Abstract An analysis of storm-driven sedimentary changes on the shoreface of a low–wave-energy cuspate delta on the southern coast of Spain is examined. Bathymetric surveys, ranging from 1- to 40-m depth, were collected 2 days before and 9 days after a high-magnitude Levante storm. The storm lasted only 36 hours, with peak wind gusts of 100 km/h (28 m/s) and maximum wave heights of 7.4 m. Storms of similar magnitude have only been recorded four times in the last 20 years along this coast. The deltaic nearshore and shoreface was divided into three main morphologic and morphodynamic zones based on process-response mechanisms following the storm event. The eastern section, characterised by a steep and concave shoreface, only had minor erosion and deposition as a result of the storm. The area seaward of the river mouth, an intermediate zone where the coastline changes orientation, is characterised by a widening surf zone and an irregular shoreface out to 10-m depth before dipping steeply to 40-m depth. Poststorm changes along this transitional area resulted in the deposition of a thin veneer of sediment over a 3 km2 area from 10- to 40-m depth. The western section, a shallow and wide delta front with a double-bar, a trough, and shore-oblique topography, was modified the most by the storm, with significant upper shoreface erosion and shore-oblique erosional scars in 5–7-m depth. Results of spectral wave modelling of wave-induced force match well with observed morphological change; force is minimal along the east coast, more pronounced along the steep shoreface opposite the river mouth, and at a maximum along the west coast. It is suggested that coastal orientation, shoreface morphology (topography, gradients), and storm parameters (wave and wind direction) generated contrasting wind and wave-induced currents on the delta shoreface, resulting in spatial differences in storm response.


The worldwide emergence of infectious diseases, together with the increasing incidence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, elevate the need to properly detect, prevent, and effectively treat these infections. The overuse and misuse of common antibiotics in recent decades stimulates the need to identify new inhibitory agents. Therefore, natural products like clays, that display antibacterial properties, are of particular interest.The absorptive properties of clay minerals are well documented for healing skin and gastrointestinal ailments. However, the antibacterial properties of clays have received less scientific attention. French green clays have recently been shown to heal Buruli ulcer, a necrotic or 'flesh-eating' infection caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Assessing the antibacterial properties of these clays could provide an inexpensive treatment for Buruli ulcer and other skin infections.Antimicrobial testing of the two clays on a broad-spectrum of bacterial pathogens showed that one clay promotes bacterial growth (possibly provoking a response from the natural immune system), while another kills bacteria or significantly inhibits bacterial growth. This paper compares the mineralogy and chemical composition of the two French green clays used in the treatment of Buruli ulcer.Mineralogically, the two clays are dominated by 1Md illite and Fe-smectite. Comparing the chemistry of the clay minerals and exchangeable ions, we conclude that the chemistry of the clay, and the surface properties that affect pH and oxidation state, control the chemistry of the water used to moisten the clay poultices and contribute the critical antibacterial agent(s) that ultimately debilitate the bacteria.


Recently observed hybrid populations of peach (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch) provide evidence for the presence of a single gene suppressing red skin color. The fruit of seedling populations of FL90-48C and FL90-37C × FL84-18C, FL90-50CN × FL92-2C, FL90-48C × FL91-12, FL91-8 × FL88-6, and open-pollinated or selfed populations from unselected seedlings of 'Contender' × PI65977 ('Giallo di Padova') and 'Mexico Selection' × 'Oro A' were rated for normal quantitative vs. no anthocyanin skin color at maturity. At this stage of development, anthocyaninless phenotypes displayed no red color over the entire surface of the fruit. Instead they were characterized by a bright yellow ground color that stood out visually in the seedling rows, and which was dubbed highlighter. The two crosses with FL84-18C yielded populations that approximated a 1:1 segregation ratio for quantitative red:no red skin color. All other crosses produced populations that closely approximated a 3:1 segregation ratio for quantitative red to no red. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the highlighter phenotype is a single gene recessive trait. We propose the gene symbols of h and H for the recessive no red (highlighter) and dominant normal quantitative red (wild-type) alleles, respectively.


The interest in fishing-induced life-history evolution has been growing in the last decade, in part because of the increasing number of studies suggesting evolutionary changes in life-history traits, and the potential ecological and economic consequences these changes may have. Among the traits that could evolve in response to fishing, growth has lately received attention. However, critical reading of the literature on growth evolution in fish reveals conceptual confusion about the nature of 'growth' itself as an evolving trait, and about the different ways fishing can affect growth and size-at-age of fish, both on ecological and on evolutionary time-scales. It is important to separate the advantages of being big and the costs of growing to a large size, particularly when studying life-history evolution. In this review, we explore the selection pressures on growth and the resultant evolution of growth from a mechanistic viewpoint. We define important concepts and outline the processes that must be accounted for before observed phenotypic changes can be ascribed to growth evolution. When listing traits that could be traded-off with growth rate, we group the mechanisms into those affecting resource acquisition and those governing resource allocation. We summarize potential effects of fishing on traits related to growth and discuss methods for detecting evolution of growth. We also challenge the prevailing expectation that fishing-induced evolution should always lead to slower growth.


In this paper we use a structural VAR model with block exogeneity to investigate if external shocks originating from the USA played a dominant role in influencing the macroeconomic fluctuations in East Asia during the period 1978-2007. The empirical results show a dynamic effect of external shocks, implying that, even though regional integration appears to be deepening and accelerating, especially after the recent global financial crisis, the influence of US shocks on real output fluctuations in the East Asian region is still very strong. The effects of Chinese shocks show an increasing trend over time, but the impacts are still small and not comparable with those of US shocks. The world oil price shock has become increasingly important in influencing the stability of real output growth in the region. The results from variance decomposition and impulse response analysis confirm the findings. Even though Japanese firms have established production networks in East Asia through trade and investment, and China has also grown rapidly and become a key regional country, the results suggest that US influence in the region is still asymmetric and strong. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude that shocks to the East Asian economies have become more regionally oriented.


Geminiviruses are a large family of plant viruses whose genome is composed of one or two circular and single strand of DNA. They replicate in the cell nucleus being Rep protein, the only viral protein necessary for their replication process. Geminiviruses as same as animal DNA oncoviruses, like SV40, adenovirus and papillomavirus, use the host replication machinery to replicate their DNA. Consequently, they alter host cell cycle regulation to create a suitable environment for their replication. One of the events involved in this alteration would be the inactivation of the retinoblastoma protein (pRb) that negatively regulates the G1/S transition in cells. The discovery of one homologue of the pRb in plants and the finding that Rep protein of some geminiviruses interacts with human retinoblastoma protein, as well as animal virus oncoproteins, is very interesting. This finding laid the groundwork for subsequent detection of analogies between geminiviruses and animal DNA tumor viruses, especially in their interaction with pRb. Moreover, the finding allowed the determination of how this interaction affects the regulation of the cell cycle in plants and animals. Accumulated knowledge generates new interesting questions and possible implications, and so, in this document, we dare to watch in that direction. Key words : Geminivirus, oncovirus, retinoblastoma protein, cell cycle regulation, endoreduplication.


Objectives T1 mapping allows quantitative myocardial assessment, but its value in clinical routine remains unclear. We investigated, whether the average native myocardial T1 value can be used as a diagnostic classifier between healthy and diffuse diseased myocardium. Methods Native T1 mapping was performed in 54 persons with healthy hearts and in 150 patients with diffuse myocardial pathologies (coronary artery disease (CAD): n = 76, acute myocarditis: n = 19, convalescent myocarditis: n = 26, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): n = 12, dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM): n = 17) at 1.5 Tesla in a mid-ventricular short axis slice using a modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) sequence. The average native myocardial T1 value was measured using dedicated software for each patient. The mean as well as the range of the observed average T1 values were calculated for each group, and compared using t-test. The ability of T1 mapping to differentiate between healthy and diffuse diseased myocardium was assessed using receiver operating characteristic analysis (ROC). Results The mean T1 value of the group "healthy hearts" (955±34ms) differed significantly from that of the groups DCM (992±37ms, p<0.001), HCM (980±44ms, p = 0.035), and acute myocarditis (974±36ms, p = 0.044). No significant difference was observed between the groups "healthy hearts" and CAD (951±37ms, p = 0.453) or convalescent myocarditis (965±40ms, p = 0.240). The average native T1 value varied considerably within all groups (range: healthy hearts, 838-1018ms; DCM, 882-1034ms; HCM, 897-1043ms; acute myocarditis, 925-1025ms; CAD, 867-1082ms; convalescent myocarditis, 890-1071ms) and overlapped broadly between all groups. ROC analysis showed, that the average native T1 value does not allow for differentiating between healthy and diffuse diseased myocardium, except for the subgroup of DCM. Conclusions The average native T1 value in cardiac MR imaging does not allow differentiating between healthy and diffusely diseased myocardium in individual cases.


This study tests the hypothesis that female South American sea lions shift from off-shore, pelagic prey to coastal, benthic prey after parturition in order to reduce the foraging trip duration and hence the time pups remain unattended on the beach during early lactation. The δ 13 C and δ 15 N values of the serum and blood cells of 26 South American sea lion suckling pups from northern Patagonia were used to track the dietary changes of their mothers from late pregnancy to early lactation, after correction for differential isotopic fractionation between tissues. Primary producers and potential prey species were also analysed to establish a baseline for interpreting the stable isotope concentration of serum and blood cells. Isotopic ratios revealed a generalized increase in the consumption of coastal-benthic prey after parturition. Such a generalized post-partum shift will allow females to spend more time on land and look after their pups. The effects of this foraging strategy on the nutritional quality of the female's diet are discussed.


We present an example-based elastic deformation method that runs in real time. Example-based elastic deformation was originally presented by Martin et al. [MTGG11], where an artist can intuitively control elastic material behaviors by simply giving example poses. Their FEM-based approach is, however, computationally expensive requiring nonlinear optimization, which hinders its use in real-time applications such as games. Our contribution is to formulate an analogous concept using the shape matching framework, which is fast, robust, and easy to implement. The key observation is that each overlapping local region's right stretch tensor obtained by polar decomposition is a natural choice for a deformation descriptor. This descriptor allows us to represent the pose space as a linear blending of examples. At each time step, the current deformation descriptor is linearly projected onto the example manifold, and then used to modify the rest shape of each local region when computing goal positions. Our approach is two orders of magnitude faster than Martin et al.'s approach while producing comparable example-based elastic deformations.


INTRODUCTION We are gathered here today to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Justice Ginsburg's appointment in 1972 as Columbia's first woman law professor. That auspicious date also marks the beginning of my collaboration with her on a law school casebook published in 1974 on the newly-created subject of sex-based discrimination. (1) Linda Kerber traced the general history of this and other casebooks that appeared about the same time (2) in her wonderfully insightful historical essay, Writing Our Own Rare Books, presented at a symposium held at Yale Law School in April 2000. (3) In recalling those heady times today, I will offer a more detailed account of how our first edition came into being, as well as a comparison of how its coverage--and the subject itself--has changed over the ensuing thirty-eight years. I. How the RBG-KMD-HHK Collaboration Came About and Why It Was Published as the KMD-RBG-HHK Casebook The demand for law school courses on "Women and the Law" followed closely after the rapid increase of women law students beginning in the late 1960s, (4) who did notfind the legal issues that affected them covered in the traditional curriculum. All three of us responded individually to requests from our students to create such courses. In 1971, Kenneth M. Davidson was an Associate Professor at SUNY Buffalo, where he was teaching a course on Women and the Law, primarily focused on sex discrimination in employment, to law students and undergraduates, and using his own mimeographed materials. A year earlier, Ruth Bader Ginsburg had launched a course on Women's Rights: Sex Discrimination and the Law, at Rutgers, Newark. She thus explained: Around 1970, women students whose conscience had awakened at least as much as mine, women encouraged by a vibrant movement for racial equality, asked for a seminar on Women and the Law. I repaired to the Library. There, in the space of a month, I read every federal decision ever published involving women's legal status, and every law review article. That was no grand feat. There were not many decisions and not much in the way of commentary. Probably less altogether than today accumulates in six months time. (5) Berkeley women students brought a similar request to me at about the same time: in 1970, I helped them persuade a practitioner, Colquit Meacham Walker, to offer a Women and the Law Seminar by promising to attend all of the class sessions. No casebooks existed for such a course. Ken wanted to turn his materials into a casebook, but he also wanted to recruit co-authors to join the project and add materials on other areas where sex discrimination was beginning to make itself felt. He sent his materials to me. I read them and was immediately struck by how well a chapter on Family Law would work with Ken's employment materials: the connections between the stereotypes ingrained in the roles of "wife" and "office wife" (which were just beginning to be explored) were even then too clear to overlook. Ken welcomed my participation, and we both agreed that the projected casebook would need the collaboration of an expert on Constitutional Law. Both of us thought of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who as the Director of the ACLU's Women's Rights Project was already litigating the path-breaking Equal Protection cases before the United States Supreme Court that would ultimately write women into the Constitution for the first time in its history. Neither of us knew her personally, so we arranged to meet her at the AALS-sponsored Conference on The Law School Curriculum and the Legal Rights of Women that she had helped to organize which was to take place at NYU Law School on October 20-21, 1972. (6) A major topic of discussion at the Conference was whether the subject of Women and the Law should remain a stand-alone course, or whether coverage of the subject should be distributed more broadly across the curriculum. …


In the field of 'neurolaw', reformists claim that recent scientific discoveries from the mind sciences have serious ramifications for how legal responsibility should be adjudicated, but conservatives deny that this is so. In contrast, I criticise both of these polar opposite positions by arguing that although scientific findings can have often-weighty normative significance, they lack the normative authority with which reformists often imbue them. After explaining why conservatives and reformists are both wrong, I then offer my own moderate suggestions about what views we have reason to endorse. My moderate position reflects the familiar capacitarian idea which underlies much lay, legal, and philosophical thinking about responsibility – namely, that responsibility tracks mental capacity.


Male infertility is an important global health burden that can benefit from novel biomarkers and diagnostics innovation. Aberrant methylation of the imprinted genes H19 and SNRPN (small nuclear ribonucleoprotein polypeptide N) in sperm DNA has been implicated in abnormal sperm parameters and male infertility. However, whether certain methylation patterns of one or multiple CpG sites within an imprinted gene are pathological for multiple sperm defects remains poorly understood. To examine the diagnostic potential of certain methylation patterns of CpG sites for multiphenotype defects in human sperm, the sperm DNA methylation patterns of individual CpG sites within imprinting control regions (ICRs) of imprinted genes H19 and SNRPN were measured by bisulfite pyrosequencing in a Han Chinese population sample: 39 oligoasthenozoospermia (OA) patients, 36 asthenoteratozoospermia (AT) patients, and 50 normozoospermia (N) controls. A partial least squares discriminant analysis model was built with the CpG sites as independent variables. Among the 16 CpG sites screened, the methylation patterns of eight CpG sites within H19-ICR (CpG sites 1, 6-9, 12 and 15-16), and eight CpG sites within SNRPN-ICR (CpG sites 2, 5-6, 8-10, 13, and 16) correctly classified 74.4% and 72.0% of the samples in terms of male fertile status, respectively. Furthermore, by combination of these 16 selected CpG sites within ICRs of H19 and SNRPN, 88.0% of the samples could be successfully classified. Our study demonstrates that methylation profiles of CpG sites within ICRs of imprinted genes H19 and SNRPN may potentially serve as epigenomic biomarkers for assessment of infertility in men with multiple sperm defects. Further studies in independent population samples are called for diagnostic significance of methylation patterns of CpG sites within imprinted genes.


Objectives Diacetyl, a butter flavour compound used in food and flavouring production, is a respiratory toxin. We characterised the burden of respiratory abnormalities in workers at popcorn and flavouring manufacturing facilities that used diacetyl as evaluated through US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) health hazard evaluations. Methods We performed analyses describing the number and percentage of current and former workers from popcorn and flavouring manufacturing facilities where NIOSH administered a respiratory health questionnaire and spirometry testing who met case definitions of suspected flavouring-related lung disease. Case definitions were pathologist reported: lung biopsy pathology report stating supportive of/consistent with constrictive bronchiolitis or bronchiolitis obliterans; probable: obstructive/mixed spirometric pattern with forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) <60% predicted; possible: obstructive/mixed spirometric pattern with FEV1 ≥60% or any spirometric restriction; symptoms only: normal spirometry plus exertional dyspnoea or usual cough. Results During 2000–2012, NIOSH collected questionnaire and spirometry data on 1407 workers (87.0% current, 13.0% former) at nine facilities in eight states. After applying case definitions, 4 (0.3%) were classified as pathologist reported, 48 (3.4%) as probable, 234 (16.6%) as possible and 404 (28.7%) as symptoms only. The remaining 717 (51.0%) workers had normal spirometry without exertional dyspnoea or usual cough. Seven of 11 workers with biopsies did not meet the pathologist-reported case definition, although four met probable and three met possible. Conclusions This approach demonstrates the substantial burden of respiratory abnormalities in these workers. A similar approach could quantify the burden of respiratory abnormalities in other industries that use diacetyl.


Abstract. The solution of the mathematical model for flow in variably saturated porous media described by the Richards equation (RE) is subject to heavy numerical difficulties due to its highly nonlinear properties and remains very challenging. Two different algorithms are used in this work to solve the mixed form of RE: the traditional iterative algorithm and a time-adaptive algorithm consisting of changing the time-step magnitude within the iteration procedure while the nonlinear parameters are computed with the state variable at the previous time. The Ross method is an example of this type of scheme, and we show that it is equivalent to the Newton–Raphson method with a time-adaptive algorithm. Both algorithms are coupled to different time-stepping strategies: the standard heuristic approach based on the number of iterations and two strategies based on the time truncation error or on the change in water saturation. Three different test cases are used to evaluate the efficiency of these algorithms. The numerical results highlight the necessity of implementing an estimate of the time truncation errors.


The industry wants formal methods for dealing with combinatorial dynamical systems that are provably correct and fast. One example of such problems is error recovery in industrial processes. We have used a provably correct, polynomial-time planning algorithm to plan for a miniature assembly line, which assembles toy cars. Although somewhat limited, this process has many similarities with real industrial processes. By exploring the structure of this assembly line we have extended apreviously presented algorithm making the class of problems that can be handled in polynomial time larger.


This work investigates the commonly observed relationship between marriage and wages among men in Britain using panel data covering the 1990s. We explicitly test several hypotheses developed in the literature to explain this relationship, including the household division of labour and specialisation, differential rates of human capital formation, employer favouritism, and self-selection. After accounting for individual-specific time-invariant effects, and a wide range of individual, household, job and employer related characteristics, we find a small but statistically significant premium remains that can be attributed to productivity differences. Our estimates provide evidence for the existence of a large selection effect into marriage based on both observable and unobservable characteristics that are positively correlated with wages (consistent with employers using marriage as a positive signal), and also evidence in support of the specialisation hypothesis.


The variety in climate, vegetation, and population density in Central Africa is enormous, but some of the main features of policymaking and informal rules of politics—at first sight at least—appear quite similar between N'Djaména and Kinshasa, between Libreville and Bangui, in a vast territory bigger than the European Union: clientelism, personalization of power, politicized ethnicity, the impact of external intervention, and a legacy of repeated political violence establish some constant features. On the other hand, the variable size of countries (from island states in the Gulf of Guinea to large territorial states) has also come with various challenges. Also, Central Africa features land-locked countries such as Chad and Central African Republic, which negatively impacts economic development, in contrast to countries located at the Gulf of Guinea with an easy access to maritime trade routes. At closer inspection all of the eight countries have a specific history, but this overview article rather stresses the commonalities. Featuring in this contribution are the countries of Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial-Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. The limited achievements of pro-democracy movements in Central Africa in the 1990s have enduring consequences on politics in Africa. Authoritarian regimes have consolidated their grip on power after surviving severe crises in most Central African states. Big man politics continue to prevail, only few opposition parties have upheld their initial strength and lack internal democracy. Enduring violent conflicts in DRC and CAR (and arguably to a somewhat lesser extent in Chad), have undermined conviviality between groups and state capacities in providing public goods with dramatic consequences on effectiveness and legitimacy of the state and its representatives. Prospects for a future allowing for more participation, truly competitive elections, and a peaceful change of government are therefore also grim. However, both violent and peaceful forms of contestation since about 2015 are also signs of renewed mobilization of citizens for political causes across Central Africa. New topics, including consumer defense and ecological issues, plus now-ubiquitous social media, may all be drivers for a new episode of engagement after two decades of frustration. The limited achievements of regional integration and the lack of dynamism of subregional organizations means that Central Africa is still a much less consolidated subregion compared to, for example, West Africa.


This article investigates the changes in foodways and cooking practices—especially in regard to the ceramic cooking assemblages—among the Celtic-speaking peoples of ancient Mediterranean France following the Roman conquest at the end of the second century B.C.E. I specifically examine the region of modern Languedoc-Roussillon using the ceramic data from the indigenous oppida of Lattara (modern Lattes), Castels à Nages, and Ambrussum, covering a period from the beginning of the third century B.C.E. through the first century C.E. I suggest that prior to the Roman conquest, during Iron Age II, there were few differences in cooking practices among the different blocks of houses at these sites. Although food was used for practices of social and political differentiation, these differences were probably manifested and articulated generally through differences in the quantity, rather than the quality, of the food. After the Roman conquest, however, particularly at the urban centers in the region, a new "high" cuisine emerged, one characterized by differences in taste and the quality of food among different social groups. These transformations were in turn likely related to important sociopolitical changes occurring in the region as local society became increasingly integrated with larger Roman colonial society.


In the car-following scenarios, automated vehicles (AVs) usually plan motions without considering the impacts of their actions on the following human drivers. This paper aims to leverage such impacts to plan more efficient and socially desirable AV behaviors in human-AV interactions. Specifically, we introduce a socially compatible control design for the AV that benefits mixed traffic in the car-following scenarios. The proposed design enables the altruistic AV in human-AV interaction by integrating the social value orientation from psychology into its decision-making process. The altruistic AV generates socially desirable behaviors by optimizing both its own reward and courtesy to the following human driver's original plan in the longitudinal motion. The results show that as compared to the egoistic AV, the altruistic AV significantly avoids disrupting the following human driver's initial plan and leads the following human driver to achieve considerably smaller car-following gap distance and time headway. Moreover, we investigated the impacts of the socially compatible control design with different altruism levels of the AV using statistical assessments. The results collectively demonstrate the significant improvement in traffic-level metrics as a result of the AV's altruistic behaviors in human-AV interactions.


There are many forms of memory in post-colonial Australia, and many kinds of haunting. This paper investigates the poetry of contemporary Indigenous poets Sam Wagan Watson and Tony Birch, and reads the script of the Federal Government's February 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations, asking how and why the nation should be haunted – historically and imaginatively - into the future. Keywords: memory, haunting, poetry.


Concern is rising about widespread contamination of the marine environment by microplastics. Plastic debris in the marine environment is more than just an unsightly problem. Images of beach litter and large floating debris may first come to mind, but much recent concern about plastic pollution has focused on microplastic particles too small to be easily detected by eye (see the figure). Microplastics are likely the most numerically abundant items of plastic debris in the ocean today, and quantities will inevitably increase, in part because large, single plastic items ultimately degrade into millions of microplastic pieces. Microplastics are of environmental concern because their size (millimeters or smaller) renders them accessible to a wide range of organisms at least as small as zooplankton, with potential for physical and toxicological harm.


The Reserve Bank cut interest rates to 2% on Tuesday hoping to stimulate business investment and household spending. The RBA's decision was welcomed by Treasurer Joe Hockey, but there are concerns the record-low rate will further inflate the already heated housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Economist magazine recently evaluated Australia's housing market to be overvalued by more than 25% (along with Britain and Canada). Even accounting for our higher incomes, Australia's house prices are now among the highest in the world.

While there is sympathy for the difficulties faced by would-be first-time homebuyers, a strong housing market is often associated with jobs and revenue for States and Territories (the economies of both New South Wales and Victoria have strengthened significantly partly due to the housing sector). Rising house prices are also good news for many Australians – more than 60% are owner-occupiers - and successive governments have implemented and maintained policies that promote a buoyant housing sector.

Policies such as negative gearing, the first home owners grant, and capital gains tax concessions have helped many middle and high income earners buy property, but how are these policies impacting low income earners?

Dallas Rogers speaks with Keith Jacobs about the politics of housing in Australia, and how to address the inequalities within the current system.


Star and planet formation is intimately linked through the protostellar disk. Understanding the formation and evolution of this disk is crucial to determine the physical and chemical processes that occur from the formation of dense molecular clouds to the emergence of life. Yet, the formation and early evolution of the protostellar disk are still not well explored.

This thesis presents both observational and theoretical aspects of the early stages of disk formation and evolution. Hydrodynamical simulations of disk formation are coupled with multi-frequency continuum radiative transfer to determine the dust temperature. The detailed dust temperature structure is crucial for the construction of chemical structure. Observational predictions are simulated through molecular line radiative transfer methods to be compared with spectrally and spatially resolved data. By comparing these predictions with observational data, it is possible to link the disk formation process with planet formation


Adolescent CNS development is a highly organized coordinated process that is both genetically and environmentally influenced and is characterized by a period of dynamic activity-dependent changes in synaptic connectivity. Growing evidence suggests that adolescent cannabis use is a risk factor for the development of persistent alterations in brain function. Taeniopygia guttata the zebra finch was used as a model of cannabinoid-altered vocal learning. We explored effects of cannabinoid-altered signaling during normal late-postnatal CNS development as well as lasting morphological changes following exogenous cannabinoid exposure. In these studies the cannabinoid agonist WIN 55 212-2 was administered to developing male zebra finches during sensorimotor song learning and dendritic spine densities measured following Golgi-Cox impregnation. Within HVC a region necessary for songbird vocal production and Area X a striatal region essential for song learning dendritic spines were inappropriately elevated by an average of 25% following developmental cannabinoid treatment. Treatments of adults that had already learned song were not associated with spine density changes. Cannabinoid-altered song and neuronal morphology were correlated with changes in levels of proteins related to cell signaling and morphology including axonal Nf-200 and dendritic MAP2. After sensorimotor developmental cannabinoid treatment anti-Nf-200 and -MAP2 antibodies were used to immunohistochemically confirm Golgi-Cox staining results. In the same brain areas where dendritic spines were elevated following CB agonist treatment Nf-200 and MAP2 immunoreactivity (ir) were also elevated. To investigate mechanisms of cannabinoid-induced changes in neuronal morphology we measured expression of the cytoskeletal protein Arc in NCM. A single exposure to novel song increased the postsynaptic densities of Arc protein. Two exposures to song were sufficient to produce habituation of this response. Habituation was prevented by pretreatment with WIN. These findings suggest there is a persistent developmentally-restricted condition during periadolescence and that cannabinoid agonism interferes with sensory integration and encoding necessary for accurate formation of memories.


Summary Congenital thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare form of thrombotic microangiopathy, inherited with autosomal recessive mode as a dysfunction or severe deficiency of ADAMTS-13 (A Disinte-grin And Metalloprotease with ThromboSpondin 1 repeats Nr. 13), caused by mutations in the ADAMTS-13 gene. About 100 mutations of the ADAMTS-13 gene were identified so far, although only a few char-acterised by in vitro expression studies. A new Asp to Gly homozygous mutation at position 173 of ADAMTS-13 sequence was identified in a family of Romanian origin, with some members affected by clinical signs of TTP. In two male sons, this mutation caused a severe (< 3 %) deficiency of ADAMTS-13 activity and antigen level, associated with periodic thrombocytopenia, haemolytic anaemia and mild mental confusion. Both parents, who are cousins, showed the same mutation in heterozygous form. Expression studies of the mutant ADAMTS-13, performed in HEK293 cells, showed a severe decrease of the enzyme's activity and secretion, although the protease was detected inside the cells. Molecular dynamics found that in the D173G mutant the interface area between the metalloprotease domain and the disintegrin-like domain significantly decreases during the simulations, while the proline-rich 20 residues linker region (LR, 285–304) between them undergoes extensive conformational changes. Inter-domain contacts are also significantly less conserved in the mutant compared to the wild-type. Both a decrease of the inter-domain contacts along with a substantial conformational rearrangement of LR interfere with the proper maturation and folding of the mutant ADAMTS-13, thus impairing its secretion. Supplementary Material to this article is available online at www.thrombosis-online.com.


We form individual memories by a process known as consolidation: the conversion of immediate and fleeting bits of information into a stable and accessible representation of facts and events. These memories provide a version of the past that helps us navigate the present and is critical to individual identity. In this book, Thomas Anastasio, Kristen Ann Ehrenberger, Patrick Watson, and Wenyi Zhang propose that social groups form collective memories by analogous processes. Using facts and insights from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and history, they describe a single process of consolidation with analogous -- not merely comparable -- manifestations on any level, whether brain, family, or society. They propose a three-in-one model of memory consolidation, composed of a buffer, a relator, and a generalizer, all within the consolidating entity, that can explain memory consolidation phenomena on individual and collective levels. When consolidation is disrupted by traumatic injury to a brain structure known as the hippocampus, memories in the process of being consolidated are lost. In individuals, this is known as retrograde amnesia. The authors hypothesize a "social hippocampus" and argue that disruption at the collective level can result in collective retrograde amnesia. They offer the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966--1976) as an example of trauma to the social hippocampus and present evidence for the loss of recent collective memory in mainland Chinese populations that experienced the Cultural Revolution.


Physical layer techniques have come a long way and can achieve very close to Shannon capacity for point-to-pint links. It is apparent that, to further improve network capacity significantly, we have to resort to concurrent transmissions. Many concurrent transmission techniques (e.g., zero forcing, interference alignment and distributed MIMO) are proposed in which multiple senders jointly encode signals to multiple receivers so that interference is aligned and each receiver is able to decode its desired information. In this paper, we investigate the constraints and challenges of using interference alignment. Our main contribution is conducting the first systematic investigation on the key issue of identifying opportunities for interference alignment. We identify diverse, novel scenarios for using interference alignment. We show that identifying opportunities for interference alignment in the general case is computational challenging. However, we also present a promising, distributed algorithm for identifying a wide range of opportunities for interference alignment using a unifying framework based on the degree of freedom. Our second contribution is evaluating key practical implementation issues.


The plantain Plantago australis Lam. (Plantaginaceae) is a herbaceous species native to southern Brazil that is known for the analgesic, antibiotic, and anti-inflammatory properties of its leaf extracts (2). Powdery mildew was observed on wild P. australis plants in the cities of Tapejara, Jari, and Santa Maria (State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) during the summer of 2011. Affected plants were more often observed in shaded areas. Signs included sparse to abundant white powdery masses of conidia and mycelium on pseudo-petioles and leaves, mostly on the adaxial surface. Severely affected plants (≥80% of foliar area affected) had small chlorotic leaves and reduced size compared to healthy ones. Mycelia were superficial and presented nipple-shaped appressoria. Conidiophores were often curved at the base, unbranched, cylindrical, 81 to 125 μm long (average 97.3 ± 14.9 μm) and composed of a cylindrical foot cell 52 to 73 μm long (average 65.4 ± 7.5 μm) and 9 to 14 μm wide (average 11.6 ± 1.5 μm) followed by one to two shorter cells 17 to 29 μm long (average 23.4 ± 3.6 μm). Conidia were produced in chains of up to eight cells, did not contain fibrosin bodies, ranged from ellipsoid-ovoid to subcylindrical, and measured 24 to 35 μm long (average 30.5 ± 3.7 μm) and 12 to 19 μm wide (average 15.8 ± 1.7 μm). Germ tubes were produced apically (reticuloidium type). Chasmothecia were not observed on sampled leaves. Genomic DNA was extracted from conidia, conidiophores, and mycelium and used to amplify the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) (ITS1-5.8s-ITS2) region using the ITS1 and ITS4 primers. The resulting sequence (558 bp) was deposited under accession number JX312220 in GenBank. Searches with the BLASTn algorithm revealed similarity of 100% with Golovinomyces orontii (Castagne) V.P. Heluta 1988 from Veronica arvensis L. (AB077652.1) (3), 99% with G. orontii from Galium spurium L. and Galium aparine L. (AB430818.1 and AB430813.1) (2) and 99% with G. sordidus (L. Junell) V.P. Heluta 1988 from P. lanceolata L. (AB077665.1) (3). Based on morphological characteristics and sequence analysis of the ITS region, the fungus was identified as belonging to Golovinomyces sp. To fulfill Koch's postulates, five cultivated plants of P. australis with four to five expanded leaves were inoculated by dusting conidia (10 to 15 conidia cm-2) on their leaves. Inoculated and non-inoculated control plants were kept in a greenhouse at 27 ± 5°C and relative humidity of 80 ± 15%. Powdery mildew symptoms identical to those of wild plants were observed 8 to 10 days after in inoculated plants. Although G. sordidus was previously reported on P. australis subsp. hirtella in Argentina and on several species of Plantago in others world regions (1), to our knowledge, Golovinomyces sp. has not been previously reported as a pathogen of P. australis in Brazil. Although the economic impact of the disease is limited, the reduction in plant size and leaves affects biomass production used in the extraction of pharmaceutical compounds. References: (1) U. Braun and R. T. A. Cook. Taxonomic Manual of the Erysiphales (Powdery Mildews), CBS Biodiversity Series 11, 2012. (2) G. C. Sousa et al. J. Ethnopharmacol. 90:135, 2004. (3) S. Takamatsu et al. Mycol. Res. 113:117, 2009.


Micro- and nanoscale ZnO tetrapods provide an attractive support for metallic nanostructures since they can be inexpensively produced using the flame transport method and nanoparticle synthesis schemes can take advantage of a coupled response facilitated by the formation of a semiconductor-metal interface. Here, we present a light-mediated solution-based growth mode capable of decorating the surface of ZnO tetrapods with nanostructures of gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium, ruthenium, iridium, and rhodium. It involves two coupled reactions that are driven by the optical excitation of electron-hole pairs in the ZnO semiconductor by ultraviolet photons where the excited electrons are used to reduce aqueous metal ions onto the ZnO tetrapod as excited holes are scavenged from the surface. For the most part, the growth mode gives rise to nanoparticles with a roundish morphology that are uniformly distributed on the tetrapod surface. Larger structures with irregular shapes are, however, obtained for syntheses utilizing aqueous metal nitrates as opposed to chlorides, a result that suggests that the anion plays a role in shape determination. It is also demonstrated that changes to the molarity of the metal ion can influence the nanostructure nucleation rate. The catalytic activity of tetrapods decorated with each of the eight metals is assessed using the reduction of 4-nitrophenol by borohydride as a model reaction where it is shown that those decorated with Pd, Ag, and Rh are the most active.


We present an efficient algorithm for model-free episodic reinforcement learning on large (potentially continuous) state-action spaces. Our algorithm is based on a novel Q-learning policy with adaptive data-driven discretization. The central idea is to maintain a finer partition of the state-action space in regions which are frequently visited in historical trajectories, and have higher payoff estimates. We demonstrate how our adaptive partitions take advantage of the shape of the optimal Q-function and the joint space, without sacrificing the worst-case performance. In particular, we recover the regret guarantees of prior algorithms for continuous state-action spaces, which additionally require either an optimal discretization as input, and/or access to a simulation oracle. Moreover, experiments demonstrate how our algorithm automatically adapts to the underlying structure of the problem, resulting in much better performance compared both to heuristics and Q-learning with uniform discretization.


Biostratigraphically important dinoflagellate, acritarch, and pollen events calibrated by planktonic foraminifers and calcareous nannoplankton are here documented for the first time in the Rupelian sediments of the Mus Basin, Eastern Anatolia. The LAD of Ascostomocystis potane in coincidence with the FAD of Globorotalia opima opima in the "late" Rupelian, the FAD of Wetzeliella gochtii in the "middle" Rupelian, the LAD of Wetzeliella gochtii in the "latest" Rupelian, and the FADs of Compositae (tubuliflorae type), Monoporopollenites gramineoides and Umbelliferae at the base of Rupelian should be of particular importance for regional correlations.

In addition to the Rupelian acritarch Ascostomocystis potane, diverse dinoflagellate cysts such as Achillodinium biformoides , Wetzeliella gochtii , Membranophoridium aspinatum , Distatodinium biffii, Enneaedocysta pectiniformis complex , Deflandrea spp., Glaphyrocysta group, and terrestrial palynomorphs including Compositae (tubuliflorae type), Slowakipollenites hipophaeoides , Mediocolpopollis compactus Monoporopollenites gramineoides , Umbelliferae, Periporopollenites multiporatus , Ephedripites sp., Cicatricosisporites sp., Lusatisporites perinatus , Cingulatisporites spp. and Saxosporis sp. comprise the main palynological elements of the Rupelian deposits.

Combined information from all three disciplines (terrestrial/marine palynomorphs and sedimentary organic matter, nannoplankton, and foraminifers) suggests that Rupelian sedimentation in the studied sections was characterized by an initial fresh water phase and continued with deposition in shallow to deep marine environments. Although the marine Eocene-Oligocene transition has not been observed in the studied sections, the presence of transitional marine Upper Eocene and Lower Oligocene successions in the northern regions (Cat, SW of Erzurum) as documented by Sancay (2005) suggests that the boundary between the Upper Eocene and Lower Oligocene sediments could have been comformable in some localities of the Mus Basin. However, this argument still needs to be tested where the appropriate lithologies, with recoverable microfossils, are present in the transitional interval in the basin.


In order to better assist practitioners and better serve persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their families, it is vital for professionals to systematically evaluate the existing body of literature and synthesize its scientific evidence, so that the efficacy of research can be translated to evidence-based practices (EBPs) (Wheeler, 2007; Zhang & Wheeler, 2011). This research synthesis evaluated adherence to EBP standards and analyzed the effectiveness of gluten-free and casein-free (GFCF) diets for individuals with ASD. Four hundred and seventy articles were screened among peer-reviewed journals in English language published through 2010 using the Academic Search Complete search database. Twenty-three studies were selected, and the researchers used a systematic analysis model developed by Mayton, Wheeler, Menendez, and Zhang (2010) to investigate the degree of adherence to specific evidence-based practice standards. In addition, the study utilized quality indicators proposed by (a) Horner et al. (2005) for single-subject design studies and (b) Gersten et al. (2005) for group experimental design, to evaluate the efficacy of GFCF diet interventions. Results of this synthesis indicated that the efficacy of GFCF diet interventions for individuals with ASD is inconclusive, and the field needs better controlled studies to provide the scientific evidence base for the intervention.


Manufacturer: Biomega

The Puma bike was designed as part of the 'Urban Mobility' concept to compliment the 'Urban Mobility' collection created (with Hunter 50/50) for Puma International AG. The styling of the product reflects Puma's BMX heritage. The bike was conceived (with Hunter 33% and Skibsted 33%) specifically for urban use, and design-engineered by Jens Martin Skibsted of Biomega AG. The bike's folding mechanism acknowledges the limited storage space in urban residential and work environments.

The design applied three year's research into bike theft, conducted within the Centre for Design Against Crime (CDAC), recently published as the Holborn Gateway Project 2007 and in the 'COPS Report 2007'. This research identified cycle theft as a key design driver for urban cycle design and catalysed the concept and design (with Hunter 33% and Skibsted 33%) of the Puma bike's integrated lock. I also applied this research to the design of six new cycle stands licensed to Broxap for commercial production.

Dutch bikes feature wheel locks that can be removed or broken without damage to the bike itself. Uniquely, the Puma bike lock is integrated as a structural element of the bike frame; if removed or broken the bike's appearance and functioning is compromised. The design embodies a generic design against crime principle known as 'spoiling'; the object is 'spoiled' as it is stolen, removing or reducing its value and therefore deterring theft.

The bike was exhibited at MoMA in New York in 2005 and acquired for their permanent collection, and also that of MoMA in San Francisco, in 2006. It has been distributed globally and continues to be promoted at international crime prevention events as an exemplar of how research into DAC can inspire design innovation. Recently the Puma bike featured in Design Week (2007) as part of the Home Office's latest DAC promotion.


In the practical design of stone column for soft soil improvement, the stress ratio between stone column and soft clay has been largely calculated based on the surface stresses. The vertical stress and pore pressure changes in the surrounding soft clay have not been adequately measured and compared with column stresses in the past research works. Similarly, the influence of the morphological properties of column particles on these stresses has been largely overlooked in the practice. As part of the laboratory testing programme, onedimensional consolidation tests were carried out on a unit cell which comprised of soft kaolin clay and stone column. A number of tests were carried out by varying the morphological properties of column materials such as the particle size distribution and particle angularity. Miniature pressure and pore-pressure sensors were placed at various locations including in the proximity of anticipated bulging location where the column stress was relatively high. The results showed that stress ratios between column and clay at the same depth within the unit cell were influenced by the morphological properties of column materials. Moreover, it was generally observed that stress ratio of a unit cell under sustained loading did not only vary with time but it also varied with the depth. Disciplines Engineering | Science and Technology Studies Publication Details Siahaan, F., Indraratna, B., Rujikiatkamjorn, C. & Basack, S. (2014). Vertical stresses in stone column and soft clay during one-dimensional consolidation test. In P. P. Rahardjo & I. Bin Haji Bakar (Eds.), Southeast Asia conference on Soft Soils Engineering and Ground Improvement: Soft Soils 2014 (pp. C3-1-C3-6). Malaysia: Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Indonesia and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia. This conference paper is available at Research Online: http://ro.uow.edu.au/eispapers/3765


A memoir of ideas and perceptions, Bone Back shows the unfolding of female creativity and one strong-spirited child's journey toward becoming a writer. She learns early on the roles women and men play in society, as well as the impotence of children, especially black female children. She sheds new light on a society that beholds the joys of marriage for men and condemns anything more than silence for women. In this world, too, black is a woman's color - worn when earned - daughters and daddy are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about. In school, hooks sees that integration most resembles corralling, with black children herded, prodded, and pushed like cattle. And the learning agenda is to teach these children to forget their history and the injustices done to them and to embrace the ways of white folk. hooks finds comfort in solitude, good company in books. She also discovers, in the motionless body of misunderstanding, that writing is the most vital breath. She is taught by an elder that quilting is the way a woman learns patience. And hooks's patience, coupled with the insight and bravery that readers have come to expect from her, is rewarded with the strength to keep in touch with the wounded parts of herself and to grow beyond the scars by stretching the confines of history, tradition, and family to encompass her expansive spirit.


The common view that frequent overbank flooding leads to gradual aggradation of alluvial strata on floodplains and delta plains has been challenged by a variety of studies that suggest that overbank aggradation occurs in a strongly episodic fashion. However, this remains a largely untested hypothesis due to the difficulty in establishing age models with sufficiently high resolution. Here we use 39 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages from proximal overbank deposits in the Mississippi Delta to demonstrate for the first time that alluvial aggradation over centennial to millennial time scales is predominantly episodic, with aggradation rates of 1–4 cm/yr that can persist for centuries. OSL ages from three separate study areas produce age clusters that are distinctly different yet complement each other. These findings suggest that a substantial portion of the continental stratigraphic record consists of patchworks of relatively discrete, centennial- to millennial-scale sediment bodies assembled by autogenic processes.


For most people in the United States, going almost anywhere begins with reaching for the car keys. This is true, Christopher Wells argues, because the United States is Car Country-a nation dominated by landscapes that are difficult, inconvenient, and often unsafe to navigate by those who are not sitting behind the wheel of a car. The prevalence of car-dependent landscapes seems perfectly natural to us today, but it is, in fact, a relatively new historical development. In Car Country, Wells rejects the idea that the nation's automotive status quo can be explained as a simple byproduct of an ardent love affair with the automobile. Instead, he takes readers on a tour of the evolving American landscape, charting the ways that transportation policies and land-use practices have combined to reshape nearly every element of the built environment around the easy movement of automobiles. Wells untangles the complicated relationships between automobiles and the environment, allowing readers to see the everyday world in a completely new way. The result is a history that is essential for understanding American transportation and land-use issues today.


German public retirement insurance is in many respects an extreme example of the typical European pay-as-you-go pension system because almost 85% of retirement income stems from this system and only 15% comes from private sources such as funded pensions, labour income, and family transfers. Public retirement insurance has come under severe pressure from population ageing and incentive effects reducing labour supply. This paper argues that pre-funding a significant part of the German system will alleviate both pressures.


You have a great idea for a simple mobile web app. Or, you have a great idea for a complicated mobile web app. Either way, Learn HTML5 and JavaScript for iOS will help you build, fine-tune, and publish your appfor iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Scott Preston will walk you through building a mobile web app from scratch using real-world examples. You'll learn about design considerations, mobile web frameworks, and HTML5 features like animation and graphics using Canvas. You'll also learn how to customize your app for a variety of platforms, and you'll explore testing and performance tips for your app. Get an overview of HTML5, JavaScript, and mobile web frameworks Discover tips for iOS usability as well as performance Dig into features like images, animation, and even geolocation What youll learn HTML5 features JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks overview How to design for usability How to work with Canvas How to customize your iOS app depending on device and operating system How to integrate with services like voice and messaging How to test and optimize your app Who this book is for Web developers who want to move into mobile app development on iOS devices as well as mobile users and developers who want to develop cross-platform web apps.


It is axiomatic that defamation law protects reputation. This proposition—common sensical, pervasive, and influential—is wrong. But it is wrong in a very instructive way, and a careful examination of its mistaken assumptions carries deep lessons for First Amendment jurisprudence, defamation law, and the regulation of falsehoods across legal fields.

The key fallacy is the failure to recognize that laws not only affect how individuals behave, but also how they think. Whenever an allegation is made, individuals decide whether and how much to trust it based on myriad factors. One such factor is the strictness of defamation laws. To the extent strict defamation laws deter purveyors of falsehoods, they also make statements appear more trustworthy, as individuals will reason that few would brave a falsity in the face of strong financial sanctions. Thus, strict defamation laws have the unintended consequence of making individuals more susceptible to believe those statements that are actually false.

This heretofore unrecognized complexity of defamation law has the potential of tipping the scales in First Amendment jurisprudence towards greater protection of free speech and free press. Most urgently, these findings give pause to the presidential calls to fight 'fake news' by expanding libel laws, by showing that such laws may well backfire and exaggerate the effect of fake news.


nemployment of graduates is a challenging problem in Africa, and it is aggravated by many factors such as population growth, mismatch between curriculum and employer needs, and lack of evidence-based policy making. In this context, the objectives of the present study are twofold. First, the aim is to identify key characteristics influencing labor market participation of graduates from agricultural higher education in Guinea. Second, the aim is to identify agricultural labor market needs in terms of skills and profiles desired by employers. Telephone surveys were administered to recent graduates from the main agricultural higher education institutions. The major findings from the analysis suggest that about one third of Guinean agricultural university graduates in the 2008-2013 period were employed in the formal sector in 2013-2014. Employment rates are lower for the technical schools. In terms of job creation prospects, key employers expect a doubling of hiring for positions requiring technical school or university training. Most of the projected growth is expected in the private sector. The results indicate that male graduates have a 7% higher probability of being employed as compared to female graduates in the aggregate analysis.


The Nationalism of Nikolai Gogol': Betwixt and Between?1Mr. Nicolas de Gogol, Ukrainien, etabli a Moscou, auteur de quelques comedies russes.Almanach de Carlsbad (1846)On lui reproche, m'a-t-on dit, certain patriotisme provincial. Petit-Russien, il auvrait je ne sais quelle predilection pour la Petite-Russie au prejudice du reste de l'empire.Prosper Merimee (1851)2Ever since his first stories were published in 1831-1832 much has been written about Gogol' as a Ukrainian and his relationship to Ukrainian culture. Nevertheless, Gogol" s dominant image today remains that of the monolithic "Great Russian Writer" (velikii russkii pisatel'). It is amazing how many readers and students (especially Russians from the former Soviet Union) are unaware that Gogol' was a Ukrainian and that he had strong Ukrainian sympathies. Perhaps this should not be surprising given that much of Gogolian scholarship considers his Ukrainian origins to be no more relevant than, say, if he were bom in Tula or Kaluga. Studies of this kind give the impression of deliberately weaving a torturously complex thread tiirough the fabric of his life and work in order to avoid bumping into its Ukrainian aspects. The latter are regularly marginalized as sometiung insignificant and shortlived-or treated as a variant of an ill-defined "Russianness." While tiiere has been serious scholarship, both Ukrainian and Russian, that has demonstrated the centrality of Gogof's Ukrainian background to an understanding of his life and work-one thinks of people as diverse as Panteleimon Kulish, Ievhen Malaniuk, George Luckyj, Iurii Barabash, Iosif Mandelshtam, Vasilii Gippius, to name a few-virtually no one today in mainstream criticism identifies him, as did, say, Piksanov in the 1930s, as a "Ukrainian-Russian" writer.3 The prevalent tendency is still to distance Gogol' from Ukraine and to place him in an unambivalently Russian national context. In 1999 Boris Gasparov expressed the view thatIt would be futile to characterize Gogol as an ardent Ukrainian patriot, a champion of its land and people. Such a depiction of Gogol shares the fate of other officious portraits of the writer that view him, for example, as a "critical realist" or as the defender of the "small man.. ."4Gasparov adds: "Gogol's Romantic mythologization of his double national allegiance offers little to those who would like to see him as a champion of Ukrainian history, language, and literature" (p. 122). Clarence Brown, writing soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union, expressed in a feuilleton die hope that "...perhaps Ukrainians will feel sufficiently secure in the possession of tiieir own state, their own language and tiieir own literature to cease claiming Nikolai Gogol' as an ornament of their national culture...."5 The patronizing tone we see here is not untypical for those who see Gogol' as an archetypal Russian writer whose only natural place is in Russian literature and culture.It is precisely against such positions that Edyta M. Bojanowska's book Nikolai Gogol: Between Ukrainian and Russian Nationalism is written. Diplomatically, elegantly, and with sharp intelligence, she sets out to undermine this "Russocentric view of Gogol" (p. 5):The standard Russian view of Gogol holds that he was an ardent and sincere Russian patriot. His Ukrainian heritage, for all the fruit it provided his inspiration, amounted to no more than an accident of birth that he shed like a cocoon once he found his true place in Russian culture... Gogol's overriding allegiance to Russian nationalism, according to this canonical view, shines through brilliantly and unambiguously in his writings, which furnish ample 'proofs' for reconstructing the writer's national psyche. The artistic integrity of Gogol's works, their embeddedness in larger social and nationalist contexts, their irony, and the complex devices of narratorial misdirection and distancing that Gogol practiced with considerable skill can all be brushed aside in this grand project of nationalistic exegesis. …


A 12-year-old girl is referred to the office after a routine dilated eye exam shows unusual retinal lesions. The child has been having headaches for the past 2 years that are described as mostly in the vertex with no other associated vomiting symptoms. Headaches are intermittent and usually relieved with ibuprofen.


This article examines the interface of rhetorical theories of credibility and the domestic counterterrorism communications of government and nongovernment actors in Canada and the United States. We track evolving attempts to controvert terrorists' propaganda through official and unofficial channels. Each country has a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy that employs both deterrence and "soft" approaches, such as diplomacy and engagement. Our focus is the latter. First, we discuss how governments undertook counterterrorism communications following September 2001. Second, we explore attempts to engage credible voices outside of government, such as former violent extremists and religious leaders, in the fight against terrorism. We conclude that although counterterrorism messaging must negotiate the challenge of source credibility, further examination of elements such as context, audience reception, and digital engagement is needed to refine domestic campaigns launched by government and civil society actors.


This article reports on a search for dark matter pair production in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of bottom quarks, using data from 20.3 fb−1 of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The decay of the Higgs boson is reconstructed as a high-momentum bb̄ system with either a pair of small-radius jets, or a single large-radius jet with substructure. The observed data are found to be consistent with the expected Standard Model backgrounds. Model-independent upper limits are placed on the visible cross sections for events with a Higgs boson decaying into bb̄ and large missing transverse momentum with thresholds ranging from 150 to 400 GeV. Results are interpreted using a simplified model with a Z0 gauge boson decaying into different Higgs bosons predicted in a two-Higgs-doublet model, of which the heavy pseudoscalar Higgs decays into a pair of dark matter particles. Exclusion limits are also presented for the mass scales of various effective field theory operators that describe the interaction between dark matter particles and the Higgs boson.


In this article I discuss participatory action research as a framework for enabling people diagnosed with mental health problems to carry out research and in doing so to promote health equity, citizenship, and social justice for people with a mental health diagnosis. The participatory approach to research aims to involve ordinary community members in generating practical knowledge about issues and problems of concern to them and through this promoting personal and social change. The article traces the development of participatory action research and describes its application in the mental health service user research movement. The Hearing (our) Voices projects, participatory research projects carried out in Calgary, Alberta by a group of people diagnosed with schizophrenia, are described to illustrate this approach to mental health research. Participation in research to promote health equity is about inclusion and about how marginalized people can claim full and equal citizenship as participants in and contributors to society.


STUDY OF BARORECEPTOR SENSITIVITY INDEX IN CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME by Diane L. Donnelly Although numerous studies evaluate baroreflex response as part of their research protocol, only one was identified as having evaluated continuous baroreceptor response as part of a 70° head-up tilt. It was done by Youde et al. [28] and was limited in that it evaluated only sequences of three beats for lag 0. The limitations of the Youde study [28] are not present in this thesis. The data for this thesis came from a 70 ° head-up tilt study performed on chronic fatigue syndrome subjects by LaManca et al. [3] at the East Orange VA Medical Center. Baroreflex was not evaluated as part of the LaManca study. The goal of this thesis was to determine the utility of using the baroreflex sensitivity index (BRSI) on chronic fatigue syndrome subjects as a marker to discriminate between subject populations. Five groups are studied; five chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), five chronic fatigue syndrome with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (CFS-POTS), five chronic fatigue syndrome with fibromyalgia (CFS-FM), five control with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (CON-POTS) and five control (CON). The sequence method was used to assess baroreflex function. Comparative time analyses were done of weighted BRSI values between groups as well as between lags within groups. Baroreflex effectiveness index, BEI, was also evaluated along with the total number of ramps and sequences within and between groups. Comparative time analysis provided a graphical representation of the behavior of the baroreflex during head-up tilt. Spikes in BRSI in the transitions between baseline and tilt and again between tilt and recovery were most noticeable for CFS-FM followed by CON-POTS and CFS-POTS. The CFS and CON groups were surprisingly similar in their behavior throughout the tilt. Differences between CON and CFS became graphically more apparent when evaluating BRSI by lag and calculating the percent change in sequences by lag. Slope of the weighted average for BRSI was calculated over a moving window of two-minute intervals. Based on this graph, slope does not appear to indicate a large difference between subject populations. Evaluation of the total number of ramps and sequences by group for each lag indicated that the most efficient use of ramps was seen in lag 0 for all groups. The number of sequences tapered off dramatically in lags 1 and 2 regardless of the availability of ramps. The percent decrease in the number of sequences between lags for each group was calculated. The two most consistent groups in the number of sequences generated from the available ramps across all lags are CON and CFS-FM. The least consistent group is CFS. The utilization of comparative time analysis to evaluate BRSI is an unexplored area of baroreflex research. Based on the graphical results of this thesis the idea appears to have merit. STUDY OF BARORECEPTOR SENSITIVITY INDEX IN CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME by Diane L. Donnelly A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of New Jersey Institute of Technology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering Department of Biomedical Engineering


Instagram is a popular social networking application that allows users to express themselves through the uploaded content and the different filters they can apply. In this study we look at personality prediction from Instagram picture features. We explore two different features that can be extracted from pictures: 1) visual features (e.g., hue, valence, saturation), and 2) content features (i.e., the content of the pictures). To collect data, we conducted an online survey where we asked participants to fill in a personality questionnaire and grant us access to their Instagram account through the Instagram API. We gathered 54,962 pictures of 193 Instagram users. With our results we show that visual and content features can be used to predict personality from and perform in general equally well. Combining the two however does not result in an increased predictive power. Seemingly, they are not adding more value than they already consist of independently.


Myanmar is transitioning to an open market economy, but very little is known about Myanmar consumers and their attitudes towards globalisation. Using Hofstede's cultural dimensions and social identity theory, this study sheds light on the role Myanmar consumers' cultural values and social identity play in consumer preferences. This study also explores the relationship between Myanmar identity and consumers' perceptions of products based on country of origin and attitudes towards globalisation. Results from a cross-sectional survey of Myanmar consumers in Yangon (N = 268) reveal that consumers displayed cultural traits similar to the ones from their neighbouring Southeast Asian countries. In addition, Myanmar consumers in Yangon do not express any particular consumer animosity towards products from other countries and seem open to globalisation. Findings provide IJAPS, Vol. 14, No. 1, 191–226, 2018 Myanmar Consumers' Identity and Preferences 192 further insights into Myanmar culture and how to effectively communicate with Myanmar consumers.


Ibrahim, Kamal M., and Paul M. Peterson. Grasses of Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Contributions
to Botany, number 99, viii + 128 pages, 190 figures, 2014.�A vegetative key, descriptions, and illustrations
for the identification of 182 native and naturalized grasses that occur in Washington, D.C., are
presented. In addition, we provide a glossary of terms and indexes to scientific and common names.
The key is based on vegetative characters to allow identification of specimens that primarily do not have
flowering structures (inflorescences and spikelets).


The present study demonstrates that farmed Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, health is positively and significantly affected by synergistic effects between very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids of the n-3 family eicosapentaenoic acid/docosahexaenoic acid (EPA/DHA) and iron, where positive effects of high dietary levels of EPA/DHA are enhanced when combined with low levels of iron. Based on cumulative mortalities in the different experimental groups, relative percentage of survival (RPS) for the high EPA/DHA-low iron group was 70% during an outbreak of furunculosis and 96% during an outbreak of cold water vibriosis compared with the controls. A non-additive effect between EPA/DHA and iron was confirmed by statistical analyses that revealed a significant effect of EPA/DHA alone and an interaction of iron with EPA/DHA. Liver cell cultures treated with EPA/DHA revealed that the synergistic effect could be related to an EPA/DHA dependent regulation of mRNA for proteins important for transport (transferrin) and storage (ferritin) of iron in the salmon. In keeping with this finding, the transcriptional down-regulation of iron metabolism in vitro was reflected in decreased in vivo iron stores with increasing levels of dietary EPA/DHA. Hence, to avoid overloading of the iron transport/storage-systems resulting in increased susceptibility to bacterial infections, high levels of dietary EPA/DHA should be accompanied by low levels of dietary iron.


A comprehensive reference to the newest version of the worlds most popular spreadsheet application: Excel 2010 John Walkenbach's name is synonymous with excellence in computer books that decipher complex technical topics. Known as "Mr. Spreadsheet," Walkenbach shows you how to maximize the power of all the new features of Excel2010. An authoritative reference, this perennial bestseller proves itself indispensable no matter your level of skill, from Excel beginners and intermediate users to power users and potential power users everywhere. Fully updated for the new release, this latest edition provides comprehensive, soup-to-nuts coverage, delivering over 900 pages of Excel tips, tricks, and techniques you wont find anywhere else. Excel guru and bestselling author John Walkenbach ("Mr. Spreadsheet") guides you through every aspect of Excel Delivers essential coverage of all the newest features of Excel 2010 Presents material in a clear, concise, logical format that is ideal for all levels of Excel experience Includes a CD that contains all the templates and worksheets used in the book plus John Walkenbach's award-winning Power Utility Pak Excel 2010 Bible serves as an excellent resource on all things Excel! Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


In the two decades since the end of Mozambique's civil war the country has depended heavily on international donors to fund its development. Although the economy grew at record rates from the mid-1990s, poverty levels remain above 50%. Mozambique has now discovered natural gas deposits in large commercial quantities. These discoveries could contribute billions of dollars to the economy and catapult Mozambique into place as the world's third largest exporter of LNG. This paper investigates the likely impact on Mozambique's socio-economic development of discoveries of natural gas deposits, and of industrial development in the natural gas sector. It analyses the likely uses of the 'gas boom' by government in contributing to the improvement of the economic situation of Mozambicans. The discussion is set within the context of Mozambique's political and economic development since gaining independence in 1975. Whether or not the new opportunity will translate into real benefit for Mozambicans in general depends on a number of critical factors: This report looks at those issues against the background of the need for development in Mozambique and concludes that, although natural gas presents a great opportunity for development and the government appears to be committed to using the resource to improve the lives of Mozambicans, much work lies ahead. Translating Mozambique's natural resource wealth into developmental outcomes will require commitment from all stakeholders, especially the government, civil society and the private sector. A b o u t t h e A u t h o r Ichumile Gqada holds a Master of Social Science degree in Global Studies from the University of Cape Town. A former researcher with the SAIIA Governance of Africa's Resources Programme, she currently works at the Petroleum Oil and Gas Corporation of South Sfrica (PetroSA), where her research centres on the global hydrocarbons sector, with particular focus on natural gas.


Lowering the head of an artesian aquifer in Zealand, Denmark by pumping of groundwater is shown to affect the water balance. Based on known amounts of groundwater being developed, the coefficient of transmissivity was determined and in combination with piezometric maps the net outflow of groundwater was computed for the pre-pumping period as well as for the pumping period. The annual streamflow was found to decrease considerably and the groundwater recharge to increase by the same amount.


The aim of this study was to investigate the use of PCR to detect commensal and diarrhoeagenic Escherichia coli concentrated from water samples using membrane filtration. To achieve this, culture-based and PCR-based methods were compared for the detection of E. coli in raw sewage and primary, secondary and tertiary effluents from 6 wastewater treatment plants around Johannesburg, Gauteng. E. coli was concentrated from the samples using standard filtration techniques with subsequent incubation on E. coli/coliform chromogenic media to determine the E. coli levels. Bacterial DNA was isolated from bacterial colonies trapped on polyethersulphone membranes after filtration using a celite/guanidium thiocyanate method. A single multiplex PCR (m-PCR) assay was used that targeted the mdh, eaeA, stx1, stx2, st, lt, ial and eagg genes associated with diarrhoeagenic E. coli. The mdh gene was detected in all of the samples even if no culturable E. coli was detected. All the diarrhoeagenic E. coli types were detected in one or more of the raw sewage samples from the various plants. EPEC was present in 20% (2/10) of the samples, EHEC in 50% (5/10), ETEC in 80% (8/10), EIEC in 10% (1/10) and EAEC in 90% (9/10) of the samples. In the case of the primary and secondary treatment only ETEC (5/5; 100%) and EAEC(5/5; 100%) were detected in all of the samples. The results demonstrate that molecular techniques such as PCR have the potential to be used for the monitoring of water samples for the presence of pathogenic E. coli, without the need to culture the organisms.


In 2011, the number of hungry people in the world surpassed one billion for the first time. The majority of these people are largely dependent for their food security upon resource-poor smallholder farmers in developing or emerging economies. These smallholders depend on informal seed systems for 75–90% of their food crop cultivation. Southeast Asia, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots in the face of rapidly dwindling global genetic diversity, is at the forefront of seed systems issues. This article examines activities undertaken by a collaboration of researchers and local institutions to enhance food security within informal seed systems in Thai and Cambodian rural communities. We employed a two-step model for strengthening food security using a range of participatory activities to first understand and characterize, and secondly strengthen informal seed systems in the target regions. We documented seed pathways, histories, and storage as well as gender roles in each community. Informal seed systems were strengthened through identifying potential species for commercialization, addressing technological barriers to seed analysis, and conducting seed fairs and seed banking. These activities not only strengthened informal seed systems, but also significantly enhanced all four pillars of food security in the study communities. Recommendations for future informal seed systems and food security research include extending research into more communities and countries, focusing on the potential for enhancing formal seed systems, and examining the possibilities for synergies with food sovereignty approaches.


Common scab, a bacterial disease of potato causes significant losses to the Australian
potato industry through rejected seed and/or increased processing costs. Disease
symptoms caused by plant pathogenic Streptomyces sp., are attributable to a key
phytotoxin it produces, namely thaxtomin A. The development of resistance to this
disease, thrqugh selection of somaclonal varieties tolerant to thaxtomin A is a current
key industry supported program. However, mechanisms relating to resistance and
patterns of toxicity produced by thaxtomin A are not well understood and represent
the key objectives of this project.
The purpose of this study was to initially assess the impact of thaxtomin A on
various plants and plant cell systems from an electrophysiological, morphological
and pathological perspective. The effect of thaxtomin A in combination with various
auxin sources and analogues was also examined. Further work aimed to quantify
resistance to thaxtomin A within mutant strains of potato plants and calli, and
whether any specific change to a known thaxtomin A susceptible gene may be
responsible for altered levels of resistance to thaxtomin A.
Electrophysiological data obtained using ion-selective microelectrode ion flux
estimation (the MIFE) technique showed that interaction between plant and toxin
was characterised by a rapid and short-lived Ca2
+ influx and activation of the plasma
membrane proton pump. Thaxtomin A was more effective in young, physiologically
active tissues (root elongation zone or pollen tube apex), suggesting higher density of
thaxtomin A-binding sites in these regions. This provided the first evidence that
thaxtomin A triggers an early signalling cascade, which may be crucial in plantpathogen
interactions.
Glasshouse trials showed that foliar application of sublethal concentrations of 2,4-D
sprays on potato foliage reduced severity and occurrence of common scab. Lenticel
numbers, lenticel external dimensions and periderm structure (key features critical to
S. scabiei entry and penetration into a tuber) were generally not changed by 2,4-D sprays, suggesting no direct effect of 2,4-D on these morphological structures. In
contrast, tubers harvested from 2,4-D treated plants had a decreased sensitivity to
th~xtomin A compared with the controls, which may explain enhanced resistance. This suggests an indirect effect of2,4-D impacting on the toxin, thaxtomin A, rather
than morphological changes to the developing tuber.
Further experimental evidence confirmed an interaction between thaxtomin A and
auxin. fuhibition of tomato pollen tube growth by thaxtomin A was ameliorated by
addition of NAA. Also, auxin/auxin transport inhibitor sensitive 'ucu2-2/gi2 'A.
thaliana mutant showed significantly greater sensitivity to thaxtomin A, observed as
root growth suppression, increased rates of necrosis ( chlorosis ), plant death, and
more severely altered W flux profiles ( electrophysiological data) in the mutant
compared to the wild-type. Moreover, inhibition root growth assays with the
thaxtomin A-resistant 'txr I' A. thaliana mutant showed a 3 fold increase in
resistance to the polar auxin transport inhibitor, 1-NPA, suggesting an interaction
between thaxtomin A and the auxin efflux carrier associated with the NP A binding
'protein. Cross-resistances to 1-NPA and isoxaben of 'txrl' and the isoxaben
resistant 'ixr 1 'A. thaliana mutant suggests a similarity of function between isoxaben
and thaxtomin A, and also 'txrl' and 'ixrl '.
The 'txrl' gene homolog from potato has been successfully cloned and sequenced
from a series of mutant potato lines, selected for resistance to thaxtomin A.
Compared with the parent (control) there were no mutations within the 'txr 1 ' gene
examined suggesting the resistance phenotype is due to some other genetic change.
These studies have contributed to a better understanding of mechanisms of toxicity
of thaxtomin A in plant cells and advanced our knowledge of pathogen: host
interactions within the common scab disease pathosystem.


Background: Relapsed platinum-resistant epithelial carcinoma of the ovary is a disease with a dismal prognosis. Bevacizumab and capecitabine have been used in carcinoma of ovary both as a single agent and with other chemotherapeutic medicine. A retrospective study has been performed to assess the efficacy of bevacizumab + capecitabine in relapsed platinum-resistant epithelial carcinoma of the ovary. Materials and Methods: Patients who suffered from relapsed platinum-resistant epithelial carcinoma of the ovary and received bevacizumab and capecitabine were included in the present study. The primary objective of this study was to assess response rate and progression-free survival (PFS). Treatment: Patients received capecitabine at a dose of 1250 mg/m2 twice daily from day 1 to day 14 in each cycle. Bevacizumab was given at a dose of 7.5 mg/kg on day 1 in each cycle. The cycle was repeated in every 3 weeks. Response evaluation was done using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumor criteria and by Rustin criteria. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was done using statistical software (SPSS 16, SPSS for Windows, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: We analyzed the data of 32 patients. The PFS was 10.51 (95% confidence interval [CI], 8.65–12.37) months. The overall survival (OS) was 20.53 (95% CI, 17.21–23.85) months. Four (12.5%) patients achieved complete response. Eighteen (56.25%) patients achieved partial response. The response rate was 68.75%. Four (12.5%) patients had progressive disease. Conclusion: Response rate, PFS, and OS of patients in this study are comparable to those of other published studies. Hence, bevacizumab + capecitabine can be used in relapsed platinum-resistant carcinoma of the ovary. The incidence and severity of bevacizumab-induced side effects are relatively lower in this study. Hence, bevacizumab can be given at a lower dose with comparable efficacy and tolerable side effects.


In a bid to ensure cost-effective highway construction practices, highway agencies constantly seek ways to accelerate project design and delivery through implementation of innovative contracting and procurement practices. The concept of warranties, which is one of such promising practices, involves a shift of the burden of construction quality control, product performance and product maintenance from the owner to the contractor. As such, warranty projects are expected to enhance product quality and service life, and ultimately, reduced life-cycle cost. The expected benefits of warranty projects, however, could be offset by their historically higher construction costs. It is therefore necessary to evaluate the costs and benefits of warranty contracts vis-a-vis traditional contracts so that the more cost-effective practice can be identified. The present study reviewed the state of warranty practice in highway pavement construction in Indiana and elsewhere, collects data on warranty and traditional contracts, and carried out statistical analyses to evaluate the relative costs, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of these two alternative contracting practices. Effectiveness was measured in terms of average pavement condition and pavement service life, and costs were expressed in annualized costs per lane-mile. All costs were adjusted for inflation and economy of scale. The study confirmed that the warranty contracts generally have higher agency costs than traditional contracts, but produced pavements that were superior to their traditional counterparts in terms in average pavement condition (rutting, cracking and roughness) and service life. It was determined that the typical projected treatment life of warranty contract pavement was 25 years while similar traditional contract pavements had a service life of 15 years. Also, the average construction period and resulting workzone user costs were lower for warranty contract pavements. The medium-term cost-effectiveness analysis showed that when the analysis is carried out over a relatively short period of 5-years (the typical warranty period), the warranty pavement contracts are not as cost-effective as their traditional counterparts. However, the long-term cost-effectiveness analysis (which used treatment service life as the analysis period) clearly indicated that the warranty contracts are generally more cost-effective than traditional contracts. The study results suggest that the superiority of warranty projects over traditional projects is more discernible when both cost and effectiveness are viewed over the entire life of the pavement treatment.


─ In this work, enhancement of the radiation performances of horn antennas are worked out within their operation bandwidth by placing the miniaturized Frequency Selective Surface (FSS)s perpendicularly into the inner part of their flares. Here each FSS consists of only a single miniaturized double-sided inverted Tshaped square unit cell designed on the low-cost FR4 with relative permittivity 4.4, loss tangent 0.0035 and thickness 1.58 mm in 3D CST environment so that it is able to focus the propagating electromagnetic waves to increase the directivity properties like a dielectric lens, while keeping the mismatching characteristics with less size and low manufacturing cost compared to its counter parts. Herein an exponentially tapered TEM horn with the operation bandwidth of 5-13 GHz is taken as an example horn antenna for measurements. From the measured results of the prototyped module, it can be observed that the proposed module keep mismatching characteristics of the horn antenna, meanwhile the gain and beam widths are enhanced to amplify the signal in the operation band without any increase in the total volume of the module or making the design bulky. Thus, it is expected that this methodology can be implemented to horn antennas effectively reducing volume and cost of communication systems. Index Terms ─ Enhancement, FSS, gain, horn antenna, TEM horn, UWB.


Lightweight engineering plastics have been increasingly used in automotive applications(3), this tends toward more fuel efficient vehicles(1). Glass reinforced plastics commonly include thermosetting polymers. These cannot be re-moulded, unlike thermoplastics, thus thermoset scrap is currently disposed of in landfill. This is increasingly targeted by legislation(14) and is becoming more expensive. This thesis describes work to maximise resource recovery from scrap thermoset composites.

A review of relevant literature identified thermal processes for treating scrap thermoset composites. Combustion is particularly suitable for the mixed and contaminated materials arising from end of life vehicles. The literature showed that heating glass fibres reduced their properties, which is a concern for any thermal recycling process.

The methodology of this work is to recover energy from the composite polymer and reuse the incombustible residues. Two experimental processes are reported:

Fluidised Bed Co-combustion of Thermoset Composites with Coal.

The common composite filler of calcium carbonate captures the sulphur emissions from the coal combustion. Results show that scrap composites can successfully be burned in a commercial scale fluidised bed. Retention of the sulphur from the coal by the composite filler was up to 75 % of the input. Although a technical success, economic analysis shows this disposal to be unviable compared with similar desulphurisation via crushed limestone.

Fluidised Bed Thermal Processing Rig for Recovering Glass Fibres.

 The incombustible constituents of a crushed Sheet Moulding Compound were released from processing above 400 ° C in the fluidised bed test rig. The reinforcing glass fibres were elutriated as monofilaments, suitable for use in a veil product, and recovered from the flue gases. Scanning Electron Microscopy showed that the fibres were intact. The tensile strength of fibres from 450°C processing was reduced by approximately 50% and by 90% from 650°C(73). Strength was also found to reduce with increasing time at a temperature(76) .

Flue gas analysis showed that carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons were present. This indicated that full combustion did not take place and the associated heat energy lost. Measured nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide concentrations were low.

After initial testing, the test rig was refined by the incorporation of a Rotating Screen Collector to separate the fillers and fibres. The fibre contamination was reduced by 50% via this novel equipment. Fibre recovery rates of up to 57% were achieved.

Resin Decomposition Model.

Results indicate that the resin endothermic energy of decomposition maintained the temperature of the Sheet Moulding Compound significantly below the bed temperature.


PURPOSE
The feasibility and utility of assessing quality of life (QoL) and disease-related symptoms in patients with advanced cancer have been evaluated in two Phase I clinical trials of p.o. administered ZD1839 ('Iressa'), an epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in patients with advanced cancer.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) questionnaires, including disease-specific subscales for lung, head and neck, colorectal, prostate, and ovarian cancer, were completed by patients in two open-label, Phase I, escalating multiple-dose safety and tolerability trials.

RESULTS
In 157 patients, 92% of whom had received prior therapy, compliance in returning FACT questionnaires was 87% (European/Australian trial) and 57% (United States trial). This did not appear to be influenced by dose level or tumor type. For patients with colorectal, prostate, or ovarian cancer, median QoL [FACT and Trial Outcome Index (TOI)] scores deteriorated over time. In contrast, for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or head and neck cancer, median FACT and TOI scores did not deteriorate significantly, and in the United States trial, head and neck cancer scores improved significantly over time. In patients with NSCLC, symptom-related scores measured by the Lung Cancer Subscale of FACT-L appeared sensitive to clinical change.

CONCLUSIONS
QoL (FACT-L) questionnaires were used successfully in the Phase I clinical trials of ZD1839. They appeared to be a sensitive tool to monitor clinical changes for the five tumor types in these trials and showed that ZD1839 has the potential to improve patients' QoL.


Abstract Traditional control charts assume independence of observations obtained from the monitored process. However, if the observations are autocorrelated, these charts often do not perform as intended by the design requirements. Recently, several control charts have been proposed to deal with autocorrelated observations. The residual chart, modified Shewhart chart, EWMAST chart, and ARMA chart are such charts widely used for monitoring the occurrence of assignable causes in a process when the process exhibits inherent autocorrelation. Besides autocorrelation, one other issue is the unknown values of true process parameters to be used in the control chart design, which are often estimated from a reference sample of in-control observations. Performances of the above-mentioned control charts for autocorrelated processes are significantly affected by the sample size used in a Phase I study to estimate the control chart parameters. In this study, we investigate the effect of Phase I sample size on the run length performance of these four charts for monitoring the changes in the mean of an autocorrelated process, namely an AR(1) process. A discussion of the practical implications of the results and suggestions on the sample size requirements for effective process monitoring are provided.