This Essay ofTers a utilitarian perspective on Martha Nussbaum's theory of justice. Nussbaum believes that society should guarantee to every individual a threshold level of central human capabilities. Although Nussbaum's approach has considerable appeal, it is implausible and unappealing when it diverges greatly from utilitarianism. Nussbaum's theory sequires that enormous sums of money be devoted to people who receive very little benefit from efforts to raise them toward a capability threshold. Moreover, Nussbaum refitses to take a principled position on how conflicts among below-threshold interests should be resolved, even when one alternative would produce enormously more good than another alternative. Nussbaum mitigates these problems through an implicit incorporation of utilitarianism to address conflicts among below-threshold interests, but this partial adoption of utilitarianism cannot completely cure her theory. In addition to critiquing Nussbaum's theory, this Essay responds to some of Nussbaum's criticisms of utilitarianism. It rejects Nussbaum's claim that utilitarianism is wrong to give weight to adaptive preferences. It also demonstrates that Nussbaum misstates the relationship between her theory and the doctrine of incommensurability: features of her theory that she attributes to a denial of commensurability actually reflect a commitment to commensurability across the capability threshold.


The higher plant mitochondrial genome contains in the order of 50 proteins coding genes scattered throughout the genome and while much of the genome is transcribed, regulatory control is primarily exercised posttranscriptionally at the level of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) or protein turnover. In some plant species aberrant recombination events in the mitochondrial genome generate novel open reading frames, expressed as variant polypeptides, which in some cases lead to failure to produce functional pollen, a trait that has been exploited in plant breeding to produce F1 hybrid crops.

Keywords:

plant mitochondria;
genome structure;
posttranscriptional processing;
RNA editing


Stimulus: plans: good or bad? Jobs: can we afford them? Money: who's got it? Everybody's talking about the economy, but how can you evaluate what they're saying? How can we, the people, understand what the banks or government knows (or says they know)? Author Michael Goodwin asked himself the same questions and came up with a good answer: explore the development of economic thought, examine the reality of economic practice, add a wry sense of humour and tell all through the graphic medium. In a word, Economix. Goodwin's wit and clarity of writing along with artist Dan Burr's quirky, iconic art transform the "dismal science" of economics into a fun, fact-filled story about human nature and our attempts to make the most of what we've got ...and sometimes what our neighbors have got. Economix explains it all from the beginning of Western economic thought to markets, free or otherwise, to economic failures, successes and anomalies, to how our modern economy is grappling with war, climate change and resource limitations. The book's graphic format means complex ideas can be comprehensive and accessible.


With the rapid development of transport industry in China, and the budget constraints strengthened of the financial department, the transport department needs to further improve the standardization of quota budget management, especially the budget quota of special public projects, which are based on business characteristics of the transport department and set by themselves. The previous scholars mostly predict the total financial budget by time series data, but it is not suitable for detailed management of special public projects. Provincial government officials basically use the method of base plus growth to set budget quota, while it is somewhat more subjective. The paper is combined with the actual work of transport sector, applying the thought of activity based costing for survey of special public fund items detailed, using the method of weighted moving average and regression analysis to comprehensively measure budget quota. It is proved that the method is simple, and deviation between measuring quota and actual expenditure is less, so the effect is better for provincial transport department.


Bats of the family Vespertilionidae enmit strong ultrasonic pulses for echolocation. If such sounds directly stimulate their ears, the detection of echoes from short distances would be impaired. The responses of lateral lemniscal neurons to emitted sounds were found to be much smaller than those to playback sounds, even when the response of the auditory nerve was the same to both types of sounds. Thus, responses to self-vocalized sounds were attenuated between the cochlear nerve and the inferior colliculus. The mean attenuation was 25 decibels. This neural attenuating mechanism is probably a part of the mechanisms for effective echo detection.


The objective of this integrated literature review was to identify and examine effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions towards BPSD. Database searches were documented following the PRISMA flow diagram and included papers were judged by the researchers using the SAHTAASS protocol. Coding of the papers was carried out using Polit and Beck matrix for literature review. It was concluded that several non-pharmacological interventions showed a positive influence on BPSD such as stimulating interventions, social and personalized activities and physical exercise. Also, education/training of healthcare professionals and equipment in form of a structured BPSD protocol resulted in decreased BPSD.


Background:
 The relationship between KD type and outcomes is not well described. We sought to describe the incidence of KD outcomes based on type of KD presentation.

 Methods:
 Using an electronic medical record, we prospectively recorded clinical data for each KD encounter (initial treatment, 2 and 6 week follow up visits) for all pts treated with IVIG at our hospital and followed in our KD clinic from 11/2012-9/2014. Pts were grouped by KD type as determined on the day of treatment - Complete, Incomplete, or questionable KD (qKD), defined as incomplete KD and < 3 supplemental lab criteria. Late treatment was defined as IVIG given at > 10 days of fever. The correlation of KD type with outcomes of persistent fever requiring repeat IVIG, development of periungual peeling (PP), and coronary abnormalities (CAA) was assessed using chi-square.

 Results:
 We studied 109 pts treated with IVIG; 95 were treated within 10 days of fever onset (14 late). Late treatment was most common in qKD (9/19=47%) compared to Incomplete (4/22=18%) and Complete (1/68=1.5%), p<0.01. PP was least common in qKD (4/19=21%), compared to Incomplete (12/22=54%) and Complete (49/68=72%), p<0.05. No pts with qKD developed CAA, compared to 5/67 (7%) of Complete and 3/18 (16%) of Incomplete pts treated within 10 days of fever, (p=0.16, NS). Late treatment more commonly had CAA (5/14=36%, v. 8/95=8%), relative risk = 4.2 (p=0.003). In pts with CAA, 10 /13 (77%) had CAA on the first echocardiogram. The remaining 3 pts (2 Complete, 1 Incomplete) had a pericardial effusion initially and developed CAA by the second echocardiogram. Need for repeat IVIG was not different between groups (Complete 16/68 = 24%, Incomplete 3/22=14%, qKD 2/19=11%, p=0.33). Of the 2 qKD pts who required a second dose of IVIG, one was subsequently diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and the other with Bartonella henselae; neither developed PP or CAA.

 Conclusions:
 The incidence of CAA was not statistically different between KD types, though no qKD pts developed CAA despite a higher incidence of late treatment with IVIG. In most pts who developed CAA, the initial echocardiogram showed either CAA or a pericardial effusion. PP was least common in qKD. In qKD, failure of initial IVIG should prompt re-evaluation of the diagnosis of KD.


Analysis of name changing choices women have undertaken in English-speaking Western countries such as the USA and in the UK indicate that there are various predictors of whether women change their name at marriage or not, one of which is whether they identify as a feminist. This research examines the views of women and men on the issue of choice in name changing at marriage on a UK-based internet forum, Mumsnet, and in the British newspaper The Guardian online and explores whether identification with feminism has an influence on traditional name changing choices performed by women and men. The paper concludes that societal change is necessary to accommodate genuine free choice in name changing at marriage.


Timely detection of sudden change in dynamics that adversely affect the
performance of systems and quality of products has great scientific relevance. This
work focuses on effective detection of dynamical changes of real time signals
from mechanical as well as biological systems using a fast and robust technique of
permutation entropy (PE). The results are used in detecting chatter onset in
machine turning and identifying vocal disorders from speech signal.Permutation Entropy is a nonlinear complexity measure which can efficiently
distinguish regular and complex nature of any signal and extract information about
the change in dynamics of the process by indicating sudden change in its value.
Here we propose the use of permutation entropy (PE), to detect the dynamical
changes in two non linear processes, turning under mechanical system and speech
under biological system.Effectiveness of PE in detecting the change in dynamics in turning process from
the time series generated with samples of audio and current signals is studied.
Experiments are carried out on a lathe machine for sudden increase in depth of cut
and continuous increase in depth of cut on mild steel work pieces keeping the speed and feed rate constant. The results are applied to detect chatter onset in
machining. These results are verified using frequency spectra of the signals and
the non linear measure, normalized coarse-grained information rate (NCIR).PE analysis is carried out to investigate the variation in surface texture caused by
chatter on the machined work piece. Statistical parameter from the optical grey
level intensity histogram of laser speckle pattern recorded using a charge coupled
device (CCD) camera is used to generate the time series required for PE analysis.
Standard optical roughness parameter is used to confirm the results.Application of PE in identifying the vocal disorders is studied from speech signal
recorded using microphone. Here analysis is carried out using speech signals of
subjects with different pathological conditions and normal subjects, and the results
are used for identifying vocal disorders. Standard linear technique of FFT is used
to substantiate thc results.The results of PE analysis in all three cases clearly indicate that this complexity
measure is sensitive to change in regularity of a signal and hence can suitably be
used for detection of dynamical changes in real world systems. This work
establishes the application of the simple, inexpensive and fast algorithm of PE for
the benefit of advanced manufacturing process as well as clinical diagnosis in
vocal disorders.%%%%Division Of Mechanical Engineering,Cochin University of Science and Technology


We investigate two-photon-induced fluorescence for organic chromophores next to elongated gold disks which support plasmonic resonances. By polyelectrolyte coating, the dye is placed in a defined concentration at a defined distance from the surface. A fluorescence enhancement for two-photon excitation is found in spite of a quenched emission. The measured fluorescence is always accompanied by an autoluminescence from the gold, which is of similar intensity. The fluorescence signal is strongly reduced when no plasmonic resonance is excited, while the gold autoluminescence remains of considerable strength, pointing to different enhancement mechanisms for the two processes. When the dimension of the nanostructure is within the resolution limit of the microscope, we observe double-spot patterns at the edges of the structure. We suggest this is a direct visualization of the electrical near-field.


In this paper we will analyze the internet pricing schemes based on Perfect Substitute utility function for homogeneous and heterogeneous consumers. The pricing schemes is useful to help internet service providers (ISP) in maximizing profits and provide better service quality for the users. The models on every type of consumer is applied to the data traffic in Palembang server in order to obtain the maximum profit to obtain optimal. The models are in the form of nonlinear optimization models and can be solved numerically using LINGO 11.0 to get the optimal solution. The results show that the case when we apply flat fee, usage-based and two part tariff scheme for homogenous we reach the same profit and heterogeneous on willingness to pay we got higher profit if we apply usage based and two part tariff schemes. Meanwhile, for the case when we apply usage based and two part tariff schemes for heterogeneous on demand, we reach better solution than other scheme.


Tropical forests harbor the greatest biodiversity on the planet and play important roles regulating climate and capturing atmospheric carbon. However, they are being transformed by agricultural practices and development projects at unprecedented rates causing a considerable loss of ecosystem services and threatening thousands if not millions of species.

Environmental restoration provides an important solution to mitigate the ecological damaged associated with forest loss. As human-altered lands in the tropics are abandoned due to multiple social and economic factors, the restoration of these fallow lands has gained more opportunity and relevance.

This thesis aims to explore factors that affect forest recovery in a forest chronosequence in tropical Australia. Using data gathered in the field, together with greenhouse and field experiments, I examined the effects of secondary forest age on plant communities in the soil seed bank, and the seedling and adult plant cohorts. I further assessed seed germination and seedling survival and growth in direct seeding and seedling experiments. The findings provide a deeper understanding of the factors influencing forest regeneration in the Australian tropics.

I reviewed restoration methods in different ecosystems by evaluating experiments into the use and relative success of direct seeding and planting of seedlings. Overall, I found that direct seeding experiments use more species than seedling studies, yet have lower survivorship. Species availability is a major barrier to the selection of species, regardless of the technique used, and is an important bias in the experiments. Although costs are extremely important when planning a restoration project, only a few studies report on this aspect. Interestingly, none of the studies addressed the impacts of climate change on restoration efforts or provided information regarding how studies should consider future shifts in the environment.

Assessing the species composition and the functional traits of plant communities in secondary forests of different ages can give us insight into the recovery of these forests. I found that understorey communities in young secondary forest had lower species diversity and functional traits associated with early stages of forest succession (e.g. small-seeded species, herbs, grasses). Soil seed banks in these young forests were dominated by exotic species and existing grasses, herbs and small trees. As succession unfolds, soil seed banks, understorey and adult plant communities in these forests showed higher species diversity and a wider range of functional traits (e.g. more trees and late successional species). However, even old secondary forests had low numbers of large-seeded (< 20mm) species, a key distinguishing feature of tropical forests. This finding suggests that these secondary forests are limited by either a lack of dispersal or recruitment of these important tropical forest species.

To further explore the mechanisms of recruitment and dispersal limitations, I undertook direct seeding and planting of seedlings experiments. Using species of different seed sizes and successional status, I found that species identity was more important than forest age for growth and survival in seeds and seedlings. There was no relationship between seed size and/or successional status on growth or survival of the different species. Seeds had a much lower rate of survival compared to seedlings. As all species germinated irrespective of forest age (and the variation in site conditions), I concluded that dispersal limitation is possibly a greater barrier to the recovery of secondary forests at our sites than recruitment limitations experienced during this study.

Increasing awareness of the repercussions of forest lost and its implications on human well-being and ecosystems health make forest restoration a key area for current and future research, policy-making and environmental management. Results from this thesis show a delayed recovery in tropical secondary forests and the absence of key functional plant groups (e.g. large-seeded trees) even in 40 year-old forests. This finding makes restoration efforts necessary if we want to preserve local biodiversity and enhance the conservation value of these forests. Restoration efforts seeking to accelerate biodiversity recovery and the protection of the local flora should include species limited by seed dispersal. When possible, these initiatives should include multiple species and various seed sizes. Further, the inclusion of species with higher tolerance to drier conditions could improve restoration outcomes and prepare the region for future climatic scenarios.

As restoration gains importance, it also creates a unique opportunity to transform the way we see ecosystems and the services they provide. Restoration approaches should include realistic goals that match the local communities' needs and expectations. It is important to take into account changes in climatic conditions and prioritize actions in a crowed world. Multidisciplinary efforts that match goals of conservation, policy and human behavior and well-being will also help improve the future of ecosystems restoration.


The law of rape is getting a rewrite. Domestically and internationally, major efforts are underway to reform rape laws that have failed to live up to their promises of seeking justice for victims and deterring future sexual violence. The cutting edge of international criminal law on rape eschews inquiries into consent and instead embraces an examination of coercion or a coercive environment. By contrast, in the United States, rape reform discussions typically center on consent. The American Law Institute's proposed overhaul of the Model Penal Code's provision on sexual assault carves out a middle ground and introduces, in addition to the traditional crime of forcible rape, separate sexual assault offenses based on coercion and lack of consent. This Article compares these two trajectories of rape reform and asks whether, as Catharine MacKinnon has suggested, U.S. law ought to follow the lead of international criminal law and define rape in terms of coercive inequalities. Ultimately, this Article concludes that adopting the international criminal coercion test in U.S. rape law would do more harm than good. Instead, it outlines more modest, but workable, lessons the United States can learn from the international law of rape.


We study how the diffusion of broadband Internet affects social capital using two data sets from the UK. Our empirical strategy exploits the fact that broadband access has long depended on customers' position in the voice telecommunication infrastructure that was designed in the 1930s. The actual speed of an Internet connection, in fact, rapidly decays with the distance of the dwelling from the specific node of the network serving its area. Merging unique information about the topology of the voice network with geocoded longitudinal data about individual social capital, we show that access to broadband Internet caused a significant decline in forms of offline interaction and civic engagement. Overall, our results suggest that broadband penetration substantially crowded out several aspects of social capital.


A relevant amount of light pollution studies deal with the unwanted visual effects of artificial light at night, including the anthropogenic luminance of the sky that hinders the observation of the celestial bodies which are a main target of ground-based astrophysical research, and a key asset of the intangible heritage of humankind. Most quantitative measurements and numerical models, however, evaluate the anthropogenic sky radiance in any of the standard Johnson-Cousins UBVRI photometric bands, generally in the V one. Since the Johnson-Cousins V band is not identical with the visual CIE V() used to assess luminance, the conversion between these two photometric systems turns out to be spectrum-dependent. Given its interest for practical applications, in this Letter we provide the framework to perform this conversion and the transformation constants for black-body spectra of different absolute temperatures. Full Text: PDF ReferencesF. Falchi et al. "The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness", Sci. Adv. 2, e1600377 (2016). CrossRef M. Kocifaj, "A review of the theoretical and numerical approaches to modeling skyglow: Iterative approach to RTE, MSOS, and two-stream approximation", Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy & Radiative Transfer 181, 2 (2016). CrossRef M.S. Bessel, "UBVRI PASSBANDS", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 102, 1181 (1990).. CrossRef CIE, Commision Internationale de l'Éclairage. CIE 1988 2° SpectralLuminous Efficiency Function for Photopic Vision. (Vienna, Bureau Central de la CIE, 1990) DirectLink S. Bará, "Variations on a classical theme: On the formal relationship between magnitudes per square arcsecond and luminance", International Journal of Sustainable Lighting IJSL 19(2), 104 (2017). CrossRef A. Sánchez de Miguel, M. Aubé, J. Zamorano, M. Kocifaj, J. Roby, C. Tapia. "Sky Quality Meter measurements in a colour-changing world", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 467(3), 2966 (2017). CrossRef M.S. Bessell, "Standard Photometric Systems", Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 43, 293 (2005). CrossRef J.B. Oke, "Absolute Spectral Energy Distributions for White Dwarfs", The Astrophysical Journal Suppl. Series 236(27), 21 (1974). CrossRef J.B. Oke, J.E. Gunn, "Secondary standard stars for absolute spectrophotometry", The Astrophysical Journal 266, 713 (1983). CrossRef M.R. Blanton, S. Roweis S., "K-Corrections and Filter Transformations in the Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared", The Astronomical Journal, 133(2), 734(2007). Table 1. CrossRef


In this article, I examine how two English theatrical phenomena used stage technology to produce illusions for certain political ends. The two phenomena of interest are the court masque of the early 1600s and the illegitimate genres of the late Georgian London theatre. My focus will be on the latter, through an examination of the pantomime The Picture of Paris – opening at Covent Garden in 1790. Whereas a political reading of the court masque is well established in theatre studies, the same cannot be said regarding a political understanding of the theatre culture of the late Georgian period. Furthermore, those who have focused on the political aspects of this theatre culture have not been interested in the role played by stage technology. This is where this article aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Although the court masques and the illegitimate genres used much of the same stage technology, they differed in how they used it and to what political ends. Whereas the masque could be understood as a conservative statement of royal powers, asserting their right to rule, the illegitimate genres approached the governing powers and policies in a more subversive manner. Late Georgian cultural politics, censoring the spoken word on stage and patenting the performance of tragedy and comedy, gave rise to new theatrical genres where visual aspects – by legal necessity – took centre stage. The resulting spectacular theatre of action and visual image was exempt from government censorship, making possible a special kind of political freedom of expression in these genres. It was during performance, through their use of dumb shows, setting, stage machinery and special effects that government criticism could unfold within these genres.


Zinc oxide is a II–VI semiconductor with considerable potential for optoelectronic and power–electronic applications in the UV spectrum, due to its wide direct band gap (3.35 eV at 300 K), high exciton binding energy (60 meV), high melting point, and excellent radiation hardness. A key requirement for many device applications is the consistent production of high performance Schottky contacts. Schottky contact formation to n-type ZnO was investigated via systematic studies into the relative performance of different metal and metal oxide Schottky contacts to hydrothermal and melt grown, bulk ZnO. The results of these studies can be explained by the dominating influence of two key mechanisms in the formation of high quality contacts: (a) the removal of the natural hydroxide termination of ZnO and the associated surface accumulation layer, and (b) the minimisation of process induced oxygen vacancies which tend to pin the barrier height of ZnO Schottky contacts in the 0.6 – 0.8 eV range. These investigations also led to the discovery of a new technique for the consistent production of high quality ZnO Schottky contacts, using the deposition of metal oxide films in reactive oxygen ambients. Specifically, silver oxide, iridium oxide, and platinum oxide films were used to consistently produce highly rectifying, very low ideality factor Schottky contacts to bulk ZnO, with figures of merit significantly better than those published in the literature. In addition, a number of previously unreported, surface polarity related effects were discovered in the electrical and optical properties of ZnO, which increase in magnitude with decreasing carrier concentration of the ZnO material. For example, metal oxide Schottky contacts fabricated on the Zn-polar surface of hydrothermal ZnO have significantly higher barrier heights than those on the O-polar surface, and low temperature (4 K) photoluminescence emission, from free excitons and excitons bound to ionised donors, is also significantly stronger from the Zn-polar face of the same material. These effects are thought to be related to the large spontaneous polarisation (–0.057 Cm-2) of ZnO, and indicate that surface polarity is an important variable when comparing experiment results with theoretical models, and in the future design of ZnO based devices.


Food choices have changed among Native American populations. Healthy food choices are subject to lifestyles, cooking skills, nutrition knowledge and the availability of healthy foods. There is a paucity of nutritional information on traditional and cultural Native American foods. Sixteen traditional Dakota recipes were prepared by members of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Sisseton, South Dakota. These foods were pureed, lyophilized and analyzed for moisture, ash, fat, protein, carbohydrate and individual mineral content using officially accepted methods. The following mineral elements were analyzed: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc. Methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) were employed in all cases. Native American traditional foods studied included: dried com soup, fish head soup, parched com, bean soup, hominy (Pasdaypi) soup, buffaloberry (Mastinpute) pudding, tripe soup, kabubu bread, buffalo (Tatanka) roast, chokecherry (Canpa) pudding, potato soup (Maka bdo), com balls (Wahuwapa Wasna), pemmican, plum (Kan'ta) pudding, turtle soup and wild rice (Psi) soup. Our study determined that traditional Native American recipes tested were generally healthier in relation to selected nutrients such as fat content, total calories, and sodium content when compared to contemporary recipes that use common ingredients. These foods may provide healthy choices in the Native American diet when prepared in traditional ways.


Depression is a common mental illness with high morbidity and mortality. Mounting evidence suggests that an imbalance of the oxidant-antioxidant defence system is strongly correlated with depression and the dysfunction of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is strongly related to the oxidative stress. Therefore, as vital and abundant antioxidants in the ER, biothiols may contribute to the etiology of depression. However, ideal two-photon (TP) fluorescent probes for in vivo imaging of ER-associated thiols in the brains of mice with depression phenotypes are still lacking. Hence, we describe a fluorescent probe (ER-SH) to visualize thiols in living systems. ER-SH displays high sensitivity, excellent ER-targeting ability, outstanding TP properties and low cytotoxicity. Using this ER-SH probe, we succeeded in revealing an increase in the endogenous thiol levels under ER stress induced by DTT. Significantly, TP in vivo imaging showed for the first time that the thiol levels are reduced in brains of mice with depression phenotypes. Collectively, this work can assist in further understanding the molecular mechanism of depression and offers a crucial dimension for diagnosis and anti-depression treatments.


The introduction of prehospital reduction of shoulder dislocation by paramedics is a huge departure from previous teachings. Although shoulder reduction is recommended for use in specific circumstances, such as wilderness areas, little published evidence exists either to provide a solid foundation for its prehospital use, or advise against the introduction of this procedure. Shoulder dislocations, while affecting a minority of the community, are painful and debilitating and require early reduction, as muscle spasm increases with time, making reduction more difficult. In areas associated with prolonged ambulance transport times, the delay to definitive treatment may cause needless pain and suffering to patients sustaining shoulder dislocation. In order to assess the risks and benefits of paramedic reduction of shoulder dislocation, this study systematically evaluated the available evidence. No evidence from clinical studies in the prehospital setting was found: studies from other health settings are used t...


Affective presence is a novel, emotion-related personality trait, supported in experimental studies, concerning the extent to which a person makes his or her interaction partners feel the same way (Eisenkraft & Elfenbein, 2010). Applying this concept to an applied teamwork context, we proposed that team-leader-affective presence would influence team members' communication of creative ideas. Multilevel modeling analysis of data from a survey study conducted with teams from a consultancy firm confirmed that team-leader-affective presence interacted with team-member creative idea generation to predict inhibition of voicing their ideas. Specifically, withholding of ideas was less likely when team members generated creative ideas and their team leader had higher positive affective presence or lower negative affective presence. These findings contribute to emotion research by showing affective presence as a trait with interpersonal meaning, which can shape how cognition is translated into social behavior in applied performance contexts, such as teamwork in organizations. (PsycINFO Database Record


Stanley A. Plotkin and Hilary Koprowski say in their letter ( Science 's Compass, 24 Dec., p. [2450][1]) that in my book, The River : A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS (Little, Brown, 1999), I suggest that they "covertly used chimpanzee cells to produce the live oral polio vaccine (OPV) that was used in the first mass campaign with OPV in the former Belgian Congo."

Although I do suggest in the book that chimpanzee cells were used to prepare certain batches of the OPV (CHAT) that was fed to more than a million Africans in the present-day Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi between 1957 and 1960, at no point do I specify which researcher, or which laboratory, prepared batches of CHAT in such cells.

What I do make clear is that a minor proportion (about one-fourth) of those 1 million OPV doses was produced at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the remaining doses were produced in Belgium, at the Rega Institute in Leuven and at the RIT laboratory in Rixensart. I also point out that, although there is at present no published information about the primate substrate that was used to produce CHAT at those three institutions, there is documentary and anecdotal evidence that kidneys from Congolese chimps, destined for tissue culture purposes, were present in Philadelphia and Belgium during this period.

Furthermore, at least 250,000 doses of CHAT vaccine were redistributed into smaller containers at the medical laboratory of Stanleyville (now Kisangani, Congo), where chimpanzee kidneys were being handled. Contamination could therefore also have occurred there, either by chance or because chimpanzee kidney tissue cultures were used to boost the titre, or amplify the available stocks, of CHAT vaccine ([1][2]).

Plotkin and Koprowski mention in their letter that they are collecting data about the cells they used to make their OPVs, and that these data are to be published in a scientific journal. The release of such information should contribute to resolving the question of whether the AIDS pandemic is a tragic example of an iatrogenic disease—a disease caused by medical intervention.

1. [↵][3]1. E. Hooper
 , The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS (Little Brown, New York, 1999), pp. 718-722, 788, 792.

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.286.5449.2449d
 [2]: #ref-1
 [3]: #xref-ref-1-1 "View reference 1 in text"


Semi-nomadic yak herders of Bhutan depend on high altitude rangelands and yaks for their livelihoods. Conflicts over high altitude rangelands among herders can lead to sub-optimal management with negative impacts on the environment, livelihoods and socio-economic well-being of semi-nomadic yak herders. This paper explores the conflicts and mediation mechanisms arising from property rights issues amongst semi-nomadic yak herders in three comparative areas of Bhutan: i) Yak herding under a traditional management system within a Protected Area system (Merak, East), ii) Yak herding under a more extensive traditional management system (Dakarla, West) and iii) Yak herding and sedentary livestock farming with improved pasture development (Sha Gogona, West Central). Qualitative research methods were adopted to capture the experiences and views of 151 semi-nomadic herders, livestock farmers and government officials including 40 individual interviews and nine focus group discussions. The research revealed that conflicts over high altitude rangelands occurred within and between yak herding and downstream communities. Unclear boundary and competing property rights; incongruence between sharing of benefits and costs, and contravention of collective choice arrangements all caused conflicts. These conflicts occur within and between communities regardless of the type of user rights regimes (i.e. private, communal or mixed). Herders and sedentary livestock farmers employed both informal and formal conflict resolution mechanisms to resolve intra-community and inter-community conflicts. Fostering tenure security through demarcation and fencing of rangeland boundaries, granting clear property and ownership rights and written group constitution and by-laws that build on traditional collective action are needed to reduce conflicts and improve high altitude rangeland condition.


Abstract. Rockfalls and rockslides represent a significant risk to human lives and infrastructures because of the high levels of energy involved in the phenomena. Generally, these events occur in accordance to specific environmental conditions, such as temperature variations between day and night, that can contribute to the triggering of structural instabilities in the rock-wall and the detachment of blocks and debris. The monitoring and the geostructural characterization of the wall are required for reducing the potential hazard and to improve the management of the risk at the bottom of the slopes affected by such phenomena. In this context, close range photogrammetry is largely used for the monitoring of high-mountain terrains and rock walls in mine sites allowing for periodic survey of rockfalls and wall movements. This work focuses on the analysis of low-light and night-time images of a fixed-base stereo pair photogrammetry system. The aim is to study the reliability of the images acquired over the night to produce digital surface models (DSMs) for change detection. The images are captured by a high-sensitivity DLSR camera using various settings accounting for different values of ISO, aperture and time of exposure. For each acquisition, the DSM is compared to a photogrammetric reference model produced by images captured in optimal illumination conditions. Results show that, with high level of ISO and maintaining the same grade of aperture, extending the exposure time improves the quality of the point clouds in terms of completeness and accuracy of the photogrammetric models.


This thesis describes the development of three conceptual models built to serve as decision support tools in liberalised electricity markets. The introduction of competition, higher uncertainty and decentralised planning requires new planning and analysis tools on the medium to long term to support decision making at the level of the industry as well as at the level of the market authorities. We have mainly developed models of market simulation and investment decision by investigating how multi-agent systems can contribute to the understanding of the decentralised nature of competitive decision making in a liberalised electricity market. The thesis focused particularly on bilateral transactions arguing that such transaction processes are specially relevant from the point of view of risk management when considering medium to long term decisions (for both portfolio management and investment decision making). We have used decision analysis under uncertainty and dynamic modeling approaches under a multi-agent framework by considering that such approaches are more adequate in a competitive environment due to the market actors' exposure to risks and need for adaptation in a changing environment. Monthly spot market prices are taken into account through scenarios that reproduce volatility by lognormal processes. Monte Carlo simulation is used to quantify the risks among which the spot prices are taken as the most significant source of uncertainty. The main objective of this thesis is to contribute to the problem of modeling investment decisions in new generation capacities using electricity market simulation from a planning point of view. This global objective is driven according to the: Modeling of the bilateral transaction processes between generation companies and demand companies at the level of wholesale market by taking into account the possible tradeoffs between spot and bilateral markets. The transaction processes models represent the market simulation modules by: Distinguishing the different forms the transaction processes can take (negotiation vs. auctions). Modeling of the market actors' portfolio management from a planning perspective by taking into account the market uncertainties (sales portfolio for generation companies and supply portfolios for demand companies). Modeling of the investment decisions in new electricity generation power plants. "Negotiation based portfolio management in a liberalised electricity market: a multiagent approach" The first model of the thesis formalizes the transactions of demand companies that would have to face a single generation company. The transaction process is here modeled as a bilateral negotiation algorithm between buyers and a seller. The negotiation is driven on two issues: prices and quantities of monthly contracts. It is simulated as a succession of offers and counteroffers during a limited period of time. Each market actor is searching for efficient transactions that satisfy its objectives, preferences and constraints. The reasoning process of the agents is based on the multi-attribute tradeoffs under uncertainty seeking each month the optimal configuration of portfolios composed of bilateral and spot contracts. The simulated output of the negotiation does not necessarily optimise the social welfare as both parties have opposing interests and interact under incomplete information. The efficiency of the algorithm is characterized by a ratio relatively to the Pareto optimal contracts. It was found that a supplier with nuanced risk aversion have high efficiency beyond the Pareto optimal points (between 100 and 120%). It indicates that the single generation company has a higher bargaining power than the individual demand companies independently of the preferences and negotiation behaviour of its counterparts. The negotiation efficiency of the different demand companies ranges from 80 to 100% and is related to their attitude toward risks. Risk averse demand companies accept higher risk premiums in order to avoid spot market risk exposure unlike other agents that may have more nuanced risk preferences. The bilateral contracts concluded covers the electricity demand partially or totally depending on the risk attitude. Demand companies with nuanced risk aversion negotiate contracts in order to manage some flexibility and take benefit from potential spot market opportunities. "Bilateral transactions in a competitive electricity market: multiple auctions using an agent based approach" The second transaction process models bilateral transactions between demand companies and several generation companies through multiple auctions. In this context, the generation companies must compete between each other to satisfy the call-for-bids (CfBs) launched simultaneously by each demand company, i.e. each buyer in the system opens an auction by expressing its needs and preferences by product (base and peak). After receiving the CfBs, the suppliers send offers responding to the multiple auctions opened by the demand companies. The offers timing is sequenced by a priority list that ranks the demand companies according to their value. The construction of the offers is modeled with a function of the evaluated utility of the customer based on its CfB. The demand companies, at the closure of their individual auction, compare and select the offers with maximum value by including the evaluation of the possible tradeoffs between bilateral and spot markets. The dynamic of competition requires the suppliers to adapt their monthly pricing strategies to satisfy their profit and market share objectives. The adaptive behaviour of the generation companies is here modeled using a directed learning approach. Learning is performed on the basis of two variables (risk premiums and market shares) which previous month instances permit causal inferences on eight rules of pricing parameters adaptation. The results of a case study show that the agents in the system build flexible portfolios (partial or full supply contracts, supply portfolio with several producers, spot contracts ...). The agents learning process tend to satisfy their objectives of profit and market shares. The bilateral market transaction volume represents between 70 and 90% of the total transaction volume (10 to 30% of spot contracts) as a result of the tradeoffs between the two markets. "Electricity generation capacity expansion under competition: A multi-agent dynamic programming model" The last model proposed in this thesis intends to model the decentralized investment decision making in a competitive electricity market. The capacity expansion model proposed aims at evaluating the medium to long term investment decisions according to criteria of risks and profits maximisation. We use the agent-based multiple-auction module to simulate he electricity market. The investment decisions of each supplier agent in the system are assessed according to a dynamic programming algorithm that explores different potential expansion plans in predefined periods. We consider that capital rationing, preservation of capital under risk and market share targeted ranges are three constraints that bound the expansion plans. Two major sources of uncertainties are considered: market price risk and strategic risk. Strategic risks are evaluated through a customer and competitors focus by putting into perspective the investment decision relatively to the competitors' potential expansion plans. Hence, the evaluation of an expansion plan is built as the convolution of the realizable incomes through the potential configurations of competitors strategic investment decisions. In our model, a supplier agent is seeking to take market positions relatively to its competitor through the market share that he can expect to secure its investment decisions. It appears that risk reduction highlighted here through bilateral transactions is a more realistic approach when assessing investment decisions in a competitive and uncertain electricity market.


It takes two to tango in restricted environments Despite being unrelated, freeliving algae and fungi can learn to help one another out. Hom and Murray raised the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in CO2-restricted environments in the presence of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (see the Perspective by Aanen and Bisseling). The experimental setup forced the two species to depend on one another for the metabolic production of CO2, which is provided by the yeast as it consumes glucose and is needed by the alga, and ammonia, which conversely can be made from nitrite by the alga and then used by the yeast. This dependence was seen under a broad range of environmental conditions. Similar tests between other Chlamydomonas and fungal species revealed the ability to create a phylogenetically broad range of mutualisms. Science, this issue p. 94; see also p. 29 Mutualisms between algae and yeast can be created in restrictive environments. [Also see Perspective by Aanen and Bisseling] Mutualistic symbioses shape the evolution of species and ecosystems and catalyze the emergence of biological complexity, yet how such symbioses first form is unclear. We show that an obligate mutualism between the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii—two model eukaryotes with very different life histories—can arise spontaneously in an environment requiring reciprocal carbon and nitrogen exchange. This capacity for mutualism is phylogenetically broad, extending to other Chlamydomonas and fungal species. Furthermore, we witnessed the spontaneous association of Chlamydomonas algal cells physically interacting with filamentous fungi. These observations demonstrate that under specific conditions, environmental change induces free-living species to become obligate mutualists and establishes a set of experimentally tractable, phylogenetically related, synthetic systems for studying the evolution of symbiosis.


This paper examines submission data for the SIGITE conference between the years 2007-2012 with an emphasis on the reliability and validity of the peer review process. Despite the centrality of peer review to academic endeavor, it is not easy to assess it due to the confidentiality of blind reviewing systems. This paper provides a unique addition to the study of peer review by examining reviews and submissions for a single international computing conference across an extended time period. It examines which external factors (such as nationality and familiarity of the reviewer) and which internal characteristics of the submissions (such as word length, number of references, and readability measures) are related to eventual reviewer ratings. Ramifications of the findings for future authors and conference organizers are also discussed.


This book explores the collaborative sitcoms of two of British television's most well-known comedy writers. Written over a period of twenty-five years, the four series Dad's Army, It Ain't Half Hot, Mum, Hi-de-Hil and You Rang M'Lord? have endured as much-loved and often-repeated classics. The book explores the themes of Perry and Croft's writing in terms of their own biography, and as articulations of British cultural and televisual history. Focusing on issues central to the concept of identity in British culture, class, gender, sexuality and race, and analysing individual episodes and scenes in the four series, Jimmy Perry and David Croft evaluates the contributions made by these two writers to the genre of situation comedy, and locates the programmes in the immediate contexts of their production. Including new interview material from David Croft, this book will be invaluable to students and lecturers of television studies and cultural studies.


Using on-line analysis of single particles, we have observed both generation and resuspension of particles when ice crystals, cloud droplets, or dust impact an aircraft inlet. Large numbers of particles smaller than 1 μ m with a composition suggesting stainless steel were measured when flying a stainless steel inlet through cirrus clouds. Smaller numbers of metal particles were also observed when flying through dust or water clouds. A different instrument, sampling through a different inlet, found zinc particles when sampling in cirrus clouds. Laboratory experiments have verified that high-speed ice crystals can abrade stainless steel. Collision of ice crystals with the inlet wall also resuspended previously deposited particles. A notable example came when a flight through the space shuttle exhaust plume deposited large numbers of unique particles in our inlet. Some of the same types of particles were observed when the aircraft flew into an ice cloud the following day. The generation of particles by impaction of ice crystals and dust in inlets may have affected some published results about ice nuclei and metal particles in the upper troposphere. The newly generated particles cannot be distinguished from atmospheric particles by size alone.


Field trials of transgenic crops may result in unintentional transgene flow to compatible crop, native, and weedy species. Hybridization outside crop fields may create novel forms with potential negative outcomes for wild and weedy plant populations. We report here the outcome of large outdoor mesocosm studies with canola (Brassica napus), transgenic canola, a sexually compatible weed B. rapa, and their hybrids. Brassica rapa was hybridized with canola and canola carrying a transgene for herbivore resistance (Bt Cry1Ac) and grown in outdoor mesocosms under varying conditions of competition and insect herbivory. Treatment effects differed significantly among genotypes. Hybrids were larger than all other genotypes, and produced more seeds than the B. rapa parent. Under conditions of heavy herbivory, plants carrying the transgenic resistance were larger and produced more seeds than non-transgenic plants. Pollen derived gene flow from transgenic canola to B. rapa varied between years (5%–22%) and was not significantly impacted by herbivory. These results confirm that canola-weed hybrids benefit from transgenic resistance and are aggressive competitors with congeneric crops and ruderals. Because some crop and crop-weed hybrids may be competitively superior, escapees may alter the composition and ecological functions of plant communities near transgenic crop fields.


Ethical practices as viewed on the three ethics approaches can drive leader and employee involvement in sustainability-related behaviors. This study sought to determine the ethical practices of employees and leaders of a state university in the province of Laguna Philippines as well as the institution's sustainability. Descriptive research was conducted through a survey administered to sixty-six (66) faculty members. The study also investigated if there are differences in the ethical practices of the leaders and employees when grouped according to profile factors as well as looked into the relationship between ethical practices and organization sustainability. The study revealed that the leaders and employees highly put into action the ethical practices in relation to Kantian, Virtue, and Care Ethics. Moreover, the level of sustainability exercised by the institution in terms of its contribution to society and the environment is perceived to be highly practiced. Furthermore, it was concluded that there is no significant difference in the ethical practices of the leaders as perceived by the faculty members. A significant relationship between ethical practices and organizational sustainability was established. As such, continuous review of the ethical code of conduct and laying down of procedures in carrying out ethical issues are emphasized by the results.


We have developed a multimodal imaging technique by integrating photoacoustic microscopy and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography to provide simultaneous volumetric microscopic imaging of both optical absorption and scattering contrasts in biological tissues. In the integrated system, the two imaging modalities share the same optical scanning and delivery mechanisms after their probing and illumination light beams are combined. By further synchronizing the image acquisitions, the images from the two modalities are intrinsically registered. The capabilities of this novel technique were demonstrated by imaging both the microanatomy and microvasculature in mouse ears in vivo.


This paper examines social upgrading related to firms' participation in Global Value Chains (GVCs) from a developed countries' perspective. Merging detailed matched employer-employee data relative to the Belgian manufacturing industry with unique information on firm-level upstreamness, we investigate whether workers on the upstream stage of GVCs benefit from higher wages. We also enrich our analysis with a gender dimension. Unconditional quantile regressions and decomposition methods reveal that firms' upstreamness fosters workers' social upgrading. Nevertheless, gains are found to be unequally shared among workers. Male top-earners are the main beneficiaries; whereas women, irrespective of their earnings, appear to be unfairly rewarded.


Selenium (Se) and Se-containing proteins are believed to be involved in many physiological processes. Recent studies have revealed complex repertoires of Se containing proteins in mammals, of which some (known as selenoproteins) contain selenocysteine (Sec; encoded by in-frame UGA codons) and others in which the selenium is bound (selenium binding proteins; SeBPs) without selenoproteins. There have been few studies to date on the selenium protein complements of non-Bilateria animals, and many of the non-Bilateria selenoprotein genes in the public sequence databases are mis-annotated. The main objective of the work described in this thesis was to describe the selenoprotein and selenium-binding protein repertoire of the coral Acropora millepora, a representative non-Bilateria animal and to investigate aspects of the expression of some of the corresponding genes. These studies should not only provide evolutionary insights into selenium biology, but also be relevant to the physiology of coral stress.

To achieve these goals, phylogenetic tools were used to survey the repertoires of selenium-containing proteins in A. millepora and other model organisms, qPCR and immunohistochemistry employed to follow changes in the expression of genes encoding non-enzymatic selenium containing proteins under experimental manipulation, bioinformatics tools used to model the structure of proteins of interest, and chemical tools employed to analyze the Se binding ability of recombinant selenium binding protein towards the inorganic Se in vitro.

The evolutionary studies summarized in Chapter 2 show that in the known invertebrates which have been studied their selenium components, the coral A. millepora has the most complex selenium repertoire (21 Sec-containing selenoproteins and 2 selenium binding proteins); other cnidarians also contain complex selenium repertoires. These results suggest that most of the known selenium components seen in bilaterian animals predate the bilaterian-cnidarian split. In Chapter 3 we report that the expression of several non-enzymatic selenium containing proteins in the coral A. millepora is highly up-regulated by oxidants, suggesting physiology roles for these selenium components in redox regulation.

Studies in Chapter 4 and 5 focused on the A. millepora 56 kDa SeBPs (amSeBPs). Sequence analysis and structure modeling revealed that the conserved cysteine residues that are characteristic of these proteins, together with nearby motifs, cluster at the centre of the monomer protein models. The amSeBPs were ubiquitously expressed and markedly up-regulated at the planula and presettlement stages. Immunolocalisation experiments imply that the amSeBPs are enriched in adult A. millepora gastrodermal tissue that is adjacent to Symbiodinium. The in vitro selenite/amSeBP binding assays showed that the binding of inorganic selenium by amSeBP is dependent on the redox state. These studies imply that the positions of the redox sensitive cysteine residues and nearby motifs are critical for amSeBP function; these constraints presumably underlie the high level of sequence conservation of the 56 kDa SeBP sequences among animals, plants and even microorganisms.

In summary, these results imply important roles for the selenium containing proteins that are abundant in A. millepora. Although some of these proteins have been systematically characterized and implicated in redox metabolism, the mechanistic details remain unclear. To date, functional studies have focused mainly on mammalian Se proteins. Functional analyses in non-Bilateria animals could shed some light on the significance of Se-proteins and selenium biology more broadly.


This book examines the production of collective "Venetian-ness" in early modern representation before turning to the portrayal of populations in Venetian Dalmatia's borderlands, where those in metropolitan Venice began to perceive difference and imaginings of belonging began to break down.


Preface Chapter 1: Overfishing What is overfishing? What is a sustainable harvest? Can fisheries be sustainably harvested? Is overfishing a new problem? Why does sustainable fishing reduce the number of fish in the ocean? What is a collapsed fishery? I have heard stories of the Canadian cod, what happened? Why did the Canadian cod collapse? Are all cod fisheries collapsed? Chapter 2: Historical overfishing Is overfishing a new problem? Can whales be sustainably harvested? How do we estimate the abundance of animals in the ocean? Can scientists estimate the sustainable yield? Is there any value in Japanese "? Is depleting one population and moving onto the next a common problem? Chapter 3 : Recovery of Fisheries Can fish stocks recover from overfishing? How important is habitat to fish populations? What about the enormous numbers seen by John Smith? What is the difference between recruitment overfishing and growth overfishing? Can recreational and commercial fisheries co-exist? Chapter 4: Modern industrial fisheries management What is an example of a well-managed fishery? What is different about the pollock fishery that makes it such a good example of sustainable management? Why does the allowable catch change so much from year to year? What is a stock assessment? What is an observer program? Why are there not more observer programs in world fisheries? What is a certified fishery? Why do some NGOs believe the Eastern Bering Sea pollock fishery is not well managed? Chapter 5: Economic Overfishing Is overfishing only a biological problem? What are individual fishermen's quotas, the IFQs? What are the benefits of IFQs? What are the negative impacts of IFQs? What is economic overfishing? How economically efficient are world fisheries in general? How do we prevent economic overfishing? Are there ways to prevent the tragedy of the commons without privatizing fisheries? What are community development quotas? How does sector allocation work? What other mechanisms have been used to allocate fish? Chapter 6: Climate and fisheries How does climate affect fish populations? Are many fisheries affected by climate? How can we tell if a fishery is declining because of climate or fishing pressure? What are going to be the impacts on fisheries from a warming ocean? What will be the impacts of ocean acidification? Chapter 7: Mixed fisheries Do fisheries catch one species or more? What determines how hard a fish species can be harvested? How do we balance harvesting high- and low-productivity species in mixed fisheries? What is <"underfishing"? Is it better to give up potential yield of productive species to keep unproductive species at high abundance? How can we manage fisheries to reduce the mixed nature of the fishery? Chapter 8: High Seas Fisheries What is the status of bluefin tuna that were proposed for CITES listing? What is the status of tuna around the world? Are there examples of international fisheries management organizations that have been successful? Why are some tuna stocks under-exploited and others overexploited? Is there hope for managing these high-seas fisheries? Chapter 9: Deepwater fisheries We hear a lot about the collapse of orange roughy stocks - what happened to them? Can very slow growing fish like orange roughy be sustainably managed? What is the experience with orange roughy in other countries? Does closing large sections of New Zealand's economic zone assure the sustainability of orange roughy? Should we have left potential orange roughy stocks unfished until we know more about their biology and ecosystem? How should we deal with new resources when their biology and sustainability is highly uncertain? Chapter 10: Recreational fisheries Are recreational fisheries fundamentally different from commercial fisheries? What is the scale of recreational fishing in the United States and Europe? How does recreational fish management differ from managing commercial fisheries? How does freshwater recreational fisheries management differ from saltwater recreational fisheries? Does recreational fishing play a role in overfishing? Chapter 11: Small scale and artisanal fisheries Many of the fisheries of the world are small scale - how can they be managed? Is Chile typical of small scale fisheries? How were fisheries managed prior to modern governmental fisheries agencies? What are the characteristics of territorial fishing rights? What are the general lessons for successful management of small scale fisheries? Chapter 12: Illegal fishing Is illegal fishing an important problem in overfishing? Is the illegal fishing of Patagonian toothfish unusual? How can some toothfish fisheries be certified as well-managed while there remains substantial illegal harvesting? What methods can be used to reduce illegal fishing in international waters? Chapter 13: Trawling impacts on ecosystems How do trawls and dredges work and why are they still used to catch fish? Is trawling the ocean like clear-cutting the forest? How long do ecosystems take to recover from trawling? Are there alternatives to trawling and dredging as ways to catch fish? Chapter 14: Marine Protected Areas What are Marine Protected Areas? What do Marine Protected Areas protect? How much of the world's oceans are now closed to fishing? What is the impact of closing areas to fishing? Do MPAs increase the abundance of fish? Can MPAs solve some of the problems of overfishing? How much of the ocean should be set aside as protected from fishing? Chapter 15: Ecosystem impacts of fishing How does overfishing affect ecosystems? Are coral reefs particularly sensitive to fishing? What is a trophic cascade? Do forage fish need special protection? What is by-catch and how important is it? How does ecosystem based management differ from single species management? What is the precautionary approach to fisheries management? How many marine fish species are threatened with extinction? Chapter 16: The status of overfishing Are the world's stocks overfished? What characterizes countries that have managed their fisheries well and those that have not? How important are subsidies in the current problem with fisheries? Is consumer action and certification an important part of stopping overfishing? How do the environmental costs of fishing compare to those of livestock? Should we all become vegetarians? What is needed to stop overfishing? Further Reading Index


Fiber optic temperature sensors were fabricated by depositing vanadium oxide thin films on the tips of optical fibers, and by incorporating vanadium oxide materials into the core of optical fibers. It was found that the properties of the initially amorphous vanadium oxide can be controllably converted to those of crystalline VOx compounds via the plasma arc of a fiber fusion splicer. These crystalline VOx compounds can then be over-coated with SiO2, and subsequently fused with another fiber to form an in-line fiber optic sensor. It was found that a well defined optical absorption edge was formed when the vanadium oxide (VOx) thin films were annealed using the plasma arc of a fusion splicer, suggesting the formation of crystalline VOx. Moreover, it was observed that the spectral position of this absorption edge varied with temperature in a reproducible way. The optical fiber devices described in this paper could also be employed for optical switching applications. Based on the spectral position of the band edge and the Raman spectra of the VOx films, deposited on the fiber optic tips, it was found that these annealed VOx films contained a mixture of different phases of vanadium oxide (VOx), in particular V2O5 and VO2. Furthermore, similar in-line optical fiber switches, based only on the insulator to metal phase transitions of VO2, can be fabricated by following the techniques described in this paper.


This study was carried out to investigate pre-service teachers' perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitude and intentions towards the utilization of virtual laboratory package in teaching and learning of Nigerian secondary school physics concepts. Descriptive survey research was employed and 66 fourth and fifth year Physics education students were purposively used as research sample. Four research questions guided the study and a 16-item questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The questionnaire was validated by educational technology experts, physics expert and guidance and counselling experts. Pilot study was carried out on year three physics education students and a reliability coefficients ranging from 0.76 to 0.89 was obtained for each of the four sections of the questionnaire. Data collected from the administration of the research instruments were analyzed using descriptive statistics of Mean and Standard Deviation. A decision rule was set, in which, a mean score of 2.50 and above was considered Agreed while a mean score below 2.50 was considered Disagreed. Findings revealed that pre-service physics teachers perceived the virtual laboratory package easy to use and useful with mean scores of 3.18 and 3.34 respectively. Also, respondents' attitude and intentions to use the package in teaching and learning of physics were positive with mean scores of 3.21 and 3.37 respectively. Based on these findings, it was recommended among others that administrators should equip schools with adequate Information and Communication Technology facilities that would aid students and teachers' utilization of virtual-based learning environments in teaching and learning process.


In a special edition of the Knoxville Gazette, commemorating the memory of Tennessee's first governor, a state historian stated that although John Sevier had faults, we should find them insignificant to his heroism. Since his reinterment, in 1889, historians have overwhelmingly favored Sevier's military and political accomplishments and downplayed potentially disgraceful episodes of his life. They placed him on a pedestal with the founding generation. Moreover, Sevier's biographical works reveal more about the eras in which biographers wrote than about Sevier's lifetime.
This study showcases the less favorable incidents in Sevier's life, and examines them through a gendered lens. What I hope to reveal are aspects of Sevier's life which have gone unnoticed by generations of historians. At times Sevier acted in ways which were self-serving and self-deprecating. His actions reveal his wants and desires, as well as those of his compatriots. Eighteenth-century men struggled to identify their role as men within the new nation. This gendered approach leads to a more holistic and complicated portrait of Tennessee's founding father and a generation of men on the frontier.


[1] As part of the INTEX-NA (Intercontinental chemical Transport Experiment–North America) and ITCT (Intercontinental Transport and Chemical Transformation of anthropogenic pollution) field studies, the NASA Ames 14-channel Airborne Tracking Sunphotometer (AATS-14) and a pair of Solar Spectral Flux Radiometers (SSFR) took measurements from aboard a Sky Research Jet stream 31 (J31) aircraft during 19 science flights over the Gulf of Maine during 12 July to 8 August 2004. The combination of coincident AATS-14 and SSFR measurements yields plots of net (downwelling minus upwelling) spectral irradiance as a function of aerosol optical depth (AOD) as measured along horizontal flight legs. By definition, the slope of these plots yields the instantaneous change in net irradiance per unit AOD change and is referred to as the instantaneous spectral aerosol radiative forcing efficiency, Ei (W m−2 nm−1). Numerical integration over a given spectral range yields the instantaneous broadband aerosol radiative forcing efficiency (W m−2). This technique for deriving Ei is called the aerosol gradient method. Within 10 case studies considered suitable for our analysis we found a high variability in the derived instantaneous aerosol forcing efficiencies for the visible wavelength range (350–700 nm), with a mean of −79.6 W m−2 and a standard deviation of 21.8 W m−2 (27%). An analytical conversion of the instantaneous forcing efficiencies to 24-hour-average values yielded −45.8 ± 13.1 W m−2 (mean ± std). We present spectrally resolved aerosol forcing efficiencies between 350 and 1670 nm, estimates of the midvisible aerosol single scattering albedo and a comparison of observed broadband forcing efficiencies to previously reported values.


This paper formulates a quality management model for research institutes performing government-supported R&D projects intended to develop technology for commercial applications in the industrial sector. The model is based on four phases that include all activities pertinent to the commercial application of research institute technology: identifying industrial requirements, planning developmental technology, performing R&D activities, and diffusing the technology to the industrial sector. In order to perform efficiently all activities in these phases, the proper techniques, proper personnel, and documented procedures are required. This suggests that a quality management model for the research institute should be based on the effective control, evaluation, and improvement of required elements for these phases. The proposed quality management model is described as follows: clarify application policy, establish an implementation structure with the responsible organisation and a project management manual, assess the techniques used and personnel required to control the execution of the activities of each phase, and evaluate the effectiveness of this implementation structure by auditing whether the activities in the four phases comply with the project management manual and assess whether the R&D results can be applied in the industrial sector. The evaluation output should be fed back to top management for reference in improving the implementation structure.


From the author of Pardon My French and A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi, this is the charming and hilariously funny story of one man's attempt to travel the entire length of the Seine by boat. When Charles shows his friends the rowing boat he has spent the last six months building, he little realises the adventures that lie ahead. Several glasses of champagne later (it is New Year's Eve), he finds himself betting he will travel the entire length of the Seine from source to the sea in the next year and discover the true France. But the reality proves somewhat more difficult than he had expected. As Charles sets sail into an unvarnished France on a variety of craft from steamers to police patrol boats to inflatables, he encounters truffle-thieving terriers and obsessive fishermen, grapples with strong rapids and stubborn cattle, and is nearly destroyed by a cheese so smelly it comes with its own health warning. This is the charming and often hilarious story of Charles' Quixotic quest - and the most unique guide to the true France that you will find. Reviews: "There are new year's resolutions and then there are those rash decisions that come after the last bottle has been drunk on the last night of the year. The journey down the Seine that Charles Timoney describes in his third book about France stemmed from the latter ...a charming story of life along the river ...that lingers in the mind". (Sunday Times (Books of the Month)). "A wonderful view of France as seen from the water, and through the eyes of a genuinely funny writer - I laughed out loud". (Philip Marsden (author of The Levelling Sea)). About the author: When Charles Timoney and his French wife were both made redundant in the same week, they decided to try living in France for a year or so. It proved much harder than expected. Charles' O level in French was little help when everyone around him consistently used a wide variety of impenetrable slang and persisted in the annoying habit of talking about things he had never heard of. But they stayed. Two decades and two thoroughly French children later, An Englishman Aboard is Charles' third book on his experience of France, the French people and the French language: Pardon My French: Unleash Your Inner Gaul, A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi: The Ideal Guide to Sounding, Acting and Shrugging Like the French and now An Englishman Aboard.


Workers well-being has gained more prominent in today's society. Workers have faced a lot of pressure emanating from home and work thus work life balance has become a predominant issue in the workplace. Job sharing is one of the way to ensure that there is work life balance in organization for increased employees performance. This study therefore established the effect of job sharing on employeesperformance in selected manufacturing companies in Kakamega County, Kenya.This study was guided by the descriptive research survey design. The study was carried out in West Kenya Sugar Company Limited which is located in Kakamega County, Kenya. The target population for this study was drawn from a population of 2400 employees of West Kenya Sugar Company Limited out of which 220 employees were sampled for the study. 183(83.18%) response rate was obtained which is acceptable for a subsequent data analysis as 60% and above is the recommended response rate in social research. The study targeted key informants like the managers and supervisors who had good understanding of the operations of the company. Purposive sampling method was be used to select the key informants. Simple random sampling was used to select unionizable employees. This study used questionnaires and interview schedule as the primary instruments of data collection. Descriptive and inferential analysis were conducted by the aid of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Simple linear regression model was used for inferential analysis. Analyzed data was then presented using tables. The study found out that job sharing significantly affects employee performance hence the study rejected the null hypotheses and recommends that manufacturing companies in Kakamega County should embraced job sharing as an ingredient of work life balance for better employees performance.


Abstract In this paper we review the main, long- and short-term geological and geotectonic processes that have controlled the development of Pleistocene landscapes in the Aegean region above and below the fluctuating sea level. We discuss the potential for further research on reconstruction of submerged landscapes of the continental shelf and beyond with the aim of addressing questions concerning Palaeolithic settlement. The geological, tectonic, morphological and hydrogeological background provides information for the assessment of the natural resources available to hominins. Along with the palaeogeographical evolution of the shallow coastal and shelf areas, they are examined in parallel with the terrestrial archaeological record in order to open windows to future work in a region that has remained marginal to human origins research. On the basis of the multi-variable tectonic evolution and geomorphological configuration of the coastal and shelf areas, we propose to divide the Aegean region into nine geographical units, each with its own geotectonic and morphological history and traits. These units can be further grouped to provide larger neighbouring and culturally meaningful regions, suitable for archaeological analysis, or subdivided to provide smaller target areas in which to work.


CONTEXT
In the intensive care unit (ICU), delirium is a common yet underdiagnosed form of organ dysfunction, and its contribution to patient outcomes is unclear.

OBJECTIVE
To determine if delirium is an independent predictor of clinical outcomes, including 6-month mortality and length of stay among ICU patients receiving mechanical ventilation.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Prospective cohort study enrolling 275 consecutive mechanically ventilated patients admitted to adult medical and coronary ICUs of a US university-based medical center between February 2000 and May 2001. Patients were followed up for development of delirium over 2158 ICU days using the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU and the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Primary outcomes included 6-month mortality, overall hospital length of stay, and length of stay in the post-ICU period. Secondary outcomes were ventilator-free days and cognitive impairment at hospital discharge.

RESULTS
Of 275 patients, 51 (18.5%) had persistent coma and died in the hospital. Among the remaining 224 patients, 183 (81.7%) developed delirium at some point during the ICU stay. Baseline demographics including age, comorbidity scores, dementia scores, activities of daily living, severity of illness, and admission diagnoses were similar between those with and without delirium (P>.05 for all). Patients who developed delirium had higher 6-month mortality rates (34% vs 15%, P =.03) and spent 10 days longer in the hospital than those who never developed delirium (P<.001). After adjusting for covariates (including age, severity of illness, comorbid conditions, coma, and use of sedatives or analgesic medications), delirium was independently associated with higher 6-month mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-7.7; P =.008), and longer hospital stay (adjusted HR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.4-3.0; P<.001). Delirium in the ICU was also independently associated with a longer post-ICU stay (adjusted HR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.3; P =.009), fewer median days alive and without mechanical ventilation (19 [interquartile range, 4-23] vs 24 [19-26]; adjusted P =.03), and a higher incidence of cognitive impairment at hospital discharge (adjusted HR, 9.1; 95% CI, 2.3-35.3; P =.002).

CONCLUSION
Delirium was an independent predictor of higher 6-month mortality and longer hospital stay even after adjusting for relevant covariates including coma, sedatives, and analgesics in patients receiving mechanical ventilation.


This thesis reviews the literature, simulates and applies the Gravity Model of International Trade. The gravity model is widely used in international trade to examine trade flows within a network of exporters and importers. It describes the push and pull factors of trade flows and is fast becoming the most favoured tool when estimating the welfare effects of a trade policy. Therefore, estimating an accurate baseline equation is critical to correctly identify the welfare effects of trade and accompanying trade policies. Recent developments in the literature on the gravity model have helped in this regard. Chapter 1 presents a summary. The literature identifies several estimation issues and prescribes several actions that could be taken to best estimate the gravity model and minimize potential bias in the coefficient(s) of interest. With the objective of minimizing the bias on the coefficient(s) of interest, this thesis, in Chapter 2, builds on the literature by simulating and estimating the gravity model using varying assumptions about the data generating process (dgp) of the errors, conditional mean and sample. The findings from these simulations are then used to guide the application (Chapter 3) of the gravity model to trade among Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members and trade between CARICOM members and the rest of the world (ROW). Subsequently, in Chapter 4, the gravity model is used as the basis for a general equilibrium framework to investigate the importance of international borders, regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the potential impact of deeper integration in the form of a currency union among CARICOM members. The welfare implications for CARICOM members, associated with being a member of the RTA and adapting a common currency, are presented in Chapter 4 along with several recommended trade policies and areas for future research.


ABSTRACT Introduction: This study reviews the evidence for the use of Bortezomib (BZB), a first-in-class proteasome inhibitor in advanced Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This review aims to delineate the role of BZB within the management of non-surgical and metastatic HCC, either as an alternative or as an adjunct to the current treatment paradigm. Areas covered: In addition to BZB pharmacology and mechanism of action, safety and tolerance profiles of the drug obtained from clinical trials are explored. The utility of BZB as a therapeutic agent either alone or in combination with other therapies against HCC, including its application in both preclinical and clinical settings has been reviewed. In particular, we highlight the importance of preclinical evaluation of BZB as a combinatorial agent in synergism with other therapies for the use in the management of HCC. Expert opinion: There has been much interest surrounding the use of BZB, a first-in-class proteasome inhibitor for HCC therapy. The discernment of outcomes of BZB clinical trials for HCC need to take into consideration the disease-specific factors that can affect survival outcomes including patient selection and aetiological differences. Further preclinical testing of BZB in combination with other therapeutic modalities can be important for eliciting enhanced anti-HCC effects.


This paper proposes and tests an agent-based model of worker and job matching. The model takes residential locations of workers and the locations of employers as exogenous and deals specifically with the interactions between firms and workers in creating a job-worker match and the commute outcomes. It is meant to illustrate that by explicitly modeling the search process and the interactions between firms and individuals, origins and destinations (ODs) can be linked at a disaggregate level that is reasonably true to the actual process. The model is tested on a toy-city and the using Twin Cities are. The toy-city model illustrated that the model leads to reasonable outcomes, with agents selecting the closest work place when wage and skill differentiation is absent. Relaxing these assumptions increases the observed commute. Especially the introduction of wage dispersion in the model increases the the average home to work distance significantly. Using data from Minnesota, the results on aggregate are shown to capture the trends in the observed data, and illustrate that the behavior rules as implemented lead to reasonable patterns. The results and potential future directions are also discussed.


Stakeholder engagement is an important part of planning for emergencies and disasters. This paper describes and discusses the processes of engagement, particularly information sharing, between local government disaster managers, land-use planners and the developer of a large master-planned community in Logan City in South East Queensland. Due to its large scale and importance for the local economy, this development has been designated as a Priority Development Area by the Queensland Government, meaning that approval processes are managed by the state rather than the local government. This study found that local disaster managers are keen to promote strategic disaster planning by improving their engagement with state-level planning, development and assessment processes governing priority development areas. Collaboration with local 'place managers' emerges as a potential way forward. A better understanding of the roles, responsibilities, accessible information and opportunities for collaboration across stakeholders and between disaster management and planning frameworks can facilitate improved outcomes for emergency and disaster management.


Book synopsis: The very first book dedicated to Slavoj Zizek's theoretical treatment of law, this book gathers widely recognized Zizek scholars as well as legal theorists to offer a sustained analysis of the place of law in Zizek's work. Whether it is with reference to symbolic law, psychoanalytical law, religious law, positive law, human rights, to Lacan's, Hegel's, or Kant's philosophies of law, or even to Jewish or Buddhist law, Zizek returns again and again to law. And what his work offers, this volume demonstrates, is a radically new approach to law, and a rethinking of its role within the framework of radical politics. With the help of Zizek himself – who here, and for the first time, directly engages with the topic of law – this collection provides an authoritative account of 'Zizek and law'. It will be invaluable resource for researchers and students in the fields of law, legal theory, legal philosophy, political theory, psychoanalysis, theology, and cultural studies.


Based on the comprehensive two-semester text by the same authors, this version of Economics "boils down" the formal economic theories and concepts into their essential parts, emphasizing domestic and international applications and policy issues. Fundamentals of Economics is a concise but thorough survey of economics for instructors desiring a brief, practical text. Each chapter focuses on core economic concepts and provides a link between theory and real-world relevance, making the content more meaningful for students. The Fourth Edition provides a convenient, integrated learning experience by including a Study Guide after each chapter, which allows students to review key concepts and practice new skills before they go on to read the next chapter. Fundamental Questions at the beginning of each chapter preview key points, reappear next to the relevant in-text discussion, and form the basis of chapter-ending Summary sections. The design highlights these Fundamental Questions, making them easier to find within a chapter. Economic Insight and Global Business Insight boxes focus on the policies of today's leaders and the business decisions of real companies and governments around the world, adding real-world relevance to the material.


ABSTRACT: Frequency and intensity of cyclones over the North Atlantic are investigated using 2
data sets from simulations with the Rossby Centre regional climate model RCA3. The model domain
comprises large parts of the North Atlantic and the adjacent continents. RCA3 is driven by ECHAM5-
OM1 general circulation model data for May to December from 1985 to 2000 and May to December
from 2085 to 2100 assuming the SRES-A2 emission scenario. We apply an objective algorithm to iden-
tify and track tropical and extratropical cyclones, as well as extratropical transition. The simulation
indicates increase in the count of strong hurricanes and extratropical cyclones. Contrasting, and gen-
erally weaker, changes are seen for the less extreme events. Decreases of 18% in the count of extra-
tropical cyclones and 13% in the count of tropical cyclones with wind speeds of ≥ 18 m s–1 can be
found. Furthermore, there is a pronounced shift in the tracks of hurricanes and their extratropical
transition in November and December—more hurricanes are seen over the Gulf of Mexico, the
Caribbean Sea and the western Sargasso Sea and less over the southern North Atlantic.


Abstract In recent years, electronic games have assumed an important place in the lives of children and adolescents. Children acquire digital literacy informally, through play, and neither schools nor other educational institutions take sufficient account of this important aspect. We consider that multimedia design for training and education should combine the most powerful features of interactive multimedia design with the most effective principles of technologically-mediated learning. An examination of the evolution of the design of videogames is a good way to analyze the main contributions and characteristics of games-based learning environments. At the same time, we will discuss the main obstacles and challenges to the use of games for learning.


This paper provides more insight into the relevance of the assumption of human capital theory that the productivity of job-related training is driven by the improvement of workers' skills. We analyse the extent to which training and informal learning on the job are related to employee skill development and consider the heterogeneity of this relationship with respect to workers' skill mismatch at job entry. Using data from the 2014 European Skills Survey, we find – as assumed by human capital theory – that employees who participated in training or informal learning show greater improvement of their skills than those who did not. The contribution of informal learning to employee skill development appears to be larger than that of training participation. Nevertheless, both forms of learning are shown to be complementary. This complementarity between training and informal learning is related to a significant additional improvement of workers' skills. The skill development of workers who were initially underskilled for their job seems to benefit the most from both training and informal learning, whereas the skill development of those who were initially overskilled benefits the least. Work-related learning investments in the latter group seem to be more functional in offsetting skill depreciation than in fostering skill accumulation.


Object orientation and pattern matching are often seen as conflicting approaches to program design. Object-oriented programs place type-dependent behavior inside objects and invoke it via dynamic dispatch, while pattern-matching programs place type-dependent behavior outside data structures and invoke it via multiway conditionals (case statements). Grace is a new, dynamic, object-oriented language designed to support teaching: to this end, Grace needs to support both styles. We explain how this conflict can be resolved gracefully: by modelling patterns and cases as partial functions, reifying those functions as objects, and then building up complex patterns from simpler ones using pattern combinators. We describe the implementation of this design as an object-oriented framework, and a case study of its effectiveness.


We review photopion experiments on the nucleon in the near-threshold region. We compare the results with the predictions of the low-energy theorems of quantum chromodynamics calculated using chiral perturbation theory (ChPT), which is based on the spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry as well as explicit breaking due to the finite quark masses. As a result of the vanishing of the threshold amplitudes in the chiral limit, the experiments are difficult to perform because the cross sections are small. Nevertheless, the field is now mature in terms of accuracy and sensitivity. We also discuss the accomplishments and limitations of past measurements, as well as future planned experiments at Mainz and HIγS. The technical developments required for the HIγS facility are emphasized. Finally, we show that future experiments will provide even more accurate tests of ChPT and will be sensitive to isospin-breaking dynamics due to the mass difference between the up and down quarks.


We carry out two searches for periodic gravitational waves using the most sensitive few hours of data from the second LIGO science run. Both searches exploit fully coherent matched filtering and cover wide areas of parameter space, an innovation over previous analyses which requires considerable algorithm development and computational power. The first search is targeted at isolated, previously unknown neutron stars, covers the entire sky in the frequency band 160–728.8 Hz, and assumes a frequency derivative of less than 4×10^(−10)  Hz/s. The second search targets the accreting neutron star in the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1 and covers the frequency bands 464–484 Hz and 604–624 Hz as well as the two relevant binary orbit parameters. Because of the high computational cost of these searches we limit the analyses to the most sensitive 10 hours and 6 hours of data, respectively. Given the limited sensitivity and duration of the analyzed data set, we do not attempt deep follow-up studies. Rather we concentrate on demonstrating the data analysis method on a real data set and present our results as upper limits over large volumes of the parameter space. In order to achieve this, we look for coincidences in parameter space between the Livingston and Hanford 4-km interferometers. For isolated neutron stars our 95% confidence level upper limits on the gravitational wave strain amplitude range from 6.6×10^(−23) to 1×10^(−21) across the frequency band; for Scorpius X-1 they range from 1.7×10^(−22) to 1.3×10^(−21) across the two 20-Hz frequency bands. The upper limits presented in this paper are the first broadband wide parameter space upper limits on periodic gravitational waves from coherent search techniques. The methods developed here lay the foundations for upcoming hierarchical searches of more sensitive data which may detect astrophysical signals.


This study offers new evidence on the effects of the matching contributions made by employers to 401(k) plan accounts on plan participation rates, exploiting microdata from the National Compensation Survey, a large, nationally representative, establishment dataset. It addresses the potential endogeneity of the matching contributions by employing coworker and labor market characteristics as instruments. The results indicate that employer matches have substantial effects. They also indicate that higher match rates tend to be correlated with workers having lower propensities to save; correcting for this endogeneity produces estimates that are bigger than those seen through direct cross-sectional comparisons.


Abstract Most outcrops of fluvial deposits consist of a series of cliff exposures, either natural or manmade (e.g., roadcuts). Predictions, and especially observation of plan-form geometry, such as might be made with numerical experiments or from studies of modern rivers, are challenging to test in most ancient outcrops. This study examines ancient exhumed channel belts from the Cretaceous Notom Delta of the Ferron Sandstone Member in south-central Utah. Extensive plan-view exposures with local vertical cliff exposures allowed documentation of channel plan-form, channel-belt dimension, bar migration patterns (translation versus expansion), and cross-sectional facies architecture. Channel-fill thickness and bedding structure, documented from the cliff exposures, were used in paleohydraulic reconstructions. Approximately 270 paleocurrent directions were integrated with grain-size measurements to reconstruct the 3D facies architecture. Paleocurrent measurements are consistent within specific facies architectural units (such as unit bars) and show systematic variation at the channel-belt scale that can be used to infer channel and bar migration patterns. In this example, the migration pattern of the single-thread channel bend was interpreted to change from expansion to translation with a corresponding bend sinuosity that increased from 1.01 to 1.44. Inclined large-scale foresets are interpreted to be indicative of unit bars. Empirical equations result in estimated average channel depths from 1.7 m to 3.6 m with corresponding widths of 23 m to 89 m respectively. These empirical estimates match the dimensions measured in the field. For example, channel widths of around 50 m were measured from abandoned channel fills. Bar thickness, measured from vertical outcrops, ranges from 5.4 m to 6.3 m, which yields a narrower estimate of channel width ranging from 47 to 59 m. Integration of sediment size, bedforms type, and channel depth were used to estimate the discharge of the river, which is on the order of < 400 m3/s. This suggests that the Ferron deltas were characterized by small, steep-gradient "dirty" rivers, which is consistent with the hyperpycnal nature of linked downstream deltaic systems.