Weall strive for success in our practice, but complications are inevitable. Like a bad dream, such an encounter may be remembered for a life time. Nevertheless, the scope for learning from a complication may not be less than a success story. The "Swiss cheese model of accident causation" was introduced by Dante Orlandella and James Reason of the University of Manchester. The model is applicable in risk analysis and risk management. It represents multiple slices of Swiss cheese, side by side with the holes in the cheese representing weaknesses in the individual parts of a system (such as manufacturing industry or health care system). As the holes are not aligned, a light shined at one hole is prevented from emerging out by the next slice of cheese. Defects in multiple slices of cheese are often required for the light to pass through. In a similar fashion, complications occur secondary to multiple factors such as patient-related issues (e.g., disease severity, severe comorbidities, lack of social support), operator factors (fatigue, lack of training, perception errors, judgement errors, lack of personnel), and inadequacies in the system (poor-quality equipment, lack of facilities for postoperative care, lack of anesthesia services, lack of surgical specialists, lack of trained paramedical staff). Complications more often result when these factors complement each other. As such, deficiency in a single component of the system may not always be recognizable at its first occurrence. Though a formal training in interventional radiology prepares an individual with the necessary experience to start an interventional practice, it does not guarantee a safe practice of the specialty. A continuous quality improvement process aimed at both the individual and institutional levels is required for early detection of systemic defects and for improving patient safety. A safety reporting system at the institutional level to reportmisses and nearmisses in patient care delivery is essential. Such system would allow anonymous reporting of patient safety issues without any fear of repercussions to the whistle blower. Periodic internal audits and mortality conferences play a major role to review and assess the need for root cause analysis. It is also important to compare the complication rates of each interventional radiologic procedure performed at each the institution and by each practicing physician and compare that to the established reports. Conferences focusing on procedural complications and patient safety issues are important for both trainees and practicing interventional radiologists. Such meetings allow critical discussions on case selection, hardware used, system deficiencies, and alternative approaches to improve patient safety. Open discussions in such forums may throw a new light on the problem or we can see it from a different angle. We may be able to obtain new ideas and alternative ways of achieving a fruitful result to the patients. Everyone need not learn only by one's own mistakes; but from each other's mistakes too. The Indian Society of Vascular Interventional Radiology has been conducting such meetings on yearly basis, and the meeting for this year is scheduled in the middle of December 2017 at Vapi, Gujarat. In summary, a good intention alone is not adequate for a safe practice of interventional radiology. A 360-degree understanding of the medical problem, expertise to perform the intervention, and system support with adequate facilities and personnel are essential.


Knowledge management depends on effective methods for capturing knowledge in useful forms and making it available when needed. Electronic concept maps provide a promising representation for knowledge models that can be developed directly by the experts themselves, but the flexibility of concept mapping raises questions of how to support the knowledge modeling process and to standardize its results, in order to facilitate future examination and reuse. We describe ongoing research on the use of case-based reasoning methods to support the knowledge modeling process through proactive retrieval of relevant prior concept maps, in order to provide suggestions to aid the concept map generation process. The selection of relevant concept maps relies on an algorithm that combines textual and topological analysis. We describe the algorithm and present an example that illustrates concept suggestion procedures in the Mars exploration domain.


This paper provides a new and unique look at the dynamics and persistence of historical house prices in the USA and the UK using fractional integration techniques not previously applied to housing markets. Unlike previous research, we consider two components of persistence of house prices: the component associated with the long-run trend and the component associated with the cycle. We find evidence of cyclical and long-run persistence in the UK housing markets. In contrast, we fail to find evidence of cyclical persistence for the USA. For the sub-samples, which account for a structural break in each series, an important difference is the asynchronous pattern of the breaks, an indication of heterogeneity in the house price dynamics of the two countries and a sign that national rather than global events have played an important role. Although the house price movements of the last decade are dramatic, the greatest structural changes in the overall nominal and real price dynamics of the UK and the USA appear to have taken place much earlier, in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK and in the mid-1950s and early 1970s in the USA. An important result, common to the whole and sub-samples, is that long-run persistence plays a greater role than cyclical persistence in explaining the dynamics of house prices in both countries. These findings have substantial implications for policy decisions.


We investigate the mechanical interplay between the spatial organization of the actin cytoskeleton and the shape of animal cells adhering on micropillar arrays. Using a combination of analytical work, computer simulations and in vitro experiments, we demonstrate that the orientation of the stress fibers strongly influences the geometry of the cell edge. In the presence of a uniformly aligned cytoskeleton, the cell edge can be well approximated by elliptical arcs, whose eccentricity reflects the degree of anisotropy of the cell's internal stresses. Upon modeling the actin cytoskeleton as a nematic liquid crystal, we further show that the geometry of the cell edge feeds back on the organization of the stress fibers by altering the length scale at which these are confined. This feedback mechanism is controlled by a dimensionless number, the anchoring number, representing the relative weight of surface-anchoring and bulk-aligning torques. Our model allows to predict both cellular shape and the internal structure of the actin cytoskeleton and is in good quantitative agreement with experiments on fibroblastoid (GDβ1, GDβ3) and epithelioid (GEβ1, GEβ3) cells.


Kuhn-Tucker approach and its dual have been proposed to the demand system estimation when there are non-negativity bindings. However, empirical researchers have been struggling two decades in applying this method into practice due to: (1) the difficulty in derivation of a coherent econometric model, and (2) the cumbersome evaluation of high order probability integrals needed in parameter estimation. In this paper, we avoid the above two issues by using the Amemiya-Tobin demand system approach and the simulation procedure to evaluate the probability integrals. An AIDS model is estimated and the elasticities are obtained that are impossible to achieve when using Kuhn-Tucker approach. The model is applied to an analysis of Canadian household food demand.


In order to survive, reproduce, and (in multicellular organisms) differentiate, cells must control the concentrations of the myriad different proteins that are encoded in the genome. The precision of this control is limited by the inevitable randomness of individual molecular events. Here we explore how cells can maximize their control power in the presence of these physical limits; formally, we solve the theoretical problem of maximizing the information transferred from inputs to outputs when the number of available molecules is held fixed. We start with the simplest version of the problem, in which a single transcription factor protein controls the readout of one or more genes by binding to DNA. We further simplify by assuming that this regulatory network operates in steady state, that the noise is small relative to the available dynamic range, and that the target genes do not interact. Even in this simple limit, we find a surprisingly rich set of optimal solutions. Importantly, for each locally optimal regulatory network, all parameters are determined once the physical constraints on the number of available molecules are specified. Although we are solving an oversimplified version of the problem facing real cells, we see parallels between the structure of these optimal solutions and the behavior of actual genetic regulatory networks. Subsequent papers will discuss more complete versions of the problem.


Facilitating Locking Pin Alignment in Transtibial Amputees via Auto-Retracting Tethered Pin Mark Goldstein Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. Joan Sanders Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington Transtibial amputees have a variety of suspension systems available to them. One of the more common systems uses a locking pin to create a mechanical connection to their prosthesis. For those using a locking pin, it is common for the user to partially doff while seated in order to release pressures created by the socket on the residual limb. When attempting to re-don, there can be difficulty aligning and inserting the pin into the lock, requiring multiple attempts or for the user to stand with a not yet connected prosthesis. This can be an issue and possibly a fall risk for a new user or someone who has poor proprioception. By introducing an auto-retracting tether between the socket and pin, a constant connection is created. The retraction guides the pin into the lock without fail and allows for ease of donning while seated. In this investigation, a prototype design is modelled and built. Transtibial amputee participants are fitted with the system and provide feedback to further develop the system. Feedback was overall positive with a majority saying they would personally use the system. This improved functionality is designed to promote the frequency of partial doffing which may positively impact limb health.


Good research ideas often arise from critical observation of inconsistencies between researchers' assumptions about software development and practical reality. This dissonance creates a kind of friction that can spark research ideas. This is the text for the Stevens Award Lecture on November 8, 2005. The Stevens Award was created to recognize outstanding contributions to the literature or practice of methods for software and systems development.


The reversion of floral development in Whytockia bijieensis Y.Z.Wang et Z.Y.Li occurs after the normal initiation of mid-adaxial sepals, which implies that the floral organs are not determined at the initiation of the floral primordium, but progressively determined during its development. Both low humidity (less than 75%) and low night temperature (12–14˚C) contribute to the reversion of floral development. However, the low humidity or low night temperature alone do not greatly affect the normal flowering process. The combination of these two ecological factors seems to considerably disturb the normal flowering process, greatly strengthening the reversion process of flowering. High humidity and moderate temperature or at least one of the two are necessary for the normal flowering process of W. bijieensis. It is likely that low humidity and low night temperature trigger the reversal to vegetative growth during floral development. The change of a flower into a bract-like organ in the flower pairs indicates that a transition from pair-flowered to normal cymes is possible.


Two indenopyrazine compounds for organic light emitting diodes were synthesized with phenanthrene or pyrene side groups that have high photoluminescence (PL) quantum efficiency (QE); 6,6,12,12-Tetraethyl-2,8-di-phenanthren-9-yl-6,12-dihydro-diindeno[1,2-b;1',2'-e]pyrazine (PA-EIP) and 2-(10b,10c-Dihydro-pyren-1-yl)-6,6,12,12-tetraethyl-8-pyren-1-yl-6,12-dihydro-diindeno[1,2-b;1',2'-e]pyrazine (PY-EIP). The PL spectra of PA-EIP and PY-EIP in film state were 440 nm and 468nm in the blue region, respectively. Td values for PA-EIP and PY-EIP were very high at 432°C and 441°C. Tm values were 385°C and 390°C for PA-EIP and PY-EIP. When the synthesized compounds were used as emitting layers in non-doped OLED devices, PA-EIP and PY-EIP showed luminance efficiencies of 1.35 and 5.15 cd/A, power efficiencies of 0.69 and 2.81 lm/W, and CIEs of (0.17, 0.15) and (0.19, 0.30), respectively. This result shows that efficiency of final emitter increases with increasing efficiency of side group. Additionally, in the solution-processed white OLED devices using PY-EIP as one of emitting materials, the device showed high luminance efficiency of 3.95 cd/A, power efficiency of 2.45 lm/W and CIE value of (0.269, 0.294) at 6 V.


The Uniform Power of Attorney Act (UPOAA), approved in 2006, slightly amended in 2008 and more significantly amended in 2016, has been adopted by 27 U.S. jurisdictions. The UPOAA promotes uniformity in language delineating an agent's powers and mandates that third parties accept notarized powers of attorney. Under the UPOAA, an instrument simply granting an agent authority to do "all acts that a principal could do," vests that agent with broad powers: the precise delineation of those powers is produced by about a dozen pages of UPOAA text automatically incorporated by reference into such "all acts" instruments. However, the UPOAA expressly excludes from such "all acts" agents nine powers, six of which relate to acts that could dissipate the principal's property, two of which relate to delegation of authority, and the ninth of which relates to the "content of electronic communications." Those nine, so-called "hot" powers, are granted to an agent only when the instrument "expressly grants" them.
Five problematic areas exist within the UPOAA: (1) internal conflict within the UPOAA after its 2016 amendments regarding agent access to the content of the principal's electronic communications; (2) a failure automatically to grant incidental powers to any hot powers expressly granted; (3) a missing modifier in the section concerning an agent's authority to make gifts; (4) a missing good faith requirement in the agent certification rule; and (5) overlap among the ostensibly distinct hot powers.
Virginia's adoption of the UPOAA included about two-dozen changes to the uniform text, nine of which are particularly important: (1) the cold gifting power; (2) the gutting of the primary consumer protection of the UPOAA; (3) the reversal of the forged signature rule; (4) the negation of provisions conditioning effectiveness upon delivery of the instrument to the agent; (5) the expanded agent disclosure rule; (6) the agent's creation and amendment of trusts; (7) the rule of presumed non-ademption; (8) the legally irrelevant failure to adopt the UPOAA Statutory Form Power of Attorney; and (9) the curious change to the definition of "incapacity." Some of those changes are inexplicable; others are misguided.
Regarding agency law doctrines not particularly addressed by the UPOAA, but obviously affected by it, the UPOAA reverses the century-old Virginia rule of strict construction for powers of attorney, and that will expose irreconcilable conflicts between (1) two Virginia Supreme Court cases stating opposite rules regarding the evidentiary presumption placed upon self-dealing agents, and (2) two Virginia Supreme Court cases reaching opposite conclusions on nearly identical facts for agents who made gifts to themselves of the principal's property. Thus, courts soon will confront the consequences of the UPOAA and its effect upon various aspects of agency law.


The clinical signs of hyperandrogenemia, commonly seen in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) patients combined with obesity and infertility can cause emotional distress. There are however few data about the psychosocial and sexual function of patients with PCOS. Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the sexual function in patients with obesity and/or PCOS using Female sexual function inventory (FSFI) before and after metformin treatment. Design and Methods: In the present study were included 79 patients divided into three groups—group 1 Obese (n = 22); group 2 Lean PCOS (n = 41) and group 3 Obese PCOS (n = 16). All of the subjects completed FSFI questionnaire. In patients who had insulin resistance (OGTT + IRI) metformin treatment was started in dose 1700 - 3000 mg/day. Results: Obese women without PCOS showed significantly higher scores on total FSFI and all domains except from desire compared to lean PCOS subjects. Although the differences do not reach statistical significance, lean PCOS patients have the lowest scores on all domains. FSFI score correlates negatively only with androstendione levels. Women with and without hyperandrogenemia do not show differences in FSFI score. It is interesting to note that LH but not FSH shows moderate positive correlation to all domains of FSFI. FSFI scores do not show correlation to the indices of carbohydrate metabolism (blood glucose and IRI during OGTT), lipid profile, and arterial pressure. After metformin treatment there was an increase in all FSFI domain scores although statistical significance was noted only for the total FSFI score and the domains lubrication and pain, probably because of the small number of patients. Conclusions: Lean PCOS patients have lower scores on FSFI than obese patients with or without PCOS. The hyperandrogenemia is not a determinant for sexual dysfunction in PCOS women. Metformin treatment has a favorable effect on sexual function.


Growing research and policy interest focuses on the misallocation of output and factors of production in developing economies. This paper considers the possible misallocation of financial loans. Using plant-level data on the organized and unorganized sectors, the paper describes the temporal, geographic, and industry distributions of financial loans. The focus of the analysis is the hypothesis that land misallocation might be an important determinant of financial misallocation (for example, because of the role of land as collateral against loans). Using district-industry variations, the analysis finds evidence to support this hypothesis, although it does not find a total reduction in the intensity of financial loans or those being given to new entrants. The analysis also considers differences by gender of business owners and workers in firms. Although potential early gaps for businesses with substantial female employment have disappeared in the organized sector, a sizeable and persistent gap remains in the unorganized sector.


Many researchers have explored what photography, autophotography, and photo essays can reveal about the characteristics of individuals. Some of this work focuses on the indications about the individual apparent in photos themselves (Ziller & Vern, 1988), themes present in photo essays of college students (Dollinger, 2017), and yet other work that has connected photographic content to psychological constructs of the photographers (McCain et al., 2016; Qui et al., 2015; Reece & Danforth, 2017; Sorokowska et al., 2016). The current study followed an approach informed by Gosling et al.'s (2002) behavioral residue hypothesis that originally looked at living and working spaces, then explored the effects of personality on one's behavior in online platforms (Gosling et al., 2011; Kosinski et al., 2013). We proposed an extension of these areas of research by examining whether or not subjects of photos taken by participants with their cell phones reveal characteristics of their self-reported personality (big five, intellect, and narcissism). We proposed several hypotheses between the subjects of participants' photographs and the big five factors, intellect, narcissism. Conscientiousness and intellect were examined only in exploratory analyses. In this study, we found extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience have the most prevalently detectable relationships with the subjects of photographs. While neuroticism and narcissism were correlated to the frequency of photo sharing and editing behaviors, they were not related to photo subjects in the ways we anticipated. Findings may inform future attempts to measure personality using behaviorally-based assessments, rather than self- or other-reported instruments.


The present analysis summarizes and clarifies the compositional tools and techniques employed in Donald Grantham's Baron Cimetiere's Mambo (2004) and Baron Samedi's Sarbande (and Soft Shoe) (2005) in the context of their dance styles and literary influence. The investigation will begin with a summary of the composer's life and compositional training, followed by a review of literature on the aforementioned dance forms and the Haitian Voodoo loas, Baron Cimetiere and Baron Samedi. The analysis is organized into two chapters and utilizes a number of post-tonal compositional theories.


We propose a novel framework where forward guidance (FG) is endogenously determined. Our model assumes that a monetary authority solves an optimal policy problem under com- mitment at the zero-lower bound. FG derives from two sources: 1. from commiting to keep interest rates low at the exit of the liquidity trap, to stabilize inflation today. 2. From debt sustainability concerns, when the planner takes into account the consolidated budget constraint in optimization. Our model is tractable and admits an analytical solution for interest rates in which 1 and 2 show up as separate arguments that enter additively to the standard Taylor rule. In the case where optimal policy reflects debt sustainability concerns (satisfies the consoli- dated budget) monetary policy becomes subservient to fiscal policy, giving rise to more volatile inflation, output and interest rates. Liquidity trap (LT) episodes are longer, however, the impact of interest rate policy commitments on inflation and output are moderate. 'Keeping interest rates low' for a long period, does not result in positive inflation rates during the LT, in contrast our model consistently predicts negative inflation at the onset of a LT episode. In contrast, in the absence of debt concerns, LT episodes are shorter, but the impact of commitments to keep interest rates low at the exit from the LT, on inflation and output is substantial. In this case monetary policy accomplishes to turn inflation positive at the onset of the episode, through promising higher inflation rates in future periods. We embed our theory into a DSGE model and estimate it with US data. Our findings suggest that FG during the Great Recession may have partly reflected debt sustainability concerns, but more likely policy reflected a strong commitment to stabilize inflation and the output gap. Our quantitative findings are thus broadly consistent with the view that the evolution of debt aggregates may have had an impact on monetary policy in the Great Recession, but this impact is likely to be small.


India's phenomenal economic growth over the last decade has been accompanied by a much-needed expansion and improvement in transport and other infrastructure networks. While there are legally mandated assessments of the potential ecological impacts of such infrastructure projects prior to implementation, rarely are there post-implementation assessments of their real ecological impacts. In this communication, we present results of a preliminary study examining the impact of vehicular traffic on the usage of road edges by large mammals along a highway passing through Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, southern India. We estimated large mammal encounter rates at remotely triggered camera traps on two consecutive sections of the same highway – one closed to vehicular traffic and the other open to vehicles only during daytime. We observed lower encounter rates of chital, gaur and elephants at camera traps in the highway segment with higher vehicular traffic density, suggesting that these species avoided busy highways. Based on our findings, we emphasize the importance of continued ecological impact assessments of development projects to identify and mitigate unforeseen impacts. Further, an approach to development planning that integrates conservation concerns, especially where development projects coincide with ecologically critical areas, is urgently needed in India.


British author Helen Maria Williams (1759-1827) was a well-known figure in the eighteenth century literary circles, whose work was praised by Elizabeth Montagu, Samuel Johnson, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hester Piozzi or Alexander von Humboldt. In her early poems Edwin and Eltruda (1782), An Ode to the Peace (1783) and Peru (1784), Williams starts to reveal her political tendencies by appealing to strong empathic feelings as a key to social and political transformation. As a result of her interest in politics, she travelled to France in 1790 and published her most acclaimed work Letters from France (1790). However, the rest of her production has received little critical attention by modern scholars, who have overlooked her involvement in translation. Williams' only extant novel, Julia (1790) is in fact a creative translation of Rousseau's Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloïse (1761), in which Williams includes poems that evidence her interest in revolutionary politics. Four years later, she translated Bernardin de Saint Pierre's Paul et Virginie, while she was imprisoned in Paris. While translating novels was regarded as a respectable exercise for women writers, Williams challenges gender assumptions by translating Researches (1814) and the seven volumes of Personal Narrative (1814-1829), which had been produced by one of the most influential eighteenth century scientists, Alexander von Humboldt. This article interrogates how Williams makes use of translation to access areas of knowledge traditionally restricted to men, such as philosophy, politics and science. For this purpose, I will focus on her translations of the work of two leading intellectual figures of the eighteenth century, Rousseau and Von Humboldt.


■ Since the University Grants Committee (UGC) selected the academic module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as the common English proficiency assessment for graduating undergraduate degree students in 2002, almost all the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have offered IELTS preparation courses that aim at providing students training in IELTS taking strategies and giving them practice with IELTS tasks under exam conditions. This study examines the potential impact of IELTS preparation course on IELTS test performance. A web-based questionnaire designed to collect information about students' IELTS preparation experience and performance was distributed to the students who had applied to take the common English proficiency assessment in the 2003/2004 academic year in one university in Hong Kong. The findings showed no significant differences in exit IELTS test scores between students who had taken an IELTS preparation course prior to the test and those who had not taken such a preparation course. However, significant differences were found between the two groups in their university entrance English exam scores. Our findings indicate that students who scored lower in the university entrance exam were more likely to take the later test preparation course prior to the exit IELTS test. The lack of statistically significant differences between the two groups in the exit IELTS test scores also points to the fact that the gap in English language proficiency between the two groups reflected in the entrance exam scores appeared to have narrowed by the time they took the exit test, which is apparently the result of the university English learning experiences, of which participation in IELTS preparation courses should be an important part. Implications for the issue of `homogenous IELTS scores' in Hong Kong, as well as the learning/motivational effects of IELTS preparation courses are discussed.


Allegorical characters in Hawthorne9s "The Birth-mark" function according to the logic of the market. Selves in this story are like territories that must continually be possessed and repossessed, and the birthmark becomes the site upon which characters fight one another for ownership, self-ownership, and identity. Aylmer views the circulations in Georgiana9s bodily economy as signifying an independent self he wishes to control. The marked defines both the relations that characters have to each other and Hawthorne9s own relation to his characters, especially Aylmer. Aylmer9s desire to erase the birthmark figures his allegiance to the principles of the market economy, principles articulated in the famous invisible hand passage from Adam Smith9s The Wealth of Nations. In contrast, the visibility of the birthmark functions as a sign of Hawthorne9s literary labor and authorial identity. Hawthorne thus finds himself in the curious position of having created a character whose raison d9etre seems to be the erasure of Hawthorne9s own identity. His competitive relation with Aylmer, however, is perfectly logical given that the competition of the market governs all relations in the story. Furthermore, the erasure of the birthmark needs to be read in the context of antebellum American aesthetic ideology. The literary taste that demanded the erasure of the signs of labor grew out of cultural anxieties about new forms of mechanized and specialized labor, and its perceived attack on individual agency. An aesthetic of invisible labor functioned to keep literature separate from the problematics of industrial labor and the developing market economy, and yet, in demanding that authorial agency remain absent, this aesthetic reproduced one of the most troublesome consequences of mechanized labor. Allegory in "The Birth-mark" is thus read as a site upon which authors and readers inscribe the changing relations between labor and identity.


The research reported in this thesis was undertaken to increase understanding of the occurrence of motion sickness on board ships at sea. It was intended to discover whether seasickness was related to vessel motion and, if so, to attempt to define the nature of such a relationship. The vessel motion variables of magnitude, axis, frequency and duration were considered in addition to personal variables including age and sex. A critical survey of the literature shows that, although some laboratory studies of motion sickness have been conducted, little research has been reported involving passengers at sea. The few studies that have been undertaken hitherto on board vessels have generally used unsatisfactory techniques for either motion measurement or sickness measurement. Current theories of motion sickness were found to produce few specific hypotheses concerning sickness on ships at sea. An ecological theory of motion sickness causation by gravitational disturbance is discussed. Motion sickness was investigated by means of surveys of passengers on sea-going ferries. Measurements of vessel motion and seasickness were made on six ships, from 1,255 to 14,368 tonnes, two hovercraft, and a hydrofoil. Motion measurements were made on 114 voyages of durations between 1/2 hour and nine hours. Data on sickness amongst passengers were obtained from 20,029 respondents to questionnaire surveys conducted on each voyage. Information was collected on the occurrence of vomiting, illness rating, time of onset of symptoms, the taking of anti-seasickness tablets, the consumption of alcoholic drinks, regularity of travel by sea, age, and sex. Both vomiting incidence and illness rating were greater in females than males, and there was a decrease in sickness occurrence with increasing age. People who travelled rarely by sea were more likely to be sick than more regular travellers. The incidence of sickness was related to the taking of tablets and the drinking of alcohol. Anecdotal information was also gathered from passengers, and consideration is given to the effects of environmental variables. The incidence of seasickness amongst passengers was found to be closely related to the motion of the vessel. Vomiting incidence and illness rating were linearly related to the root mean square magnitude of the vertical z-axis acceleration occurring at about 0.2 Hz. Sickness increased with increasing duration of exposure, and a measure of motion `dose' is proposed as a method of combining the variables of stimulus magnitude and duration. The high frequency motions measured in the hovercraft were found to be less provocative of sickness than similar magnitudes at lower frequencies. Motion in axes other than the vertical correlated less highly with sickness, although some intercorrelation between motion axes was evident. The results of the research show approximate agreement with previous laboratory studies. The combined data have been used to develop a procedure for predicting seasickness occurrence in marine vehicles and other forms of transport where low frequency oscillations are encountered.


ABSTRACT The ascomycete fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola is an important pathogen of wheat that causes Septoria tritici blotch. Despite the serious impact of M. graminicola on wheat production worldwide, knowledge about its molecular biology is limited. The velvet gene, veA, is one of the key regulators of diverse cellular processes, including development and secondary metabolism in many fungi. However, the species analyzed to date are not related to the Dothideomycetes, the largest class of plant-pathogenic fungi, and the function of veA in this group is not known. To test the hypothesis that the velvet gene has similar functions in the Dothideomycetes, a veA-homologous gene, MVE1, was identified and gene deletion mutations (Δmve1) were generated in M. graminicola. All of the MVE1 mutants exhibited consistent pleiotropic phenotypes, indicating the involvement of MVE1 in multiple signaling pathways. Δmve1 strains displayed albino phenotypes with significant reductions in melanin biosynthesis and less production of aerial mycelia on agar plates. In liquid culture, Δmve1 strains showed abnormal hyphal swelling, which was suppressed completely by osmotic stress or lower temperature. In addition, MVE1 gene deletion led to hypersensitivity to shaking, reduced hydrophobicity, and blindness to light-dependent stimulation of aerial mycelium production. However, pathogenicity was not altered in Δmve1 strains. Therefore, the light-signaling pathway associated with MVE1 does not appear to be important for Septoria tritici blotch disease. Our data suggest that the MVE1 gene plays crucial roles in multiple key signaling pathways and is associated with light signaling in M. graminicola.


A study of the gas content in 1038 interacting galaxies, essentially selected from Arp, Arp & Madore, Vorontsov-Velyaminov catalogues and some of the published literature, is presented here. The data on the interstellar medium have been extracted from a number of sources in the literature and compared with a sample of 1916 normal galaxies. The mean values for each of the different ISM tracers (FIR, 21 cm, CO lines, X-ray) have been estimated by means of survival analysis techniques, in order to take into account the presence of upper limits. From the data it appears that interacting galaxies have a higher gas content than normal ones. Galaxies classified as ellipticals have both a dust and gas content one order of magni- tude higher than normal. Spirals have in most part a normal dust and HI content but an higher molecular gas mass. The X-ray luminosity also appears higher than that of normal galaxies of same morphological type, both including or excluding AGNs. We considered the alternative possibilities that the molecular gas excess may derive from the existence of tidal torques which produce gas infall from the surrounding regions or from a different metallicity which affects the X conversion factor between the observed CO line luminosity and the H2 calculated mass. According to our tests, it appears that interacting galaxies possess a higher molecular mass than normal galaxies but with a similar star formation efficiency.


The research explores the rationale of applying Concurrent Engineering (CE) philosophy to the construction industry. CE was considered based on its successful implementation in other industries. In the manufacturing industry it is used to overcome problems similar in nature to those of the construction industry, resulting from the practice of the traditional 'over the wall' processes in product design and manufacturing (construction). During the initial stage, the research evaluated current problems faced by the industry, such as the high degree of fragmentation of industry structure and work
processes, adversarial elationships among project participants' lack of communication, etc., and its effort to achieve improvement. The research also investigated the
theoretical background of CE philosophy, its application in other industries especially
in manufacturing, the rationale for its application to construction, and current practices
within the construction industry similar to those encompassed within the CE philosophy. CE consists of several basic principles, of which the teamwork was the main focus of this research and is used as the main strategy to achieve CE
implementation for construction industry. By using both quantitative and qualitative evaluation, the research determined that there
was no evidence to support that CE has been practised in construction as a complete
process, as it has in other industries. The research also established a number of factors
that support and inhibit collaborative teamwork in construction, and rank them according to their relative importance. The rankings indicate the priorities for the industry in order to achieve collaborative working, which is critical to CE
implementation. The main output of the research was the establishment of 'guidelines' for implementing a Cross Functional Project Team (CFPT), i.e. the cross functional teamwork concept based on CE principles, forming the main strategy to implement CE in construction. The 'guidelines' were developed based on the consensus opinion of industry experts using the Delphi study technique. The findings from case studies were used to validate these 'guidelines'. The research also developed a tool known as the
Matrix Measurement Guidelines - 'Toward CE in Construction' (MMG-TCEiC) to help the industry to map the process toward achieving a collaborative teamwork concept based on CE environments within construction projects.


In order to analyse differences in concentration, speciation
and total mobility of arsenic two different locations were
studied near the Helgoland Mud Area, North Sea.
The first location is characterised by natural
sedimentation, the second by deposited sediments dredged
from the port of Hamburg. Porewater as well as sediment
profiles were analysed with respect to arsenic compounds (As
(III) and total As) and major redox species as total and
reactive manganese and iron. The sediment samples were
handled under inert atmosphere before and during extraction
by water, phosphate, hydrochloric acid and aqua regia. Total
element contents in porewater and leachable extracts of
sediment fractions were analysed.
The results show a strong redox coupling of arsenic with
manganese and iron. Oxidized arsenic seems to adsorb to
manganese- and iron-oxyhydroxides in surface sediments. In
contrast to the solid samples, the pore water data shows a
release of As (III) into porewater when manganese- and ironoxyhydroxides
are reduced in the upper part of the cores. Also
a remobilisation of As (V) occurs. Downward diffusing
arsenic can be fixed by carbonate below the zone of
manganese and iron reduction. In the anoxic parts of the
sediments As (III) and As (V) are released and could be fixed
at authigenic iron sulphide or arsenic sulphides formation. A
sulfidic precipitation of arsenic in iron-dominated systems is
limited by the occurrence of HS-.
Total solid-phase contents in leachable extracts of
sediment fractions of the natural area show significant higher
arsenic concentrations than the core of the anthropogenic
dumping area. This is due to the higher fines content of the
Helgoland mud area.
Higher total porewater contents of iron and arsenic in the
core of the anthropogenic dumping area thus due to higher
turnover rates of organic matter by iron reduction. Higher
concentrations of arsenic may be due to a higher availability
of iron in the dumped sediments.


Infection of maize by the Fny strain of cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and resistance against infection by the M strain of CMV were mapped to the coat protein gene on RNA 3 of CMV, using biologically active cDNA clones of Fny-CMV RNAs 1, 2, and 3 and RNAs 2 and 3 of M-CMV, as well as chimeras constructed between cDNA clones of M-CMV and Fny-CMV RNA 3. Changes in the coat protein gene of M-CMV RNA 3 at both positions 129 (Leu to Pro) and 162 (Thr to Ala) were required to overcome the resistance against M-CMV in maize. Resistance to M-CMV in maize was correlated with an inability to detect virus accumulation in the inoculated leaves. Since the coat protein of CMV is involved in virus movement, but not virus replication, the data suggest that the resistance in maize to M-CMV is due to the inability of the M-CMV coat protein to promote the cell-to-cell movement of CMV in maize.


Database systems for real-time applications must satisfy timing constraints associated with transactions. Typically, a timing constraint is expressed in the form of a deadline and is represented as a priority to be used by schedulers. Recently, security has become another important issue in many real-time applications. In many systems, sensitive information is shared by multiple users with different levels of security clearance. As more advanced database systems are being used in applications that need to support timeliness while managing sensitive information, there is an urgent need to develop protocols for concurrency control in transaction management that satisfy both timing and security requirements. In this paper, we propose a new multiversion concurrency control protocol that ensures that both security and real-time requirements are met. The proposed protocol is primarily based on locking. However, in order to satisfy timing constraints and security requirements, a new method, called the freezing method, is proposed. In order to show that our protocol provides a higher degree of concurrency than existing multiversion protocols, we define a new serializability for multiversion concurrency control, called FR-serializability, which is more general than traditional serializability. We present several examples to illustrate the behavior of our protocol, along with performance comparisons with other protocols. The simulation results show significant performance improvement of the new protocol.


Understanding the molecular programs that guide cellular differentiation during development is a major goal of modern biology. Here, we introduce an approach, WADDINGTON-OT, based on the mathematics of optimal transport, for inferring developmental landscapes, probabilistic cellular fates and dynamic trajectories from large-scale single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) data collected along a time course. We demonstrate the power of WADDINGTON-OT by applying the approach to study 65,781 scRNA-seq profiles collected at 10 time points over 16 days during reprogramming of fibroblasts to iPSCs. We construct a high-resolution map of reprogramming that rediscovers known features; uncovers new alternative cell fates including neuraland placental-like cells; predicts the origin and fate of any cell class; highlights senescent-like cells that may support reprogramming through paracrine signaling; and implicates regulatory models in particular trajectories. Of these findings, we highlight Obox6, which we experimentally show enhances reprogramming efficiency. Our approach provides a general framework for investigating cellular differentiation.


In today's manufacturing environments, companies have to produce a large variety of products in small quantities on a single assembly line. In this paper, we use a beam search (BS) approach to solve the model-sequencing problem of mixed-model assembly lines (MMALs). Specifically, we develop six BS algorithms for part-usage variation and load-leveling performance measures. The results of computational experiments indicate that the proposed BS methods are competitive with the well-known heuristics in the literature. A comprehensive bibliography is also provided.


Two recently described proteins in the mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) family, UCP-2 and UCP-3, have been linked to phenotypes of obesity and NIDDM. We determined the mRNA levels of UCP-2 and UCP-3 in skeletal muscle of NIDDM patients and of healthy control subjects. No difference in the mRNA levels or in the protein expression of UCP-2 was observed between the two groups. In contrast, mRNA levels of UCP-3 were significantly reduced in skeletal muscle of NIDDM patients compared with control subjects. In the NIDDM patients, a positive correlation between UCP-3 expression and whole-body insulin-mediated glucose utilization rate was also noted. These results suggest that UCP-3 regulation may be altered in states of insulin resistance.


A tri-axial array of acoustic hydrophones has been installed off the South Florida coast in 145 m of water. The installation is one of a number of projects that have begun making use of the new South Florida Ocean Measurement Center facilities in Dania, FL. The arrays are linked to shore via a fiber-optic cable and powered from shore with a separate insulated copper cable. Two of the arms of the array are deployed on the bottom to the east and south of the origin. The third array is a sub-surface vertical mooring which includes a pressure sensor to monitor the depth of the top buoy. Each axis contains 32 hydrophones spaced in a nonlinear distribution to facilitate acoustic coherence measurements. Other sensor configurations are possible, including the replacement of hydrophones with other instruments such as current meters or temperature, pressure, or conductivity sensors. Small projectors are placed at the base of the vertical array and at the ends of the horizontal arrays, making it possible to determine the location of each sensor in real time via time-of-flight measurements. Computers running the Linux operating system control the projectors and process data from each leg of the array. Each of the three computers is connected via fiber-optic lines to a Fast Ethernet switch box and networked to shore. The computers can be accessed via TCP/IP connections and programmed from shore to suit new missions. A wireless link to the Nova Southeastern University network and the Internet makes it possible to access the system and conduct experiments from anywhere in the world. The current mission of this system is to study the coherence of shallow-water acoustic propagation. However, knowledge gained here will facilitate a variety of future projects-which include active and passive sonars, ambient noise study, high-frequency acoustic monitoring of fish migration, and acoustic tomographic monitoring of the Gulf Stream. Excellent data were obtained from several experiments. At the present time, only the vertical array is working but plans to restore the two horizontal arrays are actively pursued.


1. The influence of two intravenous vasopressors (angiotensin II and norepinephrine) on renal function and intrarenal blood flow distribution was studied in thirteen cirrhotic subjects and the results compared with those from eight non-cirrhotics. 2. Increased sodium excretion occurred in four of eight cirrhotics with ascites who received comparable pressor doses of angiotensin II and one of five similar subjects who received norepinephrine. In contrast, sodium excretion fell or remained the same in all eight non-cirrhotics. 3. Renal plasma flow fell and filtration fraction rose in nearly all subjects who did not respond to vasopressors with a natriuresis but changed little in those who did. 4. Vasopressor-induced changes of the multicompartmental 133 xenon washout curve were qualitatively different in the group who responded with a natriuresis in comparison to the others. Whereas the distribution of flow to the fastest component fell in the non-responder, it remained the same or rose in those who developed a natriuresis. 5. We interpret these results as suggesting a state of relative renal vasopressor resistance allowing the induced systemic hypertension to reduce tubular sodium reabsorption in some cirrhotics by influencing peritubular 'physical factors'.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to forecast physicians' preferred rate of prescriptions of alcoholism medications given different medications attributes (i.e., efficacy, side effects, compliance, price, mode of administration, method of action).

METHODS
Stated preference modeling was used. Data came from a survey of 1388 physicians specializing in addiction medication (65% response rate). Physicians were given four hypothetical scenarios, each in which they were asked to choose between prescribing one of two hypothetical alcoholism medications with given attributes or prescribing no medication.

RESULTS
Prescribing decisions were elastic with respect to the efficacy of the medication (1.35 and 1.65 using two efficacy measures). A 10% increase in the percentage of patients who would remain abstinent on the medication would lead to a 13.5% increase in the percentage of patients prescribed the medication. Prescribing decisions were inelastic with respect of nonserious side effects (-0.24), compliance (0.80), and price (-0.25). The market share of alcoholism medications with extremely favorable characteristics (i.e., 80% abstinence rate, a 95% no heavy drinking rate, a 10% side effect rate, a 80% compliance rate, and a price of US dollars 0.25) was predicted to be 53%, and 47% of the population would not be prescribed a medication to prevent alcoholism.

CONCLUSIONS
The market share of new medications to treat alcoholism among addiction specialists could surpass the low usage rates of existing medications if those medications have better attributes. However, prescription levels may not reach that expected for treatment of other diseases.


Transportation is of great importance in the current life of human beings. The transportation system plays many roles, from economical development to after-catastrophe aids such as rescue operation in the first hours and days after an earthquake. In after earthquakes response phase, transportation system acts as a basis for ground operations including rescue and relief operation, food providing for victims and etc. It is obvious that partial or complete obstruction of this system results in the stop of these operations. Bridges are one of the most important elements of transportation network. Failure of a bridge, in the most optimistic case, cuts the relation between two regions and in more developed countries, cuts the relation of numerous regions. In this paper, to evaluate the vulnerability and estimate the damage level of Tehran bridges, HAZUS method, developed by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with the aid of National Institute of Building Science (NIBS), is used for the first time in Iran. In this method, to evaluate the collapse probability, fragility curves are used. Iran is located on seismic belt and thus, it is vulnerable to earthquakes. Thus, the study of the probability of bridge collapses, as an important part of transportation system, during earthquakes is of great importance. The purpose of this study is to provide fragility curves for Gisha Bridge, one of the longest steel bridges in Tehran, as an important lifeline element. Besides, the damage probability for this bridge during a specific earthquake, introduced as scenario earthquakes, is calculated. The fragility curves show that for the considered scenario, the probability of occurrence of complete collapse for the bridge is 8.6%. Keywords—Bridge, Damage evaluation, Fragility curve, Lifelines, Seismic vulnerability.


Whether and how higher education in Africa contributes to democratisation beyond producing the professionals that are necessary for developing and sustaining a modern political system, remains an unresolved question. This report, then, represents an attempt to address the question of whether there are university specific mechanisms or pathways by which higher education contributes to the development of democratic attitudes and behaviours among students, and how these mechanisms operate and relate to politics both on and off campus. The research contained in this report shows that the potential of a university to act as training ground for democratic citizenship is best realised by supporting students' exercise of democratic leadership on campus. This, in turn, develops and fosters democratic leadership in civil society. Thus, the university's response to student political activity, student representation in university governance and other aspects of extra-curricular student life needs to be examined for ways in which African universities can instil and support democratic values and practices. Encouraging and facilitating student leadership in various forms of on-campus political activity and in a range of student organisations emerges as one of the most promising ways in which African universities can act as training grounds for democratic citizenship. The project on which this report is based forms part of a larger study on Higher Education and Democracy in Africa, undertaken by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). HERANA is coordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa.


Abstract Conceptual weaknesses in the use of costs of average abatement as a measure of the cost effectiveness of agricultural nonpoint pollution control are examined. A probabilistic alternative is developed. The focus is on methods for evaluating whole-farm pollution control plans rather than individual practices. As a consequence, the analysis is presented in a chance-constrained activity analysis framework because activity analysis procedures are a practical and well developed device for screening farm plans. Reliability of control is shown to be as important as reduction targets in designing farm plans for pollution control. Furthermore, broad-axe prescriptions of technology in the form of Best Management Practices may perform poorly with respect to cost effectiveness.


Proposes a modern parametric approach to bispectral estimation for modelling and processing of phonocardiograms (PCGs). The procedure is based on an autoregressive model driven by a non-Gaussian white noise. The authors develop a third-order recursion which is employed to the modelling of the heart sound signals. The cumulant-based third-order recursion algorithm is derived to show that the parametric method provide bispectral estimation that are far superior to the conventional estimate in term of bispectral fidelity and its resolution. The parametric method is also used to detect the PCG's phase information which is related with the states of the heart. Moreover, it is insensitive to contamination of the heart sound signals by a general class of noise including additive Gaussian noise. Some results are illustrated and compared.


Hydrogen peroxide is a major bio-active molecule produced by mitochondria during aerobic metabolism. In order to monitor that production, platinized ultramicroelectrodes with high surface-area were used. Their sensitivity was significantly improved following an oxygen plasma treatment. Cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry analyses of ferricyanide reduction and hydrogen peroxide oxidation showed that ultramicroelectrodes' capacitive current was decreased 3-fold, while faradaic currents remained constant. Then, plasma-treated ultramicroelectrodes allowed the chronoamperometric detection of 100 nM H2O2 injections. This eventually enabled monitoring the mitochondria release of H2O2 following injection of substrates and a respiratory inhibitor; a flux of few hundreds picomoles H2O2/mg protein/min was detected.


At present, wind turbines normally run at a wind speed in the range between 5m/s and 25m/s. If the wind speed excesses 25m/s, the wind turbines should be shut down and cut off from the elctrical grid immediately. The wind turbines will wait to restart and connect with the electrical grid again after the wind speed value below a certain value. However, this control strategy has a significant drawback, which will cause impact to the electrical grid when wind turbines cut off and connect back to the grid. In an earlier student project a model for this problem has been developed and the loads under these conditions were analyzed, while a PI controller was designed to control the turbine, following a decreasing power reference curve in function of wind speed. The controls were designed to have smaller loads above 25m/s than at 25m/s. The first step of this project is to find an optimal power reference curve for wind speeds above the 25m/s, which takes into account the issues of: power smoothness, power maximization, load limits, etc. The next step would be to design an optimal controller which should follow the power reference, as well as control the loads and speeds of the wind turbine.


What is the optimal number of uncorrelated strategies to include in a portfolio consisting of cross-asset strategies? Various criteria have been proposed for finding the optimal number of factors in a factor model, many of them in the framework of Principal Component Analysis. Using a refined information criterion, the authors estimate the number of factors associated with various asset classes. In the case of U.S. Treasury Bonds, the authors find the usual three factors, related to level, slope, and term spread, while credit spreads are affected by just one factor. Commodity prices are affected by two common factors, and currencies by only one. Bringing all these assets together, the authors find that a total of five factors are at work. The authors identify and interpret these factors, and investigate their stability over time by testing the significance of the correlations among the factors over a rolling window. During recessions, the number of uncorrelated strategies drops for U.S. Treasury Bond rates. For commodities, however, the concentration of correlation is weaker. This provides evidence to support their diversification potential, even during economic downturns.


Link-Traversal-Based Query Processing (LTBQP) is a technique for evaluating queries over a web of data by starting with a set of seed documents that is dynamically expanded through following hyperlinks. Compared to query evaluation over a static set of sources, LTBQP is significantly slower because of the number of needed network requests. Furthermore, there are concerns regarding relevance and trustworthiness of results, given that sources are selected dynamically. To address both issues, we propose guided LTBQP, a technique in which information about document linking structure and content policies is passed to a query processor. Thereby, the processor can prune the search tree of documents by only following relevant links, and restrict the result set to desired results by limiting which documents are considered for what kinds of content. In this exploratory paper, we describe the technique at a high level and sketch some of its applications. We argue that such guidance can make LTBQP a valuable query strategy in decentralized environments, where data is spread across documents with varying levels of user trust.


Loudspeaker-based spatial audio systems are often designed with the aim to create an auditory event or scene to a listener positioned in the optimal listening position. However, in real-world domestic listening environments, listeners can be distributed across the listening area. Any translational change from the central listening position will introduce artefacts which can be challenging to evaluate perceptually. Simulation of a loudspeaker system using non-individualised dynamic binaural synthesis is one solution to this problem. However, the validity in using such systems is not well proven.
This thesis measures the limitations of using a non-individualised, dynamic binaural synthesis system to simulate the perception of loudspeaker-based panning methods across the listening area. The binaural simulation system was designed and verified in collaboration with BBC Research and Development. The equivalence of localisation errors caused by loudspeaker-based panning methods between in situ and binaural simulation was measured where it was found that localisation errors were equivalent to a +/-7 degrees boundary in 75% of the spatial audio reproduction systems tested. Results were then compared to a computation localisation model which was adapted to utilise head-rotations. The equivalence of human acuity to sound colouration between in situ and when using non-individualised binaural simulation was measured using colouration detection thresholds from five directions. It was shown that thresholds were equivalent within a +/-4dB equivalence boundary, supporting the use for simulating sound colourations caused by loudspeaker-based panning methods. The binaural system was finally applied to measure the perception of multi-loudspeaker induced colouration artefacts across the listening area. It was found that the central listening position had the lowest perceived colouration. It is also shown that the variation in perceived colouration across the listening area is larger for reverberant reproduction conditions.


We have observed that passive tactile spatial acuity, the ability to resolve the spatial structure of surfaces pressed upon the skin, differs subtly but consistently between the sexes, with women able to perceive finer surface detail than men. Eschewing complex central explanations, we hypothesized that this sex difference in somatosensory perception might result from simple physical differences between the fingers of women and men. To investigate, we tested 50 women and 50 men on a tactile grating orientation task and measured the surface area of the participants' index fingertips. In subsets of participants, we additionally measured finger skin compliance and optically imaged the fingerprint microstructure to count sweat pores. We show here that tactile perception improves with decreasing finger size, and that this correlation fully explains the better perception of women, who on average have smaller fingers than men. Indeed, when sex and finger size are both considered in statistical analyses, only finger size predicts tactile acuity. Thus, a man and a woman with fingers of equal size will, on average, enjoy equal tactile acuity. We further show that sweat pores, and presumably the Merkel receptors beneath them, are packed more densely in smaller fingers.


This study explored the relationship between vocational interests and noctcaelador, defined as strong interest in, and psychological attachment to, the night sky. University students (N = 134) completed the Vocational Preference Inventory (Form C) and the Noctcaelador Inventory. The results indicated that students scoring higher on noctcaelador also tended to score higher on realistic, investigative, artistic, and social vocational interests. Regression analyses suggested that artistic and investigative were the only vocational preferences which shared unique variance with noctcaelador. The results are discussed in the context of using learner interests in the night-sky as a teaching strategy. ********** Research suggests that students learn class material better when it is consistent with their interests (Woolfolk, 1993). Therefore, it is perhaps important for educators to understand students' interests and their respective correlates. One potential student interest recently identified as an area of psychological research is interest in watching the night-sky. While various societies have watched the night-sky for thousands of years (Brecher & Feirtag, 1979; Hawkins, 1983), night-sky watching as an individual differences variable has only recently become a focus of scientific study. Kelly (2003) and Kelly and Kelly (2003) identified a latent construct which accounted for a majority of the variance in night-sky watching attitudes and behaviors. Kelly (2003) termed this construct noctcaelador and defined it as a strong interest in, and psychological attachment to, the night-sky. Recent research has found that individuals who scored higher on noctcaelador also scored higher on the openness to experience factor of the five-factor model of personality (Kelly, 2004a), were more likely to allow opportunities to watch the night-sky to influence some basic life decisions, such as sacrificing sleep and choosing living accommodations (Kelly, 2004b), and had a preference for spending time outdoors (Kelly & Kelly, in press). Holland (1997) articulated a model of students' vocational interests which included six dimensions, or interest types: Realistic (R: practical, enjoys working with mechanical devices and working outdoors), Investigative (1: enjoys scientific pursuits, working with abstract ideas, researching and analyzing), Artistic (A: values aesthetics, enjoys using imagination and creativity), Social (S: concern for human welfare, enjoys teaching, helping, and working with people), Enterprising (E: enjoys directing, organizing, and leading), and Conventional (C: prefers structured tasks, enjoys practical pursuits and clerical activities). The existence and validity of these six interest patterns have been supported by numerous research studies (Holland, 1985). The purpose of the current study was to understand students' interests better by exploring the relationship between noctcaelador and vocational interest patterns. Because of the exploratory nature of the study, no hypotheses were formed. Method Participants and Procedure After obtaining informed consent, 134 students (97 females) enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses were administered the self-report measures described below. The average age of the sample as 28.8 years (S/)= 10.6). The majority of the sample (83%) identified themselves as White/Caucasian. Measures Vocational Preference Inventory. Vocational interests were measured using the 30-item Vocational Preference Inventory, Form C (VPI-C: Holland, 1985; Lowman & Schurman, 1982). The VPI-C includes a list of 30 occupational titles, five for each of Holland's six vocational clusters. Participants in this study responded to VPI-C items using a 7-point Likert scale (1 = "strongly disinterested," 7 = "strongly interested"). Higher scores indicated greater interest in occupational clusters, internal consistencies have been reported between . …


Video art is a continually developing practice that evolves alongside ever changing technological advancements. Rather than consider these ever-present developments my research considers what contributions can be made to the relationship between art and technology by revisiting the use of'obsolete' analogue video equipment. What can an investigation into the history of equipment in early video art practice reveal about the use of recording technology in the digital age? What can a reexamination of analogue equipment contribute to the current ecological dialogue? And how would the production, reception and development of an outdated discourse contribute to practice in the current age of abstract digitisation? Society's consumption of electronics has prospered since the initial retail introduction oftelevisions, cameras, mobiles and computers. Electronics are freely disposed of due to the growing desire to own the latest gadget or update. Guy Debord founding member of the Situationists critiqued this commodity culture and its social organisation in his key theory of the spectacle. Illustrating the hegemony of the media industry and the economic driving force of capitalism. Debord articulated that technology is a core proponent of modern societies existence in the spectacle causing widespread alienation. The false privation instilled by commodity culture has contributed to an unsustainable over abundance of electronic waste becoming a significant ecological concern. The disposal of analogue equipment specifically CRT television's is a growing issue due to the progressive closure of the analogue signal across Australia. Electronic waste from televisions to computers contains hazardous substances as well as valuable minerals, which can be recycled. This unsustainable growth in waste gives cause for a reexamination of analogue recording technology that is swiftly being replaced by the digital due to it being considered merely a transitional phase between film and hypermedia. The use of obsolete technology has been central to my own practice-led research projects. A key concern is analogue specificity, its historical positioning in the meta-narrative of video art and how this can contribute to the current digital field of discourse. Through a discussion of seminal works by John Cage and Nam June Paik as well as contemporary installation practices I will examine how the inherent reflexivity of the pictorial field provides rich terrain for an investigation into the potential subversion or manipulation of obsolete viewing and recording technologies. This ability to subvert and manipulate the audiovisual language of obsolete technology engages with the inherent reflexivity of video, opening the medium toward transformative phenomena that is unique to this obsolete analogue technology.


Online Learning Environments (OLEs) provide learners and facilitators with an ever-increasing collection of tools for group collaboration and communication. This unfortunately also means an ever-increasing number of information sources to track and manage. This papers describes an attempt to integrate both synchronous (chat) and asynchronous (forum) communication systems in an OLE. An experimental system was designed to look and function like a social networking system that gives users a constant stream of notifications of new activity. It was expected that advanced users, such as Computer Science students, would feel more comfortable when using such a system. Feedback from users indicates that some users do indeed accept the new approach readily and most users are able to identify with the social networking approach taken in the system.


World knowledge may be available in different forms such as relational databases, triple stores, link graphs, meta-data and free text. Human minds are capable of understanding and reasoning over knowledge represented in different ways and are influenced by different social, contextual and environmental factors. By following a similar model, we have integrated a variety of knowledge sources in a novel way to produce a single hybrid knowledge base i.e., Wikitology, enabling applications to better access and exploit knowledge hidden in different forms.
Wikipedia proves to be an invaluable resource for generating a hybrid knowledge base due to the availability and interlinking of structured, semi-structured and un-structured encyclopedic information. However, Wikipedia is designed in a way that facilitates human understanding and contribution by providing interlinking of articles and categories for better browsing and search of information, making the content easily understandable to humans but requiring intelligent approaches for being exploited by applications directly.
Research projects like Cyc [61] have resulted in the development of a complex broad coverage knowledge base, however, relatively few applications have been built that really exploit it. In contrast, the design and development of Wikitology KB has been incremental and has been driven and guided by a variety of applications and approaches that exploit the knowledge available in Wikipedia in different ways. This evolution has resulted in the development of a hybrid knowledge base that not only incorporates and integrates a variety of knowledge resources but also a variety of data structures, and exposes the knowledge hidden in different forms to applications through a single integrated query interface.
We demonstrate the value of the derived knowledge base by developing problem specific intelligent approaches that exploit Wikitology for a diverse set of use cases, namely, document concept prediction, cross document co-reference resolution defined as a task in Automatic Content Extraction (ACE) [1], Entity Linking to KB entities defined as a part of Text Analysis Conference - Knowledge Base Population Track 2009 [65] and interpreting tables [94]. These use cases directly serve to evaluate the utility of the knowledge base for different applications and also demonstrate how the knowledge base could be exploited in different ways. Based on our work we have also developed a Wikitology API that applications can use to exploit this unique hybrid knowledge resource for solving real world problems.
The different use cases that exploit Wikitology for solving real world problems also contribute to enriching the knowledge base automatically. The document concept prediction approach can predict inter-article and category-links for new Wikipedia articles. Cross document co-reference resolution and entity linking provide a way for specifically linking entity mentions in Wikipedia articles or external articles to the entity articles in Wikipedia and also help in suggesting redirects. In addition to that we have also developed specific approaches aimed at automatically enriching the Wikitology KB by unsupervised discovery of ontology elements using the inter-article links, generating disambiguation trees for entities and estimating the page rank of Wikipedia concepts to serve as a measure of popularity. The set of approaches combined together can contribute to a number of steps in a broader unified framework for automatically adding new concepts to the Wikitology knowledge base.


The present article purports to shed a new light on ordoliberalism and to explore its role in EU competition law. For this purpose, the article analyses the ordoliberal school of thought in its historical context and re-conceptualizes its understanding of competition law that has been subjected to numerous misrepresentations in the existing literature. The main argument presented here is that the ordoliberals perceived a direct link between competition and democracy as the normative underpinning of competition law. This competition-democracy nexus rests upon the assumption of interdependence between the economic, social and political order and indicates that both consequentialist and deontological values legitimize competition law and should guide its interpretation. In other words, competition law relies on both input- and output-oriented legitimacy. For this reason, ordoliberals praised competition not only for its welfare-maximizing qualities but also for its deontological dimension. Thus, competition should be protected as such, since it sets the boundaries of economic power and creates the preconditions for economic freedom and equality of opportunity. In this sense, competition law seeks to ensure that the functioning of the market does not undermine and is conducive to a democratic society. For this purpose, though, the pursuit of consequentialist goals must be constrained by the protection of the procedural elements of competition. Further, we claim that the nexus idea could provide us with a better understanding of EU competition law than a fully-fledged welfarist approach. In particular, the nexus idea could be traced in the field of Art. 101 and Art. 102 TFEU in the CJEU's deontological understanding of competition (i); the Court's balancing between procedural and consequentialist goals (ii), and in the Court's form-based approach (iii) that is responsive to input from economics (iv).


I. TRANSLATOR'S NOTEOn October 20, 2003, Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Ltd., Co. ("Baidu"), a Nasdaq-listed company known as the "Google of China,"1 filed a suit against its competitor Beijing 3721 Technology Ltd. Co. ("3721")2 in Beijing Chaoyang District Court for copyright infringement and unfair competition. The case is regarded as China's first copyrightinfringement dispute involving website search-engine technology. Legal experts, the Chinese media, and the Supreme Court of China have paid close attention to the case, especially as it is related to China's ongoing legislative effort to improve protection of intellectual property. The translation below is the appellate opinion in this case issued by Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in April 2004.A. Summary of the CaseBeijing-based software company 3721 provides Internet search services with a focus on address bar searches in the Chinese language. 3721 first released its address bar search software "3721 Network Real Name" in 1998 and has updated it many times since then. In June 2003, 3721 added a "cnsminkp" file to its software, which appeared to block the downloading and installation of Baidu's tool bar search software "Baidu SoBar."Appellee 3721 claimed that this was only a common software conflict, and that it had continuously informed the users about the problem. However, Baidu believed that 3721 maliciously used the software to prevent Baidu users from accessing and downloading "Baidu SoBar" from its website, which infringed upon its copyright over "Baidu SoBar" and constituted unfair competition.The People's Court of the Chaoyang District rejected Baidu's copyright infringement claim for lack of evidence. However, it held that 3721's conduct constituted unfair competition, because it reduced Baidu's business opportunities. According to the trial court's judgment, 3721 must stop interfering with the normal installation of "Baidu SoBar" by "leftclicking" and compensate reasonable litigation fees incurred by Baidu. However, the trial court did not grant Baidu's request for damages in the amount of RMB3 500,000, nor did it grant the request for a public apology.Both parties appealed. Baidu believed that the trial court erroneously applied the law by not granting its request for damages. It also pointed out that notwithstanding the fact that the search engine software was free, 3721 made enormous profits through its monopoly status in the market, as it maliciously prevented Baidu from entering the market. Moreover, although the judgment concluded that the conduct of 3721 resulted in unfair competition, it was not strong or specific enough to deter 3721 from further infringement. On the other hand, 3721 believed that it did not engage in unfair competition and that the trial court did not understand the nature of the technology involved in this case. 3721 also claimed that, in the absence of any statutory requirements, there should not be an obligation for software providers to make their products compatible with those of others. Overall, 3721 believed the trial court's decision would negatively influence the development of China's information technology industry.Baidu asked the appellate court to order 3721 to stop its interference with the downloading and installation of "Baidu SoBar" in any manner, not just the interference with the normal way of downloading "Baidu SoBar" by left clicking the download button on its website. It also asked the court to grant damages and a public apology. 3721 requested the court to overrule the trial court's judgment and order Baidu to bear the litigation fees.The appellate court, Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, upheld the trial court's decisions as follows: (1) Baidu is the copyright owner of the "Baidu Sobar" software; however, it failed to prove that 3721's software infringed upon its copyright; and (2) Baidu and 3721 are competitors, and 3721's conduct constituted unfair competition. …


The article reviews the issues of difficult and often uncooperative relationships between producers (suppliers) and retail networks within the context of development of the new structure of regional food market. At the present stage, the problem of numerous additional requirements presented by retail trade networks to producers during the conclusion of supply contract is noted as crucial for both parties. Hypotheses were formulated during analysis of literature their verification showed that the basis of disputed situations is mainly composed by price and bonus payments. The economic substance of bonus payments is collected by retail networks from agricultural producers and producers of food commodities is revealed. Relative importance of bonus payments in terms of retail networks and suppliers is compared; importance of divergence of their viewpoints is estimated. On the basis of quantitative and qualitative empirical data, the attempt to define the main disputed zones, with the help of modern marketing tools is undertaken.


The HHuLOA project is a two-year collaborative project run by the Universities of Hull, Huddersfield,
and Lincoln in the United Kingdom. The project is funded under the Jisc Open Access Good Practice
Pathfinder Projects and seeks to identify how open access support mechanisms can be used to assist with
the development of research. By working together, the institutions hope to achieve more than the sum of
our individual developments. This paper outlines a number of work packages that the project has completed.
These work packages have all involved crowdsourcing with other United Kingdom universities in
order to sense check the outputs. A key part of the project was to disclose findings, in order to spread experience
and good practice identified to the rest of the academic library community. This paper shows
how some of the outputs can be used and suggests further development within the community. Finally,
the project welcomes further feedback and examples of open access good practice that can be shared


Background: COVID-19 is a novel infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory distress (SARS)-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Several therapeutic options are currently emerging but none with universal consensus or proven efficacy. Solid organ transplant recipients are perceived to be at increased risk of severe COVID-19 because of their immunosuppressed conditions due to chronic use of immunosuppressive drugs (ISDs). It is therefore likely that solid organ transplant recipients will be treated with these experimental antivirals. Methods: This article is not intended to provide a systematic literature review on investigational treatments tested against COVID-19; rather, the authors aim to provide recommendations for therapeutic drug monitoring of ISDs in transplant recipients infected with SARS-CoV-2 based on a review of existing data in the literature. Results: Management of drug–drug interactions between investigational anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs and immunosuppressants is a complex task for the clinician. Adequate immunosuppression is necessary to prevent graft rejection while, if critically ill, the patient may benefit from pharmacotherapeutic interventions directed at limiting SARS-CoV-2 viral replication. Maintaining ISD concentrations within the desired therapeutic range requires a highly individualized approach that is complicated by the pandemic context and lack of hindsight. Conclusions: With this article, the authors inform the clinician about the potential interactions of experimental COVID-19 treatments with ISDs used in transplantation. Recommendations regarding therapeutic drug monitoring and dose adjustments in the context of COVID-19 are provided.


Abstract We review developments in the history of money, banking, and financial intermediation over the last twenty years. We focus on studies of financial development, including the role of regulation and the history of central banking. We also review the literature of banking and financial crises. This area has been largely unaffected by the so-called new econometric methods that seek to prove causality in reduced form settings. We discuss why historical macroeconomics is less amenable to such methods, discuss the underlying concepts of causality, and emphasize that models remain the backbone of our historical narratives.


ABSTRACT The palaeontological collections of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France, house a broad range of marine arthropods from the Solnhofen Lithographic Limestones (Late Jurassic, Germany). These arthropods include decapod crustaceans, stomatopods, supposed mysidaceans, and limulids. A commented systematic list is proposed in order to give to the specialists an instrument of comparison and reference.


The distribution of P hytophthora parsiana a high-temperature tolerant newly described species was studied in southern Iran and examined its host range in woody perennial plant species in greenhouse condition under high inoculum potential. Among different plant species examined, almonds were highly susceptible by different isolates. From 24 woody plants inoculated, the disease severity in descending orders were: Prunus dulcis, P . armeniaca, Pistacia vera cv. Sarakhs, Prunus dulcis var. fragilis, Carica papaya, Pistacia khinjuk, P. vera cv. Badami, Mangifera indica, P. mutica, Platanus orientalis, , Ficus carica and Juglans regia. The pathogen was detected from soil and infected trees only in pistachio orchard in Rafsanjan in Kerman province and adjacent province Yazd.


Background Different preventive programmes were implemented in Barnaul. Among them: condom and injecting equipment distribution, voluntary counselling and testing, social and medical support of the IDU and safe skills building. We investigated the difference in HIV, HIV, HCV, Syphilis and risk behaviour prevalence among the IDU programme clients (PC) covered by preventive programmes and the IDU who were not covered by preventive programmes (comparison group). Methods Integrated bio-behavioural survey with the use of "case-control" among the IDU was conducted in Barnaul, in 2011. 300 IDU were surveyed. Socio-behavioural, knowledge, HIV, HCV, HBV and Syphilis prevalence data were calculated with SPSS v.12. Results The sample was: male (65%), 24–45 years old (52%), single (57%), unemployed (79%). 94.7% of PC answered to knowledge questions correctly (5 key questions on HIV transmission and main preventive measures), in comparison group –79.3%. 90% of PC did not use non-sterile needles and syringes for the last month, in comparison group - 84%. 31.3% of PC bought the syringes with ready -made solution, in comparison group - 48.0%. 25.3% of PC shared paraphernalia, in comparison group - 54.7%. 30.7% of PC used condom at the last sexual contact, in comparison group - 26.0%. The results of testing: 3 (2%) of PC are HIV positive, in comparison group - 31 (20.7%). 2 (1.3%) of PC have HBV, in comparison group - 6 (4%). 121 (80.7%) of PC have HCV, in comparison group - 130 (86.7%). 7 (4.7%) of PC have Syphilis, in comparison group - 35 (23.3%). Conclusions The IDU covered by the preventive programmes practise less risk sexual and injecting behaviour and prevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, Syphilis among them is lower than among the IDU who never participated in preventive programmes.


This paper presents an energy-efficient processing platform for wearable sensor nodes, designed to support diverse biological signals and algorithms. The platform features a 0.5 V-1.0 V 16-bit microcontroller, SRAM, and accelerators for biomedical signal processing. Voltage scaling and block-level power gating allow optimizing energy efficiency under applications of varying complexity. Programmable accelerators support numerous usage scenarios and perform signal processing tasks at 133 to 215× lower energy than the general-purpose CPU. When running complete EEG and EKG applications using both CPU and accelerators, the platform achieves 10.2× and 11.5× energy reduction respectively compared to CPU-only implementations.


Resistance to tamoxifen (Tam), a widely used antagonist of the estrogen receptor (ER), is a common obstacle to successful breast cancer treatment. While adjuvant therapy with Tam has been shown to significantly decrease the rate of disease recurrence and mortality, recurrent disease occurs in one third of patients treated with Tam within 5 years of therapy. A better understanding of gene expression alterations associated with Tam resistance will facilitate circumventing this problem. Using a next generation sequencing approach and a new bioinformatics model, we compared the transcriptomes of Tam-sensitive and Tam-resistant breast cancer cells for identification of genes involved in the development of Tam resistance. We identified differential expression of 1215 mRNA and 513 small RNA transcripts clustered into ERα functions, cell cycle regulation, transcription/translation, and mitochondrial dysfunction. The extent of alterations found at multiple levels of gene regulation highlights the ability of the Tam-resistant cells to modulate global gene expression. Alterations of small nucleolar RNA, oxidative phosphorylation, and proliferation processes in Tam-resistant cells present areas for diagnostic and therapeutic tool development for combating resistance to this anti-estrogen agent.


Abstract This paper empirically analyzes how a data broker affects competition in oligopolistic product markets. It examines a unique case concerning the two dominant Finnish food retail companies' voluntary withdrawal from information exchange via a data broker. Moreover, the companies jointly approached the Finnish antitrust authority, originating an investigation whether their prior horizontal information exchange was illegal. This resulted in the permanent termination of a data broker's business in the Finnish food retail sector. The empirical analysis employs quarterly data from the food retail sector of the old EU15 countries for 2005–2017. The difference-in-differences model is used to explore the competitive impacts of a termination of vertical and horizontal information exchange via a data broker in the Finnish food retail sector. Data suggest that competition was less fierce and product prices higher after the termination of information exchange via a data broker. Longer-term evidence on the price increase in the absence of a data broker is inconclusive. Furthermore, discontinuation of data exchange from the downstream to the upstream firms facilitated downstream bargaining power and generated a long-term increase in the gap between retail and producer prices.


It takes two to tango. Strong public-private collaboration is key for discovering and implementing effective productive development policies to bring out the best in existing economic activities and to foster economic transformation. The 25 Latin American cases analyzed in this volume show how and why many public and private partners are dancing smoothly while others stumble or follow different drummers. This book is a resource for designing institutions to make public-private interaction a win-win strategy.


The process of ensuring reliability of NDT applications contains various aspects, such as determining the performance and probability of success, the uncertainty in measurement, the provision of clear and functional procedures and ensuring the correct application accordingly. Test specimens have become powerful elements in supporting many of these aspects. Within the committee for NDT in Civil Engineering (NDT-CE) of the German Society for Nondestructive Testing (DGZfP), the subcommittee on Quality Assurance (UA-QS) therefore addresses the design and the integration of test specimens in the quality assurance process. Depending on the specific purpose, the requirements on test specimens can vary significantly based on the defined simulated scenario. The most prominent purposes of test specimens might be seen in providing references for inspection systems in regard to function control, calibration and validation. Further aspects can be parametric studies, basic investigation of physical principles related to NDT or a simplified and therefore comprehensive demonstration of inspection concepts (e.g. for teaching purposes). The specific purpose of a test specimen dictates the requirements regarding its conception, including the exact design, the material or the fabrication accuracy and the conditioning. In the development of a general guideline by the UA-QS for application-specific procedures and their validation, the use of test specimens is addressed and specific concepts for the design of test specimens are made. This includes the analysis of the measurement process regarding any given application, deriving an adequate calibration approach for it and designing test specimens (calibration specimens) accordingly. Furthermore, it includes the validation of the procedure taking into account all conditions related to the specific application in the field. The validation requires a statistically sufficient number of trials. Thorough evaluation of each trial can only be established if the ground-truth is known. Therefore, test specimens providing a realistic but controlled simulation of the inspection problem are valuable and indispensable elements in the validation process. The requirement of being fully realistic will often not be possible to fulfill due to practical restrictions. Any aspect that cannot be included in the simulation realistically needs to be simulated conservatively. This again, requires a sufficient understanding of the inspection principle and technique to ensure conservativeness. Among other quality-assurance-related aspects, the UA-QS establishes concepts and guidelines regarding sound and efficient approaches for the specific purposes of test specimens. This subcommittee brings together representatives of different Groups along the entire value chain of NDT-CE, including researchers, practitioners, manufacturers and clients. They all work together in establishing a common understanding and level of quality assurance in the industry.


The Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory consists of a 1 m aperture Gregory telescope, a UV filter imager, an imaging vector polarimeter, an image stabilization system, and further infrastructure. The first science flight of Sunrise yielded high-quality data that revealed the structure, dynamics, and evolution of solar convection, oscillations, and magnetic fields at a resolution of around 100 km in the quiet Sun. After a brief description of instruments and data, the first qualitative results are presented. In contrast to earlier observations, we clearly see granulation at 214 nm. Images in Ca ii H display narrow, short-lived dark intergranular lanes between the bright edges of granules. The very small-scale, mixed-polarity internetwork fields are found to be highly dynamic. A significant increase in detectable magnetic flux is found after phase-diversity-related reconstruction of polarization maps, indicating that the polarities are mixed right down to the spatial resolution limit and probably beyond.


Climate change presents challenges to ensuring global sustainable and inclusive development. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement and the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect an unprecedented level of commitment to deliver sustainable development to meet these challenges. The transformation of the global economy needs to start immediately if we are to meet the Paris objective for keeping global temperature rise well below 2°C by the end of the century, which most estimate will mean achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. The Agreement recognizes the need to achieve zero net emissions, calls for the alignment of all financial flows to a pathway for low-carbon and climate-resilient development, and urges industrial countries to jointly increase climate finance to US$100 billion per year by 2020. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as sea level rise, natural disasters, water and vector-borne diseases, and changing precipitation and temperature patterns that jeopardize health, productivity, and food-producing crops. These impacts threaten poverty, inequality reduction and sustainable growth in the region. In the context of the Paris Agreement, 25 of the Inter-American Development Bank Group's (IDBG) 26 borrowing member countries have submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or Nationally Determined Contributions (referred to as NDCs throughout this document), that include emissions reduction commitments and climate resilience plans (as of September 2017). Progress toward implementation of pledges will determine the rate at which the world will be able to act to tackle climate change.


The fundamental shear horizontal (SH0) wave in plate-like structures is extremely useful for non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) as it is non-dispersive. However, currently the SH0 wave is usually excited by electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMAT) whose energy conversion efficiency is fairly low. The face-shear (d36) mode piezoelectrics is more promising for SH0 wave excitation but this mode can only exist in single crystals of specific point groups and cut directions. Theoretically the d36 coefficient vanishes in piezoelectric ceramics because of its transversally isotropic symmetry. In this work, we realize the face-shear (d36) mode in both PZT-4 and PZT-5H via ferroelastic domain engineering. The obtained d36 coefficients can be up to 274 pC/N in PZT-5H ceramics and 108 pC/N in PZT-4 ceramics. We then successfully excite SH0 wave in the aluminum plate using the fabricated face-shear d36 PZT-4 square patch and receive the wave using a face-shear d36 PMN-PT sensor. Although lamb waves are also excited simultaneously, the excited SH0 wave can be dominate over the Lamb waves (S0 and A0) from 160 kHz to 280 kHz. In order to excite pure SH0 wave, a newly defined face-shear d24 PZT wafer was then proposed. Experiments show that pure SH0 wave mode can be excited by the d24 mode PZT wafers. Moreover, the face-shear d24 PZT wafer can also receive the SH0 wave only and filter the Lamb waves over a wide frequency range (120 kHz to 230 kHz in this work). This work could greatly promote the applications of SH0 wave in NDT and SHM.