The health benefits of the Mediterranean diet can be largely ascribed to the nutraceutical properties of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO). Mono-unsaturated fatty acids and various phenolic compounds, such as oleocanthal, oleuropein, hydroxytyrosol, and tyrosol, are the main nutraceutical substances of EVOO. These substances have been suggested to have the ability to modulate aging-associated processes. In experimental models, it has been shown that EVOO with high concentrations of polyphenols has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Indeed, it was observed that hydroxytyrosol and oleocanthal inhibit the cyclooxygenases (COX-1 and -2) responsible for prostaglandin production; oleuropein is a radical scavenger that blocks the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins. Due to the relevance of olive oil in the economy of Sicily, our group has been funded to assess the nutraceutical properties of different kinds of olive oil. Indeed, the aim of the study is to evaluate effects of EVOOs, with low and high polyphenols content, on immuno-inflammatory and oxidative stress responses in young and old people. A further objective of our group is to evaluate effects of EVOO, with low and high polyphenol content, on the expression of genes encoding proteins that take part in the insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling pathway involved in longevity. The results of the study will be useful for producing olive oil enriched in nutraceutical properties that may be likely helpful in the prevention of age-related diseases.


Many reports regarding online fraud in varieties media create skepticism for conducting transactions online, especially through an open network such as the Internet, which offers no security whatsoever. Therefore, encryption technology is vitally important to support secure e-commerce on the Internet. Two well-known encryption representing symmetric and asymmetric cryptosystems as well as their applications are discussed in this paper. Encryption is a key technology to secure electronic transactions. However, there are several challenges such as crytoanalysis or code breaker as well as US export restrictions on encryption. The future threat is the development of quantum computers, which makes the existing encryption technology cripple.


Tree growth at the northern limit of the range of boreal forests is primarily limited by temperature-related factors. Thus the position of this range limit, and the growth rates of trees along the northern forest border, may undergo significant change if predictions of enhanced greenhouse warming at northern latitudes are realized. In this paper we evaluate tree ring width and maximum latewood density chronologies of white spruce for three temperature-sensitive tree line sites in northern North America: in the Brooks Range, Alaska, the Franklin Mountains, Northwest Territories, and Churchill, Manitoba. The ring width data, which more strongly integrate low-frequency temperature trends than the density series, show overall enhanced growth and inferred warming during the period of anthropogenic increase in greenhouse gases. The recent growth at these sites equals or exceeds that which has occurred during earlier centuries of more clearly natural climate variability. When the ring width and density variations are estimated using temperature and precipitation data in principal components regression analysis, no substantial residual trends are detected which might require CO2 or other nutrient fertilization as an additional explanation for recent growth changes.


In the last two decades a debate developed about the historiography of the so-called "linguistic wars" of the late 1960s and the early 1970s, the fight between "generative semantics" (GS) and "extended standard theory" (EST). This historiographical debate looks as rough as the original "wars" themselves: according to Newmeyer (1986; 1996), the collapse of generative semantics was mainly due to its intrinsic weaknesses, while several other scholars (e.g., Huck a Goldsmith 1995; R.T. Lakoff 1989; Murray 1994) stress sociological reasons for the victory of EST, notably the rhetorical ability and the academic strength of Chomsky and his staunch followers. The aim of this article is to offer an external assessment of the "linguistics wars" based on the evidence provided by an outside observatory: the community of Italian linguists during the 1970s. The article first reviews the recent debate about the "linguistic wars". Then the Italian reception of both GS and EST is sketched: it is shown that GS was initially preferred, but later abandoned. Since every kind of generative linguistics had very little space in Italian universities at that time (Italian academic linguistics was almost exclusively historically-oriented), sociological factors cannot be assumed to have played any role in this abandonment. Therefore, a not merely sociological explanation for the "victory" of EST over GS has to be found.


The influence of Qawl al-Shahâbi in Islamic Law.Islamic law is dynamic because it always responds to legal problems that concern social life. This dynamic has been supported by the limitless sources of Islamic law. There are two types of Islamic sources: undebatable sources (muttafaq 'alayh) such as Alquran, hadits, ijmâ'and qiyas, and debatable sources (mukhtalaf fih) such as maslahah mursalah, istihsân, 'urf, qawl al-shahâbi, istishhâband sadd al-dzarâ'i'. Qawl al-Shahâbihas an important position in the formation of Islamic law because the fuqahâmuch refer to them when wanting to issue fatwâ. The disagreements of ulama over evidence do not die on rejection, but intensify on the use of the law as the main source.DOI: 10.15408/ajis.v14i2.1290


In recent years we are experiencing an important growth of interest for sensing the electromagnetic spectrum and making its access more agile. Emerging initiatives use low-cost receivers in large deployments for sensing the radio spectrum or collecting air-traffic signals at large scale. One of the major drawbacks of low-cost spectrum receivers is their limited sampling rate, which does not allow to decode wideband signals. In order to circumvent the hardware limitations of single receivers, we envision a scenario where non-coherent receivers sample the signal collaboratively to cover a larger bandwidth than the one of the single receiver and then, enable the signal reconstruction and decoding in the backend. We present a methodology to enable the signal reconstruction in the backend by multiplexing in frequency a certain number of noncoherent receivers in order to cover a signal bandwidth that would not otherwise be possible using a single receiver. We propose a method that does not use the knowledge of the modulation scheme, and has been designed to be transparent to the subsequent decoding process. As such, it is equivalent to the reception of the signal by a high-end receiver. We demonstrate and evaluate our approach with two non-coherent receivers which collaboratively sample an aviation signal of almost twice the bandwidth of each receiver. The experimental results show that, using two non-coherent receivers, our method is able to reconstruct and decode correctly more than 80% of data.


Abstract:Four inscribed lead curse tablets excavated from the Heroön of Opheltes at Nemea are edited and presented here with commentary. The texts of the tablets are erotic in nature, but closer analysis reveals a fundamental ambiguity in the rhetorical force of the anatomical lists and the operative verb apostrephō (ἀποστρέφω) in the curses. The choice of a hero shrine as the place of their deposition is unusual; a deciding factor for this location may have been the presence of the grave of Opheltes, who was believed to have died very young (aōros; ἄωρος) and through violence (biaiothanatos; βιαιοθάνατος), both of which being desirable qualities in the practice of ancient magic.


The Battle of Naroegas, 23 May 1901. In the battle of Naroegas, fought near Kenhardt in the Northern Cape on 23 May 1901, a Boer commando suffered a severe defeat at the hands of a force of ""brown"" people of the Northern Border Scouts. The story of this battle has been buried almost since its occurrence. Here we publish an account of this battle, as well as a commentary on its context, historiography, sources and significance. The account is by Jessie Strauss, a recovery of the story of the battle based solely on oral testimony from brown people, including his own ancestry. This originally formed part of a manuscript titled Kinders van die Gariep, on the history of brown people in the Northern Cape at the turn of the twentieth century. In the course of research in the Northern Cape, Martin Legassick met Jessie Strauss, read his manuscript, and was excited by the originality of some sections of it, including that on Naroegas. He undertook to try to discover what could be found in the archives on this forgotten battle of the South African War. His commentary, which follows Jessie Strauss's account, is based largely on the written sources. It places the battle in the context of the war in the North-West Cape, and reflects on the silences and distortions in the written accounts of this war, as well as the ""hiddenness"" of the oral records of the battle. It argues that the significance of the ""history"" of the battle lies as much in what it reveals about social relations in the area as in adding to our military knowledge of the South African War.


The Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling of thiols with aromatic electrophiles is a reliable method for the synthesis of aryl thioethers, which are important compounds for pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. Since thiols and thiolates strongly bind late transition metals, previous research has focused on catalysts supported by chelating, bisphosphine ligands, which were considered less likely to be displaced during the course of the reaction. We show that by using monophosphine ligands instead, more effective catalysis can be achieved. Notably, compared to previous methods, this increased reactivity allows for the use of much lower reaction temperature, soluble bases, and base-sensitive substrates. In contrast to conventional wisdom, our mechanistic data suggest that the extent of displacement of phosphine ligands by thiols is, firstly, not correlated with the ligand bulk or thiol nucleophilicity, and secondly, not predictive of the effectiveness of a given ligand in combination with palladium.


Energy-related issues have been in the centre of the policies of many governments. Increasing the energy production or decreasing the energy consumption can provide significant economic support to countries. Thus, developments in energy industry are of prime importance for countries, especially for Turkey, where improving the energy efficiency is one of the key components of the 2023 national strategy objectives and energy policies. Energy efficiency in residential buildings can be obtained by a number of ways such as optimizing the building envelope. Design of a building envelope depends on a number of parameters including the window, wall, basement, and ceiling properties. The insulation properties of such components can radically impact the energy efficiency of a building. Selecting the optimum materials in designing the building envelope has been one of the fundamental issues in the academic field in the last decade. Providing cost efficient envelope design while satisfying relevant standards has been the common goal. The aim of this study is to find optimum materials for the building envelope design of a residential building in Turkey. Genetic algorithm is utilized for the optimization purposes. The decision variables are determined as the window type and the insulation materials to be applied on the exterior walls, ceiling, and basement. The properties and costs of the materials are obtained from the unit price list prepared by Republic of Turkey Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The objective function is expressed as the minimization of the total cost of the building envelope materials. The constraints are stated as the limitations indicated by the Turkish Standard 825 (TS 825), "thermal insulation requirements for buildings". The optimization environment including the genetic algorithm and heating energy calculations is generated in Matlab. A total of 30, 20, 60, and 27 alternatives are identified for the exterior walls, basement, ceiling, and window types, respectively. Optimum design solutions are determined for four climate regions of Turkey as defined by TS 825. The optimization environment could identify optimum design solution among thousands of combinations for each climate region separately. The optimization environment can be utilized by homeowners or designers to determine the building envelope with minimum cost satisfying the relevant standard. Also, the study is expected to encourage professionals in the construction industry to utilize such optimization tools to deal with design-related decisions.


Chemists, engineers, scientists, lend us your ears… Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) is among the largest challenges on the horizon and we need your help. In this perspective, we focus on identifying the critical research needs to make CCUS a reality, with an emphasis on how the principles of green chemistry (GC) and green engineering can be used to help address this challenge. We identify areas where GC principles can readily improve the energy or atom efficiency of processes or reduce the environmental impact. Conversely, we also identify dilemmas where the research needs may be at odds with GC principles, and present potential paths forward to minimise the environmental impacts of chemicals and processes needed for CCUS. We also walk a different path from conventional perspectives in that we postulate and introduce potential innovative research directions and concepts (some not yet experimentally validated) in order to foster innovation, or at least stoke conversation and question why certain approaches have not yet been attempted. With elements of historical context, technological innovation, critical thinking, and some humour, we issue a call to arms and hope you may join us in this fight.


This national park, located in the extreme south-western tip of Java on the Sunda shelf, includes the Ujung Kulon peninsula and several offshore islands and encompasses the natural reserve of Krakatoa. In addition to its natural beauty and geological interest – particularly for the study of inland volcanoes – it contains the largest remaining area of lowland rainforests in the Java plain. Several species of endangered plants and animals can be found there, the Javan rhinoceros being the most seriously under threat. © UNESCO


The vast majority of existing work on brain biometrics has been conducted on the ongoing electroencephalogram. Here, we argue that the averaged event-related potential (ERP) may provide the potential for more accurate biometric identification, as its elicitation allows for some control over the cognitive state of the user to be obtained through the design of the challenge protocol. We describe the Cognitive Event-RElated Biometric REcognition (CEREBRE) protocol, an ERP biometric protocol designed to elicit individually unique responses from multiple functional brain systems (e.g., the primary visual, facial recognition, and gustatory/appetitive systems). Results indicate that there are multiple configurations of data collected with the CEREBRE protocol that all allow 100% identification accuracy in a pool of 50 users. We take this result as the evidence that ERP biometrics are a feasible method of user identification and worthy of further research.


Centennial-scale variations in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) remain ambiguous. In the present study, the δ18O of shells from the ostracode Bicornucythere bisanensis from Lake Nakaumi, Japan, were examined to identify the bottom salinity changes caused by EASM variations over the past 1700 yr. Four weak EASM periods were identified in Lake Nakaumi: at A.D. 600, 1000, 1350, and 1900. We detected discordance among the centennial-scale EASM variations in Japan and the δ18O of stalagmites (δ18Ostalagmite) in southern China. Furthermore, both total solar irradiance and atmospheric 14C concentration, which were previously considered to be linked with the centennial-scale EASM variations, were asynchronous with the EASM variations. Conversely, we observed significant positive and negative correlations between the EASM from Japan and the δ18Ostalagmite in north-central China, and the relationship was associated with the Asia-Pacific Oscillation (APO) index: centennial-scale EASM periods dominated during the high APO period. These synchronous variations imply that the strength of the EASM variations is tied to temperature gradients between East China and the north-central Pacific Ocean.


Deadlock immunity is a property by which programs, once afflicted by a given deadlock, develop resistance against future occurrences of that and similar deadlocks. We describe a technique that enables programs to automatically gain such immunity without assistance from programmers or users. We implemented the technique for both Java and POSIX threads and evaluated it with several real systems, including MySQL, JBoss, SQLite, Apache ActiveMQ, Limewire, and Java JDK. The results demonstrate effectiveness against real deadlock bugs, while incurring modest performance overhead and scaling to 1024 threads. We therefore conclude that deadlock immunity offers programmers and users an attractive tool for coping with elusive deadlocks.


I n the early 1700s, Leeuwenhoek noted that avian and amphibian blood cells contained a "clear area," almost certainly corresponding to the structure we now know as the nucleus. This represents probably the earliest recognition that eukaryotic cells are not simply sacs of protoplasm, but instead contain subcellular structures. Although the concept of the nucleated cell became firmly established in the 18th and 19th centuries, the real beginning of subcellular fractionation had to await the emergence in the mid-1940s of the art form known as electron microscopy. The electron microscope revealed much more complexity than Leeuwenhoek could have imagined. Concurrent with improvements in the techniques of electron microscopy was the development of methodologies for subcellular fractionation. Through the 1950s, these parallel approaches resulted in the discovery and isolation of the major organelles that comprise the eukaryotic cell. Finally, as biochemical functions were associated with specific subcellular compartments, a much clearer picture of the eukaryotic cell began to emerge, and with it the field of modern cell biology.


Competition agencies around the globe are investigating whether a standard-essential patent (SEP) holder's choice to license to the makers of downstream end-user devices, rather than to makers of the components of those devices, violates competition laws. Some authorities have already reached that conclusion. While much has been written about FRAND-assured SEPs, the literature to date focuses largely on the appropriateness of seeking and obtaining injunctive relief on such patents or on the meaning of "fair and reasonable," and has largely ignored the "nondiscriminatory" prong of FRAND (fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory). This article analyzes what we observe to be the common industry practice of licensing on a portfolio basis at the end-user device level, and whether a patent holder's refusal to license at only at the downstream end-user device level, and not at other levels of the production chain, may constitute an antitrust violation. We conclude that (1) whether the "nondiscriminatory" prong of the FRAND promise requires licensing at the component level is a fact-specific inquiry that depends upon the specific standard-development organization's policy; (2) even if there is potential for a failure to comply with a FRAND assurance, that alone does not constitute an antitrust violation; and (3) the refusal to license at component level cannot be anticompetitive when the vertically integrated holder of one or more SEPs does not assert its patents against the makers of components but, instead, licenses its SEP portfolio to end-device manufacturers on FRAND terms.


DNA polymerases of the Y-family are involved in translesion DNA synthesis past different types of DNA damage. Previous work has shown that DNA polymerases η and ι are localised in replication factories during S phase, where they colocalise one-to-one with PCNA. Cells with factories containing these polymerases accumulate after treatment with DNA damaging agents because replication forks are stalled at sites of damage. We now show that DNA polymerase κ (polκ) has a different localisation pattern. Although, like the other Y-family polymerases, it is exclusively localised in the nucleus, polκ is found in replication foci in only a small proportion of S-phase cells. It does not colocalise in those foci with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) in the majority of cells. This reduced number of cells with polκ foci, when compared with those containing polη foci, is observed both in untreated cells and in cells treated with hydroxyurea, UV irradiation or benzo[a]pyrene. The C-terminal 97 amino acids of polκ are sufficient for this limited localisation into nuclear foci, and include a C2HC zinc finger, bipartite nuclear localisation signal and putative PCNA binding site.


In animals, circadian behavior can be analyzed as an integrated system, beginning with genes and leading ultimately to behavioral outputs. In the last decade, the molecular mechanism of circadian clocks has been unraveled primarily by the use of phenotype-driven (forward) genetic analysis in a number of model systems. Circadian oscillations are generated by a set of genes forming a transcriptional autoregulatory feedback loop. In mammals, there is a "core" set of circadian genes that form the primary negative feedback loop of the clock mechanism (Clock/Npas2, Bmal1, Per1, Per2, Cry1, Cry2, and CK1epsilon). A further dozen candidate genes have been identified and have additional roles in the circadian gene network such as the feedback loop involving Rev-erbalpha. Despite this remarkable progress, it is clear that a significant number of genes that strongly influence and regulate circadian rhythms in mammals remain to be discovered and identified. As part of a large-scale N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis screen using a wide range of nervous system and behavioral phenotypes, we have identified a number of new circadian mutants in mice. Here, we describe a new short-period circadian mutant, part-time (prtm), which is caused by a loss-of-function mutation in the Cryptochrome1 (Cry1) gene. We also describe a long-period circadian mutant named Overtime (Ovtm). Positional cloning and genetic complementation reveal that Ovtm is encoded by the F-box protein FBXL3, a component of the SKP1-CUL1-F-box protein (SCF) E3 ubiquitin ligase complex. The Ovtm mutation causes an isoleucine to threonine (I364T) substitution leading to a loss of function in FBXL3 that interacts specifically with the CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) proteins. In Ovtm mice, expression of the PERIOD proteins PER1 and PER2 is reduced; however, the CRY proteins CRY1 and CRY2 are unchanged. The loss of FBXL3 function leads to a stabilization of the CRY proteins, which in turn leads to a global transcriptional repression of the Per and Cry genes. Thus, Fbxl3(Ovtm) defines a molecular link between CRY turnover and CLOCK/BMAL1-dependent circadian transcription to modulate circadian period.


Globalized labor markets confront many adults, both employed and unemployed, with demands arising from career uncertainty that have the potential to jeopardize their occupational planning. This article investigated how individuals in different regions of Germany, which are characterized by different economic opportunities, negotiate such demands to pursue a career. The central hypothesis is that under unfavorable economic conditions, disengagement from demands of career planning, in terms of reducing commitment to their mastery, will predict positive changes in subjective well-being. This was tested using a sample of N = 806 adults living in 91 regions of Germany. Results suggest that disengagement predicts increased subjective well-being, but only if individuals report a very high load of demands of career planning and live in regions characterized by particularly poor opportunities for goal striving. It is concluded that disengagement can be an adaptive way of mastering occupational planning under particularly disadvantageous circumstances.


There is an urgent need to close the loop of plastic waste. One of the main challenges towards plastic packaging waste recycling is the presence of a variety of contaminants. These contaminants include organic residues, additives, labels, inks and also other plastic types that can be present in the waste stream due to missorting or in multimaterial structures (e.g. multilayer films in packaging). In this context, pre-treatment processes are a promising route to tackle the difficulties that are encountered in mechanical and chemical recycling due to these contaminants. This chapter gives better insight on the already existing pre-treatment techniques and on the advances that are being developed and/or optimized in order to achieve closed-loop recycling. Some of these advanced pre-treatments include chemical washing to remove inks (deinking), extraction methods to remove undesired plastic additives and dissolution-based pre-treatments, such as delamination and dissolution-precipitation techniques.


This paper considers semi-analytical solutions for a class of generalised logis- tic partial differential equations with both point and distributed delays. Both one and two-dimensional geometries are considered. The Galerkin method is used to approximate the governing equations by a system of ordinary differential delay equations. This method involves assuming a spatial structure for the solution and averaging to obtain the ordinary differential delay equation models. Semi-analytical results for the stability of the system are derived with the critical parameter value, at which a Hopf bifurcation occurs, found. The results show that diffusion acts to stabilise the system, compared to equivalent non- diffusive systems and that large delays, which represent feedback from the distant past, act to destabilize the system. Comparisons between semi-analytical and numerical solutions show excellent agreement for steady state and transient solutions, and for the parameter values at which the Hopf bifurcations occur.


Abstract Although only a few studies have explicitly evaluated live-dead agreement of species and community responses to environmental and spatial gradients, paleoecological analyses implicitly assume that death assemblages capture these gradients accurately. We use nine data sets from modern, relatively undisturbed coastal study areas to evaluate how the response of living molluscan assemblages to environmental gradients (water depth and seafloor type; "environmental component" of a gradient) and geographic separation ("spatial component") is captured by their death assemblages. We find that: 1. Living assemblages vary in composition either in response to environmental gradients alone (consistent with a species-sorting model) or in response to a combination of environmental and spatial gradients (mass-effect model). None of the living assemblages support the neutral model (or the patch-dynamic model), in which variation in species abundance is related to the spatial configuration of stations alone. These findings also support assumptions that mollusk species consistently differ in responses to environmental gradients, and suggest that in the absence of postmortem bias, environmental gradients might be accurately captured by variation in species composition among death assemblages. Death assemblages do in fact respond uniquely to environmental gradients, and show a stronger response when abundances are square-root transformed to downplay the impact of numerically abundant species and increase the effect of rare species. 2. Species' niche positions (position of maximum abundance) along bathymetric and sedimentary gradients in death assemblages show significantly positive rank correlations to species positions in living assemblages in seven of nine data sets (both square-root-transformed and presence-absence data). 3. The proportion of compositional variation explained by environmental gradients in death assemblages is similar to that of counterpart living assemblages. Death assemblages thus show the same ability to capture environmental gradients as do living assemblages. In some instances compositional dissimilarities in death assemblages show higher rank correlation with spatial distances than with environmental gradients, but spatial structure in community composition is mainly driven by spatially structured environmental gradients. 4. Death assemblages correctly identify the dominance of niche metacommunity models in mollusk communities, as revealed by counterpart living assemblages. This analysis of the environmental resolution of death assemblages thus supports fine-scale niche and paleoenvironmental analyses using molluscan fossil records. In spite of taphonomic processes and time-averaging effects that modify community composition, death assemblages largely capture the response of living communities to environmental gradients, partly because of redundancy in community structure that is inherently associated with multispecies assemblages. The molluscan data sets show some degree of redundancy as evidenced by the presence of at least two mutually exclusive subsets of species that replicate the community structure, and simple simulations show that between-sample relationships can be preserved and remain significant even when a large proportion of species is randomly removed from data sets.


In order to make the contents of the British Academy's Proceedings more accessible to readers, the following changes have been made: The large annual volumes have been replaced by an irregular series of slimmer volumes, published about three times a year, with most of the volumes containing papers devoted to one particular subject. Disciplines to be represented in future thematic volumes include archaeology, history, philosophy, literature, and law. The range of subjects will also be extended to areas of the humanities and social sciences inadequately covered at present. Memoirs of the lives and scholarly achievements of deceased Fellows of the Academy will continue to be published in the series. It is hoped that the change from large, multi-disciplinary annual volumes of Proceedings to a series of slimmer, more easily classified (and less expensive) volumes will benefit subscribers to the series. The volumes will continue to be numbered in the same sequence as the former annual Proceedings. The proceedings of this prestigious meeting highlight new developments in archaeological science over the last ten years. There is a strong emphasis on the applications of organic chemistry and biochemistry to archaeological remains, as well as reviews of more traditional subjects, such as the scientific study of ceramics.


Herbivory is viewed as a major driver of plant evolution and the most important energy pathway from plants to higher trophic levels. Therefore, understanding patterns of herbivory on plants remains a key focus in evolution and ecology. The evolutionary impacts of leaf herbivory include altering plant fitness, local adaptation, the evolution of defenses, and the diversification of plants as well as natural enemies. Leaf herbivory also impacts ecological processes such as plant productivity, community composition, and ecosystem nutrient cycling. Understanding the impact of herbivory on these ecological and evolutionary processes requires species-specific, as opposed to community-level, measures of herbivory. In addition, species-specific data enables the use of modern comparative methods to account for phylogenetic non-independence. Although hundreds of studies have measured natural rates of leaf consumption, we are unaware of any accessible compilation of these data. We created such a data set to provide the raw data needed to test general hypotheses relating to plant–herbivore interactions and to test the influence of biotic and abiotic factors on herbivory rates across large spatial scales. A large repository will make this endeavor more efficient and robust. In total, we compiled 2641 population-level measures for either annual or daily rates of leaf herbivory across 1145 species of vascular plants collected from 189 studies. All damage measures represent natural occurrences of herbivory that span numerous angiosperm, gymnosperm, and fern species. To enable researchers to explore the causes of variation in herbivory and how these might interact, we added information about the study sites including: geolocation, climate classification, habitat descriptions (e.g., seashore, grassland, forest, agricultural fields), and plant trait information concerning growth form and duration (e.g., annual vs. perennial). We also included extensive details of the methodology used to measure leaf damage, including seasons and months of sampling, age of leaves, and the method used to estimate percentage area missing. We anticipate that these data will make it possible to test important hypotheses in the plant–herbivore literature, including the plant apparency hypothesis, the latitudinal-herbivory defense hypothesis, the resource availability hypothesis, and the macroevolutionary escalation of defense hypothesis.


Proclus' Commentary on Plato's dialogue Timaeus is arguably the most important commentary on a text of Plato, offering unparalleled insights into eight centuries of Platonic interpretation. This edition offered the first new English translation of the work for nearly two centuries, building on significant advances in scholarship on Neoplatonic commentators. It provides an invaluable record of early interpretations of Plato's dialogue, while also presenting Proclus' own views on the meaning and significance of Platonic philosophy. The present volume, the third in the edition, offers a substantial introduction and notes designed to help readers unfamiliar with this author. It presents Proclus' version of Plato's account of the elements and the mathematical proportions which bind together the body of the world.


ABSTRACT Self-perception of motion through visual stimulation may be important for adapting to locomotor conditions. Unilateral limb loading is a locomotor condition that can improve stability and reduce abnormal limb movement. In the present study, the authors investigated the effect of self-perception of motion through virtual reality (VR) on adaptation to unilateral limb loading. Healthy young adults, assigned to either a VR or a non-VR group, walked on a treadmill in the following 3 locomotor task periods—no load, loaded, and load removed. Subjects in the VR group viewed a virtual corridor during treadmill walking. Exposure to VR reduced cadence and muscle activity. During the loaded period, the swing time of the unloaded limb showed a larger increase in the VR group. When the load was removed, the swing time of the previously loaded limb and the stance time of the previously unloaded limb showed larger decrease and the swing time of the previously unloaded limb showed a smaller increase in the VR group. Lack of visual cues may cause the adoption of cautious strategies (higher muscle activity, shorter and more frequent steps, changes in the swing and stance times) when faced with situations that require adaptations. VR technology, providing such perceptual cues, has an important role in enhancing locomotor adaptation.


This book is the first to explore the history of the Swedish electronic music studio EMS. EMS was established in 1964 with the intent to create an international center for research in sound and sound perception, and to build one of the world's most advanced hybrid studios. The principal creators of the studio were rooted in Swedish modernism, and had the EMS-project shaped in accordance to the social democratic cultural policy of the time. This enabled the project to achieve continuous financial support, e. g. to purchase a computer in 1969. The construction of the large studio was a complicated and prolonged process. While the building was underway, many composers worked in EMS's principle provisional studio, where they among other pieces created the so-called text sound compositions. Over time this studio was worn, and the composers asked for new analog equipment. The board of directors opposed the composers' whishes because they preferred to continue the original stake at digitally controlled analog apparatus and the planned research project. On these grounds many disagreements and conflicts occurred. (Less)


We present a new approach to learning the structure and parameters of a Bayesian network based on regularized estimation in an exponential family representation. Here we show that, given a fixed variable order, the optimal structure and parameters can be learned efficiently, even without restricting the size of the parent sets. We then consider the problem of optimizing the variable order for a given set of features. This is still a computationally hard problem, but we present a convex relaxation that yields an optimal 'soft' ordering in polynomial time. One novel aspect of the approach is that we do not perform a discrete search over DAG structures, nor over variable orders, but instead solve a continuous relaxation that can then be rounded to obtain a valid network structure. We conduct an experimental comparison against standard structure search procedures over standard objectives, which cope with local minima, and evaluate the advantages of using convex relaxations that reduce the effects of local minima.


The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has developed a Ka-band mobile earth station which achieves 24 Mbps in land mobile regions using the wideband internet engineering test and demonstration satellite. The mobile earth station is installed with a dual reflector antenna of 650 mm diameter, a block up converter with an output of 20 W, and a mono-pulse tracking system with 3-axis gimbals mechanisms for satellite tracking and communications. Using this terminal, the transmission data rate of 18 Mbps were confirmed. High definition television (HDTV) transmission was also conducted using an onboard HDTV camera in suburban and expressway areas. In this test, successful HDTV transmission was confirmed under the moving conditions.


ABSTRACT Background The dilemma of what to do if blood is unavailable (or in very short supply) when a patient is bleeding heavily has confronted all clinicians who work in the pre-hospital setting, operating room, intensive care unit or emergency department. This article reviews methods that are currently available and under investigation for bleeding control and resuscitation, including artificial oxygen carriers (AOCs), tourniquets, elevation/gravity, pro-coagulant technologies, haemostatic agents and minimisation of further blood loss by non-operative and minimally invasive surgical interventions. Methods The MEDLINE literature database, textbooks and the authors' 56 combined years of experience in anaesthesia, critical care and bloodless medicine associated with the Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore, Maryland, the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center and other hospitals with major blood use were resorted to in evaluating the management strategies described. Results A multitude of strategies and options are available. Infusions of AOCs will enhance oxygen carriage and can also be used for volume expansion. Haemoglobin-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) are a major group of AOCs. HBOC therapy should include monitoring daily plasma haemoglobin (Hb) and haematocrit levels. HBOCs have limited half-life and decreasing plasma Hb, in the context of decreasing total Hb, indicates the need for re-dosing with HBOC. Total Hb, not haematocrit, is used for the assessment of anaemia, because haemodilution by the cell-free Hb solutions can cause haematocrit to be proportionally unrelated to total Hb. HBOCs can make patients appear jaundiced due to metabolism of free Hb. Interferences with laboratory and oximetry monitoring technology should also be considered. HBOCs, like erythropoietin, can act as haematinics and provide added benefits by stimulating erythropoiesis. There are still challenges that need to be resolved regarding the safety and efficacy of these products. The application of external pressure (e.g. using tourniquets to occlude bleeding from arterial and venous sites and inflatable splints or compression bandages as a temporising means of haemorrhage control for major pelvic fractures) can minimise bleeding. Intra-abdominal packing is an excellent means of salvage when haemorrhage is profuse (e.g. from a major liver laceration) and blood is unavailable.), can stop arterial and venous bleeding in a few minutes. Haemostatic agents such as recombinant Factor VIIa (rFVIIa) can reduce intra-abdominal bleeding (e.g. liver lacerations). The use of percutaneous screw fixation to stabilise orthopaedic fractures enables the reduction of bleeding that would normally be uncontrolled. Trauma patients have impaired erythropoiesis and a hypoferric state secondary to a complex network of bleeding and inflammatory mediators appearing within 12 hours of injury and lasting more than nine days. Erythropoietin therapy in this population may improve survival. If bleeding occurs intra-operatively, high FIO2, maintaining sedation, neuromuscular paralysis and intubation with mechanical ventilation will minimise oxygen consumption. The maintenance of normovolaemia with crystalloids and colloids and the initiation of blood conservation techniques described above are recommended. Conclusions: External pressure, abdominal packing or insufflation, haemostatic technologies (bandages, rFVIIa), early orthopaedic fracture reduction with external fixation, interventional radiological embolisation, and minimally invasive percutaneous surgery are effective management strategies for managing bleeding without blood. AOCs function as both oxygen-carrying and volume-expanding tools to bridge the loss of oxygen delivery of blood during the first 10 days after injury until intrinsic reticulocytosis regenerates native red cell production. Used in combination with other resuscitation measures, these techniques and strategies can significantly reduce transfusion requirement and prove to be life saving in cases of severe bleeding where no transfusion is available.


In this study we analyze the phenomenon known as "double possession" in monolingual and bilingual Spanish communities located in the Peruvian Amazon. Our data come from sociolinguistic interviews conducted with bilingual Bora-Spanish speakers and monolingual Iquitos Spanish speakers. From a syntactic view, we claim that double possessor constructions in Peruvian Amazonian Spanish arise from small-n incorporation into D, rendering the possessive determiner. We explore the extent to which this movement is motivated by language contact, potentially triggering the remnants of an Old Spanish doubling structure, or an innovation due to the specific contact situation of these communities. Our investigation contributes to theoretical discussions of micro-parametric variation and documents semi-spontaneous speech from a less commonly examined region of the Spanish-speaking world.


There is little published information about what influences individual lamb consumers in Australia, and the factors uppermost in their mind as they make their purchases. Gross consumption and price relationships are available from statistical studies, whilst taste panel responses relating to organoleptic properties are limited to material from technical experiments. It is contended that the gross approach to identifying consumer habits masks the individual needs of consumers. Furthermore, it is suggested that consumers have specific requirements for lamb cuts and joints, but these are compromised at the shop-counter by other factors such as price and the price of alternatives. A survey was conducted amongst 479 people to identify whether people were as discerning as the hypothesis suggested. A Chi-square analysis showed (P < .005) that most consumers required 3 mm fat cover over the eye muscle of lamb loin chops, and that an eye muscle area of about 17.5 cm2 was favoured. It was concluded that consumers appeared to have specific requirements which were masked by current marketing arrangements. This suggested that detailed study of domestic consumer behaviour and habits was warranted.


This study provides a sketch on the trends of domestic production and labor productivity in agriculture, industry and services sector of 155 countries from across the globe during the period of 1980 to 2012, while focusing mainly on the impact of income and size of the stated economies on their domestic productions and labor productivity. Findings confirm that the trend of production is decreasing for agricultural sector while increasing for service sector whereas, parabolic trend is found observed for it in industry sector, while the trend of labor allocations is found upward in industry and service sectors in contrast to downward trend in agricultural sector for all of the stated nations as the whole. It was noted that the average labor productivity was found with negative trend for all of the stated sectors. The findings further confirms that the income and size of the economies positively affect the productions in agriculture and industry sector substantially while manage to affect the service sector somehow as well. While the size of economy also effect the labor productivity in all of sectors of selected nations.


This paper analyzes the necessity of using many information representations simultaneously in image-processing and -analysis systems. The difference between Kolmogorov-complexity and algorithmic-probability criteria when solving induction problems and making decisions is investigated. It is shown that making the optimum decisions (for example, in recognition or prediction problems) requires the use of many representations of information, in terms of which alternative descriptions of the images are constructed. A representational algorithmic-probability criterion is derived for determining the optimum set of representations from a given selection of images.


In the context of Open Science, almost every 'traditional' research activity and output has been affected and transformed by means of web based technology. New forms of research output have emerged, among them software as an important means and method for data driven science. But how can software be treated as scholarly work, and how can it be integrated into a digital research infrastructure? The paper depicts software development related to Open Science and points out some future directions for software to become part of a sustainable research infrastructure.


The effect of structural loading on ballistic damage in carbon/epoxy composites was investigated. Flat panel specimens clamped in a four-point bending rig were shot using 12.7-mm and 20-mm projectiles. The structural loads corresponding to 0, 25%, 50%, and 65% ultimate strength of the specimens were applied. The damage was inspected visually and using ultrasonic C-scan techniques. The specimens were finally loaded to failure to measure their residual stiffness and strength. The test results showed that a low structural load (corresponding to 25% ultimate strength) did not affect the resultant ballistic damage nor the residual stiffness, compared with those of unloaded specimens. Significant increase of damage occurred when higher structural loading was applied. The test results also showed that more damage occurred when ballistic impact was combined with structural loading, than that when they were separately applied. Around 10% residual stiffness reduction was observed for those specimens shot with a structural load close to 65% of ultimate strength. At a structural load close to 65% ultimate strength, around 10% initial stiffness reduction was observed. However, for all cases investigated, structural loading did not significantly affect the residual strength.


I. INTRODUCTION As the rosters of identified wrongful convictions continue to swell, (1) attention naturally focuses on the fractured lives of the innocent men and women who have endured the pains of unwarranted stigmatization and punishment. Their compound sufferings (2) become all the more apparent as statistics that detail the incidence, causes, and consequences of miscarriages of justice give way to identified individuals and glimpses of their life stories. (3) Post-conviction challenges in cases in which the innocent have been adjudged guilty often trigger the steadfast opposition of prosecutors (4) and are only resolved following years of sustained litigation championed by defense counsel on behalf of the unjustly convicted. (5) These attributes combine to invite conceptualizing "the Innocence Movement" (6) as defendant-oriented and adversarial, pitting law enforcement and prosecution interests against the defense in much the same spirit as the original trial. The modest thesis of this article is that indulging an inflexible mindset of "us-against-them" in the context of miscarriages of justice is not only misguided but also counterproductive. Wrongful convictions entail profound social costs in addition to the hardships borne by the unfortunate individuals who are erroneously adjudged guilty. When innocents are convicted, the guilty go free. (7) Offenders thus remain capable of committing new crimes and exposing untold numbers of additional citizens to continuing risk of victimization. Public confidence in the administration of the criminal law suffers when justice miscarries. (8) At some point, as cases mount and the attendant glare of publicity intensifies, the perceived legitimacy of the justice system and the involved actors is jeopardized. (9) Associated monetary costs, paid from public coffers, represent yet another tangible social consequence of wrongful convictions. (10) Adherents of neither the "Crime Control" nor the "Due Process" models of justice (11) should harbor disagreement about these simple premises. With the exception of the actual offenders, everyone benefits, and no one loses when innocent parties are spared conviction and when the actual perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice. (12) Acknowledging this commonality of interests causes other, ideologically divisive issues to pale in contrast. Every case of wrongful conviction is also a case where the guilty party remains free. (13) Taking this self-evident proposition to heart is a simple yet perhaps necessary step in helping overcome barriers to meaningful policy discussions and enacting long overdue reforms. II. COMPOUNDING THE TRAGEDIES OF WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS: NEW CRIMES COMMITTED AND NEW VICTIMS CLAIMED BY THE TRUE PERPETRATORS When the wrong person is convicted of a crime, the true offender remains at large, free to commit additional offenses. (14) The actual perpetrators of crimes were identified in nearly half (149/307, or 48.5%) of the DNA-exoneration cases reported by the Innocence Project through February 2013. (15) These true offenders are known to have committed at least 123 additional violent crimes, including 32 murders and 68 rapes, following the arrest of the eventual exonerees who were erroneously prosecuted and convicted. (16) Had they been apprehended in a timely fashion, rather than the innocent persons accused in their place, their future victims would have been spared death, injury, and the related pernicious consequences of criminal violence. An exhaustive analysis completed by the Better Government Association and the Center on Wrongful Convictions (17) of eighty-five exonerations in Illinois between 1989 and 2010, documented the crimes committed by actual offenders while innocent parties were instead punished. (18) "[W]hile 85 people were wrongfully incarcerated, the actual perpetrators were on a collective crime spree that included 14 murders, 11 sexual assaults, 10 kidnappings and at least 62 other felonies. …


We investigate the French 2012 financial transaction tax (FTT) and find robust evidence for anticipation effects before the implementation date. Controlling for short-run effects, we only find weak evidence for a long-run reduction in trading activity. Thus, the main impact of the French FTT on trading activity is short-run. In line with liquidity clientele effects, we find a more potent effect for low-liquidity stocks and a reallocation of trading to high-liquidity stocks from the Supplemental Liquidity Provider (SLP) program. Finally, we find weak evidence for a persistent volatility reduction but no indication of a significant FTT impact on price efficiency.


Here we report the molecular cloning and biochemical characterization of Rem2 (for Rem, Rad and Gem-related 2), a novel GTP-binding protein identified on the basis of its homology with the Rem, Rad, Gem and Kir (RGK) family of Ras-related small GTP-binding proteins. Rem2 mRNA was detected in rat brain and kidney, making it the first member of the RGK family to be expressed at relatively high levels in neuronal tissues. Recombinant Rem2 binds GTP saturably and exhibits a low intrinsic rate of GTP hydrolysis. Surprisingly, the guanine nucleotide dissociation constants for both Rem2 and Rem are significantly different than the majority of the Ras-related GTPases, displaying higher dissociation rates for GTP than GDP. Localization studies with green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged recombinant protein fusions indicate that Rem2 has a punctate, plasma membrane localization. Deletion of the C-terminal seven amino acid residues that are conserved in all RGK family members did not affect the cellular distribution of the GFP fusion protein, whereas a larger deletion, including much of the polybasic region of the Rem2 C-terminus, resulted in its redistribution to the cytosol. Thus Rem2 is a GTPase of the RGK family with distinctive biochemical properties and possessing a novel cellular localization signal, consistent with its having a unique role in cell physiology.


Abstract Important mechanical properties of rocks and soils can be calculated from the shear-wave velocity, VS, the compressional-wave velocity, VP, and the density or from (VS/VP) ratios and the density. Therefore, determination of (VS/VP) ratios is an important tool to assist with lithological identification and many associated applications. In most geologic settings, mixtures of different materials are quite common, and one sequence that is important to understand is the effect of thin layers on measured (VS/VP) ratios. An equation is derived for (VS/VP) ratios in transversely isotropic materials. These ratios are tested as a possible aid for identifying and assessing organic contamination in porous rocks. It is found that even small amounts of a second component, such as 10% shale or 10% oil-saturated sandstone, can change (VS/VP) ratios significantly from that of a pure end member, such as clean sandstone. Various examples using real data from a variety of geological settings illustrate some practical applications to environmental problems dealing with organic contamination.


Major changes have occurred in the agri-food sector in recent years, generating new and complex concepts of food quality. One of the most significant indicators of these changes is market restructuring, in terms of rapid concentration among retailers, the dominance of chain stores and their imposition of cost and quality constraints. To analyze this new aspect in the food sector, we carried out a survey on organic strawberry consumption. Interestingly, although the conventional strawberry may be considered unsafe, due to the widespread use of chemical inputs in the production process, the demand for organic strawberries remains fairly low. We attempted to investigate such concerns through a questionnaire-based survey. The data were analyzed using a Logit model to derive a demand estimate for organic strawberries. Our initial results indicate the presence of a major role played by large retailers and consumer lifestyles to drive the final demand.


Automatic transcription is a well-known task in the music information retrieval (MIR) domain, and consists on the computation of a symbolic music representation (e.g. MIDI) from an audio recording. In this work, we address the automatic transcription of video recordings when the audio modality is missing or it does not have enough quality, and thus analyze the visual information. We focus on the clarinet which is played by opening/closing a set of holes and keys. We propose a method for automatic visual note estimation by detecting the fingertips of the player and measuring their displacement with respect to the holes and keys of the clarinet. To this aim, we track the clarinet and determine its position on every frame. The relative positions of the fingertips are used as features of a machine learning algorithm trained for note pitch classification. For that purpose, a dataset is built in a semiautomatic way by estimating pitch information from audio signals in an existing collection of 4.5 hours of video recordings from six different songs performed by nine different players. Our results confirm the difficulty of performing visual vs audio automatic transcription mainly due to motion blur and occlusions that cannot be solved with a single view.


A partially neutralized sodium acrylate (NaAc) monomer was polymerized in the gas phase in the presence of ammonium peroxydisulfate [(NH4)2S2O8] as the primary initiator and zinc acetate (ZnAc) as the coinitiator. The effect of the coinitiator on the solution properties of the spray-polymerized product was investigated for the conversion percentage as a function of (1) the primary initiator (NH4)2S2O8 concentration, with the concentration (14.8% with respect to the monomer) of the coinitiator kept constant; (2) the coinitiator (ZnAc) concentration, with the primary initiator concentration (4% with respect to the monomer) kept constant; and (3) the reaction temperature. The viscosity of the product as a function of the coinitiator concentration was also investigated. The conversion percentage of gas-phase-polymerized NaAc increased by approximately 8% (i.e., from 91.6 to 99.3%) with an increasing (NH4)2S2O8 concentration (0.5–5% with respect to the monomer). The conversion percentage as a function of the coinitiator concentration (0–15% with respect to the monomer) increased by 25% (from 75 to 100%). When the concentrations of the initiators (NH4)2S2O8 and ZnAc were kept constant at 4 and 14.8% (with respect to the monomer), respectively, the conversion increased from 48 to 83% when the reaction temperature was increased from 100 to 140°C. The viscosity (at 20°C) of sodium polyacrylate decreased with an increasing coinitiator concentration. The relative rate of polymerization, as a function of the pH of the polymer, showed a minimum at pH ≈ 6 and subsequently increased steeply, reaching a plateau at pH ≈ 11; it then decreased again very sharply. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 1034–1043, 2003


Genetic model system animals have significant scientific value in part because of large-scale experiments like screens, but performing such experiments over long time periods by hand is arduous and risks errors. Thus the field is poised to benefit from automation, just as molecular biology did from liquid-handling robots. We developed a Modular Automated Platform for Large-scale Experiments (MAPLE), a Drosophila-handling robot capable of conducting lab tasks and experiments. We demonstrate MAPLE's ability to accelerate the collection of virgin female flies (a pervasive experimental chore in fly genetics) and assist high-throughput phenotyping assays. Using MAPLE to autonomously run a novel social interaction experiment, we found that 1) pairs of flies exhibit persistent idiosyncrasies in affiliative behavior, 2) these dyad-specific interactions require olfactory and visual cues, and 3) social interaction network structure is topologically stable over time. These diverse examples demonstrate MAPLE's versatility as a general platform for conducting fly science automatically.


Exercise video games have become increasing popular due to their promise to increase fitness and reduce obesity levels, and due to the emergence of cheap interface devices. Previous research reported mixed results about the effectiveness of such games. Common problems are the lack of long term motivation of users, games not taking into account specific patient requirements, repetitive gameplay, and vendor lockin. In this paper we design a novel exergame which addresses some of these shortcomings. The game employs an infinite randomly generated game environment, uses immersive technologies, and can be customized to take into account patient requirements. We present a prototype of this game design and evaluate its effectiveness using different levels of immersion. Our user study demonstrates a small but statistically significant increase in exercise performance and motivation when using the exergame. Employing the Oculus Rift resulted in a slightly higher motivation, but no noticeable change in performance. The head mounted display was most effective for sedentary users.


In 2003, staff of the Virginia Transportation Research Council (now the Virginia Center for Transportation Innovation and Research) and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) developed a plan to collect traffic and truck-axle weight data to support the Guide for Mechanistic-Empirical Design of New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures, known as the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG). The purpose of this study was to review VDOT's traffic data plan for the MEPDG and revise it as needed. The review included an assessment of the data obtained from the VDOT and Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles weigh-in-motion (WIM) sites and the appropriateness of the truck weight groups in VDOT's traffic data plan. Information on truck travel patterns and characteristics was compiled. There is very little literature that provides specific information on the structure of a traffic data plan for the MEPDG. Guidance provided by the Federal Highway Administration allows for much flexibility in the development of such a plan. Most states are working to develop the plan, and such plans that are already in place vary considerably. The Corridors of Statewide Significance in Virginia's statewide long-range multimodal transportation plan represent the routes where truck traffic is most prominent and therefore represent routes on which the VDOT plan should focus. The study recommends that VDOT continue with its current truck weight data plan for the MEPDG. With this plan, VDOT is positioned to implement the MEPDG from a truck data perspective. The WIM data comprise an important input to the MEPDG process that is expected to provide VDOT with more accurate pavement designs based on actual traffic loadings in Virginia. Further, staff of VDOT's MEPDG Traffic Data Team and staff of the VDOT Traffic Engineering Division's Traffic Monitoring Program should work together to develop a strategic plan for the continuing incremental expansion of the WIM program. The plan should include consideration of the resources needed not only to add sites but also to administer an expanded WIM program. VDOT's Chief Engineer and Chief of System Operations should encourage the addition of WIM sites when major projects are planned in locations that are part of the strategic plan for WIM. Site characteristics required for acceptable WIM sensor performance should be specified by VDOT's MEPDG Traffic Data Team. Implementation of the recommendations provided in this study will assist VDOT in using the MEPDG to advance pavement design and improve its cost-effectiveness. The likelihood of implementation is high.


We propose a nondestructive evaluation method for immersed structures based on the propagation of ultrasonic waves induced by means of laser pulses and detected with an array of immersion transducers. In the study presented in this article, a laser operating at 532 nm is employed to excite leaky guided waves on an aluminum plate immersed in water. An array of immersion transducers is used to record the waves radiating from the laser-illuminated point. The detected signals are processed with an imaging algorithm based on continuous wavelet transform and probabilistic analysis to localize the presence of artificial defects machined in the plate. With respect to the existing imaging methods for plates, the proposed algorithm is pseudo baseline free, because it does not require data recorded from a pristine plate, but it requires that only a portion of the plate is free from defects. We find that the proposed algorithm enables the detection of surface cracks. Advantages and limitations of the algorithm for the nondestructive evaluation of underwater structures are discussed.


Background—Cardiac troponin detected by new-generation, highly sensitive assays predicts clinical outcomes among patients with stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) treated medically. The prognostic value of baseline high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) elevation in SCAD patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary interventions is not well established. This study assessed the association of preprocedural levels of hs-cTnT with 1-year clinical outcomes among SCAD patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Methods and Results—Between 2010 and 2014, 6974 consecutive patients were prospectively enrolled in the Bern Percutaneous Coronary Interventions Registry. Among patients with SCAD (n=2029), 527 (26%) had elevated preprocedural hs-cTnT above the upper reference limit of 14 ng/L. The primary end point, mortality within 1 year, occurred in 20 patients (1.4%) with normal hs-cTnT versus 39 patients (7.7%) with elevated baseline hs-cTnT (P<0.001). Patients with elevated hs-cTnT had increased risks of all-cause (hazard ratio 5.73; 95% confidence intervals 3.34–9.83; P<0.001) and cardiac mortality (hazard ratio 4.68; 95% confidence interval 2.12–10.31; P<0.001). Preprocedural hs-TnT elevation remained an independent predictor of 1-year mortality after adjustment for relevant risk factors, including age, sex, and renal failure (adjusted hazard ratio 2.08; 95% confidence interval 1.10–3.92; P=0.024). A graded mortality risk was observed across higher tertiles of elevated preprocedural hs-cTnT, but not among patients with hs-cTnT below the upper reference limit. Conclusions—Preprocedural elevation of hs-cTnT is observed in one fourth of SCAD patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention. Increased levels of preprocedural hs-cTnT are proportionally related to the risk of death and emerged as independent predictors of all-cause mortality within 1 year. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT02241291.


Grassland afforestation dramatically affects the abiotic, biotic, and ecological function properties of the original ecosystems. Interference from afforestation might disrupt the stasis of soil physicochemical properties and the dynamic balance of microbiota. Some studies have suggested low sensitivity of soil properties and bacterial community to afforestation, but the apparent lack of a significant relationship is probably due to the confounding effects of the generalist habitat and rare bacterial communities. In this study, soil chemical and prokaryotic properties in a 30-year-old Mongolia pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv.) afforested region and adjacent grassland in Inner Mongolia were classified and quantified. Our results indicate that the high richness of rare microbes accounts for the alpha-diversity of the soil microbiome. Few OTUs of generalist (core bacteria) and habitat-specialist bacteria are present. However, the high abundance of this small number of OTUs governs the beta-diversity of the grassland and afforested land bacterial communities. Afforestation has changed the soil chemical properties, thus indirectly affecting the soil bacterial composition rather than richness. The contents of soil P, Ca2+, and Fe3+ account for differentially abundant OTUs such as Planctomycetes and subsequent changes in the ecologically functional potential of soil bacterial communities due to grassland afforestation. We conclude that grassland afforestation has changed the chemical properties and composition of the soil and ecological functions of the soil bacterial community and that these effects of afforestation on the microbiome have been modulated by changes in soil chemical properties.


We present a series of high-resolution cosmological simulations1 of galaxy formation to z = 0, spanning halo masses ∼ 108 − 1013 M , and stellar masses ∼ 104 − 1011 M . Our simulations include fully explicit treatment of the multi-phase ISM & stellar feedback. The stellar feedback inputs (energy, momentum, mass, and metal fluxes) are taken directly from stellar population models. These sources of feedback, with zero adjusted parameters, reproduce the observed relation between stellar and halo mass up to Mhalo ∼ 1012 M . We predict weak redshift evolution in the M∗−Mhalo relation, consistent with current constraints to z > 6. We find that the M∗−Mhalo relation is insensitive to numerical details, but is sensitive to feedback physics. Simulations with only supernova feedback fail to reproduce observed stellar masses, particularly in dwarf and high-redshift galaxies: radiative feedback (photo-heating and radiation pressure) is necessary to destroy GMCs and enable efficient coupling of later supernovae to the gas. Star formation rates agree well with the observed Kennicutt relation at all redshifts. The galaxy-averaged Kennicutt relation is very different from the numerically imposed law for converting gas into stars, and is determined by self-regulation via stellar feedback. Feedback reduces star formation rates and produces reservoirs of gas that lead to rising late-time star formation histories, significantly different from halo accretion histories. Feedback also produces large short-timescale variability in galactic SFRs, especially in dwarfs. These properties are not captured by common "sub-grid" wind models.


Mental health issues are as prevalent in the deaf community as the hearing community, if not more. Yet, Deaf individuals are often treated by mental health professionals less frequently and less effectively. Many systemic barriers exist that influence the lack of services provided to the Deaf community, primarily related to a lack of cultural understanding rooted in perceptions of Deaf individuals. However, the Deaf community may be best understood as a cultural minority, a unique community sharing a distinct culture, history, and language. This paper investigates the effects of systematic barriers and cultural misunderstanding among mental health professions regarding the Deaf community, explores the historical and current mental health problems Deaf individuals most commonly struggle with, and proposes a potential culturally sensitive intervention for the Deaf community based on these factors. To examine these issues, the author conducted a thorough review of Deaf cultural history and values, as well as a review of peer-reviewed articles regarding both Deaf mental health and mindfulness outcome studies. Based on this review, mindfulness may be an effective, culturally sensitive intervention that addresses both cultural and psychological components while working with the Deaf population. EXPLORING MINDFULNESS FOR THE DEAF COMMUNITY 3 Table of


In humans the combined administration of epidural anaesthesia and inhalation anaesthesia may result in cardiovascular instability associated with decreases in heart rate and blood pressure. Anaesthesia was induced with a combination of midazolam/ketamine in 18 female pigs with a mean body weight of 24.9 +/- 5.9 kg scheduled for surgical removal of the liver. After tracheal intubation, anaesthesia was maintained on a circle rebreathing circuit with isoflurane. Epidural anaesthesia was administered with ropivacaine (AL-group, n = 8) at 0.2 ml/kg of a 7.5 mg/ml solution to the anaesthetised animals. The A-group (n = 10) received isoflurane anaesthesia only. The vaporiser was set at 2.5% for the A-group and 1.5% for the AL-group. Heart rate, invasive systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial blood pressure were monitored. Comparisons were made between treatments and within treatments comparing variables during surgical preparation and abdominal surgery. Differences between treatments were not statistically significant (P > 0.05) during surgical preparation or during abdominal surgery. For within treatment groups, the differences between surgical preparation and abdominal surgery were statistically significant (P < 0.05) for heart rate in the A-group, but not statistically significant (P > 0.05) for the other variables. It is concluded that abdominal surgery may be associated with statistically significant changes in heart rate in isoflurane-anaesthetised pigs and that the combined administration of epidural ropivacaine may prevent statistically significant changes in HR during abdominal surgery.


Super-resolution is a fundamental task in imaging, where the goal is to extract fine-grained structure from coarse-grained measurements. Here we are interested in a popular mathematical abstraction of this problem that has been widely studied in the statistics, signal processing and machine learning communities. We exactly resolve the threshold at which noisy super-resolution is possible. In particular, we establish a sharp phase transition for the relationship between the cutoff frequency (m) and the separation (Δ). If m > 1/Δ + 1, our estimator converges to the true values at an inverse polynomial rate in terms of the magnitude of the noise. And when m < (1-ε) /Δ no estimator can distinguish between a particular pair of Δ-separated signals even if the magnitude of the noise is exponentially small. Our results involve making novel connections between extremal functions and the spectral properties of Vandermonde matrices. We establish a sharp phase transition for their condition number which in turn allows us to give the first noise tolerance bounds for the matrix pencil method. Moreover we show that our methods can be interpreted as giving preconditioners for Vandermonde matrices, and we use this observation to design faster algorithms for super-resolution. We believe that these ideas may have other applications in designing faster algorithms for other basic tasks in signal processing.


Multiple reports suggest that future engineering work will be conducted by globally diverse teams for globally diverse customers. Despite the demonstrated benefits of study abroad opportunities to develop such global competencies, undergraduate engineers participate at low rates. The Rising Sophomore Abroad Program presented in this paper describes an integrated class experience combined with an international field trip that has experienced rapid growth over the past few years and effectively scaled up to enroll 135 students in the 2017 program (8% of the incoming first-year engineering cohort). Program evaluation demonstrates that students achieved a range of global learning outcomes in both the class as well as the short-term study abroad module, and this blended approach may overcome some of the deficiencies of short-term programs while promoting future international engagement among undergraduate engineers. We outline unique program elements that other institutions might implement as they seek to expand students' international opportunities.


Effective delivery of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals to wildlife populations is needed when zoonotic diseases pose a risk to public health and natural resources or have considerable economic consequences. The objective of our study was to develop a bait-distribution strategy for potential delivery of oral bovine tuberculosis (bTB) vaccine to white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) where deer are reservoirs for the disease. During 17 February and 2 March 2011, we created a grid of experimental bait stations (n = 64) on Sandhill Wildlife Management Area, Wisconsin, USA, to assess station densities needed to attract and deliver placebo baits to free-ranging white-tailed deer and look for associations among deer density, number of bait stations per deer, and bait consumption. We placed 1 L of commercially available alfalfa cubes at bait stations 652 m apart, and monitored stations with motion-activated cameras for 5 days to document visitation and consumption by deer and nontarget species. Deer discovered 38% of all bait stations within 37 hr, on average (SE = 3.91 hr), and consumed variable amounts of bait at each station. Deer were documented in 94% of all photographs of wildlife at bait stations. We found no correlation between bait consumption and deer density or the number of bait stations per deer. We provide the first information on use of baits by free-ranging deer and nontarget wildlife to eventually vaccinate deer against bTB at a landscape level. The results of this study can further the development of strategies in delivery of pharmaceuticals to free-ranging white-tailed deer. Published 2016. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.


We analyse the problem of parameter inconsistency in panel data econometrics due to the correlation of exogenous variables with the error term. A common solution in this setting is to use Instrumental-Variable (IV) estimation in the spirit of Hausman-Taylor (1981). However, some potential shortcomings of the latter approach recently gave rise to the use of non-IV two-step estimators. Given their growing number of empirical applications, we aim to systematically compare the performance of IV and non-IV approaches in the presence of time-fixed variables and right hand side endogeneity using Monte Carlo simulations, where we explicitly control for the problem of IV selection in the Hausman-Taylor case. The simulation results show that the Hausman- Taylor model with perfect-knowledge about the underlying data structure (instrument orthogonality) has on average the smallest bias. However, compared to the empirically relevant specification with imperfect-knowledge and instruments chosen by statistical criteria, the non-IV rival performs equally well or even better especially in terms of estimating variable coefficients for time- fixed regressors. Moreover, the non-IV method tends to have a smaller root mean square error (rmse) than both Hausman-Taylor models with perfect and imperfect knowledge about the underlying correlation between r.h.s variables and residual term. This indicates that it is generally more efficient. The results are roughly robust for various combinations in the time and cross-section dimension of the data.


Abstract The study of jurisprudence—law, legal reasoning, and the legal system—has become progressively more common in medical school curricula. Familiarity with jurisprudence helps physicians practice medicine well, collaborate productively with lawyers, and be more effective in public discourse about health care delivery. Moreover, the study of jurisprudence can help physicians polish the methods and clarify the purposes common to law and medicine. Empirical studies over the last 30 years demonstrate patterns of change in the frequency and focus of jurisprudence teaching in medical school curricula that can guide contemporary efforts to devise or refine curricula in medical jurisprudence. The general goal of such curricula should be to enhance physicians' clinical, institutional, and public effectiveness. These curricula should adhere to principles of sound pedagogy and be based on informed answers to the central questions of what should be taught, when, how, and by whom, and how the curriculum should be evaluated. Developing skills and changing attitudes are more important than imparting information about particular doctrines and laws. Curriculum planners should take into account the intellectual styles of the learners; integrate, not just coordinate, the new courses with the rest of the curriculum; build on features that medicine and law share and where they collaborate; and ensure intra‐ and inter‐curricular coherence and continuity. Even though limitations of time, people, and money and differences in educational goals will influence what, when, and how medical jurisprudence is taught, the effort should be made if physicians are to be better empowered to use the law and their law colleagues to serve patients and promote public welfare. Acad. Med. 70(1995):777–786.


Abstract : This thesis presents a distance-learning tool, which provides a self-sufficient application that allows one to implement online courses for electrical engineering. A major emphasis is placed on replacing simplistic multiple-choice or true-false test questions. A system named, Distance Learning Tools for Online Tests (DLTOT) is designed, modeled and implemented. The implementation is based on the Java programming language, using Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP), three-tier technology and Commercial Off-the-Shelf (Costs) products, namely, an Apache web server, Tomcat Application server, Microsoft Access, Mathematica, WebMathematica and JSP/ Servlet technology. DLTOT is able to control student access, to allow interaction with the student during the course, and to present a challenging test, which is easily graded by the application itself.


This paper was presented at a joint seminar on flexible automation held in Berlin (East) from June 8-11, 1982. The seminar was a collaborative project between IIASA and the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic.

The report and the working material presented to the conference deal, among other things, with the influence of the flexible automation on the further development of the material-technological basis and on the whole system of the productive forces. Hence the following questions arise: Does the qualitatively new level of automation mean in connection with the development and application of micro-electronics and what is flexible automation? What are the constituent elements of the new level of automation and which are the consequences for the development of the material-technological basis? and Which changes within the conditions of efficiency take place due to the new level of automation on the basis of micro-electronics? The presented paper offers some aspects regarding these questions.


Four accounts of intersubjective theory are explored as a means for providing distinctions that support the development of second-person approaches to the emerging field of contemplative education. I examine Martin Buber's conception of the interhuman, Thich Nhat Hahn's interbeing, Christian De Quincey's three modes of intersubjective engagements, in addition to Wilber's five categories of intersubjectivity with consideration for how each will contribute to further outlining second-person dimensions of contemplative education. I then locate intersubjectivity in a broader epistemological terrain and propose the notion of critical second-person contemplative education as a type of pedagogy and approach to learning within contemplative education.


The paper describes the outcome of a survey conducted among heads of environmental protection agencies (EPAs) throughout Europe. Around 70-80% of the domestic environmental legislation in Europe is decided at EU level. The laws decided at EU level apply either directly or are transposed into national legislation by a decision of the national parliaments. It is usually the task of an EPA to monitor and oversee the implementation of the legislation. The majority of the EPAs regard themselves as "quasi-independent" i.e. independent agencies with strong ties to, and cooperation with, ministries up on which they are dependent financially. Around a quarter of EPAs are ministerial departments. There is no noticeable correlation between demographic properties and the administrative structure of the EPAs. The active level of governance, with some noticeable exceptions, is on a national level. Most EPAs have policy advice and contribution to the knowledge base (research, monitoring, data gathering and assessment) as their main tasks. A significant number of EPAs are also tasked with regulatory functions, but in other instances these important functions are carried out within other government entities. Their main field of work as regards pollution prevention is air, freshwater and waste. EPAs also deal substantively with climate change and soil. Energy, agriculture and health are also covered, albeit not on a major level. Environmental communication is a major task for most EPAs. Virtually all of them deal with environmental indicators, assessment reports and provision of information to governments and the general public. Future environmental policy needs to address the fact that present lifestyles, resources and land use seem to put substantial pressure on the environment. EPAs will have increased role therein as the managers of the knowledge base, the communicators of environmental knowledge and brokers for sustainable resource use. The EPA Network has established itself as an important part of the environment policy loop in Europe due to its cooperation and practical knowledge from domestic implementation of European environment policy and legislation.


Statistical hypothesis tests are a cornerstone of scientific research. The tests are informative when their size is properly controlled, so the frequency of rejecting true null hypotheses (type I error) stays below a prespecified nominal level. Publication bias exaggerates test sizes, however. Since scientists can typically only publish results that reject the null hypothesis, they have the incentive to continue conducting studies until attaining rejection. Such $p$-hacking takes many forms: from collecting additional data to examining multiple regression specifications, all in the search of statistical significance. The process inflates test sizes above their nominal levels because the critical values used to determine rejection assume that test statistics are constructed from a single study---abstracting from $p$-hacking. This paper addresses the problem by constructing critical values that are compatible with scientists' behavior given their incentives. We assume that researchers conduct studies until finding a test statistic that exceeds the critical value, or until the benefit from conducting an extra study falls below the cost. We then solve for the incentive-compatible critical value (ICCV). When the ICCV is used to determine rejection, readers can be confident that size is controlled at the desired significance level, and that the researcher's response to the incentives delineated by the critical value is accounted for. Since they allow researchers to search for significance among multiple studies, ICCVs are larger than classical critical values. Yet, for a broad range of researcher behaviors and beliefs, ICCVs lie in a fairly narrow range.


A metabolomics
profiling approach was conducted to identify diagnostic biomarkers of PD from
sebum, a non-invasively available biofluid. In this study, we used liquid
chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to analyse 274 samples from
participants (80 drug naïve PD, 138 medicated PD and 56 well matched control
subjects) and detected metabolites that could predict PD phenotype. Partial
least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models based on this sebum metabolome
had correct classification rates of 70.4% and 69.7% to distinguish between drug
naïve PD and medicated PD from control, respectively. Variable importance in projection
(VIP) scores indicate compounds with significance belonged to sphingolipid,
triacylglycerol and fatty acid/ester lipid classes. Pathway enrichment analysis
showed alterations in lipid metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction viz. the carnitine
shuttle, sphingolipid metabolism and arachidonic acid metabolism. This study
unveiled novel diagnostic sebum-based biomarkers for PD, and provides insight
towards our current understanding of the pathogenesis of PD.


The issue of workforce planning is becoming increasingly pertinent across the Australian library and information industry. This is particularly true in the state of Tasmania, which, with a small population and markedly ageing workforce, is likely to be especially impacted by the effects of generational change and staff retention and recruitment in the near future.

Recognising this problem, the University of Tasmania (UTAS) Library initiated a comprehensive workforce planning project over 2005 – 2007 to identify and address the key issues impacting on the effective retention and development of new and experienced staff. Two of the key issues identified in this process were:

1. the chronic under-classification of experienced librarians, and
2. the lack of opportunities for new librarians to enter and develop within the profession.

In order to address these issues the systematic reorganization of the Library's strategic service units, position descriptions and development practices was set in motion. This was, however, only the beginning; the UTAS Library still had no comprehensive orientation program for new librarians, and also lacked an in-house structure for articulation as the capacity and experience of these librarians grew. In 2007 the Liaison Librarian A Developmental Framework was developed, in close reference to the theories of the learning organization and workplace learning, to provide a structure for formal and informal learning and support in professional development and articulation.

This paper sets out to ground the UTAS Library workforce planning process and subsequent Development Framework system in their practical and theoretical contexts, while the accompanying presentation will provide a personal narrative of how the changes did (and didn't) work for a Generation Y new librarian when the Framework was first put into action in early 2007.


Two leaf-feeding chrysomelids from North America, Leptinotarsa texana (Schaeffer) and Leptinotarsa defecta (Stal), are promising candidates for the biological control of Solanum elaeagnifolium Cavanilles (Solanaceae) in South Africa. Permission for release was delayed because the beetles fed on cultivated eggplant (Solanum melongena Linnaeus) under cage conditions. After considerable deliberation and further investigation, it was concluded that the results of the cage tests had been overemphasized. The beetles were cleared for release in South Africa on the following grounds: (i) neither Leptinotarsa species attacks eggplant in their native North American habitats; (ii) in South Africa, many insect herbivores of Solanaceae feed on eggplant in cultivation but cause minor damage relative to cosmopolitan polyphagous pests; (iii) as with L. texana and L. defecta, Conchyloctenia tigrina Olivier, a South African chrysomelid that also occurs on eggplant in cultivation, fed on eggplant in indoor cages, but preferred its natural Solanum hosts in large outdoor cages; (iv) eggplant cultivation methods include crop rotation and severe pesticide regimes, which should exclude Leptinotarsa along with the other insects.


A synthesis of hortonones A-C has been accomplished from vitamin D2via the Inhoffen-Lythgoe diol without the use of protective groups. Key steps in the syntheses include a TMS-diazomethane mediated regioselective homologation of the cyclohexanone ring to a cycloheptanone moiety and a sodium naphthalenide-mediated allylic alcohol transposition. It has been found that the absolute configuration of the natural hortonones is opposite that of the synthetic material prepared from vitamin D2.


With the internet and digital media technology increasingly central to practices around music, this shift is often seen as contributing to a networked music use characterized by individualism. Drawing on a focus group study with young adults in Stockholm and Moscow, this article argues, however, that digital music use today is shaped by discourses of difference, with gender a significant factor both in constructions of the ideal music and technology user, and in terms of musical influence and guidance. Taking into account contemporary research on new media technology, as well as feminist studies of technology and music, the article questions ideas of a neutral user of new music technologies, showing how the gendering of music and media technology can be seen as simultaneously context-bound and cutting across geographies.


The Middle Ordovician Dashaba Formation in southern Sichuan Province, China, a 50-m-thick succession of calcareous and silty mudstones with calcareous nodules and limestone lenses, contains a rich, diverse, brachiopod fauna; 19 genera and 20 species are represented by 3018 specimens (1257 individuals). Four genera (Heteromena, Leptastichidia, Parisorthis and Pentagomena) and six species (Glyptomena? rugulosa, Heteromena dorsiconversa, Leptastichidia catatonosis, Parisorthis dischidanteris, Pentagomena parvicostellata and Triotechia chuannanensis) are new. Graptolites from the Dashaba Formation indicate the presence of four graptolite biozones: in ascending order, the uppermost part of the Undulograptus austrodentatus, the U. intersitus, the Didymograptus artus and the D. murchisoni biozones, which range from latest Arenig to Llanvirn in age. Despite the relatively homogeneous lithology, cluster analysis indicates that the brachiopod fauna of the Dashaba Formation can be divided into five associations: the Parisorthis dischidanteris, Saucrorthis obscura, Saucrorthis obscura-Parisorthis dischidanteris, Orthambonites delicata-Pentagomena parvicostellata and Calyptolepta chengkouensis associations. Faunal differentiation may have been the result of subtle changes in water depth (between BA2 and BA3 settings) and/or reflect the variable ratios in the supply of siliciclastic mud, quartz silt and carbonate mud. The variation in sediments would have affected the substrate softness and stability, which, in turn, probably controlled the distribution of fixosessile or librosessile brachiopods.


After widespread violence in 2008 and 2015, South Africa is now clearly one of most hostile destinations in the world for African migrants. Existing research on the determinants of South African xenophobia has focused on developing and advancing theories, with little attention paid to testing which theories, if any, actually account for mass xenophobia. This is the goal of this paper. By combining individual-level Afrobarometer survey items with municipal-level census indicators, we produce a rich, quantitative data set of numerous factors that have been proposed as determinants of South African xenophobia. The results of multilevel regression analyses show support for the explanations of poverty, relative deprivation, frustration with government, and social mobilization, with mixed evidence for resource competition. Taken together, the results point toward a mechanism of scapegoating, where frustrations and hopelessness produce aggression that is targeted at African immigrants.