Purpose To evaluate the possible activity reduction in FDG-imaging in a Time-of-Flight (TOF) PET/MR, based on cross-evaluation of patient-based NECR (noise equivalent count rate) measurements in PET/CT, cross referencing with phantom-based NECR curves as well as initial evaluation of TOF-PET/MR with reduced activity. Materials and Methods A total of 75 consecutive patients were evaluated in this study. PET/CT imaging was performed on a PET/CT (time-of-flight (TOF) Discovery D 690 PET/CT). Initial PET/MR imaging was performed on a newly available simultaneous TOF-PET/MR (Signa PET/MR). An optimal NECR for diagnostic purposes was defined in clinical patients (NECRP) in PET/CT. Subsequent optimal activity concentration at the acquisition time ([A]0) and target NECR (NECRT) were obtained. These data were used to predict the theoretical FDG activity requirement of the new TOF-PET/MR system. Twenty-five initial patients were acquired with (retrospectively reconstructed) different imaging times equivalent for different activities on the simultaneous PET/MR for the evaluation of clinically realistic FDG-activities. Results The obtained values for NECRP, [A]0 and NECRT were 114.6 (± 14.2) kcps (Kilocounts per second), 4.0 (± 0.7) kBq/mL and 45 kcps, respectively. Evaluating the NECRT together with the phantom curve of the TOF-PET/MR device, the theoretical optimal activity concentration was found to be approximately 1.3 kBq/mL, which represents 35% of the activity concentration required by the TOF-PET/CT. Initial evaluation on patients in the simultaneous TOF-PET/MR shows clinically realistic activities of 1.8 kBq/mL, which represent 44% of the required activity. Conclusion The new TOF-PET/MR device requires significantly less activity to generate PET-images with good-to-excellent image quality, due to improvements in detector geometry and detector technologies. The theoretically achievable dose reduction accounts for up to 65% but cannot be fully translated into clinical routine based on the coils within the FOV and MR-sequences applied at the same time. The clinically realistic reduction in activity is slightly more than 50%. Further studies in a larger number of patients are needed to confirm our findings.


Ultrasharp silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire bends (with a bending radius of R < 2 mu m) are analyzed numerically. It is shown that the calculated bending losses for ultrasharp bends are overestimated when using a modal analysis method based on finite-difference method. In this case, reliable estimation of the bending loss can be made with a 3-D finite-difference time-domain (3-D-FDTD) method. By using 3-D-FDTD simulation, the losses in SOI nanowire bends with different structures and parameters are studied. By increasing the core width or height of the waveguide, one can reduce the bending loss at longer wavelengths for TE mode while the bending performance at shorter wavelengths degrades due to the multimode effect. Increasing the core height is much more effective to reduce the bending loss of TM mode than increasing core width. The relationship between the intrinsic Q-factor of a microring resonator and the bending radius is also obtained.


Mortality surveys and death certificate studies have suggested an association between leukemia and farming. To investigate whether exposure to carcinogens in an agricultural setting is related to risk of leukemia, the authors conducted a population-based case-control interview study of 578 white men with leukemia and 1245 controls living in Iowa and Minnesota. Consistent with recent mortality studies, there were slight, but significant, elevations in risk for all leukemia [odds ratio (OR) 1.2] and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (OR 1.4) for farmers compared to nonfarmers. There were no significant associations with leukemia for exposure to specific fungicides, herbicides (including 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T), or crop insecticides. However, significantly elevated risks for leukemia of greater than or equal to 2.0 were seen for exposure to specific animal insecticides including the organophosphates crotoxyphos (OR 11.1), dichlorvos (OR 2.0), and famphur (OR 2.2) and the natural product pyrethrins (OR 3.7) and the chlorinated hydrocarbon methoxychlor (OR 2.2). There were also smaller, but significant, risks associated with exposure to nicotine (OR 1.6) and DDT (OR 1.3). This finding of elevated risks for insecticides used on animals deserves further evaluation.


Controlling neural network-based models for natural language generation (NLG) to realize desirable attributes in the generated outputs has broad applications in numerous areas such as machine translation, document summarization, and dialog systems. Approaches that enable such control in a zero-shot manner would be of great importance as, among other reasons, they remove the need for additional annotated data and training. In this work, we propose novel approaches for controlling encoder-decoder transformer-based NLG models in zero shot. While zero-shot control has previously been observed in massive models (e.g., GPT3), our method enables such control for smaller models. This is done by applying two control knobs, attention biasing and context augmentation, to these models directly during decoding and without additional training or auxiliary models. These knobs control the generation process by directly manipulating trained NLG models (e.g., biasing cross-attention layers). We show that not only are these NLG models robust to such manipulations but also their behavior could be controlled without an impact on their generation performance.


The study focuses on the monitoring of physicochemical parameters and major chemical elements of six springs and wells during two seasons. Waters from the coastal karst aquifer Massif Bokkoya Al-Hoceima were analyzed for their chemical quality, and their state of anthropogenic and/or natural contamination was quantified. The waters are highly mineralized and marked by a chloride-sodium or sodium-sulfate facies mainly linked to a process of marine intrusion and dissolution of evaporitic minerals included in the on-site rocks. This mineralization of marine origin is partly due to the intensive exploitation of groundwater but also to landslides in relationship with earthquakes, that are known in the area, and which accelerate the phenomenon of saltwater intrusion. The salinity shows levels C3 and C4 in a Wilcox diagram and waters were qualified as very hard. The comparison with quality standards shows that most of the water is not suitable for consumption, especially because of high levels of electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), and Cl − related to marine intrusion, together with the urban pollution factor which increases the content of NO 3 − .


The interaction between fat deposition and inflammation during obesity contributes to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The present study examined the effects of palmitoleate, a monounsaturated fatty acid (16∶1n7), on liver metabolic and inflammatory responses, and investigated the mechanisms by which palmitoleate increases hepatocyte fatty acid synthase (FAS) expression. Male wild-type C57BL/6J mice were supplemented with palmitoleate and subjected to the assays to analyze hepatic steatosis and liver inflammatory response. Additionally, mouse primary hepatocytes were treated with palmitoleate and used to analyze fat deposition, the inflammatory response, and sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1c (SREBP1c) activation. Compared with controls, palmitoleate supplementation increased the circulating levels of palmitoleate and improved systemic insulin sensitivity. Locally, hepatic fat deposition and SREBP1c and FAS expression were significantly increased in palmitoleate-supplemented mice. These pro-lipogenic events were accompanied by improvement of liver insulin signaling. In addition, palmitoleate supplementation reduced the numbers of macrophages/Kupffer cells in livers of the treated mice. Consistently, supplementation of palmitoleate decreased the phosphorylation of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB, p65) and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines. These results were recapitulated in primary mouse hepatocytes. In terms of regulating FAS expression, treatment of palmitoleate increased the transcription activity of SREBP1c and enhanced the binding of SREBP1c to FAS promoter. Palmitoleate also decreased the phosphorylation of NF-κB p65 and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines in cultured macrophages. Together, these results suggest that palmitoleate acts through dissociating liver inflammatory response from hepatic steatosis to play a unique role in NAFLD.


The theory of hybrid surface plasma modes in metal-coated dielectric cylinders has been developed in recent years. We demonstrate that tapered fibers with a uniform waist and a circular metal coating can be designed for an efficient excitation of the fundamental hybrid surface plasma mode. Our experimental results are in good agreement with the theory and give the basis for the development of a novel type of all-fiber polarization-independent refractive-index sensor and tunable broadband wavelength filter.


Abstract. Knowledge of cloud phase (liquid, ice, mixed, etc.) is necessary to describe the radiative impact of clouds and their lifetimes, but is a property that is difficult to simulate correctly in climate models. One step towards improving those simulations is to make observations of cloud phase with sufficient accuracy to help constrain model representations of cloud processes. In this study, we outline a methodology using a basic Bayesian classifier to estimate the probabilities of cloud-phase class from Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) vertically pointing active remote sensors. The advantage of this method over previous ones is that it provides uncertainty information on the phase classification. We also test the value of including higher moments of the cloud radar Doppler spectrum than are traditionally used operationally. Using training data of known phase from the Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) field campaign, we demonstrate a proof of concept for how the method can be used to train an algorithm that identifies ice, liquid, mixed phase, and snow. Over 95 % of data are identified correctly for pure ice and liquid cases used in this study. Mixed-phase and snow cases are more problematic to identify correctly. When lidar data are not available, including additional information from the Doppler spectrum provides substantial improvement to the algorithm. This is a first step towards an operational algorithm and can be expanded to include additional categories such as drizzle with additional training data.


WATER SURFACES DETECTION FROM SENTINEL-1 SAR IMAGES USING DEEP LEARNING by Chao Huang Lin March 2021 Nowadays, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images have been widely used in the industry and the scientific community for different remote sensing applications. The main advantage of SAR technology is that it can acquire images from nighttime since it does not require sunlight. Additionally, it can capture images under the cloud where the traditional optical sensor is limited. It is very convenient to use SAR image for surface water detection because the flatness of the calm water surface reflects off all the energy from the radar and this makes the surface water appears in a SAR image as dark pixels. The traditional way to mark out water from SAR images is by just using the thresholding method which a pixel is classified as water when its value is below a certain threshold. This method works fine in a plain rural area, but the complex features of urban areas make it more challenging, for example, highways and buildings' shadows can be easily misclassified as water. To solve this problem, we propose the Fully Convolutional Neural Network (FCN) Encoder method, a deep learning model based on the convolutional implementation of sliding windows. The FCN Encoder is designed to detect water from SAR images by considering both the pixel intensity and the spatial information of the pixel (i.e., its neighborhood). In our experiments, we first train the network using the So2sat dataset, which contains patches of Sentinel-1 satellite SAR images. Next, we use the trained neural network to detect water from SAR images of several cities. The iii obtained results show satisfactory scores and also visually appear accurate. In the final optimization phase, we: a) train the FCN Encoder with our custom HARD dataset a dataset with images that are harder to classify, and b) we optimize the hyperparameters of the model. We test the resulted classifier on public SAR images and compare it with other methods such as Smooth Labeling, Random Forest, and FCN Segmentation.


The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education's (ACGME's) general competency and outcome assessment initiative (i.e., the ACGME Outcome Project) is an effort to enhance residency education and accreditation effectiveness by increasing emphasis on educational outcomes. The Project is also a response to concerns about new graduates' ability to meet the demands of today's practice environment. The competencies emphasize learning in new domains (e.g., Practice-Based Learning and Improvement and Systems-Based Practice) and more traditional ones (e.g., Patient Care and Medical Knowledge). Outcome assessment will provide evidence of residency program educational effectiveness and information to guide improvement. This paper discusses the development and implementations of assessment methods appropriate to evaluate the performance of residents in each of the core competencies.


The world is today facing a serious problem with global warming, which is heading towards an appallingly high temperature level. The greater part of the overall climate science community agree that global warming is caused by the greenhouse effect, which depends largely on emitted CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel. The agreement at the COP 21 climate meeting in Paris (December 2015) was that global warming must be limited to no more than + 2.0 C, with the aim of keeping it below + 1.5 C. Accomplishing this requiresa concerted effort in several different areas, for example through increased energy efficiency, more renewable energy sources and the utilization of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. The oxy-fuel combined cycle (OCC), which is the topic of this thesis, is a subcategory of oxy-fuel combustion which, in turn is one of the three main technologies for CCS today. The key idea with oxy-fuel combustion is to avoid mixing the CO2 formed in the combustion withthe non-condensable nitrogen, as occurs at the combustion in a conventional combined cycle power plant (CCPP). This is achieved by combusting the gas fuel with pure oxygen (O2) and thereby forming a combustion product consisting of only steam (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 can then be separated downstream of the HRSG by condensing out the H2O and thereby leaving a pure stream of CO2 for sequestration. The OCC consists of a topping Brayton cycle and a bottoming Rankine cycle and has many similarities with a conventional CCPP. In the OCC, however, the flue gas leaving the HRSG is recirculated back to the gas turbine units compressor inlet, instead of being emitted to the atmosphere as in a CCPP. Thereby, the combustion products also act as the working medium in the topping (gas turbine) cycle. The working medium has a composition of about 85 wt.-% CO2, 10 wt.-% H2O and a few percentage points of enriched nitrogen and argon, which follows with the oxygen stream as impurities. The CO2-rich working medium has significantly different gas properties, compared to air and conventional flue gas. This affect the design of the topping cycle, the exhaust heat utilization in the HRSG, the design requirements for the gas turbine unit and the aerodynamic design of its compressor and turbines. One of the major effects on the design, is the requirement for a higher gas turbine pressure ratio than for a conventional CCPP, as a result of the lower isentropic exponent for the CO2-rich working medium. This thesis takes the OCC concept to the next technical readiness level not just by identifying, optimizing and proposing a cycle design for a 115 MWel OCC. It also addresses the conceptual design of a gas turbine unit suitable for an OCC and a quite detailed conceptual aerodynamic design for the gas turbines unit's turbomachineries, i.e. one compressor and two turbines. The work investigated the performance levels to be expected from both the entire OCC, the embedded gas turbine unit and its turbomachineries. The proposed gas turbine unit was a single-shaft gas generator with a free direct-driven power turbine. The conceptual turbomachinery design of the compressor, the compressor turbine and the power turbine covered the conceptual design loop of the 1D mid-span, the 2D through-flow, and the 3D steady-state calculations. The compressor design was a 16-stage design, with a mass flow of 220 kg/s and a pressure ratio of 31.0. The turbine design was a two-stage compressor turbine and a four-stage power turbine. The oxy-fuel combined cycle was calculated to have an overall net efficiency of 48.2%, which includes the energy cost for the CO2 compression to 140 bar and the external O2 production in an air separation unit (ASU).


Software Project Effort/Cost/Time Estimation has been one of the hot topics of research in the current software engineering industry. Solutions for effort/cost/time estimation are in great demand. Knowledge of accurate effort/cost/time estimates early in the software project life cycle enables project managers manage and exploit resources efficiently. The constraints of cost and time can also be met. To this day, most companies rely on their historical database of past project data sets to predict estimates for future projects. Like other data sets, software project data sets also suffer from numerous problems. The most important problem is they contain missing/incomplete data. Significant amounts of missing or incomplete data are frequently found in data sets utilized to build effort/cost/time prediction models in the current software industry. The reasons are numerous and the missingness is inevitable. The traditional approaches used by the companies ignore all the missing data and provide estimates based on the remaining complete information. Thus, the very estimates are prone to bias.
In this thesis, we investigate the application of a few well-known data imputation techniques (Listwise Deletion, Mean Imputation, 10 variants of Hot-Deck Imputation and Full Information Maximum Likelihood Approach) to six real-time software project data sets. Using the imputed data sets we build effort prediction models to evaluate their performance. We study the inherent characteristics of software project data sets such as data set size, missing mechanism, pattern of missingness etc and provide a generic classification schema for all software project data sets based on their characteristics. We further implement a hybrid methodology for solving the same. We perform useful experimental analyses and compare the impacts of these methods for enhancing prediction accuracies. We also highlight the conditions to be considered and measures to be taken while using an imputation technique. We note the ideal and worst conditions for each method. Finally, we discuss the findings and the appropriateness of each method for data imputation to software project data sets.


This memo defines a portion of the Proxy Mobile IPv6 Management
Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in
the Internet community. In particular, the Proxy Mobile IPv6 MIB can
be used to monitor and control the mobile access gateway (MAG) and the
local mobility anchor (LMA) functions of a Proxy Mobile IPv6 (PMIPv6)
entity. [STANDARDS-TRACK]


Materials and the Environment: Eco-Informed Material Choice, Second Edition, explores human dependence on materials and its environmental consequences. It provides perspective, background, methods, and data for thinking about and designing with materials to minimize their environmental impact. Organized into 15 chapters, the book looks at the history of our increasing dependence on materials and energy. It first explains where materials come from and how they are used in a variety of industries, along with their life cycle and their relationship to energy and carbon. It then examines controls and economic instruments that hinder the use of engineering materials, considers sustainability from a materials perspective, and highlights the importance of low-carbon power and material efficiency. It also discusses the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of engineering metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, and natural materials in relation to environmental issues. This book will help students of Engineering and Materials Science, as well as materials scientists or and engineers in analyzing and responding to environmental concerns. * Introduces methods and tools for thinking about and designing with materials within the context of their role in products and the environmental consequences* Contains numerous case studies showing how the methods discussed in the book can be applied to real-world situations* Includes full-color data sheets for 40 of the most widely used materials, featuring such environmentally relevant information as their annual production and reserves, embodied energy and process energies, carbon footprints, and recycling data New to this edition: * New chapter of Case Studies of Eco-audits illustrating the rapid audit method* New chapter on Materials for Low Carbon Power examines the consequences for materials supply of a major shift from fossil-fuel based power to power from renewables* New chapter exploring Material Efficiency, or design and management for manufacture to provide the services we need with the least production of materials* Recent news-clips from the world press that help place materials issues into a broader context.are incorporated into all chapters* End-of-chapter exercises have been greatly expanded* The datasheets of Chapter 15 have been updated and expanded to include natural and man-made fibers


Requirements engineering is an important component of effective software engineering, yet more research is needed to demonstrate the benefits to development organizations. While the existing literature suggests that effective requirements engineering can lead to improved productivity, quality, and risk management, there is little evidence to support this. We present empirical evidence showing how requirements engineering practice relates to these claims. This evidence was collected over the course of a 30-month case study of a large software development project undergoing requirements process improvement. Our findings add to the scarce evidence on RE payoffs and, more importantly, represent an in-depth explanation of the role of requirements engineering processes in contributing to these benefits. In particular, the results of our case study show that an effective requirements process at the beginning of the project had positive outcomes throughout the project lifecycle, improving the efficacy of other project processes, ultimately leading to improvements in project negotiation, project planning, and managing feature creep, testing, defects, rework, and product quality. Finally, we consider the role collaboration had in producing the effects we observed and the implications of this work to both research and practice


In the eld of computational game theory, games are often compared in terms of their size. This can be measured in several ways, including the number of unique game states, the number of decision points, and the total number of legal actions over all decision points. These numbers are either known or estimated for a wide range of classic games such as chess and checkers. In the stochastic and imperfect information game of poker, these sizes are easily computed in \limit" games which restrict the players' available actions, but until now had only been estimated for the more complicated \no-limit" variants. In this paper, we describe a simple algorithm for quickly computing the size of two-player no-limit poker games, provide an implementation of this algorithm, and present for the rst time precise counts of the number of game states, information sets, actions and terminal nodes in the no-limit poker games played in the Annual Computer Poker Competition.


Stochastic Loewner evolution (SLE) is a differential equation driven by a one-dimensional Brownian motion (BM), whose solution gives a stochastic process of conformal transformation on the upper half complex-plane $\H$. As an evolutionary boundary of image of the transformation, a random curve (the SLE curve) is generated, which is starting from the origin and running in $\H$ toward the infinity as time is going. The SLE curves provides a variety of statistical ensembles of important fractal curves, if we change the diffusion constant of the driving BM. In the present paper, we consider the Schwarz-Christoffel transformation (SCT), which is a conformal map from $\H$ to the region $\H$ with a slit starting from the origin. We prepare a binomial system of SCTs, one of which generates a slit in $\H$ with an angle $\alpha \pi$ from the positive direction of the real axis, and the other of which with an angle $(1-\alpha) \pi$. One parameter $\kappa >0$ is introduced to control the value of $\alpha$ and the length of slit. Driven by a one-dimensional random walk, which is a binomial stochastic process, a random iteration of SCTs is performed. By interpolating tips of slits by straight lines, we have a random path in $\H$, which we call an Iterative SCT (ISCT) path. It is well-known that, as the number of steps $N$ of random walk goes infinity, each path of random walk divided by $\sqrt{N}$ converges to a Brownian curve. Then we expect that the ISCT paths divided by $\sqrt{N}$ (the rescaled ISCT paths) converge to the SLE curves in $N \to \infty$. Our numerical study implies that, for sufficiently large $N$, the rescaled ISCT paths will have the same statistical properties as the SLE curves have, supporting our expectation.


Memorialization of valor and losses through war memorials unquestioningly presume that material objects stand for and embody memory. In exploring this relationship, this article focuses on the evocation of mourning and melancholia in the annual commemorations at the site of two war memorials dedicated to the Martyred Intellectuals of the Bangladesh War of 1971. Following a discussion of the increased ethnographic reconceptualization of culture in spatialized ways, the article examines the role of the built environment in simulating an emotional experience for its visitors. The article argues that the different evocations of mourning and melancholia at these memorials are a reflection of the middle-class aesthetics and the political trajectory of Bangladesh since the 1971 war and in the present. This highlights the links among memorialization, the current socio-political condition, differing practices and responses of the visitors, and the historicity of the urban spaces in which the memorials are situated.


Retinoic acid (RA) induces growth arrest and differentiation of S91 murine melanoma cells and serves as a valuable model for this disease. RA acts through activation of RA receptors (RAR), which are members of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-inducible transcription factors. Interestingly, differentiation is mediated by RARgamma, but not by RARalpha or RARbeta, suggesting that RARgamma possesses unique and uncharacterized molecular properties. To address this question, DNA microarrays in combination with RAR isoform-specific agonists were employed to identify novel RARgamma target genes that may play a role in this process. Here, we identified and validated carbohydrate sulfotransferase 10 (CHST10) as a novel RARgamma target gene in S91 cells. The RARgamma-inducible CHST10 promoter was obtained, and two atypical, independently functioning RA response elements were identified in a 425 bp region. Surprisingly, this fragment is bound by RARgamma, but not by RARalpha or RARbeta, thus providing a mechanism for the observed RARgamma-specific regulation. CHST10 is a sulfotransferase that forms HNK-1 glycan on neural cell adhesion proteins and glycolipids, and HNK-1 is thought to modulate cell adhesion and possibly metastasis. We show that CHST10 is also regulated by RARgamma in a significant subset of human melanoma cells, and three-dimensional cell culture migration assays suggest that CHST10 functions as a suppressor of invasiveness, but not proliferation, in these cells. Induction of CHST10 by RARgamma-activating retinoids may present a novel therapeutic strategy to inhibit invasiveness in a subset of melanoma patients.


The project is concerned with the synthesis of a new five imines in a forms of syn or anti oxime and phenolic Schiff bases. They are derived from the mother compound the N-formyl pipyridine. Their structures are confirmed by the available physicalmeans, namelyUV, IR spectra andmelting points. The pKa for these five imineswith other eleven imines prepared fromour earlierwork using other 2– furfuryl aldehyde, 4- fluorobenzaldhyde, 4- hydroxylbenzaldhyde and benzil are evaluated by potentiometric method and compared together. The acid strengths of these sixteen acids at 293Kare experimentally governed by two factors. First is the electro negativity of nitrogen atomof pipyridine ring, second the electron donation property of lone pair of electrons available on hetero nitrogen atomof ringmentioned.


Pillared clays (PILCs) with magnetic properties have significant potential for application in industry and the environment, but relatively few studies of these types of materials have been carried out. The aim of the present work was to gain insight into the magnetic and structural properties of pillared clays by examining in detail the influence of the calcination temperature and the nature of different pillared clays on these properties.Magnetic layered systems from different pillared clays were prepared and characterized. Firstly, Ti-, Al-, and Zr-pillared clays (Ti-PILCs, Al-PILCs, and Zr-PILCs, respectively) were produced at different calcination temperatures and then magnetic pillared clays (Ti-M-PILCs, Al-M-PILCs, and Zr-M-PILCs) were prepared at ambient temperature. The synthesis involves a reduction in aqueous solution of the original Fe-exchanged pillared clay using NaBH4. The structural properties of pillared clays and their magnetic forms were investigated using X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption, cation exchange capacity determination, and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements. The properties of the magnetic pillared clays were investigated by superconducting quantum interference devices and Mössbauer spectroscopy. An evaluation of the data obtained allowed an estimation of the pillared structure in one PILC-model before and after magnetization. The model was determined on the basis of a simple geometric model and experimental data leading to the calculation of a filling factor (FF) which contained information about the number of intercalated pillared layers and the unaffected layers. In the case of Ti precursors, the best calcination temperature was 400°C, which maintained the highest specific surface area and pore volume with magnetic parameters suitable for magnetic application. Similar experiments with Al- and Zr-pillars have been discussed. A correlation between the XRF data, porosity, FF calculation, and magnetic properties led to the conclusion that the sample Al-M-PILC previously calcined at 500°C was the most stable material after the magnetization process. The same examination in the case of Zr materials suggested that the most stable sample had been calcined at 300°C (sample Zr-M-PILC-300).


Rearrangements of the genes encoding the fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1) and platelet-derived growth factor receptors (PDGFR) α or β receptor tyrosine kinases are found in a rare but important subset of patients with atypical myeloproliferative disorders that are usually but not always associated with eosinophilia. Chromosomal translocations or other rearrangements at 8p11–12, 4q12 or 5q31–33 give rise to diverse fusion genes encoding chimaeric proteins with constitutive transforming activity. There is considerable molecular heterogeneity with 8 partner genes currently known for FGFR1, 6 for PDGFRA and 17 for PDGFRB. The vast majority of patients with PDGFRA or PDGFRB fusions achieve rapid and durable complete haematological and molecular responses to sustained imatinib therapy. A key ongoing challenge is to define the molecular pathogenesis of the great majority of atypical myeloproliferative disorders for whom the causative lesion remains unknown, since very few of these cases gain any benefit from imatinib or other second-generation inhibitors.


This study aimed at analyzing the factors causing teachers and students to use code switching (CS) and the factors affecting language attitude of EFL learners in using CS in instruction. The participants of this study were 8 English teachers and 312 students of 12 Junior High Schools in Malang, Indonesia. This study used a mixed method. To collect the data, questionnaire and classroom observation were applied. Post hoc item analysis was employed to meet the requirement of validity and reliability. The factors causing the use of CS in EFL instruction were (a) involvement of the learner, (b) use of learner's language, (c) situation of the classroom, (d) weariness of teacher (e) expressing of teacher's anger. All these five factors gave a significant effect to the use of CS in EFL instruction. It was statistically significance (p < .01). The fifth factor, the use of the learners' language had dominant influence toward the use of CS in EFL instruction.


Abstract A "global saving glut" was invented by Ben Bernanke in 2005 as a label for positive net lending (imports exceeding exports) to the American economy by the rest of the world. This trading situation had already emerged around 1980 and led to the Plaza Accord in 1985. One common explanation is based on the Mundell–Fleming IS/LM/BP model. But this model cannot be valid, since the "BP" equation is not independent of "IS." Other champions of this saving glut hypothesis rely on loanable funds theory, which is institutionally inadequate. More plausible analyses of the persistent trade imbalance can be derived from a two-country IS/LM set-up devised by Wynne Godley, a Kaleckian description of the political economy of East Asia and the United States, and dissection of the terms of trade due to W. Arthur Lewis and Luigi Pasinetti.


Objectives for this study were, first, to describe individual differences in risk taking among scuba divers. Differences were examined on personality dimensions and psycho-affective variables, including positive and negative affect, as well as alexithymia. In addition, the study examined contributors to two types of behavior associated with scuba diving—deliberate risk taking and controlled participation in a high-risk sport (non-risk-taking). A cross-sectional design was used, and 131 participants were assessed on extraversion-neuroticism, affectivity, and alexithymia. The broad dimensions of personality and affectivity explained risk taking among divers. Alexithymia differentially predicted two types of risktaking behavior (direct or short-term and indirect or long-term) and was associated significantly with short-term risk-taking behavior.


Trauma has been documented for hundreds of years. Anyone can experience symptoms of trauma. Wamser-Nanney and Vandenberg (2013), discuss different types of trauma including, physical, sexual, domestic, medical, natural disaster, and terrorism violence. Symptoms from trauma can result in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a result from a traumatic event that occurred. It can alter the brain and leave long lasting psychological symptoms (Bremner, 2006). Treatment for PTSD has focused around using exposure or cognitive therapies to help clients work through their traumatic event. Beckley-Forset (2015), discussed using an alternative therapy to work with trauma. She integrated play therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, while working with a young child who experienced a traumatic event. Integrating play therapy and EMDR, gives the therapist and client flexibility. These therapies integrated a directive and non-directive approach to working with trauma. Trauma can be hard to describe or talk about. Play therapy provides the opportunity to play out or express their trauma without words. Using EMDR with the bilateral stimulation, help the brain reprocess and store the trauma without further triggering the client. The integration of these two approaches provides therapists with methods that meet the developmental needs of clients who have experienced trauma. TRAUMA, PLAY THERAPY, AND EMDR 4 Table of


The Arab world stands out as a region for its limited progress toward democracy. At the same time, eight national surveys in six Arab countries between 2000 and 2004 show that 90 percent or more of those interviewed would like to see a democratic political system in their country. This does not necessarily imply support for secular democracy, however. Roughly half of the respondents who support democracy also believe that Islam should play an important role in political affairs. It remains to be seen whether popular support for democracy, coupled with recent, albeit limited political openings in some Arab countries, will lead to sustained democratic transitions.


In this paper, I defend the hypothesis that each prepositional adverb in Modern German is formed from an adverb and a preposition – and not from two adverbs, as recently suggested in the literature. As major support for this hypothesis, I show on the example of darunter that the intensions of the lexical meanings of non-idiomatic prepositional adverbs are compositionally built from the intensions of preposition meanings by combining them in an appropriate way with the intension of an adverb meaning. The proposed analysis, formulated within the general framework of Integrational Linguistics (IL), also provides a solution for the animacy problem of prepositional adverbs, i.e. the problem that many prepositional adverbs in Modern German do not phorically take up animated entities, in particular, persons. This restriction follows, it is argued, from a sortal restriction inherited from the preposition meaning. While syntactic semantics can accommodate preposition meanings in order to properly relate preposition complement interpretations, there is no such accommodation in the case of prepositional adverbs, their valence being lexically reduced by one.


Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) is a myelodysplastic disease characterized by erythrocytes that show abnormally increased sensitivity to complement-mediated lysis. Complement-sensitive PNH erythrocyte membranes have previously been shown to lack acetylcholinesterase (AchE) activity, but the molecular basis of this deficiency has been unclear. We have used monoclonal antibodies to four different epitopes on the AchE molecule to show that abnormal PNH erythrocytes failed to bind these antibodies. Moreover, abnormal PNH erythrocytes contained no protein immunoprecipitable by these antibodies, while normal complement-insensitive erythrocytes from PNH patients showed normal amounts of immunoprecipitable AchE which had normal electrophoretic mobility. These data suggest that abnormal PNH erythrocytes lack AchE enzyme activity due to the absence of the AchE molecule from the cell membrane.


Improving the prevention and control of tuberculosis (TB) in Aboriginal communities in Canada is a matter of great urgency. Canadian-born Aboriginal people account for 21% of TB cases in the country even though they represent only 3.8% of the overall population. Moreover, age standardized rates of TB in Aboriginal people reveal an incidence almost six fold greater than the national rate. There are unique challenges in the prevention and control of TB in First Nations populations. We sought to investigate whether the Canadian Tuberculosis Standards definition being used Canada wide to address TB is appropriate in a First Nations on-reserve context or whether alternate definitions should be considered. In this study, we spoke to health care workers, scientists, and administrators involved in TB programs and care across the country to assess the suitability of the definition used to classify an outbreak. Our data showed that the majority of study participants did not support a First Nations-specific TB outbreak definition. Participants felt that a response protocol would be useful, along with a preamble to the definition detailing unique circumstances that may pertain to an outbreak on-reserve.


Body Surface Temperature was observed by thermography. The surface temperature of a healthy person's lower limbs, after being cooled in a water bath, increased in parallel with time. Patients with Diabetes Mellitus had different patterns in the rate of increase of the surface temperature. After cold loading, one patient had a 99% recovery ratio of surface temperature, the same level as healthy volunteers (83%, and 88%), as calculated by a picture processing program with the computerized thermotracer. However, the recovery ratio of other patients was poorer, ranging from 56% to under 6 % recovery. This measurement of elevation of body temperature is useful for the estimation of peripheral blood flow in patients with lower limb circulation fai lure. Key word: Thermography, Diabetes Mellitus, Peripheral Circulation, Cold Loading


What do Russian prisons look like? Who is sent to prison in Russia? How is punishment allocated and administered? This pioneering book aims to answer these and other questions by embarking on a journey that begins by exploring how the prisons have survived the collapse of the USSR, and ends with a discussion of global penal politics. It is the first book to have been written in English on penal practices in the contemporary Russian prison system. Surviving Russian Prisons focuses in particular on the reality of work and labour within Russian prisons, exploring its changing function. From being for much of the twentieth century a major activity as well as an ideological justification for prison regimes, its main function now has been to enable prisoners to survive through participating in a barter economy. In exploring the microworlds of the Russian prison this book at the same time presents new evidence and offers fresh insight into how prisons are governed in societies undergoing turbulent social and political transformation; it explores how current practices in relation to prisoners' work comply with international regulations designed to promote humane containment and positive custody; and debates the nature of knowledge on penal discourse in transitional states.


Anxiety disorders are the most common mental conditions in the general population, including in children and adolescents. Young people can present with a pattern of anxiety symptoms somewhat different from that typically seen in adults. One of the most common aspects of this difference is that children (especially younger ones) may not report overt worries or fears, but instead manifest pronounced physical symptoms.


The purpose of this study was to examine the basic life history of a lightly exploited stock of Squalus suckleyi in the Gulf of Alaska to establish a baseline for future comparison and to provide critical information for stock assessments. Average total length (total length extended) of females (87·7 cm) was significantly larger (t-test, t = -12·57, d.f. = 1533, P < 0·01) than males (80·3 cm); size at 50% maturity (74·5 and 97·3 cm, males and females, respectively) and age at 50% maturity (21 and 36 years, respectively) were also significantly different between the sexes (i.e. bootstrapped 95% c.i. did not overlap). Total average fecundity was 8·5 pups per female, and individual fecundity was a linear function of either length or whole mass. The best estimate of instantaneous natural mortality was 0·097. The delayed age of maturity, low natural mortality and low rates of reproduction imply that only very low rates of fishing mortality are sustainable. Finally, this paper provides the first reported evidence that a small percentage of the adult females may undergo an extended resting period between pregnancies of ≥ 1 years.


Forty years ago, Francis Schaeffer challenged Christians to set an example of care for the environment. Now, as the earth has a population of more than seven billion, how well have we responded to this challenge? What have we done about global stewardship? This article describes a low-cost technology available to the poor of the world—not a "high tech" electrical device or a new energy source, but simply a technique to cook with the sun—using a fuel-free, labor-saving device, the solar cooker. The author's own experience and that of NGOs is reported. Solar cooking requires not only a radical shift in thinking about how we cook our food, but it also has many potential environmental, economic, and social benefits for billions of people.


Background: The potential growth of colposcopy as a family medicine procedural skill is directly related to the training currently offered to family practice residents. To define whether these skills are being adequately offered to physicians who want to perform this procedure for their patients, a study was designed to investigate the current status of colposcopy practice and training in family practice residency programs. Methods: A 16-item survey sent to 356 family practice residency directors in the United States included items concerning colposcopy practice, training, educational programs and strategies, colposcopy coordinator educational background, and colposcopic resource materials and equipment. Results: Surveys were returned from 204 (57 percent) family practice residencies. Colposcopy was performed at 45 percent of the residencies that responded. Ninety-six percent of the respondents who did not perform colposcopy believed colposcopy is a procedure that should be performed by family physicians. Clinical teaching and supervision was the most common method of resident training (74 percent). Colposcopy training coordinators were usually family physicians (72 percent), primarily trained by gynecologists. Assistance with implementing a colposcopy training program was requested by 85 percent of those programs presently not performing colposcopy. Conclusions: This study indicates that there are opportunities for further development of colposcopy practice and training in family practice residencies.


Most of the current hypermedia model life cycles focus in analysis and design issues, ignoring crucial tasks and activities of hypermedia projects. Others do not take care of basic Software Engineering concepts such as planning, physical and logical modeling, validation and quality assurance, among other issues. In this paper we propose an integrated software process model, called Flexible Process Model, useful in building hypermedia artifacts. This strategy, when instanciated in a specific project, implies a systematic use of model-based constructors, both logical and physical models. The main benefits of this process model are: a) it covers all the principal phases and tasks of a hypermedia project; b) this clear break down can contribute fairly to project planning and can help to establish milestones and metrics; c) it fosters a positive balance by a systematic use of logical and physical modeling; d) it facilitates human communication; e) it promote process improvement and standardization. Therefore, we will discuss and represent, in a medium level of granularity, the phases, tasks and activities, mainly in the dynamic modeling phase. Also we will present some perspectives, stressing the functional, methodological and behavioral perspectives of the three-phased Flexible Process Model. Finally, we will discuss related works and concluding remarks.


This study investigated whether high-resolution satellite imagery is suitable for preparing a detailed digital forest cover map that discriminates forest cover at the tree species level. First, we tried to find an optimal process for segmenting the high-resolution images using a region-growing method with the scale, color and shape factors in Definiens® Professional 5.0. The image was classified by a traditional, pixel-based, maximum likelihood classification approach using the spectral information of the pixels. The pixels in each segment were reclassified using a segment-based classification (SBC) with a majority rule. Segmentation with strongly weighted color was less sensitive to the scale parameter and led to optimal forest cover segmentation and classification. The pixel-based classification (PBC) suffered from the "salt-and-pepper effect" and performed poorly in the classification of forest cover types, whereas the SBC helped to attenuate the effect and notably improved the classification accuracy. As a whole, SBC proved to be more suitable for classifying and delineating forest cover using high-resolution satellite images.


Objective: Predictors of quality of life (QOL) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer are lacking. The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) family of proteins is associated with QOL in noncancer populations. We sought to study whether these proteins are associated with QOL in patients with colorectal cancer. Method: We used a cohort of 526 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated with combination chemotherapy. Plasma samples of IGF-I, IGF-II, IGF binding protein-3, and C-peptide were collected before initiation of chemotherapy. QOL was measured by the uniscale instrument and the Symptom Distress Scale at baseline and throughout treatment. Results: Baseline plasma levels of IGF-I and IGF-II before initiation of chemotherapy were significantly associated with several important baseline QOL measures in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Patients with lower levels of IGF-I reported increased distress with regard to appearance, appetite, cough, and nausea intensity after adjustment for potential confounders. Similarly, decreased levels of IGF-II were predictive of worse quality related to appearance, appetite, fatigue, nausea frequency and intensity, pain frequency, and composite Symptom Distress Scale score. IGF binding protein-3 and C-peptide were not predictive of baseline QOL. Baseline biomarkers were not associated with subsequent changes in QOL during treatment. Higher body mass index was significantly associated with superior baseline QOL in several areas; nonetheless, the association of IGF-I and IGF-II with baseline QOL measures remained significant even after controlling for baseline body mass index. Conclusion: Baseline plasma IGF-I and IGF-II are significantly associated with symptom distress. Whether this association is simply reflective of patient nutritional status and/or disease burden or represents an independent biological effect of IGFs on QOL remains uncertain. Nonetheless, these data suggest that molecular biomarkers may be useful predictors of QOL in cancer patients.


Cell analysis requires increasingly more complex equipment to investigate cellular and molecular mechanisms. The goal of the present research is to develop a platform of integrated amperometric biosensors to better understand biological processes by real-time monitoring of different metabolites over the duration of a cell culture. The simultaneous use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to enhance the signal and oxidases to confer specificity can really lead to an innovative tool for several research activities. We propose an integrated electrochemical cell fabricated with CMOS compatible technology. The platform consists of five working electrodes, which are nanostructurated with CNTs, previously dispersed in Nafion, and functionalized with different oxidases. A microfluidic system on the top of the biosensor guarantees continuously fresh solution at the electrode surface. For measurements in culture medium, a microdialysis probe helps to limit interference from other electroactive species and to provide a broader linear range. Initially, CNTs-based biosensors are characterized in phosphate buffer saline (PBS) solution in terms of sensitivity and detection limit. Chronoamperometries are then performed in cell culture medium in a wider range of concentrations. Continuous measurements are also performed over 7 hours to validate operational stability. Considering calibration in PBS, our system shows 10x higher sensitivity compared to other works with similar nanostructuration. In fact, CNTs and Nafion form an optimal immobilization surface for enzymes. The detection of multiple metabolites is achieved in pure medium, while previous art requires dilution steps. Moreover, the biosensor covers the entire range of interest thanks to the microdialysis probe, a significant improvement as compared to our previous work. The operational stability exhibited during longer measurements leads us to conclude that the developed biosensor is highly suitable for cell line monitoring.


Swadhyaya and the Chinmaya Mission are two rapidly growing modern Indian religious movements that have developed a contemporary discourse on the moral self--a theory and practice centered on the cultivation of an ideal human being--deeply grounded in the religious traditions of India. This discourse stands in stark contrast to conceptions of modern secular self-identity that lie at the heart of theories of modernization. Yet, it is nevertheless the case that religion is indeed only one among many competing sources of morality and authority in modernity, as modernization theorists predicted. This project asks the critical question of what makes a religious discourse on self-fashioning so remarkably appealing to the millions of Swadhyaya and Chinmaya Mission participants in modern Indian society. Based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mumbai, India from February 2012--May 2013, this dissertation draws attention to the everyday lived practice and lived experiences of religion and ethics among followers. I demonstrate that the particular teachings of the two movements, rooted in the Hindu scriptures, provide new ways of understanding and perceiving the self, the other, and human existence that act both as a source for ethical being as well as a guide for practical living. I show that the appeal of the two movements lies in the specific ways in which their particular discourse and praxis facilitate the transformation of the self and argue that the appeal of theistic sources in modernity cannot simply be understood in terms of a religious impulse inherent to humanity or as a matter of belief or non-belief. In contrast to abstract theoretical accounts of a modern secular self-identity, this dissertation demonstrates how the modern self understood, fashioned and experienced in relation to the teachings and practices of Swadhyaya and the Chinmaya Mission challenges some of the key markers associated with modern self-identity, including self-sufficient humanism and individualism. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group South Asia Regional Studies First Advisor Justin McDaniel


This paper offers several contributions to the area of discrete reliability growth projection. We present a new, logically derived model for estimating the reliability growth of complex, one-shot systems (i.e., the reliability following implementation of corrective actions to known failure modes). Multiple statistical estimation procedures are utilized to approximate this exact expression. A new estimation method is derived to approximate the vector of failure probabilities associated with a complex, one-shot system. A mathematically-convenient functional form for the s -expected initial reliability of a one-shot system is derived. Monte-Carlo simulation results are presented to highlight model accuracy with respect to resulting estimates of reliability growth. This model is useful to program managers, and reliability practitioners who wish to assess one-shot system reliability growth.


The stunning discovery of a Late Pleistocene hominin skeleton, on the Indonesian island of Flores has thrown the anthropological world into a frenzy. The primitive and derived features of the skeleton, but most curiously its tiny stature suggest a new species of diminutive
 Homo erectus
 called
 H. floresiensis. In a provocative Perspective,
 Jared Diamond
 provides a scintillating synthesis of the evidence for a new
 H. erectus
 species and debates the reasons why the fossil remains of this pygmy hominin have only now been discovered.


The advent of Solvency II has sparked interest in methods for estimating one-year reserve risk. This paper provides a discussion of the one-year view of reserve risk and some of the methods that have been proposed for quantifying it. It then presents a new method that uses ultimate reserve risk estimates, payment patterns, and reporting patterns to derive one-year reserve risk values in a systematic fashion. The proposed method is a more refined version of the simplistic approach used in the Standard Formula. Yet, it is also practical and robust: triangles, regressions, or simulations are not required.


Novel types of malware on mobile devices have raised researchers interest in implementing static and dynamic techniques for detecting and mitigating malicious behavior of mobile applications. In this hands-on tutorial we will demonstrate and explain different techniques for instrumenting Android applications using the Aspect Bench Compiler (abc) and the program analysis and transformation tool Soot. Through high-level abstractions such as AspectJ aspects and Tracematches, abc supports a declarative style of instrumentation that lends itself to the rapid prototyping of at least simple instrumentation schemes. Soot supports instrumentation in an imperative style, which requires more work but allows more fine-grained control. Both abc and Soot are inter operable, as they instrument the same intermediate program representation. Furthermore, as we show, both can be easily integrated with static program analyses that can be used to specialize instrumentation schemes based on additional information extracted from the static structure of the instrumented app.


ABSTRACT The Central United States Seismic Observatory is a vertical seismic array located in southwestern Kentucky within the New Madrid seismic zone. It is intended to describe the effects of local geology, including thick sediment overburden, on seismic‐wave propagation, particularly strong motion. The three‐borehole array is composed of seismic sensors placed on the surface, in the bedrock, and at various depths within the 585‐m‐thick sediment overburden. The array's deep borehole also provided a unique opportunity in the northern Mississippi embayment for the direct geologic description and geophysical measurement of the complete Late Cretaceous–Quaternary sediment column. A seven‐layer intrasediment velocity model is interpreted from the complex, inhomogeneous stratigraphy. The S ‐ and P ‐wave sediment velocities range between 160 and 875  m/s and between 1000 and 2300  m/s, respectively, and their bedrock velocities range between 1452 and 3775  m/s, respectively. Seismometers and accelerometers operate both at the surface and 2 m into bedrock, with strong‐motion accelerometers at depths of 30, 259, and 526 m. The array operation has been frequently interrupted by the large hydrostatic pressures on the deeper instrumentation; however, the full array has recorded weak‐motion response from 95 earthquakes at local, regional, and teleseismic distances. Initial observations reveal a complex spectral mix of amplification and de‐amplification across the array, indicating the site effect in this deep‐sediment setting is not simply generated by the shallowest layers. Preliminary horizontal‐to‐vertical spectral ratio (H/V) experiments show the bedrock vertical and horizontal amplitudes are not equal, a required assumption for site characterization. Further, there are marked differences between spectral ratios from the directly measured transfer function (H/H) and H/V for particular earthquakes. On average, however, the H/H and H/V methods are coincident within a narrow band of frequencies ranging between 0.35 and 1.1 Hz.


Citation: Arce, L. and Aylwin, J. 2012. Recognition and Support of ICCAs in Chile. In: Kothari, A. with Corrigan, C., Jonas, H., Neumann, A., and Shrumm, H. (eds). Recognising and Supporting Territories and Areas Conserved By Indigenous Peoples And Local Communities: Global Overview and National Case Studies. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, ICCA Consortium, Kalpavriksh, and Natural Justice, Montreal, Canada. Technical Series no. 64.


Giordano Sivini has been an international aid consultant for over twenty-five years. Here, he channels a 1960s and 1970s idealistic political commitment into fieldwork and the sphere of development from the 1980s to the present. Sivini writes with both passion and cynicism about his experiences with the numerous African aid projects he has been involved with over the years. While the "fathers of independence" of British and French decolonization wanted to change the colonial conditions of exploitation, Sivini finds that their good intentions have been shipwrecked. Ironically, the longer Sivini served as an aid consultant, the more he found himself dismayed at the various projects that were under way or slated to begin. He perceived some of the projects as grotesque, and, almost all ineffective. The money was wasted on such ventures not because of a particular government's interest in the social effects they would have on the local populace, but because of the direct and indirect benefits the government would receive. Sivini sees international development aid as its own market: development is a commodity that takes the form of large and small projects, and is traded for loans and gifts to generate political and economic advantages for the institutional participants in the exchange. Ultimately, governmental and aid projects often stimulate resistance from the local populace as agencies upset their usual system of production by regimenting peasants to produce for the market, then appropriate the cattle of nomadic pastoralists, villagizing and resettling peasants in areas of high productivity, and exploiting laborers in large farms. This creates social disintegration, mass migration in urban informal economy, and poverty. This is a dynamic and moving analysis of foreign aid that will be of interest to students of African studies, governmental programs, rural development, and political economy.


Surrogacy in the United States is a multi-million dollar industry in which well paid professionals seek out highly specialized women to fulfill the difficult job of being a surrogate. Surrogates enter lengthy contracts in which they agree, in intricate detail, to provide a service for significant compensation - surrogates are paid well over $22 million dollars a year. This article argues that surrogates are also professionals in this for-profit industry and are required to report surrogacy compensation as income. As a corollary, surrogates may deduct most of their surrogacy related expenses as business deductions. Being a surrogate is a highly personal service and the expenses the surrogate incurs - such as for maternity clothes or medical care - are typically seen as nondeductible personal ones, but when your body is your business, the personal is business.


Intercropping in small-holder production systems in East and Central Africa is very common and offers potential for significant yield and environmental benefits. However, the reduced light availability under banana canopies constrains the success of the intercrop in banana systems. Determining a balance between the optimal spacing/densities of banana plants with optimized intercrop selection based on their sensitivity and tolerance to shade is imperative. This study, through extensive field experiments performed in South Kivu, DR Congo investigated the resilience of a wide range of food and forage crops to varying banana shade levels. The same crop species grown as monocrops served as controls. Quantitative yield assessments showed yam, sweet potato, ginger and forage grasses to have a good potential to grow under moderately dense to dense banana fields. Taro, soybean, mucuna, chili, eggplant, and Crotalaria sp. performed well in sparsely spaced banana fields with moderate shading. Cassava and soybean showed limited tolerance to shade. Intercropping in banana systems is also generally confined to the rainy seasons due to the high sensitivity of most annual intercrops to long dry weather in the dry season months. We also thus assessed the sensitivity of chickpea and mucuna to the long dry weather of the dry seasons and found them to have great potential for extending farming production into the dry season. Overall, we show that careful selection and allocation of crops with varying sensitivity to various banana shade levels and dry season weather can potentially increase whole field productivity.


This report describes a type theory for certified code, called TALT-R, in which type safety guarantees cooperation with a mechanism to limit the CPU usage of untrusted code. At its core is the foundational typed assembly language TALT, extended with an instruction-counting mechanism, or "virtual clock", intended to bound the number of non-yielding instructions a program may execute in a row. The type theory also contains a form of dependent refinement that allows reasoning about integer values to be reflected in the typing of a program; in particular, the refinement system enables a simple but effective dynamic checking scheme for the clock, which we predict will greatly improve the performance of TALT-R programs. We exhibit a translation from a clock-ignorant source language into a form of TALT-R, demonstrating that the type system is expressive enough to write general programs in.


This paper proposes a multi-layer neural network structure for few-shot image recognition of novel categories. The proposed multi-layer neural network architecture encodes transferable knowledge extracted from a large annotated dataset of base categories. This architecture is then applied to novel categories containing only a few samples. The transfer of knowledge is carried out at the feature-extraction and the classification levels distributed across the two training stages. In the first-training stage, we introduce the relative feature to capture the structure of the data as well as obtain a low-dimensional discriminative space. Secondly, we account for the variable variance of different categories by using a network to predict the variance of each class. Classification is then performed by computing the Mahalanobis distance to the mean-class representation in contrast to previous approaches that used the Euclidean distance. In the second-training stage, a category-agnostic mapping is learned from the mean-sample representation to its corresponding class-prototype representation. This is because the mean-sample representation may not accurately represent the novel category prototype. Finally, we evaluate the proposed network structure on four standard few-shot image recognition datasets, where our proposed few-shot learning system produces competitive performance compared to previous work. We also extensively studied and analyzed the contribution of each component of our proposed framework.


Comorbid autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other mental health conditions are common. However, the recognition and study of this clinical issue is of recent origin. It has recently emerged that certain disorders are more likely to occur with ASD, such as ADHD, depression, anxiety and conduct disorder/challenging behaviors. Developmental factors are significant in that, while ASD presents at a very early age, this is not often the case with the co-occurring disorders noted above. The clinician should be aware of and plan for these potential concerns. Tests that are specifically designed to assess for comorbid mental health issues among persons with ASD are being developed. These methods are recommended given what we know about high rates of comorbidity in this emerging field.


Fire is a natural component of and serves as a tool for the restoration of forested ecosystems worldwide; however, disturbance due to fire also has been implicated in the proliferation of invasive species.  How these fires affect occupancy and use of the forest by wildlife is of great concern, in particular, the differential response of non-native and native species.  In the American Southwest, prior to European settlement, frequent wildfires helped to maintain forest structure.  We examined the effect of a large wildfire on an introduced population of the Abert's squirrel ( Sciurus aberti ) that has invaded the high elevations inhabited by the critically endangered Mt. Graham red squirrel ( Tamiasciurus hudsonicus grahamensis ).  We found that introduced Abert's squirrels were more common than native red squirrels in burned areas. Abert's squirrels did not abandon burned areas but nested, foraged, and tended to have small home ranges in burned areas.  This suggests that invasive Abert's squirrels are better able to exploit burned areas than are native red squirrels and that fire can favor non-native species.  This interaction between non-native species, native species, and fire adds new insight into the complexities of conservation and restoration of ecosystems and helps to inform conservation activities worldwide.


Supracondylar humerus fractures are common fractures around the elbow. Open fractures, comminuted metaphyseal fractures and also fractures with bone loss may need to be treated with external fixators. The aim of this study is to compare two different external fixators, tubular external fixators and polymethyl methacrylate with K wires external fixators, with regard to stiffness and stability for metaphyseal-diaphyseal osteotomies of distal humerus close to the joint. Six matched pairs (24 specimens) of second-generation sawbone humerus were prepared in a standard fashion to create a metaphyseal fracture, 5 cm proximal to the distal joint line of humerus and were randomly divided into two groups of 12 specimens each. Each sawbone humerus was osteotomized transversely at the mid-olecranon fossa with a 2-mm oscillating saw to simulate a Gartland type III fracture. The osteotomy was then reduced and stabilized using two different external fixation methods: carbon tubular external fixator with Schanz screws and methyl methacrylate with multiple K wires. Three-point bending and torsion tests were performed on the specimens. Bending and torsional stiffness of specimens were obtained for the fixation methods. According to the results of the study, the methyl methacrylate group has provided higher stiffness than classical tubular fixator with Schanz screws in three-point bending test (7.79 ± 2.33 N/mm vs 3.78 ± 1.18 N/mm, p = 0.006). The methyl methacrylate group also showed better stiffness in torsion test (0.12 ± 0.042 N m/° vs 0.067 ± 0.013 N m/°, p = 0.02). We determined for the first time in literature that external fixation with methyl methacrylate was significantly superior to the classical tubular external fixator with Schanz screws with regard to stiffness and stability under three-point bending and torsional loads. Moreover, methyl methacrylate is inexpensive and easily applied.


Experiments were conducted on a sand beach to represent occurrences of minor to major dune overtopping by varying the spectral peak period of incident irregular waves. Both water overtopping and sand overwash rates were measured. The experimental results were compared to existing empirical formulas for equilibrium beach slopes (Kriebel, Kraus, and Larson, 1991), cross-shore sediment transport (Kraus and Mason, 1993), and irregular wave reflection (Seelig, 1983) from sand beaches. Scale and non-equilibrium effects were found to be important causes of discrepancies between predicted and measured values. Additionally, an empirical formula for the overtopping of coastal structures (De Waal and Van der Meer, 1992) was compared with overtopping measurements for the experimental dune. The empirical formula of De Waal and Van der Meer gave order-of-magnitude estimates, but could not account for the effects of the profile evolution within each test. The measured average volumetric sediment concentration was found to be independent of the normalized overtopping rate and varied by only a factor of two.


From labor conditions to public health and environmental justice, globalization has created an increasingly complex web of issues surrounding human rights. Research in social studies education points to adolescents' intrinsic curiosity when engaged in these multiple issues, as well as their idealistic thirst for involving themselves in social progress campaigns. Many students desire involvement and believe in the importance of human rights education within the formal educational setting, especially within social studies curriculum. We report the findings from a qualitative study conducted during a two-week intensive summer institute on human rights and genocide studies in western New York in the summer of 2011. In our study, we found while student participants felt empowered by the institute and their desire to take action was heightened during the experience, they questioned the disconnect between the genocide and human rights education in the Institute and the human rights education they experienced in their social studies classrooms. In comparing the two, they wished there were more authentic learning experiences and a higher level of academic rigor in their social studies classes. Although the New York State curricula, at the time of the study, included human rights education related topics, the interviewed student participants did not recognize its presence and felt human rights education is not a prevalent part of the enacted public school curriculum.


This two-year study focused on the lived terms of inquiry in middle-school science classrooms. The conditions that enable teachers to see and act on science learning as ongoing inquiry were deliberately sought in Year 2. Nine science teachers participated in search of capacities connecting curriculum, teaching, and assessment for greater student and teacher inquiry. An online logbook chronicled this search, serving as a dialogic medium revealing a movement of teachers seeking out and seizing back possibilities for teaching and learning in relation to the given realities of classrooms. The nature and role of formative assessments in support of learning were encountered as the obstacle to be worked out in teachers' practical action. The necessary interpretive eye and capacity to act in accordance with the dynamic character of formative assessments became the task at hand for teachers and researchers. This task demanded artistic teaching visions, attending to the creation of student meaning on an individual and collective basis. The difficulty, alongside the necessity, of educating artistic teaching visions offered glimpses into how formative assessment use holds potential to restore the participatory dynamic integral to learning. The


This study focused on Australian-based non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs) (also referred to as non-governmental aid agencies). The study used a telephone survey of eleven agencies and a mail survey of forty-five agencies to make inferences about organisational processes of delivering development assistance, together with an evaluation of the contribution of organisational factors and external environmental factors to the delivery of that assistance. Those aspects of organisational factors that were selected for examination were restricted to two areas, namely (i) organisational structures, and (ii) strategies for financial resource mobilisation and service delivery. The external factors selected were (i) the external stakeholders of non-governmental aid agencies (development clients, partner agencies, donors, governments, other aid agencies) and (ii) the macro environment factors. In examining these issues, the study found that: 1. In spite of the diversity within the non-governmental aid agency sector, the processes of service delivery could be broadly labeled into the following subprocesses (i) project identification and initial assessment; (ii) project implementation; and (iii) project monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment. Within each of these three sub-processes, a fourth sub-process - a project sustainability process was identified. These processes, and the microprocesses within each of them, were identified in a wide range of organisations, representing different development sectors, size, scope of operation, goals, policies and objectives. This suggests that irrespective of the diversity within the sector, there are underlying principles that govern the development assistance role of aid agencies. 2. Within the broad service delivery process variations existed between agencies in respect of how the steps within each sub-process were managed. The organisational factors, structures and strategies, accounted for some of these variations in the processes. In addition, respondents identified organisational policies, working principles and the learning experiences as accounting for some of the variation. It was observed that whereas some agencies attempted to change those organisational factors that they perceived as disabling to the process of service delivery, others were unable to change owing to resource constraints. 3. The intervening effect of the external environment on process was also examined. Whereas all the agencies were faced by a similar external environment, their responses to the environment were varied, consequently varying the process of service delivery. External stakeholders were categorised as having a significant influence on the process, as their expectations formed the criteria against which the performance of aid agencies was judged. Within the stakeholders, however, there were the more powerful donors and governments and the less powerful development clients and partners. The challenge for the aid agencies was therefore to not only respond to stakeholder expectations in ways that promoted an effective service delivery process, but also balance between the stakeholder expectations, to ensure agencies' credibility was not undermined. Responding to the changes in the macro environment was considered especially difficult, as the task of examining and interpreting trends was complex, and appropriate responses hard to determine. 4. From the evidence gathered, it is clear that organisational factors within aid agencies and contextual factors influence the process of service delivery. Thus, for aid agencies and others involved in development assistance, evaluating project work by focusing on the outputs and outcomes of specific projects and on the capabilities of development clients and partner agencies in developing countries begs half the issue. The context for success or failure is much broader. A wholistic critical examination of organisational factors within aid agencies and the contexts within which agencies operate ought to be included in any assessment of development outcomes. Such an assessment will enable practitioners to account for mismatches between intentions and outcomes of development initiatives in a comprehensive way. Any assessment short of these factors will always be inadequate. The significance of such an extensive critical evaluation of the outcomes of the work of aid agencies, would be the development of an elaborate guide to good development management practices that aid agencies can use to improve on their performance.


Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is a rare disease defined as diffused implantation of neoplastic cells in the peritoneal cavity. This clinical picture occurs during the evolution of peritoneal tumors, and it is the main cause of morbidity and mortality of patients affected by these pathologies, though cytoreductive surgery with heated intra-peritoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC) is yielding promising results. In the present study, we evaluated whether the tumor microenvironment of low-grade and high-grade PC could affect the phenotypic and functional features and thus the anti-tumor potential of NK cells. We show that while in the peritoneal fluid (PF) of low-grade PC most CD56dim NK cells show a relatively immature phenotype (NKG2A+KIR–CD57–CD16dim), in the PF of high-grade PC NK cells are, in large majority, mature (CD56dimKIR+CD57+CD16bright). Furthermore, in low-grade PC, PF-NK cells are characterized by a sharp down-regulation of some activating receptors, primarily NKp30 and DNAM-1, while, in high-grade PC, PF-NK cells display a higher expression of the PD-1 inhibitory checkpoint. The compromised phenotype observed in low-grade PC patients corresponds to a functional impairment. On the other hand, in the high-grade PC patients PF-NK cells show much more important defects that only partially reflect the compromised phenotype detected. These data suggest that the PC microenvironment may contribute to tumor escape from immune surveillance by inducing different NK cell impaired features leading to altered anti-tumor activity. Notably, after CRS/HIPEC treatment, the altered NK cell phenotype of a patient with a low-grade disease and favorable prognosis was reverted to a normal one. Our present data offer a clue for the development of new immunotherapeutic strategies capable of restoring the NK-mediated anti-tumor responses in association with the CRS/HIPEC treatment to increase the effectiveness of the current therapy.


This article considers some of the central themes of Professor Alan Paterson's studies on the House of Lords and United Kingdom Supreme Court through a discussion of recent judicial reflections in Australia on the benefits and risks of collective decision-making on appellate courts. The author contrasts the quite markedly opposing views expressed by recent and current High Court of Australia judges on the topic of joint judgments and internal processes of decision-making. At the same time he places these alongside the evidence Paterson has amassed about judicial behaviour and attitudes on the same in the United Kingdom. The argument is made that these debates are familiar and tend to be cyclical. The extent to which they are capable of - or even require - resolution remains questionable.


The research related by evaluate the fatty acid composition of durian seed oil by Gas Chromatography combined with Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and analysis stereospecific numbering of Fatty Acid Triglycerides (FAG). The extraction was performed by maceration process using nhexane solvent. Faster Adoption and Manufacturing (FAME) from durian seed was synthesized using concentrated sulfuric acid as acid catalyst and analyzed using GC-MS and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results obtained of methyl ester synthesis were 10- octadecadienoic acid methyl ester, octadecanoic acid methyl ester, arachidonic acid methyl ester. Stereo specific numbering of FAG was analyzed by liquid gas chromatography Flame Ionization Detector (FID). The results showed that the major component of fatty acid triglyceride was C50-POP 17.5878%; C54-SLS 14,5857% and C50-PSP 12,7259%. The position of triglyceride seed oil of saturated fatty acid durians is generally on sn-1 and sn-3 whereas unsaturated fatty acids in sn-2.


The teachers' use of motivational strategies is generally believed to enhance student motivation, yet there is scant empirical evidence to support this claim. This classroom-oriented investigation focused on how the motivational practices of EFL teachers in South Korea related to students' L2 motivation and motivated classroom behavior. In a first phase, the motivation of over 1,300 students was measured by a self-report questionnaire, and the use of motivational strategies by 27 teachers in 20 different schools was examined with a classroom observation instrument specifically developed for this investigation, the Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching (MOLT). The MOLT scheme, along with a post hoc rating scale completed by the observer, was used to assess the teachers' use of motivational strategies. The MOLT follows the real-time coding principle of Spada and Frohlich's (1995) Communication Orientation of Language Teaching (COLT) scheme but uses categories of observable teacher behaviors derived from Dornyei's (2001) motivational strategies framework for foreign language classrooms. The results indicate that the language teachers' motivational practice is directly linked to increased levels of the learners' motivated learning behavior and their motivational state. In a second phase, three high- and three low-motivation learner groups (selected from the initial sample) were compared in order to uncover the students' interpretations and understandings of the quality of their L2 instructional contexts in relation to their motivation and motivated classroom behavior. Results based on quantitative and qualitative data (which were obtained using three new instruments specifically designed for this study) indicated that the motivational practices coexisting with different levels of motivation were woven into the contents and processes of L2 instruction and instruction in general. These contents and processes seemed to stem from teachers' and students' beliefs about what counts as learning in the L2 classroom and what is the best way to learn an L2.


Circular dichroism-resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (CD-REMPI) was used for CD measurements on several single vibronic transitions of supersonic beam-cooled (R)-(+)-1-phenylethanol. Due to the low molecular densities within a supersonic beam and the expected small anisotropy factor of 1-phenylethanol in the permille region, the precision of the experimental method had to be significantly improved. Therefore, a single laser pulse evaluation combined with a twin-peak technique enabled within the used supersonic beam setup is presented. For the electronic transition S0 → S1 of (R)-(+)-1-phenylethanol (π → π* transition of the phenyl ring at 266 nm) ten different vibrational modes as well as the 0-transition were investigated with one-color (1 + 1) CD-REMPI. The results deliver new experimental insights on the influence of molecular vibrations on the anisotropy factor. TD-DFT theoretical predictions show how the angle between the electronic and magnetic transition dipole moments of the electronic transition can be modified by different vibrational modes, making even a flip of the sign of the anisotropy factor possible.


The Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Practice Act (RICO), passed in 1970, is a sprawling and complex statute designed to penetrate organizations and impose liability on those who orchestrate criminal acts but insulate themselves with layers of underlings and bureaucracy. RICO is a crime and also provides a civil cause of action for those whose business or property has been damaged by RICO conduct. For a variety of reasons, criminal RICO has fallen into disfavor. Civil RICO, which is an optimal tool to pursue fraud, has not yet reached its potential. This article explores this phenomenon and provides a roadmap for civil RICO's appropriate use in fraud cases. This article makes four points. First, that RICO's "enterprise" requirement fits the typical white collar case well. RICO focuses on those who use an "enterprise" to commit crimes. White collar offenders almost always use an enterprise, as defined by RICO, to do their deeds; they operate through collective endeavors and use the resources of an existing organization. Second, because of globalization and the Internet, white collar crime is on a grander scale, wreaks greater havoc on economic stability, is easier to commit, and easier to conceal, than ever before. Effective tools are needed to combat the threats posed by white collar crime. Used properly, RICO can be a highly effective tool. Third, RICO, especially civil RICO, historically has not been used effectively or appropriately to pursue against fraud. Often it is over utilized which has caused courts and the business community to resent RICO. At the same time, RICO has not been used as much as it could be against sophisticated, wide-ranging frauds. RICO should be deployed more often by the private bar and by the government to target sweeping white collar schemes. One reason for RICO's inappropriate use, both its overuse and underuse, is its complexity. RICO's approach to white collar wrongdoing is novel and effective but its terms are abstract and the courts have made a confusing mess of RICO as they have strived to sort out its elements. Lastly, this article discusses the most confusing aspect of RICO: its enterprise element. Case law on RICO enterprises is jumbled, inconsistent and often, wrong. This article sorts through this tangled web, analyzing existing case law and suggesting which makes sense, and which does not. This article concludes with concrete suggestions for proper analysis of RICO enterprise issues. These suggestions build on established principles of corporate law, and provide a roadmap for straightforward application of RICO even in the most complex situations. Such clarity will help RICO serve as a robust tool against white collar crime.


In discourses related to sustainable development and consumption, one essential and also controversial field concerns the integration of macro- and micro-level structures into research. The question is to what extent these two levels can be combined and applied to sustainable development research. The question is also methodological, given that one of the most common ways to classify social theories is to divide them into those concerning holistic explanations (methodological holism) and individual actors (methodological individualism). This paper addresses the problem of the conceptualisation of structure and its relationship to sustainable consumption research. The purpose of the research is twofold. Firstly, the different aspects of the notion of structure will be examined. A special interest is taken in the relationship between the macro- and micro-level. Secondly, the role of structures in sustainable consumption research will be discussed. Also, an alternative way to integrate macro- and micro-levels will be introduced.


This thesis is focused on the development of computer vision techniques for parsing web pages using an image of the rendered page as evidence, and on understanding this underexplored class of images from the perspective of computer vision. This project is divided into two tracks—applied and theoretical—which complement each other. Our practical motivation is the application of improved web page parsing to assistive technology, such as screenreaders for visually impaired users or the ability to declutter the presentation of a web page for those with cognitive deficit. From a more theoretical standpoint, images of rendered web pages have interesting properties from a computer vision perspective; in particular, low-level assumptions can be made in this domain, but the most important cues are often subtle and can be highly non-local. The parsing system developed in this thesis is a principled Bayesian segmentation-classification pipeline, using innovative techniques to produce valuable results in this challenging domain. The thesis includes both implementation and evaluation solutions. Segmentation of a web page is the problem of dividing it into semantically significant, visually coherent regions. We use a hierarchical segmentation method based on the detection of semantically significant lines (possibly broken lines) which divide regions. The Bayesian design allows sophisticated probability models to be applied to the segmentation process, and our method produces segmentation trees that achieve good performance on a variety of measures. Classification, for our purposes, is identifying the semantic role of regions in the segmentation tree of a page. We achieve promising results with a Bayesian classification algorithm based on the novel use of a hidden Markov tree model, in which the structure of the model is adapted to reflect the structure of the segmentation tree. This allows the algorithm to make effective use of the context in which regions appear as well as the features of each individual region. The methods used to evaluate our page parsing system include qualitative and quantitative evaluation of algorithm performance (using manually-prepared ground truth data) as well as a user study of an assistive interface based on our page segmentation algorithm. We also performed a separate user study to investigate users' perceptions of web page organization and to generate ground truth segmentations, leading to important insights about consistency. Taken as a whole, this thesis presents innovative work in computer vision which contributes both to addressing the problem of web accessibility and to the understanding of semantic cues in images.


Hurricane Hugo was one of the worst storms of the century to strike the east coast of the United States. The storm tracked a northwesterly course approximately 11:30 P.M. on Sep. 21, 1989. At that time Hugo was a Class IV category storm. The eye of the storm crossed the South Carolina coast at approximately the entrance to Charleston Harbor. The still water level tidal surge varied from 8.7 NGVD at Charleston Harbor to 19.8 NGVD at Cape Romain Refuge which is located adjacent to Bulls Bay approximately 17 miles north of Charleston Harbor. The still water tidal surge at the Little River Inlet Navigation project was estimated to be 11.5 NGVD. This project is located approximately 100 miles north of Charleston Harbor. After initial landfall, the storm continued its path of destruction inland. The storm tracked a northwesterly course across the state of South Carolina between the cities of Sumter and Columbia. After passing Columbia, the storm took a more northerly direction to Charlotte, North Carolina, producing hurricane force winds in Charlotte. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a major challenge caused by Hurricane Hugo (Debris Removal) and to discuss an enigma caused by the storm (Channel Shoaling).


A key determinant of population health is the behavioral profile of a population. Nearly 80 percent of Americans reach their fifties having smoked cigarettes, been obese, or both. It is unknown to what extent risky behaviors (for example, smoking, having a poor diet, being physically inactive, and consuming an excessive amount of alcohol) collectively are reducing the health and life expectancy of the US population, or what improvements might be achievable in their absence. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, we studied people ages fifty and older who had never smoked, who were not obese, and who consumed alcohol moderately. Compared to the whole US population, those with such a favorable behavioral profile had a life expectancy at age fifty that was seven years longer, and they experienced a delay in the onset of disability of up to six years. These results provide a benchmark for evaluating the massively damaging effects that behavioral risks have on health at older ages and the importance of prioritizing policies to implement behavioral-based interventions.


Gendered languages assign masculine and feminine grammatical gender to all nouns, including nonhuman entities. In French, Italian, and Spanish, the name of the disease resulting from the virus (COVID-19) is grammatically feminine, whereas the virus that causes the disease (coronavirus) is masculine. In this research, we test whether the grammatical gender mark matters. In a series of experiments with French and Spanish speakers, we find that grammatical gender affects virus-related judgments consistent with gender stereotypes: feminine- (vs. masculine-) marked terms for the virus decrease perceptions of future danger of the virus and reduce intentions to take precautionary behavioral measures to mitigate contraction and spread of the virus (e.g., avoiding restaurants, movies, travel). Secondary data analyses of online search behavior for France, Spain, and Italy further demonstrate this negative relation between the anticipated threat (daily new cases and deaths, search for masks) and usage of the feminine- (vs. masculine-) marked terms for the coronavirus. These effects occur even though the grammatical gender assignment is semantically arbitrary.


Abstract. Firn densification modelling is key to understanding ice sheet mass balance,
ice sheet surface elevation change, and the age difference between ice and
the air in enclosed air bubbles. This has resulted in the development of
many firn models, all relying to a certain degree on parameter calibration
against observed data. We present a novel Bayesian calibration method for
these parameters and apply it to three existing firn models. Using an
extensive dataset of firn cores from Greenland and Antarctica, we reach
optimal parameter estimates applicable to both ice sheets. We then use these
to simulate firn density and evaluate against independent observations. Our
simulations show a significant decrease (24 % and 56 %) in observation–model
discrepancy for two models and a smaller increase (15 %) for the third. As
opposed to current methods, the Bayesian framework allows for robust
uncertainty analysis related to parameter values. Based on our results, we
review some inherent model assumptions and demonstrate how firn model choice
and uncertainties in parameter values cause spread in key model outputs.