A new approach was employed for ground stabilization to drive a semi-circular cross-section tunnel with overall dimensions of 24 ft (7.3m) wide, 12 ft (3.7m) high, and 164 ft (50.0m) long. The tunnel was mined through sandy-silty-clayey soil, SM and SC based on the Unified Soil Classification System, with the invert located in thin-bedded claystone and soft to medium hard sandstone. The beds were typically highly folded and fractured, with occasional small faults. The tunnel under-crosses the Pacific Coast Highway, a major state freeway, with a maximum crown depth of 8 ft (2.4m) below the surface. Location of the tunnel is within an active seismic zone, 1.2 miles (1.9km) from the Newport Inglewood Fault, which required seismic loads to be considered in design. The shallow depth of cover combined with the presence of a soil-rock interface along the tunnel invert presented a major challenge for the engineers involved to develop a design approach which would be feasible and cost-effective, while minimizing the risk of excessive settlement of the road. This paper describes the technique employed to stabilize the surrounding soil mass and the method used to design and construct the foundation footings at the soil-rock interface. Furthermore, the paper provides a practical example on how to differentiate between soil and rock for structural design purposes.


Background One of the main pregnancy complications in Peru is syphilis, a disease with severe complications that can be prevented trough early diagnosis and treatment. The objective of this study was to estimate the factors associated with syphilis infection among pregnant women in the district of Ventanilla – Peru in 2012. Methods The Project WawaRed "Getting connected for a better maternal and child health" involved the implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) for maternal health, linked to SMS messages sent to pregnant women and tailored to their health profile and gestational age. A crossover study was performed using data collected via the EHR on 2012. Clinical and laboratory data from pregnant women attending one of 16 different health centres in Ventanilla were analysed. These included test results for a rapid syphilis test carried out in their first antenatal care visit. Results A total of 4915 pregnant women were included. The mean of age and age at first intercourse were 26.0 (95% CI: 25.8–26.2) and 17.3 (95% CI: 17.2–17–4) respectively. The prevalence for syphilis was 1.4 (95% CI: 1.1–1.7) and for HIV was 3.0 (95% CI: 1.4–4.6). There were 2 patients co-infected with HIV and syphilis. The factors analysed were: age, level of education, marital status, number of pregnancies, history of abortion, age at first sexual intercourse and contraceptive methods used. This study showed that pregnant women who use a intrauterine device (PR:4.9, p = 0.02) as a contraceptive method as opposed to condom were at higher risk for syphilis, while older age at sexual debut was associated to a lower risk for syphilis (PR:0.88, p < 0.01). Conclusion Delayed sexual debut and condom use are once again identified as forms of preventing STI, and should be important components of family planning programmes.


Mutation testing is an effective technique for either improving or generating fault-finding test suites. It creates defective or incorrect program artifacts of the program under test and evaluates the ability of test suites to reveal them. Despite being effective, mutation is costly since it requires assessing the test cases with a large number of defective artifacts. Even worse, some of these artifacts are behaviourally "equivalent" to the original one and hence, they unnecessarily increase the testing effort. We adopt a variability perspective on mutation analysis. We model a defective artifact as a transition system with a specific feature selected and consider it as a member of a mutant family. The mutant family is encoded as a Featured Transition System, a compact formalism initially dedicated to model-checking of software product lines. We show how to evaluate a test suite against the set of all candidate defects by using mutant families. We can evaluate all the considered defects at the same time and isolate some equivalent mutants. We can also assist the test generation process and efficiently consider higher-order mutants.


Variability in the chemistry of the upper stratosphere/lower mesosphere region has been analyzed focusing on high latitudes during the boreal winter in 2009 characterized by the strong sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) on 24 January. Data from Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding aboard Envisat and the Microwave Limb Sounder on Aura have been used to exemplify these changes. Record high (low) values of O3 and ClO (temperature and HCl) for the winters of 2005–2012, coupled with a simultaneous enhancement of ClONO2, have been observed in February 2009. This suggests that the very low temperatures favor a more effective ozone production and a greater O3/O ratio. The latter is the main factor controlling active chlorine partitioning. Increases of ClO lead to high ClONO2 concentrations in the upper stratosphere at high latitudes, where its photodissociation rate is smaller. Since this increase of ClONO2 happens at the expense of HCl, the region of high ClONO2 roughly coincides with the region of low HCl. Although this period was characterized by an elevated stratopause event, the investigated region was not influenced by the descent of mesospheric air rich in NOx. Some limited enhancements in NOx at ~1 hPa occurred at latitudes greater than 80°N after about 20 February, but they became consistent only in March. Intrusion of midlatitude air mostly occurred between the SSW and early February. Then, the sum of volume mixing ratios of ClONO2 + ClO + HCl remained approximately constant and close to the values of the other years. In contrast, it was up to 0.2 ppbv lower during the SSW period. These atypical chemical conditions occurred also in February 2006, but 2009 stands out for its long‐lasting effects, which persisted until late March.


Riparian zones are hotspots of plant species richness in temperate and boreal biomes. The phenomenon is believed to be caused primarily by river-related processes, and upland influences on riparian zones have received relatively little attention. We investigated the importance of discharge of groundwater derived from uplands on riparian patterns in vascular plant species composition. We found that groundwater discharge areas in riparian zones were 36-209% more species rich than non-discharge areas, depending on spatial scale (1-50 m wide transects from annual high-water levels to summer low-water levels) and river (one free-flowing and one regulated). Higher nitrogen availability and less drought stress during low river stages are suggested as the major causes for the higher species diversity in discharge areas. Riparian zones lacking groundwater discharge lost more species following water-level regulation than did discharge areas. This indicates that groundwater discharge areas are more resistant to regulation because both individual plants and plant populations may grow larger in discharge areas. These results demonstrate that riparian zones are controlled by water and nutrient input from upland parts of catchments in ways that have been overlooked despite more than three decades of research into linkages between stream ecosystems and their valleys.


The thesis comprises ethnography of alternative provisioning in a range of households
on a street in North London. It considers the alternative (non-formal retail) means by
which goods are acquired and exchanged. The areas of inquiry include gift- giving, mail
order catalogues, network sales schemes, second-hand goods, nearly new 'jumble' sales
and self-provisioning. Challenging polarised models of the household and the market,
the gift and the commodity, the thesis reveals how alternative modes of consumption are
used to generate and contest value in everyday practice.
In particular, the study focuses on the activities of women and the ways in which social
networks are constituted around specific types of acquisition and material culture. These
activities include the swapping of second hand baby goods, the provisioning of
children's parties and gifts, the decorating of the home and the use of commercial
network sales schemes revolving around fashion, cosmetics and housewares. Aesthetic
practice and modes of acquisition are considered in the context of immediate social
relations and domestic settings.
As well as providing empirical data regarding a range of consumption practices in
contemporary Britain, the thesis goes on to argue that it is within these forms of
provisioning that the practice of normativity is most evident. While a major theoretical
pretext of anthropological enquiry is the question of how culture operates cohesively in
the context of modernity, what arises from this ethnography is the extent to which goods
and the values made around them, through exchange, are used in the making of the
normative. This thesis examines the role of everyday alternative provisioning in
constituting and contesting moral and social pressures to determine a basis of
conformity and having made these conditions, facilitate the relationships that depend
upon them.


Jojoba ( Simmondsia chinesis L.) is a highly valued desert shrub for its oil which is equivalent to that of Sperm Whale, a threatened species by extinction. Cultivation of Jojoba in arid areas means provision of a cash-crop, environmental conservation and preservation of the Whale. Its seeds vary in size depending on genotype, season and seed lot. An experiment was setup in September 2012 with an objective of characterizing seed and determining the effect of size and storage on germination. The experiment was laid down in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three treatments replicated thrice for the first two experiments.  However, the third experiment was a factorial one with eight treatments. The seeds were grouped into three categories which were large (1,047 mg), medium (697 mg) and small (333 mg/seed). The results revealed that large seeds had significantly (P < 0.05) higher germination percentage (76%) compared with medium (33%) and small (37%) seeds. Large seeds were found to contain large cotyledon size. Large cotyledons provide a large food reserve which is essential for germination and early vigorous growth. Seed length and 100 seed weight were significantly (P≤0.05) higher for large seed as compared to medium and small seeds. Similarly, large seeds recorded a germination of 93% for a short storage of  six months which was superior to that of small seeds  which was 17% for the same period. Hence seed length and 100 seed weight were found to be reliable variables for characterizing Jojoba seeds which may be used in predicting germinability. We recommended that for enhanced germination and vigorous growth of seedlings, it is necessary to select and plant large Jojoba seeds which have been stored for period less than one year. Keywords : Jojoba, seed, characterization, germination, growth


For centuries, traditional farmers have developed diverse and locally adapted agricultural systems, managing them with ingenious practices that often result in both community food security and the conservation of agrobiodiversity. This strategy of minimizing risk stabilizes yields, promotes dietary diversity, and maximizes returns using low levels of technology and limited resources. These microcosms of agricultural heritage still cover no less than 10 million ha worldwide, providing cultural and ecological services not only to rural inhabitants, but to mankind generally. These services include the preservation of traditional farming knowledge, local crop and animal varieties, and native forms of sociocultural organization. By studying these systems, ecologists can enhance their knowledge of the dynamics of complex systems, especially the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function and practical principles for the design of more sustainable agroecosystems appropriate to small farmers. Novel a...


\underline{D}eep \underline{A}UC (area under the ROC curve) \underline{M}aximization (DAM) has attracted much attention recently due to its great potential for imbalanced data classification. However, the research on \underline{F}ederated \underline{D}eep \underline{A}UC \underline{M}aximization (FDAM) is still limited. Compared with standard federated learning (FL) approaches that focus on decomposable minimization objectives, FDAM is more complicated due to its minimization objective is non-decomposable over individual examples. In this paper, we propose improved FDAM algorithms for heterogeneous data by solving the popular non-convex strongly-concave min-max formulation of DAM in a distributed fashion. A striking result of this paper is that the communication complexity of the proposed algorithm is a constant independent of the number of machines and also independent of the accuracy level, which improves an existing result by orders of magnitude. Of independent interest, the proposed algorithm can also be applied to a class of non-convex-strongly-concave min-max problems. The experiments have demonstrated the effectiveness of our FDAM algorithm on benchmark datasets, and on medical chest X-ray images from different organizations. Our experiment shows that the performance of FDAM using data from multiple hospitals can improve the AUC score on testing data from a single hospital for detecting life-threatening diseases based on chest radiographs.


Copulas allow to learn marginal distributions separately from the multivariate dependence structure (copula) that links them together into a density function. Vine factorizations ease the learning of high-dimensional copulas by constructing a hierarchy of conditional bivariate copulas. However, to simplify inference, it is common to assume that each of these conditional bivariate copulas is independent from its conditioning variables. In this paper, we relax this assumption by discovering the latent functions that specify the shape of a conditional copula given its conditioning variables. We learn these functions by following a Bayesian approach based on sparse Gaussian processes with expectation propagation for scalable, approximate inference. Experiments on real-world datasets show that, when modeling all conditional dependencies, we obtain better estimates of the underlying copula of the data.


Microbial populations adapt to their environment by acquiring advantageous mutations, but in the early twentieth century, questions about how these organisms acquire mutations arose. The experiment of Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück that won them a Nobel Prize in 1969 confirmed that mutations don't occur out of necessity, but instead can occur many generations before there is a selective advantage, and thus organisms follow Darwinian evolution instead of Lamarckian. Since then, new areas of research involving microbial evolution have spawned as a result of their experiment. Determining the mutation rate of a cell is one such area. Probability distributions that determine the number of mutants in a large population have been derived by Lea, Coulson, and Haldane. However, not much work has been done when time of cell division is dependent on the cell age, and even less so when cell division is asymmetric, which is the case in most microbial populations. Using probability generating function methods, we rigorously construct a probability distribution for the cell population size given a life-span distribution for both mother and daughter cells, and then determine its asymptotic growth rate. We use this to construct a probability distribution for the number of mutants in a large cell population, which can be used with likelihood methods to estimate the cell mutation rate.
For more information see https://ejde.math.txstate.edu/Volumes/2021/56/abstr.html


In 1971 the Head of The Swedish Film Institute, Harry Schein, was given the task by the Ministries of Education to make an official governmental investigation on new audiovisual technologies. Influenced by mainly contemporary Canadian research (official reports like Instant World, 1971), Schein turned the investigation to focus on new telecommunication technology, cable television, pay television and satellite broadcasting. The investigation resulted in the book Infor en ny mediepolitik ("Heading a New Media Politics") in 1972, where Schein described advanced technical solutions for the distribution of television that already existed, but also predicted a revolving future. Audiovisual media would challenge printed media, and an upcoming broadband technology would transform interpersonal as well as official communications. Mass media was, according to Schein, a phenomenon of the 20th century. The global village described by Marshal McLuhan would be succeeded by "the city of thousand ghettos", a metaphor borrowed from Instant World. Schein suggested in his investigation that a national media politics would have to make common solutions for film, radio, television, telecommunications and printed media.This paper will focus on the intense public debates over new technologies and national media politics that the book initiated.


This study examines Pakistani Muslim women's experiences of labour and maternity services against a backdrop of the National Health Service and the history of Black people in Britain. It sets out to develop an understanding of how Pakistani women see their relationships with midwives and to address the paucity of available research about their intrapartum experiences. The study also aims to contribute to the development of responsive and sensitive midwifery care, and midwifery knowledge and theory.An interpretive ethnographic approach was adopted to obtain narratives from twenty-seven participants: thirteen primigravidae Pakistani Muslim women, nine interpreters and five midwives. The primary method of data collection was conversational qualitative interviews, although a small number of participant observations of women's labours were conducted. Content analysis was utilised for data analysis.The findings of this study reveal that many Pakistani Muslim women generally reported a positive experience of their encounters with maternity services. They valued western obstetric and midwifery services, believing that the midwives and doctors know best; they were grateful for the care they received. The study revealed that adequate and timely information, constructive relationships with the midwives, and support during labour were some of the key factors that shaped women's experiences of labour. Whilst some women expressed satisfaction in these areas, others voiced concern about the variable levels of availability of information, and consequently women laboured without, knowledge of the available methods of pain relief and processes of care during labour. The findings show that Pakistani women value emotional support in labour. A minority of these women were supported by their husbands or female relatives, and some received support from midwives. However for many, when support from midwives was not forthcoming, 'Allah' was the only available source of support. Other key factors highlighted were communication and linguistic barriers, and the role of perceived stereotypes and discrimination, which shaped the context in which women birthed as well as underpinning women's experience of maternity services. The study highlighted that whilst women's ability to speak English played a role in developing relationships with midwives, a lot depended on the attitudes and behaviours of the midwives, and the way they responded to the women. Resources such as interpreters, which may have assisted in overcoming some of the communication barriers, were found to be lacking.The study showed that midwives were the orchestrators of women's labouring experiences, manifesting 'power' in terms of influencing or controlling women, birthing events, processes and resources. Many women appeared to be passive recipients of care; they did not exercise choice and control over the care they received, and the majority did not perceive that they were able to work in partnership with the midwives.These findings are discussed in the context of the way in which service delivery is organised. In addition, the findings are very timely in view of the NHS Plan and the NSF's commitment to women having informed choice and individualised care.


This paper reports on TEXTAL™, a deployed application that uses a variety of AI techniques to automate the process of determining the 3D structure of proteins by x-ray crystallography. The TEXTAL™ project was initiated in 1998, and the application is currently deployed in three ways: (1) a web-based interface called WebTex, operational since June 2002; (2) as the automated model-building component of an integrated crystallography software called PHENIX, first released in July 2003; (3) binary distributions, available since September 2004. TEXTAL™ and its sub-components are currently being used by crystallographers around the world, both in the industry and in academia. TEXTAL™ saves up to weeks of effort typically required to determine the structure of one protein; the system has proven to be particularly helpful when the quality of the data is poor, which is very often the case. Automated protein modeling systems like TEXTAL™ are critical to the structural genomics initiative, a worldwide effort to determine the 3D structure of all proteins in a high-throughput mode, thereby keeping up with the rapid growth of genomic sequence databases.


Objective: To evaluate prevalence, types, and severity of potential adverse drug-drug interaction in medicine out-patient department. Materials and Methods: A single-point, prospective, and observational study was carried out in medicine OPD. Study began after obtaining approval Institutional Ethics Committee. Data were collected and potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) were identified using medscape drug interaction checker and were analyzed. Result: A total of 350 prescriptions with mean age 52.45 ± 14.49 years were collected over a period of 5 months. A total of 2066 pDDIs were recorded with mean of 5.90 ± 6.0. The prevalence of pDDI was 83.42%. Aspirin was most frequently prescribed drug in 185 (10.15%) out of total of 1821 drugs It was also the most frequent drug implicated in pDDI i.e. in 48.16%. The most common pDDI identified was metoprolol with aspirin in 126 (6.09%). Mechanism of interactions was pharmacokinetic in 553 (26.76%), pharmacodynamic in 1424 (68.92%) and 89 (4.30%) having an unknown mechanism. Out of all interactions, 76 (3.67%) were serious, 1516 (73.37%) significant, and 474 (22.94%) were minor interaction. Age of the patients (r = 0.327, P = 0.0001) and number of drugs prescribed (r = 0.714, P = 0.0001) are significantly correlated with drug interactions. Conclusion: Aspirin being the most common drug interacting. The use of electronic decision support tools, continuing education and vigilance on the part of prescribers toward drug selection may decrease the problem of pDDIs.


The photochemical reactivity of dissolved lignin and photobleaching of dissolved organic matter (DOM) were examined in riverine and open‐ocean water samples. Approximately 75% of the total dissolved lignin in Mississippi River water was lost during 28 d of incubation in sunlight, mostly due to photooxidation. The remaining fraction of dissolved lignin was much less susceptible to photooxidation. About 90% of the dissolved lignin in river water was present as high‐molecular‐weight (HMW, >1,000 Dalton) DOM. However, after exposure to sunlight, about 80% of the remaining lignin was present as low‐molecular‐weight (LMW, <1,000 Dalton) DOM. An absolute increase in concentration of LMW lignin provided direct evidence for the phototransformation of macromolecular DOM to smaller molecules. The composition of riverine dissolved lignin also changed dramatically during photooxidation. The abundance of syringyl relative to vanillyl phenols decreased twofold, while concentrations of vanillic acid relative to vanillin, (Ad/Al)v, increased fourfold. The increase in (Ad/Al)v was found exclusively in the photooxidized LMW DOM. The photochemically altered composition of riverine dissolved lignin was consistent with the composition of oceanic dissolved lignin, The dissolved lignin in HMW DOM from the equatorial Pacific Ocean was highly resistant to photooxidation. These findings suggest that photochemical reactions play a prominent role in determining the composition and reactivity of terrigenous DOM in the ocean,


Thucydides called his account of two decades of war between Athens and Sparta "a possession for all time," and indeed it is the first and still the most famous work in the Western historical tradition. Considered essential reading for generals, statesmen, and liberally educated citizens for more than 2,000 years, "The Peloponnesian War" is a mine of military, moral, political, and philosophical wisdom. However, this classic book has long presented obstacles to the uninitiated reader. Written centuries before the rise of modern historiography, Thucydides' narrative is not continuous or linear. His authoritative chronicle of what he considered the greatest war of all time is rigorous and meticulous, yet omits the many aids to comprehension modern readers take for granted -- such as brief biographies of the story's main characters, maps and other visual enhancements, and background on the military, cultural, and political traditions of ancient Greece. Robert Strassler's new edition amends these omissions, and not only provides a new coherence to the narrative overall but effectively reconstructs the lost cultural context that Thucydides shared with his original audience. Based on the venerable Richard Crawley translation, updated and revised for modern readers, "The Landmark Thucydides" includes a vast array of superbly designed and presented maps, brief informative appendices by outstanding classical scholars on subjects of special relevance to the text, explanatory marginal notes on each page, an index of unprecedented subtlety and depth, and numerous other useful features. Readers will find that with this edition they can dip into the text at any point and be immediately oriented with regard to the geography, season, date, and stage of the conflict. In any list of the Great Books of Western Civilization, "The Peloponnesian War" stands near the top. This handsome, elegant, and authoritative new edition will ensure that its greatness is appreciated by future generations.


This study attempts to investigate the effects of customer value specifically the relational value towards customer brand relationship stickiness in Malaysian public higher education service. Investigating relational value is crucial because it has transpired as one of the basic operant resources of customer value in the service co-creation and contributed in the success of customer brand relationship. Using proportionate stratified random sampling, questionnaires were distributed to 701 postgraduate students studying in the Business and Social Science fields in the Malaysian public universities. The reliability of all the constructs tested produced satisfactory coefficients. Multiple regression and Partial Least Square (PLS) bootstrapping procedures were conducted. The findings support the Social Exchange Theory and previous body of research that indicate positive and significant relationships between customer value such as utility value, hedonic value and relational value including customer brand relationship stickiness pertinent to brand relationship quality and brand resonance. In addition, customer relationship
stickiness with the service brand is largely dependent on the motivation of exchanging relational values compared
to other customer value dimensions such as utility value and hedonic value. This indicates that relational values such as trust, bonding, empathy and mutual dependence are the key elements in the branding process of the service
organisation. For this reason, the success of a service can only be achieved through a strong relationship between customers and the brand of the service. Therefore, this paper offers evidence of the association concerning relationship perspective in the social exchange theory. The contribution of this study is an effort to expand customer brand relationship knowledge particularly in the service domain.


Telecommunication service systems have been developing rapidly during the last five decades. The service architectures as well as the technologies for design, implementation, deployment, execution, and management of the services have been under continuous development. The focus of this thesis is mobility management in adaptable service systems. Adaptable service systems are service systems that adapt dynamically to changes in both time and position related to users, nodes, capabilities, status and changed service requirements and mobility management is the handling of movements of the various components that can potentially move. As examples persons, services, terminals, nodes, capabilities, data and programs can move. Mobility management allows services to find locations, and to deliver certain content to the users or terminals regardless of their location. This thesis is focusing on the movement of persons, services, programs and terminals.The thesis is related to TAPAS (Telematics Architecture for Playbased Adaptable Service Systems) research project. This project started in 1997 and has been founded by the Norwegian Research Council and the Department of Telematics at NTNU.The thesis has four main parts: 1) a generic terminology framework, 2) a mobility management architecture, 3) a design model for the basic mechanism used to specify and realize the services, i.e. the role-figure model, and 4) a formal model and analysis of the role-figure model. The terminology framework is the basis for the mobility management architecture. Three main mobility types are handled. These types are personal mobility, role-figure mobility, and terminal mobility. For each of these mobility types a set of generic concepts, definitions, and requirement rules are presented. The mobility management architecture defines the structure and the functionality of the entities needed to handle the various mobility types. The mobility management architecture is worked out within the context of TAPAS. The role-figure model is an abstract model for the implemented rolefigure functionality. It has parts such as behaviour, capabilities, interfaces, messages, and executing methods. By using an ODP (Open Distributed Processing) semantic framework and the rewriting logic, the structure of the cooperating role-figures and their behaviour is defined.This model will be used as the basis for a formal model specified in Maude, which is a language and tool supporting specification and analysis of rewriting logic theories. It is used to reason about the structure and the behaviour of the role-figures and the proposed solution for role-figure mobility.


A wide class of models with On-the-Job Search (OJS) predicts that workers gradually select into better-paying jobs. We develop a simple methodology to test predictions implied by OJS using two sources of identification: (i) time-variation in job-finding rates and (ii) the time since the last lay-off. Conditional on the termination date of the job, job duration should be distributed uniformly. This methodology is applied to the NLSY 79. We find remarkably strong support for all implications. The standard deviation of the wage offer distribution is about 15%. OJS accounts for 30% of the experience profile, 9% of total wage dispersion and an average wage loss of 11% following a lay-off.


Symptoms of perimenopausal depression are not inherently different from those of depression diagnosed at any other time in life, but they present in a unique context: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Hormonal fluctations may persist for a long duration. * Women experiencing hormonal fluctations may be vulnerable to mood problems. * Psychosocial/psychodynamic stressors often complicate this life transition. Managing perimenopausal depression has become more complicated since the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) studies found fewer benefits and greater risks with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) than had been perceived. This article discusses the clinical presentation of perimenopausal depression, its risk factors, and treatment options in post-WHI psychiatric practice. Who is at risk? Perimenopausal depression is diagnosed when onset of major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with menstrual cycle irregularity and/or somatic symptoms of the menopausal transition. (1) Diagnosis is based on the overall clinical picture, and treatment requires a thoughtful exploration of the complex relationship between hormonal function and mood regulation. Presentation. For many women, perimenopause is characterized by mild to severe vasomotor, cognitive, and mood symptoms (Table 1, page 40). Thus, in your workup of depression in midlife women, document somatic symptoms--such as hot flushes, vaginal dryness, and incontinence--and affective/behavioral symptoms such as mood and sleep disturbances. Table 1 Vasomotor, cognitive, and mood symptoms of perimenopause Vasomotor Cognitive, and mood Hot flushes Decreased concentration Sweating Anxiety Heart palpitations Irritability Painful intercourse Mood lability Vaginal dryness and discomfort Memory difficulty Sleep disruption Headache Explore psychiatric and medical histories of your patient and her close relatives. Ask about depression, dysthymia, hypomania, or mood fluctations around hormonal events such as menses, pregnancy, postpartum, or starting/stopping oral contraceptives. In the differential diagnosis, consider: * Is low mood temporally connected with hot flushes and disturbed sleep? * Is low mood secondary to stressful life events? * Does the patient have another medical illness (such as thyroid disorder) with symptoms similar to depression? * Is low mood secondary to anxiety or another psychiatric disorder? Screening. Menopause is considered to have been reached after 12 months of amenorrhea not due to another cause. Median ages for this transition in the United States are 47.5 for perimenopause and 51 for menopause, with an average of 8 years between regular cycles and amenorrhea. (2) Therefore, begin talking with women about perimenopausal symptoms when they turn 40. Evidence supports screening perimenopausal women for depressive symptoms even when their primary complaints are vasomotor. The Greene Climacteric Scale (3) is convenient for quantifying and monitoring perimenopausal symptoms. It includes depressive symptoms plus physical and cognitive markers. The Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology--Self Report (QIDS-SR) (4) questionnaire: * takes minutes to complete * is easy to score * quantitates the number and severity of depressive symptoms (see Related Resources, page 50). Table 2 Risk factors for depression in women Predictive over lifetime High risk during menopausal transition History of depression History of PMS, perinatal depression, mood symptoms associated with contraceptives Family history of affectiv disorders Premature or surgical menopause Insomnia Lengthy menopausal transition ([greater than or equal to] 27 months) Redued physical activities Lengthy menopausal transition ([greater than or equal to]27 months) Weighy gain Persistent and/or severe vasomotor symptoms Less education Negative attitudes toward menopause and aging Perceived lower economic status Perceived lower social support Perceived lower health status Smoking Stressful life events History of trauma Marital dissatisfaction PMS: Premenstrual syndrome Figure Biopsychosocial milieu of depression during perimenopause Depression Social Structural family changes; social support; losses in peers and extended family Psychological Personality characteristics; perceptions of menopause and aging Biological Hormonal fluctation; hot flushes and night sweats; disrupted sleep; painful intercourse Psychosocial factors can predict depression at any time in life, but some are specific to the menopausal transition (Table 2). …


The Bucegi Mountains and the Prahova Valley represent the most important destinations for winter tourism activities, of great heritage value in the Southern Carpathians Romanian Carpathians. A number of resorts have developed here over time, currently enjoying great popularity among those keen on such activities. This article aims at presenting, on the one hand, the natural features (terrain factors and climate variables) favourable for winter tourism activities, and on the other, our results concerning the statistical analysis of the accommodation infrastructure, ski amenities and tourist flow. The expansion of the ski area and the development perspectives of the existing infrastructure as much as the local, regional and national authorities' interest represent the premises for hosting the winter edition of the European Youth Olympic Festival, in 2013 and the Winter Olympic Games in the year 2020 in the outlined area.


Research and practice in digital preservation requires a solid foundation of evidence of what is being protected and what practices are being used. The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) storage survey provides a rare opportunity to examine the practices of most major US memory institutions. The repeated, longitudinal design of the NDSA storage surveys offer a rare opportunity to more reliably detect trends within and among preservation institutions rather than the typical surveys of digital preservation, which are based on one-time measures and convenience (Internet-based) samples. The survey was conducted in 2011 and in 2013. The results from these surveys have revealed notable trends, including continuity of practice within organizations over time, growth rates of content exceeding predictions, shifts in content availability requirements, and limited adoption of best practices for interval fixity checking and the Trusted Digital Repositories (TDR) checklist. Responses from new memory organizations increased the variety of preservation practice reflected in the survey responses.


The restricted isometry property (RIP) for design matrices gives guarantees for optimal recovery in sparse linear models. It is of high interest in compressed sensing and statistical learning. This property is particularly important for computationally efficient recovery methods. As a consequence, even though it is in general NP-hard to check that RIP holds, there have been substantial efforts to find tractable proxies for it. These would allow the construction of RIP matrices and the polynomial-time verification of RIP given an arbitrary matrix. We consider the framework of average-case certifiers, that never wrongly declare that a matrix is RIP, while being often correct for random instances. While there are such functions which are tractable in a suboptimal parameter regime, we show that this is a computationally hard task in any better regime. Our results are based on a new, weaker assumption on the problem of detecting dense subgraphs.


Counselling psychology trainees are obliged to undertake a minimum of 40 hours of personal therapy as part of the course requirements. This qualitative study explores how trainee counselling psychologists experience mandatory personal therapy and how chartered counselling psychologists experience having trainee counselling psychologists as clients. Phenomenological methodology - specifically, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (lPA) - was employed to access the lived experience of both trainees and qualified psychologists. Analysis of the results suggests that as the therapeutic relationship develops, trainee counselling psychologists move from an 'inauthentic' to an 'authentic' self. They use mandatory personal therapy to learn and grow both professionally and personally. Whilst many trainees feel that therapy should remain a compulsory course requirement, they also highlight that it costs them both emotionally and financially. The qualified therapists notice a difference when working with trainee counselling psychologists, as opposed to their other clients. The therapists are aware of the mandatory nature of the therapy and their own worries about being judged by the trainees. They find it difficult to maintain the 'role' of therapist. The therapists both empathise and sympathise with the trainees, which often results in concessions being made. There are four overarching categories common to the two groups: i. impact of mandatory therapy on therapeutic process, ii. the therapeutic performance, iii. the value of therapy and iv. boundaries. Despite both groups stating that the obligatory nature of the therapy initially impedes the process, neither trainees nor therapists communicate this belief within the relationship; often resulting in 'an elephant in the room .' Recommendations are discussed including the value of providing preparation for both trainees and qualified therapists before entering the unique trainee therapeutic relationship, extra funding, and other personal development ideas.


This investigation, which is a continuation of Technical Report 154, follows very closely the earlier methods and covers a number of service airplanes, whereas the previous report covered but one, the JN-4H. In addition to the air speed, acceleration, and control positions as given in report no. 154, information is here given regarding the distance run and the ground speed for the various airplanes during the two maneuvers.


This study examines the rationality of safety beliefs and the correlation between risk perception and actual level of job-related physical risk using data from the Maine's American lobster fishery. To avoid measurement errors, I applied the instrumental variables to estimate risk perception and the compensation for the captain. Using educational achievement as a proxy for cognitive ability, I find no evidence supporting a correlation between risk perception and cognitive ability. While captains incorporate information on actual commercial fishing accidents to form their probabilistic judgments, I find evidence that learning process is non-linear in lobster fishery and does not follow an expected Bayesian linear framework. Also, the results suggest that the adjustment process slows down as the new information arrives. I could not confirm that fishermen use normalization strategy to minimize risk perception as a psychological method of coping with the threat.


The expression, at the mRNA level, of carotenoid biosynthetic genes from Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous was studied by RT-PCR. The experimental conditions for the RT-PCR assay were standardized to quantify the relative transcript levels of idi, crtE, crtYB and crtI genes. This work attempted to correlate astaxanthin production with the transcript levels of carotenogenic genes in a wild-type strain (UCD 67-385) and two overproducer deregulated strains (atxS1 and atxS2). At 3 day cultures, the wild-type strain contained higher transcript levels from the crtE and crtYB genes on minimal medium than on rich medium. Similarly, carotenoid production was higher on minimal medium than on rich medium. However, carotenoid production in the atxS1 and atxS2 strains was not correlated with the transcript level of carotenogenic genes under the same experimental conditions. This result suggests that there is not a linear relationship between carotenogenic transcript levels and carotenoid biosynthesis.


This short article discusses urban redevelopment, and its relation to economic productivity and various concepts of well being. It notes that solutions adopted in one era are apt to be the problems of the next. The article then introduces the four articles comprising the George Mason Law Review "Rethinking Urban Development" Symposium.Dean Daniel Rodriguez and Professor David Schleicher's The Location Market stresses the importance of agglomeration economics, by which critical masses of similar individuals lead to enhanced productivity. On the other hand, Professor J. Peter Byrne's Historic Preservation and Its Cultured Despisers: Reflections on the Contemporary Role of Preservation Law in Urban Development stresses the importance for human flourishing of a critical mass of historic structures. Professor Peter Salsich's Does America Need Public Housing? asserts the importance of a supply of societal housing. Finally, Professors Julie Forrester and Jerome Organ assert, in Promising to be Prudent: A Private Law Approach to Mortgage Loan Regulation in Common-Interest Communities, that private covenants limiting leveraging by homebuyers could prevent or alleviate harm to community residents from another housing bust. Together, the articles mirror the variety of contemporary development issues.


As 1990 approaches, commercial litigation has streamlined its processes to meet its critics.It is also providing some useful controls over, and lessons for, arbitration and 'alternative dispute resolution' (ADR), which, although promising, have their own potential for delay and manipulation. Interestingly, some courts have also moved to adapt for their own purposes some of the so-called alternatives for non-judicial resolution of disputes, such as delegating factual issues to arbitrators or referees, and also compelling litigants to explore settlement through forms of ADR such as mediation. As a result, ADR should no longer be viewed as always being a voluntary, non-binding and confidential process, independent of the court system and having no impact on subsequent litigation should negotiations fail. Arbitration and ADR are games played in the 'shadow of the law', and in the shadow of litigation, and cannot work well without a strong court system. There is also a need for lawyers who know how to use the various processes well, so that they complement each other.


The Dark-bellied Brent Goose Branta bernicla bernicla is the largest of the six Brent Goose populations, which collectively number around 600,000 birds globally. After a major decline to 16,500 geese in 1958, numbers recovered during the 1970s and 1980s to a peak of c. 330,000 individuals between 1992 and 1994. From 1994 onwards the population declined again to 200,000–250,000. This decline has been attributed to poor breeding, associated with faltering cycles of Siberian Brown Lemming Lemmus sibiricus (predominantly) and Palearctic Collared Lemming  Dicrostonyx torquatus abundance on the breeding grounds on the Taimyr Peninsula, where lemmings are a main food resource for potential predators of goslings. Darkbellied Brent Geese only breed well in peak lemming years (Summers & Underhill 1991), and this usually occurs every three years, but the frequent failure since 1994 of lemming numbers to peak (except in 2005) has resulted in the absence of very good breeding years for the geese (Nolet et al . 2013). The mid-winter distribution has shown a marked shift towards France over the last decade. France currently supports 50% of the population in January, Great Britain 35–40%, the Netherlands 15–20%, and Germany and Denmark 2%. In spring, almost the entire population gathers in the Wadden Sea, leaving only 4% of the population in Great Britain, and virtually none in France, with the Dutch part of the Wadden Sea supporting 40–45%, the German section 45–50% and Denmark 6%.


The electronic energy relaxation of polycrystalline BiFeO3 films is studied using ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy. After photo-excitation with femtosecond laser pulses, the relaxation of hot electrons is identified to decay with two different characteristic times. The fast process is attributed to scattering of electrons with lattice-vibration modes, and the slow one is corresponding to the spin-lattice thermalization. The electron-phonon coupling is characterized by the second moment of the Eliashberg function, λ〈ω2〉. Due to the structural strain and symmetry breaking, the electron-phonon interaction strength of tetragonal BiFeO3 films is larger than that of rhombohedral counterparts.


The point of departure of the present thesis is what happens to working time in sections of the labor market where the content of production is becoming more knowledge-intensive, that is, where production is largely based on creativity, knowledge development and communication – processes that are difficult to control and locate in time. Paired with the rise in information and communication technology (ICT), room for interpretation is created by necessity as concerns the boundaries of work and what constitutes a satisfactory work effort. The thesis argues for the need to pay attention to social norms if we are to comprehend what guides action in such "free" job situations – free in the sense that there is room for individual control of work hours. From a historical perspective, an understanding is sought of what constitutes the social norms surrounding working time and in what way they contribute to the temporal patterns the worker gives to his/her workday. In order to grasp the nature of temporal norms, two papers presented in the thesis study historical sources reflecting the way in which working time has been valued and debated in Sweden during the 20th century. In order to elucidate the relationship between work and work hours in knowledge-intensive jobs, two groups of wage earners with great influence over when, how and where their work is to be carried out have been studied. On the basis of these two cases, the thesis discusses on what grounds work expectations are created and how these expectations are handled. The results indicate that, in a historical perspective, working hours have been surrounded with normative conceptions. However, it was not until the formal employment contract was loosened that these norms had any real impact on the temporal pattern the individual gives to his/her working day. This is explained by the fact that, under this kind of loose contract, the worker is exposed to social expectations in a more direct way. The title, "On the symbolic side of working time", implies that in giving working time a specific temporal pattern, the individual is expressing his/her identity, loyalty, commitment and status. Further, the thesis increases our understanding of the ways in which social norms both facilitate and limit our relation to working life; how these norms are refracted against a changing world, and how they are manipulated, debated and ever changing in content. At the same time, the thesis shows how different forces are working to restructure our conception of what is to be viewed as a satisfactory work effort and in the long run also how and when we work.


Retroviral-driven overexpression of genes encoding four transcription factors (Oct 3/4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc) is sufficient to generate pluripotent cells from adult fibroblasts. Whether these induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells arise from preexisting stem cells or from reprogramming of differentiated cells has not been clear. The group that first developed the iPS cell method reports that iPS cells made from adult mouse epithelial cells from the stomach (gastric epithelia) and liver (primary hepatocytes) were very similar to embryonic stem (ES) cells in several respects, including morphology, proliferation rate, pluripotency, and gene expression profile. Lineage tracing experiments revealed that iPS cells generated from primary hepatocytes were derived from cells that expressed the liver marker albumin, illustrating that differentiated cells can indeed be reprogrammed to give rise to iPS cells. Liver-derived iPS cells expressed ES cell markers more robustly than did those derived from adult fibroblasts, and they exhibited more extensive, although not complete, promoter demethylation, suggesting that the epithelial cells were more efficiently reprogrammed than were the fibroblasts. Chimeric mice containing fibroblast-derived iPS cells had a high risk of developing cancer as adults, presumably because the iPS cells contained a retrovirally encoded copy of the oncogene c-Myc. The incidence of cancer was reduced in chimeras containing liver-derived iPS cells. Furthermore, it was possible to generate epithelium-derived iPS cells without retroviral expression of the oncogene c-Myc, a feature that could be used to further limit the propensity of these cells to cause cancer. T. Aoi, K. Yae, M. Nakagawa, T. Ichisaka, K. Okita, K. Takahashi, T. Chiba, S. Yamanaka, Generation of pluripotent stem cells from adult mouse liver and stomach cells. Science 321, 699-702 (2008). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The rise in the importance of nonstate actors in generating new norms in world politics has been documented by scholars, but the literature has focused predominantly on nonsecurity ("new") issue areas. Conversely, although recent constructivist work in international relations has examined the security policies of states, typically it is the state that is doing the constructing of interests. I bridge these two literatures by examining the hard case of transnational civil society working through issue networks to teach state interests in security policy. I analyze the campaign by transnational civil society to generate an international norm prohibiting antipersonnel land mines and trace the effects of several techniques through which states can be said to be socialized. Through generating issues, networking, "grafting," and using a transnational Socratic method to reverse burdens of proof, the campaign has stimulated systemic normative change through two processes: norm adoption through the conversion of persuaded moral entrepreneurs and emulation resulting from social pressures of identity.


In June 2001, there was a decidedly new look to the graduating class at Virginia Military Institute. For the first time ever, the line of graduates who received their degrees at the "West Point of the South" included women who had spent four years at VMI. For 150 years, VMI had operated as a revered, state-funded institution an amalgam of Southern history, military tradition, and male bonding rituals and throughout that long history, no one had ever questioned the fact that only males were admitted. Then in 1989 a female applicant complained of discrimination to the Justice Department, which brought suit the following year to integrate women into VMI. In a book that poses serious questions about equal rights in America, Philippa Strum traces the origins of this landmark case back to VMI's founding, its evolution over fifteen decades, and through competing notions about women's proper place. Unlike most works on women in military institutions, this one also provides a complete legal history from the initial complaint to final resolution in "United States v. Virginia" and shows how the Supreme Court's ruling against VMI reflected changing societal ideas about gender roles. At the heart of the VMI case was the "rat line": a ritualized form of hazing geared toward instilling male solidarity. VMI claimed that its system of toughening individuals for leadership was even more stringent than military service and that the system would be destroyed if the Institute were forced to accommodate women. Strum interviewed lawyers from Justice and VMI, heads of concerned women's groups, and VMI administrators, faculty, and cadets to reconstruct the arguments in this important case. She was granted interviews with both Justice Ginsburg, author of the majority opinion, and Justice Scalia, the lone dissenter on the bench, and meticulously analyzes both viewpoints. She shows how Ginsburg's opinion not only articulated a new constitutional standard for institutions accused of gender discrimination but also represented the culmination of gender equality litigation in the twentieth century. "Women in the Barracks" is a case study that combines both legal and cultural history, reviewing the long history of male elitism in the military as it explores how new ideas about gender equality have developed in the United States. It is an engrossing story of change versus tradition, clear and accessible for general readers yet highly instructive and valuable for students and scholars. Now as questions continue to loom concerning the role of state funding for single-sex education, Strum's book squarely addresses competing notions of women's place and capabilities in American society."


Islam first came to New Zealand with Chinese gold miners in the late nineteenth century. However, it was to be many years before a distinctive Muslim community would emerge with its own forms of organization and purpose-built mosques. This article will review the arrival of Islam and the place of Muslims in New Zealand and discuss the challenges and issues faced by them, as well as considering social responses and perceptions of Islam that have been forged more by external global issues than local factors. Although by no means the full story, it is nevertheless the case that attitudes to the presence of Muslims currently give evidence of a rising diffuse anxiety: Antipodean angst would seem a pervasive feature with respect to the encounter with Islam in this far-flung corner of the globe.


This position paper advocates applying the monitoring pogwer of IoT to build profiles of user behaviour using the large volumes of collected data. The desired system exploits sensor data mining approaches to profile user behaviour patterns in smart environments. Sensor data is mined to extract relationships of interest between environmental variables (context) and the user, building in this way behaviour profiles. The capability of applying knowledge to manipulate user's environment is expected take monitoring beyond the simple alert-mode of operation to long term profiling of user's behaviour. After a brief literature review to prove the suitability of IoT as a low-cost unsupervised profiling platform, we give the details of our proposal and the objectives that needs to be met before user behaviour profiling across inter-spaces is possible.


Summary

1. Biofouling, the accumulation of biological growth on submerged surfaces such vessel hulls and artificial structures, is an important transport pathway that can facilitate the establishment of marine non-indigenous species in new locations. Despite efforts to develop effective tools to eradicate newly established populations before they become widespread and beyond control, eradication successes are scarce in the marine environment. This paper describes a dredge-based eradication of the brown mussel Perna perna from a deep (c. 44 m) soft-sediment habitat in central New Zealand, following the discovery of this species amongst biofouling organisms physically removed (i.e. defouled) from a drilling rig.

2. We evaluated the efficacy of dredging in removing P. perna and other target species, and determined whether a density-based eradication success criterion had been achieved. The catchability coefficient (q) of the defouled material was estimated using catch data, and the dredge efficiency (E) was determined. Initial and remaining mussel densities were then calculated using estimates of E. The reliability of these estimates was tested by simulations.

3. A total of 227 dredge tows covering c. 94% of a 12·6 ha target area were undertaken, and an estimated 35 tonnes of material defouled from the rig was dredged from the seabed and disposed of in a landfill.

4. Estimates of q and E were 0·0054 and 0·30 (respectively) and mussel densities at the completion of the eradication programme were estimated to be c. 0·5 m−2, well below the success criterion of 10 m−2. From our simulations, it was estimated that 71 dredge tows would be required to remove 50% of the initial population, whilst 232 dredge tows would be needed to achieve a 90% reduction in population size.

5. Synthesis and applications. The eradication of non-indigenous bivalves from a relatively deep (>40 m) soft-sediment environment is unprecedented and highlights that, with appropriate tools and other resources, eradication is feasible even in challenging circumstances. Where complete elimination of a pest is not feasible, alternative density-based success criteria can be developed that, if achieved, can effectively mitigate risks. This study highlights the need for further development of both vector treatment options and pest eradication tools, and improved policy surrounding in-water defouling in the coastal environment.


The hydration rate of partially recarbonized lime pellets has been studied by employing a single pellet into a stream of air/vapor water mixtures using a computer aided thermo-gravimetric technique. The hydration reaction takes place on a sharp, well defined interface between the product layer and the unreacted core. It has been found that the hydration mechanism consists in two steps. The first observes very slow hydration rates and the second higher ones. During the first step the water molecules diffuse through a close porous carbonate structure and the second one begins when these molecules reach the calcium oxide-calcium carbonate interface to continue through the lime core. A theoretical model was derived to explain the results of this study. The experimental results were acceptably well predicted with calculations performed using this model. On the other hand, it was found also that the higher is the lime calcination temperature the thinner is the recarbonized layer formed even under high CO 2 partial pressures. However, these thin layers are more effective to increase the hydration resistance of lime pellets than thicker ones. This is an important experimental finding since it indicates that low recarbonization extents are good enough to increase the hydration resistance of steelmaking lime without impairing its quality.


This thesis investigates two biological systems using atomistic modelling and molecular dynamics simulation.
The work is focused on: (a) the study of the interaction between a segment of a DNA molecule and a functionalized surface; (b) the dynamical modelling of protein tau, an intrinsically disordered protein.
We briefly describe here the two problems; for their detailed introduction we refer respectively to chapter DNA and chapter TAU.
The interest in the study of the adsorption of DNA on functionalized surfaces is related to the considerable effort that in recent years has been devoted in developing technologies for faster and cheaper genome sequencing.
In order to sequence a DNA molecule, it has to be extracted from the cell where it is stored (e.g. the blood cells). As a consequence any genomic analysis requires a purification process in order to remove from the DNA molecule proteins,
lipids and any other contaminants. The extraction and purification of DNA from biological samples is hence the first step towards an efficient and cheap genome sequencing.
Using the chemical and physical properties of DNA it is possible to generate an attractive interaction between this macromolecule and a properly treated surface. Once positioned on the surface, the DNA can be more easily purified.
In this work we set up a detailed molecular model of DNA interacting with a surface functionalized with amino silanes. The intent is to investigate the free energy of adsorption of small DNA oligomers as a function of the pH and ionic strength of the solution.
The tau protein belongs to the category of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDP), which in their native state do not have an average stable structure and fluctuate between many conformations.
In its physiological state, tau protein helps nucleating and stabilizing the microtubules in the axons of the neurons. On the other hand, the same tau - in a pathological aggregation - is involved in
the development of the Alzheimer disease.
IDPs do not have a definite 3D structure, therefore their dynamical simulation cannot start from a known list of atomistic positions, like a protein data bank file.
We first introduce a procedure to find an initial dynamical state for a generic IDP, and we apply it to the tau protein.
We then analyze the dynamical properties of tau, like the propensity of residues to form temporary secondary structures like beta-sheets or alpha-helices.


This article examines how Norwegian and UK health authorities used social media, and especially Twitter, during the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak. The microblogging service has been regarded as a promising medium for crisis communicators due to its immediacy and dialogical potential. Twitter allows communicators to respond directly to users' concerns and provide them with more precisely tailored information. However, scholars have raised questions over organizations' ability to respond to the the medium. We address these questions in two ways: 1. we examine the social media strategies adopted by the health authorities at the time of the outbreak. 2. we conduct an analysis of tweets produced by health authorities concerning the Ebola outbreak. Our analyses display some differences between UK and Norwegian authorities in terms of the strategies they adopted and the tweets they produced. However, neither country fully exploited Twitter's dialogical potential. Both countries authorities preferred a vertically integrated approach with minimal opportunities for the public to engage and little monitoring of the wider Twitter 'conversations'. We conclude that the emergence of social media has not led to a paradigm shift in crisis communication for these countries' health authorities, rather to an evolution and adaption of practices and policies.


The lithobiomorph centipede Henicops is widely distributed in Australia and New Zealand, with five described species, as well as two species in New Caledonia and Lord Howe Island. Parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses of ca. 800 aligned bases of sequence data from 16S rRNA and 28S rRNA were conducted on a dataset including multiple individuals of Henicops species from populations sampled from different parts of species' geographic ranges, together with the allied henicopines Lamyctes and Easonobius. Morphological characters are included in parsimony analyses. Molecular and combined datasets unite species from eastern Australia and New Zealand to the exclusion of species from Western Australia, New Caledonia and Lord Howe Island. The molecular data favour these two geographic groupings as clades, whereas inclusion of morphology resolves New Caledonia, Lord Howe Island, southwest Western Australia and Queensland as successive sisters to southeastern Australia and New Zealand. The basal position of the Lord Howe Island species in the phylogeny favours a diversification of Australasian Henicops since the late Miocene unless the Lord Howe species originated in a biota that pre-dates the island. The molecular and combined data resolve the widespread morphospecies H. maculatus as paraphyletic, with its populations contributing to the geographic groupings New South Wales + New Zealand and Tasmania + Victoria.


This document is an introduction for decision makers, service providers and youth leaders within the Federation on how IPPF can build on its legacy and transition to a youth-centred approach. It addresses the questions: what does this new thinking include? What does it mean in practice? How should we implement it? How should we measure progress? Member Associations (MAs) are each unique and will make their own journeys towards being truly youth-centred. The new Youth-Centred Model is a flexible tool that can support MAs to respond to their changing contexts and speaks to their diverse challenges and strengths. This document is based on extensive evaluations of IPPF programmes, including recent youth led assessment research led by the University of Brighton;, interviews with young volunteers and staff within IPPF and with other organizations (including UNFPA, WHO and Restless Development); a literature review by IPPF; and a literature review and series of discussions carried out with representatives from the Transforming Sexuality and Gender Research Cluster at the University of Brighton.


Concerns about unbalanced use of fertilizers leading to environmental pollution have been globally expressed. As a result, studies on how to use efficient methods to reduce nutrient applications at the same time increasing or maintaining crop yield, reducing nutrient losses and improving nutrient use efficiency are imperative. Nutrient loss due to leaching, volatilization and fixation upon fertilizer application to soils may be reduced through the use of slow-release fertilizers. A pot study was
conducted to investigate if the use of inorganic fertilizers together with zeolite will improve nitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) uptake and efficiency in maize (Zea mays) cultivation on Nyalau series (Typic Paleudalts). Maize hybrid no. 5 variety was used as test crop. Treatments evaluated were:
(i) Unfertilized condition (T1), (ii) normal N, P and K application (7.4 g urea + 11.3 g Christmas Island
rock phosphate (CIRP) + 3.8 g muriate of potash (MOP)) (T2), (iii) 135 g zeolite + 5.92 g urea+9.0 g CIRP
+ 3.0 g MOP (T3), (iv) 270 g zeolite + 4.44 g urea + 6.8 g CIRP + 2.3 g MOP (T4), (v) 405 g zeolite+3.0 g
urea+4.5 g CIRP+1.5 g MOP (T5) and (vi) 540 g zeolite + 1.5 g urea + 2.3 g CIRP + 0.8 g MOP (T6). The effect of T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6 on soil N, P and Mg at harvest was not significantly different compared with T1. However, treatments with zeolite significantly increased K and Ca contents of soil compared to T1. Irrespective of treatment, dry matter production was not different. However, nutrient concentrations determined in plant tissues were clearly affected by the addition of zeolite. N, P and K uptake varied significantly but T6 significantly affected N, P and K use efficiency. The use of inorganic fertilizers mixed with zeolite remarkably increased N, P and K uptake, and their use efficiency in leaves, stem and roots. The use of zeolite could be beneficial with respect to nutrient retention in soil and their use efficiency.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Diagnostic of urolithiasis composition is the keystone for prophylactic treatment of stone disease. To date, the gold standard for stone composition analysis remains the infrared spectroscopy (IRS) with morphological study, that should be performed in all first-time formers. The objective of our study was to assess the feasibility of Raman spectroscopy (RS) in biological environments for stone composition analysis and to develop a laser fiber for intraoperative diagnosis. METHODS: A set of stones (>1000) were analyzed by the gold standard technique. The purest (>85% of same composition) were selected to be analyzed on a specific RS setup. We used a laser with a 785nm wavelength. A first analysis was performed in the air to obtain the spectral characteristics of each stone. Then an analysis in urinary environment was performed. Different urinary dilutions were tested to obtain the minimum concentration of proteins for interpretable spectra. A RS analysis with a specific small caliber fiber was then performed and the evaluation of the best settings for a potential peroperative use was done. RESULTS: Seven different classes of stones were analyzed: weddellite, whewellite, struvite, brushite, carbapatite, cystine and uric acid. A specific spectral signature was obtained in the air for each class of stones. A RS was performed in urine at different dilution, we were able to obtain the same spectral signature than in the air but with less intensity. In urine diluted, the intensity of the signal was stronger than in urine concentrated. Brushite stones has the worst signal in RS compared to the other one, presence of blood clots or proteins reduced the intensity and increased background noise. Our specific setup with laser fiber was able to give all the specific spectral signature for each stone in the air or in the urine. The distance between the laser and the stone impacted the intensity: the signal was maximum when the fiber was in contact of the stone. All the signals were obtained in less than 20 seconds. CONCLUSIONS: Raman spectroscopy analysis of stone composition in urine is feasible and reproducible with a 785nm laser. We identified the best settings for a good analysis (urine diluted, fiber in contact...) and we were able to perform the analysis in less than 20 seconds. These results show the potential applicability of RS for a clinical endoscopic use in order to diagnose peroperatively the stone composition and adapt laser settings for the destruction of the stone. Source of Funding: none


Background: Today Ginger in fresh and dried form is used as a spice around the world. In the past, Ginger in the treatment of various diseases, including arthritis, neurological diseases, inflammation, asthma, stroke, insomnia, diabetes and so on was consumed. It seems that Ginger can reduce inflammation in this disease. Materials and Methods: We searched in PubMed database until 2015, using the following keywords: inflammation and Ginger, and so 78 clinical trials, animal and human studies were included in this investigation. Results: Ginger extract with the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory ingredients such as 6 Gingerols, 6-Shogoals, Zhingerol, and etc can reduces inflammatory factors such as inflammatory cytokines and chemokines through their effects on inflammatory, antioxidant, and serotonin mechanisms, reducing enzyme antioxidant and useful in reducing inflammatory disease and its complications, and treatment. Conclusions: Ginger can be useful in the treatment of inflammatory chronic diseases such as Fatty Liver, Asthma, Cancer and Arthritis through anti-inflammatory and antioxidative


The role of ICT has evolved from a tool and utility to become a strategic asset for any organisation towards delivering business improvement and value. Furthermore, the importance of ICT-based innovation is recognized in bringing productivity improvements and sustainable competitive advantage to industry. Construction is an extremely information-intensive and knowledge-based industry. Therefore organisations need to fully embrace ICT in order to remain competitive. The construction industry has invested heavily in ICT; however expenditure still remains relatively low when compared to other sectors. Economic conditions strongly affect ICT investment and the recent worldwide financial crisis has led to organisations taking urgent measures as they review all aspects of their business overheads and expenditure, which ICT represents a significant proportion. This paper presents a study that was undertaken at the heart of the economic downturn to investigate the current ICT operating and capital expenditure, coping strategies, and forecasting trends for the UK construction industry. Analysis of the responses from within the top 200 UK contractor and consultant organisations suggest that managers of companies consider ICT as a driver for process efficiency and an imperative enabler to facilitate flexible information processing and communications infrastructure through which the company can collaborate and transact business with its clients, consultants, and supply-chain partners. This is despite persisting problems associated with value chain integration. However, the impact of the current economic downturn requires restraining of operational and capital budgets, which in turn, requires radical optimization of ICT resources leading to 'more for less'.


OBJECTIVES
The occurrence and causes of hairdressers' occupational skin and respiratory diseases were studied.

METHODS
Of a random sample of 500 female hairdressers aged 15-54 years, 355 were available for study. Of the 189 reporting work-related skin and respiratory symptoms in a computer-aided telephone interview on exposure and health, 130 underwent a physical examination, lung function tests, prick and patch testing, and nasal and lung provocation tests. An occupational disease was diagnosed when the causality between exposure and disease was probable and the clinical tests supported the diagnosis.

RESULTS
The telephone interview revealed a life-time prevalence of 16.9% for hand dermatoses, 16.9% for allergic rhinitis, and 4.5% for asthma among the hairdressers. In the clinical investigations, the prevalence was 2.8% for occupational dermatoses, 1.7% for occupational rhinitis, and 0.8% for occupational asthma. Ammonium persulfate caused 90% of the respiratory diseases and 27% of the hand dermatoses. Paraphenylenediamine, natural rubber latex, and skin irritation were also causes of hand dermatitis. Allergy to human dandruff (8.6%) and Pityrosporum ovale (12.1%) was common. Previously diagnosed atopic diseases increased the risk for occupational skin or respiratory disease 3-fold (odds ratio 2.9, 95% confidence interval 1.1-7.9). Of the cases, 37.5% (6 of 16 persons) had to change occupations during a 3-year follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
Work-related skin and respiratory symptoms are common among hairdressers. Often a specific cause (eg, ammonium persulfate) can be found if occupational diseases are suspected and diagnosed. Hairdressers with atopic diseases are at risk of developing occupational skin and respiratory diseases.


Abstract The Green Corridor of Argentina and Brazil is the largest forest remnant of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest. The jaguar population of this region is highly fragmented and reduced. To assess the status of the subpopulation of jaguars of the Green Corridor we conducted four camera-trap surveys in three sites with different levels of protection. At Urugua-í (34 stations, 1,495 trap-days) we recorded one individual (minimum density = 0.12–0.33 per 100 km2). At Yabotí Biosphere Reserve (42 stations, 1,871 trap-days) we recorded two individuals (minimum density = 0.11–0.25 per 100 km2). At Iguazú National Park we conducted two surveys. In 2004 (39 stations, 1,839 trap-days) we recorded four adult individuals, estimating a density of between 0.49 ± 0.16 and 1.07 ± 0.33 per 100 km2. In 2006, we increased the area sampled (47 stations, 2,059 trap-days) and recorded 11 adult individuals, estimating a density of 0.93 ± 0.2 to 1.74 ± 0.34 per 100 km2. These density estimates are the lowest recorded for the species. Estimates for Iguazú are between 2–7.5 times lower than those reported in the early 1990s. This population decline probably results from the interaction of several factors, including lack of prey as a result of poaching and persecution. We estimate that there is currently a population of 25–53 adult jaguars in the Green Corridor. In spite of having sufficient potential habitat available this population is threatened and urgent conservation action is required.


Populations are aging and the prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing tremendously. The number of older people with diabetes is increasing unexpectedly. Aging and diabetes are both risk factors for functional disability. Thus, increasing numbers of frail or disabled older patients with diabetes will increase both direct and indirect health-related costs. Diabetes has been reported as an important risk factor of developing physical disability in older adults. Older people with diabetes have lower muscle mass and weaker muscle strength. In addition, muscle quality is poorer in diabetic patients. Sarcopenia and frailty have a common soil and may share a similar pathway for multiple pathologic processes in older people. Sarcopenia is thought to be an intermediate step in the development of frailty in patients with diabetes. Thus, early detection of sarcopenia and frailty in older adults with diabetes should be routine clinical practice to prevent frailty or to intervene earlier in frail patients.


The aim of that article is the religious and cultural identity and how it is formed in case of the children of immigrants from Morocco. The hypothesis is that the identity of that group is formed as the complex relation between the origin culture input and the secondary socialization within host society. In other words, their identity is a result of the combination of two, essentially different cultures the Moroccan and the Spanish/Catalan one. The goal is to provide a sociological understanding of the biculturalism phenomena, as well as the relation between religion and culture as the clue components of identity. The analysis of the identity dynamics of the Moroccans born in Catalonia is a comparative one, considering the immigrants (often called first generation of immigrants) as a background for that comparison. The methodology applied is the in-depth interviews with immigrant's children. One of the most important conclusions of the study is that Islam is a clear border between Moroccan minority and Spanish/Catalan society, border that the generation born in host society and submerged in two cultures is trying to cross.


While modern parliaments in Africa receive little attention in the scholarly literature, they are drawing considerable attention from the international donor community. Since the early 1990s, when many African countries resumed multi-party elections and democratic practices, legislative strengthening programmes have become an important part of international democracy assistance. Despite these programmes, our knowledge about Africa's current parliaments remains limited. They seem to be widely regarded as potential agents for democratic change but whether national legislatures are in fact enhancing the quality of democracy on the African continent is far from clear. This study discusses two important issues that lie at the heart of the democracy-enhancing potential of Africa's current parliaments: their institutional capacity and the way they are perceived by the citizens they represent. After a brief review of the existing literature on legislatures in Africa, the essay first considers whether they have the institutional capacity to fulfil a meaningful role and provides a detailed description of the autonomy of parliaments in 16 selected countries. It then turns to the way Africans perceive and evaluate their parliaments. Do citizens see their legislatures as valuable institutions? Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for the prospects of African parliaments becoming agents of democratic change.


SUMMARY The unique eyes of scallops are abundant along the right and left valve mantle margins. These eyes form images by reflection off a concave spherical mirror, and give scallops an angular resolution of around 2°, far better than the 13–40° angular resolution provided by the eyes of other bivalves. It has been argued that bivalve mantle eyes primarily act as predator detectors, but behavioral studies have suggested that vision may serve additional purposes in scallops. By placing specimens of the bay scallop Argopecten irradians (Lamarck 1819) in a tank with 5–10 cm s–1 flow, showing them simulated images of moving particles, and recording their behavior, we tested whether visual cues may influence feeding behavior in these animals. We found that scallops opened their anterior mantle gapes significantly more often when they were shown 1.5×1.5 mm virtual particles (with angular sizes of 3.4°) than when they were shown 0.6×0.6 mm particles (1.4°; P<0.001) or no particles at all (P<0.05). We also found that scallops opened their anterior mantle gapes significantly more often when they were shown virtual particles moving at 2.5 cm s–1 (P<0.01) or 5 cm s–1 (P<0.05) than when they were shown particles moving at 10 cm s–1. Because scallops must open their anterior mantle gapes to feed, our findings suggest that these animals may visually detect the size and speed of moving particles and use this information to help identify favorable feeding conditions.


Summary Albatrosses (Diomedeidae) and large petrels (Macronectes and Procellaria spp.) are among the world's most rapidly declining birds. Some of the most endangered species, Amsterdam Albatross Diomedea amsterdamensis, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross Thalassarche carteri and Sooty Albatross Phoebetria fusca, are at risk from recurrent avian cholera outbreaks. Yet little is known about the overall impact of disease in this group. We compiled all available information on pathogens described in albatrosses and large petrel species listed under the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP) (n = 31). Available reports (n = 53) comprise nearly 60% of ACAP species (18/31). However, only 38% of them focus on threatened species (20/53), and 43% solely report macroparasite findings (23/53). Black-browed Albatross Thalassarche melanophrys (Near Threatened) and Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus (Least Concern) are the two species with higher number of publications (29/53, 55% of all papers). Conversely, seven species on the IUCN Red List have three papers or less each. Most existing research has resulted from disease or mortality investigations and baseline studies (28 and 32%, respectively). Pathogens reported in the subset of ACAP species, included bacteria in seven species (39%), viruses in five (28%), protozoa in four (22%), helminths in nine (50%), ectoparasites in 13 (72%) and fungi in one species (5%). Avian cholera, caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, appears as the most severe threat to ACAP species. Infections by poxvirus are the most common viral finding, yet entail lower population level impact. Few serosurveys report pathogen exposure in these species, but add valuable baseline information. There are numerous obvious gaps in species and geographical coverage and likely under-reporting due to remoteness, accessibility and sporadic monitoring. This insufficient knowledge may be hampering effective protection and management of populations at risk. Attention to species currently affected by avian cholera is of utmost priority.


Robust audio hashing defines a feature vector that characterises the audio signal, independent of content preserving manipulations, such as MP3 compression, amplitude boosting/cutting, hiss reduction, and so on. It provides a tool for fast and reliable identification of content in audio communications. In this study, the authors propose a new audio hashing based on discrete wavelet transform and non-negative matrix factorisation (NMF). The desirable property of NMF for hashing algorithm is its non-negative constraints, which result in bases that capture local feature of the audio, thereby significantly reducing misclassification. In addition, to ensure perceptual robustness, NMF is performed on the coarse wavelet coefficients, which are a low-pass approximation of the audio and not easy to change by content preserving manipulations. Experimental results over a large database reveal that the proposed scheme is more robust and provides much stronger discrimination than the conventional energy spectrum-based hashing algorithm, and that the proposed scheme can be applied in broadcast monitoring, successfully.


The total loss of an inverter can be reduced by reducing switching losses and harmonics losses. However, the harmonics increases with the reduction of switching frequency and special technique is required to get the overall losses at minimum value. The minimum loss synchronous pulse width modulation described here uses a minimization criterion function to be used with low switching frequency while getting the acceptable harmonics for the medium voltage multiphase drives. The approach uses the fixed set of optimized switching patterns generated by the programmed technique by minimizing the criterion function. Weighed Total Harmonic Distortion normalized to DC link voltage is used as the minimization parameter as it is directly related to the harmonics in the system. In order to get the optimization angels fast for any value of modulation index, the real time pattern generation method is used instead of storing the values into the memory. This approach has the possibility of adding offsets to overcome the effects such as DC link balancing and transient normalization. The number of pulses required at low amplitude modulation becomes very high while keeping switching frequency at acceptable range. This makes the complication for the calculation as well as implementation of Synchronous Optimal PWM at low amplitude modulation. It is therefore, asynchronous space vector modulation is prioritized for the low amplitude modulation. The technique of interrupt signal is used to effectively switch from one method of modulation to the other whenever required. Multilevel inverter has inherent problem of DC link imbalance, which must be addressed in order to get smooth operation. Many alternatives are purposed for the balancing and choice has to be made to get it work for both asynchronous and synchronous modulation. Further, the transient stability needs to be addressed for the system as it might force the system out of the stability and leading to many technical flaws. The real time operation of the synchronous optimal modulation requires, fast processing and executing processor. As such, Virtex-5 ppc440 FX30T is used which can operate at very high frequency. During this thesis, such an advanced system is simulated using the advanced computing software's and is implemented in the lab. A six-phase induction machine with the rating of 11.7 kW is used in the lab with the help of three-phase three-level inverter. Xilinx ISE suite is used as the medium to communicate between the hardware and software as well as to build the overall embedded system design.


Binding of natural bile acids to human serum albumin (HSA) is an important step in enterohepatic circulation and provides a measure of liver function. In this article, we report on the use of four dansyl (Dns) derivatives of cholic acid (ChA) to demonstrate a regiodifferentiation in their relative affinity for the two binding sites of HSA. Using both steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence, formation of Dns-ChA@HSA complexes was confirmed; the corresponding binding constants were determined, and their distribution between bulk solution and HSA microenvironment was estimated. By means of energy transfer from Trp to the Dns moiety, donor-acceptor distances were estimated (21-25 Å) and found to be compatible with both site 1 and site 2 occupancies. Nevertheless, titration using warfarin and ibuprofen as specific displacement probes clearly indicated that 3α- and 3β-Dns-ChA bind to HSA at site 2, whereas their C-7 regioisomers bind to HSA at site 1. Furthermore, the C-3-labeled compounds are displaced by lithocholic acid, whereas they are insensitive to ChA, confirming the assumption that the former binds to HSA at site 2. Thus, Dns labeling provides a useful tool to modulate the relative affinity of ChA to the major binding sites of HSA and, in combination with other fluorescent ChA analogs, to mimic the binding behavior of natural bile acids.


Anglicisms are words of English origin that have entered into Norwegian, either denoting conceptual innovations such as interface or denoting existing concepts in parallel with their Norwegian counterparts ( boots ). In this chapter we investigate whether machine-learning methods could improve the anglicism component of the classification tool that is currently used to categorize new words appearing in the Norwegian Newspaper Corpus. We derive classification features by extracting three-character sequences (trigrams) from long lists of uniquely English and Norwegian words. Next, we test two frequency-based and a statisticsbased approach to selecting features from this initial pool of trigrams. Finally, using the TiMBL memory-based learning system, we train a classifier with our selections of trigrams, identifying the sets of trigrams that are most predictive for identifying anglicisms. The results show that the datadriven frequency approach, although not sufficient as a stand-alone method for automatic anglicism identification, provides a valuable supplement to the existing knowledge-based classification tool.


The primary objective of this project was to identify and evaluate parametric models for making default estimates of travel times on arterial links. A review of the literature revealed several candidate models, including the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) function, Spiess's conical volume delay function, the Singapore model, the Skabardonis-Dowling model, and the Highway Capacity Manual's model. A license plate method was applied to a sample of 50 arterial links located in the Twin Cities seven county metropolitan area, to obtain measurements of average travel time. Also obtained were the lengths of each link, measurements of traffic volume, and signal timing information. Default values for model parameters were obtained from the Twin Cities planning model's database. Using network default parameters, the authors found that the BPR and conical volume-delay models produced mean average percent errors (MAPE) of about 25%, while the Singapore and Skabardonis-Dowling models, using maximal site-specific information, produced MAPE values of around 6.5%. As site-specific information was replaced by default information, the performance of the latter two models deteriorated, but even under conditions of minimal information the models produced MAPE values of around 20%. A cross-validation study of the Skabardonis-Dowling model showed essentially similar performance when predicting travel times on links not used to estimate default parameter values.


As the number of environmental sensors grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage, store and process all these sources of information. Several context representation schemes try to standardize this information, however none of them have been widely adopted. Instead of proposing yet another context representation scheme, we discuss efficient ways to deal with this diversity of representation schemes. We defined the basic requirements for flexible context storage systems, proposed an implementation and compared our implementation against two other approaches. Our solution provides more value than the remaining solutions without suffering a significant decrease in performance.


The study uses the RM3, the regional climate model at the Center for Climate Systems Research of Columbia University and the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies (CCSR/GISS). The paper evaluates 30 48-hour RM3 weather forecasts over West Africa during September 2006 made on a 0.5° grid nested within 1° Global Forecast System (GFS) global forecasts. September 2006 was the Special Observing Period #3 of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA). Archived GFS initial conditions and lateral boundary conditions for the simulations from the US National Weather Service, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration were interpolated four times daily. Results for precipitation forecasts are validated against Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite estimates and data from the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), which includes rain gauge measurements, and forecasts of circulation are compared to reanalysis 2. Performance statistics for the precipitation forecasts include bias, root-mean-square errors and spatial correlation coefficients. The nested regional model forecasts are compared to GFS forecasts to gauge whether nesting provides additional realistic information. They are also compared to RM3 simulations driven by reanalysis 2, representing "high potential skill" forecasts, to gauge the sensitivity of results to lateral boundary conditions. Nested RM3/GFS forecasts generate excessive moisture advection toward West Africa, which in turn causes prodigious amounts of model precipitation. This problem is corrected by empirical adjustments in the preparation of lateral boundary conditions and initial conditions. The resulting modified simulations improve on the GFS precipitation forecasts, achieving time-space correlations with TRMM of 0.77 on the first day and 0.63 on the second day. One real- time RM3/GFS precipitation forecast made at and posted by the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD) in Niamey, Niger is shown.


Abstract. The stable isotopic compositions of nitrate dissolved in 49 brands of bottled drinking water collected worldwide were measured, to trace the fate of atmospheric nitrate (NO3− atm) that had been deposited into subaerial ecosystems, using the 17O anomalies (Δ17O) of nitrate as tracers. The use of bottled water enables collection of groundwater recharged at natural, background watersheds. The nitrate in groundwater had small Δ17O values ranging from −0.2‰ to +4.5‰ n = 49). The average Δ17O value and average mixing ratio of atmospheric nitrate to total nitrate in the groundwater samples were estimated to be 0.8‰ and 3.1%, respectively. These findings indicated that the majority of atmospheric nitrate had undergone biological processing before being exported from the surface ecosystem to the groundwater. Moreover, the concentrations of atmospheric nitrate were estimated to range from less than 0.1 μmol L−1 to 8.5 μmol L−1 with higher NO3−atm concentrations being obtained for those recharged in rocky, arid or elevated areas with little vegetation and lower NO3−atm concentrations being obtained for those recharged in forested areas with high levels of vegetation. Additionally, many of the NO3−atm-depleted samples were characterized by elevated δ15N values of more than +10‰. Uptake by plants and/or microbes in forested soils subsequent to deposition and the progress of denitrification within groundwater likely plays a significant role in the removal of NO3−atm.


Compensation committees seeking to minimize the joint tax liability of executives and their firms will grant tax-qualified Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) when the corporate marginal tax rate is low. Otherwise, nonqualified stock options are tax-advantageous. We test the proposition that tax motivations determine the choice between ISOs and nonqualified options by examining a sample of 364 option grants by 195 firms during the 1981 to 1984 period. Our tests employ four alternative measures of tax status, ranging from a simple dummy variable based on the firm's net operating loss carryforward position to a sophisticated simulation of expected exercise year and projected marginal tax rate in that year. We find that the univariate relation between tax status and option granting behavior is insignificant for all four tax variables. However, when we control for firm size in a multivariate logistic regression, we find that one of the four variables is significant in the direction predicted by the tax hypothesis. Interestingly, it is one of the simpler measures. Our results indicate that tax considerations offer only a partial explanation for the ISO/nonqualified option choice.