Objectives: To study analgesic effect of intracameral Lignocaine in Phacoemulsification under topical anaesthesia, and to report the effect of intracameral Lignocaine on maintenance of pupillary dilatation. Method: An observational study was conducted on 75 patients undergoing Phacoemulsification in cataract surgery; out of which 37 patients were enrolled in control group (treated with topical anaesthesia Only) and 38 patients in test group (treated with topical anaesthesia supplemented with Intracameral Lignocaine). Pupillary diameter was measured before surgery and at the completion of surgery. When the patients returned to recovery room after Phacoemulsification, the patients were asked to fill a pain assessment scale (VAS with numerical rating scale) and data were collected; side effects like ocular itching, burning sensation, as well as effect on maintenance of Pupil Diameter, Haemodynamic Parameters such as syatolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were recorded. Results: Patients' pain experience in control and test group was 62% and 21% respectively. There was no report of any side effect like ocular itching, burning sensation, and also on Haemodynamic parameter such as SBP, DBP, and HR. Pupil diameter before treatment was 8.03mm ±0.15 and 8.16mm±0.17 in control and test group respectively. Pupil diameter after treatment was 5.92 mm±0.20 and 6.80 mm±0.22 in control and test group respectively, indicating better maintenance of dilatation in test group. Discussion: Patients' experience of pain was less and Pupil diameter at the completion of surgery was more in test group as compared to control group. Conclusion: Topical anaesthesia along with intracameral Lignocaine helps to reduce pain to more degree and avoid discomforts during Phacoemulsification in cataract surgery as compared to Lignocaine alone.


Wintertime midlatitude cyclone activity and precipitation are projected to increase across northern Europe and decrease over southern Europe, particularly over the western Mediterranean. Greater confidence in these regional projections may be established by their replication in state-of-the-art, high-resolution global climate models that resolve synoptic-scale dynamics. We evaluated the representation of the wintertime eddy-driven and subtropical jet streams, extratropical cyclone activity, and precipitation across the North Atlantic and Europe under historical (1985–2011) and RCP8.5 sea surface temperature forcing in an ensemble of atmosphere-only HadGEM3-GA3.0 simulations, where horizontal atmospheric resolution is increased from 135 to 25 km. Under RCP8.5, increased (decreased) frequency of northern (southern) eddy-driven jet occurrences and a basinwide poleward shift in the upper-level westerly flow are simulated. Increasing atmospheric resolution significantly enhances these climate change responses. At 25-km resolution, these enhanced changes in large-scale circulation amplify increases (decreases) in extratropical cyclone track density and mean intensity across the northern (southern) Euro-Atlantic region under RCP8.5. These synoptic changes with resolution impact the overall climate change response of mean and heavy winter precipitation: wetter (drier) conditions in northern (southern) Europe are also amplified at 25-km resolution. For example, the reduction in heavy precipitation simulated over the Iberian Peninsula under RCP8.5 is ~15% at 135 km but ~30% at 25-km resolution. Conversely, a shift to more frequent high extratropical cyclone (ETC)-associated precipitation rates is simulated over Scandinavia under RCP8.5, which is enhanced at 25 km. This study provides evidence that global atmospheric resolution may be a crucial consideration in European winter climate change projections.


Abstract. Total ammonium (tot-NH4+) and total nitrate (tot-NO3−) provide chemically conservative quantities in the measurement of surface exchange of reactive nitrogen compounds ammonia (NH3), particulate ammonium (NH4+), nitric acid (HNO3), and particulate nitrate (NO3−), using the aerodynamic gradient method. Total fluxes were derived from concentration differences of total ammonium (NH3 and NH4+) and total nitrate (HNO3 and NO3−) measured at two levels. Gaseous species and related particulate compounds were measured selectively, simultaneously and continuously above a spruce forest canopy in south-eastern Germany in summer 2007. Measurements were performed using a wet-chemical two-point gradient instrument, the GRAEGOR. Median concentrations of NH3, HNO3, NH4+, and NO3− were 0.57, 0.12, 0.76, and 0.48 μg m−3, respectively. Total ammonium and total nitrate fluxes showed large variations depending on meteorological conditions, with concentrations close to zero under humid and cool conditions and higher concentrations under dry conditions. Mean fluxes of total ammonium and total nitrate in September 2007 were directed towards the forest canopy and were −65.77 ng m−2 s−1 and −41.02 ng m−2 s−1 (in terms of nitrogen), respectively. Their deposition was controlled by aerodynamic resistances only, with very little influence of surface resistances. Including measurements of wet deposition and findings of former studies on occult deposition (fog water interception) at the study site, the total N deposition in September 2007 was estimated to 5.86 kg ha−1.


In 2020, the pandemic crisis caused by covid-19 led to some changes in global education. Consequently, primary and secondary schools as well as universities introduced distance learning in many countries all over the world. This situation mostly required, among other things, a new way of testing learners' knowledge and skills. The objectives of this paper are to reveal university students' opinions on computer-based tests in comparison with paper-and-pencil tests and to map their requirements concerning digital testing of English as a foreign language. The research sample includes 284 students of the Faculty of Business and Management, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic. These students experienced online testing at home during the summer semester of 2019/20 as well as paper tests at school in the previous winter semester of the same academic year. Thereafter, they were asked to complete an anonymous online questionnaire. The results have shown that the learners were mostly satisfied with the introduction of online testing at home. However, if the electronic tests took place at school, not all of them would prefer this way of testing. Regarding tasks in digital tests, the learners gave priority to assignments based on multiple choice. Moreover, the respondents expressed their views on electronic devices and testing speaking skills on online platforms.


Aluminium extrusion is an industrial forming process that is used to produce long profiles of a constant cross-section. This cross-section is shaped by the opening in a steel tool known as the die. The understanding of the mechanics of the aluminium extrusion process is still limited. The flow of aluminium within the die is governed by tribomechanical and rate- and temperature-dependent effects that have not yet been fully mathematically modelled. As a result, it is difficult to design the die geometry in such a way that the aluminium profile complies with high customer demands regarding dimensional accuracy and surface quality. Die design has to a large extent been empirically based. This, along with a low level of automation, causes a large variation in the performance of dies. This often necessitates corrections to the die and results in a high percentage of scrap production. This dissertation is a continuation of a research project that has existed since 1991. In cooperation with the aluminium extrusion company Boalgroup, researchers at the University of Twente have worked to gain more insight into the extrusion process. With the help of finite element simulations this has led to the formulation of design rules and approaches that are based on a more fundamental understanding of the process than the existing empirical knowledge. A design method was devised that balances the exit velocity of flat dies by using a combination of variable sink-in and bearing geometry. This leads to die designs that exhibit a more stable and predictable flow balancing behaviour than traditional designs based on length variations of parallel bearings alone. In addition, a formula is given that estimates the pressure acting on the die, so that the calculation time of finite element analysis of the die deflection is drastically reduced. Along with making a contribution to the developments mentioned above, the work presented in this thesis focuses on the implementation of these design rules and approaches into CAD tools. The provided automation of these design tasks significantly accelerates the design process and increases the consistency of the results, without removing the control of the human designer. By taking constraints of the manufacturing process into account while generating the geometry, the risk that the die manufacturer has to make unexpected changes to the die design is reduced. The reduction of design time that was achieved has enabled Boalgroup to greatly increase the number of in-house die designs. Since the majority of these new designs is showing a significant performance increase, the company's overall productivity has increased steadily, helping them to deal with the ever rising labour and energy costs.


The "Bundle of Rights" picture of property purports to explain the facilitative aspect of the powers that go with ownership by treating potential property interests that an owner may _confer_ as pre-existing rights that an owner may _transfer_ to others. This misleads, rather than enlightens, confusing potentiality with actuality. Importantly, it also draws our attention away from the difficult conceptual issue regarding the transfer of rights.


Today9s electronic gadgets, such as digital cameras and mp3 players, often contain three different types of memory, because none of these memory types-static random access memory, dynamic random access memory, and Flash-can fulfill all memory requirements of these devices. In his Perspective,
 A…kerman
 discusses magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), a promising candidate for a "universal memory" that combines all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of the existing memory types. Several companies have succeeded in creating multi-megabyte MRAM prototypes, suggesting that large-scale introduction of MRAM devices to the market is not far off.


Platinum-group elements (PGE) are typically hosted in base metal sulfides and by platinum-group minerals (PGM) in Ni-Cu-PGE sulfide deposits. At Sudbury, it appears that the majority of PGE are hosted in PGM. In order to understand why this is the case we have investigated the origin of PGM from the 402 trough ore-bodies of the Creighton deposit located on the South Range of Sudbury. These predominantly pyrrhotite-rich sulfides, with low (Pt + Pd)/(Os + Ir + Ru + Rh) whole-rock ratios, represent cumulates of monosulfide solid solution (MSS) that crystallized early from the sulfide melt, collected in troughs and embayments at the base of the Sudbury Igneous Complex, and formed small pendants of ore in the footwall country rock. The majority of PGE (Ir, Rh, Pt ± Os, Ru) show a stronger affinity for the sulfarsenide phases than the cocrystallizing sulfide phases which are strongly depleted in these PGE. The precious metal mineralogy is dominated by PGE sulfarsenides (86%) with subordinate sperrylite (PtAs2: 9%), michenerite (PdBiTe: 5%), and electrum (AgAu2: 0.1%). These discrete minerals are predominantly hosted within pyrrhotite and pentlandite except, however, a large proportion of michenerite is hosted either entirely by silicates and/or juxtaposed against silicates. The PGE sulfarsenides are euhedrally zoned with an irarsite (IrAsS) core, an outer layer of hollingworthite (RhAsS), and a PGE-rich Ni cobaltite rim (CoAsS). Rhenium sulfides, some of which are Os bearing, are documented for the first time at Sudbury.

Platinum-group minerals may crystallize directly from sulfide melt, form by exsolution during cooling of the base metal sulfides or recrystallize from them during metamorphism. We propose that zoned PGE sulfarsenides and sperrylite crystallized from a sulfide melt at high temperatures (1,200°–900°C) and were subsequently surrounded by MSS cumulates, even by disseminated sulfides, that crystallized from the now Ir, Rh, Pt ± Os, Ru-depleted immiscible sulfide liquid. The base metal sulfides recrystallized with secondary hydrosilicates at a late magmatic and/or hydrothermal stage (<540°C) at which time michenerite formed. The magmatic zoning of the PGE sulfarsenides was preserved during later deformation in shear zones but these PGM were corroded, fractured, and juxtaposed against silicates.


A laboratory study was undertaken to explore the capability of one-stage ANAMMOX in a hybrid biofilm-carrier reactor (HBCR) fed with petrochemical wastewater. Under favorable operating conditions in continuous-flow operations (at the dissolved oxygen level of 0.5-1.0 mg L(-1)), the average total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency reached 62-67% and approximately 90% of TN can be removed by ANAMMOX. In batch operations of the hybrid biofilm-carrier reactor (without adding carbon substrate), the specific TN removal rate of the reactor in which both Kaldnes and nonwoven carriers were kept was two-fold higher than that of the reactor in which only nonwoven carriers were kept. This indicated that the microbial activity of thinner biofilms (Kaldnes carriers) was remarkably higher than that of thicker biofilms (nonwoven carriers). Finally, based on the 16S rRNA clone library, a cluster of ANAMMOX Candidatus Kuenenia stuttgartiensis was identified.


The development of telemonitoring via wireless body area networks (WBANs) is an evolving direction in personalized medicine and home-based mobile health. A WBAN consists of small, intelligent medical sensors which collect physiological parameters such as EKG (electrocardiogram), EEG (electroencephalography) and blood pressure. The recorded physiological signals are sent to a coordinator via wireless technologies, and are then transmitted to a healthcare monitoring center. One of the most widely used wireless technologies in WBANs is ZigBee because it is targeted at applications that require a low data rate and long battery life. However, ZigBee-based WBANs face severe interference problems in the presence of WiFi networks. This problem is caused by the fact that most ZigBee channels overlap with WiFi channels, severely affecting the ability of healthcare monitoring systems to guarantee reliable delivery of physiological signals. To solve this problem, we have developed an algorithm that controls the load in WiFi networks to guarantee the delay requirement for physiological signals, especially for emergency messages, in environments with coexistence of ZigBeebased WBAN and WiFi. Since WiFi applications generate traffic with different delay requirements, we focus only on WiFi traffic that does not have stringent timing requirements. In this paper, therefore, we propose an adaptive load control algorithm for ZigBee-based WBAN/WiFi coexistence environments, with the aim of guaranteeing that the delay experienced by ZigBee sensors does not exceed a maximally tolerable period of time. Simulation results show that our proposed algorithm guarantees the delay performance of ZigBee-based WBANs by mitigating the effects of WiFi interference in various scenarios.


From dirt bikes and jet skis to weed wackers and snowblowers, machines powered by small gas engines have become a permanent-and loud-fixture in American culture. But fifty years of high-speed fun and pristine lawns have not come without cost. In the first comprehensive history of the small-bore engine and the technology it powers, Paul R. Josephson explores the political, environmental, and public health issues surrounding one of America's most dangerous pastimes. Each chapter tells the story of an ecosystem within the United States and the devices that wreak havoc on it-personal watercraft (PWCs) on inland lakes and rivers; all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in deserts and forests; lawn mowers and leaf blowers in suburbia. In addition to environmental impacts, Josephson discusses the development and promotion of these technologies, the legal and regulatory efforts made to improve their safety and environmental soundness, and the role of owners' clubs in encouraging responsible operation. Synthesizing information from medical journals, recent environmental research, nongovernmental organizations, and manufacturers, Josephson's compelling history leads to one irrefutable conclusion: these machines cannot be operated without loss of life and loss of habitat.


The concept of risk-based capital requirements enjoys widespread support. Effective implementation, however, requires that risk be measured accurately both across borrowers and across time. Under the New Capital Accord, the cornerstone of this risk measurement process is the rating of the borrower. In this paper we use the ratings assigned by individual Mexican banks to examine how measured credit risk for these banks has changed since the financial crisis in the mid-1990s. We then examine the implications of these changes in risk for regulatory capital under the proposed changes to the Basel Capital Accord. We find that measured risk increased after the crisis and then fell as the recovery took hold. In turn, despite the limitations of the data, we find that the proposed internal ratings-based approach would have generated large swings in regulatory capital requirements over the second half of the 1990s, with required capital increasing significantly in the aftermath of the crisis, and then falling as the economy recovered. Looking forward, if movements in actual bank capital were to show this same cyclical variation, then business cycle fluctuations might be amplified by developments in the banking industry.


Over the past several decades, the preferred model for consumer protection in most countries has emphasized a notice and consent (or choice) approach with less emphasis on normative laws that prohibit or mandate certain contract terms, acts or practices. In this essay, I argue that it is time for consumer advocates and policy makers to recognize that a notice and consent approach to standard contract terms and conditions is not likely to protect consumer interests in modern day contractual settings. Indeed, policy makers are doing more harm than good by continuing to focus on notice and consent, thereby giving a misleading impression that consumer interests are being protected when they are not. Moreover, by adhering to a notice and consent regime, they avoid discussing the more difficult yet most fundamental questions about what commercial practices should be permitted and which should be banned.


The Need for an Energy Technology Revolution How will countries provide the reliable, affordable energy needed to fuel a growing world economy and lift billions of people out of poverty without causing catastrophic climate change and other environmental disasters? Answering this question is perhaps the greatest challenge human civilization faces in the 21st century. It cannot be done without a revolution in the technologies of both energy production and use. And for that revolution to arrive in time will require a dramatic acceleration in the pace at which new or improved energy technologies are invented, demonstrated, and adopted in the marketplace. This book outlines policies the U.S. federal government in particular can adopt to foster such an energy technology revolution. These approaches will help meet the myriad energy challenges of the 21st century – and help ensure that the United States plays a leading role in doing so, capturing its share of the multi-trillion-dollar energy technology markets of the coming decades. This book seeks to answer four basic questions. First, how much should the U.S. government spend on energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D), and how should that money be allocated? Second, how can the U.S. government best work with the private sector and encourage it to invest its own funds in researching, developing, demonstrating, and deploying new energy technologies? Third, how can the U.S. government manage its energy RD&D investments and the institutions through which they flow to get the most beneficial energy innovation per dollar invested? Fourth, how can the U.S. government best manage competition and cooperation with other countries in energy technology innovation?


Class evolution, the phenomenon of class emergence and disappearance, is an important research topic for data stream mining. All previous studies implicitly regard class evolution as a transient change, which is not true for many real-world problems. This paper concerns the scenario where classes emerge or disappear gradually. A class-based ensemble approach, namely Class-Based ensemble for Class Evolution (CBCE), is proposed. By maintaining a base learner for each class and dynamically updating the base learners with new data, CBCE can rapidly adjust to class evolution. A novel under-sampling method for the base learners is also proposed to handle the dynamic class-imbalance problem caused by the gradual evolution of classes. Empirical studies demonstrate the effectiveness of CBCE in various class evolution scenarios in comparison to existing class evolution adaptation methods.


At the Centre of Medical Radiation Physics (CMRP), School of Engineering Physics, Faculty of Engineering, at the University of Wollongong (UOW), we are implementing a hands-on computing laboratory, commencing in autumn 2010, to teach scientific computing methods and modern, advanced research tools for radiation physics to postgraduate and undergraduate students. Engaging undergraduates and postgraduates together in work with a tool widely used in research laboratories is a unique development, and represents the articulation of the University's commitment to the enhancement of the teaching/research nexus, and to the development of learning communities. The object of the laboratory is to teach students how to use Geant4 in the study of radiation physics related problems. Geant4 (www.cern.ch/geant4) is a Monte Carlo Simulation Toolkit, describing the interactions of particles with matter. It is widely used in research laboratories all over the world, from High Energy Physics to medical physics and space science. While the Geant4 Collaboration organizes courses all around the world to familiarise researchers and postgraduates with the Toolkit, insufficient attention is paid to undergraduates. The objectives of our program are that, upon completion of the practical laboratory, the students will be familiar with radiation physics and its applications, software development methods, computing instruments for research, the Monte Carlo approach, and the C++ language. They will also have had a unique opportunity to improve their problem solving skills and research methodologies. The design of the Geant4 hands-on lab faces two important issues: the heterogeneous computing skills and differing knowledge of radiation physics amongst students. Independent of their education grade, students have different expertise with programming, and computing matters in general. This problem can easily be overcome as Geant4 is developed for use by those with minimal computing expertise. However, the correct use of Geant4 requires a deep knowledge of radiation physics; this poses the second issue faced. The higher levels of motivation of postgraduate students will be one factor supporting undergraduates, in that working with Geant4 should foster a learning community, with peer learning and teaching occurring, and also provide undergraduates with a sense of future. Furthermore, we think we can overcome the problem of lower levels of knowledge through designing a guided hands-on course, providing Geant4 simulation exercises for students, based on their level of preparation. This course has high potential to increase the commitment of students towards radiation physics.


The public in virtually all nations believes that climate change, induced by human activities, is real. Many people feel a personal sense of responsibility and strive to use environmentally friendly products and services. However, people also realize that environmental issues are complex. Tools that enhance consumer knowledge and encourage appropriate environmental choices have the potential to facilitate change. The creation of the Universal Ecolabel (UE) allows consumers to scan products and become informed of the environmental and social footprint of their purchases. Full life-cycle analysis has proved to be the golden standard for sustainability in a world where the human population is over 7 billion and resource utilization is finite. Real-time analysis of products allows consumers to make better decisions. The creation of a Benefit Corporation and "collaborative" will allow for the creation and monitoring of the UE codes.


Fiscal rules specify quantitative targets for key budgetary aggregates. In this paper, we review the experience with such rules in Japan and in the EU. Comparing the performance of fiscal policy in the 1980s and 1990s until 2003, we find that the fiscal rule of the 1980s exerted some but not much disciplinary influence on Japanese fiscal policy. The fiscal rule of the Maastricht Treaty had a significant impact on political budget cycles in the EU, but did little to constrain fiscal policy in the large member states. Since the start of the European Monetary Union, the disciplinary effect of the fiscal rule in the EU has vanished. Next, we discuss the importance of budgetary institutions for the effectiveness of fiscal rules. In Europe, a number of countries adopted strong fiscal rules, i.e., a fiscal rule combined with a design of the budget process enabling governments to commit to the rule. We find that strong fiscal rules have been effective. We conclude with some suggestions for the design of a strong fiscal rule in Japan.


One of the main advantages of new wireless systems is the freedom to make and receive calls anywhere and at any time; handovers are considered a key element for providing this mobility. This paper presents the handoff queuing problem in cellular networks. We propose a model to study three handoff queuing schemes, and provide a performance evaluation of these ones. The paper begin by a presentation of the different handoff queuing scheme to evaluate. Then, gives an evaluation model with the different assumption considered in the simulations. The evaluation concerns the blocking probability for handoff and original calls. These simulations are conducted for each scheme, according to different offered loads, size of call (original and handoff) queue, and number of voice channels. A model is proposed and introduced in this paper for the study of three channel assignment schemes; namely, they are the non prioritized schemes (NPS), the original call queuing schemes, and the handoff call queuing schemes.


The Battle of Mount Street Bridge, 26 April 1916, was the most successful rebel military engagement of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Though it accounted for something in the region of half of the total British casualties of the Rising, exact casualty figures have remained elusive. Contested Memories: The Battle of Mount Street Bridge , a constituent project of the Humanities Virtual World Consortium, is using virtual world technologies and rigorous empirical research to interrogate the intricacies of the battle. This article presents the project's work to date establishing an accurate number for British killed and wounded during the battle. The most widely cited figure for British casualties is General Sir John Maxwell's 234, but research for the project has shown that this total is exaggerated. Combining a wide range of sources, the article presents its methodology and provides a figure of twenty-six for Sherwood Foresters who died as a result of the battle. It also offers evidence for the most authoritative figure for wounded troops to date based on available evidence (134). The 160 casualties found here are, then, far less than has most often been assumed.


Singapore and Taipei both have witnessed the re-orientation of urban redevelopment
policy in their historical centres since the mid-1980s. The new planning policy has two
important aspects. One is the re-invention and re-interpretation of historical and spatial
icons, which are often associated with the ideological construction and moral regulation
of the nation-state. The other is the state intervention in the production of the built environment,
which involves the rejection of an intensive use of land, and the preference of a
controlled-growth in historical urban centres. This alternative paradigm does not only
encounter the reclaim of the historical built environment once is neglected, but a legacy
of the entire economic, social and symbolic systems that are designed for pursuing
growth and development. There is a dilemma which concerns the apparent contradiction
between the use of land resources to foster economic growth and the necessity to preserve
physical structure for political and symbolic purposes.
This thesis attempts to explore the interplay of economic interest, political power and
national identity in the transformation of Singapore and Taiwan in the post-1980 era,
through analysing policies and consequences of the re-invention and re-investment in historical
urban centres. This thesis provides a historic perspective of the structural setting
in which the complicated relationship between the nation-state, the economy and society
is constructed. It identifies a set of causal relations which have created specific conditions
shaping the logic of urban policy, the planning regime, the property market and
cultural practice in both countries. This thesis also reveals how the internal dynamics and
conflicts of these structural and institutional factors, together with the historical and
spatial development of the locality, have produced direct or indirect impacts on the
policy decision-making process, the formulation of planning strategies, and the implementation
of these strategies. At the end, this thesis suggests that the interplay between
economic interest, political power and national identity in this planning process, is a
meaningful relationship and not just a historical coincidence. By considering this planning
process as the outcome of an endless negotiation between these different and conflicting
forces, this thesis sheds light on the nature and the transformation of the nation-building
process in two different spatial situations and historical contexts.


In this article the effect of temperature on optical properties of nanocrystalline ceramic Ferromanganese nickel zinc oxide Fe2Mn2Ni2Zn2O11 were studied. Using the Tauc gap, the absorption spectrum method was applied to estimate the optical band gap. The sample was synthesized thermo chemically by solid state method at different treating temperatures. A characteristic feature of all solidstate reactions is that they involve the formation of product phase(s) at the interfaces of the reactants. UV-VIS analysis of the sample was carried out. The optical constants of refractive index, extinction coefficient, normal-incidence reflectivity, and absorption coefficient showed systematic variation with temperature. From these data the absorption coefficient was calculated and the band gap energy was determined. Using the WempleDi Domenico single-oscillator model the dispersion of refractive index was analyzed. From these data, the absorption co-fficients were calculated and the band gap energy determine


One of the goals of point-of-care (POC) is a chip-based, miniaturized, portable, self-containing system that allows the assay of proteins, nucleic acids, and cells in complex samples. The integration of nanomaterials and microfluidics can help achieve this goal. This tutorial review outlines the mechanism of assaying biomarkers by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and the implementation of AuNPs for microfluidic POC devices. In line with this, we discuss some recent advances in AuNP-coupled microfluidic sensors with enhanced performance. Portable and automated instruments for device operation and signal readout are also included for practical applications of these AuNP-combined microfluidic chips.


Dynamic network research has been a new trend in recent years. Based on the influence of vertex behavior on community structure, this paper studies signed network dynamic community mining. Firstly, the set pair connection degree is introduced to describe the relation between vertices, and the edge prediction model of signed network is proposed by taking into account the variability of the relation between vertices. Secondly, based on the prediction model, a set pair signed networks dynamic model is proposed by adding time axis T to the signed network. Then, based on the dynamic model, the evolution of signed networks and community discovering are studied. Finally, network evolution law and community stability are analyzed by using the connection trend and connection entropy in set pair theory, and the accuracy and validity of the dynamic community mining algorithm are verified by experiments.


In re R.W., 39 A.3d 682 (Vt. 2011). The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA)--adopted by the Vermont legislature--regulates how states collaboratively assert jurisdiction over custody cases involving diverse parties. (1) Attorneys and academics alike have debated whether custody disputes require personal jurisdiction over both parents in order to meet constitutional due process requirements. (2) In In re R.W., (3) the Vermont Supreme Court evaluated the merits of requiring personal jurisdiction over father in order to allow a termination of parental status proceeding against him. (4) The court held that although father did not have minimum contacts with the State of Vermont and could not meet personal jurisdiction requirements, these standards remained inapposite where the court had status jurisdiction over father's children. (5) Mother and father married in Sri Lanka in 1992 and had two daughters there, R.W. and N.W. (6) Mother moved to New York in 2000, and remarried and moved to Vermont in 2003 with R.W. and her new husband. (7) N.W. moved to Vermont soon after. (8) In 2006, based on R.W.'s disclosure of incidents of physical and sexual abuse from her mother and stepfather, DCF obtained custody of R.W. and N.W. through an emergency detention order issued by the court, and placed the girls in a foster home. (9) At this time, both DCF and the court failed to notify father or the Sri Lankan consulate regarding the termination proceedings. (10) DCF allowed the girls to live with their mother almost full time until March 2009, when DCF again placed the girls in foster care for lack of adequate supervision. (11) In September 2009, DCF sought to terminate mother's and father's parental rights. (12) Around March 2010, DCF received permission from the court to serve father by publication after claiming that it had unsuccessfully attempted to contact him. (13) R.W. contacted father via email, causing father to contact the court and ask to participate in the termination proceedings by phone. (14) The court did not allow father to participate in the proceedings by phone, because it could not ensure that his identity was correct or that the quality of the telephone communication would allow all parties to participate effectively. (15) Following the court's termination of mother's parental rights, DCF requested that the court assume jurisdiction over and allow father's termination petition, but this request was denied, and the denial appealed. (16) Ultimately, the court held that it did not require personal jurisdiction over father to adjudicate a termination proceeding, because a termination proceeding adjudicates a child's status, which falls within the "status exception" to the minimum contacts requirement set forth in International Shoe. (17) Case law has been notably inconclusive and vague regarding how the term "jurisdiction" is used in custody issues. (18) In states requiring personal jurisdiction, courts have struggled in exerting "purposeful availment" and "minimum contacts" tests in order to assert jurisdiction over non-resident parents. (19) Other states have cited the status exemption in order to adjudicate custody and termination proceedings. (20) Still other states have turned to quasi in rem jurisdiction over children as "objects" in the state. (21) Since the establishment of Pennoyer v. Neff as a cornerstone of American jurisdictional jurisprudence, scholars and courts alike have debated the merits (or lack thereof) of the status exemption to personal jurisdiction requirements. (22) While the marriage status exemption, first introduced in Pennoyer, has been affirmed and reaffirmed in modern jurisprudence, many decisions have affirmed the separation of status-related claims from claims involving the apportionment of money or goods, such as alimony. (23) The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled consistently regarding such split decisions, noting that status based adjudications do not require personal jurisdiction, whereas monetary or possession based transactions require the parties to maintain certain minimum contacts with a forum. …


Purpose Counselees' preferences are considered important for the choice of risk communication format and for improving patient-centered care. We here report on counselees' preferences for how risks are presented in familial breast cancer counseling and the impact of this preferred format on their understanding of risk. Patients and Methods As part of a practice-based randomized controlled trial, 326 unaffected women with a family history of breast cancer received their lifetime risk in one of five presentation formats after standard genetic counseling in three Dutch familial cancer clinics: 1) in percentages, 2) in frequencies ("X out of 100"), 3) in frequencies plus graphical format (10×10 human icons), 4) in frequencies and 10-year age-related risk and 5) in frequencies and 10-year age-related risk plus graphical format. Format preferences and risk understanding (accuracy) were assessed at 2-week follow-up by a questionnaire, completed by 279/326 women. Results The most preferred risk communication formats were numbers combined with verbal descriptions (37%) and numbers only (26%). Of the numerical formats, most (55%) women preferred percentages. The majority (73%) preferred to be informed about both lifetime and 10-year age-related risk. Women who had received a graphical display were more likely to choose a graphical display as their preferred format. There was no significant effect between the intervention groups with regard to risk accuracy. Overall, women given risk estimates in their preferred format had a slightly better understanding of risk. Conclusion The results suggest that the accuracy of breast cancer risk estimation is slightly better for women who had received this information in their preferred format, but the risk format used had no effect on women's risk accuracy. To meet the most frequent preference, counselors should consider providing a time frame of reference (eg, risk in the next 10 years) in a numerical format, in addition to lifetime risk.


A major challenge to sustaining exponential advances in biotechnology and digital technology in the last couple of decades has been the need for a suitable protection and appropriation regime for these technologies. While the malleability of intellectual property rights continues to be stretched to accommodate novel advances in both digital and biological technologies, indications are that other proprietary options are increasingly becoming attractive to stakeholders in these technologies. The limits of traditional intellectual property rights and, perhaps more so, the natures of the two technologies have forced stakeholders to explore alternative protective regimes. The need for a tighter proprietary framework to support digital and biotechnology endeavors stems mainly from the perception that valuable information or inventions in the two areas are particularly expensive to generate and effortlessly inexpensive to reproduce.With regard to genetic modification in plant materials or agricultural biotechnology in general, the inherently self-reproducing nature of transgenic or genetically modified materials, particularly seeds, makes it rather tasking for traditional intellectual property rights to efficiently protect the proprietary interests of inventors and investors alike. This article evaluates the progression of knowledge protection in agricultural biotechnology through traditional intellectual property rights, its sui generis versions, legislative interventions, and contractual devices to the contemporary epoch of a molecular or technology-driven intellectual property alternative exemplified in genetic use restriction technologies (GURTs), more commonly known as terminator technology. Terminator technology is a very recent and emerging phenomenon. It derives its nickname from Arnold Schwarzenegger's science fiction movie of the same name. Generally, terminator technology is a two-prong biotechnological device for inducing sterility in seeds to fundamentally alter their self-reproducing character, or to induce trait susceptibility, selection or suppression. Since the first patent for this technology was granted in the United States in March 1998, terminator technology has been perceived in the broader context of genetic modification in food and agricultural materials. Oppositions to the technology are staked on that inclusive background and they encompass traditional objections to genetic modification and attendant privatization of life forms. In a nutshell, the grounds of objection include ethical concerns about a technology that is oriented toward seed sterility and trait manipulation, the general environmental or ecological impacts of terminator varieties, as well as long and short term effect of terminator varieties on biological diversity and public health.


The Internet's universality is based on its decentralization and diversity. However, its distributed nature leads to operational brittleness and difficulty in identifying the root causes of performance and availability issues, especially when the involved systems span multiple administrative domains. The first step to address this fragmentation is coordinated measurement: we propose to complement the current Internet's data and control planes with a measurement plane, or mPlane for short. mPlane's distributed measurement infrastructure collects and analyzes traffic measurements at a wide variety of scales to monitor the network status. Its architecture is centered on a flexible control interface, allowing the incorporation of existing measurement tools through lightweight mPlane proxy components, and offering dynamic support for new capabilities. A focus on automated, iterative measurement makes the platform well-suited to troubleshooting support. This is supported by a reasoning system, which applies machine learning algorithms to learn from success and failure in drilling down to the root cause of a problem. This article describes the mPlane architecture and shows its applicability to several distributed measurement problems involving content delivery networks and Internet service roviders. A first case study presents the tracking and iterative analysis of cache selection policies in Akamai, while a second example focuses on the cooperation between Internet service providers and content delivery networks to better orchestrate their traffic engineering decisions and jointly improve their performance.


OBJECT
Cervical laminoplasty is a recognized technique commonly used for multilevel posterior cervical decompression, and it is favored over laminectomy for maintaining spinal stability. Traditional hinge techniques, however, limit lateral exposure on one side and can limit dural exposure. The authors present their experience with a modified laminoplasty technique incorporating complete laminectomy and placement of titanium miniplate instrumentation. This method allows wide bilateral posterior decompression and unobscured dural access.

METHODS
Twenty-eight patients (mean age 57 years) underwent cervical laminoplasty during a 4-year period. Twenty-seven patients presented with progressive cervical myelopathy. Seventeen patients (61%) had degenerative spondylotic stenosis; nine (32%) underwent resection of an intradural neoplasm. A mean of 3.5 levels were exposed and reconstructed. The follow-up period ranged from 4 months to 4 years (mean 15 months). The mean angular extension-flexion displacement measured between C-1 and C-7 was unchanged postoperatively, with preserved mobility across laminoplasty-treated segments in all patients. The anteroposterior diameter of the spinal canal increased 3.6 mm (27.2%) postoperatively (p = 0.004). In one patient an asymptomatic postoperative kyphosis developed. There were five cases of postoperative infection. One superficial infection resolved after intravenous antibiotic therapy alone, and four deep infections required surgical reexploration.

CONCLUSIONS
The advantages of this technique over other laminoplasty methods include wide lateral spinal canal and intradural access, as well as preserved motion with partial restoration of the posterior tension band.


The transport of elements by streams from headwater regions to the sea is influenced by landscape characteristics. This thesis focuses on the influence of landscape characteristics (e.g. proportion of wetland/forest coverage) on temporal and spatial variations of Fe, Mn, S and trace elements (As, Co, Pb) in streams located in northern Sweden, a boreal region characterized by coniferous forests and peat wetlands.Water samples from a network of 15 streams revealed a different hydrogeochemistry in forested catchments compared to wetland catchments. The temporal variation was dominated by spring flood, when concentrations of Fe, Mn and trace elements increased in forested headwaters. However, in streams of wetland catchments concentrations decreased, but Pb concentrations were higher in comparison to other streams. Both Fe and Pb showed positive correlations with wetland area, while Co correlated with forest coverage. The anthropogenic contribution of As and Pb appear to be larger than the supply from natural sources.During spring flood SO42- decreased in most streams, although concentrations increased in streams of wetland catchments. Concentrations of SO42- were higher in streams of forested catchments than in wetland dominated streams, the former being net exporters of S and the latter net accumulators. Isotope values of stream water SO42- (δ34SSO4) were close to that of precipitation during spring flood, indicating that the major source of S is from deposition. The results show that, although emissions of anthropogenic S have been reduced, there is still a strong influence of past and current S deposition on runoff in this region.In conclusion, wetlands are key areas for the hydrogeochemistry in this boreal landscape. The findings emphasize the importance of understanding stream water chemistry and element cycling from a landscape perspective. This may be important for predicting how boreal regions respond to environmental disturbances such as climate change.


After two decades of Indonesia's 1998 reformasi, a rapid process of transformation has been achieved in many different aspects of social life. Democratization, freedom of speech, and progressive economic development have become the main features of 'enlightenments' of post-authoritarian era. At the same time, it is surprising to note that the 'tradition' of KKN, the Indonesian acronym of corruption, collusion nepotism used to be addressed Soeharto's dictatorship regime, remains unchanged. In response to this paradox of reform, Ehma Ainun Nadjib (Cak Nun), Indonesian Muslim Intellectual who engaged since the very beginning reform process, initiated Maiyah movement. This new form of socio-religious movement is based on his creative writing activities that have been produced more than 70 books, countless essays and poetry, and a wide variety of community engagements. Together with Kiaikanjeng, a fusion orchestra combining Javanese gamelan and modern musical instruments, he has been successfully promoting religious tolerance, urging deconstructive methods of interpreting religious texts, and initiating a unique way of community empowerment using music and theatrical performances around Indonesia and across the globe. Their performances in London, Berlin, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Rome, Cairo, Rabat, Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, and many other parts of the world have not only left the 'sacred music' they played as an inspiration of minaddulumati ilannur (from the darkness to the light), but also created a new horizon of understanding the very basic principle of humanity, Maiyah meaning 'togetherness'. Drawing from ethnographic research in two Maiyah circles in two different urban settings of Surabaya and Yogyakarta Indonesia, this paper explores Cak Nun's legacy in offering new 'lights' of bottom-up aspiration of nationalism through what he calls Indonesia adalah Bagian dari Desa Saya (Indonesia is part of my village).


The study interprets the postexilic book of Deuteronomy as a prophetic testament, which characterises Moses as the only arch-prophet (Dt 34). This was a position not of prophetic groups of the Second Temple Period, but of priestly scribes who were responsible for the postexilic redaction of the Pentateuch. They were in a discourse with postexilic groups and schools of prophetic scribes who denied the priestly theory of legitimate prophecy, especially in the book of Jeremiah, but also in Isaiah. The study highlights the discussion and draws some conclusions about postexilic circles of authors in Torah and prophecy.


Problem statement: Estimation of moisture contents of dried food products from their
dielectric constants was an important step in moisture measurement systems. The regression models
that provide good prediction performance are desirable. Approach: The Multilayer Perceptrons (MLP)
and Support Vector Regression (SVR) were applied in this research to predict the moisture contents of
dried longan arils from their dielectric constants. The data set was collected from 1500 samples of
dried longan aril with five different moisture contents of 10, 14, 18, 22 and 25% Wet basis (Wb.)
Dielectric constant of dried longan aril was measured by using our previously proposed electrical
capacitance-based system. The results from the MLP and SVR models were compared to that from the
linear regression and polynomial regression models. To take into account the generalization of the
models, the four-fold cross validation was applied. Results: For the training sets, the average mean
absolute errors over three bulk densities of 1.30, 1.45 and 1.60 g cm-3 were 1.7578, 0.6157, 0.3812,
0.3113, 0.0103 and 0.0044% Wb for the linear regression, second-, third-, fourth-order polynomial
regression, MLP and SVR models, respectively. For the validation sets, the average mean absolute
errors over the three bulk densities were 1.7616, 0.6192, 0.3844, 0.3146, 0.0126 and 0.0093% Wb for
the linear regression, 2nd, 3rd and 4th-order polynomial regression, MLP and SVR models,
respectively. Conclusion: The regression models based on MLP and SVR yielded better performances
than the models based on linear regression and polynomial regression on both training and validation
sets. The models based on MLP and SVR also provided robustness to the variation of bulk density. Not
only for dried longan aril, the proposed models can also be adapted and applied to other materials or
dried food products.


Verbally aggressive exchanges between intimate partners are more likely during times of stress. Therefore, the present study examines (i) whether partners' proneness to anger mediates the association between stress and verbal aggression and (ii) the degree to which individual and dyadic coping moderate associations among stress, anger, and aggression. Effective individual and dyadic coping reduces the effects of stress on aggression. Moreover, dyadic coping may attenuate associations between stress and both anger and verbal aggression. Individuals reporting adaptive and maladaptive coping typically differed in verbal aggression when stress was low, but not when stress was high. This is consistent with the notion that stressors govern strong negative emotion displayed in marriage. Implications of these findings for interventions that mitigate the effects of stress on relationships are discussed.


Internet content filters -- promising a technological solution to the uniquely social problem of widespread availability of adults-only content on the Internet -- appear to shift the debate over control of "cyberporn" from the legislative to the technical. Yet a growing number of commentators are expressing serious reservations about the free speech implications of filters. In this Article, I note that the ever-changing relationship between technology, network economics, and legal doctrine in the new economic and ideological marketplace of Cyberspace will fundamentally impact any constitutional analysis. I argue that the existing literature's analytic reliance on expansive concepts of state action is ill-founded: both vulnerable to technological and legislative manipulation and finding little doctrinal support. Instead, I outline an approach based on First Amendment theories of association, arguing that this "associative" approach -- supported by current precedent -- is the most promising among several alternatives for providing an adaptive and powerful constitutional framework for evaluating indirect government regulation of the Internet.


In much of William Carlos Williams' (1883-1963) writing, there is a palpable self-consciousness, as if he were constantly positioning himself as an American poet, a writer of literary works. So much so, in fact, that we may speak of this as a role and a persona being constantly performed and thereby sustained. For example, The Great American Novel (1923) is filled with opposing voices which question the very project in which the speaker is engaged. I argue that this incorporated hostility allows Williams to position himself in the complex field of power relations which conditions his work and of which it forms part. Bearing in mind that The Great American Novel was written in an America of prohibition and frequent censorship, published in France and thus very rare in the US, we can see that Williams had good reason to engage in these acts of self-positioning and perform the role of the American author. For many of Williams' contemporaries, Europe, and especially Paris became a haven of artistic freedom. Paris offered an artistic environment which America was perceived as lacking. Williams stands out in his seemingly adamant decision to stay. Despite many setbacks in his native country, Williams remained rooted in an environment which often did not offer much acknowledgement of his work as literary. At the same time, his choice of location made it harder for him to be perceived as a truly literary figure in Europe as well. In his journals and letters, we can see that Williams was not always wholly sure why he chose to stay in the US, but in my paper, I demonstrate that his positioning of the literary self in America and therefore on the periphery allows him to perform the part of the American poet against the grain. Also, and most importantly, I claim that the act of staying in America does not make Williams independent of Europe. On the contrary, it is through the idea of Europe that Williams is able to perform the role of the American writer.


Since the release of the documentary Blackfish in 2013, millions around the world have focused on the plight of the orca, the most profitable and controversial display animal in history. Yet, until now, no historical account has explained how we came to care about killer whales in the first place. Drawing on interviews, official records, private archives, and his own family history, Jason M. Colby tells the exhilarating and often heartbreaking story of how people came to love the ocean's greatest predator. Historically reviled as dangerous pests, killer whales were dying by the hundreds, even thousands, by the 1950s--the victims of whalers, fishermen, and even the US military. In the Pacific Northwest, fishermen shot them, scientists harpooned them, and the Canadian government mounted a machine gun to eliminate them. But that all changed in 1965, when Seattle entrepreneur Ted Griffin became the first person to swim and perform with a captive killer whale. The show proved wildly popular, and he began capturing and selling others, including Sea World's first Shamu. Over the following decade, live display transformed views of Orcinus orca. The public embraced killer whales as charismatic and friendly, while scientists enjoyed their first access to live orcas. In the Pacific Northwest, these captive encounters reshaped regional values and helped drive environmental activism, including Greenpeace's anti-whaling campaigns. Yet even as Northwesterners taught the world to love whales, they came to oppose their captivity and to fight for the freedom of a marine predator that had become a regional icon. This is the definitive history of how the feared and despised "killer" became the beloved "orca"--and what that has meant for our relationship with the ocean and its creatures.


The creative industries workforce requires employees that use ICT applications to solve the knowledge related tasks at work. The aim of this research is twofold: (1) to see if previously cited twenty-first century digital skills are suited to the creative industries workforce and (2) to investigate the extent to which skill development get attention in current organizational practices. In-depth interviews were conducted with a sample of 24 managers and senior executives of creative organizations based in the Netherlands. As a guideline for the interviews, a conceptual twenty-first century digital skills framework was used. This framework presented the following seven core skills supported by the use of ICT: technical, information management, communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving. The following five contextual skills that play a role when using ICT were also presented: ethical awareness, cultural awareness, flexibility, self-direction, and lifelong learning. The results support the importance of twenty-first century digital skills, however, there seems to be insufficient attention to the levels of these skills; they play a minor role during the selection and evaluation procedures. Often it is assumed that existing digital skills are sufficient. Managers are encouraged to improve on developing requirements necessary for future employees as well as measurements to ensure current employees skill levels. The developed framework might be used as a management tool for indicating skills that need to be assessed among professionals working in the creative industries.


This essay seeks to explain the constitutive role that space-time plays in the dynamics of capital accumulation. Through a close reading of David Harvey's work, I show that time and space work together in ways particular to the capitalist mode of producing, distributing, selling, consuming and disposing of commodities. This does not, I argue, mean that space-time is reducible to capital accumulation — there are, to be sure, other forms of space-time that are relatively autonomous from the now dominant mode of production. My aim is not to provide a definitive account of space-time tout court but, instead, to show both the organic connection between space and time within capitalism specifically as well as the necessary — rather than simply contingent — role that space-time plays in the dynamics of accumulation. My argument is that capitalist space is inconceivable in abstraction from capitalism's temporal compulsions, and that space-time functions as a concrete abstraction that internalizes the whole gamut of contradictions that Marx identified over a century ago. The essay makes its analytical contribution by surveying previous Marxist and non-Marxist contributions to understanding space and time in the social sciences, en route to a close reading of Harvey's Limits to Capital. The political implications of paying careful attention to capitalist space-time are explored by counter-posing Harvey's work with Doreen Massey's recent writings about spatio-temporality.


But if the attorney momentarily glances to the left, he or she will spot a dozen or so journalists in the two rows of seats reserved for the press. If it's a high profile case-Bush v. Gore comes to mind-there might be as many as one hundred or more journalists squeezed between and obscured behind the Court's stately columns. A handful of artists for the television networks furiously sketch the scene on large pads propped up on their laps. The journalists bring no cameras to court, not even tape recorders and certainly not cell phones (see sidebar). One mechanical device-a pneumatic tube used to pump the rulings handed down by the Court to the pressroom below-has long been removed. When an attorney or a party to the appeal wants to talk with the media after arguments, the path winds out of the courtroom, through the Great Hall, and down the steps to the outside plaza. Only there are the media permitted to set up cameras and microphones for interviews. Some attorneys and their clients are eager for the media attention. Attorneys for the U.S. government never break stride to talk there with the press. And the justices themselves? Forget it! Covering the U.S. Supreme Court is unlike covering any other institution in Washington, D.C., and I've covered just about all of them. The justices hold no news conferences. Some justices even seek to bar cameras when they make public speeches to organizations away from the Court. It's quite a contrast to the White House, where every public movement of the President is intensely covered by the media, if only because the media fear that they might not be there when something goes wrong. On Capitol Hill, there are 535 members of Congress, most of whom are eager-sometimes too eager-to talk with the press. How, then, does a journalist cover the Supreme Court? Covering the Court There is no shortage of lawyers in the United States. And there is no dearth of information about the cases that are brought to the Supreme Court. Each case has a legal history-lawsuits, trials, petitions, writs, appeals. It's a research-heavy assignment for journalists. When I was new to the beat, I asked one justice whether I could call him if I had a question about a case or a ruling. No, he said, and suggested that I call those smart former clerks and law professors. "They'll tell you how I think," the justice said. That's just what a Supreme Court correspondent does. We read briefs and talk to lawyers. Some of the correspondents covering the Supreme Court are lawyers themselves. Familiarity with the law is, of course, beneficial. Other reporters come to the beat with journalistic skills honed on campaign trails and in government corridors. In any event, the breadth of cases ranges beyond any individual lawyer's expertise. The Court receives as many as 9,000 appeals during a single court term. The justices actually hear arguments in only about eighty cases a year. The weeding-out process starts with the justices' law clerks. Each justice has three or four clerks, all top graduates of topnotch law schools. The clerks vet the appeal petitions for cases most likely to pose constitutional questions or raise issues where lower courts are in conflict. Ultimately, the justices themselves decide which cases they will hear. Four out of the nine justices are required to "grant cert." That puts the case on track to be heard by the Court. The bulk of petitions are "denied cert." In terms of media coverage, nothing upsets the justices more than a headline that says "Supreme Court Upholds ..." when all the Court has done is deny a hearing. That means that the lower court ruling stands, but the Supreme Court has not taken a direct position on the case. The court's shorthand-denying without explanation-clashes with the headline writer's shorthand. A case may be denied cert because the issue has been decided elsewhere, because it is "not ripe" for consideration, or because the justices know of a similar case with better, more optimal facts in the legal pipeline, which they are waiting for in order to decide all related cases. …


Abstract. Flood estimation and flood management have traditionally been the domain of hydrologists, water resources engineers and statisticians, and disciplinary approaches abound. Dominant views have been shaped; one example is the catchment perspective: floods are formed and influenced by the interaction of local, catchment-specific characteristics, such as meteorology, topography and geology. These traditional views have been beneficial, but they have a narrow framing. In this paper we contrast traditional views with broader perspectives that are emerging from an improved understanding of the climatic context of floods. We come to the following conclusions: (1) extending the traditional system boundaries (local catchment, recent decades, hydrological/hydraulic processes) opens up exciting possibilities for better understanding and improved tools for flood risk assessment and management. (2) Statistical approaches in flood estimation need to be complemented by the search for the causal mechanisms and dominant processes in the atmosphere, catchment and river system that leave their fingerprints on flood characteristics. (3) Natural climate variability leads to time-varying flood characteristics, and this variation may be partially quantifiable and predictable, with the perspective of dynamic, climate-informed flood risk management. (4) Efforts are needed to fully account for factors that contribute to changes in all three risk components (hazard, exposure, vulnerability) and to better understand the interactions between society and floods. (5) Given the global scale and societal importance, we call for the organization of an international multidisciplinary collaboration and data-sharing initiative to further understand the links between climate and flooding and to advance flood research.


IN AN ARTICLE ENTITLED "Size Matters: Penile Problems in Sagas of Icelanders" published in 2007, I set out to evaluate the usefulness (or otherwise) of psychoanalytic theory as a lens through which to examine the relationship between men's bodies and their gendered identities in the medieval Norse-speaking world. I wrote at the beginning of that article that determining the relative importance of nature and culture is a central problem in the understanding of human gender and sexuality, and the issues at stake become most pressing at the site where biology and culture meet: the human body, especially those parts of the body that are endowed with significance as markers of gender or instruments of sexual activity. (Phelpstead 2007, 420) In "Size Matters" I was particularly interested in the way that the penis was endowed with meaning within culture, specifically how it was constructed as a marker of gendered identity. Other parts of human bodies are also, of course, culturally constructed as marking gender, and this essay continues the dialogue between psychoanalytic theory and the study of medieval masculinities by turning to a different part of human anatomy: hair. When examining Icelandic texts about castration, erectile dysfunction, and an oversized penis it seemed impossible to ignore psychoanalytic theory. It is true that for some critics psychoanalytic theory is self-evidently devoid of value, but as I argued in my earlier article, whatever its therapeutic efficacy, psychoanalysis is embedded in contemporary discourse to such an extent that it inevitably informs one's thinking about issues of gender and sexuality; in such a situation its claims warrant interrogation (Phelpstead 2007, 421). My earlier article concluded that Freudian psychoanalytic theory has limitations as a framework for analyzing medieval Icelandic texts but suggested that there might be advantages in developing an approach that is sensitive both to history and to the insights offered by psychoanalysis because psychoanalytic theory claims to account for the way in which a phenomenon may both be a biological reality and also signify culturally, i.e. have meaning. Thus, a psychoanalytical approach that takes account of historical context might provide a path between cultural constructionism (where because everything is "cultural" the concept of "culture" becomes meaningless) and biological determinism (where biology explains everything, leaving no space for meaning) (cf. Phelpstead 2007, 434). I suggested that the seeds of a more historically sensitive psychoanalytic approach might be found not in the work of Sigmund Freud but in that of the French psychoanalytic theorist Jacques Lacan. Lacan develops Freud's ideas about castration to suggest that men and women "lack" a phallus which--importantly--is symbolic rather than anatomical. (1) He uses the terra "phallus" to refer not to the anatomical organ, but rather to that which the organ symbolizes, a transcendental signifier to which the subject relates "sans egard a la difference anatomique des sexes" (Lacan 1971a, 104) ["without regard to the anatomical difference of the sexes" (312)]. Gender is constructed in relation to this social signifier so that, as Robert Mills puts it, the (Lacanian) phallus represents "what male subjects (think they) have and what female subjects (are considered, culturally speaking, to) lack" (2004, 110). Because the phallus, in Lacan's sense, is symbolic, it need not necessarily be associated with the penis. Lacan himself argues that, paradoxically enough, at a certain stage of psychological development a woman's clitoris is "promu ... a la fonction du phallus" (1971a, 105) ["raised to the function of the phallus" (313)]. (2) The penis will often symbolize that which Lacan calls the phallus, but this need not be so. It is therefore possible that the symbolic work of the phallus might at times be carried out by a different part of the physical organism. …


. It is misleading to speak of warfare between science and Christian theology, as Andrew White did in 1896. White also was mistaken in exaggerating the conflict between the church and Galileo and Copernicus. The more important issue between science and theology has to do with the mechanistic interpretation of nature. When he introduced the principle of inertia in his natural philosophy, Rene Descartes insisted that God's immutability renders it impossible for God to intervene in the creation. He reduced the idea of God to a deistic notion by speaking of motion exclusively as a property of bodies. Even though Isaac Newton offered a different view, the Cartesian view dominated subsequent thinking. This made dialogue with theology difficult. Michael Faraday, followed by Albert Einstein, introduced the idea of field; bodily phenomena were subordinated as manifestations of fields. The precursor of the idea of field is the Stoic idea of spirit, which is close to the biblical concept of spirit. Thomas Torrance and I have taken this concept of field as an occasion to reopen dialogue. Mechanistic thinking accounts for the tension between Darwinian thought and theology. In principle the tension can be resolved, because the Bible itself asserts that all living things were brought from the earth—that is, organic life emerged from inorganic matter. Thus, emergence, contingency, and novelty are consistent with Darwinian evolutionary thinking. Contingency can be related conceptually to the activity of God in creation.


Graphene, Gapped and Butterflied The remarkable transport properties of graphene, such as the high electron mobility, make it a promising material for electronics. However, unlike semiconductors such as silicon, graphene's electronic structure lacks a band gap, and a transistor made out of graphene would not have an "off" state. Hunt et al. (p. 1427, published online 16 May; see the Perspective by Fuhrer) modulated the electronic properties of graphene by building a heterostructure consisting of a graphene flake resting on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), which has the same honeycomb structure as graphene, but consists of alternating boron and nitrogen atoms instead of carbons. The natural mismatch between the graphene and hBN lattices led to a moire pattern with a large wavelength, causing the opening of a band gap, the formation of an elusive fractional quantum Hall state, and, at high magnetic fields, a fractal phenomenon in the electronic structure called the Hofstadter butterfly. A band gap is observed in a monolayer graphene–hexagonal boron nitride heterostructure. [Also see Perspective by Fuhrer] van der Waals heterostructures constitute a new class of artificial materials formed by stacking atomically thin planar crystals. We demonstrated band structure engineering in a van der Waals heterostructure composed of a monolayer graphene flake coupled to a rotationally aligned hexagonal boron nitride substrate. The spatially varying interlayer atomic registry results in both a local breaking of the carbon sublattice symmetry and a long-range moiré superlattice potential in the graphene. In our samples, this interplay between short- and long-wavelength effects resulted in a band structure described by isolated superlattice minibands and an unexpectedly large band gap at charge neutrality. This picture is confirmed by our observation of fractional quantum Hall states at ±53 filling and features associated with the Hofstadter butterfly at ultrahigh magnetic fields.


The pre-eminent figure in mid-Victorian psychological medicine, Dr. John Conolly had his reputation damaged in the 1850s by scandals linking him to cases of wrongful confinement, including one that figures in Charles Reade's novel, Hard Cash. This essay looks at two major works Conolly published during the scandals and argues that they are responses to the charges against him. Both works focus on representations of insanity in art, rather than actual patients. "The Physiognomy of Insanity" (1858-59) is a series of essays on photographic portraits of asylum patients, and his essays prove to be more fictional than factual. A Study of Hamlet (1863) looks at the ambiguity of madness in Shakespeare's portrayal of Hamlet, but it explains how Conolly understood the relationship between fact and fiction in cases of insanity. In both works, Conolly defends himself as an aesthete and defines his diagnostic method as a deliberate and necessary form of impressionism.


1. Modification of potato (Solanum tuberosum) lectin with acetic anhydride blocked 5.1 amino and 2.7 tyrosyl groups per molecule of lectin and decreased the haemagglutinating activity of the lectin. De-O-acetylation regenerated 2.0 of the tyrosyl groups and resulted in a recovery of activity. 2. Modification with citraconic anhydride or cyclohexane-1,2-dione did not greatly affect activity, although modification of amino and arginyl groups could be demonstrated. 3. Treatment with tetranitromethane nitrated 3.7 tyrosine residues per molecule of lectin with concomitant loss of activity. The presence of 0.1m-NN'N''-triacetylchitotriose (a potent inhibitor of the lectin) in the reaction medium protected all the tyrosyl residues from nitration and the lectin was fully active. 4. Modification of tryptophyl groups with 2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl bromide and 2,3-dioxoindoline-5-sulphonic acid modified 0.9 and 2.6 residues per molecule of lectin respectively with a loss of activity in each case. Reaction of potato lectin with 2,3-dioxoindoline-5-sulphonic acid in the presence of inhibitor protected 2.4 residues of tryptophan from the reagent. Loss of haemagglutination activity was prevented under these conditions. 5. Reaction of carboxy groups, activated with carbodi-imide, with alpha-aminobutyric acid methyl ester led to the incorporation of 5.3 residues of the ester per molecule of lectin. Presence of inhibitor in this case, although protecting activity, did not prevent modification of carboxy groups; in fact an increase in the number of modified residues was seen. This effect could be imitated by performing the reaction in 8m-urea. In both cases the number of carboxy groups modified was close to the total number of free carboxy groups as determined by the method of Hoare & Koshland [(1967) J. Biol. Chem.242, 2447-2453]. Guanidination of lysine residues after carboxy-group modification gave less homoarginine than did the unmodified lectin under the same conditions, suggesting the formation of intramolecular cross-links during carbodi-imide activation. 6. It is suggested from the results presented that amino, arginyl, methionyl, histidyl and carboxyl groups are not involved in the activity of the lectin and that tyrosyl and tryptophyl groups are very closely involved. These findings are similar to those reported for other proteins that bind N-acetylglucosamine oligomers and also fit the general trend in other lectins.


Contemporary sensorimotor learning approaches typically start with an existing complex agent (e.g., a robotic arm), which they learn to control. In contrast, this paper investigates a modular co-evolution strategy: a collection of primitive agents learns to dynamically self-assemble into composite bodies while also learning to coordinate their behavior to control these bodies. Each primitive agent consists of a limb with a motor attached at one end. Limbs may choose to link up to form collectives. When a limb initiates a link-up action, and there is another limb nearby, the latter is magnetically connected to the 'parent' limb's motor. This forms a new single agent, which may further link with other agents. In this way, complex morphologies can emerge, controlled by a policy whose architecture is in explicit correspondence with the morphology. We evaluate the performance of these dynamic and modular agents in simulated environments. We demonstrate better generalization to test-time changes both in the environment, as well as in the structure of the agent, compared to static and monolithic baselines. Project video and code are available at this https URL


Ryanodine receptors (RyRs) are intracellular channels that release calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) in response to either plasma membrane depolarization (in skeletal muscle) or increases in the concentration of intracellular free Ca2+ (in the heart). A gene (beta 4) encoding a ryanodine receptor (similar to, but distinct from, the muscle RyRs) was identified. The beta 4 gene was expressed in all tissues investigated, with the exception of heart. Treatment of mink lung epithelial cells (Mv1Lu) with transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) induced expression of the beta 4 gene together with the release of Ca2+ in response to ryanodine (but not in response to caffeine, the other drug active on muscle RyRs). This ryanodine receptor may be important in the regulation of intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis.


Middle level managers are expected to play a critical role in translating organizational policies and strategies into practice and action. They have an important role in providing information/input to strategy formulation, and in motivating and energizing employees at lower levels but studies in some large Indian organization in both the public and the private sector show that these managers themselves feel like i°victimsi± and experience a sense of powerlessness in their organizations; they are the ones who express the most negative emotions about any organizational change effort; they feel a sense of stagnation in terms of real personal and professional growth in spite of receiving promotions at fairly predictable intervals; they assume a i®spectatori¯ rather than an i®actori¯ stance in the organization; and they do not see themselves as a part of the i°reali± management. As a result, the middle and senior management performance remains far below the potential. Taking into consideration the importance of middle managers in the organization and a critical review of literature which revealed that the study on work motivation, burnout and intention to leave has not been conducted so far on the middle level managers of garment industry of Delhi and NCR (India), the researcher found a gap to be filled by conducting an investigation on this sample for the variables in question. So the sample of the present study consists of the middle level managers of garment industry of Delhi and NCR (India). Thus, a convenient sampling method was used for drawing the sample from 60 garment export houses of Delhi and 40 of NCR (India). This paper gives a deep insight of work motivation, burnout and intention to leave for the middle level managers of the garment industry of Delhi/NCR (India). In this paper the researcher has checked the relationship of all dimensions of work motivation with the dimensions of burnout and intention to leave and have observed that all dimensions of work motivation have some more or less relationship with each dimension of burnout and intention to leave.


Background This abstract highlights the ethical and scientific considerations that informed the development and review of the Nigeria PrEP demonstration study protocol. Methods A desk review was conducted on all the meeting reports that led to the choice of the study design and the decisions made to modify the protocol for the PrEP demonstration project in Nigeria. The study focused on the ethical and scientific rationales for modifying the Partners' PrEP Sero-discordant protocol for this study as well as for the first and second protocol amendments of this study. Results The decision to conduct a PrEP study was based on the outcome of a modelling study that suggested that sero-discordant couples will benefit from access to condom, TasP, and PrEP. Next, the decisions on the target population for the PrEP demonstration study, the models for evaluation at specific project site, and the design of the community engagement programme were reached through a formative research which engaged 611 individuals using multiple media. The study did not exclude study participants based on Hepatitis status and HIV risk profile since Truvada was an effective hepatitis treatment and the prevalence of hepatitis infection is high in Nigeria. Participants' interest in PrEP use was considered enough reason to prescribe PrEP in a country where uptake of ARV is slow and stigma associated with ARV use is high. Also, HIV-negative partners could assess when the viral load of the HIV-positive partner was 400 copies/ml. Since adherence was a challenge for PrEP use, adherence was enhanced through the use of the MEMS Cap. Conclusions A PrEP demonstration study that mimics real life scenarios for PrEP provision within public health care institutions and is designed on the basis of community consultations, ethical and scientific considerations, will enhance the success of PrEP roll-out in resource-limited settings like Nigeria.


In the present study, 12 patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) consumed eucaloric, mixed food diets on three consecutive days. Diets provided 50% of the calories as carbohydrate, 35% as fat, and 15% as protein. The percent of carbohydrate fed as complex (starches) and simple (monoand disaccharides) varied among the 3 days. On day 1, the diet contained 80% of the carbohydrate as complex and 20% as simple (80/20); another contained 50% complex and 50% simple (50/50); and the final diet contained 20% of the carbohydrate as complex and 80% as simple (20/80). All simple carbohydrates represent naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. No refined sugars were added to any of the diets. The three experimental diets were randomly assigned using a 3 × 3 Latin square design. Blood was obtained hourly from 0800 to 1700 h for day-long glucose and insulin concentrations, and 24-h urine collections were made for the measurement of urine glucose. Mean (± SEM) day-long glucose concentrations were significantly greater for the 80/20 diet (2245 ± 199 mg/dl · h, P < 0.05) than for either the 50/ 50 (2030 ± 157 mg/dl · h) or the 20/80 diets (2008 ± 160 mg/dl · h). No significant differences were noted between the 50/50 and the 20/80 diets. In contrast, day-long insulin concentrations were not significantly different with 401 ± 62, 370 ± 50, and 369 ± 60 μU/ ml · h on the 80/20, 50/50, and 20/80 diets, respectively. Twenty-four-hour urinary glucose excretion paralleled plasma glucose concentrations. Significant differences were noted when the 80/20 diet (25.1 ± 4.5 g/ 24 h, P < 0.05) was compared with the 20/80 diet (9.7 ± 3.3 g/24 h). Substantial quantitative differences also existed between the 80/20 and 50/50 (12.2 ± 4.5 g7sol;24 h), but these differences did not reach statistical significance. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that variations in relative proportions of naturally occurring, complex and simple dietary carbohydrate will have no deleterious effect on glycemia in patients with NIDDM. Thus, there seems to be no apparent reason why patients with NIDDM should avoid foods that are high in naturally occurring, simple carbohydrate.


Background Falls of elderly people may cause permanent disability or death. Particularly susceptible are elderly patients in rehabilitation hospitals. We systematically reviewed the literature to identify falls prediction tools available for assessing elderly inpatients in rehabilitation hospitals. Methods and Findings We searched six electronic databases using comprehensive search strategies developed for each database. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity were plotted in ROC space graphs and pooled across studies. Our search identified three studies which assessed the prediction properties of falls prediction tools in a total of 754 elderly inpatients in rehabilitation hospitals. Only the STRATIFY tool was assessed in all three studies; the other identified tools (PJC-FRAT and DOWNTON) were assessed by a single study. For a STRATIFY cut-score of two, pooled sensitivity was 73% (95%CI 63 to 81%) and pooled specificity was 42% (95%CI 34 to 51%). An indirect comparison of the tools across studies indicated that the DOWNTON tool has the highest sensitivity (92%), while the PJC-FRAT offers the best balance between sensitivity and specificity (73% and 75%, respectively). All studies presented major methodological limitations. Conclusions We did not identify any tool which had an optimal balance between sensitivity and specificity, or which were clearly better than a simple clinical judgment of risk of falling. The limited number of identified studies with major methodological limitations impairs sound conclusions on the usefulness of falls risk prediction tools in geriatric rehabilitation hospitals.


According to the U.S. Department of Education, each fall approximately 14 million students enroll in colleges and universities. In this era of global knowledge and loss of American stature in the international marketplace, today's graduates do possess a valuable commodity - a degree from an American college or university. The investment of time, money, and energy made by college students over the ensuing four years will certainly define their own futures as well as those of the nation and the world. The authors provide encouraging knowledge as to how undergraduates can take full advantage and control of their college experiences, particularly as a vital connecting point between the structured learning environment of the classroom and the unstructured learning environment of the outside world. In-depth interviews with university presidents, leading researchers, and corporate and education visionaries offer unique and, in many cases, overlooked clues to academic satisfaction. In addition, course advisors, who express cautious optimism over the myriad choices in the educational system, and students, who speak frankly about their attempts to adapt to life on campus, bring an immediacy to the perspectives needed in defining the expectations of an undergraduate education. Inside College is a book of timely importance not only for students and their parents, but also for college educators and administrators, psychologists, economists, sociologists, and government and business leaders interested in the progress of higher learning in America.


The reproducible synthesis of the unusual ionic aluminum compd. [Tl3F2Al(OR)3]+[Al(OR)4]- (1) is reported. In the reaction of Li[Al(OR)4] [R = C(H)(CF3)2] with TlF the initially desired Tl[Al(OR)4] only formed with an exact 1:1 stoichiometry, while an excess of TlF led to [Tl3F2Al(OR)3]+[Al(OR)4]- (1). Addnl. the x-ray single crystal structure of the byproduct [(ROH)TlAl(OR)3(m-F)]2 (2) was detd. Compds. 1 and 2 were characterized by x-ray single crystal structure detns. and 1 also by NMR spectroscopy and an elemental anal. In 1 the [Tl3F2Al(OR)3]+ cation forms a trigonal bipyramid with a pentacoordinate aluminum atom. Three Tl+ cations cover the [F2Al(OR)3]2- dianion core and the charge of the resulting [Tl3F2Al(OR)3]+ cation is compensated by a weakly coordinating [Al(OR)4]- anion. Compd. 2 contains a centrosym. [Al(OR)3(m-F)]22- dianion core with pentacoordinate aluminum atoms building a distorted edge sharing double trigonal bipyramid. The [Al(OR)3(m-F)]22- dianion coordinates two [Tl(ROH)]+ cations giving the non charged mol. [(R-OH)TlAl(OR)3(m-F)]2 (2). Based on BP86/SVP (DFT-) and lattice enthalpy calcns. a pathway of the reaction is proposed to rationalize the formation of the [M3F2Al(OR)3]+ cation upon reaction of Li[Al(OR)4] with MF for M = Tl but not for M = Cs (cf Cs+ and Tl+ have very similar ionic radii). Using a suitable Born-Haber cycle and in agreement with the expt., the enthalpies of the reaction of two M[Al(OR)4] with two MF giving [M3F2Al(OR)3]+[Al(OR)4]- and MOR are favorable for M = Tl by 127 kJ/mol but endothermic for the formation of the hypothetical [Cs3F2Al(OR)3]+[Al(OR)4]- by 95 kJ/mol. It is suggested that in the reaction leading to 1 initially Tl[Al(OR)4] is formed, followed by an abstraction of TlOR and Al(OR)3. The latter very strong Lewis acid reacts subsequently with an excess of TlF yielding 1. [on SciFinder (R)]


Drugging the Poor-Merrill Singer 2007-08-10 Singer offers a fresh set of ideas for understanding how the global socioeconomic system insures that massive quantities of psychotropic drugs reach the poorest sectors of American society. Drugging the Poor provides a unified theoretical framework to assess how all drugs, including tobacco, heroin, alcohol, cocaine, and diverted pharmaceuticals contribute to maintaining social inequality among the wealthier and poorer social classes in American society. Singers analysis rejects conventional approaches that see tobacco or alcohol manufacturers and distributors, on the one hand, and drug cartels and mafias, on the other, as completely different entities. Instead, he shows how legal and illegal drug corporations share key features and follow the same economic principles. He also emphasizes that mixing legal and illegal drugs to self-medicate against social discrimination, poverty, and structural violence offers short-term relief, but in the long run, it functions to maintain an unjust and oppressive system. Drugging the Poor actively challenges the assumption that how things are is how they always have been or how they need to be.


Information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) evolved as a field of development cooperation in conjunction with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2003 and 2005. Prior to this United Nations summit, few donors were involved in ICT4D, but as policymakers around the world became involved in the WSIS process, ICT4D emerged as an important aspect of the global development agenda. Donors started to recognize that ICT offered a tool for development, not least for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). After the WSIS interest dwindled among leading donor agencies, but resurfaced as mobile technologies became widespread even in income-poor countries and among poor populations and after the digitally mediated social uprisings of the so-called Arab Spring which highlighted the social and political significance of the internet. New actors are becoming involved including philanthropic organizations, while the ICT4D field continues to explore new working methods like multistakeholder partnerships. Meanwhile, ICT is gradually becoming integrated into development efforts, although global patterns of digital stratification still remain to be overcome. This entry focuses on the roles of donor organizations and their networks


The Total Quality Management (TQM) wave has been sweeping the nation. Its implementation is not restricted merely to industry, but has seeped into all sectors, including the educational sector. This paper outlines the initiation of the application of Total Quality Management in an academic department and the research centre of a business school over a period of one year. The entire process brought out a keener awareness of the goals of the school and the departments, with a strong focus on the needs of "customers-constituents" of the departments and pilot projects applying TQM concepts to selected key activities.


The Entity Linking task consists in automatically identifying and linking the entities mentioned in a text to their URIs in a given Knowledge Base, e.g., Wikipedia. Entity Linking has a large im- pact in several text analysis and information retrieval related tasks. This task is very challenging due to natural language ambiguity. However, not all the entities mentioned in a document have the same relevance and utility in understanding the topics being dis- cussed. Thus, the related problem of identifying the most relevant entities present in a document, also known as Salient Entities, is attracting increasing interest. In this paper we propose SEL, a novel supervised two-step algo- rithm comprehensively addressing both entity linking and saliency detection. The first step is based on a classifier aimed at identi- fying a set of candidate entities that are likely to be mentioned in the document, thus maximizing the precision of the method with- out hindering its recall. The second step is still based on machine learning, and aims at choosing from the previous set the entities that actually occur in the document. Indeed, we tested two dif- ferent versions of the second step, one aimed at solving only the entity linking task, and the other that, besides detecting linked en- tities, also scores them according to their saliency. Experiments conducted on two different datasets show that the proposed algo- rithm outperforms state-of-the-art competitors, and is able to detect salient entities with high accuracy.


The growing interest of research in the field of renal stem cells and kidney regeneration aims to get results that allow its clinical application, favoring the birth and development of regenerative medicine. Nephrogenesis requires differentiation into epithelial cells of a population of progenitor mesenchymal cells. Since this process ends at 36-38 weeks of gestational age, it is quite likely to imagine that such a population disappears in the human kidney after birth. However, several studies have identified in different parts of the adult kidney cells having the characteristics of stem cells that would be involved in renal regenerative processes. They may be classified as resident mesenchymal/epithelial progenitors and often share the same genetic and epigenetic profile as progenitor stem cells active during embryonic life, thus suggesting a common origin. Current literature includes two lines of thought: one attributes to stem cells a fundamental role in renal regeneration processes while the other sustains the intervention of other mechanisms. The aim of this review is to report on progress made in research in the field of kidney regeneration starting from the past century and arriving at the present, with an analysis of scientific works that have produced the most important results in this field. Proceedings of the 2 nd International Course on Perinatal Pathology (part of the 11 th International Workshop on Neonatology · October 26 th -31 st , 2015) · Cagliari (Italy) · October 31 st , 2015 · Stem cells: present and future Guest Editors: Gavino Faa, Vassilios Fanos, Antonio Giordano


Abstract. MIPAS is a Fourier transform spectrometer, operating onboard of the ENVISAT satellite since July 2002. The online retrieval algorithm produces geolocated profiles of temperature and of volume mixing ratios of six key atmospheric constituents: H 2 O, O 3 , HNO 3 , CH 4 , N 2 O and NO 2 . In the validation phase, oscillations beyond the error bars were observed in several profiles, particularly in CH 4 and N 2 O. To tackle this problem, a Tikhonov regularization scheme has been implemented in the retrieval algorithm. The applied regularization is however rather weak in order to preserve the vertical resolution of the profiles. In this paper we present a self-adapting and altitude-dependent regularization approach that detects whether the analyzed observations contain information about small-scale profile features, and determines the strength of the regularization accordingly. The objective of the method is to smooth out artificial oscillations as much as possible, while preserving the fine detail features of the profile when related information is detected in the observations. The proposed method is checked for self consistency, its performance is tested on MIPAS observations and compared with that of some other regularization schemes available in the literature. In all the considered cases the proposed scheme achieves a good performance, thanks to its altitude dependence and to the constraints employed, which are specific of the inversion problem under consideration. The proposed method is generally applicable to iterative Gauss-Newton algorithms for the retrieval of vertical distribution profiles from atmospheric remote sounding measurements.