Realistic rendering algorithms such as ray tracing are computationally very expensive. The time complexity is determined by a multitude of factors such as image size, geometry, material properties and the quality of the required rendering. This paper presents an algorithm to estimate the cost of ray tracing a scene. Assuming an octree spatial subdivision, the cost per voxel is predicted. For parallel processing purposes, this cost distribution can then be used to calculate an initial data distribution, such that the workload per processor should be more or less equal. The method avoids intersection tests, because those may affect the short response times required for preprocessing stages.


This paper aims to generate homogeneous submarkets in terms of price behaviour for Paris through a Principal Component Analysis. The database, which is provided by the Chambre des Notaires, includes cases spread over a 17 year period, that is from 1990 to 2006. This period offers three sub-periods during which prices are going down, recovering and booming. For each transaction, housing descriptors are available to construct the hedonic index. As most of large cities, Paris is divided in administrative boroughs ("arrondissements") and neighbourhoods '"quartiers" where prices evolve differently during slump, recovery and boom periods. Prices moves over time are measured using hedonic indices. A cluster analysis highlights a segmentation according the size effect and price volatility. It also shows that over or under-performance of various districts compared with the global index is dependent on the period. In particular, one of the major contributions of this research is to highlight the existence of a twofold residential dynamics in the Paris region, with the central boroughs clearly parting from outlying ones with respect to apartment price appreciation over time.


Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) has offered great promise for the treatment of cartilage degradation, and has been proved to have positive effects on the restoration of cartilage lesions. But no comparative work has been done between PRP and hyaluronate acid (HA) concerning their restoring effect on cartilage defect, especially by means of animal experiments and histologic assessments. The purpose of the study was to compare the therapeutic effects of P-PRP and HA on osteoarthritis in rabbit knees. Thirty rabbits were used to establish the animal models by creating a cartilage defect of 5 mm in diameter on the condyles of the femurs, and were randomly divided into three groups: the P-PRP group, HA group and the control group. Then each group was treated with P-PRP, HA or saline solution, respectively. Six and twelve weeks later the rabbits were sacrificed and the samples were collected. The platelet number, the concentrations of growth factors of P-PRP and whole blood, and the IL-1β concentration in the joint fluid were investigated, and the histological assessment of the cartilage were performed according to Mankin's scoring system. Micro-CT was also used to evaluate the restoration of subchondral bone. The platelet concentration in P-PRP is 6.8 fold of that in the whole blood. The IL-1β level in the P-PRP group was lower than in the HA group (p<0.01) and in the control group (p<0.01). The restoration of the defected cartilage as well as the subchondral bone was better in the P-PRP group than in the HA group or the control group (P<0.05). Our data showed that P-PRP is better than HA in promoting the restoration of the cartilage and alleviating the arthritis caused by cartilage damage.


This paper presents the regionalisation of the three parameter event-based PQRUT model, which is used for design flood analyses. The PQRUT model is used for the analysis of peak flows for which a sub-daily temporal resolution is required. The availability of high-resolution discharge data and disaggregated precipitation data have made it possible to re-evaluate the regional regression equations currently in use. We also assess whether the model parameters show spatial dependency. Event-based calibration was performed for the 45 highest flood events for each of 55 selected catchments across Norway, representing peak flows generated predominantly by rainfall. Due to the geographical heterogeneity of most areas in Norway, a statistically significant homogeneous region was only identified for catchments in southeastern Norway. Multiple linear regression and weighted regression were, therefore, used to develop a single set of equations, applicable to the entire country. The results for the weighted regression indicate a decrease in the median Kling–Gupta efficiency from 0.64 to 0.51 for calibration and regionalisation, respectively. The results also suggest that regression methods may perform better than methods based on spatial proximity in regions with varying topography when a parsimonious model is used.


The coherent diffraction of neutrons from powder samples combined with the Rietveld refinement method has proven to be a versatile tool, providing insights into a variety of mineralogical crystal-chemical studies that require measurements at non-ambient conditions. The relatively low absorption which neutrons suffer, the ease in taking sample-environment devices onto experimental stations at neutron facilities, the coherent-neutron-scattering length contrasts between quasi-isoelectronic species and the independence of coherent-neutron-scattering power of the scattering vector, underlie the success in using this radiation in mineralogy. The literature reporting neutron powder-diffraction studies of minerals at non-ambient conditions has been reviewed and the results obtained over the last 20 years or so are briefly reported in order to provide an indication of the diversity of applications of the technique. A few applications have been selected for a more in-depth analysis of the results (i.e., micas); further applications are discussed in detail in the accompanying paper by Redfern (2002). The results reported are gathered into four sections, according to the experimental conditions used: high temperature (cation partitioning, phase transitions), low temperature (location of light atoms, hydrogen bonding, occupancy factors of quasi-empty sites), high pressure (hydrogen bonding, phase transitions, cation partitioning) and high pressure and temperature (cation partitioning).


Pteroceltis tatarinowii Maxim, the only species of the genus Pteroceltis (family Ulmaceae), is an endemic rare tree species in China. This study was performed to explore vegetative propagation techniques for P. tatarinowii using stem cuttings. First, the effects of exogenous indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and cutting positions on rooting performance were investigated to screen the appropriate exogenous auxin treatment and to determine the proper cuttings type. The results showed that the control cuttings pretreated with no exogenous IBA, irrespective of whether the stem cuttings were terminal, middle, or basal, rooted in a manner significantly inferior to that of cuttings pretreated with IBA. Their rooting percentage was less than 50%. Among the IBA-treated cuttings, the middle cuttings pretreated with 1000 mg·L−1 IBA rooted best, with the shortest number of days until rooting emergence (20 days), the highest rooting percentage (84.0%), the lowest mortality rate (4.0%), the greatest root number (average of 6.7 per cutting), and the longest roots per cutting (44.4 cm per cutting). Terminal cuttings pretreated with 1000 mg·L−1 IBA acquired satisfactory rooting traits and had the same shortest rooting duration (20 days) and the following parameters: rooting, 70.7%; mortality, 10.7%; average roots per cutting, 5.2; and longest root, 29.1 cm. To further determine the optimum cutting propagation time for this plant, a second experiment was performed and the cuttings were collected beginning in early June, when the growth of the current season was feasible for harvesting cuttings. Stem cuttings collected in late June and middle July had significantly higher rooting percentages (≥80%) compared with those collected in early June (66.7%). The other three rooting parameters were not significantly affected by the collection date. However, according to the overall rooting traits, the cuttings collected in both late June and middle July remarkably outperformed those collected in early June regarding the number of roots and the total root length per cutting. The initial nutrient reserves in the cuttings were also determined. A significant difference in the soluble carbohydrate level was found among collection times, but the nitrogen level in the cuttings was similar. The study revealed that stem cutting propagation of P. tatarinowii was achievable, and it was best achieved with cuttings collected from the terminal and middle positions of the branches of the current season from late June to middle July and treated with 1000 mg·L−1 IBA using the quick dip method.


In recent years, the European identity has been widely researched by sociologists who take an interest in mass and elite identification with the European project. In this article it is argued that the European identity is not only a research object for sociologists interested in identification: it is also their creation. Sociologists theorize and shape a European identity in, by and through their writings. The main objective of this article is to narrate the history of European identity making in sociology. In the first part, it is argued that these two different, clashing approaches to the European identity – namely, the civilizational and the cultural approaches – can be discerned in sociological works throughout European history. They persist in the post-war period when the European identity increasingly comes to depend on the EU. The objective of the second part is to show that the post-war identities 'Social Europe', 'Cosmopolitan Europe' and more recently, 'German Europe' are equivocal. It is found that they are interpreted differently depending on whether sociologists endorse the civilizational or the cultural approach.


Genetic differentiation across multiple spatial scales of the Red Sea of the corals Stylophora pistillata and Pocillopora verrucosa Alison A Monroe Observing populations at different spatial scales gives greater insight into the specific processes driving genetic differentiation and population structure. Here we determined population connectivity across multiple spatial scales in the Red Sea to determine the population structures of two reef building corals Stylophora pistillata and Pocillopora verrucosa. The Red sea is a 2,250 km long body of water with extremely variable latitudinal environmental gradients. Mitochondrial and microsatellite markers were used to determine distinct lineages and to look for genetic differentiation among sampling sites. No distinctive population structure across the latitudinal gradient was discovered within this study suggesting a phenotypic plasticity of both these species to various environments. Stylophora pistillata displayed a heterogeneous distribution of three distinct genetic populations on both a fine and large scale. Fst, Gst, and Dest were all significant (p-value<0.05) and showed moderate genetic differentiation between all sampling sites. However this seems to be byproduct of the heterogeneous distribution, as no distinct genetic population breaks were found. Stylophora pistillata showed greater population structure on a fine scale suggesting genetic selection based on fine scale environmental variations. However, further environmental and oceanographic data is needed to make more inferences on this structure at small spatial scales. This study highlights the deficits of knowledge of both the Red Sea and coral plasticity in regards to local environmental conditions.


[Abstract]:

Online education offers many people the opportunity to begin or continue their education. The option to undertake studies has also expanded dramatically due to
increasing numbers of online programs. One of the strengths of online learning is the ability to provide a rich learning experience where students have the opportunity to interact using technology. Although a general profile of students who enrol in online
courses has been developed, very little of the research is comprehensive enough to create an understanding of the experience of individual online learners. Many studies have been conducted on the process of interaction and there is a need to learn more about how students use interaction and tools in online learning.

A review of current research into online learning uncovered a need for a deeper understanding of how online students engage in interaction, their learning styles, and the types of content they use in their online courses. The research review raised a number of specific questions:

• What types of online interactions are students having?
• Are there particular learner types that are more successful in the online learning environment?
• Is there specific course content that is used more often than others in online learning?
• Are there obstacles to online interactions for students and if so what are they?
• What factors influence student satisfaction in online learning?

In particular do learning styles, course content and interaction influence learner satisfaction and outcomes in online learning? What impact do these variables have,
separately and together, on online learners? This study looked at the educational experience of 124 online students using a 125 item online survey and follow-up
interview.

The outcomes of this study showed that Participant and Independent learner styles were important factors contributing to the success of online learners. Even if they did not possess the skills before they entered the courses, the ability to demonstrate, analyze, and
apply course content was of benefit to learners. Interaction did not have a significant impact on the outcomes or satisfaction of learners. The more closely the online courses matched the individual's personal learning style and approach to online learning the more
satisfied and successful they were.

The results of the research include a number of practical examples that can be easily integrated into the online learning environment. Those delivering, teaching, and
studying in online programs can use these results to increase their understanding of online education and apply that understanding to making online education more effective.


Graphene, what some are terming the "new silicon", has the possibility of revolutionizing technology through nanoscale design processes. Fabrication of graphene for device processing is limited largely by the temperatures used in conventional deposition. High temperatures are detrimental to device design where many different materials may be present. For this reason, graphene synthesis at low temperatures using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is the subject of much research. In this thesis, a tool for ultra-high vacuum plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (UHV-PECVD) and accompanying subsystems, such as control systems and alarms, are designed and implemented to be used in future graphene growths. Also in this thesis, a method to fabricate graphene using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is proposed and executed on a single-chamber chemical vapor deposition system. The as-grown films were studied using spectroscopic and microscopic techniques. Analysis of the grown films indicated nanoscale, multilayer flake-like structures. The structures grown were crystalline and of uniform diameter. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy confirmed the main element of the flakes to be carbon. Though large-area graphene was not achieved, it is evident from this research that fine-tuning the parameters in the growth process would increase the possibility of monolithic graphene growth at low temperatures. The new UHV-PECVD system, with its cutting-edge capabilities, could be used to further research on graphene growth. This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council.


The red wine is one of the foods rich in antioxidants, compounds that protect the organisms against the destructive action of the free radicals on the health. In this context, for the promotion of wines on markets, an identification of the wines assortments with high antioxidant capacity should be achieved. The present study, performed during 2012– 2014 period, at Research and Development Institute for Viticulture and Enology Valea Calugareasca, aimed to define the antioxidant capacity of the wines made from 11 grapevine varieties belonging to the three groups of wines assortments and to make a correlation of the antioxidant capacity with the phenolic potential of the grapes and wines. Depending on the period when the grapevine variety was created, an old wine assortment, a current and a newly created one can be differentiated. The antioxidant capacity of the wine was performed by means the TEAC method, the phenolic potential of the grapes by Glories method and the phenolic composition of the wines by OIV spectrophotometric methods. The data processing was realized by using the Regression and correlation analysis. The obtained results showed that the varieties 'Negru aromat', 'Novac' and 'Olivia' are characterized by a high antioxidant capacity, the group formed by 'Feteasca neagra', 'Pinot noir' and 'Merlot' showed a medium antioxidant capacity. The lowest values of the antioxidant capacity were registered in the case of 'Negru moale', 'Negru vartos', 'Blauerzweigelt' and 'Burgund' mare varieties. The antioxidant capacity of the wines was closely correlated with the following parameters of the phenolic potential of the raw material: total polyphenols, extractable anthocyanins, tannins originated from seeds and the maturity of the seeds.


The mechanism(s) responsible for the cardiotoxicity of CO are not clear and do not appear to arise solely from tissue hypoxia. Tissue hypoxia is produced by CO binding to haemoglobin and reducing the amount of oxygen carried by the blood in vivo. CO-induced hypoxia in vivo may be responsible for producing conditions such as those found during ischaemia/reperfusion (l/R) injury. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced during l/R injury is established and responsible for cellular/tissue damage from the oxidative damage. We postulate that oxidative stress is responsible for the CO-associated cardiac morbidities found in some cases following severe acute exposure to CO. Isolated perfused rat hearts were used to investigate the physiological and biochemical changes in hearts following CO exposure. Hearts were perfused with buffer equilibrated with different mixtures of CO (0-0.05% CO for 30 minutes) in the presence of 2 1 % oxygen during and after CO exposure (for 90 minutes), i.e. normoxic conditions were used throughout. Some hearts were perfused with water-soluble antioxidants (ascorbic acid and TroloxC) before and during the CO exposure. The reduced heart rate and perfusate flow suggest that CO may have a direct effect in heart tissue. Biochemical measurements suggest that no tissue hypoxia occurred under these conditions. The results provide evidence to suggest that oxidative stress occurred in ventricle tissue after CO exposure and was attenuated by the antioxidants. However, isolated rat liver mitochondria exposed to CO and/or hyperoxia showed no ROS production suggesting that mitochondria may not be a source of the oxidative stress. CO exposure may also produce altered myocardial energetics by oxidatively modifying and/or binding to myoglobin. Tissue damage initiated by CO-induced oxidative stress and hypoxia may potentiate ageing within heart tissue in vivo and could be responsible for producing the observed CO-associated heart morbidity in an MR-like injury.


Volumetric medical images visualization is an important tool in the diagnosis
and treatment of diseases. Through history, one of the most dificult
tasks for Medicine Specialists has been the accurate location of broken bones
and of the damaged tissues during Chemotherapy treatment, among other
applications; like techniques used in Neurological Studies. Thus these situations
enhance the need of visualization in Medicine. New technologies,
the improvement and development of new hardware as well as software and
the updating of old ones for graphic applications have resulted in specialized
systems for medical visualization. However the use of these techniques
in mobile devices has been poor due to its low performance. In our work,
we propose a client-server scheme, where the model is compressed in the
server side and is reconstructed in a nal thin-client device. The technique
restricts the natural density values to achieve good bone visualization in
medical models, transforming the rest of the data to zero. Our proposal
uses a tridimensional Haar Wavelet Function locally applied inside units
blocks of 16x16x16, similar to the Wavelet Based 3D Compression Scheme
for Interactive Visualization of Very Large Volume Data approach. We also
implement a quantization algorithm which handles error coeficients according
to the frequency distributions of these coe cients. Finally, we made
an evaluation of the volume visualization; on current mobile devices .We
present the speci cations for the implementation of our technique in the
Nokia n900 Mobile Phone.


Remembering is a reconstructive process. Surprisingly little is known about how the reconstruction of a memory unfolds in time in the human brain. We used reaction times and EEG time-series decoding to test the hypothesis that the information flow is reversed when an event is reconstructed from memory, compared to when the same event is initially being perceived. Across three experiments, we found highly consistent evidence supporting such a reversed stream. When seeing an object, low-level perceptual features were discriminated faster behaviourally, and could be decoded from brain activity earlier, than high-level conceptual features. This pattern reversed during associative memory recall, with reaction times and brain activity patterns now indicating that conceptual information was reconstructed more rapidly than perceptual details. Our findings support a neurobiologically plausible model of human memory, suggesting that memory retrieval is a hierarchical, multi-layered process that prioritizes semantically meaningful information over perceptual detail.


Coffee production system is analyzed for 24 municipios (districts) in Veracruz, Mexico, from 1997 to 2002. A stochastic frontier approach is used to estimate an input distance function and to evaluate production efficiency. Results show the production process to be stable over time despite global price fluctuations. Production of staple crop (corn) with either coffee or other cash crops results in increased efficiency as a result of the economies of complementarity, while production of coffee with other cash crops leads to lower efficiency. Factors contributing to higher efficiency included higher population density, road availability, and higher altitude, typically associated with production of higher-quality coffee.


This paper will be oriented around twin poles: the aesthetics and politics of destruction, and the problematic of genre. The Island begins as a dystopia, drawing visually on the totalized and enclosed worlds of THX1138 (1971) and Logan's Run (1976), but also drawing on the grey-blue visual palette of The Matrix (1999) and Minority Report (2002). It is the latter film that The Island more nearly approximates, accelerating from a conventional dystopian trajectory (alienation of the protagonist leading to the revelation of the true state of the world) into the tropes and kinetic action sequences of the chase movie. These intertextual borrowings foreground the motif of the inauthentic in the narrative, with the very fabric of the film replicating the status of the 'agnate' clones that are central to the film: The Island makes no claim to originality, and in fact consistently sides against the authentic and 'original', privileging the experience of the inauthentic or 'copy', throughout the film. Consistent with this is a self-conscious staging, particularly in the first half of the film, and central to the conceit of 'the island' itself, of the massive power of imaging technologies which (through ILM) form the fabric of the cinematic spectacle of The Island as a film. This staging works to fold both imagined worlds (the underground dystopia and the near-future USA) into analogous relation to the security apparatus and biopolitical circuits of the contemporary West (and, by extension, contemporary sf films such as Code 46).


Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is the most common cancer of the biliary tract and has a particularly high incidence in Chile, Japan and northern India. The clinical presentation of GBC is often vague or delayed relative to pathologic progression, contributing to advanced staging and dismal prognosis at the time of diagnosis. In the diagnosis of GBC, differential diagnosis and determination of the local extension of tumor are important. For these purposes, imaging modalities such as endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS), CT, MRI and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) are useful. The treatment of localized GBC is based on surgery. Chemotherapy has been used extensively in advanced GBC, and we have gained some experience with gemcitabine-based combination (with cisplatin and oxaliplatin or with capecitabine) regimens.


Class, ethnicity, education, and employment status are all factors that influence a father's involvement in his children's lives. Children have a healthier self-image when they know the identity of their father, and he is actively engaged in their development. Unfortunately, drug abuse, jail, and socio-economic status of fathers decrease their interaction with their children. Statistically, 85% of all African-American children will spend at least five years of their lives without a father present in their home. Sometimes it's the mother's choice to deny the father involvement because she is unsure of his true identity or does not want to identify him. For instance, 65% of birth certificates for women below the age of 20 do not verify the identity of the father. Furthermore, the mothers may no longer desire contact with the birth father, or she has a new man in her life. There are five major theories used to examine black families: Deficit, Matriarchy, Afrocentric, Ecological, Choice or Exchange. These theories clarify the value and the roles that some black men play in their progeny's lives. However, many fathers reject the myth of the deadbeat dad and other negative stereotypes attributed to black fathers. These men claim that the media depicts black fathers in a negative way by distorting, minimizing or ignoring their roles. However, despite the negative perception of black fatherhood in the media, there are many black fathers who credit their own fathers and other positive male role models for showing them how to successfully raise a child.


Slavery seems to us to be a paradigm of a morally wrong institutionalized practice. And yet for most of its millennia-long historical existence it was typically accepted as a natural, necessary, and inevitable feature of the social world. This widespread normative consensus was only challenged toward the end of the eighteenth century. Then, within a hundred years of the emergence of radical moral criticism of slavery, the existing practices had been dismantled and the institution itself "abolished." How do we explain such a "profound transformation in moral perception" (Davis 1975)? It may seem obvious that the moral agency and character of the leaders and activists of the abolition movement, their supporters, and their governmental representatives were the primary motors of change. That is to say, the various actors involved came to see, recognize, or acknowledge the true (morally evil) nature of slavery and were thereby motivated to act against it. This "commonsense," "moral explanation" is endorsed by most of the philosophers who have reflected on the morality of slavery. But despite the intuitiveness of thinking that it was the moral agency of the actors, pitted against the evil and injustice of slavery, that brought about the latter's downfall, I will endeavor to show that such thinking is inadequate both to the facts and to the explanatory desiderata. I contend that it was not ignorance of the supposedly inherent moral status of slavery that maintained people's complicity with it, but practical barriers to them conceiving it dispensable.


The role of prosody in adults' acquisition of a miniature artificial language was examined in three experiments. In Experiment 1, learners heard and repeated prerecorded sentences of the language, and simultaneously saw corresponding referents, but did not see any printed words. Learners received four study-test trials. Half the learners heard a ''single word'' presentation, in which each of the four words of each sentence was recorded with the falling contour associated with list-final position. Half heard a ''phrase prosody'' presentation — expected to aid learning — in which each two-word phrase was recorded as a phrasal unit, with the first two-word phrase of each sentence having a rising contour and the second two-word phrase having a falling contour. Half the participants were given a dialect with high-frequency markers expected to aid learning, and the other half a dialect with low-frequency markers. The phrase prosody presentation did not facilitate learning. Experiment 2 removed the reference field and provided six study-test trials. Phrase prosody here facilitated performance, primarily by increasing learners' acceptance of correct sequences. Experiment 3 removed participants' repetition as well as the reference field and found a strong effect of phrase prosody. We propose that prosody helps recognition of correct word pairs and may be especially useful when other cues to syntactic structure are either unavailable or cannot be exploited by the learner. q 1996 Academic Press, Inc.


Eating disorders (EDs) affect at least 11 million people in the United States each year and spread across age, race, ethnicity and socio-economic class. While professional literature on the subject has grown a great deal in the past 30 years, it tends to be exclusively research-based and lacking expert clinical commentary on treatment. This volume focuses on just such commentary, with chapters authored by both expert clinicians and researchers. Core issues such as assessment and diagnosis, the correlation between EDs and weight and nutrition, and medical/psychiatric management are discussed, as are the underrepresented issues of treatment differences based on gender and culture, the applications of neuroscience, EDNOS, comorbid psychiatric disorders and the impact of psychiatric medications. This volume uniquely bridges the gap between theoretical findings and actual practice, borrowing a bench-to-bedside approach from medical research. It includes real-world clinical findings that will improve the level of care readers can provide, consolidated in one place. Underrepresented issues such as gender, culture, EDNOS and comorbidity are covered in full. It represents outstanding scholarship, with each chapter written by an expert in the topic area.


Up to tenth-order finite difference schemes are proposed in this paper to solve one-dimensional advection-diffusion equation. The schemes based on high-order differences are presented using Taylor series expansion. To obtain the solutions, up to tenth-order finite difference schemes in space and a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme in time have been combined. The methods are implemented to solve two problems having exact solutions. Numerical experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the efficiency and high-order accuracy of the current methods. The techniques are seen to be very accurate in solving the advection-diffusion equation for Pe ≤ 5 . The produced results are also seen to be more accurate than some available results given in the literature.


Scent marking behavior in mammals is related with both inter and intra-specific communication. Several otter species are known to communicate via scent marking, but a couple scent marking has not been documented in the Neotropical Otter (Lontra longicaudis). We obtained field observations of scent marking behavior in Neotropical Otters over two years using camera traps along waterways in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Our results reveal the use of sandy substrates on islands and river margins for intra-specific communication between otters. Most records (62.5%) were from solitary adults. We document multiple independent records of adult otters digging to scent mark with urine and couple behavior of males urinating on top of female's fresh urine in newly dug shallow craters. We also demonstrate behavioral plasticity of this species evidenced by camera traps recording terrestrial activity during both day and night. Our results contribute to improve the knowledge of the behavior of this otter species in the wild and can potentially be applied to improve ex-situ welfare of captive otters. Citation: Michalski F., Martins, C.B., Rheingantz, M.L. and Norris, D. (2021). New Scent Marking Behavior of Neotropical Otter (Lontra longicaudis) in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon. IUCN Otter Spec. Group Bull. 38 (1): 28 -37


Changes in the developmental or metabolic state of plastids can trigger profound changes in the transcript profiles of nuclear genes. Many nuclear transcription factors were shown to be controlled by signals generated in the organelles. In addition to the many different compounds for which an involvement in retrograde signaling is discussed, accumulating evidence suggests a role for proteins in plastid-to-nucleus communication. These proteins might be sequestered in the plastids before they act as transcriptional regulators in the nucleus. Indeed, several proteins exhibiting a dual localization in the plastids and the nucleus are promising candidates for such a direct signal transduction involving regulatory protein storage in the plastids. Among such proteins, the nuclear transcription factor WHIRLY1 stands out as being the only protein for which an export from plastids and translocation to the nucleus has been experimentally demonstrated. Other proteins, however, strongly support the notion that this pathway might be more common than currently believed.


The normal cellular prion protein (PrPc) plays a dual role in transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), which is a group of lethal disease affecting humans and a variety of animal species. First PrPC is hypothesized to be the source of the causative agent "the prion" in TSE, as the pathologic missfolded scrapie isoform of the prion protein (PrPSC) catalyses its own conversion from the prion protein. Second, there is substantial evidence that PrPC is the receptor mediating neurotoxicity and disease progression in TSE. In support of this theory, some antiprion antibodies have been found to induce neurotoxicity, an important discovery that may provide a new model system to investigate the pathologic interaction between PrPSC and PrPC.
In the first part of the thesis I investigated antiprion mediated toxicity in vivo. Towards this goal, I established two read outs based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumetry allowing the measurment of antiprion induced neurotoxicity in intact mice over time. In the beginning I worked with Manganese Enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to visualize cerebellar lesion induction. As this was less well suited to the measurement of the neurotoxic induction in the hippocampus, I additionally established a diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) scan protocol. Diffusion restriction can be found within an hour after the injection of high concentration of monovalent fragments of the neurotoxic antiprion antibody POM1. As previously found in cerebellar organotypic slice cultures (COCS) antiprion mediated neurotoxicity was found to be target and eptiopic specific. Neuronal expression of PrPC is sufficient for lesion induction and lesion induction is independent from cross-linking.
Further I investigated important signalling pathways downstream of PrPC. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a known mediator of neurodegenerative disease and I could demonstrate that they are important in the pathologic cascade of antiprion mediated neurotoxicitiy in vivo.
As a major source of ROS, I identified NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2). As in bona fide prion infection, I could detect fodrin cleavage as a marker for calpain activation in homogenates from antiprion injected brain tissue. These findings are indicative that similar pathways are activated in both pathological conditions. Further, my data shows that the NCX3 antiporter is a possible source of pathologic Ca2+ currents in the antiprion antibody model.
In the second part of this thesis, I focused on the risk characterization of neurotoxic antiprion antibodies. Despite reports about the neurotoxic side effects of antiprion antibodies, passive immunotherapy with these ligands is still a therapeutic strategy under investigation in the treatment of TSE. Using my established MRI based quantification system and basic histological methods, I assessed the neurotoxic potential of the antiprion antibody ICSM18, which is under evaluation as a therapeutic agent for TSE in humans. Unless further investigations can confirm a safe therapeutic window for the use of these antibodies and others, my findings suggest that utmost caution is indicated.
Here I show that Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a valuable tool in the assessment of anti prion mediated neurotoxicity in vivo. This technique can be used for the risk characterization of antiption antibodies. In addition, our work in vivo and in cerebellar slice cultures provides
new evidence that neurotoxic antiprion antibodies model the pathologic interaction of PrPSC with PrPC. Thus, the established tool can be used in further studies to investigate prionmediated neurotoxicity, in a much shorter time frame and within biosafety level one.


Consumer credit is increasingly offered, for various purposes and in various ways. In particular, electronic Web and SMS loans have been growing considerably over the last few years, and they attract attention owing to their high costs. The easy access to credit, in combination with intensive marketing, contributes to increased private borrowing, thus creating a debtor culture. The fact that easy access to credit is not purely to the benefit of the consumer is reflected in the main register for default on private debt in Denmark. Here more than one in 20 adult Danes are registered with a bad credit history, and the defaulted debt has doubled in the last six years. The focus of the article, therefore, is on the legal problems related to easy access to non-secured consumer credit as illustrated by Danish legislation. It is suggested that the legislation is not functioning effectively and that more well-proportioned solutions are needed. A modern approach should recognise that consumer credit differs from other consumer arrangements, in that consumers run a special risk of becoming over-indebted – not only to their own detriment but ultimately also to that of society. One of the possible solutions is to limit marketing and introduce responsible lending standards.


This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in sensing technologies that are relevant for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) screening and therapy. This disorder is characterized by difficulties in social communication, social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. It is diagnosed during the first three years of life. Early and intensive interventions have been shown to improve the developmental trajectory of the affected children. The earlier the diagnosis, the sooner the intervention therapy can begin, thus, making early diagnosis an important research goal. Technological innovations have tremendous potential to assist with early diagnosis and improve intervention programs. The need for careful and methodological evaluation of such emerging technologies becomes important in order to assist not only the therapists and clinicians in their selection of suitable tools, but to also guide the developers of the technologies in improving hardware and software. In this paper, we survey the literatures on sensing technologies for ASD and we categorize them into eye trackers, movement trackers, electrodermal activity monitors, tactile sensors, vocal prosody and speech detectors, and sleep quality assessment devices. We assess their effectiveness and study their limitations. We also examine the challenges faced by this growing field that need to be addressed before these technologies can perform up to their theoretical potential.


Introduction: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a group of idiopathic disorders characterized by the proliferation of specialized bone marrow-derived Langerhans cells (LCs) and mature eosinophils, resulting in solitary or few, indolent and chronic, lesions of bone or other organs called eosinophilic granulomas. Calvarial LCH is quite rare and an underappreciated differential etiology of skull lesions. We present a most unusual case of a young child with hyperacutely symptomatic langerhans histiocytosis of the skull. Method: A 7-year-old male presented with a history of increasing (progressive) frontal headaches of 8 days duration, unaccompanied by associated nausea, vomiting, or diplopia. His only additional complaint was a hard bump on his forehead. MRI and CT done in the ER identified a right fronto-parietal lesion with associated skull erosion. Nuclear medicine and SPECT studies confirmed an erosive skull lesion without significant metabolic activity. A right frontal craniectomy and excision was performed. Results: A soft, rubbery well-circumcised mass coming from the diploic layer of the skull with involvement of bone was identified. The mass had eroded both the outer and inner table of the skull, and the involved area of the right frontal bone was resected. Intra-operative histo-pathologic analysis of the lesion revealed Langerhans cell histiocytosis without involvement of the dura. The patient experienced no neurological worsening as a result of the resection. He was discharged home in stable condition. Conclusion: LCH lesions of the skull are common findings, however, this focal hyperacute symptomatic presentation is most rare and should not deter us from anticipating an erosive bony tumor and planning timely surgical management.


This article proposes a new approximation scheme for quadratic-growth BSDEs in a Markovian setting by connecting a series of semi-analytic asymptotic expansions applied to short-time intervals. Although there remains a condition which needs to be checked a posteriori, one can avoid altogether time-consuming Monte Carlo simulation and other numerical integrations for estimating conditional expectations at each space-time node. Numerical examples of quadratic-growth as well as Lipschitz BSDEs suggest that the scheme works well even for large quadratic coefficients, and a fortiori for large Lipschitz constants.


Needle-based microfluidic system that comprised of needle-based microfluidic devices (NBMD) in parallel connection was employed to generate polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microdroplets using oil-in-water (O/W) single emulsion template. The parallel-connection could be simply realized by multiple single NBMD connected via flow diverting devices. The versatile flow diverting devices could not only avoid the additional use of injection pumps for introducing fluids into the microfluidic system, but also enhance the yields of microdroplets. The entire production rate of the system has been raised to 535 drops per minute compared with that using a single NBMD which yields to 133 drops per minute. All the microdroplets were produced under dripping flow regime. If identical flow conditions and channel diameters were applied, the generated microdroplets from the each microchannel could have high monodispersity. Despite of several parameters that could affect the droplet sizes, for example, flow rate exerted on each channel and the channel size which depended on the selection of various needle combinations of the inlet and outlet needles, the inter-needle distance between those two needles may significantly influence the size of droplets. Thus, it shall be controlled carefully to remain the same distance in terms of achieving high monodispersity of the droplet sizes. On the other hand, one can vary the sizes of needles applied in the same batch of production or by adjusting the inter-needle distance in order to realize the production of microdroplets with various sizes. Moreover, diverse types of microdroplets could be produced simultaneously through different channels by NBMD. In this research, sugar and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were utilized as dopants mixing with PDMS precursor as the dispersed phase to produce PDMS-S and PDMS-CNTs microdroplets. The droplets could be collected and thermally solidified off-site for other applications. This platform does not require sophisticated equipment and is very cost-effective compared with conventional microfluidic devices such as PDMS devices or glass capillary devices. Hence, the system has great potential to produce microdroplets at a large scale.


According to the hierarchical galaxy formation model, galaxies grow through mergers that enhance star formation and trigger active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity. If nearly all galaxies host a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in their center, it is expected that pairs of SMBHs will be formed in the course of a merger event. The detection and number estimates of binary black hole (BBH) systems can, thus, help us to understand how galaxies form and grow, and shed light on the evolutionary models that rule the Universe. With this purpose, we pursue, in this thesis, three different lines of observational evidence for BBH systems: in X-shaped radio galaxies, in ultraluminous X- ray sources, and in double nucleus post-merger galaxies.
X-shaped radio galaxies are a class of peculiar radio sources which exhibit two pairs of radio lobes that pass symmetrically through the center of the host galaxy, giving the galaxy the X-shaped morphology seen on radio maps. This morphology has been suggested to reflect either a recent merger of two SMBHs or the presence of a second active BH in the galactic nucleus. This scenario is tested in this thesis by a multifaceted study that combines measurements of radio and optical luminosity, estimates of the black hole masses and ages of the radio lobes, and assessments of the starburst histories in the X-shaped radio sources and their host galaxies. The study covers a sample of 38 X-shaped radio galaxies and a control sample of 36 radio-loud active nuclei with similar redshift and optical and radio luminosities. The optical spectra of the host galaxies are modeled using a linear combination of synthetic stellar populations that provides the stellar velocity dispersion (from which the BH mass can be derived) and the light fraction, mass fraction, and metallicity of the stellar populations. From these, the starburst history of the galaxies is derived. The dynamic age of the active lobes is also estimated, from their angular size on the radio maps. A statistical study of all these properties reveals that all the X-shaped sources in the sample are found in elliptical galaxies, their BH masses are on average higher than those in a control sample of radio-loud AGN, and they exhibit enhanced star formation activity on timescales expected in galactic mergers. These results yield further support to the merger scenario as the origin of the peculiar X-shaped radio morphology.
Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULX) have also been suggested to be related to BBH systems in post-merger galaxies. The high X-ray luminosity of ULXs cannot be explained by stellar evolution models, unless they were X-ray binaries with super-Eddington accretion, strong beaming effects, or in an ultraluminous state. Alternatively, ULXs have been suggested to be intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH) accreting at sub-Eddington rates, young supernovae, or secondary BHs in the course a merger event with the ULX host galaxy. In order to clarify which is the most likely scenario, the BH mass of those ULXs with radio counterparts detected has been estimated from the location of the ULXs in the black hole fundamental plane. We find that the 19 ULXs studied have estimated BH masses in the range 10^3–10^8 M⊙, and that 58% of them have estimated BH masses in the range 10^2–10^5 M⊙ expected for IMBHs. We also perform high-resolution VLBI radio observations of three ULXs with radio counterparts. This yields a better constraint of the BH mass of two of them and the resolved structure of one of the youngest known supernova remnants.
The third class of objects likely to host BBH systems are the galaxies with double nucleus (double nucleus galaxies). According to the models that describe the evolution of BBH systems, the luminosity of the two nuclei is expected to be affected by an enhancement of the accretion rate due to tidal effects and by accretion disk disruption. This is tested, in this thesis, with the study of the optical luminosities of a sample of 54 post-merger galaxies with double nucleus. The luminosity of each of the nuclei and their relative separation is derived from the fit of two gaussian components (PSF fitting) to the g, r, and u-band images of the center of these post-merger galaxies, while the luminosity of the host galaxy is obtained from SDSS optical photometry. As a result of the PSF fitting, we find that in 19 post-merger galaxies the two nuclei are physically separated by ≤ 1 kpc. These sources are, thus, potential sub-kpc scale AGN pairs. Secondly, we find that the nuclear luminosity is correlated with the luminosity of the host galaxy due to a tidal enhancement of the accretion rate, but that another mechanism is also affecting the luminosity trends observed. We suggest that accretion disk stripping is also at play, and estimate that it should take place at a binding radius between 1 and 3 kpc. A fit by a BBH model, which takes into account tidal enhancement as well as accretion disk disruption, supports these results, obtaining that the accretion disk of both the primary and the secondary nucleus are being disrupted in all the sources. The model also finds that the two nuclei become gravitationally bound when they are at a projected separation of 2.3 kpc, which is the case for 60% of the galaxies studied. We also find that the value of the power-law spectral index of the accretion disk derived from the fit is in agreement with the ones of AGN with a peak in the optical-UV band (big blue bump) of their spectral energy distribution.
In order to test the BBH scenario in the ULXs with radio counterparts detected, the results of the BBH fit obtained for double nucleus post-merger galaxies are also applied to the X-ray luminosity dependence of the ULXs on the nuclear separation to their host galaxy. The observed trend between ULX luminosity and nuclear distance is in agreement with the BBH model, supporting the BBH scenario for the ULX sources studied.
Overall, the results of our study indicate that the activity of the secondary black holes is rapidly quenched in post-merger galaxies, which explains the very low detection rate for the secondaries. Based on the results of our study, more effective approaches for detecting the secondaries have been derived, and these approaches will be now pursued at a number of optical and radio astronomical facilities, including the VLT, the EVLA, and the VLBA.


ABSTRACT In order to test the potential ecological role of the Siculo-Tunisian Strait as a geographic barrier, the morphological and genetic variation of eight Tunisian samples of the sharpsnout seabream, Diplodus puntazzo, were studied, based on 23 truss network elements and 13 polymorphic allozyme loci. Significant morphological differences were observed between studied samples, especially between lagoon ones. Although genetic data did not support the detected morphometric variation, F-statistics indices (FIS and FST) revealed a significant departure from panmixia with heterozygote deficiencies and slight genetic differentiation between samples. Genetic results suggested the existence of moderate and local genetic heterogeneity that can be explained by the chaotic genetic patchiness hypothesis. Morphological and genetic results showed that the Siculo-Tunisian Strait does not seem to act as a barrier limiting the connectivity between the natural populations of D. puntazzo, at least at the scale of the Tunisian coast. Thus, the phenotypic variation identified in this study appears to be environmentally induced through the exploitation of different ecological niches and hydrodynamic constraints.


THERE IS A wonderful concluding scene in the movie Trading Places, when the leading characters Louis and Billy Ray toast their crushing victory over the nasty Duke brothers. Stretched out on the beach, drink in hand, Billy Ray yells, "Looking good Louis." Louis stands in his yacht with a glass of champagne in one hand and Jamie Lee Curtis in the other and yells back, "Feeling good, Billy Ray." In 1991, the American foreign policy and academic communities were filled with Billy Rays and Louis's. The response in the United States to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and more generally to the "Leninist Extinction"--the abrupt, accelerated, and comprehensive demise of Leninist regimes worldwide--was a growing and euphoric expectation and declaration that a global democratic capitalist revolution led by and modeled on the United States was imminent. (1) The same prophetic ideas and expectations had failed to materialize after World War I and World War II, however. Victory in World War I led President Woodrow Wilson to call for democratic self-determination in Eastern Europe and the creation of a League of Nations to prevent aggression. The United States failed to join the League, the League failed to prevent Italian, German, and Japanese aggression; and by the mid 1930s, with the exception of Czechoslovakia, all of Eastern Europe was led by monarchical or military dictators. Nonetheless, anticipated victory in World War II led President Franklin Roosevelt to call for a United Nations where the Soviet Union and the United States would continue their wartime cooperation, prevent further instances of aggression, and oversee the democratic decolonization of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Only three years after that victory the Soviet Union created a set of geographically contiguous replica regimes in Eastern Europe, and the Cold War had begun. As for decolonization, it produced dictatorships not democracies, socialism not capitalism, from Ghana to Egypt to Indonesia. Never mind. When the USSR collapsed, people thought, "Perhaps third time lucky." After all, the Soviet Union had been a much more substantial military, economic, and ideological challenge and threat to the West than Imperial Germany, Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany. Furthermore, defeat of the major threat to liberal capitalist democracy was accompanied by a purported democratic tsunami, or at least a "third wave" of democratization, sweeping the world. If any further proof was necessary of liberalism and America's final and complete (to borrow a Stalinist phrase) victory in the world historical battle against communism, one had only to look at the mass transformation of Western socialist academics to postmodern film critics. Francis Fukuyama, in his 1989 essay "The End of History?" offered the most radical and theoretically sophisticated interpretation of the West's unique victory. In his words, "the triumph of the West, of the Western Idea" was "evident first of all in the total exhaustion of viable systematic alternatives to Western liberalism." He continued: "At the end of history it is not necessary that all societies become successful liberal societies, merely that they end their ideological pretensions of representing different and higher forms of human society." Because in Fukuyama's mind liberalism has essentially, if not yet practically, let alone completely, solved the problems of war, poverty, equality, and scientific discovery; there is no room for new world historical competitors, only critics. Fukuyama's philosophical argument was supplemented at a lower level of generalization by Thomas Friedman's apologia for globalization, the technological logos for liberalism's victory. In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman saw globalization as the future, the global name and reality replacing the Cold War. According to Friedman, globalization was the world's "tiger"--an irresistible, benign, homogenizing force that would make nation-states relics. …


In this work, we demonstrate the improvement of thermal performances of a heat pipe parabolic trough solar collector by optimizing the annulus space, between the evaporator and the glass envelope, and using an appropriate filling gas. We compared the system thermal effectiveness for nine filling gases (hydrogen, air, helium, neon, oxygen, nitrogen, argon, krypton, and xenon). The results showed that using xenon or krypton leads to the best thermal yield (70%). While krypton arises to be the most energetically efficient filling gas, argon, with a thermal yield of 62%, presents a best compromise as the cheapest inert gas. In addition, we showed that the annular space size should be less than a critical value to minimize heat losses and to reduce the material cost during manufacturing.


n 1993 the ORFEUS Data Center (ODC; Dost, 1991) changed hosting organisation. It moved within the Netherlands from the University of Utrecht to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNM1) in de Bilt. This change in hosting organisation was necessary to ensure a longer term stability in the operation of the ODC. Key issues for the ODC are the rapid on-line data access and quality controlled, complete and efficient off-line data access. During 1992 the ODC became the European node in the international SPYDER system which provides near real-time access to digital broadband data from selected high quality stations. Electronic messages trigger soveral centers well distributed over the globe. These centers then collect the data by modem from selected stations in their region. Finally, data are distributed between data centers over internet.


The aim of this paper is to provide a framework for the analysis of implications of various trade policy options for Albania. We study the impact of implementation of the Stablization and Association Agreement, free trade agreements with South-East European neighbors and reduction of the MFN tariffs. We employ a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, which allows for evaluation of the likely impact of trade agreements on trade, output, factor rewards, tariff revenue and welfare. Our simulations indicate that Albania has a lot to gain from further integration with its neighbors and the EU. However, the benefits from regional integration can only be realized as long as Albania gains better access for its exports on regional markets. Liberalization of trade with all trading partners allows for a permanent increase of Albanian GDP by 1% on a recurring annual basis and an increase of wages by 3.4% relative to their 2000 level.


A software architecture should expose important system properties for consideration and analysis. Performance- related properties are frequently of interest in determining the acceptability of a given software design. In this paper we show how queueing network modeling can be adapted to support performance analysis of software architectures. We also describe a tool for transforming a software architecture in a particular style into a queueing network and analyzing its performance.


The LogicBlox system aims to reduce the complexity of software development for modern applications which enhance and automate decision-making and enable their users to evolve their capabilities via a ``self-service'' model. Our perspective in this area is informed by over twenty years of experience building dozens of mission-critical enterprise applications that are in use by hundreds of large enterprises across industries such as retail, telecommunications, banking, and government. We designed and built LogicBlox to be the system we wished we had when developing those applications. In this paper, we discuss the design considerations behind the LogicBlox system and give an overview of its implementation, highlighting innovative aspects. These include: LogiQL, a unified and declarative language based on Datalog; the use of purely functional data structures; novel join processing strategies; advanced incremental maintenance and live programming facilities; a novel concurrency control scheme; and built-in support for prescriptive and predictive analytics.


Few African countries provide for an explicit right to a nationality. Laws and practices governing citizenship effectively leave hundreds of thousands of people in Africa without a country. These stateless Africans can neither vote nor stand for office; they cannot enrol their children in school, travel freely, or own property; they cannot work for the government; they are exposed to human rights abuses. Statelessness exacerbates and underlies tensions in many regions of the continent. Citizenship Law in Africa, a comparative study by two programs of the Open Society Foundations, describes the often arbitrary, discriminatory, and contradictory citizenship laws that exist from state to state and recommends ways that African countries can bring their citizenship laws in line with international rights norms. The report covers topics such as citizenship by descent, citizenship by naturalisation, gender discrimination in citizenship law, dual citizenship, and the right to identity documents and passports. It is essential reading for policymakers, attorneys, and activists. This third edition is a comprehensive revision of the original text, which is also updated to reflect developments at national and continental levels. The original tables presenting comparative analysis of all the continent?s nationality laws have been improved, and new tables added on additional aspects of the law. Since the second edition was published in 2010, South Sudan has become independent and adopted its own nationality law, while there have been revisions to the laws in C?te d?Ivoire, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe. The African Commission on Human and Peoples? Rights and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child have developed important new normative guidance.


After the success of Or Glory 21st Century Rockers, acclaimed photographer Horst A. Friedrichs captures the spirit of The Rockers Jacket in modern times. First coming into its own as a symbol of youth rebellion in the 50s, the Leather jacket continues to fascinate as much for its beauty as its mythology. The leather jacket belongs to that select group of garments that can be described as iconic. No other western garment has been individualized that much, expressing the soul of who it belongs. The book features new exclusive pictures from the Lewis leathers vintage jacket collection. Iconic leather jackets never seen before, but also showing the contemporary replicas by Lewis Leathers.


Cancer is one of the leading causes of death. Radiation therapy is an important modality used in cancer treatment being highly cost-effective. Major flaw of radiotherapy is lack of selectivity between cancerous and healthy tissues. Amelioration of radiotherapy by using high-Z nanoparticles as radiation enhancers is one of potential solutions. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are commonly used as radioenhancers. Understanding the interaction between cancer cells and AuNPs is essential in order to achieve best possible radioenhancing effects, while sparing healthy tissues. This work aims to elucidate interactions of ultrasmall (core size: 2.4 nm and hydrodynamic diameter (Dh): 4.5 nm) fluorescently labeled AuNPs with various human cell lines. In this perspective we measured uptake dynamics, characterized route of internalization and time of intracellular retention in various cancer cell lines and fibroblasts. Our results show that uptake dynamics and internalization pathways are strongly cell line-dependant. We also demonstrate that higher proportion of internalized nanoparticles resides in cancer cells, compared to fibroblasts, in in vitro conditions. This work highlights great complexity of cancerous cells and underlines the necessity for excellent knowledge of biological behaviour for each type of cancer. It also emphasizes the major effort needed for efficient cancer treatments and makes an appeal for further development of highly selective nanoparticles in order to hasten their utilization in clinical conditions.


A time series of the 17O excess (17Δ) was measured in the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba) between May 2007 and August 2009. 17Δ is unaffected by respiration; thus it is a unique, conservative tracer that preserves the signature acquired in the photic zone, the source region for deep‐water formation. In this study we used 17Δ to assess the ratio of photosynthetic O2 to atmospheric O2 in deep water. We observed an increase of 17Δ by 20 per meg in the water residing below 300 m over a period of 3 months, followed by a decrease of 60 per meg over the next 7 months. These changes indicated penetration of photosynthetic O2, followed by penetration of atmospheric O2 into the deep water. To test whether vertical mixing could explain the observed variations in 17Δ, we compared our results with simulated values obtained from a one‐dimensional hydrodynamic model, which was extended to include dissolved O2 isotopes. Although successfully reproducing the observed temperatures, salinities, and dissolved O2 concentrations in the gulf, the model could not reproduce the observed variations in 17Δ in the deep water. This discrepancy shows that horizontal mixing processes have an important role in the interaction between deep and surface water in the gulf. We suggest that for the most part, these processes occur along the coastal boundaries of the gulf.


An integrated optical (palynofacies) and bulk organic geochemical study has been undertaken in order to determine the controls on the organic facies of paralic Middle Jurassic Hebridean sediments. The total organic carbon (TOC) values are generally between 0.5 and 2.5%, but reach up to 3-4% in dark-coloured non-bioturbated shales within the Bearreraig Sandstone Formation and Lealt Shales Formation, and 6-8% in the Staffin Bay Formation. Hydrogen indices (HI) are mostly below 300, increasing to 400-500 in the aforementioned organic-rich intervals, and reaching 650-800 in the Kilmaluag Formation. The best overall source potential probably occurs in the brackish Lealt Shales Formation. Correlations between HI, TOC and the content of the freshwater alga Botryococcus (< or =9% of the kerogen), suggest that freshwater run-off may have led to stratification of the Middle Jurassic lagoons, and thus dysoxic-anoxic bottomwaters and better quantitative and qualitative preservation of the plankton-derived amorphous organic matter.


The paper evaluates the fiscal policy initiatives during the Great Recession in the United States. It argues that, although the nonconventional fiscal policies targeted at the financial sector dwarfed the conventional countercyclical stabilization efforts directed toward the real sector, the relatively disappointing impact on employment was a result of misdirected funding priorities combined with an exclusive and ill-advised focus on the output gap rather than on the employment gap. The paper argues further that conventional pump-priming policies are incapable of closing this employment gap. In order to tackle the formidable labor market challenges observed in the United States over the last few decades, policy could benefit from a fundamental reorientation away from trickle-down Keynesianism and toward what is termed here a "bottom-up approach" to fiscal policy. This approach also reconsiders the nature of countercyclical government stabilizers.


Abstract. The input of mineral dust from arid regions impacts snow
optical properties. The induced albedo reduction generally alters the
melting dynamics of the snowpack, resulting in earlier snowmelt. In this
paper, we evaluate the impact of dust depositions on the melting dynamics of
snowpack at a high-elevation site (2160 m) in the European Alps (Torgnon,
Aosta Valley, Italy) during three hydrological years (2013–2016). These
years were characterized by several Saharan dust events that deposited
significant amounts of mineral dust in the European Alps. We quantify the
shortening of the snow season due to dust deposition by comparing observed snow
depths and those simulated with the Crocus model accounting, or not, for the
impact of impurities. The model was run and tested using meteorological data
from an automated weather station. We propose the use of repeated digital
images for tracking dust deposition and resurfacing in the snowpack. The
good agreement between model prediction and digital images allowed us to
propose the use of an RGB index (i.e. snow darkening index – SDI) for
monitoring dust on snow using images from a digital camera. We also present
a geochemical characterization of dust reaching the Alpine chain during
spring in 2014. Elements found in dust were classified as a function of
their origin and compared with Saharan sources. A strong enrichment in Fe
was observed in snow containing Saharan dust. In our case study, the
comparison between modelling results and observations showed that impurities
deposited in snow anticipated the disappearance of snow up to 38 d a out of
a total 7 months of typical snow duration. This happened for the season
2015–2016 that was characterized by a strong dust deposition event. During
the other seasons considered here (2013–2014 and 2014–2015), the snow
melt-out date was 18 and 11 d earlier, respectively. We conclude that the
effect of the Saharan dust is expected to reduce snow cover duration through
the snow-albedo feedback. This process is known to have a series of further
hydrological and phenological feedback effects that should be characterized
in future research.


In the Fourth District states of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, exports make a significant contribution to the economy. The total value of goods exported by these states is approximately $122 billion per year, which equals just under ten percent of their combined Gross State Products. We examine the District's exports following the recession and what may lie ahead.


The latest title in CEPR/ICMB's Geneva Reports on the World Economy series asks the following questions: What are likely to be the principal issues facing the international economy over the next decade? What could a realistic analysis hope for in the way of progress in confronting the problems of the future? What are the constraints imposed by the realities of international and domestic politics? What forms of international economic cooperation are most important to pursue, and most likely to be achieved?


Intussusception is the entrance of some part of the intestine into its neighboring lumen and creating a state of obstruction in the intestine which is the most common abdominal emergency and the second common cause of intestinal obstruction in children under two years of age. The aim of this study was demographic study of intussusception in patients referring to Amir Al-Mo'menin Hospital in the city of Zabol from 2003 to 2013.
Methods:This cross-sectional study used descriptive method to investigate demographic prevalence of intestinal intussusception from 2003 to 2013 in Amir Al-Mo'menin Hospital of Zabol City. The study was conducted by investigating the files of patients affected by intussusception in Al-Mo'menin Hospital of Zabol City between 2003-2013 during which 40 patients were examined based on manual calculations regarding variables of age, gender, comorbidities, main complaint of the patients, visiting season, etc
Results: Results showed that the mean age of patients was 23.61 ± 28.71 months and the most age groups were under one year of age (42.5%). 25 patients were male (62.5%) and 15 patients were female (37.2%). 70% of patients mentioned no comorbidities. The main complaint of about 50% of patients was abdominal pain and the least complaints were other symptoms (5%). Most patients referred in summer (40%) and the least visits were made in winter (10%). 80% of patients had no viral disease. About 90% of patients had no jelly-like stool. 26 patients (65%) had medical treatment and 14 patients (35%) had surgery treatment. The highest prevalence of intussusception in patients regarding the lesion was ileocolic while the lowest prevalence was ileoileal (10%).
Conclusion: Results showed that the incidence of intussusception is consistent with most studies in terms of gender, age, main complaint,and therapies. It is then necessary to pay more attention to the prevention of risk factors of intussusception in children aged less than one year in male patients and make continued efforts to further educate various groups such that we can keep abreast of scientific, empirical advances in other parts of the world in the near future.


This paper examines the use of the internet by a sample of 40,000 students from a group of demographically different schools in England. In analysing this usage a number of questions are asked about patterns of learning and lessons to be learned. Previous research and recent writings on this topic are examined and a theoretical framework is formed that eclectically draws on a number of sources, including postmodern authors. A methodology is used incorporating an analysis of system logs. It was found that learning using the internet often appears as being self-motivated with a strong sense of ownership both of content creation and social networking. It is often generated by a real purposeful need by the children themselves often with the assistance of their peers. Schools should be places where literacy in new media can be developed. The sample of schools in which usage was surveyed in the research represents a broad set of demographic profiles across England. Although the sample was restricted English children, responses from other countries may have shown a different set of responses.


As the richest cities in the world's most populous nation, Hong Kong and Shanghai have recently experienced dynamic growth spurred by more and better-managed capital. These cities also have social problems whose solutions will cost money. Their urban populations are aging. Health finance at the level these "First World" cities demand threatens to consume a large portion of the municipal budgets. Eldercare and social security are now less well covered by traditional Chinese families. Education has become more complex and public tuition, where it occurs, brings with it official plans for schools. Immigrants have flocked to Shanghai from inland China, and Hong Kong's border has become a protector of the former colony's high productivity jobs. Housing problems also have deeply affected both cities, albeit in somewhat different ways. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the similarities and differences between social policies in the two cities. Each chapter covers a different issue: health finance, housing, education, labor, poverty and social security, eldercare, and migration and competitiveness. The contributors explore pertinent developments in each city and analyze the similarities and differences between the two cities' approaches to social policies. They focus on policy reform and the interface between social policy and its environment. One main theme throughout the book is the extent to which spending for capital accumulation is in conflict with spending for social policies.


A ffordable energy in ample quantities is the lifeblood of the industrial societies and a prerequisite for the economic development of the others. Not surprisingly, access to and the cost of energy have long been political issues within and among nations. Wars have been fought at least in part over access to prime energy resources and may be again. Energy may also be the most intractable element of the world's environmental problems. This is because energy's effluents drive many of the most dangerous environmental problems at every scale (from the health impacts of woodsmoke in Third World village huts to the disruption of global climate by anthropogenic greenhouse gases) and because the energy system characteristics at fault are often costly and time-consuming to change.

Despite energy's pervasive importance to the human condition, it attracts the widespread attention of publics and their political leaders mainly in times of short-run supply-price "crises," the latest being the electricity fiasco in California. Minimizing society's vulnerability to supply-price crises in the short term will require addressing several interlinked problems. The current partly free-market, partly regulated characteristics of energy supply systems need adjustment to better dampen the propensity of commodity markets for extreme price fluctuations. This should include more scope and better ways for retail consumers to perceive and respond to the high wholesale costs of electricity at times of peak demand. Ways must also be found to encourage larger investments in reliability, which is partly a matter of transmission infrastructure and partly a matter of diversity in sources of supply. The United States has repeatedly stumbled by putting too many energy eggs in the cheapest basket of the moment. Oil imported from the Middle East in the 1960s and early 1970s and domestic natural gas for combined-cycle electricity generation in the 1980s and 1990s are only two examples.

Neither complete reregulation nor complete deregulation of energy markets is the answer. Capturing the cost savings available from the appropriate play of market forces in the energy sector is too appealing a proposition to abandon. But energy is too burdened with public-goods dimensions (including national security, environmental sustainability, the macroeconomic ramifications of reliability, and society's commitment to meet the basic needs of its poorest members) to allow complete deregulation. The directions for addressing our short-term energy challenges are easier to describe than designing and implementing the details will be. But more daunting still are the energy challenges looming in the longer term. These include providing a sustainable energy basis for maintaining prosperity where it already exists and achieving it where it does not, limiting dependence on imported oil, reducing the risks from greenhouse gas-induced climate change, and minimizing the contributions of nuclear energy to nuclear weapons dangers.

Meeting these challenges will require increased efforts to maximize the capabilities and minimize the liabilities of the full array of energy options: improvements in end-use energy efficiency in vehicles, residences, and industries; renewable energy sources; advanced fossil fuel and nuclear fission technologies; and nuclear fusion. There is no silver bullet in this array nor are there any that we can be confident we can do without. Current levels of public and private investment in energy R&D and demonstration are not remotely commensurate with the long-term challenges and opportunities, either in the United States or in any other country. U.S. federal expenditures on applied energy technology R&D are about what they were, in real terms, just before the oil price shock of 1973-74, although today's economy is more than twice as large. U.S. private sector investments in energy R&D have been falling since the mid-1980s.

Strengthening R&D is only part of the answer. Incentives must also be strengthened for deploying a wider array of the most attractive options from the menu available at any given time. And increased international cooperation in energy innovation is warranted, because U.S. and other countries' economic, environmental, and security interests are served thereby. Although markets have a large role to play in all this, the government must also be involved. The large public benefits attending the right choices—and the large public costs attending the wrong ones—require it.


In the medium to long run, the growth of real income depends largely on productivity growth. Australia's trend productivity growth declined noticeably in the 2000s compared with the period of strong growth in the 1990s. However, the effect of the decline in productivity growth on per capita real income growth has been offset by the boost to incomes from a rise in the terms of trade. Much of the moderation in productivity growth can be attributed to a decline in the level of productivity in the mining and utilities industries. Nevertheless, there has also been a broad-based slowdown across other industries. The fall in mining productivity is largely a consequence of strong global demand, and the effect on income has been offset by high prices for resources. In contrast, the weakness in productivity growth outside of the mining industry has imposed a cost on the domestic economy, in part through higher non-tradables prices. With the terms of trade likely to ease over the next few years, real income growth will slow unless there is a pick-up in productivity growth. For inflation to remain consistent with the Bank's target this will also imply a slowing in the pace of growth in nominal factor incomes.


The Chinese community in the Netherlands has long been overlooked by governmental policy makers. Due to important social and economic changes within the community, this situation has changed: the discussion on an official minority status has been initiated. This has led to an increase in the amount of research on the position of the Chinese in Dutch society. However, very few studies have been made of the linguistic situation of the Chinese community. In this study, the language choice behavior of Chinese parents and children was looked into. The main question was whether an intergenerational shift from the use of Cantonese to the use of Dutch in interactions with other Chinese could be established. The research results show that this was indeed the case: where parents use Cantonese nearly all of the time, children use Cantonese only in half of the cases Differences in language choice patterns seem to be determined by the informants' judgements of their proficiency in Cantonese and Dutch, and, to a lesser degree, by their identification with their own ethnic community.


The authors investigate a 1 /spl times/ N free-space microoptical fiber switch for a large number of interconnects. The system to be studied is a reflective 4f optical system. Alignment tolerances and coupling efficiency are investigated and the benefit brought by collimating microlens arrays is reported (theoretically and experimentally). The use of microlenses enables power coupling efficiency between 3 and 2 dB (including losses due to the optical elements) for an optical switch allowing up to 3000 receiver fibers.


Over a number of years it has been noticed that two bird species, Carnaby's Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus latirostris and the Grey Currawong Strepera versicolor, have begun to repopulate areas from which they had fled with the advent of European settlement. The flight-initiation distance (FID) of these species in these areas was compared with that from areas with a minimal human presence. The median FID was significantly less for birds from 'urban' areas compared with birds from 'rural' areas. Both species learn habituation to humans. It is likely in the Grey Currawong that this behaviour is either learned from adults by the young individuals that establish new territories in areas closer to human habitation, or is the result of a process of selection favouring individuals which ignore human disturbance and therefore have more time to care for offspring. In Carnaby's Cockatoo the habituation that is apparent in urban areas is modified by a return to increased wariness in areas where breeding occurs . This may be related to cockatoos being more cautious when caring for young than they would be when lacking this responsibility in urban areas.


Abstract. We present a result on existence of solutions for a system of highly nonlinear partial differential equations related to a phase field model for nonisothermal solidification/melting processes in the case of two possible crystallization states and flow of the molten material. The flow is incompressible with a velocity which is assumed to be given, but with low regularity. We prove the existence of solutions for the associated system and also give estimates for the temperature and the phase fields related to each of the crystallization states in terms of the low regularity norms of the given flow velocity. These results constitute a fundamental step in the proof of the existence of solutions of a complete model for solidification obtained by coupling the present equations with a singular Navier-Stokes system for the flow velocity. The analysis of this complete model is done in a forthcoming article.


There are two competing scenarios on the behavior of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the late Tertiary. In one scenario, the ice sheet was very dynamic and underwent major drawdown and renewal as late as the Pliocene. In the other, the ice sheet was relatively stable during the late Neogene. The presence of marine diatoms in Sirius Group sedimentary rocks in East Antarctica is at the center of the disagreement. One side regards the diatoms as the major piece of evidence to support the drawdown and renewal hypothesis and infers that they were introduced into the Sirius during renewed glaciation of East Antarctica; others suggest that these diatoms were likely introduced into the Sirius by atmospheric (largely eolian) processes. We propose a simple test of the eolian hypothesis. If diatoms were introduced into the Sirius by eolian processes, then they should also be present in older (Paleozoic and Mesozoic) sedimentary and igneous rocks. Samples from two units of the Beacon Supergroup (Devonian to Jurassic) from Beacon Valley, East Antarctica, were analyzed: the Beacon Heights Orthoquartzite (Devonian) and the Feather Conglomerate (Permian-Triassic). Also examined was sediment found in cracks of Paleozoic and Mesozoic (Devonian to Cretaceous) igneous rocks from Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica. Largely Pliocene-Pleistocene planktonic marine diatoms were found in all sample sets. Because neither Beacon Supergroup sedimentary rocks nor igneous rocks from Marie Byrd Land are Pliocene-Pleistocene in age, such findings strongly suggest that diatoms were introduced into them by eolian processes. This same scenario can be applied to Sirius Group sedimentary rocks.


The Villa de Cura blueschist belt is one of several east-west–trending allochthonous belts comprising the Caribbean Mountain system of northern Venezuela. This blueschist belt consists of four structurally coherent subbelts that also trend east-west; from north to south these are characterized by: (1) pumpellyite-actinolite, (2) glaucophane-lawsonite, (3) glaucophane-epidote, and (4) barroisite. The retrograde pressure-temperature ( P-T ) path of the northern three subbelts generally parallels their prograde path. Such P-T paths are typical for Franciscan-style subduction settings and are characterized by relatively low geothermal gradients indicative of refrigeration during subduction-zone-parallel ascent and exhumation of these rocks. The barroisite subbelt formed at high pressures similar to those of the glaucophane-epidote subbelt, but at substantially higher temperatures, and followed a counterclockwise P-T path. New 40 Ar/ 39 Ar ages record peak metamorphism at 96.3 ± 0.4 Ma for the barroisite subbelt and 79.8 ± 0.4 Ma for the northern three subbelts. The Caribbean plate is thought to have been a fragment of the Farallon plate, which together with the "Great Arc of the Caribbean" (Greater Antilles–Aves Ridge–Lesser Antilles–Leeward Antilles) migrated northeastward after a subduction polarity reversal and overrode the young Proto-Caribbean lithosphere that had formed by spreading between North America and South America. The more silicic barroisite subbelt may have been part of the arc that was subducted immediately after polarity reversal, whereas the other three belts formed much later when the geothermal gradient had decreased substantially. The Villa de Cura belt was exhumed in two stages, first by Late Cretaceous arc-parallel extension, and second by Miocene southward thrusting onto the South American continent.


In this paper, we study the multiple scattering by electrically small the radius of the cylinder is much smaller than the wavelength plasmonic nanocylinders near surface plasmon resonance. The cylinders are assumed to be identical in dimension and composition. The incident plane wave is assumed to be TE polarized so that the plasmon resonance of two-dimensional cylindrical structures for both individual and group of cylinders can be excited. It is found that multiple plasmonic cylinders enhance the near-field magnetic field intensity due to mutual coupling. When the electrical dimension q of the cylinders q=k0R, where k0 is the wave number of the free space and R is the radius of the cylinder is fixed, the magnitude of the field distribution primarily depends on the positions of the cylinders at normal incidence. © 2008 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2975214


From Italy to Mexico, and all the way to Japan, then returning to the United States. By spanning the annus mirabilis which has witnessed the centenary of Merleau-Ponty's birth celebrated everywhere, Chiasmi International has captured some of its most important echoes in this issue which presents as well important news in the journal's structure. The relocation of its American seat and a change in direction accompany the contributions of Merleau-Ponty specialists who are the most representative of four different generations. Reviews and a new section of essays "around" Merleau-Ponty's thought complete this issue with which Chiasmi International caps off its tenth anniversary. Texts by: Suzi Adams, Emmanuel Alloa, Alia Al-Saji, Claudia Baracchi, Josep Maria Bech, Paride Broggi, Mauro Carbone, Paola Chiesa, Francoise Dastur, Daniela De Leo, Carmine Di Martino, Lester Embree, Veronique Foti, Simone Frangi, Giovanni Invitto, Stefan Kristensen, Mariana Larison, Federico Leoni, Enrica Lisciani-Petrini, Liu Zhe, Shoichi Matsuba, Rita Messori, Pierre Rodrigo, Davide Scarso, Emmanuel de Saint Aubert, Beata Stawarska, Luca Taddio, Jacques Taminiaux, Tommaso Tuppini, Luca Vanzago, Jean-Jacques Wunenburger.


Germinal and somatic functions in Tetrahymena are performed separately by the micro- and macronuclei, respectively. Cells with haploid micronuclei were mated with diploids to yield monosomic progeny. These were induced to undergo a form of self-fertilization, generating cells lacking both copies of one or more of the five chromosomes in the micronucleus while still possessing a complete macronuclear genome.


Dynamic microtubule bundles are involved in several motility processes in cells, for instance by interacting with mitotic chromosomes. The study of microtubule bundle dynamics and force generation can help understanding the mechanisms underlying these complex processes. Here we discuss experimental results on the force-generating capabilities of bundles of non-crosslinked growing microtubules obtained using an optical tweezers technique in vitro. We discuss the possible effects on force generation by these microtubule bundles of specific (with microtubule-associated proteins) and aspecific (with ions or crowding agents) ways of crosslinking microtubules. We present preliminary results showing that force generation by microtubule bundles is enhanced in the presence of polyethylene glycol used as a crowding agent, and discuss possible explanations for this observation.


Optimizing the end-to-end throughput of a TCP connection (goodput) over geostationary satellite links is a challenging research topic. This is because the high delay-bandwidth product, together with a non-negligible random loss of packets, is a condition that considerably differs from the environments TCP was originally designed for. As a result, TCP performance is significantly impaired by the channel bit error rate. The literature is full of suggestions for improving TCP goodput, most based on modifications of the protocol itself. We only investigated the application of different FEC (forward error correction) types for TCP goodput optimization, leaving the end-to-end protocol unaltered. Using a method midway between analysis and simulation to evaluate the goodput of TCP long-lived connections, we first studied the influence of packet loss rate, introduced by errors on the channel, on the TCP goodput. We showed that, in some cases, the packet loss rate does not need to be negligible with respect to that caused by congestion, as it is widely-held opinion. We then applied physical-level FEC techniques, such as convolutional encoding/Viterbi decoding, Reed Solomon, link-level erasure codes and their combinations, over a wide field of signal to noise conditions of the satellite channel. For each FEC type, we found the FEC rate that maximizes the TCP goodput, in each channel condition. We finally compared the results of all FECs used between them, and presented the case of multiple TCP connections sharing the same link as well


The causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, is a spirochete transmitted among vertebrate hosts by Ixodid ticks. The outer surface of bacteria plays an important role in the ability to establish an infection in its host. The possibility that positive selection acts to accelerate the evolution of the outer surface protein genes was examined by comparing the DNA sequences of the OspA/B operon of B. burgdorferi isolates from North America and abroad. The Mean d$\rm\sb s$ values were two-fold higher than mean d$\rm\sb N$ values. Central regions of the OspB gene show an excess of silent mutations, while end regions are constrained by biased base composition or selective constraints. Osp proteins are under little purifying selection for the maintenance of primary structure. Local genic variation within separate spirochetal populations along the Maine coast was investigated. Locations were expected to contain single strains adapted to their unique set of conditions. Nine unique OspB sequences were observed among 110 isolates. Six strains were characterized as having a unique OspB amino acid sequence, and five of which were found at multiple sites. It seems unlikely that the five strains are associated with a unique host. Arbitrarily Primed Polymerase Chain Reaction (AP-PCR) genomic fingerprints of several B. burgdorferi isolates were generated to further characterize those members within each OspB type. Microgeographic heterogeneity was observed. The genetic relatedness within OspB types varied from 31.8% to 100%. Three isolates from the same rat contained different fingerprints. Hosts may be infected by a large number of strains. Some fingerprints were shared among different OspB types, which suggests that genetic exchange of plasmids may be occurring between spirochetes. Researchers have recently been questioning the validity of Ixodes dammini as a species distinct from I. scapularis. Nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene for several Ixodes species were generated to investigate the genetic relatedness within this genus. Samples of I. dammini showed a one percent sequence difference compared to I. scapularis. This difference was approximately half that characteristic of other interspecific differences with the I. ricinus complex, but significantly more than typical levels of intraspecific variation.


Meyer (1956) postulated that meaning in music is directly related to entropy–that high entropy (uncertainty) engenders greater subjective tension, which is correlated with more meaningful musical events. Current statistical models of music are often limited to music with a single melodic line, impeding wider investigation of Meyer's hypothesis. I describe a recurrent neural network model which produces estimates of instantaneous entropy for music with multiple parts and use it to analyze a Haydn string quartet. Features found by traditional analysis to be related to tension are shown to have characteristic signatures in the model's entropy measures. Thus, an information-based approach to musical analysis can elaborate on traditional understanding of music and can shed light on the more general cognitive phenomenon of musical meaning.


Abstract In this study, various facade designs with overhangs combined with electrochromic (EC) window control strategies were modeled for a typical commercial office building in a hot and cold climate using the DOE 2.1E building energy simulation program. EC windows were combined with overhangs since opaque overhangs provide protection from direct sun which EC windows are unable to do alone. The window wall was divided into an upper and lower aperture so that various combinations of overhang position and control strategies could be considered. The overhang was positioned either at the top of the upper window aperture or between the upper and lower apertures. Overhang depth was varied. EC control strategies were fully bleached at all times, modulated based on incident vertical solar radiation limits, or modulated to meet the design work plane illuminance with daylight. Annual total energy use (ATE), peak electric demand (PED), average daylight illuminance (DI), and daylight glare index (DGI) for south-facing private offices were computed and compared to determine which combinations of façade design and control strategies yielded the greatest energy efficiency, daylight amenity, and visual comfort.