Stem rust disease, caused by Cronartium flaccidum (Alb. & Schwein.) G. Winter, is among the most destructive diseases of the two-needle hard pine in the Northern Hemisphere, including Scots pine but also several Mediterranean pines in southern Europe (2,3). This heteroecious rust has numerous alternate herbaceous hosts spanning different plant families, thereby contributing to epidemic outbreaks when environmental conditions for infection are optimal (2,3). The main alternate host in Europe is the white swallow-wort, Vincetoxicum hirundinaria Medik, a herbaceous perennial in the milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae). At the southwestern edge of its distribution, V. hirundinaria co-occurs with the black swallow-wort, V. nigrum (L.) Moench and cases of misidentification between the two species are not uncommon. Little to no disease occurs to V. nigrum likely because phenanthroindolizidine alkaloid antimicrobial compounds are produced in the weed. In 1918, occurrence of C. flaccidum was reported in Spain and Portugal on black and white swallow-worts albeit as C. asclepadium (1). In the early summer of 2011, at Saint Clément de Rivière in southern France, we detected orange-yellow rust pustules on the lower leaf surfaces of several black swallow-worts growing near Aleppo pines (Pinus halepensis). These orange-yellow pustules were erumpent uredinia in groups (range = 137 to 400 μm in diameter) with peridia that broke with the production of uredinospores. The latter were moderately echinulate, light yellow, broadly ellipsoid (length = 23 ± 4 μm and range = 11 to 33 μm; width = 15 ± 2 μm and range = 9 to 20 μm) with walls of 1 to 2 μm thick (mean 1.3 ± 0.2 μm). Hair-like columnar telia (length = 1123 ± 131 μm and range = 976 to 1280 μm; width = 136 ± 28 μm and range = 104 to 176 μm) were mostly formed from uredinia. Telia were hypophyllous and reddish orange. Teliospores were orange-yellow and ellipsoidal to cylindrical (length 26.3 ± 6.2 μm and range 13.5 to 46 μm; width = 10.5 ± 1.8 μm and range = 6.9 to 14.9 μm). Morphological features of these fruiting structures were consistent with those of C. flaccidum (Alb. & Schwein.) G. Winter on white swallow-worts (2). Additional confirmation was provided by sequencing the two internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS1 and ITS2) and the 5.8S gene (4). The sequence was 843 bp long (GenBank Accession No. JN802139), 99.7% similar to C. flaccidum found on Melampyrum in Finland (Accession No. JF13709), and 99.4% similar to C. flaccidum found on pines in Italy (Accession No. X83900). Voucher material has been deposited at the Herbarium of Montpellier's University under the collection Accession No. MPUØ188846. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence of uredinia and telia of C. flaccidum on black swallow-worts clearly identified in France. The occurrence of the rust on this understory vine is of critical importance for the economic sustainability of pine forests in France, especially when they are heavily constrained by drought and fire. References: (1) R. Gonzalez Fragoso. Trab. Mus. Nac. Ci. Nat., Ser. Bot. 15:1, 1918. (2) J. Kaitera and H. Nuorteva. For. Pathol. 33:205, 2003. (3) A. Ragazzi. Phytopathol. Medit. 28:5, 1989. (4) T. J. White et al. PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, CA, 1990.


A century after John Muir's death, Glen MacDonald examines his legacy and argues that while Muir's message of the value of wilderness to society might need to evolve for a twenty-first century audience, it is still relevant. For instance, Muir believed in the transformative power of visiting remote wildernesses such as Yosemite and urged everyone to do so, and his conception of nature preservation as preserving nature in a specific moment in time is now understood to be misguided. His specific prescriptions for relating to the natural world now seem old-fashioned, but his core values and his passion for getting Californians out in nature is just as important today, whether those natural places are national parks or city parks.


Wellbeing has important implications for students' success during and beyond university. As such, educators need clear empirical evidence of the aspects of university life that contribute to students' wellbeing. We use a mixed-methods approach to ask whether and how students' diverse university experiences contribute to their self-rated wellbeing. In an online survey, 696 students provided accounts of positive and negative experiences at university and self-rated their wellbeing using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS).   Most of the sample reported high wellbeing, though there was diversity in their reported experiences. Regression analysis revealed that students' experiences at university significantly contributed to the variation in their wellbeing scores. Social and academic experiences were the strongest positive contributors  to student wellbeing; whereas gender, social experiences and emotional experiences were the strongest negative contributors. Our findings offer guidance for strategies within academic and non-academic university contexts that can effectively and efficiently promote student wellbeing.


Existing agricultural sustainability standards are rarely applied in Germany despite persistent public attention being paid to sustainable farming and growth in markets for sustainable food. Beside the effects of sustainability requirements, important effects of organizational elements in standard design are expected to influence farmers' standard acceptance. Therefore the development of a utility model is the behavioural economic basis for further research on farmers' preferences in sustainability standard design. In this preliminary study, organizational standard elements are identified from the literature within the following categories: transactional and direct costs; market effects; risk of application; and farmers' identification and social gains.


This master thesis presents a new technological combination of two environmentally friendly sources of energy in order to provide DHW, and space heating. Solar energy is used for space heating, and DHW production using PV modules which supply direct current directly to electrical heating elements inside a water storage tank. On the other hand a GSHP system as another source of renewable energy provides heat in the water storage tank of the system in order to provide DHW and space heating. These two sources of renewable energy have been combined in this case-study in order to obtain a more efficient system, which will reduce the amount of electricity consumed by the GSHP system.The key aim of this study is to make simulations, and calculations of the amount ofelectrical energy that can be expected to be produced by a certain amount of PV modules that are already assembled on a house in Vantaa, southern Finland. This energy is then intended to be used as a complement to produce hot water in the heating system of the house beside the original GSHP system. Thus the amount of electrical energy purchased from the grid should be reduced and the compressor in the GSHP would need fewer starts which would reduce the heating cost of the GSHP system for space heating and providing hot water.The produced energy by the PV arrays in three different circuits will be charged directly to three electrical heating elements in the water storage tank of the existing system to satisfy the demand of the heating elements. The excess energy can be used to heat the water in the water storage tank to some extent which leads to a reduction of electricity consumption by the different components of the GSHP system.To increase the efficiency of the existing hybrid system, optimization of different PV configurations have been accomplished, and the results are compared. Optimization of the arrays in southern and western walls shows a DC power increase of 298 kWh/year compared with the existing PV configurations. Comparing the results from the optimization of the arrays on the western roof if the intention is to feed AC power to the components of the GSHP system shows a yearly AC power production of 1,646 kWh.This is with the consideration of no overproduction by the PV modules during the summer months. This means the optimized PV systems will be able to cover a larger part of summer demand compared with the existing system.


This Article challenges the scope of physician discretion to engage in off-label use of prescription drugs. The discretion to prescribe dimensions beyond the clinical research that puts new drugs on pharmacy shelves has been shaped by two historic influences: a legacy of physician paternalism, solidarity, autonomy, and self-determination that predates the contemporary commercialization of medicine by more than half a century; and regulatory necessity due to the limits of science and the innate crudeness of pharmaceuticals prior to the genomics revolution (drug development and delivery based on genetic expression). Although both factors have changed immensely, the standard for drug approval has lingered. This Article proposes that doctor discretion to prescribe off-label must be modified and the regulatory standard for new drug approvals raised, given the proliferation of adverse events, drug ineffectiveness, the need to make choices among treatment options under time pressures, the increasing complexity of biopharmaceuticals, health-care-cost pressures, and the vulnerability of patients - seekers of health care, not research subjects protected under the scrutiny of regulations to protect human subjects. The Article concludes that although some physician discretion to prescribe off-label still is necessary, law-policy reforms to shift more of the drug-discovery process from the clinical care of patients to clinical research in drug development are long overdue. Proposals to accomplish this, drawn from recent legislation and ongoing health care reform, include heightening the regulatory standards for new drug approvals and drug reimbursement.


In order to fully exploit the design knowledge during the operation of mask manufacturing equipment, as well as to enable the efficient feedback of manufacturing information upstream into the design chain, close communication links between the data processing domain and the machine are necessary. With shrinking design rules and modeling technology required to drive simulations and corrections, the amount and variety of measurements, for example, is steadily growing. This requires a flexible and automated setup of parameters and location information and their communication with the machine. The paper will describe a programming interface based on the Tcl/Tk language that contains a set of frequently reoccurring functions for data extraction and search, site characterization, site filtering, and coordinate transfer. It enables the free programming of the links, adapting to the flow and the machine needs. The interface lowers the effort to connect to new tools with specific measurement capabilities, and it reduces the setup and measurement time. The interface is capable of handling all common mask writer formats and their jobdecks, as well as OASIS and GDSII data. The application of this interface is demonstrated for the Carl Zeiss AIMSTM system.


Segmentation serves as an integral part in many NLP applications including Machine Translation, Parsing, and Information Retrieval. When a model trained on the standard language is applied to dialects, the accuracy drops dramatically. However, there are more lexical items shared by the standard language and dialects than can be found by mere surface word matching. This shared lexicon is obscured by a lot of cliticization, gemination, and character repetition. In this paper, we prove that segmentation and base normalization of dialects can help in domain adaptation by reducing data sparseness. Segmentation will improve a system performance by reducing the number of OOVs, help isolate the differences and allow better utilization of the commonalities. We show that adding a small amount of dialectal segmentation training data reduced OOVs by 5% and remarkably improves POS tagging for dialects by 7.37% f-score, even though no dialect-specific POS training data is included.


Introduction
A section of the undergraduate curriculum was revised due to consistently poor student evaluation. The chosen didactic method for achieving this change was reciprocal peer teaching. This innovation may have required academic members of staff to adapt to a new teaching style.

Method
Staff members determined their Keirsey temperament and were given a report on its interpretation. They participated in training on student-focused teaching techniques and completed the Approaches to Teaching Inventory (ATI) of their preferred approach to teaching. Their subsequent sessions with students were videotaped and analysed for features of student-focused, as opposed to teacher-focused teaching.

Results
There was a link between temperament type and apparent delivery of student-focused teaching. Staff member's perceptions of their approach to teaching did not correspond to their actual teaching behaviour.

Discussion
Staff development strategies could take into account individual's temperaments in order to direct their professional development for the full spectrum of flexible teaching skills. Alternatively teaching teams should be created in a way that takes account of different temperament types.

Conclusion
Temperament does play a key role in adaptation to innovation.


The poems composed by Zawawi Imron commonly involve the symbols of nature and Madurase culture such as the sun, moon, clouds, wind, fishing boat, fish, Siwalan trees, bull races and so forth. In the history of modern Indonesian literature, Imron is listed as a prolific poet of the 1960s. This paper explores the meaningful message contained in the poem of Tembang Spiritual written by Zawawi Imron. This literature study uses descriptive qualitative research method with semiotic and inter-textual approach. The object of the research is religiosity in the poem of Tembang Spiritual. The qualitative data of this study are in the form of words, phrases, and sentences which are collected by literature review and documentation. Heuristic and hermeneutic or retroactive are applied to analyze the data. The results show that people who keep the promises of their spirit to be obedience to God will receive eternal glorious place on the side of God, as stated in surah Al-a'raf 7, verse 172, surah Al-ma'arij 70, verse 32 and 35, and surah As-sajdah 32, verse 9. Surah Al-a'raf 7, verse 172 is transformed by Imron into the poem of Tembang Spiritual. The relegious elements transformed into the new text have a certain function, i.e. to remind human beings to thank God so that their lives will not suffer.


The production of free radiacals (oxidants) that are not in balance with antioxidant activity can cause cell damage. The need for antioxidant is absolutely necessary not only endogenous but also exogenous. Yellow soybean is one ofthe plants that have antioxidant activity, which can reduce the effects of free radicals while vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant which is used. This study aims to determine antioxidant activity of water extract in the soybean seed yellow (Glycine max (L) Merill) compared the decreased content of vitamin E on malondialdehyde (MDA) in the rat (Rattus norvegicus) male induced by CCL4. This study is an experimental research laboratory with a pretest-posttest control group. 25 male rats (Rattus norvegicus) were divided into 5 treatment groups. Group I (positive control vitamin E), group II, III, and IV were given water extract of yellow soybean (Glycine max (L) Merill) with a concentration of 2.5%, respectively, 10%, and 40%. Group Vis a negative control distilled water. Treatment was given for 5 days. On 6 th day, all groups treated with CCL 4 0.2 ml/200 g 88. Antioxidant activity measured by the decrease in serum MDA levels before and after treatment. Statistical analysis using One Way ANOVA. In One Way Anova test p value = 0.196 (p> 0.05), which showed no significant difference (not significant) toward the mean decrease in rat blood serum MDA in all groups Water extract of yellow soybean (Glycine max (L) Merill) a difference between the antioxidant actiVity compared vitamm E as an antioxidant in white rats (Rattus novergicus) male Wistar strain which has been induced CCL 4 but this difference was not statistically significantly.


Visual tracking has attracted a significant attention in the last few decades. The recent surge in the number of publications on tracking-related problems have made it almost impossible to follow the developments in the field. One of the reasons is that there is a lack of commonly accepted annotated data-sets and standardized evaluation protocols that would allow objective comparison of different tracking methods. To address this issue, the Visual Object Tracking (VOT) workshop was organized in conjunction with ICCV2013. Researchers from academia as well as industry were invited to participate in the first VOT2013 challenge which aimed at single-object visual trackers that do not apply pre-learned models of object appearance (model-free). Presented here is the VOT2013 benchmark dataset for evaluation of single-object visual trackers as well as the results obtained by the trackers competing in the challenge. In contrast to related attempts in tracker benchmarking, the dataset is labeled per-frame by visual attributes that indicate occlusion, illumination change, motion change, size change and camera motion, offering a more systematic comparison of the trackers. Furthermore, we have designed an automated system for performing and evaluating the experiments. We present the evaluation protocol of the VOT2013 challenge and the results of a comparison of 27 trackers on the benchmark dataset. The dataset, the evaluation tools and the tracker rankings are publicly available from the challenge website (http://votchallenge.net).


This paper attempts to analyze Turkish politics in the post-1980 period with a special reference to the relationship among the state elites, political elites and societal actors and its impact on the constitution of civil society in Turkey. After the 1980 military intervention, the political and economic realms of Turkey witnessed a relative degree of liberalization through Uzal's neo-liberal policies. The January 24 economic decisions paved the way for economic liberalization as well as letting new economic and societal actors emerge. These new economic actors were different from the prevailing economic actors which used to enjoy having a considerable amount of opportunity spaces in the economic sphere. Together with the Uzal governments, Islamic segments started to become powerful in both political and economic realms. This paper analyses the chief traits of Turkish politics and economics and their impact upon civil society aftermath the 1980 coup in general, and the relationship and/or interaction among the state elites, political elites and societal actors in particular. The engagements of newly-emerging societal and economic actors into Turkish political scene and the challenge of these actors against the so-called 'Kemalist-Republican' elites are also illustrated in the paper. Moreover, state-Islam interaction, politics-Islam interaction as well as Kemalism-newly-emerging societal and economic actors interaction will be studied with a special emphasis to the post-1980 period. The major argument of the paper is that, in Turkey, both civil society issues and political issues reveal outcomes which are primarily shaped by the nature of the relationship between state elites and political elites in general and by Turkish political culture in particular.


The use of language-model-based question-answering systems to aid humans in completing difficult tasks is limited, in part, by the unreliability of the text these systems generate. Using hard multiple-choice reading comprehension questions as a testbed, we assess whether presenting humans with arguments for two competing answer options, where one is correct and the other is incorrect, allows human judges to perform more accurately, even when one of the arguments is unreliable and deceptive. If this is helpful, we may be able to increase our justified trust in language-model-based systems by asking them to produce these arguments where needed. Previous research has shown that just a single turn of arguments in this format is not helpful to humans. However, as debate settings are characterized by a back-and-forth dialogue, we follow up on previous results to test whether adding a second round of counter-arguments is helpful to humans. We find that, regardless of whether they have access to arguments or not, humans perform similarly on our task. These findings suggest that, in the case of answering reading comprehension questions, debate is not a helpful format.


A set of salient architectural features for the interior volumes of houses of worship and performance spaces was selected. These features include volume, height, length, width, number of audience seats, type of plan, and predominant material. The buildings were chosen to illustrate a broad range of types within these two categories; well‐known examples are included as benchmarks. Data were taken from the literature and entered into a database. With a descriptive statistics program, these data can be inspected from various perspectives. The purpose of this study is to allow a designer to enter features of a proposed design, and by inspection to get a sense of where the design lies in relation to existing buildings. For instance, a proposed church may have important similarities with an existing concert hall. Future plans include access to drawings and acoustical measurements (if available) for each building included, and posting on the World Wide Web with forms for collecting new data.


This study examines the level of gains for Indonesian investors who diversify their portfolios into Asia-Pacific stock markets compared to purely domestic diversification. The study covers the national stock markets of Australia, Hongkong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand over the period 1990-1994 and 1992-1994. The two overlapping periods were chosen because there was an improved performance of both the Indonesian market and the Asia-Pacific markets for the latter period, in terms of both increased return and reduced risk. Potential gains from Asia-Pacific diversification are shown to exist for the period 19901994. In contrast, the period 1992-1994 indicates that the Indonesian investors cannot significantly benefit from the Asia-Pacific diversification. Thus this study indicates that the Indonesian investors should diversify their portfolios within the Indonesian stock market instead of diversifying into AsiaPacific portfolios.


IN THE CONTEXT OF A RECENT REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN ROMANTIC LITERARY form, (1) this essay hopes to demonstrate that Samuel Taylor Coleridge is among the most purposeful practitioners of verse as verse in his era. The essay suggests that, along with his deep engagement with the shifting political scene and with philosophical and religious disputes, he cherished the particulars of willed poetic craftsmanship, and was quick to criticize in his own work and in that of others lapses in sound, whether from haste to express opinions however true or false, from lack of training, from a natively faulty sense of rhythm or weight of vowels, or from erroneous views about the equivalence of poetry and prose. Amid his many ardent defenses--of the sanctity of the human soul, of the trinity, of the clerisy, and of method--his defense of the ancient art of musical perfection in words was similarly ardent and his insistence on its purpose--pleasure--decisive throughout his life. Mellifluous and varied metrics was his darling study. (2) New volumes of The Collected Coleridge have revealed more and more contexts in which Coleridge expressed his thoughts about the value of meter, demonstrated his practical expertise in meter, criticized the meters of other poets, and admonished fellow poets not to forget meter in the excitement of disputation. Coleridge's preoccupation with meter occupies many pages of the Collected Notebooks, Collected Letters, Biographia Literaria, the Lectures 1808-1818, Table Talk, the Marginalia, and Shorter Works and Fragments. (3) He was interested not only in meter as a topic in itself but also as a discipline that touches many of his other interests. Meter, for him, is the chief vehicle for achieving the aim of poetry, which is pleasure; it quickens passions; it demands technical skill and knowledge of other and older languages. Meter pulls Coleridge back from the chasm of idealism to the vivacious body that his spirit filled. Meter draws its power from both the disciplined will and the body's rhythmical energy; it spans the intersection of mind and body and reconciles head and heart, specifically the heart-beat. Coleridge's contemporaries recognized his passion for prosody; his own criticism of other people's verse harps on meter and errors of meter as politely as possible, given his fear that a crucial skill risked being lost to the poetic tradition; his definitions of poetry stress energy and movement rather than the belabored distinctions between primary and secondary imagination; and his practice as a poet at its best fulfills his own requirements for verse, promoting this purpose, for instance, in "Christabel." Throughout, he demonstrated in his own acts and in his praise or detraction of others a belief in carefully weighted sound as the true measure of poetic excellence. In 1832, trying to capture as much of the essence of his failing father-in-law as possible, Coleridge's nephew described Coleridge's unusually intense passion for versification: Mr. Coleridge has almost from the commencement of his poetic life looked upon versification as constituting in and by itself a much more important branch of the art poetic than most of his eminent contemporaries appear to have done. And this more careful study shows itself in him in no technical peculiarities or fantastic whims, against which the genius of our language revolts; but in a more exact adaptation of the movement to the feeling, and in a finer selection of particular words with reference to their local fitness for sense and sound. (Table Talk 1.564) Merging his own impressions with his uncle's remarks in a conversation on 31 March 1832, Henry Nelson Coleridge goes on to describe Coleridge as a musical poet rather than a pictorial one, for "the whole man is made up of music; and yet Mr. Coleridge has no ear for music, as it is technically called." He compares the exquisite versification of the conclusion to "Kubla Khan" to "an outburst or crash of harps in the still air of autumn. …


To determine the outcome of patients with isolated lunate and perilunate dislocations treated with a combined approach and anchor repair of the dorsal scapholunate interosseous ligament. Methods: A combined volar and dorsal approach with anchor repair of the dorsal scapholunate interosseous ligament was used to treat six patients with isolated lunate or perilunate dislocations. Patients were assessed using the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand Score (DASH) and Mayo Wrist Score; and radiolog- ically using the scapholunate angle, radiolunate angle and the scapholunate gap at final follow-up. Results: The mean time to surgery was 13.5 days. The mean time to final follow-up was 28.5 months. At final follow-up, the mean Mayo wrist score was 78.3. The mean DASH score was 13.7. The mean range of motion was 51° extension, 58° flexion, 11° radial deviation, 24° ulna deviation, 75° pronation and 78° supination. The mean grip strength was 31.9 kg which represented 73.9% of the contralateral grip strength. The mean scapholunate angle was 48°, the mean radiolunate angle was 9° and the mean scapholunate gap was 2 mm. Conclusions: Vigilance with early diagnosis and appropriate treatment using this surgical technique results in good functional and radiological results for ligamentous lunate dislocations.


MOTIVATION
Nucleic acid diagnostics has high demands for non-heuristic exact and approximate oligonucleotide string matching concerning in silico primer/probe design in huge nucleic acid sequence collections. Unfortunately, public sequence repositories grow much faster than computer hardware performance and main memory capacity do. This growth imposes severe problems on existing oligonucleotide primer/probe design applications necessitating new approaches based on space-efficient indexing structures.

RESULTS
We developed PTPan (spoken Peter Pan, 'PT' is for Position Tree, the earlier name of suffix trees), a space-efficient indexing structure for approximate oligonucleotide string matching in nucleic acid sequence data. Based on suffix trees, it combines partitioning, truncation and a new suffix tree stream compression to deal with large amounts of aligned and unaligned data. PTPan operates efficiently in main memory and on secondary storage, balancing between memory consumption and runtime during construction and application. Based on PTPan, applications supporting similarity search and primer/probe design have been implemented, namely FindFamily, ProbeMatch and ProbeDesign. All three use a weighted Levenshtein distance metric for approximative queries to find and rate matches with indels as well as substitutions. We integrated PTPan in the worldwide used software package ARB to demonstrate usability and performance. Comparing PTPan and the original ARB index for the very large ssu-rRNA database SILVA, we recognized a shorter construction time, extended functionality and dramatically reduced memory requirements at the price of expanded, but very reasonable query times. PTPan enables indexing of huge nucleic acid sequence collections at reasonable application response times. Not being limited by main memory, PTPan constitutes a major advancement regarding rapid oligonucleotide string matching in primer/probe design now and in the future facing the enormous growth of molecular sequence data.

AVAILABILITY
Supplementary Material, PTPan stand-alone library and ARB-PTPan binary on http://ptpan.lrr.in.tum.de/.

CONTACT
email@example.com

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION
Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


Syntax-based distributional models of lexical semantics provide a flexible and linguistically adequate representation of co-occurrence information. However, their construction requires large, accurately parsed corpora, which are unavailable for most languages. In this paper, we develop a number of methods to overcome this obstacle. We describe (a) a crosslingual approach that constructs a syntax-based model for a new language requiring only an English resource and a translation lexicon; and (b) multilingual approaches that combine crosslingual with monolingual information, subject to availability. We evaluate on two lexical semantic benchmarks in German and Croatian. We find that the models exhibit complementary profiles: crosslingual models yield higher accuracies while monolingual models provide better coverage. In addition, we show that simple multilingual models can successfully combine their strengths.


The aim of this chapter is to review the knowledge about the aqueous outflow through Schlemm's canal. Morphology of this canal and aqueous humor pathways from the anterior chamber through the trabeculum into suprascleral and conjunctival veins via connector channels are described. Additionally, the role of Schlemm's canal in the development of glaucoma and outflow resistance is discussed. Canalography as a more precise method of assessing the conventional drainage pathway and facilitating localization of an uncollapsed collector and aqueous veins is shown. Attention is also drawn to the relationship between aqueous and suprascleral veins and heartbeat.


Robot swarms provide a potential solution to a wide range of collective decision problems due to their large scale, which enables them to explore large environments, and their local intensive communication, which allows information sharing. Despite this, the majority of decision-making processes are designed to solve a single-step decision process. The goal of this study is to design robot swarms that are able to develop proper collective responses to decisions that emerge in parallel in the robot group. We aim to challenge the collective dynamics in order to examine the extent to which it would be possible to allow two decisions correspondingly related to parallel development. We consider both best-of-n and symmetry-breaking decisions and investigate the performance of two well-known voting mechanisms: the majority rule and the voting model. Our results confirm the possibility to build up a proper response to an emerging decision and highlight the key parameters that influence its success.


Abstract Introduction The impact of disasters and large-scale crises continues to increase around the world. To mitigate the potential disasters that confront humanity in the new millennium, an evidence-informed approach to disaster management is needed. This study provides the platform for such an evidence-informed approach by identifying peer-reviewed disaster management publications from 1947 through July 2017. Methods Peer-reviewed disaster management publications were identified using a comprehensive search of: MEDLINE (US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health; Bethesda, Maryland USA); CINAHL (EBSCO Information Services; Ipswich, Massachusetts USA); EMBASE (Elsevier; Amsterdam, Netherlands); PsychInfo (American Psychological Association; Washington DC, USA); and the Cochrane Library (The Cochrane Collaboration; Oxford, United Kingdom). Results A total of 9,433 publications were identified. The publications were overwhelmingly descriptive (74%) while 18% of publications reported the use of a quantitative methodology and eight percent used qualitative methodologies. Only eight percent of these publications were classified as being high-level evidence. The publications were published in 918 multi-disciplinary journals. The journal Prehospital and Disaster Medicine (World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine; Madison, Wisconsin USA) published the greatest number of disaster-management-related publications (9%). Hurricane Katrina (2005; Gulf Coast USA) had the greatest number of disaster-specific publications, followed by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks (New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania USA). Publications reporting on the application of objective evaluation tools or frameworks were growing in number. Conclusion: The "science" of disaster management is spread across more than 900 different multi-disciplinary journals. The existing evidence-base is overwhelmingly descriptive and lacking in objective, post-disaster evaluations. SmithEC, BurkleFMJr, AitkenP, LeggattP. Seven decades of disasters: a systematic review of the literature. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(4):418–423


The vast literature in finance examining the impact of takeovers on the share price of the bidder and target firms finds conclusive results for targets and inconclusive results for bidders. For both the UK and the US, previous studies show target firms to experience large positive abnormal returns at the time of the bid-announcement while bidder firm shareholders experience small abnormal gains as well as losses. Previous studies also show that approximately half the acquirers experience positive post-acquisition performance. There exists a serious gap in extant knowledge on what factors lead some acquirers to experience a positive post-acquisition performance while other acquirers experience a decline in their wealth. In this study we examine whether target firm managerial resistance to a takeover may be one factor which can affect the post-acquisition performance of acquirers. By segregating our sample of acquirers by the target firm management response to a takeover we are able to examine the post-acquisition performance of different acquirer types. This study attempts to fill the gaps in our knowledge regarding the relative performance of different acquirer types by addressing three research questions: i) what is the relative post-acquisition performance of different acquirer types? ii) what are the sources of long run post-acquisition value creation for each acquirer type? how effective are the agency monitoring mechanisms in determining the long run postacquisition performance for each acquirer type? In attempting to address the above questions we also examine a number of subsidiary issues that arise in the context of the relative post-acquisition performance of different acquirer types defined in terms of their financial profile. The subsidiary issues are: i) whether the acquirer firm size affects the long run post-acquisition performance? whether the acquirer's profile as a glamour or value stock, measured by the market to book value, affects the long run post-acquisition performance? whether the acquirer's profile as a glamour or value stock, measured by the price to earnings ratio, affects the long run post-acquisition performance? We use a sample of 547 acquirers, consisting of friendly, single hostile, multiple hostile and white knights, in takeovers completed between the period 1983 to 1995 to generate wealth gains. Wealth gains are measured in the form of abnormal returns and estimated by event study methodology using five different benchmark models (i.e. Fama and French Three Factor, market to book value, size, mean and market adjusted models). Then we use multiple regression analysis to test a range of hypothesis based on previous literature in finance with respect to our research questions. Our results show that single hostile acquirers outperform all other acquirer types in each of our three long run event windows. White knights tend to have a higher postacquisition performance than either multiple hostile and friendly acquirers. Friendly acquirers tend to have the worst post-acquisition performance compared to other acquirer types. We find differences in the impact of the sources of value creation and agency monitoring mechanisms on different acquirer types. Consistent with previous studies we find that shareholders of value acquirers (based on the PE ratio and market to book value) experience greater wealth gains than shareholders of glamour acquirers. We also find that shareholders of large acquirers tend to experience greater wealth gains than shareholders of smaller acquirers.


Albatrosses are known for their extreme navigation performance enabling them to locate isolated breeding islands after long-distance migrations across open seas. Little is known about the migration of young albatrosses and how they reach the adults' navigation and foraging skills during the period of immaturity lasting several years and spent permanently flying across the open ocean. We tracked by satellite telemetry the dispersal and migration of 13 juvenile wandering albatrosses from the Crozet Islands during their first year at sea. The young albatrosses covered an average distance of 184,000 km during the first year, restricting their dispersal movement to the unproductive and low wind subtropical Indian Ocean and Tasman Sea. The juveniles initiated the migration by an innate phase of rapid dispersal encoded as a fixed flight direction assisted by southerly winds towards north and northeast. Thereafter each individual restricted its movement to a particular zone of the ocean that will possibly be used until they start breeding 7-10 years later and return in contact with breeding adults. This dispersal in young birds corresponds well with movements observed for adult non-breeding wandering albatrosses. The results show clearly an inherited ability to navigate back to already visited areas in young wandering albatrosses. The juvenile dispersal behaviour and migration at sea suggest a genetically based migration program, encoding navigation to a destination area used throughout the life. (Less)


Abstract The present study evaluated the effects of dietary inulin on growth performance, body composition, serum, biochemical, and mucus immune factors; as well as innate immune responses of rainbow trout fry challenged with Aeromonas hydrophila. Four diets were prepared using a commercially available fish feed as a basal diet and different levels of prebiotic inulin incorporation; 0 (control), 1, 2, and 3%; referred to as C, T1, T2, and T3, respectively. The findings of the 60-day feeding trial showed that inulin inclusion affected final weight, food conversion rate (FCR), and specific growth rate (SGR) compared to that of the control group (P < 0.05), in which the lowest FCR was observed in T3. Body composition analysis revealed that inulin significantly increased protein content and decreased lipid levels, especially in the T1 and T2 groups. The lowest ash level was noticed in T2 (P < 0.05). Blood total protein, albumin, globulin, cholesterol, and glucose were not affected by inulin supplementation (P > 0.05). Analysis of humoral immune responses showed that the inulin supplements significantly increased lysozyme and complement activities (P < 0.05), as well as higher red blood cell count (RBC) and hemoglobin (Hb) in fish, fed 2% inulin, while no significant differences were observed among other treatments (P > 0.05). The mucosal parameters; including lysozyme, alkaline phosphatase (excluding ACH50); protease activities; and total immunoglobulin (IgM) improved significantly (P < 0.05), particularly in the T2 group. The T2 group also demonstrated the highest survival rate among all groups. The present findings indicate that dietary administration of inulin promotes growth and biochemical parameters, as well as serum immunity and mucosal immune responses of rainbow trout, in which a 2% inclusion produced the best results.


Background: Intravenous drug delivery is an advantageous choice for rapid administration, immediate drug effect, and avoidance of first-pass metabolism in oral drug delivery. In this study, the synthesis, formulation, and characterization of atorvastatin-loaded polyurethane (PU) nanoparticles were investigated for intravenous route of administration. Method: First, PU was synthesized and characterized. Second, nanoparticles were prepared in four different ratios of drug to polymer through two different techniques, including emulsion-diffusion and single-emulsion. Finally, particle size and polydispersity index, shape and surface morphology, drug entrapment efficiency (EE), drug loading, and in vitro release were evaluated by dynamics light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, and UV visible spectroscopy, respectively. Results: Within two methods, the prepared nanoparticles had a spherical shape and a smooth surface with a diversity of size ranged from 174.04 nm to 277.24 nm in emulsion-diffusion and from 306.5 nm to 393.12 in the single-emulsion method. The highest EE was 84.76%, for (1:4) sample in the emulsion-diffusion method. It has also been shown that in vitro release of nanoparticles, using the emulsion-diffusion method, was sustained up to eight days by two mechanisms: drug diffusion and polymer relaxation. Conclusion: PU nanoparticles, that were prepared by the emulsion-diffusion method, could be used as effective carriers for the controlled drug delivery of poorly water soluble drugs such as atorvastatin calcium.


Proponents of deliberative democracy have theorized that in order to contribute to improved decision-making, citizens should aim for high levels of inclusion, participation equality, and reciprocal, rational reasoning when they convene to discuss policy issues. To measure the extent to which these goals are achieved in actual practice, the authors analyzed transcripts from 13 public forums on the topic of broadband access in rural communities. Demographic attributes of participants were compared with their utterances during deliberation, coded by five quality variables: justification rationality, common good orientation, constructive politics, interactivity, and consideration of trade-offs. Analysis showed that turnout, quantity and quality of discourse varied significantly across different socioeconomic groups. For example, individuals with college education were more likely to provide higher levels of justification, alternative and mediating proposals, and consideration of the common good compared to those without college education. Non-salaried participants expressed the lowest level of justification for their arguments and showed significantly less interactivity with other participants. Addressing these differences requires greater effort by forum organizers to prepare participants through repeated, sequential forum experiences.


Objectives The intent of a death from overdose can be difficult to determine. The goal of this study was to examine the association of psychiatric diagnoses among overdose deaths ruled by a medical examiner as intentional, unintentional and indeterminate intent. Methods All Veterans Health Administration patients in Fiscal Year 1999 (n=3 291 891) were followed through Fiscal Year 2006. We tested the relative strength of association between psychiatric disorders among types of overdoses (categorised by intent) using multinomial models, adjusted for age, sex, Veterans Affairs priority status and Charlson comorbidity scores. Data were from National Death Index records and patient medical records. Results Substance use disorders (SUD) had a stronger association with indeterminate intent overdoses than intentional overdoses (adjusted OR (AOR)=1.80, 95% CI 1.47 to 2.22). SUDs also had a stronger association with unintentional overdoses than intentional (AOR=1.48, 95% CI 1.27 to 1.72), but the reverse was true for all other psychiatric disorders (except post-traumatic stress disorder). Conclusions Overdoses ruled indeterminate may be misclassified suicide deaths and are important to suicide surveillance and prevention efforts. Additionally, overdose deaths not classified as suicides may include some cases due to suicidal-like thinking without overt suicidal intent.


The use of electric vehicles has seen a rapid growth in the past decade as it is expected to have an important role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. The increased demand for electric vehicles has in turn amplified the demand for traction batteries, especially lithium-ion batteries. However, to avoid problem-shifting it is important to consider the life-cycleimpact from the transition to an electrified transport fleet, since lithium-ion batteries are associated with its own environmental problems. Previous life-cycle assessments have been conducted, however, many studies lack in traceability and transparency regarding both battery composition, raw material supply and the processes included in the system boundaries. This makes it hard to compare the results and prevents the field from reaching a consensus in the best approach in conducting lifecycle assessments. To enable future life-cycle assessments of lithium-ion batteries it is important to identify the key assumptions in the previous studies and understand why they differ to such large extent. This report will therefore assess how previous studies differ in two regards: 1. the methodological choices and 2. the environmental impact categories evaluated. By doing so, this report helps future studies identify how these choices affect the results and therefore aid in choosing the best options. The results of the study show that the processes with the largest contribution to the environmental impact is the mining of materials, cell assembly and the use-phase and should therefore be assessed further in detail in future studies in order to reduce uncertainties. The impact categories that are concerned the most is the global warming potential, human toxicity potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential and abiotic depletion potential. A large contributor to several of these impact categories is the electricity used in both the production- and use-phase. Consequently, using an electricity mix with higher shares of renewables have been stated as an efficient measure to reduce the life-cycle impact from lithium-ion batteries. Furthermore, there is a need for future studies that conduct full cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessments with primary data from manufacturers, preferably representable of large-scale production and data that better represents the current industry practice end-of-life treatment. The best practice model to conduct future lifecycle assessment is dependent on the goal and scope
of the study. Both the functional unit and the system boundaries should reflect the goal of the assessment. Cradle-to-grave assessment is to be preferred if the goal is to compare the environmental impact between using batteries in electric vehicles to internal combustion vehicles. In that case, the functional unit should also include the performance of the battery, such as charge efficiency and lifetime, and therefore the unit kilometres driven is preferred. Also, in order to include the most common environmental impact categories that are concerned, five categories should be included:
the global warming potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential, abiotic depletion potential and human toxicity potential.


The current investigation was on synthesis, characterization and molecular docking studies of novel 4-anilinoquinazoline derivatives for their anti-tumor effects.The synthesized novel 4-anilinoquinazoline derivatives were characterized using 1H and 13C Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Infrared (IR) and mass spectroscopic analysis. Compounds PR (1-6) were screened for cytotoxicity assays against various cell lines such as HCT116, K562, SKBR3 and EAC cell lines using MTT assay, trypan blue dye exclusion and LDH release assay. The molecular docking studies were drawn using Maestro 2D sketcher and energy minimize was computed by OPLS 2005. Proteins were prepared by retrieving into Maestro platform Schrodinger, Inc.PR-6 enhanced cytotoxic activity in the range of 10.09±0.92 to 11.24±0.81 µM on all four cell lines, which is comparable to that of standard drugs cisplatin (6.4±1.45 to 8.48±0.63 µM) and doxorubicin (7.89±091 to 8.48±1.02 µM). Furthermore, molecular docking studies of synthesized compounds PR (1-6) as vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors were performed on crystal structure of VEGFR-2 and EGFR and amongst them PR-6 has shown maximum docking score (-11.13) against VEGFR-2. This finding strongly suggested that PR-6 is effective cytotoxic agent against all the four cancer cell lines in-vitro and also significant angiogenic inhibitor as ascertained by its potential interaction with VEGFR-2 and EGFR.


Currently, policies implemented by governments in developing countries are dominated by the view that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is necessary for development and that, without FDI, there would be no growth. They also believe that FDI brings efficient management of resources, new technology, a culture of competition, and access to global markets. FDI is considered the best source of development finance on the grounds, among others, that it is self-liquidating. Obviously, Sudan is not an exception, with policies of economic liberalisation, policies of economic restructuring, attention to the infrastructure, privatisation, and establishment of the capital market, and other measures to attract FDI.

The aim of this research is to explore the impact of policies followed by the host country on the amount of inward FDI and the impact of FDI on the economic development of the host country. It is important to focus on the theoretical foundation of the FDI phenomenon and its relevance in explaining FDI determinants.

In conducting this research, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods have been employed. A case study approach has been adopted to investigate the impact of the measures taken by the government of Sudan to encourage FDI. As well as investigating the impact at the macroeconomic level, the study focuses on the three sectors most affected by FDI: oil, real estate and telecommunications.

Oil production and exports are of vital importance for Sudan's economy, and hence the government has focused much of its effort on this sector, which is dominated by Chinese companies. Many of the issues faced were similar to those experienced elsewhere in Africa where China is the source of FDI. The inflows to the real estate sector were mainly from the Gulf, with developers seeking to build residential accommodation and commercial property which would appeal to Sudanese expatriates returning from work there. Telecommunications, in particular mobile services, have brought about a social revolution in Sudan, as well as elsewhere in Africa. The government's aim was to open the market up, with competition making phone tariffs more affordable. Overall, government policies to encourage FDI have been successful but it is evident that different policies are needed for each sector.


The amount of piracy in the streaming digital content in general and the music industry in specific is posing a real challenge to digital content owners. This paper presents a DRM solution to monetizing, tracking and controlling online streaming content cross platforms for IP enabled devices. The paper benefits from the current advances in Blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Specifically, the paper presents a Global Music Asset Assurance (GoMAA) digital currency and presents the iMediaStreams Blockchain to enable the secure dissemination and tracking of the streamed content. The proposed solution provides the data owner the ability to control the flow of information even after it has been released by creating a secure, selfinstalled, cross platform reader located on the digital content file header. The proposed system provides the content owners' options to manage their digital information (audio, video, speech, etc.), including the tracking of the most consumed segments, once it is release. The system benefits from token distribution between the content owner (Music Bands), the content distributer (Online Radio Stations) and the content consumer(Fans) on the system blockchain.


Abstract A statistical—dynamical regionalization approach is developed to assess possible changes in wind storm impacts. The method is applied to North Rhine-Westphalia (Western Germany) using the FOOT3DK mesoscale model for dynamical downscaling and ECHAM5/OM1 global circulation model climate projections. The method first classifies typical weather developments within the reanalysis period using K-means cluster algorithm. Most historical wind storms are associated with four weather developments (primary storm-clusters). Mesoscale simulations are performed for representative elements for all clusters to derive regional wind climatology. Additionally, 28 historical storms affecting Western Germany are simulated. Empirical functions are estimated to relate wind gust fields and insured losses. Transient ECHAM5/OM1 simulations show an enhanced frequency of primary storm-clusters and storms for 2060–2100 compared to 1960–2000. Accordingly, wind gusts increase over Western Germany, reaching locally +5% for 98th wind gust percentiles (A2-scenario). Consequently, storm losses are expected to increase substantially (+8% for A1B-scenario, +19% for A2-scenario). Regional patterns show larger changes over north-eastern parts of North Rhine-Westphalia than for western parts. For storms with return periods above 20 yr, loss expectations for Germany may increase by a factor of 2. These results document the method's functionality to assess future changes in loss potentials in regional terms.


ABSTRACT The original I-35W bridge collapsed on 1st August 2007, and the replacement bridge opened to the public on 18 September 2008. This study explicitly considers the day-to-day behavior of travelers after that bridge reopening. Subjects react to day-to-day travel times on a specific route according to thresholds. These thresholds help discriminate whether a travel time is within an acceptable margin or not, and travelers may decide to abandon the chosen route depending on the frequency of travel times within acceptable margins. Subjects' previous experience, and perception of the alternatives, also influence their decision to abandon the chosen route.


Trichome patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana is a potential model system to study
two dimensional patterning. Theoretically, lateral inhibition during trichome
patterning can be achieved either by active inhibition or by removal of trichome
promoting activity (e.g. depletion). Recent data have suggested a role of
this activator depletion mechanism in trichome patterning. It was shown that
the TTG1 protein is depleted in the trichome surrounding epidermal cells and
accumulates in the trichome initials. In this study I focused on the characterization
of the molecular mechanism and the role of TTG1 trapping during trichome
patterning.
I showed that the removal of the bHLH factor GL3 results in the abolition of the
TTG1 depletion strongly suggesting that TTG1 depletion is GL3 dependent. Cells
expressing high levels of GL3 show a strong positive effect on nuclear localization
of the TTG1 protein. GL3 also counteracts the TTG1 mobility both within as well
as between the tissue layers. Co-expression of GL3 and TTG1 in the subepidermis
blocked the mobility of TTG1 from the subepidermis to the epidermis. Within the
epidermis the TTG1 protein in the trichome initials is less free to move compared
to TTG1 in the other epidermal cells. Similarly the TTG1 entering into the
trichome initial is retained more efficiently than the TTG1 entering into other
epidermal cells. This correlates with the expression and localization pattern of
GL3 which is predominantly expressed in trichome initials. This observation was
further strengthened by p35S::GL3 lines where the depletion was lost because
of the trapping of TTG1 in all epidermal cells. Taken together these data are
clearly pointing towards a GL3 mediated nuclear trapping of TTG1 in the trichome
initials.
Weak alleles of ttg1, which produce trichome clusters, were used to test the
biological relevance of the depletion. Interestingly the weak allelic forms of TTG1
showed either a weak or no interaction with GL3 and failed to be trapped in the
nucleus in the yeast system. This led to the postulation that in these weak alleles
the TTG1 interaction with GL3 might be sufficient enough to initiate trichomes but not strong enough to attract/trap TTG1 in the nucleus resulting in no depletion of
the activator TTG1 in the trichome adjacent cells and thereby leading to cluster
formation.
A threshold level of TTG1 concentration in the nucleus appears to be crucial for the
correct branching of the trichome. This assumption also correlates nicely with the
underbranched phenotype in the weak ttg1 alleles where also nuclear TTG1 would
be expected to be less because of weak/no interaction with GL3.
The mobility domain in TTG1, which is not solely but partially responsible for the
TTG1 mobility between the tissue layers was mapped to few amino acids in the
N-terminus of TTG1.
A potential TTG1 transport inhibitor (tti) mutant was isolated in the EMS
mutagenesis screening of the ttg1pRBC::TTG1 plants that specifically inhibited the
transport of TTG1 from the subepidermis to the epidermis in leaf and the seeds.
The application of the photoconvertible marker KikGR1 in plants was shown for
the first time. This was then successfully used to study the mobility of TTG1 in the
leaf epidermis.


Grace and George have been past entrants in the AAAI Robot Challenge. This year, however, we chose to integrate our more recent work in the field of human-robot interaction, and designed a system to enter the "Open Interaction" category. Our goal was to have two robots at the AAAI National Conference, with one acting as an "information kiosk," telling about the Conference and giving directions, and the other acting as a mobile escort for people. This paper discusses the system we envisioned, as well as what we were able to achieve at the


The great majority of Nippoleucon hinumensis (Gam6) in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan enters a long-term summer diapause from May to November. We identified a minor subpopulation of N. hinumensis (0.7% of the total population) that became adults in a short period without diapause. Small-sized ovigerous females (15% shorter than the ordinary-sized ovigerous females) appeared from January to early February, a month earlier than the appearance of the ordinary-sized ovigerous females that produce diapausing offspring. These precociously ovigerous females released offspring from early February to early March. The offspring developed from 1st manca larvae to 2nd manca larvae, 1st juvenile stage and 2nd juveniles stage in that order, and in mid-April they reached the adult stage (5th instar) without diapause. In the non-diapausing subpopulation, sexual dimorphism was apparent from the 1st manca instar and the sex ratio (males:females) was 2 to 4:1. The molts, occurring at intervals of ca. 10 d, were not highly synchronous among individuals. The non-diapausing females mostly disappeared in April without producing offspring, but many non-diapausing males survived until the ordinary-sized ovigerous females started incubation of the second brood in late April. Possibly, the non-diapausing subpopulation is maintained through mating of non-diapausing males with ordinary-sized ovigerous females. The non-diapausing mode of life in N. hinumensis may represent the ancestral life mode before this species acquired a summer diapause mechanism.


Leukocyte recruitment contributes to acute kidney injury (AKI), but the mechanisms by which leukocytes promote injury are not completely understood. The degranulation of mast cells releases inflammatory molecules, including TNF, but whether these cells participate in the pathogenesis of AKI is unknown. Here, we induced AKI with cisplatin in mast cell-deficient and wild-type mice. Compared with wild-type mice, deficiency of mast cells attenuated renal injury, reduced serum levels of TNF, and reduced recruitment of leukocytes to the inflamed kidney. Mast cell-deficient mice also exhibited significantly lower intrarenal expression of leukocyte chemoattractants. Mast cell-deficient mice reconstituted with mast cells from wild-type mice exhibited similar cisplastin-induced renal damage and serum levels of TNF as wild-type mice. In contrast, mast cell-deficient mice reconstituted with mast cells from TNF-deficient mice continued to demonstrate significant attenuation of cisplatin-induced renal injury. Furthermore, the mast-cell stabilizer sodium chromoglycate also significantly abrogated renal injury in this model of AKI. Taken together, these results suggest that mast cells mediate AKI through the production of TNF.


Current interactive music systems for human-machine impro- visation often employ sophisticated machine learning algorithms, achieving competence in style imitation and interaction with human performers within defined musical domains. However, in the context of free musical improvisation, it is probably not desirable to interact with a musical partner which one can largely anticipate or predict, because this might hinder the critical re-examination of one's improvisational practice, to the detriment of an open-endedness that is crucial in this particular form of musical expression. The author's contention is that, just as one would strive to collaborate with highly original and diverse musical personalities when freely improvising, a similar scenario would be desirable when collab- orating with a computer system. By settling for "good enough" solutions to the problems posed by the design of the latter, and negotiating expec- tations of the attainable, a more unpredictable and contradictory agent might arise. In this article, the author's system's conceptual framework, design and an evaluation of three performances using it are presented.


Presents an indispensable reference for pathology residents, pathologists, and physicians specializing in OB/GYN In covering the topic of gynecologic and obstetric pathology, this book attempts to carve out its own niche midway between an atlas and a traditional textbook. The gross and microscopic images in this atlas are presented exclusively in color, and are supplemented by pertinent clinical information and discussions of differential diagnostic considerations. When deemed appropriate, images of immunohistochemical and special stains are included. To further enhance their visual appeal and the overall learning experience, many images in this book are presented with annotations and/or in composite form, and selected images have been enlarged. This image-intensive textbook also includes numerous Pap smear images and cytologic-histologic correlations. In addition to coverage of pathology of the organs of the female genital tract, brief overviews of the normal histology of these sites are provided as necessary background information. Separate chapters are also devoted to placental and peritoneal pathology. There is an emphasis on diagnostic-related issues pertaining to common lesions and their variants, although classic forms of rare lesions are also presented. In selected instances, recommendations on the processing of gross pathology specimens, discussions regarding the optimal approach for intraoperative consultations, and recommendations on the phrasing of key portions of pathology reports are provided. The 10 chapters of this book are organized by site, and the beginning of each chapter lists the entities discussed and their corresponding page numbers.


This paper investigates the effect of the powertrain mounting system on the linear and nonlinear torsional dynamical behaviour of a transmission system. To this aim, two dynamic models, one with rigid mounts and the other with flexible mounts, are presented and compared: the first model considers only the torsional dynamics of transmission and driveline, while the second model includes also a 3 degrees-of-freedom powertrain block. The mechanical coupling and interaction between the powertrain block and transmission system is discussed and formulated. These models are then analyzed in terms of vibrational mode shapes, natural frequencies and Frequency Response Functions (FRFs); a sensitivity analysis of the main transmission parameters, e.g. the gear ratio, is also presented. From the comparison of the two simulated configurations (with and without powertrain mounts) both in time and frequency domain, a significant interaction between the two subsystems is noticed, particularly in the vehicle acceleration signal. Neglecting the powertrain mounts may lead to underestimating the real vibration level. A nonlinear model of a dual clutch transmission, including the main backlashes present along the transmission path (clutch spline, gear meshes, synchronizers), is coupled to the powertrain mounting system model. Finally, the effect of mount stiffness on transmission NVH during critical manoeuvres is shown.


As knowledge bases are enlarged to support more complex classes of problems, expert systems will demand efficient knowledge-management techniques—techniques that are already available in database systems. In this paper, we present the design of a database schema suitable for knowledge bases that employ a decision-network representation. Using this schema, we describe the process of translating existing knowledge bases into relational format. Although exploratory in nature, our work indicates that the application of database techniques offers numerous advantages over an ad-hoc scheme for managing probabilistic knowledge bases.


Since late 1992, over 100 building complexes in Taiwan, including both public and private schools, and 1,000 apartments have been identified as emitting elevated levels of gamma-radiation. These high levels of gamma-radiation have been traced to construction steel contaminated with 60Co. Accurate reconstruction of the radiation exposure dosage among residents is complicated by the discovery of multiple radioactive sources within the living spaces and by the lack of comprehensive information about resident life-style and occupancy patterns within these contaminated spaces. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sensitivity of current dose reconstruction approach employed in an epidemiological study for the health effects of these occupants. We apply a statistical method of local smoothing in dose rate estimation and examine factors that are closely associated with radiation exposure from multiple radioactive sources in the apartment. Two examples are used, a simulated measurement in a hypothetical room with three radioactive sources and a real apartment in Ming-Shan Villa, one of the contaminated buildings. The simulated and estimated means are compared along 5-10 selected points of measurement: by local smoothing approach, with the furniture-adjusted space, and with the occupancy time-weighted mean. We found that the local smoothing approach came much closer to theoretical values. The local smoothing approach may serve as a refined method of radiation dose distribution modeling in exposure estimation. Before environmental exposure assessment, "highly occupied zones" (HOZs) in the contaminated spaces must be identified. Estimates of the time spent in these HOZs are essential to obtain accurate dosage values. These results will facilitate a more accurate dose reconstruction in the assessment of residential exposure in apartments with elevated levels of radioactivity.


The mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) still remains an under exploited tropical fruit species that has potential to be developed for local consumption and export commodity. The problem for large scale planting of this plant is not having enough planting materials because the conventional vegetative propagation method has low percentage of success. One of the alternative approaches for mass propagation of mangosteen is through tissue culture. The advantages of propagation through tissue culture are mass propagation can be achieved in a short of time period, plantlet can be produced all year round, and require less space of the plant in the laboratory compare with to the field. The result of the study on in vitro propagation of mangosteen in terms of production of adventitious shoots through direct organogenesis and indirect organogenesis in term of callus induction was conducted at the laboratory of Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia. It was observed that among 24 initiation media tested, 16 mg/l BAP gave the highest number of shoots (7.00 shoot/explant), followed by 8 mg/l BAP (6.3 shoots/explant) after eighth weeks of culture. In general, the supplement of AdS in media did not significantly influence the number of shoots produced. There was negative correlation between the height of shoot and the number of shoot produced. The highest number of shoots was recorded on media with 1 mg/l and 2 mg/l BAP, while the shortest shoot was on media of 16 mg/l and 8 mg/l BAP. Contrary to the height of shoot, there was positive correlation between the weight of shoots and the number of shoots. Treatment with 16 mg/l and 8 mg/l BAP gave the highest weight of shoots produced per seed explant. During subculture, treatment with BAP 2 mg/l gave the highest number of shoots at every occasion of subculture (39.56 shoots per explant), followed by 1 mg/l BAP (27.71 shoots per explant). Height of shoots on all media of subculture did not significantly differ. Combination of 1 mg/l BAP and 2 mg/l Kinetin was the most suitable media for elongation of the shoot (1.06 cm).
Among the rooting media, ½ MS + 15 mg/l NAA + 0.05% Charcoal + 10 g/l sucrose was most suitable for the emergence of roots with 3.4 roots per shoot). While ½ MS + 1 mg/l IAA + 0.05% Charcoal + 10 mg/l sucrose seemed to be most suitable media for lengthening the roots. The average length of root on this media was 6.85 cm per shoot. Plantlets from rooting experiments acclimatized on the media of soil + sand + peat (2 : 1: 1) have grown well. 100% of them could survive under misting chamber condition for eight weeks. In study on organogenesis through callus induction, all media with the exception of MS, BAP alone and 2,4-D alone could produce calli. It is expected that this findings can contribute to the knowledge of science, particularly on in vitro propagation of mangosteen, and can be used as a reference for other students and researchers as well as agricultural industries in developing mass propagation of mangosteen.


Our study investigates the linkage between frontier and emerging equity markets of Asia from January 2000 to December 2016. To deal with heterogeneous panels, we applied pooled mean group framework proposed by Pesaran, Shin, and Smith (2001). Our findings reveal both short and long run relationships among sampled markets thereby supporting the feedback hypothesis. The magnitude of relationship is strong from frontier to emerging equity markets. Results of the study suggest that emerging markets are more integrated with Pakistani equity markets as compared to Sri Lankan equity market suggesting the presence of regional equity market connectedness.


Background: The worldwide mental health treatment gap calls for scaling-up psychological interventions, which requires effective implementation in diverse cultural settings. Evidence from the field of global mental health and cultural clinical psychology indicates cultural variation in how symptoms of common mental disorders are expressed, and how culturally diverse groups explain the emergence of such symptoms. An increasing number of studies have examined to what extent cultural adaptation enhances the acceptability and effectiveness of psychological interventions among culturally diverse groups. To date, this evidence is inconclusive, and there is a lack of studies that dismantle the multiple types of modifications involved in cultural adaptation.
Method: Based on empirical evidence from ethnopsychological studies, cultural adaptation research, and psychotherapy research, the present paper offers a new conceptual framework for cultural adaptation that lays the groundwork for future empirical research.
Results: The cultural adaptation framework encompasses three elements: i) cultural concepts of distress; ii) treatment components; and iii) treatment delivery. These three elements have been discussed in literature but rarely tested in methodologically rigorous studies. Innovative research designs are needed to empirically test the relevance of these adaptation elements, to better understand the substantial modifications that enhance acceptability and effectiveness of psychological interventions.
Conclusion: Using a theory-driven approach and innovative experimental designs, research on cultural adaptation has the potential not only to make psychological treatments more accessible for culturally adverse groups, but also to further advance empirical research on the basic question about the "key ingredients" of psychotherapy.


In this article, we bring new insights and add to existing conversations both about the discursive contestations around transgender subjects and about the theory of articulation. We argue that transgender subjectivity has become a part of a larger hegemonic struggle to define the purpose and modalities of contemporary politics and has become a key moment in political power struggles between hegemonic projects. We provide a detailed and closely analyzed example of how articulation allows us to parse apart the linkages through which signifiers are given meanings. We display how different political actors articulate the same signifier within diverging discourses, showing how gender identities are caught up within relations of power that seek to exclude and marginalize.


A Dissertation Submitted to the Mzumbe University Dar es Salaam Campus College in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Masters of Accounting and Finance (MSc. A & F) of Mzumbe University


This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in TCP/IP-based internets. In particular, it defines objects for managing Fibre Channel Over TCP/IP (FCIP) entities, which are used to interconnect Fibre Channel (FC) fabrics with IP networks.


Purpose: The Rapid Assessment of Disability (RAD) questionnaire was developed to provide governments and development agencies with an appropriate instrument to determine the prevalence of people with disability within their target populations, and to design and evaluate the effectiveness of disability inclusive activities in addressing their priorities and needs. The RAD questionnaire was developed using two conceptual frameworks: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Existing instruments were reviewed to inform the structure and content of the RAD questionnaire.  The RAD questionnaire that was developed for field testing in Bangladesh comprised both a household questionnaire and a questionnaire for individuals within each household, with 5 sections: 1) Demographic information, 2) Assessment of functioning, 3) Awareness of rights of people with disability, 4) Well-being and quality of life, 5) Participation in the community.  Methods: Prior to field-testing the RAD questionnaire in Bangladesh, a qualitative study was conducted to ensure the relevance of the questionnaire in the context of a developing country.   In-depth interviews with 9 people with disability and a focus group of 8 parents of children with disability were conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results: Qualitative findings highlighted factors relevant to the lives of people with disability in Bangladesh, including discrepancies between the awareness and attainment of rights for people with disability, the wellbeing of people with disability and their families, as well as numerous barriers to full participation in their community.   While the findings confirmed that the design and content of the questionnaire reflected all these aspects, some changes were made to the items in the questionnaire to ensure that it reflected the views of people with disability from the context of a developing country. Conclusions and Implications: This qualitative study was an important step in the development of the RAD questionnaire as it helped to achieve its aim - namely, to establish the prevalence of disability and to assist in the design and evaluation of disability inclusive interventions in the setting of a developing country.


"This book is the definitive guide for SAP NetWeaver BI professionals. Based on their extraordinary expertise with the product, the authors provide deep insights about key innovations in the areas of user experience, query performance, integrated planning, and enterprise-wide data warehousing." -Stefan Sigg, Vice President, SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence The long-anticipated publication of this second edition reflects the growing success of SAP NetWeaver as well as the various Business Intelligence (BI) capabilities that are embedded with SAP BW version 7.0. Written by SAP insiders, this comprehensive guide takes into account the ever-changing features, functionality, and toolsets of SAP NetWeaver to bring you the most updated information on how to use SAP BW to design, build, deploy, populate, access, analyze, present, and administer data. You'll discover the options that are available in SAP NetWeaver and uncover a new means to improve business performance.This book reflects the process an organization goes through during an implementation of the software. The authors begin with an introduction to BI and SAP NetWeaver and quickly progress to information modeling and enterprise data warehouse concepts. You'll learn how to access and deliver meaningful analytic information to the organization, as well as perform integrated planning functions. Finally, the authors share invaluable insight on warehouse administration, performance, and security.With more than 50 percent new or revised material, this second edition of Mastering the SAP Business Information Warehouse shows you how to: Extract data from online transaction processing systems Store transformed data in a way that best supports reporting and analysis Use the various Business Explorer tools such as BEx Report Designer, BEx Analyzer, BEx Broadcaster, and BEx Web Application Designer Schedule, monitor, troubleshoot, and archive data loads The companion Web site contains sample chapters in Wiki format and the authors' blog where readers may enter discussions about the book and SAP.Wiley Technology Publishing Timely. Practical. Reliable.Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/Visit the companion Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/mcdonaldThe companion Web site contains the sample code presented in the text of the book, plus implementation templates.


Machine learning systems are increasingly used to support public sector decision-making across a variety of sectors. Given concerns around accountability in these domains, and amidst accusations of intentional or unintentional bias, there have been increased calls for transparency of these technologies. Few, however, have considered how logics and practices concerning transparency have been understood by those involved in the machine learning systems already being piloted and deployed in public bodies today. This short paper distils insights about transparency on the ground from interviews with 27 such actors, largely public servants and relevant contractors, across 5 OECD countries. Considering transparency and opacity in relation to trust and buy-in, better decision-making, and the avoidance of gaming, it seeks to provide useful insights for those hoping to develop socio-technical approaches to transparency that might be useful to practitioners on-the-ground.


Here we report the extraordinary thermal stability of Mg rich bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs), which is important for hydrogen storage technology. The enhanced NP stability is accomplished because of two critical improvements: (i) no void development within NPs (nanoscale Kirkendall effect) during their formation and (ii) suppressed Mg evaporation and NP hollowing during Mg hydrogenation at elevated temperature. The mechanism leading to the improved thermal stability of Mg-based bimetallic NPs is shown to be due to MgH2 hydride formation before evaporation can take place. These findings were tested for various compositions of Mg with Ni, Cu, and Ti, which are interesting combinations of materials for hydrogen storage systems. To achieve this we first demonstrate the synthesis mechanism of Mg-Ni and Mg-Cu NPs, which is well controlled at the single particle level, in order to accomplish multi-shell, alloy and intermetallic structures of interest for hydrogen storage tests. Aberration corrected transmission electron microscopy was carried out to unravel the detailed atomic structure and composition of the bimetallic NPs after production, processing, and hydrogenation. Finally, a simple and effective methodology is proposed for tuning the composition of the Mg-based bimetallic NPs based on the temperature-dependent nucleation behavior of NPs in the gas-phase.


How efficient is the academic education of military officers at the Swedish National Defence College (SNDC)? Since War Studies and Military Technology are represented at no other Swedish University, it is challenging when comparing them with other subjects in this regard.Another challenge is how to measure efficiency in academic education. In this article the two subjects are compared with the most similar subject at the SNDC; Political Science. Themethod applied is quite simple. By using similar statistics and approach as the Swedish Higher Education Authority (Universitetskanskerambetet – UKA) uses when comparing theefficiency of different Swedish universities, the subjects are compared in terms of full-time equivalent students per full-time equivalent staff members. The result of the comparison is depressing. If War Studies and Military Technology are to be as efficient as Political Science,the number of full-time equivalent students in the two former subjects has to be increasedfrom about 250 to about 1,450. Another option is to decrease the number of full- time equivalent staff members from about 125 to only 25. Even if the efficiency of the two military subjects does not necessarily have to be exactly on the same level as the efficiency of PoliticalScience, the result of this study indicates that something has to be done in order to increase the standards of War Studies and Military Technology.


This article is dedicated to analyse historical interpretations of the Italian colonial memory in the postwar period. Since the Eighties, different disciplines in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities and several scholars with various theoretical approaches proposed interpretations about the legacy and memory of the Italian colonialism in post-Fascist Republican Italy. The most part of scholars, both in Italy and abroad, used the word «rimozione» (repressed memory) in order to describe the process through which Italian people forgot the colonial past in Africa. My attention will be dedicated to analyse the multiplicity of meanings attributed to «rimozione » and how this word has been used to describe such a different memory processes happened in the public and private sphere, to individuals and groups. Under the pressure of several groups interested to forbid a reasonable and fair research about the Italian violence during the colonial period and deny a properly study of cultural legacies in the Italian post-Fascist society, many scholars started to use the word «rimozione» in order to denounce the lack of attention from intellectuals, journalists, historians. According to my thesis, the overlapping of interpretations about «rimozione» created an archive. This archive could impede or obstruct the historical investigation about the memory processes between colonial past and postcolonial condition.


To unravel gene expression patterns during rice inflorescence development, particularly at early stages of panicle and floral organ specification, we have characterized random cloned cDNAs from developmental-stage-specific libraries. cDNA libraries were constructed from rice panicles at the stage of branching and flower primordia specification or from panicles undergoing floral organogenesis. Partial sequence analysis and expression patterns of some of these random cDNA clones from these two rice panicle libraries are presented. Sequence comparisons with known DNA sequences in databases reveal that approximately sixtyeight per cent of these expressed rice genes show varying degrees of similarity to genes in other species with assigned functions. In contrast, thirtytwo per cent represent uncharacterized genes. cDNAs reported here code for potential rice homologues of housekeeping molecules, regulators of gene expression, and signal transduction molecules. They comprise both single-copy and multicopy genes, and genes expressed differentially, both spatially and temporally, during rice plant development. New rice cDNAs requiring specific mention are those with similarity to COP1, a regulator of photomorphogenesis in Arabidopsis; sequence-specific DNA binding plant proteins like AP2-domain-containing factors; genes that specify positional information in shoot meristems like leucine-rich-repeat-containing receptor kinases; regulators of chromatin structure like Polycomb domain protein; and also proteins induced by abiotic stresses.


Ninety-five percent of all roadway crashes are attributed fully or partially to human error, and a multitude of safety-related programs, policies, and initiatives have seen limited success in reducing roadway crashes and their accompanying fatalities, injuries, and property damage. For this reason, safety professionals have lauded the emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) as a promising palliative to the persistent problem of road crashes. Such optimism is reflected in recent literature that have argues from a conceptual standpoint, that road safety enhancement will be one of the prospective benefits of AV operations because automation removes humans from vehicle driving operations and therefore criminates or mitigates human error. It can be argued that the safety benefits of AVs will be manifest when AV market penetration reaches 100%. However, it seems clear from a practical standpoint that the transition from a system of exclusively human-driven vehicles (HDVs) to that of exclusively AVs will not only be necessary but also an arduous journey. This transition period will be characterized by heterogeneous traffic, where human-driven vehicles (HDVs) and AVs share the road space, and whence the prospective safety benefits of AVs may not be fully realized due to human error arising from the HDV operations in the mixed traffic space. These traffic conflicts, which may lead to collisions, could arise from any of several contexts of driving maneuvers, one of which is aggressive lane changes, the focus of this thesis. From the literature, it is clear that lane changing is inherently more collision-prone compared to most other maneuvers including car following, and therefore the consequences of errant human driving behavior such as inattention of misjudgment during lane changing, are more severe. To address this problem, this thesis developed a control framework to be used by AVs to help them avoid collision in a mixed traffic stream with human drivers who exhibit aggressive lane-changing behavior. The developed framework, which is based on a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach, is designed to control the AV's movements safely by duly accommodating potential human error from the HDVs that could otherwise lead to any of two common collision patterns: rear-end and side-impact. Further, the thesis investigated how connectivity between the HDVs, and AVs could facilitate joint operational decision-making and sharing of real-time information, thereby further enhancing the safety of the entire traffic stream. Finally, the thesis presents the results of driving simulations carried out to test and validate the performance of the control framework under different traffic conditions.


OBJECTIVES
This analytical review is intended to update the author's earlier writings on the position of the state mental hospital within the spectrum of services for long-term mental patients and to provide perspective for the next generation of service planners.

METHODS
Findings and commentary are organized around four major questions. First, what is the prevailing view of state mental hospitals today, and how does it compare with the view that existed in the first half of this century? Second, what individuals tend to be served in state mental hospitals today? Third, what has been the fate of mentally ill persons who are no longer served in state mental hospitals? Fourth, what is an appropriate role for the state mental hospital in today's uncertain and rapidly changing systems of care? Source material consists of periodical articles suggested in MEDLINE searches, plus newspaper reports, recent books on mental health service systems, and a variety of writings found in the "fugitive" literature generally not indexed in traditional archives.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Individual state mental hospitals vary in the composition of their resident populations, the content of their services, and the overall quality of their care. Although they have been superseded by community-based service structures in some places, they continue in general, as the result of their multifunctionality, to occupy a critical place in systems of care. Renewed efforts to integrate them as full partners within those systems must be undertaken.


ABSTRACT Livelihood diversity factors such as flexibility within fisheries, geographical mobility, reallocation of fishing effort into the broader economy, and the non-material benefits that fisheries provide are important areas of research in marine policy. We use two small-scale fisheries related socio-economic surveys of communities in the Tigak Islands of Papua New Guinea. The first conducted 5 years before a ban on the harvesting of sea cucumbers was imposed and the second from the present day, 5 years after the initiation of the ban—with the objectives of exploring changes in household fishing strategies (types and numbers of species targeted) and to identify any important socioeconomic factors that help explain those changes. Fishing's contribution to total household income has increased significantly (p = 0.019) up from 61% in 2004 to 73% in 2014 with the percentage of female residents living in a household now positively and significantly (p = 0.018) associated with fishing income. The average number of species categories targeted per household increased insignificantly while households with more women are significantly (p = 0.018) less likely to target more species than households with more men. Moreover, customary management practices contribute to this difference. Together, these results show that households are not worse off financially 5 years after the ban on sea cucumber harvesting and that gendered seascape use has implications for the role of livelihood diversity as a marine policy tool.


We study the differential impact of large exchange rate devaluations on the cost of living at different points on the income distribution. Across product categories, the poor have relatively high expenditure shares in tradeable products. Within tradeable product categories, the poor consume lower-priced varieties. Changes in the relative price of tradeables and the relative prices of lower-priced varieties following a devaluation will affect the cost of the consumption basket of the low-income households relative that of the high-income households. We quantify these effects following the 1994 Mexican peso devaluation and show that their distributional consequences can be large. In the two years that follow the devaluation, the cost of the consumption basket of those in the bottom decile of the income distribution rose between 1.46 and 1.6 times more than the cost of the consumption basket for the top income decile.


Background & Objective: Staphylococcus aureus is a common cause of nosocomial infections that has several specific adhesion molecules factors, which can be bound to a variety of host matrix extracellular proteins and replaced by host tissues. This binding is mediated by a family of proteins known as microbial surface components known as adhesive matrix molecules (MSCRAMMs) which includes fibronectin-binding protein (FnBP) and fibrinogen binding protein (Clf). Comprehensive studies regarding the genetic abilities of S. aureus isolates especially MRSA which have binding mediators seem essential. Materials & Methods: In this study 74572 clinical samples of blood, urine, sputum and other clinical samples of patients who were admitted to Tehran Milad Hospital were collected. 180 Staphylococcus aureus strains were identified after diagnostic tests. In order to determine MRSA isolates Cefoxitin disc diffusion method was used. The presence and frequency of fnbA, fnbB and clf genes was determined by PCR. Results: From 180 Staphylococcus aureus strains 159 strains (88%) had fnbA gene, 47 strains (26%) had fnbB gene and 36 strains (20%) had clf gene. The simultaneous frequency of fnbA and fnbB was 42 (23%), fnbA and Clf was 32 (18%) and fnbB and Clf was 9 (5%). The presence of all three genes together was 9 (5%). Conclusion : The results showed that there was no significant relationship between fnbA , fnbB and clf genes and clinical sample type, gender and age of patients and MRSA and MSSA isolates.


In this paper, we study energy harvesting from the beating of a biomimetic fish tail using ionic polymer–metal composites. The design of the biomimetic tail is based on carangiform swimmers and is specifically inspired by the morphology of the heterocercal tail of thresher sharks. The tail is constituted of a soft silicone matrix molded in the form of the heterocercal tail and reinforced by a steel beam of rectangular cross section. We propose a modeling framework for the underwater vibration of the biomimetic tail, wherein the tail is assimilated to a cantilever beam with rectangular cross section and heterogeneous physical properties. We focus on base excitation in the form of a superimposed rotation about a fixed axis and we consider the regime of moderately large-amplitude vibrations. In this context, the effect of the encompassing fluid is described through a hydrodynamic function, which accounts for inertial, viscous and convective phenomena. The model is validated through experiments in which the base excitation is systematically varied and the motion of selected points on the biomimetic tail tracked in time. The feasibility of harvesting energy from an ionic polymer–metal composite attached to the vibrating structure is experimentally and theoretically assessed. The response of the transducer is described using a black-box model, where the voltage output is controlled by the rate of change of the mean curvature. Experiments are performed to elucidate the impact of the shunting resistance, the frequency of the base excitation and the placement of the ionic polymer–metal composite on energy harvesting from the considered biomimetic tail.