The paper describes the design phase of an intelligent controller for a new morphing mechanism using smart materials made of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) for the actuators. After a brief presentation of the morphing wing system, the controller purposes are discussed. The morphing system requirements and the behaviour of SMA actuators lead to a fuzzy logic Proportional-IntegralDerivative for the controller architecture. The output error and the change in error are used as controller inputs, while the electrical current is used as command variable (controller output). In the chosen architecture, the inputs and outputs designed membership functions, and the inference rules allow the control of both cooling and heating SMA phases. In this way, the electrical current given by the controller is approximately 0 A for the cooling phase, and have higher values for the heating phase depending by the values of controller inputs. In the fuzzy logic controller input-output mapping, [-1, 1] interval is chosen as the universe for all inputs signals, while the [0, 2.5] interval is used for output signal. Numerical simulations impose a number of three membership functions for each of the two inputs, three membership functions for the output, and five inference rules. The shapes of the inputs membership functions are s-function, π-function, respectively z-function, while the product fuzzy inference and the center average defuzzifier are applied (Sugeno).


Early detection and removal of polyps can reduce mortality due to colon cancers. The "fly-through " method in CT colonography has drawbacks. We are developing a prototype colon straightening system so as to provide a paradigm to inspect the colon wall in a "cut-open " fashion. The core component of the system is the straightening module, which models the colon straightening as a solid elastic deformation process with specially designated constraints and boundary conditions. It is demonstrated that the prototype system can retain consistency of surface points' spatial relationship and handle geometry with large-degree bendings. Future work is discussed.


An integrated multibias extraction technique for MESFET and high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) models is presented in this paper. The technique uses S-parameters measured at various bias points in the active region to construct one optimization problem, of which the vector of unknowns contains a set of bias-dependent elements for each bias point and one set of bias-independent elements. This problem is solved by an extremely robust decomposition-based optimizer, which splits the problem into n subproblems, n being the number of unknowns. The optimizer consistently converges to the same solution from a wide range of randomly chosen starting values. No assumptions are made concerning the layout of the device or the bias dependencies of the intrinsic model elements. It is shown that there is a convergence in the values of the model elements and a decrease in the extraction uncertainty as the number of bias points in the extraction is increased. Robustness tests using 100 extractions, each using a different set of random starting values, are performed on measured S-parameters of a MESFET and pseudomorphic HEMT device. Results indicate that the extracted parameters typically vary by less than 1%. Extractions with up to 48 bias points were performed successfully, leading to the simultaneous determination of 342 model elements.


Demand response is an increasingly popular program ensuring power grid stability during a sudden surge in power demand. We expect high-performance computing (HPC) systems to be valued participants in such program for their massive power consumption. In this paper, we propose an emergency demand-response model exploiting both power capping of HPC systems and node scaling of HPC applications. First, we present power and performance prediction models for HPC systems with only power capping, upon which we propose our demand-response model. We validate the models with real-life measurements of application characteristics. Next, we present models to predict energy-to-solution for HPC applications with different numbers of nodes and power-capping values, and we validate the models. Based on the prediction models, we propose an emergency demand response participation model for HPC systems to determine optimal resource allocation based on power capping and node scaling. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed demand-response model using real-life measurements and trace data. We show that our approach can reduce energy consumption with only a slight increase in the execution time for HPC applications during critical demand response periods.


Effective user interface is an important component to the success of an interactive system as any of the components that manage the underlying functionality of the system. The development of an effective user interfaces highly depends on the quality of the requirements where the end-user should be actively involved. Therefore, there is a need to accurately capture, interpret, and represent the voice of the end-user when specifying the user interface requirements. The objective of the thesis is to advance the state of the art in bridging the gap between specifying the User Interface Requirements for interactive systems on the one hand and the design and development of it on the other hand. Towards this objective, a software framework called SUCRE (acronym for Scenario and Use-Case based Requirements Engineering) was developed as a part of this thesis work. Use Case Maps (UCMs) that were introduced in the literature were examined and have been enriched with new visual notation for modeling and specifying the user interface requirements. This enriched UCM for User Interface (UCM-UI) model formed a basis for SUCRE. Thus, scenarios and use cases are used as a means to represent the user interface requirements and communicate with end-users.
In addition, the thesis explores two other objectives, namely validation of user interface requirements and usability prediction of the intended user interface. SUCRE was used to build operators that validate the consistency, completeness, and precision of the UCM-UI model using heuristics for constructing a formal analysis of the requirements. SUCRE was also used to define a metrics suite to predict usability from scenarios and use cases. This metrics suite includes simple structural measures as well as content-sensitive and task-sensitive metrics. Considering the difficulties in the specification and design of user interfaces, the thesis aimed also to identify the need for a mix of both informal and formal representation in specifying user interface requirements. Therefore, SUCRE was successfully used to bridge the gap between the semi-formal requirement UCM-UI and detailed formal requirements such as UML, LOTOS specifications, and XML.


Grounded Theory (GT) is a research method that allows the researcher to make discoveries without a priori knowledge, and allows an open mind not an empty head. The use of this method is also desirable for serendipity to occur in the research process. This article therefore aims to chronologically present how serendipity has grown over time in the use of the GT method in a field of research focusing on highly demanding conditions such as disaster management and military operations. We will discuss a new concept, namely, reflexive serendipity, which encompasses the conditions required for making discoveries in the interview analysis. These may be contextual aspects and the role of the researcher, which includes having an open mind and the necessary perseverance and discipline to be able to succeed with GT and serendipity.


BACKGROUND
Marital relationships in dementia are forged between the person with dementia and the care partner, and such relationships have an impact on the way in which dementia is understood and experienced. The everyday work that underpins the relationship is usually divided between spouses and based on traditional divisions of household chores.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim was to describe how older women with dementia express the importance of their homes and their chores in everyday life.

METHODS
Seven women with dementia, who were cohabiting with their husbands, were interviewed on up to five occasions at home during a five-to-six-year period on the following themes: the home, their dementia illness, everyday life, their relationships with their husbands and dignity and autonomy.

RESULTS
The qualitative analysis showed three different patterns in the women's narratives: keeping the core of the self through the home, keeping the self through polarising division of labour and keeping the self through (re-) negotiations of responsibilities. The feeling of one's home and home-related chores is an essential way to express who you are.

CONCLUSION
The women stated that household chores are the centre of their lives despite their dementia disease and that the home, even though it shrinks, still makes the women see themselves as an important person, namely the 'competent wife'.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Nurses need to be aware that 'doing gender' may be a means of preserving personhood as well as of sustaining couplehood in dementia.


There is increasing excitement about the potential economic and social benefits of using newly released data in open access format (open data). For the government, open data offers potential for improving public service delivery, transparency and efficiency of operations. Open data bring also promising opportunities to generate innovation and economic growth in the economy. By releasing open data, individuals and companies will build new products and services that can feed back into the economy and promote economic growth. Despite recent advances on the matter, the business models that may help extracting the potential value of open data are not well understood. In this research in progress, we review possible directions in the literature to address in what ways open data may be a source for new business and innovation, as well as what challenges and potential barriers emerge on its take up.


In Sweden today it is relatively difficult to recruit high school students and university students to education including science topics. An explanation may be that students experience science education as objective without questions of value (Gustafsson, 2007). We can also discuss it as a response on high schools, universities and teachers traditional and non reflective way to structure and arrange education in other forms than in separated topics (Dimenas, 2007). There has been some attempts and progress made during the last decades. Examples of this are projects were you try to integrate science and technology in society (Stringer,1992) and more recently, projects which use socioscientific issues (SSI) dealing with ethics in the context of science education (Sadler, Amirshokoohi, Kazempour & Allspaw, 2006). Current examples are genetic engineering and questions about global warming and the greenhouse effect (Hewitt 2002). This study in progress is a re-analyze of different teacher perspectives of how they understand the phenomena justice and water and a discussion of what the consequences are in relation to learning and education in general. From the presented results there is also a discussion in the use of socioscientific issues (SSI) dealing with ethics in context of science education as a new agenda for teaching and learning. Fifty eight teachers who sometimes teach about the phenomena justice (33) and water (25) participated in semi structured interviews. They represent preschool teachers (13), primary and secondary school teachers (17), high school teachers (14) and university teachers (14). The result of the study is presented from an inductive re-analyze perspective to explore emergent patterns relative to the questions how different teachers understand justice and how they understand water and justice and water in relation to teaching and learning. The study also focuses on the question if there is a relation between the two phenomena and the possible critical consequences of that for teaching and learning. Preliminary results from the study show that it is possible to identify how teachers understand the phenomena justice and water. The structure can be described in three dimensions of understanding. You can see towards the phenomena, outwards the phenomena or the phenomena in a mediated way. Spontaneously the teachers also put together and understand justice and water as an ethic problem in an unequal world. Implications of this research for science education is that it can be a dilemma for teachers to choose what and how to teach in those specific topics. Teachers did identify socioscientific issues dealing with ethics in this context of science which could be a new agenda for meaningful teaching and learning and a necessity for learning about sustainability. References DIMENAS, J. (2007). Undervisningens roda trad – mojligheter i naturvetenskap. Lund. Studentlitteratur. HEWITT, P. (2002). Conceptual Physics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. GUSTAFSSON, B. (2007). Naturvetenskaplig utbildning for demokrati och hallbar utveckling. Vaxjo: Vaxjo universitet SADLER, T. D., AMIRSHOKOOHI, A., KAZEMPOUR, M. & ALLSPAW, K.M. (2006). Socioscience and Ethics in Science Classrooms: Teachers Perspectives and Stategies. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43 (4), 353-376). STRINGER, J. (1992). Science and technology in Society. Suffolk: The Lavenham Press.


This article explains the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's policy on outsourcing by banks. Banks in New Zealand typically outsource a range of business activities, both to independent and to related-party service providers, and both domestically and offshore. The predominance in our banking system of banks owned by offshore parent banks, who provide important services to their subsidiaries, means that cross-border, related-party outsourcing is of particular relevance. The outsourcing policy requires a large bank's board to maintain legal and practical control over any outsourced functions such that the bank is able to continue to play its key role of supporting financial activity in the economy, both under normal circumstances and (particularly) under stress. The Reserve Bank applies the policy with some flexibility to suit the circumstances of individual banks. The policy thus ensures that the banking system retains the ability to avert distress, and underpins the Reserve Bank's ability to manage a financial crisis, while enabling the financial system to enjoy the benefits of foreign bank participation.


Lord Howe Island and the St Kilda archipelago have many similarities, yet their communities had totally disparate outcomes. The characteristics of the two islands are compared and contrasted, and it is hypothesised that the differences in health and diseases largely explain the success of one society and the failure of the other.


Alternative specifications of models of the supply response of Australian wheat growers and their economic implications are considered in terms of the existence and nature of production lags, and the choice between expected prices and expected gross returns as the preferred explanator of producers' response to changing economic conditions. The analysis indicates that there are lags which are due primarily to the difficulties and costs of rapid adjustment rather than to the time required to revise expectations. The statistical results were similar for the alternative specifications of gross margins and prices as the economic decision variables. However, the price elasticities derived using the gross margins specification were about a third of those using the prices specification. The gross margins specification yielded additional information in the form of yield and input cost elasticities.


Polymers that efficiently interrelate with biological systems have fascinated a lot of curiosity in biosensor application. In order to determine their suitability and conducting abilities, the nature of ground state, excited states properties and binding affinities of such systems must be known. The vertical singlet-triplet gap, electronic transitions of 3-methyl-pyrrole-1-carboxylic acid has been studied using Spin-Flip Time density Functional Theory (SF-TDDFT) method with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. All calculations were carried out using quantum mechanical softwares. Results revealed the Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) energies vary within the range of -5.22 to -6.24, while Lowest Occupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) energies vary (from -0.62 to -1.84). Result revealed that the singlet-singlet transition for 3, 4 and 5 rings of MPC basically involves four (|H >, |H-1 >, |L > and |L+1 >) transitions. Result show a non-zero transition dipole moment (dnm) for MPC monomer and tetramer (Allowed transition), while dnm decreases for trimer, dimer and pentmer, due to the triple integral returning an ungerade (odd) product and redistribute electrons within the same orbital and will return a zero product.


Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) has evolved during the last years and reached a mature stage offering plenty of operators to solve complex tasks. User support for building workflows, in contrast, has not increased proportionally. The large number of operators available in current KDD systems make it difficult for users to successfully analyze data. Moreover, workflows easily contain a large number of operators and parts of the workflows are applied several times, thus it is hard for users to build them manually. In addition, workflows are not checked for correctness before execution. Hence, it frequently happens that the execution of the workflow stops with an error after several hours runtime. In this paper we address these issues by introducing a knowledge-based representation of KDD workflows as a basis for cooperative-interactive planning. Moreover, we discuss workflow templates that can mix executable operators and tasks to be refined later into sub-workflows. This new representation helps users to structure and handle workflows, as it constrains the number of operators that need to be considered. We show that workflows can be grouped in templates enabling re-use and simplifying KDD worflow construction in RapidMiner.


Residual soils are the in-place residue from rock weathering. They differ greatly from the better understood deposited soils in that their particle arrangements and mineralogy reflect both the degree of weathering and the structure of the parent rock. They are neither homogeneous nor isotropic. Like deposited soils they consolidate under load, but the soil compressibility is related empirically to the void ratio of the undisturbed material instead of to the usual index properties. Because most of the more compressible residual soils are partially saturated, their settlements develop far more rapidly than those of clays, usually within the first year after loading. Conventional laboratory tests and analyses based on in-situ pressuremeter tests can be used for predicting settlements. The conventional analyses tend to over predict settlement by about 25 percent; the pressuremeter results appear to be more scattered, but on the average the predictions are closer to the measured settlements.


Abstract. Land cover changes can impact the climate by influencing the surface energy and water balance. Naturally treeless or sparsely treed peatlands were extensively drained to stimulate forest growth in Finland over the second half of 20th century. The aim of this study is to investigate the biogeophysical effects of peatland forestation on regional climate in Finland. Two sets of 18-year climate simulations were done with the regional climate model REMO by using land cover data based on pre-drainage (1920s) and post-drainage (2000s) Finnish national forest inventories. In the most intensive peatland forestation area, located in the middle west of Finland, the results show a warming in April of up to 0.43 K in monthly-averaged daily mean 2 m air temperature, whereas a slight cooling from May to October of less than 0.1 K in general is found. Consequently, snow clearance days over that area are advanced up to 5 days in the mean of 15 years. No clear signal is found for precipitation. Through analysing the simulated temperature and energy balance terms, as well as snow depth over five selected subregions, a positive feedback induced by peatland forestation is found between decreased surface albedo and increased surface air temperature in the snow-melting period. Our modelled results show good qualitative agreements with the observational data. In general, decreased surface albedo in the snow-melting period and increased evapotranspiration in the growing period are the most important biogeophysical aspects induced by peatland forestation that cause changes in climate. The results from this study can be further integrally analysed with biogeochemical effects of peatland forestation to provide background information for adapting future forest management to mitigate climate warming effects. Moreover, they provide insights about the impacts of projected forestation of tundra at high latitudes due to climate change.


A general representation of multilocus selection is extended to allow recombination to depend on genotype. The equations simplify if modifier alleles have small effects on recombination. The evolution of such modifiers only depends on how they alter recombination between the selected loci, and does not involve dominance in modifier effects. The net selection on modifiers can be found explicitly if epistasis is weak relative to recombination. This analysis shows that recombination can be favoured in two ways: because it impedes the response to epistasis which fluctuates in sign, or because it facilitates the response to directional selection. The first mechanism is implausible, because epistasis must change sign over periods of a few generations: faster or slower fluctuations favour reduced recombination. The second mechanism requires weak negative epistasis between favourable alleles, which may either be increasing, or held in check by mutation. The selection (si) on recombination modifiers depends on the reduction in additive variance of log(fitness) due to linkage disequilibria (v1 < O), and on non-additive variance in log(fitness) (V'2, V'3.. for epistasis between 2, 3.. loci). For unlinked loci and pairwise epistasis, si = --(v1 +4V2/3)deltar, where deltar is the average increase in recombination caused by the modifier. The approximations are checked against exact calculations for three loci, and against Charlesworth's analyses of mutation/selection balance (1990), and directional selection (1993). The analysis demonstrates a general relation between selection on recombination and observable components of fitness variation, which is open to experimental test.


The authors study the impact of fees on the performance of multi-manager portfolios within managed futures. Using net-of-fee monthly returns of commodity trading advisors (CTAs) and their fee structures as reported in the BarclayHedge database, they estimate the time series of gross returns. They find that fees represent approximately 50% of gross performance, on average. They consider three fee structures: management fee only; a standard structure that includes both management and incentive fees; and a pooled, or netted, fee structure in which the incentive fee is based on aggregate portfolio performance rather than the performance of individual managers. They also vary the number of managers in a portfolio from 1 to 20 and consider crystallization frequencies between 3 and 12 months. Regardless of the fee structure, they find that average performance increases monotonically with the number of managers in a portfolio, and the distribution of performance becomes tighter. Performance improvement relative to a single-manager investment is highest for multi-manager portfolios that rely on a pooled fee structure. Pooling fees results in fee savings of up to 40% relative to the standard fee management and performance fee structures. They also find that less frequent crystallization consistently improves performance. TOPICS: Portfolio construction, manager selection, futures and forward contracts


Kevin Clarke and Randall Stone (2008) offer a methodological critique of some of our tests of the selectorate theory in The Logic of Political Survival (Bueno de Mesquita et al. 2003). We accept their critique of residualization for control variables in those tests, but reject the contention that the size of the winning coalition does not predict the provision of public goods and private benefits. We present new tests that control for elements of democracy other than W and that do not use residualization. These new tests show that selectorate theory is strongly and robustly supported. Our measure of the size of the winning coalition is in the theoretically predicted direction and is statistically significant for 28 out of 31 different public goods and private benefits. Aspects of democracy not contained in the selectorate theory explain less of the variance than does the theory's core factor, namely, winning coalition size, for 25 of the 31 public goods and private benefits.


To explore the influence of wind tunnel test facilities on delta wing aerodynamics, the interference has been separated into two distinct types, wall interference and support structure interference. The wall interference effects have been split into three further components, tunnel blockage, side wall interference, and roof and floor interference. Splitting the tunnel influence in this way allows us to determine the most detrimental interference effects, thus allowing the wind tunnel engineer to design experiments accordingly.

Euler and more realistic RANS simulations of tunnel interference have been conducted. To reduce the question of grid dependence when comparing solutions, a common "farfield grid" was created and tunnel grids were extracted. Before doing RANS simulations an analysis of various turbulence models was conducted. It was found that turbulence models have difficulty in predicting turbulence levels in leading edge vortices. As such modifications have been applied to the models which improve predictions. Despite vortex breakdown being widely regarded as an inviscid phenomenon, dependence on turbulence modelling has been exhibited. This is due to the vortex properties being altered with turbulent diffusion of vorticity when turbulence levels are too high. Both 1- and 2-equation models were assessed and it was concluded that a modified 2-equation k-w model was the most suitable of the models available (when compared against experimental results), and was therefore used in all subsequent simulations.

From both Euler and RANS simulations it has been concluded that the effect of sidewall proximity significantly promotes vortex breakdown. Side wall induced velocity components increase the mean effective incidence of the wing, the helix angle and the strength of the vortices. The combination of these effects promotes vortex breakdown. Roof and floor proximity has little effect on vortex breakdown as does the frontal area blockage. Pitching simulations have shown that the promotion of vortex breakdown is not consistent on both the upstroke and downstroke. Break-down was observed to be prompted furthest at the higher incidence of the upstroke and on the downstroke. This highlights the dependency of tunnel interference on vortex strength.


Abstract : Rockbursts (RBs) are known to occur in and around deep mines like Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in South India, since the beginning of this century. A rockburst is characterised by a sudden collapse of excavated region because of void created during the mining operation. At large depths the problem of RB is quite severe which is a major hazard not only to mining workers, but also to property, both on surface and underground. In order to locate precisely the sources of RBs and also the blastings in the deep mines for investigation and assessment of stability of underground mine workings, current development in seismic recording technique has been used by establishing seismic network with 14 geophones and another microseismic network with 8 high frequency geophones at KGF These systems have been providing accurate information of the strata stability and enabled the mining engineers to assess the safety of mines more reliably. This paper summarises the details of monitoring set-up, analysis of data together with some recent results.


In aquatic microbial ecology, it has been considered that most extracellular enzymes except phosphatases are of bacterial origin. We tested this paradigm by evaluating the relationship between bacterial cell number and the activity of three glycolytic enzymes from 17 fresh waters and also from a laboratory experiment. Our large sets of pooled data do not seem to support such a simple explanation, because we found only a weak correlation of bacterial number with activity of α-glucosidase (rs = 0.63), β-glucosidase (rs = 0.45), and β-N-acetylhexosaminidase (rs = 0.44). We also tested relations of the enzymatic activities to potential sources of natural substrates: dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and phytoplankton (as chlorophyll a). Their correlations with the enzymatic activities tested were very weak or insignificant. On the other hand, we found evidence for distinct producers of extracellular enzymes by analysing enzyme kinetics. The kinetics usually did not follow the simple Michaelis-Menten model but a more complex one, indicating a mixture of two enzymes with distinct affinity to a substrate. In combination with size fractionation, we could sometimes even distinguish three or more different enzymes. During diatom blooms, the diatom biomass tightly correlated with β-N-acetylhexosaminidase activity (>4 μm fraction). We also documented very tight relationships between activity of both glucosidases and dry weight of Daphnia longispina (rs = 1.0 and 0.60 for α- and β-glucosidases, respectively) in an alpine clear-water lake. Our data and evidence from other studies indicate that extracellular glycosidic activities in aquatic ecosystems cannot generally be assigned only to bacteria. Also invertebrate animals and other eukaryotes (fungi, diatoms, protozoa etc.) should be considered as potentially very important enzyme producers. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Microfluidic devices with the gas permeability through polymer membranes were developed for further high-efficiency of gas-liquid chemical reactions and high-accuracy of environmental diagnosis. The devices were composed of a cover glass and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip which has the ability to permeate various gases, because PDMS is made of the elastomeric material. In the chip, microchannels with a width ranging from a few micrometers to a few hundred micrometers were manufactured by using the cryogenic micro machining. The gas permeation phenomena in microchannels are dominated by several factors, such as the gas and liquid flow rates, the membrane thickness between gas and liquid flow, and the surface area of membranes. The advantage of the present work is to realize the simple control of the gas permeability by changing the surface roughness of PDMS, because the cryogenic micro machining enables to control the surface roughness of microchannels and the increase in its roughness yields that in the surface area of membranes. For the evaluation of the gas permeability, the velocity and dissolved gas concentration distribution in the liquid flow field were measured by utilizing micron-resolution particle image velocimetry combined with laser induced fluorescence, and the measurement system was based on the confocal microscope to improve the depth resolution drastically. The experiments were performed under the several conditions with a change in the gas flow rate, the PDMS membrane thickness and the surface roughness, which affect the gas permeation phenomena. The results indicate that the velocity-vector distributions in the liquid flow have a similar pattern and the magnitudes of the velocity are approximately the same values under all conditions, while the dissolved gas concentration distributions have different patterns. It was quantitatively clear that the gas permeability through PDMS membranes was increased with an increase in the surface roughness and has the linearity to the surface area of membranes. The important conclusion is that the proposed device achieves to control the gas permeability by using the elastomeric material and changing the surface roughness.© 2011 ASME


Many strains of lactic acid bacteria have been used for the production of probiotics. Some metabolites produced by lactic acid bacteria impair the motilities of pathogenic bacteria. Because bacterial motility is strongly associated with virulence, the metabolic activities of lactic acid bacteria are effective for suppressing bacterial infections. Here we show that lactose fermentation by Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis inhibits the motility of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. A single-cell tracking and rotation assay for a single flagellum showed that the swimming behaviour of Salmonella was severely but transiently impaired through disruption of flagellar rotation on exposure to media cultivated with Lac. lactis. Using a pH-sensitive fluorescent protein, we observed that the intracellular pH of Salmonella was decreased because of some fermentation products of Lac. lactis. We identified acetate as the lactose fermentation product of Lac. lactis triggering the paralysis of Salmonella flagella. The motilities of Pseudomonas, Vibrio and Leptospira strains were also severely disrupted by lactose utilization by Lac. lactis. These results highlight the potential use of Lac. lactis for preventing infections by multiple bacterial species.


This article examines the nexus between two international topics, namely, trade negotiations, and regulation of the cross-border practice of law. Admittedly, this nexus is not found at a conventional crossroads. Legal services lie somewhat at the periphery of international trade measured in terms of the global value of goods, services and investment used to define major international economic relationships, or to define priorities in the formulation of national and transnational economic policies. Moreover, trade negotiators hardly figure amongst the principal regulators having responsibility for the professional conduct of individuals and firms engaged in the practice of law. Notwithstanding the somewhat peripheral nature of legal services in the overall calculation of balances of trade, and notwithstanding the traditional disjunction between responsibility for formulating trade policy and responsibility for supervising legal practitioners, the interaction of trade and legal services, carefully examined, can provide a useful analysis of its two components: of efforts to advance international trade in legal services, and of proposals to develop rules designed to facilitate cross-border legal practice. Such an analysis can prove instructive for policy-makers and interested participants not only in these two areas, but also in the broader context of formulating global rules governing trade and investment generally.


A theoretical analysis of the scattering of High-Frequency (HF), electromagnetic waves from a rough surface such as the ocean surface is proposed. This is required for an interpretation of the radar signature when using an HF radar for the remote sensing of ocean surface parameters. The analysis is based on Walsh's (1980b) formulation in the spatial Fourier transform domain for the scattering from a general time invariant surface. Initially, a two dimensional spatially periodic surface with a high refractive index is considered. For this surface, a series solution is derived for the surface electric field in the spatial transform domain maintaining the choice of any finite source. The source then considered is an elementary vertical dipole excited by a pulsed sinusoidal current. It is assumed that the surface slopes are small compared to unity. For this source, zero first, and second order approximations of the vertical component of the surface field are inverse spatially transformed in an asymptotic sense. These solutions are in the form of ground waves with modified surface impedances. By assuming a narrow beam receiving antenna, the inverse transforms for the first and second order solutions that involve spatial convolution integrals, are evaluated asymptotically for the two orders of the backscattered surface field. -- By modelling the ocean surface as a three dimensional periodic surface in space and time with random Fourier coefficients, the above two orders of the backscattered field are suitably modified to include the time dependency and the statistical variation of the surface. Based on this model an average first and second order backscattered Doppler spectra and consequently the two orders of the cross section are derived. The first order cross section is the same as that derived by Barrick (1972b, 1977a) using the Rice perturbation technique. The second order result contains three parts. The first part is almost the same as that obtained by Barrick. The two additional parts result from surface and incident field interaction along the path from transmitter to the primary ocean scattering patch and off-patch double scatter respectively. The effect of the former may be very pronounced, particularly at the higher Doppler frequencies when the radar is situated in the middle of the ocean.


Asphalt concrete (AC) pavement is one of the most important infrastructures that involve multiple layers of different materials subjected to non-uniform traffic loadings and varying environmental conditions. The repetitive traffic loadings that the road experiences during its service life, combined with temperature fluctuations, cause rutting, fatigue and other forms of deteriorations, which ultimately degrade the performance and durability of pavement structures. Both traffic volume and loads are increasing from year to year with rapid rate. The various categories of vehicles with different performance and operational characteristics contribute to pavement distresses. The dynamic load generated by heavy vehicles is considered as the primary cause of road structural damage and contribute the greater portion of the deterioration of AC pavements. Besides, the influence of temperature, which varies with time and along the pavement depth, makes an ever-changing temperature field. Extreme low daily temperature during winter and high temperature and solar radiation during summer cause thermal cracking and permanent deformation, respectively. The temperature gradient down to the depth has a direct influence on the properties of the AC structures, and hence, affects the response of a pavement while subjected to load. Estimation and prediction of the maximum distresses likely to happen within the pavement layer is vital for proper design of the pavement. Constitutive modeling of the deformation behavior of AC enables to evaluate the deterioration progress. On the other hand, better understanding of materials behaviors and structural responses of asphalt concrete in combination with of load-stress-strain computation tools, allows for optimization of asphalt pavement thickness and material choice. Until recently, AC pavements have been designed to serve for about 20-25 years, however, it has been observed that some roads have been serving for more than 40 years without the need for structural rehabilitation. Such phenomenon has strengthened the issue of prolonged service life of road pavements to be remained as a key concern for road industries for the past several years. In this research, the response of asphalt concrete has been evaluated by employing the ABAQUS finite element model. In order to take into account the effect of temperature on materials properties as well as to determine the deformation progress of a pavement under different temperature and loading conditions, a rut prediction model is developed. Various parameters critically influencing the accumulation of permanent deformation are evaluated by the Burger-material-based model developed by the Author. The FE analyses mainly have focused on the stress-strain state of AC pavement with varying loading conditions, structural geometry and material properties. The analysis showed keeping structural geometry, loading condition and other material parameters constant, an increase the E-moduli of the binder twice yields 4.9% and 14.3% reduction in vertical stresses developed at the mid-depth of the binder and base layers, respectively and increasing the same by forth fold yields as well 11.1% and 27.6% in these layers. However, there is a slight increase in stress in the wearing layer, in both cases. This holds true as well in case of increasing the E-moduli of the base course, there are increase in stresses developed on both wearing and binder courses. The FE analyses show that critical shear stresses are developed within the binder layer. It has been observed that the magnitude of the vertical stress in the wearing course is independent of the wheel configuration, however, the overlapping of stresses is gradually pronounced in the binder course. The analyses reveal that the subbase and subgrade layers suffer greatly due to the influence of the overlapping of stresses developed by dual/multiple wheels. The vertical stress developed at the top layers of the asphalt concrete is one of the major contributors for rut formation on this layer. Of course the rate of rut formation is a function of the frequency of such load application, materials properties and other external factors such as temperature. A Burger-based rutting model has been developed which can predict the accumulation of permanent deformation throughout the service life of a pavement with varying traffic load spectrum and annual and daily temperature variations. The model takes into account the hourly, daily and annual variations of the traffic, the expected traffic wheel loads and operating speed. At the same time, the time variation of temperature across the pavement depth are evaluated and associated with the material properties of the structure layers. It has been found that the higher the viscous component of the material the better the serviceability of the road without undergoing excessive deformation. Higher growth rate accelerates deformation. In addition, the structural geometries have an important contribution for the reduction of the over all permanent deformation of a pavement. It is recommended to work further on development of fatigue and other forms of damage prediction model under various loading spectrum and temperature ranges and integrate together for full scale analysis of AC pavements.


BACKGROUND
There has been no comprehensive study determining the financial burden of breast cancer in the South African (SA) public sector.

OBJECTIVES
To develop a method to determine the cost of breast cancer treatment with chemotherapy per episode of care and to quantify the associated costs relating to chemotherapy at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH), a government hospital in SA. These costs included costs associated with the management of adverse events arising from chemotherapy.

METHODS
Retrospective patient-level data were collected for 200 patients from electronic databases and patient folders between 2013 and 2015. Direct medical costs were determined from the health funder's perspective. The information collected was categorised into the following cost components: chemotherapy medicines, support medicines, administration of chemotherapy, laboratory tests, radiology scans and imaging, doctor consultations and adverse events. Time-and-motion studies were conducted on a set of new patients and the data obtained were used for the study sample of 200 patients. All the above costs were used to determine the cost of chemotherapy per episode of care. The episode of care was defined as the care provided from 2 months prior to the date of commencing chemotherapy (pre-chemotherapy phase), during chemotherapy (treatment phase) and until 6 months after the date when the last cycle of chemotherapy was administered (follow-up phase).

RESULTS
A method was developed to determine the episode-of-care costs for breast cancer at GSH. The total direct medical cost for treatment of breast cancer at GSH for 200 patients was ZAR3 154 877, and the average episode-of-care cost per patient was ZAR15 774. The average cost of management of adverse events arising from the various treatment modalities was ZAR13 133 per patient. It was found that the cost of treating a patient with adverse events was 1.8 times higher than the cost of treating a patient without adverse events. Of the patients, 86.5% managed to complete their prescribed chemotherapy treatment cycles, and the average cost of treatment of these patients was 1.3 times more than the average cost for patients who could not complete their treatment, based on the number of treatment cycles received.

CONCLUSION
A comprehensive method to determine the costs associated with breast cancer management per episode of care was developed, and costs were quantified at GSH according to the treatment protocol used at the hospital.


ABSTRACT This article analyses anti-sex-work mobilization in Austria and Germany since 2014. An affective perspective on the websites of these groups shows how their framings run the risk of establishing a disciplinary regime of governing people, of a restrictive, heterosexist norm of sexuality, and of gender inequality. Abolitionist strategies in the two countries thus produce an affective governmentality excluding those who should not belong to the affective community, i.e. those who do not submit to limiting their sexuality to the private realm of monogamous relationships. Finally, the article suggests that the abolitionist affective mobilisation feeds into the self-affirmation of traditional branches of women's movements in the two countries.


Super-resolution reconstruction of image sequences is highly dependent on data outliers and on the quality of the motion estimation. This paper addresses the design of the least mean square algorithm applied to super-resolution reconstruction (LMS-SRR). Based on a statistical model for the algorithm behavior, we propose a design strategy to reduce the effects of outliers on the reconstructed image sequence. We show that the proposed strategy leads the algorithm to a close-to-optimum performance in both the transient and the steady-state phases of adaptation in practical situations in which registration errors occur. The analysis also shows that lower values of the step size do not necessarily lead to a better steady-state mean-square error, differently from the traditional LMS behavior.


Polyphenols are mainly responsible for the formation of astringency and
bitterness in cocoa beans. Due to the propensity of polyphenols to interact
with other compounds, studies have been carried out to evaluate influences
of polyphenols in the development of cocoa flavor. The studies started with
the evaluation of polyphenol changes during cocoa fermentation and
roasting, followed by the study on the development of flavor during roasting
of cocoa liquor at different polyphenol concentrations. In order to overcome
the low aroma and excessive astringency problems in unfermented and
under-fermented cocoa beans, studies on the reactivation of the remaining
key enzymes in these beans were also carried out.
The study found that polyphenol concentration was reduced as high as 53%
during cocoa fermentation. Oxidation and derivatization of the cocoa
polyphenols decreased polyphenol ability to interact with protein and produce astringency as supported by the decrease in tannin concentration as
high as 39% from the concentration prior to fermentation and decrease in
more hydrophobic polyphenols proportion during cocoa fermentation.
Monomers, trimers and tetramers at 36, 20 and 16%, respectively were the
predominant polyphenols present in unfermented cocoa bean. However, in
fermented cocoa bean they were monomers, dimers and trimers which were
29, 16 and 16% of the total polyphenol, respectively. Pentamers, tetramers
and dimers were highly correlated (p<0.01) with astringency and bitterness.
Roasting of cocoa liquor at 120°C for 15 to 45 min significantly (p<0.05)
reduced polyphenol hydrophobicity and concentrations of polyphenol and
tannin. During the roasting process, concentrations of polyphenol and tannin
in fermented cocoa liquor decreased 2.6-3.3% and 20-33% from the
concentration prior to roasting, respectively. However, in the fermented
cocoa liquor enriched with unfermented cocoa polyphenol at 170 g kg-l, the
decreases were 4.7-8.9% and 2.3-7.5%, respectively.
Increases in polyphenol concentration in cocoa liquor from 58 to 170 g kg-l
did not only produce excessive astringency and bitterness, but also caused
reduction on pyrazine formation during roasting. The reduction on the
formations of 2,3,5-trimethyl- and 2,3,5,6-tetramethy- occurred through out
roasting period. However, the reduction against 2,5-dimethyl- only occurred at 35 min roasting time. Reduction on the formation of 2,3-dimethylpyrazine
occurred at 25, 35 and 45 min roasting time.
Sensory evaluation indicated that the increases in polyphenol concentration
significantly (p<0.05) lowered the cocoa flavor and viscosity, and increased
astringency and bitterness; however, it did not influence acidity,
fruity/floral/bouquet, raw/green, smoky and mouldy/earthy properties of
the liquor. Cocoa flavor scored at 6.4 out of maximum score of 10 was
decreased to 5.2 due to the polyphenol increases from 58 to 170 g kg-1.
However, viscosity score was decreased from 4.2 to 3.0. In contrary,
astringency score was increased from 3.6 to 5.3, and bitterness score was
increased from 3.2 to 4.9.
Key enzymes remained in dried unfermented cocoa bean, namely
polyphenol oxidase, aspartic endoprotease, carboxypetidase and invertase
bean were found at 1, 33, 20 and 19% from the original activities,
respectively; however, those in under-fermented cocoa bean were 0.08, 31, 16
and 7%, respectively. Reactivation of these enzymes through incubation at
45°C, pH 3.5-6.5 reduced the excessive polyphenol concentration and
produced aroma precursors in the dried cocoa beans. Crude polyphenol
oxidase extracted from fresh freeze-dried unfermented cocoa bean and
tyrosinase from mushroom at concentration of 88-8,800 U g-I could also be
used to enhance oxidation of cocoa bean polyphenols.


WorldCom's disclosure of billions of dollars of financial fraud on June 25, 2002 challenged the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") in several major ways. The FCC proclaimed its commitment to enforce its rules to protect consumers against service discontinuance as well as the priority of rooting out corporate fraud. The FCC's rules required WorldCom to file accurate financial information and to show that it had financial and character qualifications necessary to hold FCC licenses. Despite numerous related proceedings and other actions in 2001 and early 2002, the FCC had not detected nor deterred WorldCom's fraud. After the disclosure, WorldCom continued its landline and other core services. Although there were allegations that WorldCom violated the FCC's rules by filing false financial information, the FCC did not take enforcement action against WorldCom and did not tighten its regulations related to such financial fraud. This article will examine the reasons for the FCC's regulatory treatment of WorldCom, its failure to prevent the WorldCom debacle, and the absence of any shift in its regulatory posture in the WorldCom aftermath. Four partial explanations for the FCC's responses involve the actions of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department, downturn in the telecommunications industry, long-range deregulation by the FCC, and political accountability. I. INTRODUCTION II. HOW DID Tim FCC RESPOND IN THE DAYS AND WEEKS FOLLOWING WORLDCOM'S DISCLOSURE? A. WorldCom's Disclosure of Accounting Fraud. B. FCC's Public Statements Responding to WorldCom's Disclosures C. Analysis of the FCC's Immediate Response III. WHAT REGULATIONS DID THE FCC APPLY OR NOT APPLY TO WORLDCOM DURING THE ACCOUNTING FRAUD? A. Findings of Financial and Character Qualifications for WorldCom's Licenses 1. Legal Framework for the FCC's Analysis of WorldCom's Qualifications 2. Application of Financial and Character Qualifications Tests to WorldCom During the Fraud B. Assessment of WorldCom as a Financially Strong Competitor in Authorizing Other Carriers C. Audit of and Reports by WorldCom D. Statistical Reports Reflecting WorldCom ' s Financials E. Enforcement Action F. Regulations of Prices, Terms, and Conditions for Services Offered by Local Exchange Carriers G. Analysis of the FCC's Relevant Regulations During the WorldCom Accounting Fraud IV. AFTER SEVERAL YEARS, HOW DID THE FCC CHANGE OR NOT CHANGE ITS REGULATIONS RELATED TO WORLDCOM'S DISCLOSURE? A. FCC Proceedings Triggered by WorldCom' s Disclosure 1. Discontinuance of Some Noncom Services 2. WorldCom's Licenses 3. Local Exchange Carriers' Protection Against Uncollectibles B. Continuation of Other FCC Regulations Related to WorldCom' s Disclosure 1. Information Filing and Accounting Requirements for Nondominant Carriers 2. License Applications 3. Audits 4. Enforcement Actions C. Analysis of the FCC's Maintenance of its Regulations and Practices Following its Public Statements on WorldCom's Disclosure V. WHAT EXPLAINS THE FCC'S RESPONSE TO WORLDCOM'S DISCLOSURE? A. Protecting Consumers and Rooting Out Corporate Fraud B. Partial Explanations for the FCC's Stance on Financial Fraud 1. Changes in Securities Laws, SEC Regulations, and Other SEC and Justice Department Actions 2. Telecommunications Industry Downturn 3. Deregulation and Market Forces 4. Political Accountability VI. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION The disclosure of massive financial accounting fraud at WorldCom, Incorporated ("WorldCom") on June 25, 2002, (1) was a major shock to the Federal Communications Commission ("Fee"). …


Constraint-based path computation is a fundamental building block for
traffic engineering systems such as Multiprotocol Label Switching
(MPLS) and Generalized Multiprotocol Label Switching (GMPLS) networks.
Path computation in large, multi-domain, multi-region, or multi-layer
networks is complex and may require special computational components
and cooperation between the different network domains. This document
specifies the architecture for a Path Computation Element (PCE)-based
model to address this problem space. This document does not attempt to
provide a detailed description of all the architectural components,
but rather it describes a set of building blocks for the PCE
architecture from which solutions may be constructed. This memo
provides information for the Internet community.


The problem of bipartite ranking, where instances are labeled positive or negative and the goal is to learn a scoring function that minimizes the probability of mis-ranking a pair of positive and negative instances (or equivalently, that maximizes the area under the ROC curve), has been widely studied in recent years. A dominant theoretical and algorithmic framework for the problem has been to reduce bipartite ranking to pairwise classification; in particular, it is well known that the bipartite ranking regret can be formulated as a pairwise classification regret, which in turn can be upper bounded using usual regret bounds for classification problems. Recently, Kotlowski et al. (2011) showed regret bounds for bipartite ranking in terms of the regret associated with balanced versions of the standard (non-pairwise) logistic and exponential losses. In this paper, we show that such (nonpairwise) surrogate regret bounds for bipartite ranking can be obtained in terms of a broad class of proper (composite) losses that we term as strongly proper. Our proof technique is much simpler than that of Kotlowski et al. (2011), and relies on properties of proper (composite) losses as elucidated recently by Reid and Williamson (2010, 2011) and others. Our result yields explicit surrogate bounds (with no hidden balancing terms) in terms of a variety of strongly proper losses, including for example logistic, exponential, squared and squared hinge losses as special cases. An important consequence is that standard algorithms minimizing a (non-pairwise) strongly proper loss, such as logistic regression and boosting algorithms (assuming a universal function class and appropriate regularization), are in fact consistent for bipartite ranking; moreover, our results allow us to quantify the bipartite ranking regret in terms of the corresponding surrogate regret. We also obtain tighter surrogate bounds under certain low-noise conditions via a recent result of Clemencon and Robbiano (2011).


Existing studies have explored the use of feature films to teach undergraduate medical students about psychiatric conditions.1–3 However, there are no existing studies examining medical students' perceptions of the use of film to teach the mental state examination (MSE)—the clinical tool by which clinicians assess and report a patient's mental state separate from any purported diagnosis. Since students are most likely to undertake an MSE when meeting patients with mental illness for the first time, it seems practically more useful for film to be used to teach this.

The MSE is divided into several sections: appearance and behaviour, speech, mood, thoughts, perceptions, cognition and insight. Since portrayals of mental illness on film vary in the veracity of their depictions, focusing students' observations on these specific areas may help prevent generalisation about how mental illness presents.

We explored students' experience of teaching the MSE using film clips along with their perceptions of which aspects of the MSE such media are best suited to teach.

A short teaching session using clips from feature films and television dramas was delivered to 33 medical students from the University of Grenada. Clips were chosen to demonstrate a variety of psychopathologies: 'Twelve Monkeys', 1995 (delusional beliefs, perceptual disturbance); 'The Caine Mutiny', 1954 (paranoia); 'The Soloist', 2009 (thought disorder); 'ER', 2001 (mania).

After a brief overview of the MSE, students were asked to assess characters' …


In Autumn 1931 and Spring 1932, at a time of global and national economic crisis, the BBC subsumed all its adult education radio broadcasts under the title The Changing World. The series was described in promotional literature as 'an attempt ... to face up squarely to the present situation, and to provide a survey of the many changes in outward circumstance, and in the evolution of thought and of values, which have brought into being the world as it is to-day.'
The Changing World comprised 144 broadcasts, each lasting around 25 minutes. The broadcasts were presented by eminent figures, such as the poet T. S. Eliot, the writer Harold Nicolson, the scientist Julian Huxley, and the economist William Beveridge. All talks were transmitted at 'prime time' in the early evening, and were intended for general listeners. In addition, associated pamphlets were published by the BBC in which speakers developed their thoughts.
The series was avowedly based on the premise that the contemporary crisis was a singular historical episode, calling for special consideration. Its roots lay in the cataclysm of the First World War, but it was also a manifestation of the many conflicting philosophies which ran through public life: socialism versus capitalism; nationalism versus internationalism; science (or secularism) versus spirituality; and modernism versus classicism. The crisis was seen as pervading most areas of cultural, creative and economic life, such as politics, the arts, science, and education.
In another sense, though, the series was very much a product of its time. Broadcast radio, and in particular public service broadcasting, was barely ten years old, but in that short time it had developed from a specialist, minority pursuit to a cultural and educational resource in the lives of most of the population. This paper argues that The Changing World therefore represents a coming -of-age of radio – a realisation among its staff that it was especially fitted to tackle momentous topics on behalf of the public. The series marks a growing confidence among broadcasting practitioners in the medium, and a growing self-confidence in themselves as professional intermediaries between the public and the intellectual world.
The talk draws on original, unpublished archive material relating to the series, and on associated publications. Although no sound recordings of the series survive, many of the talks were published. Extracts from the talks give an impression of the approaches and styles, and internal BBC documents indicate the ambition and scope of the producers. Reviews and comments also indicate the reception of the series. The paper also locates The Changing World in the context of the BBC's own historical development, and its sometimes uneasy political position as a quasi-autonomous body which was nevertheless subject in various ways to government pressure.


For almost a hundred years the academic study of migration concentrated on evolving standardised models of migration behaviour based on data from censuses or the registration of births, marriages and deaths. More recently, it has been realised that such models fail to take into account the decision-making behind migration and that better understanding will come from study of the behaviour of individuals as well as aggregate numbers. In this book, the imaginative use of alternative sources for example, apprentice books, guild and craft records, legal and court documents, diaries and biographies gives fresh insights into the processes of movement to reveal much more complex circulatory behaviour than the standard models derived from census and registration sources alone have suggested. The first chapter confronts the issue of rural mobility in post-famine Ireland and is followed by a study centred on Alpine rural families which built impressive networks across pre-industrial Western Europe. Two chapters focus on the particular characteristics of worker groups: mining families of south Lancashire during the period of rapid increase in coal production in the eighteenth century; and the organised mobility of skilled labour in nineteenth-century central Europe. Next, an imaginative and rigorous deployment of the techniques of family reconstruction and record linkage embracing a variety of sources (vital event registers, wills, port books, apprentice records) teases out the migration histories of those who settled in eighteenth-century Liverpool. There are two chapters on female migrant behaviour, drawing attention in the case of eighteenth-century Rheims to the opportunities and restrictions on the life of migrant women at different points in their lifecycles; and showing how poor women struggled to survive in nineteenth-century Dublin. The final chapter uses family histories assembled by numerous genealogists and family historians to challenge the orthodox view of direct stepwise migration from a smaller to a larger town in the urban hierarchy.


BACKGROUND
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) with fluorescent cholangiography using indocyanine green dye (FC) identifies extrahepatic biliary structures, potentially augmenting the critical view of safety. We aim to describe trends for the largest single-center cohort of patients undergoing FC in LC.

METHODS
A retrospective review of a prospectively maintained database identified patients undergoing LC with FC at a single academic institution. Patient factors included age, sex, BMI, and ASA score. Outcomes included operative time, conversion to open procedure, biliary injury, length of stay (LOS), and complications.

RESULTS
828 patients underwent FC. 74.3% were female; mean age 50.4 years and average BMI 28.8 kg/m2. Mean OR time was 68.6 minutes. There were no mortalities nor common bile duct injuries. Morbidities included 4 bile leaks and 1 retained stone. 6 patients required conversion to an open approach. Operative time, length of stay, and open conversion significantly decreased post a standard ICG protocol (p <0.05). Compared to white light, FC demonstrated lower operative times (99 vs 68 minutes), LOS (1.4 vs 0.4 days), open conversions (8% vs 0.7%), ED visits (13% vs 8%) and drain placements (12% vs 3%) (all p <0.05). Patients with BMI >30 saw elevated operative times and LOS.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this paper demonstrates improved operative outcomes with the utilization of FC through the consistent ability to delineate biliary anatomy, even in the setting of complex anatomy. No common bile duct injuries have occurred in our 7-year experience with FC. We recommend FC as the standard of care when performing laparoscopic cholecystectomies.


When a thin metallic region exists between the core and the cladding regions of a step-index optical fiber, hybrid surface plasma modes can be supported. For each azimuthal mode order two hybrid modes generally occur. Their disperison and attenuation characteristics are studied. The selective influence of the core radius on these is found to be strong only if the radius is small. As the radius increases the modes become degenerate with those of the pure TM polarization.


We report an experimental investigation of the magnetic normal modes in large-area Ni80Fe20 antidot arrays fabricated on commercially available silicon substrates using deep ultraviolet lithography at 248 nm exposing wavelength. The effect of the lattice symmetry (square, rhombic and honeycomb) on the magnetic normal modes of the arrays has been investigated by both Brillouin light scattering and broadband ferromagnetic resonance using a vector network analyzer. For all the measured samples, the eigenfrequencies show an angular symmetry which is consistent with the lattice arrangement of the holes. Interpretation of the experimental results was achieved by micromagnetic simulations which enabled us to calculate both the frequencies of the modes and the corresponding spatial profile, correlating their angular evolution with the magnetic ground state.


The extremely narrow morphology-dependent resonances of a microdroplet seen in Mie scattering are important for the nonlinear optical phenomena in these microdroplets, the large storage time being responsible for optical feedback. A formalism is developed within the scalar wave analog to calculate the change in the widths caused by a small perturbation, such as a distortion of the microdroplet shape from perfect sphericity. This formalism may be viewed as the generalization of the usual Rayleigh–Schrodinger perturbation scheme to the imaginary part of the energy. The results are checked against T-matrix calculations. In particular, it is proved that any perturbation can only increase the widths of these resonances, provided that terms of O(1/Q0) can be ignored in the first- and second-order corrections, where Q0 is the original quality factor of the resonance. The result can be interpreted in terms of a generalized golden rule and is relevant to similar problems involving quasi-normal modes in quantum mechanics. The full theory beyond the scalar wave approximation can be developed, and it is expected that all qualitative features will survive.


Applicability of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging in the clinical setting is hampered by the limited reliability in particular of the perfusion-related parameter estimates. To alleviate this problem, various advanced postprocessing methods have been introduced. However, the underlying algorithms are not readily available and generally suffer from an increased computational burden. Contrary, several computationally fast image denoising methods have recently been proposed which are accessible online and may improve reliability of IVIM parameter estimates. The objective of the present work is to investigate the impact of image denoising on accuracy and precision of IVIM parameter estimates using comprehensive in-silico and in-vivo experiments. Image denoising is performed with four different algorithms that work on magnitude data: two algorithms which are based on nonlocal means (NLM) filtering, one algorithm that relies on local principal component analysis (LPCA) of the diffusion-weighted images, and another algorithms that exploits joint rank and edge constraints (JREC). Accuracy and precision of IVIM parameter estimates is investigated in an in-silico brain phantom and an in-vivo ground truth as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio for spatially homogenous and inhomogenous levels of Rician noise. Moreover, precision is evaluated using bootstrap analysis of in-vivo measurements. In the experiments, IVIM parameters are computed a) by using a segmented fit method and b) by performing a biexponential fit of the entire attenuation curve based on nonlinear least squares estimates. Irrespective of the fit method, the results demonstrate that reliability of IVIM parameter estimates is substantially improved by image denoising. The experiments show that the LPCA and the JREC algorithms perform in a similar manner and outperform the NLM-related methods. Relative to noisy data, accuracy of the IVIM parameters in the in-silico phantom improves after image denoising by 76–79%, 79–81%, 84–99% and precision by 74–80%, 80–83%, 84–95% for the perfusion fraction, the diffusion coefficient, and the pseudodiffusion coefficient, respectively, when the segmented fit method is used. Beyond that, the simulations reveal that denoising performance is not impeded by spatially inhomogeneous levels of Rician noise in the image. Since all investigated algorithms are freely available and work on magnitude data they can be readily applied in the clinical setting which may foster transition of IVIM imaging into clinical practice.


A total of 56 gestating sows (PIC 1050; 35-d post-insemination) were used in a 30-d trial to determine the serum 25(OH)D3 response to increasing concentrations of vitamins D3. At initiation, sows were randomly allotted to 1 of 7 dietary vitamin D3 treatments (91, 363, 726, 1,451, 2,903, 5,806, or 11,612 IU of vitamin D3/lb of complete diet) with 8 sows per treatment. All sows were fed 5.5 lb daily at 0800. Increasing vitamin D3 increased (quadratic; P < 0.001) serum 25(OH)D3 with the response depicted by the following prediction equation: Serum 25(OH)D3, ng/mL = 35.1746 + (0.002353 × dietary vitamin D3, IU/d) (0.0000000156 × dietary vitamin D3, IU/d2) In Exp. 2, 112 sows and their litters were used to determine the effects of supplemented vitamin D on sow performance, subsequent pre-weaning pig performance, neonatal pig bone and muscle characteristics, and serum vitamin metabolites. Sows were allotted to 1 of 4 dietary regimens: 1) low vitamin D3 (363 IU/lb); 2) medium vitamin D3 (907 IU/lb); 3) high vitamin D3 (4,354 IU/lb); or 4) 23 μg 25(OH)D3/lb (Hy-D, DSM Nutritional Products Inc, Parsippany, NJ), which were fed throughout gestation and lactation. There were 25 to 27 sows per treatment. Overall, increasing maternal vitamin D3 increased (linear, P = 0.001) serum 25 (OH)D3 of sows on d 100 of gestation, at farrowing, and at weaning. Also increasing vitamin D3 in diets fed to sows increased piglet serum 25(OH)D3 at birth (linear, P = 0.001) and weaning (quadratic, P = 0.033). Sows fed 25(OH)D3 had greater (P < 0.001) serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations on d 100 of gestation, at farrowing, and at weaning compared to sows fed the low or medium concentration of vitamin D3; however, they were reduced (P < 0.004) compared to the serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations of sows fed the high concentration of vitamin D3 on the same collection days. Piglets from sows fed 25(OH)D3 had greater serum 25(OH)D3 compared to piglets from sows fed the low and medium concentration of vitamin D3; however, at weaning, serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations were only greater compared to the low concentration of vitamin D3. Also, piglets from sows fed the high concentration of vitamin D had greater (P = 0.011) serum 25(OH)D3 concentration at birth and at weaning, compared to piglets from sows fed 25(OH)D3. Maternal performance, litter characteristics, neonatal bone ash content, and neonatal muscle fiber characteristics were largely unaffected by the maternal vitamin D regimen. Overall, vitamin D3 and 25(OH)D3 both appear to be useful at increasing serum 25(OH) D3 concentrations, but more vitamin D3 (on an IU basis) is needed to achieve similar serum 25(OH)D3 responses compared to feeding 25(OH)D3. Interestingly, sows fed 25(OH)D3 in lactation had less vitamin D transport to the pig than sows fed medium and high concentrations of vitamin D3 suggesting that vitamin D3 is still a more useful metabolite for milk transfer of the vitamin. Due to the lack of impact of maternal vitamin D regimen on sow or pre-weaned pig performance, and neonatal muscle characteristics, more research examining the impact of vitamin D on immune function and novel biological processes is needed to assess the value of vitamin D supplementation strategies in pigs.


An approach to induction is presented, based on the idea of analysing the context of a given problem into `circumstances'. This approach, fully Bayesian in form and meaning, provides a complement or in some cases an alternative to that based on de Finetti's representation theorem and on the notion of infinite exchangeability. In particular, it gives an alternative interpretation of those formulae that apparently involve `unknown probabilities' or `propensities'. Various advantages and applications of the presented approach are discussed, especially in comparison to that based on exchangeability. Generalisations are also discussed.


The economic significance of longevity risk for governments, corporations, and individuals has begun to be recognized and quantified. The traditional insurance route for managing this risk has serious limitations due to capacity constraints that are becoming more and more binding. If the 2010 U.S. population lived three years longer than expected then the government would have to set aside 50% of the U.S. 2010 GDP or approximately $7.37 trillion to fully fund that increased social security liability. This is just one way of gauging the size of the risk. Due to the much larger capacity of capital markets more attention is being devoted to transforming longevity risk from its pure risk form to a speculative risk form so that it can be traded in the capital markets. This transformation has implications for governments, corporations and individuals that will be explored here. The analysis will view the management of longevity risk by considering how defined contribution plans can be managed to increase the sustainable length of retirement and by considering how defined benefit plans can be managed to reduce pension risk using longevity risk hedging schemes.


The tropical cyclone (TC) intensity forecast from the Weighted Analog Intensity Prediction (WAIP) was evaluated using 63 Philippine TC cases from 2014 to 2017 to determine its applicability as baseline intensity forecast guidance of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). The method generates a rank-weighted average of intensity evolutions of 10 historical analogs from the 1945 to 2014 Joint Typhoon Warning Center best tracks that closely resemble the PAGASA official forecast track and initial intensity at the time the forecast is generated. WAIP proved to be more skillful in providing intensity forecast at 12 to 96 h and less skillful at 120 h relative to persistence. Verification revealed that WAIP had significantly smaller mean absolute error and consistently smaller intensity biases up to 96 h. However, the small sample size at 96 h due to the limitations in the extent of the observed track and reference track forecast from PAGASA suggests that the result may not fully represent the model performance within the Philippine Area of Responsibility at 96 h. The probability distribution of intensities at 36, 72, and 96 h predicted by the model showed that the statistical model may not fully capture the full range of the observed intensities or the extreme values, with the model struggling to predict lower range of intensity values with increasing forecast intervals. Three TC cases are presented to emphasize the model dependence on the accuracy of the reference track forecast and the number and representativeness of available historical analogs for a particular forecast scenario.


Common marketing strategies include emphasizing products' "green" or environmentally friendly attributes and characteristics to appeal to a growing market of environmentally conscious consumers. While previous studies have used product labels such as "eco-friendly," "environmentally friendly," and "sustainable" to investigate consumer preferences, relatively little is known about how consumer perceptions as a pre-decision mechanism impact their preferences and choice behaviors. Using data collected through an online survey of U.S. and Canadian consumers, we investigate systematic differences in individuals' perceptions of the terms "eco-friendly" and "sustainable." Marketing implications for the food and green (i.e., greenhouse/nursery producers, suppliers, and retailers) industries are discussed.


Context: Relaxation theory offers a straightforward method for estimating the energy that is released when a magnetic field becomes unstable, as a result of continual convective driving. Aims: We present new results obtained from nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of idealised coronal loops. The purpose of this work is to determine whether or not the simulation results agree with Taylor relaxation, which will require a modified version of relaxation theory applicable to unbounded field configurations. Methods: A three-dimensional (3D) MHD Lagrangian-remap code is used to simulate the evolution of a line-tied cylindrical coronal loop model. This model comprises three concentric layers surrounded by a potential envelope; hence, being twisted locally, each loop configuration is distinguished by a piecewise-constant current profile. Initially, all configurations carry zero-net-current fields and are in ideally unstable equilibrium. The simulation results are compared with the predictions of helicity conserving relaxation theory. Results: For all simulations, the change in helicity is no more than 2% of the initial value; also, the numerical helicities match the analytically-determined values. Magnetic energy dissipation predominantly occurs via shock heating associated with magnetic reconnection in distributed current sheets. The energy release and final field profiles produced by the numerical simulations are in agreement with the predictions given by a new model of partial relaxation theory: the relaxed field is close to a linear force free state; however, the extent of the relaxation region is limited, while the loop undergoes some radial expansion. Conclusions: The results presented here support the use of partial relaxation theory, specifically, when calculating the heating-event distributions produced by ensembles of kink-unstable loops.


This study is phase 2 of a two phase research project. In Phase 1 a structural health monitoring system (SHMS) was installed on the Chulitna River Bridge. This bridge is 790 feet long, 42 foot 2 inches wide and has 5 spans. As part of that effort, three loaded dump trucks were used to conduct seventeen static and dynamic loadings on the structure. In addition to studying the bridge using SHMS, two ambient free vibration tests were conducted a year apart. In 1993, the deck on this 1970 five span bridge was widened from 34-feet to a 42 foot 2 inch concrete deck. Increased load was accounted for by strengthening two variable depth exterior girders and converting interior stringers to interior truss girders. Construction documents for the upgrade called for stage construction. At the time of this study, the bridge had five bearings that were not in contact with the superstructure. Feasibility of using Structural Health Monitoring Systems (SHMS) for Alaska Highway Bridges was examined. Also, SHMS data for the load tests of Phase 1 were used to calibrate a three-dimensional model (FEM) to predict response and conduct a 2014 Operating Load Rating.


Interconnectivity of production machines is a key feature of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This feature allows for many advantages in producing. Configuration and maintenance gets easier, as access to the given production unit is not necessarily coupled to physical presence. Customized production of goods is easily possible, reducing production times and increasing throughput. There are, however, also dangers to the increasing talkativeness of industrial production machines. The more open a system is, the more points of entry for an attacker exist. Furthermore, the amount of data a production site also increases rapidly due to the integrated intelligence and interconnectivity. To keep track of this data in order to detect attacks and errors in the production site, it is necessary to smartly aggregate and evaluate the data. In this paper, we present a new approach for collecting, aggregating and analysing data from different sources and on three different levels of abstraction. Our model is event-centric, considering every occurrence of information inside the system as an event. In the lowest level of abstraction, singular packets are collected, correlated with log-entries and analysed. On the highest level of abstraction, networks are pictured as a connectivity graph, enriched with information about host-based activities. Furthermore, we describe our work in progress of evaluating our aggregation model on two different system settings. In the first scenario, we verify the usability of our model in a remote maintenance application. In the second scenario, we evaluate our model in the context of network sniffing and correlation with log-files. First results show that our model is a promising solution to cope with increasing amounts of data and to correlate information from different types of sources.


This paper analyzes dividend remittances by a large panel of foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational firms. The dividend policies of foreign affiliates, which convey no signals to public capital markets, nevertheless resemble those used by publicly held companies in paying dividends to diffuse common shareholders. Robustness checks verify that dividend policies of foreign affiliates are little affected by the dividend policies of their parent companies or parent company exposure to public capital markets. Systematic differences in the payout behavior of affiliates that differ in organizational form, and those that face differing tax costs of paying dividends, reveal the importance of tax factors; nevertheless, dividend policies are not solely determined by tax considerations. The absence of capital market considerations and the incompleteness of tax explanations together suggest that dividend policies are largely driven by the need to control managers of foreign affiliates. Parent firms are more willing to incur tax penalties by simultaneously investing funds while receiving dividends and to regularize dividend payments when their foreign affiliates are partially owned, located far from the United States, or in jurisdictions with inefficient judicial systems, all of which are implied by control theories of dividends.


Thamnidium elegans CCF-1465 was tested for its ability to produce lipid containing γ-linolenic acid (GLA), during its cultivation on mixtures of glucose and xylose, abundant sugars of lignocellulosic biomass. Experiments were conducted in both shake-flask and bioreactor trials, while in any case, nitrogen limited media were employed in order to direct the microbial metabolism towards the synthesis of intra-cellular lipid. All cultures were performed at media presenting initial total sugar concentration of 100 g/L. Analysis of intra-cellular lipid showed that the highest GLA content was observed in early stationary growth phase. Additionally, the composition of fatty acids of the neutral fraction resembled with that of total lipids, while the phospholipids, in most cases, were the most unsaturated fraction compared to the other lipid fractions of T. elegans.


This thesis presents an approach for identifying a maximal number of dangerous contingencies in large scale power system security assessment problems with bounded computational resources. The method developed in this work relies on the definition of an objective function associating to each contingency a real value that quantifies its severity for the security of the system, this value being greater than or equal to a given threshold only for dangerous contingencies. The value of this function for a given contingency is computed from the result of a security analysis executed on the post-contingency configuration. The framework we propose for identifying dangerous contingencies is derived from an algorithm from the optimization literature so as to find, with a given number of evaluations of the objective function, a maximal number of contingencies whose value of this function exceeds the adopted threshold. This approach performs successive samplings of the space gathering all the contingencies, and exploits the information contained in each of these samples in order to direct the subsequent sampling process towards contingencies with high values of the objective function. Our algorithm is first introduced in the case where the search space is a Euclidean space. Then we propose an extension of this approach to the more common case where the search space is discrete, thanks to a procedure allowing to embed a discrete contingency space in a Euclidean space, over which a metric is defined. The efficiency of the developed method is evaluated on several case studies: an N− 3 analysis of a benchmark test system, the IEEE 118 bus test system, and N− 1 and N−2 studies of a real system, the Belgian transmission network. Afterwards, we consider the case where several of these iterative sampling algorithms are available. Assuming that these algorithms are executed sequentially, we propose two different strategies for selecting on-line which of them to execute at the next step in order to identify as many dangerous contingencies as possible, while still respecting the given computational budget. We finally provide an adapted version of the developed iterative sampling algorithm allowing to estimate the probability of occurrence of a dangerous contingency and the number of dangerous contingencies in a discrete search space.


Efforts to develop public programs to control soil erosion should not ignore other economic trends which may affect soil erosion. This programming analysis considers the impact of rising relative energy prices on cropland erosion in conjunction with alternative erosion control policies. Higher relative energy prices are found to reduce soil erosion significantly, complement soil loss restriction policies, and have an ambiguous impact on subsidies for soil erosion abatement.


Geospatial data is increasingly being made available on the Web as knowledge graphs using Linked Data principles. This entails adopting the best practices for publishing, retrieving, and using data, providing relevant initiatives that play a prominent role in the Web of Data. Despite the appropriate progress related to the amount of geospatial data available, knowledge graphs still face significant limitations in the GIScience community since their use, consumption, and exploitation are scarce, especially considering that just a few developments retrieve and consume geospatial knowledge graphs from within GIS. To overcome these limitations and address some critical challenges of GIScience, standards and specific best practices for publishing, retrieving, and using geospatial data on the Web have appeared. Nevertheless, there are few developments and experiences that support the possibility of expressing queries across diverse knowledge graphs to retrieve and process geospatial data from different and distributed sources. In this scenario, we present an approach to request, retrieve, and consume (geospatial) knowledge graphs available at diverse and distributed platforms, prototypically implemented on Apache Marmotta, supporting SPARQL 1.1 and GeoSPARQL standards. Moreover, our approach enables the consumption of geospatial knowledge graphs through a lightweight web application or QGIS. The potential of this work is shown with two examples that use GeoSPARQL-based knowledge graphs.


Using a combination of surveys and interviews, this research project explores the relationship between educational and recreational outcomes of leisure reading, the importance of learning to the leisure reading experience, the role of learning in leisure reading, and the educational outcomes reported by leisure readers. Interview transcripts and survey data were used to create a model of four categories of educational outcomes from leisure reading: (1) people and relationships; (2) countries, cultures, and history; (3) life enrichment; and (4) different perspectives. The article concludes with recommendations for integrating these results into practice and suggestions for further research. In 2000, Catherine Sheldrick Ross published, "Finding without Seeking: What Readers Say about the Role of Pleasure Reading as a Source of Information." (1) This was one of several articles that resulted from her multiyear study of readers. (2) Over the course of several years, Ross and her students interviewed 181 readers about leisure reading. "Finding without Seeking" focuses on one facet of her interviews. Ross and her students asked subjects to tell them about the one book that had the greatest meaning for them. As part of the larger discussion of their great book, nearly all of the subjects reported some educational outcomes of fiction reading, the most common being awakenings, new perspectives, and the expansion of possibilities. The purpose of this study is to look further at what, in terms of education, readers get from leisure reading materials, by asking the readers themselves about educational outcomes during leisure reading experiences. For the sake of clarity and inclusivity, in this article the term leisure reading will be used to refer to all types of recreational or pleasure reading, including fiction and nonfiction. Based on Ross's research and anecdotal evidence about educational outcomes from leisure reading, this project proposes to investigate the relationship between educational and recreational outcomes of leisure reading, using a survey instrument and follow-up interviews. The hypotheses are that there will be a relationship between educational and recreational outcomes for leisure readers and that educational outcomes will be an important aspect of the leisure reading experience. It is also thought that there will be more than one type of educational outcome and that the different outcomes will have varying levels of importance for individual readers. One of the ideas investigated in this project was the concept of a single book or reading experience serving multiple purposes. The specific area of interest was books that are traditionally marketed as leisure reading materials, on the theory that while a book may serve the primary purpose of leisure reading material, it may also serve a secondary purpose as an educational tool. And for some people, this secondary role may be of great importance. This is important for librarians to understand because in order to be able to suggest leisure reading materials, they need to understand the potential multiple purposes that a leisure book may serve. Like many aspects of reading, these secondary purposes will vary among readers because readers are individuals and interact with the text in their own unique ways. It is hoped that this research will provide a broad understanding of the educational purpose served by leisure reading materials, specifically regarding the different types of educational outcomes, and in this way help librarians to better understand and serve the readers who form one of the most important user groups of libraries. LITERATURE REVIEW Fiction Readers and Readers' Advisory Services In 1996, Yu and O'Brien published a literature review, "Domain of Adult Fiction Librarianship" in Advances in Librarianship. (3) Their thorough and lengthy article covered all the major areas of fiction librarianship, including a definition of fiction librarianship, fiction as a type of library material, fiction acquisition, fiction processing, fiction representation and retrieval, fiction promotion, readers' advisory (RA) services (reader development), collection management, and most importantly for this article, a section on understanding fiction readers. …


The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Mission (SMOS) acquires surface soil moisture data of global coverage every three days. Product validation for a range of climate and environmental conditions across continents is a crucial step. For this purpose, a soil moisture and soil temperature sensor network was established in the Skjern River Catchment, Denmark. The objectives of this article are to describe a method to implement a network suited for SMOS validation, and to present sample data collected by the network to verify the approach. The design phase included (1) selection of a single SMOS pixel (44 × 44 km), which is representative of the land surface conditions of the catchment and with minimal impact from open water (2) arrangement of three network clusters along the precipitation gradient, and (3) distribution of the stations according to respective fractions of classes representing the prevailing environmental conditions. Overall, measured moisture and temperature patterns could be related to the respective land cover and soil conditions. Texture-dependency of the 0–5 cm soil moisture measurements was demonstrated. Regional differences in 0–5 cm soil moisture, temperature and precipitation between the north-east and south-west were found to be small. A first comparison between the 0–5 cm network averages and the SMOS soil moisture (level 2) product is in range with worldwide validation results, showing comparable trends for SMOS retrieved soil moisture ( R 2 of 0.49) as well as initial soil moisture and temperature from ECMWF used in the retrieval algorithm ( R 2 of 0.67 and 0.97, respectively). While retrieved/initial SMOS soil moisture indicate significant under-/overestimation of the network data (biases of −0.092/0.057 m 3 m −3 ), the initial temperature is in good agreement (bias of −0.2 °C). Based on these findings, the network performs according to expectations and proves to be well-suited for its purpose. The discrepancies between network and SMOS soil moisture will be subject of subsequent studies.


Farm tourism is becoming one of the Philippines' most profitable businesses. The potential of farms has prompted the formation of farm destinations in the province of Cavite. Considering its emergence, seeking the best approach to preserve competitiveness is vital towards farms' long-term viability. The purpose of this study is to examine the perspectives of farm tourism supply-side stakeholders on the competitiveness and sustainability of farm destinations in upland Cavite. Specifically, to determine their degree of agreement on destination competitiveness in terms of inherited, created, and support resources, situational and demand conditions, and destination management; and their degree of agreement on economic, social, and environmental sustainability. Descriptive-correlational research was employed on the data gathered from 158 participants. The data analyses used were weighted mean, standard deviation, Pearson-r correlation, and multiple regression. The findings revealed that the supply-side stakeholders "Agree" on competitiveness and on the sustainability of farm destinations. The result of the regression analysis showed that situational conditions, destination management, and demand conditions are predictors of sustainability and that there are positive and significant relationships between competitiveness and sustainability. The result suggested the need to strengthen farm destination accessibility, uplift the livelihood of residents, and enhance the farms green marketing strategies.