An existing volumetric balance approach in conjunction with the Kostiakov infiltration equation for determining soil infiltration parameters in a furrow is used to study furrow irrigation in the local environment. Other parameters required include furrow geometry, assumed subsurface profile and flow advance data. A set of adjacent
furrows is used to indicate the performance of the field system. The procedure outlined here can be used to evaluate efficiency of continuous mode furrow irrigation. The spatial and temporal variation of infiltration
characteristics of a soil are well known. As such, the performance of a furrow irrigation system which uses the soil as a medium of conveyance varies with the ever-changing infiltration behaviour. There is therefore a
need for an evaluation procedure to determine water use efficiency which can be followed throughout the irrigation season so as to enable the irrigator to make any necessary changes to improve its performance. This
determination of irrigation performance hinges very much on the correct evaluation of the infiltration process, in this case, in dynamic infiltration water flowing overland in small channels. An evaluation example is given.


Fas ligand (CD95L) inhibits T cell function in immune-privileged organs such as the eye and testis, yet in most tissues CD95L expression induces potent inflammatory responses. With a stably transfected colon carcinoma cell line, CT26-CD95L, the molecular basis for these divergent responses was defined. When injected subcutaneously, rejection of CT26-CD95L was caused by neutrophils activated by CD95L. CT26-CD95L survived in the intraocular space because of the presence of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta), which inhibited neutrophil activation. Providing TGF-beta to subcutaneous sites protected against tumor rejection. Thus, these cytokines together generate a microenvironment that promotes immunologic tolerance, which may aid in the amelioration of allograft rejection.


Most state-of-the-art techniques for multi-class image segmentation and labeling use conditional random fields defined over pixels or image regions. While region-level models often feature dense pairwise connectivity, pixel-level models are considerably larger and have only permitted sparse graph structures. In this paper, we consider fully connected CRF models defined on the complete set of pixels in an image. The resulting graphs have billions of edges, making traditional inference algorithms impractical. Our main contribution is a highly efficient approximate inference algorithm for fully connected CRF models in which the pairwise edge potentials are defined by a linear combination of Gaussian kernels. Our experiments demonstrate that dense connectivity at the pixel level substantially improves segmentation and labeling accuracy.


IMPORTANCE
Oral supplementation with the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) formulation (antioxidant vitamins C and E, beta carotene, and zinc) has been shown to reduce the risk of progression to advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Observational data suggest that increased dietary intake of lutein + zeaxanthin (carotenoids), omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (docosahexaenoic acid [DHA] + eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA]), or both might further reduce this risk.

OBJECTIVES
To determine whether adding lutein + zeaxanthin, DHA + EPA, or both to the AREDS formulation decreases the risk of developing advanced AMD and to evaluate the effect of eliminating beta carotene, lowering zinc doses, or both in the AREDS formulation.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
The Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), a multicenter, randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled phase 3 study with a 2 × 2 factorial design, conducted in 2006-2012 and enrolling 4203 participants aged 50 to 85 years at risk for progression to advanced AMD with bilateral large drusen or large drusen in 1 eye and advanced AMD in the fellow eye.

INTERVENTIONS
Participants were randomized to receive lutein (10 mg) + zeaxanthin (2 mg), DHA (350 mg) + EPA (650 mg), lutein + zeaxanthin and DHA + EPA, or placebo. All participants were also asked to take the original AREDS formulation or accept a secondary randomization to 4 variations of the AREDS formulation, including elimination of beta carotene, lowering of zinc dose, or both.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Development of advanced AMD. The unit of analyses used was by eye.

RESULTS
Median follow-up was 5 years, with 1940 study eyes (1608 participants) progressing to advanced AMD. Kaplan-Meier probabilities of progression to advanced AMD by 5 years were 31% (493 eyes [406 participants]) for placebo, 29% (468 eyes [399 participants]) for lutein + zeaxanthin, 31% (507 eyes [416 participants]) for DHA + EPA, and 30% (472 eyes [387 participants]) for lutein + zeaxanthin and DHA + EPA. Comparison with placebo in the primary analyses demonstrated no statistically significant reduction in progression to advanced AMD (hazard ratio [HR], 0.90 [98.7% CI, 0.76-1.07]; P = .12 for lutein + zeaxanthin; 0.97 [98.7% CI, 0.82-1.16]; P = .70 for DHA + EPA; 0.89 [98.7% CI, 0.75-1.06]; P = .10 for lutein + zeaxanthin and DHA + EPA). There was no apparent effect of beta carotene elimination or lower-dose zinc on progression to advanced AMD. More lung cancers were noted in the beta carotene vs no beta carotene group (23 [2.0%] vs 11 [0.9%], nominal P = .04), mostly in former smokers.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Addition of lutein + zeaxanthin, DHA + EPA, or both to the AREDS formulation in primary analyses did not further reduce risk of progression to advanced AMD. However, because of potential increased incidence of lung cancer in former smokers, lutein + zeaxanthin could be an appropriate carotenoid substitute in the AREDS formulation.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00345176.


At age 36, Julie Silver was enjoying an exciting career as a physician at the Harvard Medical School and a rewarding personal life as a mother, wife, and award-winning writer. But she had the sense that something was wrong. Two years and multiple doctors later, she was diagnosed with the breast cancer she had suspected all along and was catapulted into the role of cancer patient. Like many cancer patients who experience serious side effects from treatment, Dr. Silver emerged from therapy feeling not better, but exhausted and physically devastated. As she worked to heal herself, she became determined to write a book to help others recover after cancer treatment. Here Dr. Silver shares her own cancer journey and offers a step-by-step plan for physical healing, including exercise and diet recommendations and instructions for fighting fatigue, monitoring mood, and overcoming setbacks. Dr. Silver's advice comes from the heart-and from her experience as both a cancer survivor and a doctor who has spent her career helping people heal from serious illnesses and injuries. No matter where they are in their own journey with cancer, readers will find After Cancer Treatment a personal, practical, and powerful guide to recovery.


In past centuries, images of utopia have tended to reflect the hopes and aspirations of their writers, however forlorn those hopes might be, but in the present century, it is common for visions of utopia to reflect the fears of contemporary society. The anti-utopian writers of the twentieth century hold that the perfectly regulated society can only be imposed upon mankind through oppression, since perfection cannot exist in nature. Man lives in a world of contingency and choice, and attempts to render the life of men wholly predictable can only result in the deformation of humanity, through the extinction of human morality and creativity. Moreover, the anti-Utopians assert, there can be no final, incontrovertible definition of perfection. The truth of the rulers of the perfect state is no more than dogma. Utopian happiness consists merely in total submission to this dogma, in abandonment of autonomy and absorption into a corporate identity. The citizen of utopia lives in 'a perpetual childhood of prescription', and if he is happy, his happiness is the happiness of a child, who is spared the burden of uncertainty and choice and responsibility. Of the anti-Utopians under review, Zamyatin, Orwell and Huxley, Zamyatin's is the least ambiguous interpretation of the anti-utopian thesis, since Zamyatin is the most profouldy individualistic of the three writers. Orwell's total state differs from the others, in that it is intended as an expression of pure power, and not as an instrument for procuring corporate happiness. In Huxley's work the ambiguity is pronounced, since he offers both an anti-utopia and a utopia, which in part reflect, and in part contradict, one another. But despite differences in interpretation, all three writers consider that autonomous man, whether a credible or an incredible figure, has no place in utopia.


It is well known that polymers are insulators, which limit their usage in other applications where thermal conductivity is essential for heat to be efficiently dissipated or stored. In the past, the improvement in the thermal conductivity of polym.rs with conductive fillers has been investigated by researchers. Carbon-based materials such as graphite, graphene and carbon nanotube, which feature excellent properties such as a high mechanical strength, a high thermal conductivity and a tailorable electronic configuration, have been added to different polymer matrices to enhance their thermal conductivity. Amongst others, graphite more especially expanded graphite merits special interest because of its abundant availability at a relatively low cost and lightweight when compared to other carbon allotropes. Herein, we describe the thermal conductivity of polymer/graphite composites and their applications.


We address three questions regarding solar system planets: What determined their number? Why are their orbits nearly circular and coplanar? How long did they take to form? Runaway accretion in a disk of small bodies resulted in a tiny fraction of the bodies growing much larger than all the others. These big bodies dominated the viscous stirring of all bodies. Dynamical friction by small bodies cooled the random velocities of the big ones. Random velocities of small bodies were cooled by mutual collisions and/or gas drag. Runaway accretion terminated when the orbital separations of the big bodies became as wide as their feeding zones. This was followed by oligarchic growth during which the big bodies maintained similar masses and uniformly spaced semimajor axes. As the oligarchs grew, their number density decreased, but their surface mass density increased. We depart from standard treatments of planet formation by assuming that as the big bodies got bigger, the small ones got smaller as the result of undergoing a collisional fragmentation cascade. It follows that oligarchy was a brief stage in solar system evolution. When the oligarchs' surface mass density matched that of the small bodies, dynamical friction was no longer able to balance viscous stirring, so their velocity dispersion increased to the extent that their orbits crossed. This marked the end of oligarchy. What happened next differed in the inner and outer parts of the planetary system. In the inner part, where the ratios of the escape velocities from the surfaces of the planets to the escape velocities from their orbits are smaller than unity, big bodies collided and coalesced after their random velocities became comparable to their escape velocities. In the outer part, where these ratios are larger than unity, the random velocities of some of the big bodies continued to rise until they were ejected. In both parts, the number density of the big bodies eventually decreased to the extent that gravitational interactions among them no longer produced large-scale chaos. After that their orbital eccentricities and inclinations were damped by dynamical friction from the remaining small bodies. The last and longest stage in planet formation was the cleanup of small bodies. Our understanding of this stage is fraught with uncertainty. The surviving protoplanets cleared wide gaps around their orbits that inhibited their ability to accrete small bodies. Nevertheless, in the inner planet system, all of the material in the small bodies ended up inside planets. Small bodies in the outer planet system probably could not have been accreted in the age of the solar system. A second generation of planetesimals may have formed in the disk of small bodies, by either collisional coagulation or gravitational instability. In the outer planet system, bodies of kilometer size or larger would have had their random velocities excited until their orbits crossed those of neighboring protoplanets. Ultimately they would have either escaped from the Sun or become residents of the Oort Cloud. An important distinction is that growth of the inner planets continued through cleanup, whereas assembly of the outer planets was essentially complete by the end of oligarchy. These conclusions imply that the surface density of the protoplanetary disk was that of the minimum solar mass nebula in the inner planet region but a few times larger in the outer planet region. The timescale through cleanup was set by the accretion rate at the geometrical cross section in the inner planet region and by the ejection rate at the gravitationally enhanced cross section in the outer planet region. It was a few hundred million years in the former and a few billion years in the latter. However, since Uranus and Neptune acquired most of their mass by the end of oligarchy, they may have formed before Earth! A few implications of the above scenario are worth noting. Impacts among protoplanets of comparable size were common in the inner planet system but not in the outer. Ejections from the outer planet system included several bodies with masses in excess of Earth after oligarchy and an adequate number of kilometer-size bodies to populate the Oort comet cloud during cleanup. Except at the very end of cleanup, collisions prevented Uranus and Neptune from ejecting kilometer-size objects. Only Jupiter and, to a much lesser extent, Saturn were capable of populating the Oort Cloud with comets of kilometer size.


Acute heart failure (HF) and in particular, cardiogenic shock are associated with high morbidity and mortality. A therapeutic dilemma is that the use of positive inotropic agents, such as catecholamines or phosphodiesterase-inhibitors, is associated with increased mortality. Newer drugs, such as levosimendan or omecamtiv mecarbil, target sarcomeres to improve systolic function putatively without elevating intracellular Ca2+. Although meta-analyses of smaller trials suggested that levosimendan is associated with a better outcome than dobutamine, larger comparative trials failed to confirm this observation. For omecamtiv mecarbil, Phase II clinical trials suggest a favourable haemodynamic profile in patients with acute and chronic HF, and a Phase III morbidity/mortality trial in patients with chronic HF has recently begun. Here, we review the pathophysiological basis of systolic dysfunction in patients with HF and the mechanisms through which different inotropic agents improve cardiac function. Since adenosine triphosphate and reactive oxygen species production in mitochondria are intimately linked to the processes of excitation-contraction coupling, we also discuss the impact of inotropic agents on mitochondrial bioenergetics and redox regulation. Therefore, this position paper should help identify novel targets for treatments that could not only safely improve systolic and diastolic function acutely, but potentially also myocardial structure and function over a longer-term.


"Postgraduate business education has become a very important financial stream for most tertiary institutions. However, what is becoming increasingly evident is that the assumption of good or even adequate academic competence, based on IELTS scores, is incorrect and that in reality many international students struggle to meet the academic standards and expectations of the overseas universities. This manifests itself in many ways; ultimately students fail units and have negative learning experiences. At best they reflect competencies of surface learners rather than those of deep learners. This paper reports on interim results of a pilot study that embedded an academic skills component into an introductory management unit in a MBA program. Based on the students' plagiarism scores, the results to date demonstrate a positive outcome of the intervention. The students were found to have a significantly lower rate of plagiarism compared with a previous cohort. The pilot study highlights the need for more personal face-to-face help rather than impersonal cyber help and that when it comes to student learning, the ever increasing use of technology is misguided and over used as the salve for all problems."


Obesity is a major public health challenge. Modeling growth and identifying children at risk of being overweight in early life is essential for effective prevention and intervention. To date, longitudinal studies from birth to adolescent are rare, and crucial period in childhood for overweight in future life is unclear. In addition, apart from known risk factors of overweight or obesity, further research on other potential risk factors is necessary. Even though it is well accepted that obesity is mainly a consequence of an unbalanced energy status, the impact of specific food item or food group on growth has long been controversial, which calls for more efforts.
In order to contribute to the aforementioned questions and research problems, we conducted a series of studies using data from two ongoing German birth cohorts. 1) Using longitudinal anthropometric data from birth to 5 years, we established a 10-year-overweight prediction model. Our results suggest that from 5 years onwards being overweight become predictive for 10-year overweight. 2) We investigated the association between mode of delivery and childhood obesity using cross-sectional data at age 2, 6 and 10 years. Children delivered by cesarean section were more likely to be obese at 2 years compared to those delivered vaginally, but not at age 6 and 10 years. These results do not support the hypothesis that increasing rates of cesarean section contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. 3) We analyzed data from food frequency questionnaires which were completed during the 10-year follow-up, where we grouped 82 food items into 11 food groups. Our results suggest that intakes of meat, fish and beverages are important correlates of body weight status. In contrast, confectionery intake conversely associated with being overweight. Further study on the influence of possible reverse causation is needed. 4) We investigated the association between maternal BMI and child food intake at the age of 10 years. Our results suggest that maternal BMI and maternal overweight are important correlates of a child's intake of energy, meat and eggs. Potential impact of mother's weight status should be considered in diet counseling. Moreover, mother's participation in dietary counseling might be helpful to improve offspring diet pattern and weight status.
These studies contributed to the current knowledge on early identification of children at risk of overweight and the potential influence of diet. In addition, our results suggest more efforts on longitudinal studies and more attention on reverse causation and misreport in dietary assessments in future studies.


The method of producing experimental glucagon deficiency by administration of glucagon antiserum was evaluated in rats. A pool of antisera was prepared, the affinity of which exceeded that of the glucagon receptors of liver cell membranes, whereas the binding capacity of the volume used amounted to more than one-third of the total glucagon content in the rat pancreas. That rapid, extensive, and lasting neutralization of glucagon had taken place after antiserum treatment was indicated by the following findings: When examined more than 1 h after the injection and after 60 min of exercise-stimulated glucagon production, all rats had excess free antibodies in plasma. The concentration of free glucagon was lowered to one-third of the concentration in control rats; at 37 degrees C plasma samples could bind 25% of additional 300 pmol/liter of glucagon in 10 s, and 69% in 120 s; the glycemic response to exogenous glucagon was abolished. Antiserum treatment, however, had no effect on blood glucose in rats fasted for 3 and 10 h, in chemically sympathectomized and adrenomedullectomized rats, and in 48-h-fasted, acutely adrenalectomized rats. The antiserum was found to contain 460 nmol/liter of antibody-bound glucagon, originating in the rabbit in which the antiserum was raised. However, antibody preparations from which the bound glucagon had been effectively removed were equally ineffective in lowering the basal blood glucose in rats, although in three-fourths of the rats the concentration of free glucagon was lowered beyond detection limit. The data indicate that the absolute concentration of glucagon in plasma is of minor importance for the maintenance of basal blood glucose in the rat.


The repeated failure of the United Nations Charter regime to respond to humanitarian crises— and to prevent interventions outside the regime— has laid bare a conflict that lies at the heart of modern international law. This failure has revealed that the twin commitments on which the postWorld War II international legal system has been built— sovereign rights and sovereign responsibilities— are often deeply at odds. The response of scholars to this tension has often been to choose sides in the fight. Scholars who place greater value on human rights than state sovereignty have sought to craft exceptions to the prohibition on the use or threat of force. Those who place greater value on sovereignty (and, they would argue, democratic rule of law), have rejected any humanitarian intervention not authorized by the Security Council as illegal and on occasion have portrayed the human rights movement as "anti-sovereigntist" and even "antidemocratic." In this Article, we offer another way forward— one that aims to respect sovereign rights while helping states meet their sovereign responsibilities and thereby alleviate the tension between the twin commitments of the modern international legal system. Rather than seek to craft an exception to state sovereignty to meet humanitarian aims, we argue for empowering states to meet their sovereign responsibility through what we call "consent-based intervention."


Under the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) if an employer becomes aware, or ought reasonably to be aware, that domestic violence that would likely expose a worker to physical injury may occur in the workplace, the employer shall take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of the worker. Workers are required to report their concerns, to their supervisor or another identified resource [1] if they fear domestic violence may enter the workplace.


Establishing the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) will represent an important step for cross-border cooperation in criminal matters within the European Union, and more particularly for the protection of the Union's financial interests. The EPPO's work will complement the work carried out by the European Anti-Fraud Office. This article, based on a briefing paper commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Budgetary Affairs, at the request of the Committee on Budgetary Control, analyses future cooperation between these two bodies, OLAF and the EPPO. Three main dimensions of their cooperation are analysed as well as the elements of complexity that may influence it. The article highlights elements essential for their close cooperation and complementarity, especially with regard to a potential revision of OLAF's legal framework.


Abstract Glacial landforms and drift stratigraphy in central Magellan Strait, southernmost Chile, document repeated fluctuations during the last glacial cycle of outlet lobes from an ice cap centered over the southern Andes. The lobes developed comparatively low-gradient profiles because of low basal shear stresses over soft deformable beds and this made them sensitive to even small-scale changes in the mass balance. Such low profiles and rapid calving in deep proglacial lakes during deglaciation may have made the Magellan ice lobe particularly responsive to climatic fluctuations during the last glacial cycle, and to advance and retreat over considerable distances. Study of the glacial landforms and drift stratigraphy has led to the identification of at least five glacier advances to limits at and south of the Segunda Angostura. Fragments of mollusc shells contained in basal till indicate marine incursions between some advances, thus documenting extensive deglaciation. A partial chronology based on amino acid studies and radiocarbon dating suggests that five of these advances occurred during the last glacial cycle. The most extensive advances may have culminated during substages of marine isotope stage 5 (substage 5b or 5d) and/or during stage 4. Slightly less extensive advances occurred between ca. 28,000 and 14,000 yr B.P.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this prospective study was to compare the efficacy of Oraqix to benzocaine while placing a rubber dam clamp during sealant placement on children.

METHODS
A sample size of 45 7- to 12-year-old patients who presented for bilateral sealants on permanent first molars participated in this study. A split-mouth design was implemented with Oraqix applied to one side and 20 percent benzocaine gel applied to the other. After placing the topical anesthetic and the rubber dam clamp, patients completed a Feces Pain Scale (FPS) to rate the level of discomfort after clamp placement.

RESULTS
Twenty-seven subjects (60%) were female and 18 subjects (40%) were mole; 15 (33%) were younger than 9 years old and 30 (67%) were at least 9 years old. The overall difference in mean FPS ratings was not statistically significant (P = .27). Regarding gender, there was no statistically significant difference in males (P = .65) or females (P = .26). There was also no difference in mean FPS ratings when looking at age groups younger than 9 years old with P=.77 In the 9 years and older age groups, however there was a statistically significant difference, with P = .04.

CONCLUSIONS
Application of Oraqix did not reduce discomfort when compared to benzocaine in this small sample size. Oraqix was more effective than benzocaine in the age group 9 and older. A larger sample size is needed to determine its efficacy in children younger than 9years old.


The suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) is a major regulator of immune responses and inflammation as it negatively regulates cytokine signaling. Here, the role of SOCS3 in thymic T cell formation was studied in Socs3fl/fl Actin-creER mice (Δsocs3) with a tamoxifen inducible and ubiquitous Socs3 deficiency. Δsocs3 thymi showed a 90% loss of cellularity and altered cortico-medullary organization. Thymocyte differentiation and proliferation was impaired at the early double negative (CD4-CD8-) cell stage and apoptosis was increased during the double positive (CD4+CD8+) cell stage, resulting in the reduction of recent thymic emigrants in peripheral organs. Using bone marrow chimeras, transplanting thymic organoids and using mice deficient of SOCS3 in thymocytes we found that expression in thymic stromal cells rather than in thymocytes was critical for T cell development. We found that SOCS3 in thymic epithelial cells (TECs) binds to the E3 ubiquitin ligase TRIM 21 and that Trim21−/− mice showed increased thymic cellularity. Δsocs3 TECs showed alterations in the expression of genes involved in positive and negative selection and lympho-stromal interactions. SOCS3-dependent signal inhibition of the common gp130 subunit of the IL-6 receptor family was redundant for T cell formation. Together, SOCS3 expression in thymic stroma cells is critical for T cell development and for maintenance of thymus architecture.


The Guideline for Managing Older People with Type 2 Diabetes was considered a necessary development following the launch of the IDF 2012 Global Guideline for Type 2 Diabetes. In the latter, recommendations for managing diabetes in older people were included for the first time by the IDF but the review group felt that there were many areas where specific advice was still needed and indeed would offer the clinician extra value in decision making. It was also felt that the format of recommendation in the 2012 Guideline did not offer the flexibility required to address the special issues of older people and their varied physical, cognitive, and social needs. An international group of diabetes experts was assembled to consider the key issues that require attention in supporting the highest quality of diabetes care for older people on a global scale. This Guideline is unique as it has been developed to provide the clinician with recommendation that assist in clinical management of a wide range of older adults such as those who are not only relatively well and active but those who are functionally dependent. This latter group has been categorised as those with frailty, or dementia, or those at the end of life. We have included practical advice on assessment measures that enable the clinician to categorise all older adults with diabetes and allow the appropriate and relevant recommendations to be applied. The Guideline has been structured into main chapter headings dealing with expected areas such as cardiovascular risk, education, renal impairment, diabetic foot disease and so on, but also includes commonly addressed areas such as seen such as sexual health. Also included is a section of 'special consideration' where areas such as pain and end of life care are addressed.


We present a new stable isotope record from Ellsworth Land which provides a valuable 308 year record (1702–2009) of climate variability from coastal West Antarctica. Climate variability at this site is strongly forced by sea surface temperatures and atmospheric pressure in the tropical Pacific and related to local sea ice conditions. The record shows that this region has warmed since the late 1950s, at a similar magnitude to that observed in the Antarctic Peninsula and central West Antarctica; however, this warming trend is not unique. More dramatic isotopic warming (and cooling) trends occurred in the mid‐nineteenth and eighteenth centuries, suggesting that at present, the effect of anthropogenic climate drivers at this location has not exceeded the natural range of climate variability in the context of the past ~300 years.


Matsumoto (2020) pointed out data and coding errors in Fang and Gong (2017). We show that these errors have limited impacts: all qualitative findings remain after correcting them. Matsumoto also discussed potential service overcounting in the aggregated utilization data we used to illustrate our method, and then quantified the extent of overcounting with a sample of Medicare claims. We acknowledge the issue but discuss the noise and the bias in his quantification. Overall, our proposed method remains useful, as regulators who are interested in applying the method are unlikely to be subject to the data limitations. (JEL H51, I13, I18, J22, J44)


Brexit raises a number of difficult questions with regard to intellectual property rights in a post-Brexit world, particularly for UK based pharma companies. Whilst the position with regard to the current European patent system is unchanged, the fate of the unitary patent and the unified patent court remains uncertain. Of more immediate concern is the possible future position with respect to supplementary patent certificates. Should the UK fail to reach an agreement with the EU with respect to marketing authorisations for new pharmaceuticals then there is a real possibility that UK based pharma companies may find themselves in a position where they are unable to obtain EU-wide SPC protection.


Cachexia-inducing tumors trigger white adipose tissue wasting by decreasing the abundance of AMPK. Some tumors cause progressive wasting of adipose tissue, then of skeletal muscle. This condition, called cancer-associated cachexia (cancer cachexia), decreases quality of life for cancer patients and predicts poor survival. Rohm et al. investigated the metabolic mechanisms underlying white adipose tissue wasting in cancer cachexia. Exposure of mouse 3T3-L1 white adipocytes to noncell conditioned medium or medium conditioned by cell lines that do not cause cachexia did not alter lipolysis [as assessed by the release of nonesterified fatty acids (NEFAs)] or lipogenesis. In contrast, both lipolysis and lipogenesis were increased, and maximal respiratory capacity and ATP concentrations were reduced in 3T3-L1 adipocytes exposed to medium conditioned by cell lines derived from cachexia-inducing tumors, including C26 colon cancer cells. Similarly, serum from mice bearing C26-derived tumors also increased NEFA release and lipogenesis when applied to 3T3-L1 adipocytes. In accordance with the increased lipolysis and lipogenesis, the extent of phosphorylation at inhibitory sites in hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and the lipogenic enzyme acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC) was lower in 3T3-L1 adipocytes exposed to C26 cell-conditioned medium than in adipocytes exposed to noncell conditioned medium. The inhibitory sites in both HSL and ACC can be phosphorylated by AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is an energy sensor that is normally activated by low ATP concentrations. However, AMPK abundance and activity and HSL and ACC phosphorylation at inhibitory sites were reduced in the white adipose tissue of mice with C26-derived tumors. Reconstitution of a constitutively active form of AMPK in 3T3-L1 adipocytes partially prevented lipolysis induced by exposure to serum from C26-derived tumor-bearing mice. AMPK undergoes degradation when the β subunit of AMPK interacts with Cidea, a lipid droplet–associated protein that is abundant in brown adipose tissue but can also be detected in white adipose tissue. Cidea suppresses the energy-burning function of brown adipose tissue. Cidea abundance was increased in white adipose tissue at the onset of cancer cachexia in mice, and CIDEA expression in white adipose depots was greater in cachectic patients than in noncachectic patients. The authors developed a peptide that they called ACIP to block the interaction between Cidea and AMPK. ACIP expression in primary mouse white adipocytes increased the interaction of the AMPK α and β subunits, increased the phosphorylation of HSL and ACC at inhibitory sites, and prevented NEFA release upon exposure to serum from C26-derived tumor-bearing mice. Injection of adeno-associated virus encoding ACIP either into white adipose depots or systemically prevented implanted C26-derived tumors from inducing white adipose tissue wasting, disrupting the interaction between the AMPK α and β subunits, and suppressing the phosphorylation of HSL and ACC at inhibitory sites. Thus, stabilizing AMPK selectively in white adipose tissue may prevent tumor-induced cachexia and improve quality of life for cancer patients. M. Rohm, M. Schäfer, V. Laurent, B. E. Üstünel, K. Niopek, C. Algire, O. Hautzinger, T. P. Sijmonsma, A. Zota, D. Medrikova, N. S. Pellegata, M. Ryden, A. Kulyte, I. Dahlman, P. Arner, N. Petrovic, B. Cannon, E.-Z. Amri, B. E. Kemp, G. R. Steinberg, P. Janovska, J. Kopecky, C. Wolfrum, M. Blüher, M. B. Diaz, S. Herzig, An AMP-activated protein kinase–stabilizing peptide ameliorates adipose tissue wasting in cancer cachexia in mice. Nat. Med. 22, 1120–1130 (2016). [PubMed]


On 9 June 2009, an ![Graphic][1]  2.8 earthquake shook Cleburne, Texas, a community not known to have previously experienced earthquakes. Over 50 small earthquakes followed by the end of December 2009. A temporary network of four and then five IRIS‐Passcal broadband systems was deployed from June 2009 to June 2010, recording data that were used to locate 38 events with the most confident P ‐ and S ‐arrival picks. Event locations were distributed along a 2 km long north‐northeast trend. The location centroid was at 32.298° N, 97.372° W and at 3.6 km depth. This location is approximately 1.3 km from a saltwater disposal well that began injection in October 2007 and 3.2 km away from a second injection well that was active from September 2005 to late July 2009. Focal mechanisms estimated for the best‐recorded events suggest a north‐northeast–south‐southwest‐trending normal fault with a dip of ∼50° and a component of oblique motion (rake of ∼−80°). This average solution is generally consistent with the north‐northeast‐trending extensional faults that are prevalent across parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Stress drops calculated from P and S spectra for seven different events ranged from 3.9 to 90 bars, with most estimates between 40 and 50 bars, typical values for intraplate earthquakes. Because there were no known previous earthquakes, and the located events were close to the two injection wells and near the injection depth, the possibility exists that earthquakes may be related to fluid injection.

Online Material: Tables of absolute and relative earthquake locations and a figure summarizing focal mechanism solutions.

 [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif


A comparison of the communicative gestures of vervets with those of other cercopithecines reveals both similarities and differences. Examples have been given of gestures (i) exhibited by all cercopithecines, (ii) rare or absent in vervets and common in several other species, (iii) demonstrated by vervets and a few other cercopithecines, and (iv) common in vervets and rare or absent in other members of the subfamily. Vervets, baboons, and rhesus monkeys have approximately the same number of visual signals in their behavioral repertoires-46, 42, and 49, respectively. Patas monkeys seem to have a smaller repertoire. Fifty-nine percent of the vervet patterns have also been described for rhesus monkeys, 63 percent for baboons, and 54 percent for patas. In cercopithecines, visual communicative patterns seem to be evolutionarily one of the most stable forms of behavior, in structural terms. Some of the greatest differences in communicative gestures are differences in the temporal aspects. In species of this subfamily, vocal patterns seem to vary more than visual signals. Greater structural differences in communicative gestures may be found in the Cercopithecinae when systematic field studies are made of some of the forest-dwelling species, about which we know very little.


When a GIS is used to drive map-based visualization, exploration of potential relationships takes precedence over presentation of facts. In these early stages of scientific analysis or policy formulation, providing a way for analysts to assess uncertainty in the data they are exploring is critical to the perspectives they form and the approaches they decide to pursue. As a basis from which to develop methods for visualizing uncertain information, this paper addresses the difference between data quality and uncertainty, the application of Berlin's graphic variables to the representation of uncertainty, conceptual models of spatial uncertainty as they relate to kinds of cartographic symbolization, and categories of user interfaces suited to presenting data and uncertainty about that data. Also touched on is the issue of how we might evaluate our attempts to depict uncertain information on maps.


Sepsis is one of the major causes of death in intensive care units. Oxidative stress and hyper-inflammation has been shown to be major cause of mortality and morbidity in septic cases. Pomegranate is a fruit which is considered for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of POMx, a standard pomegranate extract, on mortality and peritoneal bacterial load in cecal ligation and perforation (CLP) model of sepsis in rats. Male wistar rats were divided into four groups: sham; CLP; prevention [consumed POMx (250mg of polyphenols/kg/day) for 4 weeks and subjected to CLP]; treatment [subjected to CLP and then received a single drink of POMx (250mg of polyphenols/kg)]. Sepsis was induced by CLP surgery. Ten day survival rate of all groups (subdivided into with and without antibiotics subgroups) were recorded. Peritoneal bacterial load of animal were also assessed.Data were analysed using log-rank and Kruskal-Wallis tests. There were no significant differences in survival rates of CLP, prevention and treatment groups, in subgroups without antibiotics. However, in subgroups with antibiotics, the prevention group had significantly lower survival rate than sham group (p<0.05). Conversely, the bacterial load of prevention and treatment group were significantly higher than sham group (p<0.01).In conclusion our study demonstrated that pomegranate extract could increase mortality rate via increasing peritoneal cavity bacterial load, in CLP model of sepsis. More studies to assess mechanisms of this effect are warranted.


This is a text/reference, written in a style accessible to non-specialists as well as academic researchers. It shows the inter-relationships between transport and land use planning, emphasising the nature of their integration, and showing benefits of integration. It demonstrates research findings and draws conclusions for application to policy and practice. It is coherent and comprehensive and is based on a major set of recently completed European research projects (PLUME). It focuses on the relationships between transport and land use planning. It addresses general topics and specialist topics before providing a synthesis to the discussion. The information is gathered from the PLUME project.


For many years, discoveries about the genetic determinants of cancer appeared to be having only minor effects on efforts to control the disease in the clinic. Following advances made over the past decade, however, a description of cancer in molecular terms seems increasingly likely to improve the ways in which human cancers are detected, classified, monitored, and (especially) treated. Achieving the medical promise of this new era in cancer research will require a deeper understanding of the biology of cancer and imaginative application of new knowledge in the clinic, as well as political, social, and cultural changes.


This dissertation is devoted to the study of the classical Keller-Segel chemotaxis systems with space-time heterogeneous logistic source function on R . Chemotaxis systems are mathematical models describing aggregation phenomena of cells due to chemotaxis. That is, phenomena of directed movement of cells in response to the gradient of a chemical attractant, which may be produced by the cells themselves. We first study the fundamental problems such as local existence and global existence of nonnegative classical solutions for given nonnegative initial function in various spaces. Among our results, we prove that it is enough for the self-limitation coefficient of the logistic source function to be greater than or equal to the chemotaxis sensitivity coefficient to guarantee the existence of time-global classical solutions. Next, we discuss the pointwise and uniform persistence of classical solutions, the existence of positive entire solutions, the existence of time-periodic solution if the logistic function is time-periodic, and, the existence of steady state solutions if the logistic function is time homogeneous. In particular, we show that any classical solution with a positive initial function enjoys pointwise persistence under the same assumption of the existence of time-global classical solution. Moreover, we study the stability of positive entire solutions, and the spreading feature of solutions with compactly supported or front like initials. In this direction, our results recover as a special case the stability and spreading speeds for the classical Fisher-KPP equations. Finally, we establish the existence and non-existence of traveling wave solutions. When the logistic function is homogeneous and the chemotaxis sensitivity coefficient is sufficiently small, we show that there are traveling wave solutions with arbitrarily large speeds and there is no traveling wave solution of arbitrarily small speeds. That is there are positive constant 0 < c− ≤ c+ < ∞ such that for any c ≥ c+, there is a traveling wave solution with speed c connecting the two trivial constant solutions and no such solutions exist with speed c < c−.


This thesis focuses on EM (electromagnetic) modelling methods for simulating the
behaviour of receivers and detectors for far-IR (far-infrared) astronomy and CMB
(cosmic microwave background) applications, toward an optimum design for SAFARI
(the Spica Far-Infrared Instrument) on the proposed space based telescope
SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics). The computational
methods required for modelling SAFARI-like receivers are described, and
sophisticated conical waveguide mode matching theory is derived. Generic far-IR
systems are investigated, including analysis of SAFARI-like multi-mode feed horns,
and the absorber coupled superconducting TES (transition edge sensor) bolometers
that are typically used in far-IR receivers. Special attention is given to the integrating
cavity backshorts that serve to increase pixel efficiency, and new designs
for improved cavity geometries, which provide high coupling between the detector
and the incoming signal while reducing cavity losses and crosstalk, are presented.
Where more than one simulation approach is employed for a particular problem, the
agreement between the results served to mutually validate the approaches. Where
necessary, experimental measurements were carried out for verification of the simulations,
and the corresponding results are presented. The results of a measurement
campaign carried out at SRON (Netherlands Institute for Space Research) during
an extended visit during the summer of 2013 are presented, where a SAFARI-like
horn antenna was characterised in terms of its frequency dependent throughput at
THz (terahertz) frequencies. A series of cavity mounted absorber measurements are
also described, where the detector components are appropriately scaled up in size to
suit the frequency range of the in-house VNA (vector network analyser) system at
NUIM (National University of Ireland, Maynooth). The main drivers for the work
presented in this thesis were two Technology Research Programmes, both commissioned
by ESA (European Space Agency).


"In 2000, the world's leaders set a target of halving the percentage of hungry people between 1990 and 2015. This rather modest target constitutes part of the first Millennium Development Goal, which also calls for halving the proportion of people living in poverty and achieving full employment. However, the effort to meet the hunger target has swerved off track, and the world is getting farther and farther away from realizing this objective. The goal of halving hunger by 2015 can still be achieved, but business as usual will not be enough. What is needed is "business as unusual"—a smarter, more innovative, better focused, and cost-effective approach to reducing hunger. The five elements of this new approach are as follows: Invest in Two Core Pillars: Agriculture and Social Protection The first step in reducing poverty and hunger in developing countries is to invest in agriculture and rural development. Most of the world's poor and hungry people live in rural areas in Africa and Asia and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, but many developing countries continue to underinvest in agriculture. Research in Africa and Asia has shown that investments in agricultural research and extension have large impacts on agricultural productivity and poverty, and investments in rural infrastructure can bring even greater benefits. Scaled-up investments in social protection that focus on nutrition and health are also crucial for improving the lives of the poorest of the poor. Although policymakers increasingly see the importance of social protection spending, there are still few productive safety net programs that are well targeted to the poorest and hungry households and increase production capacity. Bring in New Players New actors in global development—the private sector, philanthropic organizations, and emerging economy donors—have important roles to play in reducing hunger in developing countries. But the opportunities presented by these development partners have not been fully harnessed. Given the right incentives, the private sector, for example, can provide effective and sustainable investment and innovation to help in the fight against hunger. In many countries, however, private companies face a lack of incentives and a poor business operating environment, including poor property rights. Emerging economy donors are now playing an increasing role in providing development assistance, but have not yet been fully integrated into the global food security agenda. Adopt a Country-Led, Bottom-Up Approach Effective, efficient, and sustainable policies that are well adapted to the local context can help countries maximize the local impact of the global agenda and tap external development assistance, which increasingly requires approaches that are country led. Successful reforms will be not only country driven, but also local in nature, with poor people acting as a driving force in the development process. At the same time, some issues—like climate change, trade, and control of disease—must be addressed at the global level. The task for individual countries is then to digest and integrate these global issues in developing their own strategies at the country level. Design Policies Using Evidence and Experiments Pilot projects and policy experiments have the potential to improve policymaking by giving decisionmakers information about what works before policies are implemented across the board. Experimentation can improve the success rate of reforms as successful pilot projects are scaled up and unsuccessful policy options are eliminated. To succeed with this approach, policymakers need to allow impartial monitoring of experiments and rapidly transform the lessons learned into large-scale reforms. These changes can create an environment in which policies are continually tried, tested, adjusted, and tried again before being scaled up. Walk the Walk Decisionmakers at the global, regional, and national levels have made commitments to policies and investments for enhancing food security, but they have often failed to meet those commitments. For example, in 2003, African heads of state pledged that their governments would allocate 10 percent of national public budgets to the agricultural sector by 2008, but data for 2007 show that only a handful of countries had met the 10 percent target. These financial commitments must be supported with strong institutions and governance at the global, regional, and national levels and monitored in a timely and transparent fashion. Scaling Up "Business as Unusual" Some aspects of this "business as unusual" approach have already been successful in a few countries, but they need to be scaled up and extended to new countries to have a real impact on the reduction of global hunger. On a larger scale, the global food governance system itself needs to be reformed to work better. Reforms should include (1) improving existing institutions and creating an umbrella structure for food and agriculture; (2) forming government-to-government systems for decisionmaking on agriculture, food, and nutrition; and (3) explicitly engaging the new players in the global food system—the private sector and civil society—together with national governments in new or reorganized international organizations and agreements. A combination of all three options, with a leading role for emerging economies, is required. Finally, though global and national actors have distinct roles to play, it is important that they work together, combining their efforts to fight poverty and hunger. A stronger system of mutual accountability between the two groups would help keep progress on track." from Text


When insisting that the Sedition Act of 1798 violated the First Amendment, Jeffersonian Republicans cast their argument in historical terms, claiming that the Speech and Press Clauses eliminated any federal power to restrict expression. Scholars, in turn, have generally accepted that Republicans had a consistent understanding of the First Amendment throughout the 1790s. But Founding Era constitutionalism was dynamic in practice, even while often conservative in rhetoric, and scholars have missed the striking novelty of the principal argument against the Sedition Act. Republicans had taken a rights provision and transformed it into a federalism rule.

Mostly ignored in the literature, and never analyzed as a central feature of the opposition to the Sedition Act, the problem of partisan jury selection drove the shift in Republican thought. As originally understood, speech and press freedoms put juries primarily in charge of administering governmental limitations of expression. Following the development of political parties, however, Republicans perceived that the guarantee of a jury trial was nearly meaningless when federal jurors were hand selected by partisan federal marshals. In response, Republicans promoted a new reading of the First Amendment. Deeply suspicious of abuse by federal judges and juries, Republicans insisted that the First Amendment deprived the federal government of any authority to regulate speech or the press, even though analogous speech and press clauses at the state level left considerable room for states to regulate harmful expression.

This episode reveals a latent tension in eighteenth-century constitutionalism. Some threads of Founding Era thought embraced the notion of a document with fixed meaning, but other features encouraged constitutional evolution as conditions changed. Rather than seeking a principled resolution of this tension, however, Republicans developed entirely new arguments and then cast them in historical terms. The invention of First Amendment federalism also raises the possibility of a different path for modern speech doctrine, guided less by a particular theory of why speech is special and more by practical concerns about political entrenchment and politically biased enforcement.


D Miller

Dr D Miller, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; email@example.com

How effective are interventions for reducing the pain of screening mammography?

Studies selected compared interventions to reduce the pain or discomfort of screening mammography (eg, interventions preparing women before the mammogram, affecting staff or the physical environment of the screening facility, or altering aspects of the examination procedure) with placebo or usual care in women of any age. Outcomes were pain or discomfort of the procedure and image quality of the mammogram.

Specialised Register of the Cochrane Breast Cancer Group, Medline, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and CINAHL (to 2006); and Current Controlled Trials and UK National Research Register (to …


Static analysis tools have experienced a dichotomy over the span of the last decade. They have proven themselves to be useful in many domains, but at the same time have not (in general) experienced any notable concrete integration into a development environment. This is partly due to the inherent complexity of the tools themselves, as well as due to other intangible factors. Such factors usually tend to include questions about the return on investment of the tool and the value the tool provides in a development environment. In this paper, we present an empirical model for evaluating static analysis tools from the perspective of the economic value they provide. We further apply this model to a case study of the Static Driver Verier (SDV) tool that ships with the Windows Driver Kit and show the usefulness of the model and the tool.


1.	Connectivity of marine populations and ecosystems is crucial to maintaining and enhancing their structure, distribution, persistence, resilience and productivity. Artificial hard substrate, such as that associated with oil and gas platforms, provides settlement opportunities for species adapted to hard substrates in areas of soft sediment. The contribution of artificial hard substrate and the consequences of its removal (e.g. through decommissioning) to marine connectivity is not clear, yet such information is vital to inform marine spatial planning and future policy decisions on the use and protection of marine resources.2.	This study demonstrates the application of a social network analysis approach to quantify and describe the ecological connectivity, informed by particle tracking model outputs, of hard substrate marine communities in the North Sea. Through comparison of networks with and without artificial hard substrate, and based on hypothetical decommissioning scenarios, this study provides insight into the contribution of artificial hard substrate, and the consequence of decommissioning, to the structure and function of marine community connectivity.3.	This study highlights that artificial hard substrate, despite providing only a small proportion of the total area of hard substrate, increases the geographic extent and connectivity of the hard substrate network, bridging gaps, thereby providing 'stepping stones' between otherwise disconnected areas of natural hard substrate. Compared to the baseline scenario, a decommissioning scenario with full removal of oil and gas platforms results in a nearly 60% reduction in connectivity. Such reduction in connectivity may have negative implications for species' distribution, gene flow and resilience following disturbance or exploitation of marine hard substrate communities.4.	Synthesis and applications. Social network analysis can provide valuable insight into connectivity between marine communities and enable the evaluation of impacts associated with changes to the marine environment. Providing standardized, transparent and robust outputs, such a tool is useful to facilitate understanding across different disciplines, including marine science, marine spatial planning and marine policy. Social network analysis therefore has great potential to address current knowledge gaps with respect to marine connectivity and crucially facilitate assessment of the impacts of changes in offshore substrate as part of the marine spatial planning process, thereby informing policy and marine management decisions.


To delineate the merits and demerits of dual class share structures, we should compare them to dispersed ownership structures with control contestability, concentrated ownership structures, and other control-enhancing mechanisms. Dual class structures facilitate long-term business strategies, firm-specific investments, equity financing and risk-taking, and they are simple, transparent and stable; but they insulate corporate controllers from shareholder monitoring, proxy contests and hostile takeovers, exacerbate tunnelling and shirking problems, and enable corporate controllers to achieve an extreme voting-cash flow rights divergence and to infringe existing shareholders' voting rights. Law can deal with most disadvantages of dual class structures, except shirking problems. Policy-makers should ensure that law provides shareholders with sufficient protection and then make a choice between dual class structures' benefits and constraints on shirking derived from concentrated corporate ownership.


August Matthias Hagen (1794–1878) – Baltic German Landscape Painting Between Romantic Beginnings and Provincial Self-Sufficiency The art of August Matthias Hagen (1794–1878), once a drawing instructor at Tartu University, was previously almost unknown beyond the borders of Estonia. Awareness of his works came about thanks to the exhibitions in Hamburg (2006) and in Amsterdam (2008), which also brought with them an opportunity for a new assessment of his art. It became evident from the drawings and paintings shown in these galleries that the work he created in the mid 1830's – depicting landscape views of Southern Finland – reveal a great affinity with the aesthetics and spirit of Dresden Romanticism from the circle of Caspar David Friedrich. This essay not only focuses on the debt Hagen's mature work owes to painters like C. D. Friedrich, Carl Gustav Carus, and Johan Christian Clausen Dahl, but it also intends to show how the Romantic spirit of such Dresden artists from the early 19th century came, at least for a certain period of time, to influence A. M. Hagen's art. Without a doubt, Wassilij Andrewitsch Shukowski – a poet, the Russian Zarewich's personal tutor, and Hagen's fellow student at the Drawing School of Tartu University – was the primary connection between A. M. Hagen and Dresden's art milieu. Hagen not only became acquainted with individual works done by Friedrich via Shukowski, but also through the painting collection of Tartu Professor Johann Christian Moyer and from the theoretical fundaments of the Romantic Erdlebenbild – a concept included in Carl Gustav Carus' treatise: Ten Letters about Landscape Painting , (second edition 1835). The drawings and paintings commissioned by the Czar reflect Hagen's intense studies of Carus' theory of Romantic landscape painting, particularly in those works showing views of Finland – like the island of Hogland, territory which had been recently acquired by the Russian Empire. Yet A. M. Hagen soon left behind these Romantic, philosophical ideals involving yearning and redemption. He replaced them with a concept associated with a poetic view of reality clearly embodying J. C. C. Dahl's Romantic Realism. Thus, Hagen's art gradually evolved into a quite painstaking, topographically exact rendering of landscapes (vedute) adapted from Dahl's conception of Romantic Realism. But unlike Dahl's poetic vision, Hagen practised a more sober realism fully within the Biedermeier spirit. In this way Hagen changed his orientation from Romantic landscape painting conveying mood and meaning towards an idyllic Biedermeier landscape containing an atmosphere of essentially "idealized reality". This article dealing with the artistic production of the Baltic-German landscape painter August Matthias Hagen includes two aspects of his career: a look back into his early work dating from before his confrontation with Dresden Romantic landscape painting and an overview of his later period – occurring after his return from a study trip to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland – a time when he was then more sensitized to newer tendencies in Romantic art. However, in Tartu, Hagen was essentially responsible for fulfilling the university's curriculum requirements expected from its drawing master: to primarily convey a solid sense of draftsmanship and nurture a sober talent for observation. In addition, because Hagen was isolated from his previous German sources – due to the geographically remote location in the Russian Baltic province – his late landscape paintings lacked a true spiritual profundity. This provincial seclusion from German and Russian art centers caused Hagen's later work to be characterized by a tendency to unspectacular self-sufficiency which made no real effort to maintain connections with newer developments in the more modern, avant-garde trends that subsequently occurred in European art.


After active immunization with 2,4-dinitrophenyl-keyhole limpet hemocyanin (DNP-KLH), 2,4-dinitropheynl-L-lysine (DNPL)-Ficoll may elicit indurated, erythematous skin reactions lasting 24-72 h. Histological sections of these reactions, examined by microscope techniques, showed they contained polymorphonuclear leukocytes and perivascularly situated lymphocytes and macrophages, but had very few basophils. Consequently, the reaction was interpreted as having an immediate component and a component typical of delayed hypersensitivity; this indicated that the delayed reaction could be specific for the DNP hapten. Although this delayed type of skin reaction was not transferred to recipients with anti-DNP-KLH serum, one pool of that serum did sensitize guinea pigs so that they could respond with a different skin reaction after challenge with DNPL-Ficoll. This reaction was soft, pale pink, and lasted for 24 h. Histologically, it contained only a few polymorphonuclear leukocytes. It differed from the delayed reaction in actively immunized animals in that it lacked induration, and was devoid of lymphocytes and macrophages.


Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH) has emerged as the method of choice for high dimensional similarity search, a classical problem of interest in numerous applications. LSH-based solutions require that each data point be inserted into a number A of hash tables, after which a query can be answered by performing B lookups. The original LSH solution of [IM98] showed for the first time that both A and B can be made sublinear in the number of data points. Unfortunately, the classical LSH solution does not provide any tradeoff between insert and query complexity, whereas for data (respectively, query) intensive applications one would like to minimize insert time by choosing a smaller $A$ (respectively, minimize query time by choosing a smaller B). A partial remedy for this is provided by Entropy LSH [Pan06], which allows to make either inserts or queries essentially constant time at the expense of a loss in the other parameter, but no algorithm that achieves a smooth tradeoff is known. In this paper, we present an algorithm for performing similarity search under the Euclidean metric that resolves the problem above. Our solution is inspired by Entropy LSH, but uses a very different analysis to achieve a smooth tradeoff between insert and query complexity. Our results improve upon or match, up to lower order terms in the exponent, best known data-oblivious algorithms for the Euclidean metric.


Computerized tomography (CT) is applied to multiphase flow measurements in recent years. A new approach based on the cross-entropy and information extension methods is proposed for two-phase flow regime identification in this paper. Two minimum cross-entropy methods, namely, maximum a posteriori and simultaneous multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (ART), are presented. This paper discusses the selection of parameters and prior smoothing operator. An information extension method is proposed based on the geometrical model of the CT system to reduce ill condition and modify the edge shape of reconstruction. Both simulation and experiments were carried out for typical flow regimes, indicating that the proposed method can reduce the computation time and improve the resolution of the reconstructed images compared with the ART method.


BACKGROUND
Blindness from an optic neuropathy recently occurred as an epidemic affecting 50,000 patients in Cuba (CEON) and had clinical features reminiscent of both tobacco-alcohol amblyopia (TAA) and Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (Leber's; LHON). Selective damage to the papillomacular bundle was characteristic, and many patients also developed a peripheral neuropathy. Identified risk factors included vitamin deficiencies as well as exposure to methanol and cyanide. In all 3 syndromes, there is evidence that singular or combined insults to mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation are associated with a clinically characteristic optic neuropathy.

PURPOSE
First, to test the hypothesis that a common pathophysiologic mechanism involving impairment of mitochondria function and, consequently, axonal transport underlies both genetic optic nerve diseases such as Leber's and acquired toxic and nutritional deficiency optic neuropathies. According to this hypothesis, ATP depletion below a certain threshold leads to a blockage of orthograde axonal transport of mitochondria, which, in turn, leads to total ATP depletion and subsequent cell death. Second, to address several related questions, including (1) How does impaired energy production lead to optic neuropathy, particularly since it seems to relatively spare other metabolically active tissues, such as liver and heart? (2) Within the nervous system, why is the optic nerve, and most particularly the papillomacular bundle, so highly sensitive? Although there have been previous publications on the clinical features of the Cuban epidemic of blindness, the present hypothesis and the subsequent questions have not been previously addressed.

METHODS
Patients in Cuba with epidemic optic neuropathy were personally evaluated through a comprehensive neuro-ophthalmologic examination. In addition, serum, lymphocytes for DNA analysis, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), sural nerves, and eyes with attached optic nerves were obtained from Cuban patients, as well as from Leber's patients, for study. Finally, we developed an animal model to match the low serum folic acid and high serum formate levels found in the CEON patients, by administering to rats low doses of methanol after several months of a folic acid-deficient diet. Optic nerves and other tissues obtained from these rats were analyzed and compared with those from the Cuban patients.

RESULTS
Patients from the Cuban epidemic of optic neuropathy with clinical evidence of a selective loss of the papillomacular bundle did much better once their nutritional status was corrected and exposure to toxins ceased. Patients with CEON often demonstrated low levels of folic acid and high levels of formate in their blood. Histopathologic studies demonstrated losses of the longest fibers (in the sural nerve) and those of smallest caliber (papillomacular bundle) in the optic nerve, with intra-axonal accumulations just anterior to the lamina cribrosa. Our animal model duplicated the serologic changes (low folic acid, high formate) as well as these histopathologic changes. Furthermore, ultrastructural examination of rat tissues demonstrated mitochondrial changes that further matched those seen on ultrastructural examination of tissues from patients with Leber's.

CONCLUSION
Mitochondria can be impaired either genetically (as in Leber's) or through acquired insults (such as nutritional or toxic factors). Either may challenge energy production in all cells of the body. While this challenge may be met through certain compensatory mechanisms (such as in the size, shape, or number of the mitochondria), there exists in neurons a threshold which, once passed, leads to catastrophic changes. This threshold may be that point at which mitochondrial derangement leads to such ATP depletion that axonal transport is compromised, and decreased mitochondrial transport results in even further ATP depletion. Neurons are singularly dependent on the axonal transport of mitochondria. (


A study was conducted to determine the productivity and management of indigenous chickens of Kumi district in Eastern Uganda. Eighty households were randomly selected to respond to a standard questionnaire. The average flock size per household was three cocks, six hens and four chicks. Sexual maturity is attained at 5.5 and 6.5 months among male and female chickens respectively, with age at first egg ranging between 5.5-7 months. Egg hatchability varied widely between farmers with an overall mean of 90%. Clutch sizes ranged between 4-19 eggs per clutch, with a mean of 13 eggs. Chickens were acquired through purchase (65.6%), gifts (26.3%), or in exchange for labour. Scavenging was the major feeding system, seasonally supplemented with cereal grain. The majority of the farmers (87.5%) provided birds with drinking water. Death of chicks was prevalent (73%) and was mainly attributed to Newcastle disease (70%), with most of the mortality being observed during the dry season (62%). Survival of chickens was significantly affected (P<0.001) by feeding level, and strongly correlated (r = 0.83) with the housing system. Housing and feeding had significant effects on duration between laying cycles (P<0.001), how chickens were acquired (P<0.01), and the uses to which the chickens were put (P<0.001). Chickens and eggs are mainly used to generate household income and for home consumption. In some households, chickens are exchanged for goats and subsequently, for cattle. Our findings indicate that the indigenous chicken is a major resource in Teso, Uganda. The performance of these indigenous chickens would significantly improve with better feeding, housing and health management. Chicken farmers should be empowered through training and provision of capital credit, the latter of which should be well informed by data on the chicken production cycle.


Despite their potential for a range of exciting new applications, mobile eye trackers suffer from several fundamental usability problems. InvisibleEye is an innovative approach for mobile eye tracking that uses millimeter-size RGB cameras, which can be fully embedded into normal glasses frames, as well as appearancebased gaze estimation to directly estimate gaze from the eye images. Through evaluation on three large-scale, increasingly realistic datasets, we show that InvisibleEye can achieve a person-specific gaze estimation accuracy of up to 2.04° using three camera pairs with a resolution of only 3x3 pixels.


Summary

The relationships among fifteen isolates of whitefly-transmitted geminiviruses (WTGs) from North, Central and South America and six from other continents were assessed (a) in nucleic acid hybridisation tests with sulphonated DNA probes for eight of the viruses, and/or (b) in triple-antibody-sandwich ELISA with panels of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to particles of African cassava mosaic virus (ACMV) and Indian cassava mosaic virus (ICMV). Probes specific for DNA-A of four American viruses, abutilon mosaic (AbMV), bean golden mosaic (BGMV), squash leaf curl (SLCV) and tomato golden mosaic (TGMV), detected virtually all the American viruses but reacted weakly if at all with ICMV, ACMV or tomato yellow leaf curl virus from Thailand (TYLCV-T). Conversely, the probe for ACMV DNA-A did not detect any of the American viruses, and that for TYLCV-T DNA-A reacted weakly with SLCV and TGMV0020but did not detect the others. In contrast, probes specific for DNA-B of the four American viruses or ACMV detected only the homologous virus, except for slight reactions between the AbMV DNA-B probe and both chino del tomate virus (CdTV)-DNA and SLCV-DNA. However, a probe for DNA-B of bean calico mosaic virus (BCMoV) reacted weakly with BGMV-PR DNA, and a probe for DNA-B of CdTV from Mexico detected several American viruses.

Six out of 17 MAbs specific for ACMV and six out of 10 MAbs specific for ICMV reacted with one or other of the 14 American virus isolates tested. Two and-ACMV MAbs reacted with all, and one anti-ACMV MAb and two anti-ICMV MAbs reacted with nearly all the American viruses, one anti-ACMV MAb reacted with about half the American viruses and six other MAbs reacted with only one or two of them. Of the American viruses, CdTV and AbMV were the least closely related to the others. The epitope profiles of BCMoV, BGMV, cotton leaf crumple virus, serrano golden mosaic virus and SLCV were virtually indistinguishable. TGMV, potato yellow mosaic virus (PYMV) and an euphorbia virus had profiles intermediate between those of the BGMV cluster and AbMV-CdTV. In general, the epitope profiles and the results of hybridisation tests with DNA-A probes show that the similarities among the American viruses are greater than those between the American viruses and the viruses from other continents; the hybridisation tests with DNA-B probes show that substantial differences exist between individual American viruses. In America, geminivirus evolution seems to have proceeded convergently from different progenitor viruses, or divergently from one ancestral form, with DNA-B diverging to a greater extent than DNA-A and its particle-protein gene.


Evolutionary games on graphs describe how strategic interactions and population structure determine evolutionary success, quantified by the probability that a single mutant takes over a population. Graph structures, compared to the well-mixed case, can act as amplifiers or suppressors of selection by increasing or decreasing the fixation probability of a beneficial mutant. Properties of the associated mean fixation times can be more intricate, especially when selection is strong. The intuition is that fixation of a beneficial mutant happens fast in a dominance game, that fixation takes very long in a coexistence game, and that strong selection eliminates demographic noise. Here we show that these intuitions can be misleading in structured populations. We analyze mean fixation times on the cycle graph under strong frequency-dependent selection for two different microscopic evolutionary update rules (death-birth and birth-death). We establish exact analytical results for fixation times under strong selection and show that there are coexistence games in which fixation occurs in time polynomial in population size. Depending on the underlying game, we observe inherence of demographic noise even under strong selection if the process is driven by random death before selection for birth of an offspring (death-birth update). In contrast, if selection for an offspring occurs before random removal (birth-death update), then strong selection can remove demographic noise almost entirely.


The recent rapid growth of social media and online social networks (OSNs) has raised interesting questions about the spread of ideas and fads within our society. In the past year, several papers have drawn analogies between the rise and fall in popularity of OSNs and mathematical models used to study infectious disease. One such model, the irSIR model, made use of the idea of "infectious recovery" to outperform the traditional SIR model in replicating the rise and fall of MySpace and to predict a rapid drop in the popularity of Facebook. Here we explore the irSIR model and two of its logical extensions and we mathematically characterize the initial and long-run behavior of these dynamical systems. In particular, while the original irSIR model always predicts extinction of a social epidemic, we construct an extension of the model that matches the exponential growth phase of the irSIR model while allowing for the possibility of an arbitrary proportion of infections in the long run.


Wild meats take part in the daily protein sources for many Malagasy rural communities. Many animal species are affected by hunting, which is practiced during almost all seasons in Madagascar. In the Daraina region, animal groups hunted by local people are mainly mammals, birds, fishes, and reptiles. As the natural habitats within this region are actually highly perturbated by human activities, and as this region shows a high population growth, hunting may constitute a severe threat for many species. Sustainable management of these later depends on local population awareness regarding the threats of intensive hunting on animals as well as on the natural ecosystems.


Fire is one of the most prevalent disturbances in the Earth system, and its past characteristics can be reconstructed using charcoal particles preserved in depositional environments. Although researchers know that fires produce charcoal particles, interpretation of the quantity or composition of charcoal particles in terms of fire source remains poorly understood. In this study, we used a unique four-year dataset of charcoal deposited in traps from a native tallgrass prairie in mid-North America to test which environmental factors were linked to charcoal measurements on three spatial scales. We investigated small and large charcoal particles commonly used as a proxy of fire activity at different spatial scales, and charcoal morphotypes representing different types of fuel. We found that small (125–250 μm) and large (250 μm–1 mm) particles of charcoal are well-correlated (Spearman correlation = 0.88) and likely reflect the same spatial scale of fire activity in a system with both herbaceous and woody fuels. There was no significant relationship between charcoal pieces and fire parameters <500 m from the traps. Moreover, local area burned (<5 km distance radius from traps) explained the total charcoal amount, and regional burning (200 km radius distance from traps) explained the ratio of non arboreal to total charcoal (NA/T ratio). Charcoal variables, including total charcoal count and NA/T ratio, did not correlate with other fire parameters, vegetation cover, landscape, or climate variables. Thus, in long-term studies that involve fire history reconstructions, total charcoal particles, even of a small size (125–250 μm), could be an indicator of local area burned. Further studies may determine relationships among amount of charcoal recorded, fire intensity, vegetation cover, and climatic parameters.


The realisation of a European internal market for energy is still a work in progress. Written by leading European scholars and discussed with major energy stakeholders, this book presents a thorough analysis of the motives and methods needed to achieve a single European energy market. The authors discuss the critical issues surrounding an internal European energy market including: market design, competition and market power, sustainable energy versus the market, regulation and harmonisation, benchmarking and indicators, modelling of competition, market prices and energy forecasts. They provide a multi-disciplinary assessment of the `best way' to build the market base of a future European energy policy. Electricity Reform in Europe will be of great interest to decision makers and managers in the energy industry or business sector as they will be able to see the whole European energy policy `picture' beyond their own corporate interests. The book will also appeal to national and European energy administrations, regulatory bodies and policy makers providing a synthesis of all relevant policy issues.


We present a new bias-free antenna-coupled CW terahertz photomixer with interdigitated electrodes. Each finger pair is made of metal/semiconductor/metal (MSM) electrodes with dissimilar Schottky barriers. The two dissimilar metals in each MSM have a barrier height of difference (ΔϕB) and a finite lateral spacing (s). In the proposed teraheretz emitter, not only is the optical absorption and hence photogeneration enhanced by the surface resonant modes, but also the high built-in field increases the terahertz current. Furthermore, by having a large radiation resistance of the antenna integrated to the array electrodes, based on our simulations, it is possible to achieve the maximum power of 35 μW from a dipole antenna coupled to the proposed electrode array with 10 μm ×10  μm active area and pitch of Λ=800  nm. This is more than 196 times larger terahertz power than the highest terahertz power radiated from the array emitters of the same area that contains the bias-free antennaless array of far-field emitters with double pitch size. We have also investigated the limits of thermal breakdown and efficiency degradation of the proposed emitter that play an important role due to the reduction of the active area. Such terahertz sources can pave the way to various biomedical applications such as endoscopic imaging without a need for hazardous external circuitry for biasing, reducing patient health risk.


Abstract. This study explores the seasonal transpiration and physiological responses of two dominant coexisting tree species, Schima superba and Michelia macclurei, to manipulated precipitation patterns in a subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest of South China, in which an ambient control treatment (BC), a drier dry and wetter wet season treatment (DD), and an extended dry and wetter wet season treatment (ED) were applied. Tree water use and associated ecophysiological characters, such as the daily whole tree transpiration (EL), intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi), Huber values (As : Al), and utilization proportions from different water sources were determined during the period from October 2012 to September 2013. For both tree species, no significant difference in transpiration among the three treatments was observed in the wet season, but a relatively stronger decrease of transpiration occurred under DD and ED treatments during the later dry season. Moreover, the higher transpiration of M. macclurei and its advantage of utilizing the shallow water derived from light rainfall under dry condition suggested that M. macclurei was more competitive in this subtropical forest. M. macclurei was inclined to adopt a drought-avoidance strategy, whereas S. superba that could uptake deeper soil water was more likely to be drought tolerant. The different spatial and temporal patterns of water use, together with the contrasting water use strategies, could partly explain the current coexistence of the two tree species. Their varying performance under different water conditions implies possible shifts in species dominance within the forest community that were potentially stimulated under future precipitation change scenarios from a long-term perspective.


This study was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data that aimed to map patients' care transitions following admission to a specialist palliative care service in Italy called Antea Centre. Patients' data was extracted from the Antea local database from 2007 to 2011. External transitions were defined as a change in the setting of care, with the patient no longer being cared for by Antea staff. Internal transitions were defined as a change in the setting of care, with the care still being provided by Antea staff. A total of 1123 patients out of 5313 admitted to the palliative service (21%) experienced transitions. Patients who experienced no transitions after their admission to the palliative care service were more likely to have a Karnofsky Performance Scale Index <30, to have been referred by a hospital physician, to have a shorter survival time, and to have home as their place of death (P<0.001). Although the patients with no transitions had worse clinical conditions, organisations should pay attention to reducing the possible negative effects of transitions, such as discontinuity of care and poor coordination.


Background: Car wash wastewater contains several contaminants such as organic matter, oil, grease, detergents and phosphates, all of which are harmful for the environment. In this study, the application of electrocoagulation (EC) to treat car wash wastewater has been studied, and the operating parameters optimized. The electro-Fenton (EF) for further contaminant removal was also investigated. Methods: In EC process, the effect of pH, current density, and the reaction time of the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand (COD), phosphate, and turbidity were investigated using the response surface methodology (RSM). The electrochemical cell consisted of four iron electrodes that were connected to a power supply using a monopolar arrangement. In the EF process, the effect of pH, reaction time, and hydrogen peroxide concentration on COD removal efficiency were probed. Results: The optimum pH, current density, and the reaction time for the EC process were 7.3, 4.2 mA cm-2 and 20.3 minutes, respectively. Under these conditions, the COD, phosphate, and turbidity removal percentages were 80.8%, 94.9% and 85.5%, respectively, and the specific energy consumption was 1.5 kWh m-3. For the EF process, the optimum pH, reaction time, current and hydrogen peroxide dosage were 3, 10 minutes, 2 A and 500 mg L-1, respectively. The EF showed higher COD removal efficiency (85.6%) with a lower specific energy consumption (0.5 kWh m-3) and reaction time compared to the EC. Conclusion: This study shows that both EC and EF can effectively treat car wash wastewater with high removal efficiency within a short reaction time.


Abstract. We examine the effects of ozone precursor emissions from megacities on present-day air quality using the global chemistry–climate model UM-UKCA (UK Met Office Unified Model coupled to the UK Chemistry and Aerosols model). The sensitivity of megacity and regional ozone to local emissions, both from within the megacity and from surrounding regions, is important for determining air quality across many scales, which in turn is key for reducing human exposure to high levels of pollutants. We use two methods, perturbation and tagging, to quantify the impact of megacity emissions on global ozone. We also completely redistribute the anthropogenic emissions from megacities, to compare changes in local air quality going from centralised, densely populated megacities to decentralised, lower density urban areas. Focus is placed not only on how changes to megacity emissions affect regional and global NOx and O3, but also on changes to NOy deposition and to local chemical environments which are perturbed by the emission changes. The perturbation and tagging methods show broadly similar megacity impacts on total ozone, with the perturbation method underestimating the contribution partially because it perturbs the background chemical environment. The total redistribution of megacity emissions locally shifts the chemical environment towards more NOx-limited conditions in the megacities, which is more conducive to ozone production, and monthly mean surface ozone is found to increase up to 30% in megacities, depending on latitude and season. However, the displacement of emissions has little effect on the global annual ozone burden (0.12% change). Globally, megacity emissions are shown to contribute ~3% of total NOy deposition. The changes in O3, NOx and NOy deposition described here are useful for quantifying megacity impacts and for understanding the sensitivity of megacity regions to local emissions. The small global effects of the 100% redistribution carried out in this study suggest that the distribution of emissions on the local scale is unlikely to have large implications for chemistry–climate processes on the global scale.


In this vivid ethnography set in contemporary Peru, Susan Stokes provides a compelling analysis of the making and unmaking of class consciousness among the urban poor. Her research strategy is multifaceted; through interviews, participant observation, and survey research she digs deeply into the popular culture of the social activists and shantytown residents she studies. The result is a penetrating look at how social movements evolve, how poor people construct independent political cultures, and how the ideological domination of oppressed classes can shatter. This work is a new and vital chapter in the growing literature on the formation of social movements. It chronicles the transformation of Peru's poor from a culture of deference and clientelism in the late 1960s to a population mobilized for radical political action today.


The intent of this research was to augment and facilitate analyses, which gauges the feasibility of web-mined demographics to study spatio-temporal dynamics of migration. As a case study, we explored the spatio-temporal dynamics of Vietnamese Americans (VA) in Texas through geovisualization of mined demographic microdata from the World Wide Web. Based on string matching across all demographic attributes, including full name, address, date of birth, age and phone number, multiple records of the same entity (i.e. person) over time were resolved and reconciled into a database. Migration trajectories were geovisualized through animated sprites by connecting the different addresses associated with the same person and segmenting the trajectory into small fragments. Intra-metropolitan migration patterns appeared at the local scale within many metropolitan areas. At the scale of metropolitan area, varying degrees of immigration and emigration manifest different types of migration clusters. This paper presents a methodology incorporating GIS methods and cartographic design to produce geovisualization animation, enabling the cognitive identification of migration patterns at multiple scales. Identification of spatio-temporal patterns often stimulates further research to better understand the phenomenon and enhance subsequent modeling.


Mussorgsky's Sunless cycle is aesthetically and stylistically an anomalous member of his oeuvre. Its notably effaced, pared-down, and withdrawn qualities present challenges to critical interpretation. Its uniqueness, however, renders it a crucial work for furnishing the fullest possible picture of Mussorgsky as a creative artist. The author of its texts, Golenishchev-Kutuzov (whose relationship with Mussorgsky at the time of its writing possibly extended beyond the platonic) has been identified by recent scholarship as an essential eye-witness for those to whom Stasov's populist characterization of the composer does not ring entirely true. Golenishchev-Kutuzov believed that in Sunless Mussorgsky first revealed his authentic artistic self. According to Golenishchev-Kutuvoz, Mussorgsky regarded his signal achievement in Sunless to have been the eradication of all elements other than feeling. In other words, he had thrown off the stylistic shackles imposed by the aesthetics of realism and relied entirely on intuitive harmonic invention as the sole conveyor of a purely subjective, affective meaning in the cycle. This hypothesis forms the point of departure for an investigation of select numbers of the cycle. Analysis reveals that the affective aspect is riot the only significant element operative. Alongside remnants of the realist style, there is evidence, of varying degrees of subtlety, for a knowing use of symmetrical pitch organization. Mussorgsky not only adapted the usual referential attachments of symmetrically based chromaticism-typically found in Russian operas of the second half of the nineteenth century-he also, through extremely simple but effective means, synthesized the intuitive harmonic and rational symmetrical elements of the cycle's pitch organization so that the latter emerges seamlessly out of the former. This remarkable synthesis ensures the cycle's uniformity of tone while also allowing for a reading that extends beyond the generally affective to the symbolically more specific. This symbolic level of reading offers several interpretative possibilities, one of which may refer even to the relationship of the poet and the composer. Irrespective of such potentials for interpretation, the most significant achievement in the cycle remains the synthesis of the intuitive/affective and rational/symbolic elements of its organization. Songs 1, 2, 3, and 6 of the cycle are considered in detail.


Cesium-137 (C137) is a radioactive source that could be utilized in the construction of a radioactive dispersal device (RDD). The objective of this study was to examine the uptake of Cs+ by common structural materials in the presence of water by using batch experiments with nonradioactive cesium chloride (CsCl133) as a surrogate for the radionuclide. Uptake kinetics and adsorption isotherms of Cs+ were measured on a diverse set of building materials, as were the effects of pH on the sorption processes. The results showed that wood materials, metal filings, and organic building materials and supplies did not sorb significant amounts of Cs+, but red brick, concrete block, drop ceiling panels, and clay materials retained Cs+ strongly. Adsorption kinetics were fast, and sorption isotherms could be characterized as linear. The solution pH did not have a significant effect on Cs+ sorption.


Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a "foreign accent" in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or "schwas," have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than spectral qualities. Finally, we examined the role of nonstructural variables (e.g. linguistic history measures) in predicting native-like vowel duration. These factors included: Age of L2 learning, amount of L1 use, and self-reported bilingual dominance. Our results suggested that different sociolinguistic factors predicted native-like reduced vowel duration than predicted native-like vowel qualities across multiple phonetic environments.