Abating the threat climate change poses to the lives of future people clearly challenges our development models. The 2011 Human Development Report rightly focuses on the integral links between sustainability and equity. However, the human development and capabilities approach emphasizes the expansion of people's capabilities simpliciter, which is questionable in view of environmental sustainability. We argue that capabilities should be defined as triadic relations between an agent, constraints and possible functionings. This triadic syntax particularly applies to climate change: since people's lives and capabilities are dependent on the environment, sustainable human development should also include constraining human activities in order to prevent losses in future people's well-being due to the adverse effects of exacerbated climate change. On this basis, we will advocate that the goals of sustainable human development should be informed by a framework that consists of enhancing capabilities up to a threshold level, as well as constraining the functionings beyond this threshold in terms of their greenhouse gas emissions.


Temporal selection poses unique challenges to the perceptual system. Selection is needed to protect goal-relevant stimuli from interference from new sensory input. In addition, contextual information that occurs at the same time as goal-relevant stimuli may be critical for learning. Using fMRI, we characterized how visual cortical regions respond to the temporal selection of auditory and visual stimuli. Critically, we focused on brain regions that are not involved in processing the target itself. Participants pressed a button when they heard a prespecified target tone and did not respond to other tones. Although more attention was directed to auditory input when the target tone was selected, activity in primary visual cortex increased more after target tones than after distractor tones. In contrast to spatial attention, this effect was larger in V1 than in V2 and V3. It was present in regions not typically involved in representing the target stimulus. Additional experiments demonstrated that these effects were not due to multimodal processing, rare targets, or motor responses to the targets. Thus temporal selection of behaviorally relevant stimuli enhances, rather than reduces, activity in perceptual regions involved in processing other information.


ABSTRACT The aging process for parental caregivers of adult children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be complicated and filled with worry about the unknown. This qualitative phenomenological study examined concerns and barriers of these parents that could inhibit their future planning. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 51 parents of adult children with ASD. Parents were older than age 50 years and their children were older than age 18 years. During the interview process, parents discussed future-oriented concerns related to their adult child's care. Based on results of the content analysis from interview responses, four themes emerged from interview responses related to parents' fears for the future, including difficulty identifying caregiving support for the future, barriers to making plans/decisions, fear of the unknown, and feeling the need to make plans and decisions now. Although many parents understood that plans for the future were needed, they often experienced difficulty in initiating the process. Some of their concerns caused stress that further inhibited their planning. To assist parents in planning, social workers need to be educated regarding parents' unique needs to help them work through the planning, separate planning into manageable pieces, and provide support at each step of the process.


Dialkynyltin compds. alkynyltin of the type Me2Sn(C.tplbond.CL)2 [1; L = 2-pyridyl (a), Me2NCH2 (b), MeOCH2 (c), MeOCH:CH (d), EtSCH2 (e)] were prep. and the 1,1-organoboration of 1 with triethyl- (2a) and triisopropylborane (2b) has been studied. The first detectable intermediates were in all cases zwitterionic compds. 3 (I, R2 = Et) (from Et3B) and 4 (I, R2 = Me2CH) [from (Me2CH)3B] with a cationic triorganotin fragment, stabilized by coordinative s L-Sn bonds and by side-on coordination to the C.tplbond.C bond of an alkynylborate moiety. The nature of this stabilization has been established by three x-ray analyses (3b, 4b, and 4d) in the solid state and by multinuclear NMR (1H, 11B, 13C, 15N, 119Sn NMR) in soln. The comparison of the mol. structure of 3b, 4b, and 4d with that of intermediates without functional groups shows that the distance of the tin atom to the C.tplbond.C bond is elongated. However, the planar arrangement of all relevant atoms proves that the side-on coordination of the tin atom to the C.tplbond.C bond is still present. These intermediates 3 and 4 rearrange to stannoles 5, 6 (II) and/or to 1-stanna-4-bora-2,5-cyclohexadienes 9, 10 (III). In the case of 3b and 3e, 119Sn NMR indicates that dialkenyltin compds. 7b and 7e are also formed as minor products. In the case of 3e, the 3-stannolene 8e is one of the final products. In the stannoles 5 and 6 a coordinative L-B bond is evident, and there is NMR spectroscopic evidence of a weak coordinative L-Sn bond.


Abstract. Topography is a reflection of the tectonic and geodynamic processes that act to uplift the Earth's surface and the erosional processes that work to return it to base level. Numerous studies have shown that topography is a sensitive recorder of tectonic signals. A quasi-physical understanding of the relationship between river incision and rock uplift has made the analysis of fluvial topography a popular technique for deciphering relative, and some argue absolute, histories of rock uplift. Here we present results from a study of the fluvial topography from south-central Crete, demonstrating that river longitudinal profiles indeed record the relative history of uplift, but several other processes make it difficult to recover quantitative uplift histories. Prior research demonstrates that the south-central coastline of Crete is bound by a large ( ∼  100 km long) E–W striking composite normal fault system. Marine terraces reveal that it is uplifting between 0.1 and 1.0 mm yr−1. These studies suggest that two normal fault systems, the offshore Ptolemy and onshore South-Central Crete faults, linked together in the recent geologic past (ca. 0.4–1 My BP). Fault mechanics predict that when adjacent faults link into a single fault the uplift rate in footwalls of the linkage zone will increase rapidly. We use this natural experiment to assess the response of river profiles to a temporal jump in uplift rate and to assess the applicability of the stream power incision model to this setting. Using river profile analysis we show that rivers in south-central Crete record the relative uplift history of fault growth and linkage as theory predicts that they should. Calibration of the commonly used stream power incision model shows that the slope exponent, n, is  ∼  0.5, contrary to most studies that find n  ≥  1. Analysis of fluvial knickpoints shows that migration distances are not proportional to upstream contributing drainage area, as predicted by the stream power incision model. Maps of the transformed stream distance variable, χ, indicate that drainage basin instability, drainage divide migration, and river capture events complicate river profile analysis in south-central Crete. Waterfalls are observed in southern Crete and appear to operate under less efficient and different incision mechanics than assumed by the stream power incision model. Drainage area exchange and waterfall formation are argued to obscure linkages between empirically derived metrics and quasi-physical descriptions of river incision, making it difficult to quantitatively interpret rock uplift histories from river profiles in this setting. Karst hydrology, break down of assumed drainage area discharge scaling, and chemical weathering might also contribute to the failure of the stream power incision model to adequately predict the behavior of the fluvial system in south-central Crete.


Summary Meat quality score and its composite traits of the Hungarian Large White pigs were analyzed using the national station test database for the period of 1994-2005. Th e distribution of the meat quality score was substantially diff erent from the normal distribution and the average score of the population was close to the possible maximum. Based on the results the traits can hardly be improved by selection. Analysing separately the composite parameters of the meat quality score (pH1, pH2, colour, organoleptic evaluation) the highest heritability estimates were estimated for meat colour and pH2 (0.38±0.01; 0.35±0.01, respectively). Th e lowest heritability was estimated for the organoleptic evaluation (0.15±0.01), on the other hand this composite trait showed the highest genetic correlation with the meat quality score (0.72±0.01), which is unfavourable. Based on the results the meat quality traits should be restricted to meat colour and pH2.


The Making of Liturgy in the Ottonian Church: Books, Music and Ritual in Mainz, 950–1050 , by Henry Parkes. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th ser., 100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. xvi, 259 pp.

The "prince of liturgists," Edmund Bishop (1846–1917), likened historians who busy themselves with "external criticism," the verification of what primary sources can be made to say and what they cannot, to an army of "burrowing earth-worms":

> [I]t is well to remember that by their quiet, steady, persevering, and in the long run unerring labour, they have undermined more than one stately looking edifice which there can now be no question of shoring up or buttressing any more. Down it has, or inevitably must, come.1

Henry Parkes is less an earthworm than a blasting engineer, and the edifice he has demolished has been, until now, an axiomatically accepted datum of modern liturgical scholarship, the so-called Pontifical romano-germanique ( PRG ).

Standard textbooks on the medieval liturgy (e.g., Vogel's Medieval Liturgy: An Introduction to the Sources and Palazzo's A History of Liturgical Books ) tell the story of the PRG and its reconstruction from some forty surviving manuscripts by Michel Andrieu.2 According to Andrieu, the PRG was created at Mainz in the middle of the tenth century as a "standard edition" of the bishop's liturgical book, complete with a guide to ordering the entire ecclesiastical year,3 in an attempt to unify liturgy under the Ottonians. Parkes has shown elsewhere that the PRG , as represented in its classic edition, never actually existed: the same texts are indeed encountered in some forty manuscripts, but seldom all together and often with significant alterations.4 In …


Integrons are extensively targeted as a proxy for anthropogenic impact in the environment. We developed a novel high-throughput amplicon sequencing pipeline that enables characterization of thousands of integron gene cassette-associated reads, and applied it to acquire a comprehensive overview of gene cassette composition in effluents from wastewater treatment facilities across Europe. Between 38 100 and 172 995 reads per-sample were generated and functionally characterized by screening against nr, SEED, ARDB and β-lactamase databases. Over 75% of the reads were characterized as hypothetical, but thousands were associated with toxin-antitoxin systems, DNA repair, cell membrane function, detoxification and aminoglycoside and β-lactam resistance. Among the reads characterized as β-lactamases, the carbapenemase blaOXA was dominant in most of the effluents, except for Cyprus and Israel where blaGES was also abundant. Quantitative PCR assessment of blaOXA and blaGES genes in the European effluents revealed similar trends to those displayed in the integron amplicon sequencing pipeline described above, corroborating the robustness of this method and suggesting that these integron-associated genes may be excellent targets for source tracking of effluents in downstream environments. Further application of the above analyses revealed several order-of-magnitude reductions in effluent-associated β-lactamase genes in effluent-saturated soils, suggesting marginal persistence in the soil microbiome.


Adaptive video streaming is a relevant advancement with respect to classic progressive download streaming such as the one employed by YouTube. Building upon its content delivery network (CDN), Akamai recently started to offer High Definition (HD) adaptive video streaming using HTTP. Nowadays, not only the amount of Internet video traffic is always increasing but also the number of users accessing the Internet using wireless links. In this paper we experimentally investigate the switching algorithm employed by Akamai to implement video quality adaptation over a High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access (HSDPA) link. In order to assess the Quality of Experience we measure goodput, TCP friendliness, and video reproduction continuity. Main results are: 1) Akamai flows are not able to achieve the fair share when competing with a TCP greedy flow due to the conservativeness of the stream-switching algorithm; 2) when the link is shared with a greedy TCP connection in 50% of the experiments the video reproduction was paused for more than 19% of the experiment duration.


Autism is one of the five pervasive development disorders that may cause severe impairment to a child. Depending on the degree of the symptoms, autism may cause severe impairments in one's social life such as social interaction and communication with other individuals. They may also face challenges in learning, concentrating, sensation and interacting with their surroundings. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 1 in 150 8-year old children in many areas in the United States were diagnosed with autism. It is also known from recent studies that with early diagnosis we can intervene earlier which allows better assistance and treatment. Therefore, it is critical to have an objective assessment tool to assist diagnosis and for management. We have developed an affordable, reliable system that provides evidence based tools for assessment of children with autism. This system can detect various repetitive behavioral patterns often seen in children with autism and enables long term monitoring of repetitive behaviors. Therefore, it can be used to assist doctors, therapists, caregivers and parents with diagnosis and treatment of children with autism. This system incorporates 2 different sensor platforms which include environmental and wearable sensors. The system consists of a 3-axis accelerometer, small microcontroller and a Bluetooth module to transmit data to a base station such as a PC for analysis. We have customized this wearable device to integrate these modules which can be worn by a child. The environmental sensor configuration is composed of a microphone which records the acoustic data of the subject within the room. Using this sensor system, we are able to achieve the necessary information for assessment and therapy in autism research. We have analyzed the 3-axis accelerometer and acoustic data with an intelligent machine learning algorithm. The algorithm extracts time-domain and frequency domain features from the accelerometer data and applies statistical learning techniques to detect repetitive behavioral patterns. For acoustic data, we used sparse signal representation techniques to detect repetitive patterns that indicate vocalization behaviors. We have achieved an average of 89% in classification accuracy for detecting behavioral patterns. Based on the real data collected from children with autism, we were able to detect and recognize four self-stimulatory behaviors of children with autism. In one instance in which a subject had a tantrum, using the correlation between the hand flapping ratio and vocalization intensity, we were able to predict this extreme behavior. Our study opens an application in which devices could be used in a classroom environment to predict extreme behaviors in order that the stress of children with autism could be diverted accordingly so that their actions would be more socially agreeable.


The extent of mtDNA length variation and heteroplasmy as well as DNA sequences of the control region and two tRNA genes were determined for four North American sturgeon species: Acipenser transmontanus, A. medirostris, A. fulvescens and A. oxyrhnychus. Across the Continental Divide, a division in the occurrence of length variation and heteroplasmy was observed that was concordant with species biogeography as well as with phylogenies inferred from restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) of whole mtDNA and pairwise comparisons of unique sequences of the control region. In all species, mtDNA length variation was due to repeated arrays of 78-82-bp sequences each containing a D-loop strand synthesis termination associated sequence (TAS). Individual repeats showed greater sequence conservation within individuals and species rather than between species, which is suggestive of concerted evolution. Differences in the frequencies of multiple copy genomes and heteroplasmy among the four species may be ascribed to differences in the rates of recurrent mutation. A mechanism that may offset the high rate of mutation for increased copy number is suggested on the basis that an increase in the number of functional TAS motifs might reduce the frequency of successfully initiated H-strand replications.


Preface. Introduction. Models and Theories of Software and Information Technology Transfer. How information technologies penetrate organizations: an analysis of four alternative models (J. Damsgaard, A. Rogaczewski, K. Lyytinen). Toward a theory of the adoption and diffusion of software process innovations (R.G. Fichman, C.F. Kemerer). Management of information technology diffusion: a meta-force integrative contingency diffusion model (M.J. Klempa). Some important factors for successful technology transfer (G. Lindgaard). The nature and determinants of IT acceptance, routinization and infusion (V.L. Saga, R.W. Zmud). International Perspectives on the Implementation of Information Technology. Transferring technologies from developed to developing industrial and commercial environments (L. Lien). Information technology and organization change: lessons from a less-developed country (R. Montealegre, L.M. Applegate). Barriers to software technology transfer in the Danish electronic equipment industry (J. Pries-Heje, S. Lauesen, B. Schroder). Institutionalization of decision support technologies in small manufacturing enterprises of Hong Kong (K.B.C. Saxena, M.M.C. Tam, W.W.C. Chung, K.L. Yung, L.C.K. Ma, A.K. David). Investigations into Implementation: Five Approaches. Does an effective information technology implementation process guarantee success? (J.M. Borton, J.C. Brancheau). The transitionist as expert consultant: a case study of the installation of a real-time scheduling system in an aerospace factory (M.L. Ginn). User engagement in information system development, implementation, and use: toward conceptual clarity (L.A. Kappelman, E.R. McLean). Productivity of CASE technology implementation in SW development and maintenance on the third maturity level (P. Kuvaja). Implementation scripts: a new approach to modeling the process (C.L. Lopata). The Transfer of Formal/Engineering Methods for Software. Research and development: differences are barriers to transfer (M.A. Ardis, D.G. Furchtgott). The MCC formal methods transition study: technology transfer for complex information technology and processes (S.L. Gerhart). Integrating rate-monotonic analysis into real-time software development (S.J. Ignace, R.L. Sedlmeyer, D.J. Thuente). The failure to introduce system development methods: a factor-based analysis (K. Kautz, T. McMaster). An industrial experience of using an incremental model of technology transfer of formal development methods (G. Leon, J. Carracedo, J.C. Yelmo, C. Sanchez, J.C. Moreno, J.J. Gil, J. Carrasco). Organizational Mechanisms for Facilitating Information Technology Transfer. A three-pronged strategy for technology creation, transfer and absorption (W.R. Adrion, P. McOwen). Position statement on software process innovations and informal organizational networks (J. Besselman). Process engineering support for technology transfer: strategy and experiences (K. Culver-Lozo). ISTRAD: toward a national information systems and technology research and development association (B.C. Glasson). Exploration of an incremental approach to technology transfer and the issues affecting its implementation (S.E. Heidtman). Toward an institutional view of information technology diffusion, transfer, and implementation (N.C. Ramiller, E.B. Swanson). Experience Reports on Information and Software Technology Transfer. Technology transition of user interface management systems (L. Bass, A. Soule). Practical issues in information technology transfer (T.E. Bihari, M.O. Varner). Applying technology transition in large software organizations (L. Brownsword). Transferring software engineering technology: the software productivity consortium experience (J.T. Christian, M.M. Eward). Experience with software measurement technology transfer (D.J. Paulish). Summary Reports. Six working sessions.


This paper analyzes the impact of agglomeration externalities on hourly earnings using longitudinal worker micro-level data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings over the period 2002- 2006. We find that the effect of agglomeration externalities on wages is sensitive to the estimator used. Controlling for nonzero correlation between workers' unobservable skills and other covariates halves the size of the wage elasticity of agglomeration externalities. On the contrary, accounting for firms' unobservable heterogeneity has only a weak contribution to the explanation of wage differentials. Another interesting result is that correcting for reverse causality between productivity and agglomeration does not appear to have a substantial impact on the magnitude of the parameter estimates. Our best estimate for the effect of labour market density (market potential) is 0.8% (5.8%). This means that doubling labour market's employment density can raise hourly earnings by nearly 1%, while halving the distances to other markets produces an increase of hourly wages of nearly 3%. The last piece of evidence refers to the spatial attenuation of agglomeration externalities. We estimate that a 100,000 increase in the number of jobs within 5 kilometres raises hourly wages by approximately 1.19%; the effect falls sharply thereafter.


In many countries, novice teachers, or those with fewer than four years of experience, have a higher turnover rate than do more experienced teachers. Using teacher employment data, we examine whether schools in an American whole-school reform model are better able to retain novice teachers. Using survey data, we investigate whether novice teachers in a particular school reform model are more satisfied with school leadership than their peers in traditional high schools. In this reform model, early college high schools, high schools are located on college campuses and students have the opportunity to earn an associate's degree or two years of credit in the state university system. This model emphasizes a shared mission and shared leadership. We find that early colleges had a higher turnover rate than their neighbor schools, and a higher percentage of early college teachers were novices. However, these novice teachers were not more likely to leave than novice teachers in traditional schools were. Early college novice teachers received more personalized support and were more satisfied with school leadership than their peers in traditional high schools. Under certain conditions, schools can have higher retention rates for novice teachers.


We analyze the effect of automation and offshorability on unemployment duration and post-unemployment outcomes such as wages and employment stability. Our rich administrative data allow us to evaluate the importance of providing unemployment training in this context. Employing a multivariate mixed proportional hazard model to deal with selectivity, we find that both the routine content in tasks as well as the probability of off-shoring negatively affects the re-employment possibilities. Labor market training is helping workers to ameliorate these negative effects and is remarkably on the spot. For workers who find re-employment, our results show that offshorability (but not automation) affects future job duration and wages positively. Our analysis reveals interesting differences by gender.


In the present study, a total of two experiments constitute a follow
up study of the development of communication: referring expressions and
other aspects of discourse in pre-school urban Algerian children.
In the first experiment, the focus is on the differences between the
use of definite and indefinite noun-phrase, in two conditions (freeplay/
structured play), and differences between the use of person
pronouns (I, You) which are essentially deictic and the ones which are
essentially intralinguistic or cohesive (3rd p: he, she, it) within the two
conditions. The demonstrative pronouns and adverbs which are added in
the grouping are less important with regard to the main factors of interest
(definite vs. indefinite NP, and 1st and 2nd p. vs. 3rd p.), but in the global
analysis they are of some interest as to the continuity from the more
indexical function to the more intralinguistic or cohesive use of referring
expressions.
The categories which are of interest in the second experiment, are
those which, strictly speaking, are used anaphorically. The person
pronouns (I,You) and the demonstrative adverbs (or locatives: here,
there) which were under scrutiny in the first experiment, are dropped in
the second experiment. These categories of discourse are hardly found,
because of the nature of the experiment, the purpose of which being the
evaluation of the more intralinguistic uses of referring expressions.
Unlike the first experiment which was designed to tackle both the deictic and intralinguistic uses of referring expressions by pre-school children,
the second experiment was, thus, designed to measure the extent to
which pre-schoolers engaged in some specific tasks (tasks which might
prompt the use of some aspects of discourse), use referring expressions
in their anaphoric sense, and track down these uses to their significance.
Overall, the results of the present study, together with examples
from other experimental data, indicate that the function of the definite
article may initially be predominantly exophoric or deictic, in as much as
this function signals a particular object or the actions of one salient object
singled out from a group of others, in the extralinguistic context. The
results of the first experiment showed a predominant presence of a
developmental function (the nominative use of the definite reference) and
a consistency in the appearance of such a function across categories (the
deictic uses) developmentally associated with this function. The person
pronouns '1"you' are typically 'exophoric' since they refer to aspects of
the non-linguistic context and, by contrast 3rd p. pronouns (he, she, it,
they) are essentially intralinguistic or cohesive. Similarly in the second
experiment the results concerning the definite NP do agree with some
recent findings about the deictic function of the definite article (which
sometimes is used correctly when the object is alone, and at some other
time it is used incorrectly in the instance of a non-specific reference).
This, in fact, is quite different from an anaphoric or intralinguistic function:
it grew out from the present data, that the apparently correct use of the
definite NP is tied to situationally introduced referent and it is not truly
anaphoric.


Many surface reconstruction algorithms have been developed to process point data originating from laser scans. Because laser scanning is a very expensive technique and not available to everyone, 3D reconstruction from images (using, e.g., multi-view stereo) is a promising alternative. In recent years a lot of progress has been made in the computer vision domain and nowadays algorithms are capable of reconstructing large 3D scenes from consumer photographs. Whereas laser scans are very controlled and typically only a few scans are taken, images may be subject to more uncontrolled variations. Standard multi-view stereo algorithms give rise to multi-scale data points due to different camera resolutions, focal lengths, or various distances to the object. When reconstructing a surface from this data, the multi-scale property has to be taken into account because the assumption that the points are samples from the true surface might be violated.
This thesis presents two surface reconstruction algorithms that take resolution and scale differences into account. In the first approach we model the uncertainty of each sample point according to its footprint, the surface area that was taken into account during multi-view stereo. With an adaptive volumetric resolution, also steered by the footprints of the sample points, we achieve detailed reconstructions even for large-scale scenes. Then, a general wavelet-based surface reconstruction framework is presented. The multi-scale sample points are characterized by a convolution kernel and the points are fused in frequency space while preserving locality. We suggest a specific implementation for 2.5D surfaces that incorporates our theoretic findings about sample points originating from multi-view stereo and shows promising results on real-world data sets.
The other part of the thesis analyzes the scale characteristics of patch-based depth reconstruction as used in many (multi-view) stereo techniques. It is driven by the question how the reconstruction preserves surface details or high frequencies. We introduce an intuitive model for the reconstruction process, prove that it yields a linear system and determine the modulation transfer function. This allows us to predict the amplitude loss of high frequencies in connection with the used patch-size and the internal and external camera parameters. Experiments on synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the accuracy of our model but also show the limitations. Finally, we propose a generalization of the model allowing for weighted patch fitting. The reconstructed points can then be described by a convolution of the original surface and we show how weighting the pixels during photo-consistency optimization affects the smoothing kernel. In this way we are able to connect a standard notion of smoothing to multi-view stereo reconstruction.
In summary, this thesis provides a profound analysis of patch-based (multi-view) stereo reconstruction and introduces new concepts for surface reconstruction from the resulting multi-scale sample points.


The Sceptor system (Becton Dickinson Diagnostic Instrument Systems, Towson Md.) was assessed for its ability to identify veterinary clinical isolates. A total of 605 bacteria, including 315 isolates of the family Enterobacteriaceae, 191 gram-negative nonenteric bacteria, and 99 gram-positive bacteria, were tested. Overall, 534 (88.3%) were correctly identified, 28 (4.6%) were not identified, 12 (2.0%) were incorrectly identified at the genus levels, and 32 (5.3%) were incorrectly identified at the species level. The Sceptor system correctly identified 292 (92.7%) isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, 165 (86.4%) gram-negative nonenteric bacteria, and 77 (77.8%) gram-positive bacteria. One hundred thirty organisms not contained in the data base were tested with the Sceptor system to assess the possibility of expanding the data base. The Sceptor system was an acceptable method for the identification of isolates of Enterobacteriaceae but not gram-negative nonenteric and gram-positive bacteria of animal origin. Development of a veterinary isolate-specific data base would improve the utility of the Sceptor system in veterinary diagnostic bacteriology.


WhatsApp is a popular messaging app used by over a billion users around the globe. Due to this popularity, spam on WhatsApp is an important issue. Despite this, the distribution of spam via WhatsApp remains understudied by researchers, in part because of the end-toend encryption offered by the platform. This paper addresses this gap by studying spam on a dataset of 2.6 million messages sent to 5,051 public WhatsApp groups in India over 300 days. First, we characterise spam content shared within public groups and find that nearly 1 in 10 messages is spam. We observe a wide selection of topics ranging from job ads to adult content, and find that spammers post both URLs and phone numbers to promote material. Second, we inspect the nature of spammers themselves. We find that spam is often disseminated by groups of phone numbers, and that spam messages are generally shared for longer duration than non-spam messages. Finally, we devise content and activity based detection algorithms that can counter spam.


The effect of ethanol on hippocampal axonal sprouiting was studied with a histochemical technique for identifying acetylcholinesterase. Unilateral lesion of the entorhinal cortex in adult rats produced an increase in the density of acetylcho-linesterase staining in the outer molecular layer and a concomitant increase in the width of the pale-staining commissural-associational zone of the dentate gyrus. Other rats were given ethanol (11.3 +/- 0.45 grams per kilogram) for 2 weeks before and 9 days after receiving the lesion. Ethanol abolished the expansion of the commissural-associational zone. The effect of ethanol on sprouting axons suggests that it may inhibit recovery of function after brain injury.


The leading guide for Java developers who build business applications with CORBA Acknowledged experts present advanced techniques and real-world examples for building both simple and complex programs using Java with CORBA. The authors begin with a quick overview of CORBA, Java, object request brokers (ORBs), and EJB components, then quickly move on to show how to use them to build complete Java applications. This new volume features in-depth code examples, as well as expanded coverage of cutting-edge topics, including Portable Object Adaptor (POA), Remote Method Invocation (RMI) over IIOP, and EJB.


Regional groundwater recharge and actual evapotranspiration were estimated by calibrating the one‐dimensional soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer model Daisy against soil moisture measurements from 30 stations and at 3 depths located within a 1050 km2 subcatchment of the Danish hydrological observatory HOBE. Thirty models were constructed considering the local climate, soil texture, land use, and field practice. First estimates of the hydraulic parameters were obtained from textural data using a pedotransfer function. On the basis of sensitivity analysis, hydraulic conductivity ks and van Genuchten parameter n were found to be most sensitive, and these two parameters were therefore subject to calibration at each site using the parameter estimation code PEST. From the calibrated models, the regional variation of evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge was predicted and tested against local measurements, giving annual catchment scale values of 474 and 505 mm, respectively, for the period 2009 to 2011. These values corresponded well with comparable field observations. Various formulations of effective parameterizations were tested. Effective parameters of ks and n for forest, heath, and agriculture found by autocalibration against average soil moisture measurements of the three land cover types provided evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge estimates comparable to individual field observations (stream gauge and eddy covariance [EC] data).


In this thesis, we study two problems in combinatorial optimization, the dominating set problem and the robustness problem. In the first half of the thesis, we focus on the dominating set problem in grid graphs and present a distributed algorithm for finding near optimal dominating sets on grids. The dominating set problem is a well-studied mathematical problem in which the goal is to find a minimum size subset of vertices of a graph such that all vertices that are not in that set have a neighbor inside that set. We first provide a simpler proof for an existing centralized algorithm that constructs dominating sets on grids so that the size of the provided dominating set is upper-bounded by ⌈ (m+2)(n+2) 5 ⌉ for m× n grids and its difference from the optimal domination number of the grid is upper-bounded by five. We then design a distributed grid domination algorithm to locate mobile agents on a grid such that they constitute a dominating set for it. The basis for this algorithm is the centralized grid domination algorithm. We also generalize the centralized and distributed algorithms for the k-distance dominating set problem, where all grid vertices are within distance k of the vertices in the dominating set. In the second half of the thesis, we study the computational complexity of checking a graph property known as robustness. This property plays a key role in diffusion of information in networks. A graph G = (V,E) is r-robust if for all pairs of nonempty and disjoint subsets of its vertices A,B ⊂ V , at least one of the subsets has a vertex that has at least r neighbors outside its containing set. In the robustness problem, the goal is to find the largest value of r such that a graph G is r-robust. We show that this problem is coNP-complete. En route to showing this, we define some new problems, including the decision version of the robustness problem and its relaxed version in which B = V \A. We show these two problems are coNP-hard by showing that their complement problems are NP-hard.


Sediment-hosted stratiform Zn-Pb-Ag deposits have been interpreted as forming during exhalative hydrothermal activity synchronous with the deposition of host rocks and during either syn-diagenetic or syn-metamorphic veining and replacement of the hostrocks later in their orogenic history. This study analyzes the distribution metal and oretypes at the George Fisher deposit and investigates spatial and temporal relationships between high-grade mineralization and structures at all scales throughout the deformation history. The study aims to determine whether remobilization and upgrading of synsedimentary and/or syn-diagenetic proto-ore or primary syntectonic mineralization are involved in the formation of economic mineralization. Analysis of the kinematic controls on any Zn-Pb-Ag mineralization which is structurally controlled may enable other prospective structures in the near-mine region to be identified. The George Fisher Zn-Pb-Ag deposit is located 22km north of Mt Isa in Queensland, Australia; and is hosted by Proterozoic sedimentary rocks of similar age and lithology to the Mt Isa and adjacent Hilton Zn-Pb-Ag deposits. The host-rocks at George Fisher preserve a structural history comprising four distinct ductile deformations with concomitant faulting and younger brittle faults which cut the ore-bearing sequence. The first, D1 is manifest as an open fold (F1) with an approximately east-west striking axial plane and was overprinted by F2 folding and a pervasive slaty/solution cleavage (S2) during the regionally extensive D2 episode. An episode of sub-vertical shortening/subhorizontal extension (D3) followed this main phase of sub-horizontal shortening which formed folds with sub-horizontal axial planes and gently-dipping crenulations of the S2 cleavage and bedding. D3 features are overprinted by sub-vertical crenulations (S4) and minor folds (F4) with sub-vertical axial planes. Ore shoots that comprise high-grade and thicker mineralization plunge parallel to the F1 fold axes and are largely confined to the short-limb of this fold. Subsidiary ore shoots are coincident with areas of more intense F2 folding, and trend parallel to both F2 and F4 fold axes in longitudinal projection. Vein-hosted sphalerite and medium-grained galena breccia are the main sources of Zn and Pb metal in the deposit, respectively. Logged widths of each form shoots of thicker mineralization which are broadly coincident with high-grade shoots defined by the assaydata. Sulphide textural studies and vein - host-rock fabric cross-cutting relationships suggest that both postdate D2. Empirical relationships between ore shoot geometry and the structural framework of the deposit imply a D4 control on metal distribution. This is supported by the interpretation of a dominantly syn-D4 relative timing of the vein-hosted sphalerite and medium-grained galena breccia based on development of these mineralization-types in unique structural settings and the apparent lack of deformation of their constituent sulphides. Potential pre- F2 mineralization types include some disseminated sphalerite and fine-grained sphaleritegalena breccias which do not currently constitute economic mineralization and account for ca. 10% of the Zn+Pb in the deposit. Remobilization of proto-mineralization is supported by the Zn assay data which indicates that more than one population of Zn grades exists and that a higher grade population is unique to the economic ore-horizons. However, this qualitative observation does not discriminate between upgrading of a pre- F2 or syn-/post-F2 sulphide accumulation during D4. Re-Os isotopic analysis of sphalerite and galena at George Fisher define an isochron whose slope indicates an age of 1423±130Ma indicating closure of the Re-Os system postdates host-rock deposition by ~100-360Ma. A mantle source of Pb and Zn is interpreted from the Re-Os isotopic analysis based on the initial 187Os/188Os ratio of 0.077±0.071. This differs from previous studies of Proterozoic Zn-Pb-Ag deposits which infer scavenging of metal from within the sedimentary basin or from the basement rocks immediately underlying the sedimentary basin. Proximity to a regional fault zone such as the Mount Isa-Paroo Fault system, interpreted to be part of a fault-network linked to a major mid-crustal shear zone, is considered necessary to bring metal-bearing fluids from depth into contact with prospective host-lithologies at George Fisher. At the George Fisher deposit, it is inferred that the F1 fold focussed diagenetic hydrothermal activity and alteration and also acted as a heterogeneity focussing dilation and final sites of mineralization later in the deformation history. The F1 fold may be the upper level expression of a reactivated basement fault thereby accounting for the longevity of the hydrothermal system responsible for alteration and mineralization at George Fisher. It is possible that diagenetic processes prepared the host-rock for later mineralization at George Fisher.


Arithmetic codes use a structured redundancy technique for binary number representation such that errors in an arithmetic operation of a digital computer can be detected or corrected. This correspondence studies the code structures by treating the set of redundant coded binary representations as a finite Abelian group. An algebraic model of arithmetic codes is developed, which shows that an arithmetic code is a pair of cyclic group isomorphisms. Two theorems are derived which describe the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of an arithmetic code. It is also shown that the group of redundant coded binary numbers is isomorphic to a cyclic group, or the direct sum of two cyclic groups. For a given code generator A and the information cardinality m, the two theorems may be applied to find all existing arithmetic codes up to an isomorphism. The algebraic structures of all codes published to date are covered by the mathematical model described in this correspondence.


Jay Watson argues that southern literary studies has been over idealised and dominated by intellectual history for too long. In Reading for the Body , he calls for the field to be rematerialised and grounded in an awareness of the human body as the site where ideas, including ideas about the U.S. South itself, ultimately happen. Employing theoretical approaches to the body developed by thinkers such as Karl Marx, Colette Guillaumin, Elaine Scarry, and Friedrich Kittler, Watson also draws on histories of bodily representation to mine a century of southern fiction for its insights into problems that have preoccupied the region and nation alike: slavery, Jim Crow, and white supremacy; the marginalisation of women; the impact of modernisation; the issue of cultural authority and leadership; and the legacy of the Vietnam War. He focuses on the specific bodily attributes of hand, voice, and blood and the deeply embodied experiences of pain, illness, pregnancy, and war to offer new readings of a distinguished group of literary artists who turned their attention to the South: Mark Twain, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Katherine Anne Porter, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Walker Percy. In producing an intensely embodied U.S. literature these writers, Watson argues, were by turns extending and interrogating a centuries-old tradition in U.S. print culture, in which the recalcitrant materiality of the body serves as a trope for the regional alterity of the South. Reading for the Body makes a powerful case for the body as an important methodological resource for a new southern studies.


CONTEXT
There is concern regarding the irrational production, prescription and use of drugs in India.

AIM
This study aimed to describe the quality of prescriptions by dental practitioners of one particular college in a short period of time.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A survey of all prescriptions dispensed from the various departments of K.L.E.S.'s Institute of Dental Sciences, Belgaum, Karnataka, was conducted by collecting them from the patients exiting the college premises. The prescriptions were photocopied and handed back to the patients. The samples were collected over a period of 7 days. The samples were then analyzed for their content based on an ideal prescription format and the results were tabulated.

RESULTS
The findings of the study suggest that most of the prescriptions given are woefully inadequate in content.

CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded that a clear policy about the standard of prescriptions and periodic internal monitoring is the answer for quality prescriptions. Computerization of the prescription format is also a thought-provoking alternative.


Economic theory has not been delving extensively and systematically into the strictly related phenomena of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Multinational Enterprise (MNE) until the 1980s.1 Two distinct circumstances have been favouring this recent renewed interest: a big surge in the former and a new space for the latter in the mainstream economic theory. FDI – the main way through which MNEs act – has been growing recently at an impressive rate (more than world trade), and that this growth has had the puzzling feature of concerning particularly the industrialised countries, which have been reciprocally engaged in such capital movements. The emergence of a new body of trade and location theory made it possible to enhance the understanding of this phenomenon. The overall theme is on the frontier of the research in international trade and applied industrial economics, and it is complex and unsettled. The subject of this paper is just to fix up ideas about some selected topics. Section I briefly rewiews the general theoretical setting from the appearance of the OLI paradigm in the late '70s to what has been evolving through the subsequent two decades. Section II surveys the main effects of FDI on the home and the host countries respectively. Section III focuses on European economic geography with the interest in the effects of European economic integration on MNEs' activity in the form of FDI. Some concluding remarks close the paper.


We studied the seasonal variation of biotic and abiotic processes and the physico‐chemical forcing factors involved in the production and consumption of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and its precursor dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) at a coastal sampling station in the northwestern Mediterranean. Monthly samplings of surface seawater for an 18‐month period revealed that algal‐associated DMSP and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) did not follow total phytoplankton biomass (measured as chlorophyll a [Chl a]). DMSP concentrations peaked 1 or 2 months later than the late winter Chl a bloom, following phytoplankton succession, whereas particulate DMSO was maximal in summer. Both Chl a‐normalized concentrations (DMSP : Chl a and DMSO: Chl a) exhibited a clear seasonality with maxima in summer, which was indicative of concurrent phytoplankton succession and physiological acclimation toward higher dimethylated sulfur‐producing taxa in summer. DMS concentrations also showed clear maxima in mid‐summer and minima in winter, which is anticorrelated with Chl a. Gross DMS production rates were higher in summer, coinciding with higher DMSP‐to‐DMS conversion yields and exceeded microbial DMS consumption in this season. Heterotrophic bacteria and DMSP‐assimilating phytoplankton only accounted for a portion (annual average 52%) of total DMSP transformations, suggesting that phytoplankton DMSP‐lyases, either in stressed cells or upon grazing by herbivores, must play a more important role in DMS production than is generally believed. Calculated photolysis and measured microbial consumption alternated in dominance as DMS sinks over the year, with ventilation to the atmosphere generally being a minor loss process. Under higher solar radiation (from March to September), calculated photolysis followed variations of colored dissolved organic matter, a known DMS photosensitizer.


Soil contamination has led to serious land tenure problems, reduction in land usability for agricultural production; as a consequence, food insecurity is nowadays a global challenge. Indeed, with rapid population growth across the world, the food demand for consumption has drastically increased and traditional ways of producing food cannot meet with the actual demand. Industrialization has been acknowledged as a way out to sustain humanity with food. Unfortunately, the later has further turn into a threat to the environment. In effect, several potentially toxic elements (PTE) are being released in the environment and soil systems; and arable or agricultural lands are getting restraint, limited and scarce. Nowadays, there is a consensus on remediating contaminated lands with PTE, mainly inorganic contaminants, metals. The state at which a metal is found in the soil greatly influences its bioavailability, interaction with plants and the level at which it will threaten (toxicity) the environment and thus human. It even defines the remediation approaches to be applied for the soil restoration. This chapter will provide an insight on the occurrence of PTE in the soil, bioavailability and remediation approaches namely phytoremediation, chemical leaching and electrochemical remediation; and finally highlight the future research direction on this topic.


Title of thesis: DEVELOPMENT OF A TURBULENT WOLFHARD-PARKER BURNER WITH SUPPRESSING CO-FLOW Eric D. Link, Master of Science, 2014 Thesis directed by: Associate Professor Andre Marshall Department of Fire Protection Engineering A burner and surrounding co-flow air system were developed for experimental study of flame suppression in a diluted oxygen environment. Development of the burner was guided by design criteria requiring the flame to be a turbulent buoyant diffusion flame in a line configuration presenting a realistic challenge to suppression methods such as oxidizer-stream dilution. Design constraints included buoyancy, turbulence, and flame height criteria. Oxygen concentration and temperature measurements, along with a smoke wire flow visualization technique were utilized to evaluate the system and ensure the design criteria were successfully met. Additional analysis was performed on image recordings of the flame to provide a robust and repeatable flame height measurement to evaluate the flame height constraint. Ultimately, an experimental apparatus with the ability to suppress a flame in a controlled, well-characterized environment was developed to provide a good base for model validation measurements. DEVELOPMENT OF A TURBULENT WOLFHARD-PARKER BURNER WITH SUPPRESSING CO-FLOW


On occasion midwives may be required to construct a research proposal. In the current climate of evidence-based practice. Such activity is considered an elemental skill for career progression in both education and service. Examples of where writing a research proposal may be
required include: writing an assessment for under and post graduate research modules or designing a dissertation, MPhil, Prof Doc or PhD. Within clinical practice there are also audit and evaluation of practice responsibilities. With these factors at the forefront, this article
provides a template specifically designed to direct midwives through the procedures of constructing a research proposal. The purpose of a research proposal is to produce a template of common understanding from which tasks are allocated, divided and discussed by researchers, clinical staff and in some cases participants. The finished product is then used to communicate intent to the ethics committees and grant funding bodies before authorization and money are awarded.


Recent research has found the time students spend actively engaged in task appropriate activities to be a powerful predictor of student achievement. However, attempts to apply the research with a view to increasing student academic engagement have been generally limited to complex and expensive procedures requiring a high degree of involvement by consultants and teachers, resulting in overly intrusive approaches to classroom innovations. This study evaluates a service-delivery strategy of minimal complexity and intrusiveness, designed to increase academic engagement rate in the regular classroom. Intervention, initiated and withdrawn in two classrooms of 12-15 year olds from an Australian school, involved 1) informing teachers of relevant research on time-related controllable classroom variables, and 2) telling teachers whether academic engagement rates of selected low-engaged students were increasing or decreasing after each lesson. Academic engagement rates increased substantially for target students in both classes and marked increases were evidenced for their nontarget peers. Withdrawal of intervention resulted in decreasing levels of student engagement. The results are interpreted in an applied behavioral framework, and implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cost-effectiveness, ease of application, limited need for external professional involvement, and maintenance of the effect.


Ionic liquids o ff er a unique suite of properties that make them important candidates for a number of energy related applications. Cation – anion combinations that exhibit low volatility coupled with high electrochemical and thermal stability, as well as ionic conductivity, create the possibility of designing ideal electrolytes for batteries, super-capacitors, actuators, dye sensitised solar cells and thermo-electrochemical cells. In the fi eld of water splitting to produce hydrogen they have been used to synthesize some of the best performing water oxidation catalysts and some members of the protic ionic liquid family co-catalyse an unusual, very high energy e ffi ciency water oxidation process. As fuel cell electrolytes, the high proton conductivity of some of the protic ionic liquid family o ff ers the potential of fuel cells operating in the optimum temperature region above 100 (cid:1) C. Beyond electrochemical applications, the low vapour pressure of these liquids, along with their ability to o ff er tuneable functionality, also makes them ideal as CO 2 absorbents for post-combustion CO 2 capture. Similarly, the tuneable phase properties of the many members of this large family of salts are also allowing the creation of phase-change thermal energy storage materials having melting points tuned to the application. This perspective article provides an overview of these developing energy related applications of ionic liquids and o ff ers some thoughts on the emerging challenges and opportunities.


Echinococcosis is a parasitic disease that involves dogs as definitive host and sheep as intermediate host. Humans become infected incidentally through fecal-oral contact, particularly in the course of playful and close contact with an infected dog. Mexico is considered a region that is virtually free of cystic echinoccocosis. This manuscript describes two cases that were referred to a tertiary-care oncology hospital with a diagnosis of cancer. In one case, the presumptive diagnosis was liver cancer because abdominal ultrasonography revealed a low-density mass in the right hepatic lobe. Drainage was performed and cytologic examination of the fluid showed multiple Echinococcus cyst as well as prostoscolex. The case was resolved with percutaneous drainage and administration of albendazole for two months. In the second case, the patient was referred with a diagnosis of disseminated cervical cancer A cyst was identified in the upper right lung lobe; a diagnostic puncture was performed showing an Echinococcus cyst. This resolved solely with two months of albendazole administration.


PURPOSE
Size specific dose estimates (SSDE) represent the mean dose to a patient of a specific size. However, patient size can vary significantly within the scan range, affecting the choice of conversion factor and, with tube current modulation, CTDIvol. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of patient size variations in the abdomen on SSDE.

METHODS
Images from 100 consecutive abdominal CT exams (top of liver to top of crest) were evaluated. A Matlab program was used to automatically remove the patient table and calculate water equivalent diameter (Dw). SSDE was calculated in two ways and compared: 1) The mean CTDIvol over the scan range was used with the conversion factor corresponding to Dw at the middle of the scan range. 2) The mean mAs(z) and the CTDIvol/mAs were used to calculate the CTDIvol(z); Dw(z) used to determine the conversion factor(z); SSDE(z) and mean SSDE over the scan range calculated, where z=longitudinal position.

RESULTS
A range of body sizes was included, with BMI ranging from 14.9 to 41.5. However, the standard deviation of Dw within each patients' scan range was on average only 1.3cm (range: 0.4-2.9cm), indicating a high degree of uniformity in patient size over the abdomen. The difference between the two groups of SSDE values ranged from -0.3 to 1.9mGy, with root mean square difference of 0.3 mGy. A paired t-test showed no significant difference between these two groups of SSDE values (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION
For abdominal CT, there was no significant difference between the mean SSDE values calculated using 1) the mean CTDIvol over the scan range and Dw at the middle of the scan range and 2) the CTDIvol and Dw at each position in the scan range. In body regions with greater longitudinal variation in attenuation, this may not be the case. This work was supported in part by NIH grant R01 EB071095 from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.


Coherent read misses in shared-memory multiprocessors account for a substantial fraction of execution time in many important scientific and commercial workloads. We propose temporal streaming, to eliminate coherent read misses by streaming data to a processor in advance of the corresponding memory accesses. Temporal streaming dynamically identifies address sequences to be streamed by exploiting two common phenomena in shared-memory access patterns: (1) temporal address correlation-groups of shared addresses tend to be accessed together and in the same order; and (2) temporal stream locality-recently-accessed address streams are likely to recur. We present a practical design for temporal streaming. We evaluate our design using a combination of trace-driven and cycle-accurate full-system simulation of a cache-coherent distributed shared-memory system. We show that temporal streaming can eliminate 98% of coherent read misses in scientific applications, and between 43% and 60% in database and Web server workloads. Our design yields speedups of 1.07 to 3.29 in scientific applications, and 1.06 to 1.21 in commercial workloads.


Purpose: Information about risk factors can be used to target preventive measure on susceptible patient subgroups. The purpose of study was to determine the risk factors for infection following primary knee replacement.
Methods: Between April 2014 and January 2016, total 1599 primary total knee replacements were carried out in 1374 patients, among them 1161 (933 female and 228 male) cases were available for final study. Patients were divided into without infection and had deep infection. Patients-related risk factors and provider-related risk factors were determined.
Results: Out of 1161 patients, 16 patients had deep infection with infection rate was 1.38 %. There was no significant statistically between age, diagnosis, obesity and malnutrition with infection. Total 16.6 % were smoker, among infected group 37.5% patients were smoker with odds ratio 3.01 and P value 0.013 (<0.05). In study 12.4% patients had diabetics mellitus, in infected group 25% had with odds ratio 2.35 and p value 0.016 (<0.05). Total 2.6% patients had history of steroid use, among infected group 12.5% patients with odds ratio 5.39 and p value less than 0.05. Regarding the provider-related risk factors, mean duration of surgery was 130.9 min and mean duration of hospital stay was 10.95 days with both had no significant statistically. Mean blood loss during surgery was 751.47 ml and mean amount of blood transfusion was 596.08 ml with both had association with infection (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Smoking, diabetes mellitus, steroid use, total blood loss and blood transfusion were significance risk factors for infection after total knee replacement.


Inclusive literature as a component of the process of real involvement of people with disabilities in active social life remains out of the attention of researchers. The paper aims to study the state and existing problems in publishing literature for people with disabilities and the use of inclusive topics by Ukrainian publishers. The results were obtained due to the theoretical comprehension of the empirical materials, which were based on a survey of 42 operating various domestic publishing houses. The vast majority of them expressed an understanding of the importance of publishing literature about people with disabilities and accessible editions for them. One-third of those surveyed publishers have experience in publishing inclusive literature. About 24% of respondents have books in accessible formats. They mainly used such publishing or engineering technologies as books with large print, picture-books, and books with pictograms. The study also found that among a few current insurmountable restraining factors of development of inclusive literature is the commercial inexpediency of such projects. The results of this study will contribute to the formation of collective public opinion on the importance of inclusive literature and, consequently, the attraction of the financing of inclusive publications of patrons, sponsors, crowdfunding platforms, etc.


I. INTRODUCTION With the attention of policymakers worldwide focused on environmental problems that transcend national borders and reach even to the heavens' heights, an examination of property rights solutions to global problems is appropriate. The institution of private property is an effective way of dealing with many environmental problems.(1) However, before the efficacy of property rights solutions to global environmental problems can be addressed, the prospects for the emergence of property rights in the global commons must be analyzed. Predictions about the effectiveness of a property rights regime for the global commons are of little relevance, if such a regime cannot arise or is unlikely to arise at the global level. Thus, this article is about institutions and how they evolve--specifically, how the institution of private property emerges and evolves and whether or not the institution might emerge at the global level. This inquiry does not concern property rights in their broadest sense; some kind of rights will surely develop in the global commons.(2) Rather, this article addresses the more interesting question regarding the extent to which a future people will develop property institutions that support a liberal order, one that accommodates efficiency-improving market incentives and yields wealth-enhancing gains from voluntary trade. In other words, this article addresses the prospects for the emergence of 3-D property rights, private rights that can be defined, defended, and divested or transferred.(3) An analysis of the likelihood that 3-D property rights will emerge in the global commons of the earth's atmosphere is informed by the emergence of 3-D environmental rights a little closer to home.(4) This article uses lessons from human experience with resources on earth to forecast institutional change in the heavens. Informed by earthly experience, this article seeks to answer the following two questions: (1) can 3-D property rights emerge for heavenly assets, or the global atmosphere, and (2) how will such property rights emerge? Part II examines environmental property rights in the abstract and considers the prospects for expanded trade in such rights. This part analyzes whether 3-D property rights for heavenly assets, such as air quality, have existed in the past. Part II then describes the degree to which 3-D property rights currently exist, finding that most `property rights' markets today trade in regulatory property rather than private property. Finally, this part explains why political markets often intervene and stifle the emergence of private 3-D rights. Markets in 3-D property rights are often destroyed by the passage of statutes and regulations. However, while politics often usurps the common law creation of 3-D rights, there are reasons that the existence of 3-D property rights in the global commons may be more likely. Part III describes the process by which the institution of property rights emerges and examines specifically how a property rights regime might emerge for the global atmosphere. Part III begins by describing a simple pattern of property rights development and discusses the evolution of 3-D property rights in the context of environmental resources. Then, this part examines attempts to protect the ozone layer and limit greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to identify the extent to which property rights are evolving in the global commons. Part IV analogizes to notions of hunter/gatherers and food producers to draw some final conclusions about property rights evolution. This part uses these notions to explain why the global commons will likely remain a commons for a long time but will eventually yield to a regime of public and then private property rights. II. RECOGNIZING 3-D ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS WHEN WE SEE THEM With regard to the recognition of 3-D property rights, there are several questions to consider. First, have 3-D property rights existed in the past for specific elements of air or water quality and other environmental resources? …


The problem of cooperation is intensified when individuals derive different benefits from it. Heterogeneity has been shown to trigger normative conflict undermining group cohesion and making it difficult for groups to agree on what each member should do. The outcome that maximizes group welfare would prescribe the all individuals cooperate fully, but this would result to lower earnings for low-return members. Rewarding opportunities have the potential to alleviate normative conflict if high-benefit members agree to compensate low-benefit members. We present evidence from a public-good experiment in which group members that differ in the returns from the public good can reward each other. Our main result is that, in contrast to homogeneous groups that cooperate fully, heterogeneous groups fail to reach the socially optimal outcome even if communication between group members is permitted. The reason for this appears to be that group members are concerned about the equality of rewards which prevents them from using them to eliminate earning inequalities across the different types.


Problems of coherence and effectiveness have been repeatedly mentioned by external
observers as affecting European Union (EU) external action. A theory-based
explanation of this state of affairs is, however, lacking in the literature. This thesis aims to address this lacuna by focusing on a particular aspect of EU external action, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), and by analysing CFSP actions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) throughout the period 1991-2006. Its primary goal is to determine which factors explain different degrees of coherence and effectiveness, and, in particular, whether or not, increasing CFSP institutionalisation has promoted coherence and effectiveness.
After introducing the concepts of coherence and effectiveness, the thesis sketches the
political and academic debate surrounding these concepts, and three key explanatory
factors are singled out: interests, identities and institutions. The latter is taken as a starting point for analysis. Drawing on a historical institutionalist theory, it explores the CFSP institutionalisation and examines how the development of institutions, path
dependency, unintended consequences , learning and socialisation have affected CFSP
coherence and effectiveness over time. Furthermore, it aims to find out whether changes in institutions have facilitated convergence of Member States' interests regarding EU policy towards BiH, as well as the development of the EU's broader international role. The thesis then proceeds to investigate CFSP activities in BiH, analysing coherence and effectiveness in eight case studies. It concludes that CFSP institutionalisation has partially increased levels of effectiveness over the period 1991-2006. As for coherence, greater institutionalisation has resulted in some problems of coherence in the short term,
but leaming has been a significant factor correcting these in the medium and long term.
While path dependency has resulted in problems of coherence and effectiveness,
socialisation processes have been important in facilitating consensus among the
Member States. Finally, CFSP institutionalisation is seen as having had an impact on the EU's international role moving it from a civilian to a normative power, willing to resort to military instruments when necessary.


Based on our needs, that is to say, through precise simulation of the impact phenomena that may occur inside a jet engine turbine with an explicit non-linear finite element code, four new material models are postulated. Each one of is calibrated for four high-performance alloys that can be encountered in a modern jet engine.
A new uncoupled material model for high strain and ballistic is proposed. Based on a Johnson-Cook type model, the proposed formulation introduces the effect of the third deviatoric invariant by means of three different Lode angle dependent functions. The Lode dependent functions are added to both plasticity and failure models. The postulated model is calibrated for a 6061-T651 aluminium alloy with data taken from the literature. The fracture pattern predictability of the JCX material model is shown performing numerical simulations of various quasi-static and dynamic tests.
As an extension of the above-mentioned model, a modification in the thermal softening behaviour due to phase transformation temperatures is developed (JCXt). Additionally, a Lode angle dependent flow stress is defined. Analysing the phase diagram and high temperature tests performed, phase transformation temperatures of the FV535 stainless steel are determined. The postulated material model constants for the FV535 stainless steel are calibrated.
A coupled elastoplastic-damage material model for high strain and ballistic applications is presented (JCXd). A Lode angle dependent function is added to the equivalent plastic strain to failure definition of the Johnson-Cook failure criterion. The weakening in the elastic law and in the Johnson-Cook type constitutive relation implicitly introduces the Lode angle dependency in the elastoplastic behaviour. The material model is calibrated for precipitation hardened Inconel 718 nickel-base superalloy. The combination of a Lode angle dependent failure criterion with weakened constitutive equations is proven to predict fracture patterns of the mechanical tests performed and provide reliable results.
A transversely isotropic material model for directionally solidified alloys is presented. The proposed yield function is based a single linear transformation of the stress tensor. The linear operator weighs the degree of anisotropy of the yield function. The elastic behaviour, as well as the hardening, are considered isotropic. To model the hardening, a Johnson-Cook type relation is adopted. A material vector is included in the model implementation. The failure is modelled with the Cockroft-Latham failure criterion. The material vector allows orienting the reference orientation in any other that the user may need. The model is calibrated for the MAR-M 247 directionally solidified nickel-base superalloy.


Amy Lowell (1874-1925), American poet and critic, was one of the most influential and best-known writers of her era. Within a thirteen-year period, she produced six volumes of poetry, two volumes of criticism, a two-volume biography of John Keats, and countless articles and reviews that appeared in many popular periodicals. As a herald of the New Poetry, Lowell saw herself and her kind of work as a part of a newly forged, diverse, American people that registered its consciousness in different tonalities but all in a native idiom. She helped build the road leading to the later works of Allen Ginsberg, May Sarton, Sylvia Plath, and beyond. Except for the few poems that invariably appear in American literature anthologies, most of her writings are out of print. This will be the first volume of her work to appear in decades, and the depth, range, and surprising sensuality of her poems will be a revelation. The poetry is organized according to Lowell's characteristic forms, from traditional to experimental. In each section the works appear in chronological order. Section one contains sonnets and other traditional verse forms. The next section covers her translations and adaptations of Chinese and Japanese poetry, whereby she beautifully renders the spirit of these works. Also included here are several of Lowell's own Asian-influenced poems. Lowell's free, or cadenced verse appears in the third part. The last section provides samples of Lowell's polyphonic prose, an ambitious and vigorous art form that employs all of the resources of poetry. The release of Selected Poems of Amy Lowell will be a major event for readers who have not been able to find a representative sampling of work from this vigorous, courageous poet who gave voice to an erotic, thoroughly American sensibility.


I. INTRODUCTION The global economy is now a reality. With the increasing globalization and diversification of commerce and human interaction comes a concomitant globalization and diversification of legal proceedings. In this age of growing international economic interaction, discovery driven document production often involves corporations with offices overseas. Because of resistance to American style discovery in some foreign jurisdictions, attempts to obtain information essential to litigation are sometimes frustrated by foreign blocking statutes.(1) Blocking statutes, laws of foreign countries that impose criminal penalties upon parties within their jurisdiction who disclose specified documents, are so named because of their effect upon American style discovery.(2) The tension created by these statutes has led commentators to assert that no aspect of extending the U.S. legal system abroad has given rise to more friction than discovery of materials associated with investigation and litigation in the United States.(3) Balancing the need for production of vital information with the possibility that its discovery orders will lead to criminal liability for the producing party, a U.S. court must determine whether to grant a motion compelling production.(4) Further, if the motion to compel production is not complied with, the court must decide whether to impose sanctions through Rule 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.(5) Gaining compliance with a production order can mean the difference between winning or losing a multi-million dollar verdict for one's client.(6) Partly because the stakes are so high, courts have had trouble agreeing on a uniform standard.(7) In Societe Internationale, the Supreme Court affirmed a district court's power to order a party to produce documents kept in a foreign country despite the fact that such production may subject the party to criminal sanctions in the foreign country.(8) Following this decision, courts have differed in their assessment of which factors to use in arriving at the decision to compel production.(9) Because issues of national sovereignty and respect for duly enacted legislation of foreign countries arise whenever U.S. courts attempt to compel discovery in foreign jurisdictions, it behooves U.S. courts to arrive at a consistent comity analysis when determining under what circumstances to compel.(10) This Comment suggests a consistent comity analysis to be applied to the determination of whether to compel production of documents when illegality is raised as an excuse. By so doing, this analysis addresses a significant question left open ever since the Societe Internationale decision in 1958.(11) II. FOREIGN BLOCKING STATUTES The foundational principles upon which civil law countries have developed render them ill suited for the American style discovery assault.(12) There, the discovery process is shepherded by the judge, who alone has power to investigate facts.(13) The civil law tradition rejects the idea that such a vital function should be placed within the purview of the parties themselves.(14) Given this predisposition in some foreign forums, it should not be surprising that American style discovery is met with a less than enthusiastic reception abroad.(15) Even where the forum shares the U.S. adversarial judicial system, the natural instinct to protect one's own interests produces antipathy in some nations toward U.S. antitrust and securities regulations.(16) This antipathy is sometimes expressed in the form of legislation aimed at thwarting the efforts of U.S. courts to pursue their jurisdictional privileges through discovery in foreign forums.(17) Accordingly, the taking of otherwise available evidence may be impossible if that evidence is subject to the reach of a foreign blocking statute.(18) III. THE ROLE OF THE HAGUE EVIDENCE CONVENTION A. General Provisions Before addressing the issue of whether to order production of documents subject to a foreign blocking statute, a U. …


Embedding parts is a key problem in computing when dealing with continuous matter such as shapes rather than discrete matter such as symbols. For computing part relations such as embedding, a technical framework that uses weighted shapes is introduced and implemented. In the proposed framework, for any given two-dimensional shape, the entire canvas is defined as a weighted shape and serves as a registration mark in detecting embedded parts. The approach treats shapes as perceived wholes rather than composed and eliminates the technical distinction between shape categories such as line, curve, or plane. The implementation is shown for two-dimensional shapes but is extendable to three dimensions. As demonstrated on a Seljuk geometric pattern, the framework allows for embedding multiple and various perceived wholes, thus exploring emerging shapes and shape relations to be used for analysis and synthesis in design.


In wireless networks, the
desired signal of a specific user is typically an undesired interfering signal
for untended receivers. However, from
the perspective of an entire wireless network, the coexistence of useful
signals and interfering signals is unavoidable and often is beneficial in
throughput terms. The useful signals and
interfering signals are complementary.
They are in juxtaposition to each other in the context of a single
communication link, while they are in symbiosis within the framework of the
networks, which can be described by Chinese traditional culture symbol of "Yin"
and "Yang". A wireless network having optimal performance must be a harmonious
network, where the interfering and useful signals harmoniously coexist in an
optimal balance. Interference management
plays the critical role in arriving at this optimal balance.


ABSTRACT This article presents the analysis of the structure of Mallorca Cathedral taking into account the influence on the structural behavior of auxiliary iron ties used during the construction process. Recent studies (Roca et al. 2012, 2013) presented some hypotheses about the construction process of the cathedral. This article complements the previous results by considering the use of auxiliary ties as temporary stabilizing device during the construction. Evidence of the use of ties during the construction has been recognized after a comprehensive survey. The study of the role of such ties and the effect of their later removal are studied by a FE analysis carried out on a representative bay of the structure. The study includes a time-dependent FE analysis after the removal of the ties to assess the long-term structural behavior. The results of the numerical analysis are compared with the deformation trends identified by means of a recent monitoring campaign.


We present the first detailed microphysical simulations which are performed online within the framework of a global 3-D chemical transport model (CTM) with full chemistry. The model describes the formation and evolution of four types of polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) particles. Aerosol freezing and other relevant microphysical processes are treated in a full explicit way. Each particle type is described by a binned size distribution for the number density and chemical composition. This set-up allows for an accurate treatment of sedimentation and for detailed calculation of surface area densities and optical properties. Simulations are presented for the Antarctic winter of 2003 and comparisons are made to a diverse set of satellite observations (optical and chemical measurements of POAM III and MIPAS) to illustrate the capabilities of the model. This study shows that a combined resolution approach where microphysical processes are simulated in coarse-grained conditions gives good results for PSC formation and its large-scale effect on the chemical environment through processes such as denitrification, dehydration and ozone loss.


The relationship between general family health and personal beliefs about God was investigated among undergraduate psychology students from a small Christian liberal arts college (N = 77; ages 18-65, M = 22.1; 65% female). Family health was measured by the Health/Competence factor of the Self-Report Family Inventory Version II (SFI; Beavers, Hampson, & Hulgus, 1990). God concepts were measured by the 11 factors of the 75 item Concept of God scale (COG; Brinkman, 1989; Gorsuch, 1968). COG factors were grouped into healthy/positive, unhealthy/negative, and doctrinal/neutral. Results revealed significant positive correlations between family health and healthy/positive concepts of God and significant negative correlations between family health and unhealthy/negative concepts of God. Family health did not correlate with doctrinal/neutral concepts of God. Although causation can not be established, results are consistent with the theory that family health influences how a person conceptualizes God.


Background – To describe a case of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) toxicosis with ventilatory failure that was successfully treated with mechanical ventilation (MV). Key Findings – A 7-year-old, female spayed German Short-haired Pointer, presented with acute onset ptyalism, generalized muscle tremors, and diarrhea. Physical examination findings included evidence of muscarinic overstimulation in the parasympathetic nervous system (eg, diarrhea, ptyalism, lacrimation), and nicotinic overstimulation in the sympathetic nervous system (tachycardia), central nervous system (agitation), and the neuromuscular junction (eg, diffuse muscle fasciculations, tetraparesis). Point-of-care testing demonstrated hyperlactatemic metabolic acidosis and respiratory acidosis (hypoventilation). Hypoventilation progressed to respiratory failure and the dog lost its gag reflex necessitating emergency endotracheal intubation and MV. Additional treatments included atropine, parenteral antimicrobials (for aspiration pneumonia), pralidoxime, and supportive care. Weaning from the ventilator was achieved in 4 days. The dog was administered supplemental oxygen for 24 hours, and discharged 48 hours later with improved neurologic function and normal respiratory drive. Whole blood acetylcholinesterase activities measured on day 0, 2, and 4 and were consistent with AChEI toxicity. New or Unique Information Provided – Specific AChEI toxicity (ie, carbamate and organophosphate) has been reported in the veterinary literature with good prognosis for survival and hospital discharge. While the existing veterinary literature suggests that ventilatory failure is rare in this disease syndrome, consideration for treatment with MV must be made for patients that develop respiratory failure (associated with hypoventilation, bronchoconstriction, bronchorrhea, or aspiration pneumonia). (J Vet Emerg Crit Care 2013; 23(4): 442–446) doi: 10.1111/vec.12068


Several professional associations have revised their ethics codes in the past decade (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, 2001; American Counseling Association, 2005; American Psychiatric Association, 2006; American Psychological Association, 2002). The Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) also revised its ethical guidelines statement in 2005. Associations revise codes for a number of reasons. The most obvious is to codify the association's values with regard to new, emerging, or recently recognized practices and issues within the field. Codes are also modified in attempt to make them more consistent with federal or state laws affecting the mental health professions. While seeking uniformity between codes and legal statutes is a good thing in principle, it is often much harder than it first appears, since laws affecting mental health are not always consistent from one state to another. Codes are sometimes revised in response to the ways they are used (and misused) in legal actions against therapists (Schoener, n.d.). This may actually lead to a shortening of a code when a revision committee wishes to tighten and sharpen language so that there is less room for misunderstanding. This occurred in the latest revision of the APA code which is actually 20% shorter than its predecessor. Similarly, provisions in codes may be rewritten to make them more intelligible to the professionals who practice under them. The major codes have undergone substantial revision in recent years. The article which follows will update professionals on some of the more salient changes to the ethics codes, and the rationales behind them. Items thought to be of particular interest to Christian therapists will be given special attention. Special focus will be placed on the American Psychological Association Code (2002), the CAPS Statement of Ethical Guidelines (2005), and the American Counseling Association Code (2005). Ethics statements are not all equally enforceable. The CAPS Statement, for example, is a guidelines statement, and is not and has never been an enforceable code. The sincere concern on the part of the CAPS leaders who framed it was that members would aspire to the highest standards of professional conduct and perform their duties in ways in keeping with their commitments as followers of Christ. Agreement with the guidelines is a condition of membership, but the association is not an adjudicatory body with the resources to investigate and judge complaints against members. In its latest revision, the APA identifies its own code as having both an enforceable and a nonenforceable section. The general principles (Principles A-E) are aspirational ideals and are not considered enforceable. However, the ethical standards (Sections 1-10) are. It should be added that, as important as it is to understand one's own code of ethics, it is also essential that modern professionals be familiar with the laws of their states pertaining to mental health issues, with the rules of practice as set forth by their state boards, and with pertinent federal law. These regulations may supersede or add specificity to professional ethics codes. For example, state laws often set forth therapists' duties to protect or to warn when a patient makes threats against another person. Federal laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) set forth standards for things like the privacy of mental health records and the types of information that should and should not be in those records. Psychologists also need to stay abreast of the various treatment and practice guidelines published by the APA. The most recent of these is the Record Keeping Guidelines statement of 2007 (APA, 2007). Multicultural and Diversity Issues An increasing concern of most ethics codes and for the professions in general has to do with multicultural and diversity issues. An appreciation for these issues is woven throughout most current codes. …


Plants exist in a complex multitrophic environment, where they interact with and compete for resources with other plants, microbes and animals. Plants have a complex array of defense mechanisms, such as the cell wall being covered with a waxy cuticle serving as a potent physical barrier. Although some pathogenic fungi infect plants by penetrating through the cell wall, many bacterial pathogens invade plants primarily through stomata on the leaf surface. Entry of the foliar pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae pathovar tomato DC3000 (hereafter PstDC3000), into the plant corpus occurs through stomatal openings, and consequently a key plant innate immune response is the transient closure of stomata, which delays disease progression. Here, we present evidence that the root colonization of the rhizobacteria Bacillus subtilis FB17 (hereafter FB17) restricts the stomata-mediated pathogen entry of PstDC3000 in Arabidopsis thaliana. Root binding of FB17 invokes abscisic acid (ABA) and salicylic acid (SA) signaling pathways to close light-adapted stomata. These results emphasize the importance of rhizospheric processes and environmental conditions as an integral part of the plant innate immune system against foliar bacterial infections.


The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is seeking to prepare for losses arising from climate change. This is an emerging issue that challenges climate science and policy to engage more deeply with values, places, and people's experiences. We first provide insight into the UNFCCC framing of loss and damage and current approaches to valuation. We then draw on the growing literature on value‐ and place‐based approaches to adaptation, including limits to adaptation, which examines loss as nuanced and sensitive to the nature of people's lives. Complementary perspectives from human geography, psychology, philosophy, economics, and ecology underscore the importance of understanding what matters to people and what they may likely consider to constitute loss. A significant body of knowledge illustrates that loss is often given meaning through lived, embodied, and place‐based experiences, and so is more felt than tangible. We end with insights into recent scholarship that addresses how people make trade‐offs between different value priorities. This emerging literature offers an opening in the academic debate to further advance a relational framing of loss in which trade‐offs between lived values are seen as dynamic elements in a prospective loss space. WIREs Clim Change 2017, 8:e476. doi: 10.1002/wcc.476


During an average week in Victoria, five people are killed and a further 100 people are hospitalised following road crashes. There are far too many deaths and injuries and the ripple effect of road trauma is enormous. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC) no longer accepts deaths and serious injuries as being inevitable consequences of having a road network. The TAC's vision is for a future where no one will be killed or seriously injured and where every journey is a safe journey. In order to realise the vision, the TAC must bring to life and implement initiatives which are guided by the principles which underpin the Towards Zero approach. This paper will detail the TAC's strategy of initiatives being used to help Victoria move Towards Zero.


Information Technology (IT) is becoming ever-increasingly important in the ways municipalities manage and use their information for decision-making purposes. Municipal service delivery is absolutely dependent on accurate information as well as the related IT infrastructure that captures, stores and transmits information. It is critically important to ensure that information related IT is adequately governed. This will ensure that the correct information is always available to the correct entities, resulting in better delivery of services to citizens of South Africa.
This article probes into the strategic planning aspect related to IT governance in South African municipalities by posing certain questions and drawing conclusions as to why strategic IT planning is currently not delivering any value. Instead, strategic planning at IT governance level is merely conducted to meet regulatory requirements set by the Auditor General. The article also proposes an alternative concept for conducting strategic planning to ensure better IT governance results.


We take a new approach to computing dense scene flow between a pair of consecutive RGB-D frames. We exploit the availability of depth data by seeking correspondences with respect to patches specified not as the pixels inside square windows, but as the 3D points that are the inliers of spheres in world space. Our primary contribution is to show that by reasoning in terms of such patches under 6 DoF rigid body motions in 3D, we succeed in obtaining compelling results at displacements large and small without relying on either of two simplifying assumptions that pervade much of the earlier literature: brightness constancy or local surface planarity. As a consequence of our approach, our output is a dense field of 3D rigid body motions, in contrast to the 3D translations that are the norm in scene flow. Reasoning in our manner additionally allows us to carry out occlusion handling using a 6 DoF consistency check for the flow computed in both directions and a patchwise silhouette check to help reason about alignments in occlusion areas, and to promote smoothness of the flow fields using an intuitive local rigidity prior. We carry out our optimization in two steps, obtaining a first correspondence field using an adaptation of PatchMatch, and subsequently using alpha-expansion to jointly handle occlusions and perform regularization. We show attractive flow results on challenging synthetic and real-world scenes that push the practical limits of the aforementioned assumptions.


Gender and social targeting can improve the relevance and effectiveness of plant breeding programs serving resource-poor farmers, traders, processors, and consumers. Currently, information about these clients and their trait preferences is based on small-scale studies which makes it difficult to set breeding priorities at the national or regional level. As a result, their products may not meet their needs, slowing the rate of adoption. We argue that plant breeding for resource-poor farmers, sellers, and processors requires a marketing approach. We show how the Segmenting-Targeting-Positioning (STP) framework from consumer marketing can be adapted for gender and social targeting in these plant breeding programs. We inventory large datasets, identify a minimum dataset of biophysical and socioeconomic variables, and show how these variables can be layered for gender and social targeting at the national level. Finally, we suggest ways to improve the design of gender- and social-targeting studies in order to enhance their relevance for plant breeding programs.


Accurate estimates of the quantity of organic carbon sedimenting to the sea floor are important in evaluating the rate at which carbon is sequestered in the deep sea and the impact of the ocean on the global carbon cycle. However, extensive studies quantifying marine sedimentation over the past decades have considered only the particulate fraction of sinking material. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) carried along in the interstices of sinking marine snow, the particles that comprise the bulk of particle flux throughout most of the ocean, has not been included previously. Empirical measurements of the interstitial DOC concentrations of individual aggregates of marine snow from coastal California and Washington revealed high values ranging from 8.9 to 140 mg L−1 that were significantly correlated with aggregate size, decreasing as aggregate size increased. Solubilization of particulate matter within aggregates by associated bacteria and reduced diffusion rates due to the fractal geometry of aggregates help maintain these high interstitial concentrations against diffusive processes. Although interstitial DOC concentrations were one to two orders of magnitude higher than ambient DOC concentrations in the surrounding seawater, the cumulative interstitial DOC in aggregates contributed <2.5% to total DOC in the water column. However, DOC comprised up to 31% of the total organic carbon in aggregates, averaging about 20%, indicating that previous measurements of sedimenting carbon in the ocean that have included only the particulate fraction have significantly and systematically underestimated the vertical flux of organic carbon.