Clark, E., George, M., Hardy, C., Hall, W., MacMillan, P., Wakabayashi, S., & Hughes, K. (2014). Exploratory study of the effectiveness of a professional development program on the academic achievement and classroom behavior of students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder in British Columbia, Canada. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 3(1), 25-34 . doi:10.7895/ijadr.v3i1.119 Aim: Exploratory assessment of a professional development program for teachers supporting students with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Design: A mixed-method research design, using qualitative descriptive and quasi-experimental methods, was employed. Setting: The study occurred in selected public elementary schools in a British Columbia school district. Participants: Elementary school teachers and students with FASD. Measures: For the quasi-experimental component, the Behavior Assessment System for Children, 2nd edition (BASC-2) Teacher Rating Scale (TRS), and Student Observation System assessed classroom behavior. The Curriculum-Based Measure (CBM) assessed reading, writing, and mathematics skills of children with FASD. Inductive thematic analysis was used to derive themes from teachers' interviews. Findings: A statistically significant improvement in intervention students' classroom behavior was observed. An improvement of moderate effect size was seen for academic achievement, although the changes were not statistically significant. Teachers reported that the professional development program changed their teaching practice. Intervention teachers described how they redefined students' behaviors and adapted their teaching practice to accommodate students' neurological deficits. Conclusions: The results provide preliminary support for the effectiveness of the professional development program for elementary school teachers teaching students with FASD. Further research is needed with a larger sample size to reduce type II error.


Sensor Observation Service (SOS) is a Web service specification defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) group in order to standardize the way sensors and sensor data are discovered and accessed on the Web. This standard goes a long way in providing interoperability between repositories of heterogeneous sensor data and applications that use this data. Many of these applications, however, are ill equipped at handling raw sensor data as provided by SOS and require actionable knowledge of the environment in order to be practically useful. There are two approaches to deal with this obstacle, make the applications smarter or make the data smarter. We propose the latter option and accomplish this by leveraging semantic technologies in order to provide and apply more meaningful representation of sensor data. More specifically, we are modeling the domain of sensors and sensor observations in a suite of ontologies, adding semantic annotations to the sensor data, using the ontology models to reason over sensor observations, and extending an open source SOS implementation with our semantic knowledge base. This semantically enabled SOS, or SemSOS, provides the ability to query high-level knowledge of the environment as well as low-level raw sensor data.


The very recent revolutionary advancements and wide availability of the real-time 3D graphics technology results in the overwhelming and still quickly growing number of toolkits, game engines, and VR/AR frameworks, which offer very broad collections of functional features. It becomes apparent that soon the winning factor will not be related to the number of features provided, but rather to the availability of a flexible component-based process and architecture able to curb exploding complexity, supporting seamless integration, and assuring broad design and code reuse. Since the late 90's Component Based Development (CBD) is a very active area of research and development. However, most of the current efforts and component standards are strongly biased towards enterprise information management systems focusing on distributed, secure, and transactional business logic. Concerning Game/VR/AR (GVAR) system engineering domain component-orientation, although highly demanded, currently is poorly understood and still in the pioneering phase. The work presented in this thesis consists of the three main parts. The first part focuses on the systematic analysis, mapping and adaptation of the current understanding of the CBD methodology to the needs of the GVAR system engineering. The resulting GVAR specific CBD methodological template is then validated by confrontation with the set of existing GVAR system engineering solutions. Mapping to the uniform CBD semantics yields detailed taxonomy and demonstrates the evolutionary convergence of initially isolated architectural (design related), functional (system operation and mechanism related), and development (process related) patterns towards the common CBD methodological denominator. As a result, the second part proposes GVAR specific component model and the respective component framework implementation (VHD++). In context of the VHD++ component model, we study consequences of separation between content (storing) and software (computing) side components and the role of the multi-aspect- graph concept. In context of the VHD++ component framework, we specify the architecture and identify an ensemble of fundamental coordination mechanisms necessary to support and enforce the VHD++ component model. In the third part we focus on the validation of the proposed CBD methodology from the perspective of the main three actors of the CBD process (component framework developer, component developer, application composer). In particular, we study examples of concrete components, inter-component collaborations, and instances of VR/AR storytelling systems featuring various combinations of advanced virtual character simulation technologies, immersion, and interaction paradigms.


This book includes five related working papers that provide valuable contributions to the understanding of internal audit (IA) and its effectiveness. Paper 1 is a literature review that uses the perspective of new institutional theory as a framework. Paper 2 is an explorative work that studies the variables that are theoretically associated with the IA function's active role in corporate governance. Paper 3 is a conceptual essay that questions the status of IA as a profession. Paper 4 is an empirical survey that clarifies the discriminatory power of characteristics that may indicate IA effectiveness. Paper 5 is a qualitative research paper that breaks new ground in applying role theory (Kahn et al. 1964) in combination with the theory of relational coordination (Gittell 2006) to the research context of IA effectiveness. This work builds on an exhaustive literature review, provides a mix of different methods and perspectives and offers innovative and complementary insights that open the door for further research.


For the first time, synthesis of two new amidinate-ligand comprising heteroleptic indium complexes, namely [InCl(amd)2] (1) and [InMe(amd)2] (2), via salt-metathesis and their detailed characterization is reported. For comparison, the earlier reported homoleptic tris-amidinate [In(amd)3] (3) was also synthesized and analyzed in detail especially with respect to the thermal properties and molecular crystal structure analysis which are reported here for the first time. From nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), all three compounds were found to be monomeric with C2 (compound 1 and 2) and C3 symmetry (compound 3). Both halide-free compounds 2 and 3 were evaluated regarding their thermal properties using temperature-dependent 1H-NMR, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and iso-TGA, revealing suitable volatility and thermal stability for their application as potential precursors for chemical vapor phase thin film deposition methods. Indeed, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) experiments over a broad temperature range (400 °C-700 °C) revealed the suitability of these two compounds to fabricate In2O3 thin films in the presence of oxygen on Si, thermally grown SiO2 and fused silica substrates. The as-deposited thin films were characterized in terms of their crystallinity via X-ray diffraction (XRD), morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and composition through complementary techniques such as Rutherford-backscattering spectrometry (RBS) in combination with nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). From UV/Vis spectroscopy, the deposited In2O3 thin films on fused silica substrates were found to be highly transparent (T > 95% at 560 nm, compound 3). In addition, Hall measurements revealed high charge carrier densities of 1.8 × 1020 cm-3 (2) and 6.5 × 1019 cm-3 (3) with a Hall-mobility of 48 cm2 V-1 s-1 (2) and 74 cm2 V-1 s-1 (3) for the respective thin films, rendering the obtained thin films applicable as a transparent conducting oxide that could be suitable for optoelectronic applications.


Automatic Speech Recognition systems typically use smoothed spectral features as acoustic observations. In recent studies, it has been shown that complementing these standard features with auxiliary information could improve the performance of the system. The previously proposed systems have been studied in the framework of GMMs. In this paper, we study and compare different ways to include auxiliary information in state-of-the-art hybrid HMM/ANN system. In the present paper, we have focused on pitch frequency as the auxiliary information. We have evaluated the proposed system on two different ASR tasks, namely, isolated word recognition and connected word recognition. Our results complement the previous efforts to incorporate auxiliary information in ASR system and also show that pitch frequency can indeed be used in ASR systems to improve the recognition performance.


A study was made to determine some of the interrelations of Cu, Fe, and Mo in the growth and nutrition of lettuce. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the importance of interactions among Cu, Mo, and Fe; (2) to determine if form of N or source of Fe affects interactions involving Cu; (3) to determine which concentrations of Cu, Mo, and Fe result in the greatest growth; and (4) to determine if levels of Fe and Mo, sources of Fe, or form of N affect the critical level of Cu in the plant. Solutions with varying concentrations of Cu, Fe, and Mo were imposed on four series of treatments involving combinations of ferrous iron, ferric iron, all nitrate nitrogen, and 1/4 ammonium plus 3/4 nitrate nitrogen. The experiment was conducted using solution culture in a rotatable design. This design permitted calculations of response surfaces from a much smaller number of treatments than would have been necessary with complete factorials. All of the variables affected growth and accumulation of ions. Illustrations are given for some of the relationships which appear to exist among Cu, Mo, Fe, sources of N, and sources of Fe. Pronounced interactions were obtained between Cu and Fe. The growth of lettuce at any one level of Cu was affected by Fe supply. The reverse relationship was also observed. The Cu content of leaves was affected by Fe supply as was Fe content by Cu supply. The interaction between Cu and Fe on Cu content was affected by source of N and source of Fe. The effects of Cu and Mo on Fe content and the interactions between Cu and Mo, Cu and Fe, and between Fe and Mo were much more pronounced in the series containing all NO₃ - nitrogen. Curves of yield vs. Cu content of tops suggested that there is not any single level of Cu in the plant which represents an optimum level. The Cu content corresponding to maximum yield appeared to be influenced by levels of Fe and Mo in solution, source of Fe, and source of N. In general, form of nitrogen had a more pronounced effect on growth and accumulation than did the valence of Fe. Implications of the relationship suggested by this study and the use of response surfaces as an aid in studying nutrient interactions are discussed.


The Florida Environment series, by Martin B. Main and Ginger M. Allen is published by the UF Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, July 2007.


Extracted from text ... A R M Adver tising & Design 2 7 0 3 9
ROADS AND BRIDGES
The provincial road between the N4 and Road P51/1 - Road
P115/1 - is viewed as the major access road between Sun
City and the Phokeng 2010 World Cup soccer stadium. The
National Department of Transport identified the Phokeng to Sun City
road to be upgraded for the World Cup in their document 'Towards
a 2010 transport action agenda: A discussion document to enable
transportation success for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and to create a
lasting legacy for public transport'.
In 2002 Vela ..


Many factors can influence the accuracy of water meters, including age, throughput, water quality, and the presence of particulates in the metered water. These factors can affect various types of meters quite differently depending on the meter's design. This article examines the effects of particulates on various types of meters over their estimated life in a controlled environment. The intent of this study was to assess the effect of particulates on new meter performance and identify trends that may typify meter performance and longevity after being subjected to a slug of particulates. Oscillating‐piston (displacement‐piston) meters were most affected by a slug of sand and multijet and fluidic‐oscillator meters were best able to tolerate the sand. Nutating‐disc and single‐jet meters performed better than the oscillating‐piston meters but not as well as the multijet or fluidic‐oscillator meters. The findings of this study will benefit meter manufacturers, those who manage meter replacement programs, users, and those interested in metering water that contains particulates.


This study examines the impact an empowerment strategy may have when applied to public sector employees delivering Environmental Services. The study employs a case study method as its central research strategy with ten sample local authorities chosen as strategic informants. The key issues considered were the relevance of the appropriate structure within the organisation, the importance of employee engagement, the impact of the management or leadership style, and the opportunity for implementation of an empowerment strategy. Primary data collection was through twenty eight semi-structured interviews including Heads of Service, Service Managers, Supervisors and Front Line Operational Employees. Secondary data included Best Value Reviews, Comprehensive Performance Assessments, as well as Annual Audit Inspection Letters specific to the chosen sample. The research findings support the assumption that an empowered and empowering workforce can contribute to service improvement and also support the assumptions that other key drivers must also be in place to enable and facilitate that improvement. The research recognises those additional key drivers as engagement, corporate ambition, leadership style, training, resources, external constraints, task complexity, rewards and levels of and opportunities for innovation that contribute to the performance level of the organisation. Some or all of these drivers are evident in the sample authorities both from assessment reports as well as interview data. The research findings also suggest that there are many interpretations of empowerment with the most common understanding being simply the opportunity to change the way things are done but only after prior consultation with line managers. Line managers in the study group wanted to voice support for empowerment but in reality their actions fell short of an explicit strategy with a clear definition. Involvement in decision making by the front line employees was evident but fell short of a declaration of empowerment. The golden thread of empowerment appears to be dangled just out of reach of this group. The study contributes to existing empowerment literature but also to the specific impact of empowerment in a public service environment. It is important because it focuses on a service area that is experienced and used by the vast majority of citizens. The impact of poor or declining environmental services as well as high quality and improving environmental services is immediately noticeable by all that experience it. It is a service where a strategy of empowerment should bring about a noticeable change in quality.


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common and increasingly prevalent condition in the western society. During AF, the AV-node controls ventricular response to the rapid atrial impulses. However, current research indicates that the individual variability in AV-nodal function is large. Thus, characterization of the AV-node is an important step in determining the optimal form of treatment on an individual basis. Here we employ a multilevel modeling approach, comparing a previously presented statistical model with a novel detailed network model of the AV-nodal function during AF. We demonstrate that both models can be fitted to generate output that closely resembles clinical ECG data, and that estimated parameters in the less complex model corresponds to limited ranges of parameters in the more complex model.


The idea that small loans can help poor families build businesses and exit poverty has blossomed into a global movement. The concept has captured the public imagination, drawn in billions of dollars, reached millions of customers, and garnered a Nobel Prize. Radical in its suggestion that the poor are creditworthy and conservative in its insistence on individual accountability, the idea has expanded beyond credit into savings, insurance, and money transfers, earning the name microfinance. But is it the boon so many think it is? Readers of David Roodman's openbook blog will immediately recognize his thorough, straightforward, and trenchant analysis. Due Diligence , written entirely in public with input from readers, probes the truth about microfinance to guide governments, foundations, investors, and private citizens who support financial services for poor people. In particular, it explains the need to deemphasize microcredit in favor of other financial services for the poor.


The aim of the present paper is to investigate shock and rarefaction waves in a hyperbolic model of incompressible materials. To this aim, we use the so-called extended quasi-thermal-incompressible (EQTI) model, recently proposed by Gouin & Ruggeri (H. Gouin, T. Ruggeri, Internat. J. Non-Linear Mech. 47 688–693 (2012)). In particular, we use as constitutive equation a variant of the well-known Bousinnesq approximation in which the specific volume depends not only on the temperature but also on the pressure. The limit case of ideal incompressibility, namely when the thermal expansion coefficient and the compressibility factor vanish, is also considered.


Unfortunately, many families with the greatest exposure to the economic dislocations of the recent recession also had very risky balance sheets beforehand that were characterized by low levels of liquid assets, high portfolio concentrations in housing, and relatively high balance-sheet leverage. The authors argue that economic vulnerability and risky balance sheets are correlated because they derive from common factors. These factors include a low stock of human capital, inexperience (relative youth), and, in some cases, the legacy of discrimination in housing, education, and employment. Innate cognitive ability interacts with formal education and on-the-job experience to build human capital, while the legacy of discrimination may attenuate the translation of cognitive ability and education into human capital. Acquiring financial knowledge of risk management also requires time and experience and is more valuable to those with high levels of human capital and savings available to invest. Given the combination of these factors, individuals and families who are young, less cognitively able, and/or members of historically disadvantaged minorities are more likely to be economically vulnerable and to hold risky balance sheets because they lack financial knowledge and experience. Moreover, balance sheets of economically vulnerable families before the recent recession were especially risky after a decade of financial liberalization and innovation that increased the access of such families to homeownership and historically high leverage. Economically vulnerable families should avoid "doubling down" with risky balance sheets to enhance their future household financial stability.


Hansen's Disease or leprosy brings stigmatization from others and the sufferer himself. The process may be overt or covert with behavioral and psychological/emotional manifestations. A study among the Tausugs of Mindanao using a psycho-linguistic analysis of interviews, along with a psychological test and the use of archival data, among others, brings to light various perceptions, reactions and beliefs regarding causation as well as coping styles of hansenites, their kin and community members in an attempt to develop more culturally sensitive and appropriate educational materials for an HD control programme.


One key feature of proteins that form liquid droplets by phase separation inside a cell is the presence of multiple sites – multivalency – that mediate interactions with other proteins. We know little about the variation of multivalency on evolutionary time scales. Here, we investigated the long-term evolution (∼600 million years) of multivalency in fungal mRNA decapping subunit 2 protein (Dcp2), and in the FET protein family. We found that multivalency varies substantially among the orthologs of these proteins. However, evolution has maintained the length scale at which sequence motifs that enable protein-protein interactions occur. That is, the total number of such motifs per hundred amino acids is higher and less variable than expected by neutral evolution. To help explain this evolutionary conservation, we developed a conformation classifier using machine-learning algorithms. This classifier demonstrates that disordered segments in Dcp2 and FET proteins tend to adopt compact conformations, which is necessary for phase separation. Thus, the evolutionary conservation we detected may help proteins preserve the ability to undergo phase separation. Altogether, our study reveals that the length scale of multivalent interactions is an evolutionarily conserved feature of two classes of phase-separating proteins in fungi and vertebrates.


The externalization of emotion is intrinsically speaker-dependent. A robust emotion recognition system should be able to compensate for these differences across speakers. A natural approach is to normalize the features before training the classifiers. However, the normalization scheme should not affect the acoustic differences between emotional classes. This study presents the iterative feature normalization (IFN) framework, which is an unsupervised front-end, especially designed for emotion detection. The IFN approach aims to reduce the acoustic differences, between the neutral speech across speakers, while preserving the inter-emotional variability in expressive speech. This goal is achieved by iteratively detecting neutral speech for each speaker, and using this subset to estimate the feature normalization parameters. Then, an affine transformation is applied to both neutral and emotional speech. This process is repeated till the results from the emotion detection system are consistent between consecutive iterations. The IFN approach is exhaustively evaluated using the IEMOCAP database and a data set obtained under free uncontrolled recording conditions with different evaluation configurations. The results show that the systems trained with the IFN approach achieve better performance than systems trained either without normalization or with global normalization.


Want the word on Buffy Sainte-Marie? Looking for the best powwow recordings? Wondering what else Jim Pepper cut besides "Witchi Tai To"? This book will answer those questions and more as it opens up the world of Native American music. In addition to the widely heard sounds of Carlos Nakai's flute, Native music embraces a wide range of forms: country and folk, jazz and swing, reggae and rap. Brian Wright-McLeod, producer/host of Canada's longest-running Native radio program, has gathered the musicians and their music into this comprehensive reference, an authoritative source for biographies and discographies of hundreds of Native artists. The Encyclopedia of Native Music recognizes the multifaceted contributions made by Native recording artists by tracing the history of their commercially released music. It provides an overview of the surprising abundance of recorded Native music while underlining its historical value. With almost 1,800 entries spanning more than 100 years, this book leads readers from early performers of traditional songs like William Horncloud to artists of the new millennium such as Zotigh. Along the way, it includes entries for jazz and blues artists never widely acknowledged for their Native roots Oscar Pettiford, Mildred Bailey, and Keely Smith and traces the recording histories of contemporary performers like Rita Coolidge and Jimmy Carl Black, "the Indian of the group" in the original Mothers of Invention. It also includes film soundtracks and compilation albums that have been instrumental in bringing many artists to popular attention. In addition to music, it lists spoken-word recordings, including audio books, comedy, interviews, poetry, and more. With this unprecedented breadth of coverage and extensively cross-referenced, The Encyclopedia of Native Music is an essential guide for enthusiasts and collectors. More than that, it is a gateway to the authentic music of North America music of the people who have known this land from time immemorial and continue to celebrate it in sound.


OBJECTIVE Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) are elevated in the vitreous of diabetic patients and in retinas of diabetic rats associated with increased retinal vascular permeability. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying retinal vascular permeability induced by these cytokines are poorly understood. In this study, the effects of IL-1β and TNF-α on retinal endothelial cell permeability were compared and the molecular mechanisms by which TNF-α increases cell permeability were elucidated. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Cytokine-induced retinal vascular permeability was measured in bovine retinal endothelial cells (BRECs) and rat retinas. Western blotting, quantitative real-time PCR, and immunocytochemistry were performed to determine tight junction protein expression and localization. RESULTS IL-1β and TNF-α increased BREC permeability, and TNF-α was more potent. TNF-α decreased the protein and mRNA content of the tight junction proteins ZO-1 and claudin-5 and altered the cellular localization of these tight junction proteins. Dexamethasone prevented TNF-α–induced cell permeability through glucocorticoid receptor transactivation and nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) transrepression. Preventing NF-κB activation with an inhibitor κB kinase (IKK) chemical inhibitor or adenoviral overexpression of inhibitor κB alpha (IκBα) reduced TNF-α–stimulated permeability. Finally, inhibiting protein kinase C zeta (PKCζ) using both a peptide and a novel chemical inhibitor reduced NF-κB activation and completely prevented the alterations in the tight junction complex and cell permeability induced by TNF-α in cell culture and rat retinas. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that PKCζ may provide a specific therapeutic target for the prevention of vascular permeability in retinal diseases characterized by elevated TNF-α, including diabetic retinopathy.


This study aimed to determine the role of light on the succession of the phytoplankton community during the spring bloom in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. To this end, three successive Lagrangian experiments were carried out between March and April 2003. The three experiments correspond to distinct phases of the bloom development (pre-bloom, bloom peak and post-bloom, respectively) and therefore to different trophic conditions. Phytoplankton (sampled on a daily scale) was grouped in size-based classes (pico and nano+micro) each of them were characterised in terms of chemotaxonomic composition, primary production and photophysiological properties. The phytoplankton community evolved with time changing in both size-class dominance and specie/group dominance within each size class. The bloom peak was characterised by highly dynamic condition (i.e. vertical mixing) and by the dominance of both small (pico) and large (nano and micro) diatoms, as a result of their capacity to photoacclimate to changing light regimes ('physiological plasticity'). Concluding, we suggest that the physiological adaptation to light is the main factor driving the succession of the phytoplankton community during the first phases of the bloom (until the onset of thermal stratification) in the western Mediterranean Sea.


The educational imagination is the capacity to think critically beyond our located, daily experiences of education. It breaks away from the immediacy of personal understanding by placing education within wider, deeper and longer contexts. Boundaries of the Educational Imagination develops the educational imagination by answering six questions: What happens when we expand continuously outwards from one school to all the schools of the world?; What happens if we go inside a school and explore how its material equipment has changed over the past 300 years?; What is the smallest educational unit in our brain and how does it allow an almost infinite expansion of knowledge?; What is the highest level of individual development we can teach students to aspire towards?; What role does education play in a world that is producing more and more complex knowledge increasingly quickly?; How do small knowledge elements combine to produce increasingly complex knowledge forms? Each question goes on a journey towards limit points in education so that educational processes can be placed within a bigger framework that allows new possibilities, fresh options and more critical engagement. These questions are then pulled together into a structuring framework enabling the reader to grasp how this complex subject works.


The Resource and Environmental Policy (REP) Division of CARD needed accurate cost of production system (COPS) budgets to integrate into its existing environmental modeling system. Cost and Returns Estimator (CARE) crop budgets were reorganized and modified to create a unique COPS budget for each rotation, tillage, and irrigation combination in every Agricultural Sector Model (ASM) region in the 12-state area encompassing the Corn Belt, Lake States, and Northern Plains. These consistent budgets allow comparison across the study region and provide cost of production data for environmental and agricultural policy analysis.


The Baltic Sea Region was the focal point of enormous geopolitical change in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Previously, the Soviet Union maintained a strong presence along the Baltic Sea coastline but as a result of its collapse, Germany's reunification and successive European Union (EU) enlargements, the Baltic Sea Region is now an EU-dominated space. Regions of the Russian Federation now find themselves on the periphery. This paper hopes to offer insight into how we can understand Russia in the Baltic Sea Region today and serves as a starting point for empirical research into how Russia's Baltic Sea identity is constituted in national and EU foreign policy. The paper is a critical review of the International Relations (IR) scholarship that has addressed Russia's post-Cold War identity in the Baltic Sea Region. In particular, it addresses the following questions: what tensions and debates exist between different analytical approaches? How can this scholarship help us to understand Russia's identity in the Baltic Sea Region at the present time? What significance do the discourses of 'othering' in the scholarship have for identity-building and inter-regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region? Constructivist and poststructuralist analyses dominated IR discussions on Russia in the Baltic Sea Region in the late 1990s and 2000s (see, for example: Joenniemi et al, 1997; Jaeger, 2000; Joenniemi, 2000; Browning, 2001, 2003; Moisio, 2003; Aalto et al, 2003; Tassinari, 2003; Jakobsen-Obolenski, 2005). They critiqued the persisting Cold War dichotomy of East/West and offered solutions as to how this dichotomy could be overcome through emerging inclusive frameworks such as the Council of the Baltic Sea States and the EU's Northern Dimension. Yet despite expressing optimism for inclusion in the future, these works continued to consider Russian regions as marginalised and not fully included in the region. Other perspectives have acknowledged the ability of Russian regions in the Baltic Sea Region to influence Russian and EU policy by considering the benefits of paradiplomacy for overcoming divisive politics (Joenniemi & Sergunin, 2014) or conceptualising the Kaliningrad Oblast as a marginal space that can exercise agency by simultaneously upholding and evading modernist understandings of territory (Browning & Joenniemi, 2004). Postcolonial perspectives potray Russia as an occupant of the 'middle ground' between the civilised centre and the Orientalised periphery (Morozov, 2013). Such approaches suggest that Russian regions can potentially play an active role in identity politics instead of simply being relegated to the role of 'Other'. Yet such an active role for Russian regions remains largely in the realm of possibility rather than reality for these scholars. This paper considers the implications of IR discourses of 'othering' for identity-building and inter-regional cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region and consider whether the epistemic community has in fact reinscribed the exclusionary dynamics that it has sought to overcome.


Constraint programming is a step toward ideal programming: you merely define the problem domain and the constraints the solution must meet and let the computer do the rest. Many constraint programming languages have been developed; the majority of them employ iterative constraint propagation over the problem variables. While such an approach solves many problems and can handle very rich data types, it is often too inefficient to be practical. To address this problem, we developed a constraint programming language called {sets} that uses reduced ordered binary decision diagrams (ROBDDs) as the solution engine. Providing a minimal syntax, the language can be used to solve many finite problems that fit the constraint programming paradigm. The minimal syntax and simple semantics of the language enable the user to create libraries customized for a specific problem domain. {sets} is particularly useful in problems where an efficient search algorithm yet know to exist or can not be developed due to time constraints. As long as the solution domain is finite and discrete, {sets} should be able to describe the problem and search for a solution. We describe the {sets} language through a series of examples, show how it is compiled into C++ code that uses a public-domain ROBDD library, and compare the performance of this language with other constraint languages.


Iraq is rapidly descending into all-out civil war. Unfortunately, the United States probably will not be able to just walk away from the chaos. Even setting aside the humanitarian nightmare that will ensue, a full-scale civil war would likely consume more than Iraq: historically, such massive conflicts have often had highly deleterious effects on neighboring countries and other outside states. Spillover from an Iraq civil war could be disastrous. Thus begins this sobering analysis of what the near future of Iraq could look like, and what America can do to reduce the threat of wider conflict. Preventing spillover of the Iraqi conflict into neighboring states must be a top priority. In explaining how that can be accomplished, Daniel Byman and Kenneth Pollack draw on their own considerable expertise as well as relevant precedents. The authors scrutinize several recent civil wars, including Lebanon, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Bosnia. After synthesizing those experiences into lessons on how civil wars affect other nations, Byman and Pollack draw from them to produce recommendations for U.S. policy. Even while the Bush Administration attempts to prevent further deterioration of the situation in Iraq, it needs to be planning how to deal with a full-scale civil war if one develops.


Igneous sills are common components in rifted sedimentary basins globally. Much work has focused on intrusions emplaced at relatively shallow palaeodepths (0 – 1.5 km). However, owing to constraints of seismic reflection imaging and limited field exposures, intrusions emplaced at deeper palaeodepths (>1.5 km) within sedimentary basins are not as well understood in regard to their emplacement mechanisms and host-rock interactions. Results from a world-class, seismic-scale outcrop of intruded Jurassic sedimentary rocks in East Greenland are presented here. Igneous intrusions and their host rocks have been studied in the field and utilizing a 22 km long 'virtual outcrop' acquired using helicopter-mounted lidar. The results suggest that the geometries of the deeply emplaced sills (c. 3 km) are dominantly controlled by host-rock lithology, sedimentology and cementation state. Sills favour mudstones and even exploit centimetre-scale mudstone-draped dune-foresets in otherwise homogeneous sandstones. Sills in poorly cemented intervals show clear ductile structures, in contrast to sills in cemented units, which show only brittle emplacement structures. The studied host rock is remarkably undeformed despite intrusion. Volumetric expansion caused by the intrusions is almost exclusively accommodated by vertical jack-up of the overburden, on a 1:1 ratio, implying that intrusions may play a significant role in uplift of a basin if emplaced at deep basinal levels. Supplementary materials: Uninterpreted versions of Figures 7, 8 and 11 are available at http://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3281882


Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) is one of the few reversible forms of dementia. Due to their low cost and versatility, Computed Tomography (CT) scans have long been used as an aid to help diagnose intracerebral anomalies such as NPH. However, because CT imaging presents 2-dimensional slices of a 3-dimensional volume, recapitulating the ventricular space in 3-dimensions to facilitate the diagnosis of NPH poses numerous challenges such as head rotation and human error. As such, no well-defined and effective protocol currently exists for the analysis of CT scan-based ventricular, white matter and subarachnoid space volumes in the setting of NPH. The Evan's ratio, an approximation of the ratio of ventricle to brain volume using only one 2D slice of the scan, has been proposed but is not robust. Instead of manually measuring a 2-dimensional proxy for the ratio of ventricle volume to brain volume, this study proposes an automated method of calculating the brain volumes for better recognition of NPH from a radiological standpoint. The method first aligns the subject CT volume to a common space through an affine transformation, then uses a random forest classifier to mask relevant tissue types. A 3D morphological segmentation method is used to partition the brain volume, which in turn is used to train machine learning methods to classify the subjects into non-NPH vs. NPH based on volumetric information.


Countries can make a clean exit from financial assistance, or enter a new programme or a precautionary programme, depending on the sustainability of their public debt and their vulnerability to shocks.

Ireland made a clean exit in December 2013, supported by significant budgetary and current-account adjustment and signs of economic recovery. But Irish debt sustainability is not guaranteed and prudence will be needed to avoid future difficulties.

A clean exit for Portugal is not recommended when its programme ends in May 2014, because compared to Ireland it faces higher interest rates, has poorer growth prospects and has probably less ability to generate a consistently high primary surplus. A precautionary arrangement would be advisable. In case debt sustainability proves difficult to achieve later, some form of debt restructuring may prove necessary.

It is unlikely that Greece will be able to exit its programme in December 2014. A third programme should be put in place to take Greece out of the market until 2030, accompanied by enhanced budgetary and structural reform commitments by Greece, a European boost to economic growth in the euro-area periphery and willingness on the part of lenders to reduce loan charges below their borrowing costs, should public debt levels prove unsustainable despite Greece meeting the loan conditions.

Even assuming all goes well, the three countries will be subject to enhanced post-pro-gramme surveillance for decades. Managing such long-term relationships will be a key challenge.


This study provides a preform design approach for uniform strain distribution in forging products based on a convolutional neural network (CNN). The appropriate preform design prevents underfill problems by improving material flow inside forging dies and achieving a uniform strain distribution in forging products. The forging deformation process and mechanical properties are improved with a uniform strain distribution. The forging and strain distribution results are analyzed through rigid–plastic finite element forging simulations with different initial geometries. The simulation data are fed into the CNN model as an input array, from which the geometric characteristics are extracted by convolution operations with filters (weight array). The extracted features are linked to the considered initial shapes, which are input into the CNN model as an output array. The presented model derives the preform shape for a target forging with uniform strain distributions using the training weights. According to the training database, the proposed design method can be applied to different forging geometries without any iterations. By creating a number of low-level CNN (LC) models based on the training data, the efficiency of the preform design can be improved. The best preform among the derived preform candidates is chosen by comparing the forging results. Compared with previous studies using the same design criteria, the proposed model predicted the preform with a strain distribution improved by 16.3–38.4%.


Background: Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is used to treat relapsing multiple sclerosis and causes lymphopenia in a subpopulation of treated individuals. Much remains to be learned about how the drug affects B- and T-lymphocytes. Objectives: To characterize changes in B- and T-cell phenotype and function induced by DMF and to investigate whether low absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) is associated with unique functional changes. Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected from DMF-treated patients, untreated patients, and healthy controls. A subset of DMF-treated patients was lymphopenic (ALC < 800). Multiparametric flow cytometry was used to evaluate cellular phenotypes. Functional response to non-specific and viral peptide stimulation was assessed. Results: DMF reduced circulating memory B-cells regardless of ALC. Follicular T-helper cells (CD4+ CXCR5+) and mucosal invariant T-cells (CD8+ CD161+) were also reduced. DMF reduced T-cell production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in response to polyclonal (PMA/ionomycin) and viral peptide stimulation, regardless of ALC. No differences in activation-induced cell death or circulating progenitors were observed between lymphopenic and non-lymphopenic DMF-treated patients. Conclusion: These data implicate DMF-induced changes in lymphocytes as an important component of the drug's efficacy and expand our understanding of the functional significance of DMF-induced lymphopenia.


We compare the use of an unsupervised transliteration mining method and a rulebased method to automatically extract lists of transliteration word pairs from a parallel corpus of Hindi/Urdu. We build joint source channel models on the automatically aligned orthographic transliteration units of the automatically extracted lists of transliteration pairs resulting in two transliteration systems. We compare our systems with three transliteration systems available on the web, and show that our systems have better performance. We perform an extensive analysis of the results of using both methods and show evidence that the unsupervised transliteration mining method is superior for applications requiring high recall transliteration lists, while the rule-based method is useful for obtaining high precision lists.


Bacteria make heavy use of two-component regulatory systems to sense external signals. The membrane-localized sensor proteins have histidine kinase and phosphoacceptor domains and communicate to intracellular response regulators, which often act as transcription factors. There are also hybrid two-component systems (HTCSs), which are really "one-component," because the sensor and response regulator sequences are combined. Sonnenburg et al. analyzed the function of an HTCS in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a bacterium that inhabits the human gut. Such bacteria are required for digestion of dietary polysaccharides. The human genome has a meager supply of the required hydrolases and lyases for such digestion, whereas B. thetaiotaomicron's genome encodes more than 200 of the former and more than a dozen of the latter. The gene encoding the HTCS BT3172 was detected in a screen for genes whose expression was enhanced in bacteria residing in the gut of rats eating a diet high in polysaccharides. Loss of BT3172 caused decreased expression of α-mannosidase genes, and expression of BT3172 was enhanced by exposure of bacteria to mannosides. The predicted structure of BT3172 has three transmembrane domains and would result in sensor regions on the periplasmic and cytoplasmic sides of the bacterial inner membrane. The periplasmic sensor might sense mannosides in the environment. The authors used a yeast two-hybrid screen to detect binding partners for the cytoplasmic sensor domain of BT3172 and detected two proteins involved in glucose metabolism--glucose 6-phosphate isomerase and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Thus, the authors speculate that BT3172 may serve to coordinate carbohydrate use and availability. They propose that more complete understanding of gut bacteria could allow "personalized nutrition where diet is matched to the nutrient processing capacity of an individual's microbiota." E. D. Sonnenburg, J. L. Sonnenburg, J. K. Manchester, E. E. Hansen, H. C. Chiang, J. I. Gordon, A hybrid two-component system protein of a prominent human gut symbiont couples glycan sensing in vivo to carbohydrate metabolism. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103, 8834-8839 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This strategic project has brought fresh ideas, an added value focus and enhanced technical standards to a company's new egg breaking, pasteurisation and packing facility. The project aims were to enhance the company's innovation and production capabilities in order to bring new liquid egg products to Irish food manufacturing, service and retail customers. Evidence of achievement exists in the form of new liquid egg white and whole egg products in 500 and 1000 ml bottles, market intelligence, product functionality data and recipes, an expanded food manufacturing, service and retail customer base, including Musgraves, Dunnes and Tesco, and documented HACCP/food safety management systems and Standard Operating Procedures in line with BRC issue 6 requirements. The knowledge resulting from the project has helped identify new customers, highlighted the need for a technical person in high risk liquid egg production and laid the foundation for BRC issue 6 accreditation.


In this paper a drop on demand based method of joining metallic layers of about 20 µm thick- ness with Cu-conductors of 100 µm diameter is presented. The process is based on melting spherical preforms of copper based braze (CuSn12) with a liquidus temperature of 990 °C (1). In the process, a braze preform is induced into a ceramic capillary, molten by a laser pulse and expelled out of the machining head via nitrogen overpressure. After a flight phase the braze droplet wets the surface of the electrode structure and the copper resulting in a firm joint after solidification. The shear strengths of the joints were measured to be 31 MPa for joints on Al2O3 substrates and 37 MPa for joints generated on LTCC substrates with screen printed Ag electrode structures. The shear strengths after temperature shock tests according to DIN EN 60068-2-14 indicate good performance of the joints in harsh environments. The average resistivity of a joint was tested by four wire testing and found to be 1.56 ± 0.33 mΩ. The introduced setup is capable to join thin metallic layers of 30 - 15 µm thickness with cu conductors of 100 µm diameter without the need of flux.


In spite of the growing attention to climate-induced migration, a coherent understanding of the matter is lacking—as any articulated governance strategy. Although such an impasse relates to the unprecedented socioecological processes involved, we argue that many of the challenges posed by climate-induced migration are not unique in the history of global environmental governance. Proceeding from this, we compare climate migration with the issue of desertification. Drawing upon the concept of environmental myth developed in Political Ecology, we identify common themes such as scientism, vagueness, and ambiguities in the definitions, and a tendency to envision one-fits-all solutions that overlook the multiscalar phenomena involved. We discuss how these traits have contributed to the failure of the desertification regime. Consequently, we propose that climate migration debates should move beyond such deficiencies, to avoid the consolidation of policy responses reproducing the same problems that have characterized the regime on desertification.


This paper explores the factors associated with the success of impact evaluations, drawing on the experience of two major funders of impact evaluations: the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie). We first define successful evaluations along three dimensions: reliability, relevance, and policy influence. Based on a review of the literature we build a conceptual framework including the main factors associated with success at the stages of design, implementation, and analysis of results. We review selected impact evaluations recently funded by 3ie and DFID, we identify successful ones and we discuss characteristics associated with success. We find that careful planning, research team skills and composition, and sample size of the study are key elements of success. We also discuss unsuccessful cases of impact evaluations and suggest some guidance with regards to discontinuing studies facing implementation problems. We conclude with some reflections to help researchers and funders concentrate resources and efforts where they are most needed for the success of impact evaluations


Work zones often deviate from normal conditions in terms of geometrics (e.g. lane closure, narrow lanes), striping/markings, signs, and traffic. A Mobile Work Zone (MWZ) is a special category of a work zone where the location of the work zone keeps changing, often rapidly. Despite MWZ safety being of great interest to transportation agencies, they have not studied it formally. This paper presents an examination of MWZs and collisions involving Truck-Mounted Attenuators (TMAs). This examination utilized data fusion of three major databases from Missouri: crash reports, department of transportation claim reports, and MWZ schedules. The fused dataset involved 139 crashes from 2012-2017. The areas of interest included initial impact location, contributing factors, third-party versus employee fault, vehicle type, work zone activity, seasonality, speed limit, time of day, collision lane, and work train configuration. The majority of the crashes were the fault of third parties (>80%) and distraction/inattentiveness was the largest contributory factor (66%). Public outreach and education should emphasize on the difficulty in providing early warnings of MWZs. There is a significant percentage of crashes involving lane changing (39.2%) and even collision of the middle TMA truck (21.8%). Thus, it is important for the public to understand that an entire work train is an integral unit. Higher speed limit dominated MWZ crashes (>75%), even though they only represented 3.6% of the MWZs scheduled. The results of this study on MWZs provide some foundation for other researchers to pursue statistical modeling, assuming that a larger database of MWZ crashes could be developed.


Abstract. This paper quantifies the pre-industrial (1850) to present-day (2014)
effective radiative forcing (ERF) of anthropogenic emissions of NOX,
volatile organic compounds (VOCs; including CO), SO2, NH3, black carbon, organic carbon, and
concentrations of methane, N2O and ozone-depleting halocarbons, using
CMIP6 models. Concentration and emission changes of reactive species can
cause multiple changes in the composition of radiatively active species:
tropospheric ozone, stratospheric ozone, stratospheric water vapour,
secondary inorganic and organic aerosol, and methane. Where possible we break
down the ERFs from each emitted species into the contributions from the
composition changes. The ERFs are calculated for each of the models that
participated in the AerChemMIP experiments as part of the CMIP6 project,
where the relevant model output was available. The 1850 to 2014 multi-model mean ERFs (± standard deviations) are
−1.03 ± 0.37 W m−2 for SO2 emissions, −0.25 ± 0.09 W m−2 for organic carbon (OC), 0.15 ± 0.17 W m−2 for black
carbon (BC) and −0.07 ± 0.01 W m−2 for NH3. For the
combined aerosols (in the piClim-aer experiment) it is −1.01 ± 0.25 W m−2. The multi-model means for the reactive well-mixed greenhouse
gases (including any effects on ozone and aerosol chemistry) are 0.67 ± 0.17 W m−2 for methane (CH4), 0.26 ± 0.07 W m−2
for nitrous oxide (N2O) and 0.12 ± 0.2 W m−2 for
ozone-depleting halocarbons (HC). Emissions of the ozone precursors nitrogen
oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds and both together
(O3) lead to ERFs of 0.14 ± 0.13, 0.09 ± 0.14 and 0.20 ± 0.07 W m−2 respectively. The differences in
ERFs calculated for the different models reflect differences in the
complexity of their aerosol and chemistry schemes, especially in the case of
methane where tropospheric chemistry captures increased forcing from ozone
production.


Performing Building Sites is the formulation of one of many possible critical strategies for curating. Performing Building Sites are approached as subject, site, and/or metaphor, proposing an understanding of architecture and construction as processual and hybrid fields of material and spatial practice. The project aims to explore methods for curatorial analysis and intervention on space, spanning from theoretical to practice oriented approaches. The Thesis is developed as both an academic research and as a curatorial project, extending the new research field of Curatorial Knowledge.

The curator is proposed as a field practitioner, studying and intervening in existing spaces, and, sometimes, creating space. Central to this argument are theoretical and empirical knowings acquired through fieldwork. Situating the curator in space, producing research on spaces, suggests an implicated position for curating, and researching: in/on/through space.

The academic research closely articulates with questions from a personal body of work developed by the author along a decade as an architect/researcher/curator. The images accompanying the study are (mostly) originals generated from fieldwork by the author and partners. Mostly set for curators, researchers and other spatial practitioners.


Covering: 2006 to 2017Actinomycetes have been, for decades, one of the most important sources for the discovery of new antibiotics with an important number of drugs and analogs successfully introduced in the market and still used today in clinical practice. The intensive antibacterial discovery effort that generated the large number of highly potent broad-spectrum antibiotics, has seen a dramatic decline in the large pharma industry in the last two decades resulting in a lack of new classes of antibiotics with novel mechanisms of action reaching the clinic. Whereas the decline in the number of new chemical scaffolds and the rediscovery problem of old known molecules has become a hurdle for industrial natural products discovery programs, new actinomycetes compounds and leads have continued to be discovered and developed to the preclinical stages. Actinomycetes are still one of the most important sources of chemical diversity and a reservoir to mine for novel structures that is requiring the integration of diverse disciplines. These can range from novel strategies to isolate species previously not cultivated, innovative whole cell screening approaches and on-site analytical detection and dereplication tools for novel compounds, to in silico biosynthetic predictions from whole gene sequences and novel engineered heterologous expression, that have inspired the isolation of new NPs and shown their potential application in the discovery of novel antibiotics. This review will address the discovery of antibiotics from actinomycetes from two different perspectives including: (1) an update of the most important antibiotics that have only reached the clinical development in the recent years despite their early discovery, and (2) an overview of the most recent classes of antibiotics described from 2006 to 2017 in the framework of the different strategies employed to untap novel compounds previously overlooked with traditional approaches.


This paper discusses the physical mechanism of the operation and construction of new electromagnetic-radiation detectors based on the emission of a hot-electron gas, which use the effect of variation of the thermionic-emission current in a semiconductor diode with a Schottky barrier when the absorbed radiation energy is directly transferred to the electron-gas system in the quasi-metallic layer of the barrier. The fact that the time to establish equilibrium inside the electron-gas system differs from the time to establish an equilibrium state between the electron gas and the phonon system makes it possible to increase the temperature of the electron gas and accordingly the thermionic-emission current without changing the temperature of the crystal lattice of the detector. It becomes possible in this case to detect radiation with quantum energy less than the height of the potential barrier of the Schottky diode and to significantly increase the limiting wavelength of the detector. Taking into account the fact that no thermal insulation of these detectors from the substrate is required, an example is given of how to construct the topological layout of a photodetector array.


Background: Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a common human pathogen, causing infections of orofacial mucosal surfaces (HSV-1) and genital mucosal surfaces (HSV-2). Productive infection results in the formation of vesicular lesions in the mucosal epithelia, followed by spread of the virus to sensory neurons and establishment of a latent infection that may remain for the life of the host.
Material and method: All sequences of glycoprotein E [Human herpes virus 3] were obtained from NCBI and these sequences were subjected to IEDB predicted tools, including B cell and T cell examination, with B cell having multiple tests such as epitopes prediction, surface accessibility and antigenicity prediction; T cell included MHC I and MHC II predicted tools. Finally we used population coverage to select a highest percent of peptides related with different alleles.
Result: We obtained some candidate peptides as vaccine derived peptides from B cell test which had a highest score in Emini surface accessibility ("DEDKLDTNSVYEPYYHSDHAESSWVNRGESSRKAYDHNSPYIWPRNDYDGF") of 21.807, and "LKFVDTPESL" with score 1.061 for Kolaskar and Tongaonkar antigenicity test, in another hand we got a highest affinity of peptides that interacted with major coverage of different alleles in MHC I ("KAYDHNSPY") and in MHC II ("MWNYHSHVF").
Conclusion: The efficiency and safety degree in predicted candidate epitopes by computational examination methods are required to be estimated through studies of animal model, to check whether they are able to induce a good defending immune response or not with previous mentioned properties, and we considered this study as first promising peptide based vaccine of [Human herpes virus 3] glycoprotein E in comparison to the previous studies.


The biomass and optical properties of seagrass leaf epiphytes were measured to evaluate their potential impact on the photosynthetic performance of the seagrasses Thalassia testudinum Banks ex König (turtlegrass) and Zostera marina L. (eelgrass). Turtlegrass was obtained from oligotrophic waters near Lee Stocking Island, Bahamas; eelgrass was collected from a eutrophic environment in Monterey Bay, California. Leaf‐epiphyte loads were characterized visually and quantified using measurements of their phospholipid biomass. Light absorption and reflectance of the intact epiphyte layer were determined spectrophotometrically. Turtlegrass epiphytes from the oligotrophic site absorbed a maximum of 36% of incident light in peak chlorophyll absorption bands, whereas higher epiphyte loads on eelgrass from the more eutrophic Monterey Bay absorbed 60% of incident light in peak chlorophyll absorption bands. The combination of intact epiphyte‐leaf complexes and spectral measurements enabled us to construct a quantitative relationship between epiphyte biomass and light attenuation, and, by extension, between epiphyte biomass and seagrass photosynthesis. The model yielded a robust, positive relationship between epiphyte biomass and the absorption of photons in photosynthetically important wavelengths, and it generated a strong negative relationship between epiphyte biomass and spectral photosynthesis of their seagrass hosts. Furthermore, the calculations of photosynthesis highlighted the significant differences between PAR and spectral models of photosynthesis, illustrating that the spectral quality of the incident flux must be considered when evaluating the effects of epiphyte load on seagrass leaf photosynthesis. Verification of the model—using direct measurements of photosynthesis and a variety of epiphyte and macrophyte combinations from different locations—is warranted.


Today's standard textbooks treat the theoretical structure of electric and magnetic fields, but their emphasis is on electromagnetic radiation and static-electric and magnetic fields. In this book, Eugene Parker provides advanced graduate students and researchers with a much-needed complement to existing texts, one that discusses the dynamic electromagnetism of the cosmos--that is, the vast magnetic fields that are carried bodily in the swirling ionized gases of stars and galaxies and throughout intergalactic space.Parker is arguably the world's leading authority on solar wind and the effects of magnetic fields in the heliosphere, and his originality of thought and distinctive approach to physics are very much in evidence here. Seeking to enrich discussions in standard texts and correct misconceptions about the dynamics of these large-scale fields, Parker engages readers in a series of "conversations" that are at times anecdotal and even entertaining without ever sacrificing theoretical rigor. The dynamics he describes represents the Maxwell stresses of the magnetic field working against the pressure and inertia of the bulk motion of ionized gases, characterized in terms of the magnetic field and gas velocity. Parker shows how this dynamic interaction cannot be fully expressed in terms of the electric current and electric field.Conversations on Electric and Magnetic Fields in the Cosmos goes back to basics to explain why classical hydrodynamics and magnetohydrodynamics are inescapable, even in the deepest reaches of space.


This paper demonstrates how the Cantonese language can simultaneously
serve as a threat to the Beijing government and a counter-hegemonic
articulation of Hong Kong protesters against the Beijing government by applying
the theory of hegemony and the method of critical discourse analysis to Hong
Kong newspapers during the Umbrella Movement. Focusing on how the Cantonese language is used to communicate messages of protest leads to a more thorough understanding of the significance of the language in a Hong Kong identity context.Thus, while Cantonese plays a larger role in the Umbrella Movement protests than scholars give credit for,newspaper discourse also plays a large part in obscuring the connection between Cantonese and the protests. By addressing four research questions regarding Cantonese, I conclude that the three studied newspapers largely conceal the Cantonese discourse in relation to the Umbrella Movement protests. However, when Cantonese is discussed it is mainly along the lines of the political affiliation of the newspaper. Though some newspapers do hint at the counter-hegemonic abilities of Cantonese, this aspect is often undervalued and underappreciated. Likewise, when Cantonese issues are brought up they often converge with issues of national identity, but in a manner to downplay the Cantonese identity.As such, Wen Wei Po makes no effort to detail a Cantonese nation, but instead uses the concept of "Zhong hua min zu" (Chinese nation/Chinese race) to negate any differentiation. Meanwhile, Apple Daily and the South China Morning Post do insinuate the differences of Cantonese and Hong Kong, but keep the dialogue firmly within the "one country, two systems" setup to avoid angering Beijing. The analysis reveals that while newspapers sometimes use the voice of Hong Kong Cantonese,this generally takes place through a small amount of direct quotations and images of signs rather than a large-scale showcasing of the Cantonese identity and Cantonese vernacular.


This book provides a comprehensive description of a new method of proving the central limit theorem, through the use of apparently unrelated results from information theory. It gives a basic introduction to the concepts of entropy and Fisher information, and collects together standard results concerning their behaviour. It brings together results from a number of research papers as well as unpublished material, showing how the techniques can give a unified view of limit theorems.


Objective: To determine the biometric dimensions of human teeth in the mesiodistal, buccolingual and occlusal/incisal-cervical directions. Methods: It was used a sample of dental casts from 57 patients, i.e., 31 females with a mean age of 15 years and 5 months, and 26 males with a mean age of 16 years and 6 months. The sample was previously qualified by adopting the criteria established by Andrews' six keys to normal occlusion, whose values were matched to the variations obtained by Bolton. Two examiners used a digital caliper with original (short) and modified (long) tips. Results and Conclusions: After statistical analysis of the data it was concluded that the teeth were shown to be symmetrical in the dental arches of both genders. Tooth dimensions are smaller in females than in males and should therefore be studied separately. Overall mean values were obtained and used to build tables distinguishing such dimensions according to gender. Mean values for the three tooth dimensions, occurrence rates of these dimensions and their standard deviations were also calculated. These values allowed the development of an equation called "C" equation as well as "C" percentile tables. With the aid of both, it became possible to measure only one dimension of a given tooth to find the other two "probable" dimensions of the other teeth in the dental arches.


Cytoplasmic dynein, a minus end–directed, microtubule-based motor protein, is thought to drive the movement of membranous organelles and chromosomes. It is a massive complex that consists of multiple polypeptides. Among these polypeptides, the cytoplasmic dynein heavy chain (cDHC) constitutes the major part of this complex. To elucidate the function of cytoplasmic dynein, we have produced mice lacking cDHC by gene targeting. cDHC−/− embryos were indistinguishable from cDHC+/−or cDHC+/+ littermates at the blastocyst stage. However, no cDHC−/− embryos were found at 8.5 d postcoitum. When cDHC−/− blastocysts were cultured in vitro, they showed interesting phenotypes. First, the Golgi complex became highly vesiculated and distributed throughout the cytoplasm. Second, endosomes and lysosomes were not concentrated near the nucleus but were distributed evenly throughout the cytoplasm. Interestingly, the Golgi "fragments" and lysosomes were still found to be attached to microtubules. These results show that cDHC is essential for the formation and positioning of the Golgi complex. Moreover, cDHC is required for cell proliferation and proper distribution of endosomes and lysosomes. However, molecules other than cDHC might mediate attachment of the Golgi complex and endosomes/lysosomes to microtubules.


Upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, the smallest islands in this federation – Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba – became special municipalities of the Netherlands, and were hence politically and constitutionally integrated into the Dutch metropolis. The present article seeks to understand this development in the context of the broader academic literature on small, non-sovereign island jurisdictions in the Caribbean and elsewhere. After a description of the reforms and a discussion of the perceived benefits and drawbacks of the new political status, the newly created Dutch Caribbean municipalities are compared with other non-sovereign jurisdictions in the Caribbean. Whereas the choice for political integration in itself can be compared with the French postwar policy of départementalisation, in terms of the historical significance and the direction of the reforms, the new political situation on Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba could rather be better likened to that of the British Overseas Territories and their relationship with the United Kingdom.


Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester 1531-55, is familiar as "Wily Winchester," the villain of Foxe's Actes and Monuments. Foxe, however, was building on a long evangelical tradition which cast Gardiner as Antichrist's chief agent in England. This reputation was grounded less on Gardiner's own conduct than on the reformers' need for a scapegoat to explain the failure of their early hopes and to exonerate Henry VIII. Beginning in the late 1530s, the vilification of Gardiner was confirmed by his role in the execution of Robert Barnes, which was perceived as treacherous and underhanded as well as bloodthirsty. Gardiner's effectiveness as a polemicist also attracted attack.After his public return to Roman allegiance in 1553, the charge of inconstancy became central, and he was both ridiculed and feared. The development of his reputation reflects evangelicals' shifting needs and perspectives as well as Gardiner's attempts to control his own image.


This book explores the relationship between the practices of pastoral care and the practices of spiritual direction with the aim of enabling pastoral caregivers to draw upon the guiding principles, resources and techniques of spiritual direction within the Christian tradition. With an emphasis on both "practice" and "presence," the book reclaims the tradition of "soul care" for the pastoral ministry, thereby complementing the medical, or crisis intervention, model of pastoral care with a wellness/growth model of pastoral care.Listening for the Soul: Challenges clergy to take seriously the relationship between pastoral care and spiritual direction. Integrates theological and psychological insights with issues of spiritual life and formation. Includes a chapter on the spiritual formation of children. Provides practical guidance for integrating spiritual direction with pastoral care. Tends to the pastoral caregivers own needs for spiritual deepening Includes reflection questions and case studies to enable the text to function on both the individual reader and classroom levels.


Need a book? Don't know where to find it? Use this guide to locate physical and electronic books at the Sac State Library.


The catalytic ozonation of diclofenac (DCF) with iron silicate-loaded pumice (FSO/PMC) in aqueous solution was investigated. FSO/PMC was synthesized by a co-precipitation–impregnation method and characterized using scanning electron microscope, N 2 adsorption–desorption, X-ray fluorescence, and pH pzc measurements. Results showed that the FSO/PMC/O 3 process obviously improved total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency from 32.3% (using sole ozonation) to 73.3% in 60 min. DCF mineralization in various oxidation processes was found to follow a two-stage pseudo-first-order kinetics. The presence of FSO/PMC effectively improved the mass transfer of ozone from gas to liquid phase and increased the efficiency of ozone decomposition, which results in the formation of •OH radicals. The ozonation of DCF generated large amounts of the ozone-refractory carboxylic acids, and these compounds were found to be continuously removed in the FSO/PMC/O 3 process due to the catalytic activity of FSO/PMC. The synergetic effect between ozonation and FSO/PMC adsorption indicated that FSO/PMC is a promising catalyst for the ozonation process.


Margaret Forster's grandmother died in 1936, taking many secrets to her grave. Where had she spent the first 23 years of her life? Who was the woman in black who paid her a mysterious visit shortly before her death? How had she borne living so close to an illegitimate daughter without acknowledging her? The search for answers took Margaret on a journey into her family's past, examining not only her grandmother's life, but also her mother's and her own. The result is both a moving, evocative memoir and a fascinating commentary on how women's lives have changed over the past century.


Purpose To determine age-related alterations in the retinal tissue perfusion (RTP) and volumetric vessel density (VVD) in healthy subjects. Methods Total 148 healthy subjects (age 18 to 83 years) were enrolled and divided into four groups (G1, <35 years; G2, 35 ∼ 49 years; G3, 50 ∼ 64 years; and G4, ≥65 years). The RTP and VVD were measured at the macula. The RTP was calculated as the blood flow supplying the macular area (ϕ 2.5 mm) divided by the perfused tissue volume of the inner retina from the inner limiting membrane to the outer plexiform layer. The VVD of the macula (ϕ 2.5 mm) was calculated as the vessel density divided by the corresponding tissue volume. Results The RTP and VVD of the retinal vascular network and deep vascular plexus (DVP) reached a peak in G2. Compared to G2, G4 had significantly lower RTP and VVD of DVP (P < 0.05). After 35 years old, age was negatively related to the RTP (r = −0.26, P = 0.02) and VVD of the DVP (r = −0.47, P < 0.001). However, age was positively related to VVD of the superficial vascular plexus (SVP; r = 0.24, P = 0.04) in subjects aged more than 35 years. The RTP was correlated to VVD measurements (r = 0.23–0.37, P < 0.01). Conclusions This is the first study to reveal the age-related alterations in the RTP and VVD during normal aging in a healthy population. Decreased RTP and VVD in the DVP along with increased VVD in the SVP may represent a characteristic pattern of normal aging in the healthy population.


Politics is a trial in which those in government – and those who aspire to serve – make proposals, debate alternatives, and pass laws. Then the jury of public opinion decides. It likes the proposals or actions, or it does not. It trusts the actors, or it doesn't. It moves, always at the margin, and then those who benefit from the movement are declared winners. This book is about that public opinion response. Its most basic premise is that although public opinion rarely matters in a democracy, public opinion change is the exception. Public opinion rarely matters because the public rarely cares enough to act on its concerns or preferences. Change happens only when the threshold of normal public inattention is crossed. When public opinion changes, governments rise or fall, elections are won or lost, and old realities give way to new demands.


Potassium (K(+))-uptake transport proteins present in prokaryote and eukaryote cells are categorized into two classes; Trk/Ktr/HKT, K(+) channel, and Kdp belong to the same superfamily, whereas the remaining K(+)-uptake family, Kup/HAK/KT has no homology to the others, and neither its membrane topology nor crucial residues for K(+) uptake have been identified. We examined the topology of Kup from Escherichia coli. Results from the reporter fusion and cysteine labeling assays support a model with 12 membrane-spanning domains. A model for proton-coupled K(+) uptake mediated by Kup has been proposed. However, this study did not show any stimulation of Kup activity at low pH and any evidence of involvement of the three His in Kup-mediated K(+) uptake. Moreover, replacement of all four cysteines of Kup with serine did not abolish K(+) transport activity. To gain insight on crucial residues of Kup-mediated K(+) uptake activity, we focused on acidic residues in the predicted external and transmembrane regions, and identified four residues in the membrane regions required for K(+) uptake activity. This is different from no membrane-localized acidic residues essential for Trk/Ktr/HKTs, K(+) channels and Kdp. Taken together, these results demonstrate that Kup belongs to a distinct type of K(+) transport system.


Background: Studies of gingival bleeding and the effects of antioxidants on extracellular matrix and immunologic and inflammatory responses provide a rationale for hypothesizing that antioxidants reduce the risk for gingival bleeding. Methods: This study evaluated the role of antioxidants as contributing risk factors for gingival bleeding utilizing the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NAHNES III). A sample of 18,825 adults (20 to ≥ 90 years of age), with dental measurement and assessment of serum levels of antioxidants were included in the study. Gingival bleeding was defined as those who had more than 30 percent of gingival bleeding in 28 sites examined. SPSS version 11.0 software and Epi-info 2000 were used to perform the statistical analysis. Results: Using multiple logistic regression in five separate antioxidants, the study showed an association between increased plasma levels of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and decreased risk for gingival bleeding (OR= 0.33; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.72). An inverse relationship was also found between gingival bleeding and serum levels of beta carotene (OR=1.93; 95% CI 1.05 to 3.54). However, negative association was found between gingival bleeding and vitamin A (OR=2.60; 95% CI 1.04 to 6.50). No statistically significant association was observed between gingival bleeding and serum levels in vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) and selenium. Conclusion: Antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin A, and beta carotene, were significant risk factors for gingival bleeding. This should be emphasized for improving the oral health of the U.S. adult population.


The development of efficient, durable, and cost‐effective bifunctional electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential in the advancement of solar fuels, metal–air batteries, and unitized regenerative fuel cells. This work demonstrates an effective approach of activating 2D carbon for highly efficient bifunctional oxygen reactions without N‐doping, let alone a transition metal–nitrogen (TM–Nx) moiety, the usual component needed for high oxygen electrocatalytic activities. A solvothermally synthesized ceria (CeO2)–hydroxylated graphene hybrid catalyst shows excellent bifunctional ORR/OER activities both in alkaline and acidic solutions. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the activation of graphene occurs via topmost oxygens on ceria surface, but only when low coverage of hydroxyl groups is present on graphene. Furthermore, catalytically active forms of graphene share similar hydroxylated structural motifs. Finally, a simple approach of dramatically enhancing durability even in acidic media is demonstrated.


We propose an end-to-end approach for modeling polyphonic music with a novel graphical representation, based on music theory, in a deep neural network. Despite the success of deep learning in various applications, it remains a challenge to incorporate existing domain knowledge in a network without affecting its training routines. In this paper we present a novel approach for predictive music modeling and music generation that incorporates domain knowledge in its representation. In this work, music is transformed into a 2D representation, inspired by tonnetz from music theory, which graphically encodes musical relationships between pitches. This representation is incorporated in a deep network structure consisting of multilayered convolutional neural networks (CNN, for learning an efficient abstract encoding of the representation) and recurrent neural networks with long short-term memory cells (LSTM, for capturing temporal dependencies in music sequences). We empirically evaluate the nature and the effectiveness of the network by using a dataset of classical music from various composers. We investigate the effect of parameters including the number of convolution feature maps, pooling strategies, and three configurations of the network: LSTM without CNN, LSTM with CNN (pre-trained vs. not pre-trained). Visualizations of the feature maps and filters in the CNN are explored, and a comparison is made between the proposed tonnetz-inspired representation and pianoroll, a commonly used representation of music in computational systems. Experimental results show that the tonnetz representation produces musical sequences that are more tonally stable and contain more repeated patterns than sequences generated by pianoroll-based models, a finding that is directly useful for tackling current challenges in music and AI such as smart music generation.


While vaccination efforts against SARS-CoV-2 around the world are ongoing, new highly infectious virus variants continue to evolve. The protection provided by the available vaccines against some of the new variants is weaker. Additional preventive measures will therefore be needed to protect the population until effective vaccinations are widely available. TaffiX ® is an anti-viral nasal powder spray comprised of low-pH hypromellose, which forms a protective mechanical barrier that prevents viruses from engaging with nasal cells. The current study aimed to test the protective effect of TaffiX ® against SARS-CoV-2 Alpha (B.1.1.7; hCoV-19/Israel/CVL46879-ngs/ 2020), Beta, (B.1.351; hCoV19/Israel/CVL-2557-ngs/2020) and Delta (B.1.617.2; hCoV-19/Israel/ VVL-12806/2021), three highly infectious and pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 strains. A nylon filter was treated with Taffix® gel, after which SARS-CoV-2 Alpha, Beta or Delta was seeded. After a 10-min incubation, the downstream Arch Clin Biomed Res 2021; 5 (5): 794-802 DOI: 10.26502/acbr.50170202 Archives of Clinical and Biomedical Research Vol. 5 No. 5 – October 2021. [ISSN 2572-9292]. 795 side of each filter was washed, and the rinse was collected and placed over Vero-E6 cells. After 5 days of incubation, viral RNA was extracted and subjected to SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR analysis. Taffix ® fully blocked passage of all three tested SARS-CoV-2 variants, as demonstrated by a 100% reduction of recoverable viral RNA from Vero-E6 cells, as compared to cells treated with rinse from filters not treated with Taffix(R). These results support its use as an effective barrier against new variants of SARSCoV-2 in conjunction with other protective measures.


Background and purpose: Osteoporosis is a common disease characterized by low bone mass that can harm health. Lactoferrin increase osteogenesis. PerFlourooctyl Bromide is a neutral particle that used as a drug carier. Materials and methods: In this study, lactoferrin (LF) of Camel milk were isolated. PFOB-NEP was prepared using an oil-in-water emulsion method (O/W). and then evaluated by The zeta potential measurement methods and tryptophan fluorescence spectroscopy before and after loaded by lactoferrin. The concentrations of 25, 50 and 100 μg/mL of LF were loaded on perflourooctylbromide -NEPs. The effects of standard LF, the LF, and LF loaded on PFOB-NEPs on growth of osteoblasts Cell Line (MG63) was studied using MTT assay. Results: The results showed that the LF and the LF loaded on PFOB-NEPs significantly increased Osteoblast cells proliferation. But there was no significant difference between the LF and LF uploaded on PFOB-NEPs (α<1%). But there were significant differences of growth in different concentrations of lactoferrin relative to each other in both lactoferrin and lactoferrin loaded on nanoparticles (α<5%). Conclusion: The results proved that LF of camel milk causes the growth of osteoblasts cells in MG-63 cell lines. It is also possible to load LF on PFOB-NEPs and this nanoparticle could be used as carriers of lactoferrin.


This paper analyses the intermediation efficiency and productivity of Kenyan commercial banks between 2001 and 2011. It is anchored on the research evaluating the intermediation efficiency and productivity of commercial banks in Kenya. The study adopts a non-parametric approach Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze intermediation efficiency in the banking sector and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to measure productivity growth of banks in Kenya. The study finds that while the 2007/2008 post-election violence and the Global Financial Crisis caused a short-term increase in efficiency in 2008 primarily due to cost-cutting, increases in non-performing loans in 2009 after the crisis caused a more sustained decline in bank efficiency. It is also found that in 2009 there was high technological improvement in the banking industry with large banks showing increase in technological innovations by the largest percentage as compared to medium and small banks. Nonetheless the large decline in bank output in the same period resulted into a decline in bank productivity. In general the results show that though the banks in Kenya have a high efficiency score they is need to improve in their scale of operations so as to be fully efficient.


Science and technology (S&T) are considered to be a central source, or at least a basic medium, of societal and industrial innovation, while innovation is conceived to basically feed the regeneration of our welfare. The suppliers of S&T in Europe as well as the users of their "products", are confronted with a number of challenges today. We want to stress here that it was not the primary goal of our Advanced Science & Technology Policy Planning (ASTPP) Network to come up with proposals how the strategic character of European S&T policies could be strengthened. The ASTPP-network instead focuses on one aspect: the provision of strategic intelligence necessary to identify and develop strategic choices. The underlying hypothesis is that the existing body of experiences with technology foresight, technology assessment and S/T policy evaluation provides a basis for the development of an advanced S&T policy "planning" approach by trying to enhance, interlink or even integrate the growing, but still dispersed experience in these three areas of intelligence. By "intelligent" we mean that the inter-relatedness of S&T, industrial efforts, societal needs and political interventions becomes more transparent so that interactive collaboration between them will be facilitated.


Herbal plants are used and preserved in curing different diseases since ancient times. These herbal plants were used for the prevention and protection of various diseases. Trillium govanianum is one of the magical herbal plants with lots of medicinal value and also known as Himalaya Trillium or Nag Chhatri, Teen Patra, tri flower or birthroot belonging to family Trilliaceae. Himalayan trillium is a trifoliate perennial herb with deep red and greenish colour flowers and it is manly found in Himalayas. Mainly in China, Nepal, Butan. Trillium mainly contains steroids saponin. Trillium medicinal activity is due to the presence of various important phytoconstituents and metabolites. This plant is very useful in curing many disorders but mainly used in the treatment of cancer. So it is also known as anticancer herb. As Trillium is an endangered species hence its preservation should be done. So in the present review we study and investigate about the biological activities of T. govanianum with its different species. T. govanianum conservation and preservation is necessary as it is very important herb in curing different types of illnesses. This can be cured by using this magical herb. T. govanianum proves to be the most important herb in the system of medicines as this plant possesses lot of therapeutic value.


This chapter forms the land case study for Spain. As with all empirical chapters it explores several key themes in relation to food charity in Spain:
• the history of food charity in the national context and the relationship between the welfare state and charities;
• the nature of and drivers behind contemporary food charity provision;
• key changes in social policy and their impact on rising charitable food provision;
• and the social justice implications of increasing need for charitable assistance with food.
The chapter concludes with critical reflections on the future direction of food charity provision in the Spain and the implications of this.


I l l u s t r a t i o n b y S c o t t R o b e r t s , © 2 0 0 7 Stepping up to the Challenge T he political philosophy (from the U.S. Declaration of Independence) that "all men are created equal" succinctly captures the raison d'être and phenomenal successes of American higher education. Today, the deepest commitment to this idea of fair play is affordable access to a higher education that offers the opportunity to cultivate knowledge, envision and pursue a rewarding and better future, and learn to condition the "pursuit of happiness" by a commitment to the common good. And even though higher education is not an entitlement at any level of U.S. government, numerous national reports argue that higher education must continue to be an affordably accessible opportunity for all Americans as the basis for innovation, economic development, and a national competitive edge in the hypercompetitive global knowledge economy.


The impervious surfaces in urban areas often increase overland flow and river discharge leading to flooding issues. Green roof, being one low impact development technique, can potentially facilitate stormwater management and advert flooding problems. Although there are a number of studies examining the hydrologic behaviour of green roof, they are often limited to the monitoring periods which may not involve extreme rainfall events. They are also specific to the rainfall conditions of the study areas, making it difficult to transfer the knowledge to other countries. This study uses numerical models to quantify the hydrological behaviour of green roof and to examine the effectiveness of green roof in stormwater management. In particularly, it compares its performance in extreme rainfall events of different countries. A one-dimensional variably-saturated flow model is used. The calibrated model is subjected to the rainfall conditions of a few cities (i.e., Hong Kong, Singapore, Nagoya and London) of two-year return period. The reduction and the delay of the peak discharge, and the fraction of water retained are compared. The green roof performances (e.g., peak reduction, rainfall retained) vary due to the differences in rainfall characteristics (e.g., temporal pattern, total rainfall volume). The modeling results from different countries allow a consistent comparison, generating insights that might facilitate the transfer of results across countries. Overall, this study improves our understanding of hydrological behaviour of green roofs for stormwater management, in particularly benefiting the interpretation of green roof hydrological studies performed at rainfall conditions different from the area of interests.


OF THESIS LOW COST FLOW SENSING FOR FIELD SPRAYERS Precisely measuring the flow rate in sprayers is a key technology to precision agriculture. With the development of advanced technologies, the demand for the ability to measure flow rate of individual nozzle has become more important and urgent. This paper investigates the possibility of developing a low-cost flow rate measurement technique. The technique is based on analyzing the acoustic signal from a microphone placed near the nozzle tip. A comparison between acoustic signal and vibration signal was made to study the relations between them. Then several possible locations of the microphone for measuring flow rate were tested and compared, and one has been chosen as the best location. After that, two methods of analyzing data were proposed, one that could better describe the original curve was chosen. With all of that work done, further experiments were conducted on a variety of nozzle tips. The results showed that an acoustic sensor could be used as an indicator of flow rate from a nozzle, but that unique calibrations for different nozzle tips would be necessary.


The concept of population screening—proactive identification of a condition, disease or predisease state in individuals who presume themselves to be healthy but may benefit from early treatment—is a simple one. The translation of this into a screening programme often raises ethical, conceptual and practical challenges. For clinicians used to dealing with patients symptomatically, there are several key differences to understand between treating patients symptomatically compared with the approach to supporting the delivery of a screening programme.

There is a range of definitions of screening, which may be a source of confusion. McKeown defined screening as 'medical intervention which does not arise from a patient's request for advice for a specific complaint'.1 This may cover (a) research for the validation of a procedure or (b) tests done for public health reasons, for example, to identify the source of infection in a food outbreak or (c) as a direct contribution to the health of the individual. This third meaning is now the most common. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) defines screening as follows: 'Screening is the process of identifying healthy people who may be at increased risk of the disease or condition. The screening provider then offers information, further tests and treatment to reduce associated risks or complications'.2

Raffle AE and Gray JAM3 emphasises the point that the population screened believe themselves to be well but widens the purpose of screening to include both (i) to reduce the risk of future ill health, for example, when adults are screened for hypertension, the intervention involves risks with drugs and the risk of stroke is reduced or (ii) to give information, even though the risk cannot be changed, for example, when a pregnant woman who would not contemplate termination of pregnancy chooses to be screened for Down's syndrome, in …


The magnetic chemically peculiar (mCP) stars of the upper main sequence exhibit periodic light, magnetic, radio, and spectroscopic variations that can be adequately explained by a model of a rigidly rotating magnetized star with persistent surface structures. The majority of mCP stars rotate at strictly constant periods. However, there are a few mCP stars whose rotation periods vary on timescales of decades while the shape of their phase curves remains unchanged. In the case of CU Vir and V901 Ori, we have detected cyclic period variations. We demonstrate that the period oscillations of CU Vir may be a consequence of the interaction of the internal magnetic field and differential rotation.


Identifying vehicles across cameras in traffic surveillance is fundamentally important for public safety purposes. However, despite some preliminary work, the rapid vehicle search in large-scale datasets has not been investigated. Moreover, modelling a view-invariant similarity between vehicle images from different views is still highly challenging. To address the problems, in this paper, we propose a Ranked Semantic Sampling (RSS) guided binary embedding method for fast cross-view vehicle Re-IDentification (Re-ID). The search can be conducted by efficiently computing similarities in the projected space. Unlike previous methods using random sampling, we design tree-structured attributes to guide the mini-batch sampling. The ranked pairs of hard samples in the mini-batch can improve the convergence of optimization. By minimizing a novel ranked semantic distance loss defined according to the structure, the learned Hamming distance is view-invariant, which enables cross-view Re-ID. The experimental results demonstrate that RSS outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches and the learned embedding from one dataset can be transferred to achieve the task of vehicle Re-ID on another dataset.