Geogrid reinforcements have been used by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) to construct stable subgrade foundations and to provide a working platform for construction over weak and soft soils. Use of geogrid reinforcement in a pavement system ensures a long‐lasting pavement structure by reducing excessive deformation and cracking. The main objectives of this research were to evaluate the mechanical interaction between a subgrade soil and an aggregate base layer with and without a geogrid in place at the interface. A series of large‐scale direct shear tests were performed to investigate the effects of geogrid properties, such as geogrid aperture area, junction strength, and tensile strength, on the interface shear strength of soil‐geogrid‐aggregate systems. The test results showed that the aperture size and junction strength of the geogrids were relatively important factors affecting the overall interface shear strength the most. The average values for the peak interface shear strength coefficient for the three normal stresses (50 kPa, 100 kPa and 200 kPa) considered in this study ranged from 0.96 to 1.48. In addition, the test results showed that the average peak interface shear strength coefficient increases with increases in the junction strength of the geogrid. The optimum aperture area of the geogrid was found to be equal to 825 mm2 (1.4 in2 ) for the subgrade soil and aggregate considered in this study. There was no significant correlation between the geogrid tensile strength at 2% strain and the average peak interface shear strength coefficient. The effect of the moisture content of the subgrade soil on the peak interface shear strength coefficient was also investigated. The peak interface shear strength coefficient for the subgrade soil sample prepared at the optimum moisture content and compacted to relative compaction values of 94–96% (Rsoil = 95–96% and Raggregate = 94–95%) and tested under a normal stress of 100 kPa was 20% less than that for the subgrade soil sample prepared at a moisture content 4% above the optimum moisture content. Based on the results of the tests performed in this study, an aperture area requirement of 825 mm2 (1.4 in2) and a junction strength requirement of 11.5 kN/m (788 lb/ft) were suggested as preliminary guidelines for subgrade reinforcement systems. These requirements are only limited to the use of Type IV geogrid (INDOT specification 207.04) for subgrade reinforcement with aggregate No. 53.


We studied temporal dynamics and regulation of oxygen metabolism in the upper mixed layer of a nutrientrich shallow Danish lake by continuous measurements of oxygen, irradiance, wind, and temperature and frequent measurements of algal chlorophyll, organic pools, and inorganic nutrients. Chlorophyll, algal growth rate, and mean irradiance (Emean) in the mixed surface layer were calculated daily from continuous measurements of irradiance and temperature with depth. There were three to four distinct maxima in gross primary production (GPP) and community respiration (R) during the summer season and minima from fall to spring after broad‐scale changes in irradiance, temperature, mixing depth, and biomass and growth rate of the algal community and concentrations of inorganic nutrients. Lake metabolism was annually balanced (mean GPP :R 1.04 in 2003 and 1.01 in 2004), with net autotrophy occurring mainly from mid‐May to mid‐September (mean GPP:R 1.14 in 2003 and 1.10 in 2004), and net heterotrophy outside this period (mean GPP:R 0.60 in 2003 and 0.81 in 2004). However, GPP :R varied two‐ to threefold from day to day because lower surface irradiance, higher mixing depth, and thus lower Emean significantly reduced GPP. Normalizing GPP to chlorophyll provided an index of algal growth potential (GPPB), which followed a hyperbolic relationship to Emean, and both parameters were related to blooms and collapses of algal biomass. Metabolic rates were much more variable from day to day than algal biomass, which integrates growth and loss processes over longer periods. The continuous approach to lake metabolism provides better data and can provide a more accurate picture than averages of a few discrete measurements. Weekly averages reflected the characteristic seasonal peaks and troughs also observed for algal biomass, whereas monthly averages did not. Daily measurements of lake metabolism, therefore, can provide the optimal background for evaluating temporal changes and regulation of algal biomass and organic pools in nutrient‐rich shallow lakes.


Optimizing processors for specific application(s) can substantially improve energy-efficiency. With the end of Dennard scaling, and the corresponding reduction in energyefficiency gains from technology scaling, such approaches may become increasingly important. However, designing applicationspecific processors require fast design space exploration tools to optimize for the targeted application(s). Analytical models can be a good fit for such design space exploration as they provide fast performance estimations and insight into the interaction between an application's characteristics and the micro-architecture of a processor. Unfortunately, current analytical models require some microarchitecture dependent inputs, such as cache miss rates, branch miss rates and memory-level parallelism. This requires profiling the applications for each cache and branch predictor configuration, which is far more time-consuming than evaluating the actual performance models. In this work we present a micro-architecture independent profiler and associated analytical models that allow us to produce performance and power estimates across a large design space almost instantaneously. We show that using a micro-architecture independent profile leads to a speedup of 25× for our evaluated design space, compared to an analytical model that uses micro-architecture dependent profiles. Over a large design space, the model has a 13% error for performance and a 7% error for power, compared to cycle-level simulation. The model is able to accurately determine the optimal processor configuration for different applications under power or performance constraints, and it can provide insight into performance through cycle stacks.


Conventional arguments identify either the median justice or the opinion author as the most influential justices in shaping the content of Supreme Court opinions. We develop a model of judicial decision making that suggests that opinions are likely to reflect the views of the median justice in the majority coalition. This result derives from two features of judicial decision making that have received little attention in previous models. The first is that in deciding a case, justices must resolve a concrete dispute, and that they may have preferences over which party wins the specific case confronting them. The second is that justices who are dissatisfied with an opinion are free to write concurrences (and dissents). We demonstrate that both features undermine the bargaining power of the Court's median and shift influence towards the coalition median. An empirical analysis of concurrence behavior provides significant support for the model.


The second performance of Debussy9s String Quartet, given by the Ysaye Quartet on an all-Debussy program during the 1894 salon of "La Libre EsthŽtique" in Brussels, offers an ideal context for a critical reexamination of his musical and aesthetic affinities at this pivotal moment. In the first place, a view to the salon9s other three concerts, which honored Beethoven alongside recent works by Societe Nationale composers, encourages reconsideration of Debussy9s own response to the "great tradition" in the work he ironically designated "Opus 10." But at the same time, due regard to his other contemporaneous compositional obsessions, as exemplified in the works programmed alongside the Quartet, raises the question as to how such self-conscious dialogue with Classical models related to more pressing, post-Wagnerian musical negotiations. Pursuit of this question through analysis of the first movement9s reconfigured sonata form ultimately suggests ways to distinguish, from amid the myriad post-Impressionist artists on view in the "Free Aesthetic" salon itself, those painters whose visual explorations most tellingly paralleled Debussy9s own "games" with musical syntax and expression in the early 1890s.


* Master essential grammar * Boost your vocabulary * Improve your TOEFL score! * Collins Vocabulary and Grammar for the TOEFL Test is designed to help students master the vocabulary and grammar that they require to get a high score in the TOEFL test. This book also exposes students to the task types they will encounter in the TOEFL test. There are tips and strategies for how to approach the various test tasks which will enable students to improve their skills, gain confidence, and achieve the score they need. It is ideal for use alongside Collins Skills for the TOEFL iBT Test: Reading and Writing and Collins Skills for the TOEFL iBT Test: Speaking and Listening. Collins Vocabulary and Grammar for the TOEFL Test features: * An overview of each part of the TOEFL test * Twenty thematically-organised units of vocabulary, & twenty units of grammar practice, identifying the key grammar points most needed in each part of the test * MP3 audio CD * Full audio script and answer key - ideal for use in the classroom and for self-study * Academic word list - a useful reference tool containing the key vocabulary students need for the TOEFL test Each unit is laid out in a clear, easy-to-follow style with practice activities and guidance to enable efficient practice for the TOEFL test. Each unit contains: * Overview - for quick reference on the core vocabulary or g grammar of the unit * Study tips - to help students to remember what they have learned and improve their study technique * Test practice activities - set in the style that students will encounter them in the test, to help familiarize students with all aspects of the test * Test tips - useful tips to help students improve their performance on Test day * Vocabulary building feature - to increase students' lexical ability Collins Vocabulary and Grammar for the TOEFL Test is powered by language from the Collins COBUILD corpus. The 4.5-billion-word Collins Corpus is the world's largest database of the English language and is updated every month. You can be sure the language you learn is up-to-date.


Student-managed portfolios provide opportunities for real investment decision making experiences. Students function in clearly defined professional roles, gain experience, and are accountable for the fund's processes and decisions. The authors describe the $2 million student-managed portfolio at the University of Delaware and detail its governance processes. A student team of 45 analyzes equity investment ideas and authorizes and carries out trades. The fund's governance means its implementation of ideas is slower than it would be with a professional money manager. The authors test a hypothesis that the fund's inclusive and deliberate governance and its process of authorizing and making trades negatively impact returns in the short run. If prices move systematically during the wait between when the selection of a buying or selling opportunity and the trade, then the delayed execution could "leave money on the table." The analysis of all 61 trades made in an 18-month period ending March 31, 2017, shows that the student-managed portfolio does not miss out on short-term abnormal returns from its trade ideas. In fact, the fund's buys are marked by a −2.2% CAR in the (−10, −6) pre-trade period. The fund's governance and value orientation seem to lead to buying stocks that underperformed prior to the trade.


In this paper, we apply Polanyi9s double movement to characterize the potential and observed impacts of public-private and public-philanthropic partnerships for the development of pro-poor value chains. We highlight the contradiction between the goals of these partnerships in international agricultural development, which seek to shift power dynamics and counter market exclusion, and the internal logic of these hybrid governance approaches, which reflect the tensions of market society from which they come. We present case studies from Honduras, Peru, and Mali of agricultural public-private and public-philanthropic partnerships and their constituent actors, identifying roles and relationships among actors that personify double movement negotiations within pro-poor market-oriented development. The cases highlight the implications for civil society actors of hybrid governance systems that utilize market mechanisms to address the destructive tendencies of capitalist development. We conclude that partnerships characterized by a mismatch of responsibilities and power relations among civil society and private actors generate a new type of double movement that does not generate durable institutions and that limits the impacts of the partnerships for poor farmers.


In Europe 2020: A European strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, the European Commission has set a target for 3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in R&D. This target, which is supposed to help place the EU on a par with the United States in the knowledge-based economy, was at the center of the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. Ten years later the target remains elusive. Among EU nations, only Finland and Sweden devote in excess of 3% of their GDP to R&D.

How then should we view the 3% target, and what does it mean for the EU's efforts to achieve its broader socioeconomic objectives under Europe 2020? Research in the 7th Framework Project on Finance, Innovation, and Growth (FINNOV), has studied the role of R&D in the innovation process, and its impact on equitable and stable economic growth. Based on our research, we view the 3% target as a problematic indicator. It diverts attention from the vast differences in R&D spending across industries and even across firms within an industry. It also can mask significant differences in the complementary levels of R&D investments by governments and businesses that are required to generate superior economic performance. Finally due to its high costs it may even cause negative growth for those firms that do not have the complementary characteristics that are needed for R&D to have any effect on firm growth


The cease-fire of August 1994, in Northern Ireland, has held for sufficiently long to raise the prospect of a permanent peace. Peace in Northern Ireland should be valued and cherished in its own right, because it restores to life, a normalcy that most other societies take for granted. But, it would be a mistake to view peace as offering a glorious opportunity for economic development. Instead, it would be more realistic to see the permanent end of political violence as one less constraint inhibiting the process of economic development in Northern Ireland. In the absence of the constraint that the Troubles imposed upon the Northern Ireland economy, the province's economic problems are slightly more tractable, but they continue, nevertheless, to be formidable. The two main economic problems facing Northern Ireland are those of high unemployment and industrial decline. This paper argues that in order to solve these problems, Northern Ireland will have to break free of a "dependency culture" that has vitiated its economic life for the past half-century. There are four facets to this dependency: fiscal; industrial; social; and educational. Any serious attempt to find a lasting solution to Northern Ireland's economic ills must, as a pre-condition, address these issues. Otherwise, a lasting peace will not be mirrored in greater prosperity.


The notion or idea of science, quite aside from actual scientific enterprises, has achieved tremendous cultural power and prestige in modern society. The four studies in this special issue of Nova Religio on science and new religious movements indicate not only this newfound power, but also the contentious nature of its definition as well as its limits. The four articles reveal how founders, leaders and practitioners of new religious movements seek the authoritative mantle of science, and with it a perceived legitimacy, as well as challenge normative (Western) approaches to science assumed in much of modern society. In fact, these new religions generally seek to supplant normative Western science with the alternative religious-scientific systems they champion.


By employing the surface and bulk micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) techniques, we design and demonstrate a simple and miniature optical Fabry-Perot interferometric pressure sensor, where the loaded pressure is gauged by measuring the spectrum shift of the reflected optical signal. From the simulation results based on a multiple cavities interference model, we find that the response range and sensitivity of this pressure sensor can be simply altered by adjusting the size of sensing area. The experimental results show that high linear response in the range of 0.2-1.0 Mpa and a reasonable sensitivity of 10.07 nm/MPa (spectrum shift/pressure) have been obtained for this sensor.


Although sexual isolation is one of the most important causes of speciation, its genetic basis is largely unknown. Here evidence is presented that suggests that sexual isolation between two closely related species of Drosophila is largely caused by differences in female cuticular hydrocarbons. This difference maps to only one of the three major chromosomes, implying that reproductive isolation might have a fairly simple genetic basis. The effect of the hydrocarbons on courtship may help explain the ubiquitous asymmetry of sexual isolation between many pairs of Drosophila species.


Background Qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) generates rich data which would seem ideal for exploring the dynamic experiences of patients towards the end of life, yet most studies in palliative care are cross-sectional. Aim Taking a case study from a QL project I will highlight the rich analytical possibilities which result from QLR compared to a snapshot approach, while reflecting on the challenges and how they can be overcome. Methods The project adopted a qualitative longitudinal design, employing indepth interviews with 16 participants with metastatic colorectal cancer who had advanced disease but were expected to survive a year. Narrative and thematic analyses were employed to capture the major issues and themes at each time point and longitudinal analysis was conducted to explore how the participants' experiences evolved over time. Key findings Thematic analysis at each time point allows the researcher to synthesise the experiences of the group as they approach the end of their lives. Although useful for informing practice, thematic techniques may neglect the nuances of the individual experience. Narrative techniques allow the researcher to maintain the participant's story rather than fragmenting it, thus better capturing the individual experience. Longitudinal analysis further enhances this interrogation as it follows changes over time. Managing the immense volume of data that is generated in QLR can be challenging so the use of a carefully designed strategy for the analysis, and a qualitative research computer package (such as NVivo) can confront some of the complexities. Conclusions The range of analytical possibilities available in QLR means that with careful planning and reflexive practice the benefits outweigh the challenges. The findings can inform us about how the participant's experience changes in real time which is not possible with cross-sectional analysis. Such research can help model patient-centred healthcare which is responsive to dynamic needs.


The patterns of expenditure on major tourist products by Singaporean tourists are analysed. The total
household expenditure of the tourists is highly significant in influencing expenditure on transport, food,
accommodation, recreational services and souvenirs. The elasticities of expenditure for the tourist products
are 0.84 for food items, 0.63 for transport, 0.79 for accommodation, 1.32 for recreational services and 1.49 for
souvenirs. Based on the expenditure coefficient, food, transport and accommodation are classified as
necessities, while services and souvenirs tend to be considered as luxuries by tourists.


Policies for rural areas have become an important but complex policy field in the European Union`s Common Agricultural Policy. In this paper we present a programming approach to analyse the EAFRD budget allocation in Saxony-Anhalt. The approach has been interactively developed with representatives from our partner Ministry. The model is used to analyse and discuss optimisation potentials and the effects of reduced budget availabilities facing Saxony- Anhalt. The results obtained reveal a rather high optimisation potential and reflect the importance of the co-financing modalities within the EAFRD and the GAK context. Budget cuts would severely affect the allocation of funds and the financing mode.


Optimal planning and scheduling for a communication network was created where the nodes within the network are communicating at the highest possible rates while meeting the mission requirements and operational constraints. The planning and scheduling problem was formulated in the framework of Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) to introduce a special penalty function to convert the MIP problem into a continuous optimization problem, and to solve the constrained optimization problem using heuristic optimization. The communication network consists of space and ground assets with the link dynamics between any two assets varying with respect to time, distance, and telecom configurations. One asset could be communicating with another at very high data rates at one time, and at other times, communication is impossible, as the asset could be inaccessible from the network due to planetary occultation. Based on the network's geometric dynamics and link capabilities, the start time, end time, and link configuration of each view period are selected to maximize the communication efficiency within the network. Mathematical formulations for the constrained mixed integer optimization problem were derived, and efficient analytical and numerical techniques were developed to find the optimal solution. By setting up the problem using MIP, the search space for the optimization problem is reduced significantly, thereby speeding up the solution process. The ratio of the dimension of the traditional method over the proposed formulation is approximately an order N (single) to 2*N (arraying), where N is the number of receiving antennas of a node. By introducing a special penalty function, the MIP problem with non-differentiable cost function and nonlinear constraints can be converted into a continuous variable problem, whose solution is possible.


Social integration (SI) and perceived social support (SS) are associated with reduction in premature mortality, while poor marital quality (MQ), and social conflict (SC) are associated with negative health outcomes. Systemic inflammation has been proposed as a mechanism accounting for these associations. However, the literature exploring the association between aspects of social relationships and inflammation has yielded inconsistent findings. The extent to which daily social interactions may play a role in the association of SI, SS, MQ, and SC with inflammatory markers in humans is currently unknown. The literature also shows stronger evidence for links between inflammation and SC, than between inflammation and positive relationship features, although these two sets of associations have rarely been compared in the context of a single study. Using ecological momentary assessment of social measures, this project aims to examine the relationship between daily social interaction characteristics and inflammatory markers, CRP and IL-6, and to compare negative interactions with positive interactions in their association with inflammatory biomarkers, in a sample of 494 men and women, using a cross-sectional design. This results of this study show no significant associations between global measures of social integration, social support, and marital quality, and either inflammatory biomarker. There was also no association found between the frequency of social interactions and the proportion of negative social interactions with inflammatory biomarkers. However, in this sample, the proportion of positive interactions was positively associated with CRP level. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to test the robustness of this finding and it was found that this association existed in married individuals, females, and particularly, married females, suggesting that this finding may not be robust and should be interpreted with caution. And lastly, in a subsample of married individuals, there was no association found between the frequency and quality of marital interactions and either inflammatory marker.


Context. Several empirical studies have explored the benefits of software design patterns, but their collective results are highly inconsistent. Resolving the inconsistencies requires investigating moderators—i.e., variables that cause an effect to differ across contexts. Objectives. Replicate a design patterns experiment at multiple sites and identify sufficient moderators to generalize the results across prior studies. Methods. We perform a close replication of an experiment investigating the impact (in terms of time and quality) of design patterns (Decorator and Abstract Factory) on software maintenance. The experiment was replicated once previously, with divergent results. We execute our replication at four universities—spanning two continents and three countries—using a new method for performing distributed replications based on closely coordinated, small-scale instances ("joint replication"). We perform two analyses: 1) a  post-hoc analysis of moderators, based on frequentist and Bayesian statistics; 2) an a priori  analysis of the original hypotheses, based on frequentist statistics. Results. The main effect differs across the previous instances of the experiment and across the sites in our distributed replication. Our analysis of moderators (including developer experience and pattern knowledge) resolves the differences sufficiently to allow for cross-context (and cross-study) conclusions. The final conclusions represent 126 participants from five universities and 12 software companies, spanning two continents and at least four countries. Conclusions. The Decorator pattern is found to be preferable to a simpler solution during maintenance, as long as the developer has at least some prior knowledge of the pattern. For Abstract Factory, the simpler solution is found to be mostly equivalent to the pattern solution. Abstract Factory is shown to require a higher level of knowledge and/or experience than Decorator for the pattern to be beneficial.


Personalization has been extensively studied by scholars both in information systems and business. With a strong technological emphasis in mind, personalization techniques are widely applied in web context for recommending appropriate products and services for users. Typically, personalization has remained marketer-oriented, where service provider makes the decision of suitable products or services that are recommended for users. That viewpoint follows the goods-dominant (G-D) logic principles, where service providers use personalization to deliver services for the customer. In this paper, we examine personalization of entire service process, not only the technical interfaces used as service touchpoints. We focus our study on personalization in the healthcare service processes by using ser-vice-dominant (S-D) logic as our analytical lens. A case study was conducted by analyzing the depression care pathway of a Finnish healthcare service provider. As a result, we recognized different categories of service personalization, which were supported and mediated through information systems. We recognized three primary categories of personalization: coercive personalization, data display personalization, and collaborative personalization. In all these service personalization categories, information technology played a role, which could range from fully automated personalization to support provided for the physician and the healthcare user for collaborative decision making. The present results are well aligned with findings of other researchers on role of technology in personalization, and provide additional insight on role of information systems in service level personalization.


We consider competitive capacity investment for a duopoly of two distinct producers. The producers are exposed to stochastically fluctuating costs and interact through aggregate supply. Capacity expansion is irreversible and modeled in terms of timing strategies characterized through threshold rules. Because the impact of changing costs on the producers is asymmetric, we are led to a nonzero-sum timing game describing the transitions among the discrete investment stages. Working in a continuous-time diffusion framework, we characterize and analyze the resulting Nash equilibrium and game values. Our analysis quantifies the dynamic competition effects and yields insight into dynamic preemption and over-investment in a general asymmetric setting. A case-study considering the impact of fluctuating emission costs on power producers investing in nuclear and coal-fired plants is also presented.


Singapore, a small island city-state depends on four sources, namely local catchment, imported water from Malaysia, desalinated water, and NEWater, to provide for its daily water consumption of about 1.36 million m 3  per day. NEWater, a high grade reclaimed water, is key in achieving water sustainability through the multiplying effect of water reuse. In addition to being used for direct non-potable use (DNU) in wafer fabrication processes and other industrial processes, NEWater is being injected into surface reservoirs for indirect potable use (IPU). To ensure the safety of NEWater for IPU, PUB has adopted a multi barrier safety approach. The multi safety barrier approach starts from source and extends to taps in households in stages, namely source control; greater than 85% of wastewater from domestic source; comprehensive secondary wastewater treatment; microfiltration (MF) process, reverse osmosis (RO) process and ultra-violet (UV) disinfection in NEWater production; natural attenuation in surface reservoirs; as well as conventional water treatment process of coagulation, flocculation, sand filtration and disinfection. The approach is further enhanced by a comprehensive water quality monitoring programme that includes emerging contaminants of concern and a strict operating philosophy. The water quality test results are in turn reviewed by experts from local universities as well as overseas experts of international standing. Over the years of operations, NEWater has been found to be well within WHO Drinking Water Guidelines and USEPA Drinking Water Standards and each safety barrier has a significant role to play in ensuring the safety of NEWater for IPU.


Unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, are becoming increasingly popular in today's society on both hobby and commercial levels. One million drones are built every year across the globe. In the United States alone, 5,168 businesses have already been granted permission to make use of UAVs, mainly in the agriculture and aerial videography/photography sectors. However, the principal use of drones today is still hobby and recreation. In this paper, I focus on the exciting applications of UAVs, which are emerging today or will be available in near future. These include: package delivery, emergency response and medical uses, meteorology, education, inspections, and even wildlife conservation. I cover drones of all sizes, starting from micro- and mini-UAVs and ending with optionally piloted aircraft. I explain the reluctance of our society to embrace this innovation, despite the many benefits it offers to mankind. Any new technological development is initially accompanied by misconceptions and fear from the general public. It is important that all users who employ UAVs do so responsibly.


Even before the current economic downturn, states were finding it increasingly difficult to fund their Medicaid programs. In part, states may have become victims of their own recent good fortune. With the economy prospering in the latter half of the 1990s and tax dollars flowing in, few states saw the need for significant cuts in Medicaid spending, as such cuts could prove both socially painful and politically unpopular.


An electronic microarray has been used to carry out directed self-assembly of higher order 3D structures from biotin/streptavidin, DNA and enzyme derivatized nanoparticles. Structures with up to fifty layers of alternating biotin and streptavidin, DNA and enzyme nanoparticles were fabricated using a 400 site CMOS microarray system. In this process, reconfigurable electric fields produced by the microarray were used to rapidly transport, concentrate and accelerate the binding of 40 and/or 200nm nanometer bio-derivatized nanoparticles to selected sites on the microarray. The nanoparticle layering process takes less than one minute per layer. The nanoparticle addressing/binding process was monitored by changes in fluorescence intensity as each nanoparticle layer was deposited. The final multilayered 3-D structures are about two microns in thickness and 50 microns in diameter. Most recently we have successfully fabricated enzymenanoparticle layers with streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase, glucose oxidase-avidin, and streptavidin-HRP. Up to 47 layers were addressed with 200nm nanoparticles and enzyme activity was retained in the assembled structure. This work represents a unique example of combining "topdown" and "bottom-up" technologies into a novel nanofabrication process. Such a process will be useful for the hierarchal assembly of 3D nano, micro, and macrostructures for a variety of electronic/photonic, nanomaterials, energy (photovoltaics, fuel cells, batteries) and biosensor applications.


Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is a major cause of significant time loss to sports participation, as well as reportedly leading to an increased risk of osteoarthritis (OA). Knee instability and functional adaptations are likely to occur following injury to the ACL, despite many ACL-deficient (ACLD) patients displaying no, or minimal, visible impairment. ACL reconstruction (ACLR) is the most common form of treatment for physically active individuals following an ACL injury. The aim of most individuals is to return to preinjury levels of physical activity after ACLR. However, most individuals experience persistent changes to lower extremity biomechanics well after completing structured rehabilitation and being cleared to return to activity. Despite this, there is little data available on individuals with an ACLD, or ACL-reconstructed ACLR knee and biomechanical alterations leading to the development of OA. Numerous studies that have investigated walking gait have found significant reductions in peak internal knee extensor moment, and small reductions in peak knee flexion angle, with individuals adopting a quadriceps avoidance gait pattern during walking. One of the most common activities pre- and post- surgery is running, and it is not known whether individuals before and after ACLR knee have different knee kinematic and kinetic patterns to healthy individuals. However, in general clinical practice, the option to ask the individual to run and to assess this is limited, and so a more space-optimised clinical assessment is needed. Therefore, the single leg squat (SLS) has been chosen as the measure to assess these individuals. No previous study has been found on kinematics and kinetics before and after ACLR during running and SLS. Therefore, the research question of this thesis is to determine whether there is an alteration in the kinematics and kinetics of hip and knee joints, along with the related risk factors for patellofemoral pain syndrome and OA, before and after ACLR during running and SLS. This research aimed, in the first study, to establish within-day and between-days reliability for the use of 3D motion analysis to measure the biomechanical variables for running and SLS tasks. This study concludes that for between and within-day sessions, specific variables demonstrated good and excellent levels of consistency (ICC=0.80-0.99), and exhibited standard errors of measurement that have relatively low values.
The second study investigated the hip and knee joints' kinematics and kinetics six to eight months after ACLR, and compared the outcomes between the injured limb and non- injured limb (n=34), and a control group (n=34). This showed that ACLR individuals, despite a return to sport and being deemed medically fit, still have performance issues, which could be related to PF joint pathology and OA. This study found that the injured limb of the ACLR group showed a significant reduction in peak internal knee extensor moment and impulse, knee flexion angle and external knee adduction moment (p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.04 respectively) compared to the control group during running. On comparing the injured and non-injured limbs in ACLR, an increase in hip internal rotation angle, coupled with a reduction in knee flexion angle, peak internal knee extensor moment and impulse (p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.01 respectively) was found during running. Comparing the injured and non- injured limbs in SLS, revealed an increase in hip internal rotation angle coupled with knee adduction angle, in addition to a reduction in peak internal knee extensor moment (p=0.01, p=0.01, p=0.04 respectively). The control group compared to the injured limb of the ACLR group during SLS, showed reductions in peak internal knee extensor moment (p=0.01); whereas the non-injured limb of the ACLR group revealed an increase in hip internal rotation moment, and a reduction in peak internal knee extensor moment (p=0.04, p=0.01 respectively). The third study investigated hip and knee joint kinematics and kinetics before, and three and six months after ACLR, during running and a SLS task to compare between the injured limb and non-injured limb (n=6), and the control group (n=6). This was to examine whether these factors develop over time, which could be related to PF joint pathology and OA. The findings show that there was a reduction in the peak internal knee extensor moment and impulse three and six months post ACLR between limbs, and in comparison to the injured limb for the ACLR group and the control group (p=0.01, p=0.01 respectively). In addition, significant differences were noted before, and three and six months after ACLR, during running (p=0.01, p=0.01 respectively), as well as SLS between limbs three months after ACLR. At the same time, within the ACLR group, there was a significant reduction in knee flexion angles during running three and six months after ACLR between limbs. The results of this thesis show that following ACL reconstruction, individuals in this thesis showed some specifically altered knee joint kinematics and kinetics. The reduction in peak internal knee extensor moment and knee flexion angle was in an effort to reduce or avoid the contraction of the quadriceps; namely, quadriceps avoidance. These reductions may
contribute towards patellofemoral joint disorders, thereby increasing the risk of degenerate joint disease commonly found post-surgery. The results of this thesis may help to guide the development of new or alternative treatment options for improving long-term joint health after an ACL injury.


The labelling of non-traumatic shoulder pain related to the structures of the subacromial space has been debated for many years. Historically, labelling of shoulder diagnoses and exploring theories about the underlying causes of shoulder pain are interrelated. Many authors use the phrase 'syndrome' describing a combination of findings, often occurring together, with an unknown or heterogeneous underlying pathogenesis. As such, Dr Charles Neer introduced the diagnostic label of 'subacromial impingement syndrome' (SIS) of the shoulder in 1972. This label was based on the mechanism of structural impingement of the structures of the subacromial space. This concept has been the dominant theory of injury to the rotator cuff tendons and other structures in the subacromial space, and has served as the rationale for clinical tests, surgical procedures and rehabilitation protocols.

However, the label of SIS is now controversial, as recent evidence suggests that this concept does not fully explain the mechanism.1–3 Until a few years ago, SIS was a widely accepted 'umbrella' term for a number of possible underlying structural or biomechanical causes. Throughout the years, the description progressed from SIS to 'impingement related shoulder pain', with the growing opinion that 'impingement' represents a cluster of symptoms and a possible mechanism for the pain, rather than a pathoanatomic diagnose itself. The …


BACKGROUND
Pemphigus is a common autoimmune blistering disorder in India. However, there are no population based surveys from India available to study the prevalence of this disease.

AIMS
To estimate the incidence of pemphigus in Thrissur district, Kerala, South India.

METHODS
Questionnaire based survey was conducted among the practicing dermatologists of Trichur district between 1 st January 2001 and 1 st January 2002 to determine the incidence of pemphigus in the district.

RESULTS
Ten cases of pemphigus vulgaris, one case of pemphigus erythematosus, and two cases of pemphigus foliacious were diagnosed during the study period in a population of 2.9 million in Thrissur district. The average age of pemphigus vulgaris patients was 58years in males [42 to 82 years] and 37 in females [25 to 57 years]. The average age of the two male pemphigus foliacious patients was 46 years [52 and 40 years] and the only pemphigus erythematosus patient was a 45 year-old female.Five cases of pemphigus vulgaris were investigated clinically histopathologically and by using direct immunofluorescence, while two were investigated clinically and histopathologically, two cases clinically, and one case clinically and with Tzanck smear. Two cases ofpemphigus foliacious were diagnosed with the aid of direct immunofluorescence and the only case of pemphigus erythematosus was diagnosed with the aid of direct immunofluorescence. Pemphigus vulgaris was common among females. The incidence of pemphigus in Thrissur district is 4.4 per million.

CONCLUSIONS
This study indicates that the incidence of pemphigus in Thrissur district is high in comparison to the available studies from Germany, France, and the North African country Tunisia.


The paper first considers the the implication of Bourdieu's philosophy of social science for the analysis of the trans-national transfer of his work. It then attempts to chart the interaction between Bourdieu's French production and the English-language reception within the United Kingdom. It does so by following his production in chronological sequence and by attempting to insert the emergence of his "English identity" into the same biographical time-line, focusing on successive decades. In spite of the shift in Bourdieu's production from the field of anthropology to that of sociology in the 1960s, his work was mainly known at the time in the UK as the product of a new field of "Mediterranean" anthropology. The sociological work of the 1960s in respect of students and their studies was received in the UK in the 1970s as the sociology of education whilst the analyses of photography and art galleries was not received in the UK as sociology of culture until the late 1980s. In both cases, the demarcations in the institutionalised fields of reception concealed the extent to which Bourdieu's work had defied these sub-categorisations of sociology precisely so as to resist the development of an a-social autonomisation of cultural artefacts and to insist that sociological analyses should take account of the power of symbolic interaction. Proceeding chronologically, the paper emphasizes the importance for the intellectual field of reception of changes in the institutional structure of British universities after 1970, and also discusses the impact on the reception of Bourdieu's work of the phase of "postmodern" enthusiasm in which the commodification of Bourdieu's texts neutralised their intended political effects. Finally, the paper touches on the author's own participation from 1990 in the reception and interpretation of Bourdieu's texts in the UK and concludes with some comments on the contemporary struggle to appropriate Bourdieu's post mortem reputation.


We performed a cross-sectional study (n = 49 males, 57 females) and a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled dietary intervention study (n = 31/32 per group) to determine the effect of folate and vitamin B12 (B12) on DNA damage (micronucleus formation and DNA methylation) and plasma homocysteine (HC) in young Australian adults aged 18-32 years. None of the volunteers were folate deficient (i.e. red blood cell folate <136 nmol/l) and only 4.4% (all females) were vitamin B12 deficient (i.e. serum vitamin B12 <150 pmol/l). The cross-sectional study showed that (i) the frequency of micronucleated cells (MNCs) was positively correlated with plasma HC in males (R = 0.293, P < 0.05) and (ii) in females MNC frequency was negatively correlated with serum vitamin B12 (R = -0.359, P < 0.01) but (iii) there was no significant correlation between micronucleus index and folate status. The results also showed that the level of unmethylated CpG (DNA) was not significantly related to vitamin B12 or folate status. The dietary intervention involved supplementation with 3.5x the recommended dietary intake (RDI) of folate and vitamin B12 in wheat bran cereal for three months followed by ten times the RDI of these vitamins via tablets for a further three months. In the supplemented group, MNC frequency was significantly reduced during the intervention by 25.4% in those subjects with initial MNC frequency in the high 50th percentile but there was no change in those subjects in the low 50th percentile for initial MNC frequency. The reduction in MNC frequency was significantly correlated with serum vitamin B12 (R = -0.49, P < 0.0005) and plasma HC (R = 0.39, P < 0.006), but was not significantly related to red blood cell folate. DNA methylation status was not altered in the supplemented group. The greatest decrease in plasma HC (by 37%) during the intervention was observed in those subjects in the supplemented group with initial plasma HC in the high 50th percentile, and correlated significantly with increases in red blood cell folate (R = -0.64, P < 0.0001) but not with serum vitamin B12. The results from this study suggest that (i) MNC frequency is minimized when plasma HC is below 7.5 micromol/l and serum vitamin B12 is above 300 pmol/l and (ii) dietary supplement intake of 700 microg folic acid and 7 microg vitamin B12 is sufficient to minimize MNC frequency and plasma HC. Thus, it appears that elevated plasma HC, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, may also be a risk factor for chromosome damage.


Uncertainty evaluation constitutes a key feature of BEPU (Best Estimate Plus Uncertainty) process. The uncertainty can be the result of a Monte Carlo type analysis involving input uncertainty parameters or the outcome of a process involving the use of experimental data and connected code calculations. Those uncertainty methods are discussed in several papers and guidelines (IAEA-SRS-52, OECD/NEA BEMUSE reports). The present paper aims at discussing the role and the depth of the analysis required for merging from one side suitable experimental data and on the other side qualified code calculation results. This aspect is mostly connected with the second approach for uncertainty mentioned above, but it can be used also in the framework of the first approach. Namely, the paper discusses the features and structure of the database that includes the following kinds of documents: 1. The' RDS-facility' (Reference Data Set for the selected facility): this includes the description of the facility, the geometrical characterization of any component of the facility, the instrumentations, the data acquisition system, the evaluation of pressure losses, the physical properties of the material and the characterization of pumps, valves and heat losses; 2. The 'RDS-test' (Reference Data Set for the selected test of the facility):more » this includes the description of the main phenomena investigated during the test, the configuration of the facility for the selected test (possible new evaluation of pressure and heat losses if needed) and the specific boundary and initial conditions; 3. The 'QR' (Qualification Report) of the code calculation results: this includes the description of the nodalization developed following a set of homogeneous techniques, the achievement of the steady state conditions and the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the transient with the characterization of the Relevant Thermal-Hydraulics Aspects (RTA); 4. The EH (Engineering Handbook) of the input nodalization: this includes the rationale adopted for each part of the nodalization, the user choices, and the systematic derivation and justification of any value present in the code input respect to the values as indicated in the RDS-facility and in the RDS-test. (authors)« less


This guide will provide an introduction to United States law for those new to the study of United States law or anyone looking for a general overview.


We propose that analysis of purchasing power parity (PPP) and the law of one price (LOOP) should explicitly take into account the possibility of commodity points' thresholds delineating a region of no central tendency among relative prices, possibly due to lack of perfect arbitrage in the presence of transaction costs and uncertainty. More than eighty years ago, Heckscher stressed the importance of such incomplete arbitrage in the empirical application of PPP. We devise an econometric method to identify commodity points. Price adjustment is treated as a nonlinear process, and a threshold autoregression (TAR) offers a parsimonious specification within which both thresholds and adjustment speeds are estimated by maximum likelihood methods. Our model performs well using post-1980 data reasonable: adjustment outside the thresholds might imply half-lives of price deviations measured in months rather than years and the thresholds correspond to popular rough estimates as to the order of magnitude of actual transport costs. The estimated commodity points appear to be positively related to objective measures of market segmentation, notably nominal exchange rate volatility.


Depressive illnesses are widespread and potentially fatal through suicide. The majority of depressions which come to the notice of doctors are treated solely by GP's. Diagnosis of the severe case is easy but many patients with milder depressions present with symptoms of a somatic nature. Prevalence increases with age, reaching a peak during the period age 55-64. The disease is commoner in women than in men. Vulnerable times are during the puerperium and also after bereavement. Because of the self-limiting nature of depressive episodes, systematic screening of whole populations would be unrewarding. In practice, the GP must be the effective screening agent. Despite active interest in the biological and biochemical concomitants of depression, the only 'objective' procedures available to date as screening instruments are psychological questionnaires. The Beck Depression Inventory is quoted as a research instrument which maybe useful in this field, although this has not yet been validated in the setting of general practice. Early diagnosis of depression has become much more importany in general practice since the advent of antidepressant made treatment possible in this setting


Japan is one of the world's leading marine fishing nations in globalized industrial fisheries, yet the mainstay of the national fishing industry continues to be small-scale fisheries with their own set of cultural and environmental heritage. The cultural tradition of the Japanese fishing communities still preserves the various ways of understanding local weather, which are mainly based on landscape perception and forecasting knowledge. The prediction of weather conditions for a given location and time is part of a long-established historical tradition related to the need for an "easy" understanding of the climatic and maritime environment. It encompasses a variety of practical experiences, skillful reasoning strategies, and cultural values concerning indigenous environmental knowledge, decision-making strategies, and habitual applications of knowledge in everyday life. Japanese traditional forecasting culture interfaces with modern meteorological forecasting technologies to generate a hybrid knowledge, and offers an example of the complex dialogue between global science and local science. Specifically, interpretations and meteorological observations of local weather are modes of everyday engagement with the weather that exhibit a highly nuanced ecological sophistication and continue to offer a critical discourse on the cultural, environmental, and social context of Japanese small-scale fisheries. Indigenous weather understanding is bound up with community-based cultural heritage—religious traditions, meteorological classifications, proverbs, traditional forecasting models, and selective incorporation or rejection of scientific forecasting data—that offers a general overview of the interaction between community know-how, sensory experience, skills, and cultural practices.


The importance of the osteological evidence as a source for ritual practices in ancient Greece is gradually becoming widely recognized. Animal bones form the only category of evidence for Greek cult which is constantly increasing, and they can complement and elucidate the information provided by texts, inscriptions and images. This volume brings together sixteen contributions exploring ritual practices and animal bones from different chronological and geographical perspectives, foremost ancient Greece in the historical period, but also in the Bronze Age and as early as the Neolithic period, as well as Anatolia, France and Scandinavia, providing new empirical evidence from a number of major sanctuaries and cult-places. On a methodological level, the complexity of identifying ritual activity from the osteological evidence is a recurrent theme, as is the prominence of local variation visible in the bone material, suggesting that the written sources and iconography may offer simplified or idealized versions of the rituals actually performed. Although osteology needs to and should be integrated with other kinds of sources, the independent study of the bones in an unbiased manner is of utmost importance, as the bones can provide a different "reality" than that encountered in our other sources.


Abstract Despite the growing geological evidence that fluid boiling and vapour-liquid separation affect the distribution of metals in magmatic-hydrothermal systems significantly, there are few experimental data on the chemical status and partitioning of metals in the vapour and liquid phases. Here we report on an in situ measurement, using X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy, of antimony speciation and partitioning in the system Sb2O3-H2O-NaCl-HCl at 400°C and pressures 270-300 bar corresponding to the vapour-liquid equilibrium. Experiments were performed using a spectroscopic cell which allows simultaneous determination of the total concentration and atomic environment of the absorbing element (Sb) in each phase. Results show that quantitative vapour-brine separation of a supercritical aqueous salt fluid can be achieved by a controlled decompression and monitoring the X-ray absorbance of the fluid phase. Antimony concentrations in equilibrium with Sb2O3 (cubic, senarmontite) in the coexisting vapour and liquid phases and corresponding SbIII vapour-liquid partitioning coefficients are in agreement with recent data obtained using batch-reactor solubility techniques. The XAFS spectra analysis shows that hydroxy-chloride complexes, probably Sb(OH)2Cl0, are dominant both in the vapour and liquid phase in a salt-water system at acidic conditions. This first in situ XAFS study of element fractionation between coexisting volatile and dense phases opens new possibilities for systematic investigations of vapour-brine and fluid-melt immiscibility phenomena, avoiding many experimental artifacts common in less direct techniques.


Background: Scientific studies demonstrate efficacy of yogic treatment methods in stress and anxiety related disorders, psychosomatic disorders and physical illness. Very few studies have been conducted on schizophrenic patients. Aims: This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of yoga therapy on subjective well-being, basic living skills, self-care, interpersonal, communicational and routine functions of schizophrenic patients. Materials and Methods: Thirty chronic schizophrenic hospitalized patients were selected from Ranchi Institute of Neuro-Psychiatry and Allied Sciences, Ranchi and were randomly assigned to the experimental group (yoga therapy along with Pharmacotherapy, n=15), and to control group (Pharmacotherapy alone, n=15). Baseline assessment was done using Post Graduate Institute general well-being measure (GWBM), Checklist for basic living skills and Indian disability evaluation and assessment scale (IDEAS). The experimental group attended yoga therapy every day for about 1½ h including motivational and feedback session. After 1 month post-assessment was done for both the groups. Statistical Analysis: Pearson Chi-square test was used for comparing the results. Results: At the end of 1 month experimental group showed better rating in comparison to control group in PGI GWBM, basic living skills and IDEAS. Conclusion: Yoga could improve patients' subjective well-being, their daily basic living functioning, personal hygiene, self-care, interpersonal activities and communication, and prompted more involvement in routine work.


High-throughput environmental DNA metabarcoding has revolutionized the analysis of microbial diversity, but this approach is generally restricted to amplicon sizes below 500 base pairs. These short regions contain limited phylogenetic signal, which makes it impractical to use environmental DNA in full phylogenetic inferences. However, new long-read sequencing technologies such as the Pacific Biosciences platform may provide sufficiently large sequence lengths to overcome the poor phylogenetic resolution of short amplicons. To test this idea, we amplified soil DNA and used PacBio Circular Consensus Sequencing (CCS) to obtain a ~4500 bp region of the eukaryotic rDNA operon spanning most of the small (18S) and large subunit (28S) ribosomal RNA genes. The CCS reads were first treated with a novel curation workflow that generated 650 high-quality OTUs containing the physically linked 18S and 28S regions of the long amplicons. In order to assign taxonomy to these OTUs, we developed a phylogeny-aware approach based on the 18S region that showed greater accuracy and sensitivity than similarity-based and phylogenetic placement-based methods using shorter reads. The taxonomically-annotated OTUs were then combined with available 18S and 28S reference sequences to infer a well-resolved phylogeny spanning all major groups of eukaryotes, allowing to accurately derive the evolutionary origin of environmental diversity. A total of 1019 sequences were included, of which a majority (58%) corresponded to the new long environmental CCS reads. Comparisons to the 18S-only region of our amplicons revealed that the combined 18S-28S genes globally increased the phylogenetic resolution, recovering specific groupings otherwise missing. The long-reads also allowed to directly investigate the relationships among environmental sequences themselves, which represents a key advantage over the placement of short reads on a reference phylogeny. Altogether, our results show that long amplicons can be treated in a full phylogenetic framework to provide greater taxonomic resolution and a robust evolutionary perspective to environmental DNA.


This paper uses Tobit models and data for union contracts to examine the extent of downward nominal-wage rigidity in Canada. To be consistent with important stylized facts, the models allow the variance of the notional wage-change distribution to be time-varying and test for menu-cost effects. The empirical results confirm the importance of using a general specification with a time-changing variance and menu-cost effects. The variance of the notional distribution fell as inflation trended downward over the sample period, and there is evidence that menu-cost effects cause some contracts to have wage freezes rather than small wage increases. Each of these features reduces the estimated effect of rigidity on wage growth. The estimated net effect of downward rigidity and menu costs in the 1990s is approximately 0.4 percentage points for the average wage change in the first year of contracts, and less than 0.1 percentage point for the average annual change over the lifetime of contracts. On balance, the evidence suggests that the long-run trade-off between inflation and the unemployment rate is close to vertical at inflation rates of 2 per cent or more if productivity growth is near the average in recent decades.


Article history: Received 15 April 2014 Received in revised form 22 May 2014 Accepted 25 October 2014 Available online 10 November 2014


Some plants exhibit mixed mating, in which individual plants utilize both cross and self-fertilization. Dimorphic cleistogamy is one form of mixed mating. In plants that display dimorphic cleistogamy, both chasmogamous (CH) and cleistogamous (CL) flowers may occur on the same individual. CH flowers are typical open flowers that are predominantly cross-fertilized. CL flowers are closed, lack petals, and are obligate self-fertilizing. Benefits of cross-fertilizing CH flowers are that the resulting offspring may have a high level of fitness; however, they have a high energetic cost, and the flowers rely on pollinators. In CL flowers, the ability to self-fertilize may benefit plants in that reproduction can occur without the need to find a separate mating partner. However, self-fertilization generates populations that have little genetic variation and results in higher levels of inbreeding depression. Although the fitness advantages of both flower types have been hypothesized, the factors that maintain this mixed strategy have not been fully explained. Triodanis perfoliata is a local annual plant that exhibits dimorphic cleistogamy. Observing the patterns of CH and CL flowers in Triodanis perfoliata may provide clarity to how a mixed mating strategy can be maintained. In a growth room study, individual flowers were observed to compare rates of development of the two flower types. Individual plants were observed weekly to determine the spatial and temporal development of CH and CL flowers throughout the lifespan of a plant. By sequentially numbering the nodes on the main spike of the plants, the type and developmental stage of each flower at the individual node was observed. Characterizing the spatial and temporal patterns of development of CH and CL flowers in Triodanis perfoliata may provide insight to the adaptive value of dimorphic cleistogamy.


Polyethylene(oxide) (PEO) is an intriguing polymer, it is water-soluble but exhibits surface-active properties. When capped hydrophobically at one end by a fluorocarbon group, a novel polymeric surfactant is generated. This has been synthesised by combining anionic polymerisation and an end-capping reaction using isophorone diisocyanate. Three molecular weight polymers were generated, for each of which a hydrogenous and a deuterated version were required, hi aqueous solution, these polymeric surfactants formed surface excess layers at the air-water interface and their surface organisation and dynamic behaviour has been investigated. Surface tension data was obtained using a digital tensiometer and the surface tension isotherm is dependent on both solution concentration and polymer molecular weight. Using neutron reflectometry, the organisation of such adsorbed polymer films at the air-water interface has been obtained over a range of solution concentrations for each polymer molecular weight. Neutron reflectometry data was analysed by both optical matrix and kinematic approximation methods. Both analyses yield the same description, i.e. a two-layer organisation is observed at the air-water interface for all three molecular weight polymers. The PEO layer thickness and the surface organisation are found to be dependent on both solution concentration and molecular weight. The PEO chains are totally immersed in the subphase and strongly anchored at the surface via the fluorocarbon end group. The dynamic behaviour of each PEO adsorbed surface excess at the air-water interface has been studied using surface quasi-elastic light scattering. A resonance between the capillary and dilational waves is observed and the maximum in damping is independent on surface organisation but is molecular weight and solution concentration dependent. The viscoelastic behaviour of the dilational modulus can be described using a simple Maxwell fluid model, from which a relaxation time has been obtained assuming a single relaxational process.


1. Prostaglandins together with the kallikrein-kinin system comprise a major vasodepressor system. 2. Prostaglandins can antagonize the actions of pressor hormones and the adrenergic nervous system. They aslo contribute to the blood pressure-lowering effects of kinins by enhancing the vasodilator and diuretic-natriuretic actions of the peptide. 3. Deficiency of the vasodepressor system may lead to hypertension without any increase in the basal activity of the blood pressure-elevating system. 4. Increased activity of the renin-angiotensin and adrenergic nervous systems evoked by stressful stimuli enhances prostaglandin synthesis, which protects organ function from excessive effects of angiotensins and catecholamines. 5. Several findings preclude unqualified acceptance of prostacyclin as the only important vascular prostaglandin: first, in some blood vessels prostacyclin is not the principal product of enzymic transformation of the cyclic endoperoxides. Secondly, prostaglandin E2, which is also synthesized in the vascular wall, may be the principal modulator prostaglandin. Lastly, prostacyclin may be transformed by some tissues to 6-keto-prostaglandin E1, a more stable product having similar biological potency. 6. Synthesis of prostaglandins by the kidney is important to mechanisms which control renin release and renal vascular resistance.


The need for internal comfort improvement is becoming an increasingly important topic for both already operating aircraft that as a target for those still in the planning stage. Among the most relevant issues of many aeronautical industrial houses and not only, actually a recent target is representing by the research and the implementation of new passive and active solutions for noise and vibrations transmitted reduction. A valuable contribution in industrial research has been given by the composite materials, which use has grown significantly in recent years thanks to new manufacturing technologies, constituting an excellent alternative to metallic materials on several application fronts. Due to these peculiarities, composite materials are used for a long time as a result of experiments aimed at solving problems in different sectors and with different needs, including lately the aeronautical field especially thanks to the saving in weight combined high fatigue and corrosion resistance. The main purpose of this research activity is in particular focused on the prospective application of self-healing laminates in primary structural parts of an aircraft: the self-repairing strategy consists in dispersing catalyst active agents as microcapsules into the epoxy resin components during their manufacturing stage. Such innovative treatments, in addition to ensuring a better static performance by reducing the external interventions in the case of a crack, allow for dissipating the vibrational energy with a high damping level compared to a standard laminate as observed by previous experimental investigations. The reduced presence of mechanical joints and rivets, replaced mostly by special bonding makes an aeronautical composite structure globally less damped than a metal alloy frame. The present paper shows how the use of these features on the outer skin of a turboprop fuselage contributes to achieve a considerable reduction of the internal noise and especially the structural vibration level generated by the propeller source. Key-Words: Damping, internal noise, self-healing, smart material, turboprop.


Periprosthetic fractures following total hip or knee arthroplasty have become more common as the indications and age distribution for these procedures have increased in the last few years. Revision surgery in these patients holds a very high complication rate and therefore measures should be taken to prevent these fractures. Osteolysis with subsequent component loosening has been shown to pose a risk for periprosthetic fractures. Regular follow-up visits could reveal early signs and symptoms of component loosening. Patients who develop loosening should be revised as soon as possible to prevent periprosthetic fractures. The Vancouver classification (intraand post-operative) for periprosthetic fractures associated with total hip replacement has been shown to be reproducible and an excellent guideline for management. Revision surgery for periprosthetic fractures carries a significant risk for complications. This review and instructional article will focus mainly on periprosthetic fractures in hip arthroplasty, although some risk factors and biomechanical considerations are also applicable for periprosthetic fractures of the femur in knee arthroplasty. Greater trochanteric fractures can present intra-operatively or post-operatively. Non-unions of the greater trochanter commonly presents many years down the line in patients where the surgical approach was done through greater trochanteric osteotomy, and are generally difficult to treat. This review will cover some aspects on the fixation methods of these fractures. Finally the hardware and surgical adjuncts to treat periprosthetic fractures will be discussed briefly. The more common fracture patterns (type B2) and the problematic (type B3) will be discussed in more detail.


Cascade detectors have been shown to operate extremely rapidly, with high accuracy, and have important applications such as face detection. Driven by this success, cascade learning has been an area of active research in recent years. Nevertheless, there are still challenging technical problems during the training process of cascade detectors. In particular, determining the optimal target detection rate for each stage of the cascade remains an unsolved issue. In this paper, we propose the multiple instance pruning (MIP) algorithm for soft cascades. This algorithm computes a set of thresholds which aggressively terminate computation with no reduction in detection rate or increase in false positive rate on the training dataset. The algorithm is based on two key insights: i) examples that are destined to be rejected by the complete classifier can be safely pruned early; ii) face detection is a multiple instance learning problem. The MIP process is fully automatic and requires no assumptions of probability distributions, statistical independence, or ad hoc intermediate rejection targets. Experimental results on the MIT+CMU dataset demonstrate significant performance advantages.


Abstract Our goal was to evaluate the role of ultrasound (US) imaging in an experimental 2-hit steatofibrosis rat model. Nineteen female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 2 groups: control group (n = 6) and high-fat diet carbontetrachloride (HFD-CCl4) group (n = 13) that was fed with HFD for 14 weeks. Ultrasound was performed to evaluate liver steatosis. The HFD-CCl4 group rats were divided further into 2 subgroups: HFD rats with liver steatosis [US (+) group; n = 6] and without steatosis [US (−) group; n = 7]. All rats in the subgroups were administered with CCl4. In both US (+) and US (−) subgroups, steatosis score, fibrosis score, triglyceride, and hydroxyproline contents were markedly higher compared with the control group. When compared with the US (−) group, triglyceride and hydroxyproline contents were significantly higher in the US (+) group, whereas steatosis and fibrosis scores were not different. Ultrasound imaging may be useful to assess the success of a 2-hit experimental steatofibrosis model.


Arranging a social meeting often involves collaborative consideration of events, locations and time. In studying online dating, we observed people using multiple information sources and applications to arrange suitable activities and rendezvous locations/times. Would-be socializers then exchange URLs and discuss ideas until a decision is made. To reduce the work of collaborative event planning, we have designed MapChat, a novel, map-based combination of existing services. MapChat allows people to chat synchronously over an interactive map, transforming online maps into shared digital environments for place/location exploration and rendezvous negotiation.


Energy efficiency, which directly affects battery life and portability, is perhaps the single most important design metric in hand-held computing devices capable of mobile networking over wireless radio links. By virtue of their being relatively thin clients, a high fraction of the power consumption in portable wireless computing devices is accounted for by the transport of packet data over the wireless link [Stemm96]. In particular, the error con-. trol strategy (e.g. convolutional and block channel coding for forward error correction (FBC), ARQ protocols, hybrids) used for wireless link data transport has a direct impact on battery power consumption. Error control has traditionally been studied by channel coding researchers from the perspective of selecting an error control scheme to achieve a desired level of radio channel performance. We instead study the problem of error control from a perspective more relevant to battery operated devices: the amount of battery energy consumed to transmit bits across a wireless link. This includes both the physical transmission of useful and redundancy data, as well as the computation of the error control redundancy. We first describe a novel error control where the most battery energy efficient hybrid combination of an appropriate FBC code and ABQ protocol is chosen, and adapted over time, for each stream (ATM virtual circuit or IP/RSVP flow). Next, we present analysis and simulation results to guide the selection and adaptation of the most energy efficient error control scheme as a function of quality of service, packet size, and channel state.


As soon as the Social Democratic Party (SPD) won the elections to the Federal Diet (the Bundestag) in 1969, negotiations on forming a possible coalition government commenced. In the autumn of that year an agreement was reached between Willy Brandt and Walter Scheel to create a social liberal coalition of the SPD and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which held until 1974. The coalition eventually collapsed because it could not weather the effects of the first oil crisis on the German economy and the internal problems related to an affair developing around W. Brandt. Even though it would be interesting to analyse the policies of the coalition government between 1969 and 1974 in their entirety, with W. Brandt ́s Ostpolitik and foreign policy being the most recognized legacy, this paper focuses on the FDP, the coalition partner that always stood in the shadow of the larger SPD. What remains relatively unknown and discussed is the transformation of the FDP after 1971, when the party adopted the concept of social liberalism as defined in its reform programme, the Freiburg Principles. The purpose of this article is to help readers understand the FDP ́s position within the coalition, whereby environmental policy is used as an example to prove that, despite being the less visible coalition partner, it achieved unprecedented successes in domestic policy. The main research questions are: What did the environmental policy represent to the contemporary government? What were its key defining documents? Who were the most important players in the legislative process? The research draws on primary sources hitherto untapped.


Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) occur in as many as 5% of infants, making them the most common benign tumor of infancy. Most IHs are small, innocuous, self-resolving, and require no treatment. However, because of their size or location, a significant minority of IHs are potentially problematic. These include IHs that may cause permanent scarring and disfigurement (eg, facial IHs), hepatic or airway IHs, and IHs with the potential for functional impairment (eg, periorbital IHs), ulceration (that may cause pain or scarring), and associated underlying abnormalities (eg, intracranial and aortic arch vascular abnormalities accompanying a large facial IH). This clinical practice guideline for the management of IHs emphasizes several key concepts. It defines those IHs that are potentially higher risk and should prompt concern, and emphasizes increased vigilance, consideration of active treatment and, when appropriate, specialty consultation. It discusses the specific growth characteristics of IHs, that is, that the most rapid and significant growth occurs between 1 and 3 months of age and that growth is completed by 5 months of age in most cases. Because many IHs leave behind permanent skin changes, there is a window of opportunity to treat higher-risk IHs and optimize outcomes. Early intervention and/or referral (ideally by 1 month of age) is recommended for infants who have potentially problematic IHs. When systemic treatment is indicated, propranolol is the drug of choice at a dose of 2 to 3 mg/kg per day. Treatment typically is continued for at least 6 months and often is maintained until 12 months of age (occasionally longer). Topical timolol may be used to treat select small, thin, superficial IHs. Surgery and/or laser treatment are most useful for the treatment of residual skin changes after involution and, less commonly, may be considered earlier to treat some IHs.


This study sought to characterize the impact of sleep location (own sleeping environment vs. partner's sleeping environment), social setting (sleeping in pairs vs. sleeping alone), and sex on sleep. An experimental 2 x 2 (sleep location x social setting) within-subject design was employed with 15 young heterosexual couples. The results suggest that sleep location does not appear to have a strong and consistent effect on sleep quantity or quality. The social setting had a specific effect in heterosexual young men, who were found to sleep longer and rise later when cosleeping with their partner. In contrast, we did not find any significant effect of the social setting on sleep continuity parameters in women. In both sexes, sleep quality was perceived to be better when sleeping in pairs. However, there was a higher concordance of the partners' body movements in cosleeping nights compared to the sleeping alone condition.


Organic semiconductors are of interest because low processing temperatures and cost which make such materials candidates for flexible electronics. The charge transport properties of the material are largely dependent on solid-state arrangement of the molecules. This thesis focuses on co-crystallization as a means to achieve [2+2] photodimerization with organic semiconductors, the impact the co-crystal former has on mobility, the use of a co-crystal former to obtain different conformations of a flexible system, and the ability to detect the change in conformation by infrared spectroscopy. [2+2] photodimerization is studied as a way to alter the orientation of the πsystems in the solid state. To align a semiconductor building block into an orientation suitable for [2+2] photodimerization a co-crystallization method was used. The result of the photoreaction is the formation of a dimer in which the π-systems of the semiconductor building block are in a different orientation then before. Changes in the physical properties of the material through photodimerization are explored as a method for patterning thin films. The impact the second component has on the overall mobility in our system is examined. The second component is not expected to act as a semiconductor and the impact on mobility the by its inclusion in the solid is unknown. The impact of a second component on mobility is studied by observing the mobility of multiple co-crystals along with the mobility of the single component. It was found that the mobility could be increased by a factor of approximately 200 with addition of a second component. The mobility change seen in the two-component crystals is equated to the changes observed in the crystal packing. The conformation a molecule adopts in a solid can vary. It was discovered that the addition of a second component can be used to select the major conformation a bithiophene adopts in a solid. The change in conformation changes the orientation of the


Stepwise modifications to histones ensure efficient and reliable cell conversions in Caenorhabditis elegans. To make an entire animal, many and varied cell types form and interact. Some of these differentiated cells take a U-turn and can dedifferentiate or transdifferentiate to another cell fate. Although relatively rare in nature, Zuryn et al. followed such a program in the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, where a rectal cell–to–motor neuron conversion is seen. Transcription factors with conserved roles in cell plasticity and terminal fate selection partner up with specific histone-modifying enzymes in discrete steps to specify separate sequential phases of cell identity. S. Zuryn, A. Ahier, M. Portoso, E. R. White, M.-C. Morin, R. Margueron, S. Jarriault, Sequential histone-modifying activities determine the robustness of transdifferentiation. Science 345, 826–829 (2014). [Abstract] [Full Text]


n this article we present a novel approach for the understanding and the design of interactive health improving music technology, what we call Musicking Tangibles. The Musicking Tangibles approach represents an alternative approach to the traditional instrument, interface and switch-oriented music technology perspective. Our approach combines a humanistic, resource and empowerment oriented health approach with an aesthetic and culture based design approach towards music technology. We present four empowering and health improving qualities for the Musicking Tangibles. These qualities emphasize to: 1) Continually evoke interest and positive emotions relevant to diverse users' interpretation of the tangibles and the situation; 2) Dynamically offer the users many roles to take, many musicking actions to make and many ways to express themselves; 3) Offer the users aesthetically consistent responses and build relevant cross-media expectations and challenges over time and space, consistent with their character; 4) Offer the users many relations to make: to people, things, experiences, events and places. Further we present and argue for some design solutions of the Musicking Tangibles ORFI, WAVE, REFLECT, and the POLLY World from the RHYME-project. In developing POLLY we have tried to put together as many design qualities as possible, to exemplify our view and current understanding.


The last twenty years of the twentieth century witnessed regulatory change not seen since the Great Depression. That regulatory change, culminating with the Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994, produced a significant consolidation within the banking industry, resulting from mergers and failures, that accelerated near the end of the century. Unlike the mergers and failures, the large numbers of new entrants did not receive the same attention. Nonetheless, the new entrants tempered the decline in the overall number of banking institutions. This paper examines correlates with the number of bank new-charters, failures, and mergers during the 1980s and 1990s. We employ the fixed- and random-effect regression technique – employing a normal, Poisson, and negative binomial distributions. Among the results, we find that increases in the number of branches relative to the number of banks significantly associate with fewer new charters (births) and more mergers (marriages). Interestingly, increasing the number of offices (banks plus branches) significantly associates with more deaths (failures).


Abstract. Light attenuation by colored detrital material (CDM) was included in a fully coupled Earth system model (ESM). This study presents a modified parameterization for shortwave attenuation, which is an empirical relationship between 244 concurrent measurements of the diffuse attenuation coefficient for downwelling irradiance, chlorophyll concentration and light absorption by CDM. Two ESM model runs using this parameterization were conducted, with and without light absorption by CDM. The light absorption coefficient for CDM was prescribed as the average of annual composite MODIS Aqua satellite data from 2002 to 2013. Comparing results from the two model runs shows that changes in light limitation associated with the inclusion of CDM decoupled trends between surface biomass and nutrients. Increases in surface biomass were expected to accompany greater nutrient uptake and therefore diminish surface nutrients. Instead, surface chlorophyll, biomass and nutrients increased together. These changes can be attributed to the different impact of light limitation on surface productivity versus total productivity. Chlorophyll and biomass increased near the surface but decreased at greater depths when CDM was included. The net effect over the euphotic zone was less total biomass leading to higher nutrient concentrations. Similar results were found in a regional analysis of the oceans by biome, investigating the spatial variability of response to changes in light limitation using a single parameterization for the surface ocean. In coastal regions, surface chlorophyll increased by 35 % while total integrated phytoplankton biomass diminished by 18 %. The largest relative increases in modeled surface chlorophyll and biomass in the open ocean were found in the equatorial biomes, while the largest decreases in depth-integrated biomass and chlorophyll were found in the subpolar and polar biomes. This mismatch of surface and subsurface trends and their regional dependence was analyzed by comparing the competing factors of diminished light availability and increased nutrient availability on phytoplankton growth in the upper 200 m. Understanding changes in biological productivity requires both surface and depth-resolved information. Surface trends may be minimal or of the opposite sign than depth-integrated amounts, depending on the vertical structure of phytoplankton abundance.


Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare genetic disorder characterized by unpredictable, episodic, incapacitating attacks of well-demarcated angioedema in the absence of urticaria and pruritus. HAE is due to deficient or dysfunctional C1-esterase inhibitor activity, which results in unopposed activation of plasma kallikrein, resulting in increased levels of bradykinin. Ecallantide is a potent and specific plasma kallikrein inhibitor approved for the treatment of acute attacks of HAE affecting any anatomic site. In Phase III clinical trials, subcutaneously administered ecallantide demonstrated significant, rapid and durable symptom relief. Ecallantide was effective for all attack types, including potentially life-threatening laryngeal attacks. The main safety concern is potentially serious hypersensitivity reactions, including anaphylaxis. Ecallantide represents an important treatment option for the management of acute attacks of HAE.


Historians of economic thought who try to connect Ricardo's method with a philosophy generally focus on associationism and pay no attention to Dugald Stewart's influence. In point of fact, Ricardo's method can be connected with Stewart's teaching through his connection with James Mill and Francis Horner. Moreover, the difference between practical and scientific knowledge which is, according Stewart, a difference in the use of abstraction, coincides with Ricardo's distinction between questions of facts and of principles. This connection, which appears in Ricardo's work, brings into question the common view of Ricardo's method as a hypothetical one and leads to consider the role of abstraction as a crucial one.


In the search for performance and diversification, an increasing number of investors are spicing up their portfolios with frontier market exchange-traded funds. Many factors have led them to gradually consider strategic allocations to these areas, not the least of which is the fact that emerging economies have become more correlated with developed economies. This study examines whether these small economies are suitable to the average investor in regard to the size of their markets, liquidity, and risk-adjusted performance. It is concluded that, for now, only their undeniable diversification benefits—an outcome that modern portfolio theory has taught us to highly value—tilt the odds in their favor. TOPICS: Exchange-traded funds and applications, frontier markets, risk management Key Findings • Frontier market exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are clearly distinct from their more-developed counterparts, unlike emerging markets, which have become increasingly coupled with developed countries over time. Frontier markets can add meaningful diversification to a portfolio. • The risk-adjusted performance of frontier market ETFs, however, significantly lags that of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), a fund used to assess the opportunity cost to invest in these countries in lieu of the United States. • Frontier market ETFs also exhibit high concentration ratios, which could subject them to significant cash outflows from redemptions by a small number of investors.


This article investigates the figure of Elisabetta Caminer Turra (1751–96) and the role she played in the Italian reception of English novels during the eighteenth century. One key characteristic of Caminer Turra's editorship of Giornale enciclopedico (1774–82), Nuovo giornale enciclopedico (1783–89), and Nuovo giornale enciclopedico d'Italia (1790–96) was the diffusion of foreign culture in the Italian peninsula: during her career she always aimed at the renovation and improvement of the intellectual milieu of the time. Caminer Turra's journals played an important role in the Italian reception of foreign literature during the second half of the eighteenth century. The goal of this study is to show (a) how English novels were reviewed, censored, and introduced to the Italian public through the many articles, reviews, and announcements that appeared in the journals she supervised, and (b) to examine, from a stylistic, thematic, and political point of view, the ways in which she played her role as maker of culture and arbiter of taste, in order to clarify the importance of her function as a cultural mediator.


We examined whether musical performers communicate tonal closure through expressive manipulation of facial expressions and non-pitch features of the acoustic output. Two musicians hummed two versions of Silent Night: one ended on the tonic of the scale and exhibited tonal closure; the other ended on the dominant and was therefore tonally unclosed. In Experiment 1, video-only recordings of the hummed sequences were presented to 15 participants, who judged whether the (imagined) melody was closed or unclosed. Accuracy was reliably above chance, indicating that the musicians expressed tonal closure in facial expressions and listeners decoded these cues. Experiment 2 was conducted to determine whether musicians also communicate tonal closure in acoustic attributes other than pitch. All tones in the hummed melodies were pitched-shifted to a constant mean value, but performances still differed in loudness, microtonal pitch variation, timing, and timbre. Participants judged whether audio-only recordings were closed or unclosed. Accuracy was not above chance overall, but was marginally above chance for judgement of one of the two singers. Results suggest that tonal closure can be mapped onto non-pitch aspects of performance expression, but is primarily restricted to the use of facial expressions.


SETTING
Nairobi City Council Chest Clinic, Nairobi, Kenya.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if under-reading of sputum smears is a contributing factor in the disproportionate increase in smear-negative tuberculosis in Nairobi, Kenya.

METHODOLOGY
Between October 1997 and November 1998, patients fulfilling the local programme definition of smear-negative presumed pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled in the study. Two further sputum specimens were collected for examination in a research laboratory by fluorescence microscopy.

RESULTS
Of 163 adult subjects enrolled, 55% were seropositive for the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). One hundred subjects had had two pre-study sputum smears assessed before recruitment and produced two further sputum specimens for re-examination in the research laboratory; of these 19 (19%) were sputum smear-positive on re-examination and a further seven (7%) became smear-positive on second re-examination.

CONCLUSIONS
Of those patients with smear-negative presumed pulmonary tuberculosis by the local programme definition, 26% were smear-positive when reexamined carefully with two repeat sputum smears. This suggests that the high rates of smear-negative tuberculosis being seen may in part be due to under-reading. This is probably as a result of the overwhelming burden of tuberculosis leading to over rapid and inaccurate sputum examination. Retraining of existing technicians and training of more technicians is likely to reduce underreading and increase the yield of smear-positive tuberculosis. This finding also stresses the need for regular quality assurance.


Background: While tuberculosis is a common disease worldwide, the incidence of tuberculomas in the eye is rare in developed nations. Posterior segment tuberculomas typically present with associated uveitis, although, among patients with uveitis, a diagnosis of tuberculosis infection is less than 0.1%. The most commonly affected ocular structure is the choroid, and as such, tuberculomas can share many characteristics with choroidal tumors. Given it's the varied nature of presentation, clinical diagnosis is challenging.
Methods and findings: A retrospective case report of a 45- year-old Filipino woman presented with blurred vision in her right eye two years after immigrating to the United States. The right eye demonstrated an amelanotic choroidal lesion in the macula of the right eye, mimicking an amelanotic choroidal melanoma or choroidal metastasis. A positive Tuberculin Skin Test and IGRA allowed for anti-mycobacterial therapy to be initiated. On follow up, the subretinal fluid and visual symptoms resolved.
Conclusions: Tubercular eye granulomas require a high degree of suspicion as they can mimic choroidal tumors. This case report demonstrates how careful anti-tubercular therapy can lead to excellent lesion regression once properly identified.


It is important that all those who use representations of a system during the development process can clearly understand the representations that are used. Research has shown that structure plays an important role in whether a diagrammatic representation may be readily understood. In this paper we present the results of a study where two different approaches were taken to the evaluation of two notations which form part of the UML diagram toolkit: sequence diagrams and collaboration diagrams. First, a theoretical investigation was carried out using the cognitive dimensions framework. Second, an empirical study was carried out to investigate user understanding of such diagrams. The results of the two studies did not concur, with the theoretical approach supporting the original hypothesis that structure is an important factor in diagram comprehension, but the study providing no evidence to support this.


Understanding aerosol deposition in the human lung is of great significance in pulmonary toxicology and inhalation pharmacology. Adverse effects of inhaled environmental aerosols and pharmacological efficacy of inhaled therapeutics are dependent on aerosol properties as well as person‐specific respiratory tract anatomy and physiology. Anatomical geometry and physiological function of human airways depend on age, gender, weight, fitness, health, and disease status. Tools for the generation of the population‐ and subject‐specific virtual airway anatomical geometry based on anthropometric data and physiological vitals are invaluable in respiratory diagnostics, personalized pulmonary pharmacology, and model‐based management of chronic respiratory diseases. Here we present a novel protocol and software framework for the generation of subject‐specific airways based on anthropometric measurements of the subject's body, using the anatomical input, and the conventional spirometry, providing the functional (physiological) data. This model can be used for subject‐specific simulations of respiration physiology, gas exchange, and aerosol inhalation and deposition.