According to this study the commonly applied radiative forcing (RF) value of 3.7 Wm-2 for CO2 concentration of 560 ppm includes water feedback. The same value without water feedback is 2.16 Wm -2 which is 41.6 % smaller. Spectral analyses show that the contribution of CO2 in the greenhouse (GH) phenomenon is about 11 % and water's strength in the present climate in comparison to CO2 is 15.2. The author has analyzed the value of the climate sensitivity (CS) and the climate sensitivity parameter () using three different calculation bases. These methods include energy balance calculations, infrared radiation absorption in the atmosphere, and the changes in outgoing longwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere. According to the analyzed results, the equilibrium CS (ECS) is at maximum 0.6 °C and the best estimate of  is 0.268 K/(Wm-2) without any feedback mechanisms. The latest warming scenarios of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for different CO2 concentrations until the year 2100 include the same feedbacks as the 2011 warming i.e. only water feedback. The ECS value of 3.0 °C would mean that other feedback mechanisms should be stronger than water feedback. So far there is no evidence about these mechanisms, even though 40 % of the change from 280 ppm to 560 ppm has already happened. The relative humidity trends since 1948 show descending development which gives no basis for using positive water feedback in any warming calculations. Cloudiness changes could explain the recent stagnation in global warming.


Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a common congenital cardiovascular defect which affects approximately 1 in 3000 live births. In the past, CoA was considered to be a simple congenital abnormality with a surgical cure. However, long term follow-up has shown that many patients with repaired CoA have substantial morbidity and premature mortality.1 w1 It is now clear that CoA is not simply an anatomic narrowing which can be cured by surgical repair or percutaneous dilation. Rather, CoA is a diffuse arteriopathy characterised by widespread perturbation in vascular structure and function which manifests as hypertension, premature cardiovascular disease, and aneurysmal disease. Each of these manifestations has an impact on the management of the adult with repaired CoA.

In the pre-surgical era, the prognosis of CoA was poor. The mean age of death was 34 years and only 5% of patients were alive at 60 years of age. The causes of death were predominantly related to uncontrolled hypertension: congestive heart failure (25%), aortic rupture (21%), and intracranial haemorrhage (12%).w2

Surgical palliation for CoA has been successfully performed for more than 60 years. Since the initial surgery, many authors have demonstrated that repair can be performed with low mortality, and that repair results in excellent haemodynamics and improvement in associated hypertension.w3 w4 There ensued a period of enthusiasm when it was believed that an anatomic repair would lead to normal longevity. Unfortunately, despite excellent anatomic repairs, late complications remain common and lifespan may be shorter than expected. In 1973, Maron et al reported on 248 patients with repaired CoA who were followed for up to 25 years after surgical repair. There was a 12% mortality with an average age at death of 34 years—an age which did not differ significantly from the preoperative era.w1 w2 In another series of 571 patients with repaired …


Many studies report that Bt cotton has led to significant yield gains, reduced insecticide use, or both in different countries. With rare exception, these studies examine adoption in one region in isolation from adoption in others. This article summarizes the global impacts of Bt cotton adoption in the United States and China based on results from a three-region model of the world cotton market. In 2001, adoption of Bt cot-ton in China and the United States increased world cotton production by 0.7% and reduced the world cotton price by 1.4 cents per pound. Global economic benefits were $836 million. Consumer surplus increased $63 million. Chinese producers gained by $428 million and US producers by $179 million. The fall in world price reduced rest-of-world (ROW) producer surplus by $349 million. Net rest-of-world benefits were $69 million, however, because purchaser gains outweighed producer losses.


This paper provides new evidence on how household labor supply responds to fatal and severe non-fatal health shocks in the short- and medium-run. To identify the causal effects of these shock realizations, we leverage administrative data on families' health and labor market outcomes, and construct counterfactuals to affected households by using households that experience the same shock but a few years in the future. We find that fatal health shocks lead to an immediate increase in the surviving spouses' labor supply and that this effect is entirely driven by families who experience significant income losses. Accordingly, widows, who face large income losses when their husbands die, increase their labor force participation by more than 11%; while widowers, who are significantly more financially stable, slightly decrease their labor supply. Notably, however, the patterns of sensitivity to comparable income changes are similar across genders. In contrast to fatal shocks, we find that non-fatal health shocks—in particular, heart attacks or strokes—have no meaningful effects on spousal labor supply, consistent with the adequate insurance coverage for the associated foregone income. Overall, the results point to self-insurance as a driving mechanism for the family labor supply responses that we estimate. Combined with a stylized model, our findings suggest efficient ways to target government transfers through existing social insurance programs.


Clinoforms are inclined and normally basinward-dipping horizons developed over a range of spatial and temporal scales in both siliciclastic and carbonatic systems. The study of clinoform successions underpins sequence stratigraphy and all efforts to reconstruct the relative partitioning of reservoir, seal and source rocks along shoreline to basin-floor profiles. Here, we review clinoform research and propose a more systematic description and classification of clinoforms. This is a crucial step to improve predictions of facies and lithology distribution within shoreline to continental shelf and abyssal plain successions, together with the genesis, drivers and dynamics of their constituent sedimentary units. Four basic clinoform types are here distinguished in delta/shorelines, lacustrines and marine environments, on the basis of their overall spatial and temporal scale, morphology, outbuilding dynamic and geodynamic and depositional setting: (1, 2) delta-scale clinoforms, which in turns are sub-divided into shoreline and delta-scale subaqueous clinoforms; (3) shelf-edge clinoforms; and (4) continental-margin clinoforms. Delta-scale clinoform sets are tens of metres high and typically represent 1–10 kyr, with progradation rates ranging from 1,000–100,000m/kyr for shorelines and "subaerial deltas" to 100–20,000m/kyr for subaqueous deltas; shelfedge clinoform sets are hundreds of metres high and are nucleated and accreted in 0.1–20Myr (usual progradation rates of 1–100m/kyr) by successive cross-shelf transits of delta-scale clinoforms; continental-margin clinoform sets are thousands of metres high, hallmark key geodynamic/crustal boundaries (e.g., continent/ocean transition) and slowly prograde basinwards in ca. 5–100Myr, with typical rates of 0.1–10m/kyr. As a consequence of the very different progradation rates and of the difficulty of large-scale clinothems to backstep during transgressions, shorelines are the most dynamic clinoforms with regards to position, continental margins the least, and shelf-edges are intermediate. Shortly after a transgression, therefore, the four clinoform types may prograde synchronously along shoreline-to-abyssal plain transects, forming "compound clinoform" systems. During the subsequent regressive cycle, however, due to the dissimilarity in progradation rates, different clinoform types will normally merge progressively with each other, giving rise to "hybrid clinoforms" (e.g., shelf-edge deltas), and fewer depositional breaks-in-slope are distinguished along a single shoreline-toabyssal plain transect. Overall, all clinoform systems are the result of the dynamic evolution of compound and hybrid clinoforms along a temporal and spatial continuum, regulated by the cyclical backstepping of the smallerscale system within natural progradational-retrogradational cycles of larger-scale clinothem outbuilding. All clinothem types may show either an accretionary/active or draping/passive style, depending on the proximity to the sediment source. Draping clinothems are nearly-always composed of condensed fine-grained sediments, while actively accreting clinothems can be composed of predominantly coarse-grained (i.e., reservoirforming) or predominantly fine-grained (i.e., non-reservoir) lithotypes. A novel hierarchical classification scheme for both Recent and Ancient clinoforms is here proposed, consisting of 12 classes. The four basic clinoform types (delta-scale shoreline, delta-scale subaqueous, shelf-edge and continentalmargin) are sub-divided into eight accretionary/active and draping/passive sub-types (8-division). Each accretionary sub-type is then sub-divided into a sandstone-prone and mudstone-prone variant (12-division), which can be at least tentatively predicted on the basis of the clinoform morphology, even in the absence of direct stratigraphic logs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.05.016 Received 16 March 2018; Received in revised form 28 May 2018; Accepted 29 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. 1 Currently at ION Geophysical, Chertsey, United Kingdom. E-mail address: email@example.com (W. Helland-Hansen). Earth-Science Reviews 185 (2018) 202–233 Available online 02 June 2018 0012-8252/ © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/). T


The media filter drain (MFD), a stormwater water quality treatment best management practice, consists of media made up of aggregate, perlite, gypsum and dolomite in a trench located along roadway shoulders with gravel and vegetative pre-filtering facilities and optional underdrains. One of the many benefits of MFDs is the effective removal of dissolved zinc and copper from roadway runoff. However, the existing design includes use of an aggregate gradation that is no longer readily available (old design). A more readily available and economical aggregate gradation has a slightly lower percent of finer materials (new design). This project evaluates if the new design is as effective as the old design at enhanced dissolved zinc and copper treatment. Findings from laboratory research performed on columns filled with new media versus columns filled with old media indicate that the new media initially has similar removal efficiencies as the old media for large storm events. Accelerated aging of the new media indicates that removal efficiency for dissolved zinc and copper of the new media has not decreased after 15 years of simulated use.


Ultrasound of Congenital Fetal Anomalies-Dario Paladini 2018-03-29 The most frequently asked questions that confront the fetal medicine trainee/expert on a daily basis are "Is the finding real or merely an artifact?" and "Is the diagnosis correct?". However, to be able to find the description of an abnormal ultrasound finding in a textbook, one generally has to search by the definite diagnosis, which has not been done as yet. This uneasy feeling was the first factor that directed the layout of Ultrasound of Congenital Fetal Anomalies: Differential Diagnosis and Prognostic Indicators, Second Edition. Copiously illustrated, the book displays fetal anomalies by scanning view and descriptions of all major ultrasound planes, detailing what can be considered a normal view and what cannot. See What's New in the Second Edition: Early detection of fetal anomalies (1214 weeks) Ultrasound in fetal infections and in twins The nuchal translucency issue, the newest intracranial translucency as well as the range of congenital anomalies detectable at this gestational age Expanded coverage of heart anomalies, including arrhythmias and early fetal echocardiography The author's mission continues to be to provide guidance on how to quickly recognize and diagnose congenital fetal anomalies, beginning at the beginning with ultrasound sigh all the way through to final diagnosis.


Justice Kagan's gambling metaphors aside, Michigan v. Bay Mills Indian Community stands as a resolute affirmation of the Supreme Court's refusal to qualify tribal sovereign immunity absent congressional action. Bay Mills reaffirms that as domestic dependent nations, tribes exercise inherent sovereign immunity, qualified only by the clear direction of Congress, not the Court. While the dissent vented its frustration with the precedent relied on by the majority, the Court reaffirmed that tribal sovereign immunity extends to all commercial activities occurring off Indian land.


There is growing concern that the invertebrate lest organisms commonly employed in the field of aquatic ecoloxicology may not be sufficient to accurately screen for the possible deleterious effects of contaminants discharged into the marine environment. The use of echinoderms has been proposed to redress this problem, due to their ecological importance and their evolutionary closeness to the chordates. But to date, there is a paucity of data in the published literature which has utilised the adult stages of echinoderms in laboratory based toxicology studies. The present studies aimed to fill this lack of information. A suite of biomarkers which operated at different levels of biological organisation (sub-cellular, cellular and individual level) were identified for use with different echinoderm species (the common sea star, Asterias rubens, the purple sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus and the common brittle star, Ophiothrix fragilis). These biomarkers used were micronucleus induction, the Comet assay, the modified Comet assay, phagocytosis, neutral red retention, clearance rate and righting time. Concurrent exposures showed that echinoderms were more sensitive to model contaminants than a commonly used sentinel ecotoxicological test species, namely the blue mussel, MytHus edulis. These contaminants included: the reference toxicants hydrogen peroxide (Chapter 2) and methyl methanesulphonate (Chapter 3); a pharmaceutical, cyclophosphamide (Chapter 3); a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. benzo(a)pyrene (Chapter 4) and a heavy metal, cadmium (Chapter 5). The results for all the exposures showed that the biomarkers which operated at the lower levels of biological organisation (i.e. at the subcellular level namely the micronucleus and Comet assays) were the most sensitive at detecting the deleterious effects of the contaminants. But, interestingly, some strong correlations were found between these sub-cellular consequences and those that operated at higher levels of biological organisation (for example, between righting time and both micronucleus induction and Comet assay in Asterias rubens following cyclophosphamide exposure). Theses correlations suggest that biomarkers which operate at the whole organism level (namely righting time and clearance rate) may serve as rapid and accurate indicators of possible damage induced by xenobiotics in echinoderms and bivalve molluscs.


This paper aims to explore the relations between the perceived causes and dimensions of mobbing and two important organizational consequences, job satisfaction and turnover intention. The study employed survey design to collect data from 248 white collar employees working for SME's operating in the agriculture industry in Antalya, Turkey. Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terrorization was used for data collection. More than half of the respondents had been subjected to some kind of mobbing during the previous year, for at least six months duration, most frequently from peers and generally due to organizational factors. Victims had lower levels of job satisfaction and most of them intended to leave the job


ABSTRACT There is a widespread assumption that, given the imminent threat of mass atrocities against the Libyan civilians – especially in Benghazi – and in the absence of non-military alternatives, military action against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi was a justified and necessary response. This paper challenges this widespread assumption. It argues that on the eve of NATO-led military intervention, there was no 'clear evidence' to suggest that the Libyan regime was on the verge of committing mass atrocities against civilians. This research also documents the range of political and diplomatic options open to the international community to engage with Gaddafi, all of which were sidetracked in favour of military action. Despite the brutality of Gaddafi's rule, military intervention in Libya did not meet the Responsibility to Protect's (R2P) 'just cause' and 'last resort' criteria. Far from being a successful application of R2P's most coercive pillar, the Libyan case was a manifest misapplication of R2P's military component. An objective analysis of the Libyan crisis during February and March 2011 should have prevented the use of military force.


Latin America is attracting increasing interest due to the strong economic performance of the last decade and to the political changes that are taking place. This book gives a unique, comprehensive, and up to date view of Latin America economic development over the two centuries since Independence. It considers Latin American economies within the wider context of the international economy, and covers economic growth, international trade, capital flows, and trends in inequality and human development. With chapters that cover different eras, it traces the major developments of Latin American countries and offers a novel and coherent interpretation of the economic history of the region. It combines a wealth of original research, new perspectives, and empirical information to provide a synthesis of the growing literature that both complements and extends previous studies.


This article traces the progress of a social theory-based university art education program in which undergraduate majors teach art to incarcerated youth. It addresses and goes beyond the editor's question, "What imagery lies 'outside' art educators' accepted sphere?" Not only is the imagery of these populations out of sight, but so are the sites of incarceration themselvesa=they exist not only outside the purview of the art education field, but of nearly every sector of society except the police. Even their families are often "out of sight." The readable, conversational format is a political choicea=I offer an alternative to the jargon-heavy, "objective" voice of traditional scholarship. My target audience is not only university faculty, but also students and classroom teachers who will read this article because they want to rather than simply because it was assigned. Perhaps these conversations will remove stereotypes in some readers' minds or even pave the way for them to become involved with incarcerated populations.


1. Excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) evoked by impulses in single group I muscle afferents were recorded intracellularly in dorsal spinocerebellar tract (DSCT) neurones in the spinal cords of anaesthetized cats. 2. In the same experiments, electrotonic membrane properties of DSCT neurones were measured using the voltage response of each cell to a brief intracellular current pulse. 3. Single group I fibre EPSPs were found to exhibit a large range of amplitudes, from 210 microV to 3.4 mV. All of these EPSPs exhibited uniformly rapid rise times, in contrast to the wide range of time courses exhibited by group I a EPSPs recorded in motoneurones. 4. Electrotonic analysis of DSCT neurones indicated that the time constants of these cells ranged from 5.9 to 18.2 ms, with an average value of 10.9 ms. 5. Current pulse responses of the majority (approximately three‐quarters) of DSCT neurones were well described by a simple cable model. Equivalent dendritic cable lengths were calculated for DSCT neurones and found to have an average value of 1.0 space constants, which is considerably less than that calculated for motoneurones. 6. Application of the simple cable model of DSCT neurones demonstrated that the rapid rise‐times of single group I EPSPs can be explained by a substantial somatic input to these cells. However, in addition to this strong somatic component, there may also be a contribution from dendritic synapses which prolong the initial decay phase of these EPSPs. The final decay of single fibre EPSPs in DSCT neurones is explained simply by the passive membrane time constant of these cells.


Despite being a staple of most of our daily lives, work has received surprisingly little coverage in critical studies of cinema. This scarcity can be explained by two seemingly competing hypotheses. According to the fi rst one, presented at length by Martin O'Shaughnessy in his article opening this dossier, this is because cinema itself rarely engaged with work in a serious way, opting for less mundane and more adventurous and escapist topics. O'Shaughnessy draws on Jean- Louis Comolli, the veteran critic and fi lmmaker who points to the fact that the fi rst fi lm shown to the public, La sortie des usines Lumiere (FR, 1895), shows workers leaving the factory, not entering it or being there. However, what Comolli really objected to was not cinema's shunning of work altogether, but representing it in a "wrong way," which does not account for the true, living experience of work: When it shows work, cinema is drawn to its spectacular dimension, the dance of body and machine that obscures salaried labor's oppressive nature. This is the typical fodder of the kind of fi lms that companies make about themselves, which concentrate on work's choreographed gestures to the exclusion of its duration, its harshness, its wear and tear of the worker, and its fatigue. Because of this, a cinema that really wishes to engage with work must, as Comolli says, "fi lm against cinema," or, in other words, fi nd ways of fi lming that refuse to be drawn to the spectacular surface.1 From this fragment, we can deduce that behind Comolli's rejection of cinema's engagement with work stands a par tic u lar understanding of "work." He equates work with what is conveyed by the term "labor," which is derived from the Latin word for crushing and imparts a sense of pain that is often associated with toil and giving birth.2 O'Shaughnessy's use of words such as "labor," "toil," and "fatigue" also points to this understanding. Simultaneously, his argument evokes the Marxist concept of "alienated work," which encompasses the negative aspects of "labor," adding to them those resulting from power relations pertaining to capitalism: the oppression, submission, and silence suffered by the worker and the im mense power enjoyed by the capitalist. 3 If we treat work only in such terms, then we have to agree that it is indeed marginalized in cinema and only natural that fi lm critics and historians would not grant it much attention. Moreover, as O'Shaughnessy suggests, the most "productive" way to approach it is through trying to see the "invisible," paying attention to the corner of the frame, offscreen space, gaps in a dialogue, and such elements of the mise- en- scene as the gates and walls dividing the work of labor from that of leisure. In line with the second hypothesis, which I favor, work is neglected in the critical studies of fi lm because, in a sense, it is present in practically every fi lm concerning humans. The pro cess of laboring might not be shown, but work is usually mentioned in dialogues; it affects the construction of characters and the choice of mise- en- scene. When reading even rudimentary synopses of fi lms, we typically learn that the character is a factory worker, clerk, artist, politician, or house wife. We divide fi lms into specifi c genres, such as the western; gangster, police, and war fi lms; even science- fi ction fi lms and biopics on the basis of the occupations of their main characters. In the fi lms, we tend to see factories, offi ces, and scientifi c laboratories, or private homes where house wives and maids work. Furthermore, if we interpret certain genres meta phor ical ly, we can argue that they provide a deep insight into issues such as the labor- capital division and an effect of work on modern people. A case in point is horror, with its iconic vampire and zombie fi gures, where the former can be interpreted as an alienated worker and the latter as a capitalist. Why, then, does work presented or alluded to in these fi lms appear to be overlooked by the majority of critics? …


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a high burden disease with several genes involved in tumor progression. The aim of the present study was to identify, generate and clinically validate a novel gene signature to improve prediction of overall survival (OS) to effectively manage colorectal cancer. We explored The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), COAD and READ datasets (597 samples) from The Protein Atlas (TPA) database to extract a total of 595 candidate genes. In parallel, we identified 29 genes with perturbations in > 6 cancers which are also affected in CRC. These genes were entered in cBioportal to generate a 17 gene panel with highest perturbations. For clinical validation, this gene panel was tested on the FFPE tissues of colorectal cancer patients (88 patients) using Nanostring analysis. Using multivariate analysis, a high prognostic score (composite 4 gene signature—DPP7/2, YWHAB, MCM4 and FBXO46) was found to be a significant predictor of poor prognosis in CRC patients (HR: 3.42, 95% CI: 1.71–7.94, p < 0.001 *) along with stage (HR: 4.56, 95% CI: 1.35–19.15, p = 0.01 *). The Kaplan-Meier analysis also segregated patients on the basis of prognostic score (log-rank test, p = 0.001 *). The external validation using GEO dataset (GSE38832, 122 patients) corroborated the prognostic score (HR: 2.7, 95% CI: 1.99–3.73, p < 0.001 *). Additionally, higher score was able to differentiate stage II and III patients (130 patients) on the basis of OS (HR: 2.5, 95% CI: 1.78–3.63, p < 0.001 *). Overall, our results identify a novel 4 gene prognostic signature that has clinical utility in colorectal cancer.


Problem statement: Today, providing the desired environment for the human being, whether it is a male or female user, requires the architect to have full knowledge of the physical, mental, intrinsic, and social dimensions of the audience. As half of the space users, women are often ignored since their needs are derived from their mental, psychosocial, and even social bases, so they have remained disregarded. Lack of such knowledge about women's requirements may decrease their environmental satisfaction. The hypothesis of the research is that architecture consists of multiple components manifesting the designer femininity. These examples, mainly derived from postmodernist concepts or created by women, influence the quality of space, especially women. Research objective: The purpose of the present research is to introduce elements of femininity in architecture to create desirable and utilizable contexts for women. Research method: It is inductive research in terms of theoretical background and literature review to approach the research model. Then, the research also applied the Delphi method and interview among 28 active female Iranian architects. Conclusion: The research conveys that components of motherhood/mother-ness, liquescence, fundamental and structural elements, besides their sub-components are introduced as femininity in contemporary female architecture.


It is now seen as essential that all businesses assess their exposure to business risk especially in relation to value creation. This book explains the practical links between risk management and the impact it has on the value of your business. It offers vital, accessible and timely tools to assist you in making an immediate difference to the core value of your business and thereby satisfy the demands of an ever increasing range of stakeholders. This book will help you: discover how risk exposure can have a financial impact on your business; make your business become more sustainable financially, socially and environmentally; and, learn how to apply knowledge fast with this practical guide to risk management issues. The sustainable approach covered by this book spans business survival to more recent issues, such as the use of energy and natural resources. It highlights the value of a more enlightened approach throughout an organization. In doing so the book explains the practical links between risk management and the impact on value using the Sustainable and Economic Risk Management (SERM) methodology which considers: inherent risk; management of risk; and, residual risk exposure. By exploring the various frameworks that organizations operate in today - whether compulsory, compliance driven, voluntary or motivated by best practice - the book offers a practical tool through the SERM model which is at the heart of the book's approach to risk management. This model together with its global EFR model have established proven and practical methodologies to achieve sustainable risk management techniques that are accessible to all organizations. This is a practice-oriented guide to risk management issues with examples of how risks are quantified and explains how risk exposure can have a real 'material' financial impact on an organization. This book provides best practice examples along with case studies which demonstrate how risks are dealt with by organizations that are rising to the challenge to become more sustainable, financially, socially and environmentally. It explains why risk management is a significant tool in enhancing the overall value or performance of any given organization.


Modeling is one of the most crucial activities during all the phases in any software development life cycle. Typically, system development is a very complex task, and working with models helps to handle this complexity in an organized way, allowing us to reason about the properties that entities possess. In software engineering, notation, techniques and methodology for object-oriented model building has been lately the focus of active research work [8]. In the case of object-oriented software development, models are composed by a number of communicating and well delimited elements. Although such models are sometimes harder to develop, they are easier to understand, and simpler to maintain and modify [5].Thus, reusability of elements among models is enhanced. In order to maximize these properties, we need tools that support the process of objectoriented development by serving as repository of previously asserted knowledge, checking the integrity of the model and maintaining the different views that form each model. Consequently, it is expected this automatic control will reduce the manual, error-prone work of maintaining model consistency across all life cycle phases. UML, Unified Modeling Language is a graphical language for visualizing, specifying, constructing and documenting the elements of a software intensive system [6].UML provides notation for expressing the model, in the form of graphic and text elements. Attached to these elements, there is a semantic interpretation that attempts to capture the meaning of the model, and it is represented by the constraint mechanism. Constraints are one of the three extensibility mechanisms that UML introduces, although currently the language for expressing them is not standard (natural language or OCL[10] can be used for this purpose). Supporting tools for object oriented development in UML should not only provide a graphic editor for the notation, but also help to ensure the coherence of its semantics aspects. This research line attempts to formalize the consistency check process in UML models.


Many nonlinear optimization problems can be cast as second-order cone programming problems. In this paper, we discuss a broad spectrum of such applications. For each application, we consider various formulations, some convex some not, and study which ones are amenable to solution using a general-purpose interior-point solver LOQO. We also compare with other commonly available nonlinear programming solvers and special-purpose codes for second-order cone programming.


Owing to the high sensitivity, high resolution, and the wealth of contrast mechanisms, fluorescence imaging is the most versatile and widely used visualization modality to study the structure and function of biological systems and the molecular process in living organisms without perturbing them.

Fluorescence molecular imaging is an evolving field of imaging sciences, which involves the development of microscopic techniques for live cell imaging at super resolution and macroscopic techniques to monitor molecular events in living organism. The breakthrough of super-resolution techniques allows researchers to obtain fluorescence images with a higher resolution than the diffraction limit. On the other hand, fluorescence imaging is also facing important challenges. Because the imaging requires exogenous probes to enhance imaging contrast or provide signal readout, the probe performance largely determines the detection limit and sensitivity. The intrinsic poor penetration of UV and visible light limits their broad applications in biology. Therefore, promising probes that exhibit high photostability, long fluorescence lifetime, strong absorption, and/or emission in the near-infrared (NIR) region are highly desirable.

Nanoparticle is a collection of atoms or molecules with much higher intensity of absorbance and emissions compared to small molecular probes, which can provide strong local contrast in biological imaging. Two-photon fluorescent probe simultaneously absorbs two infrared (IR) or NIR photons. Using IR or NIR light as excitation can minimize the light scattering and suppress the background signal, which allows imaging of living tissue up to about one millimetre in depth.

Applications of fluorescent probes for fluorescence molecular imaging are growing quickly for recording events from single live cells to whole animals with high sensitivity and accurate quantification. Such approaches have immense potential to track progression of metastasis, immune cell trafficking, stem cell therapy, transgenic animals, and even molecular interactions in living subjects, which represent the future and trends of optical molecular imaging technologies.

This special issue compiles several selected original and overview articles that range from design of contrast agents including fluorescent molecules and nanoparticles to biomedical molecular imaging and sensing with various applications. The editors believe that the selected work presented in this issue may provide useful information and promote further investigations on the development of novel fluorescent probes to be used for diagnosis and treatment of disorders and diseases as well as understanding the biological processes.


Fatty acid desaturases (FADs) are enzymes that act in the chloroplast or the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to incorporate double bonds into the acyl chains of fatty acids, and recent evidence indicates that at least one of these enzymes, FAD7, also influences plant resistance to aphids. FAD7 is an enzyme in the chloroplast that is found throughout the plant kingdom and that desaturates 16and 18-carbon fatty acids (FAs) with two double bonds (dienoic acids) to generate FAs with three double bonds (trienoic acids). In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, mutants with impaired FAD7 function are more resistant to aphids than wild-type controls. Compared to wild-type plants, these mutants have increased 18-carbon FAs with one double bond (C18:1), higher 16and 18-carbon FAs with two double bonds (C16:2 and C18:2), and lower 16and 18-carbon FAs with three double bonds (C16:3 and C18:3). These changes in FA composition are most pronounced in galactolipids which are abundant in the chloroplast, but loss of function of FAD7 also has a modest effect on phospholipids from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In addition, loss of function of FAD7 also influences foliar profiles of C6 volatiles, a class of FA derivatives that have previously been reported to contribute to aphid resistance in potato and other plant species. The goal of this project was to investigate which of these changes in fatty acid metabolism contribute to aphid resistance in Arabidopsis and tomato mutants with impaired FAD7 activity. To this end, we compared aphid performance on a panel of mutant plant lines with variation in FA composition or C6 volatile production. Our results suggested that aphid resistance in plants with impaired FAD7 activity is independent of C6 volatile synthesis, because 1) the aphid-resistant fad7 mutant in Arabidopsis also carries a mutation in the hydroperoxide lyase (HPL) gene, which is required for C6 volatile synthesis; and 2) suppressing expression of HPL in a FAD7-impaired tomato line did not compromise aphid resistance in this line. Analysis of aphid resistance and FA profiles in a panel of Arabidopsis mutants with impairments in different FADs also indicated that aphid resistance was impacted by FAD activity in the ER as well as in the chloroplast. This suggested that C18 rather than C16 FAs plays a determining role in aphid resistance, since C16 FAs are exclusively synthesized in the chloroplast whereas C18 FAs are produced in both subcellular compartments. Furthermore, resistance appeared to be associated with high C18:2 levels, because mutant lines with high C18:2 displayed resistance to aphids, but other lines with low C18:2 were susceptible even if they had high C18:1 and low C18:3 levels. Potentially, C18:2 or its derivatives could contribute to defensive signaling or synthesis of defensive metabolites to combat aphid infestations. This study aids in identifying new sources of plant resistance to aphids, and advances our understanding of how FA metabolism modulates plant defenses


CANADIAN CINEMA SERIES Edited by Bart Beaty and Will Straw Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008-ongoing. David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. Bart Beaty. 2008, 138 pp Denys Arcand's Le Declin de l'empire americain and Les Invasions barbares. Andre Loiselle. 2008, 190 pp Atom Egoyan's The Adjuster. Tom McSorley. 2009, 104 pp Joyce Wieland's The Far Shore. Johanne Sloan. 2010, 134 pp Allan King's A Married Couple. Zoe Druick. 2010, 106 pp Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg. Darren Wershler. 2010, 145 pp Bruce McDonald's Hard Core Logo. Paul McEwan. 2011, 131 ppReviewed by Jennifer VanderBurghSince 2008, the Canadian Cinema series (CCS) has published seven volumes, each dedicated to the analysis of a feature-length Canadian film (the exception is Andre Loiselle's book on Le Declin de l'empire americain [1986], which also deals with Les Invasions barbares [2003] and, briefly, Lage des tebebres [2007]). Between one hundred and two hundred pages, the books physically resemble slim BFI (British Film Institute) Classics, an expansive series of small-format studies of single films that the BFI's website describes as "landmark films of world cinema."CCS distinguishes itself from the BFI series by working within an explicitly national frame. CCS's motley list of films also appears to deliberately resist attempts to erect a canon or cultivate "classics" representative of Canadian cinema. This curratorial approach grants contributors lattitude to explore lesser-known works by Canadian auteurs (e.g., Egoyan's The Adjuster [1991], and Cronenberg's A History of Violence [2005]) and to attend to films that until now have not been meaningfully addressed in scholarship (a volume on Meatballs [Ivan Reitman, 1979] is in the works).As a metaproject on Canadian cinema, editors Straw and Beaty propose a conversation among a range of modes, genres, and aesthetic frameworks. In this iteration of Canadian cinema, and without didactic justifcation, the series proposes that indeed, Wieland's The Far Shore (1976) should share a bookshelf with McDonald's Hard Core Logo (1996). According to the blurb that appears on the first two books of the series, "[v]olumes... illuminate the breadth of the nation's film productions, including classic and popular films, documentaries, animation, and experimental films in the various languages spoken across the country." This particular mention of language, an understanding that is more expansive than the French/English binary (or the French, English, "Aboriginal" triumverate) , is a significant intervention for conceptualizing Canadian cinema that, with the inclusion of Arcand's Le Declin de l'empire americain and Les Invasions barbares, presumably extends to a broader (and contestable) understanding of Canadian nationhood as well. In this series, the category of Canadian cinema is inherently presumed to be a multifaceted conflation of regions, cultures, politics and industries. On the back page of subsequent volumes, the series is simply quantified as a numbered list of titles. How to qualify the contribution of the series, it seems, is (appropriately) left up to readers.Each volume's title uses the posessive pronoun of the director, (e.g., Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg), which presents films as individual expressions. On the one hand, films in this series are considered to be representative of their director's perspective on such topics as nationhood, genre, and cinema. At the same time, they are also, via the critic's voice which features prominently in these works, considered to be more broadly "of their time," in that they are symptomatic of the (largely transnational) industrial, social, and cultural perspectives that inevitably informed their creation. In this sense, the metaproject of CCS is to engage films as portals into the problematic and the pragmatic production context that is Canadian cinema. The series' take on Canadian film is in concert with a series of projects that have used metaphors of looking, reflection, and observation in their titles to suggest that the gesture of making a film is an assertion of an individual and located point of view. …


The vulnerability of coastal systems to hazards such as storms and sea-level rise is typically characterized using a combination of ground and manned airborne systems that have limited spatial or temporal scales. Structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry applied to imagery acquired by unmanned aerial systems (UAS) offers a rapid and inexpensive means to produce high-resolution topographic and visual reflectance datasets that rival existing lidar and imagery standards. Here, we use SfM to produce an elevation point cloud, an orthomosaic, and a digital elevation model (DEM) from data collected by UAS at a beach and wetland site in Massachusetts, USA. We apply existing methods to (a) determine the position of shorelines and foredunes using a feature extraction routine developed for lidar point clouds and (b) map land cover from the rasterized surfaces using a supervised classification routine. In both analyses, we experimentally vary the input datasets to understand the benefits and limitations of UAS-SfM for coastal vulnerability assessment. We find that (a) geomorphic features are extracted from the SfM point cloud with near-continuous coverage and sub-meter precision, better than was possible from a recent lidar dataset covering the same area; and (b) land cover classification is greatly improved by including topographic data with visual reflectance, but changes to resolution (when <50 cm) have little influence on the classification accuracy.


We present Ownershift, an interaction technique for easing overhead manipulation in virtual reality, while preserving the illusion that the virtual hand is the user's own hand. In contrast to previous approaches, this technique does not alter the mapping of the virtual hand position for initial reaching movements towards the target. Instead, the virtual hand space is only shifted gradually if interaction with the overhead target requires an extended amount of time. While users perceive their virtual hand as operating overhead, their physical hand moves gradually to a less strained position at waist level. We evaluated the technique in a user study and show that Ownershift significantly reduces the physical strain of overhead interactions, while only slightly reducing task performance and the sense of body ownership of the virtual hand.


Increased uncertainty is one of the characteristics of product recovery networks. In particular the strategic design of their logistic infrastructure has to take uncertain information into account. In this paper we present stochastic programming based approaches by which a deterministic location model for product recovery network design may be extended to explicitly account for the uncertainties. Such a stochastic model seeks a solution which is appropriately balanced between some alternative scenarios identified by field experts. We apply the stochastic models to a representative real case study on recycling sand from demolition waste in The Netherlands. The interpretation of the results is meant to give more insight into decision-making for reverse logistics.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on investigating and benchmarking green operations initiatives in the automotive industry documented in the environmental reports of selected companies. The investigation roadmaps the main environmental initiatives taken by the world's three major car manufacturers and benchmarks them against each other. The categorisation of green operations initiatives that is provided in the paper can also help companies in other sectors to evaluate their green practices. Design/methodology/approach: The first part of the paper is based on existing literature on the topic of green and sustainable operations and the "unsustainable" context of automotive production. The second part relates to the roadmap and benchmarking of green operations initiatives based on an analysis of secondary data from the automotive industry. Findings: The findings show that the world's three major car manufacturers are pursuing various environmental initiatives involving the following green operations practices: green buildings, eco-design, green supply chains, green manufacturing, reverse logistics and innovation. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this paper start from its selection of the companies, which was made using production volume and country of origin as the principal criteria. There is ample evidence that other, smaller, companies are pursuing more sophisticated and original environmental initiatives. Also, there might be a gap between what companies say they do in their environmental reports and what they actually do. Practical implications: This paper helps practitioners in the automotive industry to benchmark themselves against the major volume manufacturers in three different continents. Practitioners from other industries will also find it valuable to discover how the automotive industry is pursuing environmental initiatives beyond manufacturing, apart from the green operations practices covering broadly all the activities of operations function. Originality/value: The originality of the paper is in its up-to-date analysis of environmental reports of automotive companies. The paper offers value for researchers and practitioners due to its contribution to the green operations literature. For instance, the inclusion of green buildings as part of green operations practices has so far been neglected by most researchers and authors in the field of green and sustainable operations. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.


OBJECTIVE
To measure the effect of a simulated low anterior wall fracture of the acetabulum on load transmission in the hip joint.

DESIGN
We measured the contact areas and pressure between the acetabulum and the femoral head of cadaveric pelves in three different conditions: intact, with an operatively created fracture of the anterior wall, and after anatomic reduction and internal fixation of the fracture.

SETTING
Hips were loaded in simulated single-limb stance. Pressure and area measurements were made with Fuji pressure-sensitive film.

SPECIMENS
Seven hip joints in seven whole pelves were tested.

INTERVENTION
Anterior wall fractures were anatomically reduced and fixed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS
Contact area, load, and mean and maximum pressures were measured.

RESULTS
Anterior wall fractures in our specimens entered the hip joint an average of 9.7 millimeters from the vertex of the acetabulum, corresponding to a 45-degree roof arc measurement. Peripheral loading seen in the intact acetabulum was disrupted after fracture. The loading pattern was not restored to preinjury levels with anatomic reduction and fixation. There was no significant change in the contact area (p = 0.43), force (p = 0.06), or mean (p = 0.57) or maximum (p = 0.20) pressures in the superior aspect of the acetabulum after creation of the anterior wall fracture.

CONCLUSIONS
These results differ from those of previous studies with posterior wall acetabulum fractures, where significant increases in force and mean and maximum pressures were noted in the superior acetabulum after fracture. The lack of significant increases in superior acetabular pressures is discussed in relation to the mean computed tomographic subchondral arc of approximately ten millimeters in our specimens.


Contemporary mainstream economics has widely "poisoned the well" from which people get their ideas about the relationship between economics and ethics. The image of economic life as inherently characterized by self-interest, utility- and profit-maximization, and mechanical controllability has caused many businesspeople, judges, sociologists, philosophers, policymakers, critics of economics, and the public at large to come to tolerate greed and opportunism, or even to expect or encourage them. This essay raises and discusses a number of counterarguments that might be made to the charge that current dominant professional practice is having negative ethical effects, as well as discussing some examples of the harms inflicted in the areas of law, care work, the environment, and ethics itself.


Background: Long-term high-fat diet (HFD) feeding, which can induce obesity, can also induce nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver tumorigenesis. A previous study reported that concentrated Kurozu (CK) supplementation reduced the incidence of HFD-induced hepatic steatosis in mice. It was showed that CK supplementation improved dyslipidemia in animal and clinical study. Small noncoding RNAs, micro RNAs (miRs), play crucial roles in the biology of cell functions, lipid metabolism and neoplasms. However, the effect of CK treatment on the relationship between HFD and expression of miRs is unclear. Objective: To evaluate changes in the expression of hepatic miRs and lipid metabolism- associated genes on administering a HFD for 60 weeks in C57BL6J mice. The onset of hepatic steatosis induced by HFD treatment was also observed. Methods: The mice received a HFD, HFD with CK, or standard diet (SD) for 60 consecutive weeks. The effect of CK treatment on the expression levels of lipid metabolism-associated genes in the liver was evaluated. Results: HFD feeding significantly increased expression of Tnf , and significantly decreased Adipoq and Mlxipl in the liver. The ingestion of CK elevated the expression levels of Pgc-1α and Igfbp1 in the liver compared with the SD group. HFD feeding significantly increased the expression of miR-488-5p , and significantly decreased miR-29b and - 122a-5p in the liver. The ingestion of CK elevated the expression levels of miR-34a , - 149-3p , and - 181a-5p in the liver compared with the SD group. Expression levels of miR-488-3p in the serum HFD group were significantly higher than in the SD group. The ingestion of CK elevated the expression levels of miR-181a-5p in the serum compared with the SD group. Conclusion: These results suggest that CK supplementation reduced the onset of hepatic hyperplasia, and increased hepatic miR-34a , - 149-3p , and - 181a-5p . These miRs may function as suppressors of tumors caused by HFD feeding. Key Words :  High-fat diet, carcinogenesis, Kurozu, microRNA, miR-34a, miR-122a-5p, miR-149, miR-181a, miR-488


This article examines the role of leadership in implementing the diversity rationale affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger and argues that greater diversity and empathy are needed for effective leadership in diverse settings. In Grutter, the Court held that the University of Michigan Law School's use of race in selecting students for admission did not violate the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. In so doing, the Court affirmed Justice Powell's diversity rationale as expressed in an earlier case, Regents of University of California v. Bakke, in which he noted that "'the nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure' to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation of many peoples." By endorsing this diversity justification, the Grutter Court acknowledged the interdependent relationship between diversity and leadership. The Court, however, did not describe the specific skills needed to lead in diverse environments and how such skills may be developed at school and afterward in the workplace. A number of businesses and other amici curiae reiterated Justice Powell's reasoning in their amicus briefs in Grutter, largely supporting the Law School, but these amici also neglected to discuss the process by which leadership skills would be acquired and implemented in settings comprised of different groups of people. This article aims to fill in the missing piece of the discussion, and emphasizes the importance of diverse and empathetic leadership in supporting diversity efforts. If, as Grutter affirms, we want to build a nation with leaders broadly exposed to ideas as diverse as our nation's population, then we must tailor the purpose and practice of leadership toward the realization of this goal.


Historians and cultural analysts have traditionally considered the sixties counterculture an apolitical phenomenon by historians and other analysts. Yet concentrated examination of the public activities of the counterculture in San Francisco from 1963 to 1967 reveals that they were engaged in the creation of a public political culture that challenged the power of civil authorities to regulate the uses of parks, streets and sidewalks. In doing so, the counterculture constituted a distinct community with a political agenda. This thesis is demonstrated through an analysis of the development of an ethos toward public space in the Beat movement and Merry Prankster group, both cultural predecessors of the counterculture. A specific ideology about public space grew from such roots and was expanded by the San Francisco Mime Troupe and its legal battle with the city of San Francisco to use the parks for free performance venues. Growing from the Mime Troupe, the San Francisco Diggers forged a public counterculture in the Haight-Ashbury district of the city that presented a consistent challenge to the power of the state to limit or define public activities. Literature, legal documents, meeting minutes from city committees, press accounts, the personal documents of participants, published contemporary observations and recent interviews have all been utilized to prove this thesis.


Bone marrow (BM) has been regarded as the primarily source of hematopoietic stem cells for many years. Recent researches have shown BM contains not only hematopoietic but also heterogeneous nonhematopoietic stem cells. Until now, similar or overlapping isolation strategies of primitive nonhematopoietic stem cells in BM were named by different investigators and hence were assigned different names (e.g. mesenchymal stem cells, or multipotent adult progenitor cells) from alternative sources and different animal species. The differentiation potential of these cells to mesenchymal lineages has generated a great deal of interest in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Murine Mesenchymal stem cells (mMSCs) are appropriate models for preclinical investigations on human cell therapies. The isolation of BM-derived mMSCs is discussed as an unresolved issue in mesenchymal stem cells researches. The objective of the present review is the description of multiple methodological approaches to isolate mMSCs.


People with multiple sclerosis may present with a wide range of disease symptoms during the evolution of the disease; among these, spasticity can have a marked impact on their well-being and quality of life. Symptom control, including spasticity, remains a key management strategy to improve the patient's well-being and functional status. However, available drug therapies for spasticity sometimes have limited benefit and they are often associated with poor tolerability. Sativex is a 1:1 mix of 9-delta-tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol extracted from cloned Cannabis sativa chemovars, which is available as an oromucosal spray. Clinical experience with Sativex in patients with multiple sclerosis is accumulating steadily. Results from randomized, controlled trials have reported a reduction in the severity of symptoms associated with spasticity, leading to a better ability to perform daily activities and an improved perception of patients and their carers regarding functional status when Sativex was added to the current treatment regimen. Adverse events such as dizziness, diarrhea, fatigue, nausea, headache and somnolence occur quite frequently with Sativex, but they are generally of mild-to-moderate intensity and their incidence can be markedly reduced by gradual 'uptitration'. In summary, initial well-controlled studies with Sativex oromucosal spray administered as an add-on to usual therapy have produced promising results and highlight encouraging avenues for future research.


Ongoing litigation challenges and political opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) have obscured the fact that the statute has already generated a roiling and ongoing experiment in the realities of American federalism. While the ACA substantially increases national authority over the nation's health insurance and delivery structures, the statute devolves to the states the front-line role in implementing many of the ACA's core goals, and with that devolution comes broad space for state policy discretion and strategic negotiation with the federal executive. The past two years in which states have actively prepared to implement, subvert, or reframe the ACA's core elements illustrate the dynamic complexity of American federalism within a major federal policy area. This article assesses and explains the workings of shared state-federal policymaking in the health care field from multiple methodological perspectives. Building on the growing body of emerging literature on American federalism in the twenty-first century, we offer a multifaceted theory of "new health care federalism" that explains why states and the national government are incentivized to negotiate differently in the health policy space than in other areas of state-federal interaction. The substantial monetary flows from the national government to the states in major shared public health insurance programs like Medicaid are unmatched in other areas and produce unique bargaining and negotiation outcomes that we explore in detail in this article. We test this new theoretical frame with two different kinds of empirical analysis. First, drawing on our shared expertise and awareness of ongoing developments in the states in both Medicaid expansion and exchange regulation, we provide a nuanced analysis of the highly dynamic and individualized process whereby each state seeks to advance its interests. Second, we generate cross-state findings from carefully coded datasets that track each state's individual choices about exchange operation and Medicaid expansion, thus accessing hundreds of state-level variables that illustrate key generalizable trends. Our research reveals several important features of the new health care federalism that illuminate federalism discourse more generally. Health care federalism in the twenty-first century operates dynamically over time, defined not by fixed judicial decisions but by ongoing, adaptive, and reactive strategies employed by both state and federal actors. The new health care federalism plays out on multiple horizontal axes as well as on the more traditionally considered vertical dimension; intrastate debates over Medicaid expansion and exchange formation expose the understudied point that states are republican governments too, with all of the inter-branch tensions that characterize national policymaking. Moreover, the new health care federalism illustrates how states act individualistically and strategically in dealing with the national government. Rather than an undifferentiated collective resistance, in the health care space we see each state operating selfishly to cut its best deal with federal regulators. Finally, the dynamics of the new health care federalism expose the incentives of the national executive in seeking to advance a transformative policy initiative, leading to a welcoming and permissive federal agency attitude toward particularistic state demands in order to advance longer term entrenchment goals.


Image analysis of the living, marine planktonic diatom, Neodenticula seminae (Simonsen et Kanaya) Akiba et Yanagisawa, collected during summers of 1996–99 off northeast Japan, the Kurile Islands and in the Bering Sea revealed significant intraspecific morphological variability. SEM observations showed the internal valve morphology to be more variable in populations from the northwestern Pacific than in those from the Bering Sea, with the latter having lower variability for almost all morphometrics. In particular, the robustness of the basal ridge in the Bering Sea population was readily apparent, both visually and statistically. This implies that valves from the northwestern Pacific have relatively more delicate basal ridges and larger foramina.


Research on the issues of the learners of Japanese outside Japan has increased with the expansion of Japanese language teaching worldwide, but research on those who teach them has received less attention. This paper focuses on one of the issues which Japanese instructors overseas face, in particular, that of native speakers. An individual's competence in his/her first language in a foreign environment changes over time. The changes become more obvious when first language speakers find themselves in their own country after spending some considerable time overseas. In this study the speakers of the first language were thirteen native speaker instructors teaching at tertiary institutions in Australia. They were interviewed while on a visit to Japan regarding their communication skills in Japan both at the linguistic and non-linguistic levels. The results of the study show a wide range of changes observed; some features are common to many of these instructors while other changes are not. Changes in reading, writing, speaking and listening skills are reported. Associated aspects include skills for determining politeness levels. Non-linguistic features include socio-cultural aspects of Japanese society such as gift-giving customs, and appropriate dress. These changes in communication skills were detected and evaluated by the speakers themselves based on their own encounters while in Japan. The implications for their role as language instructors outside Japan are also discussed.


We report on the development of a freezing phase scheme for complete-field characterization and adaptive coherent control with a femtosecond pulse shaper. The operational principle is based on a concept that the highest peak intensity will correspond to a frozen phase state of all spectral components involved in a coherent optical pulse. Our experimental and theoretical results reveal this new scheme to be fast and immune to the noise and laser power fluctuation. The freezing phase method has been used to investigate three types of semiconductor saturable absorber Bragg reflector (SBR). The optical pulses reflected from the SBR can be distorted in the spectral phase by a minor structural change of the SBR devices and can be clearly resolved with our method. The technique is useful for a variety of applications that require complete-field characterization and adaptive coherent control on the same setup.


The transcription factor Flo8/Som1 controls filamentous growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and virulence in the plant pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae. Flo8/Som1 includes a characteristic N-terminal LUG/LUH-Flo8-single-stranded DNA binding (LUFS) domain and is activated by the cAMP dependent protein kinase A signaling pathway. Heterologous SomA from Aspergillus fumigatus rescued in yeast flo8 mutant strains several phenotypes including adhesion or flocculation in haploids and pseudohyphal growth in diploids, respectively. A. fumigatus SomA acts similarly to yeast Flo8 on the promoter of FLO11 fused with reporter gene (LacZ) in S. cerevisiae. FLO11 expression in yeast requires an activator complex including Flo8 and Mfg1. Furthermore, SomA physically interacts with PtaB, which is related to yeast Mfg1. Loss of the somA gene in A. fumigatus resulted in a slow growth phenotype and a block in asexual development. Only aerial hyphae without further differentiation could be formed. The deletion phenotype was verified by a conditional expression of somA using the inducible Tet-on system. A adherence assay with the conditional somA expression strain indicated that SomA is required for biofilm formation. A ptaB deletion strain showed a similar phenotype supporting that the SomA/PtaB complex controls A. fumigatus biofilm formation. Transcriptional analysis showed that SomA regulates expression of genes for several transcription factors which control conidiation or adhesion of A. fumigatus. Infection assays with fertilized chicken eggs as well as with mice revealed that SomA is required for pathogenicity. These data corroborate a complex control function of SomA acting as a central factor of the transcriptional network, which connects adhesion, spore formation and virulence in the opportunistic human pathogen A. fumigatus.


I conducted an extensive literature review on the effective tsetse and trypanosomiasis eradication method strategies in Africa in 2010 as i embarked on my research that coincided with the formulation of the Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Strategy for Kenya spearheaded by Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC), Kenya. Trypanosomiasis is a zoonotic disease transmitted mainly by tsetse flies, Glossina genus and affects humans and domestic animals. Tsetse flies are an important livestock disease pest infesting over 138,000 square kilometers in Kenya. Trypanosomes are protozoan blood parasites that cause animal and human trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness Effective control methods are based on: • Parasite control which involves chemotherapy (use of trypanocidal drugs) to kill the trypanosomes inside the body of the animal. Regular active surveillance (screening) involving case detection and treatment of human /animal rypanosomiasis is necessary in parasite control. Systematic vector control which is done through spraying with insecticides, targets and traps technique and the sterile insect technique which targets to kill the tsetse fly in its natural habitats. • Exploitation of trypano-tolerant livestock through active selection for trypanosomiasis resistant traits in livestock and subsequent breeding. Over the past 100 years a whole range of control strategies for tsetse and trypanosomiasis control have been deployed in the Eastern, Central and West Africa including Kenya. Unfortunately, none of the methods or a combination of them has led to a lasting solution to the problem of the disease in humans and animals. Consequently, gains made are often lost mainly because land use practices cannot cope with rate of reclamation. Integrated use of the various control methods is the most certain strategy to guarantee trypanosomiasis eradication. Long term commitment rather than supporting crisis management by govern ments of endemic countries and international community to trypanosomiasis control/eradication programs is essential for sustainability since trypanosomiasis affects the poorest of African countries Key words : Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis; Parasite control; Vector control ; Trypanotolerant cattle; Kenya; Long term commitment;


When most commercial games are shipped, their gameplay has typically been prescripted. All game components are created during development, mostly as predetermined rigid artifacts with which a player will interact. This can lead to predictable and impersonal gameplay, while alienating unconventional players. Adaptivity in games has been recently proposed to overcome these shortcomings. Although adaptive games are a possible solution for this problem, in practice they are rare. The technology and development techniques to support such games are strongly ad-hoc and not easily accessible and controllable by game designers. Procedural content generation and semantic modeling can powerfully combine to tackle these issues. This thesis proposes the use of gameplay semantics, i.e. the knowledge on the gameplay meaning and value of a game world and its objects, to adaptively generate game worlds. Using gameplay semantics, we devised a generation framework aimed at creating personalized content for complex and immersive game worlds. This framework captures which content provided a given personal gameplay experience. This model is then used to generate content for the next predicted experience, through retrieval and recombination of semantic gameplay descriptions, i.e. case-specific mappings between content and gameplay semantics. This framework can be used to link the procedural generation of game worlds with gameplay, as measured by player modeling techniques. Gameplay semantics is created in a generic way and can be effectively used to steer the procedural generation of player-matching game worlds, both at design and at game stage. Gameplay semantics can steer the adaptive generation of game worlds by capturing the key features required for adaptivity. Both game world objects and properties can be synthesized in response to experience-driven features, e.g. the personalized difficulty of a game. Our player studies showed that this type of generation is successful in keeping such experience features in balance with different player types. Gameplay semantics can be used to actively include game designers in the creation loop, by allowing them to author adaptivity in a more expressive and specific fashion. Designers can: (i) interactively create gameplay semantics that describe players and content, and (ii) match one with the other. These matching rules are the underlying semantic gameplay descriptions that support our generation framework. User evaluation shows that gameplay semantics can provide game designers with a rich expressive range to convey specific adaptive gameplay experiences to its players. From the combined results of these contributions we can conclude that gameplay semantics is an effective, generic and controllable method to improve adaptation in games. We therefore hope that this work will encourage and facilitate the development of more and better adaptive games.


Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) breed only when certain gymnosperm species produce unusually abundant mast seed crops, events that can occur up to 5 years apart. Kakapo were first translocated to the offshore island refuge of Hauturu-o-toi (Little Barrier Island) in 1982. Despite the absence of known breeding triggers, several breeding attempts did occur prior to the birds' removal in 1999. Although kakapo were reintroduced to Hauturu in 2012, the question of what triggers them to breed there remains a mystery. This paper re-examines unanalysed datasets to explore the link between kakapo habitat selection and plant phenology patterns on Hauturu during the 1990s. By comparing plant phenology with breeding attempts, we provide insights into potential breeding triggers, and the potential future of Hauturu as a sustainable refuge. We also provide an account of plant phenology patterns occurring on Hauturu. Resource selection ratios were calculated to determine habitat selection preferences using kakapo location data and a vegetation map of Hauturu. Analysis of plant phenology within preferred habitats was then undertaken to determine potential breeding triggers using a dataset of over 70 plant species collected from 1991-1995. Female kakapo that attempted to breed on Hauturu preferred Agathis australis (kauri) dominated vegetation to any other vegetation type. Phenology patterns coincided with kakapo breeding attempts, and attempted breeding years on Hauturu were years with high A. australis female cone abundance. The association between A. australis and breeding suggests that A. australis cone production could trigger kakapo breeding on Hauturu. With an increasing kakapo population and a limited number of suitable refuges, understanding the potential reproductive productivity of kakapo on Hauturu will be vital for their future management and recovery.


Abstract This paper develops a multi-sensory and multiple-perspective framework for assessing public perception of landscapes. Proceeding from a viewpoint that landscape research and policy have been pre-occupied with expert-led and visual approaches, our method elevates the experiences and range of responses of different publics to centre stage. Set within phenomenological and experiential epistemologies, our piloted technique captured the real time responses of walkers, mountain bikers, planners, councillors and land managers on pre-planned trips in Aberdeenshire. Subsequent analysis of audio recordings and field notes elicited detailed data revealing a complex appreciation of landscape set within dynamic and multiple socio-economic identities and sensory experiences of individuals. The paper concludes with a plea for policy-makers and researchers to recognise the importance of different publics who may experience and respond to landscape in different ways and the significance of incorporating both visual and non-visual components into emergent landscape assessment and policy approaches.


In any BGP based MPLS network such as MPLS VPN [RFC4364], an ingress
PE router would continue to attract traffic from the CE router by
advertising the prefix reachability, even though the Label Switched
Path (LSP) from the ingress PE router to the egress PE router may be
broken. This causes the VPN traffic to be dropped inside the MPLS VPN
network. This document proposes a framework to make BGP consider the
MPLS path availability to the "NEXT_HOP" (i.e. egress PE router)
during the BGP bestpath candidate selection process. This document
also defines a local database for storing the MPLS path health
information for one or more IP prefixes and its interaction with BGP.


A number of studies have suggested that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) may undergo genetic alterations and spontaneous malignant transformation to form tumour cells, or at least can become contaminated with other cell types following extended periods in culture. Possible transformation or contamination of MSCs during cell culture expansion prior to their use in transplantation therapies is a risk, which should be taken into account. There is a continued need for the development of improved tools for monitoring safety and release criteria of cells intended for cell-based therapies. In order to help address these risks, this thesis aimed to develop improved safety measures in MSC-based cell therapies. Initially, this was investigated through the use of microscopic imaging and image analysis platforms to screen, characterise and distinguish between cultures of non-transformed MSCs and MSC-derived tumour cells, i.e. the osteosarcoma cell lines, SAOS2 and MG63, as well as cells derived from a chondrosarcoma. High content screening (HCS) and live-cell imaging and analysis platforms were used to enable these experiments. Phenotypic features that distinguished the normal versus malignant cell types were identified, including immunoreactivity for the proliferation-associated Ki67 antigen and pluripotency marker Oct4, as well as significant differences in nuclear morphology. These findings help inform release criteria for therapeutic MSCs. To further potentially improve the safety of MSC-based therapies, research was also performed to address the possibility that tumour cells in MSC cultures might remain undetected, thereby still providing a risk in MSC transplantations. Novel combinatorial regimes of potential anti-tumour drugs, i.e. bezafibrate, medroxyprogesterone, and valproic acid (termed V-BAP) were tested in vitro for their effects on MSCs versus SAOS2 and MG63 cells. At determined concentrations, these drugs were shown to significantly inhibit the growth of the osteosarcoma cells, but had little effect on MSCs. Thus, this thesis has made inroads into improved safety of MSC-based therapies by (i) demonstrating the application of imaging-based cell screening platforms to help characterise MSC cultures intended for cell transplantation, and (ii) identifying a novel drug regime that selectively targets osteosarcoma cells whilst having little effect on MSCs. The findings on V-BAP also have application in anti-tumour treatments for osteosarcoma.


Background. The potential performance-enhancement effect of pseudoephedrine (PSE) use has led to its prohibition in competition sports (urine concentrations >150 μg/ml). Data are, however, scarce regarding whether therapeutic PSE use enhances swimming performance. Objective. To investigate the effect of therapeutic PSE use on performance in aerobic and explosive sprint swimming events. Method. A double-blinded cross-over study design was used. Participants in the control group initially received a placebo and those in the experimental group received a divided PSE dose of 90 mg/d. Anaerobic  power (50 m sprint) and aerobic (2 000 m) swimming testing was conducted at (i) baseline; (ii) after ingestion of a placebo or PSE; and (iii)  after the groups were crossed over, following a wash-out period of 4 days, to determine changes in performance between trials. Results. The participants (mean age 44 years; N=7) were competitive  masters swimmers with normal resting heart rates (68 beats per minute (bpm); standard deviation (SD) ±14) and blood pressures (BPs) (171 (SD ±27)/83 (SD ±16) mmHg). The use of PSE during the anaerobic swim test showed only a trivial chance (68%) of improvement, with a likely enhancement in systolic BP (86%). The aerobic swim test did not affirm performance enhancement as measured by time to completion (52%  chance of a positive effect; 41% chance of a negative effect), nor did any other physiological variable of interest (peak heart rate and exercising BP)  differ significantly from baseline results. Conclusion. The use of a therapeutic amount of PSE in short and endurance swimming trials did not appear to have any major ergogenic effect on performance.


We reexamine the literature on mobile termination in the presence of network ex-ternalities. Externalities arise when firms discriminate between on-and off-net calls or when subscription demand is elastic. This literature predicts that profit decreases and consumer surplus increases in termination charge in a neighborhood of termination cost. This creates a puzzle since in reality we see regulators worldwide pushing termination rates down while being opposed by network operators. We show that this puzzle is resolved when consumers' expectations are assumed passive but required to be fulfilled in equilibrium (as defined by Katz and Shapiro, AER 1985), instead of being rationally responsive to non-equilibrium prices, as assumed until now.


Mark Lane tried the only U.S. court case in which the jurors concluded that the CIA plotted the murder of President Kennedy, but there was always a missing piece: How did the CIA control cops and secret service agents on the ground in Dealey Plaza? How did federal authorities prevent the House Select Committee on Assassinations from discovering the truth about the complicity of the CIA? Now, "New York Times" bestselling author Mark Lane tells all in this explosive new book. With exclusive new interviews, sworn testimony, and meticulous new research (including interviews with Oliver Stone, Dallas Police deputy sheriffs, Robert K. Tanenbaum, and Abraham Bolden), Lane finds out firsthand exactly what went on the day JFK was assassinated. Lane includes sworn statements given to the Warren Commission by a police officer who confronted a man who he thought was the assassin. The officer testified that he drew his gun and pointed it at the suspect, who showed Secret Service ID. Yet the Secret Service later reported that there were no Secret Service agents on foot in Dealey Plaza. Last Word proves that the CIA, operating through a secret small group, prepared all credentials for Secret Service agents in Dallas for the two days that Kennedy was going to be there - conclusive evidence of the CIA's involvement in the assassination. Here is the last word on the JFK assassination by a "New York Times" bestselling author and JFK historian!


An aging network in combination with stricter stakeholder requirements force the Dutch drinking water sector to improve the asset management of their water transport and distribution networks. Autonomous inspection robots (AIRs) provide a means to obtain knowledge on the condition of more pipes against lower cost, resulting in more focused rehabilitations and replacements, reduction of water loss through leakage, and a better knowledge and understanding of the system. In this paper, we describe the concept, a first prototype, and further steps that are currently being taken towards the development and application of this tool.


Abstract The concept of spirituality in restorative justice practice is recognized as important but is often fuzzy and vaguely understood. This study did a content analysis of restorative justice texts and found nine distinct components of spirituality: transformation, connectedness/belonging, common human bond, repentance, forgiveness, making right a wrong, balance/harmony, rituals, and unexplained spiritual phenomenon. The conceptual clarification of the relationship between spirituality and restorative justice gives mediators/facilitators of restorative justice dialogue more tools to deepen their interactions with victims, offenders, and community members. Furthermore, delineation of these nine components offers researchers a framework for the development of instruments or tools that can be used to assess participants' experiences in restorative justice dialogues.


Abstract
A 70-year-old white man entered hospital complaining of low-grade, daily fever. weight loss, and weakness of 3 months duration. Positive findings were 14,000 leukocytes per mm3 with 3% eosinophils, and interstitial infiltration of the right midlung. Readmitted 13 weeks later, because of persistent fever, weakness, and cough, he had 15,150 leukocytes per mm3 with 5% eosinophils, 32% hematocrit, and radiographic evidence of cavitation in the area of infiltration in the right midlung. One month later, eggs and rhabditoid larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis were found in blood-streaked sputum. Thiabendazole was given at a dosage of 8 mg per pound of body weight, twice daily, for 3 weeks. Live rhabditoid larvae and eggs of S. stercoralis continued to be excreted in blood-streaked sputum, and filariform larvae were obtained in cultures of sputum. A stool specimen obtained at the end of thiabendazole therapy contained rhabditoid larvae. The patient died from massive hematemesis, 3 days after completion of therapy; an autopsy was not done. The patient received corticosteroid therapy for 1 month before the first sputum specimen was examined, until death, because he was believed to have carcinomatosis. We believe that this therapy may have induced autoinfection and may have inhibited the effectiveness of thiabendazole.


A review of 183 papers published between 1990 and 2006 led to development of a typology of farm management decision-making (FMDM) research. An existing model which categorises decision research according to purpose as being either Analytical (descriptive), Normative, or Prescriptive was blended with a second form of categorisation based on six emergent decision domains: (1) factors; (2) processes; (3) events; (4) evaluation; (5) patterns; and (6) aids. The result was a typology of seven main discernible types of FMDM research with four being Analytical in purpose (Factors, Processes, Events and Patterns), two being Normative (Event and Evaluation), and the last being Prescriptive Aid. Each of these types is outlined and examples of representative publications listed. Finally, some trends in publication patterns, in accord with this typology, are presented. This work is presented in the hope it helps readers to navigate more easily though a large and complex literature.


Objective To estimate the risk of tuberculosis (TB) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) both with and without exposure to biological therapy and to directly compare the risks between therapies. Methods Data from the Swedish National Population Registers, Tuberculosis Register and the Swedish Biologics Register were used to conduct a prospective population-based national cohort study (2002–2011). We estimated the rate of incident TB in the general population and in a cohort of biological-naïve and biological-exposed patients diagnosed with RA. Cox models were used to estimate HRs with particular attention to risks by calendar and follow-up time and individual biologics. Results Compared to the general population, RA patients not exposed to biologicals had a fourfold increased risk of TB (HR 4.2; 95% CI 2.7 to 6.7), which did not decline over calendar time. In contrast, the risk of TB in the biological-exposed RA population decreased since 2002 compared with biological-naïve; from HR=7.9 (95% CI 3.3 to 18.9) in 2002–2006 to HR=2.4 (95% CI 0.9 to 6.1) in 2007–2011. The HRs for most recent exposure to adalimumab and infliximab compared with etanercept were 3.1 (95% CI 0.8 to 12.5) and 2.7 (95% CI 0.7 to 10.9), respectively, and the HR for etanercept compared with biological-naïve RA was 1.7 (95% CI 0.6 to 4.6). Conclusions In the past decade, the risk of TB has decreased among biological-exposed RA patients but remains higher than in biological-naïve RA patients. Most cases of TB in RA occur in biological-naïve RA patients, underscoring the elevated risk also in these patients.


One of the most important problems in inertial confinement fusion is how to find a way to mitigate the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability which arises in the ablation front during the compression. In this thesis it is studied in detail the possibility of using for such a purpose the well-known mechanism of dynamic stabilization, already applied to other dynamical systems such as the inverted pendulum. In this context, a periodic acceleration superposed to the background gravity generates a vertical vibration of the ablation front itself. The effects of different driving modulations (Dirac deltas and square waves) are analyzed from a theoretical point of view, with a focus on stabilization of ion beam driven ablation fronts, and a comparison is made, in order to look for optimization.


A BURDEN OF EASTER VIGIL AWHILE meet Doubt and Faith: For either sigheth and saith, That he is dead To-day: the linen cloths cover His head, That hath, at last, whereon to rest; a rocky bed. Come! for the pangs are done, That overcast the sun, So bright to-day! And moved the Roman soldier: come away! Hath sorrow more to weep? Hath pity more to say? Why wilt thou linger yet? Think on dark Olivet; On Calvary stem: Think, from the happy birth at Bethlehem, To thus last woe and passion at Jerusalem! This only can be said: He loved us all; is dead; May rise again. But if He rise not? Over the far main, The sun of glory falls indeed: the stars are plain. (1888) IN HIS TEXTUAL NOTES TO "A BURDEN OF EASTER VIGIL" IN THE COLLECTED Poems of Lionel Johnson, Ian Fletcher comments that "the title has a Preraphaelite suggestion" (1) and cites statements by A. J. Farmer that "Johnson est ici tout pres d'Arnold et ces premieres verses portent deja l'empreinte de la souffrance intime qui est la racon d'un age, trop avide de certitude" and (incorrectly) by A. W Patrick, who "compares lines 16-20 with the final stanza of Arnold's 'Obermann.'" (2) While the Pre-Raphaelite suggestion could possibly refer to D. G. Rossetti's "The Burden of Nineveh" and the influence of Arnold on Johnson especially during his formative years at Winchester had been profound, (3) there is another possible--although seemingly unlikely--source for the poem: Arthur Hugh Clough's "Easter Day. Naples, 1849." There is, indeed, ample evidence to show that Johnson never found a source of inspiration, spiritual or otherwise, in Clough as he had in his mentors, Arnold, Pater, and Newman. In fact, he severely criticized Clough's poetry as being overweighted with thought and morality and lacking in artistic excellence. Contrasting Clough with D. G. Rossetti, for example, he concluded, "One verse of the 'Blessed Damozel' is to me worth the whole of 'Dipsychus,' do you feel that?" (Winchester Letters, p. 164). And again: "There is more delight in the structure of a sonnet or villanelle, the cadence of a verse, than in heavy analysis of a foggy soul: Rossetti is the infinite Hyperion and Clough, an ineffable Satyr with the music of Beddoes' 'frog voice.'" (4) In his late (1897) article on the Arnolds, Johnson continued to carp that Clough's "mournful, homesick, desultory poems are indeed touched with decay, because they are composed without care, in no wide spirit of contemplation: reading them we do not think of 'Sophocle s by the Aegean,' nor of the lacrimae rerum." (5) Johnson's critique of Clough's poetry for using religious topics might seem strange when his own poems are saturated in religious thought. Both poets were experiencing considerable religious unrest at the time of writing their respective "Easter" poems. Clough was being directed away from dogmatic religion to "positive skepticism" that found meaning in practical humanism, while Johnson was gravitating toward the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church where he would be received three years after the composition of his poem and remain until his death in 1902. (6) Clough's "Easter Day. Naples, 1849" and Johnson's "A Burden of the Easter Vigil" are, therefore, ruminations of very different minds upon the same crucial Christian event and, in their respective choice of imagery, allusion, and thematic resolution, provide valuable insight into the mind of each poet. (7) Despite cogent arguments to prove Clough's essential optimism in "Easter Day. Naples, 1849," (8) the poem's final impression taken literally and by itself is one of overwhelming emptiness and loss. The much repeated, cheerless refrain, "Christ is not risen, no / He lies and moulders low; / Christ is not risen" (9) introduces three features of the poem which are directly in contrast to Johnson's approach. …


The instrumental variable method consistently estimates the effect of a treatment when there is unmeasured confounding and a valid instrumental variable. A valid instrumental variable is a variable that is independent of unmeasured confounders and affects the treatment but does not have a direct effect on the outcome beyond its effect on the treatment. Two commonly used estimators for using an instrumental variable to estimate a treatment effect are the two stage least squares estimator and the control function estimator. For linear causal effect models, these two estimators are equivalent, but for nonlinear causal effect models, the estimators are different. We provide a systematic comparison of these two estimators for nonlinear causal effect models and develop an approach to combing the two estimators that generally performs better than either one alone. We show that the control function estimator is a two stage least squares estimator with an augmented set of instrumental variables. If these augmented instrumental variables are valid, then the control function estimator can be much more efficient than usual two stage least squares without the augmented instrumental variables while if the augmented instrumental variables are not valid, then the control function estimator may be inconsistent while the usual two stage least squares remains consistent. We apply the Hausman test to test whether the augmented instrumental variables are valid and construct a pretest estimator based on this test. The pretest estimator is shown to work well in a simulation study. An application to the effect of exposure to violence on time preference is considered.


In celebration of the occasion of the 350th anniversary of Jewish immigration to America, this paper takes a look back and then looks forward, highlighting both achievements and challenges in the realms of Jewish libraries and archives as well as their associated professions. The paper scans the past fifty years, since the tercentenary in 1954, pointing to evidence of much growth and expansion. It then proceeds to discuss areas of development for the future, taking into account opportunities presented by the digital age.


Photovoltaic cells offer a sustainable way of generating electricity from sunlight, and they will be of growing economical importance for decades to come. Hybrid organic-inorganic solar cells, such as dye sensitized solar cells or perovskite solar cells, are an area of active research, and fundamental scientific advances can lead to impressive improvements of device efficiency. In this thesis, I present experimental studies on some of the fundamental properties of molecules and pigments on titanium dioxide surfaces for solar energy conversion. My main instrument is a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation technique (QCM-D), and I develop special methods of measurement, which enable the characterization of mass uptake in mesoporous systems. In dye sensitized solar cells (DSC), dye molecules are adsorbed onto a mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2) photoanode. The dye molecule absorbs light, subsequently injects an electron into the conducting TiO2, and is regenerated from a hole transport material. Furthermore, the molecular film of dye molecules blocks recombination between electrons in the TiO2 conduction band and the oxidized form of the redox mediator in the hole transport material. In the first chapter, I study the adsorption of the ruthenium-based dye Z907 by QCM-D on flat TiO2 as a model system with sub-monolayer resolution. An adsorption isotherm is measured for Z907, which leads to a formal adsorption equilibrium constant of 5.1e6 M-1 and a number density of 0.76 molecules per nm2. The coadsorbate chenodeoxycholic acid (cheno) enhances the recombination-blocking capability of the adsorbed molecular layer and it prevents aggregation of dye molecules. In chapter two, I develop a method to quantify the ratio between cheno and dye molecules when coadsorbed on the TiO2 using a combination of QCM-D and subsequent fluorescence spectroscopy. I apply this method to study coadsorption with triphenylamine-, porphyrin-, ulllazine- and diketopyrrolopyrrole-based dyes. The role of cheno depends on its specific interaction with the dye molecule. In chapter three, I present a microscopic study on the molecular layer of the amphiphilic dye Z907 adsorbed on TiO2. In collaboration with two groups at EPFL, we present in-situ atomic force microscopy images with sub-nanometer resolution in a functionally relevant liquid environment. Our results reveal changes in the conformation and the lateral arrangement of the dye molecules, depending on their average packing density on the surface, and these results are confirmed by molecular dynamics simulations. Chapter four aims to understand the QCM-D signals on mesoporous TiO2 films attached to the QCM-D sensor. Their high accessible surface area makes mesoporous films interesting for sensing applications. For films of up to 200 nm thickness, I find a regular inertial loading, which allows for an archimedic measure of molecules adsorbed inside the mesoporous matrix. For thicker films, I observe a particular behaviour that is explained by the resonant coupling of the quartz crystal driving frequency to an eigenmode of the TiO2 film. In chapter five, I contribute to the fundamental understanding of the perovskite conversion reaction between PbI2 and CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite. This material is central to the latest, record-breaking perovskite solar cells. I provide evidence for that the back-conversion is reversible by release of methylammonium iodide from the perovskite film into selective solvents.