctness and convenience.


EXIOPOL (A New Environmental Accounting Framework Using Externality Data and Input–Output Tools for Policy Analysis) was a European Union (EU)-funded project creating a detailed, global, multiregional environmentally extended Supply and Use table (MR EE SUT) of 43 countries, 129 sectors, 80 resources, and 40 emissions. We sourced primary SUT and input–output tables from Eurostat and non-EU statistical offices. We harmonized and detailed them using auxiliary national accounts data and co-efficient matrices. Imports were allocated to countries of exports using United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database trade shares. Optimization procedures removed imbalances in these detailing and trade linking steps. Environmental extensions were added from various sources. We calculated the EU footprint of final consumption with resulting MR EE SUT. EU policies focus mainly on energy and carbon footprints. We show that the EU land, water, and material footprint abroad is much more relevant, and should be prioritized in the EU's environmental product and trade policies.


Patient confidentiality has received much attention in recent years because of the rise in the number of confidentiality breach incidents and the need to improve the provision of health services in general. Patient confidentiality is defined as the patients" right to the protection of their personal medical information within health institutions under normal conditions. While literature on the protection of patient confidentiality exists, there is little or no attempt made to use a theoretical model to represent this, and hence, with which to appraise the practice of patient confidentiality in health care systems. The main aim of this research study is to contribute to the development of a model for the protection of patient confidentiality in Libya, using experience and evidence from elsewhere, and also to suggest means to improve confidentiality through the application of lessons from the UK health service. The standpoint taken is a pragmatic one, as the focus is on the utility of the proposed model. There are two principal strands to the research: one concerns the views of experts as to factors that influence patient confidentiality. The second major one is the development of a System Dynamics Model to present the flow of patient data and the places where breaches of confidentiality are likely to occur. These two strands are then considered jointly to provide a basis for conclusions and recommendations of particular relevance in Libya (and perhaps more generally).
The data used to identify the main factors that affect the practice of patient confidentiality were collected using two stages: literature review and expert surveys. The first iteration requesting views was sent to experts from Libya, Europe and elsewhere in the field of patient confidentiality, to establish a set of factors that might influence the practice of patient confidentiality. A second iteration followed with selected respondents to rank the relative importance of elements of contributing to two factors, trust and ethics, that were identified in the first expert letter survey. The results from the expert letters indicated that the main factors that influence the practice of patient confidentiality, especially in Libya, were trust, ethics, regulation and technology. The results from the interviews and the focus group showed that the findings of the current research had ecological validity. This is based on the Libyan participants" views, which strongly supported the research results as having the potential to improve Libyan patient confidentiality systems by learning from the UK experience. The responses were used to inform the insights obtained from the UK NHS model of patient confidentiality of 2003, which was developed into an innovative simulation using Systems Dynamics Modelling (SDM). Quantitative data to populate the model was drawn from NHS statistics. The model was "validated" through personal interviews and a focus group with individuals who had experience in the practice of patient confidentiality in the Libyan health service.
The results of the running of the SDM model were also compared to known data to provide a check on validity. The proposed SDM model of patient confidentiality was shown to have ecological validity though the views of medical staff and medical records managers in two major general UK hospitals. The premise was that breaches of patient confidentiality could occur either from (i) human error when dealing with patient medical data within the national health services by staff such as frontline medical staff, doctors and nurses, or (ii) at locations of safe-keeping of patient notes, where medical records managers and others store patient medical data on IT systems, with varying dynamics and volume. The results obtained from the developed model of patient confidentiality are encouraging; they may assist health service managers to minimize breaches of patient confidentiality occurrences. Therefore, the current study proposes a framework and recommendations that can help to improve the protection of patient confidentiality systems in the Libyan health service and assist in delivering a good quality of health care.


Introduction: Diplegic children have difficulties in gait and therefore ramps are used as strategies of accessibility. Objective: The present study investigated the influence of an inclined surface (ascending and descending) on the kinematic characteristics during gait of the diplegic group (DG) when compared to typically developing children of the control group (CG). Methods: Study participants included 20 children (10 with DG and 10 CG) matched by age, which were evaluated in three experimental conditions (horizontal and inclined ascending and inclined descending surfaces of 7o) through an optoelectronic imaging system. Results: Among the linear kinematic variables, only step width differed among groups, however, without influence of the surface. The foot height differed among the groups only in the descending phase, where DG had greater difficulty in raising the foot. The 3-dimensional gait analyses could not provide more evidences of differences in kinematics variables, especially in transverse plane, between DG and CG, but provide some evidence to support that hip range of motion (ROM) during the gait cycle, hip flexion-extension in initial contact, knee ROM and the 2nd anterior-posterior trunk peak amplitude of the DG were influenced on descent by their flexor pattern. Conclusion: The DG was most affected by the inclination plane than CG especially on descent. Although a hip and knee flexor pattern is evident for DG on inclination of 7o, this angle is accessible since it allows independent gait functional activity.


Social software, such as blogs, wikis, tagging systems and collaborative filters, treats the group as a first-class object within the system. Drawing from theories of transactional distance and control, this paper proposes a model of e-learning that extends traditional concepts of learner-teacher-content interactions to include these emergent properties of the group. It suggests that this feature of social software can facilitate an approach to elearning that is qualitatively different from and capable of significantly augmenting traditional methods, with especial benefits for lifelong learners and those outside institutional boundaries. The paper goes on to explore some of the dangers and issues that need to be addressed in order for this new model to fulfill its promise, and to suggest a framework of principles to be used by designers of educationally-oriented social software.


Abstract. Aquatic systems draining peatland catchments receive a high loading of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from the surrounding terrestrial environment. Whilst photo-processing is known to be an important process in the transformation of aquatic DOC, the drivers of temporal variability in this pathway are less well understood. In this study, 8 h laboratory irradiation experiments were conducted on water samples collected from two contrasting peatland aquatic systems in Scotland: a peatland stream and a reservoir in a catchment with high percentage peat cover. Samples were collected monthly at both sites from May 2014 to May 2015 and from the stream system during two rainfall events. DOC concentrations, absorbance properties and fluorescence characteristics were measured to investigate characteristics of the photochemically labile fraction of DOC. CO2 and CO produced by irradiation were also measured to determine gaseous photoproduction and intrinsic sample photoreactivity. Significant variation was seen in the photoreactivity of DOC between the two systems, with total irradiation-induced changes typically 2 orders of magnitude greater at the high-DOC stream site. This is attributed to longer water residence times in the reservoir rendering a higher proportion of the DOC recalcitrant to photo-processing. During the experimental irradiation, 7 % of DOC in the stream water samples was photochemically reactive and direct conversion to CO2 accounted for 46 % of the measured DOC loss. Rainfall events were identified as important in replenishing photoreactive material in the stream, with lignin phenol data indicating mobilisation of fresh DOC derived from woody vegetation in the upper catchment. This study shows that peatland catchments produce significant volumes of aromatic DOC and that photoreactivity of this DOC is greatest in headwater streams; however, an improved understanding of water residence times and DOC input–output along the source to sea aquatic pathway is required to determine the fate of peatland carbon.


As each successive generation of MOS devices is scaled down to meet the requirements for increased speed and integration, the demands placed on dielectric layers and semiconductor-dielectric interfaces become more severe. Improved process cleanliness and novel growth techniques have come a long way in producing uniform, low-leakage thermal oxides on silicon with the required thicknesses of 5nm and less. This study focuses on the all-important interface region between silicon and SiO2 and in particular a class of charge trap located there known as the slow trap. These traps, variously called border traps or switching oxide states, exchange charge with the silicon substrate on time scales from milliseconds to hours depending on their energy level and separation from the interface. The chemical nature of slow traps, fast interface traps and fixed oxide charge is discussed in a review of current literature which also considers a range of measurement techniques used for their electrical characterisation. The creation of these defects during the initial oxide growth, as a result of subsequent processing, or during normal device operation is also reviewed, with particular attention being given to the process of plasma etching. It is well known that during this important fabrication step, damage to MOS structures can occur due to charge build-up on isolated gate materials and direct exposure to hgh energy plasma emissions. A number of techniques are commonly used to electrically characterise charge traps at the interface and in the bulk of the oxide. However, they are inadequate when measuring the wide range of response times of slow traps. Consequently, a new technique has been developed as part of this study which simultaneously measures slow trap densities and their response times over a range of gate voltages of a MOS capacitor. The new technique, called Slow Trap Profiling, is described in detail with examples given which highlight its advantages over other methods, particularly the quasi-static capacitance-voltage technique. Slow trap profiling is then successfully used to measure slow traps created by constant current or voltage stressing of wet etched MOS capacitors in the first instance, and by RF plasma etching of the gate electrode in the second. Both these processes can degrade the performance of MOS devices by creating defects at and near the oxide-silicon interface. A necessary part of the plasma etch study was the accurate measurement of the endpoint of the polysilicon gate etching process. To satisfy this requirement, an endpoint detection system based on the principles of ellipsometry was developed and fitted to an etch reactor, enabling overetch times to be measured with an accuracy of less than 1s. Details of the system design and performance are given. Slow trap profiles obtained from oxides of varying thickness and growth conditions reveal a range of trap energy levels throughout the silicon bandgap and beyond, with response times ranging fkom 20ms to many seconds. The capture and emission rates were found to be quite different and the reasons for this are discussed. Comparisons of slow trap characteristics between plasma etching and electrical stress support the results of others that indicate similar damage mechanisms affecting the interface region during both processes. After creating the initial damage, changes in slow trapping with room temperature and higher temperature anneals are also measured and discussed. The original contribution of this thesis is summarised in the following points - + A new technique has been developed and successfully used to measure a wide range of slow trap characteristics in MOS capacitors; namely density, gate voltage or energy location, and response times or charge trapping and emission rates. + An accurate endpoint detection system has been developed and used in the plasma etching of polysilicon gate material. Endpoint accuracy of less than 1s was achieved and at least 80% photoresist coverage could be tolerated. + The plasma etch study has revealed the extent of damage to different MOS structures during the critical overetch period. In all cases, slow traps are generated and their presence can be easily overlooked when using more common measurement technques. + The theory that plasma etching and electrical stress exhibit similar damage mechanisms is supported by the study of slow trap creation in both cases. The aim of this study has been to highlight the importance of slow traps in the field of MOS technology and to demonstrate the advantages of a new measurement techmque which can be used for their characterisation. With the scaling of future MOS devices, the quality of the oxide-silicon interface where slow traps are found becomes more critical. It is proposed that the new slow trap profiling technique will be a useful tool in the monitoring of slow trap densities and trapping rates as a function of oxide growth conditions and subsequent device processing. In our laboratory, it has already proved useful in other studies of ultrathin nitrided oxides growth on silicon and silicon carbide, a wide bandgap material.


The Control community relies heavily on good System Identification (SysID) for finding the plant models needed to develop a good controller. However over time the SysID process and controller development process have remained generally separate activities. One reason for this is that SysID and Control are disparate in their fundamental nature. For good SysID, one is faced with the challenge of persistently exciting plant dynamics; while a good control system attempts to constrain or suppress much of a plant's natural dynamics with desired dynamics. It is this inherent conflict that separates the two practices. But for many plants, their inherent instabilities makes trajectory collection difficult, thus there is a desire to perform data collection while under some simple form of control. Nevertheless, in order to perform solid SysID one must sample the very dynamics one might need to suppress; how then can this be achieved? This paper will explore the notation of persistent excitation, its relationship to phase space trajectories, and how one might recover the most nonlinear dynamics information for SysID while remaining under the linearizing based control region - the very place that those dynamics are most suppressed.


In this paper, the influence of thickness and density of nonwoven materials on the sound-absorption capability is studied through the serial experiments. The results show that the sound-absorption coefficient increases with material thickness increasing and this relationship is more distinct for low or mid frequencies than for high frequencies. When the material thickness is made constant, the sound-absorption coefficient increases with density increasing for low-mid frequencies, while the coefficient decreases with density for high frequencies. The conclusion is that the nonwoven materials with low density structure own better capacity in absorbing sound according to the experiment results.


Is worker-ownership an instrument for solidarity and social change? Will its organizational form stimulate a social consciousness that leads members to be involved with social movements such as community development, labor activism, environmental campaigning, or human rights promotion? To answer this question I offer textual data that suggest that worker-ownership may be an effective instrument for solidarity and social change dependent upon the collective political vision of the members.


Objectives The present study aims to determine antibacterial activity for Lawsonia inermis leaf extract against some pathogenic bacteria. Methods Five solvents used are acetone, ethanol, methanol, ethyl acetate and distilled water to obtain of crude extract of Lawsonia inermis leaves, which tested the effectiveness on five types of bacteria are Pseudomonas eroginosa, Pseudomonas oryzihabita, Proteus varaplis, Klebsila pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus to determine the most efficient solvent extraction of them, and then was use of a series of concentrations of the solvent is more efficient 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100% to determine the most efficient concentration of solvent optimization, and then was determined the efficiency of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the extract. Results The results of the current study showed that the most efficient in the extraction solvent is acetone and the diameters of inhibition zone are 18, 19.83, 17.16, 16.33, 16.5 mm for the types of bacteria above, respectively. The results showed that the concentration of acetone 100% is the best concentration in extraction, amounting to the diameters of inhibition zone at this concentration of 17.33, 20, 19.33, 17.66, 21.66 mm for each of the bacterial species above, respectively. The results also found that MIC is 6 mg/ml of Pseudomonas eroginosa and 7 mg/ml of Pseudomonas oryzihabita and 11 mg/ml of each Proteus varaplis, Klebsila pneumonia and Staphylococcus aureus. Conclusion The most effective composites against pathogenic bacteria from Lawsonia inermis leaves are using acetone solvent with concentration of 100%.


A hierarchy of climate models have been developed and applied to the problem of doubling the COt concentration in the atmosphere. Currently available general circulation models include the most complete treatment of the global warming and are capable of providing changes in several of the meteorological parameters in time scales of half a century or even more. Much skill is gradually being achieved now for future climate simulations. In this paper, we have attempted to describe the response of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Climate Community Model (NCAR CCM), whose performance for northern hemispheric climate simulations was reported to be very satisfactory to Indian region. The seasonal (winter and summer) changes in surface temperature, rainfall and soil moisture expected over the Indian sub-continent due to doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere as inferred from model output statistics are discussed. A probable scenario for sea level rise along the Indian coastline by the year 2030 AD as a result of ocean water's expansion due to global warming is outlined. These projections should not be treated as predictions of what is going to happen over the Indian sub-continent. Rather, they merely illustrate to what extent we might be affected by the future climate change.


This paper addresses how to support both real-time and non-real-time communication services in a wireless LAN with dynamic time-division duplexed (D-TDD) transmission. With D-TDD, a frequency channel is time-shared for both downlink and uplink transmissions under the dynamic access control of the base station. The base station (1) handles uplink transmissions by polling mobiles in a certain order determined on a per-connection (per-message) basis for transmitting real-time (non-real-time) traffic from mobiles and (2) schedules the transmission of downlink packets. To handle location-dependent, time-varying, and bursty errors, we adopt the channel-state prediction, transmission deferment, and retransmission. We consider the problems of scheduling and multiplexing downlink packet transmissions, and polling mobiles for uplink transmissions depending on the channel state. We also establish conditions necessary to admit each new real-time connection by checking if the connection's delivery-delay bound can be guaranteed as long as the channel stays in good condition without compromising any of the existing guarantees. Last, the performance of the proposed protocol is evaluated to demonstrate how the protocol works and to study the effects of various parameters of the protocol.


In order to capitalize on its increasing legislative powers, the European Parliament (EP) has had to specialize internally. The scholarly literature has predominantly studied the structural manifestations of specialization, such as the allocation of committee seats among parliamentarians. This article sheds light on a second selection process: participation in legislative negotiations. For every given legislative dossier, parliamentarians have to decide whether and how strongly to participate in the negotiations. The literature on office allocation contains assumptions about the role of office-holders in negotiations. The first aim of this article is to test the validity of these assumptions. The second aim is to apply theories used in studies on office allocation to negotiations and gain insight into the following questions: Are actors with extreme preferences more active than others? What is the role of experts? How do party politics play out? Although we find effects of preferences and expertise on negotiations, the evidence is most compatible with the view that negotiations serve EP party groups to form and exchange policy positions.


The two-dimensional (2D) materials and their multi-layered heterostructures are being actively explored as new materials for multiple applications in optoelectronics, energy storage, gas- and bio-sensors, and photocatalysis and solar energy conversion, to mention a few. In particular, the transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as tungsten disulfide (WS2) and tungsten diselenide (WSe2), are promising materials for optoelectronic applications thanks to their unique optical, electrical and mechanical properties [1]. While these materials and their complex WS2-WSe2 heterostructures can be effectively grown by chemical vapour deposition, the resulting structures and their surface and interfacial defects may significantly affect the performance of resulting devices. [1] Eftekhari A, J. Mater. Chem. A, 5 (2017) 18299-18325. [2] Cuberes MT et al., Journal of Physics D-Applied Physics, 33 (2000) 2347-2355. [3] Kolosov, O. V. et al. Nanotechnology 22, (2011), 185702. We therefore studied the hidden subsurface features of the samples, such as dislocations and stacking faults. They have been identified by nanomechanical mapping via the well-known methods Ultrasonic Force Microscopy (UFM) and Heterodyne Force Microscopy (HFM). These techniques combine Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) with ultrasonic excitation of the tip, sample or both, to probe changes in the sample stiffness due to different materials, buried defects, and crystal quality or layer thickness variations [2]. This work has been also completed by the cross-sectioning of the TMD heterostructures with Beam Exit Cross-sectional Polishing (BEXPTM), revealing the inner structure by cutting the material with Ar-ion beam resulting in near-atomically flat sections. This methodology creates an oblique damage-free section, with a very shallow angle from the surface, which allows easy access via SPM methods to the near-surface and deep subsurface regions [3]. The nanomechanical mapping of the UFM and HFM images shows clear contrast in areas that can be either linked or independent from the topographical features regions (Fig 1.a and 1.b), both for intact and BEXPTM sectioned heterostructures (Fig 1.c and 1.d). The obtained subsurface structures indicate that these are linked to dislocations and stacking faults, as well as misorientation of the crystallographic axis of the layers.


The aim of this report is to provide EFSA with probabilistic models for quantitative pathway analysis of plant pest introduction for the EU territory through non-edible plant products or plants. We first provide a conceptualization of two types of pathway models. The individual based PM simulates an individual consignment (or a population of such consignment) by describing the stochastic change in the state of the individual consignment over time and space. The flow-based PM, simulates the flow of infested product over time and space, without distinguishing individual consignments. We show how these two conceptualisations are mathematically related, and present, as a show case, both models for cut flowers. Second, we developed PMs for five product groups: round wood, sawn wood, cut flowers, plants for planting and seeds. For each product group we have developed a case-study (combination of product, origin and pest) to illustrate the use of the pathway models: (1) oak wood from the USA and Ceratocystis fagacearum, (2) Coniferous sawn wood from China and Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, (3) Cut orchids from Thailand and Thrips palmi, (4) Pot orchids from Thailand and Thrips palmi, and (5) Tomato seeds and Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. michiganensis from outside the European Union. An uncertainty analysis on the models shows that the pest species-specific parameters appear to be sensitive and uncertain. Third, a practical guidance is provided on i) how to develop a PM, ii) the application of PMs in @Risk (a plugin for MS Excel), and iii) application in R. Finally, future research topics are defined. Further work is needed on interpretation of results, linking quantitative outcomes of pathway modelling to pest risk scoring guidance, and evaluation of management options using pathway models.


It is well-known that people resist proposals for change for reasons that are independent of a rational calculation of self-interest. This article explores two sources of resistance that affect public policy advocates in particular: "Resonance," (negative associations with past experience or other policy domains), and a desire t avoid the psychological and material costs of "transition," (the process of adjustment, personal and institutional, that comes with any significant change). The author argues that conventional advocacy, in which one side "names the change" and attempts to force others to go along, inherently triggers negative resonance and heightens fears of transition. If advocates can engage opposing groups in some form of negotiation or collaboration to "name the change," these sources of resistance will diminish. Finally, even where collaboration is not possible, the article suggests that advocates who are self-aware about the risks and losses that they are asking decision-makers to undergo will avoid the tendency to assume that the worst about the intentions of other participants in public disputes.


The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of Progressive Space Organization (ante-rooms) in Negative Pressured Isolation Unit(NPIU) such as National and Regional Isolation Units in Korea in order to build basic data for the evidence based design of Airborne Infection Isolation Units which should prepare and respond effectively to the public health crisis due to the hazardous airborne infectious disease. Methods: 1) Gas(SF6) test and analysis on the 23 Korean Isolation Units under operation. 2) Assessment of the isolation level of the space components by checking the Gas concentration. 3) Analysis of the Isolation Effectiveness according to Space Organizational levels. Results: 1) The higher segregation level is, the lower Gas(SF6) concentration is. 2) Too many segregations(anterooms) of Isolation Unit are not efficient for the prevention of infectious bacillus spread. For example, 4 level of segregation has similar segregation effect to the 3 level of segregation. Implications: Many anterooms in front of the isolated patient bedroom will guarantee the safe environment against the danger of hazardous airborne nosocomial infection. On the other hand, too many segregations is inefficient, expensive, inconvenient, narrow(unflexible) and so on. This study can be used as basic data for further development of design guidelines of isolation units


Indian economic growth is likely to lead to a huge increase of energy use in buildings but so far, policies to address this issue are lacking. Standard building energy use concerning glazing, air conditioning and lighting in different climatic zones across India leads to energy use per m2 which is 3-4 times of the German average. We assess the potential to improve building energy efficiency and how measures in the building sector could be framed as projects under the Clean Development Mechanism. CDM case studies for large buildings in the Indian public and private sector are presented. They achieve annual greenhouse gas reductions of 500 to 10,000 ton, which may not be sufficient to overcome the CDM transaction cost barrier. Despite short payback periods, the high initial investment and lack of integrated building management makes these projects additional. Large-scale appliance dissemination programs for air-conditioners and Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) may offer interesting opportunities if the monitoring challenge can be overcome.


In many interventions that are based on an exercise program intended to induce weight loss, the mean weight loss observed is modest and sometimes far less than what the individual expected. The individual responses are also widely variable, with some individuals losing a substantial amount of weight, others maintaining weight, and a few actually gaining weight. The media have focused on the subpopulation that loses little weight, contributing to a public perception that exercise has limited utility to cause weight loss. The purpose of the symposium was to present recent, novel data that help explain how compensatory behaviors contribute to a wide discrepancy in exercise-induced weight loss. The presentations provide evidence that some individuals adopt compensatory behaviors, that is, increased energy intake and/or reduced activity, that offset the exercise energy expenditure and limit weight loss. The challenge for both scientists and clinicians is to develop effective tools to identify which individuals are susceptible to such behaviors and to develop strategies to minimize their effect.


Ichthyosis is genetically and clinically
heterogeneous group of cornification disorder that
characterized by scaling of whole body skin. A subgroup
of Ichthyosis is Autosomal recessive congenital
ichthyosis (ARCI). Typically, ARCI is classified to
two subgroups; lamellar ichthyosis(LI) and nonbullous
congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma (NCIE). To
date, are identified nine loci and seven genes for ARCI.
These genes are accounted for 70-75% of patients.


-In this paper, a new parallel-connected single phase power factor correction (PFC) topology using flyback converter in parallel with forward converter is proposed to improve the input power factor with simultaneously output voltage regulation taking consideration of current harmonic norms. Paralleling of converter modules is a well-known technique that is often used in medium-power applications to achieve the desired output power by using smaller size of high frequency transformers and inductors. The proposed approach offers cost effective, compact and efficient AC-DC converter by the use of parallel power processing. Forward converter primarily regulates output voltage with fast dynamic response and it acts as master which processes 60% of the power. Flyback converter with AC/DC PFC stage regulates input current shaping and PFC, and processes the remaining 40% of the power as a slave. This paper presents a design example and circuit analysis for 300 W power supply. A parallel-connected interleaved structure offers smaller passive components, less loss even in continuous conduction inductor current mode, and reduced volt-ampere rating of DC/DC stage converter. MATLAB/SIMULINK is used for implementation and simulation results show the performance improvement.


This article discusses the Lebanese activist and writer Bassem Chit as an example of the intellectual rebel in Lebanon and the Arab world. It analyses the ideological tradition of revolutionary socialism and the Arab left. Through an analysis of interviews and articles, Haugbolle attempts to locate the place and nature of intellectual production in the organisation of revolutionary activity, and the particular role rebel intellectuals play in bringing about social change. It draws on the sociology of intellectuals, in particular Gramsci, in the analysis of Bassem Chit's work and his post mortem veneration.


Pharella acutidens clam is a bivalve lives in mangrove ecosystem substrate, that is one of protein source for Dompu's people. the existence of pharella acutidens in Cempi Bay, Dompu begin difficult to collect due to mangrove area has been reduced by result of land conversion from mangrove ekosistem area to estuary aquaculture pond and mangrove timber exploitation by local community as well as the Pharella acutidens routin exploitation, these factor may has influenced the existence of Pharella acutidens clam in the Cempi Bay mangrove ecosystem. This study aims to determine the condition of the Pharella acutidens clams located in the mangrove ecosystem Cempi bay, which in is an abundance on different conditions mangrove vegetation an abundance of Pharella acutidens clams tended more on high density and high basal area sites as well as the size of the clams. Varied habitats, from the density of 1.333 trees/ha up to 3.300 trees/ha, the basal area and the diverse species of mangrove, making this study an interesting thing  This journal is part of the research that explains positive influence between total basal area of mangrove vegetation (∑C i ) and abundance of Pharella acutidens, by simple regression analysis. The result showed that total basal area of mangrove vegetation (∑C i ) positively influencing abundance of P. acutidens clams with equation y = 0,3038x + 3,887 and R 2 = 0,9579.


Whereas a causal association between viral and bacterial infections with tumor development has been well established in animal and epidemiological studies, the impact of parasitic infections in cancer development is almost unknown. Evidences indicate that cancer can be triggered by chronic or deregulated inflammatory processes, such as colitis‐associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Using a helminth infection model, we have analyzed the role of helminth‐induced anti‐inflammatory response in determining the outcome of CAC. Following Taenia crassiceps infection and development of CAC, mice displayed inhibited colonic inflammatory responses and reduced circulating and colonic CD11b+Ly6C+CCR2+ monocytes. Instead they increased the expression of IL‐4 and alternatively activated macrophages (AAMs) markers at the colonic tissue. Strikingly, T. crassiceps‐infected mice developed few tumors and reduced pathology. In contrast, uninfected mice mounted strong inflammatory responses, did not express AAMs markers, developed severe pathology and displayed multiple tumors. Thus, immunomodulatory activities induced by helminth infections may have a role in the resistance and progression of CAC.


The one-dimensional turbulent mass transfer was quantified using the nonlinear unclosed statistical governing equations derived from the traditional statistical methods. Further, this study considers the a priori simplifications of the bimodal Random Square Waves (RSW) approximation. This model enables the formulation of parametric equations for the variables of the statistical governing equations, but intrinsic aspects of this method still need to be clarified. In this sense, this study considers details of a version of the RSW equation for turbulent mass transfer which uses a constant reduction function. The mentioned details are related to discontinuities of higher order derivatives of the nondimensional concentration profile in the vicinity of a singular point. Numerical integrations were conducted at the air-water interface in both directions: from the liquid to the gas phase, and from the gas to the liquid phase. The results suggest that the continuity and smoothness of the calculated concentration profile does not depend on the discontinuities of the higher order derivatives, but the behaviour of the higher order derivatives depends strongly on the values of the nondimensional parameters existing in the formulation. Adequate boundary conditions were defined in the liquid phase, involving a new condition for the second derivative of the concentration profile. A fourth order Runge-Kutta method was used. This paper presents the proposed methodology; the comparison between results of calculated and measured concentration profiles,


The conditions of a megapolis are marked by a considerable man-made pressure and environmental denaturalization. When children long live under these conditions, they develop a specific response as high rates of morbidity and prevalence of diseases. Different types of morbidity dynamics (growth, undulatory pattern, and relative stability) form depending on the pathogenetic potential of environmental factors and adaptive compensatory capacities of the body.


Subsidies are commonly used to encourage behaviors that can lead to shortor long-term benefits. Typical examples include subsidized job training programs and provisions of preventive health products, in which both behavioral responses and associated gains can exhibit heterogeneity. This study uses the marginal treatment effect (MTE) framework to study personalized assignments of subsidies based on individual characteristics. First, we derive the optimality condition for a welfare-maximizing subsidy rule by showing that the welfare can be represented as a function of the MTE. Next, we show that subsidies generally result in better welfare than directly mandating the encouraged behavior because subsidy rules implicitly target individuals through unobserved heterogeneity in the behavioral response. When there is positive selection, that is, when individuals with higher returns are more likely to select the encouraged behavior, the optimal subsidy rule achieves the first-best welfare, which is the optimal welfare if a policy-maker can observe individuals' private information. We then provide methods to (partially) identify the optimal subsidy rule when the MTE is identified and unidentified. Particularly, positive selection allows for the point identification of the optimal subsidy rule even when the MTE curve is not. As an empirical application, we study the optimal wage subsidy using the experimental data from the Jordan New Opportunities for Women pilot study.


A microeconomic theoretical model shows that two factors - the compensation and progressivity effects - produce the shifting (if any) of tax rates on wage formation. From an analytical viewpoint, they may be positive or negative and of equal or different sign. A microfounded nested macroeconomic wage equation is then tested for nine European countries for the period 1960-88. Three robust regularities seem to emerge from our econometric results. First, in general, small open economies such as Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands have negligible compensation and progressivity effects: to maintain their external competitiveness they fix a real labour cost target independent of tax rates. Second, larger and less open European economies, in contrast, transfer indirect and social security tax rate increases on the real labour cost in the long run, except Italy and the UK; in these greater economies, a rise in the direct tax rate raises the steady-state gross real wage, both where the compensation and the progressivity effects move in opposite directions (as in France, Germany and Sweden), and a fortiori where (in Italy and the UK) the compensation effect is approximately zero, like in very open economies, but the progressivity effect is positive. Third, all European countries show a weakening of tax shifting on the real labour cost between the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. This changing attitude on the part of unions usually runs parallel to the introduction of de facto fiscal indexation and a reduction in tax progressivity, which increasingly leads to the fixing of the steady-state wage rate so as to safeguard the country's external competitiveness.


Background. Ageing and inflammation are critical for the occurrence of aortic diseases. Extensive inflammatory infiltrate and excessive ECM proteloysis, mediated by MMPs, are typical features of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). Mesenchymal Stromal Cells (MSCs) have been detected within the vascular wall and represent attractive candidates for regenerative medicine, in virtue of mesodermal lineage differentiation and immunomodulatory activity. Meanwhile, many works have underlined an impaired MSC behaviour under pathological conditions. This study was aimed to define a potential role of vascular MSCs to AAA development.
Methods. Aortic tissues were collected from AAA patients and healthy donors. Our analysis was organized on three levels: 1) histology of AAA wall; 2) detection of MSCs and evaluation of MMP-9 expression on AAA tissue; 3) MSC isolation from AAA wall and characterization for mesenchymal/stemness markers, MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, TIMP-2 and EMMPRIN. AAA-MSCs were tested for immunomodulation, when cultured together with activated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). In addition, a co-colture of both healthy and AAA MSCs was assessed and afterwards MMP-2/9 mRNA levels were analyzed.
Results. AAA-MSCs showed basic mesenchymal properties: fibroblastic shape, MSC antigens, stemness genes. MMP-9 mRNA, protein and enzymatic activity were significantly increased in AAA-MSCs. Moreover, AAA-MSCs displayed a weak immunosuppressive activity, as shown by PBMC ongoing along cell cycle. MMP-9 was shown to be modulated at the transcriptional level through the direct contact as well as the paracrine action of healthy MSCs.
Discussion. Vascular injury did not affect the MSC basic phenotype, but altered their function, a increased MMP-9 expression and ineffective immunmodulation. These data suggest that vascular MSCs can contribute to aortic disease. In this view, the study of key processes to restore MSC immunomodulation could be relevant to find a pharmacological approach for monitoring the aneurysm progression.


Science Atlantic Aquaculture & Fisheries and Biology (AF&B) conference is held annually by the Science Atlantic Biology committee in the conjunction of Aquaculture and Fisheries Committee, which allows undergraduate students to present their results of research. In various research projects, students have chance to make hypotheses on this project, design experiments to accept or deny their hypotheses using real research methods, analyze the data and then draw their conclusions. This particular learning style is vital in post-secondary biology learning, which has been well impregnated in biology programs at all universities in the Maritime. AF&B conference not only promote this learning style, but also help undergraduates in science communication. Every year, awards are granted to the students giving the best research presentations at annual AF&B conference. 2019 AF&B conference was held at Crandall University on March 8th-10th, which attracted science students from 13 universities in all Maritime Provinces of Canada to participate. The following are conference abstracts, which are categorized into three parts: oral presentation in biology, oral presentation in Aquaculture & Fisheries and poster presentation.


The OpenCog software development framework, for advancement of the development and testing of powerful and responsible integrative AGI, is described. The OpenCog Framework (OCF) 1.0, to be released in 2008 under the GPLv2, is comprised of a collection of portable libraries for OpenCog applications, plus an initial collection of cognitive algorithms that operate within the OpenCog framework. The OCF libraries include a flexible knowledge representation embodied in a scalable knowledge store, a cognitive process scheduler, and a plug-in architecture for allowing interaction between cognitive, perceptual, and control algorithms.


TaxMe-Online is the online tax declaration system of the Canton of Bern in Switzerland, where each of the 26 Cantons has its own fiscal regime and taxation system. In 2008 it was used by almost 26 percent of the Canton of Bern taxpayers (42% used the TaxMe-CD or other software, and the last third chose the paper forms). The TaxMe portal furthermore gives taxpayer access to their fiscal data (taxation status, amounts paid, etc.) and allows them to send electronic vouchers. TaxMe-Online does not require any preliminary registration as the taxpayers receive their user ID at the same time as the tax declaration forms, and when they log in with their identification data, their identity data (name, address, etc.) are already available. Users do however have to sign a paper-based validation declaration: until they have done so, their online tax declaration is not considered as finalized. The tax administration does not have the right to access taxpayers' data until the receipt of this validation declaration. TaxMe-Online is built on open source components and solutions; data are coded before being sent electronically (Secure Socket Layer). 33% of the TaxMe-Online users say they are "very happy" with this way of filling in their tax declaration, but amongst citizens using a similar solution on CD-ROM or the paper-based declaration, only 18% say they are very happy. This paper tries to find out why the online solution scores much higher than other tax declaration systems. It comprises three main parts (i) the development of an assessment model; (ii) a description of the system and its functionalities; and (iii) an analysis of user acceptance. We investigated the point of view of the TaxMe-Online users on an empirical basis, most notably by analysing secondary sources such as surveys realized by the fiscal administration of the Canton of Bern and newspaper articles, and by conducting interviews with various stakeholders.


An intelligent agent, operating in an external world which cannot be fully described in its internal world model, must be able to monitor the success of a previously generated plan and to respond to any errors which may have occurred. The process of error analysis requires the ability to reason in an expert fashion about time and about processes occurring in the world. Reasoning about time is needed to deal with causality. Reasoning about processes is needed since the direct effects of a plan action can be completely specified when the plan is generated, but the indirect effects cannot. For example, the action `open tap' leads with certainty to `tap open', whereas whether there will be a fluid flow and how long it might last is more difficult to predict. The majority of existing planning systems cannot handle these kinds of reasoning, thus limiting their usefulness. This thesis argues that both kinds of reasoning require a complex internal representation of the world. The use of Qualitative Process Theory and an interval-based representation of time are proposed as a representation scheme for such a world model. The planning system which was constructed has been tested on a set of realistic planning scenarios. It is shown that even simple planning problems, such as making a cup of coffee, require extensive reasoning if they are to be carried out successfully. The final Chapter concludes that the planning system described does allow the correct solution of planning problems involving complex side effects, which planners up to now have been unable to solve.


This service aims to train the people in Sukomukti Hamlet, Sukorejo Village, Bangorejo Subdistrict, Banyuwangi Regency in managing the financial business of the family in an effort to support the government's program to Increase Prosperous Family Income (UPPKS) in Banyuwangi Regency. The approach taken in this service is the method of participatory action research (PAR). The results of the management of the financial management system in the Sukomukti Hamlet community were maximally absorbed so that the community was able to manage finances well and was supported by adequate conditions in managing finances


Objective This study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of third-generation P2Y12 inhibitors versus clopidogrel in combination with oral anticoagulation (OAC) with or without aspirin in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods We performed a systematic review including both prospective and retrospective studies that compared dual and triple antithrombotic regimens for bleeding and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) in patients with AF undergoing PCI. We analysed rates of bleeding and MACE by P2Y12 inhibitor choice. Risk ratio (RR) 95% CIs were measured using the Mantel-Haenszel method. Where study heterogeneity was low (I2 <25%), we used the fixed effects model, otherwise the random effects model was used. Results A total of 22 014 patients were analysed from the seven studies included. Among patients treated with both OAC and P2Y12 inhibitor with or without aspirin, 90% (n=9708) were treated with clopidogrel, 8% (n=830) with ticagrelor, and 2% (n=191) with prasugrel. When compared with clopidogrel, use of ticagrelor (RR 1.36; 95% CI 1.18 to 1.57) and prasugrel (RR 2.11; 95% CI 1.34 to 3.30) were associated with increased rates of bleeding. Compared with clopidogrel, there were no significant differences in rates of MACE with ticagrelor (RR 1.03; 95% CI 0.65 to 1.62) or prasugrel (RR 1.49; 95% CI 0.69 to 3.24). Conclusion Based on this meta-analysis, the use of clopidogrel is associated with a lower rate of bleeding compared with ticagrelor or prasugrel in patients with AF on OAC undergoing PCI.


When identifying the properties of existing structures, the so-called non-classical methods based on soft computing techniques have recently shown a promising robustness and efficacy. In particular, in the last decade an increasing attention has been paid on biologicallyinspired routines (i.e., neural networks and genetic algorithms) to identify models characterized by linear as well as nonlinear behaviour. In this paper, an advanced genetic algorithm has been presented for parameter identification of single-degree-of-freedom nonlinear system when subject to ground acceleration, e.g. due to earthquakes. Specifically, the well known smooth endochronic Bouc-Wen model has been investigated. The proposed algorithm utilizes several subpopulations, and chromosomes are represented by means of real encoding. Moreover, recent developments in traditional genetic operators (crossover and mutation) are taken into account, so that the final algorithm combines an adaptive rebirth operator, a migration strategy and a search space reduction technique. The computational effectiveness and the accuracy of the proposed strategy have shown that it outperforms two existing conventional genetic algorithms: the Standard Genetic Algorithm and the Micro Genetic Algorithm. Secondarily, a comparative study is performed to demonstrate that an improved performance can be obtained by using, instead of structural acceleration response, its Hilbert transform-based envelope as objective function in the optimization problem. Finally, system identification is conducted by using the proposed optimizer to verify its substantial noise-insensitive property also in presence of high noise-to-signal ratio.


Carbon nanofibers provide an active and well-defined high surface area material for electroanalytical processes. In this study a novel procedure is suggested for compacting carbon nanofiber (CNF) materials (diameter typically 100200 nm) with a polystyrene (PS) binder and additives into highly conducting and re-polishable CNF-PS composite electrodes. Three types of carbon nanofibers (Pyrograf III, 70-200 nra diameter) and a range of compositions are surveyed. A 33 wt% carbon nanofibers in polystyrene electrode provides optimum electrical conductivity and reactivity. The capacitive background current responses from CNF-PS electrodes are lowered (compared to those at glassy carbon) due to the reduced active surface area of the exposed carbon. However, faradaic currents for the reduction of Ru(NH3)(3+)(6) at CNF-PS electrodes are approaching those for diffusion controlled processes. Resistivity measurements - 6 indicate a typical pellet resistance of 200-400 Omega mm(-1) at 3 mm diameter. Anodic stripping voltarnmetry experiments for the Pb2+ System are reported and SEM images of electrodeposited Pbmetal are used to demonstrate the uniformly reactive surface of the CNF-PS electrode. Finally, the redox system 1,1'-ferrocenedicarboxylic acid is immobilized onto the carbon nanofibers and incorporated into the CNF-PS pellet electrodes. The voltammetric signal observed in aqueous media is consistent with release of the oxidized form of ferrocenedicarboxylic acid into solution.


Expansion and collapse are two key features of a financial asset bubble. Bubble expansion may be modeled using a mildly explosive process. Bubble implosion may take several different forms depending on the nature of the collapse and therefore requires some flexibility in modeling. This paper first strengthens the theoretical foundation of the real time bubble monitoring strategy proposed in Phillips, Shi and Yu (2015a,b, PSY) by developing analytics and studying the performance characteristics of the testing algorithm under alternative forms of bubble implosion which capture various return paths to market normalcy. Second, we propose a new reverse sample use of the PSY procedure for detecting crises and estimating the date of market recovery. Consistency of the dating estimators is established and the limit theory addresses new complications arising from the alternative forms of bubble implosion and the endogeneity effects present in the reverse regression. A real-time version of the strategy is provided that is suited for practical implementation. Simulations explore the finite sample performance of the strategy for dating market recovery. The use of the PSY strategy for bubble monitoring and the new procedure for crisis detection are illustrated with an application to the Nasdaq stock market.


This paper describes the analysis of different feedback topologies to LNA input matching. The effect of different components to LNA input impedance is discussed. Analyzed feedback topologies can also be used to eliminate the source inductor found in IDCS LNA and feedback can be used to achieve matching in packaged LNA where the bond wire is no longer a free design parameter. A design example, using a 1.2-V 65-nm CMOS process, is given for a packaged LNA to demonstrate that adequate performance can be achieved using the presented theory and topologies.


The class action area is one of substantial ferment. Mass torts and securities actions, in particular, have spurred innovation and reaction, generating, in turn, both applause and criticism. As the class action is used to achieve more ambitious aims, attention has focused on settlement and the manner in which it is reached. Judges and scholars have assessed and debated questions such as how to ensure that absent class members are adequately represented, especially when those members are truly passive as with a futures class. When is a settlement that offers class attorneys substantial fees but affords class members only noncash compensation fair, adequate, and reasonable? When, if ever, is a temporary settlement class-a class certified only for settlement purposes-appropriate? A number of these issues and concerns converged in the United States Supreme Court's consideration of intersystem preclusion in Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. v. Epstein. In Epstein, the Court determined that 28 U.S.C. 1738 may require a federal court to accord preclusive effect to a state court judgment approving a class action settlement when that settlement releases defendants from liability with regard to all actions, including federal claims over which federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction, that arise out of the subject transaction. Given defendants' interest in global settlements, Epstein plainly has substantial implications for intersystem class actions involving exclusive federal claims. The significance of the Court's decision and analysis in Epstein, however, extends beyond the exclusive federal claim context. The decision underscores, again, the importance of a careful determination of adequate representation and raises questions regarding when and how mistakes in that regard can be corrected and whether due process can be effectively utilized as a check against collusion.This Article contends that the Court's analysis failed to give sufficient consideration and weight to the exclusive federal nature of the subject claim or to the fact that the state action was a class action with the attendant risks and compromises that device entails. These failures led the Court to the wrong conclusion-that on the basis of 28 U.S.C. 1738, a state class settlement may bar litigation of an exclusive federal claim in federal court. This result undermines federal interests by mistakenly elevating comity over congressional intent, robs the concept of consent of any real meaning, and unnecessarily facilitates collusion. Although due process is offered as a counterbalance to the restrictions 28 U.S.C. 1738 imposes, due process does not purport to address the sovereignty concerns Epstein raises. Moreover, given the present uncertainty regarding the content of due process protections and their availability to class members, the Due Process Clause offers imperfect protection for absent class members.The Article also outlines the implications Epstein has for class actions outside the exclusive federal claim context. In particular, it addresses comity issues raised in recent intersystem class actions and the possible appropriate role for collateral attack these issues suggest.


eleed, Iss. 10 - Learning Innovations and Learning Quality: The two main objectives to foster improvements in learning, education and training and the two core ingredients for learning success and impact. They are focused by many different theories and diverse practices. And they are more and more required due the increasing speed of globalization and changes in communities, economies, technologies and societies worldwide.
This book demonstrates the need for combining learning innovations and learning quality from various perspectives: The scientific articles address the different ways of formal, non-formal and informal learning and all the educational sectors from kindergarten, school, university to lifelong learning.
Particular emphasis is put on the current opportunities provided by digital resources: How can we benefit from their potential and increase their (open) access and re-usage in learning, education and training?
Thus, the book contributes to the current debate on opening up education towards new and innovative learning practices and online communities: To integrate learning innovations and learning quality into a holistic and sustainable vision and approach for modernizing learning, education and training in our society.


Power semiconductor devices are key components in all power electronic systems, particularly in hybrid, electric, and fuel cell vehicles. This paper reviews the system requirement and latest development of power semiconductor devices including IGBTs, freewheeling diodes, and advanced power module technology in relating to electric vehicle applications. State-of-the-art silicon device technologies, their future trends, and theoretical limits are discussed. Emerging wide bandgap semiconductor devices such as SiC devices and their potential applications in electric vehicles are also reviewed


The thermal decomposition of cyclohexanone (C6H10═O) has been studied in a set of flash-pyrolysis microreactors. Decomposition of the ketone was observed when dilute samples of C6H10═O were heated to 1200 K in a continuous flow microreactor. Pyrolysis products were detected and identified by tunable VUV photoionization mass spectroscopy and by photoionization appearance thresholds. Complementary product identification was provided by matrix infrared absorption spectroscopy. Pyrolysis pressures were roughly 100 Torr, and contact times with the microreactors were roughly 100 μs. Thermal cracking of cyclohexanone appeared to result from a variety of competing pathways, all of which open roughly simultaneously. Isomerization of cyclohexanone to the enol, cyclohexen-1-ol (C6H9OH), is followed by retro-Diels-Alder cleavage to CH2═CH2 and CH2═C(OH)-CH═CH2. Further isomerization of CH2═C(OH)-CH═CH2 to methyl vinyl ketone (CH3CO-CH═CH2, MVK) was also observed. Photoionization spectra identified both enols, C6H9OH and CH2═C(OH)-CH═CH2, and the ionization threshold of C6H9OH was measured to be 8.2 ± 0.1 eV. Coupled cluster electronic structure calculations were used to establish the energetics of MVK. The heats of formation of MVK and its enol were calculated to be ΔfH298(cis-CH3CO-CH═CH2) = -26.1 ± 0.5 kcal mol(-1) and ΔfH298(s-cis-1-CH2═C(OH)-CH═CH2) = -13.7 ± 0.5 kcal mol(-1). The reaction enthalpy ΔrxnH298(C6H10═O → CH2═CH2 + s-cis-1-CH2═C(OH)-CH═CH2) is 53 ± 1 kcal mol(-1) and ΔrxnH298(C6H10═O → CH2═CH2 + cis-CH3CO-CH═CH2) is 41 ± 1 kcal mol(-1). At 1200 K, the products of cyclohexanone pyrolysis were found to be C6H9OH, CH2═C(OH)-CH═CH2, MVK, CH2CHCH2, CO, CH2═C═O, CH3, CH2═C═CH2, CH2═CH-CH═CH2, CH2═CHCH2CH3, CH2═CH2, and HC≡CH.


Good HVAC control schemes in buildings help reduce energy use and maintain occupant comfort. During the last 10 years, VAV-HVAC systems are widely used in commercial buildings because they can reduce energy use significantly and provide good temperature control of the conditioned spaces compared to CV-HVAC systems. However, the controls for VAV systems are somewhat difficult and further research in this area still needs to be carried out. This research will focus on local control loop interactions and operating strategies for VAV control systems. To reach this objective, experiments were conducted in a two-zone VAV test facility. The facility consists of six control loops (cooling valve, fan speed, two dampers, two electric heaters) activated by DDC PI controllers. Experiments were conducted in this facility and the results were processed, and analyzed in this thesis. The steady state and dynamic characteristics of a VAV-HVAC control system has been studied. The interaction between control loops of a VAV system operating under (i) open-loop, (ii) closed-loop control modes were evaluated. Also six local loops were tuned and optimal range of controller gains for single-loop and multi-loop VAV system operation were determined. Experiments were conducted to compare the operating performance of Pressure Independent Control (PIC) and Pressure Dependent Control (PDC) strategies. The results show that PIC strategy is more stable than PDC. However, a finely tuned PDC strategy gives good room temperature control compared to PIC. The results of this research will help building engineers identify operating problems and interactions between local loops in VAV systems. In addition, the optimal range of controller gains obtained in this research can offer guidelines in PID controller tuning. Moreover, the tests conducted provide experimental data to building engineers and researchers for model development and control design


These selected abstracts and titles from the world literature are arranged in the following sections: Syphilis and Other Treponematoses (Clinical and Therapy; Serology and Biological False Positive Phenomenon; Pathology and Experimental)


A survey to determine the prevalence of onchocerciasis was carried out in the Ile-Ire District of Kwara State, Nigeria between April 1979 and May 1980. Of the 4436 subjects examined, 63% were positive for microfilariae of Onchocerca volvulus in their skin snips and 51% of these had palpable onchocercal nodules. The infection rate was 40% among those under 10 years of age; the rate was significantly higher (75%) among the older subjects. There was no difference in the prevalence of infection between male and female subjects, but the microfilarial density, the prevalence of blindness and the frequency of occurrence of 'leopard skin', were significantly higher for males than for females. While all Fulanis and Agatu migrant farm labourers examined were infected, the infection rate among their counterparts of Yoruba origin was 78%. Although the communities were conscious of the presence and nuisance of Simulium and have adopted various measures against Simulium bites, the local perception of the association between blackflies, 'leopard skin', blindness and other clinical manifestations of onchocerciasis was poor. A background of the study area, the trends and impacts of river-blindness in Nigeria, are given.


This thesis explores decisions on access to collections with sensitive content through a case study analysis of the library principles and archival practices applied to the films from the Youth Film Distribution Center (YFDC). These films are overseen by the Reserve Film and Video Collection at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center. The Reserve Film and Video Collection has been the principal circulating audiovisual department for The New York Public Library since the 1950s. The objective of this thesis is to explore processing decisions for films with sensitive content (e.g. films promoting negative stereotypes of their subjects or featuring violent or sexually explicit content). The thesis offers an historical overview of the Youth Film Distribution Center and outlines the processing decisions surrounding levels of access for the YFDC title Seeing (1972).


Neural systems offer high predictive accuracy but are plagued by long training times and low interpretability. We present a simple neural architecture for recommender systems that lifts several of these shortcomings. Firstly, the approach has a high predictive power that is comparable to state-of-the-art recommender approaches. Secondly, owing to its simplicity, the trained model can be interpreted easily because it provides the individual contribution of each input feature to the decision. Our method is three orders of magnitude faster than general-purpose explanatory approaches, such as LIME. Finally, thanks to its design, our architecture addresses cold-start issues, and therefore the model does not require retraining in the presence of new users.


We consider the design of a hybrid multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor consisting of a radio frequency (RF) beamformer and a baseband MIMO processor for millimeter-wave communications over multiuser interference channels. Sparse approximation problems are formulated to design hybrid MIMO processors approximating the minimum-mean-square-error transmit/receive processors in MIMO interference channels. They are solved by orthogonal-matching-pursuit-based algorithms that successively select RF beamforming vectors from a set of candidate vectors and optimize the corresponding baseband processor in the least squares sense. It is shown that various beamformers can be designed by considering different types of candidate vector sets. Simulation results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed design over the conventional method that designs the baseband processor after steering the RF beams.


We present a robust method for computing locally bijective global parametrizations aligned with a given cross-field. The singularities of the parametrization in general agree with singularities of the field, except in a small number of cases when several additional cones need to be added in a controlled way. Parametric lines can be constrained to follow an arbitrary set of feature lines on the surface. Our method is based on constructing an initial quad patch partition using robust cross-field integral line tracing. This process is followed by an algorithm modifying the quad layout structure to ensure that consistent parametric lengths can be assigned to the edges. For most meshes, the layout modification algorithm does not add new singularities; a small number of singularities may be added to resolve an explicitly described set of layouts. We demonstrate that our algorithm succeeds on a test data set of over a hundred meshes.


Using both the Gaussian and Fetter''s variational calculations for the N-body ground-state wavefunction of the trapped Bose-Einstein condensate, we give explicit analytic formulae for the spectrum of finite bosons in harmonic potentials based on the corrected sum rules and generalized virial identities. We compare the low-lying excitation spectra among the Gaussian and Fetter''s variational calculations and the exact numerical results. The Gaussian approximation has the simplest reasonable results, valid for N→∞ and high-lying excitations.


Polycomb Repressive Complexes (PRC) modulate the epigenetic status of key cell fate and developmental regulators in eukaryotes. The chromo domain protein LIKE HETEROCHROMATIN PROTEIN1 (LHP1) is a subunit of a plant PRC1-like complex in Arabidopsis thaliana and recognizes histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation, a silencing epigenetic mark deposited by the PRC2 complex. We have identified and studied an LHP1-Interacting Factor2 (LIF2). LIF2 protein has RNA recognition motifs and belongs to the large hnRNP protein family, which is involved in RNA processing. LIF2 interacts in vivo, in the cell nucleus, with the LHP1 chromo shadow domain. Expression of LIF2 was detected predominantly in vascular and meristematic tissues. Loss-of-function of LIF2 modifies flowering time, floral developmental homeostasis and gynoecium growth determination. lif2 ovaries have indeterminate growth and produce ectopic inflorescences with severely affected flowers showing proliferation of ectopic stigmatic papillae and ovules in short-day conditions. To look at how LIF2 acts relative to LHP1, we conducted transcriptome analyses in lif2 and lhp1 and identified a common set of deregulated genes, which showed significant enrichment in stress-response genes. By comparing expression of LHP1 targets in lif2, lhp1 and lif2 lhp1 mutants we showed that LIF2 can either antagonize or act with LHP1. Interestingly, repression of the FLC floral transcriptional regulator in lif2 mutant is accompanied by an increase in H3K27 trimethylation at the locus, without any change in LHP1 binding, suggesting that LHP1 is targeted independently from LIF2 and that LHP1 binding does not strictly correlate with gene expression. LIF2, involved in cell identity and cell fate decision, may modulate the activity of LHP1 at specific loci, during specific developmental windows or in response to environmental cues that control cell fate determination. These results highlight a novel link between plant RNA processing and Polycomb regulation.


In this paper, Cubic Interpolated Pseudo Particle Method is proposed to investigate the dynamic behavior of fluid motion in shear lid-driven cavity. The CIP scheme is individually performed to observe the behavior of the fluid motion at varying Reynolds numbers of 100, 400 and 1000. Comparison of the achieved results with the experimental results approves the capability of CIP to establish the sophistication of fluid structure in the system. Although the achieved trajectory had slightly difference but it was almost following the same pattern published in the literatures. The most advantage of this method is that it aims to accelerate processing time as well as higher exponent of accuracy.


GIRK1/KGA (referred to as GIRK1) is a member of the inwardly rectifying K+ channel family and is activated by G protein-linked receptors. The activation of this channel leads to hyperpolarization of the plasma membrane and is fundamental to the control of atrial and neuronal excitability. RNA blotting studies have shown that GIRK1 is expressed in the atrium of the heart and in the brain. We have used in situ hybridization histochemistry to characterize the pattern of expression of GIRK1 mRNA in adult rat heart and brain. In heart, expression of GIRK1 mRNA is homogeneous throughout the atria. There is no significant ventricular expression, although the conduction bundles were not specifically identified. GIRK1 mRNA expression in the brain is widespread with highest levels in the cortex, septum, hippocampus, thalamus, amygdala, cerebellum, and many nuclei of the midbrain and hindbrain, including red nucleus, inferior colliculus, pontine nucleus, nucleus of the solitary tract, and multiple cranial nerve nuclei (motor and sensory components). This detailed map of GIRK1 mRNA expression provides a basis for further study of this important new family of K+ channels.


In this work, a numerical assessment of the suitability of a Single Relaxation Time (SRT) Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) model to simulate axisymmetric gravity currents is carried out. The model results are compared with both experimental data and other numerical models. The particular SRT formulation employed is known to converge, in the limit of low Knudsen number, to the two-layer 2D Shallow Water Equations (SWEs) set with a viscosity term featuring a closed theoretical formulation. Even with the lowest viscosity achievable by the method, its effect is shown to become important in most of the cases analysed, thus posing some serious constraints on possible application of the single relaxation time LBM method to simulate the lock-release generated-type gravity currents analysed here. The comparison with classical numerical models shows that the the viscous effects in the LBM model can be well reproduced employing coefficients derived from the above-mentioned theoretical formulation.


Rating a compression algorithm's performance is usually done in experimental studies, where researchers have frequently used JPEG pre-compressed data. It is not clear yet, whether results of such compression experiments are reliable if conducted from pre-compressed data. To investigate this issue, we study the impact of using pre-compressed data on iris segmentation and evaluate the relation between iris segmentation performance and general quality metrics. Furthermore we propose a method to overcome potential problems in case using pre-compressed data sets cannot be avoided, e.g. for reasons of ground-truth availability.


OBJECT
This study was conducted to define neuropsychological changes following operation for subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) caused by rupture of an anterior communicating artery (ACoA) aneurysm and to assess the influence of the timing of surgery to clip the aneurysm.

METHODS
Cognitive outcome was evaluated using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery in patients with an ACoA aneurysm that had caused an SAH. Adult patients younger than 70 years of age who had achieved a favorable neurological outcome (Glasgow Outcome Scale scores of 4 or 5) were studied 6 to 24 months postsurgery. Patients were divided into early (Days 0-3) and late surgery groups (after Day 3) according to the timing of surgery after the ictus. Neuropsychological analysis was performed by reviewers who were blinded to the timing of surgery. Forty-seven patients whose mean age was 51.5 years were tested. They were compared with age- and intelligence quotient (IQ)matched controls by using premorbid IQ as estimated on the National Adult Reading Test. Patients showed deficiencies in several tasks of verbal fluency, pattern recognition, and spatial working memory; this profile of deficits was similar to that seen in patients who underwent temporal lobe excisions. However, there was no significant difference in cognitive performance between the early and late surgery groups.

CONCLUSIONS
After open surgery for ruptured ACoA aneurysms, patients who have achieved a favorable neurological outcome still exhibit significant cognitive deficits, primarily in tests sensitive to temporal lobe dysfunction. However, early surgery does not carry a higher risk of neuropsychological disability.