The problem
Human existence depends on nature! Nature provides a range of services, often referred to as ecosystem services. These are the benefits humans receive, directly or indirectly, from nature. The four major groups of ecosystem services include provisioning services (food, fibre, timber, water, etc.), regulating services (air quality and climate regulation, water regulation, erosion regulation, pollination, etc.), supporting services (soil formation, nutrient and water cycling, photosynthesis, etc.) and cultural services (cultural diversity, spiritual and religious values, knowledge systems, recreation, ecotourism, etc.). Biodiversity, which is very often defined as "totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region" is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems (nature in wide).
World leaders have already held several important meetings on sustainable development and biodiversity, among which the most notable were the 1992 Rio de Janeiro and the 2002 Johannesburg Earth Summits. However, despite increased efforts made in the last decade or so, protection of biodiversity has not been realised. The loss of natural resources and damage to the global biodiversity goes on. According to the UN reports, biodiversity and fish stocks are depleted, desertification claims more and more fertile land and air, soil, water and marine pollution continues, robbing millions of people of a decent life. Millennium Development Goal number 7, to ensure environmental sustainability as defined at the Johannesburg Earth Summit, is unlikely to be achieved.

The role of agriculture
Appropriate land management is essential for biodiversity and agriculture plays an important role in biodiversity maintenance. Many areas of high natural value require some degree of management. Human intervention or rather stewardship has become even more important since the disappearance or extinction of large herbivores, notably ungulates. Landscape, ecosystem, species and gene diversity is enhanced or preserved with appropriate land management techniques- primarily by mowing, grazing, browsing and trampling. Even the most valuable species-rich grasslands require some minimum grazing pressure to maintain the sward.
Intensive agriculture is often detrimental to biodiversity. Land reclamation, narrow crop rotation, monocultures, the use of just few modern varieties (including GMOs) and breeds, the application of agrichemicals and in some cases livestock manure (oversupply) has lead to the decline of biodiversity on agricultural land.

Organic farming and biodiversity
Numerous studies indicate that in general, organic farming is more beneficial to biodiversity than non-organic management. Due to careful management, ecological infrastructure maintenance, moderate nutrients input and avoidance of agrichemicals, organically farmed areas very often have a much higher abundance and diversity of plants, invertebrates, birds and mammals. In comparison to non-organic farms, organic farms show more weed and total plant species, have more evenly distributed numbers among genera and harbour more native and exotic plant species than conventional systems. They often attract significantly more predatory species, earthworms, butterflies, spiders, bees, bats, birds and bees and food chains appear more often on organic than conventional farms. However, in some cases, from the biodiversity point of view, traditional farming systems (e.g. pastoral) appear to be more appropriate than (certified) organic management.

Objectives
The conference objectives were to:
1.Inform about potentials and challenges of organic farming in regard to biodiversity.
2.Provide opportunity to exchange ideas about research, education and demonstration projects and opportunities on organic farming and biodiversity.
3.Inspire to adopt policies fostering development of organic farming and promoting the spread of its practices.

Target group
The conference has brought together a range of organic farming stakeholders, mainly from Central and East European countries, the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The participants are expected to come from the ministries, universities, research institutes, extension service, organic NGOs and the business sector.


This paper describes one vision for future Earth observing systems. New in this vision is the desire for symbiotic communication to dynamically guide an observation system. An earth observation system which is not just a single satellite acting on its own but a constellation of satellites, and sub-orbital platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles, and ground observations interacting with computer systems used for modeling, data analysis and dynamic observation guidance. An autonomous objectively optimized observation direction system (OOODS) is of great utility for earth observation. In particular, to have a fleet of smart assets that can be reconfigured based on the changing needs of science and technology. The OOODS integrates a modeling and assimilation system within the sensor web allowing the autonomous scheduling of the chosen assets and the autonomous provision of analyses to users. The OOODS operates on generic principles that could easily be used in configurations other than the specific examples described here. Metrics of what we do not know (state vector uncertainty) are used to define what we need to measure and the required mode, time and location of the observations, i.e. to define in real time the observing system targets. Metrics of how important it is to know this information (information content) are used to assign a priority to each observation. The metrics are passed in real time to the sensor web observation scheduler to implement the observation plan for the next observing cycle. The same system could also be used to reduce the cost and development time in an observation sensitivity simulation experiment (OSSE) mode for the optimum development of the next generation of space and ground-based observing systems.


The goal of this work is to establish the range of visual-haptic asynchronies that go unnoticed when touching an object. To perform a psychophysical study, however, we would need asynchronous visual-haptic stimuli, but because the contact of the finger with a real object inevitably creates synchronized haptic feedback, here we employ instead a virtual reproduction of the interaction. Participants immersed in a realistic Virtual Reality environment tapped on a virtual object with their index while viewing a fully articulated representation of their hand. Upon tapping, they received haptic feedback in the form of vibration at their fingertip. After each tap, participants judged whether they perceived the view of the contact and the haptic signal to be synchronous or asynchronous and they also reported which of the two seemed to happen first. Despite the difference between the two judgments, results indicate that none of the 19 participants could reliably detect the asynchrony if haptic feedback was presented less than 50ms after the view of the contact with an object. The asynchrony tolerated for haptic before visual feedback was instead only 15ms. These findings can be used as guidelines for haptic feedback in hand-based interactions in Virtual Reality.


Focusing on the living arts--dance, theatre, music, performance art, ritual, and popular entertainment-- performance studies expands our understanding of "performance" as both a vital artistic practice and a means by which to understand social and cultural processes. Bridging the gap between cultural studies, performing arts, and anthropology, performance studies explores myriad ways in which performance creates meaning and shapes our everyday lives. The broadest and most inclusive volume to date, The Ends of Performance both celebrates and critiques the institutionalization of the field. Only recently has the field given keen attention to the interpretive force and consequences of performance events, and it is these consequences that the The Ends of Performance articulates. Here performance studies illuminates the complex social and cultural formations of our time--the impact of virtual technology, the racialized discourses of legal and cultural citizenship, the impact of new medical discourses, and the medicalization of the body. Featuring work by leading theorists such as Joseph Roach, Diana Taylor, and Richard Schechner, excursions into performative writing by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Della Pollock, and texts by performance artists Orlan and Deb Margolin, The Ends of Performance illuminates the provocative intellectual ends which motivate these varied approaches to performing writing, and to writing performance.


Widespread landscape changes are presently observed in the Arctic and are most likely to accelerate in the future, in particular in permafrost regions which are sensitive to climate warming. To assess current and future developments, it is crucial to understand past environmental dynamics in these landscapes. Causes and interactions of environmental variability can hardly be resolved by instrumental records covering modern time scales. However, long-term environmental variability is recorded in paleoenvironmental archives. Lake sediments are important archives that allow reconstruction of local limnogeological processes as well as past environmental changes driven directly or indirectly by climate dynamics. This study aims at reconstructing Late Quaternary permafrost and thermokarst dynamics in central-eastern Beringia, the terrestrial land mass connecting Eurasia and North America during glacial sea-level low stands. In order to investigate development, processes and influence of thermokarst dynamics, several sediment cores from extant lakes and drained lake basins were analyzed to answer the following research questions:
1. When did permafrost degradation and thermokarst lake development take place and what were enhancing and inhibiting environmental factors?
2. What are the dominant processes during thermokarst lake development and how are they reflected in proxy records?
3. How did, and still do, thermokarst dynamics contribute to the inventory and properties of organic matter in sediments and the carbon cycle?
Methods applied in this study are based upon a multi-proxy approach combining sedimentological, geochemical, geochronological, and micropaleontological analyses, as well as analyses of stable isotopes and hydrochemistry of pore-water and ice. Modern field observations of water quality and basin morphometrics complete the environmental investigations.
The investigated sediment cores reveal permafrost degradation and thermokarst dynamics on different time scales. The analysis of a sediment core from GG basin on the northern Seward Peninsula (Alaska) shows prevalent terrestrial accumulation of yedoma throughout the Early to Mid Wisconsin with intermediate wet conditions at around 44.5 to 41.5 ka BP. This first wetland development was terminated by the accumulation of a 1-meter-thick airfall tephra most likely originating from the South Killeak Maar eruption at 42 ka BP. A depositional hiatus between 22.5 and 0.23 ka BP may indicate thermokarst lake formation in the surrounding of the site which forms a yedoma upland till today. The thermokarst lake forming GG basin initiated 230 ± 30 cal a BP and drained in Spring 2005 AD. Four years after drainage the lake talik was still unfrozen below 268 cm depth.
A permafrost core from Mama Rhonda basin on the northern Seward Peninsula preserved a full lacustrine record including several lake phases. The first lake generation developed at 11.8 cal ka BP during the Lateglacial-Early Holocene transition; its old basin (Grandma Rhonda) is still partially preserved at the southern margin of the study basin. Around 9.0 cal ka BP a shallow and more dynamic thermokarst lake developed with actively eroding shorelines and potentially intermediate shallow water or wetland phases (Mama Rhonda). Mama Rhonda lake drainage at 1.1 cal ka BP was followed by gradual accumulation of terrestrial peat and top-down refreezing of the lake talik. A significant lower organic carbon content was measured in Grandma Rhonda deposits (mean TOC of 2.5 wt%) than in Mama Rhonda deposits (mean TOC of 7.9 wt%) highlighting the impact of thermokarst dynamics on biogeochemical cycling in different lake generations by thawing and mobilization of organic carbon into the lake system.
Proximal and distal sediment cores from Peatball Lake on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska revealed young thermokarst dynamics since about 1,400 years along a depositional gradient based on reconstructions from shoreline expansion rates and absolute dating results. After its initiation as a remnant pond of a previous drained lake basin, a rapidly deepening lake with increasing oxygenation of the water column is evident from laminated sediments, and higher Fe/Ti and Fe/S ratios in the sediment. The sediment record archived characterizing shifts in depositional regimes and sediment sources from upland deposits and re-deposited sediments from drained thaw lake basins depending on the gradually changing shoreline configuration. These changes are evident from alternating organic inputs into the lake system which highlights the potential for thermokarst lakes to recycle old carbon from degrading permafrost deposits of its catchment.
The lake sediment record from Herschel Island in the Yukon (Canada) covers the full Holocene period. After its initiation as a thermokarst lake at 11.7 cal ka BP and intense thermokarst activity until 10.0 cal ka BP, the steady sedimentation was interrupted by a depositional hiatus at 1.6 cal ka BP which likely resulted from lake drainage or allochthonous slumping due to collapsing shore lines. The specific setting of the lake on a push moraine composed of marine deposits is reflected in the sedimentary record. Freshening of the maturing lake is indicated by decreasing electrical conductivity in pore-water. Alternation of marine to freshwater ostracods and foraminifera confirms decreasing salinity as well but also reflects episodical re-deposition of allochthonous marine sediments.
Based on permafrost and lacustrine sediment records, this thesis shows examples of the Late Quaternary evolution of typical Arctic permafrost landscapes in central-eastern Beringia and the complex interaction of local disturbance processes, regional environmental dynamics and global climate patterns. This study confirms that thermokarst lakes are important agents of organic matter recycling in complex and continuously changing landscapes.

Key words: paleolimnology, permafrost degradation, periglacial landscape evolution, thermokarst processes, carbon cycling, central-eastern Beringia


Tissue abscesses form when bacteria meet cells of the immune system, most notably neutrophils. Corbin et al. (see the Perspective by Novick) now find that the abundant neutrophil protein, calprotectin, protects the host against bacterial growth by chelating metal ions used by the bacteria as nutrients. In mice during bacterial infection, calprotectin was localized to tissue abscesses, where it chelated manganese and zinc ions. Infected mice lacking calprotectin had elevated metal levels and increased bacterial growth in tissue abscesses. B. D. Corbin, E. H. Seeley, A. Raab, J. Feldmann, M. R. Miller, V. J. Torres, K. L. Anderson, B. M. Dattilo, P. M. Dunman, R. Gerads, R. M. Caprioli, W. Nacken, W. J. Chazin, E. P. Skaar, Metal chelation and inhibition of bacterial growth in tissue abscesses. Science 319, 962-965 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text] R. P. Novick, Combating impervious bugs. Science 319, 910-911 (2008). [Summary] [Full Text]


Safety assessment of the infrastructures in a network can be predicted using the extended Petri-Net analysis. The analysis has been applied to a system of floodplain infrastructures consisting of power generating infrastructures, e.g., water storage concrete gravity dam, penstock, power plant and transformer substation. The dam overflow event is deterministic in the network which consequently impacts the operating conditions of the other interdependent infrastructures. The reachability graph has been constructed to generate transition probabilities of different states with which the Markov Chain is developed to find the steady state probability. The obtained results are convincing showing that the shutdown of the infrastructures mostly stems from floodwater exposure.


Science and technologies based on terahertz frequency electromagnetic radiation (100 GHz–30 THz) have developed rapidly over the last 30 years. For most of the 20th Century, terahertz radiation, then referred to as sub-millimeter wave or far-infrared radiation, was mainly utilized by astronomers and some spectroscopists. Following the development of laser based terahertz time-domain spectroscopy in the 1980s and 1990s the field of THz science and technology expanded rapidly, to the extent that it now touches many areas from fundamental science to 'real world' applications. For example THz radiation is being used to optimize materials for new solar cells, and may also be a key technology for the next generation of airport security scanners. While the field was emerging it was possible to keep track of all new developments, however now the field has grown so much that it is increasingly difficult to follow the diverse range of new discoveries and applications that are appearing. At this point in time, when the field of THz science and technology is moving from an emerging to a more established and interdisciplinary field, it is apt to present a roadmap to help identify the breadth and future directions of the field. The aim of this roadmap is to present a snapshot of the present state of THz science and technology in 2017, and provide an opinion on the challenges and opportunities that the future holds. To be able to achieve this aim, we have invited a group of international experts to write 18 sections that cover most of the key areas of THz science and technology. We hope that The 2017 Roadmap on THz science and technology will prove to be a useful resource by providing a wide ranging introduction to the capabilities of THz radiation for those outside or just entering the field as well as providing perspective and breadth for those who are well established. We also feel that this review should serve as a useful guide for government and funding agencies.


This thesis sets out to examine the impact of marketisation on the value chains of a number of English post-1992 universities between 1992 and 2010. The research focuses on the relationships and interplay between knowledge and value in the context of the knowledge economy and the increasing marketisation of the higher education sector. While the extant global value chain (GVC) literature tends to focus on manufacturing networks and chains, this thesis will argue that (quasi-) public service sector value chains, especially those in higher education provide important cases for study. In-depth interviews with twelve members of the 'institutional elite' within the post-1992 sector of higher education, supported by rich documentary analysis, provides compelling evidence for modifications to the existing 'value chain' framework in order to better account for the particularities of (quasi-) public services and service work. The research proposes a typology designed to capture fragmented and commodified knowledge, and its practical manifestations, generated within the higher education sector. Beyond this, it attempts to rationalise the notion of value (in the context of the value chain framework) with the production, diffusion and dissemination of knowledge for higher education institutions. The study also develops a broad value chain for the post-1992 sector of higher education to explore the robustness of the conceptual 'value chain' framework for similar organisations. The research concludes that marketisation has indeed in part been responsible for encouraging universities to re-structure their value chains. It also challenges the conceptual reach of the existing 'value chain' framework by making a number of insightful observations regarding the nature of (higher education) service activities. Specifically, it identifies a number of underplayed factors including (1) the treatment of knowledge and value (2) 'institutional elites' (3) 'ideology as governance' (4) the (quasi-) public service sector and (5) place as having particular consequences for the conceptualisation of (quasi-) public service sector value chains. This is dedicated to my mum, Aileen Macguire, who started with me on this journey but was unable to accompany me to the end. I miss you.


A leading global mental health expert has called for urgent action to reduce suicide rates in India, which are among the highest in the world.

Vikram Patel, professor of international mental health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said suicide rates could be reduced by "relatively low cost" measures such as providing better care for people with depression and restricting access to pesticides, the ingestion of which is a common method of suicide.

Patel said there was a "hidden epidemic" of suicides among young people in India. "Completed suicides are just the tip of the iceberg. Most suicide attempts are simply unreported," he said.

The suicide rate among Indian women, aged 15 years or older, is more …


Abstract
 Rhizochaete is a small genus of crust fungi that is closely related to Phanerochaete. A new species Rhizochaete belizensis is described, and three new combinations are proposed. Morphological studies and molecular sequence data from two nuclear ribosomal DNA regions (ITS and LSU) support the recognition of R. belizensis which is closely related to R. radicata. Analyses of sequence data also support the transfer of Phanerochaete flava to Rhizochaete. Phanerochaete percitrina from Cameroon and Peniophora rhizomorpho-sulphurea from India are transferred to Rhizochaete based on morphological studies of type specimens. Phanerochaete rubescens from Taiwan is placed in synonymy under R. borneensis. In addition, Phanerochaete mauiensis is redescribed and illustrated. A key to 13 accepted species of Rhizochaete and three morphologically similar species is presented.


Many human cancers involve up-regulation of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase PI3Kα, with oncogenic mutations identified in both the p110α catalytic and the p85α regulatory subunits. We used crystallographic and biochemical approaches to gain insight into activating mutations in two noncatalytic p110α domains—the adaptor-binding and the helical domains. A structure of the adaptor-binding domain of p110α in a complex with the p85α inter–Src homology 2 (inter-SH2) domain shows that oncogenic mutations in the adaptor-binding domain are not at the inter-SH2 interface but in a polar surface patch that is a plausible docking site for other domains in the holo p110/p85 complex. We also examined helical domain mutations and found that the Glu545 to Lys545 (E545K) oncogenic mutant disrupts an inhibitory charge-charge interaction with the p85 N-terminal SH2 domain. These studies extend our understanding of the architecture of PI3Ks and provide insight into how two classes of mutations that cause a gain in function can lead to cancer.


We estimate the impact of food transfers on diet and consumption expenditures in food insecure households with HIV positive members on antiretroviral therapy. We use primary data collected from 199 beneficiary and 179 non-beneficiary households in Lusaka, Zambia. Propensity score matching estimates show that the food transfers significantly increase dietary diversity and food consumption expenditures. Our results also show that the food transfers increased the proportion of households with optimal dietary diversity and consuming at least five food groups. The results are robust to variation in the propensity score model and matching technique. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that our results are largely robust to substantial amounts of unobserved selection bias. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of the growing number of HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support programmes providing food assistance in resource poor


: Herein we report on a novel, straightforward and universal strategy to achieve solid materials with highly tunable reverse photochromism. This was accomplished by means of commercially available spiropyran dyes, which can produce different types of stable merocyanine states ( i.e. non-protonated and protonated forms) displaying distinct reverse photochromic properties ( i.e. colours and colouration rates). To finely control the concentration ratio of these species and, as such, tailor the optical performance of the photochromes, we exploited their differential interaction with surrounding media of distinctive nature ( i.e. non-volatile protic and aprotic polar solvents). In this way, solutions displaying different photochromic responses were prepared for individual spiropyrans without requiring chemical derivatization, an approach that can be generalized to other spiro dyes with distinct acid-base properties. To transfer this behaviour to the solid state, core-shell capsules of these solutions were prepared, which were then used as ink materials for the fabrication of flexible polymeric films with unprecedented tunability of their photochromic properties that can be employed as rewritable multi-coloured devices.


This review of custody evaluation literature encompasses a number of perspectives gleaned from the following: practitioners who perform the evaluations; the professional organizations that recognize the necessity to establish performance standards for practitioners; and the judges who depend on the findings and recommendations in the evaluations to assist with difficult custody decisions.General agreement exists among practitioners about the components of a comprehensive evaluation (interviews of adults responsible for child care, interviews of children and their preferences, life histories, observations, psychological testing, document review, and collateral source data), though little consensus exists about the details of performance concerning a given component. For instance, many authors recommend direct parent-child observations, but there is little agreement about observational protocols (Hynan, 2002). Choice of psychological test(s) is largely left to the discretion of the evaluator (Turkat, 2005), though evaluators are urged to choose tests that address issues of parenting capacity (AFCC Standards, 2006; DeWard, 2005). Stark differences of opinion exist concerning the suitability of using several commonly employed tests, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Rorschach, and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory - III (MCMI-III). One author believes these tests were designed for other uses and should be excluded from the custody evaluation process (Ericson, 2007), while others assert that these tests are helpful to verify information reported by parents, children, and others in disputed custody cases (Jaffe & Mandeleew, 2008). Parent inventory tests designed for use in custody evaluations, such as the Parent-Child Relationship Inventory (Gerard, 2005) and the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1995), are used more frequently since the inception of the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines (1994) (Quinnell & Bow, 2001).


Intelligent educational systems are knowledge-based systems (KBS) they can be developed by a generic knowledge-based system development methodology. In this paper, we present an ontology-based approach for formalizing different knowledge types. The formalism is based upon conceptual graphs. A priority concern to all research work in adaptive education is that of finding an appropriate representation for pedagogical knowledge. For implementation, we use the CoGITaNT environment (Conceptual Graphs Integrated Tools allowing Nested Typed graphs), a library of C++ classes (open-sources, developed by LIRMM CNRS, France) allowing the development of applications based on the CG knowledge representation scheme.


In the 1890s, several initiatives in American botany converged. The creation of new institutions, such as the New York Botanical Garden, coincided with radical reforms in taxonomic practice and the emergence of an experimental program of research on evolutionary problems. Sharon Kingsland explores how these changes gave impetus to the new field of ecology that was defined at exactly this time. She argues that the creation of institutions and research laboratories, coupled with new intellectual directions in science, were crucial to the development of ecology as a discipline in the United States. The main concern of ecology-the relationship between organisms and environment-was central to scientific studies aimed at understanding and controlling the evolutionary process. Kingsland considers the evolutionary context in which ecology arose, especially neo-Lamarckian ideas and the new mutation theory, and explores the relationship between scientific research and broader theories about social progress and the evolution of human civilization. By midcentury, American ecologists were leading the rapid development of ecosystem ecology. At the same time, scientists articulated a sharp critique of modern science and society in the postwar context, foreshadowing the environmental critiques of the 1960s. As the ecosystem concept evolved, so too did debates about how human ecology should be incorporated into the biological sciences. Kingsland concludes with an examination of ecology in the modern urban environment, reflecting on how scientists are now being challenged to overcome disciplinary constraints and produce innovative responses to pressing problems. The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000 offers an innovative study not only of the scientific landscape in turn-of-the-century America, but of current questions in ecological science.


Researchers of criminal behavior are taking a more data-driven approach to community corrections. Rather than focusing solely on professional experience or anecdotal successes — key factors that often drive public policy in social services — they are identifying evidence-based practices that rely on empirical research and produce measurable outcomes. The challenge for providers is to bridge the gap between theoretical best practices and practicable intervention models that reduce recidivism rates a nd keep com mun it ies sa fe. One organization that is finding success in bridging this gap is Massachusetts-based Roca, Inc.


Background: Acute puerperal metritis (APM) is a potentially life threatening, painful disease and is often treated with third-generation cephalosporins (Machado et al., 2014; Stojkov et al., 2015). An increasing antibiotic resistance is well documented and associated with decreasing clinical efficacy, animal welfare and economic consequences (Thomson et al., 2004). Hence, there is the need to evaluate alternative therapies to antibiotics.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of ketoprofen for the treatment of APM compared with ceftiofur hydrochloride.
Materials and Methods: A total of 610 dairy cows from 6 farms in Germany were enrolled. Inclusion criteria was a rectal temperature (RT) ≥ 39.5 °C and a reddish-brown fetid vaginal discharge within the first 10 DIM. Cows meeting the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated to treatment with ketoprofen (3 mg/kg of body weight, n = 300) or treatment with ceftiofur (1 mg/kg of body weight, n = 310), both administered on 3 consecutive days. Rectal temperature was recorded daily for a period of 7 days after enrollment. Cows that showed RT ≥ 39.5 °C on day 4 to 7 after inclusion received an extended treatment (extT) with ceftiofur for 3 (ketoprofen group) or 2 (ceftiofur group) more days. Between 21 and 40 DIM cows were examined with the metricheck device and vaginal discharge was categorized on a 5-point scale according to the presence of pus.
Results: A total of 52 cows (35 from ketoprofen group, 17 from ceftiofur group) were excluded from analysis due to missing protocol compliance (n = 37) or concurrent disease (n = 15). Cows initially treated with ketoprofen had higher odds of extT than cows treated with ceftiofur (61% vs 31%, OR 3.47, P < 0.01, n = 558). Occurrence of purulent vaginal discharge (PVD) was similar for both treatment groups. However, cows with extT had 2.12 (P < 0.01, n = 438) times the odds of PVD than cows without extended treatment. Treatment group did not affect milk yield, first artificial insemination pregnancy risk, time to first AI and time to pregnancy.
Conclusions: The results indicate that although cows initially treated with ketoprofen were more likely to receive extT, fewer doses of ceftiofur (1.83) were required compared with cows initially treated with ceftiofur (3.63). Consequently, there is considerable potential of reducing antimicrobial treatment by implementing a treatment protocol starting with ketoprofen.


Relying on two rounds of household budget data (2005 and 2012), this paper presents a proposal for an integrated analysis of the most recent changes in welfare and poverty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Confronted with various methodological challenges, it proposes four ways to improve comparability of welfare and poverty across time and space. Its most salient feature is the high degree of spatial precision, which aims to capture better the variation in living conditions and economic opportunities in the DRC. Compared with the official statistics, this approach yields a completely different poverty outlook, both in terms of levels and trends. The new estimates are also triangulated with changes in undernutrition. Using the consumption indicator generated by this approach, growth at the micro level on average has been slightly positive and pro-poor for urban households, while negative and pro-rich for their rural counterparts. The combined effect of these opposing welfare trends is a minor reduction of poverty in Congolese cities and an increase in the countryside. Marked regional differences however exist, which we classify in four welfare trends. Given the differences between our analysis and the official statistics, further work is needed to check on the proposed methodology, on the robustness of the results and on the resulting poverty profile.


The conceptual basis of a novel neuromimetic chip
is described. Based on an existing computational bioelectrodynamics study and
adaptive brain signaling biophysics knowledge from neuroscience, the chip is,
in effect, a form of inorganic artificial brain tissue. This 'physics
replication' approach involves no abstract models of brain tissue physics or
function. Instead of the physics of a general-purpose computer or the physics
of abstract models of the brain on the chip (analogue or digital), this
neuromimetic chip has an inorganic version of natural adaptive brain signaling
physics. As a result of using the native brain physics, the chip has functionally
relevant endogenous quasistatic electric and magnetic field systems of the form
known to be expressed by excitable cell tissue. Fully developed at macroscopic
scales it can be expected to produce an EEG/MEG-like electromagnetic signature.
This article does an extended analysis to understand an observed generalized lack
of the physics-replication approach and its implications for the neuroscience
of natural and artificial intelligence. This is achieved through a technical
comparison with the neuromimetic chip's closest relative, the neuromorphic chip
(of the class of general-purpose computers). The results indicate that the
physics-replication approach is a possible but neglected option. It also
reveals that the neuromimetic chip contributes empirical science, in contrast
to the theoretical science conducted using general-purpose computers. Because
of the chip's novelty and proximity to foundational issues, the article
contributes necessary background information in anticipation of the arrival of
the first prototyping results over the coming years.


In this work the thermal structure of the Iberian Peninsula is derived from magnetic data by calculating the bottom of the magnetization, assumed to be the Curie‐point depth (CPD) isotherm, which accounts for the depth at which magnetite becomes paramagnetic (580°C). Comparison of the CPD with crustal thickness maps along with a heat flow map derived from the CPD provides new insights on the lithospheric thermal regime. Within Iberia, the CPD isotherm has thickness in the range of 17 to 29 km. This isotherm is shallow (<18 km) offshore, where the lithosphere is thinner. In continental Iberia, the NW Variscan domain presents a magnetic response that is most probably linked to thickening and later extension processes during the late Variscan Orogeny, which resulted in widespread crustal melting and emplacement of granites (in the Central Iberian Arc). The signature of the CPD at the Gibraltar Arc reveals a geometry consistent with the slab roll‐back geodynamic model that shaped the western Mediterranean. In offshore areas, a broad extension of magnetized upper mantle is found. Serpentinization of the upper mantle, probably triggered in an extensional context, is proposed to account for the magnetic signal. The Atlantic margin presents up to 8 km of serpentinites, which, according to the identification of exhumed mantle, correlates with a hyperextended margin. The Mediterranean also presents generalized serpentinization up to 6 km in the Algerian Basin. Furthermore, a heat flow map and a Moho temperature map derived from the CPD are presented.


Local Earthquake Tomography (LET) is a useful tool for imaging lateral heterogeneities in the upper crust. The pattern of P- and S-wave velocity anomalies, in relation to the seismicity distribution along active fault zones. can shed light on the existence of discrete seismogenic patches. Recent tomographic studies in well monitored seismic areas have shown that the regions with large seismic moment release generally correspond to high velocity zones (HVZ's). In this paper, we discuss the relationship between the seismogenic behavior of faults and the velocity structure of fault zones as inferred from seismic tomography. First, we review some recent tomographic studies in active strike-slip faults. We show examples from different segments of the San Andreas fault system (Parkfield, Loma Prieta), where detailed studies have been carried out in recent years. We also show two applications of LET to thrust faults (Coalinga, Friuli). Then, we focus on the Irpinia normal fault zone (South-Central Italy), where a Ms = 6.9 earthquake occurred in 1980 and many thousands of attershock travel time data are available. We find that earthquake hypocenters concentrate in HVZ's, whereas low velocity zones (LVZ' s) appear to be relatively aseismic. The main HVZ's along which the mainshock rupture bas propagated may correspond to velocity weakening fault regions, whereas the LVZ's are probably related to weak materials undergoing stable slip (velocity strengthening). A correlation exists between this HVZ and the area with larger coseismic slip along the fault, according to both surface evidence (a fault scarp as high as 1 m) and strong ground motion waveform modeling. Smaller wave-length, low-velocity anomalies detected along the fault may be the expression of velocity strengthening sections, where aseismic slip occurs. According to our results, the rupture at the nucleation depth (~ 10-12 km) is continuous for the whole fault lenoth (~ 30 km), whereas at shallow depth, different fault segments are activated due to lateral heterogeneities in the sedimentary cover. This finding confirms that the rupture process is controlled by lithologic and structural discontinuities in the upper crust, and emphasizes the contribution that LET can make to the study of fault mechanics.


Established in 1935, a regular grid of 256 permanent plots includes about 20% of a 100-ha old-growth forest at the Dukes Research Natural Area in northern Michigan, USA. Woody stems have been re-measured 3–7 times providing extensive quantitative records of population and community dynamics over periods of up to 72 years. Woody stems in upland hemlock–northern hardwood stands, about half of the study plots, have been mapped and individually tracked since about 1990. Remaining plots are in swampy stands dominated by Fraxinus nigra and Thuja occidentalis. Detailed, long-term demographic data for late-successional forests are rare in general; this data set is both of exceptional duration and unusual in spatial intensity and detail. Because sample plots are in a regular array over the stand, they can support analyses of spatiotemporal pattern at various scales. A major wind disturbance in 2002 provides a unique opportunity to compare disturbance response to baseline dynamics. Several publications based on this data set have already provided new insights into late-successional processes, but general availability of the data set with metadata should permit a range of further comparative and integrative analyses. The study is ongoing, and new measurements will be added to the archived data set.

The complete data sets corresponding to abstracts published in the Data Papers section of the journal are published electronically in Ecological Archives at 〈http://esapubs.org/archive〉. (The accession number for each Data Paper is given directly beneath the title.)


We consider human-robot collaboration in sequential tasks with known task objectives. For interaction planning in this setting, the utility of models for decision-making under uncertainty has been demonstrated across domains. However, in practice, specifying the model parameters remains challenging, requiring significant effort from the robot developer. To alleviate this challenge, we present ADACORL, a framework to specify decision-making models and generate robot behavior for interaction. Central to our approach are a factored task model and a semi-supervised algorithm to learn models of human behavior. We demonstrate that our specification approach, despite significantly fewer labels, generates models (and policies) that perform equally well or better than models learned with supervised data. By leveraging pre-computed performance bounds and an online planner, ADACORL can generate robot behavior for collaborative tasks with large state spaces (> 1 million states) and short planning times (< 0.5 s).


The purpose of this handbook is to provide information that will enable designers, builders, and homeowners to understand foundation design problems and solutions. The foundation of a house is a somewhat invisible and sometimes ignored component of the building. It is increasingly evident, however, that attention to good foundation design and construction has significant benefits to the homeowner and the builder, and can avoid some serious future problems. Good foundation design and construction practice means not only insulating to save energy, but also providing effective structural design as well as moisture, termite, and radon control techniques where appropriate.


Abstract. The robotics, particularly the humanoid research field, needs new mechanisms to meet the criteria enforced by compliance, workspace requirements, motion profile characteristics and variable stiffness using lightweight but robust designs. The mechanism proposed herein is a solution to this problem by a parallel-series hybrid mechanism. The parallel term comes from two cable-driven plates supported by a compression spring in between. Furthermore, there is a two-part concentric shaft, passing through both plates connected by a universal joint. Because of the kinematic constraints of the universal joint, the mechanism can be considered as a serial chain. The mechanism has 4 degrees of freedom (DOF) which are pitch, roll, yaw motions and translational movement in z axis for stiffness adjustment. The kinematic model is obtained to define the workspace. The helical spring is analysed by using Castigliano's Theorem and the behaviour of bending and compression characteristics are presented which are validated by using finite element analysis (FEA). Hence, the dynamic model of the mechanism is derived depending on the spring reaction forces and moments. The motion experiments are performed to validate both kinematic and dynamic models. As a result, the proposed mechanism has a potential use in robotics especially in humanoid robot joints, considering the requirements of this robotic field.


The shape of the species–area relationship (SAR) often varies with the amount of available energy; SARs from high-energy habitats typically have higher intercepts and steeper slopes than SARs from low-energy habitats. Such patterns are often assumed to result from a shift in the mechanisms of coexistence between high and low energy habitats. However, a plausible but unexplored alternative mechanism emerges from proportional sampling, if there are simply more individuals in larger or more productive habitats, without the need to invoke differing coexistence mechanisms. Here, we examined proportional versus disproportional responses of a diverse assemblage of freshwater zooplankton to manipulations of experimental pond size and energy inputs. We found that higher energy treatments had higher species richness in large, but not small, ponds, leading to a steeper SAR with higher energy input. The total abundances of individuals also increased with energy in large, but not small ponds. By using a sample-independent rarefaction technique (probability of interspecific encounter), we found that SAR patterns resulted from changes in the total, but not relative, abundance of individuals, and thus proportional, rather than disproportional, responses of species. Overall, our results emphasize the need to consider how both the total and relative abundances of species respond to ecological drivers such as energy and area before inferring the underlying mechanisms that lead to biodiversity patterns. Further, our results may implicate a proportionally smaller influence of energy on patterns of biodiversity when habitats are destroyed.


A recently discovered series of inhibitors of the ATPase function of bacterial type IIA topoisomerases featuring a carboxypyrrole component led us to attempt to replace this group with a potentially bioisosteric carboxypyrazole. Accordingly, synthetic pathways to 2-(4-(1H-pyrazole-5-carboxamido)piperidin-1-yl)thiazole-5-carboxylic acids or 2-(4-(N-methyl-1H-pyrazole- 5-carboxamido)piperidin-1-yl)thiazole-5-carboxylic acids featuring an array of substituents on the pyrazole ring were explored. Unfortunately, none of the analogues made were effective on the ATPase function of Mycobacterium tuberculosis gyrase as well on the DNA supercoiling activity of the whole gyrase of M. tuberculosis and Escherichia coli. However, this work is still providing original insights in chemistry as well as in the structure–activity relationships of this series of inhibitors


The advertising trend has stimulated towards communicating persuasive messages of a product using two or more media, especially through the integration of traditional media and new media. Contributing to this current issue in advertising research, the purpose of this paper is to explore the current advertising trend through the latest literature on integration of marketing communication of new media and traditional media. The investigation through the traditional medium (television) and the new medium (the internet), which in particular was based on the peripheral routes of persuasion using celebrity endorsement, showed support that the integration of these two mediums can promote memory performance and encourage positive attitudes on the part of consumers. The position of new media especially the internet has also progressed rapidly for the past years. Therefore, new media can play a significant role in contributing to the effectiveness of a marketing mix when integrated with traditional media, specifically with television.


textabstractThe area of property testing tries to design algorithms that can efficiently
handle very large amounts of data: given a large object that either has a
certain property or is somehow "far" from having that property, a tester should
efficiently distinguish between these two cases. In this survey we describe
recent results obtained for quantum property testing. This area naturally falls
into three parts. First, we may consider quantum testers for properties of
classical objects. We survey the main examples known where quantum testers can
be much (sometimes exponentially) more efficient than classical testers.
Second, we may consider classical testers of quantum objects. This is the
situation that arises for instance when one is trying to determine if quantum
states or operations do what they are supposed to do, based only on classical
input-output behavior. Finally, we may also consider quantum testers for
properties of quantum objects, such as states or operations. We survey known
bounds on testing various natural properties, such as whether two states are
equal, whether a state is separable, whether two operations commute, etc. We
also highlight connections to other areas of quantum information theory and
mention a number of open questions.


The snowball Earth theory, initially proposed by J.L. Kirschvink to explain the Neoproterozoic glacial episodes, suggests that the Earth was globally ice covered at 720 Ma (Sturtian episode) and 640 Ma (Marinoan episode). The reduction of the water cycle and the growth of large ice sheets led to a collapse of CO2 consumption through continental weathering and biological carbon pumping. As a consequence, atmospheric CO2 built up linearly to levels allowing escape from a snowball Earth. In this contribution, we question this assumed linear accumulation of CO2 into the atmosphere. Using a numerical model of the carbon-alkalinity cycles, we suggest that during global glaciations, even a limited area of open waters (103 km2) allows an efficient atmospheric CO2 diffusion into the ocean. This exchange implies that the CO2 consumption through the low-temperature alteration of the oceanic crust persists throughout the glaciation. Furthermore, our model shows that rising CO2 during the glaciation increases the efficiency of this sink through the seawater acidification. As a result, the atmospheric CO2 evolution is asymptotic, limiting the growth rate of the atmospheric carbon reservoir. Even after the maximum estimated duration of the glaciation (30 m.y.), the atmospheric CO2 is far from reaching the minimum deglaciation threshold (0.29 bar). Accounting for this previously neglected carbon sink, processes that decrease the CO2 deglaciation threshold must be further explored.


Most economic models are based on the self-interest hypothesis that assumes that all people are exclusively motivated by their material self-interest. In recent years experimental economists have gathered overwhelming evidence that systematically refutes the self-interest hypothesis and suggests that many people are strongly motivated by concerns for fairness and reciprocity. Moreover, several theoretical papers have been written showing that the observed phenomena can be explained in a rigorous and tractable manner. These theories in turn induced a new wave of experimental research offering additional exciting insights into the nature of preferences and into the relative performance of competing theories of fairness. The purpose of this paper is to review these recent developments, to point out open questions, and to suggest avenues for future research. JEL classification numbers: C7, C9, D0, J3.


This working paper examines the impact of imposing multiple ring-fencing regimes on bank safety, including a 'prisoner's dilemma' effect that can arise from host country incentives. It discusses these issues first on a qualitative basis to establish intuition, and then quantifies the risk of different structures via a Merton-style option model. The results suggest that there is a material advantage (i.e. reduced probability of local failure) for a jurisdiction that ring-fences its subsidiary if other jurisdictions do not match that decision. This host jurisdiction benefits from both (i) local capital and (ii) the ability to tap a large central reserve. However, if other jurisdictions adopt similar ring-fencing policies, then the benefit of a pooled 'central reserve' capital is voided and all jurisdictions become worse off.
Under our model, we find that failure risk increases by a large multiple if ring-fencing becomes pervasive. In some cases, the increase in risk is 5x or more, compared to a structure where internal capital is fully mobile. This is caused by 'misallocation risk' – the risk that a bank has enough capital resources overall, but cannot get those resources to the right subsidiary in time to avoid a local failure.
The paper concludes with suggestions on possible policy alternatives that could mitigate these issues. We consider a few hybrid cases, which suggest that a 'partly ring-fenced bank' can mitigate a substantial amount of misallocation risk if the central reserve is significant and not committed too early.
We then explore alternatives which build on the Financial Stability Board's post-crisis bank resolution architecture. Large amounts of 'bail-in' capital are now being issued by the biggest global banks, and these resources can fund an alternative to the hard legal entity bankruptcies (or emergency bail-outs) seen in the 2008 crisis – events that appear to motivate many of the recent ring-fencing initiatives. We conclude with a 'straw man' proposal that aims to produce a more resilient overall outcome for the group while addressing legitimate host concerns. We believe the paper is relevant for the ongoing policy debates on bank structure, capital allocation and resolution.


For many years the species problem in the Sacculinidae has been a matter of controversies. Kossmann's (1872) paper was of fundamental importance, because in his descriptions of a great number of new species, chiefly from the Philippine Islands, he derived the specific characters from the anatomical peculiarities as well as from the excrescences of the external cuticle. Later investigators for many years dealt with European material only, in which specific characters are far less apparent than in tropical Sacculinidae, so that their opinions concerning specific differences were often based on principles instead of on facts. This applies to the papers by Giard and Bonnier (Giard, 1886, 1887, 1888; Bonnier, 1887; Giard & Bonnier, 1887, 1890), in which the description of new species was regarded as sufficiently founded by a simple indication of the host, a procedure based on Giard's conviction of the "specificite parasitaire", resulting from investigations on the Bopyridae.
Previously, Delage (1884) had proclaimed the opinion that the specific differences in the genus Sacculina were not sufficiently founded, and many years later Smith (1906), after remarking that he had tried in vain to find specific differences in the European forms of the genus, placed all the names of the later described species in the synonymy of Sacculina carcini Thomps. Guerin-Ganivet (1911) described some new species of Sacculina based on characters of the internal anatomy; he did not investigate the excrescences of the external cuticle, which, e.g., in his species S. carpiliae and S. leptodiae, are of comparatively large size, consisting of groups of spines united on common basal parts. In one of Guerin-Ganivet's figures (1911, Pl. I fig. 7, region of the mantle opening of Sacculina leptodiae, X 50) the excrescences of the external cuticle are faintly visible, but in the


Having the formal definitions of emotional states We use the formalism of decision theory to develop principled definitions of emotional states of a user, and we postulate that these notions should be useful in designing interactive entertainment systems. First, it is essential that the system be aware of the user's emotional state to be able to react to it appropriately. Second, well defined notions of emotional states provide a well defined implementationindependent vocabulary the system and the user can use to communicate their internal states to each other. Using decision theory to formalize the notions of emotions provides a formal bridge between the rich bodies of work in cognitive science, on the one hand, and the high-end AI architectures for designing rational artificial agents, on the other hand.


As Alberta's provincial government continues to struggle with deficits and as it tries to constrain spending, there is heightened interest in how wages and non-wage benefits (i.e., total compensation) in the public sector compare with those in the private sector. This study replicates a previously used methodology by which to compare wages in the two sectors. It then compares some available non-wage benefits more generally in an attempt to quantify compensation differences between the province's public and private sectors.This paper is divided into three distinct sections. The first reviews past research comparing the compensation of the public and private sector workers. The second section presents and explains the wage comparisons between the private and public sectors (broadly defined) in Alberta. It also presents a summary of the methodology employed to compare and calculate differences in wages between the two sectors. Finally, the third section compares three available non-wage benefits, namely, pension coverage, the age of retirement, and layoffs, in order to gauge the generosity of non-wage benefits in the private and public sectors.


Inflammatory mediators released in response to tissue injury sensitize primary sensory neurons to pain and thereby lower the pain threshold--a process called hyperalgesia. Both epinephrine and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) produce hyperalgesia by acting through G protein (heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein)-coupled receptors (GPCRs) on sensory neurons. PGE2 produces hyperalgesia through protein kinase A (PKA)-mediated signaling pathways, whereas epinephrine acts through three second messenger systems: PKA, protein kinase Cε (PKCε), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). If the tissue has previously been exposed to an inflammatory stimulus, PGE2-induced hyperalgesia becomes prolonged and involves PKCε as well as PKA, a phenomenon called hyperalgesia priming (see Bhave and Gereau). Dina et al. used pharmacological disruption of cytoskeletal elements (microfilaments, microtubules, and intermediate filaments) to investigate the role of the cytoskeleton in hyperalgesia produced by epinephrine and PGE2. Cytoskeletal disruptors attenuated epinephrine-induced hyperalgesia in rat paws (assessed behaviorally or in vitro through facilitation of a tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium current) but not hyperalgesia in response to PGE2. In hyperalgesia-primed tissue, PGE2-stimulated hyperalgesia involved ERK pathways (as well as PKA and PKCε pathways) and became sensitive to cytoskeletal disruption. The authors used pharmacological agents to activate PKA, PKCε, and ERK independently of GPCRs and found that independent activation of hyperalgesia by PKCε and ERK required an intact cytoskeleton, whereas activation of hyperalgesia by PKA did not. Thus, cytoskeletal involvement in specific pathways leading to hyperalgesia differs both at the level of GPCR coupling to effectors and following activation of various kinases. The involvement of the cytoskeleton in hyperalgesia may have implications for the treatment of chronic inflammatory pain. O. A. Dina, G. C. McCarter, C. de Coupade, J. D. Levine, Role of the sensory neuron cytoskeleton in second messenger signaling for inflammatory pain. Neuron 39, 613-624 (2003). [Online Journal] G. Bhave, R. W. Gereau IV, Growing pains: The cytoskeleton as a critical regulator of pain plasticity. Neuron 39, 577-579 (2003). [Online Journal]


Four overlapping research agendas form the bulk of current academic legal scholarship in Britain. First, the understanding and internal coherence of legal concepts and legal reasoning, how legal concepts fit together, the consistency of the use of concepts in different areas of law, the extent to which general principles can be extracted from legal reasoning that can be used to predict or guide future legal decision-making. Second, the meaning and validity of law, the examination of what makes law different from, or similar to, other normative systems. Typically, this has involved questions such as: "What is law?" "How far are issues of ethics or morality part of legal reasoning?" "How does a set of normative principles come to be thought of as 'legal'"? "How does law differ from other social institutions and practices?" Third, the ethical and political acceptability of public policy delivered though legal instruments, the consideration of issues such as whether specific legal interventions are acceptable when assessed against external moral, ethical or political principles, or what should be the appropriate legal response where none exists at the moment. Policy prescription is thus often encountered in legal scholarship, sometimes addressed to the courts, sometimes to policy makers in government. Fourth, the effect of law. What effect, if any, does law have on human behaviour, attitudes, and actions? How does it have these effects? Are some institutional mechanisms for delivering legal outcomes more appropriate or effective than others? Each of these four sets of issues can be studied in a purely domestic legal context, such as England and Wales, or at the European level, internationally or comparatively, as a contemporary issue, or historically. Which, if any, of these questions engage a legal academic in "social scientific" research?


This paper compares the vowel system of five New Zealand Niuean children to that of speakers of New Zealand English (NZE), via an acoustic analysis. The Niuean children's vowel systems show a vowel inventory, triangular vowel space, and front vowel raising characteristic of New Zealand English. However, the analysis also found differences. In the monophthongs, the Niuean speakers retain the qualitative and quantitative distinction between /%/ and /a:/, whereas NZE retains only a quantitative distinction. Diphthongal differences are found in the degree and direction of movement, as well as the monophthongisation of /ei/ and /ou/. Such differences may be markers of NZ Niuean or a broader pan-Pasifika English.


Potential heuristics assign a numerical value (potential) to each fact and compute the heuristic value for a given state as the sum of these potentials. A mutex is an invariant stating that a certain combination of facts cannot be part of any reachable state. In this paper, we use mutexes to improve potential heuristics in two ways. First, we show that the mutex-based disambiguations of the goal and preconditions of operators leads to a less constrained linear program yielding stronger heuristics. Second, we utilize mutexes in a construction of new optimization functions based on counting of the number of states containing certain sets of facts. The experimental evaluation shows a significant increase in the number of solved tasks.


Does peacebuilding shape the regime type of countries where international missions are deployed? Most peacebuilding missions take place in authoritarian contexts, and seek to overcome the legacies of conflict by overseeing transitions to democratic rule; however, most regimes that experience peacebuilding still retain some form of authoritarian rule. In this article, we examine the extent to which international peacebuilding missions contribute to the consolidation of post-conflict authoritarian regimes even when their stated aims involve the promotion of democracy. We argue that international peacebuilders can act as enablers of authoritarianism in host countries. We distinguish this category of behaviour from explicit 'autocracy promotion', which implies intentional support to autocracy. Instead, enabling is often an unintended consequence, and we identify two mechanisms through which enabling occurs: by building the capacity of incumbent authoritarian leaders and by signalling a permissive environment for authoritarian behaviour for national actors. We illustrate our argument with the case of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


It is commonly held in domestic lawn mower noise control literature that under-deck noise sources are a major contributor to the total machine noise. Although disparity exists among authors a resounding theme is that these noise sources are due solely to blade motion. In this thesis I develop a concise argument for the importance of reducing this source, investigate previous efforts for redressing the problem, and develop quantitative experimental procedures and numerical investigations. These analyses identify the influence blade and machine geometries play in noise control for a particular machine and somewhat isolate noise sources and their relative dominant frequencies. The results show structural vibration is a dominant source at low frequencies and possess resonance at 50 Hz intervals through to 500 Hz. Higher frequencies (>500 Hz) are attributable to the aerodynamic noise of the blades and do not possess any dominant frequencies to be redressed. Raised blade wings are monotonically noisier with increasing wing angle. Modification to the blade tip and trailing edge produce a 2.6 dB(A) reduction in noise from the standard blade by reducing tip vortices, validated by CFX analyses, with little reduction to the machines catching function. While this reduction is encouraging the benefits are lost when the machine is used for cutting. To cut grass produces a sound pressure level at least 8 dB(A) higher than the machine noise at idle. The key implication being the strongest noise level produced arises from cutting, eroding the value of mitigating blade induced noise. Moreover, being an electric machine to reduce noise at idle it can be turned off.


While vigorous debate surrounds the proper scope and ambit of inherent tribal authority, there remains a critical antecedent question: whether Congress or the courts are ultimately best situated to define the contours of inherent tribal authority. In February 2013, Congress enacted controversial tribal jurisdiction provisions as part of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization recognizing and affirming inherent tribal authority to prosecute all persons, including non-Indian offenders, for crimes of domestic violence in Indian country. This assertion by Congress of its authority to set the bounds of tribal inherent authority -- beyond where the United States Supreme Court has held tribal inherent authority to reach -- underscores the importance of addressing the question of which branch ought to resolve the issue. This Article proposes a framework drawn from Supreme Court jurisprudence in the field of state sovereignty to argue that when sensitive issues of sovereignty are at stake, the comparative competence of the respective branches must be considered. Unlike any preceding work in this field, this Article proposes a model based on the indicia of institutional competence to suggest that Congress, rather than the courts, is the branch best suited to determine the scope of inherent tribal sovereignty.


Educational aims To discuss the similarities and differences in inflammation between chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. To consider the clinical relevance of these differences. To speculate about the therapeutic implications of this basic research. Summary Both asthma and COPD are characterised by airway obstruction, which is variable and reversible in asthma but is progressive and largely irreversible in COPD. In both diseases, there is chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract, mediated by increased expression of multiple inflammatory proteins, including cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, inflammatory enzymes and receptors. In both diseases, there are acute episodes or exacerbations, when the intensity of this inflammation increases. The similarity between these airway diseases prompted the suggestion in the 1960s that asthma and COPD are part of a spectrum of a common disease (chronic obstructive lung disease) and this came to be known as the "Dutch hypothesis". This was countered by the "British hypothesis", which maintained that these diseases were separate entities; the debate continues today, with evidence both for and against these two views [1, 2].


This article examines the existence of lead-lag effects between the U.S. stock market (NYSE) and the Brazilian stock market (Bovespa), i.e., whether upward and downward price movements in the NYSE are followed, on average, by similar movements in Bovespa, which would enable predicting stock prices in the Brazilian market, thus providing arbitrage opportunities. The existence of this effect would indicate a relative segmentation between these two markets, which would violate the efficient market hypothesis, whereby stock prices are unpredictable. Cointegration between the two markets was identified as well as the existence of bi-directional causality (Granger test). The results obtained from VECM, TSLS and GARCH regressions showed that the two markets are segmented and that returns of the Bovespa Index (Ibovespa) are to a large extent explained by the stock price movements in the Dow Jones Index some minutes beforehand. However, the results also show that the practice of arbitrage based on the lead-lag effects is not economically feasible due to transaction costs.


Within the current economic crisis and in the midst of high levels of unemployment, the community college has been positioned as a major catalyst for economic stimulation by the Obama administration. To best prepare students for workforce entrance and transfer into four-year institutions, community colleges must deliver quality teaching which is enhanced by quality faculty development (FD). Few studies have been conducted that attempt to examine faculty engagement with and perceptions of FD at the community college. This paper presents a new conceptual model for unraveling how community college faculty understand and experience FD activities: the Community College Faculty Development Matrix. This model helped explain the findings of a small-scale study presented here, such as the importance of the differences between adjunct and full-time faculty needs and the call for technology-related FD activities. Introduction The American Association of Community Colleges (2009) has reported that 46 percent of all undergraduates are enrolled at community colleges. With tuition costs less than half of those at four-year institutions, this percentage is likely to continue to rise substantially in the current economy. Moltz (2008), commenting about enrollment for the fall of 2008, stated that "many colleges are projecting increases of around 10 percent over last fall [2007]" (para. 2). Many community colleges did in fact experience record-breaking enrollments during the fall of 2008 (e.g., ACC, 2008). At the same time, the economic crunch has limited the state appropriations allocated to community colleges. Enrollment booms and inadequate funding have created a unique blend of challenges for community college faculty and staff pelos, 2009; Majerus, 2009). Juxtaposed with booming enrollments and limited funding is a prediction that many current community college faculty and staff members will be retiring over the next few years (Haworth, Jozwiak, Carter, «Sc Wilkin, 2007; Sprouse, Ebbers, & King, 2008). This is likely to result in a corresponding upsurge of hiring at community colleges across the country in the years to come. Among the challenges will be identifying, hiring, and developing competent instructors to meet the needs of current and future students while maintaining fiscal health. With their open-access policies, community colleges harbor incredible student diversity in terms of educational and socio-economic backgrounds (Brookfield, 2002). Consequently, faculty should possess both a wide variety of pedagogical knowledge and skills and a deep understanding of course content. Haworth et al. (2007) explicated: "because they [community college faculty] are asked to facilitate learning in what are arguably the nation's most diverse postsecondary classrooms, these faculty must possess a repertoire of teaching, learning, and assessment skills that effectively address the learning needs of all of their students." (p. 63) However, many new community college instructors enter the field without a strong background in teaching and learning (Fugate «Sc Amey, 2000) and, unfortunately, faculty development may not be a top priority at community colleges (Murray, 1999; 2002). Too little research has been conducted regarding community college faculty (Townsend «Sc Twombly, 2007) . Because community college faculty touch the lives of so many students, and will continue to do so in the future, research in this area is critical (Twombly & Townsend, 2008) .The present study explored the utility of a conceptual model for inquiry and understanding regarding community college faculty development: The Community College Faculty Development Matrix (CCFDM). Research questions guiding this study were: 1) How do community college faculty engage in faculty development? and 2) How do community college faculty perceive faculty professional development? An online survey (see Table 1) was sent to all faculty members of a three-campus region of a Midwest community college. …


Jean-Baptiste Faure, The Voice and Singing. Translated and edited by Francis Keeping and Roberta Prada. New York: Vox Mentor LLC, 2005. Paper, 288 pp., $59.00. ISBN 10:0-9777823-0 www.voxmentor.com The history of voice pedagogy can be researched in a variety of sources, from Caccini's famous introduction to Le nuove musiche, to the battle for public opinion between the French tenors Nourrit and Duprez in press reviews. Vocalise collections are particularly revealing, for they offer a glimpse into the most basic rudiments of voice development. From the lauded single sheet of exercises used by Porpora in the training of the renowned singer Cafarelli, through the well known compilations by Marchesi, Vaccai, and Panofka, graded exercises have been notated by pedagogues for centuries. The Voice and Singing (Le Voix et le Chant) is the set of vocalises by the leading French baritone of his generation, Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830-1914). As the principle baritone at the Paris Opera for almost two decades, he created roles such as Nelusko in L'Africaine, Posa in Don Carlo, and Mephisto in Faust. In the 1880s, Faure was invited to overhaul the French Conservatoire system. He presented his observations and recommendations in this treatise, which consists of both vocalises and essays on the voice and singing. Translated by Francis Keeping and Roberta Prada, Faure's work is presented in English for the first time. "The art of singing has fallen on hard times," writes Faure in his opening sentence. He blames the decline of vocal technique upon the diminished study of religious music, and upon the music of modern composers-such as Wagner-who view the voice as an instrument. Faure offers insight into the culture of the Conservatoire, a fiercely competitive place in which teachers jealously guarded their methods, even to the point of forbidding eavesdropping on their lessons. He advocates the adoption of a standard curriculum at the Conservatoire, one that includes the study of the Italian masters, and recommends performance on public master classes, attendance at concerts, and an open door policy so that students could attend any teacher's lessons. Faure's appraisal of the Conservatoire and his suggestions for its improvement comprise only a small portion of the treatise. Most of Le Voix et le Chant is devoted to vocal technique. A brief explanation of the dassification of voices-of both adults and children-and directives for posture and breathing precede the vocalises. The voice exercises begin with studies for a balanced attack, and proceed to a progressive study of all intervals. Faure includes vocalises for portamento, register blending, all types of scales, arpeggios, agility, and trills and other ornaments. The open vowel in the French word "hot" is used for beginning work, but in the advanced exercises, French text is introduced. Vocalises should also be drawn from the vocal literature. …


The adipose-derived stromal vascular fraction (SVF) is a promising new therapy for equine flexor tendonitis. This heterogeneous population of cells may improve tendon healing via the production of growth and chemotactic factors capable of recruiting endogenous stem cells and increasing extracellular matrix production by tendon fibroblasts (TFBL). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of adipose-derived cells (ADC) culture expanded from the SVF to act as trophic mediators in vitro. We hypothesized that ADCs would produce growth and chemotactic factors important in tendon healing and capable of inducing cell migration and matrix protein gene expression. Superficial digital flexor tendons and adipose tissue were harvested from eight adult horses and processed to obtain SVF cells, ADCs and TFBLs. Adipose-derived cells and TFBLs were grown in monolayer culture for growth factor quantification, to produce conditioned media for microchemotaxis, and in co-culture for quantification of matrix protein gene expression by TFBLs. Growth factor gene expression by SVF cells was significantly greater than in ADCs or TFBLs. Co-culture of TFBLs and ADCs resulted in modest up-regulation of matrix protein expression (collagen types I and III, decorin, and cartilage oligomeric matrix protein) by TFBLs. Media conditioned by ADCs induced ADC migration in a dose dependent manner. These findings support the role of both SVF and ADCs as trophic mediators in tendon regeneration. The differences detected in gene expression between SVF cells and ADCs indicate that additional studies are needed to evaluate the changes that occur during culture of these cells.


The selection for plantation of a particular type of mustard plant depending on its productivity (pod yield) at the stage of maturity. The growth of mustard plant dependent on some parameters of that plant, these are shoot length, number of leaves, number of roots and roots length etc. As the plant is growing, some leaves may be fall down and some new leaves may come, so it can not gives the idea to develop the relationship with the seeds weight at mature stage of that plant. It is not possible to find the number of roots and root length of mustard plant at growing stage that will be harmful of this plant as roots goes deeper to deeper inside the land. Only the value of shoot length which increases in course of time can be measured at different time instances. Weather parameters are maximum and minimum humidity, rain fall, maximum and minimum temperature may effect the growth of the plant. The parameters of pollution, water, soil, distance and crop management may be dominant factors of growth of plant and its productivity. Considering all parameters, the growth of the plant is very uncertain, fuzzy environment can be considered for the prediction of shoot length at maturity of the plant. Fuzzification plays a greater role for fuzzification of data, which is based on certain membership functions. Here an effort has been made to fuzzify the original data based on gaussian function, triangular function, s-function, Trapezoidal and L –function. After that all fuzzified data are defuzzified to get normal form. Finally the error analysis (calculation of forecasting error and average error) indicates the membership function appropriate for fuzzification of data and use to predict the shoot length at maturity. The result is also verified using residual (Absolute Residual, Maximum of Absolute Residual, Mean Absolute Residual, Mean of Mean Absolute Residual, Median of Absolute Residual and Standard Deviation) analysis. Keywords—Fuzzification, defuzzification, gaussian function, triangular function, trapezoidal function,s-function, , membership function, residual analysis.


October 31, 2019 – US investor-state disputes against Canada still loom under NAFTA, with five unresolved claims outstanding and the possibility that more could emerge, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In "Keeping Score: Investor-State Dispute Awards between the US and Canada," respected trade lawyer Lawrence Herman notes the ratification of the new Canada United States Mexico trade agreement (CUSMA) would not put an immediate end to investor-state claims.


BACKGROUND
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a common neurologic autoimmune disorder. We have used a newly introduced measure, Quality of Care Index (QCI), which is associated with the efficacy of care given to patients suffering from MS.

OBJECTIVE
To report and compare the quality of care given to MS patients in different regions and country.

METHOD
Primary measures were retrieved from Global Burden of Disease (GBD) from 1990 to 2019. Secondary measures (mortality to incidence ratio, DALY to prevalence ratio, prevalence to incidence ratio, and YLL to YLD ratio) were combined using Principle Component Analysis (PCA), to form an essential component (QCI) (0-100 index with higher values representing better condition).

FINDINGS
In 2019, there were 59,345 (95% UI 51,818 to 66,943) new MS incident case globally. Global QCI of 88.4 was calculated for 2019. At national level, Qatar had the highest quality of care (100) followed by Kuwait (98.5) and Greenland (98.1). The lowest QCI was observed in Kiribati (13.5), Nauru (31.5), and Seychelles (36.3), respectively. Most countries have reached gender equity during the 30 years. Also, QCI was lowest in ages from 55 to 80 in global scale.

CONCLUSION
MS QCI is better among those countries of higher socioeconomic status, possibly due to better healthcare access and early detection in these regions. Countries could benefit from adopting the introduced QCI to evaluate the quality of care given to MS patients in national and global level.


In recent years, there has been a rapid growth of research interest in natural language processing that seeks to better understand sentiment or opinion expressed in text. There are several notable issues in most previous work in sentiment analysis, among them: the trained classifiers are domain‐dependent; the labeled corpora required for training can be difficult to acquire from real‐world text; and dependencies between sentiments and topics are not taken into consideration. In response to these limitations, a new family of probabilistic topic models, namely joint sentiment–topic models, have been developed, which are capable of detecting sentiment in connection with topic from text without using any labeled data for training. In addition, the sentiment‐bearing topics extracted by the joint sentiment–topic models provide means for automatically discovering and summarizing opinions from a vast amount of user‐generated data. WIREs Data Mining Knowl Discov 2015, 5:246–254. doi: 10.1002/widm.1161


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Moderately thermophilic bioleaching of a pyritic chalcopyrite concentrate was mimicked in an electrochemical vessel. The bioleaching was carried out for 28 days at 45°C with 2.5% (wt/vol) solid content at pH 1.5. Data from the redox potential development was used to program a redox potential controller in an electrochemical vessel to reproduce the same leaching conditions in the absence of microorganisms. Despite precipitation of iron as jarosite and formation of elemental sulphur in the electrochemical experiment, the copper recoveries were almost the same in both experiments.


Placebo effects are health improvements, for example pain
 reduction, due to an inert treatment. These effects are typically ascribed to
 a person's expectations about the beneficial outcomes of the placebo. The literature and experimental research in the current dissertation shows
 that expectancies, and thereby placebo effects, can be induced via verbal
 suggestion, conditioning, and mental imagery. Especially verbal suggestions
 may enhance analgesic treatments for patients. We found, for the first time,
 that mental imagery of reduced pain can induce analgesia via its effects on
 pain expectancies. We also observed that people's expectations about the
 effectiveness of medications depend on the route of administration and targeted
 symptom. These findings suggest that harnessing placebo effects by targeting
 expectancies is promising for enhancing standard clinical care of physical
 symptoms.


Auxin is an important plant hormone that controls numerous aspects of development and physiology, including responses to light, tissue patterning, and organogenesis. It forms concentration gradients across various tissues throughout the plant and exerts its effects by binding to auxin binding proteins and regulating transcription of distinct sets of target genes. Written and edited by experts in the field, thiscollection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology describes the numerous processes auxin controls. These include growth of the shoot apical meristem, leaf and vein patterning, and flower, fruit, and root development. Other chapters examine how auxin is synthesized by plants, the nature of auxin receptors, the Aux/IAA family of transcriptional repressors that auxin regulates, and the variety of auxin transport mechanisms that exist in plants. The book also examines the extraordinary complexity of auxin responses and discusses new computational models for mechanisms that allow this hormone to generate such a wide variety of outputs. It is thus of interest to systems biologists, biochemists, and developmental biologists, as well as all plant biologists interested in the regulation of plant behavior and morphogenesis.


It is widely accepted that the health of a population is determined by a range of factors and that the greatest scope for improving the public's health lies outside the control of the NHS. Health impact assessment (HIA) has emerged to identify those activities and policies likely to have major impacts on the health of a population.

#### Summary points

Health impact assessment is a structured method for assessing and improving the health consequences of projects and policies in the non-health sector

It is a multidisciplinary process combining a range of qualitative and quantitative evidence in a decision making framework

Applications include national policy appraisal, local urban planning, transport, and water and agricultural projects

Benefits include improved interagency collaboration and public participation

Limitations include a lack of agreed methods and gaps in the evidence base for health impacts

Health impact assessment is a means of evidence based policy making for improvement in health. It is a combination of methods whose aim is to assess the health consequences to a population of a policy, project, or programme that does not necessarily have health as its primary objective.1

Health impact assessment is a multidisciplinary process within which a range of evidence about the health effects of a proposal is considered in a structured framework. It takes into account the opinions and expectations of those who may be affected by a proposed policy. Potential health impacts of a proposal are analysed and used to influence the decision making process.

A health impact assessment is based on a broad model of health, which proposes that economic, political, social, psychological, and environmental factors determine population health (box B1). For the first time these wider determinants of health have been acknowledged by the UK government in the white paper Saving Lives : Our Healthier Nation .2 This …


In this article we describe the development, analysis, and interpretation of a novel item format we call Ordered Multiple-Choice (OMC). A unique feature of OMC items is that they are linked to a model of student cognitive development for the construct being measured. Each of the possible answer choices in an OMC item is linked to developmental levels of student understanding, facilitating the diagnostic interpretation of student item responses. OMC items seek to provide greater diagnostic utility than typical multiple-choice items, while retaining their efficiency advantages. On the one hand, sets of OMC items provide information about the developmental understanding of students that is not available with traditional multiple-choice items; on the other hand, this information can be provided to schools, teachers, and students quickly and reliably, unlike traditional open-ended test items.


This Article considers the likely effects of continued political polarization on the relative power of Congress and the Supreme Court. Polarization already is leading to an increase the power of the Court against Congress, whether or not the Justices affirmatively seek that additional power. The governing model of Congressional-Supreme Court relations is that the branches are in dialogue on statutory interpretation: Congress writes federal statutes, the Court interprets them, and Congress has the power to overrule the Court's interpretations. The Court's interpretive rules are premised upon this dialogic model, such as the rule that Supreme Court statutory interpretation precedents are subject to 'super strong' stare decisis protection because Congress can always correct an errant court interpretation. Legislation scholars also write as though congressional overriding remains common. In fact, in the last two decades the rate of Congressional overriding of Supreme Court statutory decisions has plummeted dramatically, from an average of 12 overrulings of Supreme Court cases in each two-year Congressional term during the 1975-1990 period to an average of 5.8 overrides for each term from 1991-2000 and to a mere 2.8 average number of overrides for each term from 2001-2012. Although some of the decline seems attributable to the lower volume of Supreme Court statutory interpretation decisions, the decline in overridings greatly outpaces this decline in cases. Instead, partisanship seems to have strongly diminished the opportunities for bipartisan overridings of Supreme Court cases, in which Democrats and Republicans come together to reverse the Supreme Court. In its place we see a new, but rarer, phenomenon, partisan overriding, which appears to require conditions of near-unified control of both branches of Congress and the presidency. The two recent examples are the Military Commissions Act of 2006, in which Republicans overturned the Court's statutory interpretation decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld on the habeas corpus rights of enemy combatants, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, in which Democrats overturned the Court's statutory interpretation decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company on how to measure the statute of limitations period in certain employment discrimination lawsuits. In a highly polarized atmosphere and with Senate rules usually requiring 60 votes to change the status quo, the Court's word on the meaning of statutes is now final almost as often as its word on constitutional interpretation.Although political polarization has benefited the Supreme Court's power relative to Congress in the short term, the longer term power relations are more uncertain. Aside from the statutory interpretation dialogue, Congress interacts with the Supreme Court in other ways, including through Senate confirmation of Supreme Court judicial nominees. The recent partisan realignment of the Supreme Court makes it more likely that a Supreme Court judicial nominee will be filibustered in the Senate, thanks to the increasing willingness of Senators to oppose nominees on ideological grounds and increased partisan polarization in the Senate. The number of Senators from the opposing party of the nominating president voting against Supreme Court nominees is approaching or exceeding the filibuster level. Depending upon how the politics plays out in a possible filibuster of a Supreme Court judicial nominee, we may see either an erosion of the use of the filibuster in the Senate or a compromise which would weaken the power of the judiciary, such as term limits imposed upon future Supreme Court Justices.Part I of this Article demonstrates that despite the model of Congress-Court dialogue, and Supreme Court statutory interpretation tools premised on dialogue, congressional overridings of Supreme Court statutory interpretation precedents have become exceedingly rare. The effect of this change is to empower the Court over Congress. Part II argues that the steep decline in overridings over the last two decades appears due in large part to increased polarization in Congress and not simply to a decline in the number of Supreme Court statutory interpretation cases. When Congress does override a Supreme Court case, it is now more likely to be a partisan overriding, pushed through in periods of unified government. Part III is more speculative. It considers how polarization in Congress and the partisan realignment of the Supreme Court — a Court in which all the conservative Justices are Republicans and all the liberal Justices are Democrats — may eventually lead to a major confrontation in Congress over the power of the Senate filibuster. That confrontation may leave the Senate, the Supreme Court, or both, looking very different than they are today. Furthermore, partisan realignment has the potential to harm the Supreme Court's legitimacy in a way which we have not witnessed in modern times.


A synthesis of the structural geology of the Tierra del Fuego Island, which integrates a new data set derived from field surveys and literature data of the last few years, is presented here. The main geological features of the region developed during the Mesozoic-Cenozoic Andean orogenic cycle that started in the Middle to Late Jurassic with a back-arc extension, crustal stretching and widespread volcanism, related to the break-up of Gondwanaland. An extensional fault system deriving from the mechanical and thermal subsidence led the evolution of the Rocas Verdes marginal basin, which hosts the upper Jurassic volcanoclastic rocks, the lower Cretaceous turbiditic sequences and few isolated elongated ophiolitic complexes. From the Late Cretaceous onward, the orogenic cycle of the Fuegian Andes continued with the shortening and inversion of the back-arc margin through horizontal contraction and crustal thickening. The uplift of the Cordillera, the emplacement of plutonic rocks, and the intercontinental polyphase deformation resulted from thick-skinned tectonics. The thrust system developed from its deeper roots, where the Palaeozoic basement was involved in compressive deformation, and propagated to the shallower stratigraphic levels of the northward verging Magallanes fold-and-thrust belt. The Magallanes foreland basin developed in front of the orogenic wedge that records at least four syntectonic angular unconformities from Late Cretaceous to Lower Miocene. During the Late Cretaceous Andean compression, three distinct phases of penetrative ductile deformation defined by low-greenschist facies assemblages took place, both in the basement and in the cover units. These deformations are related to a single metamorphic event with foliation development, as observed from microscopic analysis of the schist in the Ushuaia area. The first foliation S1 is preserved either as relic sericite microfolds between microlithons of the dominant S2, or as early refolded veins of recrystallized quartz. The S2 foliation is defined by oriented white mica. The crenulation of S2, which is related to D3 and occurs in most strained zones, becomes a pressure solution S3 spaced foliation, lined by opaque minerals. From the Palaeogene to the present, EW sinistral wrench tectonics affected the region as a component of the relative motion between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. This strike-slip activity is well documented from the Carbajal valley to the Canal de Beagle region south of the Magallanes-Fagnano transform fault system. Restraining bends and overlapping step-over geometry characterize few sectors of the strike-slip faults with pop-ups, pressure ridges and uplifted slivers of crust. Releasing step-over along the transform fault system, both in on-shore and off-shore zones, formed several elongated pull-apart basins with many tens of km in length and a few km in width. The Lago Fagnano represents the main morphotectonic expression of this structural setting. A N-S geological cross-section through the Fuegian Andes synthesizes all the geological and geophysical data. The major stacks of internal thick skinned basement involved in the thrusting are high-grade Upper Palaeozoic to Lower Tertiary metamorphic rocks. The geometry of the thrust complex is an upright, south plunging monocline of moderately tilted sedimentary cover strata, as well as related thrusts, faults and chevron folds involving the Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks. The orogenic shortening of the Fuegian Andes, including the Cordillera and the Magallanes fold-and-thrust belt, reaches few hundred kilometres with a left-lateral wrenching component of many tens of meters. The Tierra del Fuego Island is characterized by low seismicity (Mlt;3.5) and shallow crustal earthquakes. The southern part presents strong morphological evidence of the Quaternary activity of the E-W left-lateral strike-slip faults, with a present deformation pattern (DGPS) with a horizontal slip component of about 6 mm/year. Moreover, the northern sector of the Island is affected by extensional tectonics related to the normal fault systems of the eastern arms of the Magallanes Strait.