The Lagoa Dourada is a circular-shaped pond formed on the Furnas Formation (Devonian of the Parana Basin), filled by late Pleistocene - Holocene sediments. It lies in the hydrographic basin of the Guabiroba River, a tributary of the Tibagi River situated in the Campos Gerais region of the State of Parana, southern Brazil. The pond is about 200 m in diameter and the maximum water depth is 5.4 m. Geological, chemical, textural and mineralogical studies on a core sample of the sediments collected from the Lagoa Dourada, 12.2 m thick, was obtained for investigations of paleoenvironmental changes as well as to provide additional data to support previous reconstructions based on palynomorphs and diatoms. Within the period recorded in the core, the pond has been filled by sandy material introduced by springs at the northern edge of the pond as well as by muddy material brought in by floodwaters of the Guabiroba River. Thus, the sandy layers could be interpreted as evidence of drier climates with consequent diminution of fluvial overflow, but with maintenance of the sandy deposits coming from springs. The occurrence of euhedral pyrite in the sediments, locally associated with gypsum, may indicate periods of increase in the organic matter content or an increase in the water salinity, what could be related to greater evaporation under drier paleoclimate regimes. Three "cycles" defined by an increase in the total carbon content of the sediments of the pond were observed. These cycles seem to correspond to an increase in the isotope ratio 13C /12C (d13C). Several hypotheses can be suggested to explain the presence of these "cycles", including the alternation of wetter or drier climatic phases. The convergence of the sedimentological data obtained during this study with previous microfossil paleoclimatic (pollens and diatoms) indicators and radiocarbon dating suggests that a drier paleoclimatic phase occurred around 8720±150 years B.P. The evidence for a second drier phase in more recent times is less consistent. This subsequent phase could correspond to the drier phase in southern and southeastern Brazil between 5000 and 3000 years B.P. as suggested by other paleoclimatic studies.


Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are electrochemical devices that convert chemical energy from fuel directly into electrical and thermal energy. They present high electrical efficiency and because of this feature they are considered to be an important power source alternative. However, due to their high temperature of operation, SOFCs are subject to degradation, that is, their ability to produce electricity deteriorates in time. The reasons and the conditions that contribute to degradation are multiple. Among the studied factors, operating temperature is an important one. It has been found that a stable and controllable thermal environment can mitigate this undesirable phenomenon. Therefore, the pursuit of appropriate thermal conditions during their operation is of paramount importance for their lifetime and consequently for their commercialisation. Studying and obtaining such conditions is also known as thermal management. Another important point regarding the study of SOFCs is the development and use of adequate mathematical models that the engineer and generally the researcher will use as tools to analyse their behaviour and will determine conditions for safe and efficient operation. For practical applications, these models must be validated against experimental data. The result of such validation is the determination, or calibration, of the model parameters so that the output of the model fits measurements taken in the laboratory to the best possible extent. This process is called parameter estimation or system identification. This thesis tackles both aspects. In its first part it works on the thermal management of a specific product, an SOFC autonomous unit fed with methane, producing electrical power and liberating hot off-gases that can be used as a source of thermal power. A dynamic model of the physical system is developed and validated against experimental data. During this process, it was found that measurement of gas temperatures using thermocouples may be severely biased due to radiation effects of surrounding solids to the thermocouples. In order to overcome this hurdle, the phenomena that take place around the thermocouple were incorporated into the system's mathematical model. Such a systematic error may have important consequences on the thermal management and generally on the control of the SOFC system. Indeed, an investigation effectuated in this thesis revealed how incorrect gas temperature measurements affect the system's control to such an extent that, depending on the conditions, may lead to system failure. The validation of the system model proved to be particularly challenging. This fact incited the author to investigate the factors that contribute to reliable parameter estimations. This is the subject of the second part of this thesis. A first study was performed on model-based Design of Experiments (DoE) for SOFC button cells, i.e. on how measurements on small cells may be optimised. To our knowledge the study treats for the first time the issue of repetitive measurements and their impact on the quality of parameter estimation systematically. It distinguishes the notion of measurements, which can be repetitive, from that of measurement points (or design points), which are defined once for an experiment. Introducing a new type of graph that provide information on quality criteria as functions of the number of measurement points for constant number of measurements, it stresses the importance of repetitions of measurements during experiments, which up to now has been neglected. A mathematical formula is also given that helps the experimenter define the necessary number of repetitions for a specific degree of precision of the information matrix. The theoretical findings on Design of Experiments are validated experimentally with measurements on button cells. The thesis introduces a novel method with which repetitive parameter estimations are obtained using data from polarisation curves. This method allows the calculation of histograms for the model parameters approximating this way their stochastic behaviour. Standard deviations, covariance and correlation matrices are calculated directly from the available data, avoiding the approximate calculation based on sensitivity (Jacobian) matrices. The experimental results showed again the importance of repetitions on the quality of parameter estimation. A rule-of-thumb is introduced suggesting that the number of repetitions of measurements needs to be at least equal to the number of calculated parameters plus three in order to avoid high correlations. However, repetitions do not influence the values of parameters or the fit to the experimental data, but their precision. These values are influenced by the number of measurement points. Another point of importance shown in this thesis is that there is a counterbalance between the parameters' variances and covariances and their correlations, that is, if the one improves, the other deteriorates. This is demonstrated to be in accordance with the Cramer-Rao theorem in statistics. A consequence of this is the conclusion that parameter estimation cannot be obtained to an arbitrarily high precision. Another consequence is that assessment of system identification based on only one of the widely known criteria may not be adequate, a result that concurs with the findings of other authors in the field of DoE. Finally the available results from the afore-mentioned method revealed a potential relation between correlations of parameters and the non-uniformity of their histograms. Among the investigated examples, a case of fast degradation exhibits how the introduced parameter estimation method may be used as a diagnostics tool. However such a use requires the employment of models that describe the phenomena adequately, especially after degradation. The thesis ends with the calculation of the histograms of the parameters of the SOFC unit's heat exchanger providing a stochastic perspective of parameter estimation at an SOFC system level.


Teacher educators, school principals and teachers are potentially well positioned to play a pivotal role in changing the course of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. The purpose of this article is to focus on a spectrum of educational initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa and South Africa which are designed to equip educators to be informed about, and to manage, HIV and AIDS in their personal and professional lives. Criteria for inclusion in the review are that the HIV and AIDS education endeavours must be operational (already functioning) and experience-based (have been experienced first-hand by the author). The review begins with a reflective account of two major undertakings: (a) an e-learning course for teacher educators in sub-Saharan Africa and (b) South Africa's Higher Education HIV/AIDS Programme. Thereafter, the review considers a range of academic pursuits currently involving in-service school teachers and principals studying at a South African university. These include (a) two Advanced Certificates in Education; (b) doctoral studies; and (c) a new short learning programme. In reflecting on these various innovative but 'do-able' offerings, the article concludes that experiential and context-specific action-based learning and research into the social and educational aspects of HIV and AIDS can contribute to breaking the silence and reducing stigma while, at the same time, equipping educators to provide care and support for infected and affected learners and colleagues.


The Republic of Ireland has won its status as a leading contributor to international peacekeeping operations, which has been its key 'foreign policy' since the 1960s. But why is Ireland so keen to be involved? This new book asks and answers this and other key questions about Ireland's close involvement with the EU. It cannot simply be for charitable reasons, so is it because it is a neutral state or because it is a middle power? Overall, is Ireland's peacekeeping policy based on realism and liberalism? The characteristics of peacekeeping operations have changed significantly, especially since the end of the Cold War. Can Ireland survive as a traditional peacekeeping contributor or does it have to change its peacekeeping policy radically? And will it be able to maintain its distance from NATO and the EU in terms of peacekeeping operations? This title attempts to answer all of these questions, drawing on a wide range of resources from literature, Irish and UN documents, to newspapers and interviews.


Over the past 3 years, the incidence of sugarcane leaf scald disease (LSD) caused by Xanthomonas albilineans has increased at alarming rates in some Caribbean countries. LSD was in latent phase since 1978, when the disease was reported in Cuba, until February 1998 when typical symptoms were observed in germ plasm collections and in some commercial plantings. More than 150 bacterial isolates from different sugarcane varieties and from different localities were isolated on Wilbrink agar medium and characterized. All isolates had shown similar cultural and biochemical patterns. However, serological differences between isolates from the recent outbreak and the ones obtained prior to 1998 were detected by indirect ELISA testing. Differences between Cuban isolates obtained prior to 1998 and those from the recent outbreak were confirmed by analysis of repetitive DNA sequences dispersed throughout the genome. According to the pattern obtained, the newer isolates were similar to reference strains classified as haplotype B by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (1). It is concluded that the recent outbreak of LSD was caused by a strain different than the ones previously detected in Cuba. Reference: (1) M. J. Davis et al. Phytopathology 87:316, 1997.


Forests in Africa are important to livelihoods of rural communities, as habitats of wildlife, sources of genetic resources and for mitigation to climate change among many other uses. Africa's area under forests is, however, declining at rates faster than those in other continents despite efforts to improve forest management by, for example, devolving ownership and management of some of these forests to local communities. This paper examines some of the root causes of this decline by specifically focusing on the forest-society and agriculture nexus as one of the key drivers of forest depletion on the continent. The paper also examines the influence of urbanisation and related policy shifts in Africa. The paper concludes that the rapid population increase has direct negative impact on forests and this is compounded by increasing poverty in rural areas that has increased reliance on forests as sources of food, medicines, agricultural land, in addition to forests supplying wood and other non-wood forest products for domestic consumption and industrial needs. The paper highlights an apparent link between deforestation and urbanization, and the potentials for African forests to contribute more to social and economic development and to mitigate adverse effects of climate change.


The paper explores key themes that constitute the essence of the spa service experience. The spa experience, just like any tourism experience, is regarded as an individual/subjective evaluation involving affective, cognitive and behavioural aspects of an individual before, during and after the service. Increasingly, tourism suppliers become "experience stagers" they engage customers in a personal and memorable way. Delivery of memorable spa experiences requires an insightful understanding of the key dimensions of the spa service experience consumption. This implies that providing spa experiences require new service experience management perspectives; however there is currently limited understanding in this area. The paper aims to address the gap by exploring the meaning of spa experience, spa service attributes and the experiential dimensions from the users' perspectives within five star resort hotels in Sabah, Malaysia. As the nature of experiences is subjective and involves emotional, physical, spiritual intellectual and highly personal responses to various aspects of the service experience and delivery, the research is underpinned by the sociopsychology perspective. The construct domains for service experiences by Otto and Ritchie (1996), the four realms of experience (Pine and Gilmore, 1999) and key dimensions of Tung and Ritchie
(2011) form the basis to direct and guide data collection and analysis. The findings reveal that spa experiences are multidimensional and are attributed to personal and influential realms. Four key spa experience dimensions emerged from the responses, which can be categorised as: perceived feelings/senses/relaxation, treatment, spa natural resources and decoration/environment. These can be further categorised into tangible elements: physical appearance of the spa establishment, the marketing image conveyed via advertisement and brochures and the professional and competent service staff; whilst the intangible elements include the "wholeness" of the establishment -the atmosphere and the emotive aspect of the consumers. The spa experience in resort hotels can be viewed as an "escapist" activity requiring the immersion and active participation of consumers, and also one having aesthetic value (entertainment and passive participation). Spa experience consumption behaviour can be linked to the four realms of experience by Pine and Gilmore (1999), namely entertainment, educational escapist and aesthetic, or a combination of all four. This finding benefits the health/spa service providers in terms of developing appropriate marketing strategies and enhanced spa experiences. The study also appears to confirm that the individual emotive aspects (affect, expectations, consequential and reflection) are significant in memorable experiences, which form prevalent dimensions for a memorable spa experience, and in turn influence revisits and positive word of mouth. The identified dimensions offer a better understanding of consumer behaviour in the spa consumption experience context within the resort hotels. It points out the importance of individual emotive aspects in creating spa memorable experiences; and benefits the spa service providers in term of "staging" their spa experiences and developing differentiation marketing strategies. A major limitation of the paper is due to the nature of the exploratory study, the type of respondent (foreign tourists), the small sample size and the nature of qualitative data which is contextual, limiting the generalisability of the research findings as compared to quantitative research. A comparative research work of resort hotels in different locations and use of the mixed method would prove beneficial for the possible validation of the findings. Keywords: meaning of spa experience, spa attributes, spa experience dimensions, service experience consumption, spa consumption behaviour


Ireland in Conflict, 1922-1998 sets out the main political, economic and social developments in Ireland, north and south of the border, since the 1922 treaty. This book explains the troubles in their context and examines the underlying tensions which led to prolonged violence after a period of relative civil peace and rising prosperity. Ireland in Conflict discusses: * the Civil War, its legacy for Irish politics and the Boundary Commission * the IRA, Orange Order and the Unionist party * the role of the Catholic Church and the Protestant minority * escalation of violence in the 1970s including Bloody Sunday and the hunger strikes * the Anglo-Irish agreement, the cease-fire and the hope for a peaceful solution.


Theoretical mechanisms and empirical evidence of the potential acidification of groundwater under forested soils in Europe have been reviewed in order to provide a starting point for an assessment of the acidification of groundwater in the scope of the Acid Rain study carried out at IIASA. Basic characteristics of forested soil-water systems are presented as a background to a discussion of the transport and the release and retention of elements. The report relates the impact of acid deposition of groundwater to the pedology, the climatic regime and the geohydrology of the region. Some approaches of modeling the problem are reviewed, including dynamic models and sensitivity analysis. A procedure for assessing the impact of various energy pathways on the potential for acidification of groundwater is outlined. The method proposed combines a regional ranking of the static sensitivity with a dynamic simulation of the impact of acid deposition on the chemistry of top soil.


Recent attempts at projecting climate change impacts on biodiversity have used the IUCN Red List Criteria to obtain estimates of extinction rates based on projected range shifts. In these studies, the Criteria are often misapplied, potentially introducing substantial bias and uncertainty. These misapplications include arbitrary changes to temporal and spatial scales; confusion of the spatial variables; and assume a linear relationship between abundance and range area. Using the IUCN Red List Criteria to identify which species are threatened by climate change presents special problems and uncertainties, especially for shorter‐lived species. Responses of most species to future climate change are not understood well enough to estimate extinction risks based solely on climate change scenarios and projections of shifts and/or reductions in range areas. One way to further such understanding would be to analyze the interactions among habitat shifts, landscape structure and demography for a number of species, using a combination of models. Evaluating the patterns in the results might allow the development of guidelines for assigning species to threat categories, based on a combination of life history parameters, characteristics of the landscapes in which they live, and projected range changes.


21 st century work environments are becoming more dynamic; they are fast-paced and require critical incidents to be dealt with in a shorter time frame. At the same time, in order for organizations to survive knowledge management (KM) systems need to be in place that allow organizations to learn from these incidents and use the knowledge gained to solve new problems. The knowledge life cycle consists of three phases: create, preserve, and disseminate. The knowledge life cycle also involves the transformation of knowledge from tacit to explicit, which is important to shift knowledge from the individual level to the organizational level; this represents a very important objective of KM. KM is not a domain on its own but intersects with other areas such as organizational learning, performance support, and communities of practice. Learning and performance support are among the concerns of practitioners in the sister fields of instructional design and technology (IDT) and human performance technology (HPT). Yet still, there are not many studies that examine KM through the lens of these professions. There is a need for knowledge to be accessible and for structures to be put in place to facilitate the knowledge life cycle. The purpose of this study was to explore how workers in a fast-paced environment go through the knowledge life cycle when dealing with critical incidents, and the factors that acted as driving and restraining forces. A single instrumental case study research design was used to study employees of a walk-in computer software help desk. The HPT model along with


BACKGROUND
Although several studies have examined the long-term efficacy of antidepressants, relatively little attention has been paid to the management of relapses or recurrences during continued antidepressant treatment. This study examined whether depressed patients who had recovered and then relapsed on fluoxetine 20 mg/day would benefit from an increase in fluoxetine dose.

METHOD
Eighteen patients who relapsed on fluoxetine 20 mg/day during long-term treatment with fluoxetine as part of a placebo-controlled study had their fluoxetine dose raised to 40 mg/day and were followed for at least 1 month (mean time = 4.7 months).

RESULTS
Twelve (67%) were full responders, 3 (17%) partial responders, and 3 (17%) dropped out because of side effects (e.g., insomnia and agitation). Of those patients who had either full or partial response (N = 15; 83%), 3 complete responders had a recurrence on 40 mg/day after a mean of 5.8 months and 1 partial responder had a recurrence 11 months later. Overall, 11 (61%) of 18 patients maintained their response during their follow-up while taking the higher dose of fluoxetine.

CONCLUSION
An increase in dose of fluoxetine to 40 mg/day appears to be an effective strategy in the treatment of relapse among depressed patients who had initially responded to fluoxetine 20 mg/day.


Central AC type water chiller is a refrigeration machine that release heat to environment. Heat energy that released to environment comes from room heat load that absorbed by machine and heat from compressor. The best form in using this loss energy is heat recovery water heater technology, where this machine will take heat from condenser by a heat exchanger to heating water. Refrigerant will flow in the heat exchanger before entering condenser, after that refrigerant flow to other components such as, expansion valve, evaporator, compressor and than return again to condenser, this process will be cycling regularly (closed cycle). Based on experimental and analysis result especially for AC with capacity 2 Pk, and tank capacity 75 liter, with water heater recovery device obtained that: (1) Compressor power consumption decrease from 1.66 kW to 1.59kW. (2) Heat rejected from condenser and used by water heater has ratio 4.683 kJ/s and 1.59 kJ/s, with water heater efficiency is 32.2%. (3) Maximum water temperature can be reached are in range 34oC – 47.5oC in 10-150 minutes and flow rate is 0.5 – 2.5 liter /min


This work studies the computational complexity of a tunable static type inference problem which was introduced in prior research [1]. The problem was assumed to be inherently difficult, without evidence, and a SAT solver was used to obtain a solution. In this thesis, we analyze the complexity of the inference problem. We prove that it is indeed highly unlikely that the problem can be solved efficiently. We also prove that the problem cannot be approximated efficiently to within a certain factor. We discuss the computational complexity of three restricted but useful versions of the problem, showing that whilst one of them can be solved in polynomial time, the other two are still inherently difficult. We discuss our efforts and the roadblocks we faced while attempting to conduct experiments to gain further insight into the properties which distinguish between hard and easy instances of the problem.


Turbine manufacturers continually seek to gain efficiency by increasing operating temperatures well above the maximum temperature of component alloys. This increase in temperature must be accounted for in the cooling of components by examining the heat transfer from these crucial components. This study specifically examines the effect of a contoured endwall on the heat transfer of a scaled-up stator vane. Understanding the three-dimensional effects of contoured endwalls on vane heat transfer can lead to prolonging blade life. The results of a combined experimental and computational study of heat transfer along the surface of a turbine vane that incorporates a contoured endwall are discussed in detail. A commercially available computational fluid dynamics code was used to design a contoured endwall and simulate an engine representative pressure distribution for a turbine vane cascade placed in a low-speed wind tunnel. A significant flow acceleration caused by the contour increased heat transfer over 40% of the vane span compared to the vane far from the contoured endwall. The effects of freestream turbulence with respect to the contour were examined. Results showed a significant increase in heat transfer at elevated freestream turbulence levels at each span location. The effects of the contour were minimal compared to the effects of increased turbulence. The boundary layer transition location moved further upstream with increasing turbulence. Trip wires were used to model the effect of film-cooling holes on the boundary layer development. The heat transfer increased locally at the trip and either remained elevated if the boundary layer remained turbulent or the heat transfer decreased as the boundary layer relaminarized due to flow acceleration. These results are beneficial to turbine manufacturers interested in effective placement of film-cooling holes.


This paper attempts to quantitatively measure the change in the productivity of Danish organic farming in recent years. Based on a translog production frontier framework the technical and scale efficiency on farm level is analysed by following a time trends as well as a general index model specification. We further try to analyse the significance of subsidies for promoting long term growth in organic production by estimating a bootstrapped bivariate probit model with respect to factors influencing the probability of organic market exit. The results revealed significant differencies in the organic farms' technical efficiencies, no significant total factor productivity growth and even a slightly negative rate of technical change in the period investigated. We found evidence for a positive relationship between subsidy payments and an increase in farm efficiency, technology improvements and a decreasing probability of organic market exit which was also confirmed for off farm income. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


Background Eosinophilic inflammation is a hallmark of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. To model this disease process experimentally, nasal sensitization of mice with ovalbumin or aspergillus has been described. Here, we describe a genetically mutant mouse that develops robust spontaneous nasal eosinophilic inflammation. These mice lack the enzyme SHP-1 that down-regulates the IL-4Rα/stat6 signaling pathway. We compared nasal inflammation and inflammatory mediators in SHP-1 deficient mice (mev) and an ovalbumin-induced nasal allergy model. Methods A novel technique of trans-pharyngeal nasal lavage was developed to obtain samples of inflammatory cells from the nasal passages of allergic and mev mice. Total and differential cell counts were performed on cytospin preparations. Expression of tissue mRNA for IL-4, IL-13, and mouse beta-defensin-1 (MBD-1) was determined by quantitative PCR. Eotaxin in the lavage fluid was assessed by ELISA. Results Allergic and mev mice had increased total cells and eosinophils compared with controls. Expression of IL-4 was similarly increased in both allergic and mev mice, but expression of IL-13 and eotaxin was significantly greater in the allergic mice than mev mice. Eotaxin was significantly up-regulated in both allergic rhinitis and mev mice. In both models of eosinophilic inflammation, down-regulation of the innate immune marker MBD-1 was observed. Conclusions The mev mice display spontaneous chronic nasal eosinophilic inflammation with potential utility for chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps research. The eosinophilic infiltrate is more robust in the mev mice than allergic mice, but Th2 cytokine expression is not as pronounced. Decreased MBD-1 expression in both models supports the concept that Th2-cytokines down-regulate sinonasal innate immunity in humans, and suggests a role for mouse models in investigating the interaction between adaptive and innate immunity in the sinonasal mucosa.


The use of chemical agents for terrorist attacks or military warfare is a major concern at the present time. Chemical agents can cause significant morbidity, are relatively inexpensive, and are easy to store and use. Weaponization of chemical agents is only limited by the physicochemical properties of some agents. Recent incidents involving toxic industrial chemicals and chemical terrorist attacks indicate that critical care services are frequently utilized. For obvious reasons, the critical care literature on chemical terrorism is scarce. This article reviews the clinical aspects of diagnosing and treating victims of chemical terrorism while emphasizing the critical care management. The intensivist needs to be familiar with the chemical agents that could be used in a terrorist attack. The military classification divides agents into lung agents, blood agents, vesicants, and nerve agents. Supportive critical care is the cornerstone of treatment for most casualties, and dramatic recovery can occur in many cases. Specific antidotes are available for some agents, but even without the antidote, aggressive intensive care support can lead to favorable outcome in many cases. Critical care and emergency services can be overwhelmed by a terrorist attack as many exposed but not ill will seek care.


This paper presents Quo Vadis, an evolving framework for intelligent tra c management in very large communication networks. Quo Vadis is designed to exploit topological properties of large networks as well as their spatio-temporal dynamics to optimize multiple performance criteria through cooperation among nodes in the network. It employs a distributed representation of network state information using local load measurements supplemented by a less precise global summary. Routing decisions in Quo Vadis are based on parameterized heuristics designed to optimize various performance metrics in an anticipatory or pro-active as well as compensatory or reactive mode and to minimize the overhead associated with tra c management. The results of simulation experiments within a grid network clearly demonstrate the ability of Quo Vadis to avoid congestion and minimize message delay under a variety of network load conditions.


An underwater membrane introduction mass spectrometer was deployed in permeable sandy sediment on the Georgia continental shelf (depth = 27 m) to measure in situ dissolved gas concentrations in sediment porewaters. Over a 54-h period, 30 profiles (up to 18 cm deep) were sampled using an automated sediment probe coupled with an underwater positive displacement syringe pump. Porewater was analyzed with a flow-through membrane assembly at constant sample flow rate (0.35 mL/min) and membrane temperature (45°C). Calibration was performed on-site using ambient seawater equilibrated with gas standards. Measurements of methane, nitrogen, argon, oxygen, and carbon dioxide concentrations were used to produce depth-time contours and demonstrate the dynamics of dissolved gases in the porewater. Profiles indicated a well-oxygenated surface layer (1 to 2 cm depth) and anoxia below −3 to −5 cm. Elevated concentrations of methane below the oxycline reveal active methanogenesis in shelf sands despite low (0.05%) organic carbon content. Chemocline depth and sediment ripple height were correlated, suggesting that the porewater environment is controlled by advection-driven interactions between boundary-layer flow and bottom topography. By coupling in situ concentration profiles to independent estimates of sediment-water exchange, it was estimated that maximal oxygen consumption at this site occurs > 2 cm below the interface. Oxygen consumption at this site is estimated as 2.3 mmol m−2 d−1 based on combined dissolved profiles and advection estimates. Raw data and data analysis scripts (Matlab) are available electronically in a Web Appendix.


OBJECTIVE
To test the quality, disintegration properties, and compliance with labeling regulations for representative commercially available taurine and carnitine dietary products.

DESIGN
Evaluation study.

SAMPLE POPULATION
11 commercially available taurine and 10 commercially available carnitine products.

PROCEDURES
For each product, the amount of taurine or carnitine was determined and compared with the label claim. All products were evaluated for concentrations of mercury, arsenic, and selenium. Disintegration properties of 5 taurine and 8 carnitine products were determined in vitro. Labels were evaluated for compliance with FDA guidelines.

RESULTS
10 of 11 taurine and 10 of 10 carnitine products were within 10% of the stated label claim. Three of 11 taurine and 6 of 10 carnitine products were within 5% of the stated label claim. The median percentage difference between laboratory analysis and label claim was -5.7% (range, -26.3% to 2.5%) for taurine and 3.6% (range, -2.6% to 8.8%) for carnitine. No substantial amount of contamination with mercury, arsenic, or selenium was found in any of the products. During disintegration testing, 1 of 5 taurine products and 5 of 8 carnitine products did not disintegrate within 45 minutes during at least 1 test. Disintegration time for those that did disintegrate ranged from 1.7 to 37.0 minutes. All product labels conformed with FDA regulations.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Taurine and carnitine products evaluated in this study closely adhered to manufacturer claims and labeling guidelines. However, disintegration testing suggested high variability in some products, possibly limiting uptake and use by animals that receive them.


A simple scheme is proposed for penetrating atmospheric momentum flux over the ocean surface boundary layer or mixed layer (BL/ML) and is tested in the z-coordinate NOAA/Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Modular Ocean Model (MOM 3) for improving its performance. Analogous to the treatment in layered ocean models, wind stress is applied, as a body force, to the entire BL/ML whose depth is calculated from a nonlocal K-profile parameterization scheme. The penetrating scheme presents an explicit and effective way to distribute a priori momentum flux throughout the BL/ML that has varying depth in space and time, instead of just over the uppermost model level with fixed thickness. This additional procedure introduces an explicit mechanism that directly relates wind stress to the BL/ML formulation, which in turn controls current and thermal structure in the upper ocean and the interaction with the underlying thermocline. Two penetrating runs, one over the BL and the other over the ML, have similar results that differ systematically from those with the penetration over fixed depths (control run). It is demonstrated that, with coherent and systematic improvements, this penetrating scheme can have significant effects on simulated equatorial ocean currents and thermal structure not only in the surface layer, but also in the thermocline. Besides more reasonable ML depth simulation in the equatorial central basin, there is substantial reduction in the mean offset of simulated isotherm depths and warm bias in the thermocline, due to downward shift of the maximum upwelling zone in the equatorial central Pacific. Consistent with observations, the penetrating scheme realistically reproduces the springtime reversal of the South Equatorial Current and the corresponding surface warming in the central equatorial Pacific, with accompanying surfacing of the Equatorial Undercurrent Current in March-May.


Aim/Purpose: This study aims to understand and assess the self-care perceptions and habits of US domestic versus international graduate students in doctoral programs at an R1 university in Texas.

Background: The number of domestic and international students entering doctoral programs in US universities continues to increase each year. However, completion rates within the Ph.D. program remain low, especially for domestic students. Previous research has suggested that mental health and issues of well-being are equated with high-stress levels and depression rather than balance and success. One way to address the low completion rates is to understand how doctoral students balance academic progress and achievement in their prospective doctoral programs with self-care efforts. This study is designed to assess the self-care perceptions and habits of domestic and international graduate students in doctoral programs as well as to understand the differences in perceptions of self-care between domestic students and international students

Methodology: In the present study, researchers used an explanatory mixed methods research design to investigate the self-care practices and perceptions of domestic and international doctoral students enrolled in a public university in Texas. In the first phase, quantitative data were collected through a survey to examine the extent to which doctoral students utilize self-care practices (six self-care variables were examined in the survey: physical, cognitive, psychological/emotional, behavior, interpersonal, and existential). The descriptive statistics collected in this phase aided in the purposeful sampling of participants for the second phase of the study. In phase 2, interviews were conducted to identify the nature of self-care and self-care choices practiced by doctoral students and how these characteristics were similar and/or different between international and domestic students.

Contribution: Few studies have investigated the self-care practices and perceptions of domestic and international students. The present study contributes to the body of knowledge on self-care perceptions and practices amongst domestic and international doctoral students in a Texas public university.

Findings: Through a survey of doctoral students, international students reported higher levels of self-care than their domestic counterparts. After interviews were conducted the researchers found that the students interviewed each understood the need for self-care to avoid stress and burnout, however only some were able to prioritize self-care in their day-to-day routines, citing workload from courses and faculty advisors as preventing self-care. Many attributed this to their family and cultural backgrounds.

Recommendations for Practitioners: In conducting this study, researchers concluded that self-care practices among doctoral students should become a priority in higher education programs. The participants in this study understood that they should practice self-care, but they had limited ability to engage in self-care regularly. Therefore, it is recommended that higher education institutions and faculty mentors recognize the importance of self-care for doctoral students and support their students in maintaining a work-life balance to avoid burnout and attrition.

Recommendation for Researchers: Additional studies that include a larger sample size and specific self-care routines to be studied would be beneficial for researchers to consider.

Impact on Society: Understanding and investing in doctoral students' well-being and self-care practices could lead to higher completion rates and more productive programs in higher education.

Future Research: Future research could be conducted to examine the differing needs of domestic and international students when considering self-care and doctoral students.


At the height of the refugee reception crisis in 2015, a large number of volunteers across Norway mobilized to bring assistance in different forms. The two most notable initiatives were Refugees Welcome Norway (RWN) and A Drop in the Ocean ( Dråpen i Havet , DiH). RWN focused on those arriving in Norway and DiH on those arriving in Greece. Looking at these two initiatives' organizational trajectories together allows us to examine how they managed the transition from the immediate 'crisis' and large volunteer mobilization to finding a role for themselves in the longer-term. Drawing on social movement theory and literature on humanitarian action, the article argues that the two organizations, while adapting in different ways, focused their organizations around 'making it easy' for volunteers to help. The article explores how this allowed to forge their distinct identity in the organizational landscape, while also engaging with volunteers' 'need to do something'.


Knowledge of spatial variability of soil properties is important for soil sampling and modeling water and solute transport through soil. A field study was conducted on a Silawa-variant loamy fine sand (fine, mixed, thermic Udic Paleustalf) in Brazos County, Texas, to evaluate spatial variability and convergence and divergence of water fluxes through the soil profile. A 7 by 14 grid of interception cells (each 25 by 25 mm) was built to collect surface-applied water at 03-, 0.9-, and 1.2-m depth. The interception cells were installed on the ceilings of tunnels that had been hand dug horizontally into the walls of a large backhoe-dug pit. Water was applied under a positive head of 50 mm in a 1.2 by 1.2 m infiltration square. Normal and lognormal probability functions were fitted to frequency distributions of intercepted fluxes from topsoil and subsoil, respectively, with correlation coefficients of 0.95 and higher. Most nonmatrix flow was found at 0.9 m in the Bt2 horizon. We speculate that fluxes were most heterogeneous in this horizon because of associated soil texture and structure. Compared with soil at 0.3 and 1.2 m, texture was finer, peds were larger, and clay films were more abundant at 0.9 m. This relationship with pedologic development suggests that descriptions of texture and structure might be used to predict spatial distributions of fluxes and design sampling schemes. Convergence of water flowpaths was observed from 0.3 to 0.9 m while divergence occurred from 0.9 to 1.2 m.


The growing number of malignant cancer cases worldwide is an enormous threat for modern society. Therefore, the efforts of scientists from various research fields are focused on the development of efficient and viable therapeutic approaches. Recently, site-specific conjugation of highly potent organic compounds to tumour-binding immunoglobulins towards antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) emerged as a promising strategy for the treatment of cancer. To allow for the precise modification of antibodies, multiple chemical and enzymatic methodologies have been developed within the last decades. Among them, application of microbial transglutaminase (mTG) from Streptomyces mobaraensis represents a promising approach. This enzyme that natively catalyses formation of isopeptide bonds between glutamine and lysine side chains, has been recently used for the assembly of ADCs. Although native residues within human antibodies cannot be employed in mTG catalysis, incorporation of reactive peptidyl linker sequences or truncation of the CH2 glycan to expose Gln295 were shown to overcome this limitation. In the present work, we focused on improving the performance of mTG catalysis towards efficient and rapid generation of ADCs by engineering both the enzyme and the targeted immunoglobulin. To that end, three independent studies were conducted:
(1) Microbial transglutaminase is a useful tool for the crosslinking of diverse molecules due to its ability to form stable isopeptide bonds between proteinaceous glutamine residues and primary amines. However, tailoring of transglutaminase is desired because the substrate indiscrimination of mTG can lead to heterogeneous product formation. In this part of my thesis, we aimed at the development of a molecular platform for the engineering of transglutaminase towards altered activity and selectivity by yeast surface display (YSD) in combination with fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). Due to its intracellular cytotoxicity, mTG was displayed on the surface of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells as an inactive zymogen. The precursor was converted into the mature enzyme by the addition of different proteases and a biotinylated glutamine-donor peptide LLQG was added. The surface-anchored enzyme catalyses the respective transamidation of the supplemented substrate at available lysine residues, thus enabling the identification of active variants. We demonstrated that genotype-phenotype correlation is provided and constructed a randomised library comprising 3×108 different mutants. After five rounds of FACS-screening against biotin-GSGLLQG, 150 individual clones were analysed on the surface of yeast cells and compared to the wildtype enzyme. Upon recombinant expression, six mutants revealed improved consumption of the corresponding peptide in an HPLC-controlled assay and a triple mutant R5.2 (S2G/R15C/M234L) labelled LLQG-tagged therapeutic antibody trastuzumab more efficiently compared to the wildtype counterpart. Site-specific conjugation mediated by mutant transglutaminases with elevated catalytic performance might improve coupling efficiency and increase yields upon the construction of antibody-drug conjugates.
(2) In addition to enzyme optimization, improvement of catalytic efficiency can be achieved upon engineering of the genetically incorporated mTG recognition sequence. The reactivity of the enzyme is influenced by charge and polarity of the amino acids surrounding the addressed glutamine as well as by the spatial arrangement of the targeted protein. In previous work, Siegmund et al. demonstrated that mimicking glutamine-donor sites of natural mTG substrates is a fruitful approach to yield peptidyl-linker sequences, which mediate proper modification by the enzyme. We aimed at the identification of novel recognition sequences derived from intrinsic mTG substrates dispase-autolysis inducing protein (DAIP) and Streptomyces papain inhibitor (SPIP) towards efficient modification of therapeutic antibodies. To that end, sequences derived from Gln6 of SPIP as well as Gln39 and Gln298 of DAIP were synthesized as oligopeptides by microwave-assisted Fmoc solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and their reactivity in mTG-mediated conjugation of different linker substrates was determined. Upon C-terminal fusion of the respective sequences to the heavy chain of HER2-targeting antibody trastuzumab, mTG-promoted modification of the resulting constructs with model substrate N-(biotinyl)cadaverine (MBC) was investigated. Having demonstrated high reactivity in preliminary experiments, SPIP-derived sequence DIPIGQGMTG (SPI7G) was chosen for the assembly of an ADC in a twostep chemo-enzymatic approach. Engineered antibodies were labelled with N-[(1R,8S,9s)-bicyclo[6.1.0]non-4-yn-9-ylmethyloxycarbonyl]-1,8-diamino-3,6-dioxaoctane (NH2-PEG2-BCN) by mTG within a drastically shortened reaction time. Subsequently, BCN-modified monoclonal antibodies (mAb) were armed with the cytotoxic agent monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE) for selective growth inhibition of HER2-overexpressing breast cancer cells by strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition (SPAAC). Due to the superior labelling efficiency, an ADC assembled from the newly identified sequence SPI7G was significantly more potent on HER2-positive SKBR3-cells compared to a conventional LLQG-motif. We were able to show that intrinsic mTG substrates can be rapidly harnessed as a source of potent bioconjugation tags. Within a short reaction time of 1 h, a novel sequence SPI7G outperformed the conventional tag LLQG when located at the C-terminus of the heavy chain of trastuzumab. Such a short reaction time minimizes the risk of yield-limiting protein denaturation that often occurs during commonly applied overnight reactions.
(3) Incorporation of specific mTG recognition tags into the framework of antibodies proved to be a powerful approach for their labelling. However, longer sequences may interfere with the antibody's intrinsic stability and trigger the patient's immune response during treatment. We investigated different positions of a human IgG Fc (fragment crystallisable) to identify sites that allow for mTG-mediated labelling upon single residue substitution to reduce undesired immunogenicity and instability risks. In a first step, a straightforward strategy for the recombinant expression of the Fc in E. coli cells was established. The fragment was purified by Ni2+-affinity chromatography in sufficient yields and analysed by non-reducing SDS-PAGE, thermal shift assays and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) regarding dimeric assembly and native disulfide formation. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to specifically introduce glutamine substitutions within the Fc and the mutants were screened for labelling by mTG in a rapid fluorescent assay. Out of 30 analysed positions, two mutations, namely I253Q and Y296Q were efficiently labelled with a fluorescent amine substrate by mTG. These promising results need to be further confirmed in the context of a full-length antibody to study their usefulness for the mTG-mediated construction of ADCs.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to understand why some individuals with motor neurone disease (MND) withdraw from non-invasive ventilation (NIV), which has been acknowledged to be an effective treatment for this incurable disease. This study was conducted in response to the unexpectedly high rate of declining and withdrawing from NIV treatment discovered by a bigger study which had been conducted at the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery (WCNN) and University Hospital Aintree (UHA).
Methods: A qualitative approach using a semi-structured interview was conducted with ten individuals (male=8) who declined or withdrew from NIV treatment. The age of the participants was between 64 and 79 (mean age=68). Seven participants had multiple interviews and the interviews used for analysis were chosen for the richness of the data in terms of reasons for their decision making regarding NIV. A phenomenological approach using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed to explore their accounts of their experiences.
Findings: Four overarching themes were identified as a result of analysis: preservation of the self, personal perception of intervention with NIV, negative experience with the healthcare services, and not needing NIV. The analysis indicates that changes brought about by the illness could have a negative impact on their perception of themselves, consequently affecting their decision over NIV use. It was also found that NIV may generate fear, which was often observed to form a negative belief about it, leading to a rejection of NIV due to a sense of the loss of control over the machine. A poor impression of the healthcare service was perceived to have impact on participants' willingness to engage with the hospital in consideration of NIV establishment. The data also shows that individuals' understanding of their condition influences their perception regarding their need of NIV. Even though these four themes were found to explain different aspects of non-engagement with NIV, further analysis identified the fundamental issue underlying these concepts: perception of self.
Conclusions: In this thesis, the self represents the sense of autonomy, dignity and quality of life. It was these aspects of the self which participants were trying to maintain by non-engagement with NIV. Therefore, the findings suggest that it is important to detect the underlying reasons for the NIV use as they are likely to have an impact on their general sense of security of the self. Such an approach is primarily hoped to improve the well-being of patients which in turn may encourage them to use NIV.


Several aspects of visual attention are thought to be affected by time spent playing action-oriented video-games. One such aspect is attentional capture, which occurs in visual search when attention is involuntarily deployed to a task-irrelevant item in a search array. One recent study has found the strength of capture to be less for video-game players (VGP), and suggested that, once attention had been captured, VGPs were faster at redeploying attention to the relevant target. An alternative explanation is that both VGPs and typical individuals may not be captured by the irrelevant distractor, and may instead be actively suppressing it. This might suggest that VGPs are better able to suppress salient but irrelevant stimuli. This hypothesis was tested in an experiment using the Event Related Potential (ERP) components known as the N2Pc, which is thought to index the spatial deployment of attention, and the Pd, which is thought to index active suppression. ERPs were recorded from VGPs and typical individuals in a visual search experiment featuring task-irrelevant distractors. Additionally, subjects were evaluated using a measure of visual short term working memory capacity ("K"), as previous research has suggested that individuals with high K also show more active suppression. In keeping with the extant literature, VGPs performed significantly better in the K task. Additionally, both VGPs and typical subjects did not show an N2Pc to the salient distractor, but rather a Pd, suggesting that both groups were suppressing, rather than attending to it. Furthermore, VGPs showed a significantly reduced latency of the Pd component, which would indicate an improved ability to actively suppress distracting items. These electrophysiological results add to the body of literature on VGPs and provide evidence for the mechanisms underlying previously observed behavioral differences. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


Power-aware scheduling has been of great interest for systems whose energy consumption needs to be minimized. In this paper, we improve a voltage-scaling-based power-aware scheduling algorithm to reduce the task's energy consumption at the cost of a slower execution rate. The improved algorithm allows multiple scaling voltage levels of individual tasks in a task precedence graph and attempts to maximize the amount of energy saved while still meeting a deadline constraint. Five bounded number of processor scheduling algorithms are used as the basis for this improved power-aware scheduling. Other sophisticated scheduling algorithms can be easily embedded in our improved power-aware scheduling algorithm to reduce the energy consumption. We use the simulation program AnyLogicTM to implement an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface for building large-scale task graphs and running various simulations. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed scheduling can reduce the energy consumption and achieve more energy savings than the static voltage scaling step alone. In addition, our simulation tool also provides an efficient and effective means for building task graphs and viewing the scheduling results in the form of the Gantt chart. This simulation quickly facilitates the testing of the validity of a problem and its outcomes and greatly fosters learning.


While developing countries have made some progress in human development since the turn of the century, many are still lagging behind in important goals such as education, health, nutrition and access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation. Moreover, gender equity remains a major challenge in most countries. In this paper for the United Nations University, Pickbourn and Ndikumana examine the role that foreign aid plays in generating these outcomes, using panel data from OECD-DAC on the sectoral allocation of development aid, in conjunction with country-level data on public expenditures, human development outcomes and other economic, social and political indicators. The paper attempts to assess whether the volume of aid and its sectoral allocation have an impact on human development outcomes and gender equity. We find that the impact of aid on many of the outcomes we study is largely dependent on initial levels of human development and per capita income. The results on the impact of aid vary by type of development outcome. While aid appears to be effective in reducing maternal mortality as well as the gender gap in youth literacy regardless of initial conditions, its effects are at best mixed for other indicators. The paper points to a number of policy issues that deserve further investigation.


Dental caries is one of the worldwide common disease affecting both rural and urban communities. Demineralization is the loss of significant amount of minerals, especially calcium and phosphate from the tooth enamel leading to caries formation. The process of demineralization and remineralization is considered as a dynamic process, characterized by the flow of phosphate and calcium out of and back in the enamel. Therefore, the current in-vitro study was designed for evaluating the remineralization potential of casein phospho-peptide with amorphous calcium phosphate fluoride (CPP-ACPF) on the artificially demineralized enamel surfaces samples. Thirty enamel samples were subjected to artificial demineralization procedure followed by remineralization using CPP-ACPF for one week in ten samples, two weeks in next ten sample and four-week s in last ten samples. The final results were analysed using the Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopic (CLSM) and Image J software. The mean score of remineralization potential for one, two- and four-week samples was found to be 59.1064, 58.96 and 56.95 respectively. The mean gray value scores were almost similar in one, two- and four-week samples i.e., the remineralization potential does not increase or decrease significantly with increasing time. But the overall CPP-ACPF remineralization potential was high and therefore it can be used as a potential agent to prevent dental caries. The data from our current study will help to make clinical use of the agent as a potential and excellent local slow-delivery system to treat the white spot lesion in enamel.


John Dizikes first saw UC Santa Cruz when it was still rolling hills and the buildings were only artist's renderings. He agreed to stake his career on this new, untried campus because he understood the vision of UCSC as a place where higher education would be reformed and teaching would be a priority—and he followed through on the gamble, coming here as one of UCSC's founding faculty in 1965. In his ensuing thirty-five-year career at UC Santa Cruz, he was a professor of history, a professor and co-founder of the American Studies Department, a provost of Cowell College and chair of the Council of Provosts, and throughout and above it all a dedicated educator and an ongoing student. This oral history was conducted in 2011 by Cowell alum Cameron Vanderscoff for the Regional History Project.


Although humanoid robots are being designed to assist people in various tasks, there remain gaps in our understanding of the perceptions that humanoid faces evoke in the user. Understanding user perceptions would help design robots that are better suited for the target user group. Younger and older adults' preferences for robot appearance were assessed out of three levels of human-likeness. In general, people perceived a mixed human-robot appearance less favorably compared to highly human and highly robotic appearances. Additionally the nature of task also influenced people's overall perceptions of robots. Robots were most positively evaluated for assistance with chores and less positively for personal care and decision-making. Moreover, task and robot humanness had an interactive effect on people's likability, trust, and perceived usefulness toward robots.
Age-related differences in preferences of robot humanness were also observed. Older adults showed a higher inclination toward human-looking appearance of robots whereas younger adults' preferences were more distributed across the levels of humanness. An appearance with mixed human-robot features was more likely to be rejected by older adults than by younger adults, and the difference was most striking for a decision-making task. Besides the humanness of the robot face, perceptions of robot appearances were also influenced by factors such as robot gender, specific facial features/aesthetics, expressiveness, perceived personality, and perceived capability. Future studies should measure the relative weight of these different factors in the formation of perceptions, both at a global level and at a task-specific level.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether left atrial decompression (LAD) would reduce left atrial pressure (LAP) in dogs with advanced myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) and left-sided congestive heart failure (CHF) and to describe the LAD procedure and hemodynamic alterations and complications.

ANIMALS
17 dogs with advanced MMVD and left-sided CHF that underwent LAD.

PROCEDURES
The medical record database was retrospectively reviewed for all LAD procedures attempted in dogs with MMVD and left-sided CHF between October 2018 and June 2019. Data were collected regarding signalment (age, breed, weight, and sex), clinical signs, treatment, physical examination findings, and diagnostic testing before and after LAD. Procedural data were also collected including approach, technique, hemodynamic data, complications, and outcome.

RESULTS
18 LAD procedures performed in 17 patients were identified. Dogs ranged in age from 7.5 to 16 years old (median, 11 years) and ranged in body weight from 2.9 to 11.6 kg (6.4 to 25.5 lb) with a median body weight of 7.0 kg (15.4 lb). Minimally invasive creation of an atrial septal defect for the purpose of LAD was successful in all dogs without any intraoperative deaths. Before LAD, mean LAP was elevated and ranged from 8 to 32 mm Hg with a median value of 14 mm Hg (reference value, < 10 mm Hg). Following LAD, there was a significant decrease in mean LAP (median decrease of 6 mm Hg [range, 1 to 15 mm Hg]). Survival time following LAD ranged from 0 to 478 days (median, 195 days).

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
For dogs with advanced MMVD and left-sided CHF, LAD resulted in an immediate and substantial reduction in LAP.


Abstract Evidence of geologic activity still occurring in the Rio Grande rift (RGR) includes quaternary faulting, seismicity, and widening at a small rate. We map the crustal thickness and seismic velocity ratio to generate constrained crustal model cross sections that highlight the regional extension of the southern RGR (SRGR). Specifically, we computed receiver functions and receiver function stacks for 147 stations from EarthScope USArray Transportable Array and previously collected data in the southwestern United States, and interpolated the crustal and velocity results using a kriging interpolation scheme. We include a new optimized gravity inversion approach using the receiver function results as a constraint for inverted density profiles. We produce constrained crustal models that characterize the SRGR as showing a shallower Moho (30 km) in the region of the SRGR, which is thicker than previously suggested. The crust appears to be delaminated west of the RGR in the Basin and Range Province and thicker east of the RGR toward the Great Plains with a denser lower crustal layer. We also find that the Delaware basin shows a significant geophysical anomaly, likely due to thick saturated sediments. Given that there is no deep mantle anomaly determined from other studies in this region, we suggest that rifting could be the result of small‐scale convection of the uppermost mantle, and we conclude that the RGR is at a minimum the boundary between the Basin and Range Province and the Great Plains, perhaps reflecting the terminus of flat slab subduction.


Hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways orchestrate responses to oxygen and nutrient availability. These pathways are frequently dysregulated in cancer, but their interplay is poorly understood, in part because of difficulties in simultaneous measurement of global and mRNA-specific translation. Here we describe a workflow for measurement of absolute translational efficiency of mRNAs resolved by their transcription start sites (TSSs). Its application to kidney cancer cells revealed a remarkable extent of translational reprogramming by mTOR, strongly affecting many metabolic enzymes and pathways. By contrast, global effects of HIF on translation were limited, and we did not observe reported translational activation by HIF2A. In contrast, HIF-dependent alterations in TSS usage were associated with robust changes in translational efficiency in a subset of genes. Analyses of the interplay of HIF and mTOR revealed that specific classes of HIF1A and HIF2A transcriptional target gene manifest markedly different sensitivity to mTOR, in a manner that supports combined use of HIF2A and mTOR inhibitors in treatment of kidney cancer.


The main objective of this work was to summarise current knowledge on fishmeal and fish oil as well as identify the research needs and create a roadmap for future industry-driven research. The main conclusion was that the quality of raw material, fishmeal and - oil are not yet well defined. The real focus by the industry has mainly been limited to nutrients, such as proteins and fats and other components that makeup fishmeal. There has been less focus on the health benefits of dietary contents of fishmeal and –oil and the relationship between processing methods and the nutritional and technical properties of fishmeal. In addition, to proactively strengthen the market position and competitiveness, it is crucial for the industry to achieve a common understanding of the needs of their customers in line with a clear profile of the benefits of their products. A communication strategy as well as a research strategy is needed.

Finally, the identity of the industry needs to be clear and transparent to promote a story about the industry to provide a clear and positive image of the industry to be communicated to the society. This means, that a communication strategy as well as a research strategy must be established, as there is a lack of communication along the value chain from the industry to the consumers. There is still a lack of understanding by the consumers of why fishmeal is produced, the reasons must be communicated in such a way that it reaches the average consumer.

The industry members are interested in moving forward to sustain the future growth of the industry. Fishmeal and fish oil production has been prosperous for a very long time, but to remain so, cooperation among all stakeholders is crucial for continued progress.


Background
Pathogens affects by interacting micro and macro environments among patients and enhance the progression and development of chronic diseases with a variety of comorbidities. The health care professionals and patients should think in multi-dimensional directions to understand the disease progressions.(1) Therefore, the visulization plays an inportant role as "A picture is worth a thousand words" is the biggest advantage of visualization.

Methods
In this study, a huge amount of data and innovative multi-dimensional visualization method will be used to render the state of the disease. Data visualization process will includes data generation, data conversion and visual presentation. Chronic kidney disease(CKD) will used first as an example in this study as 2 million patients only with CKD disease burden in Taiwan from 23 million whole population. Out of that 2 million , 60,000 CKD patients undergoes Hemodialysis which cost 30 billion NTD per year which is increasing day by day. It will have high risk factor for hypertension, diabetes, smoking, obesity especially on low social society level. (2, 3) We used National Health Insurance Database which covers whole population of Taiwan to extract these patients records and the build a database through the clinical specialties physician's advice, to understand the progression of CKD with data processing to find the targets, and then use algorithms to turn data into visual charts and identify different types of users among all users to apply visual analysis and graphics.

Expected Results
These results will help clinicians to diagnose the disease along with interactive visualization system together with the patient treatment decisions that would improve health care quality, reach the patient in terms of prediction and prevention of disease, and reduce induced disease probability. In terms of medical education, it will be helpful to take advantage for multi-dimensional perspective of the disease diversification, three-dimensional, and presents the evolution of the disease through visualization. Based on these big data visualization results with disease patterns for CKD, the policy makers can get the real benefits to know clearly with evidence and then it will help them for policy implications and regulations in health care sector and to monitor and control chronic disease burdens.


Recent research has documented the importance of edaphic factors in de- termining the habitat associations of tree species in many tropical rain forests, but the underlying mechanisms for edaphic associations are unclear. At Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, two main soil types derived from sandstone (ridges) and alluvium (valleys) differ in nutrient and water availability and are characterized by forests differing markedly in species composition, structure, and understory light availability. We use both survey and reciprocal transplants to examine physiological adaptations to differences in light, nutrient, and water availability between these soil types, and test for the importance of resource-use efficiency in determining edaphic specialization. Photosynthetic surveys for congeneric and confamilial pairs (one species per soil type) of edaphic specialists and for generalists common to both soil types show that species specializing on sandstone- derived soil had lower stomatal conductance at a given assimilation rate than those occurring on alluvial soil and also had greater instantaneous and integrated water-use efficiencies. Foliar dark respiration rates per unit photosynthesis were higher for sandstone ridge than alluvial lowland specialists. We suggest that these higher respiration rates are likely due to increases in photosynthetic enzyme concentrations to compensate for lower internal CO 2 concentrations resulting from increased stomatal closure. This is supported by lower pho- tosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiencies in the sandstone ridge specialists. Generalist species had lower water-use efficiencies than sandstone ridge specialists when growing on the drier, sandy ridgetops, but their nitrogen-use efficiencies did not differ from the species specialized to the more resource-rich alluvial valleys. We varied light environment and soil nutrient availability in a reciprocal transplant experiment involving two specialist species from each soil type. Edaphic specialist species, when grown on the soil type for which they were not specialized, were not capable of acclimatory shifts to achieve similar resource-use effi- ciencies as species specialized to that soil type. We conclude that divergent water-use strategies are an important mechanism underlying differences in edaphic associations and thus contributing to maintenance of high local tree species diversity in Bornean rain forests.


Because the permanent incomes of parents and children are typically unobserved, the estimation of the intergenerational correlation via the use of proxy variables entails an errors-in-variables bias. By solving a system of moment equations for income observed at a given year, and a T-period average of this variable, we derive an analytical form for the signal to total variance ratio. In turn, we propose a simple estimator of the intergenerational elasticity via division of the OLS estimator of this quantity. Estimates of the intergenerational elasticity derived from a PSID sample range between 0.34 and 0.69. The averaging estimator provides intermediary values between OLS and the proposed estimator. Persistence is higher for family income measures than labor market outcomes. Estimates generally increase for moving average specifications in comparison to the assumption that measurement errors are uncorrelated. The three estimators are further examined in the light of their mean-square errors (square bias plus variance).


Adversarial loss in a conditional generative adversarial network (GAN) is not designed to directly optimize evaluation metrics of a target task, and thus, may not always guide the generator in a GAN to generate data with improved metric scores. To overcome this issue, we propose a novel MetricGAN approach with an aim to optimize the generator with respect to one or multiple evaluation metrics. Moreover, based on MetricGAN, the metric scores of the generated data can also be arbitrarily specified by users. We tested the proposed MetricGAN on a speech enhancement task, which is particularly suitable to verify the proposed approach because there are multiple metrics measuring different aspects of speech signals. Moreover, these metrics are generally complex and could not be fully optimized by Lp or conventional adversarial losses.


The coming to power of Berlusconi in 1994 marked a significant shift in the politics of gender in Italy. His leadership has been marred by numerous sexual scandals and has been widely criticised for sexualisation of women's political participation. The last seventeen years have crystallised a particular gender paradigm that draws on traditional Italian values, not unlike those satirised by Franca Rame's 1970s play Tutta Casa, Letto e Chiesa (All about Home, Sex and Church). The choice of women in the Cabinet under Berlusconi's leadership remains deeply controversial and has overtly sexual undertones, particularly in relation to the appointment of Mara Cafagna, a former page three model as Equal Opportunities Minister. Recent surveys carried out amongst women at University highlight the impact of the last twenty year on men and women's gender identities, pointing in particular to a commodification of sexuality or the rise of sexual capital as political and economic currency. Yet, women's representation in the Italian Parliament has nearly doubled since 1996. What is therefore astonishing is the dearth of work currently being done in relation to women's political representation in Italy, particularly as it is illustrative of the contradictions and idiosyncrasies of Italian social, religious and political values. This paper seeks to look at the position of women in the Berlusconi IV government. By the time Berlusconi resigned as Prime Minister in November 2011, there were five women in the cabinet. Largely holding marginal portfolios, and criticised by many for simply helping to augment Berlusconi's masculinity, they remain largely under-studied as a political phenomenon. The focus of the debate on Berlusconi's velinismo only serves to further marginalise the role these women played in Italian politics. Moreover, this particular gender paradigm is not supported by every party on the Right, as highlighted by the 2009 controversy with Fini's think tank. The main aim of this paper is to establish how these women sought to position themselves in relation to Italian political structures on the one hand and the politics of gender on the other. Ultimately, it will seek to establish the following: 1. Which interests these women sought to represent; 2. Their relative position to feminist politics; 3. Their position in relation to the emerging gender order in the country. The paper will therefore look at the position of the five women ministers in the last Berlusconi government as representative of the Berlusconi gender paradigm. It will also look at Alessandra Mussolini as an illustration of an alternative gender paradigm for women of the Right. This paper finally seeks to contribute to current debates about the long term impact of the Berlusconi years on the gender order in Italy. In particular, it unpacks the impact of these government appointments on the nature of women's political representation and position in 21st Century Italian politics and society. This paper was presented at the 40th ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops (2012): Conservatism, Conservative Parties and Women's Political Representation. http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=.ECPRJOINTSESSIONS2012&n=102173&ct=102137


Known for its upbeat approach, "Multitude" brings together a diverse spectrum of voices and issues that reflect our society. This anthology is divided into 10 broad themes and provides a variety of perspectives on the ways people connect across boundaries of ethnicity, class, gender, age, and geography. The 84 readings include essays, student essays, fiction, poetry, letters, and journals and includes a diversity of lengths and difficulty. The second edition features 40 per cent new selections and more writing activities and assignments that incorporate collaboration and research.


We combine household-level data on the choice to purchase flood insurance with experiment-based risk preference data and subjective risk perception data. The sample covers a wide geographic area (the entire U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida's Atlantic Coast) and includes individuals exposed to varying levels of risk. This work represents one of very few analyses to do so. Results indicate that our experiment-based measure of risk aversion over the loss domain positively and significantly correlates with the decision to purchase a flood policy, as do perceived expectations of hurricane damage, eligibility for disaster assistance, and credibility of insurance providers. (JEL D81, R22)


This study investigates d13C and d18O variations in the shells of modern brachiopods that represent all extant groups of calcite-precipitating brachiopods, and were collected live from 8 locations. Protocols and methods of sample preparation are presented that can produce good estimations of annual mean temperatures of ambient seawaters from some brachiopod groups.

SEM examinations determined the ultrastructural characteristics of each species prior to isotope analyses. d13C and d18O analyses of shell carbonate were carried out with samples representing different morphological features and ultrastructural shell layers of both ventral and dorsal valves.

Generally, d18O values from the fibrous secondary or prismatic tertiary shell layers of the articulated Terebratulida and Rhynchonellida species were in oxygen isotopic equilibrium with ambient seawater. Isotopic temperatures extrapolated from these values are close to measured annual mean seawater temperatures. d18O values were relatively unaffected by shell specialisation. The only exception was Antarctic species Liothyrella uva, which did not have a complete tertiary shell layer typical of this genus and had d18O values of the innermost layer strongly correlated with d13C and mostly not in oxygen isotopic equilibrium with ambient seawater. With the exception of the rhynchonellid Notosaria nigricans, the outer primary layer material was depleted in d13C and d18C and highly variable. Inclusion of this material even as part of a whole shell sample could lead to misinterpretation of seawater temperature, therefore only fossil secondary layer material should be used. The anomalous articulated thecideidine brachiopod Thecidellina barretti is composed of mainly primary shell material and was not in oxygen isotope equilibrium.


Background: Health Proselytizing Polarization on the Children of Family Community (Paguyuban).This study aimed to describe briefly about the proselytizing model of health that have been conducted by parents in family community that leads toan increased desire for healthy in imaging quality of the children of family community.
Method: 1) This research uses a qualitative approach conducted intensively, immersively, detailed and comprehensive, with the stages of research that is doing the initial study In a place where was subjected to, with method of phenomenological research formulate a social theory that led researchers browse through issues studied, 2).Data collection techniques are natural setting in the sense that the expected events such as what is experienced by individuals and are not influenced by the presence of researchers in the family community. Data collection techniques by means of profound interviews, observation (careful responses at the level of pure senses), and study the documentation, 3). Data analysis techniques are Miles and Huberman model of data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion.
Results : The results showed; 1) Socialization process of the growth of childrencertainly supported by health, health World foundation manifest has turned into apassion and the will (power) of parents, health foundation reduced to be ontology ofimagery to every child born, which is a social fact produced healthy children and thequality of imaging manifestation himself. 2) Parents are controlledby the health imagesurrounding the children, in the age of the child's existence is reduced to the form ofimagery, their parents proud when they were on TV, he is proud to be the imagery,representations. The first child to know nature of imaging and the growth is strengthenby health such as the type of food, rest, eating patterns and play are the part in healthcare, it is equitably explained and produced by children of family community


Economic reforms in China have brought rapid growth in nonagricultural employment in rural areas and a substantial shift in the structure of rural employment. These changes have led researchers to question the conventional view of rural China as a labor surplus economy with poorly functioning factor markets. We contribute to this debate by testing for separability between the labor demand and supply decisions of households in a typical rural county in northern China. Our test, which makes use of unique panel data that enables us to control for time-invariant unobservable household characteristics, yields the following results: (1) separability is rejected across a variety of specifications, indicating that factor markets in the early 1990s remained underdeveloped; (2) the conventional view of surplus labor oversimplifies the situation as we find that, while same localities have a labor surplus, others may face labor shortages; and (3) separability does hold in areas where substantial employment opportunities exist at the township level, suggesting the need for employment opportunities that transcend village borders so as to create competitive pressures on villages and promote the inter-village movement of resources.


Nitrate contamination in water resources has become an important issue because of the environmental issue and potential risk to human health. The aim of this study is investigating the stabilization of modified bentonite nanoparticles by cationic surfactant on pumice aggregates to remove nitrate from aqueous environments. Bentonite nanoparticles were investigated by XRD, EDAX, and SEM techniques after modification by CTAB surfactant with the thermal method on the substrate of Pumice aggregate stabilization and physical and structural characteristics of the adsorbent. In this research, response surface method based on the Box-Behnken model was used for evaluation of the effects of independent variables such as pH, temperature and the amount of adsorbent on the response function and prediction of the best response value. Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were used for calculating the equilibrium constants and pseudo-first and second order constants. According to the results, the optimum nitrate removal efficiency was determined 63.49% based on the Box-Behnken model in pH = 5, the adsorbent concentration of 15 g/L, and temperature 35°C. As well, the nitrate removal rate was increased by increasing the amount of adsorbent and contact time unless the removal efficiency was decreased with an increase in pH and initial nitrate concentration. Isotherm surveying showed that the laboratory data had better agreement with Langmuir isotherm and the best kinetic model of adsorption was determined by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. Also, the recovery efficiency in 5 cycles of absorption and desorption was observed more than 85%. This study showed that modified Pumice aggregates could be used as an effective and economical adsorbent for pollutants elimination.


The objective of this paper is to investigate the presence of convergence (or divergence) of invention efforts per capita in the renewable energy field across European Union (EU) countries. Divergence may imply a risk of a lower level of goal fulfilment regarding the share of renewable energy in the EU energy mix. This is due to free-rider issues and sub-optimal investment levels, in turn making it more expensive and cumbersome to expand renewable energy production. Convergence suggests a possible faster renewable energy goal achievement. The econometric analysis is based on patent application counts per capita for 13 EU Member States over the time period 1990–2012. The methods used draw on the economic convergence literature. First, we rely on a panel data set to test for conditional β-convergence. Moreover, a distributional dynamics approach is employed to test for σ- and γ-convergence, and analyse the intra-distributional dynamics. The results indicate conditional β- and σ-divergence in renewable energy invention capabilities across the 13 countries, thus suggesting that some EU countries tend to free-ride on the development efforts of other Member States.


From the late nineteenth century to the present, decisions by the Supreme Court have played a significant role in how American governments, especially at the state level, have carried out the death penalty. With more than 3,400 prisoners, including 118 foreign nationals, now on death rows, the Court s role is not likely to diminish in this area over the next several decades, barring a major shift in state laws and public opinion. Supreme Court and Capital Punishment, the second installment in CQ Press's The Supreme Court's Power in American Government series, explores how Supreme Court rulings over its history have shaped and reshaped the rules under which Americans have been tried, convicted, sentenced and put to death for capital offenses. Through judicial decisions and other primary documents, this reference explores the impact of these rulings upon the behavior of legislators, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and defendants. Considerable emphasis is placed upon the twentieth century, especially the period since the 1972 Furman v. Georgia case. Since Furman, few areas of constitutional doctrine have undergone more abrupt changes than Court-mandated standards for administering capital punishment. A second principal theme of this volume is an examination of the impact of race upon the long evolution of the Court s death penalty jurisprudence. As defendants and victims, African-Americans on trial for their lives in Southern courts became the central figures in the design and redesign of capital punishment in the twentieth century. The Court s effective counsel decisions have played a major role in how states shape their public defender systems and how they respond to the claims of impoverished defendants charged with capital crimes. The documents section of the volume includes:Selections from key Supreme Court decisions, both majority opinions and dissentsAmici briefs by a variety of organizationsSelections from proponents and opponents of capital punishmentLegislative debates on proposed moratoriums on capital punishment that took place in Nebraska, Vermont and Illinois during the past few yearsCongressional debate on the Racial Justice ActStatistical studies such as that conducted by Iowa law professor David BaldusVivid early newspaper accounts of executions and trialsImportant topics covered in Supreme Court and Capital Punishment include the following:Judicial philosophies on the death penalty throughout the history of the CourtDebate over the execution of juveniles, the mentally retarded, and the insaneRace and capital punishmentConstitutionality of methods of executionChanging public opinion and its impact on capital punishment


Although quite a lot is known about the way that non-native speakers of English may interpret and produce metaphors in their second language, we know little about metaphor use in face-to-face conversation between primary and secondary speakers of English. In this article we explore the use of metaphors in two types of conversational data: one elicited in a semi-structured interview format, the other consisting of naturally occurring conversations involving one non-native speaker in dialogue with various native speakers. We found that although native speakers' use of metaphor was occasionally problematic for the interaction, metaphor also afforded opportunities for topic development in these conversations. The repetition of a word with the potential for metaphoric extension was a particularly valuable strategy used by non-native speakers in these conversations in constructing their coherent contributions to the discourse. In contrast, the use of phraseological metaphors (often the focus of activities aimed at fostering second language learners' mastery of conventional English metaphors) did not contribute to the joint construction of meanings in these circumstances. We discuss the role of high frequency vocabulary in these conversations and some implications for further research.


OBJECTIVE
This study examined the contribution and interdependence of multiple imaging parameters in clinical imaging sequences to aid practicing radiologists in minimizing artifacts during MR imaging of the spine after implantation of titanium pedicle screws.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A lumbar spine specimen with titanium pedicle screws implanted in the pedicle was imaged with a 1.5-T scanner. Sequence type, voxel volume, TE, and bandwidth varied. Different voxel volumes were achieved by altering section thickness, field of view (FOV), and matrix size. Artifact size was measured on sagittal and axial images at the midpedicle level. Artifact size was expressed as a percentage of actual screw size, and mean artifact size was calculated for each sequence. Analysis of variance without replication was done.

RESULTS
Mean artifact size ranged from 231% to 364% of actual screw size. Artifact size was independent of voxel volume for voxels greater than 3 MM3 (p<.001). Artifact size decreased significantly (p<.001) when voxel volume was less than 1 mm3. When we increased slice thickness and maintained a constant voxel volume, artifact size decreased. Decreases in artifact size correlated with a reduction in the ratio of the FOV to the number of pixels in the frequency-encoding direction (Nx). Artifact sizes were smallest when fast spin-echo sequences were used. Conventional spin-echo sequences produced artifacts that were smaller than the artifacts produced by the gradient-echo sequences. Decreasing the TE did not diminish artifact size for conventional spin-echo images in larger voxel volume.

CONCLUSION
Although voxel volume has been recognized as a factor that affects artifact size, the role of other contributing factors--slice thickness, number of phase-encoding steps, and FOV/Nx--has not been evaluated before. Artifact reduction proved to be dependent only on FOV/Nx. Artifact size was reduced by the use of fast spin-echo sequences. With conventional spin-echo sequences, TE should be minimized, although other technical factors may outweigh the gain in artifact reduction.


: The female rats at a prepubertal period were introduced to the restored 5 alpha-androgens, namely: 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol (3 alpha-diol) or 5 alpha-androstane-3 beta, 17 beta-diol (3 beta-diol) in the dose of 5 mg/100 g. Both DHT and 3 alpha-diol have been determined to induce the vaginal opening as the initial stage of puberty. Stimulation of the puberty in those rats was followed with an activation of both endocrine and generative functions of the ovaries. DHT inhibited the gonadotrophic activity of the hypophysis that delayed the ovulation as the final stage of puberty. The DHT metabolite 3 alpha-diol hastened the first ovulation, while 3 beta-diol did not influence the pace of the puberty. The stimulating effect of DHT at the initial stage of the pubescence in the female rats has been suggested to be due to its conversion into 3 alpha-diol which is likely to be one of the key factors in the pubescence control in rats.


Abstract. The gas-particle partitioning and chemical aging of semi-volatile organic aerosol are presented in a newly developed box model scheme, where its effect on the growth, composition, and mixing state of particles is examined. The volatility-basis set (VBS) framework is implemented into the aerosol microphysical scheme MATRIX (Multiconfiguration Aerosol TRacker of mIXing state), which resolves mass and number aerosol concentrations and in multiple mixing-state classes. The new scheme, MATRIX-VBS, has the potential to significantly advance the representation of organic aerosols in Earth system models by improving upon the conventional representation as non-volatile particulate organic matter, often also with an assumed fixed size distribution. We present results from idealized cases representing Beijing, Mexico City, a Finnish forest, and a southeastern US forest, and investigate the evolution of mass concentrations and volatility distributions for organic species across the gas and particle phases, as well as assessing their mixing state among aerosol populations. Emitted semi-volatile primary organic aerosols evaporate almost completely in the intermediate-volatility range, while they remain in the particle phase in the low-volatility range. Their volatility distribution at any point in time depends on the applied emission factors, oxidation by OH radicals, and temperature. We also compare against parallel simulations with the original scheme, which represented only the particulate and non-volatile component of the organic aerosol, examining how differently the condensed-phase organic matter is distributed across the mixing states in the model. The results demonstrate the importance of representing organic aerosol as a semi-volatile aerosol, and explicitly calculating the partitioning of organic species between the gas and particulate phases.


Wayne Oates, one of America's leading pastoral counselors, draws on psychological insights to describe in everyday language several common personality disorders that make human interaction so difficult. He examines the reasons why individuals develop as they do and illuminates how personality disorders can result in destructive relgious behavior. Proposing pastoral care approaches that combine understanding with empathy and firmness, Oates discusses how the resources of the Christian faith can unmask these disorders so the real person can emerge. He concludes with a sixfold agenda for the total ministry of the church to prevent, affect, and deal with personality disorders.


For indigenous peoples round the world, traditional knowledge based on natural resources such as medicinal herbs forms the core of culture and identity. But this wealth of knowledge is under pressure. Indigenous communities are increasingly vulnerable to eviction, environmental degradation and outside interests eager to monopolise control over their traditional resources. Intellectual property rights such as patents, however, sit uneasily with traditional knowledge. Their commercial focus wars with fundamental indigenous principles such as resource access and sharing. Local customary law offers a better fit, and findings in China, India, Kenya, Panama and Peru show how this pairing can work in practice. The research has identified common elements, and key differences, in customary law that should be informing policy on traditional knowledge and genetic resources.