In this paper we address the question of adequacy of hybrid representations of computer systems embedded in physical environments. Within a proposed modelling framework we describe how reliable models for physical systems from the area of dynamic systems can be incorporated into models of hybrid systems with minimal effort. These models can be automatically derived based on descriptions of the physical system in the language of bond graphs. This inter-disciplinary modular modelling is only possible if the formalism used for description of hybrid systems is compositional and sufficiently expressive. We propose a modular variant of transition systems, Hybrid Transition Systems, for representation of hybrid systems. For this formalism a binary composition operator is defined, and an operational semantics provided. Two novel aspects of the formalism are separation of the input and state variables, and adoption of algebraic equations for description of the change in the value for some continuous variables. We illustrate the application of this formalism to representation of three realistic examples. We provide some example requirements specifications, and for one safety property we briefly sketch the needed analysis over the continuous state spaces. In another example it is illustrated that a hybrid formalism is even needed for the representation of the plant in isolation.


Options for treatment of small central perforations (CP) of tympanic membrane (TM) such as chemical cautery of the margins arefrequently preferred totympanoplasty. The size of the perforation increases initially due to cautery or may remain the same. Insulin may be therapeutic agent in treating such small CP of the TM by its growth enhancing effects. We used topical diluted Human R insulin in seven patients. A total of ten perforations were treated in this trial. This included a unilateral CP of the TM in five cases, bilateral CP of TM in one case, single graft perforation (GP) post myringoplasty and recurrent double graft perforation following coryza in the same patient. A gelfoam soaked with dilute Human R Insulin was placed at the site of the perforation in the ENT outpatient. The procedure was repeated on daily basis or alternate days based on patient's convenience. Successful epithelialization of the CP was noted in as less as two instillations. A maximum of ten instillations were done before healing was noticed without local or systemic side effects. Out of ten perforations, five healed (including three GP), three did not heal, one started discharging and one cannot be commented as patient was lost for follow up. This is the first clinical study showing application of insulin for treatment of small CP of TM or GP in patients and proves to have a beneficial effect in healing in selected patients.


Background: Public health officials anticipate severe health outcomes amidst the circulation of two major viruses, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza. This study investigated intent to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and influenza, and sought to identify attitudes towards vaccines and barriers for vaccine acceptance. Methods: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted in the Louisiana State University Medicine Clinic from September 2020 to December 2020. Intent to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 and influenza virus was assessed through a brief questionnaire. Additionally, hesitancy and attitudes regarding vaccines were ascertained using validated 5-point Likert scales. In total, 280 patients completed the questionnaire. Results: A total of 248 patients were included in the final analysis. Overall 167 (67%, 95% CI = 61.1-73.0%) of patients were unsure or did not intend to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while only 19.3% (95% CI = 14.4-24.5%) were unsure or did not intend to be vaccinated against the influenza vaccine. Reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy included concern regarding side effects, fear of getting sick from the vaccine, and the absence of vaccine recommendations from their doctor. Concerningly, African American patients demonstrated decreased likelihood of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: This survey revealed that only 1 in 3 adults intended to be vaccinated against COVID-19, while 8 out of 10 adults intended to receive the influenza vaccine. Patients who intended on getting the COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to be African American. Given the degree of hesitancy against COVID-19 vaccination, a multifaceted approach to facilitate vaccine uptake that includes vaccine education, behavioral change strategies, and health promotion, is paramount.


Irrigation projects have greatly increased agricultural productivity in arid and semiarid regions, but they frequently contribute as well to saline high water tables, which must be mitigated by a drainage system. Drainage waters, sometimes contaminated by toxic elements, can lead to environmental degradation if not properly managed. One option is to irrigate salt-tolerant plants with drainage water to further increase the salt concentration while reducing the volume that would ultimately require treatment or disposal. Transient and steady-state models were used to simulate the consequences of applying saline drainage water to eucalyptus trees (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) under conditions typical to the San Joaquin Valley of California. Simulated results agreed well with limited field data. High evapotranspiration and large tree growth require application of large amounts of water, leading to large, deep percolation volumes. Degradation of soil physical properties by saline water could reduce the transmission of water through soil. This limits the quantities of irrigation water that can be applied, with consequent poor tree growth and low evapotranspiration.


This study evaluates treatment outcomes and possible prognostic factors of inoperable cervical cancer patients treated with external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and high–dose rate brachytherapy (HDR BRT). Between 1993 and 2000, 183 patients with cervical cancer were treated at our institute. Radiotherapy was the sole treatment modality until January 1997; after the announcement of National Cancer Institute in 1999, 40 mg/m2 of cisplatin (49%) was routinely applied every week. Median age was 54 years (32–92 years). Most patients (88%) had advanced-stage disease (IIB–IIIB). With a median follow-up time of 45 months (6–121 months), the 5-year overall survival (OS), local recurrence–free survival, disease-free survival (DFS), and distant metastasis–free survival (DMFS) rates were 55%, 71%, 51%, and 77%, respectively. Univariate analysis revealed that age, tumor size, lymph node status, and concomitant cisplatin were prognostic factors for OS. The DFS rates were lower in young age group. Patients with tumor greater than 4 cm and age greater than 40 were at greater risk for local recurrence. Distant metastases were more frequent in patients with adenocarcinoma. Concurrent cisplatin use increases DMFS rates (91% vs 78%; P= 0.05). In multivariate analysis, extensive stage, parametrial infiltration, young age, adenocarcinoma histopathology, and lymph node metastasis were negative prognostic factors for OS while concomitant cisplatin increases OS. Likewise, patients with extensive stage, adenocarcinoma, and without concurrent cisplatin administration had more risk for distant metastasis. There was no treatment-related mortality. Grade 3–4 morbidity rates were seen only in eight patients (4%). The combination of EBRT and HDR BRT together with concomitant chemotherapy in the treatment of locally advanced carcinoma of cervix is safe and well tolerated with acceptable morbidity.


Excavations at Komini near Pljevlja and at Kolovrat near Prijepolje were conducted from 1964-1967, and again in 1970-1977. Two Roman-city cemeteries were discovered and nearly 700 graves, many of them with inscribed monuments. These excavations represent the significant finds of a Roman municipium at Komini, near present-day Pljevlja, which sprang up in the central Balkan area far from the main Roman communications network. The settlement grew in Roman times in the valley through which the small ?ehotina river flows, a tributary of the river Lim. The municipium was situated in a plain enclosed by high mountains, not far from another big Roman settlement in present-day Kolovrat near Prijepolje. The Roman city existed, as the findings from the excavated cemeteries prove, for no longer than three and a half centuries, from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD. There is no doubt that the settlement was granted municipal status. Citizens holding municipal offices appear in the inscriptions, but the actual name of the municipium has not yet surfaced - either in inscriptions or in literary evidence. It is believed that the abbreviation 'S' in one inscription refers to the name of the municipium, although this is not proved by any other inscription. The author, in this new study of the site, has adopted the toponym 'Municipium S.', focussing on the collection, commentary, and re-publication of all the inscriptions from this location in the hope of presenting a reconstruction of the life of the city, from the 1st to the 4th centuries AD, basing his research on the literary, archaeological and epigraphical evidence.


We experimentally demonstrate the generation of 5.0-fs optical pulses (2.5 µJ, 1-kHz repetition rate), using only a spatial light modulator for phase compensation. Pulse compression of the broadband pulse (500–1000 nm) from an argon-filled capillary fiber is achieved with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator without any prechirp compensation. The output pulse width is found to be 4.1 fs by a fringe-resolved autocorrelator fitted with a transform-limited pulse and to be 5.0 fs by second-harmonic generation frequency-resolved optical gating with marginal correction. It is to our knowledge the shortest pulse ever generated by use of only a spatial light modulator for phase compensation.


In recent years, researchers have come up with proof of concepts of seemingly benign applications such as InstaStock and Jekyll that remain dormant until triggered by an attacker-crafted condition, which activates a malicious behavior, eluding code review and signing mechanisms. In this paper, we make a step forward by describing a stealthy injection vector design approach based on Return Oriented Programming (ROP) code reuse that provides two main novel features: 1) the ability to defer the specification of the malicious behavior until the attack is struck, allowing fine-grained targeting of the malware and reuse of the same infection vector for delivering multiple payloads over time; 2) the ability to conceal the ROP chain that specifies the malicious behavior to an analyst by using encryption. We argue that such an infection vector might be a dangerous weapon in the hands of advanced persistent threat actors. As an additional contribution, we report on a preliminary experimental investigation that seems to suggest that ROP-encoded malicious payloads are likely to pass unnoticed by current security solutions, making ROP an effective malware design ingredient.


Calcium channel blockers have a selective action on the cardiovascular system. They reduce the energy requirement of the heart, reduce vascular smooth muscle tone, and increase systemic blood flow. Vasodilatation occurs in both the systemic and the pulmonary systems to an extent proportional to the baseline level of vascular resistance, and results in reduction of blood pressure when it is elevated. Thus, these blockers are useful in patients with high blood pressure. Clinical experience of calcium channel blockers in hypertension is so far confined almost exclusively to verapamil and nifedipine. This article reviews the advantages and limitations of these two compounds, their acute hemodynamic effects in hypertensive subjects, and their use in the treatment of hypertensive emergencies, hypertensive encephalopathy, and pheochromocytoma, and as ventricular afterload reducing agents in hypertensive left ventricular failure. Similarities in the effects of nifedipine on systemic and pulmonary vascular tone are presented as evidence that altered intracellular Ca + + concentration is involved in the vasoconstriction seen in both systems in systemic high blood pressure. They also provide support for the hypothesis that inappropriate C a + + handling may be involved in maintaining elevated blood pressure in human hypertension. (Hypertension 5 (supp II): II-85-II-90, 1983)


This study aimed to investigate the needs of Australian food composition database user's regarding database format and relate this to the format of databases available globally. Three semi structured synchronous online focus groups (M = 3, F = 11) and n = 6 female key informant interviews were recorded. Beliefs surrounding the use, training, understanding, benefits and limitations of food composition data and databases were explored. Verbatim transcriptions underwent preliminary coding followed by thematic analysis with NVivo qualitative analysis software to extract the final themes. Schematic analysis was applied to the final themes related to database format. Desktop analysis also examined the format of six key globally available databases. 24 dominant themes were established, of which five related to format; database use, food classification, framework, accessibility and availability, and data derivation. Desktop analysis revealed that food classification systems varied considerably between databases. Microsoft Excel was a common file format used in all databases, and available software varied between countries. User's also recognised that food composition databases format should ideally be designed specifically for the intended use, have a user-friendly food classification system, incorporate accurate data with clear explanation of data derivation and feature user input. However, such databases are limited by data availability and resources. Further exploration of data sharing options should be considered. Furthermore, user's understanding of food composition data and databases limitations is inherent to the correct application of non-specific databases. Therefore, further exploration of user FCDB training should also be considered.


The consumers in a wireless grid will prefer reliable and cost optimal resources for job execution, while the grid service providers prefer efficient utilization of their resources. Hence brokering of resources that meet the requirements of consumers and providers is a challenging task in presence of unstable (wireless) network connections, market dynamics and rational users. This paper models a resource pricing strategy using a non-cooperative bargaining game for resource allocation considering dynamics in the grid market. The proposed scheme is simulated to evaluate the performance parameters like offered price, surplus, negotiation time and job completion time. We observed that our scheme performs better than existing scheme in terms of negotiation time and job completion time.


Title:Security Without Non-Alignment: The Theory and Practice of Sweden's Alignment Strategies. This article aims to contribute to the present debate on Sweden's security policy orientation by introducing some general theoretical propositions and concepts related to research on alliance formation and alignment strategies of small states. A further aim of the article is to challenge the mistaken but common view that Sweden ever since  has pursued a consistent policy of non-military alignment. The usefulness of these propositions and concepts is firstly illustrated with an analysis of Sweden's previous experiences of military alignment and participation in cooperative security efforts aiming for collective security. Secondly, insights from Sweden's previous experiences and general research on alliance behaviour of great and small powers are used to discuss potential benefits and costs related to three possible future alignment strategies: (i) a small state military alliance between Finland and Sweden, (ii) a bilateral military alliance between Sweden the US and (iii) a Swedish membership in NATO. Finally, the question of continuity and change in Sweden's policy of non-alignment is addressed. In answering this question the concepts of critical junctions, path dependency and external shocks are introduced as analytical tools to analyse causes of both continuity and change. I relation to these concepts Sweden's security strategies have been characterised by far less consistency than theories of critical junctions or external shocks would lead us to expect. It is also argued that the policy of non-alignment since the end of the Cold War has lost most of its practical relevance and that the deteriorating security situation in Europe has created a need for a new coherent Swedish security strategy.


Abstract.  Terrestrial sources of dissolved organic C (DOC) provide energy for stream microbial heterotrophs. Hydrologic conditions alter flow paths to the stream and influence terrestrial source quantity and quality. We used bioreactors to measure biodegradable DOC (BDOC) in water from soils, shallow wells, and spring seeps under baseflow conditions, overland flow during storms, and a stream during base flow and storm flow. Stream DOC concentrations ranged from 0.7 to 15.5 mg C/L and total BDOC ranged from 0.1 to 8.7 mg C/L. Under baseflow conditions, DOC was generally <2 mg C/L and BDOC was <0.7 mg C/L. BDOC made up 37.8% of DOC (8.2% labile and 29.6% semilabile constituents) and most DOC (62.2%) was recalcitrant. Storms increased DOC concentrations 6- to 12-fold and selectively mobilized BDOC increasing concentrations 8- to 27-fold. Labile and semilabile constituents increased 2-fold to 17.3% and 55.4%, respectively, so that storm flow DOC was largely biodegradable (73%). Terrestrial DOC concentrations declined from 2.15 mg C/L in soil water to 1.78 mg C/L in shallow wells to 1.26 mg C/L in spring seeps, and labile BDOC concentrations declined from 0.1 mg C/L in soil water to 0.04 mg C/L in shallow wells but increased to 0.13 mg C/L in spring seeps. Overland flow waters had elevated DOC (11.0 mg C/L) and labile BDOC (1.7 mg C/L) concentrations. Peak storm concentrations for 2 biological reactivity classes were coincident during 2 storms but divergent during another storm, suggesting temporal variation in hydrologic pathways. Our results demonstrate that storms deliver increased BDOC loads to a headwater stream and reveal the temporal variability of labile and semilabile BDOC constituents. Storms increase stream depth and velocity, resulting in increased uptake lengths for BDOC constituents, exporting them from the basin and probably providing a downstream subsidy.


The parametric characterization of a nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) to return-to-zero (RZ) data format converter based on the external optical NRZ injection of a TO-46-can packaged vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) directly modulated by a 10 GHz electrical pulse is demonstrated. The electrical-pulse modulation induced gain switching of the VCSEL is initiated under external optical NRZ data injection that increases the relaxation oscillation frequency of the homemade VCSEL from 2.2 to 7.4 GHz, thereby enabling its electrical modulation bandwidth up to 10 GHz. The external NRZ injection reduces the lasing threshold and enlarges the modulation depth of the VCSEL so that the converted RZ data pulsewidth can be shortened to 27 ps with a slightly increased peak-to-peak negative frequency chirp of 4.3 GHz (corresponding to a chirp parameter of 122 MHz/ps). The chirp and bit error rate (BER) display strong correlations with the injection power and the biased current of the VCSEL. With external injection, the receiving power required for achieving a BER below 10-9 at 10 Gbit/s is -19.5 dBm, and a power penalty of 16 dB is observed when the dc bias of the electrical-pulse modulated VCSEL is decreased by only 10% from the threshold condition.


Government officials regularly use the power of eminent domain to benefit private entities, and just as regularly justify their actions with post hoc assertions about the need to promote "economic development." In Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Fifth Amendment demands broad deference to a government's decision to exercise the power of eminent domain. Midkiff makes clear that "public use" challenges are subject to rational basis review; so long as a taking can be justified by some conceivable public purpose, it will be upheld. Yet in recent years, a number of courts have put the government to its proof-requiring a demonstrated connection between the challenged taking and the particular purpose used to justified it. In so doing, these courts refused to allow the government to avail itself of the "conceivability" safety valve provided by rational basis review, a standard that requires approval of any taking that might serve the public interest in some theoretically possible way. In other words, these cases may have been wrongly decided. A central conclusion of this Article, however, is that they were not wrongheaded. This Article will show that the courts' instincts were sound, and that Midkiff needs to be supplemented with precisely the kind of means-ends scrutiny employed in these recent cases. This conclusion proceeds from an analogy to a different kind of "takings" claim. While the public-use limitation on the takings power has been widely regarded as a dead letter at least since Midkiff (notwithstanding the abovementioned surprises), standards for evaluating so-called "regulatory" takings have evolved substantially. Importantly, after Nollan v. California Coastal Commission and Dolan v. City of Tigard, the government may not demand that a property owner cede title to property in exchange for regulatory approval unless it establishes that the exaction demanded is "roughly proportional" to the impact of the proposed development. Although the exactions cases did not overrule Midkiff, they may have something important to say about the public use problem. One federal court of appeals judge has suggested that "considerable tension" exists between the deference required in public use cases and the heightened scrutiny of exactions. Recent public use cases provide real-world evidence of this tension. Despite the fact that current law precludes inquiry into whether a compensated taking is calibrated to advance its asserted purpose, each these courts took pains to distinguish Midkiff so as to require the government to establish a means-ends connection similar to that demanded by Nollan and Dolan. This Article examines whether this jurisprudential move should be formalized - that is, whether a version of the means-ends review required of exactions should extend to public use cases. Specifically, it explores (1) whether the justifications for heightened means-ends scrutiny of exactions are present when the government acquires land by eminent domain, and, (2) what such scrutiny might look like in a public use case.


CHRISTINA HARDYMENT, Malory: The Life and Times of King Arthur's Chronicler. London: HarperCollins, 2005. Pp. xx, 634. ISBN: 0-00-711489-3. £25. Christina Hardyment's acknowledgement that Malory: The Life and Times of King Arthur's Chronicler is 'as much an imagined life as a true biography' (2) makes its evaluation as a work of scholarship difficult. On the one hand, Hardyment is a good writer who has read widely; and her book includes, along with beautiful illustrations, much of interest concerning the history, culture, and daily life of the period. She offers some good criticism of Malory's work, and some of her speculations, such as her suggestion that Malory, probably a Lancastrian, may have hoped to placate the Yorkist Edward IV with his book (439), are plausible. However, she offers little to support many statements, some of which are, to put it mildly, dubious and made without consideration of evidence to the contrary. She maintains, for example, that Malory was born ca. 1399 (43), and while objecting to Peter Field's point that such an early birth date would make Malory rather old when he completed his book (13), she ignores Field's arguably stronger objection that the early date is based upon questionable evidence in Dugdale's History and Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656). She prefers 1399 because that would have made it possible for Malory to have learned about chivalry from Richard Beauchamp. This early date permits the suggestion that Malory was present when Joan of Arc was captured and that Malory's much later attempt to ambush the Duke of Buckingham had its origin in an earlier (totally imagined) instance in which Malory, 'an idealistic young squire,' had seen the 'loutish' Buckingham threaten Joan of Arc with a weapon (163). She also suggests, with no evidence, that Malory had a 'pure courtly love' affair with Anne Neville, Duchess of Buckingham, his 'own personal Guinevere-or Belle Isolde' (373). Some of Hardyment's attempts to find Lancastrian allusions seem extreme. She believes, for example, that the explicit to Malory's Tale VI, in which he describes the Grail story as 'a tale cronycled for one of the trewyst and of the holyest that ys in the world,' refers to Henry VI: the king 'would be a prime candidate in any Lancastrian loyalist's eyes for being "one of the trewest and of the holiest that is in the world [sic]." If that is indeed the explicit's coded meaning, its final prayer for help could refer just as easily to the imprisoned King as to Malory himself (419). She further argues that Malory, after 1465, was part of 'a Lancastrian conspiracy,' and although she knows Anne Sutton's recent discovery that Malory was imprisoned not in the Tower but in Newgate (437), she believes that during this period 'Malory acted as a trusted go-between for Henry VI in the Tower of London and Queen Margaret's court in exile' (419). She suggests that Malory, initially inspired by Henry V's interest in the Arthurian legends (145), began to write for Henry VI and then 'revised all he had written for Henry's son Prince Edward' (20), but later says that Malory had 'originally intended' the book for the prince (439). …


In performative prediction, predictions guide decision-making and hence can influence the distribution of future data. To date, work on performative prediction has focused on finding performatively stable models, which are the fixed points of repeated retraining. However, stable solutions can be far from optimal when evaluated in terms of the performative risk, the loss experienced by the decision maker when deploying a model. In this paper, we shift attention beyond performative stability and focus on optimizing the performative risk directly. We identify a natural set of properties of the loss function and model-induced distribution shift under which the performative risk is convex, a property which does not follow from convexity of the loss alone. Furthermore, we develop algorithms that leverage our structural assumptions to optimize the performative risk with better sample efficiency than generic methods for derivative-free convex optimization.


Practicing medical physicists are often time charged with the tasks of evaluating and troubleshooting complex image quality issues related to CT scanners. This course will equip them with a solid and practical understanding of common CT imaging chain and its major components with emphasis on acquisition physics and hardware, reconstruction, artifacts, image quality, dose, and advanced clinical applications. The core objective is to explain the effects of these major system components on the image quality. This course will not focus on the rapid-changing advanced technologies given the two-hour time limit, but the fundamental principles discussed in this course may facilitate better understanding of those more complicated technologies. The course will begin with an overview of CT acquisition physics and geometry. X-ray tube and CT detector are important acquisition hardware critical to the overall image quality. Each of these two subsystems consists of several major components. An in-depth description of the function and failure modes of these components will be provided. Examples of artifacts related to these failure modes will be presented: off-focal radiation, tube arcing, heel effect, oil bubble, offset drift effect, cross-talk effect, and bad pixels. The fundamentals of CT image reconstruction will first be discussed on an intuitive level. Approaches that do not require rigorous derivation of mathematical formulations will be presented. This is followed by a detailed derivation of the Fourier slice theorem: the foundation of the FBP algorithm. FBP for parallel-beam, fan-beam, and cone-beam geometries will be discussed. To address the issue of radiation dose related to x-ray CT, recent advances in iterative reconstruction, their advantages, and clinical applications will also be described. Because of the nature of fundamental physics and mathematics, limitations in data acquisition, and non-ideal conditions of major system components, image artifact often arise in the reconstructed images. Because of the limited scope of this course, only major imaging artifacts, their appearance, and possible mitigation and corrections will be discussed. Assessment of the performance of a CT scanner is a complicated subject. Procedures to measure common image quality metrics such as high contrast spatial resolution, low contrast detectability, and slice profile will be described. The reason why these metrics used for FBP may not be sufficient for statistical iterative reconstruction will be explained. Optimizing radiation dose requires comprehension of CT dose metrics. This course will briefly describe various dose metrics, and interaction with acquisition parameters and patient habitus. CT is among the most frequently used imaging tools due to its superior image quality, easy to operate, and a broad range of applications. This course will present several interesting CT applications such as a mobile CT unit on an ambulance for stroke patients, low dose lung cancer screening, and single heartbeat cardiac CT.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Understand the function and impact of major components of X-ray tube on the image quality. 2. Understand the function and impact of major components of CT detector on the image quality. 3. Be familiar with the basic procedure of CT image reconstruction. 4. Understand the effect of image reconstruction on CT image quality and artifacts. 5. Understand the root causes of common CT image artifacts. 6. Be familiar with image quality metrics especially high and low contrast resolution, noise power spectrum, slice sensitivity profile, etc. 7. Understand why basic image quality metrics used for FBP may not be sufficient to characterize the performance of advanced iterative reconstruction. 8. Be familiar with various CT dose metrics and their interaction with acquisition parameters. 9. New development in advanced CT clinical applications. JH: Employee of GE Healthcare. FD: No disclosure.; J. Hsieh, Jiang Hsieh is an employee of GE Healthcare.


Abstract:In addition to being one of Myanmar's most popular tourist destinations, Inle Lake is also the country's largest tomato growing centre. As a cash crop grown year-round by Intha ethnic farmers upon the floating gardens for which the lake is renowned, the Inle tomato is not only embedded in commodity networks and flows of exchange, but also moves through a complex intersection of ecological, sociocultural and political networks. Considered symbolically, the Inle tomato represents the region whose communities, culture and livelihoods rely dependently on the lake's water. However, contemporary environmental discourses on Inle Lake's current sustainability crisis present the floating agriculture as toxic, due to the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used to generate high yields of tomato crops. Popular environmental narratives combine these concerns with wider fears about the pressures of climate change, pollution, silt accumulation, a growing population, and the processes of dispossession, exploitation and contestation that result in order to construct Inle Lake as an ecosystem in severe threat of destruction. Based on ethnographic fieldwork completed in 2017 and 2018, this article will use object biography to explore the life of the Inle tomato and the world it inhabits in its movements through three phases of life identified as: 1) symbol; 2) seed; and 3) commodity. In doing so, this article seeks to denaturalize and complicate simplified narratives of sustainability and environmental change to question how these topics might be creatively reimagined.


The British experience with India began in earnest over four hundred years ago, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. For many years the English interlopers and traders, who made contact with the subcontinent were viewed by Indians as little more than pirates and potentially troublesome, conquering barbarians. After a series of titanic struggles against the French and various local rulers during the eighteenth century, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars Britain had gained mastery of the subcontinent. This period, and the century and a half that followed, saw two powerful cultures locked in an often bloody battle over political control, land, trade and a way of life. Professor Denis Judd tells the fascinating story of the remarkable British impact upon India, capturing the essence of what the Raj really meant both for the British and their Indian subjects. All aspects of this long and controversial relationship are discussed such as the first tentative contacts between East and West, the foundation of the East India Company in 1600, the Victorian Raj in all its pomp and splendour, Gandhi's revolutionary tactics to overthrow the Raj and restore India to the Indians, and Lord Mountbatten's 'swift surgery of partition' in 1947, creating the two independent Commonwealth states of India and Pakistan. Against this epic backdrop, and using many revealing contemporary accounts, Denis Judd explores the consequences of British rule for both rulers and ruled. Were the British intent on development or exploitation? Were they the 'civilizing' force they claimed? What were Britain's greatest legacies - democracy and the rule of law, or cricket and an efficient railway system? Easy answers are avoided, and difficult questions tackled in this immensely readable, lively and authoritative book.


Electroactive purine nucleobase, guanine and purine nucleoside, guanosine were immobilized over multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) modified graphite electrode. The electrooxidation properties of purines were evaluated using differential pulse voltammetry. Mixtures of purine nucleobase and nucleoside in various concentrations were prepared and electrochemically immobilized over the working electrodes using positive potential difference. The anodic current at around 0.7 V was used as analytical signal for guanine. The influence of immobilization time, MWCNT concentration and purine concentration were evaluated and electrochemical mechanisms have been discussed. Special emphasis was given to study the stable recognition layer in a redox couple (0.1M NaCl containing 10/10 mM K3Fe(CN)6/K4Fe(CN)6) using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Further, electrochemical interaction of immobilized purine structures over benzene substituted organic compounds were studied using DPV in 0.1M phosphate buffer, and CV and EIS in 0.1 M NaCl containing 10/10 mM K3Fe(CN)6/K4Fe(CN)6. The standardized and calibrated purine immobilized electrode could be potentially used as purine based biosensor for the electrochemical detection of benzene substituted organic compounds.


Technological discontinuities pose serious challenges to top managers' attention. These discontinuities, which often occur at the fringes of an industry, are usually driven by innovative and often venture capital-backed start-ups creating new products and transforming existing industries in ways that are difficult for incumbent managers to understand against the backdrop of their existing cognitive schemata. However, failing to appreciate and embrace successful technological discontinuities might endanger incumbents' very existence. Extending the attention-based view, we explore whether and how interorganizational relationships guide top managers' attention either to or away from technological discontinuities. We propose that homophilous relationships e.g., alliances with industry peers should exhibit a negative relationship with incumbents' timely attention to technological discontinuities, whereas heterophilous relationships e.g., with venture capitalists as a result of coinvestments should exhibit a positive relationship. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the status of the partners strengthens the effect of homophilous and heterophilous relationships with the timely attention of top managers to technological discontinuities. Based on a longitudinal study of the incumbents in four information and communications technology industry sectors, we find that heterophilous ties through corporate venture capital CVC, coinvesting with high-status venture capital firms, exhibit a strong positive relationship with timely attention. CVC, when it connects senior management to high-status venture capitalists through coinvestments, has a special role in directing top managers' attention to technological discontinuities and ensuing business opportunities. Implications for the understanding of the role of interorganizational ties as structural determinants of top managers' attention are discussed.


OBJECTIVES: With a proportionate attributable risk approach, to estimate the magnitude of premature mortality induced by exposure to hazardous substances in the Australian workforce. METHODS: Estimates of the magnitude of mortality induced by exposure to hazardous substances in the Australian work-force were calculated by the proportionate attributable risk approach after careful consideration of options for methodological refinements. The main data sources used were unit mortality datasets (individual deidentified death records), and tabulations when these were unavailable. RESULTS: The estimated number of deaths that occurred in Australia each year from occupational exposure to hazardous substances was 2290; 78% of these were men. The rate of mortality attributable to occupational exposure to hazardous substances was three to four times greater in male workers than in female workers. Male (productive) person-years of life lost (PYLL) were generally eight times higher than female PYLL. Cancer was the prime cause of death, followed by renal, cardiovascular, neurological, and chronic respiratory disease. Acute toxic episodes accounted for a small proportion of mortality but yielded a much larger proportion of PYLL, reflecting the relatively young ages of those who experienced fatal effects. CONCLUSIONS: Although national estimates of the proportions of mortality attributable to occupational exposure to hazardous substances seemed to be validly derived, uncertainties remain associated with the lack of an empirical basis for derivation of proportionate risk fractions used in the calculations. The finding of an appreciable burden of mortality that is attributable to past occupational exposure to hazardous substances emphasises the necessity for occupational health and safety authorities to measure and reduce worksite exposures. There is also an incentive to encourage the construction of appropriately designed cohort studies across industries and occupational groupings so that, ultimately, risk estimates may be directly calculated and applied to total workforce data for the definitive estimation of the magnitude of harm induced by occupational exposure to hazardous substances.


This paper uses a model, and data on particle size distributions, filter efficiencies, and particle deposition rates to estimate the reductions in the indoor mass concentrations of particles attainable from use of filters in HVAC supply airstreams. Additionally, the energy and total costs of the filtration options are estimated. Predicted reductions in cat and dust-mite allergen concentrations range from 20% to 60%. Increasing filter efficiencies above approximately ASHRAE Dust Spot 65% (MERV 11) does not significantly reduce predicted indoor concentrations of these allergens. For environmental tobacco smoke particles and outdoor fine mode particles, calculations indicate that relatively large, e.g., 80%, decreases in indoor concentrations are attainable with practical filter efficiencies. Increasing the filter efficiency above ASHRAE Dust Spot 85% (MERV 13) results in only modest incremental decreases in concentrations. Energy costs and total costs do not always increase for higher efficiency filters. Total estimated filtration costs of $0.70 to $1.80 per person per month are insignificant relative to salaries, rent, or health insurance costs.


Different plant species, ecotypes, varieties or cultivars can be selected, tailored and harnessed for the remediation of polluted soils, sites and brownfields, as well as for the phytotreatment of domestic or industrial wastewater. Several approaches are possible, but phytoremediation does always rely on in situ extraction, detoxification or immobilization of xenobiotic chemicals or trace elements. Phytoremediation has a strong potential as a natural, solar-energy driven approach for soils and sites moderately polluted over large surfaces, if the most appropriate plants have been carefully selected and the adequate agronomic methods are applied to manage the phytoavailability of contaminants. It can already offer a sustainable and less expensive alternative to soils or sites restoration, as compared to traditional physico-chemical techniques, even if the time required reaching the target end-points is often a severe drawback. Depending on the type of soil to be treated, as well as on the pollutants, their concentration and ageing, different approaches can be considered and will be presented with some examples of successful applications, but also highlighting their limitations: • Phytoextraction - uptake of trace elements into roots, then translocation into shoots, followed by the harvest and destruction of the contaminated plants, with possible recycling strategies to recover metals from biomass or ash. Two types of plants can be used: plants able to hyperaccumulate one or several trace elements, but producing low biomass; or plants accumulating moderate amounts of metals or metalloids, but producing high biomass. • Phytostabilisation - based on the immobilization of inorganic contaminants by adsorption to plant roots or soil particles, or precipitation in the root area, thus preventing their migration in soil, groundwater or air, and decreasing erosion, runoff and leaching. For large contaminated areas phytostabilisation is probably the only reasonable option to restore ecosystems. The most effective approach is the use of indigenous plant species, after the addition of appropriate soil amendments. • Phytodegradation - exploiting the huge potential and biodiversity of plant metabolism to detoxify, transform or degrade xenobiotic organic chemicals, like pesticides, explosives or dyes. • Phytostimulation - enhanced microbial metabolism by root exudates; plant/microbial interactions are important for such rhizospheric processes, especially for very hydrophobic compounds. In spite of a growing track record of commercial success, more large-scale trials are needed to definitively prove that phytoremediation is effective and applicable in many different situations, to rigorously assess its economics and to convince stakeholders and local authorities that it is a reality, not a dream. However, to be recognized as a mature and efficient technology, phytoremediation still needs significant progress, even if it is the focus of intensive research and development, from numerous laboratory basic studies and greenhouse experiments to successful demonstration sites. More fundamental research is still required to better understand and control the numerous metabolic processes occurring in the plant and its different organs, as well as the complex interactions between pollutants, soil, plant roots, and the rhizospheric and endophytic microorganisms. However, experimental conditions can modify plant physiology and biochemistry, and it is not obvious if results obtained with young and small plantlets under well-defined laboratory conditions can be extended to real full-scale fields. If the small-scale experimentation in laboratory or in greenhouse is highly valuable to better understand the basic plant molecular and biochemical mechanisms involved in the uptake, translocation, detoxification and sequestration of toxic trace elements and xenobiotic compounds, their direct transposition in the field is somewhat questionable. On the other hand, short-term experimental conditions in small pots used to cultivate plantlets do not allow the normal growth and development of roots and shoots, and thus impose stress which can affect the performance of plants and the efficiency of phytoremediation. In the field the following factors do play a major role, but they cannot be assessed under laboratory conditions: soil heterogeneity, meteorological uncertainty, total concentrations and spatial variability of contaminants, texture and depth of soil layers, nutrient and water availability, problems with the homogeneous input of amendments, differences in rooting depth and density, variability of soil moisture, impacts of pests, pathogens and herbivores. Molecular and biochemical mechanisms of plant adaptation to real stress conditions are still poorly understood and signalling pathways involved remain unclear. However, adaptation to environmental changes is crucial for plants and thus for the efficiency of phytoremediation. Most studies deal either with organic xenobiotics or with trace elements, whereas in the field, a mixed pollution is generally observed. Information on the probable antagonistic or possible synergistic effects of mixed pollutants on their mutual accumulation and detoxification remains however scarce and further studies are urgently needed to better understand the mechanisms involved and improve phytoremediation efficiency. On the other hand, the bioavailable fraction of soil contaminants, but not the total concentration, should be considered as the most important one from an ecological, toxicological and health standpoint, and is determined by the chemical properties of the pollutant, soil characteristics, ageing processes and biota behaviour. Ageing of pollutants usually decreases bioavailability, but root exudates, root-induced rhizosphere changes, mycorrhizal fungi and rhizospheric bacteria play a major role in the dynamics and the ability of pollutants to enter into plants; spreading of pollutants to the surroundings and groundwater can also be affected. The bioavailability of contaminants and their uptake by crops are also essential parameters for establishing risk-based regulatory guidelines and enhancing food safety. Finally, the economics of phytoremediation of organic pollutants is generally favourable, but cost is an acute problem for the treatment of trace elements. Ideally, plants should produce biomass with added value or should be used to recover valuable products. The fate of plant biomass after harvest should thus be considered in the context of biorefineries. Lignocellulosic feedstock can be used for fibers or biofuel production, after extraction of added-value products like oil for lubricants, fragrances or fine chemicals. Incineration of plant material should allow the selective recovery of metals from ash after energy production, thus providing an economically sound process, depending on the type and concentration of metal, as well as on the market price of the trace elements under consideration. With such approaches, marginal contaminated soils or brownfields can be cleaned-up, whereas owners are offered valuable sources of income instead of set-aside scenarios. In such a situation, time is no longer a limiting factor, and the term phytomanagement should be more appropriate than phytoremediation


Soccer players are conditioned to run just as hard the first five minutes of the game compared to the last five minutes of the game. Different positions on the field tend to require more effort than others. Knowledge of the vast difference in game-time activity from one position to the next can greatly improve performance within their dedicated position. Very little research has been conducted on the amount of steps taken by a soccer player at their specific position. The purpose was to compare the effect of soccer position on steps taken per game. It is hypothesized that there will be a significant difference in activity levels between playing positions on the soccer field during competition. SW-200 DigiwalkerTM (NEWLIFESTYLES, Inc., Lee's Summit, MO) pedometers were clipped to the waistband of the playing shorts along the right anterior hip of soccer players aged 18-26 years. Before each game, pedometers were reset to zero and steps were recorded after the first half, and then reset again at the beginning of the second half. Data was collected for 20 games. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare differences between the positions and pair wise comparisons were used to indicate where the differences lie. An alpha of .05 was used for these tests. The only non-significant difference in steps/min occurred between the forward (79±14 steps/min) and sweepers (81±13 steps/min), p > .05. Center-midfielders accrued the most steps/min (99±11) and goalies the least (11±2.5). This study does provide evidence to show there is a significant difference in steps taken per game according to a player's position. Care should be taken to appropriately condition players according to their position


Though the specimens in our general ornithological collection, for the greater part collected before and at the time that the late Professor H. Schlegel interested himself much in the knowledge of the birds of the Netherlands — that is before 1865 —, in addition with those of the fine collection of stuffed birds, brought together by the late Mr. J. P. van Wickevoort Crommelin, all captured in the Netherlands and received by the Museum in 1893, form for many of the species a scientific material, I however acquired the experience, when taking the care of the Birds-collection of our Museum in 1904, that many other species, even some of the commonest ones, were represented in an insufficient manner, so that it was impossible to make a somewhat serious study with the aid of this material. Moreover all the specimens of the old collection are stuffed, series of twenty and more examples of the same species. These stuffed birds are very unmanageable for comparative examination and many of them are spoiled because they were exposed during tens of years in bad cases, open to daylight, dust and mould. It is a matter of course, that in a museum must be a collection of wellstuffed specimens for the general public, but three or four specimens in different plumage or age of each species are in most cases more than sufficient; the rest of the material, being by far the largest part and the true scientific material, must be preserved as skins, not be exposed to the general public, but open only to students of ornithology. A skin-collection of indigenous birds was absolutely wanting in our Museum and as completing and enlarging of our collection of native birds was very necessary, I entered in relation with collectors in different parts of our country and had till yet the satisfaction, that many specimens, and among them some very interesting ones, came in the Museum and that gradually the base of an up-todate skin-collection of our native birds is formed.


Islands are excellent geographic scenarios to study speciation and diversification processes. Among non-volant tetrapods, reptiles are a model group to illustrate these processes due to their low over-sea dispersal. Although biodiversity catalogues are rather complete on islands, remote archipelagos still show high levels of undescribed diversity, including several remarkable examples of cryptic and unrecognized diversity. This should be investigated using integrative approaches, including both morphological and molecular data. The Socotra Archipelago (Yemen), is one of the most isolated continental archipelagos worldwide where a recent barcoding study has identified high levels of undescribed diversity within the reptile community. For example, the endemic semaphore gecko Pristurus sokotranus , the commonest reptile species of the archipelago, is recovered as paraphyletic (with the species P. samhaensis endemic to Samha and Dharsa branching inside it) and shows three geographically structured deep mitochondrial lineages within Socotra Island. To further analyse this, we examined 28 morphological characters (pholidotic, biometrics, and colouration) of P. sokotranus in order to uncover traits that differentiate the three mitochondrial clades. General Linear Models identified a set of traits that differed among clades and sexes. The rate of correct assignment to lineages using a discriminant analysis was 90.90% for males and 90.62% for females. The three clades showed differences in elevation and microhabitat preferences, as well as spatial structure on their distribution range on Socotra. These results corroborate the barcoding study and help to identify P. sokotranus individuals of each clade in the field. Our study further suggests the need of future integrative taxonomic studies including the species P. samhaensis and nuclear markers to revise the current taxonomy of P. sokotranus.


A morphologically preprocessed joint transform correlation is proposed that combines the techniques of morphological filtering and joint transform correlation. We improve on the performance of a joint transform correlator by eliminating noise with morphological preprocessing and by performing edge detection of input images. Computer simulation results show that the corresponding system contributes to a better discrimination capability than gradient operator-based and wavelet-based preprocessed joint transform correlation.


250 WORDS MAX) An important part of a society's resilience is how prepared it is to cope with the changing conditions during the alpha and omega phases according to resilience theory. Lars Thofelt, an academic from the mid Sweden region, early recognized this need for students to develop skills needed for a societal change, and devoted his life to pedagogy suitable for this. The main outcome of his achievement was the interdisciplinary university program in Ecotechnics/Ecotechnology (Ekoteknik in Swedish), at Mid Sweden University. Ecology, economy and technology in cooperation for sustainable development were the original approach, and still are. Thofelt's ideas had a main focus of helping students develop their inherent capabilities of solving problems and overcome obstacles. After Thofelt's 12 years at the program his ideas were carried on by former colleagues and students, and the teaching further developed with a mix of the Thofelt tradition and other experiences brought in by new employees. This paper describes this interdisciplinary teaching approach with special focus on development of resilience capacity in students. It was concluded that 1) a key element to develop resilience skills in students is to push them to a selfpropelled learning behavior rather than traditional teaching, 2) not too easily provide the students with answers will develop their problem solving skills, 3) doing-before-reading teaching is more time consuming but seem to give deeper knowledge, 4) interdisciplinary teaching will in the long run benefit from having the interdisciplinary team within the department, rather than as a conglomerate of several departments.


This paper addresses a stochastic optimal control problem for a reliable single-product manufacturing system with a finite capacity. The demand by customers is stochastic in a finite planning horizon, and is described by a known continuous function. A two-level hierarchical control model is developed. In the first level, a stochastic linear-quadratic optimal control problem is formulated to determine the target values of the state and control variables, with the variables being the desired inventory level and desired production rate, respectively. The goal of the second level is to maintain the inventory as close as possible to its desired level as well as to maintain the production rate as close as possible to its desired rate with fluctuating demand. This problem is represented as a recursive optimization control problem (predictive control) with one state variable (the inventory level) and one control variable (the production rate). The purpose of this study is to establish the optimal production control strategies satisfying a stochastic demand that minimizes the total average quadratic cost and the sum of the mean square deviations of inventory and production for the first and second levels, respectively. The solution is obtained by applying the stochastic optimal control principle based on Pontryagin's maximum principle using the Euler-Maruyama scheme. A numerical example and sensitivity analyses are presented to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed approach.


Interest in the concept of sustainability in dairy farming has grown as a result of the continuous pressure on farm incomes, occurrence of animal diseases with a major impact on the image of dairy farming, concerns about animal welfare, and environmental problems caused by agriculture. There are, however, still many gaps in the knowledge regarding sustainable dairy farming. Respecting the earth and the environment and 'giving back to community' is a fully integrated part of the Mission Statement of ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's. Following this mission, they have initiated a sustainable dairy farming project, 'Caring Dairy', for the European production based in the Netherlands. The aim of Caring Dairy is to secure dairy production in a more sustainable way and to develop guidelines for Sustainable Dairy Farming Practices (SDFP). The approach of Caring Dairy is based on Unilever's sustainable agriculture approach. At this moment 11 dairy farmers participate in Caring Dairy and a baseline measurement for all 11 indicators (soil fertility and health, soil loss, nutrients, pest management, biodiversity, energy, water, farm economics, social human capital, local economy and animal welfare) has been done from where improvement plans, both on a strategic and indicator specific level, have been developed tailored to the specific situation and priorities of the individual farmers. An iterative process of implementation of the improvement plans, measurement, analysis and re-adjusting the plans will lead ultimately to the guidelines for SDFP. Caring Dairy shows the innovation power of supply chains by the bottom-up development of good dairy farming practices in cooperation with all relevant supply chain partners, which goes beyond existing initiatives related to sustainability in the dairy sector.


Study on corrosion propensity of welded mild steelbar in soil media around the coastal area of University of Lagos has been carried out using gravimetric method. Six (6) samples each for welded and unwelded mild steels were cut, their initial weights were recorded and buried in two selected soil. The weight losses of these coupons were measured at regular intervals for a period of six months (180 days). The corrosiveness of the soil media varied widely depending on the potency level of its constituents. The results revealed that soil in the studied area have marked variations in composition and contents. Soil medium with a lower pH and higher chloride ion concentration aggressively attacked the coupons with the welded steel coupon corroding faster than unwelded one. The medium resistivity to the flow of current is another strong factor affecting corrosion rate. Keywords—Coastal area, corrosion rate, mild steel, soil media, welds.


The study area at the Lake Ohrid Basin is located on 693 m a.s.l. at the south-western border of the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia with Albania. It is a suitable location for neotectonic studies. It exhibits a large variety of morphological expressions associated with the seismic activity of the region. Linear bedrock fault scarps give the relief on both sides of the lake a staircase-like appearance; other features are wine-glass shaped valleys and triangular facets. These often short living features are used to identify active faults and to parameterise palaeoearthquakes (slip rates, subsidence and erosion). According to the results of fault scarp profiling a halfgraben shape of the basin is proposed with the west coast being dominated by mass wasting processes most likely triggered by seismic events.


The cultivation
of the castor bean plant is prominent and important because of its potential
for producing vegetable oils with special properties. However, research on
cultivating castor bean plants is scarce, especially in areas with altitudes of
300 m or below. Moreover, the currently available cultivars have not been
widely tested in Brazil. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the
response of the castor bean cultivar BRS Nordestina to different spacings at
low altitudes during two cropping seasons. The study was conducted in the
municipality of Itaocara, in the northwest Fluminense region, Brazil, which has an altitude of 60 m. The
treatments consisted of five row spacings (1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 m) with 1
m between plants. The plants were cultivated in the 2007/2008 spring/summer
season or in the 2008 autumn/winter season. A randomised block design
with four replicates was used. The following parameters were assessed: plant
height, height of insertion of primary raceme, number of racemes per plant,
raceme length, number of fruits per raceme and grain yield. The spacing of 2.5
m between rows had the highest yield of castor beans during the two cropping
seasons. The average yield of the cultivar BRS Nordestina indicates its
potential for cultivation in northern Rio de Janeiro, below an altitude of 300
m. The yield was higher during the summer cropping season. The less-dense
arrangement of the plant population contributed to the cultivation of
plants with more racemes in both growing seasons.


This paper addresses optical super-resolution in the far field. We will describe the use of a novel optical component, which we call the proximity projection grating (PPG), that can provide different intensity patterns for sample illumination. These different illumination patterns allow the optical system to perform various modes of imaging, all are capable of resolution beyond the Abbe diffraction limit. Results will be shown to demonstrate the operations of some of these imaging modes. The potential of the PPG unit will also be discussed.


Different tree species react differently to variation in climate. This relationship can be found by measuring how annual ring width correlates to different climate ariables. This information may be important as a basis for understanding how future forests may be altered by climate change. This study aims to investigate how radial growth of Norway spruce and Scots pine in Kronoberg and Kalmar county responds to precipitation and temperature by dendrochronological methods. The chosen stands had similar fertility and was stratified based on three age categories, >30, >50 and >80 years. Tree ring chronologies were detrended with a spline function and correlation analysis against monthly precipitation and monthly mean temperature was performed. The results showed significant positive correlation between radial growth in Norway spruce and monthly precipitation in May to July and a negative correlation with mean monthly temperature in May to August. A significant positive correlation between radial growth in Scots pine and monthly mean temperature in October to December previous year was found. Concerning the current trend of "sprucification" in Southern Sweden and the redicted increase of drought events in the future, these results can rise further concerns regarding the suitability of Norway spruce in this area. Hopefully, this study can shed further light on what challenges awaits Norway spruce and Scots pine forests of Southern Sweden in a changing climate.


Much controversy has surrounded the diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD) in children and adolescents. However, recent work from an affective neuroscience perspective has advanced what is known about the boundaries of emotion regulation in BD compared to typically developing youth. In this article, we first briefly review the clinical issues that have contributed to this diagnostic controversy. Second, we discuss our phenotyping system, which can be used to guide neurobiological research designed to address these controversial issues. Third, we review what is known about the fundamentals of emotion regulation in human and nonhuman primate models. Fourth, we present recent data demonstrating how children and adolescents with BD differ from those without psychopathology on measures of emotion regulation. Taken as a whole, this work implicates a neural circuit encompassing the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and striatum in the pathophysiology of pediatric BD.Both authors are affiliated with the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program of the National Institute of Mental Health's Division of Intramural Research Programs (NIMH DIRP), which funded the work in its entirety. Dr. Dickstein is currently supported by a career development award (K22-MH 74945).


Abstract. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is primarily managed by surgical cancer resection. Recurrence rates after surgery can be as high as 55%, if residual cancer is present. Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is evaluated for detection of SCC in ex-vivo surgical specimens. Several machine learning methods are investigated, including convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and a spectral–spatial classification framework based on support vector machines. Quantitative results demonstrate that additional data preprocessing and unsupervised segmentation can improve CNN results to achieve optimal performance. The methods are trained in two paradigms, with and without specular glare. Classifying regions that include specular glare degrade the overall results, but the combination of the CNN probability maps and unsupervised segmentation using a majority voting method produces an area under the curve value of 0.81 [0.80, 0.83]. As the wavelengths of light used in HSI can penetrate different depths into biological tissue, cancer margins may change with depth and create uncertainty in the ground truth. Through serial histological sectioning, the variance in the cancer margin with depth is investigated and paired with qualitative classification heat maps using the methods proposed for the testing group of SCC patients. The results determined that the validity of the top section alone as the ground truth may be limited to 1 to 2 mm. The study of specular glare and margin variation provided better understanding of the potential of HSI for the use in the operating room.


Contemporary Western society is sharply focused on achieving and maintaining physical ideals. This photographic series records psychological concerns of body image experienced by under 25s in the UK. The images produce a study examining the growing UK community of young people marginalised by perceived expectations and locate the social presence of these expectations. The methodology is environmental portraiture where portrait, space and mementos narrate the individual's persona and way of life.

Three categories constitute this series. The first documents those who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery intending to become 'beautiful'. The second tranche documents the body dysmorphic illnesses, eating disorders and transformations of young people who have tried to conform to social pressures. The third documents the struggles of young transgender people living within bodies which they were born into but feel detached from. This socially anthropological project investigates how pressures to conform to dictated social norms are disseminated through diverse media outlets including television, magazines, and online social media.


ABSTRACT The sedimentation-erosion table (SET) developed by Boumans and Day (1993) is herein renamed the surface elevation table (SET) to better reflect the conceptual view of the processes being measured. The SET was designed for making high-resolution measurements of small-scale changes in elevation of loose, unconsolidated sediments in shallow water and mudflat habitats. The SET has undergone three major improvements to increase precision and so that it can be used to measure sediment elevation in vegetated wetlands as well as shallow water habitats. The remote-release "sliding plate" mechanism has been replaced with a single plate, collars (first 2.5 cm then 7.5 cm in length) have been attached to the plate to reduce play in the placement of the measuring pins, and the brass measuring pins have been replaced with fiberglass pins to reduce bending and consequent loss of precision. Under ideal laboratory conditions, the 95% confidence limit for individual pin measurements averaged about ± 1.4 mm (range ± 0.7 to ± 1.9 mm). These modifications have resulted in a reduction of error by about 50%.


Utility Systems Efficiencies, Inc. was tasked by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to conduct dynamic simulation studies of the three U.S. interconnections (Eastern, Western, and Texas). The simulations were prepared in support of LBNL's project for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to study frequency-response-related issues that must be addressed to operate the power system reliably with large amounts of variable renewable generation. The objective of the simulation studies of each interconnection was to assess the effects of different amounts of wind generation on frequency behavior of each interconnection following a sudden loss of generation. The scenarios created to study these effects considered an operating circumstance in which system load is at or close to its minimum. The event studied was the sudden loss of the largest amount of generation recorded within each interconnection. The simulations calculated the impact of this event on interconnection frequency for three levels of wind generation. In addition to varying the amount of wind generation, the simulations varied the amount of operating reserves between a high level representative of current operating practices and a low level representative of the minimum required by present operating rules.


Many ecologically important chemical transformations in the ocean are controlled by biochemical enzyme reactions in plankton. Nitrogenase regulates the transformation of N 2 to ammonium in some cyanobacteria and serves as the entryway for N 2 into the ocean biosphere. Nitrate reductase controls the reduction of NO 3 to NO 2 and hence new production in phytoplankton. The respiratory electron transfer system in all organisms links the carbon oxidation reactions of intermediary metabolism with the reduction of oxygen in respiration. Rubisco controls the fixation of CO 2 into organic matter in phytoplankton and thus is the major entry point of carbon into the oceanic biosphere. In addition to these, there are the enzymes that control CO2 production, NH 4 excretion and the fluxes of phosphate. Some of these enzymes have been recognized and researched by marine scientists in the last thirty years. However, until recently the kinetic principles of enzyme control have not been exploited to formulate accurate mathematical equations of the controlling physiological expressions. Were such expressions available they would increase our power to predict the rates of chemical transformations in the extracellular environment of microbial populations whether this extracellular environment is culture media or the ocean. Here we formulate from the principles of bisubstrate enzyme kinetics, mathematical expressions for the processes of NO 3 reduction, O 2 consumption, N 2 fixation, total nitrogen uptake.


Eosinophilic esophagitis is a chronic, immune‑mediated, antigen‑induced disease characterized clinically by variable digestive symptoms indicative of upper gastrointestinal dysfunction and histologically by eosinophilic predominant inflammation. The elimination diets have been proved to be efficient, provideing a therapeutic solution free of drugs adverse reactions. Until now, a range of different antigen restrictive diets have been used, with clinical and histologic remission. Regardless of the chosen elimination diet, patients require a carefull nutritional management because these diets are not without risks and may impact children's growth and development and the quality of life in general.


Since the 1980s, oversight of punishment in the federal criminal system has been centralized. A single body, the Sentencing Commission, regulates criminal punishment through the Sentencing Guidelines. The Guidelines are designed to bring consistency and transparency to criminal punishment, but come with the inevitable cost of a loss of case-by-case judicial discretion. In contrast, punishment in the federal administrative state is almost completely decentralized. No single body oversees agency punishment practices. The administrative model makes the opposite choice of the criminal model. It favors individualized punishment determinations over the benefits of consistency and transparency.In this Essay, I consider the arguments in favor of a sentencing commission for the administrative state. I conclude that although the advantages of centralized punishment are real, they are not large enough to support centralizing the administrative civil penalty power into a single body. Administrative enforcement involves a level of specialized knowledge and integration with other agency regulatory choices that is absent in the criminal context. However, while a top-down approach enforcing penalty consistency and transparency would be a mistake, agencies can and should work from the bottom up to develop their own penalty guidelines and coordinate their penalty practices with parallel regulators.


BACKGROUND
There is increasing evidence that in setting of critical ailments clinical signs lag biomarkers like Lactate and hyperlactetemia can be the only marker for this disorder. This study was conducted to describe the incidence of hyperlactatemia in critically ill children and its association with outcome.

METHODS
Retrospective review of medical records of all children who had their lactic acid (LA) levels measured during their admission in PICU from January 2014 to December 2015 was done. Demographic and clinical variables were recorded along with PICU therapies, outcome (Survived or expired) and development of multi-organ dysfunction. Results are presented as frequency with percentages and mean with standard deviation. Appropriate statistical tests were applied and p-value of <0.05 was taken as significant.

RESULTS
Total 300 patients had their LA measured and 202 were included in the study. Males were 130 (64%) and mean age was 5.7±4.6 years. Hyperlactatemia was found in 68 (33%) patients and another 75 (37%) had a second LA level >4 mmol/L. Increasing LA trend was found in 79 (39%) patients. Diagnostic categories included cardiovascular diseases (45, 22%), central nervous system diseases (40, 20%), respiratory diseases (31, 15%), sepsis (28, 14%), and gastrointestinal diseases14 (7%). 168 (83%) needed mechanical ventilation. Mean pH was 7.31±0.15 and metabolic acidosis was observed in 91 patients (45%). Mean LA levels in survivors and non survivors were 3.3±3.12 and 5.35±5.47 respectively. Hyperlactatemia was associated with death (p=0.01) and development of MODS (p=0.03) on univariate analysis. On multivariate logistic regression rising lactate and development of MODS were significantly associated with death (p=<0.05, odds ratio (OR) 9.24 (95% confidence interval 1.55-55.20).

CONCLUSIONS
Hyperlactatemia and increasing LA trend in critically ill children are associated with worse outcome in PICU.


The dominant narrative around recidivism in America is that most released offenders go on to reoffend and return to prison. In new research, William Rhodes argues that this impression is wrong and that two out of every three released offenders never return to prison. He argues that previous estimates about recidivism have failed to take into account the overrepresentation of returnees in prisons. Accounting for this factor, he finds that only 11 percent of offenders return to prison more than once, and that the total time that offenders actually spend in prison is overestimated as well.


Two firms in the health care market are studied in a case study of the introduction of two almost identical innovations. The two firms, both in the titanium implant business have been chosen so that they match when it comes to origin, technology and customers. But the diffusion occurred in two different (institutional) environments, the Swedish and the US. The whole process from invention to innovation and diffusion in the market is studied. The analysis takes its starting point in competence bloc theory (a Schumpeterian theory). We find that the institutional environment is crucial for firm growth.


This paper describes a two-part study. The first part of the study documents the experiences of nine school-based artists who took part in a six-day professional development workshop on ecology and the arts at an off-grid wilderness facility. The course was designed to increase artist-educators' awareness of issues surrounding energy use and consumption as well as to provide them with direction for approaching these topics through arts-based learning in schools. One of the sessions introduced an electronic portfolio as a tool for supporting arts-based learning on topics dealing with ecology and the environment. Data were collected from the artist-educators through observations, field notes, and semi-standardized interviews. Participants also completed an on-line survey regarding various energy conservation and consumption issues. The data for the first part of the study revealed how the artist-educators anticipated interacting with teachers and students upon returning to their local schools, both in terms of content related to energy conservation and in the ways that they would approach this topic through their respective art forms. In the second part of the study, the electronic portfolio was used to promote self-regulated learning with Grade 5 students in a public elementary school in Toronto, Ontario while they studied energy and ecology through an arts-based approach to these topics. Students worked with one of the participants who took part in the six-day professional development workshop. Together with their teacher, they explored solar power and wind turbine energy and presented their learning through dance. As for the first part of the study, classroom-based data were comprised of observations, field notes, and interviews. In addition, a pre- and post-questionnaire was used to ascertain the degree of self-regulatory practices used by the students. Students expressed considerable enthusiasm for the tool and demonstrated significant growth in understanding how to set goals and critique the work of their peers.


The decision to impose a commuter tax-a tax on income earned within the city by nonresidents-is typically made at the state level. There are both doctrinal and economic reasons for this allocation of authority. Cities are creatures of the states of which they are political subdivisions, and legal doctrine requires that they receive either state legislative or constitutional approval before exercising authority. States have jealously guarded their prerogatives over the taxing power. Perhaps there is nothing surprising about this state of affairs with respect to commuter taxes. After all, the natural stopping point for the exercise of unrestricted local authority is legislation that imposes significant externalities. Since, by definition, the commuter tax falls on nonresidents, the predicate of external effects appears to be satisfied. The underlying assumption is that the state legislature, which represents both city residents and commuters, is in a better position than the levying city to determine whether, in the absence of such a tax, commuters confer benefits on the city that sufficiently offset the costs they impose. In this Article, I accept the principle that the decision to tax should be allocated to that level of government that is best positioned to balance the social costs and benefits of the proposed exaction. I argue, however, that the workplace city, not the state, plausibly occupies that position. I contend that cities have incentives to take the external costs of commuter taxes into account, but that state representatives have fewer incentives to consider the benefits, as well as the costs of such a tax. I note that the decisionmaking structure of state legislatures creates a bias against a commuter tax, and contains few mechanisms that would induce the state to consider the net benefits that a city would enjoy from the tax. Finally, I suggest that a commuter tax could be a more appropriate means of defraying costs imposed by commuters than alternative fiscal instrument& Thus, I tentatively conclude that cities should be entitled to authorize the imposition of a commuter tax without prior state authorization.


Nine E–W seismic refraction lines about 12 km long provide information on the thickness and structure of the Mesozoic succession in the inner Bristol Channel area. About 2000 m of mainly Jurassic strata occupy the Bristol Channel syncline north of Foreland Point but this structure attenuates eastwards and is replaced by the Glastonbury syncline which contains nearly 800 m of Mesozoic strata under Bridgwater Bay. The Central Bristol Channel fault zone has been traced eastwards towards Bridgwater Bay, and has a southerly downthrow of several hundred metres in mid-Channel north of Porlock. There is some evidence for an early phase of movement along the fault zone, bringing Lower Palaeozoic against Upper Palaeozoic rocks.


In this article, a "healing method" (HM) is defined as any method intended to improve health through non-somatic means. For many healing methods, especially within the realm of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), there is mounting debate over the question "Does it work?" Indeed, this seems to be the primary question for most stakeholders. Yet in light of the well-documented effects of nonspecific factors, particularly empathy and placebo (EP), we contend that the basic question is: "What is 'it'?" Without answering this question, scientific progress is impossible, and research costs will spiral upwards without producing tangible results. Furthermore, it is impossible to characterize the potential side effects of healing methods without a full understanding of the underlying mechanisms through which they act. It is generally acknowledged that many healing methods are sociohistorical artifacts, based on underlying theoretical models that are divorced from established science. There is a need for healing method research that is accommodating of such methods' fluid nature while being congruent with accepted scientific practices. "It works" is no longer an adequate justification for any healing method, as "it" often turns out to be a combination of nonspecific factors.


We present an extensive analysis of the quantitative impact of the nonlinear soil behavior on site response at 174 sites of the Japanese Kiban–Kyoshin (KiK‐net) network. The nonlinear to linear site‐response ratio (RSRNL−L) is calculated by comparing the surface/downhole Fourier spectral ratio for strong events and for weak events. Three thresholds of surface peak ground acceleration (PGA) are tested to characterize the strong events: 100, 200, and 300  cm/s2, whereas weak events correspond to surface PGA in the 0.1–25  cm/s2 range. This ratio exhibits a typical shape; with a low‐frequency part above 1 and a high‐frequency part generally below 1, separated by a transition zone around a site‐dependent frequency labeled f NL (characterized by RSRNL−L=1). The average maximum amplitudes of RSRNL−L are 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6, and the minimums are 0.6, 0.5, and 0.5 for PGA thresholds 100, 200, and 300  cm/s2, respectively, showing that nonlinear soil behavior results in significant site‐response modifications even for moderate PGA values of 100  cm/s2. The f NL value exhibits a satisfactory correlation with site classifications based on either V S 30 (travel‐time averaged shear‐wave velocity over the top 30 m) or f (site fundamental frequency): f NL decreases when either V S 30 or f decreases. In addition, the amount of the low‐frequency amplification increase depends on V S 30 and reaches a maximum of 1.6 for high V S 30 soil classes associated with shallow thin soft‐soil layer underlain by stiff substratum. The average high‐frequency decrease is about 0.5 for all soil classes defined from either V S 30 or f ; for a few sites, however, this decrease is replaced by an increase as reported in previous studies, in relation with water contents and pore‐pressure issues. The increase of amplification below f NL is found to be a quasi‐systematic consequence of nonlinear soil behavior, which should be emphasized, because it can reach up to 1.6 for high V S 30 sites.

Online Material: Figures of site‐response ratio (RSR) curves and tables of site characteristics.


This paper explains a procedure for getting models of robot kinematics and dynamics that are appropriate for robot control design. The procedure consists of the following steps: 1) derivation of robot kinematic and dynamic models and establishing correctness of their structures; 2) experimental estimation of the model parameters; 3) model validation; and 4) identification of the remaining robot dynamics, not covered with the derived model. We give particular attention to the design of identification experiments and to online reconstruction of state coordinates, as these strongly influence the quality of the estimation process. The importance of correct friction modeling and the estimation of friction parameters are illuminated. The models of robot kinematics and dynamics can be used in model-based nonlinear control. The remaining dynamics cannot be ignored if high-performance robot operation with adequate robustness is required. The complete procedure is demonstrated for a direct-drive robotic arm with three rotational joints.


Worldwide, recognition of the growing risk faced by communities in many countries from natural hazard events has stimulated interest in promoting people's capacity to co-exist with often beneficial, but occasionally hazardous, natural processes by encouraging the adoption of preparedness measures. Starting from recognition that levels of hazard preparedness are generally low, this paper examines how people's decisions about hazard mitigation derive from how they interpret the hazards, their relationship with the hazards and the sources of information about hazards. It describes how interpretive processes at the person (outcome expectancy), community (community participation and collective efficacy) and societal (empowerment and trust) level interact to predict levels of hazard preparedness. The data support the argument that the effectiveness of public hazard education strategies community preparedness can be increased by integrating risk management activities with community development strategies. The cross-cultural validity of the model is discussed using data from communities in New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan. Testing the model across countries and hazards (e.g. earthquakes, volcanic hazards) supports its all-hazards and cross-cultural applicability. The theoretical (e.g. identifying the degree to which the processes that underpin how people respond to hazard threats are culturally equivalent) and practical (e.g. providing a common basis for collaborative learning and research between countries and providing risk management agencies in different cultures with access to a wider range of risk management options) implications of the cross-cultural equivalence of the model are discussed.


This article examines the interaction between United Nations Security Council sanctions and the transnational governance of sovereign wealth funds through the lens of the experience of the Libyan Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of Libya. The fund is a member of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, a group of sovereign wealth funds whose members endorse the Santiago Principles, a set of guiding principles aimed at improving the governance, independence, and transparency of such entities. In early 2011, the United Nations Security Council requested States to freeze the assets of the Libyan Investment Authority because of their potential utility to then Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, as a source of funding for his regime, which was engaged in a civil war with rebel forces. These assets remain frozen, seven years after Gaddafi's death in October 2011. This article critically analyses the establishment and governance of the Libyan Investment Authority, The article questions the contemporary validity of the narrative summary of reasons provided by the Libya Sanctions Committee for the fund's present listing, arguing instead that the latter stems from the threat of potential misappropriation as a result of governance issues. The article proposes that engagement by the fund with international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds and adherence to the Santiago Principles are vital for its better governance and could equally help to address longstanding problems related to transparency and risk management. At the same time, such institutional engagement will help the fund to meet its objectives as laid out in its constituent law and to operate for the benefit of the people of Libya, for whom it was established.


The Lateral Habenula (LHb) have been implicated in both reward-seeking behavior and in depressive disorders due to its modulatory effects on dopamine rich areas. Excitatory projections from LHb target GABAergic interneurons of both ventral tegmental area (VTA) and rostromedial tegmental nucleus (RMTg) and consequently provide strong inhibition on VTA"s dopaminergic neurons. These reward related signals are provided to LHb from distinct neuronal populations in internal Globus Pallidus (GPi). Here by using a dual viral combination of an adeno-associated helper virus (AAV) and a genetically modified rabies virus that displays specific transsynaptic retrograde spread we are providing anatomical evidence for a strong innervations of the LHb by VGLUT2+ glutaminergic and SOM+ GABAergic GPi neurons. Our results provide the first direct evidence for both an excitatory and an inhibitory projection m, from GPi to the LHb. Given the importance of the LHb as a modulatory nucleus of the dopaminergic system, the definition of its connectivity and function will give valuable insights in the understanding of both reward-seeking behavior and depressive disorders.


Usually, in monocentric city models, the spatial patterns of segregated ethnic groups are assumed to be ring-shaped, whereas in the 1930ies Hoyt showed that empirically wedge-shaped areas predominate. In contrast to Rose-Ackerman.s discussion of the in.uence within a ring-shaped pattern which the aversion which different households in the context of racism have, Yinger showed that, depending on the population mix, a wedge-shaped pattern may arise if it is border length which causes the spatial pattern. In this contribution, a simulation based on a monocentric city model with two or more different household groups is used to derive spatial patterns. Wedge-shaped segregation is shown to be the result of positive externalities among similar households. Differences between households only lead to ring-shaped patterns if the e¤ect of a city center on spatial structure dominates neighborhood e¤ects. If more than two groups of households are being considered, mixed patterns of concentric and wedge-shaped areas arise.


The study described in this paper investigated the use of research blogs by postgraduate students over a four-year period. An initial, one-year, pilot focused on the research blogs of three first-year doctoral students (Ferguson, Clough, & Hosein, 2007). Analysis indicated that blogs were used to promote a community where students were encouraged to reflect and share ideas, skills and stories of research life. The blogs also acted as memory repositories and encouraged collaboration. The main study followed the students' blogs for another three years, as they completed their doctorates and took jobs as early-career researchers. It investigated changes in the use and content of research blogs during this period. All three students continued to make use of their blogs for reflection over this period, and the blogs' use as a memory repository became increasingly important, especially during the period of writing up research. Once the students had made the transition to early-career researcher, the nature of their blog use changed and began to fragment. This was due, in part, to issues of confidentiality, and data protection associated with their employment. While they continued to use their original research blogs to promote community and collaboration, the constraints of their work meant that new posts were often posted in closed blogs, or were marked as protected. At the same time, they were required or encouraged to make use of project-related blogs as part of a planned communication strategy by their employers. The findings of this longitudinal study clarify the changing expectations and needs of learners, employers and society in relation to researchers' blogs, and identify skills, awareness and knowledge needed to support the use of blogging by research students.


Linux in a Nutshell covers the core commands available on common Linux distributions. This isn't a scaled-down quick reference of common commands, but a complete reference to all user, programming, administration, and networking commands with complete lists of options. Contents also include: LILO and Loadlin (boot) optionsShell syntax and variables for the bash, csh, and tcsh shellsPattern matchingEmacs and vi editing commandssed and gawk commandsCommon configuration tasks for the GNOME and KDE desktops and the fvwm2 window manager New material in the third edition includes common configuration tasks for the GNOME and KDE desktops and the fvwm2 window manager, the dpkg Debian package manager, an expanded investigation of the rpm Red Hat package manager and CVS, and many new commands. Linux in a Nutshell is a must for any Linux user; it weighs less than a stack of manual pages, but delivers everything needed for common, day-to-day use. It also covers a wide range of GNU tools for Unix users who have GNU versions of standard Unix tools.


In Part I of this work, a theoretical analysis showed that the surrounding air in the closed confinement between rotor and casing has a significant effect on the dynamic behavior of high speed minirotors. In order to validate the developed theoretical model, an experimental setup is designed and the dynamic behavior of the rotor with medium gap confinement is studied. The experimental setup has flexible supports, which consist of beams with adjustable length. The support stiffness is changed by altering the beam length. Modal analysis of the rotor is done in free-free conditions in order to test the capability of the rotordynamic model without the supports and multiphysical effects. The experimental and simulation results agree well with a difference of 1%. Then modal analysis of the whole structure is done at standstill and during operation in the absence of the casing. In this way, multiphysical effects are eliminated and only support effects on the dynamics of the structure are observed. The supports appear to have significant effect on the natural frequencies of the flexural modes of the system. Different support modeling techniques are studied and adequate equivalent models are obtained. These models are then implemented into the structural model of the rotor. Finally, multiphysical effects are tested at different speeds with different support stiffnesses. Experiments are performed with and without the casing for determining the change in the natural frequencies and onset of instability. The surrounding fluid has a significant effect on the stability of the system while the natural frequencies do not change significantly. The experimental and theoretical results are in fair agreement for predicting the natural frequencies and the onset of instability.