We propose a practical inexact augmented Lagrangian method (iALM) for nonconvex problems with nonlinear constraints. We characterize the total computational complexity of our method subject to a verifiable geometric condition, which is closely related to the Polyak-Lojasiewicz and Mangasarian-Fromovitz conditions.
In particular, when a first-order solver is used for the inner iterates, we prove that iALM finds a first-order stationary point with $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(1/\epsilon^3)$ calls to the first-order oracle. If, in addition, the problem is smooth and a second-order solver is used for the inner iterates, iALM finds a second-order stationary point with $\tilde{\mathcal{O}}(1/\epsilon^5)$ calls to the second-order oracle. These complexity results match the known theoretical results in the literature.
We also provide strong numerical evidence on large-scale machine learning problems, including the Burer-Monteiro factorization of semidefinite programs, and a novel nonconvex relaxation of the standard basis pursuit template. For these examples, we also show how to verify our geometric condition.


This paper discusses some experiences from a project developing an object-oriented framework for a family of fire alarm system products. TeleLarm AB, a Swedish security company, initiated the project. One application has so far been generated from the framework with successful results. The released application has shown zero defects and has proved to be highly flexible. Fire alarm systems have a long lifetime and have high reliability and flexibility requirements. The most important observations presented in this paper are that the programming language C++ can be used successfully for small embedded systems; and that object-orientation and framework techniques offer flexibility and reusability in such systems. It has also been noted that design for verifiability and testability is very important, affecting as it does both maintainability and reliability.


Blazars are powerful, variable emitters from radio to gamma-ray wavelengths. Even though the general picture of synchrotron emission at low energies and inverse Compton at the high energy end is well established, many important aspects of these remarkable objects are still not well understood. For example, even the location of the gamma-ray emission region is still not clearly established, with some theories locating it close to the black hole/accretion disk while others place it at parsec scales in the radio jet. Since mid-2007 we have carried out a large scale monitoring program at 15 GHz using the OVRO 40 m telescope. We are currently observing about 1700 blazars twice per week. The sample includes all the Fermi-LAT detected blazars north of declination -20 degrees. Here, we study the existence of correlated variability between these two bands for 86 sources bright enough to be detected weekly by LAT. The existence of correlated variability can be interpreted as an indication of a related spatial locations for the radio and gamma-ray emission, making the evaluation of its statistical significance a key goal of our program. A study of the statistical significance of these cross-correlations is presented along with a discussion of the Monte Carlo simulations used to evaluate them. More information about the conditions on the radio emission zone can be obtained through polarization monitoring which tells us about the configuration of the magnetic fields in this region. To study radio polarization variability we are building KuPol, a radio polarization receiver for the 12 to 18 GHz band that will replace the current total power receiver at the OVRO 40 meter telescope.


Missouri data from 2002-2011 are used to analyze the major circumstances that increase the risk of fatality in crashes involving teenage drivers, given a motor vehicle crash occurs. The frequencies of contributing circumstances among teenage and older drivers are compared and a multinomial logistic regression model is used to predict the probability of crash severity under different circumstances. For crashes involving teenage drivers, it is found that driving too fast for conditions, speeding, inattention, and driving on the wrong side are the most frequent circumstances cited in fatal crashes, and are major factors that increase the likelihood of a fatality occurring.


Abstract We investigated the temperature tolerance and growth of 2 federally protected freshwater gastropods from southern Idaho: Valvata utahensis and Pyrgulopsis idahoensis. Snails were collected in the Snake River and transported to the laboratory where they were kept under highly controlled conditions. In varying-temperature, short-duration experiments, the temperatures tolerated by both species were between 7°C and 34°C. In constant-temperature, long-duration experiments, growth rates were between 0.004 mm · d−1 and 0.016 mm · d−1, and we created growth curves for both species that were previously lacking. Our results are among the first to report temperature tolerances and growth rates of native Snake River snails, and we discuss implications for the biology and management of both species.


Estimation of epidemiological and population parameters from molecular sequence data has become central to the understanding of infectious disease dynamics. Various models have been proposed to infer details of the dynamics that describe epidemic progression. These include inference approaches derived from Kingman's coalescent as well as from birthdeath branching processes. The development of alternative approaches merits investigation of their characteristics and differences. Here we use recently described coalescent theory for epidemic dynamics to develop stochastic and deterministic coalescent SIR tree priors. We implement these in a Bayesian phylogenetic inference framework to permit joint estimation of SIR epidemic parameters and the sample genealogy. We assess the models' performance and contrast results obtained with a recently published birth-death-sampling model for epidemic inference. Comparisons are made by analyzing sets of genealogies simulated under precisely known epidemiological parameters. We also compare results of analyses using published HIV-1 sequence data obtained from known UK infection clusters. We show that the coalescent SIR model is effective at estimating epidemiological parameters from data with large fundamental reproductive number R0 and large population size S0. We find that the stochastic variant generally outperforms its deterministic counterpart. However, each of these Bayesian estimators are shown to have undesirable properties in certain circumstances, especially for epidemic outbreaks with R0 close to one or with small susceptible populations.


This thesis examines individual learner characteristics in order to identify those useful as predictors of gifted foreign language learning performance and creativity in secondary school pupil learners. An individual learner might possess a range of learner characteristics which combine to support his or her gifted foreign language performance.
Foreign language learning in England is examined in the opening chapter, providing an historical and educational context within which to explore individual learner differences and the notion of gifted foreign language performance.
Theories and research findings from the fields of linguistics are scrutinised together with those generated by foreign language education research in chapter two. Additionally, there is an explanation of giftedness and this latter discussion links to chapter three which relates specifically to gifted performance and creativity in foreign language learning. The Good Language Learner research conducted by Naiman, Frohlich, Stern and Todesco offers a template for studying multiple learner characteristics and the pioneering work of Vygotsky introduces a model for the teaching of the gifted. Chapter four presents the subsequent theoretical framework for this research and clearly differentiates between cognitive and affective individual learner characteristics.
Specific research questions focus on selected individual learner characteristics, which include: cognitive ability, foreign language aptitude, motivation and attitude in foreign language learning and these are discussed within chapter five. Quantitative methods are used to address the research questions and data is collected from a group of mixed ability secondary school pupils over a three year period. The research tools included standardised tests for ability, memory, and language aptitude and motivation. Creativity tasks and a questionnaire surveying pupil attitude to foreign language learning were designed for the research in this thesis. The quantitative data was processed statistically.
Significant results are highlighted and interpreted with reference to the original theoretical framework and this guides the discussion in chapters six and seven respectively. The closing chapter summarises the main research findings and offers a practical strategy for foreign language teaching including guidelines for the identification of gifted foreign language learners. This is juxtaposed with the current challenging circumstances facing schools, brought about by government educational policy which is seeking to improve pupil performance in foreign language learning and to change national attitudes and perceptions to foreign languages and cultures.


Horn rule languages have formed the basis for many Artificial Intelligence application languages, but are not expressive enough to model domains with a rich hierarchical structure. Description logics have been designed especially to model rich hierarchies. Several applications would significantly benefit from combining the expressive power of both formalisms. This paper focuses on combining recursive function-free Horn rules with the expressive description logic ALCNR, and shows exactly when a hybrid language with decidable inference can be obtained. First, we show that several of the core constructors of description logics lead by themselves to undecidability of inference when combined with recursive function-free Horn rules. We then show that without these constructors we obtain a maximal subset of ALCNR that yields a decidable hybrid language. Finally, we describe a restriction on the Horn rules that guarantees decidable inference when combined with all of ALCNR, and covers many of the common usages of recursive rules.


The weirdness never stops! Oh no! A.J.'s mom just got a job, so he has to go to After School Kids' Kare. And Mr. Tony, the guy who runs it, is crazy. He wants to get into the Guinness Book of World Records by making the world's largest pizza! Will A.J. and the gang beable to tunnel out of the child-care room and escape to freedom? Run for your lives!


Germline pathogenic variants in the BRCA1-associated protein-1 (BAP1) gene cause the BAP1-tumor predisposition syndrome (BAP1-TPDS, OMIM 614327). BAP1-TPDS is associated with an increased risk of developing uveal melanoma (UM), cutaneous melanoma (CM), malignant mesothelioma (MMe), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), meningioma, cholangiocarcinoma, multiple non-melanoma skin cancers, and BAP1-inactivated nevi. Because of this increased risk, it is important to identify patients with BAP1-TPDS. The associated tumors are treated by different medical disciplines, emphasizing the need for generally applicable guidelines for initiating genetic analysis. In this study, we describe the path to identification of BAP1-TPDS in 21 probands found in the Netherlands and the family history at the time of presentation. We report two cases of de novo BAP1 germline mutations (2/21, 9.5%). Findings of this study combined with previously published literature, led to a proposal of guidelines for genetic referral. We recommend genetic analysis in patients with ≥2 BAP1-TPDS-associated tumors in their medical history and/or family history. We also propose to test germline BAP1 in patients diagnosed with UM <40 years, CM <18 years, MMe <50 years, or RCC <46 years. Furthermore, other candidate susceptibility genes for tumor types associated with BAP1-TPDS are discussed, which can be included in gene panels when testing patients.


Introduction: Gates Glidden bur, used for preparation of cervical and middle root canal has a weak point on its stem, far from the active point where fractures usually occur, which facilitates its removal. Objective: To present a case of Gates Glidden bur fracture near its active portion, an unusual fracture site for this instrument. Clinical case: A 21-years old patient was submitted to endodontic treatment of tooth #37. During preparation of the cervical canal and middle thirds, a fracture occurred in the active tip of the Gates Glidden bur, with its active portion getting trapped in the middle third of the mesial buccal canal. The fractured fragment was removed through the use of a CVDent 1000 (CVDentus) ultrasonic device with a T0SP1 tip. The fractured bur was removed and the treatment successfully completed. At one year radiographic control, the periapical tissues presented a normal aspect. Conclusion: According to this present case study, it is possible to say that Gates Glidden bur may suffer an unusual fracture, which makes very difficult their removal from root canal; so, it is advisable to follow always the usage recommendations.


A new spring type microelectrothermal actuator with greatly enhanced displacement is proposed. Instead of using a single long chevron actuator, several chevrons are folded into a number of sections to become a spring-like actuator. Insulating beams with a very low thermal expansion coefficient are used to form cross-linkages thereby avoiding displacement in the x-direction. As the actuator is heated up under bias, thermal expansion of the material leads to displacement in the y-direction only. FEMLAB simulation shows that for each device, the displacement linearly increases with increasing arm length. By introducing folded arms, the device size is substantially decreased whilst still delivering a large displacement, which is proportional to the number of arms. Hence the displacement that can be achieved by thermal actuation is significantly increased. For instead, the displacement for chevron with l=400µm is ~17µm and the size of ~800_50µm. A spring actuator consists of four chevrons with l=100um, it delivers a 12.5µm displacement with a size of only ~220_100µm. As comparing with a single chevron actuator with l=100µm, the folded spring delivers almost 4 times the displacement. A 2-mask stages process is used to fabricate the device. A freestanding electroplated Ni spring arms without the cross-linkages has already been fabricated.


The MBioID initiative has been set up to address the following germane question: What and how biometric technologies could be deployed in identity documents in the foreseeable future? This research effort proposes to look at current and future practices and systems of establishing and using biometric identity documents (IDs) and evaluate their effectiveness in large-scale developments. The first objective of the MBioID project is to present a review document establishing the current state-of-the-art related to the use of multimodal biometrics in an IDs application. This research report gives the main definitions, properties and the framework of use related to biometrics, an overview of the main standards developed in the biometric industry and standardisation organisations to ensure interoperability, as well as some of the legal framework and the issues associated to biometrics such as privacy and personal data protection. The state-of-the-art in terms of technological development is also summarised for a range of single biometric modalities (2D and 3D face, fingerprint, iris, on-line signature and speech), chosen according to ICAO recommendations and availabilities, and for various multimodal approaches. This paper gives a summary of the main elements of that report. The second objective of the MBioID project is to propose relevant acquisition and evaluation protocols for a large-scale deployment of biometric IDs. Combined with the protocols, a multimodal database will be acquired in a realistic way, in order to be as close as possible to a real biometric IDs deployment. In this paper, the issues and solutions related to the acquisition setup are briefly presented.


Abstract. Standardised data formats and data models are essential for data integration and interoperability, which in turn adds value to data by allowing its reuse in multiple contexts. For this reason, in recent years extensive efforts have been focused on standards development. When representing the built environment, 3D city models and Building Information Models are particularly relevant, and their integration is now required to underpin use cases that cover the full life-cycle of a built asset, including design and planning as well as operations and management, and to support legal applications such as cadastral systems. For those kinds of data, CityGML by the Open Geospatial Consortium and Industry Foundation Classes by buildingSMART are the most popular reference standards. However, many users report, often through informal channels, the difficulties of working with these formats. This paper summarizes the outcomes of the GeoBIM Benchmark 2019, a scientific initiative funded by ISPRS and EuroSDR to collect insights into the most relevant issues encountered in the management of CityGML and IFC within existing software. Alongside data management (import, visualisation, analysis, export) problems, issues of particular consequence in terms of integration relate to georeferencing IFC files and the conversions among the two kinds of formats and models. Thus, the benchmark was designed to explore these tasks in available software. Following analysis of the benchmark results, a key outcome is the impossibility to find clear patterns in the behaviour of tools, which consequently means there is no consistency in the implementation of standards. Although the results could seem disappointing, the criticality in managing these standards as they are was described and this awareness can be the starting point for further research or further standards development. Finally, this project was useful to gather a wide community around this topic, and the discussion about the GeoBIM-related issues was definitely pushed.


Purpose: In this paper, we lay out the analysis and provide an overview of the functions carried out by the national competition authorities in the Western Balkan countries and demonstrate their compliance with EU rules. We deal with the level of implementation of competition rules on prohibited agreements, abuse of dominant position, notification of concentration and state aid. Design/Methodology/Approach: We provide an overview of the stage these countries have arrived at in fulfilling their obligation on competition issues based on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which is a step forward for EU integration. We do this by carrying out a comparative analysis of the data collected from both primary and secondary sources, in order to demonstrate the current situation on competition in the Western Balkan countries and determine the most appropriate means to build strong and efficient National Competition Authorities. Findings: Findings show that competition in Balkan countries is still in a phase of development and more needs to be done in order to create an adequate competition regime. Practical Implications: We propose measures in order to ensure the effective implementation of the law on the protection of competition and the market economy. Originality/Value: When going through a phase of transformation, political change and integration, it is important to refer to other experiences, especially when trying to form part of the EU integration.


Singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problems are characterized by their dual behavior and the presence of sharp layers. These problems exhibit both convective and diffusive behavior. The convective and diffusive terms are in balance within the layers and the convective terms are dominant away from these layers. Standard methods perform poorly on coarse meshes because of the hyperbolic nature of the operator in a major part of the domain. To this end, we propose a new approach in the finite element framework to solve singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problems. In the proposed approach, the test function space is modified and hence, fits into the class of Petrov-Galerkin finite element methods.
This method is motivated by, and similar to one proposed by Hemker [?] for one-dimensional problems which was based on using Green's functions to motivate appropriate test spaces. For two-dimensional problems we no longer utilize Green's function, but rather we try to capture the solution of a suitably posed discretized dual problem with functions in the test space. The dual problem is posed in such a way that a weighted error at the interelement boundary is minimized. The basic idea is to control error growth across each element and thus, control the global error. We discuss the choice of the dual problem to achieve this and propose test spaces that provide a good approximation for the dual solution. Since the dual solution is exponential, it implies that the test spaces are exponentially fitted. The test spaces are designed in such a way that it is possible to easily develop a higher-order method in a hierarchical framework. Accurate numerical solutions are obtained and large errors are confined to the few elements in the vicinity of the layers.
Singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problems are ideal systems to be solved by adaptive methods. It is far more efficient to resolve the nonuniform behavior of the solutions with nonuniform meshes. Efficient and inexpensive error estimates are needed to achieve optimal refinement of the mesh. We propose an a posteriori error estimation technique where we solve element-wise auxiliary boundary value problems. We use the error estimate to adapt the meshes for singularly perturbed convection-diffusion problems. We discuss the performance of the error estimator and present the adapted meshes.


We present a tone mapping algorithm that is derived from a model of retinal processing. Our approach has two major improvements over existing methods. First, tone mapping is applied directly on the mosaic image captured by the sensor, analogue to the human visual system that applies a non-linearity on the color signals captured by the cone mosaic. This reduces the number of necessary operations by a factor three. Second, we introduce a variation of the center/surround class of local tone mapping algorithms, which are known to increase the local contrast of images but tend to create artifacts. Our method gives a good improvement in contrast while avoiding halos and maintaining good global appearance. Like traditional center/surround algorithms, our method uses a weighted average of surrounding pixel values. Instead of using it directly, the weighted average result serves as a variable in the Naka-Rushton equation, which models the photoreceptor non-linearity. Our algorithm provides pleasing results on various images with different scene content, key, and dynamic range. c © 2007 Optical Society of America


Whether in movie theaters or sports arenas, at fairs or theme parks, around campfires or family hearths, Americans consume more popcorn by volume than any other snack. To the world, popcorn seems as American as baseball and apple pie. Within American food lore, popcorn holds a special place, for it was purportedly shared by Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. In Popped Culture, Andrew F. Smith tests such legends against archaeological, agricultural, culinary, and social findings. While debunking many myths, he discovers a flavorful story of the curious kernel's introduction and ever-increasing consumption in North America. Unlike other culinary fads of the nineteenth century, popcorn has never lost favor with the American public. Smith gauges the reasons for its unflagging popularity: the invention of "wire over the fire" poppers, commercial promotion by shrewd producers, the fascination of children with the kernel's magical "pop," and affordability. To explain popcorn's twentieth-century success, he examines its fortuitous association with new technology-radio, movies, television, microwaves-and recounts the brand-name triumphs of American manufacturers and packagers. His familiarity with the history of the snack allows him to form expectations about popcorn's future in the United States and abroad. Smith concludes his account with more than 160 surprising historical recipes for popcorn cookery, including the intriguing use of the snack in custard, hash, ice cream, omelets, and soup.


This Note analyzes foreign direct investment in India, looking into the investment troubles surrounding the Dabhol power project, India's largest foreign investment project to date. After providing an introduction to the mechanics of project finance and a backdrop to the Dabhol power project, the Note considers whether the Indian government's actions, specifically the use of the Indian legal system, constituted "total expropriation" and violations of international law. Additionally, this Note considers what systemic changes India can make in order to create a more investment-friendly environment in the post-Dabhol context.


A geochemical drainage survey was carried out across
1 050 km' of the Harlech Dome and adjacent areas at a
mean density of 0.85 sample/km2. Fine (-100 mesh)
stream sediment, panned concentrate and water samples
were collected at every site. Cu, Pb, Zn, MO, As, Ba, Fe,
Mn, Co, Ni, Cr, V and Zr were determined in stream
sediment samples; Cu, Pb, Zn, Ba, Fe, Mn, Ti, Nl, Ce
and Sn in panned concentrates, and Cu, Pb and Zn in
water. Gold was determined in panned concentrates
from part of the area.
The results show that the area is metalhferous,
containing large anomalies for a wide range of metals.
Strong regional patterns are displayed by many elements
and it is demonstrated that these are caused by bedrock
li thology, hydromorphic processes, mineralisation and
contamination. Geochemical signatures characteristic of
the following metallrferous concentrations were identified:
ii) disseminated copper 'porphyry-style' mineralisation;
'gold-belt' vein-style mineralisation in Cambrian
rocks;
mineralisation in Ordovician volcanic and sedimentary
rocks;
bedded manganese deposits in the Cambrian;
manganese vein-style mineralisation in Ordovician
volcanic rocks;
(ii)
(iii)
iiv)
iv)
(vi)
(vii)
granite-related mineralisation;
dark mudstones.
Rhobell Fawr volcanism and possible associated metasomatism
may also have generated metal anomalies but
the evidence available is inconclusive. Small, bedded iron
ore deposits failed to produce distinct anomalies.
Despite widespread past mining activity eleven areas or
styles of mineralisation have been identified where it is
considered that further work might lead to the recognition
of deposits of economic or supply significance.
These targets include base metal anomalies in
Ordovician volcanic rocks where there is some potential
for volcanogenic stratiform mineralisation; copper and
gold anomalies in Upper Cambrian rocks indicating the
presence of further gold-belt vein-style mineralisation;
arsenic anomalies over Ordovician acid volcanic rocks
whose gold potential merits investigation; manganese
and barium anomalies related to manganese-barium vein
mineralisation in Arenig volcanic rocks and metalliferous
concentrations in dark mudstones marginal to the
Rhobell volcanic centre.
A metallogenetic model is. proposed for the area
involving: syngenetic metalliferous concentration during
Cambrian sedimentation; copper and possibly gold mineralisation
in an island arc-type setting at the close of the
Cambrian; syngenet ic and volcanogenic base-metal
enrichment during the Lower Ordovician, and deep burial
and remobilisation of these metals to form vein-style
deposits during or after the main (end Silurian)
Caledonian erogenic event.
Strong regional trends displayed by elements not
directly involved in mineralisation, such as Zr, Ce and
Cr, can be related to the lithostratigraphy and suggest,
in conjunction with other evidence, significant palaeogeographic
changes at the close of the Middle Cambrian,
involving the derivation of sediment from source areas
of contrasting geochemical character in Lower Cambrian
and Upper Cambrian-Ordovician times. The characteristics
of volcanic rocks show less clearly because of the
rapid alternation of acid and basic lithologies with
respect to the scale of the survey.
INTRODUCTION
This survey .covers about 1100 km2 of western Wales
bounded by the towns of Bala in the east, Tywyn in
south, Blaenau Ffestiniog in the north, and Cardigan Bay
in the west (Figure 1). The area is formed almost
entirely of sedimentary, volcanic and intrusive rocks of
Lower Palaeozoic age, folded into the structure known
as the Harlech Dome. The area lies within the Snowdonia
National Park and 1s mountainous. The most prominent
hills are the Cader Idris, Aran, Arenig and Moelwyn
groups which rise to 907 m on Aran Fawddwy and form a
ring on the periphery of the survey area. The westcentral
part of the area is dominated by another range of
hills, the most prominent of which is Rhinog Fawr.
Drainage is dominated by the catchment of the Afon
Mawddach, which drains the central part of the area.
Acid, peaty soils underlain by variable thicknesses of
glacial deposits and interspersed locally with extensive
areas of rock exposure characterise the high ground.
Lower slopes are blanketed in drift deposits and have
less acid soils. Streams cut to bedrock except in the
lower reaches of the larger rivers. High ground is
covered by heather or rough grass and used for sheep
grazing; lower ground is mostly grass covered with small
areas of deciduous forest. There is little arable farming.
Extensive coniferous forest plantations cover all except
the highest ground in several areas. Stream contamination
is only a problem in the vicinity of farms, villages
and a disused military training area to the east of
Trawsfynydd.
No detailed geochemical survey data has been
published for this area though surveys have been carried
out by universities and commercial companies. The area
is included in the Wolfson Geochemical 4tlas (Imperial
College, 1978) and a geochemical study of Wales by
Urquidi-Barrau (1973). Both works are based on the same
data and provide useful information on a regional scale.
Mohr (1959) studied the lithogeochemistry of the
Manganese Beds, and more recently geochemical data
were Included in studies of the Rhobell Fawr Volcanic
Group (Kokelaar, 1977) and Aran Volcanic Group in the
type area (Dunkley, 1978). The results of airborne geophysical,
magnetic, electromagnetic and radiometric
surveys of the Harlech Dome and geological, geophysical
and geochemical investigations of twenty six anomalies
arising from them, as well as various orientation studies
carried out in support of these investigations, are
described in an earlier MRP report (Allen and others,
1979). The literature on geology and mineralisation in
the area is extensive and was summarised in the earlier
report (Allen and others, 1979). Recent publications of
most relevance to this study include, on the geology,
Matley and Wilson (1946), Davies (1958), Lynas (1973),
Bassett, Whittington and Williams (1966), Ridgway (lY75,
1976) and BGS 1:50 000 map sheet 135; on mineralisation,
Rice and Sharp (1976), Allen and others (1979),
Cole (1977) and Foster-Smith (1977); and on mining and
the environment, Searle (1975).


Wireless mesh networks are multi-hop networks which consist of radio nodes in mesh topology. These networks can use different wireless technologies such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, and cellular technology. In recent years, wireless Internet broadband access has become an important aspect for current and future business. Cellular networks often deliver this service with low data rates, high coverage, and expensive cost. Also other types of wireless networks suffer from lack of mobility and the line of sight in the metropolitan areas. Lately, wireless mesh networks have appeared as an alternative to mitigate these problems and provide wireless Internet broadband access with low cost, high data rates, and satisfactory QoS. Consequently the amount of studies on network performance of these networks has been rapidly increased. One-way delay, as one of the key network performance parameters, has become more important Since SLA contracts consider it to guarantee QoS levels. Moreover, accurate one-way delay measurements are difficult to achieve due to challenges in proper synchronization of clocks and existence of asymmetric links. Recently, new methods and infrastructures have been proposed to mitigate this issue. In this thesis, we have investigated the impact of packet rate, payload size, and number of hop counts on measurement accuracy of a tool named TOM. To do so, we used real one-way delay results obtained from DPMI as reference for comparison. To evaluate TOM measurement accuracy, TOM and DPMI were adapted to each other via source code modifications in order to deliver same measurable delay. Also, an experimental setup was also designed for this purpose. Additionally we computed theoretical lower band for one-way delays to evaluate reliability of DPMI and TOM. In the other part of this thesis, we analyzed the effect of TCP and UDP traffic flow on one-way delay performance with respect to data rate, packet size, and number of hop count, while network traces were captured with DPMI. From the results, we concluded that TOM does not have acceptable accuracy in low packet rates, and its accuracy increases linearly as the packet rate increase. Moreover, varying payload size does not have noticeable effect on TOM accuracy compared to packet rate. Absolute error of TOM measurements for single hop scenario is accumulated as number of passing hop increases. From TCP and UDP experiments, we observed that TCP has higher one-way delay compared to UDP due to existing acknowledgements and retransmissions. Interestingly, TCP and UDP are more sensitive to packet size in multi hop tests rather than single hop tests. Also, for a fixed packet size UDP performs better in high data rates.


School reform advocates have been frustrated over the slow pace of integrating proposed school improvements, hypothesizing that the resiliency of established roles contributes much to the conserving tendencies of educational institutions. In seeking to understand this issue, the school reform movement has paid close attention to established roles, such as teachers and principals, and the issues these individuals face as they seek to address change. They have paid relatively little attention, however, to the emergence of new roles. The educational technologist (ET) is a role that is growing rapidly within schools in conjunction with the widespread adoption of networked technology. Looking back over 6 years of research data from a qualitative research study of networked technology integration in one K-12 system, the author examines the emergence of the ET role from the classical sociological perspectives of social structure, space, and time and its relationship to the cluster of core positions. This study demonstrates the importance of role to school reform issues, indicating that it can be used as a critical lens for understanding the progress of reform and the nature of technology integration.


In 2019, five centuries will have passed since Ferdinand Magellan's departure from Seville, in charge of a Spanish expedition that sought to claim the fabulous Spice Islands. The Portuguese defector, annoyed with the Portuguese monarch Manuel I (r.1485-1521), who had refused him the reward requested for many years of dedicated services to the Portuguese Crown, had moved to Spain two years earlier, where he offered his services to Carlos I (r.1516-1556). He presented the Spanish king with the proposal of reaching the eastern islands of Indonesia by a western route, avoiding navigation in areas that the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494, had decreed to be of Portuguese influence. This involved quite simply retracing Christopher Columbus's Indian project, but now with new bases and a more developed knowledge of the geography of the Far East. What sources could Ferdinand Magellan have used to trace his planned western route to the East?


The identification of real estate cycles has always been an important issue in the study of real estate. This paper selected as indicators the Composite Leading Index and Reference Cycle Index regarding the real estate cycles in Taiwan, as they incorporate real estate activities, such as investments, production, transactions and utilization. This paper applied the bivariate Markov-switching autoregressive model (MS-ARX) and the Markov-switching vector auto-regression model (MSVAR) to identify the turning points of real estate cycles. The empirical results indicate that both intercepts and variances were subject to the influence of unobservable variables. Also, the models with the best fit are MSIAH (2)-VAR (8) with the lags being 8 and L (1) – MSIH (2)-AR (8) with the lags being 8 and the intercepts, coefficients and co-variances are subject to the influence of state variables. Both models showed that the real estate cycles in Taiwan are undergoing contraction rather than expansion. This is in line with the results published by Taiwan Real Estate Research Center. Generally speaking, L(1)-MSIH(2)-ARX(8) and MSIAH(2)-VAR(8) produced rather accurate results in terms of identifying the turning points of real estate cycles in Taiwan.


The soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines, is a major factor limiting soybean yield. Experiments were conducted in 2009 and 2010 to determine the effects of liquid swine manure and chemical fertilizer PK on soybean and corn yields, and on SCN population in an SCN-suppressive field (S-Site) and an SCN-conducive field (C-Site) in Minnesota. The experiment was a split-plot design with crop sequences as main plots and fertilizer treatments as subplots. The 2-yr crop sequences were Sus-Sus, Res-Sus, and Corn-Sus, where Sus was SCN-susceptible soybean, and Res was SCN-resistant soybean. The fertilizer treatments were manure, PK, and a nonfertilizer as control. Manure did not reduce SCN egg population density but resulted in 31% lower SCN second-stage juvenile (J2) population density at the S-Site at 45 d after planting (DAP) in 2009. Manure also reduced spiral nematode (Helicotylenchus spp.) population density by 52% compared with PK and nonfertilizer treatments at S-Site at 45 DAP in 2009. The crop sequence of Corn-Sus and Res-Sus reduced the SCN egg and J2 but increased spiral nematode population density at both sites. An increase of 1.4 Mg/ha and 0.5 Mg/ha in yield of susceptible soybean was observed in manure and PK treatments, respectively, at the C-Site in 2009. Corn yield was 2.8 Mg/ha and 5.0 Mg/ha greater when treated with manure than nonfertilizer at the S-Site and C-Site, respectively. This study suggests that soil fertility management may be a useful strategy to alleviate the SCN damage to soybean.


This volume provides an overview of recent research on the nature, causes, and consequences of cognitive consistency. In 21 chapters, leading scholars address the pivotal role of consistency principles at various levels of social information processing, ranging from micro-level to macro-level processes. The book's scope encompasses mental representation, processing fluency and motivational fit, implicit social cognition, thinking and reasoning, decision making and choice, and interpersonal processes. Key findings, emerging themes, and current directions in the field are explored, and important questions for future research identified.


Abstract Proxy reporting is a common practice during survey data collection to increase response rates while reducing fieldwork costs, and agreement between proxies and self-reports is critical to make reliable and valid inferences. This study is the first to unpack what influences proxy accuracy in a non-Western setting using data from the 2012 Qatar Education Study. We find that agreement is a function of a student's grade in school, grades, a parent's level of education, and the interaction between immigration status and parent education. These findings suggest in multicultural contexts, agreement may vary based on factors beyond what is typically accounted when examining the components of reporting error as a result of using proxies over self-reports.


The Nilgiris district in Tamilnadu has a rich biodiversity in terms of flora, fauna and ethnic population. The district is basically a mountainous region, situated at an elevation of 2000 to 2,600 meters above MSL and constituting of several hill and Steep Mountain valleys. This region houses six tribes who are mainly forest dwellers and live in close settlements depending on the forest resources for their livelihood. The Tribes of Nilgiris have been diagnosed and monitored for Sickle cell Anemia which is a disease of major concern among these ethnic populations. This genetic disorder developed due to the sickling of Red Blood Cells has increased during the past few decades. The Tribes, as they live in close encounter with the forest regions and have strict social cultural barriers, face difficulty in availing treatment or counseling from the Sickle Cell Research Center (SCRC) and other NGOs like NAWA and AHWINI in the region. It was observed that many factors such as landscape terrain, climatic conditions and improper roads tend to hinder the access to appropriate health care. The SCRC in Gudalur region is a facility established to monitor the disease cases inspite of these influencing factors. On analyzing the year bound age wise classification among male and female patients, certain dropouts in cases were observed which may be due to inaccessible condition or migration of the patient. In our study, Landscape heterogeneity mapping for different climatic seasons was done in ArcGIS 10.1. For this, contour and terrain maps, road networks and villages were prepared and factors that determine Terrain Difficulty were assessed. Vegetation mapping using IRS satellite images for the study region was attempted and associated with the landscape map. A risk analysis was proposed based on terrain difficulty and access to the nearest Health care Center. Based on this, the above factors alternate routes were suggested to access the difficult areas.


The results of the Web query log analysis may be significantly shifted depending on the fraction of agents (non-human clients), which are not excluded from the log. To detect and exclude agents the Web log studies use threshold values for a number of requests submitted by a client during the observation period. However, different studies use different observation periods, and a threshold assigned to one period is usually incomparable with the threshold assigned to the other period. We propose the uniform method equally working on the different observation periods. The method bases on the sliding window technique: a threshold is assigned to the sliding window rather than to the whole observation period. Besides, we determine the sub-optimal values of the parameters of the method: a window size and a threshold and recommend 5-7 unique queries as an upper bound of the threshold for 1-hour sliding window.


Introduction. Chromatin reorganisation associated withreversible epigenetic modifications is consideredresponsible for changes in gene expression observedduring prostate cancer progression. Histone acetylationis an important epigenetic modification promoting an'open' chromatin configuration and transcriptionalactivation. Trichostatin A (TSA), an inhibitor of HDACactivity, has been associated with a globalhyperacetylation that may lead to the disruption ofchromatin phenotype and the transcription of a selectionof genes that inhibit tumour growth. We have alreadyshown that at concentrations of >50ng/ml, TSA inducesapoptosis and G2M cell cycle arrest in these cell lines.However, even at low doses of TSA, which have noobvious impact on the cell cycle or apoptosis (sub-lethaldoses), subtle changes in chromatin phenotype areinduced. The aim of this study was to establish theunderlying alterations in gene expression in normalprostate cell line (PNT1A) and lymph node metastaticcell line (LNCaP) induced by Trichostatin A.Materials and Methods. Following treatment of PNT1Aand LNCaP cell lines with sublethal (12ng/ml) and lethal(100ng/ml) doses of TSA, total cellular RNA wasisolated from cell samples. cDNA was synthesised fromextracted RNA, and control and test samples weredifferentially labelled with fluorescent Cy3 and Cy5 dyesin situ for direct comparison. Dye swaps wereincorporated into the study design to ensure preciseinterpretation of expression profiles. Hybridisation ofappropriately labelled cDNA to MWG Human 30K arrayA containing 9,984 oligonucleotide probes, wasperformed under optimum binding conditions. Scanningand analysis of the microarray slide was completed usingGenePix and Acuity (Axon Instruments) software.Results. Gene expression was clearly disrupted in bothPNT1A and LNCaP in response to TSA inducedhyperacetylation. A significant trend for up-regulation ingene expression was identified in PNT1A following highconcentrations of TSA. This includes the increasedexpression of cell cycle genes such as a 2.27 foldincrease in cyclin g2, as well as a selection of genesrelated to the onset of apoptosis. This is likely to beassociated with increased apoptosis and cell cycle arrestseen at these concentrations. Interestingly, altered geneexpression was also evident in cells treated with sublethaldoses of TSA, where no cytotoxic effects of the treatmentare visible. Several functional gene groups were found tobe down-regulated across both cell lines in response toTSA, including a range of general transcription factors,along with genes involved in the MAP Kinase pathway.A consistent up-regulation can also be reported in both asubset of homeobox genes, and cytochrome c oxidasegenes. Also important is the observation that theKallikrein (prostate specific antigen) gene has beenfound to be down-regulated in both normal prostate andmetastatic cell lines in response to TSA treatment.Conclusions. Histone hyperacetylation and subsequentchromatin redistribution are associated with thedisruption of gene expression profiles in prostate cancer.Disruption in gene expression occurs in the absence ofcytotoxic effects which may be due to subtle chromatinphenotypic changes observed at sublethal doses of TSA,and may therefore be indicative of those genes directly orindirectly regulated by histone acetylation.


The purpose of this study was to compare the neurotrophic factor response following one session of high-intensity exercise, resistance training or both in a cohort of physically inactive overweight adults aged 18–30 years old. A randomized, parallel-group clinical trial of 51 men (23.6 ± 3.5 years; 83.5 ± 7.8 kg; 28.0 ± 1.9 kg/m2) who are physically inactive (i.e., < 150 min of moderate-intensity exercise per week or IPAQ score of <600 MET min/week for >6 months) and are either abdominally obese (waist circumference ≥90 cm) or have a body mass index, BMI ≥25 and ≤ 30 kg/m2 were randomized to the following four exercise protocols: high-intensity exercise (4 × 4 min intervals at 85–95% maximum heart rate [HRmax] interspersed with 4 min of recovery at 75–85% HRmax) (n = 14), resistance training (12–15 repetitions per set, at 50–70% of one repetition maximum with 60 s of recovery) (n = 12), combined high-intensity and resistance exercise (n = 13), or non-exercising control (n = 12). The plasma levels of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), neurotrophin-4 (also known as neurotrophin 4/5; NT-4 or NT-4/5), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were determined before (pre-exercise) and 1-min post-exercise for each protocol session. Resistance training induced significant increases in NT-3 (+39.6 ng/mL [95% CI, 2.5–76.6; p = 0.004], and NT-4/5 (+1.3 ng/mL [95% CI, 0.3–2.3; p = 0.014]), respectively. Additionally, combined training results in favorable effects on BDNF (+22.0, 95% CI, 2.6–41.5; p = 0.029) and NT-3 (+32.9 ng/mL [95% CI, 12.3–53.4; p = 0.004]), respectively. The regression analysis revealed a significant positive relationship between changes in BDNF levels and changes in NT-4/5 levels from baseline to immediate post-exercise in the combined training group (R2 = 0.345, p = 0.034) but not the other intervention groups. The findings indicate that acute resistance training and combined exercise increase neurotrophic factors in physically inactive overweight adults. Further studies are required to determine the biological importance of changes in neurotrophic responses in overweight men and chronic effects of these exercise protocols. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02915913 (Date: September 22, 2016).


Boron (B) deficiency limits reproductive growth more than vegetative growth in cereals such as wheat. The purpose of the present study was to identify the critical stages of anther development of wheat ('Wilgoyne') during which B deficiency causes a significant and irreversible decrease of floret fertility in order to formulate timely measures for correcting or preventing this problem. Withdrawing B from the rooting medium for 3 d between premeiotic interphase through meiosis to late tetrad, limited anther elongation and resulted in the loss of pollen viability. The negative effects of B withdrawal on anther length suggest that the role of B in reproductive cell walls is similar to that in vegetative ones. The results indicated that as more florets reached meiosis within the period of B withdrawal, the lower was floret fertility and the number of grains set in a whole ear. For the whole ear, the critical period during which B deficiency causes maximal and irreversible damage to floret fertility was about 7 d, extending from the early emergence of the flag leaf to 2–3 d after its full emergence. The results suggest that there are two phases of pollen development sensitive to boron deficiency: the period from premeiotic interphase through meiosis to late tetrad was the most sensitive stage of microsporogenesis in wheat while the period from mitosis-I to II during which starch accumulation occurred in pollen grains was less sensitive.


In Krishna Kumar v State of Bihar, the Supreme Court of India pronounced that an Ordinance enacted during a legislative recess must be mandatorily laid before the legislature when it reconvenes. However, the textual reading of the relevant constitutional provisions as contained in Article 123 and 213 of the Constitution of India does not prohibit the re-promulgation of Ordinances once the same is either rejected or cease to have an effect. The Supreme Court of India in DC Wadhwa v State of Bihar partially depreciated such practice of consistent (re) promulgation of Ordinances without placing them before the legislature, by declaring them as a fraud on the Constitution. However, the issue of whether such re-promulgation is a fraud on the Constitution and thus invalid, was not authoritatively answered. The present case note discusses the propriety and the constitutional sustainability of re-promulgation of Ordinances in the exercise of legislative powers conferred upon the nominal executive head of State under Article 123 to the President of India and Article 213 to the Governor of State in the light of Krishna Kumar v State of Bihar decision.


Mad, bad and sad. From the depression suffered by Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath to the mental anguish and addictions of iconic beauties Zelda Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe. From Freud and Jung and the radical breakthroughs of psychoanalysis to Lacan's construction of a modern movement and the new women-centred therapies. This is the story of how we have understood mental disorders and extreme states of mind in women over the last two hundred years and how we conceive of them today, when more and more of our inner life and emotions have become a matter for medics and therapists.


Science diplomacy creates possibilities for trust building in international relations. We draw on studies of science, diplomacy, and trust in IR and explore Chinese scientific activities in the Arctic in order to sketch out four mechanisms that produce procedural and generalized forms of trust: the sharing of resources and infrastructure, personal interactions, science‐based institutions, and spillover effects. The materials of the case of 'science China' also help to question assumptions about science diplomacy in IR as they illustrate its inherent tensions, boundaries, and limitations.


The mining industry is under increasing pressure to consider alternative means of power supply. The industry is faced with the effects of a growing energy deficiency as evidenced by the recent approval by NERSA of an Eskom tariff hike exceeding 9% and energy supply constraints to the mining industry and resulting losses in excess of R1.3 billion, as reported by Consultancy Africa Intelligence. Mining companies are looking inwards and exploring solutions that allow for independent electricity generation in mitigation of what EY, in its 2015 - 2016 report on business risks facing mining and metals, ranks as one of the top ten business risks in the mining industry - inadequate access to energy.


The safety of long-acting β2-agonist (LABA) treatment in asthma has been questioned following reported increased respiratory deaths when salmeterol was added to usual pharmacotherapy. The aim of this study was to examine whether asthma, cardiac or all-cause mortality and morbidity were increased with formoterol use. The analysis included all AstraZeneca randomised controlled parallel-group asthma trials of 3–12-months duration involving formoterol. Risks associated with formoterol use compared with non-LABA treatment, overall and in combination with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), were assessed using an intention-to-treat analysis of the rates and rate ratios of deaths and serious adverse events (SAEs). The main objective of this study was to compare asthma-related mortality in patients using formoterol and those not using formoterol. There were eight asthma-related deaths (0.34 per 1,000 person-yrs) among 49,906 formoterol-randomised patients (92% using ICS), and two (0.22 per 1,000 person-yrs) among 18,098 patients (83% using ICS) not randomised to formoterol, which was nonsignificant. Asthma-related SAEs (>90% of which were hospitalisations) were significantly fewer among formoterol-randomised patients (0.75 versus 1.10%). There was no increase in asthma-related SAEs with increased daily doses of formoterol (9, 18 or 36 μg). There was no significant difference in cardiac mortality or noncardiac nonasthma-related mortality in formoterol-randomised compared to non-LABA-treated patients. All-cause mortality was similar. In the data set in which all subjects were prescribed ICS at baseline, there were seven asthma-related deaths (0.32 per 1,000 person-yrs) among 46,003 formoterol-randomised patients and one (0.14 per 1,000 person-yrs) among 13,905 patients not randomised to formoterol, which was also nonsignificant. There were few asthma-related or cardiac-related deaths among patients randomised to formoterol, and all differences were nonsignificant compared with non-long-acting β2-agonist-randomised patients. However, despite data on >68,000 patients, the power was insufficient to conclude that there was no increased mortality with formoterol. Cardiac-related serious adverse events were not increased, and asthma-related serious adverse events were significantly reduced with formoterol.


In Part I several fundamental concepts in seismology are examined in detail. The different teleseismic seismic magnitude scales are studied on the basis of Gutenberg and Richter's original notepads. The "revised magnitudes" presented by Richter and Duda are shown to be basically body wave magnitudes which are converted to the surface wave basis. These revised magnitudes are systemically higher (by an average of 0.22) than the magnitudes published by Gutenberg and Richter in Seismicity of the Earth, which are basically surface wave magnitudes. Use of the revised magnitudes has led to substantial over-estimates
of the moment of great earthquakes. Fault area, rather than magnitude, should be used for moment estimates when the moment is unavailable.

A dataset of 41 moderate and large earthquakes is used to derive scaling laws relating kinematic fault parameters such as magnitudes, moment and fault dimensions. If effective stress and static stress drop are equal, then, fault rise time, τ, and fault area, S, are related by τ = 16S^½ /(7π^(3/2)β), where β is shear velocity. Fault length (parallel to strike) and width (parallel to dip) are empirically related by L = 2W. Observed data agree well with the predicted scaling relations. Fault width (i.e. the two dimensionality of faults) must not be neglected. Inclusion of width leads to different average source spectra for surface waves and body waves. The m_b versus M_s relation from this study differs significantly from the Gutenberg-Richter relation, because the Gutenberg-Richter equation was derived for body waves with a predominant period of about 5 sec and thus does not apply to modern 1 sec m_b determinations. Previous investigators who assumed that the Gutenberg-Richter relation was derived from 1 sec data were in error.

In Part II, the theory necessary to calculate the amplitudes
of the earth's rotationally and elliptically split free oscillations is developed. The amplitude of each singlet is explicitly given as the product of factors for fault geometry, seismic moment, source depth, earth structure and the geographic coordinates of the source and receiver. These results are applicable for the synthesis of either spectra or time domain records for which splitting is an important factor.

The splitting of the earth's normal modes was observed for both the 1960 Chilean and 1964 Alaskan earthquakes. The theoretical results for the excitation of singlets are used to predict the relative amplitude of observed split peaks. Good agreement is obtained for thrust fault source models derived from long period surface waves. However, other mechanisms, such as a slow isotropic volume change, are also consistent with the split mode relative amplitudes, and are excluded only by additional data.

The split modes are observed for the 1960 Chilean earthquake by analysis in the time domain. One hundred fifty hours of the Isabella, California strain record are filtered to isolate individual multiplets. Synthetic seismograms with and without splitting are used to confirm the splitting of _0S_2 and _0S_3 and to demonstrate the splitting of _0S_4, _0S_5, _0T_3 and _0T_4. Different techniques for measuring the Q of split modes are studied. It is concluded that Q determinations from comparison of time domain synthetics to data give much more stability than frequency domain techniques. Uncertainties in the calibration of the instrumental absolute amplitudes rule out a direct determination of the moment of the Chilean earthquake. However, by comparing Isabella records for Chile and Alaska, the long-period moment of the Chilean earthquake is found to be 3.3 times that of the Alaskan event. By using the moment estimated for Alaska from long period surface waves, the moment of the Chilean earthquake is estimated to be 2.4 x 10^(30) dyne cm.


"Phyllobates terribilis, a remarkably toxic new species of frog, is described from the vicinity of an Emberá Chocó settlement in lowland rain forest of Pacific coastal Colombia. It is the third frog definitely known to be used for poisoning darts; the other species are P. aurotaenia and P. bicolor. Toxicity of the skin secretions of Phyllobates, and frog-poisoned darts, is due primarily to batrachotoxin and homobatrachotoxin, steroidal alkaloids that are stronger than curare mixtures. Phyllobates terribilis produces relatively massive quantities of these compounds and is at least twentyfold more toxic than other poison-dart frogs. The new species is potentially dangerous to handle: One freshly caught frog may contain up to 1900 micrograms ... of toxins, only a fraction of which would be lethal to man if enough skin secretion came into contact with an open wound. A human lethal dose is indirectly judged as being somewhere in the range of 2-200 [micrograms], and the secretions also are irritating to porous skin and poisonous if ingested. Phyllobates terribilis attains a snout-vent length of about 47 mm., making it one of the largest species in its family (Dendrobatidae). It is readily distinguished from all other dendrobatids in that body and limbs are a uniform golden or pale metallic green color above and below, except that small juveniles have a primitive pattern of golden dorsolateral stripes on a black ground. The ontogenetic color change, tadpoles, and other aspects of the life history and behavior are described. A component of aggressive grappling behavior of this and some other dendrobatids is suggested as being homologous with dendrobatid cephalic amplexus, an instance of which is photographically documented for Dendrobates tricolor. The trill call of Phyllobates is the third class of dendrobatid vocalizations to be defined. At the type locality, Phyllobates terribilis occurs in populations of predominantly adult frogs that probably have relatively long (> 5 years) and secure lives; reproductive success or juvenile survivorship might be inversely correlated with population density. Emberá Indians are occasional predators, and the snake Leimadophis epinephelus is identified as a potential predator, at least of young frogs. This snake has an unusual capacity for tolerating a great chemical diversity of anuran skin secretions. Piperidine-based skin alkaloids provide a shared, uniquely derived character (synapomorphy), seeming to establish that frogs of the Dendrobates-Phyllobates complex share a monophyletic origin apart from a sister group (Colostethus). But, in the Phyllobates bicolor group, primitive piperidine alkaloids have been largely replaced by a more effective set of defensive skin toxins--the steroidal batrachotoxins. The latter are a novel synapomorphy that seems to establish the monophyly of Phyllobates (sensu stricto), a genus heretofore inadequately defined on the basis of shared primitive (simplesiomorphic) characters. Most of the species recently assigned to Phyllobates (by Silverstone, 1976) are here removed to Dendrobates, including the nomenclatural type species (trivittatus) on which the name Dendrobates must be based. Dendrobates is more diverse as now defined (vs. Silverstone, 1975). The diversity is due to a mixture of shared primitive characters, along with derived characters still to be tested for convergence or parallelism. These changes have minimal effect on the usefulness of Silverstone's (1975, 1976) monographs on the two genera, since his accounts of species and species groups are mostly well considered. The laborious process of fabricating an Emberá Chocó blowgun, quiver, and darts is described and photographically illustrated. The Chocó blowgun is of Yde's type IV, two long and tapering, semi-cylindrical sections of palm wood glued together and wrapped with bast. There are two principal ways of making the bore in type-IV blowguns. Some tribes (Jívaro and Yagua) scratch initial grooves on the half-shafts, which are then joined and the bore enlarged and smoothed with a ramrod and sand. The Chocó and Cofán finish the grooves before the half-shafts are joined; use of metal implements by present-day Chocó and Cofán probably is a simple improvement over such objects as mammal teeth, said to have been used for the same purpose by Pasé Indians over a century ago. The Chocó weapon differs from most other type-IV blowguns in lacking a separate mouthpiece and in rarely being waterproofed. The blowgun is for hunting, but, unlike some Amazonian tribes, the Chocó may have no superstitious strictures against turning it occasionally on man. The Chocó are the only Indians known with certainty to use frog toxins as the sole ingredient of dart poison, and the practice is documented only in the Río San Juan and Río Saija drainages of western Colombia; use of a plant poison is more widespread, although the Chocó blowgun iss on the decline and absent in some areas. The Emberá Chocó and Noanamá Chocó have two ways of obtaining frog poison: frogs of the species Phyllobates aurotaenia and P. bicolor (San Juan drainage) are impaled on a special stick entering the mouth and exiting through a hind leg; the spitted frog may sometimes, but not necessarily, be held near fire while darts are rubbed in its skin secretions. In contrast, dart tips are simply rubbed against the backs of living Phyllobates terribilis (Saija region). These different methods reflect more on the relative toxicity and abundance of the frogs than on cultural differences"--P. 311-312. Search Entire Repository


Abstract Objective Some centres have proposed creating the bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis without cardiopulmonary bypass, while others continue to use deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the results of using continuous cardiopulmonary bypass with moderate hypothermia, perhaps the most commonly used of the three techniques for this procedure. Methods Between 1990 and 2005, 114 patients, having a mean age of 1.58 years, with a median age of 8 months, and ranging from 3 months to 16 years, underwent creation of either a unilateral cavopulmonary anastomosis, in 94 cases, or bilateral anastomoses in 20 cases. All had continuous cardiopulmonary bypass with moderate hypothermia at 32 degrees Celsius, with 24 also having aortic cross-clamping with cardioplegia for simultaneous intracardiac procedures. Interrupted absorbable sutures were used to create the anastomosis in 105 patients. Results Perioperative mortality was 5%, with 6 of the patients dying. The mean period of cardiopulmonary bypass for an isolated anastomosis was 91 minutes, with a range from 44 to 160 minutes. In 10 patients (8.8%), it was necessary to place a graft to augment the anastomosis. The average postoperative length of stay was 7.9 days for those undergoing an isolated unilateral anastomosis, and 16.4 days for patients undergoing combined cardiac operations. We have now created the Fontan circulation in 79 of the patients, at an average interval from the bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis of 2.1 plus or minus 1.14 years. In 76 patients, we performed postoperative angiograms, and none revealed any stenoses. Conclusions The bidirectional cavopulmonary anastomosis can be performed successfully with continuous cardiopulmonary bypass and moderate hypothermia with a beating heart, avoiding circulatory arrest. The use of interrupted and absorbable sutures was not associated with any late anastomotic stenosis.


Background: The aim of this study was to compare Brain-Behavioral Systems in patient with multiple sclerocis (MS) and normal individuals.
Materials and Methods: This research was a post facto comparative study, subjects included healthy persons and all patients with MS, which in summer and autumn 2013 referred to neurologists in the Lorestan province. Of the population using as samples, 117 cases (75 patients and 42 normal subjects) were selected, then Gray- Wilson Personality Questionnaire was completed for them. To analyze the data, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test was used to compare the two groups.
Results: The results showed, in BAS scales, people with MS had significantly lower scores than normal subjects
Conclusion: What comes from findings indicates that a low score in behavioral activation as a pathological factors in chronic diseases such as MS is concerned and is in need of psychological treatment.
Keywords: Multiple sclerosis, Brain-Behavioral Systems, Behavioral Activation System(BAS), Behavioral Inhibition System(BIS), Fight-Flight System(FFS)


Dietary fat subtypes may play an important role in the regulation of muscle mass and function during ageing. The aim of the present study was to determine the impact of isocaloric macronutrient substitutions, including different fat subtypes, on sarcopenia risk in older men and women, while accounting for physical activity (PA) and metabolic risk. A total of 986 participants, aged 65–79 years, completed a 7-day food record and wore an accelerometer for a week. A continuous sex-specific sarcopenia risk score (SRS), including skeletal muscle mass assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and handgrip strength, was derived. The impact of the isocaloric replacement of saturated fatty acids (SFAs) by either mono- (MUFAs) or poly-unsaturated (PUFAs) fatty acids on SRS was determined using regression analysis based on the whole sample and stratified by adherence to a recommended protein intake (1.1 g/BW). Isocaloric reduction of SFAs for the benefit of PUFAs was associated with a lower SRS in the whole population, and in those with a protein intake below 1.1 g/BW, after accounting for age, smoking habits, metabolic disturbances, and adherence to PA guidelines. The present study highlighted the potential of promoting healthy diets with optimised fat subtype distribution in the prevention of sarcopenia in older adults.


Raman spectra of (M, M')F–AlF3 (M, M' =Li, Na, K) molten salts have been obtained at 1293 K. The intensity ratios between the bands that are characteristic of the different complexes are strongly affected by the ratio M/M', especially when one of the alkaline cations is Li+. Its presence together with another cation seems to produce an increase in the acidity of the melt. The result of the deconvolution of the spectra compares well with vapor pressure data from the literature, showing the same kind of deviation. A qualitative explanation is proposed, but a quantitative modeling has not been possible up to now, because there is a lack of thermodynamic data that would allow a comparison with the spectroscopic results.


In Sweden today, there is an intensive debate discussing the changing conditions within higher education, one of the major issues is the one of meeting a new student cohort, i.e. millenials, or the generation Y students, etc. But what if the problem may not be the new students entering the university but the fact that we have to adjust to a new order ? Barnett, (2004) argues that we have to educate for a new work life. Implying that the students need to develop skills that are functioning in the world we live in right now. Bowden and Marton (1998) are talking about being able to transfer knowledge to new situations. Whilst Weiler ( 2005) argues that we have to meet the new cohort with new educational methods. Students of today are more visual learners, and we have to design for that in order to make the education meaningful.


Coffee berries are known to release several volatile organic compounds, among which is the spiroacetal, conophthorin, an attractant for the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei. Elucidating the effects of other spiroacetals released by coffee berries is critical to understanding their chemo-ecological roles in the host discrimination and colonization process of the coffee berry borer, and also for their potential use in the management of this pest. Here, we show that the coffee berry spiroacetals frontalin and 1,6-dioxaspiro [4.5] decane (referred thereafter as brocain), are also used as semiochemicals by the coffee berry borer for host colonization. Bioassays and chemical analyses showed that crowding coffee berry borers from 2 to 6 females per berry, reduced borer fecundity, which appeared to correlate with a decrease in the emission rates of conophthorin and frontalin over time. In contrast, the level of brocain did not vary significantly between borer- uninfested and infested berries. Brocain was attractive at lower doses, but repellent at higher doses while frontalin alone or in a blend was critical for avoidance. Field assays with a commercial attractant comprising a mixture of ethanol and methanol (1∶1), combined with frontalin, confirmed the repellent effect of this compound by disrupting capture rates of H. hampei females by 77% in a coffee plantation. Overall, our results suggest that the levels of frontalin and conophthorin released by coffee berries determine the host colonization behaviour of H. hampei, possibly through a 'push-pull' system, whereby frontalin acts as the 'push' (repellent) and conophthorin acting as the 'pull' (attractant). Furthermore, our results reveal the potential use of frontalin as a repellent for management of this coffee pest.


A sanidine from subvolcanic cognate monzonite clasts within the debris flow deposits belonging to the 5 ka Secche di Lazzaro pyroclastics of Stromboli volcano (Neostromboli period) was studied by X-ray diffraction (single crystal and powder) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The sanidine is poikilitic, Ab 31 Or 65 An 4 , coexisting with plagioclase, iron-rich diopside and olivine, phlogopite, Ti-magnetite, ilmenite and apatite. The subvolcanic clasts are the slowly cooled equivalent of the potassic magmas erupted as lavas during the Neostromboli period. They are representative of basic magmas arrested at shallow levels as sheet intrusions (sills or dykes). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction of the sanidine ( R 4σ = 4.4 % for 1317 unique reflections) enabled us to obtain Al-Si site ordering [X A1 T1 = 0.301(2)] from average tetrahedral bond lengths. TEM microstructural analysis showed spinodal decomposition modulations, but no cryptoperthitic exsolution lamellae were found. Although quantitative application of the above microstructures and single-crystal results could have been hindered by the uncertainty due to the effect of anorthitic component in the sanidine, Al-Si ordering data suggest that, at 700 °C, the sheet intrusion was cooling on the order of 1–10 °C/day. The spinodal decomposition texture seems to be the result of the disruption of the shallow subvolcanic rocks at time of the 5 ka paroxystic explosive eruption which allowed a syn-eruptive very rapid cooling and prevented a long, in situ, subsolidus cooling history of the ejecta. In fact, the lack of cryptoperthitic exsolution lamellae in the sanidine suggests the monzonite fragments were rapidly ejected to the surface before the temperature of the albite-sanidine solvus was reached. At time of disruption, the basic sheet intrusion had to be characterized by a temperature just below its solidus and therefore it should have been emplaced shortly before the 5 ka eruption of the Secche di Lazzaro pyroclastics.


Gypsophila L. is the third biggest genus of Caryophyllaceae family in Turkey. The genus has 55 species in the country. 33 species are endemics and total number of the taxa is 58. Ankyropetalum Fenzl is a small genus with 3 species and 1 of them is endemic. Saponaria L. has 20 taxa of 18 species and 10 taxa of them are endemics to Turkey. Turkey is the gene center of all the genera. All of the genera are known as coven, female coven and halva root and developed roots or rhizomes are economically very important. Extract produced from the roots are known as fire extinguisher, gold polishing, cleaner and softener of delicate fabrics and crispness giving to halva. The extracts are often used for making liqueur, herbal cheese, ice cream and some foods. Some taxa are Boron (B) hyperacumulators, so they can be planted and used for destroyed agriculture to control erosion. Gypsophila paniculata L. is very important in horticulture. Gypsophila bicolor, Gypsophila arrostii, Gypsophila perfoliata, Ankyropetalum gypsophiloides and Saponaria officinalis L. are very important because of their saponin contents. In this paper, economic importance of the plants in the light of our observations and literatures was given.


In the debate on canine domestication researchers have identified a lot of valid information regarding the time, region, and ancestor of the dog. But researchers are still figuring out, why and how this process started. The scavenging hypothesis, first proposed 2001 by Ray and Lorna Coppinger, proclaims the first human waste dumps as the ecological niche for the self-domestication-process of dogs. Many scientists refer to that model, sometimes partly modified. The scavenging hypothesis is broadcasted by most public media as the commonly accepted model of dog's domestication. Thus we have to deal with that popular model. Based on a broad multi-disciplinary approach like human evolution, archaeology, palaeogenetics, psychology and neurobiology, we will look for evidence. Investigating nine assumptions of the scavenging hypothesis we did not find any evidence. Dog's domestication started thousands of years before the advent of food waste dumps. The scavenging hypothesis cannot explain why only wolves and never foxes nor jackals have been domesticated. Paleolithic people and ancient wolves were living together closely in the same ecological niche hunting the same prey with the same cooperative methods. It is likely that they met very often and knew each other very well. We have some hints, that ancient wolves and people treated each other with respect cooperatively. We have hints for an active cooperation from humans and dogs starting in the Upper Paleolithic period long before it would have even been possible scavenging human waste. We have hints for emotional bonds between ancient people and dogs. Emotional bonds would have been unlikely for an animal hanging around human settlements while scavenging carrion and feces, like the scavenging hypothesizes describe. Looking at recent dogs and humans we have evidence for strong unique similarities in the psychological and neurobiological structures eventually allowing interspecific bonding, communication and working. Interspecific cooperation decreased the level of the stress axis of both species in the Paleolithic period and even does so today what improves our social and cognitive abilities. We propose that dogs domestication could be understand as an active social process of both sides. Further investigations need a closely networked multidisciplinary approach.


This thesis presents for the first time two complementary techniques to monitor the optical path length in optical fibre over both long and short sensing lengths. Both techniques may be used to measure the physical environment of the optical fibre, in particular strain and temperature, and are suitable for multiplexed operation. Signal-to-noise analysis shows that current optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) systems do not fully exploit the spatial resolution theoretically available. A new OTDR technique exploits the theoretical findings to monitor the range of reflective markers in an optical fibre. Measuring strain in fibre sections of several metres is demonstrated. 100µm spatial resolution has been achieved with a pulse duration equivalent to 1 m fibre length and within one second measurement time. The first fibre Bragg grating interrogation system using an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) is described. The interrogation system locks the AOTF wavelength to the wavelength of a selected grating. Measuring the frequency of the AOTF control signal provides an accurate measurement of the grating wavelength. A detailed system analysis is presented to enable the optimisation of system parameters. A wavelength resolution corresponding to 0.4 microstrain is achieved within 0.1sec measurement time, close to the resolution predicted by the system model. This technique allows the use of fibre gratings as sensors for the measurement of both quasi-static and dynamic strains. The combination of the two systems facilitate the utilisation of optical fibre to monitor a structure both over a few metres and at critical points. Both sensor types offer new measurement possibilities as embedded structure monitors, for example for in-service health and usage monitoring or as nerves for active control of smart structures.


This study explores the role of a needle exchange service in the drug using behaviour of its clientele with a specific emphasis on sharing injecting equipment. Theoretical perspectives that have attempted to understand the role of needle exchange in changing drug using behaviour are critically reviewed and placed in the context of wider debates about approaches to changing drug using and health behaviour. Different perspectives can be broadly differentiated by the extent to which they focus on the individual and their beliefs or the social context including social interactions in which the. behaviour occurs. A definition of motivation is proposed as a potentially integrative concept in which a number of influences on behaviour can be considered and understood in tern-is of competing contingencies that moderate the potential for sharing injecting equipment over time both between and for individuals. A theoretical framework outlined by Derek Layer is also used to consider the literature reviewed in ternis of different levels of explanation. This enables the interrelations between Merent perspectives to be explored. This study is based on empirical research involving semi structured interviews with six clients and three staff of a needle exchange. It employs a grounded theory approach which identifies the importance of social support provided by the service in relation to self image and drug using behaviour. Further findings provide useful information about the nature of the local drug using network as well as the fiinction and quality of client / worker relationships In the service. These findings are considered using Layder's theoretical framework to explore interconnection and to reflect on aspects of clinical practice and implications for needle exchange service delivery.


We propose a novel scheme to guide cold polar molecules on the surface of an insulating substrate (i.e., a chip) using a static electric field generated by the combination of a pair of parallel charged wires and a grounded metal plate. We calculate the spatial distributions of the electric fields from the above charged-wire layout and their Stark potentials for cold CO molecules, and analyze the relationships between the electric field and the parameters of the charged-wire layout. The result shows that this charged-wire scheme can be used to guide cold polar molecules in the weak-field-seeking state and to form various molecule-optical elements, even to realize a single-mode molecular waveguide on a molecule chip under certain conditions.


The amount of scientific literature continuously grows, which poses an increasing challenge for researchers to manage, find and explore research results. Therefore, the classification of scientific work is widely applied to enable the retrieval, support the search of suitable reviewers during the reviewing process, and in general to organize the existing literature according to a given schema. The automation of this classification process not only simplifies the submission process for authors, but also ensures the coherent assignment of classes. However, especially fine-grained classes and new research fields do not provide sufficient training data to automatize the process. Additionally, given the large number of not mutual exclusive classes, it is often difficult and computationally expensive to train models able to deal with multi-class multi-label settings. To overcome these issues, this work presents a preliminary Deep Learning framework as a solution for multi-label text classification for scholarly papers about Computer Science. The proposed model addresses the issue of insufficient data by utilizing the semantics of classes, which is explicitly provided by latent representations of class labels. This study uses Knowledge Graphs as a source of these required external class definitions by identifying corresponding entities in DBpedia to improve the overall classification.


Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) projects are being designed and implemented across tropical countries, intending to curb the contribution of deforestation to greenhouse gas emissions. An important aspect of REDD implementation is the baseline against which reductions are measured. The baseline estimates the business-as-usual emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. We solve a dynamic model of land conversion from forest to agriculture in the presence of REDD, and assess the performance of four baselines. We show that none of the analysed baselines dominates in all performance aspects, and that the final baseline choice needs to maximise the trade-off between the effectiveness to reduce deforestation, cost-efficiency, and changes in income. The frequently used historical average baseline could be improved by using a forward-looking one, which is shown to better account for the opportunity costs faced by landowners. This result hinges on the ability of the baseline to predict deforestation rates without significant underestimations. We advocate the switch from a single-threshold baseline to a corridor methodology, which would provide continued incentives to reduce deforestation, even during periods of high opportunity costs. We finally show how the selection of certain baseline attributes, such as corridor bandwidth and symmetry, can enhance performance.


This year's $1.35 trillion tax cut reduced income tax rates and modestly liberalized the tax rules for retirement saving plans. However, the new tax law did not slow the progression of the tax code toward increasing levels of complexity. In fact, the law made 441 changes to the tax code and created a complicated series of phase-in periods for tax changes. Meanwhile, the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation released a 1,300-page study cataloging the excessive complexity of federal taxes but providing only limited proposals for reform.Minor simplification reforms will not be enough. The tax system is caught in a spiral of continual change and nonstop growth in rules. Since the mid-1980s there have been 7,000 federal tax code changes and a 74 percent increase in the number of pages of tax rules. Complying with federal tax requirements wastes 6 billion hours each year as families and businesses fill out tax forms, keep records, and learn tax rules.The key factor that causes rising income tax complexity is that the tax base is inherently difficult to measure. The Haig-Simons measure of income favored by many academic theorists is economically damaging and too impractical to use in the real world. As a result, policymakers have fallen back on ad hoc and inconsistent rules to define the income tax base. That intensifies complexity and creates instability as policymakers gyrate between different definitions of the tax base. In addition, the lack of a consistently defined tax base increases the use of the tax code for special-interest tax breaks, thus further adding to the system's complexity.The complexity and inefficiency of the individual and corporate income taxes have led to great interest in replacing them with a consumption-based tax. The leading consumption-based tax proposals, including the national retail sales tax and the Hall-Rabushka flat tax, could dramatically simplify federal taxation. Those tax systems would eliminate many of the most complex aspects of federal taxation, including depreciation accounting and capital gains taxation.Imposing the largest federal tax on income was a historic mistake: no simple, efficient, and stable measure of income has been found in nine decades of the income tax. It is time to recognize this mistake and replace the income tax with a consumption-based alternative.


Michael Simpson Goldsmiths' College, University of London But, if hereafter thou shalt write, not feare To send it to be judg'd by Metius care, And to your fathers, and to mine; though't be Nine yeares kept by: your papers in, y'are free To change, & mend, what you not forth do see. Horace, Ars Poetica. Trans. Ben Jonson It has become quite fashionable when discussing the artistic products of early-nineteenth-century Europe to refute the Romantic ideology of spontaneous genius with reference to the numerous and laborious re-workings that such products in fact entailed: Beethoven's obsessive re-scripting, in his sketchbooks, of a single theme, along with Coleridge's intermittent but perennial revision of his poems have recently been documented in some detail. Jack Stillinger has furnished ample evidence of this "textual instability" in Coleridge's poetic writing and has drawn the following conclusions from the welter of drafts and variants that constitute all of Coleridge's major poems: While some of these versions are in some sense "better" than others - structurally, logically, stylistically, philosophically, and so on - every one of them is independently authoritative, because it was authored by Coleridge himself. [...] The longstanding practice of identifying definitiveness with "final authorial intention" is no longer defensible, and Coleridge is an author whose practice supports this argument with particular force. In the theoretical framework of my study, he produced a new definitive version, the "final" text that he intended to stand at the moment, every time he revised a text. (10) In this article, I shall perform my own act of revision, or rather revisionism, by first accepting the premise of an almost mechanical process of emendation in Coleridge's poetic writing before then arguing that "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison" in particular demonstratively recuperates such change as an integral part of the textual incarnation that results from it. What I shall not do, however, is subscribe to Zachary Leader's notion, contra Stillinger, that the published version of a poem, here "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," is predominantly important in itself; instead, I shall address the relationship between this version and one crucial earlier impression.(1) This retroactive gesture, which works to countervail the disjunctions highlighted by Stillinger, will be seen as driven not so much by a Romantic ideology of organicism as by a determinant that is best tracked within a history of ideas. Between the first extant text of "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," which forms part of a letter addressed to Robert Southey, and the poem's first published incarnation, Coleridge's letters and notebooks bear significant traces of his reading in Kant and Fichte. Entering the vexed critical debate about Coleridge's trading of allegiances from Hartley's account of experience to a largely Kantian model of mind, I shall propose that the revision of the first version of this poem, as effected by the later, published version, is motivated by this epistemological shift. Since the Kantian mind is posited as strenuously organizing its experience, to render it conformable with its own standards of intelligibility, I shall read the two versions of Coleridge's poem as divided by their correlation with Hartley's and Kant's theories only so that the Kantian model can demonstrate its superiority by actively assimilating or revising Hartley's model. The differences between the two versions of "This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison," which Stillinger valorizes, are staged only so that they can be recuperated in the capacious unity of the later draft and its Kantian affiliations. By thus gearing a discussion of textual variants to an account of a larger discursive field, this essay effectively follows Jerome McGann's practice and principle of promoting textual criticism to the extent of coordinating it with a history of ideas. …


Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is a common disease in medical practice that affects young healthy people with a significant recurrence rate. PSP is the presence of air in the pleural space not caused by injury or medical intervention. Some risk factors include male gender, age, and smoking. Classic clinical presentation starts with acute-onset chest pain and shortness of breath. Physical examination can be normal in small pneumothoraces, but in larger pneumothoraces, breath sounds and tactile fremitus are typically decreased or absent, and percussion is hyperresonant. Chest X-ray can help confirm the diagnosis. Evacuation of air from the pleural cavity and prevention of future recurrences are the primary goals of treatment and depend on the patient's presentation. Initial deciding factors to direct the management are first-time or recurrent spontaneous pneumothorax and size of the pneumothorax. Treatment may include conventional chest tube drainage, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), or open surgery.


Growth Strategies for Rural Communities: a Preliminary Investigation 1 Rural planners and development officers are often looking for ways to sustain and grow population. What growth strategies and assets are tools for rural population growth? While there are many self-directed guides suggesting different growth strategies and a large literature on assets and capitals, there is no research comparing the growth strategies and assets used by rural municipalities with growing and declining populations. Past growth strategies used by rural specialists were identified from a number of self-directed guides and six municipalities were identified for the study: three municipalities with stable or growing populations and three municipalities with declining populations. Interviews with key informants from each municipality were used to identify growth initiatives which were then categorized into eight growth strategies and seven capitals. The research shows that growing and declining municipalities use similar assets to implement different growth strategies. population growth rural communities strategies as se ts capitals declining region


The heat and moisture transfer characeristics of a silt from the Mackenzie River Valley have been determined in a laboratory investigation. A dual gamma-ray scanner was used to measure the changes in density and volumetric moisture content along the soil samples. The coefficients of soil-water diffusivity under isothermal conditions and under temperature gradients have been obtained. The development of a calibration curve for the analysis of gamma-ray readings has been described. The shortcomings of the procedures used for the measurement of transport coefficients have been discussed.


Co-crystallisation of a drug with another molecule to form a new crystalline material is an appealing route to enhance physical properties. Despite mounting research effort, there is still considerable uncertainty whether a given co-crystal will form. Previous attempts to use lattice energy calculations to investigate whether a potential co-crystal is thermodynamically more stable than its pure co-former crystals have been inconclusive. In the present study, dispersion-corrected density functional theory is used to minimise the lattice energies of all known co-crystals and salts of nicotinamide, isonicotinamide and picolinamide, and their corresponding neutral co-formers (excluding any organometallic compounds). Out of the resulting 102 co-crystals and salts, 99 (97%) are found to be more stable than their corresponding co-formers. In addition, full crystal structure prediction studies show that two paracetamol co-crystals are very unstable in comparison to their co-formers, thus explaining why these co-crystals have not been observed experimentally. These results demonstrate that a simple yet accurate thermodynamic approach can predict reliably whether a co-crystal can be formed.


An alternative approach to developing reusable components from scratch is to recover them from existing systems. In this paper, we apply program slicing, introduced by Weiser, to the problem of extracting reusable functions from ill-structured programs. We extend the definition of program slice to a transform slice, one that includes statements which contribute directly or indirectly to transform a set of input variables into a set of output variables. Unlike conventional program slicing, these statements do not include neither the statements necessary to get input data nor the statements which test the binding conditions of the function. Transform slicing presupposes the knowledge that a function is performed in the code and its partial specification, only in terms of input and output data. Using domain knowledge we discuss how to formulate expectations of the functions implemented in the code. In addition to the input/output parameters of the function, the slicing criterion depends on an initial statement which is difficult to obtain for large programs. Using the notions of decomposition slice and concept validation we demonstrate how to produce a set of candidate functions, which are independent of line numbers but must be evaluated with respect to the expected behavior. Although human interaction is required, the limited size of candidate functions makes this task easier than looking for the last function instruction in the original source code.