Abstract The taphonomy of assemblages of disarticulated remains of marine vertebrates is not well studied. Examination of a Middle Pennsylvanian chondrichthyan assemblage from Kohl's Ranch, Naco Formation, central Arizona, contributes to knowledge of such assemblages and reveals a complex taphonomic history. This vertebrate assemblage is restricted to two thin horizons associated with a concentration of disarticulated and tightly packed invertebrates. The vertebrate specimens are associated with phosphatic internal molds of molluscs and bryozoans. Most vertebrate specimens show abrasion. Several lines of evidence suggest that the specimens were abraded in a nearshore wave environment and subsequently transported offshore by a storm surge, where they were incorporated into an environmentally condensed assemblage. In particular, the presence of abrasion, a concentrated skeletal assemblage, significant amounts of siliciclastic sand, presence of intraclasts, phosphatic molds, and a basal lithologic discontinuity support this hypothesis; similar characteristics are found in many bone beds in the fossil record. To test whether wave-dominated nearshore marine environments are capable of abrading vertebrate teeth, modern elasmobranch teeth (Odontaspis and Myliobatis) were placed in an experimentally simulated abrasive environment of fine siliciclastic sand. Results indicate that progressive degradation of specimens by abrasion and cracking occurs as the duration of abrasion increases. Abrasion occurs along the edges of both the crown and root, and cracking proliferates across the surface of the crown. These data confirm that wave-dominated marine environments can progressively abrade vertebrate teeth, and are consistent with the taphonomic hypothesis presented for the Kohl's Ranch vertebrate assemblage.


BACKGROUND
Studies have consistently demonstrated that inactive aldehyde dehydrogenase-2 (ALDH2), encoded by ALDH2*1/2*2, is closely associated with alcohol-related carcinogenesis. Recently, the contributions of alcohol dehydrogenase-2 (ADH2) polymorphism to alcoholism, esophageal cancer, and the flushing response have also been described.

METHODS
To determine the effects of ALDH2 and ADH2 genotypes in genetically based cancer susceptibility, lymphocyte DNA samples from 668 Japanese alcoholic men more than 40 years of age (91 with and 577 without esophageal cancer) were genotyped and the results were expressed as odds ratios (ORs). This study also tested 82 of the alcoholics with esophageal cancer to determine whether cancer susceptibility is associated with patients' responses to simple questions about current or former flushing after drinking a glass of beer.

RESULTS
The frequencies of ADH2*1/2*1 and ALDH2*1/2*2 were significantly higher in alcoholics with, than in those without, esophageal cancer (0.473 vs. 0.289 and 0.560 vs. 0.099, respectively). After adjustment for drinking and smoking, the analysis showed significantly increased cancer risk for alcoholics with either ADH2*1/2*I (OR = 2.03) or ALDH2*1/2*2 (OR = 12.76). For those having ADH2*1/2*1 combined with ALDH2*1/2*2, the esophageal cancer risk was enhanced in a multiplicative fashion (OR = 27.66). Responses to flushing questions showed that only 47.8% of the ALDH2*1/2*2 heterozygotes with ADH2*1/ 2*1, compared with 92.3% of those with ALDH2*1/2*2 and the ADH2*2 allele, reported current or former flushing. Genotyping showed that for alcoholics who reported ever flushing, the questionnaire was 71.4% correct in identifying ALDH2*1/2*2 and 87.9% correct in identifying ALDH2*1/2*1.

CONCLUSION
Japanese alcoholics can be divided into cancer susceptibility groups on the basis of their combined ADH2 and ALDH2 genotypes. The flushing questionnaire can predict high risk ALDH2*1/2*2 fairly accurately in persons with ADH2*2 allele, but a reliable screening procedure for the highest risk gene combination (ADH2*1/2*1 and ALDH2*1/2*2) will require further investigation.


Praise for Allen & Harper's Laboratory Manual for Anatomy and Physiology "Connie Allen and Valerie Harper...have done an excellent job of preparing an A & P lab manual that students will appreciate and instructors will find easy to teach." --Moges Bizuneh, Ivy Tech State College - Indianapolis "I am very impressed with the quality and the readability of this lab manual." --Karen K. McLellan, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne "....this lab manual is an excellent one. It is well-written, has just the right amount of written text, and contains very good illustrations, photos, lab activities and questions." --Janet Lichti, Ivy Tech State College - Lafayette Also available PowerAnatomy, An Online Laboratory Manual Connie Allen, Valeria Harper, Susan Baxley ISBN: 0-471-44558-4 PowerAnatomy combines over 100 of Primal's exquisitely detailed, 3D models of the human body, along with text, exercises, and review materials. Fetal Pig Dissection: A Laboratory Guide, 2nd Edition Connie Allen and Valerie Harper ISBN: 0-471-70138-6, Paper Cat Dissection: A Laboratory Guide, 2nd Edition Connie Allen and Valerie Harper ISBN: 0-471-70141-6, Paper


Application of wood ash in forests is a method used to return (recycle) nutrients to the forest that is lost after forest harvesting. There are concerns that such application may influence pants and induce changes in species composition of the ground vegetation. Several studies have examined short-term effects of ash application on ground vegetation, but there few long-term studies have been conducted. The published studies examining the effects on ground vegetation show no consistent pattern in the response. Application of ash has been shown increased forest biomass production, but also influence some plants negatively, resulting in reduced cover of such species.
My study is a continuation of a study completed in 2001. In that study, they had six treatments including a control. The various treatments consisted of 3, 6 and 9 tons of ash ha-1, 3 tons of ash + 150 kg N ha-1, 150 kg N ha-1 and 3 tons of pelletized ash ha-1. Inventory data from the study have been compared with inventory data in this study. Using statistical analyzes, my results address the long-term effects (17 yrs) of wood ash application on composition of forest ground vegetation. This shows whether species have increased or decreased after the application of ashes 17 years ago.
My results show small differences in cover of plants between controls and plots exposed to wood ash application. Several species showed decreased cover as an initial response to wood ash application, but 17 years after application cover of almost all species had recovered from initial effects of the wood ash application. Some species, Vaccinium myrtillus and Hylocomium splendens even showed a tendency to have higher current cover in the ash treatments than in the controls. The only species that showed significant lower cover in the ash treatments, and showed no sign of recovery was Cladonia rangiferina. I suggest that this most likely is generated by changing competitive conditions. Based on how the ground vegetation responded I find no reason to stop or reduce return of wood ashes to the forestland. However, the long-lasting effects on the ground-living lichen Cladonia rangiferina imply that return of wood ash to areas utilized for reindeer husbandry (that is dependent on lichens as winter forage) should be avoided.


U.S. policy on the Middle East, in general, and on Palestine, in particular, witnessed a seismic shift in the closing days of 2017: the U.S. president announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to move the U.S. embassy there. While it came as a shock, the announcement was not a complete surprise: in fact, this essay argues, the decision is in line with a long history of bias in Israel9s favor, and constitutes the abandonment of the earlier U.S. pretense of impartiality. The Jerusalem decision is part of what has been termed an "outside-in" approach to the conflict, whereby U.S. client states in the region gradually normalize relations with Israel and accept standard Israeli positions, while simultaneously pressuring the Palestinians to make further concessions to Israel. Taking into account the new international environment, and the equally deep shifts in U.S. public opinion, this commentary also explores the possible formulation of a new strategy to advance Palestinian aspirations for liberation and a just peace.


Cells make contact with the extracellular matrix (ECM) through extensions of the plasma membrane; these range from irregular dynamic structures, e.g. lamellipodia, ruffles and pseudopodia, to more localized and highly defined protrusions, e.g. podosomes and invadopodia. Both might be instruments through which cells sample the immediate extracellular environment and maintain polarized activities such as chemotaxis and focal degradation of the matrix. Podosomes are expressed in cells of the monocytic lineage, and most studies point to a role for podosomes in adhesion/motility. Invadopodia are prominent in certain aggressive cancer cells (or transformed cells) and appear to be directly responsible for focal ECM degradation. Recent studies have revived interest in these structures in terms of the actin regulation machinery. Within this framework, the atypical GTP-binding protein dynamin, a central modulator of protrusive events, has been associated to podosome and invadopodia structure and function. Here, we specifically discuss the role played by dynamin in controlling the activities and function of these structures.


The dematerialisation of music consumption is a well evidenced and widely accepted trend. Though much literature has been produced discussing the economic and legal implications of this significant shift for the music industry, its impact on listening practices and consequent considerations for interface design are less well researched. This paper outlines the development of a prototype system that explores, symbolically, the interplay between contemporary dematerialised modes of music consumption with listening traditions of the recent past. A pre-internet age metronome was re-purposed as a tangible interface for a custom music player containing 25 songs, drawn from the period 1940 to 2012. Together, the controller and software reflect through sound, graphics and physicality the progress of Western commercial music, technology and society over this time.


Volume II of The Official History of the UK Strategic Nuclear Deterrent provides an authoritative and in-depth examination of the British government's strategic nuclear policy from 1964 to 1970. Written with full access to the UK documentary record, Volume II examines the controversies that developed over nuclear policy following the arrival in office of a Labour government led by Harold Wilson in October 1964 that openly questioned the independence of the deterrent. Having decided to preserve the Polaris programme, Labour ministers were nevertheless committed not to develop another generation of nuclear weapons beyond those in the pipeline, placing major doubts over the long-term future of the nuclear programme and collaboration with the United States. Defence planners also became increasingly concerned that the deployment of Soviet anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defences around Moscow threatened to undermine the ability of Polaris to fulfil its role as a national strategic nuclear deterrent. During 1967, under heavy pressures to control defence spending, a protracted debate was conducted within Whitehall over the future of Polaris and how to respond to the evolving ABM challenge. The volume concludes with Labour's defeat at the general election of June 1970, by which time the Royal Navy had assumed the nuclear deterrent role from the RAF, and plans had already been formulated for a UK project to improve Polaris which could both ensure its continuing credibility and rejuvenate the Anglo-American nuclear relationship.


We develop a new algorithm for online planning in large scale sequential decision problems that improves upon the worst case efficiency of UCT. The idea is to augment Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) with maximum entropy policy optimization, evaluating each search node by softmax values back-propagated from simulation. To establish the effectiveness of this approach, we first investigate the single-step decision problem, stochastic softmax bandits, and show that softmax values can be estimated at an optimal convergence rate in terms of mean squared error. We then extend this approach to general sequential decision making by developing a general MCTS algorithm, Maximum Entropy for Tree Search (MENTS). We prove that the probability of MENTS failing to identify the best decision at the root decays exponentially, which fundamentally improves the polynomial convergence rate of UCT. Our experimental results also demonstrate that MENTS is more sample efficient than UCT in both synthetic problems and Atari 2600 games.


Constructed and natural wetlands are widely used to improve many water quality parameters. Vegetated floating islands (VFIs) placed on the surface of these wetlands significantly enhance the efficiency of natural processes that reduce nutrients, suspended solids, heavy metals and other pollutants. Pollutant reduction in VFIs, particularly nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, occurs primarily through the actions of bacterial biofilms growing within the island matrix and on plant roots hanging below the islands. Direct uptake of nutrients by plants is minor, although plants are essential as they provide additional substrate for biofilm development while supplying oxygen and carbon for use by the bacteria. Nitrogen-based nutrients are primarily removed from wetlands as nitrogen gas. Phosphorous is mostly deposited as organic-rich sediment which accumulates within or beneath the floating islands. This material can become anoxic and return its contained phosphorous to the water column, making it biologically available for algal or bacterial blooms that degrade water quality. Physical removal of this P-rich material is an essential wetland management action. VFIs can remove phosphorous at up to 4.6 g/m 2 /day and ammonia at up to 8.1 g/m 2 /day with simultaneous denitrification of nitrate to nitrogen gas. VFIs can significantly increase the efficiency of pollutant removal from natural and constructed wetlands.


The environment in which Chinese firms are attempting to catch up is fundamentally different than the situation facing earlier latecomers such as Japan and Korea. This paper contrasts these contexts and describes an alternative model of catch-up that can be discerned through an examination of the industries in which Chinese firms are competing successfully. The basic elements of Chinese catching up strategy are: market size, market-oriented innovation, global alliance and open innovation, spillover of FDI and role of government. The paper explains the new model of catch-up in China's ICT industry.


Abstract
 Cytospora palm sp. nov. is described on Cotinus coggygria (Anacardiaceae) in China, on the basis of both morphological and DNA sequence data (ITS and tef1-&agr;). The species is involved in canker disease of C. coggygria. Its key diagnostic characters are gregarious, circular, erumpent conidiomata, locules of a rosette cytosporoid type, with invaginations and 7–10 irregularly disposed chambers sharing common walls, emerging beaks, and conidia 4-4.7 × 1-1.5 µm. The optimum temperature for growth and sporulation is approximately 32°C.


Haemolymph iono- and osmoregulation and acid-base balance were recorded after 48 h exposure at 15 °C to a range of increasing ambient salinities (0, 25, 50 and 75% sea water) in the euryhaline crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus (Dana). Except for K + , concentrations of all measured inorganic ions and osmolality were significantly elevated in 50 and 75% SW. When compared with ambient changes there was evidence of a transition from hyperto hypoionic regulation above 44% SW. Ca 2+ was regulated for a constant blood-medium difference. A progressive reduction in total CO 2 was recorded; pH was maintained except in 75% SW where a haemolymph acidosis developed. To permit calculation of CO 2 tension (P CO CO2 ), carbon dioxide solubility coefficient (αCO 2 ) and the apparent first dissociation constant of carbonic acid (p K9 1 ) were experimentally determined in vitro . αCO 2 decreased progressively with acclimation salinity but was unaffected by circulating protein. pK9 1 decreased as a function both of physiological pH and increasing haemolymph ionic strength. P CO CO2 calculated using these empirical constants, progressively decreased with high-salinity acclimation. The resulting 'hypocapnic alkalosis' was partially offset by a metabolic acidosis, whose correlation with extracellular anisosmotic and intracellular isosmotic regulation is discussed.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As part of the overall management information and control system, a funds transfer pricing system handles the problem of charging net funds users and crediting net funds providers at the profit center, product, and customer levels. Properly utilized, a transfer pricing system motivates profitable pricing actions, allows comparable performance evaluation of funds users and providers, and supports asset/liability management, among its other uses and objectives. There are three methods available to perform transfer pricing with variations thereon that provide the flexibility for use by all sizes of banks. The single pool method is the simplest and the least effective of the three. The multiple pool method is better in that it is more reflective of market reality and more likely to result in profitable actions being taken. The most effective and the most complex method is called Matched Maturity Marginal Funds Transfer Pricing or MMMFTP. Many banks may be utilizing some form of transfer pricing. However, unless the system motivates profitable actions and provides for comparable performance evaluation - two major objectives of transfer pricing - there may be little to no benefit realized in terms of earnings enhancement. For small- to mid-size banks, a simple version of the multiple pool method should prove fairly effective. Instead of using only one rate, net funds providers would be credited with a rate related to the bank's overall average yield on earning assets and net funds users would be charged with a rate related to the overall average cost of funds. This would allow greater independent control of loan and deposit generation, as well as provide for more objective performance evaluation. INTRODUCTION A funds transfer pricing system is a major tool available to assist in enhancing profits, as profitability, rather than growth, has become the key to bank success and survival. No longer can banks assume growth will automatically result in profits, as may have been the case in the past. Banks are apparently well aware of this, as evidenced by a BAI (Bank Administration Institute) research project that found the majority of respondents indicating use of some form of funds transfer pricing. Profitability reporting was cited by about half the respondents as the primary use of the transfer pricing system. On an overall basis, the bank is either in an excess funds position and is able to invest in securities/federal funds sold, or is in a deficit position and needs to purchase funds. However, on a profit center level there are generally net funds users and net funds providers. Branches are usually providers as their deposit balances usually exceed their loan balances. Administrative departments such as charge card, dealer center, international banking, etc., generally would have loan balances in excess of any deposit balances. These areas would be users of funds. Although reference will be made to profit centers, the concept of net funds users and providers is equally applicable to products and customers. Without a transfer pricing system, net funds users would receive credit for interest income without being charged for the full amount of associated interest expense, while net funds providers would be charged with interest expense without being credited for the full amount of associated interest income. In such an environment, net funds users have the advantage because all interest income is associated with assets and all interest expense is associated with liabilities. This makes the net users appear more profitable than the net providers. There is no problem for the bank as a whole, as all interest income and expense are taken into account. However, bank management should know how and where profits are being generated within the bank on an organizational, product, and customer level. This is where a funds transfer pricing system would be utilized. …


The Bulgarian Rhodopes provide an unique opportunity to study processes that take place at convergent continental margins. Ophiolite complexes incorporated in the Rhodopean nappe stack as well as the directly overlying post-collisional volcanism allow the investigation of processes from subduction, collision, and subsequent lithospheric extension triggering lithospheric mantle melting that leads to volcanism in collisional orogens.
The first part of this dissertation investigates the high-pressure (HP) metamorphic history of ophiolite complexes incorporated in different levels of the Rhodopean nappe stack. The determination of the exact timing of these HP events as well as the characterization of the metamorphic protoliths is crucial for reconstructing the geodynamic evolution of the Rhodopes. In this context, the Lu-Hf isotope system has already been proven useful to date HP mineral assemblages in other Alpine units and was therefore applied to four eclogite samples from different units of the nappe stack of the Bulgarian Rhodopes. The Lu-Hf garnet dating revealed a metamorphic event during the Cretaceous (~ 126 Ma) affecting the highest nappe unit investigated (Upper Allochthon) and an Eocene event (~ 43 Ma) for the Middle Allochthon. These results provide evidence for two separate subduction events in the Rhodopes, in support of previous findings. Moreover, thrusting of the Middle over the Lower Allochthon can be narrowed down to the time span 42 - 34 Ma.
The second and third part of this dissertation provides an extensive dataset on the post-collisional volcanism in the Bulgarian Rhodopes as well as for arc lavas from Santorini, which are used as a comparative suite throughout the text. The Bulgarian post-collisional volcanism is characterized by a high magnitude of incompatible trace element enrichment, which is particularly shown by its affiliation to the high-K and shoshonite series. Two petrogenetic models that were previously proposed for the generation of high-K magmas involve the melting of ancient, enriched lithospheric mantle sources (single-stage model) or melting triggered by young refertilization of subduction-related components derived from subducted sediments or oceanic crust (multi-stage model). These two models are tested for the Bulgarian K-rich rocks, based on new major, trace element and Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb isotope compositions. The single-stage model is evaluated by Sr-Nd isotope modelling assuming the presence of ancient lithospheric mantle domains whereas the multi-stage model is assessed by comparing compositions of the Bulgarian lavas with those of lavas from Santorini. Santorini Island lavas are thought to sample the current trace element and isotope inventory of the long-lived Aegean subduction-zone system. This northward facing system has been active since late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous and was potentially involved in refertilizing the mantle sources of the Bulgarian lavas. In addition to the Bulgarian lavas, we present new major, trace element and Sr-Nd-Hf-Pb isotope data for Santorini. Modelling of Sr-Nd isotope compositions of the Bulgarian lavas argues for a young (Meso- to Cenozoic) source enrichment. Therefore, single-stage models involving melting of ancient, > 1 Ga old lithospheric mantle can be confidently ruled out, in agreement with tectonic models for the region. The enriched isotope signatures found in the Bulgarian lavas, coupled with a pronounced enrichment in incompatible elements, instead indicate mantle refertilization by subduction components similar to presently subducted continent-derived sediments. Notably, the Bulgarian lavas record a predominant influx of fluid-like subduction components when compared to the Santorini lavas. Collectively, the data presented for the Bulgarian lavas are thus clearly in favour of a multi-stage model.
The last part of this dissertation focuses on extended high-field-strength element (HFSE) systematics in the Bulgarian and Santorini lavas. The extended HFSE (Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, W, Mo, and Sb) are of particular interest in magmatic rocks as their fractionations hint towards specific residual phases in their source regions, such as rutile, allanite, zircon, micas, and sulphides. Tungsten, Sb, and Mo are of particular importance in that they are mobilized in subduction zones by fluids and melts at distinct temperatures and redox conditions and might provide important insights into the conditions and magnitude of source enrichment. However, no significant fractionation of the HFSE ratios (Nb/Ta, Zr/Hf, Zr/Nb) compared to MORB were observed in the Santorini lavas and in the Bulgarian high-K rocks. An influence on the HFSE budget by residual phases like allanite, zircon, or phengite can be largely ruled out, whereas trace amounts of residual rutile in the source may account for the slightly lower Nb/Ta observed in the dataset than expected for bulk sediment addition. The W-Sb-Mo systematics of both sample suites furthermore confirm the predominance of subducted sediments on the incompatible trace element budget, which is dominated by more fluid-like components in the Bulgarian lavas and melt-like in the Santorini lavas.


The lack of peace in most post-colonial African nation-states is tied to unresolved political asymmetry among peoples with contending narratives of origins and power relations. The Justice system bequeathed to these states at their 'flag' independence has been unsuitable for evolving a justice continuum that can ameliorate the asymmetry and consequent conflicts. However, Restorative Justice appears to hold promises and inspirations for affected nation-states. Nevertheless, this article contends that a perceived hyperromanticisation of Restorative Justice's promises must be tempered with critical realism about its ambiguities. Nigeria's Restorative Justice experiment, "Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission", serves as point of reference.


ABSTRACT Background: In order to support the progress towards the post-2015 development agenda for the health sector, the importance of high-quality and timely estimates has become evident both globally and at the country level. Objective and Methods: Based on desk review, key informant interviews and expert panel discussions, the paper critically reviews health estimates from both the local (i.e. nationally generated information by the government and other agencies) and the global sources (which are mostly modeled or interpolated estimates developed by international organizations based on different sources of information), and assesses the country capacity and monitoring strategies to meet the increasing data demand in the coming years. Primarily, this paper provides a situation analysis of Bangladesh in terms of production and use of health estimates for monitoring progress towards the post-2015 development goals for the health sector. Results: The analysis reveals that Bangladesh is data rich, particularly from household surveys and health facility assessments. Practices of data utilization also exist, with wide acceptability of survey results for informing policy, programme review and course corrections. Despite high data availability from multiple sources, the country capacity for providing regular updates of major global health estimates/indicators remains low. Major challenges also include limited human resources, capacity to generate quality data and multiplicity of data sources, where discrepancy and lack of linkages among different data sources (local sources and between local and global estimates) present emerging challenges for interpretation of the resulting estimates. Conclusion: To fulfill the increased data requirement for the post-2015 era, Bangladesh needs to invest more in electronic data capture and routine health information systems. Streamlining of data sources, integration of parallel information systems into a common platform, and capacity building for data generation and analysis are recommended as priority actions for Bangladesh in the coming years. In addition to automation of routine health information systems, establishing an Indicator Reference Group for Bangladesh to analyze data; building country capacity in data quality assessment and triangulation; and feeding into global, inter-agency estimates for better reporting would address a number of mentioned challenges in the short- and long-run.


Now that we have at least some idea of what stochastic signals are, we can begin to analyze the behavior of systems with stochastic inputs. Let's recall that a system is anything that transforms an input signal into an output signal. Let's keep things simple and work with continuous-time input and output signals, and consider the case of deterministic inputs first. A system S transforms an input signal x : R → R into an output signal y : R → R, and we denote this fact by writing y = S[x]. This notation signifies the fact that the input to S is the entire signal x, and the output of S is the entire signal y. Thus, the value y(t) = S[x](t) of the output at time t may, in principle, depend on all x(s), s ∈ R. Clearly, at this level of abstraction there is not a whole lot that can be done. So, it is useful to single out various types of systems: • causal — when the current value of the output is not affected by the future values of the input. Formally, for any t ∈ R and for any two inputs x 1 and x 2 , such that x 1 (s) = x 2 (s) for all s ≤ t, we have S[x 1 ](t) = S[x 2 ](t). • memoryless — when the current value of the output depends only on the current value of the input. Formally, for any t ∈ R and for any two inputs x 1 and x 2 , such that x 1 (t) = x 2 (t), we have S[x 1 ](t) = S[x 2 ](t). Any memoryless system is causal. • time-invariant — when the output due to a time-shifted version of the input is the time-shifted version of the output. Formally, given a signal v : R → R and an arbitrary τ ∈ R, define its time shift v τ : R → R by v τ (t) = v(t − τ). Then S[x τ ] = (S[x]) τ. • linear — when the output due to a superposition of inputs is the superposition of the outputs. Formally, given any two input signals x 1 , x 2 : R → R and any two real coefficients α 1 , α 2 , S[α 1 x 1 + α 2 x 2 ] …


Abstract This article describes the fear of metamorphosis in analysis as a relational dynamic, and as a particular form of resistance to change that may lie at the heart of clinical impasses. The fear of metamorphosis is the patient's fear of a complete alteration of valued aspects of her or his self-hood, which she or he experiences as an imminent catastrophe. This fear of metamorphosis is understood here as the analysand's attempt to protect aspects of her or his self-hood from transformation, especially vis-à-vis the analyst's "otherness," and the impasses that may ensue, reflecting the analyst's and the patient's coconstruction of this otherness. I will examine the dialectics of wishing for transformation and the fear of it. This presents an inherent paradox that may emerge in the clinical encounter as a mutual unspoken and unformulated demand affecting both patient and analyst. I argue that the fear of metamorphosis is a particular variation of the resistance to change. Drawing on Bromberg's (1998) reformulation of resistance as "staying the same while changing," I reexamine the clinical significance of this fear in the context of traditional and contemporary definitions of resistance, illustrated with a clinical example.


The ST6Gal sialyltransferase controls production of the Siaalpha2-6Galbeta1-4GlcNAc (Sia6LacNAc) trisaccharide, which is the ligand for the lectin CD22. Binding of CD22 to Sia6LacNAc is implicated in regulating lymphocyte adhesion and activation. We have investigated mice that lack ST6Gal and report that they are viable, yet exhibit hallmarks of severe immunosuppression unlike CD22-deficient mice. Notably, Sia6LacNAc-deficient mice display reduced serum IgM levels, impaired B cell proliferation in response to IgM and CD40 crosslinking, and attenuated antibody production to T-independent and T-dependent antigens. Deficiency of ST6Gal was further found to alter phosphotyrosine accumulation during signal transduction from the B lymphocyte antigen receptor. These studies reveal that the ST6Gal sialyltransferase and corresponding production of the Sia6LacNAc oligosaccharide are essential in promoting B lymphocyte activation and immune function.


Explosive growth in the number of passwords for Web based applications and encryption keys for outsourced data storage well exceeds the management limit of users. Therefore, outsourcing keys (including passwords and data encryption keys) to professional password managers (honest-but-curious service providers) is attracting the attention of many users. However, existing solutions in a traditional data outsourcing scenario are unable to simultaneously meet the following three security requirements for keys outsourcing: (1) Confidentiality and privacy of keys; (2) Search privacy on identity attributes tied to keys; (3) Owner controllable authorization over his/her shared keys. In this paper, we propose CloudKeyBank, the first unified key management framework that addresses all the three goals above. Under our framework, the key owner can perform privacy and controllable authorization enforced encryption with minimum information leakage. To implement CloudKeyBank efficiently, we propose a new cryptographic primitive named Searchable Conditional Proxy Re-Encryption (SC-PRE) which combines the techniques of Hidden Vector Encryption (HVE) and Proxy Re-Encryption (PRE) seamlessly, and propose a concrete SC-PRE scheme based on existing HVE and PRE schemes. Our experimental results and security analysis show the efficiency and security goals are well achieved.


Part I. Population Genetics and Evolution Theory: 1. Population genetics R. C. Lewontin 2. Somatic mutations as an evolutionary force M. Slatkin 3. The flow of genes through a genetic barrier B. O. Bengtsson 4. Intraspecific resource competition as a cause of sympatric speciation J. Seger 5. Darwinian evolution in ecosystems: the Red Queen view N. C. Stenseth 6. Game theory and animal behaviour G. A. Parker and P. Hammerstein 7. Behavioural structure and the evolution of cooperation R. E. Michod and M. J. Sanderson Part II. Adaptations, Constraints and Patterns of Evolution: 8. Evolutionary ecology and John Maynard Smith R. M. May 9. The evolution of senescence M. R. Rose 10. Germination strategies J. A. Leon 11. When plants play the field J. Silvertown 12. Homage to the null weasel P. H. Harvey and K. Ralls 13. Asymmetric contests in social mammals: respect, manipulation and age-specific aspects C. Packer and A. Pusey 14. Functions of communal care in mammals J. L. Gittleman Part III. the Evolutionary Ecology of Sex: 15. Recombination and sex: is Maynard Smith necessary? J. Felsenstein 16. Birth sex ratios and the reproductive success of sons and daughters T. H. Clutton-Brock 17. Distribution of dioecy and self-incompatibility in angiosperms D. Charlesworth 18. Natural selection and the evolutionary ecology of sex allocation E. L. Charnov 19. The evolution of sexual size dimorphism in birds and mammals: a 'hot-blooded' hypothesis P. J. Greenwood and P. Wheeler 20. Leks and the unanimity of female choice J. W. Bradbury, S. L. Vehrencamp and R. Gibson.


Abstract Objectives. To evaluate the impact of special training of community health workers (CHWs) on breastfeeding counselling and support. Design. A cross-sectional, observational study. Setting. The study was conducted in the area serviced by the Thukela District Child Survival Project, Bergville, KwaZulu-Natal. Subjects. Mother-infant pairs (N = 95) visited by specially trained CHWs formed the intervention group and were compared with a control group of mother-infant pairs (N = 64) visited by normally trained CHWs. Both groups of CHWs had been trained in the integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI). Outcome measures. To test for significant differences between the intervention and control groups in exclusive breastfeeding (EBF), feeding of colostrum, withholding of prelacteals, infant growth and diarrhoeal disease rates. Results. EBF rates of 71.6% and 59.4% were found in the intervention and control groups respectively (p = 0.1). Both study groups showed higher rates of EBF compared with other areas in KwaZulu-Natal. The prevalence of feeding colostrum was 88.4% in the intervention and 92.2% in the control groups (p = 0.4). The prevalence of withholding prelacteals was 77% in the intervention and 86% in the control groups (p = 0.1). At the time of the interview, infants in both groups showed consistent growth (weight-for-age z-scores: intervention = 0.13, control = 0.18; p = 0.7). Diarrhoea prevalence did not differ significantly between study groups and varied from 7.5% (in the 7 days before interview, p = 0.1) to 16% (in the previous 3 months for infants . 3 months, p = 0.5). Conclusion. The special training did not have the anticipated impact on measured parameters. Training CHWs in IMCI was as effective as special training. If generally applied, the former may increase rates of EBF, improve infant growth and reduce the risk of diarrhoeal illness in South Africa.


SUMMARY: The pilotfish (Naucrates ductor) is mainly caught as a by-catch of the dolphinfish fishery using FADs deployed around Mallorca (western-Mediterranean) from the end of August to December. The age and growth parameters of this species were estimated by length frequency analysis and daily growth increments observed in the otoliths. To validate the daily formation of the ring observed in the sagittae otoliths, a marking otoliths experiment with SrCl 2 was carried out with juvenile specimens kept in laboratory conditions. The growth parameters obtained from otolith interpretation were based on age at length of 99 specimens ranging between 15 and 31.2 cm FL. Length frequency analyses were based on the monthly length distribution obtained in 1990, 1991, 1995 and 1996. The results obtained from the two methods were similar and showed rapid growth during the first 6 months of life. The von Bertalanffy growth equation from otoliths was FL= 28.97 (1-e (-6.87(t - 0.055) ). Positive allometric growth was observed in the length-weight relationship, with no differences existing between sexes: W (g)= 0.0147*FL3.040 (cm).


Background: Coronary artery disease (CAD) can lead to a symptomatic vascular blockage. Angiography (CAG) is used to diagnose the vascular blockage that may then be treated by a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Both CAG and PCI require arterial access in order to reach the coronary arteries. While trans-femoral access (TFA) had been the universal default since the late 1970s, there is an increasing interest in trans-radial access (TRA) as it is associated with a reduction in haemorrhagic entry site complications and permits earlier patient ambulation. Both access-sites have advantages and disadvantages. When the study was designed neither approach was generally proven to be superior in clinical outcome, which complicates the task for vascular choice. Literature suggests that the systematic incorporation of patient preferences into the decision could be regarded of supplementary importance, as a mutual involvement of the physician and the patient in the decision may provide directions for selecting procedural options and planning health care services. However, little is known about patient preferences within CAG and/or PCI procedures.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine patient preferences over procedural characteristics and benefits and risks of vascular access sites in CAG and/or PCI. A secondary aim is to determine patients' perspective on shared decision-making for the scheduled catheterization procedure.
Methods: In a collaboration between Thoraxcentrum Twente (TCT) of the Medisch Spectrum Twente (MST) and the University of Twente (UT), a single-centre cross-sectional prospective study was carried out. A patient preference questionnaire (PPQ) was constructed and applied among a consecutive series of patients (n=148) who were, in the period from July 2014 to august 2014, electively admitted for CAG and/or PCI procedures in the MST hospital. The PPQ consisted of four parts and focused on background characteristics of patients, patient preferences for vascular access, and patients' informational and decisional agreement regarding procedure. The choice-based method Case 2 Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) was used to elicit patients' preferences on six attributes of care: length of hospital stay, peri-procedural changing of access-site, suitability of the vessel for next procedure, post-procedural patient comfort, peri-/post-procedural bleeding, and post-procedural mobilisation. The attributes had two or three levels. Eight choice sets were presented to patients, with patients indicating the 'best' and 'worst' attribute-level in each choice set. Best-minus-worst- scores (B-W method) and conditional logistic regression (Clogit) scores were calculated to assess which attributes and attribute-levels matter most to patients and to assess the overall utility of the radial or femoral procedural option. In addition, overall preference was measured within a direct question format. Informational and decisional agreement were assessed by using an 'agree-disagree' statement-format and independent multiple choice questions.
Results: Patients generally preferred the femoral approach (59%) over the radial approach (41%) (p<0.05). The BWS method showed that patients considered the peri-/post-procedural bleeding as most important procedural characteristic, followed by the length of hospital stay and post-procedural mobilisation. More specifically, patients valued most that the procedure takes place in day-care (0.585), that there are no bleedings after procedure (0.364) and that the procedure through the vessel succeeds (0.390). Least preferred were that there will be a major bleeding which requires blood-transfusion (-0.705), the incidence of hematoma (-0.398) or that patients need to lie flat for up to 6 hours (-0.344) (p<0.05). Most patients indicated to understand the information about the benefits (IQR=1) and risks (IQR=0) of procedure and knew which benefits and risks were most important to them (Mdn=2). When considering decisional agreement, patients were satisfied with the course of procedure (Mdn=1; IQR=1) and had post-procedural preferences for the current access route (84.2%). A significant amount of patients in this study desired to have more, or less decisional power in the procedure than they actually had, but only a few individuals would like the physician or themselves to be the only decision owner (p<0.05).
Discussion and conclusion: Patients were slightly in favour of the femoral approach, except from those who experienced both vascular routes, who were in favour of the radial approach. Besides, patients were able to express their preferences on the most important procedural characteristics and potential benefits and risks of procedure through the BWS method. Most important to patients were peri-/post-procedural bleeding, the length of hospital stay and post-procedural mobilisation – characteristics that are positively associated with the radial access route. No evident preferred procedural access option could be elicited from patients in this study; this contributes to the fact that the decision for vascular access is a preference-sensitive decision in which the characteristics of procedure can be of different importance to individual patients or subgroups. Therefore, the study may provide insight and clinical awareness on existing patient preferences. Although different opinions were noted on the extent to which the decision should be shared, the perceived decisional agreement in this study indicates that patients appreciate to participate in (or share) the decision on vascular access in CAG and/or PCI. The findings in this study may provoke discussion on the capability and desirability of shared decision-making (SDM) in cardiology by both health care professionals and patients and may lead to better defensible choices and a more patient-centered care.


[Skarga's aftermath: "Polish books" about Saint Casimir Jagiellon (On the track of the print and a copy)] The subject of attention as well as the bibliographic and librarian inquiry is the first biography of Saint Casimir that was written in Polish. The Saint was mentioned by Piotr Skarga in the seventh edition of Lives of the Saints (Krakow 1610) when the author incorporated his own biography of St. Casimir into the collection. Skarga also added information that this biography written in Polish was published in 1606. Thanks to this information, bibliographers managed to establish that the print was published in Vilnius and that its author was Chryzostom Wolodkowicz (Wolodkiewicz), as was believed – a soldier of the military commandeer Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, later a writer of Samogitia. The information was most fully popularized by Bibliografia polska (Polish bibliography) by Karol Estreicher (vol. 33, published by Stanislaw Estreicher, Krakow 1939). However, the print was only known by its title, and its copy had not been described. The author of the article investigated the history of the information about the print and established that it was first mentioned by bibliographers and Jesuit heraldic officers in the 17th and 18th centuries (Wojciech Wijuk Kojalowicz and especially Kasper Niesiecki). Following this path, the author assumed that the copy should be in Lviv or one of its neighbouring cities. His intuition was rewarded and the copy was found in the Lviv library. As a result, the author described the copy and on its basis corrected the information about its author.


Case studies suggest that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can be effective tools for fishery management. This study uses global datasets of MPAs and stock assessments to estimate the strength and robustness of their benefits. We apply multiple models, including a treatment-control pairing, a logistic model estimated with fixed-effects, and a regression tree to identify key characteristics. We find that regions with significant MPA designations increased their yearly yield by 17e3 MT/yr while those without experienced a loss of 20e3 MT/yr. On average, a 1% increase in protected area results in an increase in the growth rate of fish populations by about 1%. Considering only IUCN classified protected areas, and only marine portions of MPAs, growth rates increase 2% per percent area protected. MPA size is a key parameter which determines their per-area effectiveness. Using these results, we produce an estimate of the economic benefits of protected areas, relative to their costs. About 60% of country regions currently have insufficient protected areas to generate economic benefits, where the average break-even point for economic benefits of MPAs is at 8.5% of marine area.


Scientific domains are characterized by substantial amounts of complex data, many unknowns, lack of complete theories, and rapid evolution. In many areas of decision making, much of the reasoning process is based on experience rather than on general knowledge. Experts remember positive cases for possible reuse of solutions, but negative cases are also useful for avoiding potentially unsuccessful results. Thus, storing and reasoning with experiences facilitates efficient and effective knowledge management. In general, knowledge management systems support representation, organization, acquisition, creation, usage, and evolution of k_nowledge in its many forms. Complex scientific domains require: (1) multimodal representations that support application-domain richness, expressibility and domain-knowledge evolution, (2) effective organization of l~owledge for efficient access to information, and (3) decision-support and analysis tools. We show how a case-based reasoning system can be used for knowledge management in structural biology. Namely, we describe a multimodal and multimedia system for managing crystallization experiences.


Background. Social media platforms are increasingly used in surgery and have shown promise as effective tools to promote deceased donation and expand living donor transplantation. There is a growing need to understand how social media-driven communication is perceived by providers in the field of transplantation. Methods. We surveyed 299 members of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons about their use of, attitudes toward, and perceptions of social media and analyzed relationships between responses and participant characteristics. Results. Respondents used social media to communicate with: family and friends (76%), surgeons (59%), transplant professionals (57%), transplant recipients (21%), living donors (16%), and waitlisted candidates (15%). Most respondents (83%) reported using social media for at least 1 purpose. Although most (61%) supported sharing information with transplant recipients via social media, 42% believed it should not be used to facilitate living donor-recipient matching. Younger age (P = 0.02) and fewer years of experience in the field of transplantation (P = 0.03) were associated with stronger belief that social media can be influential in living organ donation. Respondents at transplant centers with higher reported use of social media had more favorable views about sharing information with transplant recipients (P < 0.01), increasing awareness about deceased organ donation (P < 0.01), and advertising for transplant centers (P < 0.01). Individual characteristics influence opinions about the role and clinical usefulness of social media. Conclusions. Transplant center involvement and support for social media may influence clinician perceptions and practices. Increasing use of social media among transplant professionals may provide an opportunity to deliver high-quality information to patients.


"Muda" is a term in the Toyota Production System (TPS), which refers to waste that occurs in the manufacturing process. Waste is removed from the production process by eliminating activity that does not add value to the customer through a continuous improvement activities. This is the basis concept for TPS in order to produce products that meet customers's demand and requirements which then indirectly reduce the cost of production. Lean production concept has been implemented in various types of organizations. However, a low success rate for the implementation of lean production has become the attention of practitioners and researchers in the industry. Among the issues that contribute to this situation are confusion about the definition of lean and lack of knowledge on how to implement lean, which caused misunderstanding. In addition, there are no strategic planning and lack of support from the top management. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop a definition of lean from Malaysian context. The study is expected to help organizations implementing lean concepts with success and thus increasing the organizational competitiveness .


This thesis explores the genetic structure and reproductive biology of Spiraea virginiana, a threatened shrub endemic to 2nd and 3rd order drainages in the southern Appalachians and Cumberland Plateau. I analyzed a dataset created with eight Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSRs), and conducted a phylogenetic analysis based on maximum parsimony. To assess maternal relationships within the species, I sequenced three regions of non-coding chloroplast DNA, and conducted a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis. In addition, I constructed and mapped a haplotype network and major clades identified in the Bayesian analysis. Both analyses showed little structure within drainages and potential relatedness across elevational gradients, although drainages were not sampled heavily. I conducted pollination treatments in a common garden setting and in three wild populations along the New River in Ashe County, NC. Results from these treatments tentatively suggest the species has a mixed mating system, and can reproduce sexually, contrary to prior observations. However, seed size, seed weight, and fruit set were variable among populations. With the knowledge provided by both studies, I conclude that sexual reproduction in the species may be more common than previously thought, and that, based on the patterns revealed by the phylogeography, seed may be wind-dispersed.


A novel trimeric cationic surfactant tri(dodecyldimethylammonioacetoxy)diethyl-triamine trichloride (DTAD) has been used as a highly efficient capping agent to synthesize trisoctahedral (TOH) Au nanocrystals (NCs). Very low concentration of DTAD (0.2 mM) can favor the formation of TOH Au NCs due to excellent interfacial adsorption ability of DTAD. The strong electrostatic interaction between the multi-charged head groups and Au facets and the hydrogen bonding among the head groups together with the stronger hydrophobic interaction between hydrocarbon chains account for high efficiency of DTAD. This study can help guide the rational design of task-specific capping agents with desired efficiency and property and minimize the negative environmental effects of surfactants during NC fabrication.


This thesis is devoted to studying field-theoretical branes in warped geometries, with emphasis on brane excitations and properties of background solutions. Firstly, we examine the features of a model in which our universe is represented by a local string-like defect embedded in a six-dimensional space-time with warped geometry. We demonstrate that in order to satisfy the dominant energy condition, the metric exterior to the defect's core must depend on its thickness. As a result of this dependence, in the limit of the string's thickness going to zero, either the solution no longer localizes the gravity on the defect, or the ratio of the six-dimensional Planck mass to the four-dimensional one diverges. Next, we propose and study a toy model allowing to investigate the phenomenon of quasilocalization. When applied to gravity, our setup can be seen as a (toy) model of a warped geometry in which the graviton is not fully localized on the brane. Studying the tensor sector of metric perturbations around this background, we find that its contribution to the effective gravitational potential is of four-dimensional type 1/r at intermediate scales and that at large scales it becomes 1/rα, 1 <α ≤ 2 being a function of the parameters of the model (α = 2 corresponds to the asymptotically flat geometry). Large-distance behavior of the potential depends therefore on the asymptotic geometry and does not need to be "five-dimensional" (1/r2). Our analysis applies also to the case of quasilocalized massless particles other than the graviton. Finally, we investigate the fate of the translational zero mode of a domain wall in a fivedimensional space-time in the presence of gravity, studying the scalar perturbations of a thick gravitating domain wall with a well defined non-gravitating limit and AdS asymptotics. Our analysis reveals the existence of a wide resonance, which can be seen as a relic of the translational zero mode present in the domain wall in the absence of gravity. The presence of this resonance ensures the continuity of physical quantities (such as the static potential between sources) in the limit when the Planck mass tends to infinity. Provided that the width of the domain wall is much smaller than the AdS radius of the space-time, the parameters of the resonance do not depend on the details of the domain wall structure, but are entirely determined by the geometry of the space-time.


Twenty‐five large‐eddy simulations are performed to study how free tropospheric thermodynamic conditions control equilibrium state solutions of stratocumulus‐topped marine boundary layers. In particular, we systematically vary the lower tropospheric stability (LTS) and a similar measure for the bulk humidity difference between the 700 hPa level and the surface, ΔQ . For all simulations, a completely overcast boundary layer is obtained in which the turbulence is mainly driven by cloud top radiative cooling. The steady state liquid water path (LWP) is rather insensitive to the LTS, but increases significantly and almost linearly with the free tropospheric humidity. In a second suite of runs, the response of the stratocumulus layer to an idealized global warming scenario is assessed by applying a uniform warming of 2 K to the initial temperature profile including the sea surface while the initial relative humidity profile is kept identical to the control case. The warming of the sea surface acts to increase the latent heat flux, which invigorates turbulence in the boundary layer. The steady state inversion height therefore increases, despite the competing effect of a more humid free troposphere that increases the downwelling radiative flux and hence tends to decrease the entrainment rate. The stratocumulus layer nevertheless thins for all free tropospheric conditions as cloud base rises more than cloud top. This implies a positive stratocumulus cloud‐climate feedback for this scenario as thinner clouds reflect less shortwave radiation back to space. The cloud thinning response to the climate perturbation is found to be mostly controlled by the change of ΔQ .


Environmental regulatory compliance costs are often cited as a factor in dairy location decisions, but few studies estimate the impacts of regulation in this sector. This article uses California dairy regulations to examine the pollution haven hypothesis in agriculture. Dairy industry regulation has varied regionally within the state, with the more strictly regulated Southern California region losing production and the more environmentally lenient Central Valley gaining production. Results show that even after controlling for population density and property values, regulation had significant negative effects on dairying in Southern California.


The aim of this paper is to provide a new mechanism based on social interactions explaining why distance to jobs can have a negative impact on workers' labor-market outcomes, especially ethnic minorities. Building on Granovetter's idea that weak ties are superior to strong ties for providing support in getting a job, we develop a model in which workers who live far away from jobs tend to have less connections to weak ties. Because of the lack of good public transportation in the US, it is costly (both in terms of time and money) to commute to business centers to meet other types of people who can provide other source of information about jobs. If distant minority workers mainly rely on their strong ties, who are more likely to be unemployed, there is then little chance of escaping unemployment. It is therefore the separation in both the social and physical space that prevents ethnic minorities finding a job.


The pace of poverty reduction through growth vs. redistribution is at the heart of current debates on equitable development. In this paper, we argue that empirical poverty decompositions should build in the inherent boundedness of the poverty headcount ratio directly. As a solution, we propose a fractional response approach to estimating poverty decompositions, and present extensions dealing with unobserved heterogeneity, measurement error and unbalancedness. Using a large new data set, we estimate income and inequality (semi-)elasticities of poverty for the 2$ a day and 1.25$ a day poverty lines. The models fit the data remarkably well over the entire data range. We highlight the relevance of focusing on semi-elasticities for policy purposes and, building on the improved accuracy of the fractional response results, we present poverty projections from 2010 through 2030. Finally, we discuss some implications of these results for the post-2015 development agenda.


Divide and conquer programs can achieve good performance on parallel computers and computers with deep memory hierarchies. We introduce architecture-cognizant divide and conquer algorithms, and explore how they can achieve even better performance. An architecture-cognizant algorithm has functionally-equivalent variants of the divide and/or combine functions, and a variant policy that specifies which variant to use at each level of recursion. An optimal variant policy is chosen for each target computer via experimentation. With h levels of recursion, an exhaustive search requires \theta(vh) experiments (where v is the number of variants). We present a method based on dynamic programming that reduces this to \theta(vc) (where c is typically a small constant) experiments for a class of architecture-cognizant programs. We verify our technique on two kernels (matrix multiply and 2-D Point Jacobi) using three architectures. Our technique improves performance by up to a factor of two, compared to architecture-oblivious divide and conquer implementations. Further our dynamic programming approach succeeds in selecting the optimal variant policy.


Every manager has to make presentations of various kinds. No matter what the presentation is, however, most of us prefer not to do them at all. Presentations represent the second greatest fear to managers (after going to the dentist!). This book contains 100 great ideas to make your presentations go smoothly and successfully. Researched from leading companies and successful managers around the world, each idea is described in a succinct way. You are then shown how to apply that idea to your own presentation situation. A simple formula which has the potential to reap great rewards.


The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) is an SDSS-IV eBOSS subproject primarily aimed at obtaining identification spectra of ∼220,000 optically variable objects systematically selected from SDSS/Pan-STARRS1 multi-epoch imaging. We present a preview of the science enabled by TDSS, based on TDSS spectra taken over ∼320 deg2 of sky as part of the SEQUELS survey in SDSS-III, which is in part a pilot survey for eBOSS in SDSS-IV. Using the 15,746 TDSS-selected single-epoch spectra of photometrically variable objects in SEQUELS, we determine the demographics of our variability-selected sample and investigate the unique spectral characteristics inherent in samples selected by variability. We show that variability-based selection of quasars complements color-based selection by selecting additional redder quasars and mitigates redshift biases to produce a smooth quasar redshift distribution over a wide range of redshifts. The resulting quasar sample contains systematically higher fractions of blazars and broad absorption line quasars than from color-selected samples. Similarly, we show that M dwarfs in the TDSS-selected stellar sample have systematically higher chromospheric active fractions than the underlying M-dwarf population based on their Hα emission. TDSS also contains a large number of RR Lyrae and eclipsing binary stars with main-sequence colors, including a few composite-spectrum binaries. Finally, our visual inspection of TDSS spectra uncovers a significant number of peculiar spectra, and we highlight a few cases of these interesting objects. With a factor of ∼15 more spectra, the main TDSS survey in SDSS-IV will leverage the lessons learned from these early results for a variety of time-domain science applications.


Since Variable-Centered Intelligent Rule System (VCIRS) was proposed, there're some researches dealing with. However, it's necessary to drop a line concerning about some revisions that it had to make, for the user's convenience. It's about the option during knowledge building. The tree transformation process from an existing tree of a domain into VCIRS knowledge base (KB) is exciting to realize, in the perspective of cases reconstructing. There're two kinds of facts could be observed from. The first is from the user's perspective when she performs KB transforming from such tree into VCIRS KB through generating cases. The latter is about the system (i.e., VCIRS) perspective, whereas it's more concern into the structure of KB has to construct within VCIRS. The conclusion obtained from this stage is it should be a prudential concern dealing with cases reconstruction from an existing tree of a domain into VCIRS KB, since it will change the implementation of both perspective either from the user or the system. By understanding this matter, it will make the transformation process from a tree of a domain into VCIRS KB easier to make.


Market indices need to serve triple duty-they are used as portfolios (index funds), as the starting point for actively managed funds, and as benchmarks for performance evaluation. The criteria used to select an index reflect the tension between these roles. One must also understand the tradeoffs involved in index construction, such as between the breadth or completeness of an index and its "investability" (liquidity and availability of the index constituents). The authors present statistical and qualitative characteristics of major broad-capitalization indices of the U.S. equity market. They also review the history of equity market indices and recall the "capitalization wars" that ensued when researchers identified a small-stock effect that, according to some, justifies a much higher than market-cap weight in small-company issues.


This paper investigates the effect that smart routing and recommendations can have on improving the Quality of Experience of museum visitors. The novelty of our approach consists of taking into account not only user interests but also their visiting styles, as well as modeling the museum not as a sterile space but as a location where crowds meet and interact, impacting each visitor's Quality of Experience. The investigation is done by an empirical study on data gathered by a custom-made simulator tailored for the museum user routing problem. Results are promisingand future potential and directions are discussed.


Marine sedimentary records provide valuable information for reconstructing ancient environmental and climatic change, and by doing so, also contribute knowledge critical for better understanding future climate change. Records from mid-latitude locations, such as New Zealand (Southern Hemisphere), are particularly important for paleoenvironmental research because they provide information on potential climatic teleconnections between equatorial and polar regions. In reality, however, paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic research on mid-latitude records has received limited attention, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere.

This thesis focuses on Neogene-Pleistocene drift deposits in the Canterbury Basin, also known as the Canterbury Drifts, SE New Zealand. The Canterbury Drifts are recognised as important paleoclimate and paleoceanographic archives of the SW Pacific because they record intrinsic signals of variability in South Island climatic conditions (glacial erosion), of tectonic uplift of the Southern Alps (western South Island), and of the flow of intermediate depth water masses and associated currents that originate from Antarctica (i.e. Sub-Antarctic Mode Water, Antarctic Intermediate Water, Antarctic Circumpolar Current). Despite previous research on the Canterbury Drifts, crucial aspects of their history remain unknown, including details of sediment source and supply dynamics relative to climatic, oceanographic and/or tectonic processes, and how SW Pacific climatic and oceanographic conditions have responded to Milankovitch cycles and high latitude conditions. The aim of this thesis was to address these issues by using clay mineralogy, clay geochemistry (trace elements and Nd, Sr isotopes), and particle size analysis of Canterbury Drift deposits recovered from Plio-Pleistocene Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1119 and the Early Miocene Bluecliffs Silt (BCS) Formation.

The principal objectives of this thesis were to identify:
1. Changes in South Island weathering regimes and detrital sediment supply relative to Plio-Pleistocene climatic conditions.
2. Change in onland source for shelf sediments relative to environmental conditions, including distinct tectonic events during Plio-Pleistocene drift sedimentation.
3. Connectivity between the Southern Alps ice cap and Antarctic temperatures prior to MIS 11, and Milankovitch (orbital) cycles in Late Pleistocene drift sediments.
4. Changes in climatic, tectonic, oceanic conditions during the Early Miocene- Pleistocene Canterbury Drift succession, and Milankovitch cycles in Early Miocene drift sediments.

Plio-Pleistocene changes in South Island weathering regimes and detrital sediment supply are identified from the clay mineralogy of Site 1119 sediments. The abrupt replacement of smectite with higher chlorite and illite contents at ~3.5 Ma is coincident with the global Early-Late Pliocene transition and reflects the onset of a glacially modulated physical weathering regime, which accompanied abrupt global cooling at that time. Chlorite and illite remain abundant through the Late Plio-Pleistocene, consistent with persistent glacial erosion and continually cooling climate. A glacial control on physical weathering is also seen at high resolution (~4 ka resolution sampling between ~650-260 ka) as increased chlorite and illite deposition during cold glacial phases. Changes in clay mineralogy of ODP Site 1119 therefore reflect changes in onland weathering regimes associated with global climate events.

The high-resolution record (back to at least MIS 16) also shows close ties between the behaviour of the Southern Alps ice cap and Antarctic atmospheric temperatures. Periods of reduced Antarctic temperature are concurrent with increased glacial erosion on the South Island and increased supply of detrital sediments (chlorite, illite, Th, Rare Earth Elements) directly to Site 1119 during periods of lowered sea level. Cold phases were also a time of reduced Southland Current flow as determined by the fine mean sortable silt and low sand content proxies. Conversely, warm Antarctic temperatures (interglacial and glacialinterglacial transitions) are concurrent with reduced glaciation on the South Island, reduced detrital sediment supply to Site 1119 and faster Southland Current flow. Previous evidence of a connection between SW Pacific climate and Antarctic conditions has been strengthened in this study by using numerous proxies and by providing spectral evidence. Spectral analysis of the clay and particle size data indicates high latitude influence on New Zealand climate and oceanography during the Plio-Pleistocene and highlights complex heat distribution in the Southern Hemisphere.

Rare earth elements (REEs) in Site 1119 sediments identify a dominant Torlesse Terrane provenance during the Plio-Pleistocene. Trace element ratios (Th/Sc, Nd/Sc, Rb/Ba) could not confidently identify sediment source and question the conventional use of immobile elements to fingerprint sediment source. Neodymium and Sr isotope data demonstrate intervals of distinct provenance change, alternating between a central Torlesse Terrane source and more a more volcaniclastic-rich sediment input from terranes further south. Specific shifts in the geochemical record between 2.7-2.3 Ma and 0.7-0.6 Ma coincide with previously recorded Australian-Pacific plate rotation events, and suggest distinct episodes of tectonic control on sediment supply to the Canterbury Basin. Identification of tectonic control on drift sedimentation highlights the importance of considering tectonic activity when interpreting paleoclimatic signatures in basin environments.

Early Miocene BCS drift sediments are dominated by smectites, indicating a prevailing chemically dominated weathering regime during times of low topographic relief in New Zealand, and warm global climatic conditions. Change from a dominantly chemical weathering regime in the Early Miocene to a dominantly physical regime in the Plio- Pleistocene occurred in parallel with the rapid and continuing uplift of the Southern Alps mountain range since the Late Miocene, and with deteriorating climatic conditions from the Late Plio-Pleistocene. The particle size of BCS samples is coarser than Site 1119 sediments and demonstrates long-term fining through the Canterbury Drift succession. This trend is consistent with the widening of eastern shelf areas, continual uplift of the Southern Alps, formation of a mountain glacial cap that accompanied the global Late Cenozoic
cooling, and possibly diminishing current flow through a deepening basin environment.
Spectral analysis of BCS samples reveals Milankovitch cycles (eccentricity and obliquity)
in Early Miocene drifts, and a high latitude influence on New Zealand climatic and
oceanographic conditions since the Early Miocene.

This research demonstrates that paleoenvironmental studies of mid-latitude sedimentary records, such as the Canterbury Drifts, are integral to piecing together changes in global climatic and oceanographic conditions through time. Understanding how the Earth's climate has changed in the past, and what has driven these changes, in-turn provides valuable insight into the prediction of, and potential effects of, future climate change.


Abstract Background: Cervical cancer is a major cause of cancer mortality in women and more than a quarter of its global burden is contributed by developing countries. In India, in spite of alarmingly high figures, there is no nationwide government-sponsored screening program. This study was conducted to assess the burden of cervical cancer in India and review the performance characteristics of available cervical cancer screening tools, so as to provide evidence-based recommendations for application of most practically suited screening test to be used in resource-poor field settings. Materials and Methods: MEDLINE and Web of Science electronic database were searched from January 1990 to December 2015, using the keywords such as "cervical cancer", "screening", "early detection", "cervical cytology" and "visual inspection", and their corresponding MeSH terms in combination with Boolean operators "OR, AND." Two authors independently selected studies that are published in English and conducted in India. A total of 11 studies were found to be relevant and eligible to be included in the present study. Results: In India, cervical cancer contributes to approximately 6–29% of all cancers in women. The age-adjusted incidence rate of cervical cancer varies widely among registries; highest is 23.07/100,000 in Mizoram state and the lowest is 4.91/100,000 in Dibrugarh district. The pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity of visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), magnified VIA, visual inspection with Lugol's iodine (VILI), cytology (Pap smear), and human papillomavirus DNA were found to be 67.65% and 84.32%, 65.36% and 85.76%, 78.27% and 87.10%, 62.11% and 93.51%, and 77.81% and 91.54%, respectively. Conclusions: In developing countries because of lack of necessary infrastructure and quality control, high-quality cytology screening may not be feasible for wide-scale implementation. Hence, cervical cancer screening program based on visual screening test such as VIA/VILI should be adopted as an integral part of primary health-care setup in resource-poor countries like India.


Courts throughout the world face the challenge of designing court mediation programs to provide opportunities for party-directed reconciliation on the one hand, while ensuring access to formal legal channels on the other. In some jurisdictions, mandated programs require initial attempts at mediation, while in others, voluntary programs encourage party-selected participation. This Article explores the attitudes and perceptions of eighty-three practitioners implementing court mediation programs in five regions in order to understand the dynamics, challenges, and lessons learned from the perspectives of those directly engaged in the work of administering, representing, and mediating civil claims. Given the highly contextual nature of court mediation programs, this Article highlights achievements, challenges, and lessons learned in the implementation of mediation programs for general civil claims. The principal findings indicate that overall, from the perspective of the court mediation practitioners surveyed, practitioners report slightly higher levels of confidence in mandatory mediation programs, higher perceptions of efficiency with respect to voluntary programs, and regard voluntary and mandatory mediation programs with relatively equal perceptions of fairness. Program achievements largely depend on the functioning of the civil litigation system, the qualities and skill of the mediators, safeguards against bias, participant education, and cultural and institutional support.


Abstract. Drought and heat events affect the uptake and sequestration of carbon in terrestrial ecosystems. Factors such as the duration, timing, and intensity of extreme events influence the magnitude of impacts on ecosystem processes such as gross primary production (GPP), i.e., the ecosystem uptake of CO2. Preceding soil moisture depletion may exacerbate these impacts. However, some vegetation types may be more resilient to climate extremes than others. This effect is insufficiently understood at the global scale and is the focus of this study.
Using a global upscaled product of GPP that scales up in situ land CO2 flux observations with global satellite remote sensing, we study the impact of climate extremes at the global scale. We find that GPP in grasslands and agricultural areas is generally reduced during heat and drought events. However, we also find that forests, if considered globally, appear in general to not be particularly sensitive to droughts and heat events that occurred during the analyzed period or even show increased GPP values during these events. On the one hand, normal-to-increased GPP values are in many cases plausible, e.g., when conditions prior to the event have been particularly positive. On the other hand, however, normal-to-increased GPP values in forests may also reflect a lack of sensitivity in current remote-sensing-derived GPP products to the effects of droughts and heatwaves. The overall picture calls for a differentiated consideration of different land cover types in the assessments of risks of climate extremes for ecosystem functioning.


We tackle an unsupervised domain adaptation problem for which the domain discrepancy between labeled source and unlabeled target domains is large, due to many factors of inter and intra-domain variation. While deep domain adaptation methods have been realized by reducing the domain discrepancy, these are difficult to apply when domains are significantly unalike. In this work, we propose to decompose domain discrepancy into multiple but smaller, and thus easier to minimize, discrepancies by introducing unlabeled bridging domains that connect the source and target domains. We realize our proposal through an extension of the domain adversarial neural network with multiple discriminators, each of which accounts for reducing discrepancies between unlabeled (bridge, target) domains and a mix of all precedent domains including source. We validate the effectiveness of our method on several adaptation tasks including object recognition and semantic segmentation.


After four years of operation of the Civil Service Tribunal (CST), the article gives an overview over this new Community Court. Unlike the vast majority of other international organizations, in the EU the legal rules and judicial protection in staff matters are closely interconnected with other areas of law related to the organization's core activities. However, long ago staff cases were discussed as apt for an institutional diversification of the Community jurisdictional system. The article sheds light on the genesis of the CST and the shaping of the set of rules governing its judicial activity. After presenting the status and structure of the CST as a new EU judicial body – notably its composition and trial formations, its jurisdiction and procedural links with the other Community courts – the article deals with the specific procedural rules applicable to the CST and how they are applied, including the aspect of court mediation. There follows a section on scrutiny mechanisms regarding judicial decisions of the CST (appeals to the CFI and further review by the ECJ of appeal decisions, with particular attention to the new concept of "risk of the unity or consistency of Community law being affected"). The article also attempts to identify some major tendencies in the case law of the CST and in particular that of an extension of both the scope and the standards of judicial control, inter alia by enhanced references to labour law. Finally, the question whether the CST should become a precedent for the establishment of specialized judicial panels in other fields of EU law fields, such as competition (especially mergers) or intellectual property, is discussed.


The iconic 125-year-old Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton near San Jose, California, is facing the threat of closure. Astronomers there say the University of California, which funds the observatory, has slashed its budget to fund other projects and has issued a report recommending converting Lick to a public museum. Lick9s supporters say the observatory has made key contributions to the development of new scientific instruments and to recent research, such as discovering new extrasolar planets. But the panel that recommended the changes says the moves are necessary to support other projects such as the W. M. Keck Observatory and the planned Thirty Meter Telescope.


Angular declination (AD) is a reliable cue to egocentric distance when targets are floor-level and within the intermediate distance range; elevated objects can be localized based on where their supporting structures contact the ground. In the real world, humans must locate objects supported by surfaces (tables, countertops, etc.) when the ground contact is obscured or not salient. Can knowledge of height above the ground be used in conjunction with target AD when the ground contact of the support is not visible? Here, observers walked without vision to previewed targets that were vertically-oriented boards resting on the ground, 71 cm high and 2.5-5m distant. One end was yellow; the rest was color-matched to the blue-gray carpet. Targets were oriented with the yellow end up or down, and the viewing duration was either short (< 20 ms, sufficient to detect only the yellow end of the object) or long (100 ms, sufficient to detect both ends). Thus, in the up position, the short viewing duration prohibited detection of the ground contact. Observers were informed the object extended to the height of a typical table and were shown real-world examples in advance. Response sensitivity was similarly high in all conditions (slopes near 1). In Experiment 1, the viewing duration was always short, and underestimation was greater in the yellow-down condition (-17%) relative to yellow-up (-1%). In Experiment 2, the targets were always yellow end up, and underestimation was greater when viewing was long (-24%) relative to short (-14%). Several accounts for the bias differences will be considered, but there was no indication that a visible ground contact is crucial. The findings indicate an ability to utilize knowledge of object height to localize objects, but the change in bias across viewing durations suggests a preference to use the ground contact when it becomes visible. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


The twenty-first century lawyer will face rapid and unsettling changes in the way legal services are delivered. Legal futurists foresee many aspects of legal services being delivered more efficiently with the use of technology. For example, future breakthroughs in artificial intelligence may expand the ability to automate many tasks that currently require the skill of a lawyer. Similarly, less complex legal services such as the drafting of wills and trusts are being commoditized and provided more quickly and cheaply by new market entrants, such as LegalZoom, which provide on-line documents to millions of satisfied consumers. Additionally, new categories of licensed legal professionals are beginning to challenge established models of delivering legal services, and will continue to do so. These changes are all, and will continue to be, disruptive. Although every business faces disruptive changes at some point, in the legal services area these changes involve unique issues, particularly when they encounter the barriers that control entry into a regulated profession that is intertwined with the judicial branch of government. For example, as new technologies and market players increase the public's access to legal services, questions arise about how to define and protect the fundamental values of the legal profession, how to maintain the independence of lawyers and the judicial branch, how to define the practice of law, and how to increase the public's access to affordable and competent legal services. For legal educators, it can be challenging-and often impossible-to imagine how these changes will affect our students during their professional careers. Furthermore, although we can envision some of the changes on the horizon, others are not yet within view. Within this framework, legal education needs to prepare students for the future. This essay examines three categories of disruptive changes that will be relevant to the future delivery of legal services-technological advancements, new regulated categories of legal professionals, and new unregulated market players. During their careers, today's law students will have to grapple with how these changes will affect the legal profession and access to legal services. This essay provides some thoughts for legal educators about preparing law students for this task. Part I of this essay will give a brief overview of the three changes and how they may impact the future delivery of legal services. Part II will discuss how these changes challenge the identity and values of the legal profession and how these challenges should impact the future of legal education.


For all of us who have tried and failed to help obese patients lose weight, the viewpoint by Proietto in this issue of the Journal (page 144) offers some explanation for our defeat. Overeating and low activity levels cause everyone to gain weight. However, the propensity to become obese is genetically predisposed, and expression of the genes involved may well be permanently up-regulated by early experience of overeating. When weight is lost, there are hormonal changes that favour weight regain. These factors make it very difficult for obese people to achieve significant and sustained weight loss with diet, exercise, medication or food replacement programs. For this reason (and because studies of bariatric surgery have repeatedly shown significant long-term weight loss), Proietto (page 144) calls for bariatric surgery to be made more widely available in public hospitals. This view has widespread support from many sectors of the medical profession. Bariatric surgery has generally only been available at high financial cost to patients, and, indeed, a lucrative private bariatric surgery industry exists. However, in Australia, as in other developed countries, highly processed food with low nutritional value and high caloric density is often cheaper and easier to prepare than more nutritious food, so obesity is more commonly a disease of the poor, who would need public funding to make bariatric surgery accessible. Greater availability of gastric banding may well have some impact on the burden of chronic disease in our society. Proietto reminds us that significant weight loss is accompanied by a degree of reversibility of conditions that are common in obese people, such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obstructive sleep apnoea and infertility. Nonetheless, as a public health measure and in the long term, bariatric surgery is unlikely to be our most effective approach to the obesity epidemic. It is time to look seriously at primary prevention, and Proietto's discussion of epigenetics explains why this must start with maternal diet in pregnancy and infant feeding. We have waited far too long for legislated public health measures that will improve the food intake of Australians. Clinical medicine doesn't happen in a vacuum. Various legislative measures support the medical message to stop smoking and moderate alcohol intake. We need to be equally aggressive towards the obesity epidemic. This, of course, includes strategies to encourage regular daily exercise. There is good evidence that self-regulation by the food industry has been ineffective. In a previous issue of the Journal, Hebden et al (Med J Aust 2011;195: 20-24) reported that junk food advertising during children's peak hours of television viewing actually increased after self-regulation was introduced. We have previously debated the problems inherent in the National Heart Foundation Tick program (Med J Aust 2011; 194: 284-285). It is important for food labelling programs to be transparent and universal. Many experts argue that sugar and fats are far too cheap, and should be taxed. The government is already fighting the alcohol and tobacco industries. It is time to take on the processed food lobby as well.


This classic study of Santayana was the first book to appear in the Arguments of the Philosophers series. Growing interest in the work of this important American philosopher has prompted this new edition of the book complete with a new preface by the author reassessing his own ideas about Santayana and reflecting the new interest in the philosopher's work. A select bibliography of works published about Santayana since the book's first appearance is also included.


The main goal of this work was to develop adaptive filter algorithms and test their performance in active combustion control. Several algorithms were incorporated, which are divided into gradient descent algorithms and pattern searches. The algorithms were tested on three separate platforms. The first was an analog electronic simulator, which uses a second order acoustics model and a first order low pass filter to simulate the flame dynamics of an unstable tube combustor. The second was a flat flame, methane-air Rijke tube. The third can be considered a quasi-LDI liquid fuel combustor with a thermal output of approximately 30 kW. Actuation included the use of an acoustic actuator for the Rijke tube and a proportional throttling valve for the liquid fuel rig. Proportional actuation, pulsed actuation, and subharmonic control were all investigated throughout this work. The proportional actuation tests on the Rijke tube combustor have shown that, in general, the gradient descent algorithms outperformed the pattern search algorithms. Although, the pattern search algorithms were able to suppress the pressure signal to levels comparable to the gradient descent algorithms, the convergence time was lower for the gradient descent algorithms. The gradient algorithms were also superior in the presence of actuator authority limitations. The pulsed actuation on the Rijke tube showed that the convergence time is decreased for this type of actuation. This is due to the fact that there is a fixed amplitude control signal and algorithms did not have to search for sufficient magnitude. It was shown that subharmonic control could be used in conjunction with the algorithms. Control was achieved at the second and third subharmonic, and control was maintained for much higher subharmonics. The cost surface of the liquid fuel rig was obtained as the mean squared error of the combustor pressure as a function of the magnitude and phase of the controller. The adaptive algorithms were able to achieve some suppression of the pressure oscillations but did not converge to the optimal phase as shown in the cost surface. Simulations using the data from this cost surface were also performed. With the addition of a probing function, the algorithms were able to converge to a near-optimal condition.


Using comprehensive government statistics, we show the extent to which wage inequality among men and women has increased in Japan from 1989 to 2013, and the factors that are behind the changes using the Dinardo, Fortin and Lemieux (DFL) and Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (FFL) decomposition methods. First, we find that the increase in the wage rate prevailed in all quantiles in both genders in the 1990s, and the real wage rate inequality was unchanged. Second, since the 2000s, the wage rate of the middle wage workers has been reduced more than that of any other group. Along with other developed countries, the decrease in wages of the middle class is observed even in Japan during the 2000s, although Japan is known for its solid middle class. Among women, the 90-50 gap increased while the 50-10 gap decreased, which resulted in the unchanged overall inequality for female workers. Finally, our exercise using the FFL decomposition method reveals the contemporaneous occurrence of the decrease in the return on general human capital of males and top females and the increase in the return of firm-specific human capital among male workers with a high wage rate. This suggests that Japanese firms undermined employee involvement and problem solving activities at the grassroots level, which is considered as one of the key elements of Japanese employment system. Moreover, our findings suggest that Japanese firms invest in just a few selected able workers, regardless of their age, because they no longer have enough reserves to invest in all of their employees.


The oil palm biomass namely empty fruit bunches (EFB), oil palm fronds (OPF) and oil palm stems (OPS) are by-products, which are produced about 40 million tons per year, and it has been of great concern recently due to the significant impact on the environment. In the normal practice, the conventional method of OPS and OPF disposal for replanting the oil palm through burning technique at the plantation can cause the problems of air pollution. Composting has been considered as one of the alternative methods to convert organic wastes into beneficial products that benefit plant growth and soil amendment. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical
changes and microbial community during co-composting of oil palm frond and POME anaerobic sludge. The study was carried out at Faculty of Biotechnology and Molecular Science, UPM at a pilot scale with capacity of 1 tonne of oil palm fronds. The ratio of POME anaerobic sludge added onto OPF throughout the composting treatment was one to one. Two batches of composting process were carried out using different structure of oil palm frond (OPF) as compost substrate, namely chipped and chipped-ground oil palm
fronds. Results showed that co-composting of OPF and POME anaerobic sludge completed within 60 days with average Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratio of 20. The final or matured compost was grayish in color, having a texture and earthy smell close to that of natural soil. Furthermore, composting of chipped-ground OPF gave better performance
with high thermophilic temperature at 56oC and maintained for 35 days, while composting of chipped OPF resulted in 52oC, lasting for only 7 days. The oxygen level and moisture content of the chipped-ground compost was maintained at 2.0-12.0% and 60-70%, respectively, while the chipped compost were 18-20% and 55-60%, respectively. The pH for both composting processes was maintained at 7-8 (alkaline condition). The total bacteria count observed in composting of chipped-ground OPF and chipped OPF were 13x1010 cfu/g and 55x1010 cfu/g at 0 day and decreased to 0.5x1010 cfu/g and 3.7x1010 cfu/g at 60 DOC, respectively. The carbon to nitrogen ratio observed in composting of chipped ground OPF and chipped OPF was 64 and 80 at 0 day and decreased until 18 and 20 at 60 days of composting, respectively. The final cured compost for both composting processes contained a considerable amount of nutrients and
trace elements. The heavy metal contents such as Cr, Cd, Pb and Ni in the final compost were low and within US EPA level, < 20 mg kg-1. The diversity of the bacterial
community investigated using polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE)indicated that the composting processes of chipped and chipped - ground OPF with POME anaerobic sludge was dominated by Pseudomonas sp. species.


The unique configuration of the human clavicle and mastoid process suggests a functional connection between the head and shoulders in humans. The hypothesis in this study is that the clavicle, scapula and head form a functional complex and are interconnected by the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles. In this complex, the trapezius muscles attach to the skull and become active when loads are carried. The sternocleidomastoid muscles are anchored to the clavicles; when loads are being carried, they act as guy ropes for the head, thereby keeping the head from being extended by the force of the contracting trapezius muscles. These muscle actions can be expected to leave evidence on the bones to which they attach, and this evidence could be measurable. The hypothesis was tested by comparing the mensural and morphological bilateral asymmetries of 15 skeletal features, most of which would likely be affected by the functioning of this complex in individuals. The hypothesis is supported by the results which show that four character pairs of the functional complex (i.e., rise of the superior nuchal line, width of the mastoid, breadth of the scapula, diameter of the humerus) display significant directional asymmetry in right-handed individuals; the sample size of left-handed individuals was too small to provide meaningful results.


A SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station after launching at 11:50 p.m. EST Friday. Dragon will deliver more than 4,300 pounds of NASA cargo and science investigations, including a new science facility scheduled to be installed to the outside of the station during a spacewalk this spring.