A novel method for learning characteristic decision trees is applied to the problem of learning the decision mechanism of coin-sorting machines. Decision trees constructed by ID3-like algorithms are unable to detect instances of categories not present in the set of training examples. Instead of being rejected, such instances are assigned to one of the classes actually present in the training set. To solve this problem the algorithm must learn characteristic, rather than discriminative, category descriptions. In addition, the ability to control the degree of generalization is identified as an essential property of such algorithms. A novel method using the information about the statistical distribution of the feature values that can be extracted from the training examples is developed to meet these requirements. The central idea is to augment each leaf of the decision tree with a subtree that imposes further restrictions on the values of each feature in that leaf. (Less)


To face the challenges of keeping healthy in increasing population sizes of both ageing and developing people in China, a fundamental request from the public health is the development of lifespan normative trajectories of brain and behavior. This paper introduces the Chinese Color Nest Project (CCNP 2013–2022), a large-scale ten-year program of modeling brain and behavioral trajectories for human lifespan (6–85 years old). We plan to gradually collect the behavioral and brain imaging data at ages across the lifespan on nationwide and depict the normal trajectory of Chinese brain development across the lifespan, based on the accelerated longitudinal design in the coming next 10 years starting at 2013. Various psychiatric disorders have been demonstrated highly relevant to abnormal events during the neurodevelopment regarding their onset ages of first episodes. Therefore, delineation of normative growth curves of brain and cognition in typically developing children is extremely useful for monitoring, early detecting and intervention of various neurodevelopmental disorders. In this paper, we detailed the developing part of CCNP, devCCNP. It tracked 192 healthy children and adolescents (6–18 years old) in Beibei district of Chongqing for the first 5 years of the full CCNP cohort (2013–2017). To demonstrate the feasibility of implementing the long-term follow-up of CCNP, we here comprehensively document devCCNP in terms of its experimental design, sample strategies, data acquisition and storage as well as some preliminary results and data sharing roadmap for future. Specifically, we first describe the accelerated longitudinal sampling design as well as its exact ratioof sample dropping off during the data collection. Second, we present several initial findings such as canonical growth curves of cortical surface areas of a set of well-established large-scale functional networks of the human brain. Finally, together with records generated by many psychological and behavioral tests, we will provide an individual growing-up report for each family participating the program, initiating the potential guidance on the individual academic and social development. The resources introduced in the current work can provide first-hand data for a series of coming Chinese brain development studies, such as Chinese Standard MRI Brain Templates, Normative Growth Curves of Chinese Brain and Cognition as well as Mapping of Language Areas in Chinese Developing Brain. These would not only offer normative references of the atypical brain and cognition development for Chinese population but also serve as a strong force on accelerating the pace of integrating Chinese brain development into the national brain program or Chinese Brain Project.


Importance sampling has become an indispensable strategy to speed up optimization algorithms for large-scale applications. Improved adaptive variants - using importance values defined by the complete gradient information which changes during optimization - enjoy favorable theoretical properties, but are typically computationally infeasible. In this paper we propose an efficient approximation of gradient-based sampling, which is based on safe bounds on the gradient. The proposed sampling distribution is (i) provably the best sampling with respect to the given bounds, (ii) always better than uniform sampling and fixed importance sampling and (iii) can efficiently be computed - in many applications at negligible extra cost. The proposed sampling scheme is generic and can easily be integrated into existing algorithms. In particular, we show that coordinate-descent (CD) and stochastic gradient descent (SGD) can enjoy significant a speed-up under the novel scheme. The proven efficiency of the proposed sampling is verified by extensive numerical testing.


Modern antitrust engenders a possible conflict between public and private enforcement due to the central role of Leniency Programs. Damage actions may reduce the attractiveness of Leniency Programs for cartel participants if their cooperation with the competition authority increases the chance that the cartel's victims will bring a successful suit. A long legal debate culminated in a EU directive, adopted in November 2014, which seeks a balance between public and private enforcement. It protects the e ffectiveness of a Leniency Program by preventing the use of leniency statements in subsequent actions for damages and by limiting the liability of the immunity recipient to its direct and indirect purchasers. Our analysis shows such compromise is not required: limiting the cartel victims' ability to recover their loss is not necessary to preserve the eff ectiveness of a Leniency Program and may be counterproductive. We show that damage actions will actually improve its eff ectiveness, through a legal regime in which the civil liability of the immunity recipient is minimized (as in Hungary) and full access to all evidence collected by the competition authority, including leniency statements, is granted to claimants (as in the US).


The authors argue that because there are no groups of girls or young women that can be considered immune from gender-based or systemic violence, there is a significant need for the inclusion and recognition of the girl child in official policies, programs, and legislation. In their view, a fundamental recognition of the specificities of the gendered nature of violence, particularly as it intersects with age, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation is required. Moreover, the antecedent roots of violence need to be identified, as they provide sites for effective and early intervention. They discuss the social and historical context of the girl child in Canada and follow this analysis with a presentation of the research carried out by the Alliance of Five Research Centres on Violence and its consequent implications for policy and programming. Finally, the authors append a detailed list of concrete recommendations for policy-makers at all levels of government, as well as for service providers and the media, covering such areas as education, service delivery, and future research.


Large-scale social experiments were pioneered in labor economics, and are the basis for much of what we know about topics ranging from the effect of job training to incentives for job search to labor supply responses to taxation. Random assignment has provided a powerful solution to selection problems that bedevil non-experimental research. Nevertheless, many important questions about these topics require going beyond random assignment. This applies to questions pertaining to both internal and external validity, and includes effects on endogenously observed outcomes, such as wages and hours; spillover effects; site effects; heterogeneity in treatment effects; multiple and hidden treatments; and the mechanisms producing treatment effects. In this Chapter, we review the value and limitations of randomized social experiments in the labor market, with an emphasis on these design issues and approaches to addressing them. These approaches expand the range of questions that can be answered using experiments by combining experimental variation with econometric or theoretical assumptions. We also discuss efforts to build the means of answering these types of questions into the ex ante design of experiments. Our discussion yields an overview of the expanding toolkit available to experimental researchers.


Epidemiology The incidence of acute pancreatitis in the UK ranges from 150 to 420 cases per million population and is currently rising. [1] There is considerable geographical variation. The incidence in the UK and the Netherlands is relatively low compared to Scandinavian countries and the USA. [2] A Croatian study reported a mean age of 60 with roughly equal gender distribution. [2]However, the condition has been reported in children: the causes are more varied than in adults and include drugs, traumas, infections, multisystem disorders and biliary anomalies. [3]


The daily rhythms of our bodies, and those of other mammals, are thought to be coordinated by a "master" clock located in the hypothalamus of the brain, which in turn controls peripheral "slave" clocks in the other organs. Balsalobre et al. identify glucocorticoid hormones as one of the signals that the master clock may use to coordinate the slaves. A synthetic glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, can transiently alter the phase of the rhythms in liver, kidney, and heart, at any time of day or night. However, the master clock in the brain, which contains no glucocorticoid receptor and so is not affected by dexamethasone treatment, responds to entraining signals only at certain times in its cycle. Balsalobre, A., Brown, S.A., Marcacci, L., Tronche, F., Kellendonk, C., Reichardt, H.M., Schütz, G., and Schibler, U. (2000) Resetting of circadian time in peripheral tissues by glucocorticoid signaling. Science 289: 2344-2347. [Abstract] [Full Text]


Following a transition year, the new Common Agricultural Policy period, starting in 2015, is expected to bring a number of major changes in the payment scheme of Pillar 1. Using the example of the Austrian small ruminant sector (sheep and goats), this paper describes the effects of an area-based payment scheme instead of the Single Farm Payment Scheme applied previously. The calculations are based on the specification and simulation of seven different farm models and on an analysis of the Austrian Integrated Administration and Control System data sets. The results of both analyses suggest redistribution effects in favour of less extensive farm management systems. However, farms with high single farm payments per hectare are expected to face big cuts in direct payments by 2015. To avoid hardship the amount of the payments will be gradually amended over the coming years until 2019.


This paper examines how mentoring can improve the performance and level of teacher education in Pakistan, especially in rural areas. It presents a qualitative case study that focuses on two teachers from rural Sindh; one male and the other female. These teachers were participants in the Mentoring Program at the Aga Khan University - Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED). Data was collected through participant observations, from structured and unstructured interviews, in the classroom and the field, and from reflective journals. The program focused on re- conceptualizing the role of these teachers as mentors, developing relevant skills through critical thinking and reflective practice. The objective was to enhance teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and androgogical skills. After the program in their cluster based schools these teachers assumed roles that addressed the contextual needs of their areas. The research for this study shows that the program helped mentor teachers to move from traditional to progressive approaches to teaching in which not only personal gains were achieved but whole school improvement was observed.


In revising his Wind Octet, op. 103, into his String Quintet, op. 4, Beethoven substantially altered the retransition to the main thematic return in each of the movements. The various retransitions of op. 4 are refashioned so as to become points of structural focus as well as of poetic expression. Throughout his career, Beethoven would continue to revisit strategies seen in op. 4's revised retransitions, including not only their specific aspects (such as the use of E♭♭/E♮♮ conflicts as a means of problematizing a return to the main key) but also more generally through his highlighting of the contrast between control and disruption at these critical formal junctures. Accordingly, the revised re-transitions of op. 4 suggest a new stage in the development not only of Beethoven's compositional technique but also of his artistic outlook.


Inhibiting the E3 ubiquitin ligase Idol in a mouse model of Alzheimer's-like pathology ameliorates disease severity by promoting clearance of Aβ peptides by microglia. Idolizing a treatment for Alzheimer's disease A hallmark feature of Alzheimer's disease is the accumulation of a protein called β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain. In their study, Choi et al. demonstrate that Idol, a protein linked to cholesterol metabolism, also has a crucial role in the development of Alzheimer's-like disease in mice. Mice engineered to lack Idol were protected from developing Aβ deposits. The authors further showed that this protection was associated with better clearance of Aβ and apolipoprotein E by macrophage-like brain cells called microglia. This discovery suggests that the Idol pathway may be a therapeutic target for preventing the formation of Alzheimer's disease lesions. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is an important modifier of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis, and its abundance has been linked to the clearance of β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain. The pathways that control the clearance of ApoE in the brain are incompletely understood. We report that Idol, an E3 ubiquitin ligase that targets the low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) for degradation, is a critical determinant of brain ApoE metabolism and Aβ plaque biogenesis. Previous work has shown that Idol contributes minimally to the regulation of hepatic LDLR expression in mice. By contrast, we demonstrate that Idol is a primary physiological regulator of LDLR protein in the brain, controlling the clearance of both ApoE-containing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles and Aβ. We studied the consequences of loss of Idol expression in a transgenic mouse model of Aβ amyloidosis. Idol deficiency increased brain LDLR, decreased ApoE, decreased soluble and insoluble Aβ, reduced amyloid plaque burden, and ameliorated neuroinflammation. These findings identify Idol as a gatekeeper of LDLR-dependent ApoE and Aβ clearance in the brain and a potential enzyme target for therapeutic intervention in AD.


Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) in recent years have received significant attention, due to their potential for increasing efficiency in healthcare monitoring. Typical sensors used for WBAN are low powered single transceiver devices utilizing a single channel for transmission at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. However, performance of these devices usually degrades when the density of sensors increases. One approach to counter this performance degradation is to exploit multiple channels at the MAC layer, where optimal usage of the channels is achieved through cooperation between the sensor nodes. In this paper we propose a cooperative WBAN environment that supports multi-hop transmission through cooperation involving both environmental sensors and WBAN nodes. Our solution extends the cooperation at the MAC layer to a cross-layered gradient based routing solution that allows interaction between WBAN and environmental sensors in order to ensure data delivery from WBANs to a distant gateway. Extensive simulations for healthcare scenarios have been performed to validate the cooperation at the MAC layer, as well as the cross-layered gradient based routing. Comparisons to other cooperative multi-channel MAC and routing solutions have shown the overall performance improvement of the proposed approach evaluated in terms of packet loss, power consumption and delay.


Although phosphate phosphorus (P) is strongly sorbed in many soils, it may be quickly transported through the soil by preferential flow. Under flood irrigation, preferential flow is especially pronounced and associated solute losses may be important. Phosphorus losses induced by flood irrigation were investigated in a lysimeter study. Detailed soil chemical analyses revealed that P was very mobile in the topsoil, but the higher P-fixing capacity of the subsoil appeared to restrict P mobility. Application of a dye tracer enabled preferential flow pathways to be identified. Soil sampling according to dye staining patterns revealed that exchangeable P was significantly greater in preferential flow areas as compared with the unstained soil matrix. This could be partly attributed to the accumulation of organic carbon and P, together with enhanced leaching of Al- and Fe-oxides in the preferential flow areas, which resulted in reduced P sorption. The irrigation water caused a rapid hydrologic response by displacement of resident water from the subsoil. Despite the occurrence of preferential flow, most of the outflowing water was resident soil water and very low in P. In these soils the occurrence of preferential flow per se is not sufficient to cause large P losses even if the topsoil is rich in P. It appears that the P was retained in lower parts of the soil profile characterized by a very high P-fixing capacity. This study demonstrates the risks associated with assessing potential P losses on the basis of P mobility in the topsoil alone.


The origin of this output was a large-scale commission from the Very Reverend Koson Hinonishi, Mother Superior of the Chugu-ji Temple, Nara, Japan. The first stage, involving two permanent murals ('Sea of clouds and mountains in the distance' and 'Flying angels') was completed during the 1990s. The works realised after 2001 were sliding doors (entitled: Beginning, A [Alpha] and Un [Omega]) and a series of temple screens (Bamboo Grass and Prayers: the illustrated life of Prince Shotoku). Chugu-ji Temple is a famous Temple in Nara, the ancient capital of Japan. Hamano's commission is situated in a new annexe where his doors and screens surround the contemporary reconstruction of a medieval carving of the Buddha. Hamano's preparatory and completed work for the Temple was exhibited at Wako Hall Gallery, Tokyo (2005). This output was curated by the gallery with the Ryu, and explored Hamano's interest in traditional fusuma painting and his return to the traditional fusuma narrative on the life of Prince Shotoku (574-622). This Prince introduced Buddhism to Japan and created the islands' first political constitution. Hamano's recreation involves four screens depicting 70 scenes of the life and high deeds of Shotoku. The exhibition sought to maximize public access to the commissioned artworks before their dedication at Chugu-ji and the importance of the occasion was indicated by the presence of the Japanese Imperial family at the reception. During the commission, Hamano made two further paintings on the Prince Shotoku theme for the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The paintings were displayed in the VIP room of the Japanese pavilion during Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan. In a major publication on Hamano (published 2004), Ichiro Hariu, President of the Japanese Federation of Art Critics, outlined the Ryu history. The book also illustrates the Temple commission.


In 2011, the Government made a commitment to the introduction of universal General Practitioner (GP) care, which they equated to the removal of fees for GP care. The aim of this paper is to quantify the potential cost implications of implementing universal GP care in Ireland. The analysis finds that universal GP care would add between 2 and 3.5 per cent to overall public healthcare expenditure and up to 1.2 per cent to total healthcare expenditure. While the introduction of universal GP care in Ireland would go some way to addressing limitations of the current system, other reforms may be required before universality can be achieved.


Due to the presence of long chained omega three fatty acids, fish oils have gathered much interest recently. Fish oils such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are a rich source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) like eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which reduce blood triacylglycerol and cholesterol levels. However, the higher the unsaturation level, the less stable is the oil which may haveits functionality reduced due to oxidation. This research main interest was the stability of encapsulated fish oil stored in different types of packagings. The fish oil used in this experiment was supplied by Cardinal Pharmaceutical Industry in soft gel capsules. After encapsulation, half of the samples were sent to SERPAC Industry LTDA for blistering, where polychlortrifluoroethylene (PCTFE), commercially known as Aclar Rx 160 (15 μ), polyvinyldichloride (PVDC-60 gsm2), and polyvinylchoride (PVC-250 μ) films were used as treatments. The blisters were packed in carton boxes. The other half of the capsules was packed in amber glass or high density polyethylene (PEAD) rigid flasks with and without silica bags. Each treatment contained 60 capsules in triplicate and all packs were stored under ambient conditions for 12 months. Analytical determinations were performed on the oil every 28 days and included acid and peroxide values and absortivities in the ultraviolet region at 232 and 270 nm. The fatty acid composition determinations, specifically EPA and DHA content, were performed during the experiment. The package which presented the largest changes in quality of the oil was the PVC film "blister". The best results were found in the encapsulated oil stored in PEAD flasks with silica bags. EPA and DHA contents were kept constant for all samples.


The combination of Wigner–Ville distribution (WVD) and Hough transform (HT) has been successfully used in detection and parameter extraction of frequency modulated continuous waveform (FMCW) signals. In this paper, a combination of Cross–Wigner–Ville and HT [(Cross Wigner–Hough transform (XWHT)] is proposed for detection and parameter extraction of FMCW signals with a novel methodology. The XWHT method makes use of the cross-terms created by WVD instead of trying to suppress them. Utilization of the properties of the cross-terms to detect and unveil the parameters of FMCW signals on HT space is a new approach. The performance of the method is compared with other Wigner–Hough transform-based methods in terms of transform speed, parameter extraction, and detection performance. As a result, this study proposes that the XWHT is a candidate method to be used in digital electronic support receivers' automatic signal detection and analysis capabilities due to its speed and performance.


Choosing a tourist destination from the information available is one of the most complex tasks for tourists when making travel plans, both before and during their travel. With the development of a recommendation system, tourists can select, compare and make decisions almost instantly. This involves the construction of decision models, the ability to predict user preferences, and interpretation of the results. This research aims to develop a Destination Recommendation System (DRS) focusing on the study of machine-learning techniques to improve both technical and practical aspects in DRS. First, to design an effective DRS, an intensive literature review was carried out on published studies of recommendation systems in the tourism domain. Second, the thesis proposes a model-based DRS, involving a two-step filtering feature selection method to remove irrelevant and redundant features and a Decision Tree (DT) classifier to offer interpretability, transparency and efficiency to tourists when they make decisions. To support high scalability, the system is evaluated with a huge body of real-world data collected from a case-study city. Destination choice models were developed and evaluated. Experimental results show that our proposed model-based DRS achieves good performance and can provide personalised recommendations with regard to tourist destinations that are satisfactory to intended users of the system. Third, the thesis proposes an ensemble-based DRS using weight hybrid and cascade hybrid. Three classification algorithms, DT, Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Multi- Layer Perceptrons (MLPs), were investigated. Experimental results show that the bagging ensemble of MLP classifiers achieved promising results, outperforming baseline learners and other combiners. Lastly, the thesis also proposes an Adaptive, Responsive, Interactive Model-based User Interface (ARIM-UI) for DRS that allows tourists to interact with the recommended results easily. The proposed interface provides adaptive, informative and responsive information to tourists and improves the level of the user experience of the proposed system.


Determining H2O Vapor Temperature and Concentration in Particle-Free and Particle-Laden Combustion Flows Using Spectral Line Emission Measurements John Robert Tobiasson Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science There is a growing need for the clean generation of electricity in the world, and increased efficiency is one way to achieve cleaner generation. Increased efficiency may be achieved through an improved understanding of the heat flux of participating media in combustion environments. Real-time in-situ optical measurements of gas temperature and concentrations in combustion environments is needed. Optical methods do not disturb the flow characteristics and are not subject to the temperature limitation of current methods. Simpler, less-costly optical measurements than current methods would increase the ability to apply them in more circumstances. This work explores the ability to simultaneously measure gas temperature and H2O concentration via integrated spectral intensity ratios in regions where H2O is the dominant participating gas. This work considered combustion flows with and without fuel and soot particles, and is an extension of work previously performed by Ellis et al. [1]. Five different combustion regimes were used to investigate the robustness of the infrared intensity integral method first presented by Ellis et al. [1]. These included Post-Flame Natural Gas (PFNG), Post-Flame Medium Wood (PFMW), Post-Flame Fine Wood (PFFW), In-Flame Natural Gas (IFNG), and In-Flame Fine Wood (IFFW). Optical spectra were collected for each regime. Methods for processing the spectra to obtain gas temperature, gas concentration, broadband temperature, and broadband emissivity were developed. A one-dimensional spectral intensity model was created to compare measurements and modeled spectra. It was concluded that excellent agreement (within 2.5%) was achieved between optical and suction pyrometer gas temperatures as long as 1) the optical probe and cold target used were well-aligned 2) the path length was greater than 0.3 m and 3) the intensity from broadband emitters within the path was smaller than the gas intensity. Shorter path lengths between 0.15 – 0.3 m produced reasonable temperatures with 7 % error while path lengths of 0.05 m or less were as much as 15% in error or the signal would not effectively process. Water vapor concentration was less accurate being at best within 20% (relative) of expected values. The accurate determination of concentration requires first an accurate temperature concentration as well low broadband participation. Some optical concentrations were in error as much as 85%. The 1-D model was compared to the measurement and it was found that the model peaks were sharper and shifted 0.167 cm compared to the measured data. The reason for the shift can be attributed to the uncertainty of the reference laser frequency used in the FTIR. No conclusion was found for the cause of the sharper peaks in the model. The integrated area of bands used to find temperature and concentration matched well between the modeled and measured spectrum (3%).


Over the past decades, coralline algae have increasingly been used as archives of palaeoclimate information due to their seasonal growth bands and their vast distribution from high latitudes to the tropics. Traditionally, these reconstructions have been performed mainly on high latitude species, limiting the geographical area of their potential use. Here we assess the use of temperate crustose fossil coralline algae from shallow water habitats for palaeoenvironmental reconstruction to generate records of past climate change. We determine the potential of three different species of coralline algae, Lithothamnion minervae, Lithophyllum stictaeforme and Mesophyllum philippii, with different growth patterns, as archives for pH (δ11B) and temperature (Mg/Ca) reconstruction in the Mediterranean Sea. Mg concentration is driven by temperature but modulated by growth rate, which is controlled by species‐specific and intraspecific growth patterns. L. minervae is a good temperature recorder, showing a moderate warming trend in specimens from 11.37 cal ka BP (from 14.2 ± 0.4°C to 14.9 ± 0.15°C) to today. In contrast to Mg, all genera showed consistent values of boron isotopes (δ11B) suggesting a common control on boron incorporation. The recorded δ11B in modern and fossil coralline specimens is in agreement with literature data about early Holocene pH, opening new perspectives of coralline‐based, high‐resolution pH reconstructions in deep time.


Future advanced radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems are expected to provide both identification and high-definition localization of objects with improved reliability and security while maintaining low power consumption and cost. Ultrawide bandwidth (UWB) technology is a promising solution for next generation RFID systems to overcome most of the limitations of the current narrow bandwidth RFID technology such as: reduced area coverage, insufficient ranging resolution for accurate localization, sensitivity to interference, and scarce multiple-access capability. In this paper, a survey of current progress in the application of the UWB technology for RFID systems is presented with particular attention to low-complexity solutions for high-definition tag localization.


Autism is a neurodevelopmental syndrome characterized by impairments in three domains of behavior: social interaction, social communication and repetitive behaviors. Early neuroimaging investigations of autism examined gross brain structure and metabolism. These studies revealed some abnormalities, for example, in overall brain size, but these were typically of small magnitude, or only seen in a minority of cases. However, the introduction of new neuroimaging and statistical techniques has led to many recent advances in this field. Functional MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopy have shed light on the function and neurochemistry of the brain in autism. Advanced approaches to data analysis have recently shown great promise in picking up complex structural and functional differences. Conceptual shifts in the understanding of autism have begun to be reflected in the neuroimaging literature, and upcoming advances in positron emission tomography should help elucidate the molecular basis of autism. This update is intended to provide a concise and accessible overview of the latest work in this area and to outline promising avenues for the future.


World War I brought unspeakable destitution to humankind. The question arises: Which ideals drove people to march so enthusiastically toward battle and death? Church history research has called attention to the role of theology and the church. World War I was not merely welcomed; rather, it was understood to be God's word and was vigorously glorified theologically. To date, however, the role played by the evangelical missions has not been addressed by church history research. The historical evaluation of mission journals of important evangelical mission societies of that era demonstrated that the evangelical missions also welcomed the war and justified it, as did the other Protestants. They shared in the over-glorification of their own nation and the propounding of negative platitudes about the wartime enemy. They professed to uphold the unity of all evangelical Christians; nevertheless, irritations arose between German missionaries and their international partners.


Objective: This study compares an Impulse Oscillometry System (IOS; CareFusion) and an Airwave Oscillometry System (tremoFlo; THORASYS) in phantoms and humans. Methods: We built and characterized 3 phantoms representative of normal and obstructed human respiratory systems. Each was measured thrice per device, and averages of resistance (R) and reactance (X) versus frequency (IOS: 5-35 Hz; tremoFlo: 5-37 Hz) were calculated. We computed derived parameters and maximum deviations from predicted values (e max ). Six volunteers (4 normal, 2 asthmatic) were also measured per device. Results: The IOS overestimated predicted R of phantoms up to 36% (Table), or 26% after supplemental filter compensation (FC), and the area under the reactance curve (AX) by 31%. For tremoFlo, e max peaked at 5.3%. In subjects, IOS resistance at 5 Hz (R 5 ) was higher than tremoFlo pre-FC (21% p=0.066). No significant differences were observed post-FC. Discussion: IOS results may be affected by anti-bacterial filters. Once this was compensated, we observed no significant differences between IOS and tremoFlo in our small group of normal and mildly abnormal subjects. However, measurements of higher impedance phantoms suggest that the IOS may over-estimate R, AX and F res in presence of more severe obstruction.


Abstract The Bahitika-sutta of the Majjhima-nikaya presents an inquiry into the ethical conduct of the Buddha. Based on a translation of the Madhyama-agama parallel to the Bahitika-sutta, this inquiry will be examined, taking into account differences found between the Chinese and Pali versions. Introduction The present paper comes as the second in a series of altogether three articles dedicated to a study of early Buddhist ethics, based on comparing versions of the same discourse transmitted by different Buddhist schools. The first article in this trilogy, published last year in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, examines the ten courses of action (kammapatha). These ten courses of action set out the basics of early Buddhist ethical conduct by contrasting wholesome to unwholesome forms of activity undertaken by body, speech and mind. The Bahitika-sutta and its Madhyama-agama parallel take up the closely related theme of defining wholesome ethical conduct and its unwholesome counterpart. The two discourses explore this theme in relation to the Buddha, delineating what type of action the Buddha would undertake and what he would not do. The final article in this trilogy will examine mental purity as the source of ethical conduct, an examination based on the description of the six-fold purity of an arahant given in the Chabbisodhana-sutta of the Majjhima-nikaya and its Madhyama-agama parallel. In the thought world of early Buddhism, the Buddha embodies the ideal of ethical perfection. A living example for his early disciples and an inspiring memory for later generations, the Buddha's conduct exemplified and still exemplifies the ethical standards aspired to and emulated by his disciples. The Bahitika-sutta takes up this theme in a rather direct manner, as its main topic is to scrutinize if the Buddha was indeed an embodiment of ethical perfection. According to the information provided in the Pali commentary, the Bahitika-sutta takes its occasion from an inquiry by King Pasenadi into rather serious allegations against the Buddha's ethical purity, allegations related to an incident that involved the female wanderer Sundari. (1) A discourse in the Udana treats this incident in detail, reporting that in order to discredit the Buddha other wanderers had asked the female wanderer Sundari to frequently visit Jeta's Grove. When her visits had become public knowledge, these wanderers killed Sundari and buried her in Jeta's Grove. Once her body was discovered, the wanderers went around town accusing the Buddhist monks of having taken their pleasure with Sundari and then killed her. (2) People believed this defaming report and started to revile the monks. The Buddha thereon instructed the monks to react to such abuse with a verse on the evil destiny of those who make false allegations or deny a misdeed they have done. This served its purpose and convinced people of the innocence of the Buddhist monks. An account of the same incident in the commentary to the Dhammapada differs in so far as here the attempt at defamation is more directly aimed at the Buddha. (3) According to the Dhammapada commentary, on coming from Jeta's Grove Sundari had told people that she had spent the night with the Buddha. Thus the rumor spread by the wanderers was that the Buddha's disciples murdered her in order to cover up the Buddha's misconduct. This account fits the Bahitika-sutta better, as its inquiry is concerned with the moral integrity of the Buddha himself. (4) Whether the defamation was directed against the Buddha or against his monk disciples, the Sundari incident appears to have been famous among generations of Buddhists and the Chinese pilgrim Fa-xian ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]), who traveled to India in the early fifth century, even refers to the place where she had been buried. (5) The Bahitika-sutta's examination of the moral integrity of the Buddha has a parallel in the Madhyama-agama, translated into Chinese by Gautama Sanghadeva toward the end of the fourth century. …


A key problem in neuroscience, and life sciences more generally, is that data is generated by a hierarchy of dynamical systems. One example of this is in in-vivo calcium imaging data, where data is generated by a lower-order dynamical system governing calcium flux in neurons, which itself is driven by a higher-order dynamical system of neural computation. Ideally, life scientists would be able to infer the dynamics of both the lower-order systems and the higher-order systems, but this is difficult in high-dimensional regimes. A recent approach using sequential variational auto-encoders demonstrated it was possible to learn the latent dynamics of a single dynamical system for computations during reaching behaviour in the brain, using spiking data modelled as a Poisson process. Here we extend this approach using a ladder method to infer a hierarchy of dynamical systems, allowing us to capture calcium dynamics as well as neural computation. In this approach, spiking events drive lower-order calcium dynamics, and are themselves controlled by a higher-order latent dynamical system. We generate synthetic data by generating firing rates, sampling spike trains, and converting spike trains to fluorescence transients, from two dynamical systems that have been used as key benchmarks in recent literature: a Lorenz attractor, and a chaotic recurrent neural network. We show that our model is better able to reconstruct Lorenz dynamics from fluorescence data than competing methods. However, though our model can reconstruct underlying spike rates and calcium transients from the chaotic neural network well, it does not perform as well at reconstructing firing rates as basic techniques for inferring spikes from calcium data. These results demonstrate that VLAEs are a promising approach for modelling hierarchical dynamical systems data in the life sciences, but that inferring the dynamics of lower-order systems can potentially be better achieved with simpler methods.


This paper constitutes the concluding remarks of a Seminal focused on the role of non government organizations in the provision of housing for the poor in Latin America. In its first section it poses five issues, mainly: the failure of traditional housing policy in facing the needs of the population; the different actors involved in any such process, their rationalities and their roles; the "pobladores" themselves, in their organizations; the financement problems associated with dealing with such problems; and the required interconexion and coordination among agencies, organizations and actors. Steming from this analysis, a set of recommendations is proposed dealing with appropriate strategies and measures to cope with the problems.


Introduction The rapid global rise in metabolic disease suggests that nongenetic environmental factors contribute to disease risk. Early life represents a window of phenotypic plasticity important for adult metabolic health and that of future generations. Epigenetic inheritance has been implicated in the paternal transmission of environmentally induced phenotypes, but the mechanisms responsible remain unknown. In utero undernourishment alters the adult germ cell methylome. Undernourishment during PGC reprogramming results in hypomethylation of discrete loci in adult sperm. These regions are enriched in nucleosomes and are low-methylated regions. Although partially resistant to blastocyst reprogramming, differential methylation does not persist in the next generation. However, dysregulated expression of genes neighboring DMRs is observed in F2 offspring. Rationale We investigated the role of DNA methylation in epigenetic inheritance in an established murine model of intergenerational developmental programming. F1 offspring of undernourished dams (UN) have low birth weight and multiple metabolic defects. Metabolic phenotypic inheritance to the F2 generation is observed through the paternal line, even though the F1 mice did not experience postnatal environmental perturbation. The timing of nutritional restriction coincides with methylation reacquisition in F1 male primordial germ cells (PGCs). Therefore, we assessed F1 sperm whole-genome methylation using immunoprecipitation of methylated DNA, combined with high-throughput sequencing, followed by independent validation. We characterized the regions susceptible to methylation change and investigated the legacy of such methylation change in the phenotypic development of the next generation. Results In UN mice, 111 regions are hypomethylated relative to control sperm, and these changes are validated by bisulfite pyrosequencing. Methylation differences span multiple CpGs, with robust absolute changes of 10 to 30% (relative reduction ~50%). The absolute methylation level is consistent with differentially methylated regions (DMRs) being "low-methylated regions," known to be enriched in regulatory elements. Indeed, luciferase assays suggest a role for these DMRs in transcriptional regulation. Hypomethylated DMRs are significantly depleted from coding and repetitive regions and enriched in intergenic regions and CpG islands. They are also enriched in nucleosome-retaining regions, which suggests that, at some loci, paternal germline hypomethylation induced by in utero undernutrition is transmitted in a chromatin context. DMRs are late to regain methylation in normal male PGCs. This may render them particularly susceptible to environmental perturbations that delay or impair remethylation in late gestation. Except for imprinted loci, gene-associated male germline methylation has generally been thought to be largely erased in the zygote,although recent studies suggest that resistance to reprogramming is more widespread. Indeed, 43% of hypomethylated DMRs persist and thus have the potential to affect development of the next generation. We show that differential methylation is lost in late-gestation F2 tissues, but considerable tissue-specific differences in expression of metabolic genes neighboring DMRs are present. Thus, it is unlikely that these expression changes are directly mediated by altered methylation; rather, the cumulative effects of dysregulated epigenetic patterns earlier in development may yield sustained alterations in chromatin architecture, transcriptional regulatory networks, differentiation, or tissue structure. Conclusion Prenatal undernutrition can compromise male germline epigenetic reprogramming and thus permanently alter DNA methylation in the sperm of adult offspring at regions resistant to zygotic reprogramming. However, persistence of altered DNA methylation into late-gestation somatic tissues of the subsequent generation is not observed. Nonetheless, alterations in gamete methylation may serve as a legacy of earlier developmental exposures and may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of environmentally induced disease. The nutritional sins of the mother… Prenatal exposures of a mother can affect the health of her offspring, but how? Radford et al. found that the male progeny of undernourished pregnant mice had altered DNA chemistry in their sperm. In addition, the offspring displayed compromised metabolic health. The specific affected genes not only lost DNA methylation but also lacked the normal sperm DNA packaging factors (protamines) and instead were enriched in nucleosomes. Thus, when subjected to a suboptimal prenatal environment, offspring feel the effects of the maternal assault. Science, this issue p. 10.1126/science.1255903 Prenatal assaults change DNA methylation and chromatin structure in sperm and affect offspring. [Also see Perspective by Susiarjo and Bartolomei] Adverse prenatal environments can promote metabolic disease in offspring and subsequent generations. Animal models and epidemiological data implicate epigenetic inheritance, but the mechanisms remain unknown. In an intergenerational developmental programming model affecting F2 mouse metabolism, we demonstrate that the in utero nutritional environment of F1 embryos alters the germline DNA methylome of F1 adult males in a locus-specific manner. Differentially methylated regions are hypomethylated and enriched in nucleosome-retaining regions. A substantial fraction is resistant to early embryo methylation reprogramming, which may have an impact on F2 development. Differential methylation is not maintained in F2 tissues, yet locus-specific expression is perturbed. Thus, in utero nutritional exposures during critical windows of germ cell development can impact the male germline methylome, associated with metabolic disease in offspring.


We examine the relationship between unemployment benefits and unemployment using Swedish regional data. To estimate the effect of an increase in unemployment insurance (UI) on unemployment we exploit the ceiling on UI benefits. The benefit ceiling, coupled with the fact that there are regional wage differentials, implies that the generosity of UI varies regionally. More importantly, the actual generosity of UI varies within region over time due to variations in the benefit ceiling. We find fairly robust evidence suggesting that the actual generosity of UI does matter for regional unemployment. Increases in the actual replacement rate contribute to higher unemployment as suggested by theory. We also show that removing the wage cap in UI benefit receipt would reduce the dispersion of regional unemployment. This result is due to the fact that low unemployment regions tend to be high wage regions where the benefit ceiling has a greater bite. Removing the benefit ceiling thus implies that the actual generosity of UI increases more in low unemployment regions.


The volcano at Stonewin is frozen over and the lands are blasted with a deadly cold. This is the work of Blaze the Ice Dragon, sent by wicked Wizard Malvel to thwart Tom's quest to save his father. Can he defeat Blaze and win the next piece of Amulet before it's too late?


Microbial communities inhabiting high temperature (>73C) environments are supported by chemical energy, providing a unique opportunity to investigate the processes that supported life prior to the advent of photosynthesis. Previous work has focused on the importance of autotrophy in supporting such communities, and recent reports of organic substrate utilization in several high temperature springs in Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, USA suggest that chemosynthetic populations are facultatively autotrophic. Nevertheless, little is known about the factors influencing relative rates of autotrophy and heterotrophy in these systems, and few studies have addressed the potential role of facultative autotrophs in supporting these ecosystems. This work addressed these compelling questions using in situ microcosm assays to directly quantify organic and inorganic substrate transformation rates in 13 geochemically diverse YNP chemosynthetic communities. The results provide the first conclusive evidence that dominant autotrophs in these ecosystems are facultative, and can alter their metabolism over short time spans to preferentially exploit more thermodynamically favorable organic substrates at rates comparable to or exceeding those of inorganic substrate utilization. Multivariate statistical analysis of co-registered substrate transformation rates, geochemical measurements, and phylogenetic data collected from these communities suggests an important relationship between environmental variation, community composition, and the relative importance of autotrophic and heterotrophic metabolisms supporting these communities. Elevated formate utilization rates in crenarchaea-dominated chemosynthetic communities inhabiting acidic, sulfur-rich geothermal springs motivated the isolation of the first hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon (Thermoproteus sp CP80) capable of coupling formate oxidation to elemental sulfur reduction. Physiological characterization demonstrated that CP80 is a facultative autotroph that alters its metabolism to preferentially utilize formate over CO2. Similar formate utilization characteristics by CP80 and its native population strongly suggests that this and other sulfur reducing crenarchaea may be responsible for high rates of formate utilization in high temperature, sulfur rich YNP systems. Overall, these results indicate an important, previously-underestimated role for organic substrates in supporting chemosynthetic communities inhabiting geochemically diverse YNP hot springs. Future work should focus on identifying additional organic carbon sources, measurement of carbon flux through chemosynthetic communities, and further characterization of the biochemical mechanisms underlying organic and inorganic substrate metabolism in Thermoproteus sp. CP80.


The purpose of this written report of my thesis is to discuss the research and visual element presented in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree. In my research and creative practice I focus on the integration of traditional and digital methods of painting - and explore the broad range of new creative opportunities this provides.  Currently image software allows for surprising similarities in replicating the appearance of traditional painting and drawing material. My exploration is focused on using wet-into-wet alla-prima oil painting methods within the software application Photoshop 12. The created digital paintings are printed on canvas as either final works or as a basis for ongoing development with traditional materials and/or with kinematic digital projection superimposed. Incorporating the results of this research has enhanced my studio and teaching practice and opens windows to new art forms.


Politics and Literature in Mongolia (1921-1948) investigates the relationship between literature and politics during Mongolia's early revolutionary period. Between the 1921 socialist revolution and the first Writers' Congress held in April 1948, the literary community constituted a key resource in the formation and implementation of policy. At the same time, debates within the party, discontent among the population, and questions of religion and tradition led to personal and ideological conflict among the intelligentsia and, in many cases, to trials and executions. Using primary texts, many of them translated into English for the first time, Simon Wickhamsmith shows the role played by the literary arts — poetry, fiction and drama — in the complex development of the 'new society', helping to bring Mongolia's nomadic herding population into the utopia of equality, industrial progress and social well-being promised by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.


Among the possible fields in human society in which robotics can be applied, the possibility of a robotic guard has been imagined since long time. Human guards usually perform a range of tasks in which a robot can provide help. Security personnel not only perform security tasks and patrolling services, but also have to interact with people, providing additional information about the area they safeguard. In this paper, we present the design, development and preliminary tests of RobotMan, an anthropomorphic robot commissioned by a security company that should serve in security roles, such as patrolling large indoor areas and acting as a telepresence platform for the human guards, and guidance roles such as welcoming visitors and providing information. In the preliminary experiment, the new robot and a human guard were employed the roles of security and guidance in a manufacturing center. The results of the experiment collected from 96 participants highlighted differences in participants' behavior when interacting with the robot rather than the human and a different perception of likeability and authority of the robot depending on subtle differences in its appearance and behavior. These results provide useful indication for the employment of robot guards in a real world situation.


In the second half of the nineteenth century the six Ontario suburban communities ofYorkville, New Edinburgh, London West, London East, Parkdale and Brockton were incorporated. In general suburbanites opted for incorporation because their increasingly urban concerns were not being met by the governance of the rural townships of which they were a part. Although the municipal status of these suburbs lasted for varying periods of time, and only overlapped briefly in the early 1880s, they had much in common. All six municipalities attempted to develop as alternatives to the cities they neighboured. Suburbanites and their local governments worked hard to create local identities and, at least for a time, stave off amalgamation with the neighbouring cities, which were increasingly anxious to expand their boundaries. All the while the suburbs were forced to balance the development of infrastructure and the need to keep taxation low in order to keep their communities viable and attractive locations for householders and businesses. The creation and maintenance of expensive infrastructure was often poorly handled, and led to massive expenditures and soaring suburban debts. This fiscal chaos within the suburbs ensured that the amalgamation question would be much debated by both suburb and city. While the ratepayers of each of the suburbs ultimately endorsed amalgamation, they did so only after what were often long and protracted debates. If anything, the struggle over amalgamation illustrated that suburban solvency and responsibility had to be weighed against questions of suburban agency and independence.


In 2008, global health's political revolution, which unfolded over the preceding 10-15 years, ended when four global crises damaged global health and altered the political, diplomatic, and governance contexts in which global health activities operate. The climate change, energy, food, and economic crises revealed limitations in global health's ability to shape large-scale political, economic, and environmental problems that adversely affect health or harm underlying determinants of health. In addition, projected trends in world affairs potentially threaten health and the ability of countries to craft effective collective action responses to global problems damaging health directly and indirectly. In the post-revolution period, global health faces the daunting challenge of making the re-globalization process necessitated by the global economic crisis as health-centric as possible.


Diamine-appended metal–organic frameworks display great promise for carbon capture applications, due to unusual step-shaped adsorption behavior that was recently attributed to a cooperative mechanism in which the adsorbed CO2 molecules insert into the metal–nitrogen bonds to form ordered ammonium carbamate chains [McDonald et al., Nature, 2015, 519, 303]. We present a detailed study of this mechanism by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Distinct spectral changes at the N and O K-edges are apparent upon CO2 adsorption in both mmenMg2(dobpdc) and mmen-Mn2(dobpdc), and these are evaluated based upon computed spectra from three potential adsorption structures. The computations reveal that the observed spectral changes arise from specific electronic states that are signatures of a quasi-trigonal planar carbamate species that is hydrogen bonded to an ammonium cation. This eliminates two of the three structures studied, and confirms the insertion mechanism. We note the particular sensitivity of X-ray absorption spectra to the insertion step of this mechanism, underpinning the strength of the technique for examining subtle chemical changes upon gas adsorption.


This book is a friendly jargon buster, which aims to demystify clinical trials. It is divided into five sections: fundamentals of trial design, alternative trial designs, basics of statistical analysis, special trial issues in data analysis, and reporting of trials. Using simple language the book explains with illustrations of numerous trial examples, the conceptual and methodological issues that occur at all stages of clinical trial covering trial design, conduct, analysis and reporting. The book is an educational and approachable reference in a difficult area of medicine where clinicians often feel uncertain and this material helps them review, appraise and publish trials and clinical evidence. The audience for the book includes physicians, statisticians, pharmacists, medical students, clinical researchers, medical writers, data managers, study co-ordinators, pharmaceutical sales representatives, and financial (medical) analysts.


Microfinance has become a widely used tool to provide credit to areas and populations that traditionally lack access to conventional banking services. Originating as a poverty alleviation mechanism, microfinance has grown in scope and design as a larger means of improving financial inclusion. Despite the increase in access for new borrowers, much of the existing evidence has failed to find transformational effects on key outcomes such as profits and income. However, results are subject to significant variation across geographies, programme design and beneficiaries, and the heterogenous effects do lead to significant gains for certain populations. The incentives given to borrowers to encourage on-time repayment, the timing of repayments, and the flexibility of borrowers' contracts all have an impact on both business outcomes and loan default rates. More recently, there is a growing body of literature looking at alternatives to loans, such as asset-based microfinance, that also show promise. Yet, as new innovations to microfinance are adapted around the world, further research is needed to explore which adaptations prove effective, in which contexts, and for whom. Abstract


We tested within-person effects of alcohol on sexual behavior among young adults in a longitudinal burst design (N = 213, 6,487 days) using data collected from a previously published parent study. We differentiated effects of alcohol on likelihood of sexual activity versus use of protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or pregnancy on intercourse occasions by testing a multilevel multinomial model with 4 outcomes (no sex, oral sex without intercourse, protected intercourse, and unprotected intercourse). At the within-person level, effects of alcohol were hypothesized to be conditional upon level of intoxication (i.e., curvilinear effect). We also tested effects of four between-person moderators: gender, typical length of relationship with sexual partners, and two facets of self-control (effortful control and reactivity). Consistent with our hypothesis, low-level intoxication was associated with increased likelihood of engaging in oral sex or protected intercourse (relative to no sex) but was not related to likelihood of unprotected intercourse. The effect of intoxication on unprotected versus protected intercourse was an accelerating curve, significantly increasing likelihood of unprotected intercourse at high levels of intoxication. Between-person factors moderated associations between intoxication and sexual behavior. Effects of intoxication on both protected and unprotected intercourse were diminished for individuals with more familiar sexual partners. Effortful control exhibited a protective effect, reducing the effects of intoxication on likelihood of unprotected intercourse. Hypothesized effects of reactivity were not supported. Intoxication was a stronger predictor of oral sex and protected intercourse (but not unprotected intercourse) for women relative to men. Results highlight the inherent complexities of the alcohol-sexual behavior nexus.


Introduction: There has always been a search for marker for predicting the complications of malaria. Electrocardiography (ECG) is a simple, easily available investigation, and QT-prolongation on ECG is a known marker of severity in many diseases. Aim: This study aimed to assess the association between QT interval prolongation and complications in malaria. Materials and Methods: This retrospective record-based study included 92 patients diagnosed with malaria by smear and was conducted from January to December 2013. The normal-corrected QT interval (QTC) was taken as 0.44 s (440 ms). Data were analyzed for association using Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression model. Results: Mean QTC of the study group was 413.08 ± 34.8 ms. A total of 12 patients had QTC >440 ms, of them 10 had associated complications. Among 80 patients with normal QTC, 17 had complications associated with P < 0.001. Specificity of prolonged QTC for identifying complicated malaria was 83.33%, and sensitivity was 37.03%. On multivariate logistic regression model with QTC interval as the dependent variable, QTC was significantly associated with acute kidney injury (AKI) (P = 0.036) and Plasmodium vivax malaria (P = 0.01). Conclusions: Prolonged QTC has high specificity and low sensitivity for patients with complicated malaria. Prolonged QTC is significantly associated with vivax malaria and AKI in malaria. Hence, malaria patients with prolonged QTC should be more carefully watched for complications.


The paper deals with the assessment of significance impact of selected technological parameters in Wire Electrical Discharge Machining on final quality of machined surface in terms of surface roughness. For determining the significance of impact of the individual technological parameters was used the statistical method Design of Experiments which is conventionally used for mathematical modelling the impact of selected technological parameters on quality indicators of machined surface previously untested experimental samples. The aim of the paper was, based on experimentally-made samples of alloyed steel MaragingSteel MS1 by WEDM technology, to select the technological parameters which significantly affect machined surface quality in terms of surface roughness parameter Rz.Here you should describe the paper idea in short.


The Talbot effect and moiré fringes are combined to measure the refractive indices of a birefringent material. Techniques based on the visibility of moiré fringes in finite fringe mode and based on fringe count are presented. These techniques are sensitive and advantageous. They are described and analyzed.


The purpose of this study is two-fold: to explore the differences in online medical information searching behaviors, including evaluative standards and search strategies, of the general public (general group) and those of hospital patients and their relatives (hospital group); and to compare the predictive relationship between the evaluative standards and search strategies of the two groups. A Medical Information Searching-behavior Survey (MISS) was administered. A total of 247 people in the hospital group were surveyed while they were in hospital, and 293 volunteers in the general group were surveyed. The results reveal that the hospital group showed higher tendencies to verify online medical information with mixed evaluative standards and to use more sophisticated search strategies than the general public group after comparing the descriptive results. From the results of regression analysis, the evaluative standards of the hospital group play a less important role in their search strategies. In contrast, the significant relationships between the evaluative standards and search strategies are relatively complex in the general group. Even though some of their evaluative standards are significant factors for predicting search strategies, other factors should be considered in future studies to fruitfully explain their online medical information searching behaviors.


With recent technological advances that enable DNA cleavage at specific sites in the human genome, it may now be possible to reverse inborn errors, thereby correcting a mutation, at levels that could have an impact in a clinical setting. We have been developing gene editing, using single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides (ssODNs), as a tool to direct site specific single base changes. Successful application of this technique has been demonstrated in many systems ranging from bacteria to human (ES and somatic) cells. While the frequency of gene editing can vary widely, it is often at a level that does not enable clinical application. As such, a number of stimulatory factors such as double-stranded breaks are known to elevate the frequency significantly. The majority of these results have been discovered using a validated HCT116 mammalian cell model system where credible genetic and biochemical readouts are available. Here, we couple TAL-Effector Nucleases (TALENs) that execute specific ds DNA breaks with ssODNs, designed specifically to repair a missense mutation, in an integrated single copy eGFP gene. We find that proximal cleavage, relative to the mutant base, is key for enabling high frequencies of editing. A directionality of correction is also observed with TALEN activity upstream from the target base being more effective in promoting gene editing than activity downstream. We also find that cells progressing through S phase are more amenable to combinatorial gene editing activity. Thus, we identify novel aspects of gene editing that will help in the design of more effective protocols for genome modification and gene therapy in natural genes.


This essay explains the relevance of fiction to the practice of rural education research, in so doing engaging questions about the nature and purposes of research and, therefore, of science itself. Although many may assume science and fiction (in this account, novels) harbor contrary purposes and devices, this essay argues that, to the contrary, such a view damages research efforts. This damage is palpable in rural education research because of the meanings inherent in rural lifeways. Fiction provides a route to the critique needed to engage rural questions with authenticity and, therefore, with objectivity. Disregard of critique is nonetheless the official standard in education research. The argument here is thus widely applicable throughout education practice, research, and theorizing precisely because critique remains an alien concept in mainstream education research. The essay explains why critique is both important and overlooked, how novels contribute to critique in rural education research, and how to do critique relevant to empirical research. Introduction The commendation of fiction as a means of strengthening critique in rural education research may seem dubious to many colleagues. After all, in the common misconceptions that have prevailed for hundreds or even thousands of years, fiction has been regarded, at best, as irrelevant and, at worst, the enemy of systematic inquiry; that research is serious work, whereas fiction is an entertaining diversion. Another mistaken belief is that research has method and fiction has inspiration. And yet another misconception holds that fiction is lies, and systematic inquiry (the meaning of the word science) is truth. Plato held this perspective, and what greater authority could a view enjoy? To determine, then, what makes rural education research research (cf. Coladarci, 2007) some colleagues may think it altogether better to conduct an empirical study showing how rural education research fails to conform to some set of research standards claimed as valid on some authority, perhaps that of the Institute of Education Sciences, or perhaps, more liberally, those proposed by the American Educational Research Association (AERA, 2006). Such a view has some merit. The difficulty is that it accepts a claim I wish to contest, namely that such a process will make our research more like their research-that of the authority. Argument by authority is a typical move in the social sciences. And a dangerous one, for reasons that will surely become clear by the end of the essay. I'm in favor of better quality, and certainly in my own work. But even with better quality, rural education research should be less and less like "their" research in some important respects having to do with the rural theory (e.g., Coladarci, 2007; Howley, 1997) That is, the meanings of rural lives and communities are what make rural education research rural-not a geographic boundary, low population density, or remoteness. Those meanings, and not predominately the meanings of generic pedagogies, generic curricular theorizing, or generic administrative or policy studies, are the substance the field must uniquely engage to be a field at all. Otherwise, the only education research conducted in rural communities will be research that has nothing rural about it except that the study author will identify the "site" as rural (cf. Coladarci, 2007). Rural theory, moreover, suggests a path of methodological improvement additional to faithful adherence to generic research standards. What blazes that path? What might provide the needed connection to rural meanings? The answer is "critique," as the next section will explain. Critique Critique is needed in all research efforts to assess concepts, constructs, dilemmas, contentions, and outright controversies as they might apply to generating research questions, selecting or devising methods, analyzing data, interpreting results, and making recommendations. …


We analyzed the influence of superior–subordinate intergenerational conflict on the job performance of 498 employees of Chinese enterprises born since 1980 (new generation employees). Results of a survey showed that the 3 dimensions of superior–subordinate intergenerational conflict, namely task conflict, relationship conflict, and procedural conflict, all had a significantly negative influence on the employees' work engagement and job performance; work engagement exerted a significantly positive influence on job performance; work engagement played a partial mediating role in the relationship between both relationship conflict and procedural conflict and job performance, and fully mediated the relationship between task conflict and job performance; tolerance and confrontation in conflict resolution had a significantly moderating effect on the relationships between all 3 dimensions of superior–subordinate intergenerational conflict and work engagement; and coordination played a significant moderating role on the relationship between both task and procedural conflict and work engagement, but the role of coordination as a moderator in the relationship between relationship conflict and work engagement was nonsignificant. Theoretical contributions are discussed and options for practical guidance offered.


Modern deep learning models employ considerably more parameters than required to fit the training data. Whereas conventional statistical wisdom suggests such models should drastically overfit, in practice these models generalize remarkably well. An emerging paradigm for describing this unexpected behavior is in terms of a \emph{double descent} curve, in which increasing a model's capacity causes its test error to first decrease, then increase to a maximum near the interpolation threshold, and then decrease again in the overparameterized regime. Recent efforts to explain this phenomenon theoretically have focused on simple settings, such as linear regression or kernel regression with unstructured random features, which we argue are too coarse to reveal important nuances of actual neural networks. We provide a precise high-dimensional asymptotic analysis of generalization under kernel regression with the Neural Tangent Kernel, which characterizes the behavior of wide neural networks optimized with gradient descent. Our results reveal that the test error has non-monotonic behavior deep in the overparameterized regime and can even exhibit additional peaks and descents when the number of parameters scales quadratically with the dataset size.


In this study, primary and secondary screenings were conducted to evaluate the antibacterial and anti-yeast potential of the eleven selected marine-derived
Streptomyces spp., particularly against P. shigelloides. The strains were categorized into three colour groups for morphological grouping according to the colour of aerial
mycelium; namely grey, yellow green, and white colour groups. Diffusible pigments were produced by eight of the strains tested. Strain(s) from grey and white with red
diffusible pigments colour groups displayed strong antibacterial activity. The yeasts tested were resistant to the bioactive metabolite(s) produced by some of the
Streptomyces spp. which had shown high activity against the bacteria tested. In primary screening, there was no inhibition of growth of yeasts tested; C. albicans and C.
parasilopsis. Of the streptomycete strains tested, eight strains were active against at least one bacteria tested. In secondary screening, four strains inhibited all the yeasts tested. Meanwhile, all strains were active against at least one bacteria tested. Streptomyces strain T15 displayed the best antibacterial activity against B. subtilis, P. aeruginosa, and P. shigelloides. Of the streptomycetes tested, three strains were found
to display strong inhibition against at least one pathogen tested in both primary and secondary screenings. Meanwhile, two and three strains displayed moderate inhibition
against at least one pathogen tested in primary and secondary screenings, respectively. Furthermore, six and all the strains displayed weak inhibition against at least one pathogen tested in primary and secondary screenings, respectively. The antibacterial and anti-yeast activities were prominent in secondary screening, where five of the
strains exhibited broad spectrum activity.Streptomyces strain T15 was selected for further studies. Culture conditions(media and agitation or static) were optimised to enhance the production of bioactive metabolite(s) in submerged fermentation. It was noted that fermentation of strain T15 in ISP2 medium at an incubation period of nine days at 28oC ± 2oC, pH 6.10 ± 1.70, and shaking at a speed of 120 rpm was the most ideal for growth and bioactive
metabolite(s) production antagonistic to P. shigelloides at laboratory conditions. During the twelve days fermentation, the highest bioactive metabolite(s) production of strain
T15 was noted on day nine in all the fermentation media used in this study. The highest bioactive metabolite(s) production by nine-day old strain T15 was achieved in ISP2
medium; however, the bioactive metabolite(s) production started on day six. The nature of culture condition that is, either agitation or static had an effect on the production of bioactive metabolite(s). For agitation culture condition, ISP2 medium was considered as the best fermentation medium for strain T15 based on the higher production of bioactive metabolite(s) that it supported compared to SA medium. Meanwhile, for static culture condition, ISP4 medium was the only fermentation medium that supported the bioactive metabolite(s) production by strain T15.


An image of a specular (mirror-like) object is nothing but a distorted reflection of its environment. When the environment is unknown, reconstructing shape from such an image can be very difficult. This reconstruction task can be made tractable when, instead of a single image, one observes relative motion between the specular object and its environment, and therefore, a motion field-or specular flow-in the image plane. In this paper, we study the shape from specular flow problem and show that observable specular flow is directly related to surface shape through a nonlinear partial differential equation. This equation has the key property of depending only on the relative motion of the environment while being independent of its content. We take first steps toward understanding and exploiting this PDE, and we examine its qualitative properties in relation to shape geometry. We analyze several cases in which the surface shape can be recovered in closed form, and we show that, under certain conditions, specular shape can be reconstructed when both the relative motion and the content of the environment are unknown. We discuss numerical issues related to the proposed reconstruction algorithms, and we validate our findings using both real and synthetic data.


We investigate the far-field operator for the scattering of time-harmonic elastic plane waves by either a rigid body, a cavity, or an absorbing obstacle. Extending results of Colton & Kress for acoustic obstacle scattering, for the spectrum of the far-field operator we show that there exist an infinite number of eigenvalues and determine disks in the complex plane where these eigenvalues lie. In addition, as counterpart of an identity in acoustic scattering due to Kress & Paivarinta, we will establish a factorization for the difference of the far-field operators for two different scatterers. Finally, extending a sampling method for the approximate solution of the acoustic inverse obstacle scattering problem suggested by Kirsch to elasticity, this factorization is used for a characterization of a rigid scatterer in terms of the eigenvalues and eigenelements of the far-field operator.


Social networks foster the development of social sensing to gather data about situations in the environment. Making sense of this information is, however, a challenge because the process is not linear and additional sensed information may be needed to better understand a situation. In this paper we explore how two complementary technologies, Moira and CISpaces, operate in unison to support collaboration among human-agent teams to iteratively gather and analyse information to improve situational awareness. The integrated system is developed for supporting intelligence analysis in a coalition environment. Moira is a conversational interface for information gathering, querying and evidence aggregation that supports cooperative data-driven analytics via Controlled Natural Language. CISpaces supports collaborative sensemaking among analysts via argumentation-based evidential reasoning to guide the identification of plausible hypotheses, including reasoning about provenance to explore credibility. In concert, these components enable teams of analysts to collaborate in constructing structured hypotheses with machine-based systems and external collaborators.


Background/Context Arizona's most recent English Language Learner (ELL) legislation, starting in the school year 2008-2009, requires all such students be educated through a specific Structured English Immersion (SEI) model: the 4-hour English Language Development (ELD) block. The basic premise behind this particular model is that ELL students should be taught the English language quickly so they can then succeed academically. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study is the first attempt to look at a random sample of school districts across the state of Arizona under the 4-hour ELD block policy. The goal of the study is to better understand what are the positive aspects and the major challenges of implementing the 4-hour ELD block in Arizona. In particular this study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) How is the 4-hour ELD block being implemented? (2) What are the perceived benefits of the 4-hour ELD block for students and for schools? and (3) What are the district leaders' concerns about implementing the 4-hour ELD block? Population/Participants/Subjects Of the 65 school districts randomly selected as potential participants, 26 agreed to participate in this study. The district response rate of the study was 40%, and the informants were the English Language Coordinators (ELC), who are the individuals most knowledgeable about how the 4-hour ELD block is implemented in their district. The sample of school districts that participated in our study is representative of the state of Arizona in terms of enrollment patterns. Research Design The researchers designed a phone survey for ELCs. Qualitative data analyses were used to examine the responses of the 26 ELCs. More specifically, a coding scheme was created to assist in the process of organizing and analyzing the data. Findings/Results Analyses reveal that the vast majority of ELCs think that, as a result of the program, there is an increased focus on English Language Learner (ELL) students' English language development. Regarding the challenges of the program, ELCs think that the implementation of the 4-hour ELD block has: a) neglected core areas of academic content that are critical for ELL students' academic success, b) contributed to ELL students' isolation, c) limited ELL students opportunities for on-time high school graduation, and d) assumed that English language learning can be accomplished within an unrealistic time-frame and under a set of unrealistic conditions. Conclusions/Recommendations Given the data collected, we recommend that school districts explore alternative models of ELD instruction. These alternative models of ELD instruction need to take into consideration the local context of school districts, their resources, and existing research. Furthermore, we recommend that ELL students are offered additional programs or types of support that can help them become English proficient, while acquiring the academic content needed for succeeding in school. It seems reasonable to state that a combination of programs and support can be more effective than one prescriptive instructional approach. Finally, we recommend that school districts monitor progress and effectiveness by looking at multiple indicators. In particular, we strongly suggest that school districts keep track of reclassification, re-entry, and opting-out rates.


Litigants often view the choice between seeking an adjudicated outcome of a dispute and settling out of court as one between invoking the public rule of law as a dispute resolution mechanism on one hand and substituting private contract for law on the other. This dichotomy overstates the difference in the role law plays in adjudication and in alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Law significantly affects non-adjudicative settlements in two related but distinct ways. First, the parties' substantive legal entitlements affect out-of-court settlement outcomes, because a litigant with a strong case can demand more as a condition of agreeing to a private settlement than can a party with a weaker case. Lawyers are quite familiar with the fact that, for this reason, substantive legal entitlements affect disputants' bargaining power and thus influence the outcomes of private dispute resolution. Second, the legal rules governing settlement behavior and many of the rules governing the adjudication process also influence nominally private dispute resolution activities. This less-recognized effect of law on ADR is the subject of this article, written for the forthcoming Handbook of Dispute Resolution. More specifically, this article considers the ways in which these bodies of law create, shape, and constrain the ability of disputants to exercise bargaining power in ADR processes, which in turn affects both the likelihood that disputes will settle out of court and the terms of such settlements. In order to assess this role of law in ADR, the article begins by presenting a brief analytical model of bargaining that explains the process by which lawyers attempt to settle disputes outside of the adjudicatory process. It then considers the extent to which the law of bargaining behavior limits misrepresentation and coercion as sources of bargaining power in non-judicial fora, and the extent to which certain adjudication rules - such as fee shifting statutes and offer of settlement rules, evidentiary restrictions concerning settlement negotiations, and judicial review of some types of settlement agreements - affect disputants' bargaining power outside the courthouse.


As a young man the American painter John Singer Sargent (1856--1925) was passionate about the sea and deeply knowledgeable about ships and seafaring. Between the ages of 18 and 23 he started his career as a professional painter with a remarkable range of maritime works that form the subject of this exhibition and book. The key works are the two versions of the Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, painted in 1878 on the northern coast of Brittany in France, and the group of studies and sketches around them. The authors relate Sargent's freely handled marine drawings, large and small, to his watercolors, oil sketches, and finished oil paintings of marine subjects. The works demonstrate his transition from a plein-air painter to a tonalist exploring interiors and urban scenes. Also presented is a unique scrapbook, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, that includes more than 50 drawings and sketches, mostly of sea scenes, and postcards and commercial photography of works of art, architecture, and tourist views. This scrapbook provides an intimate glimpse at the thoughts and experiences of the young artist on his first European voyage.


According to the overwhelming majority view, promissory estoppel is not an appropriate ground for legally enforcing statements made during preliminary negotiations unless there is a "clear and unambiguous promise" on which the counterparty reasonably and foreseeably relies. Bill Whitford and Stewart Macaulay were among the first scholars to note the apparent absence of such a promise in the case of Hoffman v. Red Owl Stores. Several years ago, after studying the trial record, I concluded that the best explanation for the breakdown in negotiations was the fundamental misunderstanding between the parties as to the amount and nature of Hoffmann's equity contribution to the franchise. After locating and interviewing Hoffmann, Whitford and Macaulay tell a different story. They view as insignificant the misunderstanding about the nature of Hoffmann's equity contribution. Rather, they focus attention on additional statements urging Hoffmann to sell his bakery business and store. In these later statements, ignored by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, they find the "missing promise" that they challenged all of us to look for years ago. While I credit their account, I remain as unconvinced by their story as they are of mine. Thus, the important question is how scholars could draw such different inferences from the same basic facts. In this Essay, I speculate that the different stories are a product of our respective methodological commitments: their commitment to a law and society approach to legal issues and mine to law and economics modes of analysis. Those diverse approaches illustrate the tension between "context" and "theory" and the inherent paradox of legal analysis: without context no legal rule can be applied, but with nothing but context no legal rule can be found. For this reason, I conclude, it is important for legal academics of every stripe to appreciate the biases inherent in their methodology of choice and work to correct for them


The Sanuki Range is located in the northeast Shikoku region, and shows elongated shape trending east to west. Southern margin of the Sanuki Range is bounded by the Median Tectonic Line active fault system (MTL), and shows very linear form. Although the Nagao fault is developed along the central part of the northern margin of the Sanuki Range, its distribution is restricted to the central part of the Sanuki Range, and existence of active faults has not been known in the eastern and western extension of the Nagao fault. Based on detailed investigation of aerial photograph and stereoscopic images delivered from 5 m –10 m DEM, we found active faults in the east and west extension of the previous reported active faults. In this presentation, we reported the distribution and characteristics of these active faults, and discuss tectonic implications of these active faults. In the eastern extent of the Nagao fault, left lateral slip fault trending NW-SE and right lateral slip faults trending NE-SW are newly mapped. In one fault, north-side-up displacement is estimated. In the western extent of the Nagao fault, flexure scarps on terrace surfaces trending east-west are newly mapped over several kilometers. In the western side of above mentioned faults, a north-side-up fault known as Kamihogunji fault is distributed. This fault is extended to the east several kilometers by our survey. In the western part of the northern margin of the Sanuki Range, many strike slip faults are newly mapped. Right lateral slips are recognized at NE-SW trending faults, and left lateral slip are recognized at the NW-SE trending faults, respectively. All of these faults are short in length (less than several kilometers), and are distributed intermittently in hilly areas along the northern edge of the Sanuki Range.


Purpose: Flexor carpi ulnaris muscle (FCUM) is one of the muscles of the superficial flexor group which is located most medially in the forearm. This study aimed to emphasize the importance of variations of the FCUM in clinical diagnosis and surgical procedures. Methods: While performing routine gross anatomy dissection of an adult male formaldehyde fixed cadaver in laboratory of Anatomy Department, we observed a unilateral variation of FCUM in the left upper extremity. Results: FCUM was originated with one common tendon and separated into two bellies at the distal half of forearm, and extended with two tendons. The connecting tendons were inserted to pisiform, hamate bones, and proximal of the fifth metacarpal bones. Conclusion: The detection of FCUM variations is significantly important not only in the treatment of pressure related symptoms which they cause but also in reconstructive and orthopedic surgery.


Quantification of an ecosystem's carbon balance and its components is pivotal for understanding both ecosystem functioning and global cycling. Several methods are being applied in parallel to estimate the different components of the CO2 balance. However, different methods are subject to different sources of error. Therefore, it is necessary that site level component estimates are cross‐checked against each other before being reported. Here we present a two‐step approach for testing the accuracy and consistency of eddy covariance–based gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (Re) estimates with biometric measurements of net primary production (NPP), autotrophic (Ra) and heterotrophic (Rh) respiration. The test starts with closing the CO2 balance to account for reasonable errors in each of the component fluxes. Failure to do so within the constraints will classify the flux estimates on the site level as inconsistent. If the CO2 balance can be closed, the test continues by comparing the closed site level Ra/GPP with the Rh/GPP ratio. The consistency of these ratios is then judged against expert knowledge. Flux estimates of sites that pass both steps are considered consistent. An inconsistent ratio is not necessarily incorrect but provides a signal for careful data screening that may require further analysis to identify the possible biological reasons of the unexpected ratios. We reviewed the literature and found 16 sites, out of a total of 529 research forest sites, that met the data requirements for the consistency test. Thirteen of these sites passed both steps of the consistency cross‐check. Subsequently, flux ratios (NPP/GPP, Rh/NPP, Rh/Re, and Re/GPP) were calculated for the consistent sites. Similar ratios were observed at sites which lacked information to check consistency, indicating that the flux data that are currently used for validating models and testing ecological hypotheses are largely consistent across a wide range of site productivities. Confidence in the output of flux networks could be further enhanced if the required fluxes are independently estimated at all sites for multiple years and harmonized methods are used.


In April 2018, the Institute on Inequality and Democracy convened scholars, activists, policy advocates, community residents, and nonprofit workers to share and discuss research and action pertaining to processes of inequality in Los Angeles. We sought to shed light on the entangled structures of oppression, including urban displacement, housing precarity, racialized policing, criminal justice debt, forced labor, and the mass supervision and control of youth. Through keynote talks, group dialogue, and workshops, we analyzed how in Los Angeles, and elsewhere, black and brown communities face multiple forms of banishment and exploitation ranging from the criminalization of poverty to institutionalized theft.The question of racial banishment has been an important one for the Institute since its inauguration two years ago. This year though, amidst the troubled times of Trumpism, we wanted to shift our focus from banishment to freedom. In the reports that follow, you will find many examples of what Robin D.G. Kelley, a key presence at the Institute, has famously called "freedom dreams." Located in, and thinking from South Central Los Angeles, the event's participants provide insight into organizing frameworks and resistance strategies that challenge exclusion and refuse subordination. From tenant organizing to debtors' unions, from underground scholars to educational reparations, visions of freedom abound. The Institute on Inequality and Democracy is convinced that university-based research can, and must, support such freedom dreams. Such partnership – between the public university and social justice movements – requires careful attention to the difficult task of decolonizing the university. This mandate is evident throughout this collection of reports. There is no easy alliance between academic power and banished communities; there is no obvious solidarity between urban plans and freedom dreams. This event was intended to be a step towards building such alliances, especially by reconstructing the curriculum and canon of knowledge.


This study provides a framework that immediately and efficiently guides the selection of the message components
 for note-taking to successfully capture implicatures in consecutive interpretation. The framework revisits the Quantity,
 Informativeness, and Manner (Q, I and M) heuristics of communication by Levinson (1995,
 2000). Three interpretation principles are suggested (I-Q, I-I and I-M) (I for
 interpretation). The principles are applied to the main parts of the message (vocabulary, connectives, and marked forms) following
 Johns (2014). The I-Q principle advises interpreters to select the words that are most consistent with the speaker's best
 knowledge of the world and to communicate them as such; the I-I principle advises interpreters to simply and systematically notate
 the connectives that exemplify a similar connection to the SM; the I-M principle advocates that interpreters should mark any
 instances of marked forms such as over-lexicalization, prolixity, and repetition, and relay them with a similar level of
 markedness to communicate a similar attitude of the SM speaker in the TL.


Classification is a machine learning technique used to predict group membership for data instances. To simplify the problem of classification neural networks are being introduced. This paper focuses on IRIS plant classification using Neural Network. The problem concerns the identification of IRIS plant species on the basis of plant attribute measurements. Classification of IRIS data set would be discovering patterns from examining petal and sepal size of the IRIS plant and how the prediction was made from analyzing the pattern to form the class of IRIS plant. By using this pattern and classification, in future upcoming years the unknown data can be predicted more precisely. Artificial neural networks have been successfully applied to problems in pattern classification, function approximations, optimization, and associative memories. In this work, Multilayer feed- forward networks are trained using back propagation learning algorithm.