A new theory for the partition of an image into its syntactical primitives is introduced. The method uses edge segments and their orientation to mark an image with useful syntactical information. The marking is done by defining a flow initiating from the boundary and propagating inward into the shape. Three algorithms are introduced. The first sends "flow waves" in a direction perpendicular to the edges into the object. The second algorithm is an iterative version of the first algorithm, with the addition that an edge detector is constantly applied on the growing object. The third labels the edges with their orientation and then iteratively applies a majority vote selection to spread the orientation with unlabeled pixels inactive in the voting process. The propagation is moderated by a number of heuristics that ensure local and global support within the flow. The flow carries orientation data and spreads the information to all interior pixels. A connected component algorithm based on orientation is then used to construct segments of uniform orientation. These segments constitute the basis of a structural description. The new approach is compared to other methods of segmentation and representation of shapes. These other methods are not always capable of explaining human perception of shapes in a uniform and unique way. Methods that are designed to deal with simple perceptual domains are not capable of dealing with occlusion, texture, touching bodies, and subjective contours. In contrast, this new proposal is shown to work with simple figures as well as more "real world" complex images. Several examples are given to show the usefulness of the approach. In particular, we give an implementation of a system that performs automatic character recognition based on this method.


There is a pressing need for immunotherapy to halt the progression of β-cell damage after the onset of diabetes, and the hope is to find a means for reversal of the disease. However, prevention of diabetes is equally important. Given the strength and diversification of a fully developed autoimmune response, it is likely to be easier to protect from disease progression and prevent onset of diabetes at a much earlier time point in the disease process. The nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse model of human type 1 diabetes is often criticized for the fact that many manipulations in the early phases of disease process are successful in disease prevention. Note that far fewer treatments are able to protect the NOD mice at later stages of prediabetes, and even fewer reverse diabetes after onset of hyperglycemia (rev. in 1). However, some treatments that have reversed diabetes in the NOD mouse, for example anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody (2), heat shock protein 60 peptide (3), anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody (4), and antithymocyte globulin (5), have reached clinical trials and had partial success. However, currently, as we cannot know whether some preventive strategies identified for early disease in the NOD mouse may ultimately be useful in humans, it is important to continue to study early treatments and the mechanisms by which they work.

Although in recent years many studies have focused on …


BACKGROUND: We have been conducting a cohort study named "the Japan Collaborative Cohor Study (JACC Study) for Evaluation of Cancer Risk sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (Monbusho)" since 1988. The aim of this paper is to describe the mortality of our JACC cohort in the follow-up period from 1988 through 1999, to compare it with the mortality, especially cancer deaths, of the Japanese population in the same period and to compare the causes of mortality by district among the cohort. METHODS: We conducted a follow-up study of 110,792 Japanese inhabitants aged 40-79 years in 1988-1990 for about 10 years to the end of 1999. RESULTS: Of 46,465 males, 37,750 (81.2%) were alive, 7,238 (15.6%) were dead and 1,477 (3.2%) had moved out of the study areas. The figures were 57,016 (88.6%), 4,940 (7.7%) and 2,371 (3.7%) among 64,327 females, respectively. The mean follow-up period was 9.9 years. The proportion of cancer deaths by site in our cohort members was almost same as the Japanese population aged 40-79 years old in 1995. Sex-specific standardized mortality ratios of total deaths, all cancer deaths, and most cancers in our cohort were less than 100 in both males and females for total cohort and the cohort by district. CONCLUSION: Our cohort members appeared to be almost the same or slightly healthier and less likely to die from total causes and cancers than the general population.


Building age-friendly communities is a global as well as a national concern. The purpose of this paper is to explore fundamental tensions underlying the formulation of age-friendly goals and their implementation, based on a review of age-friendly projects and reflections on the journey towards age friendliness in one state (Rhode Island). The authors conducted a comprehensive investigation of the relevant literature on previous age-friendly initiatives, which included case studies of individual projects, meta-analyses of age-friendly work, and educational toolkits for promoting age-friendly community. They also collected original data from ten focus groups with older adults, interviews with key informant service providers, surveys of older adults and observational environmental audits. Through this multi-faceted approach, they identified recurrent questions often not overtly addressed in building livable communities, despite their being central to decisions made in age-friendly projects. This paper focuses on six questions: Age friendliness for whom? Older adults viewed as a burden or a benefit? Age friendliness by or for older adults? Is age friendliness affordable? Should the target be the aged overall or the needy aged in particular? Should interventions aim to change people or places? The Aging in Community Report, (prepared by the authors and submitted to Rhode Island's General Assembly), reflected decisions made—albeit sometimes inadvertently—in response to these questions. It showed that priority was given to age friendliness over livability, assistance to vulnerable, older adults was given precedence over helping the entire older population, and top-down interventions were emphasized more than grass-roots endeavors. Its recommendations were geared to leveraging or modestly increasing existing resources to better serve older adults and enhancing opportunities for older adults to contribute to their community. Following the release of the report, the focus shifted from modifications of the environment to facilitating changes in individual behavior to optimize person-environment fit.


This paper investigates the gate screening of ideas in engineering design, by examination of the validity of employee voting schemes and biases associated with such voting. After conducting an employee-driven innovation project at a major producer of disposable medical equipment, 99 ideas had to be screened for further development. Inspired by the concept of 'wisdom of the crowd', all ideas were individually rated by a broad selection of employees, and the ratings were used to investigate two biases in employee voting: visual complexity and endowment effect/ownership of ideas. The visual complexity bias was found to be a predictor for selection, but experienced employees were less affected by the bias. The ownership bias was potent in that every employee proved to be more likely to select his or her own ideas over other ideas, but this effect disappeared when aggregating across the crowd of employees. Furthermore, this study compared the employee selection with the preference of a small team of executives, showing that the employee voting significantly correlates with the preferences of the executives: overall, in the top 12 selected ideas and in the choice of idea categories. This match increases when including only the ratings of the most experienced employees.


Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP) is produced by epithelial cells and triggers dendritic cell-mediated Th2-type inflammation. Although TSLP is up-regulated in epithelium of patients with asthma, the factors that control TSLP production have not been studied extensively. Because mouse models suggest roles for protease(s) in Th2-type immune responses, we hypothesized that proteases from airborne allergens may induce TSLP production in a human airway epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B. TSLP mRNA and protein were induced when BEAS-2B cells were exposed to prototypic proteases, namely, trypsin and papain. TSLP induction by trypsin required intact protease activity and also a protease-sensing G protein-coupled receptor, protease-activated receptor (PAR)-2; TSLP induction by papain was partially dependent on PAR-2. In humans, exposure to ubiquitous airborne fungi, such as Alternaria, is implicated in the development and exacerbation of asthma. When BEAS-2B cells or normal human bronchial epithelial cells were exposed to Alternaria extract, TSLP was potently induced. The TSLP-inducing activity of Alternaria was partially blocked by treating the extract with a cysteine protease inhibitor, E-64, or by infecting BEAS-2B cells with small interfering RNA for PAR-2. Protease-induced TSLP production by BEAS-2B cells was enhanced synergistically by IL-4 and abolished by IFN-γ. These findings demonstrate that TSLP expression is induced in airway epithelial cells by exposure to allergen-derived proteases and that PAR-2 is involved in the process. By promoting TSLP production in the airways, proteases associated with airborne allergens may facilitate the development and/or exacerbation of Th2-type airway inflammation, particularly in allergic individuals.


Suspended carbon nanotube devices represent a promising platform for future bio-electronic applications. Suspended carbon nanotube transistors have been previously fabricated in air; however all previous attempts to bring them into liquid failed. We analyse forces acting on the suspended nanotube devices during immersion into liquids and during device operation and show that surface tension forces acting on the suspended nanotubes during transfer into the liquid phase are responsible for the nanotube damage. We have developed a new strategy that circumvents these limitations by coating suspended nanotubes with a rigid inorganic shell in the gas phase. The coating reinforces the nanotubes and allows them to survive transfer through the interface. Subsequent removal of the coating in the solution phase restores pristine suspended nanotubes. We demonstrate that devices fabricated using this technique preserve their original electrical characteristics.


OBJECTIVE—Intravenous insulin infusion rapidly increases plasma insulin, yet glucose disposal occurs at a much slower rate. This delay in insulin's action may be related to the protracted time for insulin to traverse the capillary endothelium. An increased delay may be associated with the development of insulin resistance. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether bypassing the transendothelial insulin transport step and injecting insulin directly into the interstitial space would moderate the delay in glucose uptake observed with intravenous administration of the hormone. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Intramuscular injections of saline (n = 3) or insulin (n = 10) were administered directly into the vastus medialis of anesthetized dogs. Injections of 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, and 3.0 units insulin were administered hourly during a basal insulin euglycemic glucose clamp (0.2mU · min−1 · kg−1). RESULTS—Unlike the saline group, each incremental insulin injection caused interstitial (lymph) insulin to rise within 10 min, indicating rapid diffusion of the hormone within the interstitial matrix. Delay in insulin action was virtually eliminated, indicated by immediate dose-dependent increments in hindlimb glucose uptake. Additionally, bypassing insulin transport by direct injection into muscle revealed a fourfold greater sensitivity to insulin of in vivo muscle tissue than previously reported from intravenous insulin administration. CONCLUSIONS—Our results indicate that the transport of insulin to skeletal muscle is a rate-limiting step for insulin to activate glucose disposal. Based on these results, we speculate that defects in insulin transport across the endothelial layer of skeletal muscle will contribute to insulin resistance.


We obtain analytical conditions for the occurrence of numerical instability (NI) of a split-step method when the simulated solution of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation is close to a plane wave with nonzero carrier frequency. We also numerically study such an instability when the solution is a sequence of pulses rather than a plane wave. The plane-wave-based analysis gives reasonable predictions for the frequencies of the numerically unstable Fourier modes but overestimates the instability growth rate. The latter is found to be strongly influenced by the randomness of the signal's profile: The more randomly it varies during the propagation, the weaker is the NI. Using an example of a realistic transmission system, we demonstrate that our single-channel results can be used to predict occurrences of NI in multichannel simulations. We also give an estimate for the integration step size for which NI, while present, will not affect simulation results for such systems. Using that estimate may lead to a significant saving of computational time.


Social Communication has always been realized to a large degree through media technologies. Since the end of the 20th century, however, information and communication technologies are increasingly tangled up with our everyday social interactions and structures. We no longer turn to distinct media products like newspapers or TV channels to experience mediated communication; our everyday life is deeply embedded within media. Krotz (2007) and others have coined the term "mediatization" to describe this process. "Contemporary society," argues Hjarvard, "is permeated by the media, to an extent that the media may no longer be conceived of as being separate from cultural and other institutions" (2008: 105). Deuze (2012) even speaks plainly of a "media life" that we are living — not with media but rather in media. This deep integration of media technology into our daily life calls attention to an issue that has been discussed for decades in media and communication studies: How do media technologies change and shape the way we communicate, both on an individual as well as societal, level? Whereas media theorists long argued for strong impacts of media technology in the line of Marshall McLuhan, this thread of literature has been put on a sidetrack by constructivist approaches since the early 1980s. Since then, media scholars have either focused on the domestication and usage patterns of technologies (cf. Berker at al. 2006), or postulated technology as a black box that triggers change and in some cases regulatory adjustments. This paper takes a different stance on the relation between media regulation and technology. Drawing on governance research, regulation is understood as a complex process of ordering, including private and public law, formal and informal means, discursive and material elements. This shift of perspective allows conceptualizing technology not simply as an external trigger or target for regulation, but as an integral and contested part of regulatory constellations. Taking Lawrence Lessig's (1999) term "code is law" as a starting point, this chapter brings together literature from the fields of governance research and science and technology studies (STS) to tackle the "politics of information and communication technologies" (Mansell/Silverstone 1996), outlining a model of media governance with a special focus on technology.


Summary

1
The use of predators as indicators and umbrellas in conservation has been criticized. In the Trentino region, Sergio et al. (2006; hereafter SEA) counted almost twice as many bird species in quadrats located in raptor territories than in controls. However, SEA detected astonishingly few species. We used contemporary Swiss Breeding Bird Survey data from an adjacent region and a novel statistical model that corrects for overlooked species to estimate the expected number of bird species per quadrat in that region.

2
There are two anomalies in SEA which render their results ambiguous. First, SEA detected on average only 6·8 species, whereas a value of 32 might be expected. Hence, they probably overlooked almost 80% of all species. Secondly, the precision of their mean species counts was greater in two-thirds of cases than in the unlikely case that all quadrats harboured exactly the same number of equally detectable species. This suggests that they detected consistently only a biased, unrepresentative subset of species.

3
Conceptually, expected species counts are the product of true species number and species detectability p. Plenty of factors may affect p, including date, hour, observer, previous knowledge of a site and mobbing behaviour of passerines in the presence of predators. Such differences in p between raptor and control quadrats could have easily created the observed effects. Without a method that corrects for such biases, or without quantitative evidence that species detectability was indeed similar between raptor and control quadrats, the meaning of SEA's counts is hard to evaluate. Therefore, the evidence presented by SEA in favour of raptors as indicator species for enhanced levels of biodiversity remains inconclusive.

4
Synthesis and application. Ecologists should pay greater attention to sampling design and analysis in animal population estimation. Species richness estimation means sampling a community. Samples should be representative for the community studied and the sampling fraction among communities compared should be the same on average, otherwise formal estimation approaches must be applied to avoid misleading inference.


When asked to compare the practice of medicine today to that of a hundred years ago, most people will respond with a story of therapeutic revolution: Back then we had few effective remedies, but now we have more (and more powerful) tools to fight disease, from antibiotics to psychotropics to steroids to anticancer agents.

This collection challenges the historical accuracy of this revolutionary narrative and offers instead a more nuanced account of the process of therapeutic innovation and the relationships between the development of medicines and social change. These assembled histories and ethnographies span three continents and use the lived experiences of physicians and patients, consumers and providers, and marketers and regulators to reveal the tensions between universal claims of therapeutic knowledge and the actual ways these claims have been used and understood in specific sites, from postwar West Germany pharmacies to twenty-first century Nigerian street markets. By asking us to rethink a story we thought we knew, Therapeutic Revolutions offers invaluable insights to historians, anthropologists, and social scientists of medicine.


Objective This article investigates the hypothesis, dating back to de Tocqueville and Mill, that deliberation helps make citizens more "public‐spirited," increasing their support for policies that benefit the community, even at some possible cost to themselves. The hypothesis has previously occasioned much speculation but little empirical investigation. Methods We employ data from a series of regional Deliberative Polls in Texas, gathering random samples from seven different service areas for weekend‐long deliberations about the pros and cons of alternative energy choices. Confidential questionnaires were administered at time of recruitment and at the end of the weekend. Results The participants showed an increased willingness to pay for renewable energy, conservation, and to see to it that everyone's basic needs are met. The contours of these results suggest that they should be taken as evidence of increased public‐spiritedness. Conclusion We provide new evidence in support of the venerable hypothesis that deliberation increases public‐spiritedness—among deliberation's most important but hitherto least examined effects.


A complete theorem prover for intuitionistic predicate logic based on the cut-free calculus is presented. It includes a treatment of "quasi-free" identity based on a delay mechanism and a special form of unification. Several important optimizations of the basic algorithm are introduced. The resulting system is available in source form from SICS; an Appendix gives some idea of its performance.


The term 'neglected tropical diseases' (NTDs) points to the need for a biosocial perspective. Although 'diseases' are widely understood as biological phenomena, 'neglect' is inherently social. Social priorities, social relations and social behaviour profoundly influence the design, implementation and evaluation of control programmes. Yet, these dimensions of neglect are, themselves, neglected. Instead, emphasis is being placed on preventive chemotherapy – a technical, context-free approach which relies almost entirely on the mass distribution of drugs, at regular intervals, to populations living in endemic areas. This article reflects on the processes which have enabled an NTD 'brand' identity to emerge, and it comments on a disquieting disengagement with some of the more critical insights about the consequences of mass drug administration. Building on the work of biosocial scholars studying other aspects of health and disease, a more adequate, evidence-based approach is delineated. Developing such an approach is an iterative process, requiring on-going engagement with both biological and social insights as they emerge. Considerable theoretical, methodological and political challenges lie ahead, but it is essential they are overcome, if the sustainable control of NTDs is to become a reality.


This textbook is skillfuly designed to meet the increasing demand for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing courses in business, economics, accountancy and finance and many others, who needs to understand the developments in the Malaysian economy over the last 15 years. It comprises 11 solid chapters such as Macroeconomic Policies, Development of Agriculture, Industrial Policy and Industrialization, Affirmative Action and Ethnic Inequality and various others that address a broader theory and the historical underpinnings before critically anchoring the analysis. Readers can be assured of completing this book with a clear grasp on the Malaysia's macroeconomic structure and a full understanding on the economic issues of concern to policymakers, academics and even industry experts.


The criminal justice system in England and Wales has seen an extension of summary jurisdiction; for reasons of cost and efficiency successive reforms have aimed at reducing the number of cases that are sent to the Crown Court. To shed light on this process, this book examines the dynamics of the mode of trial decision. It does so via a theoretical framework that explores different influences upon social interaction; psychobiography, the courtroom setting, the dynamics of interaction and wider social structures that frame behaviour. This is conducted through an examination of the narrative (re)production practices of courtroom professionals. The findings suggest that legal considerations dominate the mode of trial process; however, where discretion remains, sociological influences can be ascertained as impacting upon behaviour. Also, the legal narratives (re)produced in the courtroom speak to the nature of law. Law translates stories into narratives that are appropriate for the legal process. As a result, the voices of the participants are lost. This book will be of interest to students, academics and professionals with an interest in criminal justice or narrative analysis.


Background: Clinacanthus nutans (C. nutans) is an Acanthaceae herbal shrub traditionally consumed to treat various diseases including diabetes in Malaysia. This study was designed to evaluate the α-glucosidase inhibitory activity of C. nutans leaves extracts, and to identify the metabolites responsible for the bioactivity. Methods: Crude extract obtained from the dried leaves using 80% methanolic solution was further partitioned using different polarity solvents. The resultant extracts were investigated for their α-glucosidase inhibitory potential followed by metabolites profiling using the gas chromatography tandem with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Results: Multivariate data analysis was developed by correlating the bioactivity, and GC-MS data generated a suitable partial least square (PLS) model resulting in 11 bioactive compounds, namely, palmitic acid, phytol, hexadecanoic acid (methyl ester), 1-monopalmitin, stigmast-5-ene, pentadecanoic acid, heptadecanoic acid, 1-linolenoylglycerol, glycerol monostearate, alpha-tocospiro B, and stigmasterol. In-silico study via molecular docking was carried out using the crystal structure Saccharomyces cerevisiae isomaltase (PDB code: 3A4A). Interactions between the inhibitors and the protein were predicted involving residues, namely LYS156, THR310, PRO312, LEU313, GLU411, and ASN415 with hydrogen bond, while PHE314 and ARG315 with hydrophobic bonding. Conclusion: The study provides informative data on the potential α-glucosidase inhibitors identified in C. nutans leaves, indicating the plant's therapeutic effect to manage hyperglycemia.


Ever increasing technological capabilities exist in the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) industry. Email, project specific websites, Computer Aided Drafting (CAD), animations, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) are but a few information technologies adopted in recent years within the industry. The change methods used in the adoptions suggest a focus on technology, yet the technology itself is seen as a primary barrier to successful implementation. In general, the AEC industry is extremely slow to embrace available information technology. Companies often have difficulty with technology implementations because technology is the driver of change, rather than an enabler of change. Resistance of people is the primary reason for failure of any organizational change, including an information technology change. Technological changes will be more successful when researchers develop a fundamental understanding of how people change. Studying individuals and their change processes is essential to improving implementation of technology change, yet change management theories present processes and guidelines for changing organizations and tasks with limited emphasis on individuals involved in change. This research uses a people centered paradigm for developing technology implementation models, placing technology in a change enabling position rather than being a driver of change. This research investigates individuals' resistance to change brought about by new information technology implementation in the AEC industry. Resistance to change is a combination of three factors: cause of resistance, level of resistance, and manifestation of resistance. Previous work investigated the importance of specific behavioral characteristics indicative of resistance to change and correlated these characteristics to the level of resistance in individuals. This paper discusses methodology continuing this work, which aims to confirm the previous work, as well as to develop and validate new predictive tools to identify potential resisters prior to an information technology change implementation. The results from analysis of preliminary data are also discussed.


Three-dimensional mechanical simulations of the San Andreas fault system within the Coachella Valley in southern California produce deformation that matches geologic observations and demonstrate the first-order impact of fault geometry on uplift patterns. To date, most models that include the Coachella Valley segment of the San Andreas fault have assumed a vertical orientation for this fault, but recent studies of seismicity and geodetically observed strain suggest that this segment of the fault may dip 60°–70° to the northeast. We compare models with varied geometry along this segment of the fault and evaluate how well they reproduce observed uplift patterns in the Mecca Hills and Coachella Valley. Incorporating well-constrained fault geometry in regional models will provide a more accurate understanding of active faulting in southern California, which is critical for rupture and hazard modeling that is used to identify regions most susceptible to earthquake damage. We have tested three boundary-element method models for the active geometry of the Coachella Valley segment of the San Andreas fault: one contains a vertical Coachella segment, the second contains a northeast ∼65° dipping Coachella segment, and the final alternative contains a vertical Coachella segment plus a subparallel northeast-dipping fault at depth. This final model honors the geometric interpretation of seismicity from the Southern California Earthquake Center Community Fault Model version 4.0. The models containing vertical Coachella Valley segments both produce uplift between the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults that is more uniformly distributed than geologic observations suggest, and these models fail to produce uplift in the Mecca Hills. The dipping model produces tilting of the Coachella Valley consistent with geologic observations of tilting between the San Jacinto and San Andreas faults. The dipping model also produces relative subsidence southwest of the fault and localized uplift in the Mecca Hills that better match the geologic observations. These results suggest that the active Coachella Valley segment of the San Andreas fault dips 60°–70° to the northeast.


There is growing importance in the offshore floating production sector to develop reliable and robust means of continuously monitoring the integrity of mooring systems for FPSOs and FPUs, particularly in light of the upcoming introduction of API-RP-2MIM. Here, the limitations of the current range of monitoring techniques are discussed, including well established technologies such as load cells, sonar, or visual inspection, within the context of the growing mainstream acceptance of data science and machine learning. Due to the large fleet of floating production platforms currently in service, there is a need for a readily deployable solution that can be retrofitted to existing platforms to passively monitor the performance of floating assets on their moorings, for which machine learning based systems have particular advantages.
 An earlier investigation conducted in 2016 on a shallow water, single point moored FPSO employed host facility data from in-service field measurements before and after a single mooring line failure event. This paper presents how the same machine learning techniques were applied to a deep water, semi taut, spread moored system where there was no host facility data available, therefore requiring a calibrated hydrodynamic numerical model to be used as the basis for the training data set.
 The machine learning techniques applied to both real and synthetically generated data were successful in replicating the response of the original system, even with the latter subjected to different variations of artificial noise. Furthermore, utilizing a probability-based approach, it was demonstrated that replicating the response of the underlying system was a powerful technique for predicting changes in the mooring system.


Arkadii and Boris Strugatskii's story Malysh (The Kid; 1971) is often analysed as the text in which the authors first turn from adventure sf to social sf, which focuses on problems of alienation and dehumanisation and on questions of private and social identity. The contextual analysis of the novel and its adaptation Nesmluvená setkání (Unexpected Encounters; Czech Republic 1994), directed by Irena Pavlásková, reveals a serious discrepancy between the postcolonial focus of the Czech adaptation and a more elaborate and multilevel philosophical reading of the Strugatskiis' story. This article develops the role of the Strugatskiis' texts as part of the post-Soviet phenomenon of nostalgia for the future within neoconservative intellectual circles. In this interpretation, the Strugatskii brothers' legacy is included in a new politico-technological and ideological context of imperial sf and transhumanism.


This paper presents an account of the current state of sampling, 50 years after Shannon's formulation of the sampling theorem. The emphasis is on regular sampling, where the grid is uniform. This topic has benefitted from a strong research revival during the past few years, thanks in part to the mathematical connections that were made with wavelet theory. To introduce the reader to the modern, Hilbert-space formulation, we reinterpret Shannon's sampling procedure as an orthogonal projection onto the subspace of band-limited functions. We then extend the standard sampling paradigm for a presentation of functions in the more general class of "shift-in-variant" function spaces, including splines and wavelets. Practically, this allows for simpler-and possibly more realistic-interpolation models, which can be used in conjunction with a much wider class of (anti-aliasing) prefilters that are not necessarily ideal low-pass. We summarize and discuss the results available for the determination of the approximation error and of the sampling rate when the input of the system is essentially arbitrary; e.g., nonbandlimited. We also review variations of sampling that can be understood from the same unifying perspective. These include wavelets, multiwavelets, Papoulis generalized sampling, finite elements, and frames. Irregular sampling and radial basis functions are briefly mentioned.


Parallel programs need to manage the trade-off between the time spent in synchronisation and computation. The trade-off is significantly affected by the number of active threads. High parallelism may decrease computing time while increase synchronisation cost. Furthermore, thread placement on different cores may impact on program performance, as the data access time can vary from one core to another due to intricacies of its underlying memory architecture. Therefore, the performance of a program can be improved by adjusting its parallelism degree and the mapping of its threads to physical cores. Alas, there is no universal rule to decide them for a program from an offline view, especially for a program with online behaviour variation. Moreover, offline tuning is less precise. This thesis presents work on dynamical management of parallelism and thread placement. It addresses multithread issues via Software Transactional Memory (STM). STM has emerged as a promising technique, which bypasses locks, to tackle synchronisation through transactions. Autonomic computing offers designers a framework of methods and techniques to build autonomic systems with well-mastered behaviours. Its key idea is to implement feedback control loops to design safe, efficient and predictable controllers, which enable monitoring and adjusting controlled systems dynamically while keeping overhead low. This dissertation proposes feedback control loops to automate management of threads at runtime and diminish program execution time.


This study builds on a body of research in sports science that has used video as a means of measuring and training perceptual and decisionmaking skills in a variety of sports. Expert-novice studies using a video occlusion method have shown that expert athletes are able to make better and earlier recognition of an opponent's action, such as a baseball pitch, priming a rapid response. Training using video occlusion targets the time frame, measured in less than one-half second, which is associated with expert perception and decision-making. This is the first such study to measure transfer of video training to game performance. Video training in pitch recognition was associated with significantly better batting averages for college baseball players, as measured by rank correlation. The part-task approach has implications for training expert perceptual decision-making in other sports and in areas beyond sports, such as emergency response, vehicle operation, and use-of-force training.


It is argued that a continuing decline in market interest rates tends to make it more difficult for insurance companies to provide high interest rates for their customers or insurants and-as a result-to maintain hence high levels of profitability. The present paper examines this proposition in Taiwan over a period of declining market interest rates for insurance companies. Flannery's (1981, 1983) model was used to examine the relations between changes in market interest rate and the profitability of 12 domestic insurance companies. The results suggest that the effects of changes in interest rates on insurance company profitability depend on how profits are measured, that it differs depending on the profit indicator that is employed. This result is not apparent, with there being no obvious influence of interest rates on profitability, if the entire insurance sector is considered as a whole. 1. Introduction Since insurance companies make their promises or commitments to insurants at the time of the sale of policies to the latter, they are not free to adjust the rates fixed or agreed in the sale subsequently depending on circumstance. This feature of insurance exposes them directly to the risks associated with changes in interest rates changes. Specifically, the agreed or assumed rate is higher than the market rate, reinvestment risks will appear; whereas if the assumed or agreed rate is lower than the market rate, price risks will become the problem. Over recent years, the market interest rate in Taiwan has remained at a low level, suggesting that Taiwanese life insurance companies will be faced with reinvestment risks that they will have to be managed. How to manage such risks effectively has become an important issue for these insurance companies and one that has attracted much attention from the industry and from its regulators. It is possible that a continuing decline in market interest rates might result in the insurance companies being incapable of meeting their obligations to their insurants, of giving them the high rates 'promised' to the latter at the time of the sale of policies to the latter. If life insurance companies 'take liberties' with their policies in this regard, without balancing the risk from interest rate changes in the future, this will impose a huge burden upon their financial operation. Not only will it strain the company's capacity to clear their debts, it will also have a negative impact on society. Life insurance companies must calculate how much interest rate risk they are and will be facing, and properly adjust their assets and liabilities, in order to maintain their capacity in this regard in the future. 2. Research Methods The observation period of the investigation was from December, 1998 to September, 2003. The subjects of the study were only 12 institutions in Taiwan, among which there are four listed life insurance companies and eight listed P&C insurance companies. The companies in the sample were Cathay Life, Shin Kong Life Insurance, Taiwan Life, China Life, Central Insurance, Union Insurance, Fubon Insurance, South China Insurance, First Insurance Agency, Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance, Chung Kuo Insurance and Shin Kong Insurance. The 'results' of the companies were calculated each quarter, on the basis of the companies assets in their balance sheets and their income statements. Operating income and cost were based totals in each quarter. The market interest rate used in this research is the interest rate on 90-day commodity paper. Profitability in this research refers to operating net profit, the amount left after deducting operating costs from operating income. The study adopted the Flannery Model (1981, 1983) of the relations between changes in market interest rates and bank profitability. However, whereas Flannery ( 1981,1983) only used operating profit as the dependant variable, the present research used other profitability indices as well, namely assets return rate, net return rate, operating profit margin, operating rate of margin and net interest rate. …


Globalization is a multidimensional issue, and its impacts on world resources cross and integrate environmental, economic, political, and cultural boundaries. Over the last few decades, the push towards globalization has brought a new dimension in which managers of fisheries and water resources will need to operate, both at the local and global level of governance. In order to address effectively the future sustainability of these resources, it is critical to understand the driving factors of globalization and their effect on fisheries ecosystems and the people who depend on these resources for their cultural and societal well-being. This book discusses the social and political changes affecting fisheries, the changes to ecological processes due to direct and indirect impacts of globalization, the changing nature of the goods and services that fisheries ecosystems are able to provide, and the resultant changes in markets and economic assessment of our fishery resources.


Introduction: Since its emergence, COVID 19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, turned out to be a health threat throughout the world. The degree of risk for the health-care workers who are dealing with the COVID-19 patients is uncertain. Questionnaire-based prospective cross-sectional study was done to assess the extent to which the Indian obstetrics and gynecology practice has been affected by the pandemic. Materials and Methods: From August to October 2020, 309 obstetricians (OBs) and gynecologists took part in the survey via Google forms. Impact on the present working scenario during the pandemic compared to the Pre-COVID era was evaluated. The categorical variables got illustrated through frequency (%). The association among the variables Chi-square test was utilized. Statistical significance was contemplated by the P < 0.05. Graphs were prepared using Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel 365. Results: There was drastic fall in parameters of obstetric practice. Over half of the OBs witnessed fall in outpatients over 90%. Significant association seen reduction in earnings with the sector, type of set-up, and duration of practice (P < 0.001) was found. Apprehension among the study group was present still majority 54.8% said that they were working voluntarily in this time of national crisis. Conclusions: This research indicates that the pandemic has entailed practice of obstetrics and gynecology in India. However, the smooth functioning was maintained due to the high degree of knowledge and preparedness among the doctors and the well-laid guidelines by the authorities.


In this thesis it was shown that (brown) adipose tissue associated metabolic dysfunction increases the risk on development of cardiovascular disease in high risk patients. Quantity of adipose tissue is an important risk factor for adipose tissue dysfunction but functionality of adipose tissue not solely relies on its quantity. The capacity of adipocytes to expand and safely store nutrients may greatly influence functionality of adipose tissue and cardiovascular risk. Also in normal weight patients whose high risk may go unnoticed. With increasing severity of cardiovascular burden the metabolic consequences of adipose tissue dysfunction become even more important than strict measures of adipose tissue quantity to estimate cardiovascular risk. These findings underline the urge for timely detection of (dys)functional adipose tissue. Functionality of adipose tissue is accompanied by local structural changes in adipose tissue composition which may be quantified using various imaging techniques. We show that Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) are able to assess differences in adipose tissue composition that associate with local and systemic consequences of adipose tissue (dys)function. For example, differences in cardiovascular risk factor profile are associated with differences in epicardial adipose tissue composition as measured by CT density in Hounsfield Units. Subsequently, differences in CT density of epicardial adipose tissue are associated with higher scores of coronary artery calcification in men. These findings indicate the potential role for epicardial adipose tissue density as a measure of adipose tissue function in the development of cardiovascular disease. In addition to subcutaneous white adipose tissue (WAT) another type of adipose tissue, named brown adipose tissue (BAT), may exist in humans. BAT is predominantly located within the supraclavicular adipose tissue depot interspersed within WAT cells. BAT is hypothesized to dissipate energy via non-shivering thermogenesis to maintain body temperature during periods of cold and thereby contribute to cardiometabolic health. Due to differences in intracellular water content the Fat signal Fraction of BAT differs from WAT. In thesis we show that MRI reproducibly measures Fat signal Fractions in supraclavicular and subcutaneous adipose tissue. Furthermore, we show that supraclavicular adipose tissue still has BAT characteristics in adult patients with clinical manifest cardiovascular disease and that BAT presence is associated with general measures of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. Findings of this thesis may help to advance our understanding of adipose tissue associated metabolic (dys)function in the development and risk assessment of cadiovascular disease. Longitudinal and experimental studies are recommended to further elucidate mechanisms underlying imaging of adipose tissue composition and to assess whether imaging of adipose tissue composition is able to longitudinal determine cardiovascular disease risk.


Diatoms are silicifying phytoplankton contributing about one quarter to primary production on Earth. Ocean acidification (OA) could alter the competitiveness of diatoms relative to other taxa and/or lead to shifts among diatom species. In spring 2016, we set up a plankton community experiment at the coast of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) to investigate the response of subtropical diatom assemblages to elevated seawater pCO2. Therefore, natural plankton communities were enclosed for 32 days in in situ mesocosms (∼8 m3 volume) with a pCO2 gradient ranging from 380 to 1140 μatm. Halfway through the study we added nutrients to all mesocosms (N, P, Si) to simulate injections through eddy-induced upwelling which frequently occurs in the region. We found that the total diatom biomass remained unaffected during oligotrophic conditions but was significantly positively affected by high CO2 after nutrient enrichment. The average cell volume and carbon content of the diatom community increased with CO2. CO2 effects on diatom biomass and species composition were weak during oligotrophic conditions but became quite strong above ∼620 μatm after the nutrient enrichment. We hypothesize that the proliferation of diatoms under high CO2 may have been caused by a fertilization effect on photosynthesis in combination with reduced grazing pressure. Our results suggest that OA in the subtropics may strengthen the competitiveness of (large) diatoms and cause changes in diatom community composition, mostly under conditions when nutrients are injected into oligotrophic systems.


Abstract The variational nodal method is generalized to include R-Z geometry. Spherical harmonic trial functions in angle are combined with orthonormal polynomials in space to discretize the multigroup equations. The nodal response matrices that result correspond to volumes that are toroids, with rectangular cross sections, except along the centerline where the volumes are cylinders. The R-Z response matrix equations are implemented as modifications to the Argonne National Laboratory code VARIANT, and existing iterative methods are used to obtain numerical solutions. The method is tested in P1, P3, and P5 approximations, and results are presented for both a one-group fixed source and a two-group eigenvalue problem.


Gas Phase Characterization of Supramolecules Using Cross-Sectional Areas by FTICR and Sustained Off-Resonance Irradiation Collision Induced Dissociation Techniques in a Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometer Fan Yang Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, BYU Doctor of Philosophy In my dissertation, I use a Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometer (FTICR-MS) to investigate supramolecules. Cross-sectional areas by Fourier transform ICR (CRAFTI), a novel technique for measurements of collision cross sections by FTICR, is demonstrated for the first time. The CRAFTI method measures the total "dephasing cross section" for removal of the ions from the coherent packet in the FTICR cell, including contributions not only from momentum transfer but also from reactive collisions including those leading to collisional dissociation. Experimental CRAFTI collision cross sections correlate linearly with theoretically computed results and with results obtained using ion mobility measurements. Different collision gases, including Xe, N2, Ar, and SF6, are all appropriate for the CRAFTI technique when the experiments are done at proper kinetic energies. The CRAFTI technique was applied to characterize the molecular shape of complexes of alkyl monoand n-alkyldiamine with cucurbit[n]uril in the gas phase. The CRAFTI results are consistent with corresponding computational geometries. The CRAFTI technique was combined with SORI-CID (sustained off-resonance irradiation collision induced dissociation) for characterization of complexes of ,-alkyldiammonium with cucurbit[n]urils (n=5, 7 and 8) and cucurbituril derivatives. The results demonstrate that for bigger cucurbiturils, the complexes have the alkyldiamine tails threaded through the cavity of the host; for smaller cucurbiturils, the complexes have the tails of the alklydiamines external to the portal of the host. Capping molecules for larger CBn to form larger containers were also investigated. Using SORI-CID methods, CB7, a bigger cucurbituril cage, was found to form a more stable complex with Gu (guanidinium). Several neutral guests (benzene, fluorobenzene and toluene) were trapped in CB7 cavity to form inclusion complexes.


We define and study the Tutte polynomial of a hyperplane arrangement. We introduce a method for computing the Tutte polynomial by solving a related enumerative problem. As a consequence, we obtain new formulas for the generating functions enumerating alternating trees, labelled trees, semiorders and Dyck paths.


The most common metric for assessing the adequacy of economic preparation for retirement is the income replacement rate, the ratio of income after retirement to income before retirement. However both economic theory and common sense say that someone is adequately prepared if she is able to maintain her level of economic well-being, which is not the same as maintaining her level of income or some fixed proportion of income. Economic well-being is typically measured by consumption, which is the measure we use. We define and estimate measures of economic preparation for retirement based on a complete inventory of economic resources, particularly wealth, which we compare with optimal consumption paths. We find that a substantial majority of those just past the usual retirement age are adequately prepared for retirement in that they will be able to finance a path of consumption that begins at their current level of consumption and then follows an age-pattern similar to that of current retirees. This is not true, however, for all groups in the population. In particular, almost half of singles who lack a high school education are likely to be forced to reduce consumption. Couples are much better prepared than singles. But because of taxes a substantial number of married college graduates will have to reduce consumption.


This editorial refers to 'Impact of intracoronary bone marrow cell therapy on left ventricular function in the setting of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: a collaborative meta-analysis', by R. Delewi et al. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/eht372

Even the staunchest advocate of the use of cell-based therapies in cardiac repair would be forced to admit that progress has thus far been slow. Both use of therapeutic stem cells and gene-based approaches have met with significant hurdles in their clinical development. However, significant progress does continue to be made towards the ultimate goal of a safe and efficacious cell-based therapy for routine clinical use in cardiac repair.

In the area of stem cells, a number of approaches have been proposed, tested pre-clinically, and then clinically evaluated, albeit in relatively small studies thus far.1 These include use of skeletal muscle myoblasts (SKMs), bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMCs), mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs, both bone marrow and adipose tissue derived), and cardiac stem cells. Amongst these, the most rigorously evaluated thus far have undoubtedly been the BMCs.

Bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells used therapeutically may be unselected or selected according to characteristic cell surface markers, e.g. CD34+, CD133+, and/or CXCR4+, amongst many other identifiers.2 Putative mechanisms of benefit of BMCs in the post-myocardial infarction (MI) cardiac repair setting have been variously ascribed to both direct transdifferentiation into cardiomyocytes (likely to play only a minimal, if any, role), indirect actions such as vasculogenesis and angiogenesis, antiapoptotic and antinecrotic effects, and favourable paracrine effects on the extracellular matrix.3

Intravascular delivery methods invariably result in only minimal local accumulation and retention of cells within the heart in general and the peri-infarct region specifically post-MI.4 In addition, the cardiac microenvironment in the early post-infarct setting is relatively hostile …


Predicting the onset of sepsis from clinical data is challenging, as physiological and laboratory measurements are sampled at different frequencies and missing data are not randomly distributed. Our team ("CRASHers") propose a two-model approach, where the first predicts a probability of sepsis and the second estimates the uncertainty of these predictions. We then optimize a "decision rule" using both the probability and uncertainty to make the final prediction. A set of derived features was used to train a Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) classification model to predict sepsis (within 6 hours). A second GBM regression model was trained to estimate the uncertainty of those predictions using a different set of derived features. Optimal hyperparameters for both models were determined using Bayesian optimisation with 5-fold cross validation (using 70% records from each training set). The outputs from both models were then combined using logistic regression (using 15% of records available) to re-calibrate the probability of sepsis. Due to an error in setting up the test environment for our entries, we did not obtain a valid score in the hidden test set. The combined model was evaluated on the remaining 15% of records available for training (i.e., our validation set). Our uncertainty-aware approach achieved a Utility score of 0.412 on our validation set.


The Page Act of 1875 is usually characterized as an anti-prostitution law that helped pave the way for the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Most scholars also describe the Page Act as an example of lawmaking restraint, as Congress refrained from broader immigration restrictions out of respect for the existing Burlingame Treaty with China. This Article suggests that such an understanding is inaccurate or at best, questionable. Though the Page Act's text may be focused on the protection of American morals, a review of newspaper articles, legislative debates, and other historical records indicate that the true driving force was the protection of American labor. Furthermore, while the text maybe have complied with the Burlingame Treaty, the Act's application was a de facto violation of Chinese immigration protections. The focus on prostitution was thus a strategic victory: the emphasis on morality successfully masked what would otherwise be questionable restrictions on Chinese immigration. The Page Act is thus an early example of legislation purposefully couched in the name of morality in order to avoid legal or political backlash. It should be remembered not as a footnote to the Chinese Exclusion Acts, but as an important episode in the development of both immigration and foreign treaty law.


We study the equivalence problem of submanifolds with respect to a transitive pseudogroup action. The corresponding differential invariants are determined via formal theory and lead to the notions of l-variants and l-covariants, even in the case of non-integrable pseudogroup. Their calculation is based on the cohomological machinery: we introduce a complex for covariants, define their cohomology and prove the finiteness theorem. This implies the well-known Lie–Tresse theorem about differential invariants. We also generalize this theorem to the case of pseudogroup action on differential equations.


Southeast Asia (SE Asia) is a known global hotspot of biodiversity and endemism, yet the region is also one of the most biotically threatened. Ecosystems across the region are threatened by an array of drivers, each of which increases the probability of extinction of species in a variety of ecosystems. These issues are symptomatic of the issues that face the global tropics; however, with around 4 billion people in the wider region and the associated pressures on biodiversity, this region may be under some of the greatest levels of biotic threat. Deforestation rates in SE Asia are some of the highest globally, additionally it has the highest rate of mining in the tropics, around the greatest number of hydropower dams under construction, and a consumption of species for traditional medicines which is a threat to biodiversity globally. In this review, the greatest threats to regional biodiversity in the SE Asian region are discussed. Tree-plantations and deforestation represent one of the most imminent threats, and some countries have already lost over half their original forest cover (i.e., the Philippines, parts of Indonesia), with projections of as much as 98% loss for some regions in the coming decade. Hunting and trade represent a significant threat as demand stems not only for food, but also for medicine, for ornamentation, and as a status symbol. Mining represents a frequently overlooked threat, as the Asian region is one of the greatest exporters of limestone and various minerals globally, and the cost of this to biodiversity is not only through the direct loss of areas for mines, but also through the development of roads that further fragment the landscape, the leakage of heavy metals, and the destruction of limestone karsts, which represent global endemicity hotspots. Reservoir construction, wetland drainage, fires, pollution, invasive species, disease, and finally climate change are also considered. Once each issue has been discussed, the overall prognosis of regional biodiversity and priority actions to protect SE Asian biodiversity in the future is discussed.


President Obama's decision not to seek additional legislative authority for detentions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — combined with Congress's lack of interest in the task — means that, for good or for ill, judges through their exercise of habeas jurisdiction are writing the substantive and procedural rules governing military detention of terrorist suspects. Our purpose in this report is to describe in detail and analyze the courts' work to date — and thus map the contours of the nascent law of military detention that is emerging from it. We pay particular attention to the courts' decisions relating to: the substantive grounds for detention (including whether a once-adequate relationship with enemy forces may be vitiated); the nature and allocation of the burden of proof (including whether the burden actually varies over time); government requests for presumptions that its evidence is authentic and accurate; the admissibility and weight of hearsay evidence; the extent to which interrogation statements may be admitted or given weight in the face of torture, coercion, or involuntariness arguments; and the relevance of the "mosaic" theory. We find a considerable amount of disagreement among the judges regarding most of these matters — enough to suggest that in at least some instances the merits might well have been resolved differently had the detainee's case been heard by a different judge. The appellate process may eventually impose greater uniformity. In the meantime, the lack of clarity regarding such important matters as the scope of the government's detention power and the circumstances in which an interrogation statement can be used to justify a detention presents problems from the perspectives of both the detainees and the government. Neither can be sure of the rules of the road in the ongoing litigation, and the prospect that allocation of a case to a particular judge may prove dispositive on the merits can cut in either direction. Because it remains unclear how far the courts' jurisdiction extends, moreover, nobody knows at this stage precisely how many cases these rules will ultimately govern and where else in the world they will have a direct impact. More fundamentally, because the courts in these cases are defining not merely the rules for habeas review but also the substantive law of detention itself, they have implications far beyond the litigation context. The rules the judges craft could have profound implications for decisions in the field concerning whether to initially detain, or even target, a given person, whether to maintain a detention after an initial screening, whether to employ certain lawful but coercive interrogation methods, and so forth.


While there are several books on market that are designed to serve a company's daily shop-floor needs. Their focus is mainly on the physically making specific types of welds on specific types of materials with specific welding processes. There is nearly zero focus on the design, maintenance and troubleshooting of the welding systems and equipment. Applied Welding Engineering: Processes, Codes and Standards is designed to provide a practical in-depth instruction for the selection of the materials incorporated in the joint, joint inspection, and the quality control for the final product. Welding Engineers will also find this book a valuable source for developing new welding processes or procedures for new materials as well as a guide for working closely with design engineers to develop efficient welding designs and fabrication procedures.
Applied Welding Engineering: Processes, Codes and Standards is based on a practical approach. The book's four part treatment starts with a clear and rigorous exposition of the science of metallurgy including but not limited to: Alloys, Physical Metallurgy, Structure of Materials, Non-Ferrous Materials, Mechanical Properties and Testing of Metals and Heal Treatment of Steels. This is followed by self-contained sections concerning applications regarding Section 2: Welding Metallurgy & Welding Processes, Section 3: Nondestructive Testing, and Section 4: Codes and Standards. The author's objective is to keep engineers moored in the theory taught in the university and colleges while exploring the real world of practical welding engineering. Other topics include: Mechanical Properties and Testing of Metals, Heat Treatment of Steels, Effect of Heat on Material During Welding, Stresses, Shrinkage and Distortion in Welding, Welding, Corrosion Resistant Alloys-Stainless Steel, Welding Defects and Inspection, Codes, Specifications and Standards.
The book is designed to support welding and joining operations where engineers pass plans and projects to mid-management personnel who must carry out the planning, organization and delivery of manufacturing projects. In this book, the author places emphasis on developing the skills needed to lead projects and interface with engineering and development teams. In writing this book, the book leaned heavily on the author's own experience as well as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (www.asme.org), American Welding Society (www.aws.org), American Society of Metals (www.asminternational.org), NACE International (www.nace.org), American Petroleum Institute (www.api.org), etc. Other sources includes The Welding Institute, UK (www.twi.co.uk), and Indian Air force training manuals, ASNT (www.asnt.org), the Canadian Standard Association (www.cas.com) and Canadian General Standard Board (CGSB) (www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca).

Rules for developing efficient welding designs and fabrication procedures
Expert advice for complying with international codes and standards from the American Welding Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and The Welding Institute(UK)
Practical in-depth instruction for the selection of the materials incorporated in the joint, joint inspection, and the quality control for the final product.


Polar regions are subjected to rapid climate change, with increased air temperatures and precipitation being predicted during future decades. Rising temperatures and precipitation will have an effect on saprotrophic soil fungi, microbes key to nutrient cycling and decomposition processes that are dominant in polar soils owing to their abilities of remaining physiologically active at low temperatures and water availabilities. Here, a combination of field warming experiments and laboratory experiments are used to investigate the effects of warming, water and nutrient availability on the abundance, growth and enzyme activities (cellulase, chitinase, acid and alkaline phosphatase and leucine aminopeptidase) of a range of saprotrophic fungi in Arctic and Antarctic soils. In a five-year-long maritime Antarctic field experiment, the abundance of Pseudogymnoascus pannorum DNA was reduced in soil warmed with open top chambers (OTCs) that had been enriched with nutrients. Laboratory experiments confirmed the inhibitory effect of warming to > 21 °C on the growth and enzyme activities of P. pannorum, but only when water was not a limiting factor. In contrast, in an Arctic field experiment, OTCs and watering had no effects on the abundance of DNA of seven Arctic soil fungal taxa after three years of treatment. The growth of five Arctic taxa (Acremonium sp., Isaria sp., Leptosphaeria sp., Phialocephala sp. and Mortierella spp.) was increased by warming to > 21 °C, with only that of P. pannorum being inhibited by warming to 24 °C. Warming did not affect the enzyme activities of Arctic fungi, with activities mainly being influenced by changes in water potential. The research here suggests that the growth and enzyme activities of Antarctic P. pannorum may be inhibited by future warming arising from continued greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, but that Arctic saprotrophic soil fungi appear to be more resilient to environmental changes.


This study deals with the experimental investigation of the effects of moisture and density on the elastic moduli and strength of four subgrade soils generally representing the range of road conditions in Minnesota. The testing approach involved i) reduced-scale simulation of field compaction, ii) field-type testing on prismatic soil volumes, and iii) element testing on cylindrical soil specimens. The field-type testing included: i) the GeoGauge, ii) the PRIMA 100 device, iii) the modified light weight deflectometer (LWD) device, iv) the portable vibratory deflectometer (PVD) and v) the Dynamic Cone Penetrometer (DCP). To compare the Young's modulus values stemming from the field-type and laboratory experiments, cylindrical specimens were extracted from the prismatic soil volumes and tested for the resilient modulus (M sub r), small-strain Young's modulus using bender elements. The results reveal that both moisture and density have a measurable effect on the elastic modulus and strength of all four soils. On the element testing side, the small strain estimates from the bender element tests were in good agreement with the resilient modulus values. In the context of field testing, there was significant scatter of the estimated Young's moduli depending upon the particular testing device.


The aim of this research was to determine the effects of four flooding treatments on survival of seedlings from 45 seedlots of seven oak species at two sampling dates using logistic analysis, and to quantify growth responses to flooding of seedlings from 27 seedlots of swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor). Flooding treatments were initiated at the completion of the first growth flush. Significant species and flood treatment differences were detected at the end of the growing season (15 week post-flood) and again in the following year (45 weeks post-flood). Logistic analysis demonstrated that Q. bicolor was the most flood tolerant species, followed by Q. palustris and Q. macrocarpa. Seedlings of Q. shumardii, Q. rubra, Q. alba and Q. muehelenbergii were less flood tolerant based on survival odds ratios at 45 weeks post-flood. Genetic differences in growth responses to flooding were detected among 27 seedling families of swamp white oak. No significant gains in flood tolerance were achieved using acorns derived from specific seed sources (or stands) along a hydrologic gradient. Flood tolerant swamp white oak families were identified in the "recovery" year following flooding by a flood tolerance index, which integrated four growth response variables. Of these four variables, the total number of elongating shoots and total leaf number after an over wintering flush were most highly correlated with flood tolerance.


The goal of this paper is to extend the analysis of strategic bargaining to nonstationary environments, where preferences or opportunities may be changing over time. We are mainly interested in equilibria where trade occurs immediately, once the agents start negotiating, but the terms of trade depend on when the negotiations begin. We characterize equilibria in terms of simply dynamical systems, and compare these outcomes with the myopic Nash bargaining solution. We illustrate the practicality of the approach with an application in monetary economics.


Objective: Traditional electrocortical stimulation (ECS) mapping is limited by the lengthy serial investigation (one location at a time) and the risk of afterdischarges in localizing eloquent cortex. Electrocorticographic frequency alteration mapping (EFAM) allows the parallel investigation of many cortical sites in much less time and with no risk of afterdischarges because of its passive nature. We examined its use with ECS in the context of language mapping during an awake craniotomy for a tumor resection. Clinical Presentation: The patient was a 61-year-old right-handed Caucasian male who presented with headache and mild aphasia. Imaging demonstrated a 3-cm cystic mass in the posterior temporal-parietal lobe. The patient underwent an awake craniotomy for the mapping of his speech cortex and resection of the mass. Intervention: Using a 32-contact electrode array, electrocorticographic signals were recorded from the exposed cortex as the patient participated in a 3-min screening task involving active (patient naming visually presented words) and rest (patient silent) conditions. A spectral comparison of the 2 conditions revealed specific cortical locations associated with activation during speech. The patient was then widely mapped using ECS. Three of 4 sites identified by ECS were also identified passively and in parallel by EFAM, 2 with statistical significance and the third by qualitative inspection. Conclusion: EFAM was technically achieved in an awake craniotomy patient and had good concordance with ECS mapping. Because it poses no risk of afterdischarges and offers substantial time savings, EFAM holds promise for future development as an adjunct intraoperative mapping tool. Additionally, the cortical signals obtained by this modality can be utilized for localization in the presence of a tumor adjacent to the eloquent regions.


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is one of the systemic risk factors for glaucoma which causes irreversible visual field (VF) damage. We reviewed the published data of all types of studies on the association between these two conditions and papers regarding functional and structural changes related to glaucomatous damage using Scopus, web of science, and PubMed databases. There is evidence that the prevalence of glaucoma is higher in OSA patients, which independent of intraocular pressure (IOP). Studies have reported thinning of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL), alteration of optic nerve head, choroidal and macular thickness, and reduced VF sensitivity in patients of OSA with no history glaucoma. A negative correlation of apnea-hypopnea index with RNFL and VF indices has been described in some studies. Raised IOP was noted which is possibly related to obesity, supine position during sleep, and raised intracranial pressure. Diurnal fluctuations of IOP show more variations in OSA patients before and after continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy when compared with the normal cases. The vascular factors behind the pathogenesis include recurrent hypoxia with increased vascular resistance, oxidative stress damage to the optic nerve. In conclusion, comprehensive glaucoma evaluation should be recommended in patients with OSA and should also periodically monitor IOP during CPAP treatment which may trigger the progression of glaucomatous damage.


The gas tungsten arc (GTA) welded fusion zone of alloy 718 has been well investigated on the formation of interdendritic Laves phase. This article deals with the various process control methodologies for minimizing the microsegregation and Laves phase such as the enhanced weld cooling rate in GTA welding (GTAW) process and modification in weld metal chemistry. Even though the high energy density welding processes such as electron beam (EB) and laser beam (LB) welding techniques are proven in minimizing the microsegregation and Laves phase, the requirement of conventional GTA welding process still exists in the aerospace industry due to the complex shapes of the components and the inaccessible conditions for executing the welding process. The enhance- ment in the weld cooling rate and modified weld metal chemistry resulted in the refined fusion zone microstructure and reduced microsegregation. Enhanced weld efficiency on ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and 0.2% YS at 25°C was observed to the tune of 85 to 93% by employing cryogenic cooling in GTA welding process. Similar improvement in weld efficiency at 650°C was observed. However, the evaluated weld efficiencies with cryogenically cooled weld metal were marginally lower than the previous works in EB and LB welds only by 2–3%.


Standards of review are critical to appellate review because they set limitations upon the appellate court's review process. In doing so, standards of review balance judicial authority, make judicial review more efficient, standardize the review process, and give notice to parties who wish to appeal their cases. However, these policies and their effects are diminished when appellate judges misuse or ignore standards of review. This article examines the theories that led to the creation of standards of review and identifies four ways that appellate courts misuse standards of review. It analyzes over 8,000 cases from Texas and California, along with opinions and law journal articles from countless other jurisdictions to prove the author's theory that standards of review are often ignored or manipulated by appellate courts who seek to overturn the lower court's decision.


ABSTRACT
 Insects make use of sound in a variety of behavioral and reproductive contexts. Acoustic signals are known to serve in defense, sexual advertisement, prey location, and in cooperative activities such as offspring care and group foraging. In airborne signals produced by insects, information associated with species identification is often related to the temporal structure of the sound, while spectral quality is more closely associated with intraspecific variation. The Nicrophorine burying beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera: Silphidae) are a group known to produce sound through dorso-ventro stridulation, but the bioacoustics of this group remains understudied. Here, we examine the stridulatory sound produced by eight North American species of Nicrophorus burying beetles, testing the hypothesis that interspecific differences will be encoded in temporal characteristics of the sound, and that signal divergence will be explained by one of three mechanisms: selection as an intraspecific signal, selection for interspecific aposematism, or random divergence through drift. We digitally recorded stridulation in each species, and analyzed recordings to describe each in respect to four spectral and eight temporal acoustic characters. All species produced a low amplitude biphastic sound pulse consisting of from 58 to 126 syllables, and exhibiting weak dominant frequencies (5.8–12.7 kHz). Collapsing the 12 variables into three rotated factors using principal component analysis, we found no sex-related differences in sound, but significant interspecies divergence in respect to all three factors. We constructed a phylogeny for the group based on the morphology of the stridulatory structures and the acoustic characters, and found weak support for an intraspecific signal divergence model.


The complications of severe chronic liver disease result from hepatocellular failure, portal hypertension, or a combination of both. Acute variceal haemorrhage can be effectively managed by drugs, endoscopic techniques, balloon tamponade, and surgery. The advent of the transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent-shunt has offered a new therapeutic option. Prevention of re-bleeding also depends on endoscopic therapy or surgery. Beta-blockers have been shown to be useful, not only in preventing re-bleeding, but also in primary prophylaxis. Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis has proved to be preventable by antibiotic prophylaxis. Massive ascites can be satisfactorily treated by repeated large-volume paracentesis and albumin infusion. Hepatic encephalopathy responds to protein restriction and reduction of bowel ammonia production by classical and novel agents. Liver transplantation may be used for those with hepatorenal and hepatopulmonary syndromes and it is the ideal treatment of choice for all suitable patients with terminal chronic liver disease.


Ideology is one of the most controversial terms in the political vocabulary, exciting both revulsion and inspiration. This book examines the reasons for those views, and explains why ideologies deserve respect as a major form of political thinking. It investigates the centrality of ideology both as a political phenomenon and as an organizing framework of political thought and action. It explores the changing understandings of ideology as a concept, and the arguments of the main ideologies. By employing the latest insights from a range of disciplines, the reader is introduced to the vitality and force of a crucial resource at the disposal of societies, through which sense and purpose is assigned to the political world. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.


Ultra compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) have similar properties as massive globular clusters or the nuclei of nucleated galaxies. Recent observations suggesting a high dark matter content and a steep spatial distribution within groups and clusters provide new clues as to their origins. We perform high-resolution N-body/smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations designed to elucidate two possible formation mechanisms for these systems: the merging of globular clusters in the centre of a dark matter halo, or the massively stripped remnant of a nucleated galaxy. Both models produce density profiles as well as the half light radii that can fit the observational constraints. However, we show that the first scenario results to UCDs that are underluminous and contain no dark matter. This is because the sinking process ejects most of the dark matter particles from the halo centre. Stripped nuclei give a more promising explanation, especially if the nuclei form via the sinking of gas, funneled down inner galactic bars, since this process enhances the central dark matter content. Even when the entire disk is tidally stripped away, the nucleus stays intact and can remain dark matter dominated even after severe stripping. Total galaxy disruption beyond the nuclei only occurs on certain orbits and depends on the amount of dissipation during nuclei formation. By comparing the total disruption of CDM subhaloes in a cluster potential we demonstrate that this model also leads to the observed spatial distribution of UCDs which can be tested in more detail with larger data sets.


This comprehensive book, ideal as a basic text in family therapy and women's studies, addresses the question of how women experience family life from a variety of perspectives. It covers gender issues in family therapy theory, practice, and training; women in context (ethnicity and life cycle issues, marriage, motherhood, sisterhood, women alone, lesbian couples), and such special issues as work, addiction, and mental illness.


Background: Male factor infertility is a global health issue that requires further studies to understand its magnitude, especially in developing countries, where the woman is usually blamed for the couple's infertility. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the patterns of male infertility in a teaching hospital in Ghana. Methodology: This was a prospective study of 110 male patients who presented with infertility at the urology outpatient clinic of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi, Ghana, from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2017. Results: One hundred and ten men reported for the treatment of infertility over the study period. The mean age was 38.5 ± 7.4 years. The majority (58.2%) had primary infertility while the remaining 41.8% had secondary infertility. Four (3.6%) of the men had unilateral or bilateral cryptorchidism while 41 (38.7%) of those with both testes resident in the scrotum had small-sized testes. Varicoceles were present in 24 (22.6%) men, 58.3% of whom had primary infertility while the remaining 41.7% had secondary infertility. Thirty-eight (34.5%) of patients had low semen volume was seen in 38 (34.5%) patients. Azoospermia was seen in 28 (25.5%) patients with 30 (27.3%) patients having no motile spermatozoa. Conclusion: Male infertility in Ghana should receive more recognition, and male participation in reproductive health programs should be encouraged.


Simulation and modeling have become more common in forest biomass studies. Dynamic simulation has been used to study the supply chain of forest biomass with numerous different models. A robust predictive multi-year model requires biomass availability data, where annual variation is included spatially and temporally. This can be done by using data from enterprises, but in some cases relevant data is not accessible. Another option is to use forest inventory data to estimate biomass availability, but this data must be processed in the correct form to be utilized in the model. This study developed a method for preparing forest inventory data for a multi-year simulation supply model using the theoretical availability of feedstock. Methods for estimating quality changes during roadside storage are also presented, including a possible parameter estimation to decrease the amount of data needed. The methods were tested case by case using the inventory database "Biomass Atlas" and weather data from a weather station in Mikkeli, Finland. The data processing method for biomass allocation produced a reasonable quantity of stands and feedstock, having a realistic annual supply with variation for the demand point. The results of the study indicate that it is possible to estimate moisture content changes using weather data. The estimations decreased the accuracy of the model and, therefore, estimations should be kept minimal. The presented data preparation method can generate a supply of forest biomass for the simulation model, but the validity of the data must be ensured for correct model behavior.


Abstract Based on nearly complete (1125 bp) cytochrome-b sequence data and morphological characters, two new endemic species of Miniopterus are described from Madagascar that were previously identified as M. manavi. Using phylogenetic analysis, the basal nodes of major lineages in the Malagasy members of this genus are weakly supported, while, in most cases, the branches leading to each of the clades are well resolved. Miniopterus mahafaliensis, new species, occurs in the southwestern semidesert areas and M. brachytragos, new species, has a broad distribution across the northern half of the island, ranging across several different biomes. Phylogenetic inference indicates that these two new taxa are not closely related to M. manavi sensu stricto, with average genetic distances of 9.2% and 5.7% from this taxon, respectively. On the basis of this and previous revisions, the former M. manavi complex is now recognized to represent at least five taxa, which do not form a monophyletic group with respect to one another, and represent extraordinary examples of convergent evolution. Miniopterus brachytragos is closely related to the recently named M. aelleni, while M. mahafaliensis is not closely associated with any of these species. Molecular phylogenetic analysis was imperative to resolve the species limits of these taxa and morphology then provided the means to corroborate the recovered clades. There are localities on the island, specifically limestone karstic zones, where four species of the former M. manavi sensu lato complex occur in strict sympatry. These species often use the same day-roost caves and have similar external and craniodental measurements. This raises intriguing questions as to how these animals divide their worlds with regard to dietary regimes and foraging strategies, as well as their speciation history.


Predicting effects of climate change on ecosystem functioning requires knowledge of soil microbial community responses to warming. We used natural geothermal gradients (from +1°C to +19°C above ambient) in two subarctic grasslands to test the hypothesis that long-term exposure (>50 years) intensifies microbial community responses to warming compared to short-term exposure (5-7 years). Community profiles from amplicon sequencing of bacterial and fungal rRNA genes did not support this hypothesis: significant changes relative to ambient were observed from +9°C and upwards in the long-term and from 7°C to 11°C / +3°C to +5°C and upwards in the short-term, for bacteria and fungi, respectively. Our results suggest that bacterial communities in high-latitude grasslands will not undergo lasting shifts in community composition under the warming predicted for the coming 100 years. Fungal communities do appear to be temperature sensitive to the warming within this range, but only for short-term exposures.


Importance Our previous studies demonstrated that tumors significantly decrease in size and metabolic activity after delivery of 45 Gy of fractionated radiatiotherapy (RT), and that metabolic shrinkage is greater than anatomic shrinkage. This study aimed to determine whether 18F-fludeoxyglucose–positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG-PET/CT) acquired during the course of treatment provides an opportunity to deliver higher-dose radiation to the more aggressive areas of the tumor to improve local tumor control without increasing RT-induced lung toxicity (RILT), and possibly improve survival. Objective To determine whether adaptive RT can target high-dose radiation to the FDG-avid tumor on midtreatment FDG-PET to improve local tumor control of locally advanced non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Design, Setting, and Participants A phase 2 clinical trial conducted at 2 academic medical centers with 42 patients who had inoperable or unresectable stage II to stage III NSCLC enrolled from November 2008, to May 2012. Patients with poor performance, more than 10% weight loss, poor lung function, and/or oxygen dependence were included, providing that the patients could tolerate the procedures of PET scanning and RT. Intervention Conformal RT was individualized to a fixed risk of RILT (grade >2) and adaptively escalated to the residual tumor defined on midtreatment FDG-PET up to a total dose of 86 Gy in 30 daily fractions. Medically fit patients received concurrent weekly carboplatin plus paclitaxel followed by 3 cycles of consolidation. Main Outcomes and Measures The primary end point was local tumor control. The trial was designed to achieve a 20% improvement in 2-year control from 34% of our prior clinical trial experience with 63 to 69 Gy in a similar patient population. Results The trial reached its accrual goal of 42 patients: median age, 63 years (range, 45-83 years); male, 28 (67%); smoker or former smoker, 39 (93%); stage III, 38 (90%). Median tumor dose delivered was 83 Gy (range, 63-86 Gy) in 30 daily fractions. Median follow-up for surviving patients was 47 months. The 2-year rates of infield and overall local regional tumor controls (ie, including isolated nodal failure) were 82% (95% CI, 62%-92%) and 62% (95% CI, 43%-77%), respectively. Median overall survival was 25 months (95% CI, 12-32 months). The 2-year and 5-year overall survival rates were 52% (95% CI, 36%-66%) and 30% (95% CI, 16%-45%), respectively. Conclusions and Relevance Adapting RT-escalated radiation dose to the FDG-avid tumor detected by midtreatment PET provided a favorable local-regional tumor control. The RTOG 1106 trial is an ongoing clinical trial to validate this finding in a randomized fashion. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01190527


This book is a collection of a series of lectures given by Prof. V Kac at Tata Institute, India in Dec '85 and Jan '86. These lectures focus on the idea of a highest weight representation, which goes through four different incarnations.The first is the canonical commutation relations of the infinite-dimensional Heisenberg Algebra (= oscillator algebra). The second is the highest weight representations of the Lie algebra gl∞ of infinite matrices, along with their applications to the theory of soliton equations, discovered by Sato and Date, Jimbo, Kashiwara and Miwa. The third is the unitary highest weight representations of the current (= affine Kac-Moody) algebras. These algebras appear in the lectures twice, in the reduction theory of soliton equations (KP → KdV) and in the Sugawara construction as the main tool in the study of the fourth incarnation of the main idea, the theory of the highest weight representations of the Virasoro algebra.This book should be very useful for both mathematicians and physicists. To mathematicians, it illustrates the interaction of the key ideas of the representation theory of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras; and to physicists, this theory is turning into an important component of such domains of theoretical physics as soliton theory, theory of two-dimensional statistical models, and string theory.


This study investigates the impact of power/distance (PD) variables operationalized as face systems on the pragmalinguistic features of academic e-mail requests. A corpus of 90 academic e-mails was classified into four face system groups: hierarchical (sender +P), hierarchical (recipient +P), deference, and solidarity. Request perspectives, strategies, and mitigating supportive moves were analyzed. The analysis revealed that the speaker and hearer dominance were the most frequent request perspectives in the hierarchical (recipient+P) and deference groups. The impersonal perspective was more common in the hierarchical (sender+P) group. The preparatory was the dominant request strategy in all groups, relatively more frequent in the hierarchical (recipient+P) and deference groups. The most common supportive move was the grounder, which occurred more frequently than other supportive moves. The findings of the study indicate that face systems influence the request patterns in academic e-mail communication. The study has implications for future research on pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (CMC).


This paper introduces design principles for modular Bayesian fusion systems which can (i) cope with large quantities of heterogeneous information and (ii) can adapt to changing constellations of information sources on the fly. The presented approach exploits the locality of relations in causal probabilistic processes, which facilitates decentralized modeling and information fusion. Observed events resulting from stochastic causal processes can be modeled with the help of Bayesian networks, compact and mathematically rigorous probabilistic models. With the help of the theory of Bayesian networks and factor graphs we derive design and organization rules for modular fusion systems which implement exact belief propagation without centralized configuration and fusion control. These rules are applied in distributed perception networks (DPN), a multi agent systems approach to distributed Bayesian information fusion. While each DPN agent has limited fusion capabilities, multiple DPN agents can autonomously collaborate to form complex modular fusion systems. Such self-organizing systems of agents can adapt to the available information sources at runtime and can infer critical hidden events through interpretation of complex patterns consisting of many heterogeneous observations.


Who is Slobodan Milosevic? Is he the next Saddam Hussein, the leader of a renegade nation who will continue to torment the United States for years to come? Or is he the next Moammar Qaddafi, an international outcast silenced for good by a resolute American bombing campaign? The war in Kosovo in the spring of 1999 introduced many Americans to the man the newspapers have called "the butcher of the Balkans," but few understand the crucial role he has played and continues to play in the most troubled part of Europe. Directly or indirectly, Milosevic has waged war and instigated brutal ethnic cleansing in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, and he was indicted for war crimes in May 1999. Milosevic's rise to power, from lowly Serbian apparatchik to president of Yugoslavia, is a tale of intrigue, cynical manipulation, and deceit whose full dimensions have never been presented to the American public. In this first full-length biography of the Yugoslav leader, veteran foreign correspondents Dusko Doder and Louise Branson paint a disturbing portrait of a cunning politician who has not shied from fomenting wars and double-crossing enemies and allies alike in his ruthless pursuit of power. Whereas most dictators encourage a cult of personality around themselves, Milosevic has been content to operate in the shadows, shunning publicity and allowing others to grab the limelight -- and then to take the heat when things go badly. Milosevic's secretive style, the authors show, emerged in response to a family history of depression (both of his parents committed suicide) and has served him well as he begins his second decade in power. Doder and Branson introduce us to the key figures behindMilosevic's rise: his wife, Mirjana Markovic, who is often described (with justification) as a Serbian Lady Macbeth, and the Balkan and American politicians who learned, too late, about the costs of underestimating Milosevic. They also reveal how the United States refused to take the necessary action in 1992 to remove Milosevic from power without bloodshed -- not realizing that he uses such moments of weakness as opportunities to lull his opponents into traps, thereby paving the way for a new consolidation of power. Now, in the wake of the victory in Kosovo, it remains to be seen whether America will learn this lesson or whether we will allow this deeply troubled man to continue to pose a threat to European peace and security as the twenty-first century dawns.


In a companion paper we have presented many products derived from the application of the spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT to datacubes from the CALIFA survey, including 2D maps of stellar population properties and 1D averages in the temporal and spatial dimensions. Here we evaluate the uncertainties in these products. Uncertainties due to noise and spectral shape calibration errors and to the synthesis method are investigated by means of a suite of simulations based on 1638 CALIFA spectra for NGC 2916, with perturbations amplitudes gauged in terms of the expected errors. A separate study was conducted to assess uncertainties related to the choice of evolutionary synthesis models. We compare results obtained with the Bruzual & Charlot models, a preliminary update of them, and a combination of spectra derived from the Granada and MILES models. About 100k CALIFA spectra are used in this comparison.
Noise and shape-related errors at the level expected for CALIFA propagate to 0.10-0.15 dex uncertainties in stellar masses, mean ages and metallicities. Uncertainties in A_V increase from 0.06 mag in the case of random noise to 0.16 mag for shape errors. Higher order products such as SFHs are more uncertain, but still relatively stable. Due to the large number statistics of datacubes, spatial averaging reduces uncertainties while preserving information on the history and structure of stellar populations. Radial profiles of global properties, as well as SFHs averaged over different regions are much more stable than for individual spaxels. Uncertainties related to the choice of base models are larger than those associated with data and method. Differences in mean age, mass and metallicity are ~ 0.15 to 0.25 dex, and 0.1 mag in A_V. Spectral residuals are ~ 1% on average, but with systematic features of up to 4%. The origin of these features is discussed. (Abridged)