Receptor ligands, identified as antagonists, based on the absence of stimulation of signaling, can rarely stimulate receptor internalization. d-Tyr-Gly-[(Nle(28,31),d-Trp(30))CCK-26-32]-2-phenylethyl ester (d-Trp-OPE) is such a ligand that binds to the cholecystokinin (CCK) receptor and stimulates internalization. Here, the molecular basis of this trafficking event is explored, with the assumption that ligand binding initiates conformational change, exposing an epitope to direct endocytosis. Ligand-stimulated internalization was studied morphologically using fluorescent CCK and d-Trp-OPE. d-Trp-OPE occupation of Chinese hamster ovary cell receptors stimulated internalization into the same region as CCK. Arrestin-biased action was ruled out using morphological translocation of fluorescent arrestin 2 and arrestin 3, moving to the membrane in response to CCK, but not d-Trp-OPE. Possible roles of the carboxyl terminus were studied using truncated receptor constructs, eliminating the proline-rich distal tail, the serine/threonine-rich midregion, and the remainder to the vicinal cysteines. None of these constructs disrupted d-Trp-OPE-stimulated internalization. Possible contributions of transmembrane segments were studied using competitive inhibition with peptides that also had no effect. Intracellular regions were studied with a similar strategy using coexpressing cell lines. Peptides corresponding to ends of each loop region were studied, with only the peptide at the carboxyl end of the third loop inhibiting d-Trp-OPE-stimulated internalization but having no effect on CCK-stimulated internalization. The region contributing to this effect was refined to peptide 309-323, located below the recognized G protein-association motif. While a receptor in which this segment was deleted did internalize in response to d-Trp-OPE, it exhibited abnormal ligand binding and did not signal in response to CCK, suggesting an abnormal conformation and possible mechanism of internalization distinct from that being studied. This interpretation was further supported by the inability of peptide 309-323 to inhibit its d-Trp-OPE-stimulated internalization. Thus the 309-323 region of the type 1 CCK receptor affects antagonist-stimulated internalization of this receptor, although its mechanism and interacting partner are not yet clear.


Comparing the results of the calculations for computing the mean pressure of an aviation engine for any number of revolutions, with those of experiment, the writer, by numerous examples, shows the perfect agreement between them. This report will show that, by means of a special abacus, an engineer can instantly plot the characteristics of an engine.


Space suits can be tested unmanned for range of motion and joint torque in an attempt to quantify and compare space suit joint designs and overall suit architecture. However, this data is irrelevant if humans using the suits aren't effective. Characterizing human suited performance has continued to be a challenge, partly due to limitations in sensor technology. One concept is to use sensors placed at/on the human body, underneath the pressure garment to obtain knowledge of the human bodies movements. This data could then be compared against the suit motion. Various sensors, sensor technologies, and sensor implementations have been attempted over two decades of efforts, but each has had issues. Previous efforts have used Force Sensitive Resistors (FSR), TouchSense shear sensors, pressure-sensing arrays (Tek scan etc.), piezo-electric sensors, among others but have not met all requirements. Most issues have centered around accuracy when placed on the pliant surface of the skin, and accuracy when placed over curved surfaces of the skin. Accuracy has been sufficient to delineate low, medium or high levels of force but not a reliable quantitative value. This, combined with aberrant readings when the sensor is bent has led to these sensors only providing a rough idea of the interaction between the suit and the skin: while in a controlled environment the sensors are accurate to within 10% or so, the accuracy falls significantly when measuring the skin and being bent or pressed in inconsistent ways; on the order of 50% accuracy or worse. The sensors also are prone to drift (falling out of calibration) quickly during use. Lastly, the sensors, while pliant, are still relatively thick and as such translates to discomfort and loss of tactility. This is typical during all previous testing but most notable when sensors are bent along an axis (or worse, along two axis such as required to follow a complex anatomical contour). As such, the effect on the suit/skin interface that is being measured is changed, which adds an additional complication to interpreting data output from these sensors. Much of the work within JSC has improved the integration, comfort, and calibration of these sensors, but the accuracy performance characteristics when in use have not been sufficient to meet requirements. A new sensor technology is warranted for use in our application.


In this article we apply the constrained smoothing b-splines (COBS) to interpolate and construct measures associated with the term structure of interest rates. The COBS method has the useful advantage of incorporating important constraints observed in the term structure such as: monotonicity, non-negative values and robustness related to quantile regression methods. We compare COBS with some usual methods utilized in statistical term structure tting: linear interpolation, smoothing splines and the parametric Nelson-Siegel and Svensson methods. We apply this technique to Brazilian daily term structure data and we show that the constrained smoothing spline is a competitive method to be used in term structure analysis, specially in the case of a low liquidity market like the Brazilian market.


We propose an approach to improve the detection performance of a generic detector when it is applied to a particular video. The performance of offline-trained objects detectors are usually degraded in unconstrained video environments due to variant illuminations, backgrounds and camera viewpoints. Moreover, most object detectors are trained using Haar-like features or gradient features but ignore video specific features like consistent color patterns. In our approach, we apply a Super pixel-based Bag-of-Words (BoW) model to iteratively refine the output of a generic detector. Compared to other related work, our method builds a video-specific detector using super pixels, hence it can handle the problem of appearance variation. Most importantly, using Conditional Random Field (CRF) along with our super pixel-based BoW model, we develop and algorithm to segment the object from the background. Therefore our method generates an output of the exact object regions instead of the bounding boxes generated by most detectors. In general, our method takes detection bounding boxes of a generic detector as input and generates the detection output with higher average precision and precise object regions. The experiments on four recent datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and significantly improves the state-of-art detector by 5-16% in average precision.


Purpose: The incidence of hyperplastic thyroid nodular disease has been consistently rising over the last decades. In addition, unsuspected papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) can be found in up to 34% of patients operated for benign thyroid lesions. PTC tends to occur multi-focally and is commonly of polyclonal origin. We set out to test the hypothesis that in benign thyroid disease, a unique genetic signature can already be identified in the benign pathology, which is associated with a susceptibility of the thyroid tissue to neoplastic transformation in the context of additional growth promoting stimuli. Patients and Methods: We obtained a set of 23 samples from patients with multinodular goiter (MNG), 12 of whom also harbored an unsuspected PTC. We used global gene expression analysis to evaluate for dissimilarities in the gene expression patterns between these two groups. We also compared these patterns to the profiles of 3 normal thyroid and 7 PTC samples. Results: We were able to accurately distinguish between hyperplastic nodules of patients with multinodular goiter and those that were associated with a PTC. One of the strongest differentially expressed genes, CDC42, has been implicated to respond to environmental factors such as UVB radiation and might point to novel factors contributing to PTC genesis in the setting of pre-existing benign proliferative disease. Conclusion: While the comparison between histologically identical samples cannot distinguish the two groups of goiters, unsupervised or supervised approaches allowed us to identify a molecular signature associated with PTC susceptibility in multinodular goiter.


Few economic issues have captured as much attention in recent years as the apparent decline in U.S. industrial competitiveness. Numerous studies prepared by various national commissions, policy organizations, and academics have documented industrial decline, uncovering its causes, and proposing remedies for U.S. industry. Most of the research has identified manufacturing as the industrial sector that has experienced the most serious erosion of cost and quality superiority. With a view toward building a stronger basis for such public policy decisions, researchers at the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development set out to study some essential questions about the efficiency of manufacturing. Using the machine tool industry from 1972 to 1987 as an example, the study, which is summarized here, examines determinants of manufacturing efficiency and plant survival, and the effectiveness of public policy. Manufacturing or industrial extension programs, which provide a variety of technical and managerial assistance, were chosen for policy evaluation. The study suggests public and private responses to the productivity crisis that might improve the competitiveness of manufacturing for industries experiencing problems similar to those observed in the machine tool industry.


The complex analysis of modern world political reality in the context of consideration of an actual The article deals with the comparative legal analysis of trends more and more evident in works of foreign (mainly European and North American) scientists, whose non-critical estimations only exacerbate the systemic crisis in many spheres of public relations which significantly increases fundamental contradiction between the West and the East. Using the methods of historicism and comparativism, permanent deepening stagnation of «Western» model of democracy (both socio-economic and political point of view), which for several centuries was the «locomotive» of Christian civilization, and than was replaced by ideological, ethical and religious surrogates of multiculturalism and tolerance, is stated. According to the authors, the paradox is that the crisis in the most important spheres of public and private law relations is determined by a number of factors arising from the process of liberalization of those areas of human activity, the taboo nature of which several decades ago did not cause any objections. Globalisation - as a system process - encouraged actualization of such a phenomenon as «legal imperialism» (as component of which «legal colonialism» should be considered), the answer to which has become a large-scale radicalization of terrorist organizations, religious fanaticism and nationalist extremism. Unfortunately, neither the Anglo-Saxon nor the continental law system (without mentioning international law), despite some positive trends, failed to adequately respond to the demands of the day, thus only strengthen the negative component of the «Western» civilizational paradigm. Apart from North Africa, it is most clearly manifested in the Ukraine, where the scientists, ignoring the theory and practice of the historical process, actively rewrite and edit historiography of «independent state», thereby seeking to justify the «relevance» of the February coup. That is supported by foreign researchers, who increasingly actualize mechanisms of this kind to justify Russophobian concepts and doctrines of anti-Russian. Not wanting to give up the practice of double standards, representatives of Western scientific thought continue to provide a powerful ideological pressure on those who have traditionally been associated with the so called electorate, in a majority superficially knowing the history of even their countries. Propaganda substitutes science, giving priority to a wide range of myths, presumptions and unfounded ascertainings which no one calls into question. Aim of the article is using the methodology of comparative legal analysis to show the falsity of the scientific and ideological stereotypes existing in foreign and domestic political science.


ABSTRACT General elections are the manifestation of democracy. General elections have a close relationship with the formulation of Article 1 Paragraph (1), Paragraph (2), and Paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia stating that Indonesia is a unitary state, adheres to the people sovereign system, and is a law state. There is no democracy without elections. Therefore, the citizens' right to choose and to be elected are constitutional rights protected by the Constitution. In its implementation, it still causes many problems. The most fundamental of which is the absence of a special judicial body in resolving the regional election disputes. The purpose of this study is to find out how the Constitutional Court presents the legal certainty as the results of the regional election disputes so far and how the ideal form of the special judicial body is dealing with disputes on regional election results nationally. The author uses a type of normative juridical research with the method of legislative, conceptual, and comparative approaches. Primary and secondary data used are statutory regulations, several jurisprudences, books, and legal journals. In this study, the author hypothesizes that the most ideal form of a special judicial body which handles election results disputes is to establish a special court named the State Administrative Court through the 1945 Constitution amendment mechanism which focuses on handling cases relating to the Executive, including the handling of disputes on regional election results. Keywords: Local Election, Special Judicial Agency,Constitutional Court


Decline in food production has been largely traced to post harvest losses for food crops that are more prone to perishability such as pineapple. This paper analyzes the economics of post harvest losses in pineapple production with evidences from Ado-Odo Otta Local Government area of Ogun State. The data for the study were collected from 54 pineapple farmers using Purposive random sampling technique. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis, budgetary analysis (gross margin) and regression technique. The regression result showed that 74.9 percent variations in the quantity of fruit loss from harvesting to marketing stage were explained by the specified variables. The gross margin analysis showed that losses had a significant impact on the revenue of the farmers. Losses contributed approximately 24 percent reduction in the gross margin of the pineapple farmers. The regression result of the impact of losses on gross margin indicated that losses are significant on gross margin. The causes of losses were identified as the area of land cultivated, transport cost, distance from farm to market, days fruit spend on farm and number of bruised fruits. More efforts at mobilizing extension services, to train the farmers on how to use post harvest technology to reduce losses, is strongly recommended. Keywords : Post-harvest losses, gross margin, pineapple. Bowen Journal of Agriculture Vol. 5 (1&2) 2008: pp. 55-062


Travel writers seldom reveal the degree to which they deploy fictional elements
in their notionally nonfictional books, nor do they discuss the precise motivations
for and mechanics of fictionalization and fabrication in travel writing. In
this article a travel-writing practitioner turned travel-writing scholar analyzes
his own work: the thirteen-year-old manuscript of The Ghost Islands, an unpublished
travel book about Indonesia. This analysis reveals various patterns of
fabrication across what was presented as and intended to be a "true account,"
including the craft-driven fabrications necessitated by reordering and amalgamating
events, the omissions generated by attempts to overcome belatedness and
to express antitouristic sentiments, the fictional elements introduced through the
handling of dialogue and translation, and the self-fictionalization impelled by
awareness of genre conventions. The article highlights the significance of writerly
craft as a key—and largely overlooked—variable in the scholarly analysis of
travel-writing texts.


Abstract. Satellite passive microwave radiative signals are considered to reflect thermal radiation and energy exchange of the Earth's surface, and the microwave brightness temperature (MBT) has been preliminary adopted for pre-earthquake thermal anomaly monitoring in recent decades. Based on the spatio-temporally weighted two-step method (STW-TSM), this paper aims to uncover the evolution characteristics of MBT anomaly prior to typical earthquakes (EQs), i.e. the Mw7.9 Wenchuan EQ in May 2008, the Nepal EQs in April and May 2015, and the Mw5.8 Yibin EQ in June 2019, and to explore and recognize their differences and commonalities. The results are summarized as: 1) significant MBT positive anomalies appeared east and southwest close to the epicenter before the Wenchuan EQ, and the east anomaly migrated northeastward along Longmenshan faults with aftershocks, then the two anomalies dissipated subsequently with the ceasing of large aftershocks (Mw > 5.5). 2) the MBT positive anomalies of Nepal EQs firstly appeared along the Himalayas and became most obvious 1 day before the main shock, and dissipated subsequently after the first shock, and that of the second shock behaved in the same spatiotemporal patten. 3) regional positive MBT anomalies appeared around the epicenter a half month before the Yibin EQ and diminished over time, and the most obvious abnormal area transferred from the central and northwest to the southwest study area. It exhibited that MBT positive anomalies prefer to appear at the mechanically relaxed zones, such as the loose Quaternary with Wenchuan EQ, the cliff peaks with Nepal EQs, and the mountains surrounding Yibin EQ's epicenter, which can be attributed to the declining of ground surface microwave dielectric caused by stress activated P-holes during the period of seismogenic preparation. This research provides a novel insight into mining MBT anomalies associate with large earthquakes and a possibility to explore the potential mechanism of such abnormal phenomena.


Title of dissertation: AGING, ILLUSORY CONJUNCTIONS, AND ATTENTION Lisa Jean Murphy, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Ellin K. Scholnick Department of Psychology Elderly adults do not perform as well as young adults on complex tasks. Elderly adults' poorer performance may be partly due to an age-related increase in the occurrence of illusory conjunctions. To investigate this possibility, this research is designed to examine the relationship between attention and illusory conjunctions in young and old adult performance. Experiment 1 is modeled after Cohen and Ivry (1989; Experiment 3) and requires participants to perform concurrent digit-matching and letter identification tasks. The digit-matching task manipulates the spread of attention, i.e., narrow vs. wide; and the letter identification task provides opportunity for illusory conjunctions, because both a target and non-target letter differing in color and identity appear in the display. The results suggest that selective attention affects the formation of illusory conjunctions in young but not elderly adults. In young adults illusory conjunctions are more likely to be formed within the attentional window. The elderly are just as likely to form illusory conjunctions inside and outside the attentional window. Because the design of Experiment 1 requires the participants to identify two properties of the target letter simultaneously (i.e., the subject must determine the color and the shape of the target letter) this experiment is a dual property experiment. Since elderly performance often suffers when required to complete simultaneous tasks (Craik, 1977; Hartley, 1992; McDowd & Shaw, 2000), it is possible that an agedifference in the occurrence of illusory conjunctions in Experiment 1 was due to age differences in ability to handle dual task performance. Experiment 2 was used to investigate this possibility. Thus, Experiment 2 consisted of two conditions. In the dual property condition, the participants were required to determine both the color and the identity of the target letter. In the single property condition, the subject only reported the color of the target letter. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the results of Experiment 1 were not due to the dual property nature of Experiment 1. The pattern of illusory conjunctions was similar whether the requirements of the task were to identify one or two properties of the target letter. AGING, ILLUSORY CONJUNCTIONS, AND ATTENTION


Hoekstra et al. (1997, 1999) make a proposal for the analysis of children's root infinitives that predicts an utterance-by-utterance contingency between the presence of finite inflection and the form of the subject DP. Specifically, their proposal predicts that obligatory determiners should be omitted from the subject if and only if the clause is missing obligatory finite inflection. They provide preliminary data suggesting that the predicted correlation obtains. In this paper I use more extensive data to show that the categorical pattern that Hoekstra et al. found does not hold up in larger samples: in particular, there is no ban in child English on the use of subject determiners in root infinitive utterances, nor on determiner omission in finite utterances. Implications for Hoekstra et al.'s theory are discussed. Keywords: determiner; English; finiteness; omission; root infinitive


Historic preservation has frequently been utilized for urban revitalization and economic development. A growing number of studies have identified historic preservation as an economic development tool that is vital for the revitalization of urban cores. However, the distribution of the economic benefits of historic preservation is often questioned and criticized for accelerating property values and leading to gentrification and displacement. The question of whether different types of neighborhoods are affected by historic preservation differently is ripe for further investigation. This thesis, to make a contribution to the literature, analyzed the impacts of historic district designation in Chicago and how the designation impacts vary for neighborhoods with different socioeconomic characteristics focusing on two research questions: (1) What kind of socioeconomic changes occur in historic landmark districts that can be attributed to historic district designation? (2) Do socioeconomic changes attributable to historic preservation vary for neighborhoods that had different socioeconomic characteristics before historic district designation?
The study conducts a matched-pair analysis to find out whether there are statistically significant differences between the socioeconomic changes in landmark district and control census tracts which are matched according to their pre-designation characteristics. The result of the analysis reveals that the changes in landmark census tracts seem not to differ significantly from control tracts when analyzed in total. However, after typologies are created, each typology shows significant differences. The findings demonstrate that in white middle and high income neighborhoods, the historic district designation does not lead to any considerable change other than limiting new developments, whereas, in non-white low income neighborhoods, the significant increases in median house values and median household income indicate that it brings about gentrification and displacement.
After the matched-pair analysis, two case studies are selected to further investigate how both the outcomes and the motives for historic district designation differ for different neighborhoods. The findings point out that strategic targeting of the available and potential economic incentives is needed in order to utilize historic preservation more effectively ensuring better and equitable neighborhood outcomes.


Cisatracurium is a new non-depolarizing, benzylisoquinolinium neuromuscular blocking drug with intermediate duration of action .It is a stereoisomer of atracurium with a potency of approximately 3 to 4 times greater than that of atracurium. Despite the higher potency, cisatracurium is associated with more stable hemodynamics than atracurium and does not cause histamine release even at doses of upto 0.4mg/kg (8×ED95). The recommended intubating dose is 0.15mg/kg (3×ED95) & High Most of the previous clinical studies have compared equipotent doses of atracurium and cisatracurium and concluded that atracurium is more effective than cisatracurium at same dose (2×ED95). However, few studies have shown that increasing the dose of cisatracurium to 4×ED95 (0.2mg/kg) and 6×ED95 (0.3mg/kg) provided more effective neuromuscular blockade and excellent cardiovascular stability with no marked histamine release clinically. Hence the present study was done in order to test the intubating conditions and hemodynamic stability of cisatracurium at 2 ×ED95 and 4×ED95 doses.Methods: Randomised controlled trial conducted, after ethical committee clearance and informed written consent from patient. Sixty patients of ASA 1 and 2 aged 20 -60 yrs of both sexes coming for elective surgeries under general anaesthesia. Patients were divided into two groups, so each, group A received 0.1mg/kg (2*ED95) and group B received 0.2mg/kg(4*ED95) loading dose of cisatracurium.Results: Intubating conditions were satisfactory with group B compared to group A and was statistically significant. Better hemodynamic stability with respect to mean pulse rate, systolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure in group B compared to group A and was statistically significant. Conclusion: 4*ED95 doses of cisatracurium provides better intubating conditions and more stable hemodynamic status than 2*ED95. There was no untoward effects noted clinically.


We study the approximation properties and optimization dynamics of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) when applied to learn input-output relationships in temporal data. We consider the simple but representative setting of using continuous-time linear RNNs to learn from data generated by linear relationships. Mathematically, the latter can be understood as a sequence of linear functionals. We prove a universal approximation theorem of such linear functionals, and characterize the approximation rate and its relation with memory. Moreover, we perform a fine-grained dynamical analysis of training linear RNNs, which further reveal the intricate interactions between memory and learning. A unifying theme uncovered is the non-trivial effect of memory, a notion that can be made precise in our framework, on approximation and optimization: when there is long term memory in the target, it takes a large number of neurons to approximate it. Moreover, the training process will suffer from slow downs. In particular, both of these effects become exponentially more pronounced with memory - a phenomenon we call the "curse of memory". These analyses represent a basic step towards a concrete mathematical understanding of new phenomenon that may arise in learning temporal relationships using recurrent architectures.


We investigate theoretically the effects of intralayer and interlayer exchange in biased double-layer electron and hole systems, in the absence of a magnetic field. We use a variational Hartree-Fock-like approximation to analyze the effects of layer separation, layer density, tunneling, and applied gate voltages on the layer densities and on interlayer phase coherence. In agreement with earlier work, we find that for very small layer separations and low layer densities, an interlayer-correlated ground state possessing spontaneous interlayer coherence (SILC) is obtained, even in the absence of interlayer tunneling. In contrast to earlier work, we find that as a function of total density, there exist four, rather than three, distinct noncrystalline phases for balanced double-layer systems without interlayer tunneling. The newly identified phase exists for a narrow range of densities and has three components and slightly unequal layer densities, with one layer being spin polarized, and the other unpolarized. An additional two-component phase is also possible in the presence of sufficiently strong bias or tunneling. The lowest-density SILC phase is the fully spin- and pseudospin-polarized ``one-component'' phase discussed by Zheng {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 55}, 4506 (1997)]. We argue that this phase will produce a finite interlayer Coulomb drag at zero temperature due to the SILC. We calculate the particle densities in each layer as a function of the gate voltage and total particle density, and find that interlayer exchange can reduce or prevent abrupt transfers of charge between the two layers. We also calculate the effect of interlayer exchange on the interlayer capacitance.


Recombination is a major source of virus variability, and the question of whether novel recombinant viruses would emerge in transgenic plants expressing viral sequences has been a biosafety issue. We describe the results of pyrosequencing the recombinant viral RNAs appearing in transgenic plants expressing the coat protein (CP) gene and 3' noncoding region of Cucumber mosaic virus RNA3, as well as in nontransgenic controls. The populations of recombinants in both transgenic and nontransgenic plants were similar to those previously described from Sanger sequencing but many more recombinant types were observed, including a novel class of large deletions removing all or nearly the entire CP gene. These results show that populations of recombinant viral genomes arising de novo can be characterized in detail by pyrosequencing, and confirm that the transgenic plants did not harbor novel recombinants of biosafety concern.


Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is a malignancy of mature lymphocytes caused by the retrovirus human T-cell lymphotrophic virus-I (HTLV-I). It is an aggressive leukemia with an overall mortality rate of 50% within 5 months; no conventional chemotherapy regimen appears successful in inducing long-term disease-free survival in ATL patients. However, ATL cells constitutively express high-affinity interleukin-2 receptors (IL-2Rs) identified by the anti-Tac monoclonal antibody, whereas normal resting cells do not. To exploit this difference in receptor expression, we administered anti-Tac intravenously (IV) to 19 patients with ATL. In general the patients did not suffer untoward reactions, and in 18 of 19 cases did not have a reduction in normal formed elements of the blood. Seven patients developed remissions that were mixed (1 patient), partial (4 patients), or complete (2 patients), with partial and complete remissions lasting from 9 weeks to more than 3 years as assessed by routine hematologic tests, immunofluorescence analysis, and molecular genetic analysis of T-cell receptor gene rearrangements and of HTLV-I proviral integration. Furthermore, remission was associated with a return to normal serum calcium levels and an improvement of liver function tests. Remission was also associated in some cases with an amelioration of the profound immunodeficiency state that characterizes ATL. Thus the use of a monoclonal antibody that blocks the interaction of IL-2 with its receptor expressed on ATL cells provides a rational approach for treatment of this aggressive malignancy.


Purpose: This study evaluated the effect of aided augmentative and alternative communication modeling (AAC-MOD) on the communication skills of children with Down syndrome (DS) during small group dialogic reading. Method: Four children with DS between 3;1 and 5;3 (years;months; M = 4;5) and 5 typically developing peers between 3;5 and 5;9 (M = 4;3) participated. Effects were examined using a multiple probe across behaviors design with 4 children with DS. To simulate typical dialogic reading routines in inclusive classrooms, a strategy called Read, Ask, Answer, Prompt (Binger, Kent-Walsh, Ewing, & Taylor, 2010) was applied during the baseline and intervention sessions.Results: A functional relation was demonstrated between (a) AAC-MOD and percentage of correctly identified symbols for 3 participants, (b) AAC-MOD and rate of symbolic communication for 2 participants, and (c) AAC-MOD and number of different words for 2 participants. Increases in number of multiple word combinations occurred for 2 participants. All 4 children maintained their percentage of correctly identified symbols. Increases in rate of symbolic communication did not generalize to thematic play contexts, a distal measure of response generalization.Conclusion: AAC-MOD is an effective strategy for teaching target vocabulary and increasing rate of symbolic communication in young children with DS.Supplemental Material S1. Procedural fidelity across all phases and participants.Supplemental Material S2. Percentage of interobserver agreement across phases and dependent variables.Supplemental Material S3. Graphing interobserver agreement to examine bias.Supplemental Material S4. Nonoverlap and effect size estimates for percentage of correctly identified symbols.Supplemental Material S5. Nonoverlap and effect size estimates for rate of symbolic communication.Supplemental Material S6. Peer rate of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) use during baseline and intervention for all tiers.Quinn, E. D., Kaiser, A. P., & Ledford, J. R. (2019). Teaching preschoolers with Down syndrome using augmentative and alternative communication modeling during small group dialogic reading. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_AJSLP-19-0017


We identify the major spatial patterns of variability in the global surface air temperature data set using empirical orthogonal analysis. We rotate the major components to simplify physical interpretation. Of the five patterns which account for the largest proportion of the total variance in the data set, three are global in extent and two are continental in scale. The pattern accounting for most of the variance in the data set indicates a global change in temperature, affecting most regions in the same sense but most marked in lower latitudes. The second most important pattern is a measure of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation phenomenon. The third pattern represents a contrast in temperature between the northern and southern oceans and is shown to be related to Sahel rainfall variations, confirming, though with reservations, the results of previous work. The fourth pattern is an index of the temperature effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation. The fifth pattern is a measure of temperature variations over Siberia. It is shown that this component is related to an atmospheric circulation fluctuation affecting, among other things, the strength of the depression track over the Barents and Kara Seas and neighboring areas. We term this process the Euro-Siberian Oscillation. The effects of changing data coverage are explored, and it is shown that patterns with a strong maritime component are particularly susceptible to this form of inhomogeneity. Finally, potential causal mechanisms, such as volcanic pollution of the atmosphere, are investigated, and the evolution over time of the spatial response to these forcing factors is defined using the empirical orthogonal functions. The analysis demonstrates that empirical orthogonal functions representing the spatial patterns of temperature change provide a concise means of monitoring climate trends and can assist identification of the causes of recent climate change as well as supporting climate model validation and assessment of the representativeness and reliability of climate reconstructions based on proxy indicators such as tree ring data.


The "new Animism" is influencing not only many directions within religious practice, notably paganisms, but interpretations (of these and other practices) within Religious Studies and Anthropology. This chapter has, therefore, a dual focus. Historically within social sciences, "animism" has been used to signal otherness, a "superstitious" belief or faith in directive or authoritarian non-human entities. If, rather, "animism" is interpreted to mean the possibility of relationships between human and other-than-human people, within a "living landscape," in which all players, be they stones, sparrows or social scientists, have their part, how does this influence both spiritual practices and the anthropological or sociological theories which attempt to account for those practices?

 This chapter explores some dimensions of how relationships are constructed and reported in practitioner discourse, as engagements in altered consciousness states or "trance", with examples from contemporary seidr as a "western shamanism". It interrogates meanings constructed within the seidr ritual and in discussions with practitioners and audience. It deals also with the interactions with landscape and with "wights" (beings, people) which are implicit within place and movement in the spaces in which today's animic practitioners sojourn, and hence with importances of ancestors and landscape for identities for today. And it deals with how we, as reflexive practitioners of social research, can reflect, theorise, and learn from these happenings.


Efforts to assess the ecological impacts of the marked increase in coastal hypoxia worldwide have been hampered by a lack of biomarkers of hypoxia exposure in marine benthic organisms. Here, we show that hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) transcript levels in the heart and cerebral ganglion of mantis shrimp (Oratosquilla oratoria) collected from hypoxic sites in Tokyo Bay are elevated several-fold over those in shrimp collected from normoxic sites. Upregulation of HIF-1α mRNA levels in the heart after exposure to sub-lethal hypoxia was confirmed in controlled laboratory experiments. HIF-1α transcript levels were increased at approximately threefold after 7 and 14 days of hypoxia exposure and declined to control levels within 24 h of restoration to normoxic conditions. The results provide the first evidence for upregulation of HIF-1α transcript levels in two hypoxia-sensitive organs, heart and cerebral ganglion, in a marine invertebrate exposed to environmental hypoxia. These results suggest that upregulation of HIF-1α transcript levels is an important component in adaptation of mantis shrimp to chronic hypoxia and is a potentially useful biomarker of environmental hypoxia exposure.


Aim: This study aims to explore the potential of emulgel in enhancing the topical delivery of diclofenac potassium. Materials and Methods: Emulgel formulations of diclofenac potassium were prepared using different concentrations of gelling agent's Carbopol-940. Tween-20 and span-20 were used as emulsifiers, and propylene glycol as a humectant in gel was selected for the preparation of emulgel. The effect of concentration of gelling agent on the drug release from the prepared emulgel was investigated. The compatibility study was conducted using fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The formulated emulgel was characterized for their physical appearance, pH determination, viscosity, spreadability, swelling index, drug content, skin irritation test, microbial test, and in vitro diffusion study. Result and Discussion: FTIR and DSC study proved that the drug and excipients are compatible with each other. All the prepared formulations showed acceptable physical properties, homogeneity, consistency, spreadability, viscosity, and pH value. After 6 h of drug diffusion study, the formulation EG4 showed consistent release of the drug form emulgel with 89.72%. It might be due to the higher concentration of the emulsifying agents and the 2% concentration of the gelling agent. Conclusion: The study was concluded that the preparation was more stable than single emulsion and also improved desired properties for transdermal application. The emulgel preparation is the best choice for the water‑insoluble drug.


Proteins act like molecular machines that perform various functions in cellular activities. The physical laws determine the rules of atomic arrangements, however the organization of amino acids in proteins inherit evolutionary information. Understanding the three-dimensional structures of proteins are crucial for the exploration of the strong relationship between structure and functionality. This provides motivation to inspect how the network structure a ects communication in global scale. In this thesis, we study the interaction patterns in proteins to explore what kind of local mechanisms and global properties they inherit. Using the spatial information of amino acids, simpli ed models of complex molecular systems are built. We generate synthetic structures that resemble proteins in terms of network properties such as degree distribution and clustering characteristics. The di erences between synthetic structures and proteins are traced to distinguish proteins from non-protein structures. Such a di erentiation points out patterns that are peculiar to proteins and reveal the randomness within the proteins. We introduce the Mutation-Minimization (MuMi) method which mimics single point alanine mutation scan to investigate how proteins respond to naturally occurring random perturbations. Our approach enables us to unravel motifs that are common in protein structures and point out amino acids that have signi cant functional roles in biological activities.


Mental processes are the essence of creative endeavor. The Creative Cognition Approach extends this particular view of creativity, first proposed and developed by the editors in their earlier book Creative Cognition, to the programs and theoretical views of some of the most prominent researchers in the areas of problem solving, concept formation, and thinking. Chapters cover a wide range of approaches and processes that play a role in creative cognition, from those that have their roots in associationism (the notion that creative ideas are produced incrementally), to the Gestalt point of view (particularly insight), to current computational approaches. Each chapter deals with central issues in cognition and creativity, and many consider new ways in which creativity can be studied under controlled conditions. The Creative Cognition Approach begins with a new look at an ancient subject, dreams. It then takes up intuition and insight from a contemporary cognitive perspective, and the importance of using prior knowledge in the incremental view of creative problem solving, which is contrasted with the importance of various forms of fixation and sudden insight. Studies are presented that provide new methods for distinguishing insight problem solving from analytic problem solving, and a general description of recall, problem solving, and creative thinking is provided along with relevant experimental evidence. Numerous laboratory studies of creative idea generation are described that reveal the conceptual structures that give rise to imaginative thinking. Visual representations are considered in the context of memory distortions, and in the use of diagrams in scientific discovery. Models that help clarify the relation between comprehension and creativity are discussed, and a novel integration of ideas (primary and secondary process thinking, conditioning, genetic algorithms, chaos theory, the thermodynamics of crystallography) are brought together in a connectionist framework. A multivariate investment approach is used to study creative performance, and criteria for assessing and enhancing creative realism are detailed. A Bradford Book


IZA DP No. 14138 FEBRUARY 2021 Recruiting Intensity, Hires, and Vacancies: Evidence from Firm-Level Data* We investigate employer recruiting behavior, using detailed firm-level data from a national survey of employers hiring recent college graduates. We show employers adjust recruiting effort, hiring standards, and compensation with the business cycle, beliefs about tightness, and their own hiring plans. We then show that firms expending greater recruiting effort hire more individuals per vacancy. The results suggest that when firms want to increase hires they adjust vacancies and recruiting intensity per vacancy, which may help explain the breakdown in the standard matching function during the Great Recession. Our measure of recruiting effort explains roughly 16% of the residual elasticity of the vacancy yield with


We analyse recently acquired near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-South field to search for star-forming galaxies at z ≈ 7.0. By comparing Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) 0.98 μm Y-band images with Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) z-band (0.85 μm) images, we identify objects with colours consistent with Lyman-break galaxies at z 6.4–7.4. This new data cover an area five times larger than that previously reported in the WFC3 imaging of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and affords a valuable constraint on the bright end of the luminosity function. Using additional imaging of the region in the ACS B, V and i bands from GOODS v2.0 and the WFC3J band, we attempt to remove any low-redshift interlopers. Our selection criteria yields six candidates brighter than YAB = 27.0, of which all except one are detected in the ACS z-band imaging and are thus unlikely to be transients. Assuming all six candidates are at z ≈ 7, this implies a surface density of objects brighter than YAB = 27.0 of 0.30 ± 0.12 arcmin−2, a value significantly smaller than the prediction from z ≈ 6 luminosity function. This suggests continued evolution of the bright end of the luminosity function between z = 6 and 7, with number densities lower


This study further elucidates determinants of vowel perception in the human auditory cortex. The vowel inventory of a given language can be classified on the basis of phonological features which are closely linked to acoustic properties. A cortical representation of speech sounds based on these phonological features might explain the surprisingly inverse correlation between immense variance in the acoustic signal and high accuracy of speech recognition. We investigated timing and mapping of the N100m elicited by 42 tokens of seven natural German vowels varying along the phonological features tongue height (corresponding to the frequency of the first formant) and place of articulation (corresponding to the frequency of the second and third formants). Auditoryevoked fields were recorded using a 148-channel whole-head magnetometer while subjects performed target vowel detection tasks. Source location differences appeared to be driven by place of articulation: Vowels with mutually exclusive place of articulation features, namely, coronal and dorsal elicited separate centers of activation along the posterior-anterior axis. Additionally, the time course of activation as reflected in the N100m peak latency distinguished between vowel categories especially when the spatial distinctiveness of cortical activation was low. In sum, results suggest that both N100m latency and source location as well as their interaction reflect properties of speech stimuli that correspond to abstract phonological features.


Capsule Massive releases of captive‐reared Mallard for hunting purposes have been practiced for 30 years. During this period the number of lamellae per centimetre of bill length in wild Mallard populations has decreased. Aims Every year since the 1970s, several million captive Mallard have been released in Europe. This may lead to a spread of unnatural phenotypes into the wild. Nevertheless, the consequences of such introductions have not been examined. Methods Two widespread and common migratory ducks were studied: Mallard Anas platyrhynchos and Teal A. crecca. Mallard is the only duck species for which stocking programmes occur, and Teal served as a control. In a 'before–after' design, we compared duck bill lamellar density over the last 30 years. Results Lamellar density in Mallard, but not Teal, decreased. The observed 10% decrease occurred in the first (proximate) centimetre of the bill, the most crucial in terms of food filtration. Conclusions We hypothesize that the change in bill morphology was because of the propagation of captive Mallard into the wild: captive Mallard eat mainly large items, relaxing the natural selection pressure maintaining high lamellar density for sieving small prey in wild ducks.


Purpose To report successful treatment of a rare case of sight-threatening pediatric multifocal choroiditis with panuveitis (MFCPU) and the use of electrophysiology to confirm return of macular function. Methods Case report. Results An 8-year-old boy with a history of bilateral recurrent non-juvenile idiopathic arthritis acute anterior uveitis (AAU) presented with new-onset blurry vision and floaters in both eyes. Visual acuity had deteriorated to 20/200 right eye and 20/100 left eye. Cells were observed in the anterior chamber and vitreous of both eyes. Ophthalmoscopy showed multiple active small cream-colored chorioretinal lesions and cystoid macular edema (CME) in both eyes in the absence of systemic disease, suggestive of idiopathic MFCPU. Successful rapid visual recovery and resolution of CME confirmed by spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was achieved with prompt intensive systemic steroid therapy followed by early introduction of methotrexate. After 9 months, his visual acuities improved to 20/32, and pattern reversal visual evoked potentials and 19 hexagon multifocal electroretinography posttreatment were normal, showing recovery of macular function. Conclusions Multifocal choroiditis with panuveitis is rare in children and has not been documented in the presence of previous longstanding recurrent AAU. Onset of floaters in children should alert the clinician to early stages of posterior pole involvement and progression to reduction in vision due to CME requires prompt aggressive steroid therapy monitored by clinical examination, SD-OCT, and electrophysiology, followed by early introduction of immunosuppressive drugs for long-term stability and to avoid steroid-induced adverse effects in children.


: Cause-effect relations are widely used for fault diagnosis, but a perception gap seems to exist between the causal reasoning technology and the real world expectation. This is because the causal modeling of a power system falls into a cyclic loop if not treated properly. This paper shows how a Bayesian net model can be formulated without loop. Based on this model, a qualitative way is proposed to evaluate the net and the diagnosis problem is transformed into an optimization problem. A special organization called A-Teams is used to solve this transformed problem. Real examples are given to illustrate the process and demonstrate the results.


New 1:24,000-scale geologic mapping along the Interstate-70 urban corridor in western Colorado, in support of the USGS Central Region State/USGS Cooperative Geologic Mapping Project, is contributing to a more complete understanding of the stratigraphy, structure, tectonic evolution, and hazard potential of this rapidly developing region. The 1:24,000-scale Frisco quadrangle is near the headwaters of the Blue River and straddles features of the Blue River graben (Kellogg, K.S., 1999, Neogene basins of the northern Rio Grande rift—partitioning and asymmetry inherited from Laramide and older uplifts: Tectonophysics, v. 305, p. 141-152.), part of the northernmost reaches of the Rio Grande rift, a major late Oligocene to recent zone of extension that extends from Colorado to Mexico. The Williams Range thrust fault, the western structural margin of the Colorado Front Range, cuts the northeastern corner of the quadrangle. The oldest rocks in the quadrangle underlie the Tenmile Range and include biotite-sillimanite schist and gneiss, amphibolite, and migmatite that are intruded by granite inferred to be part of the 1,667-1,750 Ma Routt Plutonic Suite (Tweto, Ogden, 1987, Rock units of the Precambrian- basement in Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1321-A, 54 p.). The oldest sedimentary unit is the Pennsylvanian Maroon Formation, a sequence of red sandstone, conglomerate, and interbedded shale. The thickest sequence of sedimentary rocks is Cretaceous in age and includes at least 500 m of the Upper Cretaceous Pierre Shale. The sedimentary rocks are intruded by sills and dikes of dacite porphyry sills of Swan Mountain, dated at 44 Ma (Marvin, R.F., Mehnert, H.H., Naeser, C.W., and Zartman, R.E., 1989, U.S. Geological Survey radiometric ages, compilation "C"—Part five—Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming: Isochron/West, no. 53, p. 14-19. Simmons, E.C., and Hedge, C.E., 1978, Minor-element and Sr-isotope geochemistry of Tertiary stocks, Colorado mineral belt: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 67, p. 379-396.). Surficial deposits include (1) an old, deeply dissected landslide deposit, possibly as old as Tertiary, on the south flank of Tenderfoot Mountain, (2) deeply weathered, very coarse gravel deposits, mostly along Gold Run and underlying Mesa Cortina; the gravels are gold bearing and were mined by hydraulic methods in the 1800's, (3) glacial deposits of both Bull Lake (middle Pleistocene) and Pinedale (late Pleistocene) that were derived from large valley glaciers that flowed down Tenmile and North Tenmile Creeks; the town of Frisco is underlain mostly by Pinedale-age glacial outwash, (4) recent landslide deposits, including one large (about 1 square kilometer) area just downslope from Lilly Pad Lake, west of I-70, and (5)extensive colluvial and alluvial deposits. The latest seismic events appear to be middle Pliestocene in age and are associated with small scarps that cut Bull Lake till but do not cut Pinedale till.


The aim of this paper is to test three incremental models on United Arab Emirates budgeting for the period of 1972-2010. The models are the magnitude of change, stability, and budget revenue. The data was obtained from ministry of finance's publication entitled Leading Financial Visions: 40 Years of Achievements. The findings confirm the use of incremental budgeting by the decision makers in UAE. Environmental factors seem to have an impact on budgetary outcomes.


We report a patient with ictal asystole in which the diagnosis took a long time to be confirmed despite early suspicion and investigation. Clinical features leading to suspicion and implications of this diagnosis are discussed. A 59-year-old man was referred following several episodes of sudden collapse & an episode of confusion & automatisms without collapse. There was witnessed history of loss of postural tone, fall from height, pallor & rigidity. Clinical examination was unremarkable. Investigations including CT Brain, EEG and 24 h ECG were unremarkable. A diagnosis of complex partial seizures with generalisation was made but the patient was poorly concordant & after a trial of 2 AEDs he elected to stop medication. In NewZeland he collapsed on a cycling holiday and was found to be bradycardic with ventricular pauses and a permanent pacemaker was implanted. Episodes of gestural automatism & disorientation continued but sudden collapses stopped. During a further admission, continuous bedside EEG & ECG recording showed slowing & spikes from a left temporal origin with secondary generalisation. Corresponding ECG showed ventricular slowing & pacemaker activation after the initial complex partial phase of the seizure with subsequent return of sinus rhythm after the seizure. Ictal asystole is rare & under recognised. Simultaneous EEG& ECG are key in diagnosis. It might be a cause of SUDEP & successful treatment is based on antepileptics along with Pacemaker.


A method for measuring the tide height near the coast from L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data is presented. Twenty-one coherent interferograms have been successfully constructed from Japanese Earth Resources Satellite 1 (JERS-1) SAR data obtained over oyster sea-farming structures. A coherence analysis of the 21 interferometric pairs showed that a perpendicular baseline of less than 3 km, with a temporal baseline within 500 days, are required to obtain a coherent pair, with a coherence higher than 0.25, in the study area. The coherent phases preserved in the interferograms showed a close relation with the sea level. The problem of phase unwrapping to restore an absolute tide height was overcome by introducing normalized image intensities. The radar measurements estimated by the proposed method were verified using tide gauge data, and comparison of the two datasets yielded a correlation coefficient R/sup 2/ of 0.91, with a root mean square error of 5.76 cm. The results demonstrate that radar interferometry can be applied for a tide height measurement near the coast given sufficient structures that return off-nadir radar pulses to the antenna. The multipolarized L-band SAR system will provide better results, using only double-bounced signals, in the future.


Decentralised workflow management systems are a new research area, where most work to-date has focused on the system's overall architecture. As little attention has been given to the security aspects in such systems, we follow a security driven approach, and consider, from the perspective of available security building blocks, how security can be implemented and what new opportunities are presented when empowering the decentralised environment with modern distributed security protocols. Our research is motivated by a more general question of how to combine the positive enablers that email exchange enjoys, with the general benefits of workflow systems, and more specifically with the benefits that can be introduced in a decentralised environment. This aims to equip email users with a set of tools to manage the semantics of a message exchange, contents, participants and their roles in the exchange in an environment that provides inherent assurances of security and privacy. This work is based on a survey of contemporary distributed security protocols, and considers how these protocols could be used in implementing a distributed workflow management system with decentralised control . We review a set of these protocols, focusing on the required message sequences in reviewing the protocols, and discuss how these security protocols provide the foundations for implementing core control-flow, data, and resource patterns in a distributed workflow environment.


INTRODUCTION After a protracted armed struggle for liberation from the colonial apartheid government of South Africa, Namibia became an independent nation in 1990. Although the apartheid forces were defeated, the legacies of the illegal and repressive regime, including an educational system shaped by divisive and dehumanizing imperialist policies, remained. As they abolished the discriminatory and inequitable Bantu educational system and developed a new praxis, the Namibian government mandated reforms based upon the goals of access, equity, quality, and democracy (MEC, 1993). The transformed educational system is modeled along democratic, empowering, and reconstructive lines. As such, it rejects the authoritarian, teacher-centered Bantu system, emphasizes student-centered learning, uses English rather than Afrikaans as the medium of instruction, and takes into account students' prior experiences and their intellectual, emotional, social, physical, aesthetic, moral and spiritual development. The redesigned school curriculum is structured upon a constructivist view of knowledge, learning competencies in content areas, and developing a reflective attitude and creative, analytical and critical thinking (NIED, 1998). This study described research into mathematics teachers responses to educational change conducted alongside a provides a mentoring component to this experience by providing instructional ideas, contributing classroom activity samples, and offering suggestions to the instructional ideas developed and implemented by the preservice teachers. Guided by naturalistic inquiry, which seeks to understand phenomena in context-specific settings (Lincoln and Guba, 1985), this study employed a qualitative methodology to examine novice and veteran mathematics teachers' responses to this fundamental transformation of the Namibian educational system. The present study reveals that the participants' mathematics teaching self-concept and their beliefs about teaching mathematics were powerful mediators in terms of their responses to educational change. Mentored by, and in collaboration with the researcher, the participants were encouraged to articulate and examine their notions of teaching and learning mathematics. Entwined within these articulations about teaching and learning were powerful reflections on sociocultural and socio-political issues. As described in this study, changes to the participants' mathematics teaching self-concepts and beliefs influenced instructional practices and classroom discourse. Recognizing that educational change is situated within larger sociocultural and socio-political spheres and resounds beyond the classroom, this study speaks to the challenge of empowering teachers to respond to educational change. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Change is a condition of the post-modern era (Harvey, 1989). Change is not always smooth, nor does it proceed in anticipated directions (Cohen, 1994). Therefore, the contexts in which contemporary teachers work are complex and characterized by contradiction and paradox (Hargreaves, 1994). Indeed, teachers perceive their work to be constantly affected by imposed, structural, and curricular change (Clandinin and Connelly, 1995). Educational change is the "process of coming to grips with the multiple realities of people who are the main participants in implementing change" (Clark et al., 1984). Because change is fundamentally unpredictable and dynamically complex, the optimal response to change is to find ways to help members manage inherently complex, unstable situations (Fullan, 1993). For example, within a complex and dynamic environment, members who increase their ability to learn collaboratively can elevate their performance and enhance their accomplishments (Senge, 1990). Education is perceived as a means of social and cultural reconstruction (Bowe et al., 1992). Therefore, educational change has consequences for social justice, equity, and democracy (Ball, 1994). …


We tested the performance of 2 types of glass fiber filters (GF/F: 0.7 μm; GF/C: 1.2 μm) and 2 membrane filters (PC0.2; polycarbonate 0.2 pm; CE0.22: mixed cellulose esters 0.22 μm) in estimating chlorophyll a and primary production with the 14 C technique. Four experiments were carried out with water samples from the NW Mediterranean, the NE Atlantic and the Antarctic Ocean, The first experiment compared measurements of particulate organic carbon (POC) production whereas the other 3 also considered total (TOC) and dissolved (DOC) carbon fixation. No significant differences among filters were found regarding chlorophyll a retention but large discrepancies existed in the amount of labelled organic carbon retained in all the experiments. Both types of glass fiber filters, especially GF/F, yielded higher values of apparent PO 14 C recovery than the membrane filters. The GF/F-derived POC production rates were up to twice the PC0,2-derived rates and 63% higher than CE0,22-derived ones. Accordingly, the estimated rates of phytoplanktonic DOC production were higher with the membrane filters in comparison to the GF/F ones. This discrepancy was attributed to a high DO 14 C adsorption to the glass fibers of GF filters. Due to uncertainties in the magnitude of this process in other samples, we conclude that GF filters are not suitable when particulate primary production must be measured without interference of released dissolved products, and that membrane filters should be used instead.


The national health insurance reform effort threatens to reduce the number of women who have health insurance coverage for abortions. Instead of evaluating whether the Supreme Court would invalidate restrictions on coverage, I employ a model of legislative constitutionalism that presents arguments for why Congress must independently consider the constitutionality of imposing restrictions on abortion in national health insurance legislation. I argue that Congress's debate over abortion coverage in a national health insurance scheme should recognize the ways in which state regulation of women's reproductive capacities violates Equal Protection principles.


Naturalist moral realists seem to have landed themselves a raw metaethical deal. Insofar as they identify moral properties in something external to human agents, they struggle to account for the deep practical hold that moral considerations have upon us, and stand accused of failing to take morality seriously as a normative phenomenon. And insofar as their method of identifying which natural properties are the moral ones is fairly permissive, they seem to over-generate admissible moralities, classifying as permissible a range of behaviours that we regard as morally perverse. In this paper, I argue that naturalist moral realists can make progress in addressing both concerns by drawing upon a variety of empirical resources. The former problem is mitigated by paying closer attention to deep-rooted features of human sociality, and by focusing upon the ways in which moral norms themselves build upon affective response. The force of the latter challenge is diminished once we appreciate that the naturalist can distinguish good moral norms from dreadful ones on principled grounds. None of this entails that the naturalist moral realist is home and dry. However, my arguments do suggest that her opponents strongly underestimate the resources at her disposal.


'Common-sense,' the Romantic critics told us, was all that was needed to understand and interpret literary texts. Today, we know this is not generally true. Modern criticism has joined with pre-Romantic criticism to expose common-sense as appropriate (because simple-minded), inadequate to comprehend and interpret verbal structures which are frequently 'non-[commonsensical,' anti-commonsensical, or even nonsensical. The difference between readers today and their earlier counterparts is that we have lost the full vocabulary of criticism and the consciousness of the literary and rhetorical devices with which texts are created. Yet these devices are still available to us, still practised even if unwittingly and on an impoverished scale. "Gradus," originally published in French in 1984, was designed to make good that loss, to reanimate those skills. Comprising some 4000 terms, defined and illustrated, it calls upon the resources of linguistics, poetics, semiotics, socio-criticism, rhetoric, pragmatics, combining them in ways which enable readers quickly to comprehend the codes and conventions which together make up 'literarity.' Skilfully translated into English, and adapted for an English-language audience with illustrations taken from an astonishing range of contemporary texts, literary and popular, drawn from literature, radio, television, and the theatre, "Gradus" will be a constant source of information and delight.


Glycolipids containing alpha-linked galactosyl and glucosyl moieties have been shown to possess unique immunostimulatory activity creating a need for access to diverse and anomerically pure sources of these compounds for immunological studies. To meet this demand, glycosyl iodides were enlisted in the synthesis of these biologically relevant glycoconjugates. In the first-generation protocol, per-O-benzyl galactosyl iodide was efficiently coupled with activated sphingosine acceptors, but fully functionalized ceramides were found to be unreactive. To overcome this obstacle, per-O-trimethylsilyl glycosyl iodides were investigated and shown to undergo highly efficient coupling with ceramide and glycerol ester acceptors. Contrary to what has been observed with other donors, we detected little difference between the reactivity of glucosyl and galactosyl iodides. The trimethylsilyl protecting groups play a dual role in activating the donor toward nucleophilic attack while at the same time providing transient protection: the silyl groups are readily removed upon methanolysis. All reactions proceeded with complete acceptor regioselectivity, eliminating the need for additional protecting group manipulations, and the desired alpha-anomers were formed exclusively. This three-step, one-pot synthetic platform provides rapid access to an important class of immunostimulatory molecules including the first reported synthesis of the glucosyl analogue of the bacterial antigen BbGL-II.


With memory wars between Central and Eastern European states and Russia, the Second World War has become a useable past instrumentalized as a currency for legitimacy on the international scene. These memory wars focus on who was fascist and who colluded with Nazism—the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1941 or the collaborationist forces in Central and Eastern Europe? And, subsequently, who are the new fascists advancing a revisionist interpretation of the Second World War today: Putin's Russia or Central and Eastern European countries? What is at stake here is the recognition of Russia as having a legitimate say in European affairs because of the Soviet victory, or its exclusion for refusing to repent of its role in dividing Europe and occupying a part thereof. This article debunks the accusation of fascism attributed to Putin's regime and offers to look at the label of fascism as a mirror game between the West and Russia in defining what Europe should be like and Russia's inclusion or exclusion.


This paper presents a new procedure to evaluate a method for piezoelectric wafer active sensor (PWAS) inspection, when it is combined with a given structural health monitoring (SHM) system for structural damage detection. A data-driven method is used, applying a damage indicator DIPWAS based on the electro-mechanical impedance spectrum (EMI), to distinguish between faulty and healthy PWAS. To evaluate the quality of this method, the consequences of PWAS damage are investigated. In this case, these are the changes within the generated wave field. We propose that the damage of the PWAS should be detected before it leads to false alarm by the SHM system. Checking this condition results in a novel type of quality assessment for the investigated EMI-based method to detect damaged PWAS. The methodology can also be transferred to other methods of detecting faulty PWAS. It is explained in detail followed by an application, showing excellent feasibility. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/84


People struggle with temptation in their everyday lives. Research often attributes failures in self-regulation to overwhelming and uncontrollable impulses. However, research also supports the idea that cognitive factors (e.g., justification) can license tempting behavior and allow individuals to behave in ways that run counter to their long-term goals. In addition, it is likely that affect plays a role in justification-based self-control failure. The current set of three studies investigated the role of affect in justification-based self-control failure. Study 1 tested the prediction that recall of past successes would result in increased positive affect. Study 2 assessed whether justification results in an increased propensity to engage in temptation following a hypothesized increase in positive affect. In addition, attention to emotion was hypothesized to facilitate self-control (i.e., resulted in the selection of a healthy food item). Study 3 tested an alternative prediction that justification increases both the subjective enjoyment of food and positive emotion experienced during food consumption. Finally, it was hypothesized that individual differences (e.g., emotional reactivity, trait self-control) may moderate the relationship between justification and self-control failure. Across the three studies, results indicated that thinking about past healthy choices did not consistently result in increased positive affect. We also found that participants who thought about past healthy choices were more likely to select a healthy, rather than unhealthy, food item compared to individuals in both a positive affect and control condition. Finally, thinking about past healthy choices did not result in increased positive affect during indulgence, nor did it increase subjective food enjoyment during imaginal consumption. Overall, results suggest recall of past healthy behavior does not consistently increase positive affect, nor does it increase the likelihood one will engage in temptation.


Background: While primary health care (PHC)-based prevention and management of alcohol use disorder (AUD) is clinically effective and cost-effective, it remains poorly implemented in routine practice. Systematic reviews and multi-country studies have demonstrated the ability of training and support programmes to increase PHC-based screening and brief advice activity to reduce heavy drinking. However, gains have been only modest and short term at best. WHO studies have concluded that a more effective uptake could be achieved by embedding PHC activity within broader community and municipal support.  Protocol: A quasi-experimental study will compare PHC-based prevention and management of AUD, operationalized by heavy drinking, in three intervention cities from Colombia, Mexico and Peru with three comparator cities from the same countries. In the implementation cities, primary health care units (PHCUs) will receive training embedded within ongoing supportive municipal action over an 18-month implementation period. In the comparator cities, practice as usual will continue at both municipal and PHCU levels. The primary outcome will be the proportion of consulting adult patients intervened with (screened and advice given to screen positives). The study is powered to detect a doubling of the outcome measure from an estimated 2.5/1,000 patients at baseline. Formal evaluation points will be at baseline, mid-point and end-point of the 18-month implementation period. We will present the ratio (plus 95% confidence interval) of the proportion of patients receiving intervention in the implementation cities with the proportions in the comparator cities. Full process evaluation will be undertaken, coupled with an analysis of potential contextual, financial and political-economy influencing factors.  Discussion: This multi-country study will test the extent to which embedding PHC-based prevention and management of alcohol use disorder with supportive municipal action leads to improved scale-up of more patients with heavy drinking receiving appropriate advice and treatment.


This letter summarises the findings of the 2007 annual performance assessment for your local authority. The judgements in the letter draw on your review of the Children and Young People's Plan where it was available, and the evidence and briefings provided by Ofsted, other inspectorates and relevant bodies. We are grateful for the information you provided to support this process and for the time given by you and your colleagues during the assessment.


Inflammation is associated with the progression of a variety of diseases. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) tolerance is recognized to reduce proinflammatory responses. Heme oxygenase1 (HO1) and tristetraprolin (TTP) are induced by LPS tolerance and mediate the anti-inflammatory effects. However, it was not clear whether two molecules are linked in LPS tolerance. In this study, we sought to determine whether HO1 associates with TTP to mediate the anti-inflammatory effects of LPS tolerance. LPS treatment significantly increased mRNA and protein level of HO1 and TTP in a time dependant fashion while LPS significantly decreased mRNA and protein level of TNFα in Raw264.7 macrophages. LPS tolerance inhibited TNFα mRNA and protein while HO1 and TTP level was still increased. In HO1 deficient macrophages, LPS tolerance failed to attenuate TNFα mRNA expression but TTP level was still decreased. Our results suggest that HO1 and TTP are functionally linked in mediating anti-inflammatory effects of LPS tolerance. This novel LPS tolerance-HO1-TTP signaling pathway provides new possibilities for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.


We consider the problem of computing the contribution of the self-force to the total force needed to keep a scalar charge at rest in a two-parameter family of static and spherically-symmetric wormhole spacetimes introduced by Konoplya and Zhidenko. Such wormholes belong to the more general Morris-Thorne class of traversable wormholes. This self-force is computed numerically by mode-sum regularization approach, and we investigate its dependence on redshift function (parametrized by p) determining the strength of tidal forces in the wormhole spacetime. We found that for certain range of p values, the self-force can be attractive or repulsive depending on the location of the scalar charge.


When making predictions about ecosystems, we often have available a number of different ecosystem models that attempt to represent their dynamics in a detailed mechanistic way. Each of these can be used as a simulator of large‐scale experiments and make projections about the fate of ecosystems under different scenarios to support the development of appropriate management strategies. However, structural differences, systematic discrepancies and uncertainties lead to different models giving different predictions. This is further complicated by the fact that the models may not be run with the same functional groups, spatial structure or time scale. Rather than simply trying to select a "best" model, or taking some weighted average, it is important to exploit the strengths of each of the models, while learning from the differences between them. To achieve this, we construct a flexible statistical model of the relationships between a collection of mechanistic models and their biases, allowing for structural and parameter uncertainty and for different ways of representing reality. Using this statistical meta‐model, we can combine prior beliefs, model estimates and direct observations using Bayesian methods and make coherent predictions of future outcomes under different scenarios with robust measures of uncertainty. In this study, we take a diverse ensemble of existing North Sea ecosystem models and demonstrate the utility of our framework by applying it to answer the question what would have happened to demersal fish if fishing was to stop.


Pulp and paper mills are large energy consumers which can often achieve economic savings by implementing energy-saving measures. The process unit with the greatest energy demand in a mill is usually the evaporation plant. If excess heat can be made available in the mill, and the heat can be used in the evaporation plant, significant energy-savings can be achieved. In this paper, this kind of energy-efficient evaporation is called process-integrated (PI) evaporation, and the paper investigates the techno-economic consequences of PI evaporation. Theoretical plants with 6–8 evaporation effects are simulated using an in-house simulation tool called OptiVap. Conventional plants are used as reference, and evaporation plants with either lower surface condenser temperature or extraction of lignin are included. The results show that the additional profit of PI evaporation plants is 0.3–1.5 €/ADt in comparison with conventional plants. By lowering the temperature of the surface condenser, the profit is raised by 0.6–0.9 €/ADt for both conventional and PI plants. With lignin extraction, the PI plants are 0.7–1.7 €/ADt more profitable than the conventional ones.


Interdigitated Back Contact (IBC) solar cells with >19% efficiencies have been fabricated using n-type silicon wafers and well-demonstrated high-volume solar cell process technologies alone. Excellent current collection is implied by Jsc values as high as 41.6 mA/cm2. High Pseudo Fill Factors (PFF) of above 81% and reduced Fill Factors (FF) of below 72%, suggest that the primary losses are due to series resistance. The process flow described is currently being transferred to a pilot production line for further process development.


The article is aimed at problems with measuring efficiency of advertising. The article is divided
into several parts which are tied together and proceed from the complex notion of effectiveness
to the specific problems of efficiency focusing on measuring advertising efficiency.
The first part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the notions related to effectiveness, espe-
cially determination of the role of effectiveness in terms of its complex conception and all its forms:
• effectiveness in neutral meaning,
• effectiveness as expediency,
• effectiveness as efficiency,
• effectiveness as profitability,
• economic efficiency,
• total effectiveness,
• prosperity.
 The analysis of notions such marketing communication, advertising, advertising campaign,
publicity action has been carried out, too. The theoretic objectives of the thesis are completed
by different approaches to measuring advertising efficiency according to the particular literary
sources and authors, such Tellis, Pelsmacker, Horakova, Lykova, Dayan, Schultz, Kinnear, Taylor,
Vysekalova and others.
The theoretic objectives of the thesis are followed by the research where the contemporary
situation in measuring advertising efficiency in business practice is surveyed, especially in these
businesses:
• small, middle-sized and large companies,
• advertising agencies,
• research institutes,
• media agencies,
• marketing agencies.
At the end of the article the used methods of measuring advertising efficiency has been outlined.
It is obvious that the methodology, method database and the advertising audit must be adapted to
the particular conditions in companies namely from the macro- and micro- environment view, e.g.
company size, sector, marketing and advertising strategy, used advertising media, communication
aim, advertising budget, target group, etc.


Acoustic event detection (AED) aims at determining the identity of sounds and their temporal position in audio signals. When applied to spontaneously generated acoustic events, AED based only on audio information shows a large amount of errors, which are mostly due to temporal overlaps. Actually, temporal overlaps accounted for more than 70% of errors in the real-world interactive seminar recordings used in CLEAR 2007 evaluations. In this paper, we improve the recognition rate of acoustic events using information from both audio and video modalities. First, the acoustic data are processed to obtain both a set of spectrotemporal features and the 3D localization coordinates of the sound source. Second, a number of features are extracted from video recordings by means of object detection, motion analysis, and multicamera person tracking to represent the visual counterpart of several acoustic events. A feature-level fusion strategy is used, and a parallel structure of binary HMM-based detectors is employed in our work. The experimental results show that information from both the microphone array and video cameras is useful to improve the detection rate of isolated as well as spontaneously generated acoustic events.


Abstract A material with potential for use as a sorbent has been prepared by carbonating damp Portland cement in a 100%CO2 atmosphere at a pressure of 3 bars. Analysis by XRD showed the main crystalline phase present, after eight 1 h cycles of carbonation, to be calcite. A series of batch sorption experiments involving single metal solutions of Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Zn, at concentrations varying from 200 to 1000 mg L−1, were carried out employing the carbonated media. The solid residues obtained, were then used to examine the desorption of metals over a 24 h timescale. The zeta potential and conductivity of suspensions prepared from the residues were also recorded. The results showed the sorbent could remove significant quantities of metal ions from solution, and up to 176 mg g−1 was recorded for Cd. The desorption experiments showed metal release rates <1% by mass of metal adsorbed. Electrophoretic analysis gave different values for zeta potential and conductivity for each sorbent–metal system, indicating that sorption might take place via different mechanisms including inner- and outersphere complexation.


A coiled fiber-optic chemical sensor has proven to be effective for the remote detection of volatile organic compounds, such as trichloroethylene (TCE), 1,1-dichloroethylene (DCE), and gasoline, in aqueous solutions. The analyte diffuses into the hydrophobic cladding and evanescent wave absorption spectra are measured in the near-infrared (1600–1850 nm) without the presence of the water absorption bands. In order for fiberoptic chemical sensors to operate effectively in remote environments, the influence of temperature on the sensor response must be known. The C-H bonds of the polysiloxane cladding material also have absorption bands in the near-infrared (NIR). Changes in temperature will change the density (i.e., concentration of C-H bonds) and refractive index of the cladding. Due to these effects, a temperature change of only 3°C from the reference has been shown to significantly alter the background absorbance. The temperature-dependent background absorption is found to be linear with the slope, and the values are proportional to the absorption coefficient of the cladding material. The intercept of the absorbance vs. temperature plot is found to follow the first derivative of the fiber sensor transmission spectrum. Evanescent wave absorption spectra of TCE solutions have been corrected for temperature.


Shear zones typically interact to form connected systems or networks to accommodate crustal deformation, but our knowledge of how this happens is fragmentary. Understanding branching and interacting shear zones requires knowledge of timing, deformation kinematics, and rheology. The Senador Pompeu, Tauá, and Cococi strike‐slip shear zones of the Borborema Province (NE Brazil) have a central role and location in the Neoproterozoic assembly of Gondwana and provide a means to understand shear zone interaction. We apply (i) U‐Pb in situ SHRIMP analysis of zircons from syntectonic plutons and dykes to constrain the timing of shearing and (ii) vorticity and strain analysis on pluton's megacrystic facies deformed in the magmatic state and during final stages of crystallization. Obtained ages show that the shear zone pair was active under high temperature at 583.5±4.6 Ma, while felsic dykes were emplaced in the brittle regime in the wall rocks. Average vorticity estimates of 0.70 indicate a strong component of pure shear in the shear zones. Despite the transpressional character, the dispersion in estimates of thinning and thickening for the Senador Pompeu shear zone highlights variations of offset rate for the interacting branches that leads to localized transtension. We conclude that the kinematic framework of the Senador Pompeu and Tauá conjugate pair involves the formation of a dextrally closing zipper structure involving the trailing Cococi shear zone to the southwest, which in turn caused the northeastward extrusion of the enclosed crustal wedge and possibly activation of the nappe system of the Ceará Central domain.


Abstract Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) provided a scientific opinion on the assessment of a decontamination process of fish meal. It consisted of extraction of the fish oil, filtration and adsorption with activated carbon, and replacement with decontaminated fish oil in order to reduce the amount of dioxins (polychlorinated dibenzo‐p‐dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs)), and dioxin‐like (DL‐) and non‐dioxin‐like (NDL‐) polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). All feed decontamination processes must comply with the acceptability criteria specified in the Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/786. Data provided by the feed business operator were assessed for efficacy of the process and to demonstrate that the process did not adversely affect the characteristics and the nature of the product. The process was effective in removing PCDD/Fs (97%) and DL‐ and NDL‐PCBs (93%). The fish meal produced complied with EU regulations for these contaminants. The Panel considered that the reference to information available in published literature was a pragmatic approach to demonstrate that the replacement of fish oil and the use of activated carbon to adsorb these contaminants does not lead to any detrimental changes in the nature of the fish meal. However, it was noted that the process could deplete some beneficial constituents (e.g. oil‐soluble vitamins). Information was provided to demonstrate the safe disposal of the waste material. The CONTAM Panel concluded that on the basis of the information submitted by the feed business operator the proposed decontamination process to remove dioxins (PCDD/Fs) and PCBs from the fish meal by oil extraction followed by replacement with decontaminated fish oil, was compliant with the acceptability criteria provided for in Commission Regulation (EU) 2015/786 of 19 May 2015.


Many organisations now have to operate in highly uncertain environments. Global competition drives organisations to reduce their capital employed and cut costs through lean manufacturing, outsourcing and extended supply or to grow by entering new markets, introducing new technologies and building unique alliances. And all this is happening at a much faster speed than even 10 years ago. On a journey towards excellence, learning from past performance is always beneficial. However, the applicability of the learning rapidly diminishes in a continuously structurally changing environment. One key (implicit) assumption of the theories and practices of total quality management and business excellence is that the business environment is relatively stable and predictable. However, this is no longer the case and therefore we must also accept that much of our current theory and practice is no longer as effective as in the past. In particular, we need to develop a strategic and practical approach to sustaining business excellence to support executives and their organisations that face uncertainty and instability in their particular market environments. Our approach is an application of well-tested theories of complexity analysis using Simons' four levers of control model. It analyses all the organisation's systems and structures which are driving the behaviour of the people involved and examines the degree to which these systems and structures support or undermine efforts to maintain business excellence. It then considers how this situation can best be managed now; what needs to be changed in what direction in the future; and how and when this can best be achieved, given the operating environment of the company. We have found that crucial processes in an uncertain environment have to be managed through the use of all four levers of control according to Simons' model; however, the interactive control mechanisms are becoming more important. Quality management approaches should therefore cover not only the tools and instruments to measure and control performances in order to find deviations from the goals, but should also include methods to stimulate and improve the more interactive management activities in order to be able to cope with the uncertain environments.


This volume presents selections from the work of Abram L. Harris (1899-1963), acknowledged as the first black American economist to achieve prominence in academic life. Between 1927 and 1945 he served on the faculty at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, he was a professor in the College at the University of Chicago. During the Howard years, Harris was a central figure among a remarkable group of black social scientists clustered at that institution. He influenced the thought and work of Ralph Bunche, E. Franklin Frazier, and Eric Williams. A frequent contributor to professional journals in economics, especially the "Journal of Political Economy, "Harris was recognized as perhaps the foremost expert on the comparative analysis of alternative approaches in economics. "Race, Radicalism, and Reform "includes an introduction by the editor that provides a chronology of Harris' life and an assessment of his scholarly contributions. A diverse array of Harris' papers is contained in the volume covering all the major themes he addressed in the course of a lifetime of research: the "Negro problem" in the United States, the interaction between race and class, controversies in American economic history, Marx and Marxism, the nature and content of institutional economics, and the economics of John Stuart Mill. What results is a comprehensive view of Harris' work, affording insight into important transitions in his thinking about radicalism and social reform. In particular, the book chronicles his movement from a left orientation in his youth to a moderate libertarianism in his later years.


This report gives details of TRL's Strategic Transport Model (STM) which represents travel within and into urban areas. The model has been calibrated for London from the 1981 Greater London Travel Survey (GLTS). The model considers travel by car, bus, BR, Underground, walk and taxi, for the following purposes: work, shop, education, other, by the elderly, and travel for three levels of car ownership. Modal choice is determined according to generalised cost. There is an option so that the distribution of journey destinations may be either fixed or variable. While there is no explicit transport network, each zone has its own speed/flow relationship. The model iterates until modal split, generalised cost and speed/flow are in equilibrium. Public transport fares and services may be adjusted until costs equate to passenger revenues, or fares and services may be specified beforehand. The model operates at a spatially aggregate level (Greater London is represented by 13 zones) and is designed as a tool for strategic policy analysis. Travel behaviour can be predicted at five yearly intervals between 1981 and 2011. The model can be used to test a range of options covering pricing, investment and regulation of transport systems. (A)


ABSTRACT:Many technological innovations replace workers with machines. But this capital-labor substitution need not reduce aggregate labor demand, because it simultaneously induces four countervailing responses: own-industry output effects; cross-industry input-output effects; between-industry shifts; and final demand effects. We quantify these channels using four decades of harmonized cross-country and industry data, whereby we measure automation as industry-level movements in total factor productivity that are common across countries. We find that automation displaces employment and reduces labor's share of value added in the industries where it originates (a direct effect). In the case of employment, these own-industry losses are reversed by indirect gains in customer industries and induced increases in aggregate demand. By contrast, own-industry labor share losses are not recouped elsewhere. Our framework can account for a substantial fraction of the reallocation of employment across industries and the aggregate fall in the labor share over the last three decades. It does not, however, explain why the labor share fell more rapidly during the 2000s.


At CCS 2015, Gueron and Lindell proposed GCM-SIV, a provably secure authenticated encryption scheme that remains secure even if the nonce is repeated. While this is an advantage over the original GCM, we first point out that GCM-SIV allows a trivial distinguishing attack with about 248 queries, where each query has one plaintext block. This shows the tightness of the security claim and does not contradict the provable security result. However, the original GCM resists the attack, and this poses a question of designing a variant of GCM-SIV that is secure against the attack. We present a minor variant of GCM-SIV, which we call GCM-SIV1, and discuss that GCM-SIV1 resists the attack, and it offers a security trade-off compared to GCM-SIV. As the main contribution of the paper, we explore a scheme with a stronger security bound. We present GCM-SIV2 which is obtained by running two instances of GCM-SIV1 in parallel and mixing them in a simple way. We show that it is secure up to 285.3 query complexity, where the query complexity is measured in terms of the total number of blocks of the queries. Finally, we generalize this to show GCM-SIVr by running r instances of GCM-SIV1 in parallel, where r ≥ 3, and show that the scheme is secure up to 2128r/(r+1) query complexity. The provable security results are obtained under the standard assumption that the blockcipher is a pseudorandom permutation.