This paper explores whether there are factors that may place some people at greater risk of experiencing crime in South African than others. The paper is one of a series of papers presenting the findings of the National Crime and Victimisation Survey conducted by the Institute for Security Studies in 2007. This paper analyses the victimisation trends emerging from the data. It attempts to go beyond a basic reading of results to identify statistically what characteristics influence victimisation; the relative importance of different factors; and, whether they increase or decrease the likelihood of experiencing different types of crime. It does this using regression modelling of variables identified both in the preliminary analysis of the 2007 findings and in a range of similar studies.


Multifrequency susceptibility measurements on the perovskite relaxor ferroelectric ${({\text{PbMg}}_{1/3}{\text{Nb}}_{2/3}{\text{O}}_{3})}_{0.88}{({\text{PbTiO}}_{3})}_{0.12}$ were performed at various strengths of dc electric field applied along the [111] direction. The temperature-frequency dependences fit the Vogel-Fulcher form, allowing the extraction of a frequency-independent glassy freezing temperature. These Vogel-Fulcher temperatures showed significant reductions in applied fields, following an empirical Gabay-Toulouse form, similar to vector spin glasses. The magnitude of the sensitivity indicates that the glassy state is formed by interactions among the same entities which account for the susceptibility, i.e., the polar nanoregions. That interpretation is supported by other data showing a loss of Vogel-Fulcher behavior in a powder sample of ${\text{PbMg}}_{1/3}{\text{Nb}}_{2/3}{\text{O}}_{3}$, with grains too small to support large-scale internanoregion cooperativity.


Abstract For view-dependent visualization, adaptively refined volumetric meshes are used to adapt resolution to given error constraints. A mesh hierarchy based on the -subdivision scheme produces structured grids with the highest adaptivity. Downsampling filters reduce aliasing effects and lead to higher quality data representation (in terms of lower approximation error) at coarser levels of resolution. We present a method for applying wavelet based downsampling filters to adaptively refined meshes. We use a linear B-spline wavelet lifting scheme to derive narrow filter masks. Using these narrow masks, the wavelet filters are applicable to adaptively refined meshes without imposing any restrictions on the adaptivity of the meshes, such that all wavelet filtering operations can be performed without further subdivision steps. We define rules for vertex dependencies in wavelet-based adaptive refinement and resolve them in an unambiguous manner. We use the wavelet filters for view-dependent visualization in order to demonstrate the functionality and the benefits of our approach. When using wavelet filters, the approximation quality is higher at each resolution level. Thus, less polyhedra need to be traversed by a visualization method to meet certain error bounds/quality measures.


Some naturally occurring flavonols, exemplified by quercetin, seem to possess experimental cancer chemopreventive efficacy. Modulation of p53 is a mechanism thought to contribute to their activity. The hypothesis was tested that a synthetic flavonol, 3′,4′,5′-trimethoxyflavonol (TMFol), can interfere with tumor development and p53 expression in two models of colorectal carcinogenesis, ApcMin mice and human-derived HCT116 adenocarcinoma–bearing nude mice. Mice received TMFol with their diet (0.2%) from weaning to week 16 in the case of ApcMin or from either day 7 before ("TMFol early") or day 7 after ("TMFol late") tumor inoculation in HCT116 mice. The ability of TMFol to affect tumor proliferation or apoptosis, as reflected by staining for Ki-67 or cleaved caspase-3, respectively, was studied in HCT116 tumors. TMFol tumor levels were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. Consumption of TMFol reduced small intestinal adenoma burden in ApcMin mice by 47%, compared with control mice (P < 0.002). The TMFol early regimen approximately halved HCT116 tumor size (P < 0.05), decreased tumor proliferation, and increased apoptosis, whereas the TMFol late regimen had no significant effect when compared with controls. In tumor tissues from mice, in which TMFol reduced tumor development, p53 expression was increased 3-fold in ApcMin and 1.5-fold in HCT116 tumor–bearing mice (P = 0.02). TMFol increased p53 also in cells derived from these tumors. TMFol was detected in HCT116 tumors, but levels did not correlate with tumor burden. TMFol was not mutagenic in the Ames test. The results suggest that chemical modification of the flavonol structure may generate safe and efficacious cancer chemopreventive agents. Cancer Prev Res; 3(8); 929–39. ©2010 AACR.


This paper investigates the effect of eavesdroppers on network connectivity, using a wiretap model and percolation theory. The wiretap model captures the effect of eavesdroppers on link security. A link exists between two nodes only if the secrecy capacity of that link is positive. Network connectivity is defined in a percolation sense, i.e., connectivity exists if an infinite connected component exists in the corresponding secrecy graph. We consider uncertainty in location of eavesdroppers, which is modeled directly at the network level as correlated failures in the secrecy graph. Our approach attempts to bridge the gap between physical layer security under uncertain channel state information and network level connectivity under secrecy constraints. For square and triangular lattice secrecy graphs, we obtain bounds on the percolation threshold, which is the critical value of the probability of occurrence of an eavesdropper, above which network connectivity does not exist. For Poisson secrecy graphs, degree distribution and mean value of upper and lower bounds on node degree are obtained. Further, inner and outer bounds on the achievable region for network connectivity are obtained. Both analytic and simulation results show that uncertainty in location of eavesdroppers has a dramatic effect on network connectivity in a secrecy graph.


The equation of state (EOS) for highly compressed dense matter is one of the main concerns of nuclear astrophysics in recent years. It is essential for modeling compact astrophysical objects like neutron stars (NS), their mergers and core-collapse supernovae (CCSN). It also sets the conditions for the creation of chemical elements in the universe, in particular for the r-process whose astrophysical site is still under debate. Therefore, it is an active theoretical and experimental research topic. At present, a realistic and quantitative description of dense matter is not available from first principles using the basic theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Hence, a large variety of phenomenological
models has been developed for describing nuclear systems. These models depend on a number of adjustable parameters that have to be determined by data. It is essential for the further development
of the field to determine the most realistic parameter sets and to use them consistently. New and more precise constraints on EOS parameters are becoming available with the advancement of technology and novel astrophysical observations and laboratory experiments conducted. As a consequence we are able to provide models that can be further used in many studies, both for nuclear structure and astrophysical applications.

In this work an extended relativistic mean-field (RMF) model, the density-dependent (DD) non-linear derivative (NLD), or in short DD-NLD model, is developed. The novelty is combining density-dependent nucleon-meson couplings with the energy dependence introduced in the nucleon self-energies in order to reproduce the experimental behavior of the optical potential. The model is applied to the description of infinite nuclear matter, focusing on the high density region above nuclear saturation, and used to obtain the NS EOS at zero temperature. In order to determine the model parameters they are fitted to nuclear matter properties at saturation density as well as to selected properties of several finite nuclei among which are binding energies, charge and diffraction radii, surface thicknesses, etc. The obtained set of
parameters is used in the calculation of the NS mass-radius relation by solving the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equations. This was considered only for nuclear systems at vanishing temperature. For general astrophysical applications however, e.g. in order to provide EOS tables for simulations of CCSN, it is necessary to extend the theoretical description to finite temperatures. Since the developed DD-NLD model has a very general form, it can in principle be extended to temperature dependent cases. For the
purpose of this work, the extended temperature dependent model for nuclear matter is developed, but in the limit of low temperatures, up to about 20 MeV. This allows to study the liquid-gas phase transition for nuclear matter expected at sub-saturation densities, covering the full range of isospin asymmetries. A
study of the spinodal and binodal regions of instability and phase coexistence is performed. We discuss the influence of the energy-dependent self-energies in the EOS model with increasing temperature and the effects it has on the liquid-gas phase transition.


A lot of video games on the market are inaccessible to players with visual impairments because they rely heavily on use of graphical elements. This paper presents a project aimed at developing a point-and-click adventure game for smart phones and tablets that is equally functional and enjoyable by blind and sighted players. This will be achieved by utilizing audio to give blind players all necessary information and enjoyment without graphics. In addition to creating the game, the aim of the project is to identify design aspects that can be applied to more types of games to include more players. This paper also presents a pilot study that has been conducted on an early version of the game and the preliminary findings are discussed.


In the present study, the effect of hot isostatic pressing (HIPping) variables such as HIPping temperature, HIPping cycle and powder particle size, on the microstructure and mechanical properties of HIPped samples of two Ti alloys have been assessed. Powders of the most commonly used (α + β) alloy, Ti-6Al-4V and one specific beta alloy, Ti-25V-15Cr-2Al-0.2C wt% (burn resistant titanium alloy, BuRTi) were studied. The Ti-6Al-4V powder was made by the plasma rotating electrode process (PREP). BuRTi powders, which were made both by gas atomisation and by PREP were HIPped to investigate the influence of the initial structure of the powder on the microstructure and associated mechanical properties of the HIPped alloy. The PREP Ti-6Al-4V powder was shown to be fully martensitic in the as-atomised condition. The gas-atomised and PREP powders of BuRTi showed very different as-atomised structures, but in both cases the structure was, as expected single phase beta, with the carbon retained insolution. The individual particles of gas-atomised BuRTi powder were always polycrystalline, although there was a significant scatter in grain sizes within different particles. In contrast the individual particles in the PREP powder were either coarse grained polycrystals or single crystals. These differences led to significant differences in the microstructures and properties of HIPped samples. It was found that HIPping of Ti-6Al-4V samples resulted in the formation of equiaxed regions and lath-like microstructure. The small equiaxed regions are formed by recrystallisation which occurs at original particle boundaries where most of the deformation occurs during HIPping; the lath-like microstructure is formed by simply tempering the (less deformed) original alpha prime martensite within the central part of original particles. Among the three HIPping temperatures used, samples machined from powder HIPped at 930°C exhibited a better balance of properties than those HIPped at 880°C or 1020°C. The fatigue properties of samples HIPped at 930°C, made using different HIPping procedures were compared. It was found that samples which contain the as-HIPped surface, which were made using a new HIPping procedure, have better fatigue properties than samples with as-HIPped, machined or electro-polished surfaces which were produced by conventional HIPping . The properties of optimally HIPped Ti-6Al-4V samples are as good as or better than ingot-route samples. In the case of BuRTi the original single crystals or coarse grained polycrystals in the PREP powder are retained after HIPping and limited grain growth occurs in the gas-atomised samples. The tensile strength is comparable for the gas-atomised and PREP samples, but samples tested to failure showed a significant scatter in ductility (a larger scatter in the PREP powder samples) and all fracture surfaces contained large circular fracture initiation sites, with larger sites associated with lower ductility. Initiation occurs in the centre of these circular regions in large grains or in adjacent grains which have similar orientations and the failed region expands symmetrically in powder samples where no texture is expected. The fatigue properties of the PREP samples are much lower whereas the fatigue properties of the gas atomised samples are better than those of samples from ingot route. This behaviour is associated with obvious facetted failure sites in the PREP powder samples where it is suggested that the coarser microstructure has allowed persistent slip to occur leading to localised deformation and to premature failure. These observations are discussed in terms of the potential of net shape HIPping for the production of engineering components and in this context the fact that a new HIPping schedule has been developed during this study, where the fatigue properties of samples containing an as-HIPped surface are excellent, is very significant.


Purpose: The tumor immune microenvironment plays a crucial role in the development and progression of cancer. Sarcomas are a group of heterogeneous soft tissue malignancies that are often treated with radiotherapy as a part of the treatment concept. There is increasing evidence that radiotherapy leads to alterations in the tumor microenvironment, particularly with respect to the immune infiltrate. This study has been carried out to develop a better understanding of such changes following radiotherapy. Experimental Design: We retrospectively analyzed the expression of 35 immune response-related genes by quantitative reverse transcription PCR analysis and immunohistochemistry on paired formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 38 sarcoma patients before and after radiotherapy. Results: We observed that radiotherapy results in a significant upregulation of several immune effectors and cancer-testis antigens and a concomitant downregulation of immune suppressors, indicating that radiotherapy may support the immune defense in sarcomas. Conclusions: These novel findings may have implications for the design of therapeutic regimens which exploite the immune system in sarcoma patients by combining standard radiotherapy with immunotherapeutic strategies. Clin Cancer Res; 19(17); 4843–53. ©2013 AACR.


Purpose: To study the effect of age of intervention on visual outcome following treatment of pediatric patients with cataract. Materials and Methods: This is a Prospective cohort study. We studied a consecutive series of pediatric patients with congenital, developing, or traumatic cataracts who underwent surgery between January, 1999 and April, 2012 at our center. Patient demographics, cataract type, presenting symptoms, surgical intervention, postoperative visual acuity, and follow-up refractive changes were recorded. Results: In total, 1305 eyes of 815 children were included: Unilateral cataracts were present in 786 (60.2%) eyes. There were 610 (46.7%) traumatic and 695 (53.3%) non-traumatic cases. Ages at surgery ranged from 1 to 215 months. Eyes were grouped by the age of surgical intervention performed: Group 1, </= 5 years including 286 (21.9%) eyes, and Group 2, >5 years, including 1019 (78.1%) eyes either by anterior or pars plana route ΁ IOL placement. The mean follow-up time was 117 days. Ultimately, 173 (13.3%) Group 1 and 442 (33.9%) Group 2 patients achieved a visual acuity better than 6/24 (P < 0.001). Age at intervention was significantly related (all P < 0.001) to visual outcome. Conclusions: Age of intervention affects visual outcome significantly (P < 0.001).


Partial Least Squares (PLS) is a statistical technique that is widely used in the Information Systems discipline to estimate statistical models with structural equations and latent variables. While PLS does not provide a statistical test of model fit to data, its proponents have suggested a set of criteria that good PLS models should fulfill. Conversely, when a model does not satisfy these criteria, it would be judged a bad model. In this paper, we report on the results of a simulation study to examine to what extent the proposed model quality criteria are able to identify misspecified models.


Always within you is that day your spirit came to us. When rains came in from the Pacific to bless. Clouds peered over the mountains in response to the singing of medicine plants, who danced back and forth in shawls of mist.? Transformative moments in the cycle of life are a time for acknowledgment, a chance to guide a child's path in a positive and loving direction. Swirling images laden with both myth and personal meaning illustrate this unique, poetic tale of the joys and lessons of a girl's journey through birth, youth, and finally adulthood. Within these colorful pages, family and community come together in celebration of her arrival, offering praise, love, and advice to help carry her forward through the many milestones to come, and reminding her always of how deeply she is cherished. It is a reminder, too, of our abiding connections to the natural world, and the cyclical nature of life as a whole. With its rich, symbolic artwork and captivating language, For a Girl Becoming is the perfect gift to recognize a birth, graduation, or any other significant moment in a young woman's life. Not only for children, this lively and touching story speaks to that part in each of us who still stands at the door of becoming.


The issue of an adjustable releasable binding for snowboard skiing has been the subject of comment for many years. This literature review covers a total of 24 papers, one presentation, and one previously unpublished data source (total of 26 references); they range from the earliest known study to the most recent known survey as of July 2006. There are numerous other papers that deal with various aspects of snowboard injuries, but it was judged that they did not have any significant bearing on the issue of a release binding, and thus we have not included them in this review. The purpose of the review is to examine the available peer-reviewed research literature on this topic with the purpose of identifying injury patterns and mechanisms of injury that would be amenable to mitigation by means of an adjustable releasable binding. The main conclusion is that the risk of tibia fracture (as determined in absolute terms using MDBI) is significantly higher for skiing than for snowboarding, even though ski bindings have a release capability and snowboard bindings by-and-large do not. The current concept of releasable/adjustable snowboard bindings appears to be based in large measure on the releasable/adjustable alpine ski bindings. This conclusion is based on the observation that the primary release mechanisms are substantially the same, i.e., lateral at the toe and vertically at the heel. The only known standards testing ever done of a snowboard binding (Meyer) used Alpine ski binding evaluation methods. To the best of our knowledge, no snowboarding binding manufacturer has ever explicitly expressed anything to the contrary; i.e., the model of protection is different from Alpine ski bindings. Thus the only logical conclusion is that the release function of the snowboard binding would be the same for snowboarders as the release function of Alpine ski bindings is for skiers; i.e., protection of the mid-shaft region of the tibia. As of the time of this review, there have been no scientific studies performed (or published) to demonstrate whether releasable snowboard bindings would have any effect on injury rates in snowboarding in general or for any specific injury. The many published studies on snowboard injury rates, alone or compared to Alpine skiing injuries, have led to significant speculation that releasable snowboard bindings would not decrease injury rates, and that they might perhaps increase injury rates in snowboarding. Appropriate scientific studies are required to demonstrate their potential effectiveness. There does not seem to be any biomechanical or epidemiological evidence (either relative in terms of percent of all injuries, or absolute in terms of MDBI) that releasable bindings for snowboards would be likely to reduce the incidence of injuries that are significantly controlled for with Alpine ski bindings, and therefore this review does not lend support to the proposition that a releasable binding similar to current Alpine ski bindings should be a recommended practice for snowboarding.


Pre-mature deterioration of reinforced concrete causesproblems world-wide and the search for reliable cost effectiveand environmental friendly repairs is intense. The service lifeof the repaired structure is important in order to establishthe annual cost and environmental impact for differentalternatives. This doctoral thesis focuses on the service lifeof concrete bridge decks repaired with bonded concreteoverlays. The approach was broad and based on the performanceof a number of bridge decks after approximately ten years inservice. The main aims were to establish the overall servicelife and to improve the design where improvements were needed.Efforts have been made to make the repairs as robust aspossible and the crucial production stage is always considered.The following parameters were investigated: Wear and rutting Bond strength and extent and cause of cracks Relative humidity and temperature in the deck Freeze-thaw resistance and number of freeze-thawcycles Concrete cover and service life criterion with respect tochloride initiated corrosion Service life predictions using moving boundarytheory Chloride concentrations in de-icing water and in thesurfaces of concrete overlays Absorption of water and chloride ions due to capillarysuction of de-icing water Chloride ingress in solid and cracked parts of bondedconcrete overlaysThe wear and rutting were found to be limited. The bondbetween new and old concrete was unaltered or increased afterten years in service. The cracking on the overlays wasgenerally limited. The main cracking causes were insufficientcuring and reflective cracking due to construction joints (coldcasting joints) in the old bridge deck. The cracks can beavoided or made non-hazardous with respect to corrosion andfreeze-thaw damages with simple measures.The chloride ingress was low in solid and limited in crackedparts of the overlay. Samples of concrete, snow, slush andwater were taken from the overlay during two years to quantifythe chloride concentrations and their variations. The chlorideconcentration interacted with the weather, the local climateand the salt-spreading procedures. The chloride content in theoverlays was affected to at least 10 mm from the surface.The relative humidity in the overlay was stable and low atapproximately 20 mm from the wear surface. The number of(salt)-freeze-thaw cycles was high. The thickness of theoverlays was found to be fairly normal distributed and this wasused in the service life predictions.The moving boundary method is suitable to predict theingress of a chloride threshold value. The method is easy touse with a probabilistic approach and simple and cheap toupdate and no parameters have to be guessed. Numerical methodswere also used and the influence of various surfaceconcentrations was investigated. The transport of chloride ionsinto cracked concrete was treated with a two dimensional modeland the influence of crack depth was found to be limited.Both conventional capillary absorption tests and cyclicwetting and drying test out-doors were conducted on matureconcrete cast and aged in-situ. The conclusion was thatcapillary suction of de-icing water could be the dominatingfactor in the chloride absorption process.Key words: Repairs, bridge decks, bonded concreteoverlays, service life, chloride ingress.


Recurrent neural networks have gained widespread use in modeling sequential data. Learning long-term dependencies using these models remains difficult though, due to exploding or vanishing gradients. In this paper, we draw connections between recurrent networks and ordinary differential equations. A special form of recurrent network called the AntisymmetricRNN is proposed under this theoretical framework, which is able to capture long-term dependencies thanks to the stability property of its underlying differential equation. In comparison to existing approaches for improving RNN trainability, which often incur significant computation overhead, AntisymmetricRNN achieves the same goal by design. We showcase the advantage of this new architecture through extensive simulations and experiments. AntisymmetricRNN exhibits much more predictable dynamics. It outperforms regular LSTM models on tasks requiring long-term memory, and matches the performance on tasks where short-term dependencies dominate despite being much simpler.


To facilitate a region's freight transportation systems planning and operations and minimize the risk associated with increasing multimodal freight movements, this study presents a modeling framework for evaluating and optimizing freight flows on a multimodal transportation network under disruption. Unexpected events such as earthquakes, floods, and other manmade or natural disasters would cause significant economic losses. When parts of the transportation network are closed or operated at a reduced capacity, the delay of commodity movements would further increase such losses. Shifting to an alternative route or mode might help to mitigate the negative impacts. In this study, a multimodal freight transportation network was developed to simulate commodity movements, evaluate the impacts of disruptions, and develop effective emergency operation plans. A fluid-based dynamic queuing approximation was used to estimate the delays at classification yards and locks caused by disruption. Using the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Freight Analysis Framework version 3 (FAF3) database, a case study was constructed to model the transportation of cereal grains from Iowa to other states. Three hypothetical disruption scenarios were tested: a reduced service level at locks along the Mississippi River, a bridge outage on I-80 at the Missouri River, and severe weather in central Iowa closing the Union Pacific tracks in the area. The impacts of these disruptions were quantified and analyzed using the presented freight network model.


Diplomonads are aerotolerant anaerobic, binucleate flagellates, which are commonly found in the intestinal tract of wild and farmed fish. Of the diplomonad genera, Spironucleus, composed of opportunistic pathogens, poses the greatest threat to aquaculture. Immunocompromised hosts or fish without acquired immunity are thought to be more susceptible to parasitism by these otherwise commensal agents. Accumulation of flagellates along the intestinal tract often leads to systemic Spironucleosis causing high mortality of both ornamental and food fish in aquaculture. The life cycle of these piscine diplomonads is direct, consisting of a motile, parasitic trophozoite and a resilient encysted stage, which facilitates water-borne transmission. Confusion in the nomenclature, as well as numerous reassignments of taxa, hampers our understanding of host range and geographical distribution of fish diplomonads. Accurate identification requires transmission electron microscopy to characterise intricate ultrastructural features. Additionally, sequencing of the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene allows identification of cryptic Spironucleus spp. In vitro culture provides a convenient source of flagellates for biochemical and physiological research, allowing the identification of novel parasite-specific molecular pathways such as H2 production within Spironucleus sp. This provides insight into the pathogenicity of these organisms and offers potential new targets for chemotherapy. Restrictions on the administration of the current drug of choice, metronidazole, in aquacultural settings, as well as reported cases of drug resistance, means that control of Spironucleosis is especially difficult. Allium sativum (garlic)-derived compounds have proven highly effective at inhibiting parasite growth in vitro, showing great potential as a novel alternative therapy in the treatment of Spironucleosis. Further characterisation of the biochemistry, pathogenicity and taxonomy of fish diplomonads is required in order to fully appreciate the true impact and economic consequences of Spironucleus spp. in aquaculture.


Oscine songbirds are an ideal system for investigating how early experience affects behavior. Young songbirds face a challenging task: how to recognize and selectively learn only their own species' song, often during a time-limited window. Because birds are capable of hearing birdsong very early in life, early exposure to song could plausibly affect recognition of appropriate models; however, this idea conflicts with the traditional view that song learning occurs only after a bird leaves the nest. Thus, it remains unknown whether natural variation in acoustic exposure prior to song learning affects the template for recognition. In a population where sister species, golden-crowned and white-crowned sparrows, breed syntopically, we found that nestlings discriminate between heterospecific and conspecific song playbacks prior to the onset of song memorization. We then asked whether natural exposure to more frequent or louder heterospecific song explained any variation in golden-crowned nestling response to heterospecific song playbacks. We characterized the amount of each species' song audible in golden-crowned sparrow nests and showed that even in a relatively small area, the ratio of heterospecific to conspecific song exposure varies widely. However, although many songbirds hear and respond to acoustic signals before fledging, golden-crowned sparrow nestlings that heard different amounts of heterospecific song did not behave differently in response to heterospecific playbacks. This study provides the first evidence that song discrimination at the onset of song learning is robust to the presence of closely related heterospecifics in nature, which may be an important adaptation in sympatry between potentially interbreeding taxa.


A polyisocyanate random copolymer that contains an asymmetric chiral carbon center and Disperse Red 1 dye nonlinear optical chromophores is synthesized. The optical activity is measured in the visible and near-infrared spectral ranges, confirming the existence of induced optical chirality in the copolymer film. On application of a corona field to the slab waveguide copolymer film, the polarization rotation at the wavelength of 1.3 µm is changed, opening the possibility of chiral electro-optic modulation in a chiral polymeric waveguide thin film.


INTRODUCTION
Mature Cystic Teratoma (MCT) is the most common benign neoplasm of the ovary constituting 10-20% of all the ovarian tumours. Although, much has been published about ovarian teratomas, in English literature, there are very few retrospective cross sectional studies from India to understand the epidemiology of the disease.

AIM
To evaluate the prevalence, clinicopathological characteristics and complications of MCT of the ovary.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a retrospective study of 223 cases of MCT of ovary received over a period of 25 years from 1990 to 2014. The data regarding age, size, laterality, gross, morphological features, complications and surgery performed was retrieved from the archives of pathology department. Descriptive statistics was performed using SPSS software version 22 and the results were expressed as percentages.

RESULTS
MCT constituted 20.2% of the total ovarian neoplasms and 78.5% of all the germ cell tumours. The mean age of the patients with MCT was 32.5±13.11 years and the mean size of tumour was 8.6±3.1 cm. Torsion was the most common complication of these tumours. Malignant transformation of this tumour though rare was seen in 3.5% of the cases.

CONCLUSION
MCT are most common tumours of the ovary. Though predominantly seen in reproductive age group, they may also be seen in children and postmenopausal women. Torsion is the most common complication of this tumour. Age of the patient and the size of the tumour are important prognostic factors in terms of malignant transformation of teratomas. Since 8.9% of these tumours were bilateral it is essential to thoroughly examine the contralateral ovary to rule out bilaterality. Early diagnosis and early treatment is essential to preserve fertility in these patients.


Video games enable the representation and control of characters that can agilely evolve in virtual environments. However, the detached character interaction they propose - often using a push-button metaphor - is far from the satisfactory feeling of grasping and moving physical toys. In this paper, we propose a new interaction metaphor that reduces the gap between physical toys and virtual characters. The user moves a smartphone around, and a puppet that responds in real time to the manipulations is seen through the screen. The virtual character moves in order to follow the user gestures, as if it was attached to the phone via a rigid stick. This yields a natural interaction, similar to moving a physical toy, and the puppet now feels alive because its movements are augmented with compelling animations. Using the smartphone, our method ties together the control of the character and camera into a single interaction mechanism. We validate our system by presenting an application in Augmented Reality.


The effort to extend the storage life of "ambon" banana (Musa paradisiaca L.) was studied by observing Cellulase enzyme activity toward banana's texture and sweetness during the storage in the modified atmosphere conditions at 15°C. The study then continued to find the right and the appropriate compositions of modified atmospheres to maintain banana's quality during the storage. In this study gas compositions consisting of 2 to 6% oxygen, 3% carbon dioxide, and nitrogen were used. The Cellulase enzyme activity was identified using spectrophotometric methods and tested using CMC 15 methods. The degree of glucose reduction was determined by using spectrophotometric methods; the degree of starch by using Direct Acid Hydrolysis Method; physical test by using Hedonic test. The results showed that the maximum activity of Cellulase was 26.36–31.30 unit/mg, which was reached at the fifth weeks of storage. After it reached the peak, the Cellulose enzyme activity gradually decreased until the end of storage life. The degree of starch during storage was 23.18-4.46%; the degree of glucose reduction was 0.04–5.97%; the softness during storage was 7.00–96.8 scale/weight 50gr; banana's color was valued 1–8 PCI. It is concluded, when Cellulase enzyme activity increase the degree of starch will decrease; in the other hand, when Cellulase enzyme activity increased the degree of glucose reduction would also increase. Cellulase enzyme activity did not directly influence the softness of "ambon" banana. The right and the appropriate gas compositions in the modified atmosphere condition for "ambon" banana comprises of 6% oxygen, 3% carbon dioxide, and 91% nitrogen. With this as composition at temperature of 15°C the storage life of banana can be extended up to seven weeks. At the seventh week, the banana is optimum, ripe, and the color tends to yellow. Keywords: Cellulase activity, "Ambon" Banana, Modified Atmosphere Download PDF


In 2017, The University of Tasmania introduced new core degree structures reflecting major curriculum renewal across art and music and their multiple sub-disciplines. In 2019, further new curricula in design and interdisciplinary creative arts will be rolled-out, expanding the core and widening study options for our diverse learners. As part of the University's broader curriculum renewal agenda, these changes reflect a radical overhaul of a set of value propositions for the creative arts disciplines and a commitment to social engagement, sustainability, the ethics of practice, and enterprise skill development. Following ACUADS 2016, in which colleagues reported on the curriculum design phase, this paper reports on aspects of the initial delivery of Critical Practices – the rollout of the first of the core unit sequence of the BFA (Hons). With an entirely new, co-taught structure drawn around praxis and blended learning, challenges and discoveries arose every week. We are learning from our development of a distributed teaching model that spans sites in the north and south of the state, digital platforms, and sub-disciplines. Our particular reference point here is the 'Manifesto' module in which teaching staff employed the manifesto form to encourage learners to establish and declare their own value propositions. As a critical and diagnostic form, the 'Manifesto' module sought to identify and build value from the ground up, through instilling highly responsive and reflexive learning practices. Our reporting here offers some consideration of the role that 'undisciplinary' thinking has played in the development of our new degree structures, and the contribution it makes to our core disciplinary expectations. We highlight some of our efforts to create porosity and osmotic potential in the context of the new institutionally-mandated degree structure we are working within, and its emergent value schema that we are hatching in this phase of curriculum renewal. Far from negating or even ameliorating the former disciplinary model, we aspired for our new units to create conditions for developing critical and reflexive thinking and practice and points of ideational interchange.


Traumatic injures of talocrural joint can often occur in the children age. They enable to cause long fixation of a joint in a definite position that in turn. Weakens always muscles requires a necessity for rehabilitation. The authors have worked out a method of physical rehabilitation for children after fracture of talocrural joint. This method can be applied under conditions of outpatient's polyclinic. The given method must be realized in three stages namely: preparation (2 weeks), basic (4 weeks) and closing (2 weeks). The given method consists of invigorating and relaxing exercises plus special ones with choreographic elements directed to developing muscles of food and joint. Appreciating the results of apprising the worked out methodic of physical rehabilitation showed that its effectiveness has exceeded all the results of traditional scheme of rehabilitation after f traumata of talocrural joint. The author's methodic of physical rehabilitation with applying the choreographic elements enables us (1) to accelerate and enhance the effectiveness of recovering the function of damaged talocrural joint with children, (2) to prevent muscular atrophy from children and (3) to enhance the suppot ability on the extremity (having been damaged before). Effectiveness of the worked out methodic enables the authors (1) to pay attention of a wide circle of professional rehabilitators and (2) to recommend it for application by special experts in their work.


The Column Subset Selection Problem (CSSP) and the Nystrom method are among the leading tools for constructing interpretable low-rank approximations of large datasets by selecting a small but representative set of features or instances. A fundamental question in this area is: what is the cost of this interpretability, i.e., how well can a data subset of size k compete with the best rank k approximation? We develop techniques which exploit spectral properties of the data matrix to obtain improved approximation guarantees which go beyond the standard worst-case analysis. Our approach leads to significantly better bounds for datasets with known rates of singular value decay, e.g., polynomial or exponential decay. Our analysis also reveals an intriguing phenomenon: the cost of interpretability as a function of k may exhibit multiple peaks and valleys, which we call a multiple-descent curve. A lower bound we establish shows that this behavior is not an artifact of our analysis, but rather it is an inherent property of the CSSP and Nystrom tasks. Finally, using the example of a radial basis function (RBF) kernel, we show that both our improved bounds and the multiple-descent curve can be observed on real datasets simply by varying the RBF parameter.


Using a combination of experimental techniques and discrete particle method simulations, we investigate the resonant behaviour of a dense, vibrated granular system. We demonstrate that a bed of particles driven by a vibrating plate may exhibit marked differences in its internal energy dependent on the specific frequency at which it is driven, even if the energy corresponding to the oscillations driving the system is held constant and the acceleration provided by the base remains consistently significantly higher than the gravitational acceleration, g. We show that these differences in the efficiency of energy transfer to the granular system can be explained by the existence of resonances between the bed's bulk motion and that of the oscillating plate driving the system. We systematically study the dependency of the observed resonant behaviour on the system's main, controllable parameters and, based on the results obtained, propose a simple empirical model capable of determining, for a given system, the points in parameter space for which optimal energy transfer may be achieved.


Introduction A number of initiatives were launched in various countries worldwide to provide quality physical education in schools. However,  the promotion  of  participation in  sport  and specifically  elite sport  is  still regarded  to  be economically more feasible, than the introduction of physical education in schools and "sport for all" programmes at community level. In order to improve the current situation, the conventional ideas of the school physical education programme needs to be reconsidered and more serious consideration should be given to the preferences and needs of the key stakeholders. Methodology The aim of the study was to determine the views of teachers and learners with regards to physical education and the promotion of physical activity in a local community school. Participants included learners and teachers involved in life orientation and coaching of sport in a high school in a local community in the Western Cape, South Africa. The school was purposively selected as it caters for the previously disadvantaged learners in the area. Data was collected by means of focus group discussions. Results The results indicated that both the learners and teachers appreciated the benefits associated with participation in physical education but also highlighted significant barriers that prevented the effective implementation of physical education programmes in the school. Conclusion South Africa needs a structured, cost effective approach to physical and health education in schools that stipulates national objectives and detailed strategies to realize the objectives.


ABSTRACT We recently hypothesized that T helper 17 (Th17) cells and their associated cytokines are involved in the development of arthritis following infection with Borrelia burgdorferi. Here, we show that interleukin-23 (IL-23), a survival factor for Th17 cells, is required for the induction of arthritis in mice vaccinated with B. burgdorferi strain 297 and challenged with "Borrelia bissettii." When Borrelia-vaccinated and -challenged mice were given antibodies to the p19 subunit of IL-23, they failed to develop the histopathological changes observed in untreated vaccinated and challenged mice. In addition, viable B. bissettii organisms stimulated the secretion of IL-17 from Borrelia-immune lymph node cells during in vitro culture. When anti-IL-23 p19 antibody was included in cultures of B. bissettii organisms and Borrelia-immune lymph node cells, the production of IL-17 was reduced to levels observed in cultures containing immune cells alone. Taken together, these results support the hypothesis that Th17 cell-associated cytokines are involved in the development of Borrelia-mediated arthritis. These findings provide insight into previously overlooked immune mechanisms responsible for the development of Lyme arthritis.


This article provides a historical perspective as it tries to resuscitate the life of Yosefa Mhalamhala as well as illuminate his vision that has been lost.  The reasons for this effoers are threefold: firstly , Yosefa Mhalamhala was an unknown citizen until the day he announced the gospel to the Mozambicans in 1880; Secondly , he was the first evangelist to be consecrated and sent as a missionary to Mozambique, with the specific mandate of establishing the bases for a future implantation of a Swiss Protestant Mission in Delagoa Bay, Mozambique; and thirdly to show that despite having done good work that produced a positive impact and succeeded in establishing three spiritual centres that were recognized both nationally and internationally, the name of Yosefa Mhalamhala is still not known by the majority of the members of the Igreja Presbiteriana de Mocambique (IPM). The article concludes by exposing the silence of the IPM on the good missionary work done by Mhalamhala. Even though the church chose to remain silent about his missionary work, he was God's vessel in missionary work to the Tsonga people of Mozambique.


This paper reports investigation on bi-modal piezoelectric transducer used both as an active ultrasound transceiver and passive acoustic sensor. [1]The transducer, which should have a low Q factor in order to exhibit a sufficiently broad bandwidth, is placed, along with ECG fabric electrodes, within a textile belt wrapped around the chest. [2]In addition to ECG signals the wearable system is able to generate ultrasound signals which can bounce off the target organ, the heart, and receive the back-propagated echoes. From the time delay of the echoes the movements of the organ can be inferred, hence the mechanical activity of the heart. Moreover, the same transducer is used at low frequencies to detect cardiac sounds, from which the heart beat and the respiratory signal can be extracted. This information, in addition to ECG signals, can provide helpful cues for the cardiac status of the subject, both in terms of prevention and diagnosis. Although much work has to be done to make it available to the patient, preliminary experimental results showed satisfactory performance of the system.


We demonstrate how the phenomenological constants usually used to describe the nonlinear surface and bulk polarization associated with optical second-harmonic generation from cubic [(100) crystal face] and isotropic centrosymmetric metals can be determined by combining the results of experiments in which the p-polarized second-harmonic intensity is determined as a function of (i) the angle of incidence, (ii) the (linear) polarization direction of the fundamental beam, and for single crystals (iii) the orientation of the crystal. Experimental results for polycrystalline Cu and Al and for single-crystalline Al with a (100) face are reported. Experimental results for hexagonal single-crystalline Zn giving the intensity of the p-polarized second-harmonic generation as a function of (i) the state of polarization of the incident light and (ii) the rotational angle of the crystal, which has the c axis in the surface plane, are presented.


Self-employed firms are known to have a very high mortality rate. The literature on the success of firms offers several explanations. I attribute the firm's survival to internal and external factors by relying on the resource-based view and agglomeration economies, respectively. This paper aims at investigating whether individual characteristics of the founding entrepreneur and agglomeration economic variables (urbanization, related and unrelated variety, and specialization) have a significant impact on the survival of self-employed firms. Tracing the cohorts of newly established firms in Sweden from 1990 to 2010, I conclude that: (i) firms face a greater mortality rate when entrepreneur's age increases, entrepreneurs are female, or immigrant, even after controlling for industry heterogeneity, (ii) the survival of firms with female entrepreneur is lower in the manufacturing sector whereas immigrant firms has a lower survival in knowledge-intensive sector, (iii) highly educated entrepreneurs are more likely to survive in services and knowledge-intensive business sectors, and (iv) self-employed firms barely benefit from agglomeration economies.


ABSTRACT This study examines the online marketing practices of provincial and territorial tourism authorities within Canada. Rather than examining ways in which the federal Canadian government promotes the country, this study examines the tourism website homepages of the provinces and territories. Attention is paid to homepage design, layout and information provided to potential visitors of an area within Canada. It should be noted this paper is a cursory review of provincial and territorial tourism homepages and is intended to be a starting point for continued investigation and research. INTRODUCTION CANADIAN TOURISM AND THE ONLINE INITIATIVE IN BRIEF In 2005 the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) launched a campaign to promote a new "brand Canada" strategy. (Hampton, 2005) This effort spearheaded by the CTC seeks to target tourists beyond the U.S. market to make Canada a preferred travel destination. In this new effort the CTC is looking to European travelers rather than American travelers due to declining tourism from U.S. visitors since September 11, 2001. (Gold Medal launches Canada brochure, 2006, Atlantic Tourism ROI comes up short, 2002, Statistics Canada, 2006). "According to the United Nations, Canada is the No. 2 place to live in the world, but it has dropped from seventh to 12th place as a travel destination." (Chiasson and Wentz, 2005, p. 13) The apparent falloff in the number of U.S. visitors to Canada may be attributed to several factors including: a weak U. S. dollar, reduced vacation time for many salaried employees, increased fuel costs, the 2003 SARS outbreak in Ontario and fears of anti-American sentiment in reaction to the Iraq War. Statistics Canada cited at 9.4% decline in the number of Americans traveling to Canada in the first quarter of 2006. The same report noted that the number of visitors from other countries was unchanged and that tourism employment had increased 1.5% from the previous year. (Statistics Canada, 2006) Travel by American visitors to Canada was growing steadily prior to the 2001 terrorist attacks but declined in the aftermath. By the end of 1998 Canadian authorities were expecting record numbers of visitors coming in from the States compared to what had been seen in 1997. (Canada expects record U.S. visits, 1998) By 1999 the CTC was engaged in direct mail campaigns and trade advertising in the United States. The annual meetings of the (U.S.) Direct Marketing Association and the American Lung Association were held that year in Canada. Tourism was booming with no end in sight. (Daniels, 1999) After September 11, 2001 attempts were made to lure American travelers back to Canada by offering stunning travel deals and assurances the country was among the safest in the world. (Heinzl, 2002) But the 2003 outbreak of SARS in Toronto resulted in cross-border travel disruptions and warnings not to travel to Canada. Additionally tourism officials at CTC were aware that the U.S.-led war in Iraq would cause people to postpone travel plans. (Rendon, 2003) Further instances of other events such as the discovery of Mad Cow Disease or BSE in Alberta cattle, forest fires in British Columbia and a strong Canadian dollar served to increase the hesitant mood of jittery American tourists. Recognizing there could be a negative impact to the industry the CTC launched a multimillion dollar advertising campaign in major U.S. markets including New York, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle that attempted to lure U.S. travelers across the border for summer holidays. (Rendon, 2003) In Britain the CTC launched a TV ad campaign to boost the flagging image of travel to the Great White North. (Hampton, 2003) Yet despite CTCs efforts to promote Canada to American and British tourists the year-end result was a 13.3% decline in foreign travel to Canada in 2003. (Krauss, 2004) Given the realities of the situation the CTC recognized that action had to be taken to restore some vigor into the tourism economy. …


Most global citizens are well aware of the explosive growth of the Chinese economy. Indeed, China has famously become the "workshop of the world." Yet, while China watchers have shed much light on the country's internal dynamics--China's politics, its vast social changes, and its economic development--few have focused on how this increasingly powerful nation has become more active and assertive throughout the world. In China Goes Global, eminent China scholar David Shambaugh delivers the book that many have been waiting for--a sweeping account of China's growing prominence on the international stage. Thirty years ago, China's role in global affairs beyond its immediate East Asian periphery was decidedly minor and it had little geostrategic power. Today however, China's expanding economic power has allowed it to extend its reach virtually everywhere--from mineral mines in Africa, to currency markets in the West, to oilfields in the Middle East, to agribusiness in Latin America, to the factories of East Asia. Shambaugh offers an enlightening look into the manifestations of China's global presence: its extensive commercial footprint, its growing military power, its increasing cultural influence or "soft power," its diplomatic activity, and its new prominence in global governance institutions. But Shambaugh is no alarmist. In this balanced and well-researched volume, he argues that China's global presence is more broad than deep and that China still lacks the influence befitting a major world power--what he terms a "partial power." He draws on his decades of China-watching and his deep knowledge of the subject, and exploits a wide variety of previously untapped sources, to shed valuable light on China's current and future roles in world affairs.


The study of the ruptures of the therapeutic alliance has impacted research in psychotherapy by highlighting the relational nature of this phenomenon. Despite ruptures are frequent and relevant during adolescent psychotherapy, most of the empirical evidence in this field has been carried out with adults. Understanding the subjective experience of the therapist during ruptures while working with adolescent is proposed as a starting point for the study of this type of interactional scenarios. The study examined the meanings that emerge from the therapists' experience in terms of their explanations about the causes and effects of ruptures with adolescents. Eight psychotherapists were interviewed about their experiences during ruptures with young patients. The data was qualitatively analyzed through the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis method. Four categories emerged: the failure to recognize the adolescent's experience, the intensity of the affective experience of adolescents in psychotherapy, therapeutic boundaries as an articulator of the therapeutic purpose and, the obstacles that family generates during the therapeutic process. This study concurs with the literature on the need to make explicit with the family about the meaning, roles and limits of the therapy, and to prevent the exercise of control from an adultcentered position. It is concluded that in order to avoid and repair ruptures with adolescents in psychotherapy, an approach that integrates a sensitive attitude, an ecological point of view and mentalizing about the origin of the rupture is needed.


Gatys et al. recently demonstrated that deep networks can generate beautiful textures and stylized images from a single texture example. However, their methods require a slow and memory-consuming optimization process. We propose here an alternative approach that moves the computational burden to a learning stage. Given a single example of a texture, our approach trains compact feed-forward convolutional networks to generate multiple samples of the same texture of arbitrary size and to transfer artistic style from a given image to any other image. The resulting networks are remarkably light-weight and can generate textures of quality comparable to Gatys et al., but hundreds of times faster. More generally, our approach highlights the power and flexibility of generative feed-forward models trained with complex and expressive loss functions.


1 Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São José do Rio Preto, São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brazil. Introduction: Abdominoplasty is one of the most common cosmetic surgeries in Brazil. The complications of this procedure are diverse, with seroma being one of the most frequent. The objective of this study was to identify the risk factors for the formation of seroma, such as increased body mass index, comorbidities, age, habits, and time of drain permanence. Methods: This was a retrospective study in which the medical records of 94 patients who underwent abdominoplasty at the Plastic Surgery and Burns Service of Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São José do Rio Preto-SP between November 2010 and November 2013 were reviewed. The risk factors for the formation of seroma were analyzed using Fisher's exact test and the Chi-square test, with the significance level set at p < 0.05. Results: Seroma was identified in 16 (17.02%) of the total patients (n = 94). No statistical significance was observed between increased incidence of seroma and increased BMI and other risk factors analyzed. Nevertheless, the time of drain permanence showed a clinical relevance. The patients who were maintained on the drain for > 1 day had a lower incidence of seroma. Conclusion: The causes of seroma should be considered multifactorial. The risk factors analyzed were not significantly related to the increased incidence of seroma. However, drain permanence for >1 day was effective in the prevention of seroma. ■ ABSTRACT


Synthesis of fluid inclusions is made by the pre-formation of cavities with a diameter greater than 10 μm by laser ablation using a Nd-YAG pulsed laser focused through a Cassegrain objective. Ablation cavities inside the crystals are connected to the surface by microcracks, which serve as the fluid channels. In fluorite crystals, the microcracks heal at 200°C during four-week experiments and produce large inclusions corresponding to the ablation cavities and smaller ones in the microcracks. In quartz crystals, cavity sealing occurs by quartz overgrowths on faces perpendicular to the c axis at 300°C during four weeks. No cavity sealing occurs at 200°C in quartz. Micro-thermometric data demonstrate that fluid inclusions have trapped representative samples of the experimental fluids. Raman and infrared spectra indicate that fluid inclusions synthesised by our laser technique may be suitable for spectroscopic analysis.


The Western Australian government's proposed 'stop and search' legislation has drawn considerable opposition from many groups both within the state parliament and the broader community. After the release of a parliamentary committee report which was critical of the proposal, the government's junior partners, the Nationals, announced that they would not support it, effectively ending the possibility that it would become law. Rather than revisiting arguments for and against this legislation, this paper will focus on four alternative strategies - active citizenship, community policing, problem-orientated policing and visible policing - that could be considered in order to resolve the problems cited as justifying expanded law and order legislation, using examples from Northbridge, the principal entertainment precinct in Perth. While 'stop and search' might continue to be a political focal point in preventing and detecting crime, policing frameworks that erode trust will also make co-operation harder. This is particularly evident between police forces and the groups who are often singled out, as well as among the wider public.


The repeated occurrences of protest violence during or following Black Lives Matter (BLM) demonstrations has been an issue for the United States since the mass demonstrations of Ferguson, MO in August of 2014. Since then, the United States has experienced a trend of organized demonstrations which follow officer-involved shootings of primarily African American civilians. How and why communities around the nation react to police violence can vary, as do the explanations for the responses of community members, demonstrators, and police officers. The protests of Ferguson, MO (2014) and of North Minneapolis, MN (2015) were similarly prompted by police shootings but each experienced a different kind of protest and police response. This thesis explores how different theoretical perspectives illuminate differences between how Ferguson and North Minneapolis reacted to police violence and argues that multiple theories are needed for analyzing such protests.


Engine thermal and lubricant systems have only recently been a serious focus in engine design and in general remain under passive control. The introduction of active control has shown benefits in fuel consumption during the engine warm-up period, however there is a lack of rigorous calibration of these devices in conjunction with other engine systems. For these systems, benefits in fuel consumption (FC) are small and accurate measurement systems are required. Analysis of both FC and NOx emissions measurements processes was conducted and showed typical errors of 1% in FC from thermal expansion and 2% in NOx per g/kg change in absolute humidity. Correction factors were derived both empirically and from first principles to account for these disturbances. These improvements are applicable to the majority of experimental facilities and will be essential as future engine developments are expected to be achieved through small incremental steps. Using prototype hardware installed on a production 2.4L Diesel engine, methodologies for optimising the design, control and integration of these systems were demonstrated. Design of experiments (DoE) based approaches were used to model the engine behaviour under transient conditions. A subsequent optimisation procedure demonstrated a 3.2% reduction in FC during warm-up from 25oC under iso-NOx conditions. This complemented a 4% reduction from reduced oil pumping work using a variable displacement pump. A combination of classical DoE and transient testing allowed the dynamic behaviour of the engine to be captured empirically when prototype hardware is available. Furthermore, the enhancement of dynamic DoE approaches to include the thermal condition of the engine can produce models that, when combined with other available simulation packages, offer a tool for design optimisation when hardware is not available. These modelling approaches are applicable to a wide number of problems to evaluate design considerations at different stages of the engine development process. These allow the transient thermal behaviour of the engine to be captured, significantly enhancing conventional model based calibration approaches.


Low-cost consumer depth cameras and deep learning have enabled reasonable 3D hand pose estimation from single depth images. In this paper, we present an approach that estimates 3D hand pose from regular RGB images. This task has far more ambiguities due to the missing depth information. To this end, we propose a deep network that learns a network-implicit 3D articulation prior. Together with detected keypoints in the images, this network yields good estimates of the 3D pose. We introduce a large scale 3D hand pose dataset based on synthetic hand models for training the involved networks. Experiments on a variety of test sets, including one on sign language recognition, demonstrate the feasibility of 3D hand pose estimation on single color images.


This paper asserts that state and local marijuana reforms that relax criminal penalties should, but will likely not, benefit Latino/a noncitizens. Because of the intricate relationship between criminal and immigration enforcement, state and local police engagement in racial profiling will not only fail to be eliminated by state-level marijuana reforms but may be exacerbated. As a result, in spite of marijuana law reforms intended to lessen overly punitive penalties stemming from minor marijuana conduct, noncitizen Latino/as will continue to be disproportionately criminally policed and deported. Scholarly literature addressing the intersection of criminal and immigration law has considered ways in which racial profiling in criminal law enforcement infects the immigration removal process. However, the literature has yet to explore the way in which sub-federal drug law reforms, and specifically, recent marijuana law reforms, will fall short for noncitizen Latino/as because of the way in which racial profiling in criminal law enforcement infects the immigration removal process. After decades of excessive, punitive, and ineffective policies, particularly in the area of drug law enforcement, states have initiated reforms, including marijuana decriminalization. At the same time that decriminalization measures are being implemented, in the field of immigration law, resources for apprehension, detention and deportation have skyrocketed, with a focus on "criminal aliens." The criminal-immigration removal system has resulted in local and state law enforcement agents playing a critical, and problematic role in the detection, apprehension, and removal of "criminal aliens." The plight of noncitizens deported or found inadmissible based on marijuana-related conduct highlights a deeper, systemic problem. Not only do extremely harsh immigration consequences serve as a double-penalty for potentially minor marijuana offenses, particularly in light of criminal law reforms, but enforcement of remaining marijuana laws will likely fall disproportionately on Latina/o noncitizens. Over ninety percent of deportations arising out of criminal law enforcement are to Central American and Mexico, yet Mexican and Central American immigrants make up less than half of the United States immigrant population. While decriminalization of marijuana may be more than a symbolic move away from the failed "tough on crime" policies of the past, it not only fails to take into consideration the impact of marijuana laws on noncitizens but also may exacerbate the racially biased aspects of drug law enforcement on noncitizens, particularly Latinos. This Article discusses the ways in which criminal-immigration law enforcement has impacted noncitizens, primarily Latino/as, to demonstrate why sub-federal marijuana reforms will fail to alleviate racially disparate outcomes, perpetually leaving Latino/a noncitizens in the shadows.


A Privacy Risk Scoring Framework for Mobile Applications and Platforms Jedidiah Spencer Montgomery School of Technology, BYU Master of Science Protecting personal privacy has become an increasingly important issue as computers become a more integral part of everyday life. As people begin to trust more personal information to be contained in computers they will question if that information is safe from unwanted intrusion and access. With the rise of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, wearable technology) users have enjoyed the convenience and availability of stored personal information in mobile devices, both in the operating system and within applications. For a mobile application to function correctly it needs permission or privileges to access and control various resources and controls on the mobile device. These permissions can range from location and account information to access to all storage on the mobile device. A single permission, or a combination of permissions, could lead to a high risk of potential privacy invasion. This privacy invasion risk can be amplified specifically for security applications when compared to non-security applications due to the administrative privileges that security applications frequently need to moderate and protect information on a mobile device. Currently there is no defined matrix or framework for analyzing privacy risks for any mobile platform, including the main mobile platforms of Android, iOS and Windows mobile. The purpose of this research is to create a framework for analyzing mobile application permissions and identify potentially invading permission. The framework produces a Privacy Invasion Profile (also known as a PIP) for each application, which can be used to compare the risk of privacy invasion for a specific application.


It was among the most notorious criminal cases of its day. On August 11, 1921, in Birmingham, Alabama, a Methodist minister named Edwin Stephenson shot and killed a Catholic priest, James Coyle, in broad daylight and in front of numerous witnesses. The killer's motive? The priest had married Stephenson's eighteen-year-old daughter Ruth to Pedro Gussman, a Puerto Rican migrant and practicing Catholic. Sharon Davies's Rising Road resurrects the murder of Father Coyle and the trial of his killer. As Davies reveals with novelistic richness, Stephenson's crime laid bare the most potent bigotries of the age: a hatred not only of blacks, but of Catholics and "foreigners" as well. In one of the case's most unexpected turns, the minister hired future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black to lead his defense. Though regarded later in life as a civil rights champion, in 1921 Black was just months away from donning the robes of the Ku Klux Klan, the secret order that financed Stephenson's defense. Entering a plea of temporary insanity, Black defended the minister on claims that the Catholics had robbed Ruth away from her true Protestant faith, and that her Puerto Rican husband was actually black. Placing the story in social and historical context, Davies brings this heinous crime and its aftermath back to life, in a brilliant and engrossing examination of the wages of prejudice and a trial that shook the nation at the height of Jim Crow. "Davies takes us deep into the dark heart of the Jim Crow South, where she uncovers a searing story of love, faith, bigotry and violence. Rising Road is a history so powerful, so compelling it stays with you long after you've finished its final page." -Kevin Boyle, author of the National Book Award-winning Arc of Justice "This gripping history...has all the makings of a Hollywood movie. Drama aside, Rising Road also happens to be a fine work of history." -History News Network


The potential linkages among Cuba and geographically associated northwestern Caribbean locations were examined through simulated transport of snapper larvae for 5 harvested snapper species. The analyses are based on a coupled biophysical model incorporating realistic, intra-annual varying currents from a single year (1984), a Lagrangian stochastic scheme, and larval behaviors to find settlement habitat. Sequential runs centered on peak spawning months and lunar phases estimated the degree to which each spawning event contributes larvae to distant populations or to neighboring populations on the complex Cuban shelf. Results suggest that considerable levels of self-recruitment (ca. 37 to 80% total recruitment) structure Cuban snapper populations, in partic- ular, those from the southern and north-central regions. The northern snapper populations exported larvae to the southern Bahamas, specifically to Cay Sal Bank (ca. 11 to 28% total recruitment), while, for more distant locations, the import of larvae from Cuba was negligible depending on the species. Regional oceanographic regimes for cubera, dog and gray snappers and site utilization (e.g. shelf geomorphology) for mutton snapper caused most within-species recruitment variability. However, a small lag in peak spawning times contributed significantly to high recruitment variability among species. Active virtual larvae stand a better chance of reaching settlement habitat, whereas spatial distribution of recruitment is similar but less structured (i.e. homogeneous low abundance) for passive larvae. This modeling approach produces spatio-temporal predictions of larval pathways with explicit measures of variance. Further, it allows for the quantification of relative levels of connectivity, a component needed in the design of marine reserve networks.


Economies prosper by designing, manufacturing, and servicing a variety of innovative products, for example airplanes, healthcare services, infrastructure development, and information technologies. Having the right competency (aka information processing skills) for designing, manufacturing, and servicing these products is necessary for economies to exploit new opportunities. These products have become more complex to design, manufacture and serve involving people with different education, language, and possibly globally distributed. In order to create these products, information processing skills have been put to the limits causing competitiveness problems. Detailed analysis has associated these problems to requirements. Requirements involve to process different kinds of information (e.g., texts, presentations, sketches, graphs, tables, drawings, engineering analysis, and managerial analysis) during system life cycle processes (i.e., from idea generation to retirement of a product); where at each stage, information has different content (e.g., aspect, medium, and format). Therefore, a root cause associated to requirements can be attributed to a lack of a common vocabulary to communicate this variety of information in the context of system life cycle processes. Theories and models have been employed as solution to solve this communication problem; however, current practice results suggest that a more effective solution is needed. As a result, this thesis employs an ontology as a means to solve the problem which is also an alternative and complement to theories and models. In general, a requirement ontology for system life cycle processes defines the core concepts and their relationships which combined define a common vocabulary in the context of requirements for system life cycle processes. A common vocabulary enables better communication and understanding among people as a core tool to support information processing skills. Hence, an ontology as a common vocabulary is the foundation to increase competitiveness to design, manufacture, and serve a variety of innovative products; which may lead to economies prosperity.
More specifically, this thesis proposes a requirement ontology for system life cycle processes as a tool to be used to guide the analysis of these processes. Based on the fact that the ontology refers to the knowledge domain of design, guidance from a design theory (i.e., Environment-Based Design) was adopted to create the proposed ontology. Four related ontologies were created based on frequency analysis in this thesis, but the proposed core ontology contains a vocabulary of 50+2 concepts and 24 types of relationships. The proposed core ontology has been validated from different perspectives: 1) design theory (i.e., Environment-Based Design) compliance, 2) creation and evaluation from international standards (ISO 15288:2015 and ISO 29148:2011) and three European research efforts, and 3) retrospection from three case studies: a) Total Quality Management System Guideline Development Using Environment-Based Design for Area Development Planning, b) Designing the Right Framework for Healthcare Decision Support, and c) Integrating learning through design methodologies in aircraft design. This type of validation enables to speculate that the ontology can be generalized to the scope of requirements for different engineering endeavours.
At the current stage of research, the proposed ontology is an information technology product that contributes to the actual knowledge base two major aspects: 1) a common vocabulary in the context of requirements for system lifecycle processes, and 2) a replicable ontology design process that can be extended to other domains of knowledge. The current stage of the proposed ontology shall be moved forward as future research. Two major venues for future research can be considered. First, expose the proposed ontology to potential users to improve the current stage of development of the ontology. Second, use the ontology as a tool to guide the analysis of system life cycle processes (e.g., ilities or specialty engineering). The current stage of the proposed ontology and future research venues shall improve communication and understanding among people as a core tool to support information processing skills for designing, manufacturing, and servicing a variety of innovative products.


Spherical leucite crystals having nanosize were prepared by heating a powdermixture ofmetakaolin, K2SiO4 andNaOH. The geopolymer thus obtained were fired at elevated temperature up to 1100 0Candwere examined byXRD, DTAand XRF techniques. K-based geopolymer (K2O.Al2O3. 4SiO2. 11H2O) was investigated due to its attractive refractory properties and its ability to convert to leucite (KAlSi2O6) on heating. The results show that metakaolin, K2SiO3 solution and KOH to regulate the PHform geopolymer, which may crystallize into cristoballite and lecuite, respectively, under thermal treatment. The geopolymer synthesized at alkaline PH, in turn, remains stable at temperatures until 1100 oC.Afurther increase in temperature to 1100 oCled to the formation of leucite crystals of two different diameters, approximately 40 µm and 10–50 µm. The thermal behavior of K-geopolymer was characterized using a variety of techniques in order to explore the details of dehydration, sintering, and crystallization. K-geopolymer was found to offer many of the benefits such as lower sintering temperatures and compositional control without high costs.


This single-volume treatise is largely free of citations to authority, but retains the most notable footnotes. Topics covered include preparing and presenting evidence, cross-examination, and the procedure for admitting and excluding evidence. Discusses privilege against self-incrimination, privilege concerning improperly obtained evidence, scientific evidence, and demonstrative evidence. Reviews authentication, the hearsay rule, burdens of proof, and presumptions. Text also identifies current issues.


Understanding molecular interactions between organic compounds and carbon-based nanomaterials is crucial to the interpretation of phase transfer processes, both in technical applications and within the environment. There is, however, little information available on the interactions between organic compounds and C60 fullerenes, in particular regarding the effects of functionalization. Experimental sorption isotherms and molecular modelling have therefore been used to systematically investigate how these interactions are affected by functionalization of the sorbate (using one, two and four ring aromatics, with –OH or –NH2 functional groups) and the sorbent (i.e., C60 and C60-OH). Functionalization of the sorbent, as well as hydroxyl- and amino-functionalization of the sorbate, had a significant effect on sorption. The enhanced sorption of hydroxyl- and amino-functionalized sorbates by C60 may be due to an increased contribution from π–π electron donor–acceptor interactions. Additional hydrogen bond interactions with C60-OH also appear to play an important role. Our results emphasize that the surface chemistry of C60 is of critical importance to their interactions with organic compounds. The ageing of C60 in technical applications, or in the environment, is therefore likely to significantly affect the molecular interactions, and hence sorption strength, for polar and non-polar organic compounds.


It is well known that depression can be a consequence of medical illness and disability, but a growing literature suggests also that depression can cause biological changes linked to morbidity and mortality. Depression is strongly implicated as a contributor to cardiovascular disease and mortality. Using the cascade-to-death model as a conceptual framework, we explore the complex relations among behavior, affect, motivation, and pathophysiology that might account for the association between depression and premature death. Our model suggests that some individuals become entrapped in a downward spiral in which behavior, medical illness, and depressive affect feed on each other to undermine the biological integrity of the organism. In addition to specifying behavioral and biological mechanisms linking depression to mortality, future research needs to more closely examine phenomenological aspects of depression in order to determine what aspects of depression and related constructs such as hopelessness, vital exhaustion, and motivational depletion account for the link between depression and mortality.


Imposing Harmony is a groundbreaking analysis of the role of music and musicians in the social and political life of colonial Cuzco. Challenging musicology's cathedral-centered approach to the history of music in colonial Latin America, Geoffrey Baker demonstrates that rather than being dominated by the cathedral, Cuzco's musical culture was remarkably decentralized. He shows that institutions such as parish churches and monasteries employed indigenous professional musicians, rivaling Cuzco Cathedral in the scale and frequency of the musical performances they staged.

Building on recent scholarship by social historians and urban musicologists and drawing on extensive archival research, Baker highlights European music as a significant vehicle for reproducing and contesting power relations in Cuzco. He examines how Andean communities embraced European music, creating an extraordinary cultural florescence, at the same time that Spanish missionaries used the music as a mechanism of colonialization and control. Uncovering a musical life of considerable and unexpected richness throughout the diocese of Cuzco, Baker describes a musical culture sustained by both Hispanic institutional patrons and the upper strata of indigenous society. Mastery of European music enabled elite Andeans to consolidate their position within the colonial social hierarchy. Indigenous professional musicians distinguished themselves by fulfilling important functions in colonial society, acting as educators, religious leaders, and mediators between the Catholic Church and indigenous communities.


The medicinal plant of Barringtonia racemosa (Lecythidaceae family) has been used widely in traditional medicine for anti-inflammation and anticancer in Malaysia. The present investigation was carried out to study anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of leaves, callus, cell suspension and in vitro regenerated shoots and roots of B. racemosa. The results showed that different crude extracts of fully expanded leaf extracts of B. racemosa have a very strong nitric oxide (NO) inhibitory and antioxidant activities. In the Griess assay, non polar extracts such as chloroform and hexane extracts were found to be strong inhibitors of NO at different concentrations (25, 50, 100 and 200 μg/ml) in comparison with polar extract (ethanol extract).Calli were aseptically obtained by placing surface sterilized leaf explants on Woody Plant Medium (WPM) supplemented with different concentrations of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). On the shoot induction medium, the callus induced on the WPM medium containing 2 mg/L (w/v) KIN+0.2 mg/l (w/v) IBA and 2 mg/L (w/v) of KIN + 0.4 mg/L(w/v) of NAA was the most effective, providing high shoot regeneration frequency of 85.6 and 76.5 %, respectively. In addition, the highest number of shoots produced was 8.2 and 6.3 shoots per explant respectively in the medium containing the mentioned plant growth regulators. The rooting percentage and number of roots per shoot which achieved on WPM medium supplemented with 3g/L (w/v) of activated charcoal and 0.8 mg/L (w/v) of IBA were 62 and 5.6 %, respectively. 96 % of the in vitro rooted plantlets with well developed shoots and roots were survived when transferred to soil. Results obtained from this study revealed that B.racemosa is one of the important sources of lycopene. Lycopene has long been recognized as important antioxidants both in vivo and in vitro. Lycopene level was detected at a range of 0.02 to 4.14 mg/g dry weight in in vitro regenerated shoots and roots respectively. Lycopene level was also successfully detected in the callus (0.34 to 2.12 mg/g dry weight) and cell suspension cultures (0.18 to 0.68 mg/g dry weight) under dark and light conditions and the amount was lower than that produced in the intact plant tissues. However, manipulating the physical conditions, feeding of precursor and elicitation managed to increase the lycopene content in cultured tissues. Studies on the effects of the medium composition show that fully strength of the basal Woody Plant Medium and B5 containing 3% (w/v) of sucrose increased the lycopene content in both callus and cell suspension cultures. The precursor-feeding studies revealed that concentrations of 3 mg/L (w/v) of isopentenyl pyrophosphate and 2 to 4 mg/L (w/v) of Mevalonate were preferred for lycopene production. The elicitor studies exhibited that the different elicitors showed distinctive effects on lycopene production. Nevertheless, casein hydrolysate at 10 and 15 mg/l (w/v) was found to be the best in increasing the lycopene production in callus and cell suspension cultures. The study further concluded that there was correlation between anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and lycopene content in callus, cell suspension and in vitro regenerated organs of B.racemosa.


This work examines both historical and comparative evidence in documenting the sweep of diachronic change in the context of serial verb constructions. Using a wide range of data from languages of West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, it demonstrates how shifts in meaning and usage result in syntactic, morphological and lexical change.The process by which verbs lose lexical semantic content and develop case-marking functions is described; it is argued that the change is directional, from verb to preposition (or postposition) to affix, along a grammaticalization continuum. This same grammaticalization process is shown to result in the development of complementizers, adverbial subordinators, conjunctions, adverbs and auxiliaries from verbs. Strong parallels across languages are found in the meanings of the verbs that become "defective" and in the functions they come to mark. The changes are documented in detail, with examples from a number of languages illustrating the effect of the changes on typology and word order, implications for the encoding of definiteness and aspect, and the relevance of notions such as discourse topic, foreground and transitivity.With respect to theoretical assumptions and terminology, the author has taken a relatively nonpartisan approach, and the discussion is accessible to students of language as well as of interest to theoreticians.


Abstract Proposing a set of axioms MANUSH (Monotonicity, Anonymity, Normalisation, Uniformity, Shortfall sensitivity, Hiatus sensitivity to level), this paper evaluates three aggregation methods of computing Human Development Index (HDI). The old measure of HDI, which is a linear average of the three dimensions, satisfies monotonicity, anonymity, and normalisation (or MAN) axioms. The current geometric mean approach additionally satisfies the axiom of uniformity, which penalises unbalanced development across dimensions. We propose ℋα measure, which for α ≥ 2 also satisfies axioms of shortfall sensitivity (emphases on the worse-off to better-off dimensions should be at least in proportion to their shortfalls) and hiatus sensitivity to level (higher overall attainment must simultaneously lead to a reduction in gap across dimensions). Special cases of ℋα are the linear average (α = 1), the displaced ideal (α = 2), and the leximin ordering (α → ∞) methods. For its axiomatic advantages, we propose to make use of the displaced ideal (α = 2) method in the computation of HDI replacing the current geometric mean.


As DNA repair enzymes are essential for preserving genome integrity, understanding their substrate interaction dynamics and the regulation of their catalytic mechanisms is crucial. Using single-molecule imaging, we investigated the association and dissociation kinetics of the bipolar endonuclease NucS from Pyrococcus abyssi (Pab) on 5′ and 3′-flap structures under various experimental conditions. We show that association of the PabNucS with ssDNA flaps is largely controlled by diffusion in the NucS-DNA energy landscape and does not require a free 5′ or 3′ extremity. On the other hand, NucS dissociation is independent of the flap length and thus independent of sliding on the single-stranded portion of the flapped DNA substrates. Our kinetic measurements have revealed previously unnoticed asymmetry in dissociation kinetics from these substrates that is markedly modulated by the replication clamp PCNA. We propose that the replication clamp PCNA enhances the cleavage specificity of NucS proteins by accelerating NucS loading at the ssDNA/dsDNA junctions and by minimizing the nuclease interaction time with its DNA substrate. Our data are also consistent with marked reorganization of ssDNA and nuclease domains occurring during NucS catalysis, and indicate that NucS binds its substrate directly at the ssDNA-dsDNA junction and then threads the ssDNA extremity into the catalytic site. The powerful techniques used here for probing the dynamics of DNA-enzyme binding at the single-molecule have provided new insight regarding substrate specificity of NucS nucleases.


Replication of the genome is strongly inhibited when high fidelity DNA polymerases encounter unrepaired DNA lesions, which can not be processed. The highly stringent active sites of these polymerases are unable to accommodate damaged bases and therefore DNA lesions block the replication fork progression. In order to overcome this problem, cells have evolved mechanisms for either repairing the damage, or synthesising past it with specially adapted polymerasases.
Eukaryotic DNA polymerase eta (Pol eta), belonging to the Y-family of DNA polymerases, is outstanding in its ability to replicate through a variety of highly distorting DNA lesions such as cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs), which are the main UV-induced lesions. Also cisplatin induced 1,2-d(GpG) adducts (Pt-GGs), which are formed in a typical cancer therapy with cisplatin can be processed by Pol eta. The bypass of such intrastrand crosslinks by high fidelity DNA polymerases is particularly difficult because two adjacent coding bases are simultaneously damaged. Thus, replication by Pol eta allows organisms to survive exposure to sunlight or, in the case of cisplatin, gives rise to resistances against cisplatin treatment. Mutations in the human POLH gene, encoding Pol eta, causes the variant form of xeroderma pigmentosum (XP V), characterized by the failure to copy through CPDs. This leads to strongly increased UV sensitivity and skin cancer predisposition.

This thesis describes mechanistic investigations of the translesion synthesis (TLS) process by S. cerevisiae DNA Pol eta at atomic resolution, which were undertaken in collaboration with the Hopfner group. To study this process, cisplatin lesioned DNA had to be prepared first. Once this technique was established, the catalytic fragment of Pol eta was crystallized as ternary complex with incoming 2',3'-dideoxycytidine 5'-triphosphate (ddCTP) and an primer - template DNA containing a site specific Pt-GG adduct.

The first obtained structure shows the ddCTP positioned in a loosely bound conformation in the active site, hydrogen bonded to the templating base. Realizing the importance of the 3' hydroxy group for positioning the NTP and the DNA correctly inside the polymerase, the complex was crystallized again with a 2'-deoxynucleoside 5'-triphosphate (dNTP). To prevent nucleotidyl transfer, primer strands which terminate at the 3'-end with a 2',3' dideoxy ribose were prepared by reverse DNA synthesis and used for cocrystallization. The resulting crystals diffracted typically to 3.1-3.3A resolution at a synchrotron light source.
A Pol eta specific arginine (Arg73 in yeast Pol eta) was identified for its importance to position the dNTP correctly in the active site and was shown to be necessary for lesion bypass. In contrast to the fixed preorientation of the dNTP in the active site, the damaged DNA is bound flexibly in a rather open DNA binding cleft. Nucleotidyl transfer requires a revolving of the DNA, energetically driven by hydrogen bonding of the templating base to the dNTP. For the 3'dG of the Pt-GG, this step is accomplished by bona fide Watson-Crick base pairs to dCTP and is biochemically efficient and accurate. In contrast, bypass of the 5'dG of the Pt-GG is less efficient and promiscuous for dCTP and dATP. Structurally, this can be attributed to misalignment of the templating 5'dG due to the rigid Pt crosslink.

In cooperation with the Cramer group the structural reasons for the blockage of RNA Polymerase II (RNAP II) by the cisplatin lesion were elucidated. Using structural as well as biochemical methods it could be shown that stalling results from a translocation barrier that prevents delivery of the lesion to the active site. AMP misincorporation occurs at the barrier and also at an abasic site, suggesting that it arises from nontemplated synthesis according to an 'A-rule' known for DNA polymerases. RNAP II can bypass a cisplatin lesion that is artificially placed beyond the translocation barrier, even in the presence of a G A mismatch. Thus, the barrier prevents transcriptional mutagenesis.


Context. Material accreted onto classical T Tauri stars is expected to form a hot quasi-periodic plasma structure that radiates in X-rays. Simulations of this phenomenon only partly match observations. They all rely on a static model for the chromosphere and on the assumption that radiation and matter are decoupled. Aims. We explore the effects of a shock-heated chromosphere and of the coupling between radiation and hydrodynamics on the structure and dynamics of the accretion flow. Methods. We simulated accretion columns that fall onto a stellar chromosphere using the 1D ALE code AstroLabE. This code solves the hydrodynamics equations along with the first two moment equations for radiation transfer, with the help of a dedicated opacity table for the coupling between matter and radiation. We derive the total electron and ion densities from collisional-radiative model. Results. The chromospheric acoustic heating affects the duration of the cycle and the structure of the heated slab. In addition, the coupling between radiation and hydrodynamics leads to a heating of the accretion flow and of the chromosphere: the whole column is pushed up by the inflating chromosphere over several times the steady chromosphere thickness. These last two conclusions are in agreement with the computed monochromatic intensity. Acoustic heating and radiation coupling affect the amplitude and temporal variations of the net X-ray luminosity, which varies between 30 and 94% of the incoming mechanical energy flux, depending on which model is considered.


Like many South Africans in the seventies and eighties, Stephen ?Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom were obsessed with the music of Rodriguez, but the man himself was a mystery. Only his name was known, and the fact that he had killed himself on stage. After years of searching in a pre-internet age, the two men found the singer living in seclusion in Detroit. Remarkably, the blue-collar worker had no idea that he had been famous for over twenty-five years in this remote pariah of the world. In 2006, Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendjelloul set out to find ?the best story on earth' and stumbled on this remarkable tale in the Guardian newspaper. He tracked down Segerman and Strydom, and so began his four-year long quest to make the Oscar-winning documentary, Searching for Sugar Man. Sugar Man: The Life, Death and Resurrection of Sixto Rodriguez outlines three separate journeys and the obstacles and triumphs that each presented: Rodriguez's struggle to make a life from music; the odyssey of two fans to find out what had happened to their hero; and Bendjelloul's pursuit to bring the story to celluloid. The book is packed with information not included in the film, about Rodriguez's background, relationships and political activities, his tours to Australia, and the recognition that has finally come to him after the film's success.


Neutron imaging has been employed in life sciences in recent years and has proven to be a viable technique for studying internal features without compromising integrity and internal structure of samples in addition to being complementary to other methods such as X‐ray or magnetic resonance imaging. Within the last decade, a neutron imaging beamline, IMAT, was designed and built at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, UK, to meet the increasing demand for neutron imaging applications in various fields spanning from materials engineering to biology. In this paper, we present the first neutron imaging experiments on different biological samples during the scientific commissioning of the IMAT beamline mainly intended to explore the beamline's capabilities and its potential as a noninvasive investigation tool in fields such as agriculture (soil‐plants systems), palaeontology and dentistry.