Stress measurements made in the SAFOD pilot hole provide an opportunity to study the relation between crustal stress outside the fault zone and the stress state within it using an integrated mechanical model of a transform fault loaded in transpression. The results of this modeling indicate that only a fault model in which the effective friction is very low (<0.1) through the seismogenic thickness of the crust is capable of matching stress measurements made in both the far field and in the SAFOD pilot hole. The stress rotation measured with depth in the SAFOD pilot hole (∼28°) appears to be a typical feature of a weak fault embedded in a strong crust and a weak upper mantle with laterally variable heat flow, although our best model predicts less rotation (15°) than observed. Stress magnitudes predicted by our model within the fault zone indicate low shear stress on planes parallel to the fault but a very anomalous mean stress, approximately twice the lithostatic stress.


While researching this book, Glenn Schweitzer met four Moscow physicists who were trying to license Russian technology to western firms for product manufacture. During the worst times, they were reduced to driving taxis to keep things afloat. He asked them, will technological innovation have a discernible impact on the Russian economy in the coming decade? No, was the immediate reply. Are they right? In Swords into Market Shares, Schweitzer examines the roots of such pessimism and the prospects for Russia to prosper from its technology in the post-Soviet world. He explores the different visions of prosperity held by entrepreneurs, technologists, and government officials and goes on to examine the barriers to progress as Russia struggles to build a viable technology industry on its own terms. In accessible language, this book talks about technology's place within Russia's economy and its research and development infrastructure. Schweitzer looks at the impact of the Soviet legacy--central planning, lack of priorities, scant incentives for personal initiative--and the aftermath of the Russian financial meltdown of 1998. He also reviews the experiences of American companies that have invested in Russian technology and examines the results of pressure to reform according to the economic model of the West. Schweitzer goes on to document the problems of economic crime and government corruption, which plague activities designed to generate income in Russia. He discusses the lack of protection for intellectual property and taxation issues that stand in the way of technological innovation. The book looks at the impact of the "brain drain" as Russian experts seek greener pastures--not only the ominous recruitment of Russian biological weapons experts and the acquisition of military technology by "rogue" nations--but also Russia's own program to sell military technology for badly needed funds. Schweitzer's use of case studies and examples puts a human face on these issues. He also discusses Russia's 60 "science cities"--sites of state research centers--with close-ups of three "nuclear cities." Can the technical strengths of the Soviet military complex find a place in civilian Russia? How can this vast country sustain even a minimal standard of living? Swords into Market Shares addresses these and other key questions and explores fundamental policy issues confronting both Russia and the United States as Russia struggles for an economic foothold.


Background The Plasmodium vivax Apical Membrane Antigen 1 (PvAMA1) is a promising malaria vaccine candidate, however it remains unclear which regions are naturally targeted by host immunity and whether its high genetic diversity will preclude coverage by a monovalent vaccine. To assess its feasibility as a vaccine candidate, we investigated the global population structure of PvAMA1. Methodology and Principal Findings New sequences from Papua New Guinea (PNG, n = 102) were analysed together with published sequences from Thailand (n = 158), India (n = 8), Sri Lanka (n = 23), Venezuela (n = 74) and a collection of isolates from disparate geographic locations (n = 8). A total of 92 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified including 22 synonymous SNPs and 70 non-synonymous (NS) SNPs. Polymorphisms and signatures of balancing (positive Tajima's D and low FST values) selection were predominantly clustered in domain I, suggesting it is a dominant target of protective immune responses. To estimate global antigenic diversity, haplotypes comprised of (i) non-singleton (n = 40) and (ii) common (≥10% minor allele frequency, n = 23) polymorphic amino acid sites were then analysed revealing a total of 219 and 210 distinct haplotypes, respectively. Although highly diverse, the 210 haplotypes comprised of only common polymorphisms were grouped into eleven clusters, however substantial geographic differentiation was observed, and this may have implications for the efficacy of PvAMA1 vaccines in different malaria-endemic areas. The PNG haplotypes form a distinct group of clusters not found in any other geographic region. Vaccine haplotypes were rare and geographically restricted, suggesting potentially poor efficacy of candidate PvAMA1 vaccines. Conclusions It may be possible to cover the existing global PvAMA1 diversity by selection of diverse alleles based on these analyses however it will be important to first define the relationships between the genetic and antigenic diversity of this molecule.


The USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysi (FIA) program collects data on a wealth of variables related to trees in forests. Some of these trees produce nontimber forest products (NTFPs) (e.g., fruit, bark and sap) that are harvested for culinary, decorative, building, and medicinal purposes. At least 11 tree species inventoried by FIA are valued for their bark. For example, slippery elm (Ulmus rubra Muhl.) is included in FIA forest inventories, and the bark is used for its medicinal value. Despite widespread use of NTFPs, little quantitative information about abundance, distribution, and harvest is available to support sustainable management. Methods for using the FIA database to monitor and explain the situation regarding selected NTFPs are presented. The focus is on using FIA data to assess for (1) geographic distribution, (2) abundance, (3) applicable metircs (e.g., square feet of bark, and (4) change over time.


Significance The recently emerged Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes severe respiratory disease with ∼43% mortality. There is no licensed vaccine or antiviral for MERS. Here we identified seven human neutralizing Abs (nAbs) against MERS-CoV. These nAbs bind to three epitope groups in the viral Spike protein–receptor interface, blocking virus attachment. Five residues in the viral receptor-binding domain critical for neutralization escape were identified. Further study indicated that four of five mutations not only confer neutralization resistance but also impair receptor binding and viral fitness. This panel of nAbs offers the possibility of developing human mAb-based immunotherapy. The newly emerging Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) causes a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-like disease with ∼43% mortality. Given the recent detection of virus in dromedary camels, zoonotic transfer of MERS-CoV to humans is suspected. In addition, little is known about the role of human neutralizing Ab (nAb) pressure as a driving force in MERS-CoV adaptive evolution. Here, we used a well-characterized nonimmune human Ab-phage library and a panning strategy with proteoliposomes and cells to identify seven human nAbs against the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the MERS-CoV Spike protein. These nAbs bind to three different epitopes in the RBD and human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (hDPP4) interface with subnanomolar/nanomolar binding affinities and block the binding of MERS-CoV Spike protein with its hDPP4 receptor. Escape mutant assays identified five amino acid residues that are critical for neutralization escape. Despite the close proximity of the three epitopes on the RBD interface, escape from one epitope did not have a major impact on neutralization with Abs directed to a different epitope. Importantly, the majority of escape mutations had negative impacts on hDPP4 receptor binding and viral fitness. To our knowledge, these results provide the first report on human nAbs against MERS-CoV that may contribute to MERS-CoV clearance and evolution. Moreover, in the absence of a licensed vaccine or antiviral for MERS, this panel of nAbs offers the possibility of developing human mAb-based immunotherapy, especially for health-care workers.


This unflinching effort critically traces the attempt of social psychology over the past half century to forge a scientific understanding of human behavior based on the systematic use of experiments. Having examined the record from the inception of the field to the present, Brannigan suggests that it has failed to live up to its promise: that social psychologists have achieved little consensus about the central problems in the field; that they have failed to amass a body of systematic, non-trivial theoretical insight; and that recent concerns over the ethical treatment of human subjects could arguably bring the discipline to closure. But that is not the disastrous outcome that Brannigan hopes for. Rather, going beyond an apparent iconoclasm, the author explores prospects for a post-experimental discipline. It is a view that admits the role of ethical considerations as part of scientific judgment, but not as a sacrifice of, but an extension of, empirical research that takes seriously how the brain represents information, and how these mechanisms explain social behaviors and channel human choices and appetites. What makes this work special is its function as a primary text in the history as well as the current status of social psychology as a field of behavioral science. The keen insight, touched by the gently critical styles, of such major figures as Philip Zimbardo, Morton Hunt, Leon Festinger, Stanley Milgram, Alex Crey, Samuel Wineburg, Carol Gilligan, David M. Buss--among others--makes this a perfect volume for students entering the field, and no less, a reminder of the past as well as present of social psychology for its serious practitioners.


Optical polymer‐based integrated photonic devices are gaining interest for applications in optical packaging, biosensing, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). The low refractive index of conventional organic polymers has been a barrier to realizing dense, low footprint photonic devices. The fabrication and characterization of integrated photonic devices using a new class of high refractive index polymers, chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymers (CHIPs), which possess high refractive indices and lower optical losses compared to traditional hydrocarbon‐based polymers, are reported. These optical polymers are derived from elemental sulfur via the inverse vulcanization process, which allows for inexpensive monomers to be used for these materials. A facile fabrication strategy using CHIPs via lithography is described for single‐mode optical waveguides, Y junction splitters, multimode interferometers (MMIs), and high Q factor ring resonators, along with device characterization. Furthermore, propagation losses of 0.4 dB cm−1 near 1550 nm wavelength, which is the lowest measured loss in non‐fluorinated optical polymer waveguides, coupled with the benefits of low cost materials and manufacturing are reported. Ring resonators with Q factor on the order of 6 × 104 and cavity finesse of 45, which are some of the highest values reported for optical polymer‐based ring resonators, are also reported.


Studies of lean production's effect on working conditions are mixed but point toward worsened conditions. The aim of this longitudinal study was to assess how lean contributes to transforming work characteristics in a medium‐sized specialized industrial family business. A mixed methods approach was used to combine an external assessment of work characteristics with self‐reported employee questionnaires. Favorable psychosocial working conditions were indicated, with role conflicts decreasing over time. The assessment of work provided descriptions of how lean practices contributed to decreased task control due to standardized work and simplified work processes. At the same time, employees still had opportunities to influence their long‐term work assignment. There was also a trend toward job enlargement through new, higher‐skilled tasks, multiskilling, and extended opportunities to influence work through different continuous improvement activities. The participative lean approach and type of skilled jobs may have contributed to this transformation.


In order to address the unmet needs and create opportunities that benefit patients with rare disease in India, a group of volunteers created a not-for-profit organization named Organization for Rare Diseases India (ORDI; www.ordindia.org). ORDI plans to represent the collective voice and advocate the needs of patients with rare diseases and other stakeholders in India. The ORDI team members come from diverse backgrounds such as genetics, molecular diagnostics, drug development, bioinformatics, communications, information technology, patient advocacy and public service. ORDI builds on the lessons learned from numerous similar organizations in the USA, European Union and disease-specific rare disease foundations in India. In this review, we provide a background on the landscape of rare diseases and the organizations that are active in this area globally and in India. We discuss the unique challenges in tackling rare diseases in India, and highlight the unmet needs of the key stakeholders of rare diseases. Finally, we define the vision, mission, goals and objectives of ORDI, identify the key developments in the health care context in India and welcome community feedback and comments on our approach.


This paper deals with three distinctions pertaining to knowledge representation, namely, the rules vs facts distinction, roles vs fillers distinction, and predicates vs types distinction. Though these distinctions may indeed have some intuitive appeal, the exact natures of these distinctions are not entirely clear. This paper discusses some of the problems that arise when one accords these distinctions a prominent status in a connectionist system by choosing the representational structures so as to reflect these distinctions. The example we will look at in this paper is the connectionist reasoning system developed by Ajjanagadde & Shastri (Ajjanagadde & Shastri 1991; Shastri & Ajjanagadde 1993). Their system performs an interesting class of inferences using activation synchrony to represent dynamic bindings. The rule/fact, role/filler, type/predicate distinctions figure predominantly in the way knowledge is encoded in their system. We will discuss some significant shortcomings this leads to. Then, we will propose a much more uniform scheme for representing knowledge. The resulting system enjoys some significant advantages over Ajjanagadde & Shastri's system, while retaining the idea of using synchrony to represent bindings.


Kilham rat virus (KRV) infection of BB/Wor diabetes-resistant (DR) RT1u rats induces autoimmune diabetes without direct cytolytic infection of pancreatic β-cells and is a new model of virus-induced IDDM. To investigate genetic susceptibility to KRV-induced diabetes, major histocompatibility complex congenic and other inbred rats were infected with the virus and studied for the appearance of diabetes and insulitis. KRV infection alone induced insulitis, selective β-cell necrosis, and diabetes in BB/Wor DR and LEW1.WR1 (RT1 Au B/Du Ca) but not other rats. Thus, KRV, an environmentally ubiquitous rat parvovirus, can precipitate autoimmune diabetes in rats that are not susceptible to spontaneous diabetes. If rats are injected with poly(I·C) immediately before KRV infection, diabetes frequency increases to >90% in BB/Wor DR and LEW1.WR1 rats, and PVG.RT1u rats are converted from KRV-resistant to KRV-susceptible status. Susceptibility to KRV-induced diabetes thus requires the presence of class I Au and class II B/Du gene products, which are shared by DR, LEW1.WR1, and PVG.RT1u rats. The RT1u haplotype is not sufficient for susceptibility, however, because while WF rats are RT1u, they resist KRV-induced diabetes. If rats are depleted of RT6.1+ regulatory T-cells before KRV infection, the frequency of diabetes is dramatically increased in DR and LEW1.WR1, but not PVG.RT1u or other rats. These data confirm a regulatory role of RT6.1+ T-cells in diabetes induction, but indicate that they may not operate as such in all rat strains. KRV-induced diabetes is T-cell–mediated: DR and LEW1.WR1 rats are protected from diabetes by treatment with monoclonal antibodies directed against αβ T-cell receptor (TCR)+, CD5+, and CD8+ T-cells. Concanavalin A–activated spleen cells from KRV-infected DR rats adoptively transfer diabetes and insulitis into class IIu compatible rats, suggesting that KRV infection of susceptible rats leads to the activation of diabetogenic class IIu restricted T-cells. The ability of a common rat virus to initiate IDDM in multiple strains of rats strengthens the possibility that viruses may also initiate IDDM in human populations.


Brexit and Donald Trump's election victory are symptoms of a new nationalist populism in western Europe and the United States. This political and ideological movement has arisen in reaction to reconfigurations of power, wealth, and identity that are endemic to global neoliberalism. In the United States, however, the media's dominant "blue-collar narrative" about Trump's victory simplifies the relationship between neoliberalism and nationalist populism by ignoring the role of the petty bourgeoisie and the wealthy in Trump's coalition. An anthropology of Trump requires ethnographies of communities largely shunned by anthropologists as well as reflexivity about the unintended role of universities in producing support for Trump.


Markets are much in vogue as ideal institutions for managing water both nationally and internationally. True markets, however, have seldom existed for water rights and there are good reasons for believing that they seldom will. Water is an ambient resource where the actions of any one user necessarily affect many other users. Thus, if true markets are to be relied on to allocate for particular uses and distribute water among users, the transaction costs of organizing contracts with all holders of water rights (let alone those holding less formal claims affected by a sale or lease) generally have been and will be prohibitive. Water, in short, is the quintessential public good for which markets simply do not work. Treating water as common property leads into a tragic over exploitation as soon as water becomes a scarce commodity. Market failure is also characteristic of treating the right to use water as a species of private property. The regulated riparian mode of water management avoids these problems by proceeding on the basis that water is a form of inherently public property about which basic allocation distribution decisions must be made by public agencies. Various economic incentives, including fees, taxes, and water banks, have a useful role to play in managing public property, but true markets must remain a phenomenon marginal to the enterprise of managing large quantities of water for the benefit of numerous users.


This paper advocates the integration of research into undergraduate architectural education by arguing for the exposure of students to primary source materials that enable them to get as close as possible to the realities being studied. It introduces the concept of "utilizing the built environment as an open textbook" by outlining a framework within which an impressionistic approach for evaluating the built environment through experiential learning can be incorporated. It argues for exposing students to primary source materials and for educating them about the production of knowledge. The papers outlines an approach for learning from Qatari architecture by conducting procedural evaluation of ten buildings identified based on discussions with students. Findings indicate that students were able to make judgments about the built environment and to give reasons for those judgments. However, students' analyses reveal shortcomings in their abilities to comment, where some could not express their concerns verbally while few could not write an understandable reporting statement. Students' feedback on this experiment reveals that this approach helped them recognize what to look for in the building, understand relationships between different design factors, while comprehending the impact of one factor over others. Based on these results the need for incorporating evaluation research through experiential learning into architectural pedagogy is emphasized.


THE SEVEN articles in this special issue are
concerned with the challenges of assessing
complex aspects of cognition in the domains of mathematics, reading, history, and science. Each describes the design of assessments and their interpretive use, with a particular focus on assessments closely tied to classroom instruction. Individually and collectively, they make valuable contributions, highlighting many conceptual and practical considerations that need to be addressed in designing and validating assessments of key aspects of mathematical, literary, scientific, and historical reasoning.
Our discussion is divided into three parts. Part 1 presents three conceptual frames regarding the nature of assessment and assessment design, providing an interpretive language for discussing the seven articles. Part 2 applies these frames to the articles as a way to interpret the specifics of each case. Part 3 highlights challenges that remain in operationalizing and validating assessments of complex cognition.


Lettuce drop caused by Sclerotinia spp. is an economically important disease of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), and cultivars with resistance to mycelial infection by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary and S. minor Jagger as well as to S. sclerotiorum ascospores are needed. Assessing resistance in field experiments can be complicated by fastboltingorsmallstaturelettucelinesthatmayescaperatherthanresistthepathogens. Therefore, methods to select resistant lines from morphologically variable populations are needed. We used S. sclerotiorum and S. minor-infested field experiments, regression analysis, field experiments with artificially high plant densities, and S. sclerotiorum ascospore inoculations to identify lettuce lines with resistance to both pathogens. Three replicated experiments in S. sclerotiorum-infested fields were conducted in Yuma, AZ, and three replicated experiments in a S. minor-infested field were conducted in Salinas, CA, using diverse populations of iceberg, romaine, leaf, butterhead, Latin, oilseed lettuce, and wild relatives of lettuces; and genetic variation for the incidence of lettuce drop from mycelial infections was identified. In two S. minor field experiments, a quadratic regression model was developed that related rapid bolting with reduced lettuce drop. Regression residuals were calculated, and eight cultivars or PIs had negative residuals in two independent field experiments, indicating higher resistance than predicted by their rate of bolting. Eruption, a small-statured Latin cultivar, had significantlylower diseaselevelsthansusceptible cultivarsinexperimentswithhighplant densities, indicating that its small size did not facilitate disease escape. Ascospore inoculations confirmed resistance in 'Eruption' and L. virosa SAL012, whereas the oilseed lettuce PI 251246 may have partial resistance to infection. These lines will likely be useful for development of Sclerotinia spp.-resistant lettuce cultivars.


Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) tend by their very nature to show a far more volatile pattern of growth and earnings, with greater fluctuations, than larger companies. According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy brief report on SME development in 2006, Financing is necessary to help Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) set up and expand their operations, develop new products, and invest in new staff or production facilities. The study reveals that the major sources of finance for SMEs in Ghana are trade credit, bank overdraft and bank loans. The internal sources of finance and leasing or hire purchase are the minor source to which only few entrepreneurs resort to. The availability of external financing depends on various factors for instance, general economic outlook, access to public financial support including guarantees, firm-specific outlook with respect to their sales and profitability or business plan, firm's own capital, firm's credit history and willingness of commercial banks to provide loan. Many SMEs believe that access to internal funds, for example from retained earnings and sale of assets, bank loans, equity investments in the SMEs, trade credit, and other forms of financing, for example loan from a related company or shareholders, excluding trade credit, loan from family and friends, leasing and factoring are expected to improve the profitability and development of their businesses.


A parabolic airway resistor is designed and used as a flowmeter in the periphery of a microcontroller, to measure air and O2 flows, in the range 0-50 lpm, in medical device applications . The accuracy of the readings is 2% at maximum and the reproducibility is better than 0.05% in the range 5-50 lpm.. The accuracy for flow measurements below 5 lpm. can be improved by using a different airway resistor with a smaller orifice diameter. The cost of the flowmeter is around 250 $.


Background School-located influenza vaccination (SLIV) programs can substantially enhance the sub-optimal coverage achieved under existing delivery strategies. Randomized SLIV trials have shown these programs reduce laboratory-confirmed influenza among both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. This work explores the effectiveness of a SLIV program in reducing the community risk of influenza and influenza-like illness (ILI) associated emergency care visits. Methods For the 2011/12 and 2012/13 influenza seasons, we estimated age-group specific attack rates (AR) for ILI from routine surveillance and census data. Age-group specific SLIV program effectiveness was estimated as one minus the AR ratio for Alachua County versus two comparison regions: the 12 county region surrounding Alachua County, and all non-Alachua counties in Florida. Results Vaccination of ∼50% of 5–17 year-olds in Alachua reduced their risk of ILI-associated visits, compared to the rest of Florida, by 79% (95% confidence interval: 70, 85) in 2011/12 and 71% (63, 77) in 2012/13. The greatest indirect effectiveness was observed among 0–4 year-olds, reducing AR by 89% (84, 93) in 2011/12 and 84% (79, 88) in 2012/13. Among all non-school age residents, the estimated indirect effectiveness was 60% (54, 65) and 36% (31, 41) for 2011/12 and 2012/13. The overall effectiveness among all age-groups was 65% (61, 70) and 46% (42, 50) for 2011/12 and 2012/13. Conclusion Wider implementation of SLIV programs can significantly reduce the influenza-associated public health burden in communities.


In this work the authors wish to present a technology, less known if compared with the Roman age arcaded bridges used to cross broad and deep valleys: the inverted siphons. These structures are very complex hydraulic systems: for their good functioning, in fact, not only adequate constructing tricks were necessary, but also good theoretical knowledge, to be applied during the planning stage. In particular the systems that will be examined in this work are the double inverted siphon of the Yzeron aqueduct (Lyon, France) and the triple inverted siphon of Aspendos (Turkey); in both cases the Roman engineers ensured the correct functioning of the systems relying on specific technical solutions. Besides, the Barratina (Termini Imerese, Italy) siphon will be shortly presented, that is a "mixed" siphon whose technical conception distinguished it from the others. The Barratina siphon is the only case so far known in the history of the Roman aqueducts where the receiving tank is above the hydraulic grade line; nevertheless in many cases a precise leveling was not executed. It still possible that in the territory of the Roman Empire, other similar solutions can be found.


OBJECT
The yield of CT angiography (CTA) and MR angiography (MRA) in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) who have a negative initial catheter angiogram is currently not well understood. This study aims to determine the yield of CTA and MRA in a prospective cohort of patients with SAH and a negative initial catheter angiogram.

METHODS
From January 1, 2005, until September 1, 2010, the authors instituted a prospective protocol in which patients with SAH-as documented by noncontrast CT or CSF xanthochromia and a negative initial catheter angiogram- were evaluated using CTA and MRA to assess for causative cerebral aneurysms. Two neuroradiologists independently evaluated the noncontrast CT scans to determine the SAH pattern (perimesencephalic or not) and the CT and MR angiograms to assess for causative cerebral aneurysms.

RESULTS
Seventy-seven patients were included, with a mean age of 52.8 years (median 54 years, range 19-88 years). Fifty patients were female (64.9%) and 27 male (35.1%). Forty-three patients had nonperimesencephalic SAH (55.8%), 29 patients had perimesencephalic SAH (37.7%), and 5 patients had CSF xanthochromia (6.5%). Computed tomography angiography demonstrated a causative cerebral aneurysm in 4 patients (5.2% yield), all of whom had nonperimesencephalic SAH (9.3% yield). Mean aneurysm size was 2.6 mm (range 2.1-3.3 mm). Magnetic resonance angiography demonstrated only 1 of these aneurysms. No causative cerebral aneurysms were found in patients with perimesencephalic SAH or CSF xanthochromia.

CONCLUSIONS
Computed tomography angiography is a valuable adjunct in the evaluation of patients with nonperimesencephalic SAH who have a negative initial catheter angiogram, demonstrating a causative cerebral aneurysm in 9.3% of patients.


The built environment contributes 40% to total global greenhouse gas emissions and 87% of the buildings we will have in 2050 are already built. If predicted climate changes are correct we need to adapt existing stock sustainably. Reuse is an inherently sustainable option, which reduces the amount of waste going to landfill. Inevitably settlements and areas undergo change, whereby land uses become obsolete and buildings vacant. At this stage, the options are either to demolish or to convert to another use. In central business districts (CBDs) outside of Australia there is a long history of office to residential conversion. Although these types of conversions are few in number in the Sydney CBD, a trend is emerging in conversion. Some 102,000m2 of office space is earmarked for residential conversion in Sydney as demand for central residential property grows and low interest rates create good conditions. Coupled with this, is a stock of ageing offices and a population projected to increase by 4% to 2031 requiring 45000 new homes. With the Sydney market about to be flooded with the Barangaroo office supply in 2017, the conditions for residential conversion are better than ever. _Based on the foregoing, this paper aims at answering the questions: which drivers drive residential conversions in Sydney? And what are the barriers for successful conversions? This paper investigates the nature and extent of residential conversion in Sydney, as well as the drivers and barriers to successful conversion. Through an extensive literature study, the paper identifies the key lessons from international residential conversion projects. Subsequently, expert interviews are held with developers in the Sydney market. This paper explores the potential of delivering sustainability to the Sydney CBD through residential conversion.


Acupuncture is among the oldest healing practices in the world. As part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), acupuncture aims to restore and maintain health through the stimulation of specific points on the body. In the United States, where practitioners incorporate healing traditions from China, Japan, Korea, and other countries, acupuncture is considered part of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).


Drones are becoming more popular and may soon be ubiquitous. As they enter our everyday environments, it becomes critical to ensure their usability through natural Human-Drone Interaction (HDI). Previous work in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) shows that adding an emotional component is part of the key to success in robots' acceptability. We believe the adoption of personal drones would also benefit from adding an emotional component. This work defines a range of personality traits and emotional attributes that can be encoded in drones through their flight paths. We present a user study (N=20) and show how well three defined emotional states can be recognized. We draw conclusions on interaction techniques with drones and feedback strategies that use the drone's flight path and speed.


We report the demonstration of a new wavelength-swept source. Utilizing narrowband, widely tunable fiber optical parametric process as the gain and the wavelength selection mechanism in a ring laser topology, simultaneous access to two distinct bands (NIR and SWIR) over 329 nm was achieved. A nonmechanical cavity-tuning mechanism allowed for ultrafast sweep rate, limited primarily by the speed of the tunable pump source confined to a conventional 1550-nm band. With the experimentally verified order-of-magnitude enhancement in sweep range and speed, the source opens a path for spectral scanning at an unprecedented speed and range while relying on existing tuning technologies.


Accountability is widely understood as a goal for well governed computer systems, and is a sought-after value in many governance contexts. But how can it be achieved? Recent work on standards for governable artificial intelligence systems offers a related principle: traceability. Traceability requires establishing not only how a system worked but how it was created and for what purpose, in a way that explains why a system has particular dynamics or behaviors. It connects records of how the system was constructed and what the system did mechanically to the broader goals of governance, in a way that highlights human understanding of that mechanical operation and the decision processes underlying it. We examine the various ways in which the principle of traceability has been articulated in AI principles and other policy documents from around the world, distill from these a set of requirements on software systems driven by the principle, and systematize the technologies available to meet those requirements. From our map of requirements to supporting tools, techniques, and procedures, we identify gaps and needs separating what traceability requires from the toolbox available for practitioners. This map reframes existing discussions around accountability and transparency, using the principle of traceability to show how, when, and why transparency can be deployed to serve accountability goals and thereby improve the normative fidelity of systems and their development processes.


Large-scale microarray gene expression data provide the possibility of constructing genetic networks or biological pathways. Gaussian graphical models have been suggested to provide an effective method for constructing such genetic networks. However, most of the available methods for constructing Gaussian graphs do not account for the sparsity of the networks and are computationally more demanding or infeasible, especially in the settings of high dimension and low sample size. We introduce a threshold gradient descent (TGD) regularization procedure for estimating the sparse precision matrix in the setting of Gaussian graphical models and demonstrate its application to identifying genetic networks. Such a procedure is computationally feasible and can easily incorporate prior biological knowledge about the network structure. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method yields a better estimate of the precision matrix than the procedures that fail to account for the sparsity of the graphs. We also present the results on inference of a gene network for isoprenoid biosynthesis in Arabidopsis thaliana. These results demonstrate that the proposed procedure can indeed identify biologically meaningful genetic networks based on microarray gene expression data.


Thesis (Ph.D.)--Georgetown University, 2011.; Includes bibliographical
 references.; Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. Though immigration policies are
 determined federally, it is local communities that are faced with the concrete consequences of
 immigrant residents and are forced to come up with solutions to the policy problems and
 opportunities. Though federal government may be responsible for immigration policy and for
 protecting state borders, immigrant policy is largely left to subnational units to develop and
 implement. The process of local government response and creation of local immigrant policy is
 under-theorized in the academic literature. This project helps to fill that gap by developing
 a theory about the process of immigrant policymaking at the local level through a comparative
 study of two metropolitan immigrant gateways: Washington, DC and Madrid. The case study
 analysis shows that the history of immigrant policymaking is crucial to understanding
 variation in communities coping with changing immigration dynamics. The argument emphasizes
 the path dependent processes that follow from key decisions made by individual local leaders
 at critical junctures in the demographic development of communities. Decisions made early on
 have lasting effects that shape the development of immigrant policy and explain the durability
 of inclusionary or exclusionary commitments in the face of changing demographics. As immigrant
 numbers increase or characteristics of immigration evolve, institutional and ideational
 commitments made at an earlier stage of the demographic development are already locked in and
 serve as the basis for dealing with new flows and dynamics. In the absence of a policy
 paradigm, no strong commitments are made and response is inconsistent across agencies and more
 reactive to changing demographic and political pressures. The cases include two highly
 inclusionary examples, Montgomery County in suburban Maryland and the region of Madrid, and
 one exclusionary case, Prince William County in suburban Virginia. This project advances
 existing theories of bureaucratic incorporation that examine how local communities in the
 United States cope with new immigrant residents, by adding a historical institutionalist
 perspective and extending to a transatlantic comparison. It collects original qualitative data
 through archival and interview research, developing a nuanced understanding of local
 immigration dynamics that is grounded in the key role of local-level authorities in immigrant
 policymaking.


ABSTRACT Candida albicans (C. albicans) is an opportunistic pathogen causing infections ranging from superficial to life-threatening disseminated infections. In a susceptible host, C. albicans is able to translocate through the gut barrier, promoting its dissemination into deeper organs. C. albicans hyphae can invade human epithelial cells by two well-documented mechanisms: epithelial-driven endocytosis and C. albicans-driven active penetration. One mechanism by which host cells protect themselves against intracellular C. albicans is termed autophagy. The protective role of autophagy during C. albicans infection has been investigated in myeloid cells; however, far less is known regarding the role of this process during the infection of epithelial cells. In the present study, we investigated the role of autophagy-related proteins during the infection of epithelial cells, including intestinal epithelial cells and gut explants, by C. albicans. Using cell imaging, we show that key molecular players of the autophagy machinery (LC3-II, PI3P, ATG16L1, and WIPI2) were recruited at Candida invasion sites. We deepened these observations by electron microscopy analyses that reveal the presence of autophagosomes in the vicinity of invading hyphae. Importantly, these events occur during active penetration of C. albicans into host cells and are associated with plasma membrane damage. In this context, we show that the autophagy-related key proteins ATG5 and ATG16L1 contribute to plasma membrane repair mediated by lysosomal exocytosis and participate in protecting epithelial cells against C. albicans-induced cell death. Our findings provide a novel mechanism by which epithelial cells, forming the first line of defense against C. albicans in the gut, can react to limit C. albicans invasion.


This study was initiated as a follow-up information on some impounded products chocolates and candies (Samples A, B, C and D) imported from overseas, and sold in Nigeria markets. This result as their failure to meets Nation Agency for food drug administration and control (NAFDAC) regulatory standard. Samples of these products were collected in five markets of each six states each from the six geographical zones: North-West (Bauchi), North-East (Kano), North-Central (Kogi), South-West (Lagos), South-East (Abia), and South-South (Rivers) of the country. In order to evaluate the quality of the products, the levels of some heavy metals (Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni, Zn, Ti and Cr) were evaluated in the samples using X-ray fluorescence (XRF). Concentrations of metals in both chocolates and candies ranged 3.0 – 4.2 mg/g for Cu, 40.0 – 55.7 mg/g for Mn, ND – 102.5 mg/g for Fe, ND – 305.0 mg/g for Ni, ND – 42.5 mg/g for Zn, ND – 23.8 mg/g for Ti, and ND – 10.8 mg/g for Cr. The results showed that that these metals are at higher levels in Samples A, B, C and D compared to other studies in candies and chocolates in Nigeria. Correlation analysis among metals revealed positive correlations, which indicates similar sources of these metals. Also, evaluation of dietary intake of these products daily revealed that Samples A (except for Cu), B and C are above the daily dietary recommended limit for all the studied metals in food. Thus a frequent intake of these contaminated products is likely to induce health effects arising largely from Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni and Zn.


Abstract Purpose We document current clinical practice and needs in screening for visual perception problems after stroke to inform development of new screening tools. Materials and methods We interviewed 12 occupational therapists and 13 orthoptists. Interviews were thematically analysed using the Value Proposition Canvas, a model which establishes challenges and facilitators in what people want to achieve. Results Participants' understanding of visual perception varied and often included sensory and cognitive deficits. Occupational therapists commonly screened for visual field deficits and hemispatial neglect, while other aspects of visual cognition were rarely assessed. A positive screening result triggered an orthoptic referral. Screening generally occurred during functional assessments and/or with in-house developed tools. Challenges to practice were: lack of time, lack of training, environmental and stroke survivor factors (e.g., aphasia), insufficient continuation of care, and test characteristics (e.g., not evidence-based). Facilitators were: quick and practical tools, experienced staff or tools with minimal training requirements, a streamlined care pathway. Conclusions Screening employs non-standardised assessments and rarely covers higher visual perceptual deficits. We demonstrates the need for an evidence-based visual perception screen, which should ideally be 15 min or less, be portable, and require minimal equipment. The screen should be suitable for bedside testing and aphasia-friendly. Implications for rehabilitation There is a high demand for training on what visual perception deficits are and how to screen for them. Building local relationships between orthoptists and occupational therapists is perceived as highly beneficial for providing good vision and visual perception care for stroke survivors. Occupational therapists should be alert for visual perceptual deficits in their patients preferably through systematic screening with standardised assessments such as the shortened version of the Rivermead Perceptual Assessment Battery or Occupational Therapy Adult Perceptual Screening Test.


The relevance of delayed disclosure to a complainant's credibility in sexual assault cases remains a problematic and confusing area in the law of evidence. Although section 275 of the Criminal Code abrogates the rules regarding recent complaint, courts have been inconsistent in their interpretation and application of the provision since its enactment in 1983. The doctrine of recent complaint evolved from the assumption that a woman who is sexually assaulted will disclose her violation at the first reasonable opportunity. In R. v. D.D., the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that it is impermissible to draw an adverse inference as to a complainant's credibility based solely on delayed disclosure. Despite this decision and section 275, many courts still rely on the assumption that real victims of sexual violence will tell someone promptly. In examining D.D.'s treatment in subsequent case law, the author finds that in many sexual assault cases the starting presumption is still that victims who fail to complain promptly are less credible. The author explains that the persistence of the "hue and cry" myth results from ingrained social assumptions about how sexual assault victims behave. Triers of fact continue to resort to these problematic assumptions to fill gaps in reasoning regarding circumstances where they have no firsthand knowledge or experience. The author argues that it may not be enough to identify a particular social assumption as problematic. In conclusion, the author makes two recommendations. First, trial judges should circumscribe defence counsel cross-examination on delayed disclosure if the defence has offered no evidence or explanation suggesting that the delay is relevant for some purpose other than the hue and cry assumption. Second, the Supreme Court of Canada ought to re-visit the conclusion in D.D. that expert evidence on the irrelevance of delayed disclosure, standing alone, is not necessary.


Synchronverters have gained interest due to their capability of emulating synchronous machines, offering self-synchronization to the grid. Despite the simplicity of the control structure, the adoption of an LCL filter makes the overall model complex again, posing questions regarding the tuning of the synchronverter and its robustness. The multi-inputs multi-outputs (MIMO) formulation of the problem requires multivariable analysis. In this paper, the effects of control parameter and grid conditions on the stability of the system are investigated by means of structured singular values (or $\mu$-analysis). A step-by-step design procedure for the control is introduced based on a linearized small-signal model of the system. Then, the design repercussions on the stability performance are evaluated through the performed robustness analysis. The developed linearized model is validated against time-domain simulations and laboratory experiments. These have been carried out using a power hardware-in-the-loop test bench, which allows as to test the synchronverter under different grid conditions. As a conclusion, this paper offers a simple guide to tune synchronverters but also a theoretical solid framework to assess the robustness of the adopted design.


Rising income inequality and financial trauma in the middle class beg the question of whether social mobility, long a part of America's narrative identity, is truly available to Americans residing in the lower rungs of society. This paper addresses the connection between culture and social mobility, looking particularly at how culture impacts social outcomes in America's meritocratic educational system. Analyzing culture and cultural capital from a progressive perspective, this paper concludes that culture operates subtly, helping some retain or improve their existing position but interfering with the mobility of others. The rhetoric of individual merit, however, obscures the role that culture plays in reproducing existing social structures.In the context of merit and mobility, this paper also analyzes class disadvantage as it relates to affirmative action. As the Supreme Court is set to decide another affirmative action case this term, we are reminded that barriers of disadvantage continue to prevent educational institutions from achieving acceptable levels of diversity. Often operating in tandem with economic and racial disadvantage, cultural disadvantage obstructs mobility in a powerful way. Accordingly, cultural disadvantage, captured using a robust set of socio-economic and race-conscious factors, should be something that institutions consider when formulating diversity plans. However, affirmative action plans, while necessary, cannot be the only solution to the problem. More radical and systemic solutions are needed to reboot social mobility in this country. Part II of this paper provides a foundational understanding of progressive cultural theory, placing it in the context of the two opposing theories most often used to explain unequal outcomes in America: individual merit versus environmental/societal factors. Progressive cultural theory posits that unequal outcomes are not fully explainable by differences in individual merit. Rather, pre-existing cultural advantages help some advance, but for others, unequal structures produce cultural barriers that impede mobility. Relying upon recent social science research, Part III of this paper examines how culture and cultural capital interact with our merit based educational system; how cultural differences within the middle class impacts social mobility; and how culture interacts with pre-existing structures of racial inequality. As diversity within higher education mostly affects individuals in the middle class, Part IV analyzes what cultural disparities within the middle class mean for the affirmative action debate. Part IV concludes that the Supreme Court, in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, should reaffirm Justice O'Connor's diversity rationale for using race-conscious measures to achieve a critical mass of minority students but also argues that we should not be trapped into a false choice between racial diversity or class-based diversity. In grappling with the issues of disadvantage and mobility within the affirmative action debate, I ultimately conclude that the entire merit and selectivity system should be collapsed. Thus, Part V offers some suggestions for making our merit system less insular and more inclusive, including the salvo that successful professionals who have "won" the merit game take a hard look at ourselves and ask whether we are contributing to the trend toward oligarchy.


Admiration for environment in general needs to be profoundly rooted in an understanding of History. Urban history is unique not only in the fact that it reflects climate but also in that it cuts across many different fields. In most schools of urban studies many aspects of science and technology are taught with relation to design in order to attain skills for practice. During a students later career they may not lead to a respect for environment, and do not lead in particular, to an understanding of energy issues and climatic impacts on urban form. The aim of this paper is to stimulate the environment consciousness of urban history instructors as well as researchers. It demonstrates similarity in spatial aspects of settlements differing in cultures and tradition but similar in environment.The examples range from ancient to present day urban configurations.


In this paper we explore the technique of "inverse gating" which is a significant improvement over the "round gating" technique introduced in HOST 2016. Round gating worked by generating timing signals to separate glitch propagation from one circuit element to the next. Inverse gating generates the same timing signals required to segregate transient round signals, in a manner that incurs less delay and hence lesser switching activity in the circuits. We also show that energy-wise, inverse gated circuits outperform round gated circuits by a margin of around 30 %. In the second part of the paper, we further explore the efficiency of the energy reduction by tuning some of the design parameters. The most natural candidate for this was the delay of the buffer used for creating the timing signals. We found that the optimal energy consumption for any round and inverse gated unrolled block cipher occurs at a particular range of this delay value. We try to explain the optimality of this particular choice of design parameter with the help of the implementation of the AES-128 block cipher.


Society is becoming more diverse than ever before in its history, and many of our school systems reflect this diversity in their student populations (Patrick & Reinhartz, 1999). For instance, today, one-third of the entire student population in America consists of minority students, and by the year 2020, one-half of all students in America will belong to a minority group (Patrick & Reinhartz, 1999). Due to this increasing amount of diversity that is taking place in our society and schools, school principals must play a central role in initiating and infusing multicultural concepts and ideas into school cultures mainly because these individuals set the cultural climate for the school (Decker, 1997). It should be the goal of the school principal to create a cultural democracy within the school (Stainback & Stainback, 1990). It is this cultural democracy that allows the school to become all encompassing and democratic (Capper, 1993). One of the basic premises of a democratic school consists of educational opportunities that are equal, which gives credence to multicultural education (Johnson, Dupuis, Musial, Hall, & Gollnick, 1999). According to Capper (1993), students who are "empowered" in school as a result of greater self-identification are more likely to be able to function within a diverse society (p. 289). An issue that many school leaders and educators have advanced regarding implementing multicultural educational concepts and ideas concerns the issues of who benefits from multicultural education. In reference to multicultural education, many educators and administrators operate on the assumptions that the school should possess certain characteristics within its population in order to benefit from multicultural education (Gay, 1995). According to Gay, "If there are no African American students, Latino, Native American, or Asian American students enrolled in their schools, they [educators] find it difficult to see the relevance of doing multicultural education" (p. 55). She further notes that multicultural theorists have indicated that school principals have an obligation to create an environment that promotes cultural diversity regardless of the amount of recognizable diversity in the school. Because of the increasing amount of cultural and social diversity that is occurring in our society and schools, school leaders must create environments that promote cultural pluralism and provide every student with an opportunity to succeed. Banks and Banks (1989) indicated that multicultural education no longer consists solely of the lessons about Martin Luther King Jr., or by incorporating different lessons about ethnic minorities within the classroom. Rather, the components of multicultural education represent the entire school; all the components of the school must be aligned with managing and valuing diversity. Review of Literature To many, multicultural education has historically and is presently seen as a program of study designed to reexamine how groups of color were being portrayed in history and to teach more factual content as it relates to groups of color (Gay, 1995). Today, many multiculturalists (Banks, 1996; Gay, 1995; Nieto, 2000) have reexamined the concept of multicultural education and view it in a totality perspective as it relates to the entire school climate, which would allow students to achieve their fullest potential. However, because multicultural education has had political liabilities associated with it since its birth, the task that many multicultural theorists face is to transform these political liabilities into "scholarly strengths" (Banks, 1996, p. 6). Proponents of multicultural education must be willing to engage in a serious debate with opponents concerning any farce attempts to debate the basic premises and concepts of multicultural education. Criticism of Multicultural Education Despite the evidence regarding the increasing amount of diversity in our society and schools, the idea of implementing multicultural education in our schools still generates clashes of opinions throughout our society (Gallagher, 1998), Furthermore, ". …


The Academy of Young Scholars of the Polish Academy of Sciences (or briefly, The Young Academy of Poland) was established in 2011/2012 following the introduction of the new Polish law on scientific issues. The Academy comprises a maximum of the 35 best young Polish scientists aged 38 years and under, who are selected primarily based on scientific achievements by the most prominent senior researchers in Poland (members of the Polish Academy of Sciences) through a multi-step nomination procedure. Following the selection to The Young Academy, I became its first-ever president (2012-2014), and developed the organization in many ways. This is the main and most extensive description of problems and activities of the Academy in its historically important, first period of existence.


DNA methylation is one of the main epigenetic modifications in the eukaryotic genome; it has been shown to play a role in cell-type specific regulation of gene expression, and therefore cell-type identity. Bisulfite sequencing is the gold-standard for measuring methylation over the genomes of interest. Here, we review several techniques used for the analysis of high-throughput bisulfite sequencing. We introduce specialized short-read alignment techniques as well as pre/post-alignment quality check methods to ensure data quality. Furthermore, we discuss subsequent analysis steps after alignment. We introduce various differential methylation methods and compare their performance using simulated and real bisulfite sequencing datasets. We also discuss the methods used to segment methylomes in order to pinpoint regulatory regions. We introduce annotation methods that can be used for further classification of regions returned by segmentation and differential methylation methods. Finally, we review software packages that implement strategies to efficiently deal with large bisulfite sequencing datasets locally and we discuss online analysis workflows that do not require any prior programming skills. The analysis strategies described in this review will guide researchers at any level to the best practices of bisulfite sequencing analysis.


Cultures and worldviews are inscribed by means of 'writing', or what Derrida calls 'the perdurable inscription of a sign' (Of Grammatology). A sign is the union between signifier and signified. The signifier may be natural (clouds indicate that it is going to rain) or artificial. All cultures are made up of relations that stay at the level of signs, that is, everything that belongs to culture is empirical and conventional. In this regard, both Aboriginal and Western culture remain at the same level. Moreover, both cultures produce objectivity by means of contrast and experimentation, in the design of a sharp object, for example an arrow or a knife. In Ancient Greece, Havelock contends that the invention of writing dramatically increased the possibilities of objective thought (The Muse Learns To Write), but it also created a logic of binaries that transcended the objectivity of science and transpired into the ideology behind colonialism. In this context, the role of writing is analyzed in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon. How does writing affect Gemmy all throughout the book? Already in the first Chapter, the teacher and the minister of the colony analyze Gemmy 'in writing'. Gemmy knows what writing is but hasn't learnt its 'trick': he does not know how to read or write. All he can see is that what he tells about his life, all his pain and suffering, is translated into marks and magic squiggles on the paper: only the spirit of the story he tells is captured. But little by little, the cognitive effects of writing get hold of Gemmy, until he starts to understand his life within the framework of the logic of binaries and identity upon which all reflective thought and science rest. All in all, this deconstructive reading can be seen as a critique of Europe's modern idea of the autonomy of reason, in the name of a heteronymous rationality in the form of writing.


This paper is intended to demonstrate how the Federal Bureau of Narcoticsi?½s propagation of negative images associating marijuana with the anti-social behavior of marginal socio-economic groups in the 1930i?½s still influences the federal governmenti?½s marijuana policies today. This paper traces the history of marijuanai?½s legal, from its legal status Americai?½s infancy, where many colonies considered marijuana such a valuable industrial and medical resource that some actually mandated its cultivation , to its present-day status as an illicit substance that is rarely used in the industrial arena and has no officially recognized medical utility under federal law.Chapter 1 discusses the i?½pre-Anslingeri?½ history of marijuana in America, examining the many industrial and medical purposes for which it was used before the onslaught of the anti-marijuana propaganda campaign waged by the Harry Anslinger and the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the 1930i?½s and 1940i?½s. Chapter 2 focuses more closely on the issues facing supporters of medical marijuana under federal law as it stands today. It also examines more closely the role that the Food and Drug Administration currently plays in determining the medical potential of marijuana, and the reasons that the FDAi?½s role is more limited with respect to marijuana than it would be with other prospective new drugs.


Electroencephalography (EEG) is an effective non-invasive measurement method to infer user intent in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems for control and communication, however, these systems often lack sufficient accuracy and speed due to low separability of class-conditional EEG feature distributions. Many factors impact system performance, including inadequate training datasets and models' ignorance of the temporal dependency of brain responses to serial stimuli. Here, we propose a signal model for event-related responses in the EEG evoked with a rapid sequence of stimuli in BCI applications. The model describes the EEG as a superposition of impulse responses time-locked to stimuli corrupted with an autoregressive noise process. The performance of the signal model is assessed in the context of RSVP keyboard, a language-model-assisted EEG-based BCI for typing. EEG data obtained for model calibration from 10 healthy participants are used to fit and compare two models: the proposed sequence-based EEG model and the trial-based feature-class-conditional distribution model that ignores temporal dependencies, which has been used in the previous work. The simulation studies indicate that the earlier model that ignores temporal dependencies may be causing drastic reductions in achievable information transfer rate (ITR). Furthermore, the proposed model, with better regularization, may achieve improved accuracy with fewer calibration data samples, potentially helping to reduce calibration time. Specifically, results show an average 8.6% increase in (cross-validated) calibration AUC for a single channel of EEG, and 54% increase in the ITR in a typing task.


Tidal hydrodynamics in a multiple inlet estuarine system, Apalachicola Bay, were investigated in this study. The estuary is connected to the Gulf of Mexico through five tidal inlets. From eastern inlets to western inlets, the tidal amplitude decreases and the dominant tidal constituents change from mixed diurnal and semi-diurnal to diurnal components. The tidal hydrodynamics in the bay are complex due to different tidal forcing from multiple tidal inlets in the estuary. In order to characterize the tidal forces in the boundary inlets, we applied harmonic analysis to determine the dominant tidal components at the inlets using field measurements of water levels. Then we applied a previously validated hydrodynamic model to investigate the 2-D tidal circulation during a twenty-four hour period.  Snapshots of model simulations at high, mid-ebb, low, and mid-flood tidal conditions were used to characterize the propagation of tidal waves and vertically averaged currents in the bay. Model simulations indicated that currents in the bay were driven mainly by the surface gravity gradients corresponding to the propagation of the tidal waves in the bay. At high tide, the higher surface elevation in the eastern tidal inlets drove the bay water from east to west. At low tide, the lower water level in East Pass caused strong eastward currents in the eastern region of the bay. One of the interesting issues in Apalachicola Bay is the effect of an artificial inlet (Sikes Cut) on the estuary circulation and aquatic ecosystem. This study indicates that strong tidal currents occur in this inlet and allow an exchange of waters between bay and Gulf. The result s will benefit the biological research programs in this important estuarine system.


RUSMOD is a static tax-benefit microsimulation model for Russia. The model can be used for ex post and ex ante evaluation of reforms of personal income taxation and social benefits in Russia. In addition, being compatible with EUROMOD, the Russian model is suitable for simulation of cross-country policy transfers. The aim of this paper is to shed light on various aspects of the model. It discusses specific problems arising in the evaluation of unreported income and benefits non-take up in Russia. The final estimates of poverty and inequality from RUSMOD are very close to those based on National accounts; hence, the model can be seen as a reliable tool for evaluating the current performance of the Russian tax-benefit system and the distributive impact of potential tax-benefit reforms. Then the paper provides an example of application of the model – an analysis of alternative scenarios for improving the design of child allowances in Russia. Currently, this benefit has a poor targeting performance and varies across regions of Russia in terms of design and generosity, which raises serious equity concerns. Redirecting these resources to the poor – by means of better targeting and raising the benefit amounts – brings about significant improvements in overall and child poverty indicators even at the current level of spending. The most sizable impact on poverty is achieved by implementing the unified national design of the program.


Although dietary selenium (Se) deficiency results in phenotypes associated with selenoprotein depletion in various organs, the brain is protected from Se loss. To address the basis for the critical role of Se in brain function, we carried out comparative gene expression analyses for the complete selenoproteome and associated biosynthetic factors. Using the Allen Brain Atlas, we evaluated 159 regions of adult mouse brain and provided experimental analyses of selected selenoproteins. All 24 selenoprotein mRNAs were expressed in the mouse brain. Most strikingly, neurons in olfactory bulb, hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and cerebellar cortex were exceptionally rich in selenoprotein gene expression, in particular in GPx4, SelK, SelM, SelW, and Sep15. Over half of the selenoprotein genes were also expressed in the choroid plexus. A unique expression pattern was observed for one of the highly expressed selenoprotein genes, SelP, which we suggest to provide neurons with Se. Cluster analysis of the expression data linked certain selenoproteins and selenocysteine machinery genes and suggested functional linkages among selenoproteins, such as that between SelM and Sep15. Overall, this study suggests that the main functions of selenium in mammals are confined to certain neurons in the brain.


Today, Helgoland is a small rocky island with an exposed rocky shore located in the German Bight (SE North Sea). Old maps show that only 1200 years ago Helgoland was much larger and muddy tidal flats surrounded the island. According to earlier studies this land mass disintegrated before AD 1250 and the muddy sediments appear to have filled a depression in the southeast of the island. This area, the "Helgoland Mud Area" (HMA, 20-30 m of water depth), covers about 500 km2 forming one of the few muddy sediment spots in the North Sea. It can be anticipated that these sediments carry a record that is instrumental in paleoenvironment reconstructions of the past millennium. This study is based on 1 cm-resolution granulometric data of 5 sediment cores (5 m core length, covering the past millennium) taken from the west, the center, and the east of the HMA, data of a parametric subbottom profiler, a RoxAnn seafloor-classification system, and AMS radiocarbon data.The sediment cores reveal high sedimentation rates (11 mm/a) during the Medieval Warm Period that decrease by 50% at the beginning of the Little Ice Age (LIA, AD 1350-1900). At the same time the sortable-silt mean grain size increased suggesting a higher energetic level with regard to currents and waves. At the end of the LIA the sediments show a fining trend again. The changes in grain size likely mirror the frequency and strength of severe storms during the LIA including a calmer period during the Maunder Sun-Spot Minimum (around AD 1700) that was most likely characterized by an increased number of calmer negative NAO situations.In order to detect the source of the fine sediments in a likewise classical sandy North-Sea environment, morphologic features such as the adjacent "Helgoland Hole" west of the HMA that exceeds the ambient water depth by 100%, and the sediment geometries as revealed by shallow seismics were studied. In many transects shot with the SES2000 parametric echosounder, vertically interrupted layers suggest gas in the sediment that locally extends up to the surface. Transects from the SW of the working area reveal north-inclined layers suggesting sediment discharge from the south, which would also explain why the "Helgoland Hole" is still an open depression. Transects from the southern part of the HMA show large sandwaves that likely were buried and fossilized during a dramatic discharge of sediment. All evidence including the general water-mass circulation in this part of the North Sea thus points to a southern rather than a northern (i.e. former mud flats of Helgoland) source for the muddy sediments. It is concluded that the sediment that fills the HMA originated mostly from rivers such as the Elbe, and the Wadden Sea. Variations in grain size are due to fluctuations in the predominant wind direction and speed, and due to anthropogenic action such as dike-construction measures during the past centuries.


According to the standard account offered by most progressive observers of the juvenile courts, the goal of rehabilitation has virtually disappeared. While America's juvenile courts were explicitly designed to treat and rehabilitate children, these critics argue that these goals have been abandoned for a more punitive agenda. Most observers blame the demise of the rehabilitative ideal on the criminal procedural revolution of the Warren Court. In this narrative, the Court's well-intentioned decision to provide children constitutional safeguards unwittingly undermined the unique flexibility of the juvenile courts. Thus, the downfall of progressive juvenile justice policy provides yet another example of the conservative political backlash to 1960's liberalism. The problem with this accepted history is that it is seriously incomplete. Rehabilitation remains vibrant in many juvenile courts throughout the country. This article exposes an important development in how America addresses juvenile crime: specialty courts. Drug courts, gun courts, mental health courts, and other tribunals all target offenders whose lives can be reclaimed through intensive intervention. Hundreds of such programs exist nationwide, including at least one in every state, transforming the experience of justice for tens of thousands of children. These courts are the product of local judges and other juvenile court regulars, rather than legislative edict. Why are people ignoring this explosive rebirth of the rehabilitative ideal? It appears that scholars are looking in the wrong place to determine the nature of juvenile justice policy. The academic community has long assumed that these agendas are drawn up by legislatures, and implemented by local court officials. But as this paper explores, ordinary court functionaries - trial judges, lawyers, and other employees seeking to solve practical problems on the local level - have subverted the popular get-tough legislative agenda, and implemented their vision of sound juvenile punishment. We analyze these employees through the lens of political science literature about street level bureaucrat. We show that these individuals, motivated by a variety of things - ranging from personal policy preferences to self-interest - have actually transformed American juvenile justice policy from the ground up.


IT/business strategy alignment is still a crucial issue for managers worldwide; how to deal with environmentalchange has been considered to be the key challenge to strategy alignment. Uncertain and dynamically changingenvironments require organizations to maintain a high level of alignment with a high risk of IT investment. Tomaintain this alignment, organizations must learn how to make their management information systems (MISs)sufficiently flexible; therefore, previous studies suggest the importance of MIS flexibility. Nevertheless, thereare few studies that explore the practical method of MIS flexibility planning for IT/business strategy alignment.Therefore, Part 1 of this series discusses the meaning of MIS flexibility for this alignment, while Part 2 proposesa scheme to make MISs sufficiently flexible.The proposed concept of the penalty of change (POC), as a function of cost and time, could bridge the gapbetween IT and business strategies in practice. This paper presents a scheme for the strategic planning of MISflexibility by overhauling the IT infrastructure via future-oriented POC analysis. Using this procedure andmonitoring the degree of MIS flexibility and alignment in the long term would reduce risks and could transformthe corporate MIS into a useful tool to address environmental changes.


Although the failure of cancers treatments has been mostly linked with the existence of resistant cells or cancer stem cells, new findings show a significant correlation between circulating inflammatory biomarkers and treatment failures. Most cancer treatments cause necrotic cell deaths in the tumor environment. Necrotic cells send signals to the immune cells to start the wound healing process in the tissue. Therefore, we assume after stopping treatments there is a wound that needs to be healed. The stochastic simulations of epithelial cell dynamics after a treatment, which only kills cells without changing the tumor9s inflammatory environment, show that higher fitness of cancer cells causes earlier relapses. Moreover, the tumor returns even if a single cancer cell with high fitness remains in the wound9s boundary after such treatments. Although the involvement of cancer cells in the wound healing after treatments leads to the fast relapse, the cancer cells outside of the wound can also cause a slow recurrence of the tumor. Therefore, the absence of relapse after such treatments implies a slow-developing tumor that might not reach an observable size in the patient9s lifetime. Conversely, a large solid tumor in a young patient suggests the presence of high fitness cancer cells and therefore a high likelihood of relapse after conventional therapies. Additionally, the location of remaining cancer cells after treatments is a very important factor in the recurrence time. The fastest recurrence happens when a high fitness cancer cell is located in the middle of the wound. However, the longest time to recurrence corresponds to cancer cells located outside of the wound9s boundary.


Implicit-depth models such as Deep Equilibrium Networks have recently been shown to match or exceed the performance of traditional deep networks while being much more memory efficient. However, these models suffer from unstable convergence to a solution and lack guarantees that a solution exists. On the other hand, Neural ODEs, another class of implicit-depth models, do guarantee existence of a unique solution but perform poorly compared with traditional networks. In this paper, we develop a new class of implicit-depth model based on the theory of monotone operators, the Monotone Operator Equilibrium Network (MON). We show the close connection between finding the equilibrium point of an implicit network and solving a form of monotone operator splitting problem, which admits efficient solvers with guaranteed, stable convergence. We then develop a parameterization of the network which ensures that all operators remain monotone, which guarantees the existence of a unique equilibrium point. Finally, we show how to instantiate several versions of these models, and implement the resulting iterative solvers, for structured linear operators such as multi-scale convolutions. The resulting models vastly outperform the Neural ODE-based models while also being more computationally efficient. Code is available at this http URL.


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Though grandiose subclinical narcissism has predominantly been studied in structural terms—focused on individuals' general tendencies to be more or less narcissistic—narcissism may also function as a personality process (i.e., narcissism fluctuates within-individuals across contexts or situations). Narcissism has also been conceptualized as a dynamic self-regulatory system, a set of coherent, mutually-reinforcing attributes, which orients individuals toward positive self-feelings (e.g., Campbell & Foster, 2007). In this dissertation, I empirically examine the possibility that narcissism has a meaningful process or state component and is more contextdependent than previously assumed. Manuscript 1 found that making people feel more connected to others (by increasing empathic concern or priming interdependent self-construal) reduced their endorsement of narcissistic tendencies and, in turn, negated some of the negative aspects associated with narcissism (e.g., fame seeking). Using a daily diary methodology, in Manuscripts 2 and 3, it was found that there is a modest, yet meaningful, amount of within-person variability in people's narcissistic tendencies. This variability existed across different samples of participants, different time periods (i.e., 10 and 14-days), and across different assessments and conceptualizations of narcissism. Importantly this variability was psychologically meaningful, in that people's narcissism shifted in accordance with their daily experiences (e.g., positive agentic events) or their daily psychological well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, positive affect). Together these manuscripts provide some initial evidence that grandiose narcissism can vary within individuals and that this variability can meaningfully fluctuate across different situational affordances (e.g., when feeling powerful or more connected to other people). Indeed narcissism may function as a dynamic self-regulatory system orienting individuals toward self-enhancement and positive self-views.


Hooray! Wayside School is Open Again!All the kids from Wayside School had to spend 243 days in horrible schools while Wayside closed to get rid of the cows (Don't ask!). Now the kids are back and the fun begins again on every floor. Miss Much has prepared a Day on the 30th floor--with dogs and cats and frogs and skunks and pigs, and an orange named Fido causing a terrible commotion. In Mrs. Drazil's class, they're throwing a coffeepot, a sack of potatoes, a pencil sharpener, and a light bulb out the window to see which hits the ground first. But the big surprise is that Mrs. Jewls is expecting a baby--but one named Cootie Face or Bucket Head--and a substitute teacher is coming--and everyone knows what that means...Something strange is going on at the already peculiar Way side School, when Mrs. Jewls leaves her students with a succession of substitute teachers. "Wayside School devotes [will] turn pages eagerly...these additional anecdote about wayside school will surely tickle the funny bones of fans"-School Library Journal


Time is an important element in the process of reservations to treaties and, consequently, in the legal regime established by the Vienna Conventions for reservations and reactions thereto. The very definition of reservations, embodied in Article 2(1)(d) of the 1969 and 1986 Vienna Conventions, as well as in Article 2(1)(j) of the 1978 Vienna Convention, and incorporated in the definition adopted by the International Law Commission in its Guide to Practice, includes precise indications and limits concerning the moment in time for a reservation to be formulated. In practice, however, reservations have been made before and after this peculiar moment. The work of the International Law Commission has shown that these are still reservations, even if they are not contemplated by the Vienna regime. But they can nevertheless deploy their purported effects under some additional conditions. The same holds true with regard to objections to reservations which can be formulated prematurely or late. They are still objections even if their concrete legal effects may be affected. Whereas time is important for the legal consequences attached to reservations and reactions thereto, it plays a less important role in the overall process of reservations dialogue.


This paper reports a study of the microstructures and mineral inclusions associated with microdiamond-formation in samples of a garnet websterite pod exposed within a mantle-derived peridotite body at Bardane on Fjortoft, western Norway. This pod is interpreted to have originally comprised a megacrystic assemblage of orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + garnet + Cr-spinel (Cr * ≈ 75) + minor olivine that probably crystallised within a mid-Proterozoic (1651±47 Ma) mantle diapir/plume at conditions of around 1410°C and 3.2 GPa. The observed microdiamonds are clearly not part of this early (M 1 ) paragenesis but formed later, following a deformation-induced fluid infiltration event. The diamond and other carbon-phase mineral inclusions rarely occur in isolation, instead in composite aggregates with other, mostly micro-scale, mineral inclusions that include phlogopite, kalsilite, Cr-spinel (Cr * ≈ 55), magnesite, Ba-Mg carbonate, Fe-Ni sulphide, Cl-apatite, rutile, zircon and monazite. Thus a metasomatic fluid has clearly introduced other elements (such as K, Ba, Ti, Fe, S, P, Cl, Zr, Cl, Th, and Nb) into this peridotite body, in addition to carbon. Back-scattered electron SEM images demonstrate that the introduced suite of mineral inclusions is spatially intimately associated with M 2 generation grains of orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, garnet and Cr-spinel (Cr * ∼ 55) that occur both as internally-exsolved phases within deformed and highly-strained M 1 megacrysts and as a coronitic boundary network of grains precipitated between physically-fragmented M 1 megacrysts. To date the microdiamonds have been found to be only rarely preserved as a component of multi-phase mineral inclusions that are doubly armoured in M 2 Cr-spinel (Cr * ≈ 55) in turn enclosed within M 2 generation garnet. Most carbon phase inclusions are now composed of disordered graphite thought most likely to have replaced pre-existing diamond. The M 2 mineral assemblage, with which the introduced microdiamond-bearing mineral inclusion suite is intimately associated, is considered to have formed during the Palaeozoic Caledonian orogeny on the basis of a Sm-Nd errorchron age of 518±78 Ma for the internally exsolved M 2 mineral assemblage at Bardane. This determined age is most likely a mixed age between the apparent age of the M 1 assemblage and the time of M 2 deformation-triggered exsolution and fluid infiltration. Thus microdiamond formation is interpreted to have probably occurred during the Scandian phase of the Caledonian orogenic cycle when this fragment of lithospheric mantle was introduced into a slab of Baltica margin continental crust that experienced short-lived deep-level subduction and attendant ultra-high pressure eclogite-facies metamorphism. The supercritical fluid responsible for the introduction of carbon and other elements into this peridotite body most likely originated from prograde dehydration and decarbonation reactions within the enclosing slab of continental crust gneisses. The microdiamond formation is considered to have occurred at the P-T conditions of ca. 875±25°C and 4.1±0.2 GPa estimated for the formation of the M 2 mineral assemblage within the Bardane peridotite body.


Ae. albopictus, an invasive mosquito vector now endemic to much of the northeastern US, is a significant public health threat both as a nuisance biter and vector of disease (e.g. chikungunya virus). Here, we aim to quantify the relationships between local environmental and meteorological conditions and the abundance of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes in New York City. Using statistical modeling, we create a fine-scale spatially explicit risk map of Ae. albopictus abundance and validate the accuracy of spatiotemporal model predictions using observational data from 2016. We find that the spatial variability of annual Ae. albopictus abundance is greater than its temporal variability in New York City but that both local environmental and meteorological conditions are associated with Ae. albopictus numbers. Specifically, key land use characteristics, including open spaces, residential areas, and vacant lots, and spring and early summer meteorological conditions are associated with annual Ae. albopictus abundance. In addition, we investigate the distribution of imported chikungunya cases during 2014 and use these data to delineate areas with the highest rates of arboviral importation. We show that the spatial distribution of imported arboviral cases has been mostly discordant with mosquito production and thus, to date, has provided a check on local arboviral transmission in New York City. We do, however, find concordant areas where high Ae. albopictus abundance and chikungunya importation co-occur. Public health and vector control officials should prioritize control efforts to these areas and thus more cost effectively reduce the risk of local arboviral transmission. The methods applied here can be used to monitor and identify areas of risk for other imported vector-borne diseases.


Between 2005 and 2011, when South Sudan was preparing for separation, foreign analysts, journalists, and human rights groups had various predictions about what was about to become the world's newest country: that it was going to be a "pre-failed state," in the words of The Economist; that it was going to exemplify the classic definition of what political scientists call a weak state; or that it would simply become another oil kleptocracy, incapable of transforming itself into the democratic state for which its citizens had yearned and died. Others pointed to the history of militancy and ethnic violence that had engulfed the country throughout the 1990s, speculating that if these conflicts were not addressed properly and quickly, South Sudan would most likely implode. There was indeed no shortage of challenges that could derail every promise the idea of independence represented for the people of this young nation. But violence, ethnic-based or militia-inspired, was the issue many commentators cited as the single most important concern for the citizens. It was also the greatest consideration for those who predicted the demise of the state, especially because ethnic fault lines often lead to the disintegration of states, even though causes of disintegration may be rooted in the many political, economic, and historical complexities of colonialism, wars of liberation, local competitions, or disregard for the rule of law by some institutions, including the security organs and the nation's army.These predictions outraged many of South Sudan's leaders, who dismissed them as nothing more than the wishes of the country's enemies or of doomsayers who probably knew very little about the resilience of the South Sudanese and their determination to build a country. The leaders shared a vision of taking their people to the promised land, in spite of the destruction of a fifty-year war, tribal conflicts, and ill intentions of the rump state, the Republic of Sudan. Indeed, the leaders of South Sudan were admittedly aware of, and had gone on record to say that, the biggest challenge they would face would be the efforts of the Sudanese government to undermine South Sudan, so long as the governing National Congress Party of Sudan remained in power. The rest of the issues-such as local ethnic violence, armed militias, concerns about development, and basic social service delivery-were surely gigantic but not insurmountable.Today, still less than three full years from independence, it is fair to ask whether the predictions of "doomsayers" and optimistic leaders have held true. This paper attempts to present a nuanced answer, weighing the arguments on each side. By alerting the country's leadership and civil society to the possibility of anarchy given the combination of weakness of institutions, corruption, history of violence, and political disunity, the critics could have saved the country. By taking the criticism as a useful basis for reform, the leaders could have shown the political maturity that it takes to build an inclusive and open democratic system, which is, in turn, a recipe for prosperity. Instead, the recent months have revealed a crumbling security apparatus, slow security sector reform, a weak judiciary, and skyrocketing crime rates, particularly in urban centers, due to economic problems.The following sections of the paper will review what has been said, written, and contested about the state of physical safety, access to justice, and the role of the state as provider of protection, or, alternatively a source of insecurity and impunity. Based on interviews with many citizens' groups, this paper will describe the sources, dynamics, and impact of insecurity on the state, on the social order, and on the whole society and nation. It will also highlight some major policy actions that can rectify this situation. It will consider both urban and rural insecurity, as well as that caused by civilians and the armed forces. …


This paper gives an overview over a dissertation project in the area of design space exploration for distributed, embedded systems. As the engineering of distributed embedded systems is getting more and more complex due to increasingly sophisticated functionalities demanding more and more powerful hardware, automation is required in order cope with this rising complexity. Using a model based systems engineering approach enables design space exploration methods which provide such automations, given a formalization of the problem in order to be solvable e.g. by SMT solvers. In this thesis we want to provide an automated synthesis of hardware topologies (E/E architectures) based on the functions which are deployed onto this topology and constraints and optimization objectives which are derived from the requirements of the system. The synthesis shall consider variability aspects (possible variants) of the hardware elements. Additionally, timing aspects of the deployed shall be regarded such that the solution of the synthesis is a hardware topology, a deployment of functions onto this topology and a schedule of these functions. The thesis shall be evaluated by using an automotive industrial use case of realistic size.


Inferring phylogenies from alignments of thousands of sequences is becoming a known computational problem as DNA sequencing accelerates and gene families are growing rapidly. We present a method, PartFastTree, to construct large phylogenetic trees and estimate their reliability, which is improved from FastTree, an approximate Maximum-Likelihood method for constructing phylogenetic trees. Instead of using improved Neighbor-Joining method, PartFastTree adopts PartTree method in the phase of constructing an initial tree. It reduces the memory required from O(nsa+n1.25) to O(ns) and at the same time reduces the computation time from O(n1.25sa) to O(nlog(n)s), where n is the number of sequences, s is the width of the alignment, and a is the size of the alphabet. PartFastTree and FastTree are implemented and the evaluation on them is also presented, while PartFastTree is faster than FastTree with a little reduced accuracy when running on the datasets of from 250 to 237,882 sequences.


This thesis is an empirical examination of the articulation of comic offence and the practices of comic censure as conducted in media discourse. Making complaints about comic discourse is a risky endeavour. The joker can retort that it was `just a joke' or can charge the complainer with lacking a sense of humour and libels can fail and be very costly. The main focus is on the
discursive strategies and practices used when claiming that comedy has caused offence. This is an under-researched area in humour studies. The ambivalence involved in negotiations between ethical and comic discourse is a central tenet of the thesis. Two main avenuesf or expressing comic
offence are used in the thesis: letters of complaint written to the editor of comic discourse and charges of offensive comedy made through the law of defamation. The thesis adopts an eclectic approach to data collection and analysis. The research draws on different data sources: letters pages
and readers' letters printed in the satirical magazine Private Eye, newspaper articles reporting on libel cases brought against Private Eye and interviews with editors, journalists, cartoonists and libel
lawyers working for Private Eye. Content analytic techniques are used when analysing the readers' letters to provide a clear overview of the general pattern of complaint involved and the common consequences of such complaint. Composition analysis is used to assess how the editor of Private Eye constructs the letters page. Here I explore the strategies employed by the editor when
defendingc criticisms that offence has been causeda nd assessh ow the editor discursively treats the offended reader. To examine in closer detail the characteristic ways in which reader's structure
their expression of grievance, I then employ more qualitative modes of analysis: linguistic discourse
analysis and symbolic cultural analysis. Attention then shifts to the second main avenue for expressing comic offence: the law of defamation. I conduct a quantitative content analysis of Private Eye's libel litigation history to provide an overview of the types of individual who utilise
the law of defamation and the bases on which reputations are damaged. Textual analysis is used to assessh ow newspapersre port libel casesb rought against Private Eye in order to explore the press' role in the debate of comic offence and comic censure. In my conclusion I discuss what the thesis
suggests about the ethical considerations of humour and comedy and I highlight the importance of the thesis for humour studies. The thesis finishes with some recommendations for future research.


Ionospheric scintillation is the rapid fluctuation of both phase and amplitude of trans-ionospheric radio waves due to small scale electron density irregularities in the ionosphere. Prediction of the occurrence of scintillation at L band frequencies is needed to mitigate the disruption of space-based communication and navigation systems. The purpose of this paper is to present a method of using tomographic inversions of the ionospheric electron density obtained from ground-based GPS data to infer the location and strength of the post-sunset plasma drift vortex. This vortex is related to the pre-reversal enhancement in the eastwards electric field which has been correlated to the subsequent occurrence of scintillation.


This paper presents a hybrid approach for facility layout redesign and dynamic job routing. More specifically, based on the source of uncertainty, the facility layout problem is split into two sub-problems and dealt with by two modules: re-layoutand find-route. Genetic algorithm is used where changes may cause a layout redesign of the entire shop, while function blocks are utilised to find the best sequence of robots for the new conditions within the existing layout. The method is verified in a case study of a hypothetic robotic assembly shop.