In recent years, high-performance flexible pressure sensors have boomed with wide applications in touch screens, wearable electronic devices, human–machine interface, real-time physiological signal perception, and other fields, and have drawn extensive research attention in the field of wearable electronic devices and intelligent E-skin. However, because the "function" of sensors is often incompatible with a "simple" manufacturing strategy, the flexible sensor can hardly simultaneously meet the objectives of low cost and excellent performance. Herein, we propose a facile and low-cost flexible thermal resistive pressure sensor (FTRPS) based on the heat transfer sensing mechanism. The device consists of an ultra-thin thermal sensing film (thermal detectors: platinum resistors on Parylene-C film: $20\,\mu \text{m}$ ) and an elastomer pressure converter (Dragon Skin). The pressure value can be transduced via the elastomer deformation and monitored through the heat loss of the thermal sensing film. Leveraging different Young's modulus of the elastomer, the measurement range of different sensors can be tuned with material selection. The fabricated sensor exhibits high linearity ( ${R}^{2}$ : 0.996) for the whole measurement range and realizes the pressure orientation sensing function with the circular thermal detector design. Furthermore, the single sensor has been validated in chess piece recognition, and the successful application of the sensor matrix in the pressure mapping of a letter protruding indicates that the FTRPS can be a part of wearable devices and human–machine interfaces. The proposed FTRPS can be used in mass production and promotes the application of flexible pressure sensors.


Abstract The effect of metal cation binding on bacteriorhodopsin (bR) in purple membrane has been examined using in situ attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared difference spectroscopy in aqueous media. It is known that adding metal cations to deionized bR regenerates the purple state from its blue state and recovers the proton pump function. During this process, infrared spectral changes in the frequency region of 1800–1000 cm−1 are monitored. The results reveal that metal cation binding affects the protein conformation, the retinal isomeric composition as well as lipid head groups. It is also observed that metal cation binding induces conformational changes in the αI-helix region of bR, converting the portion of its αI-helical domain into β-turn or disordered coil. In addition, the influence of Ho3+ binding on the protein and lipid is observed to be larger than that of Ca2+. These results suggest that some of the metal cation binding sites are on the membrane lipid domain, while others could be on the intrahelical domain or interhelical loops where the Asp and Glu are located (binding with their COO− groups). Our results also suggest that the removal of the C-terminal of bR increase the accessibility of the binding site of metal cations, which affects protein conformational structure. All these observations are discussed in terms of the two proposals given in the literature regarding the metal cation binding sites.


We thank Dr. Coleman very much for his kind reception of our paper and for comments on our ambiguous remarks concerning the iron mineralogy of the sandstones. X-ray evidence was unfortunately limited to samples at outcrop from a single locality and results show haematite as the only crystalline iron mineral present. This was a 'spot sample' and we do not wish to imply that this evidence in any way characterises the overall aquifer mineralogy. However, field observations and microscope studies on outcrop and core material indicate a wider range of iron minerals which we identify as goethite, pyrite and limonite (as defined by Dr. Coleman). In the absence of confirmatory X-ray and chemical analysis therefore we speculate to some extent on the composition of the cement of the sandstones. In two further papers on this subject (in preparation) dealing with the East Midlands and South West England Triassic Sandstones we investigated the relationship between groundwater geochemistry and sandstone mineralogy in more detail and these results will be reported in due course. In the meantimes we would like to draw attention to a recent paper by Schluger & Roberson (1975) who deal in some detail with the relationship between colour of sediments, mineralogy and groundwater chemistry of the Patapsco Formation, Maryland.


Both the metadata and the textual contents of scientific publications can provide us with insights about the development and the current state of the corresponding scientific community. In this short paper, we take a look at the proceedings of VINCI from the previous years and conduct several types of analyses. We summarize the yearly statistics about different types of publications, identify the overall authorship statistics and the most prominent contributors, and analyze the current community structure with a co-authorship network. We also apply topic modeling to identify the most prominent topics discussed in the publications. We hope that the results of our work will provide insights for the visualization community and will also be used as an overview for researchers previously unfamiliar with VINCI.


A10-FMT benefits gut microbiota, liver function, and systemic environment via improvement in blood metabolome, consequently to favor the testicular microenvironment to improve spermatogenesis process and to boost T2D-diminished semen quality. We established that AOS-improved gut microbiota may be used to boost T2D-decreased semen quality and metabolic disease-related male subfertility. ABSTRACT Young type 2 diabetes (T2D) affects 15% of the population, with a noted increase in cases, and T2D-related male infertility has become a serious issue in recent years. The current study aimed to explore the improvements of alginate oligosaccharide (AOS)-modified gut microbiota on semen quality in T2D. The T2D was established in young mice of 5 weeks of age with a blood glucose level of 21.2 ± 2.2 mmol/L, while blood glucose was 8.7 ± 1.1 mM in control animals. We discovered that fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) of AOS-improved microbiota (A10-FMT) significantly decreased blood glucose, while FMT of gut microbiota from control animals (Con-FMT) did not. Sperm concentration and motility were decreased in T2D to 10% to 20% of those in the control group, while A10-FMT brought about a recovery of around 5- to 10-fold. A10-FMT significantly increased small intestinal Allobaculum, while it elevated small intestinal and cecal Lactobacillus in some extent, blood butyric acid and derivatives and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and testicular docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), EPA, and testosterone and its derivatives. Furthermore, A10-FMT improved liver functions and systemic antioxidant environments. Most importantly, A10-FMT promoted spermatogenesis through the improvement in the expression of proteins important for spermatogenesis to increase sperm concentration and motility. The underlying mechanisms may be that A10-FMT increased gut-beneficial microbes Lactobacillus and Allobaculum to elevate blood and/or testicular butyric acid, DHA, EPA, and testosterone to promote spermatogenesis and thus to ameliorate sperm concentration and motility. AOS-improved gut microbes could emerge as attractive candidates to treat T2D-diminished semen quality. IMPORTANCE A10-FMT benefits gut microbiota, liver function, and systemic environment via improvement in blood metabolome, consequently to favor the testicular microenvironment to improve spermatogenesis process and to boost T2D-diminished semen quality. We established that AOS-improved gut microbiota may be used to boost T2D-decreased semen quality and metabolic disease-related male subfertility.


Abstract Plato's views on the significance of poverty and wealth in The Republic challenge us to rethink the role and position assigned to wealth in contemporary society. These ideas on poverty and wealth play an important role in shaping the central arguments of the Republic. The themes and views expressed in the opening dialogue of Plato's Republic (328b – 331d) serve to introduce some of the core ideas of the Republic. I start with an analysis of the opening dialogue and then I proceed to discuss the significance of Plato's views on poverty and wealth in the context of The Republic.1 Through this analysis I want to establish the claim that Plato argues for the following: [1] that justice, in the sense of the morality of individuals and societies, is far more important than the acquisition of wealth, [2] that moderate wealth is important for its function to enable humans to live a moral life, [3] that poverty and excessive wealth have negative consequences for both individuals and societies, and [4] that desiring and possessing excessive wealth disrupts and destroys moral integrity and internal harmony in individuals and societies. What is the significance of the opening dialogue of Plato's Republic? Does the dialogue with the old man Cephalus, of whom Socrates remarked, "I thought he looked very old," (328d) have any role other than leading to the introduction of the topic of justice2 (331c)? At first sight it seems as if a conversation about the value of old age, the importance of one's attitude towards being old, and the role of poverty and wealth in helping you cope with old age, is merely a curiosity to get the dialogue on justice started.3


We propose a memory-based method for the solution of a specific type of nonlinear equation systems. We observe that when the equations in a system can be separated into 2 parts, where each subset contains fewer parameters than the whole set of equations, the system can be solved faster with a preprocessing phase. We show that reduced rounds of AES produce such a system under a chosen plaintext scenario. This observation enables us to solve that system within a practically applicable complexity of 237 operations where a brute force approach requires 272 trials. The method can be used for the solution of other equation systems of the same structure. In the optimal case where we can divide the equations into 2, a problem that contains n binary variables can be solved at time O(n/2. 2n/2) operations and using O(2n/2) units of memory rather than O(2n) trials of the equation system.


K562 cells, a human erythroleukaemic cell line blocked for differentiation, commit towards erythrocytes when exposed to haemin (20 microM). The cells synthesize fetal haemoglobins and show site-specific binding of caeruloplasmin, a plasma copper protein. These events are set into motion by haemin. On the assumption that the binding of caeruloplasmin could reflect a greater need for copper, we sought to determine whether the transfer of 67Cu from caeruloplasmin was accelerated in haemin-induced compared with non-induced K562 cells. Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) was the recipient. Haemin induction caused the K562 cells to lose CuZnSOD activity. By 96 h, the level of SOD activity was less than 60% of that of non-induced cells. The loss was confined entirely to the CuZn form, MnSOD activity staying essentially unchanged. Although CuZnSOD activity declined with the haemin induction, the incorporation of [4,5-3H]lysine into immunoprecipitable CuZnSOD protein was unaffected. There was also no change in CuZnSOD mRNA concentration in haemin-induced cells. Thus a loss of enzyme did not correlate with a decline in the synthesis de novo of CuZnSOD protein. When 48 h-induced cells were transferred to a medium supplemented with 0.2 microM-caeruloplasmin, CuZnSOD activity was restored to control levels in 24 h. Caeruloplasmin also stimulated the incorporation of [3H]lysine into immunoprecipitable CuZnSOD protein. Caeruloplasmin addition may have affected a post-translational regulatory site for CuZnSOD biosynthesis, possibly by providing copper for the newly synthesized enzyme.


Within the field of political psychology studies, the main goal of the present study is to investigate in depth the role played by two different forms – E-Tactics vs E-Movement – of social media activism on the quality of discourses and their possible level of acquired empowerment. Two Italian cases of e-minorities (Teatro Valle Occupato and Roars) will be analysed in terms of argumentative moves following a pragma-dialectic perspective in order to observe how they can construct a possible process of conscientization. Results, achieved by means of quanti-qualitative methods, highlight how E-Tactics (Teatro Valle Occupato), differently from E-Movement (Roars), can better promote normative but also creative forms of argumentations, as activists can claim for their rights but mainly also promote value change. This type of activism is strongly correlated to political participation, differently from E-Movement, mainly oriented to individual empowerment.


This study assesses the factors that influence land-cover diversity, including the specific contributions of environmental and anthropogenic forces in determining landscape diversity (spatial variability in climate, lithological variations and human management). The proposed model was tested in Navarra (northern Spain), a region with a long history of human settlement and distinct management practices, ranging from mountain communities in the Pyrenees to Mediterranean lowland cropland systems. Variance in landscape diversity was divided into environmental- and human-influenced fractions, and generalized additive models within a GIS framework were used to evaluate the effects of environmental and anthropogenic factors. We also assessed the influence on the results of the number of land-cover classes by employing contrasting thematic resolutions of 220 and 24 classes. The model that includes only environmental factors, using 24 classes, accounted for 65 per cent of the total variance (P < 0.005). The residuals obtained from this model were then regressed against human variables (distance to settlements, accessibility, total municipality population and productive specialization). Residuals and productive specialization, which varies between areas devoted to grazing and forest exploitation in the Pyrenees mountains to lowland Mediterranean croplands, showed a strong correlation (r2 = 0.40; P < 0.005), but weak correlations were found when 220 land-cover classes were used. Results based on the sign of residuals suggest that human activities have resulted in an increase in land-cover diversity in mountainous areas and have acted to homogenize land cover within the Mediterranean agricultural landscape. In summary, the model that uses the map of 24 classes as dependent variables and includes human and environmental factors explains 80.75 per cent of total land-cover diversity variance using only three variables: climatic spatial variability, lithological diversity and productive specialization.


Abstract The goal of this research is to design a tool to assess intuitiveness of products. Existing scales such as INTUI (Diefenbach and Ullrich 2015) show some limitations when used by children and/or for evaluating non-digital products. We aim to obtain a more universal questionnaire tool. INTUI questionnaire measures the components of an intuitive interaction (Effortlessness, Gut feeling, Magical experience, Verbalizability and Intuitiveness) through 17 items. After removing or rephrasing several items, we tested a revised version (8 items) with 68 participants (children and adults) who performed a task (a drawing for children and subtractions for adults) with a digital device (tactile tablet for children and smartphone for adults) and a non-digital device (paper and pencil). The results led us to remove the "Verbalizability" and "Gut feeling" dimensions which were difficult to understand and inconsistent with the conceptual model. The final version of the questionnaire (5 items) including three dimensions (Effortlessness, Magical Experience and Intuitiveness) was tested with 69 adults to evaluate a Coffee Dispenser Machine. Both "Effortlessness" and "Magical experience" dimensions seem to reliably predict intuitiveness.


This engineering brief explores the perceived effects and characteristics of impulse responses (IRs) generated using a custom, hybrid, geometric reverb algorithm. The algorithm makes use of a well known Image Source Method (ISM) and Ray Tracing methods. ISM is used to render the early reflections to a specified order while ray tracing renders the remaining reflections. IRs rendered at varying ISM orders appear to exhibit differences in perceptual characteristics, particularly in the early portion. To understand these characteristics, an elicitation test base was devised in order to acquire terms for the different characteristics. These terms were grouped in order to provide attributes for future grading tests.


This study aims to examine the relationship between the productive knowledge of some lexical and phraseological indices and the quality of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing. A sample of 120 expository essays, written by semesters 1 and 5 university students in a less proficient EFL context, are rated by human evaluators and automatically examined for the target indices. The results show that, unlike the index of lexical diversity, both indices of content word frequency and range could significantly discriminate between different proficiency levels. For the phraseological indices, both the proportions of rare and frequent bigrams yielded between-group differences, with higher proficiency students performing significantly better in both categories. Using a regression analysis, the results show that the use of rare and contextually restricted content words and the production of larger proportions of rare and frequent bigrams could be considered indicators of better writing proficiency. The study suggests implications for the teaching of EFL.


Despite the long history and consistent use of quantitative empirical methods to evaluate information visualization techniques and systems, our understanding of interface use remains incomplete. While there are inherent limitations to the method, such as the choice of task and data, we believe the utility of study results can be enhanced if they were amenable to meta-analysis. Based on our experience in extracting design guidelines from existing quantitative studies, we recommend improvements to both study design and reporting to promote meta-analysis: (1) Use comparable interfaces in terms of visual elements, information content and amount displayed, levels of data organization displayed, and interaction complexity; (2) Capture usage patterns in addition to overall performance measurements to better identify design tradeoffs; (3) Isolate and study interface factors instead of overall interface performance; and (4) Report more study details, either within the publications, or as supplementary materials.


Topic modeling is an effective text mining and information retrieval approach to organizing knowledge with various contents under a specific topic. Text documents in form of news articles are increasing very fast on the web. Analysis of these documents is very important in the fields of text mining and information retrieval. Meaningful information extraction from these documents is a challenging task. One approach for discovering the theme from text documents is topic modeling but this approach still needs a new perspective to improve its performance. In topic modeling, documents have topics and topics are the collection of words. In this paper, we propose a new k-means topic modeling (KTM) approach by using the k-means clustering algorithm. KTM discovers better semantic topics from a collection of documents. Experiments on two real-world Reuters 21578 and BBC News datasets show that KTM performance is better than state-of-the-art topic models like LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) and LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis). The KTM is also applicable for classification and clustering tasks in text mining and achieves higher performance with a comparison of its competitors LDA and LSA.


ABSTRACT Biological Cr(VI) reduction was studied in anaerobic sediments from an aquifer in Norman, Okla. Microcosms containing sediment and mineral medium were amended with various electron donors to determine those most important for biological Cr(VI) reduction. Cr(VI) (about 340 μM) was reduced with endogenous substrates (no donor), or acetate was added. The addition of formate, hydrogen, and glucose stimulated Cr(VI) reduction compared with reduction in unamended controls. From these sediments, an anaerobic Cr(VI)-utilizing enrichment was obtained that was dependent upon hydrogen for both growth and Cr(VI) reduction. No methane was produced by the enrichment, which reduced about 750 μM Cr(VI) in less than six days. The dissolved hydrogen concentration was used as an indicator of the terminal electron accepting process occurring in the sediments. Microcosms with sediments, groundwater, and chromate metabolized hydrogen to a concentration below the detection limits of the mercury vapor gas chromatograph. In microcosms without chromate, the hydrogen concentration was about 8 nM, a concentration comparable to that under methanogenic conditions. When these microcosms were amended with 500 μM Cr(VI), the dissolved hydrogen concentration quickly fell below the detection limits. These results showed that the hydrogen concentration under chromate-reducing conditions became very low, as low as that reported under nitrate- and manganese-reducing conditions, a result consistent with the free energy changes for these reactions. The utilization of formate, lactate, hydrogen, and glucose as electron donors for Cr(VI) reduction indicates that increasing the availability of hydrogen results in a greater capacity for Cr(VI) reduction. This conclusion is supported by the existence of an enrichment dependent upon hydrogen for growth and Cr(VI) reduction.


Much research in the decision sciences has shown that risk perception and decision-making are influenced not only by cognitive processes – such as the use of statistical 'rules of thumb'– but also by motives such as loss aversion, ambiguity aversion, and regret aversion. The field of social psychology has long been interested in a variety of motives that influence self-judgment, social perception, and interpersonal relations. These include, among others, self-enhancement, social comparison, predictability/control, favorable self-presentation, effective resource management, preparedness for bad news, goal attainment, and existential meaning. We suggest that more attention to these motives would greatly strengthen our understanding of how people think about risk and how they make decisions. In this article, we consider the influence of motives on risk perception and decision-making in the context of health outcomes. We argue that theories relating to these various motives (e.g., social comparison theory) can be greatly enhanced by testing them in the context of health-related risk perception and decision-making.


A multi-scale simulation method is proposed to enable screening of ionic liquids (ILs) as entrainers in extractive distillation. The 1,3-butadiene production process with acetonitrile (ACN) was chosen as a research case to validate the feasibility of the methodology. Ab initio calculations were first carried out to further understand the influence of ionic liquids on the selectivity of ACN and the solubility of C4 fractions in [CnMIM][PF6](n = 2–8), [C2MIM][X] (X = BF4−, Cl−, PF6−, Br−), by investigating the microstructure and intermolecular interaction in the mixture of C4 fractions and several selected ionic liquids. It was found that the selectivity of the ionic liquid is determined by both its polarity and hydrogen-bonding ability. Based on the analysis, a suitable ionic liquid was chosen. With the ab initio calculation, a priori prediction of thermophysical data of the IL-containing system was performed with COSMO-RS. The calculation revealed that the selectivity of the extractive solvent was increased by an average of 3.64% after adding [C2MIM][PF6]. With above calculations, an improved ACN extraction distillation process using ILs as an entrainer was proposed, and a configuration for the new process was constructed. Based on the established thermodynamic models which have considered the properties from the molecular structure of ILs, process simulation was performed to obtain the process parameters which are important for the new process design. The simulation results indicated that the temperatures at the bottom of the extractive distillation column with the ionic liquid as an additive are lowered by an average of 3.1 °C, which is significant for inhibition of polymerization. We show that the ACN consumption using this process can be lowered by 24%, and the energy consumption can likewise be lowered by 6.62%.


textabstractThe thesis is about the World Bank and the political dimensions of the
new aid architecture.
The new aid agenda, which emerged out of the post-Washington
Consensus (PWC), has led to debates over its real significance. While
Joseph Stiglitz has argued that the new consensus actually marked the
end of the era of market fundamentalism, sceptics have rather concluded
that it represents nothing more than a discursive shift.
The Bank's own ambiguous narrative on the new aid framework may
explain such divergent analysis on the new agenda: On the one hand, the
poverty reduction and participatory narrative linked to the model have
appeared to be signalling a genuine shift towards a more social policy
agenda. On the other hand however, there has been a contradictory
move towards a stricter governance model that seems to be specifically
designed to insulate policy-makers from vested interests. The overarching
objective of this thesis is to shed new light on this apparent paradox
inherent in international aid reform. It seeks to untangle the existing confusion
between narrative, assumptions and methods entwined with the
so-called PWC.
Specifically, the crux of this thesis is to address the particular contribution
of the World Bank in forging, promoting and implementing the
PWC. It focuses both on the theoretical sources that triggered the World
Bank, under the leadership of James D. Wolfensohn, to adopt a new
model and on the political objectives of this agenda. Within such a research
focus, the Bank's narrative and its new aid allocation mechanisms
are seen as one entity under the label 'Integrated Development Model'
(IDM). The IDM – as a main object of study – allows us to transcend
common country-based analyses of the Poverty Reduction Strategies
(PRS) experience and to re-position the new aid allocation mechanisms
within the larger reordering of power on behalf of market-oriented interests.


Titanium-oxide (TiO2 ) memristors exposed to 1-MeV alpha particles exhibit only minor changes in the electrical response for ion fluencies up to 1014 cm - 2. At higher fluence levels, virgin and off-state devices exhibit measurable increases in current conduction between the two platinum (Pt) electrodes. Analysis, supported by radiation transport and numerical device simulations, suggests that radiation-induced displacement damage in the TiO2 film increases the density of oxygen vacancies, thereby altering both resistivity in the bulk of the transition-metal oxide and the junction characteristics of Pt-TiO2 interface. Nevertheless, the experimental results indicate continued switching functionality of the memristors even after exposure to 1015 cm- 2 alpha particles. The high intrinsic vacancy density in the devices prior to radiation exposure is identified as the primary feature contributing to apparent radiation hardness.


The use of antibiotics in animals selects for resistant bacteria with a (not-quantified) transfer of antimicrobial resistance from animals to humans. Therefore, restrictive use of antibiotics in animals is of utmost importance to protect public health. In this thesis, we identified factors that influence veterinarians' choices to prescribe antibiotics and the possibilities for reduction of antibiotic use in farm animals. Veterinarians face conflicting interests in their position as antibiotic prescriber. The professional obligation to treat sick animals and a veterinarian's perceived role as a service provider and problem solver for farmers might drive antibiotic prescribing. Also risk aversive behaviour plays an important role (fear of complications after non-prescribing). At the other hand, veterinarians reported to feel the pressure from the public and the government to use antibiotics restrictively. Also personal characteristics of veterinarians play a role. Older veterinarians for example seemed less convinced of a contribution of antibiotic use in animals to antimicrobial resistance in humans and expressed less hesitance to prescribe an antibiotic when in doubt of a diagnosis. Younger veterinarians expressed more concerns of possible negative side-effects on antimicrobial resistance but expressed higher levels of uncertainty to act independently from (perceived) farmers' wishes. They might be more at risk to pander to risk aversive behaviour (i.e. prescribing antibiotics) to preserve a good relationship with a farmer. Veterinarians in our studies believed that antibiotic use on many farms can be lowered by increasing veterinary oversight and implementing proper management measures (e.g. improving feed quality, climate and housing conditions, vaccination schemes) to prevent diseases. These measures are however, not always implemented by farmers. Some farmers lack the motivation to reduce antibiotic use. Others may perceive the implementation of veterinary advices as too expensive or time consuming. Veterinarians should therefore be able to clearly explain the necessity and (cost) effectiveness of advised measures and tailor their advice to the specific context of a farmer. Tuning with other advisors might overcome the problem of conflicting advices, an often mentioned barrier for the uptake of veterinary advices. However, sometimes specific antibiotic use determinants as feed quality or immune status of young animals supplied by a breeder are beyond a farmers' control. In a field trial, we have studied the effects of a structured and tuned collaboration between dairy farmers, veterinarians and feed advisors. These persons developed a structured animal health improvement program, tailored to the farm's unique situation and under guidance of a professional facilitator with the aim to prevent animal diseases and lower antibiotic use. A good collaboration tended to have positive effects on animal health and seemed to enable a reduction in antibiotic use without adverse effects on animal health and productivity. Possibilities for a reduction in antibiotic use in farm animals can be found in proper communication channels and techniques to stimulate an intrinsic motivation of both veterinarians and farmers to reduce antibiotic use and in addressing enabling or limiting factors in the environment for the actual implementation of behaviour changes that will favour a reduction of antibiotic use.


Although the passage early in labor of thick amniotic fluid heavily stained with meconium is recognized as an indication of potential fetal asphyxia, the significance of late passage of meconium-stained fluid in labor is less certain. One hundred twenty-eight patients with late passage of meconium in labor and 134 control patients were examined, using x2 and discriminant analysis, to determine if any relationships existed between fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns, late passage of meconium in labor, and neonatal morbidity. In the group with late meconium passage, adequate baseline FHR variability and nonperiodic accelerations were predictive of high Apgar scores, and repeated (over 20) variable decelerations were predictive of low Apgar scores. In the control group, none of the FHR patterns examined were predictive of Apgar score. Thus, the combination of late passage of meconium in labor with other intrapartum signs may indicate a fetus at risk for asphyxia when neither sign alone is predictive. The presence of late meconium passage demands close observation of the patient in labor, including assessment by electronic FHR monitoring.


Leslie W. Ottinger, MD, is assistant professor of surgery in the Harvard Medical School. His experience as director of surgery residency of the Massachusetts General Hospital appears to be the impetus for authoringFundamentals of Colon Surgery. This small book is a concise, wellorganized composition in clear and straightforward language. It is a unified presentation of surgery of the colon from the anatomy and pharmacology through emergencies, inflammatory problems, ulcerative colitis, granulomatous disease, ischemic lesions, fixation abnormalities, benign and malignant tumors, and special considerations of the lower part of the rectum and anus. The author claims no originality but presents what he has learned from his teachers and preceptors in the hospital in which he works. The text is a compilation of the methods, practices, and opinions of one expert, rather than the current popular division of a subject among a number of surgeons with special interests. The book does


We propose a theoretical technique to solve the problem of scattering from an assem· bly of overlapping potentials. The method is called effective propagator approximation and can describe the off-shell effects due to the overlap of potentials. The solution involves a matrix inversion simi.lar to the one found previously in treating scattering from non-overlapping potentials or from separable potentials. The approximation consists in replacing the exact free Green's function by an effective ~perator of simpler nature. The effective operator is determined by means of a variational principle so as to minimize the error coming from the replacement. The method is shown to reproduce as special cases the exact solutions to the problems with n~n-overlapping potentials and with separable ones, and is expected to work in the case of realistic, inseparable and overlapping potentials.


The influence of clipping return on bermudagrass thatch has not been resolved. Additionally, independent and combined effects of applied Ca, Mg, and K on bermudagrass growth and quality and thatch accumulation have not been clarified. To evaluate the influence of clipping return and applied Ca, Mg, and K on 'Tifway' bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. × Cynodon transvaalensis Burtt Davy) and 'Pennant' perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) a 3-y study was conducted at the Turfgrass Field Laboratory near Gainesville, FL, on an Arredondo loamy fine sand (Typic Quartzipsammets). A strip-split-plot factorial experiment with applied Ca, Mg, and K at 20 g m⁻² representing the main plot and with clipping return or removal stripped across the main plots with three replications was employed. Bermudagrass clipping return did not affect overall mean thatch accumulation. Bermudagrass and perennial ryegrass clipping yields increased in response to clipping return. Bermudagrass quality was enhanced by the return of clippings, but ryegrass quality was not. Application of Ca and K did not influence thatch accumulation, while Mg did promote additional bermudagrass thatch. Application of K and Mg reduced Ca levels on plots receiving Ca to less than the extractable Ca level of the untreated plots. Ryegrass and bermudagrass quality was increased by the application of Mg on plots which had the clippings removed. Potassium and Mg application promoted bermudagrass clipping yield when clippings were removed. Soil Ca to Mg ratio did not influence the growth or quality of either bermudagrass or ryegrass. Contribution of the Florida Agric. Exp. Stn. Journal Series no. R-02292.


The 1.80–1.67 Ga volcano-sedimentary basins of northeastern Australia, preserved in the Mount Isa inlier, McArthur basin, and Georgetown inlier, have been a cornerstone of nonuniformitarian "intracontinental" tectonic models of the Australian Proterozoic. However, geochronological data show that major tectonothermal events within the basins coincided with significant tectonic events that occurred along a complex convergent plate boundary that developed on the southern margin of the proto–Australian continent. These data imply a paired evolution, whereby thermal events were shared and plate-margin stresses were propagated (to 1500 km) into the plate interior. We propose a tectonic model in which the 1.80–1.67 Ga northeastern Australian basins occupied a wide region of intermittently extending continental crust in the overriding plate of a long-lived subduction system—effectively a far-field continental backarc setting. The combined effects of slab rollback, accretion, and enhanced subcontinental convection produced an environment of episodic extension, transient shortening, elevated heat flow, and magmatism.


The Internet has rarely been used in auditory perception studies due to concerns about standardisation and calibration across different systems and settings. However, not all auditory research is based on the investigation of fine-grained differences in auditory thresholds. Where meaningful 'real-world' listening, for instance the perception of speech, is concerned, the Internet may be a more appropriate and ecologically valid setting to collect data. This study compared affective ratings of low-pass-filtered infant-, foreigner- and British adult-directed speech obtained with traditional methods in the laboratory, with those obtained from an Internet sample. Dropout rates and demographic distribution of participants in the Internet condition were also assessed. The results show that affective ratings were similar for both the Internet and laboratory samples. These findings indicate the viability of Internet-based research into affective speech perception and suggest that precise acoustic environmental control may not always be necessary.


Approval voting is a method of voting in which voters can vote for ("approve of") as many candidates as they wish in an election. This article analyzes properties of this method and compares it with other single-ballot nonranked voting systems. Among the theorems proved is that approval voting is the most sincere and most strategyproof of all such voting systems; in addition, it is the only system that ensures the choice of a Condorcet majority candidate if the preferences of voters are dichotomous. Its probable empirical effects would be to (1) increase voter turnout, (2) increase the likelihood of a majority winner in plurality contests and thereby both obviate the need for runoff elections and reinforce the legitimacy of first-ballot outcomes, and (3) help centrist candidates, without at the same time denying voters the opportunity to express their support for more extremist candidates. The latter effect's institutional impact may be to weaken the two-party system yet preserve middle-of-the-road public policies of which most voters approve.


Turbo fan engine mathematical model is a highly complex nonlinear system. Solving engine mathematical model with traditional iteration methods turns out to be difficult as these methods are very sensitive to initial values. Therefore particle swarm optimization is used to solve the model. An improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is produced. The mechanism of immune is introduced in the new algorithm. Clone selection mechanism based on Logistic chaotic mutation and diversity maintaining based on probability have been designed. Results show that the proposed algorithm has better searching performance and convergence speed than other compared algorithms when modeling a mixed exhaust turbofan engine.


In acknowledgement of ongoing challenges in knowledge sharing, continuous research efforts are required to reflect the ever-changing landscape. Current research does not entirely encapsulate recent conceptualisations of multidirectional knowledge flows within the MNC, specifically from a lateral perspective. Accordingly, the role of expatriates reflect the importance of lateral knowledge sharing yet research has not holistically addressed the complex nature of exploiting such knowledge. Extensive examination of the HQ-expatriate relationship and repatriation process highlights the limited recognition for expatriates still within the expatriation cycle (i.e. moving from subsidiary to subsidiary).  This thesis seeks to add to the existing literature by exploring a potential new antecedent, headquarter attention disparity. The attention-based view of the firm reflects subsidiary level outcomes of unequal distribution of HQ attention. Extending this to explore the role on expatriate knowledge sharing is novel. The research implements a hermeneutical research design using semi-structured interviews. These sought to discover expatriate conceptualisations of lateral knowledge sharing and the related perceptions of HQ attention disparities between subsidiaries. The study draws on the ability-motivation-opportunity framework within a knowledge sender-receiver context. Expatriates coming from high-HQ attention subsidiaries demonstrate their own understanding of the acquired knowledge, influenced by individual context. These same interpretations guide subsidiary willingness to learn and the nature of knowledge sharing interactions. The results illustrate these opinions of perceived benefits to impact the inclination for knowledge sharing. Where perceptions align, there is reduced uncertainty in the expatriate-subsidiary colleague relationship whereas diverging perceptions weaken the propensity to learn and expatriates' knowledge sharing risks deterioration. These outcomes are further susceptible to external effects. The first being perceived competence-trust in shared functional identity, the second through affect-trust within subsidiary socialisation efforts.


Urban agriculture can contribute to food security and poverty alleviation in developing countries. It can also help to improve public health and resource management by reusing excreta, wastewater and organic solid waste. This paper presents a systematic overview of urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries and identifies research needs. The crosscutting issues, especially between urban agriculture and environmental sanitation, which is defined as excreta, wastewater and solid waste management, are of key importance. Quantification of the benefits, risks, opportunities and constraints of urban agriculture is essential from a resource and waste management point of view. The role of urban agriculture with regard to water and organic material flows in regions has to be investigated. Research is also needed to quantify the impact of reusing excreta, wastewater and organic solid waste on food quality and the environment.


This research explores technological interventions to reduce energy use in the domestic sector, a notable contributor to the global energy footprint. In the UK elevated challenges associated with renovating an outdated, poorly performing housing stock render a search for alternatives to provide immediate energy saving at low cost. To solve this problem, this thesis takes a holistic design approach to designing and implementing a spatiotemporal heating solution, and aims to investigate experiences of comfort, thermal comfort concepts for automated home heating, users' interactions and experiences of living with such a system in context, and the underlying utility of quasi-autonomous spatiotemporal home heating.

The mixed-methods research process was employed to explore and answer four questions: 1) what is the context within which these home heating interfaces are used, 2) to what extent can spatiotemporal automated heating minimise energy use while providing thermal comfort, 3) how are different heating strategies experienced by users, and 4) How do visibility of feedback, and intelligibility affect the user experience related to understanding and control? Ideation techniques were used to explore the context within which the designs are used with regard to all factors and actors in play and resulted in a conceptual model of the context to be used as a UX design brief. This developed model used mismatches between users' expectations and reality to indicate potential thermal comfort behaviour actions and mapped the factors within the home context that affected these mismatches. Potential user inclusion through participatory design provided stakeholder insight and interface designs concepts to be developed into prototypes. The results of a prototype probe study using these prototypes showed that intelligibility should not be an interface design goal in itself, but rather fit in with broader UX design agenda regarding data levels, context specificity, and timescales. Increased autonomy in the system was shown not to directly diminish the experience of control, but rather, control or the lack of originated from an alignment of expectations and reality.

A quasi-autonomous spatiotemporal heating system design (including a novel heating control algorithm) was coupled with the design of a smartphone interface and the resultant system was deployed in a low-technology solution demonstrating the potential for academic studies to explore such automated systems in-situ in the intended environment over a long period of time. Assessment of the novel control algorithm in an emulated environment demonstrated its fitness for purpose in reducing the amount of energy required to provide adequate levels of thermal comfort (by a factor of seven compared with EnergyStar recommended settings for programmable thermostats), and that these savings can be increased by including occupants' thermal preference as a variable in the control algorithm.
Field deployment of that algorithm in a low-tech sensor-based heating system assessed the user experience of the automated heating system and its mobile application-based control interface, as well as demonstrated the user thermal comfort experience of two different heating strategies. The results highlighted the potential to utilise the lower energy-use "minimise discomfort" strategy without compromising user thermal comfort in comparison to a "maximise comfort" strategy. Diverse heating system use behaviours were also identified and conceptualised alongside users' experiences in line with the developed conceptual model. A rich picture analysis of all previous findings was utilised to provide a model of the design space for home automated heating systems, and was used to draw interface design guidelines for a broader range of home automation control interfaces.

The work presented here served as important first steps in demonstrating the importance of assessing UX of automated home heating systems in situ over elongated periods of time. Novel contributions of (i) conceptual model of automated systems' domestic context and thermal comfort behaviours within, (ii) nudging this behaviour by selecting a "minimise discomfort" heating strategy over "maximise comfort", (iii) using UX to influence user expectations and subsequently energy behaviour, and (iv) inclusion of thermal preference in domestic heating control algorithm were all resultant of examining naturally occurring behaviours in their natural setting. As such, they are important exploratory discoveries and require replication, but provide new research directions that would allow reduction of domestic energy use without compromise.


The Guadiana estuary is a coastal system located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula and is the natural border between Portugal and Spain. It is a rock-bounded estuary which extends along more than 40 km and is characterized by a semidiurnal mesotidal regime. This paper represents an approach to the bedload transport across two flow sections located in the fluvial and marine domains. In the fluvial profile, the most frequent bedform is the plane bed. In the marine area the bed of the deep channel is composed of well-sorted sand, while a lateral bar displays partially cohesive sediments with dominant fine sands in a matrix of clayey silts. Data were acquired during spring and neap tides. Near-bottom water velocities were registered by an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). Density and bed rugosity were determined in sediment samples. These data were employed using Bagnold's equation (1963) to quantify the potential bedload (Qb). Further, real bedload values (Sb) were obtained by using Poliakoff traps. The comparison of the results of Qb under both ebb and flood conditions demonstrated a clear river-to-sea net transport in both sectors. The values of Sb were lower than those of Qb in every condition. The sand input across the fluvial estuary cannot supply the potential bedload in the lower domain of the channel, thereby causing a deficit that explains this lack of agreement between potential and real transport.


In this article, the authors find significant positive returns over a forward one-month holding period for strategies that buy in countries that have attracted indirect investment via equity fund flows and sell in countries that have not. They find that the profitability of these strategies is independent of the momentum effect as well as the size effect.


In this work, a novel asynchronous combinational S-Box (substitution box) design for AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) cryptosystems is proposed and validated. The S-Box is considered as the most critical component in AES crypto-circuits since it consumes the most power and leaks the most information against side-channel attacks. The proposed design is based on a delay-insensitive logic paradigm known as Null Convention Logic (NCL). The proposed NCL S-Box provides considerable benefits over existing designs since it consumes less power therefore suitable for energy-constrained mobile crypto-applications. It also emits less noise and has flatter power peaks therefore leaks less information against side-channel attacks such as differential power/noise analysis. Functional verification, analog simulation and power measurement of NCL S-Box have been done using Mentor Graphics EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools to assure low-power side-channel attack-resistant operation of the proposed clock-free AES S-Box design.


The diagnostic rhyme test (DRT) is widely used to evaluate digital voice systems. Would-be users often have no reference frame for interpreting DRT scores in terms of performance measures that they can understand, e.g., how many operational words are correctly understood. This research was aimed at providing a better understanding of the effects of very poor quality speech on human communication performance. It is especially important to determine how successful communications are likely to be when the speech quality is severely degraded. This paper compares the recognition of ICAO spelling alphabet words (ALFA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, etc.) to DRT scores for the same conditions. Confusions among the spelling alphabet words are also given. The voice conditions included unprocessed speech, speech processed through the DoD standard linear predictive coding algorithm operating at 2400 bits/s with random bit error rates of 0, 2, 5, 8, and 12 percent, and an 800 bit/s pattern matching algorithm. The results suggest that with distinctive vocabularies like the ICAO spelling alphabet, word intelligibility can be expected to remain very high even when DRT scores fall into the poor range; but once the DRT scores fall below about 75, the intelligibility can be expected to fall off rapidly; and at scores below 50, less than half the words will also be understood.


Abstract : Recently the development of a PC-based, end to end electrothermal chemical (ETC) gun ballistic simulation code called the pulsed power plasma interior ballistics (PPIB) was completed. PPIB is a time dependent, lumped parameter, electrothermal chemical gun ballistic simulator which has a one dimensional plasma submodel. The PPIB code is used to simulate the three main subsystems of the overall ETC gun system, including the pulse power subsystem, the plasma cartridge, and the interior ballistic process. PPIB is a linkage of three well-established systems models: (1) P2SIM for pulse power, developed by PCRL to model electric gun pulse power supplies, (2) the plasma cartridge code of Powell and Zielinski from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), and (3) the latest version of the interior ballistics code IBHVG2 from ARL. PPIB is written in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard formula translator (FORTRAN) and is designed to run on any 386, 486 or Pentium-based PC platform. The code has been validated against a 4-MJ pulsed power system, 30-mm ETC plasma experiments, and plasma capillary calculations from the stand alone Powell code, all of which are presented here. In addition, results obtained for high energy plasma simulations are provided. Included in this study are (1) the electrical behavior and transfer efficiencies of various plasma capillary tubes; (2) the amount of energy partitioned to each of the constituents within the plasma such as internal, kinetic, and work energy; and (3) the radiant energy partitioning of the plasma inside the capillary tube during the electrical discharge. The study is concluded with an estimate of the overall energy delivered for the entire process of power supply discharge to electrical plasma generation and radiation for a given test case.


Challenging the assumption that the concept of divine action is necessarily paradoxical, on the grounds that God is radically transcendent of finitude, or can perform only a master act of creating and sustaining the universe, Frank Kirkpatrick defends as philosophically credible the Christian conviction that God is a personal Agent who also acts in particular historical moments to further the divine intention of fostering universal community. Kirkpatrick claims that God and the world are distinct realities "together bound" in a mutual relationship of reciprocal historical action. In this relationship, God both acts upon and responds to human beings in specific moments in their history. The implications of this claim for understanding the biblical narrative, the problem of evil, cosmological theories, and the realism of Christian community are pursued.


Bayesian optimization (BO) is a model-based approach to sequentially optimize expensive black-box functions, such as the validation error of a deep neural network with respect to its hyperparameters. In many real-world scenarios, the optimization is further subject to a priori unknown constraints. For example, training a deep network configuration may fail with an out-of-memory error when the model is too large. In this work, we focus on a general formulation of Gaussian process-based BO with continuous or binary constraints. We propose constrained Max-value Entropy Search (cMES), a novel information theoretic-based acquisition function implementing this formulation. We also revisit the validity of the factorized approximation adopted for rapid computation of the MES acquisition function, showing empirically that this leads to inaccurate results. On an extensive set of real-world constrained hyperparameter optimization problems we show that cMES compares favourably to prior work, while being simpler to implement and faster than other constrained extensions of Entropy Search.


: General Mills and other large corporations in Minneapolis joined forces to build the Twin City Health Care Development Project. The ultimate result was translated at the bottom line--greater health, productivity, and overall corporate well-being.


This paper presents a centralized voltage control scheme for unbalanced low-voltage grids experiencing over voltage problems due to high PV power penetration. Voltage control is primarily achieved by remotely controlling the active power of the distributed battery energy storage systems, which are owned by the customers. Reactive power capability of the converters are utilized for voltage control when sufficient kW capacity is not available. Distribution system operator has the control over these battery energy storage systems during the hours of high PV penetration. A method for fair utilization of battery energy storage systems by considering both rated power and energy capacity of the storage units is proposed. Delays caused by communication and computations are taken into consideration in the design of the real time controller. Results from a simulation study is presented to validate effectiveness of the real-time control scheme. The results show that the control scheme can successfully maintain the voltages at critical nodes within required limits. 1 minute computational and communication delay does not adversely affect the real time controller performance under the varying load and generation conditions considered in this paper. The utilization factor (total energy circulated through each battery units normalized to their rated energy capacity) justifies the fair utilization of battery storage units for voltage support.


In this paper we study risk and liquidity management decisions within an insurance firm. Risk management corresponds to decisions regarding proportional reinsurance, whereas liquidity management has two components: distribution of dividends and costly equity issuance. Contingent on whether proportional or fixed costs of reinvestment are considered, singular stochastic control or stochastic impulse control techniques are used to seek strategies that maximize the firm value. We find that, in a proportional-costs setting, the optimal strategies are always mixed in terms of risk management and refinancing. In contrast, when fixed issuance costs are too high relative to the firm's profitability, optimal management does not involve refinancing. We provide analytical specifications of the optimal strategies, as well as a qualitative analysis of the interaction between refinancing and risk management.


The article discusses centralized PI control techniques and its implementation on a pilot plant binary distillation column. More specifically, the paper presents two centralized control methods. The first method is designed based on the Steady State Gain Matrix (SSGM), whereas the second method is designed based on the SSGM along with time delay and time constant of the process transfer function matrix. The interaction and main effects are obtained and analyzed between the process variables along with its performance. Further, the selection of process variables during the closed loop implementation of the control algorithm are studied. Moreover, the effectiveness of the centralized control techniques are discussed both, in simulation and real- time environment. Finally, the control algorithm is implemented in real- time using the MATLAB Simulink platform.


This article explores how multicultural policy approaches, which mandate the inclusion of culturally and ethnically 'diverse' play materials in early childhood classrooms influence the pedagogical practice of educators and, in turn, children's play and social interactions. Using data collected through participant observation of children's play in a preschool/ kindergarten classroom, interviews with early childhood professionals, and document analysis of a particular early years policy, we highlight the shortcomings of the focus on physical materials as the primary strategy for addressing 'race' and other forms of difference in early childhood education. Assumptions about children's play are examined and critiqued, with examples of children's play episodes provided to emphasize how play reproduces systems of power and oppression present in the broader social context. A number of recommendations are offered for both professional practice and the reconceptualization of early childhood policy. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 1 June 2016 Accepted 8 August 2016


Serial collaborators and Artists Talking bloggers Alice Bradshaw & Bob Milner have moved into a shared studio space at Westgate Studios in Wakefield, and have also taken on the roles of co-curators for the Project Space at the studios. As artists who also curate, Alice and Bob's current collaborative curatorial project is the latest in a series of artist-run, DIY projects in West Yorkshire, where both artists currently reside. Here, Alice interviews Bob about DIY practice, collaboration and public funding, amongst other things.


Study Design. A prospective, randomized, and double-blind study. Objective. To compare the efficacy of ramosetron and palonosetron on preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) associated with opioid-based intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (IV-PCAopioid) after lumbar spinal surgery. Summary of Background Data. IV-PCAopioid, an effective method to control pain after lumbar spinal surgery, accompanies PONV. Ramosetron and palonosetron are novel 5-hydroxytryptamine 3 antagonists known to have longer action duration and higher receptor affinity than their congeners, whereas their relative efficacy has not been validated yet. Methods. One hundred ninety-six patients were randomly and evenly allocated to receive either 0.3 mg of ramosetron or 0.075 mg of palonosetron 10 minutes before the end of operation. Ramosetron or palonosetron were also added to the IV-PCAopioid, which was continuously infused for 48 hours postoperatively. The incidence and intensity of PONV were serially assessed for 72 hours postoperatively. Intensity of pain, volume of IV-PCAopioid consumption, use of rescue analgesics and antiemetics, and adverse events were also assessed. Results. The overall incidence of PONV was lower in the ramosetron group than the palonosetron group (50% vs. 67%, P = 0.014) without any intergroup difference in the incidence of vomiting. Nausea intensity scores were also lower until 6 (P = 0.041) and 24 hour (P = 0.026) postoperatively in the ramosetron group than the palonosetron group. Pain intensity scores were significantly lower in the ramosetron group than the palonosetron group for 72 hours postoperatively. Conclusion. Ramosetron was superior to palonosetron in term of reducing the incidence and severity of nausea associated with IV-PCAopioid after lumbar spinal surgery. This favorable influence of ramosetron on PONV was translated to significant postoperative pain reduction compared with palonosetron. Level of Evidence: 1


Abstract
Ischemia of the myocardium results in a loss of ultrastructure and function. Tension generation is diminished or abolished, electrolyte imbalance occurs, and the ATP-generating capacity of the mitochondria is reduced. An intracellular accumulation of Ca2+ appears to precipitate many of these changes, the intracellular accumulation of Ca2+ being caused, in turn, by a failure of the ATP-dependent mechanisms responsible for maintaining intracellular homeostasis with respect to Ca2+. This hypothesis has been tested by the use of hypothermia, pretreatment with verapamil and a reduced extracellular Ca2+ to modify the events precipitated by an ischemic episode.


This paper evaluates the temporary VAT reduction introduced by the German government over the third and fourth quarter of 2020 as most controversial part of the COVID-19 stimulus package. Critics argue that VAT reductions are ineffective because of limited pass-through of temporary measures to consumer prices and in presence of lockdown measures. Advocates emphasize positive effects on durables and stress that a VAT reduction can at least partly substitute for a limited monetary policy response under the ZLB. We build a DSGE model which is capable to address these channels. Our model distinguishes between sectors directly and indirectly affected by the lockdown. This allows us to trace economic spillovers of lockdown measures to the rest of the economy and the differentiated impact of VAT measures on both sectors. We disaggregate consumption into durables and non-durables for both financially constrained and unconstrained households and we allow for imperfect pass-through of VAT measures into consumer prices. In general, if we include the durable investment channel we find robust sizeable effects of VAT changes on consumption even under a limited VAT pass-through. For the specific situation in Germany, we analyze the impact of the VAT reduction in conjunction with the lockdowns in 2020 Q2 to Q4. We use non-linear solution techniques to solve the model in the presence of a ZLB, forced savings and a lockdown constraint. We find a VAT short-term multiplier of one, which reduces over the medium term. Thus, the temporary VAT reduction is an effective instrument in the short-term but not efficient with regard to medium-term budget sustainability. Furthermore, we can show that the VAT reduction is able to mimic the macroeconomic effects of a central bank reaction according to a Taylor rule in case of a lockdown shock. However, compared to the monetary policy reaction the VAT reduction has only small direct effects on private investments.


Among the most common issues to be faced in optical satellite communications, weather conditions play a fundamental role for a correct transmission of the information. In the case of heavy rain, hailstorm snow, or even dense clouds, a communication channel between the satellite and a optical ground station (OGS) may suffer significant interference, causing errors in delivering information. Since satellite transmissions cover in general very widespread areas, it usually happens that different zones are characterized by different weather conditions. This property is exploited by the site diversity technique, that tries to limit bad weather effects on the overall availability of the communication channel. When implementing such a site diversity technique, the satellite should be able to switch between the OGSs, by evaluating the rain events probability either through direct measurement campaigns or exploiting statistical models. The setup studied in this work involves a geostationary satellite equipped with two laser communication terminals (LCTs). In order to dynamically decide the OGSs to be pointed by those LCTs, a Deep-Learning based proactive control algorithm for site diversity, performing weather forecasting and consequent preventive LCT switching on the basis of current and past weather conditions has been developed. Simulative results show the ability of our proposed algorithm in achieving the maximum possible link availability, which is bounded by the weather conditions of all the OGSs.


In the current economic environment there are constraints on time & resources for education. Continuing professional development (CPD) for undergraduates & post graduates needs to be done in an effective manner and the content of educational resources must be accessible, user friendly & relevant to the standards of professional bodies. The speakers will describe an innovative approach where the existing package (incorporating summative assessment) is converted in order to be used by the students from the School of Computing and Engineering.


This Article analyzes the possible antitrust liability of medical credentialing programs by dividing their potentially anticompetitive acts into three categories: (1) communicative behavior--for example, credentialing agencies' promulgation of standards--designed primarily to influence government decision making; (2) communicative behavior designed to influence private decision makers, such as consumers, hospitals, and training programs; and (3) noncommunicative behavior--for example, an agreement by the credentialing agency and others to boycott a group of professionals--that might be used to exclude competitors from various fields of medical care. The author argues that the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, together with the related Noerr-Pennington doctrine, should exempt from antitrust law any credentialing standard that has been adopted for a good-faith purpose and is at least arguably reasonable. On the other hand, the author also argues that antitrust law should condemn any "sham" standard that in fact is designed to eliminate or to punish competitors, and any other noncommunicative behavior by credentialing agencies for the same purpose.


Abstract We study the two-dimensional flow and leakage of buoyant fluid injected at a constant volumetric rate into a fluid-saturated porous medium confined vertically by horizontal boundaries. The upper boundary contains a localized vertical fracture that allows fluid to leak into an open or partially confined porous layer above. The rate of leakage is modelled as proportional to the combined action of the gravitational hydrostatic head of the current below the fracture and the background pressure introduced by the injection. After the injected current reaches the fracture, leakage is initially controlled kinematically by the rate at which injected fluid flows towards the fracture. Once the rate at which buoyant fluid flows towards the fracture exceeds a critical value, the current overshoots the fracture and leakage switches to being controlled dynamically by the pressure drop across the fracture. Two long-term regimes of flow can emerge. In one, the current approaches a steady height above the lower boundary and essentially all fluid injected into the medium leaks at long times. In the other, the current accumulates to fill the entire depth of the medium below the fracture. Only a fraction of the injected fluid then leaks at long times, implying significantly greater long-term storage than has been proposed from studies of leakage from unconfined media. An understanding of the flow regimes is obtained using numerical solutions and analysis of long-term similarity solutions. The implications of our results to the geological storage of carbon dioxide is discussed.


Heavy atomic nuclei are thought to have proton and neutron radial distributions which have different extents. This difference is usually quantified in terms of a neutron skin (rnp), defined as the difference between the root mean square radii of the neutron and proton radial distributions (rnp = rn − rp). The nature, or even existence, of the neutron skin is currently not well established for many nuclei. Different nuclear theories give different predictions for the neutron skin thickness ranging for a typical heavy nucleus from 0.05 to 0.35 fm. Accurate measurement of the properties of the neutron skin would be a powerful constraint to differentiate between models of nuclear structure, improving our knowledge of the basic Equation Of State (EOS) for neutron rich matter. Particularly, the rate at which the neutron skin thickness changes across an isotopic chain of nuclei gives a tight constraint on the EOS and is also amenable to experimental determination with small systematic error. Improving our knowledge of the EOS for neutron rich matter is a crucial step towards gaining a deeper understanding of nuclear structure and nuclear matter in general. These results will also impact our knowledge of compact astrophysical objects such as neutron stars. This thesis describes the first measurement of neutron skin thicknesses along an isotopic chain using an electromagnetic probe. The neutron skin is measured through the study of the coherent photoproduction of neutral π mesons emitted from nuclei. This experiment was carried out in the A2 hall of the MAMI facility in Mainz, Germany in October 2012. The incident photon beam comprised of energy tagged photons in the range of Eγ=150-800 MeV with an intensity of 10 8 photons per second. Experimental data was obtained for three different tin targets, Sn, Sn and Sn. The products from the resulting photoreactions were measured in the Crystal Ball detector and in the TAPS calorimeter systems, with track and particle identification information for charged particles provided by a multi wire


Picking and transporting objects in an outdoor environment with multiple lightweight MAVs is a demanding task. The main challenges are sudden changes of flight dynamics due to altered center of mass and weight, varying lighting conditions for visual perception, and coordination of the MAVs over unreliable wireless connections. At the Mohamed Bin Zayed International Robotics Challenge (MBZIRC) teams competed in a Treasure Hunt where three MAVs had to collaboratively pick colored disks and drop them into a designated box. Only little preparation and test time on- site required robust algorithms and easily maintainable systems to successfully achieve the challenge objectives. We describe our multi-robot system employed at MBZIRC, including a lightweight gripper, a vision system robust against illumination and color changes, and a control architecture allowing to operate multiple robots safely. With our system, we—as part of the larger team NimbRo of ground and flying robots—won the Grand Challenge and achieved a third place in the Treasure Hunt.


Abstract Europe 2020 strategy of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth also implies policies for boosting social innovations. In this context, it is relevant to encourage solutions such as social entrepreneurship as it is addressing social and environmental issues while employing entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship depends on the context of its emergence and implementation. In this regard, the context-specific factors play an important role. Following the Cultural Political Economy approach, the article examines on different factors that have influenced on the adoption of amendments of the Slovenian Social Entrepreneurship Act in 2018. Selection of the case study of Slovenia bases on the findings implying that Slovenia has still not overcome the initial phase of the development of the social entrepreneurship. The article reveals that there are still issues relevant for running social enterprises that are not sufficiently regulated by the law. One of them is a training of the vulnerable groups in terms of their technological skills in order to ensure their efficiency and productiveness in Work Integration Social Enterprises.


Professional development of teachers has become an essential condition in today's knowledge-based society to sustain the quality of teaching. Therefore, the Dutch government promotes this professional development. As a result, Professional Development Plans (PDPs) are now increasingly used to stimulate and support the professional development of teachers. A PDP is used to encourage teachers' professional development and structure their development path in terms of learning goals and plans of action. However, it cannot be taken for granted that teachers will formulate high-quality PDPs on their own. Previous research suggests that guidance is important in supporting teachers' development. This study examined the effects of guidance on the quality of PDPs. An experimental group of Dutch teachers from a school for secondary vocational education was offered a series of workshops whereas the control group did not have such guidance. Both groups had to fill out a simple structured PDP. To determine the quality of the PDPs, an assessment tool was developed. The results suggest that guided teachers are more capable of identifying their strengths and in formulating learning goals. The guided teachers' PDPs also showed more consistency. No differences were found regarding the action plans which teachers described.


of in terms of patient times and utilization of critical resources can be assessed through and simulation models . This paper provides a tool for studying the capacity , resources , and patient flow and Methods: This study was performed in CCU section of the Kosar Hospital, focusing on the impact of outages (preemptive and non-preemptive) on the effective utilization of resources and on the flow time of patients. Two procedures of queueing network solution have been presented; the decomposition and the Brownian motion approaches. Several scenarios have been defined to improve the performances. Simulation has been utilized as a validation tool . Results: Simulation results show that scenario 2 (reduction of time spent on resolving delays) has the lowest waiting times. Scenarios 4 to 6 show that the proportion of time spent on absenteeism is less than the time spent on the resolving delays. Conclusion: The queueing models based on decomposition approaches to Brownian motion Approximation present more accurate results. Decreasing the number of interrupts and reducing the time spent on resolving interrupts decrease flow times. The impact of outages is considered a key managerial challenge.


The disposition of fenoprofen enantiomers has been studied in nine healthy rabbits. A mean (S.E.M.) of 0.73 (0.07) of R-fenoprofen was inverted to S-fenoprofen and the distribution volumes for bound plus unbound R-fenoprofen and S-fenoprofen were 50.3 (4.5) and 98.5 (5.9) ml/kg, respectively. A model was developed which predicted the area under the S-fenoprofen plasma concentration-time curve after bolus administration of racemic fenoprofen. The mean (S.E.M.) predicted area, 2.1 (0.2) mg X min/ml/kg, was within 94% of the observed area 2.2 (0.2) mg X min/ml/kg. The effect of phenobarbital on the disposition of fenoprofen enantiomers was examined in an additional eight rabbits. During the control study the glucuronidation of R-fenoprofen exceeded the corresponding clearance term for the S-enantiomer by 2.1-fold. The clearances of individual enantiomers to their respective glucuronides increased after phenobarbital pretreatment by a mean 1.6-fold for R- and 2.3-fold for S-fenoprofen. The clearance of S-fenoprofen by processes other than glucuronidation and elimination of unchanged drug in urine was increased by a mean of 2.1-fold after phenobarbital pretreatment but the fractional inversion and the inversion clearance of R- to S-fenoprofen were not affected. These data indicate that on racemic fenoprofen administration the area under the curve for the pharmacologically active S-enantiomer would be reduced by phenobarbital pretreatment.


The North American spionid polychaete Marenzelleria cf. viridis was reported from the Baltic Sea for the first time in 1985. The species has spread rapidly and now dominates many soft- bottom communities, where it dwells in burrows down to 30 cm deep in the sediment. In the Baltic Sea, below 10 m water depth, the macrobenthic community is composed of only a handful of species, among which the amphipod Monoporeia affinis is a key member. This species is highly mobile; it swims actively at night but remains burrowed in the sediment during the day. Due to similarities in feeding mode and sympatric occurrence, the polychaete may compete with the amphipod for both food and space. One plausible outcome of interactions between the 2 species is that the amphipod, the more mobile species, would avoid areas where the more sessile polychaete is present in high numbers. In the laboratory, we tested the hypothesis that, if given the choice, the amphipod avoids burrowing in sediment with high polychaete abundances. The amphipod burrowed in significantly lower numbers in patches with high polychaete abundance compared to those with lower abun- dance. Also, plastic tubes mimicking polychaete body structure were not avoided by the amphipods, indicating that the physical tube structure of the polychaetes does not explain the amphipod's choice of burrowing site. Furthermore, the amphipod did not increase or prolong swimming activities as a function of higher worm density, indicating that increased swimming activity over dense polychaete patches and subsequent migration away from them is not a likely explaination of why this amphipod burrow less frequently in patches of high polychaete abundance.


Abstract To maintain the quality of a lawn and allow it to perform its functions (esthetics, enhancement of property, reduction of air temperature, etc.) efficient use of irrigation and adequate fertilization are necessary. The use of wastewater from sewage treatment, which has a nutrient load, in irrigation, can be an alternative especially if applied via subsurface, to reduce contamination risks. This study was conducted to examine the development and quality of an ornamental lawn of Zoysia japonica Steud (zoysiagrass) irrigated with wastewater depths, by two methods. The experiment was carried out in Botucatu-SP, Brazil, during winter and spring (June to December 2016). The treatments consisted of two irrigation methods (sprinkling and subsurface drip) and four domestic-wastewater irrigation depths (50%, 100%, 150% and 200% of the average daily evapotranspiration) plus control, where treated water was supplied by the Basic Sanitation Company of São Paulo State (Sabesp) of Botucatu, SP, Brazil, replacing 100% of average daily evapotranspiration. The following characteristics were studied: clipping dry matter weight, relative chlorophyll content, lawn height, total coliforms and Escherichia coli in the plant tissue and nutrient concentration in the leaves. Subsurface drip irrigation with wastewater, using an irrigation depth of 100% of the average evapotranspiration, allowed an adequate development of the zoysiagrass lawn by maintaining its quality, without contamination by total coliforms or Escherichia coli.


Salt Lake City is the capital of Utah and is a major financial, trade, and transportation center for the western United States. Founded in 1847, Salt Lake City presently (1990) has a population of about 158,000. However, the metropolitan area of the city, which includes most of the Salt Lake Valley, contains both incorporated and unincorporated suburbs that increase the population to nearly 705,000. Geologic exposures in the Salt Lake City region record a long history of sedimentation and tectonic activity extending back to the Precambrian Era. Today, the city lies above a deep, sediment-filled basin flanked by two uplifted range blocks, the Wasatch Range and the Oquirrh Mountains. The Wasatch Range is the easternmost expression of major Basin and Range extension in north-central Utah, and is bounded on the west by the Wasatch fault zone (WFZ), a major zone of active normal faulting. During the late Pleistocene Epoch, the Salt Lake City region was dominated by a succession of inter-basin lakes. Lake Bonneville was the last and probably the largest of these lakes. By 11,000 years BP, Lake Bonneville had receded to approximately the size of present-day Great Salt Lake. Lake Bonneville sediments bury most older deposits in the valley below an elevation of about 5,200 ft (1,585 m). Lake sediments include near-shore beach, delta, spit, and bar deposits and silt and clay deposited in deeper water. Post-Bonneville deposits include Holocene alluvium along the Jordan River and its tributaries and alluvial fans along mountain fronts. Repeated normal-slip faulting has occurred at the ground surface in northern Utah during late Pleistocene and Holocene time. Most of this activity has been on the WFZ which traverses the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. West-facing scarps of a few to tens of feet high are common, as are graben, horsts, and other fault-related features. Paleoseismic data show that the average recurrence interval for surface-fault displacement on the Salt Lake City segment of the WFZ is 4,000 ±1,000 years. However, the city can expect to experience strong ground shaking associated with a large earthquake somewhere on the WFZ every 340 to 415 years. The West Valley fault zone (WVFZ) is an east-dipping, normal fault that trends to the north-northwest through the central part of the Salt Lake Valley. The WVFZ has had at least six surface-faulting events in the past 13,000 years. Despite the close proximity to active faults, Salt Lake City has not yet been subjected to a large, destructive earthquake. Felt events have occurred, but only a few have caused appreciable damage. Geologic units in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area generally provide adequate foundation conditions. The principal foundation problems are compressible, low bearing-strength soils; collapse-prone soils; and liquefaction. Some shale units and the soils derived from them may be expansive. Use of underground space is restricted to the nearby Wasatch Range and Oquirrh Mountains and includes storage of documents and valuables, water storage, and mining-related uses. Numerous geologic hazards exist in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. Movement on faults may cause ground rupture, ground shaking, tectonic displacement, ground failure including liquefaction, and seiches on the Great Salt Lake. Steep slopes create the potential for landslides, rock falls, debris flows, and snow avalanches. Streams and the Great Salt Lake experience flooding, and high ground-water conditions are common. Water for the Salt Lake City metropolitan area comes principally from streams in the Jordan and Colorado River drainages. Ground water from wells and springs is also used. Major surface storage reservoirs are considered inadequate and additional storage is being constructed. Basin-fill aquifers provide the largest existing source of stored water. Most of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area is served by public sewers. Wastewater is treated at municipal treatment plants and solid waste is placed in county and municipal sanitary landfills. Hazardous waste sites include disposal sites for cement kiln dust; mine, smelter, and oil refinery wastes; and various chemical wastes. Three hazardous waste disposal sites are on the Environmental Protection Agency9s current Superfund National Priority List. Mineral resources have played an important role in the development of Salt Lake City. A variety of salines and metals are recovered from Great Salt Lake brines. The Bingham mining district in the Oquirrh Mountains is one of the world9s largest copper producers. The Big and Little Cottonwood mining districts and the Hot Springs mining district, all in the Wasatch Range, are no longer active, but have produced a variety of precious and base metals. Industrial rocks and minerals include cement, construction aggregate, crushed stone, industrial sand, and clay. The oil and gas potential of the Salt Lake Valley has not been thoroughly explored, but probably is low. Geothermal water is used to heat greenhouses and part of the Utah State Prison. The Great Salt Lake presents Salt Lake City with unique geologic hazards and engineering geology problems. Fluctuations in lake level occur daily, seasonally, and on a long-term basis. The rise of the lake during the period 1983–1985, due to above-normal precipitation, caused over $240 million in damages and initiated construction of the West Desert Pumping Project. In addition to flooding, development near the lake must also consider the effects of earthquakes on the lake and sensitive lake-bottom sediments, low bearing-strength soils, and rafting-ice impact on in-lake structures.


Most students of criminal justice, and the general public as well, think of policing along the three basic types of municipal, sheriff, and state police. Little is known about other avenues of police work, such as the constable. In policing textbooks, when a position such as constable is mentioned, only a line or two is presented, hardly enough to indicate it is of any importance. And yet constables and numerous other alternative policing positions are of vital importance to law enforcement in Texas and in other states. Constables, Marshals, and More seeks to remedy that imbalance in the literature on policing by starting with the state of Texas, home of more than 68,000 registered peace officers. Lorie Rubenser and Gloria Priddy first lay the groundwork for how to become a peace officer. A guest chapter by Raymond Kessler discusses legal issues in alternative police work. Rubenser and Priddy then examine the oft-overlooked offices of constable, railroad police, racing commission, cattle brand inspector, university police, fire marshal, city marshal, Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, bailiff, game warden, and district/county attorney investigators. This book will be useful for any general policing courses at both the undergraduate and the graduate levels. It will provide more in-depth analysis of these lesser known law enforcement positions and will spur student interest in employment in these areas.


Evolution of the genes encoding YABBY transcription factors is believed to be one of the key reasons for flat leaf emergence from the radially symmetrical stem and gynoecium diversity. YABBY genes determine the identity of the abaxial surface of all aboveground lateral organs in seed plants. In the present study, complete sequences of YABBY3-orthologous genes were identified and characterized in 13 accessions of cultivated and wild tomato species with diverse morphophysiology of leaves, flowers, and fruits. The obtained gene sequences showed high homology (95–99%) and an identical exon-intron structure with the known S. lycopersicum YABBY3 gene, and they contained sequences that encode the conserved HMG-like YABBY and Cys2Cys2-zinc-finger domains. In total, in the analyzed YABBY3 genes, 317 variable sites were found, wherein 8 of 24 exon-specific SNPs were nonsynonymous. In the vegetative and reproductive organs of red-fruited and green-fruited tomato species, YABBY3 gene expression was similar to that in S. pimpinellifolium described earlier, but it demonstrated interspecies differences at the leaf-, bud- and flower-specific expression levels.


Any part of a genome, considered separately from the rest of the genome, evolves against a "virtual fitness landscape" that results when the rest of the genome is held constant. We show how analyzing a genome in this way can explain one form of progressively increasing evolvability. When one part of a genome is a vector of numbers ("knobs") and the rest is a graph that determines the mapping from knobs to phenotype, the graph will respond to selective pressure to "acclivate" the virtual fitness function faced by the knobs—that is, to make it more hill-shaped. For as long as the knobs' virtual fitness function provides opportunity for distorting it to make knob-turning mutations improve fitness, the graph experiences pressure to evolve those distortions as a side-effect of responding to its own virtual fitness function. As the knobs' virtual fitness function grows more hill-shaped, the knobs track upward paths more easily and hence so does the genotype as a whole. A synergy develops between incremental exploration of phenotypes by knob-mutations and discontinuous exploration by graph-mutations. A favorable condition for this is a global fitness function that frequently varies, changing constants but leaving structural invariants unchanged. The graph then accumulates a memory of the invariants as revealed across many previous epochs, held in the form of bias limiting and directing future evolution.


The Bulldog Mountain vein system, Creede district, Colorado, is one of four major epithermal vein systems from which the bulk of the district9s historical Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu production has come. Ores deposited along the vein system were discovered in 1965 and were mined from 1969 to 1985.Six temporally gradational mineralization stages have been identified along the Bulldog Mountain vein system, each with a characteristic suite of minerals deposited or leached and a characteristic distribution within the vein system; some of these stages are also strongly zoned within the vein system. Stage A was dominated by deposition of rhodochrosite along the lower levels of the Bulldog Mountain ore zone. Stage B in the northern parts of the ore zone is characterized by abundant fine-grained sphalerite and galena, with lesser tetrahedrite and minor chlorite and hematite. With increasing elevation to the south, stage B ores become progressively more barite and silver rich, with alternating barite and fine-grained sphalerite + galena generations; native silver + or - acanthite assemblages are also locally abundant within southern stage B barite sulfide ores, whereas chalcopyrite and other Cu and Ag sulfides and sulfosalts are present erratically in minor amounts. Stage C in the upper and northern portions of the ore zone is characterized by abundant quartz and fluorite, minor adularia, hematite, Mn siderite, sphalerite, and galena, and major leaching of earlier barite; to the south, some barite and sulfides may have been deposited. Stage D sphalerite and galena were deposited in the upper and northern portions of the ore zone; a barite- and silver-rich facies of this stage may also be present in the southern portions of the vein system. Late in stage D, mineralogically complex assemblages containing chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite, polybasite, bornite, pyrargyrite, and a variety of other sulfides and sulfosalts were deposited in modest amounts throughout the vein system. This complex assemblage marked the transition to stage E. During stage E, the final sulfide stage, abundant botryoidal pyrite and marcasite with lesser stibnite, sphalerite, and sulfosalts were deposited primarily along the top of the Bulldog Mountain ore zone. Stage F, the final mineralization stage along the vein system, is marked by wire silver and concurrent leaching of earlier sulfides and sulfosalts; this stage may reflect the transition to a supergene environment.The sequence of mineralization stages identified in this study along the Bulldog Mountain system can be correlated with corresponding stages identified by other researchers along the OH and P veins, and the southern Amethyst vein system. Mineral zoning patterns identified along the Bulldog Mountain vein system also parallel larger scale zoning patterns across the central and southern Creede district.The complex variations in mineral assemblages documented in time and space along the Bulldog Mountain vein system were produced by the combined effects of many processes. Large-scale changes in vein mineralogy over time produced discrete mineralization stages. Short-term mineralogical fluctuations produced complex interbanding of mineralogically distinct generations. Fluid chemistry evolution within the vein system produced large-scale lateral zoning patterns within certain stages. Hypogene leaching substantially modified the distributions of some minerals. Finally, structural activity, mineral deposition, and mineral leaching modified fluid flow pathways repeatedly during mineralization, and so added to the complex mineral distribution patterns within the vein system.


BACKGROUND
The purposes of this study were to determine the extent to which exercise stress testing is performed by family physicians; whether rural physicians are more likely to utilize exercise stress testing than their urban counterparts; and what factors influence their decisions.

METHODS
A random sample of 211 practicing members of the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians was surveyed. Responses were received from 163 (77%). To ensure independence, if two or more subjects were members of the same group practice, one was randomly assigned to the study, for a total of 125 respondents available for analysis. Questionnaire items included performance of exercise stress tests, population base, and distance to the nearest specialist who performed the test. Respondents were classified as urban, rural, or frontier, based on population per square mile in their county.

RESULTS
Seventy-three of the 125 respondents (58%) reported that they perform exercise stress testing. Physicians in rural or frontier counties were twice as likely to perform the test as urban physicians (P < .001). Similar results were found for distance to the closest specialist who performs exercise stress tests (P < .001) and reported population base (P < .01). Of those performing the procedure, 42 (58%) indicated they had learned it during residency, whereas 15 (21%) were self-taught or had learned from a colleague.

CONCLUSIONS
Family physicians in rural Nebraska are significantly more likely to perform exercise stress testing than those in urban areas and much more likely to do stress testing than previous national studies indicate. National guidelines should acknowledge the need for family physicians to perform exercise tests and promote training in this procedure.


The western North American bivalve mollusc known as the Olympia oyster, long known as Ostrea lurida Carpenter 1864†, is a historically exploited native species that has been largely displaced by larger nonnative oysters. There is much renewed interest in documenting and restoring its native populations and recent successful culturing has attracted a specialty market for these oysters. Yet its name was called into question when it was synonymized withO. conchaphilaCarpenter 1857, an oyster whose type locality is Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. Others have considered it more plausible that the Olympia oyster is a more northern species, distinct from O. conchaphila, but morphological or molecular evidence either way has been lacking. Here we used a molecular approach to test the single versus two-species hypotheses with samples from Sinaloa, Mexico, near the type locality ofO. conchaphila (Mazatlán, Mexico), and samples fromWillapa Bay, WA, the type locality ofO. lurida, as well as samples from intermediate locations. Based on our combined and separate analyses of twomitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers, 16S ribosomal RNA (16S) and cytochrome oxidase III (CO3), native Ostrea from Sinaloa, Mexico are reciprocally monophyletic with a clade from multiple other localities between Baja California, Mexico and British Columbia, Canada, including Willapa Bay, WA. Corrected pairwise sequence comparisons for 16S indicate these two groups last shared a common ancestor 1.5–3.9mya (2.06% sequence divergence). Based on these results and assuming that the Sinaloa group represents the true O. conchaphila,molecular evidence supportsO. conchaphila andO. lurida as separate species. Posthocmorphological comparisons uncovered no significant support for morphological distinction between the two taxa, underscoring the difficulty associated with using morphology alone to distinguish closely related oyster species. Despite the present lack of any morphological diagnostic differences for separating these nominal species, the molecular data are not consistent with the synonymy of the species and support the reinstatement of O. lurida from all the localities north of central Baja California.