Endogenous acetylcholine is an important modulator of sensory processing, especially at the spinal level, where nociceptive (pain‐related) stimuli enter the central nervous system and are integrated before being relayed to the brain. To decipher the organization of the local cholinergic circuitry in the spinal dorsal horn, we used transgenic mice expressing enchanced green fluorescent protein specifically in cholinergic neurons (ChAT::EGFP) and characterized the morphology, neurochemistry, and firing properties of the sparse population of cholinergic interneurons in this area. Three‐dimensional reconstruction of lamina III ChAT::EGFP neurons based either on their intrinsic fluorescence or on intracellular labeling in live tissue demonstrated that these neurons have long and thin processes that grow preferentially in the dorsal direction. Their dendrites and axon are highly elongated in the rostrocaudal direction, beyond the limits of a single spinal segment. These unique morphological features suggest that dorsal horn cholinergic interneurons are the main contributors to the plexus of cholinergic processes located in lamina IIi, just dorsal to their cell bodies. In addition, immunostainings demonstrated that dorsal horn cholinergic interneurons in the mouse are γ‐aminobutyric acidergic and express nitric oxide synthase, as in rats. Finally, electrophysiological recordings from these neurons in spinal cord slices demonstrate that two‐thirds of them have a repetitive spiking pattern with frequent rebound spikes following hyperpolarization. Altogether our results indicate that, although they are rare, the morphological and functional features of cholinergic neurons enable them to collect segmental information in superficial layers of the dorsal horn and to modulate it over several segments. J. Comp. Neurol. 519:3139–3158, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


We show the formation of bright, dark, bistable bright, and vortex spatial-optical solitons in a lifetime-broadened three-state atomic medium. We demonstrate, both analytically and numerically, that these solitons can exist under appropriate conditions. This work may provide other research opportunities in nonlinear optical experiments and may result in a substantial impact on technology. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.


Despite endorsements of the concept of sustainable development and the linking of sustainable development with the Millennium Development Goals, progress towards the eradication of poverty has been disappointing. The underlying principles of sustainable development need to be more critically and actively applied to both poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation. While recognizing the need for better integration of poverty reduction and conservation objectives by both developmental and conservation agencies, particular attention is paid to the reasons why conservation should do better in contributing to long-term sustainable development and more immediately to poverty reduction.


Two contrasting examples of the application of mineral magnetism to environmental problems are discussed. Magnetic susceptibility measurements of sediments from the Chinese loess Plateau - the biggest accumulation of windblown sediments on earth - reveal one of the best records of continental climate change available. these records provide a detailed picture of glacial and interglacial cycles and variations in the east asian summer monsoon stretching back more than 2 million years. in the case of anthropogenic airborne particles, the spread of particulate pollutants can be robustly traced throughout a city environment by measuring the magnetic properties of leaves, which trap magnetic particles released from vehicle exhausts and/or industry emissions.


Stamukhi lakes are vast but little‐explored Arctic ecosystems. They occur throughout winter, spring, and early summer near large river inflows along the Arctic coastline, and are the result of freshwater retention behind the thick barrier of rubble ice (stamukhi) that forms at the outer limit of land‐fast sea ice. We examined the molecular biodiversity within all three microbial domains (Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota) and the heterotrophic productivity in Lake Mackenzie, a stamukhi lake in the western Canadian Arctic, and made comparative measurements in the freshwater (Mackenzie River) and marine (Beaufort Sea) source waters. Bacterial and eukaryotic communities in the stamukhi lake differed in composition and diversity from both marine and riverine environments, whereas the archaeal communities were similar in the lake and river. Bacteria 16S ribosomal RNA sequences from the lake were mostly within freshwater clusters of Betaproteobacteria and Bacteroidetes and the Archaea were within the Lake Dagow sediment and Rice cluster‐V clusters of Euryarchaeota. The eukaryotes were mainly ciliates from the subclass Choreotrichia, and there was a notable lack of flagellates. Heterotrophic production rates in the lake were lower than in the river and more similar to those in the sea, despite much higher bacterial concentrations than in either. The lake samples had markedly higher ratios of 3H leucine to 3H thymidine incorporation than in the river and sea, implying some physiological stress. Lake Mackenzie is an active microbial ecosystem with distinct physical and microbiological properties. This circumpolar ecosystem type, vulnerable to the ongoing effects of climate change, likely plays a key functional role in processing riverine inputs to the Arctic Ocean.


This is a comment on an article by Professor Burt Neuborne, in which he describes in detail the Holocaust assets litigation against Swiss, German, Austrian, and French corporations. In the comment, I attempt to put that litigation episode into the larger context of human rights enforcement through civil litigation in United States courts as seen from a theoretical concept drawn from international relations theory. I then try to gain some insights into such civil human-rights litigation from the Holocaust cases. I conclude that the Holocaust-era litigation has done considerable good by creating a vast pool of assets for distribution among victims of the Holocaust whose claims had been submerged by the politics of the Cold War. At first blush, the litigation also appears to support the theory that granting individuals standing to sue for human-rights violations in national courts improves enforcement of human rights. Upon closer examination, however, the picture is less clear: All of the Holocaust cases were settled. Moreover, few, if any, of them led to pronouncements on the difficult questions of international human rights law at issue, thus leading one to wonder whether human rights were effectively enforced here. While Americans may insist that the settlements were surely negotiated "in the shadow of the law," the relevant actors in the European countries involved are convinced, and the evidence in these cases is quite strong, that the settlement outcomes were less the result of international law than of U.S. power. As I demonstrate, this perception may have considerable costs. It may breed resentment, which, in turn, may affect outcomes in cases and issue areas in which the United States and its litigants do not have the upper hand. It may also lead to protective action abroad that renders pursuing human rights claims more difficult, both in the United States and elsewhere. We are thus faced with a paradox: The same features that make civil litigation in the United States particularly attractive to human rights claimants - its ability to create new remedies, judicial discretion, liberal pleading, class actions, and the ability of parties to join every conceivable claim - may also make it ineffective in enforcing human rights and in fashioning new human rights norms, particularly when combined with measures by other branches of government. These are issues that need to be considered carefully by scholars in law and international politics when conceiving and empirically testing theories about the role of law and procedure in the behavior of nation states, groups, and individuals in the international sphere.


Macroeconomic forecasts are used extensively in industry and government even though the historical accuracy and reliability is questionable. Moreover, professional forecasters lack a test environment in which they can test their forecasting ability. We design a play-money market game for economic variables that aggregates macro-economic information. We analyse participation and learning in such an online game. In our platform learning occurs on three levels. First, participants learn how to trade in a continuous double auction just as in stock markets. Second, they learn about their own macroeconomic forecasting ability in comparison to their peers. Third, by following market forecasts they learn about the current state of the economy. We show that the game successfully aggregates macroeconomic information as forecast errors fall over the prediction horizon. The game-generated forecasts compare well to the Bloombergsurvey forecasts, the industry standard.


We describe a method for using spatially referenced regressions of contaminant transport on watershed attributes (SPARROW) in regional water‐quality assessment. The method is designed to reduce the problems of data interpretation caused by sparse sampling, network bias, and basin heterogeneity. The regression equation relates measured transport rates in streams to spatially referenced descriptors of pollution sources and land‐surface and stream‐channel characteristics. Regression models of total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) transport are constructed for a region defined as the nontidal conterminous United States. Observed TN and TP transport rates are derived from water‐quality records for 414 stations in the National Stream Quality Accounting Network. Nutrient sources identified in the equations include point sources, applied fertilizer, livestock waste, nonagricultural land, and atmospheric deposition (TN only). Surface characteristics found to be significant predictors of land‐water delivery include soil permeability, stream density, and temperature (TN only). Estimated instream decay coefficients for the two contaminants decrease monotonically with increasing stream size. TP transport is found to be significantly reduced by reservoir retention. Spatial referencing of basin attributes in relation to the stream channel network greatly increases their statistical significance and model accuracy. The method is used to estimate the proportion of watersheds in the conterminous United States (i.e., hydrologic cataloging units) with outflow TP concentrations less than the criterion of 0.1 mg/L, and to classify cataloging units according to local TN yield (kg/km2/yr).


Kernel metadata is a small prescriptive vocabulary designed to support
highly uniform but minimal object descriptions for the purpose of
orderly collection management. The Kernel vocabulary, based on a
subset of the Dublin Core (DC) metadata element set, aims to describe
objects of any form or category, but its reach is limited to a small
number of fundamental questions such as who, what, when, and where.
The Electronic Resource Citation (ERC), also specified in this
document, is an object description that addresses those four questions
using Kernel and other metadata elements.


Absence of urokinase from the United States market for the past 4 years has resulted in increasing experience with other plasminogen activators in catheter-directed thrombolytic therapy. The differences in the pharmacologic properties and biologic behavior of these agents may translate into clinical outcomes that are distinct. Some of these manifestations can be predicted based on the existing large clinical trials in the acute myocardial infarction literature. However, because of the fundamental differences in techniques and thrombolytic regimens, extrapolation of the coronary data may not always predict the performance of these agents in peripheral catheter-directed fibrinolysis. In this article, the current status of the available lytic agents in the treatment of limb ischemia is reviewed.


Linear temporal logic (LTL) is an expressive language that allows specifying temporally extended goals and preferences. A general approach to dealing with general LTL properties in planning is by "compiling them away"; i.e., in a pre-processing phase, all LTL formulas are converted into simple, non-temporal formulas that can be evaluated in a planning state. This is accomplished by first generating a finite-state automaton for the formula, and then by introducing new fluents that are used to capture all possible runs of the automaton. Unfortunately, current translation approaches are worstcase exponential on the size of the LTL formula. In this paper, we present a polynomial approach to compiling away LTL goals. Our method relies on the exploitation of alternating automata. Since alternating automata are different from nondeterministic automata, our translation technique does not capture all possible runs in a planning state and thus is very different from previous approaches. We prove that our translation is sound and complete, and evaluate it empirically showing that it has strengths and weaknesses. Specifically, we find classes of formulas in which it seems to outperform significantly the current state of the art.


We investigate optical properties of a gold structure comprising a two-dimensional array of gold nanoblocks placed on top of a thin gold film. We observe enhanced transmission through asymmetric nanostructured gold films, which can be attributed to the surface plasmon (SP) mode at the air-gold interface leaking to the substrate when the substrate index is larger than the superstrate index. When the substrate and superstrate are the same dielectric, the SPs at both superstrate-gold and gold-substrate interfaces strongly interact with each other and even and odd SPs are then excited. In addition, we investigate effects of oblique incidence and electronic interband transition on SP resonances. Our results provide a guideline for engineering novel devices with enhanced transmission based on nanostructures.


Sediment plays a pivotal role in determining the physical, chemical and biological integrity of aquatic ecosystems. A range of factors influences the impacts of sediment pressures on aquatic biota, including concentration, duration of exposure, composition and particle size. In recognition of the need to assess environmental status for sediment and mitigate excessive sediment pressures on aquatic habitats, both water column and river substrate metrics have been proposed as river sediment targets. Water column metrics include light penetration, turbidity, sediment concentration summary statistics and sediment regimes. Substrate metrics include embeddedness, the fredle index and riffle stability. Identification of meaningful numeric targets along these lines has, however, been undermined by various issues including the uncertainty associated with toxicological dose‐response profiles and the impracticalities of deploying statistically robust sampling strategies capable of supporting catchment‐scale targets. Many of the thresholds reported are based on correlative relationships that fail to capture the specific mechanisms controlling sediment impacts on aquatic habitats and are stationary in nature. Temporal windows represented by the key life stages of specific species must be given greater emphasis. Given such issues and the need to support the revision of sediment targets for river catchment management, it is proposed that greater emphasis should be placed on developing generic modelling toolkits with the functionality for coupling current or future projected sediment regimes with biological response for a range of biota. Such tools should permit the identification of river catchment‐specific targets within a national context, based on biological effect and incorporate sufficient flexibility for utilizing updated physical, chemical, biological and catchment attribute data. Confidence will continue to be required in compliance screening to ensure cost‐effective management programmes for avoiding disproportionate investment in impacted river catchments. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Summary In a comparison of assessment methods of severity of depressive illness, the Montgomery-åsberg Scale had, broadly, a performance equal to the Hamilton Scale. The Beck Depression Inventory, its subscale, and the Wakefield Inventory all had overall poor performances and should now be abandoned in research. The two-patient-rated scales were, overall, similar and fairly satisfactory measures. The comparisons were at points in severity of illness and not on change of severity.


The goal of the research was to investigate some non-motor disorders at patients with Parkinson disease (PD) and to determine their relations to the main manifestations of the disease. 68 patients with PD without dementia were studied. Duration of disease was 4 (2-6) years. The following scales were used: Modifed Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS), Unifed Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS, part 3), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), A. M. Veyn Questionnaire for autonomic disturbances and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). The results of this study have revealed the presence of emotional disorders, fatigue, autonomic dysfunction and dyssomnia at patients with PD. Non-motor symptom severity does not depend on age and sex of the patients, as well as the main motor symptoms of the disease. The relationships of the examined non-motor symptoms were revealed.


Arthropods exhibit great diversity in the position, number, morphology, and function of their limbs. The evolutionary relations among limb types and among the arthropod groups that bear them (insects, crustaceans, myriapods, and chelicerates) are controversial. Here, the use of molecular probes, including an antibody to proteins encoded by arthropod and vertebrate Distal-less (Dll and Dlx) genes, provided evidence that common genetic mechanisms underlie the development of all arthropod limbs and their branches and that all arthropods derive from a common ancestor. However, differences between crustacean and insect body plans were found to correlate with differences in the deployment of particular homeotic genes and in the ways that these genes regulate limb development.


This study offers a new view on public services in the early modern Low Countries and answers the following questions: who provided public facilities in urban communities and in which ways did public amenities change in the period between 1500 and 1800? It throws light on the ways in which responsibilities were shared between city dwellers and the factors which influenced the allocation and reallocation of public services between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The present study looks at those who provided various services to their communities, the ways in which they were rewarded and monitored, and the gain they may have sought. It focuses on the situation in the Low Countries, but in many respects, it also describes the development of the provision of public services in most towns in early modern Western Europe. The complex mixture of central and local, private and public, ecclesiastical and secular, individual and corporate initiatives, characterized - to a greater or lesser extent - urban communities everywhere in Western Europe. Above all, early modern towns were civil societies in which community services such as health care, poor relief, and public security were largely shaped and formed by conceptions of citizenship and collective interest.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Background An important question revolves around when the most opportune time is to introduce recovery-optimizing behaviors for men opting for radical prostatectomy (RP) for localized prostate cancer (PCa). An emerging field of research describes the role of preoperative strategies to improve treatment tolerance and overall physical and psychological recovery. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of a multimodal prehabilitation intervention for men and their partners before RP for localized PCa. Methods Thirty-four patients who opted for RP for localized PCa and their partners (19) were identified and recruited into the study. The multimodal intervention was composed of educational materials, physiotherapy instruction, and a self-management group-based seminar. Results The multimodal prehabilitation intervention was perceived as overall helpful with demonstrated acceptability (91.9%). Beneficial themes related to the quality of the information provided to support self-management, open forum questions with multidisciplinary healthcare professionals, and increased knowledge among partners to help with their understanding of how to look after their partners. Conclusion The intervention was feasible and beneficial for the PCa dyad. A future pilot randomized controlled trial study is needed to provide sufficient evidence on the long-term physical and psychological outcomes and cost-effectiveness. Implications for Practice Oncology nurses play a key role in the development of prehabilitation care delivery. Prehabilitation interventions can have a positive effect on improving health outcomes for cancer patients and their partners after surgery and into survivorship.


ABSTRACT The cytoplasmic compartments occupied by exocytosing herpes simplex virus (HSV) are poorly defined. It is unclear which organelles contain the majority of trafficking virions and which are occupied by virions on a productive rather than defective assembly pathway. These problems are compounded by the fact that HSV-infected cells produce virus continuously over many hours. All stages in viral assembly and export therefore coexist, making it impossible to determine the sequence of events and their kinetics. To address these problems, we have established assays to monitor the presence of capsids and enveloped virions in cell extracts and prepared HSV-containing organelles from normally infected cells and from cells undergoing a single synchronized wave of viral egress. We find that, in both cases, HSV particles exit the nucleus and accumulate in organelles which cofractionate with thetrans-Golgi network (TGN) and endosomes. In addition to carrying enveloped infectious virions in their lumen, HSV-bearing organelles also displayed nonenveloped capsids attached to their cytoplasmic surface. Neutralization of organellar pH by chloroquine or bafilomycin A resulted in the accumulation of noninfectious enveloped particles. We conclude that the organelles of the TGN/endocytic network play a key role in the assembly and trafficking of infectious HSV.


The following paper refers to the accounting and auditing issues which emerge in the preparation of the interim financial statements of the companies: Firstly, the interim financial statements are defined as being the financial statements that provide useful information about the financial position and the financial results of a company which are realized and accrued during the fiscal year. The interim financial statements can be prepared on a monthly basis, on a quarterly basis or covering any other time period of the fiscal year. Subsequently, the various problems and difficulties that are faced in the preparation of the interim financial statements are analyzed such as seasonality issues, accruals etc. Moreover, the provisions of the Opinion No 28 of the APB are thoroughly analysed concerning the relevant accounting issues emerging in the preparation of the interim financial statements. Furthermore, the paper deals with the auditing of the interim financial statements according to the provisions of the Standard No 9 of the FEE coupled with a thorough analysis of the respective auditing practices applied in Greece. Finally, detailed suggestions are put forward aiming at the improvement of the content of the interim financial statements which are prepared by the Greek companies, in order to upgrade the reliability of the information conveyed to the users of the financial statements.


"The Big House" is America's idea of the prison---a huge, tough, ostentatiously oppressive pile of rock, bristling with rules and punishments, overwhelming in size and the intent to intimidate. Stephen Cox tells the story of the American prison--its politics, its sex, its violence, its inability to control itself--and its idealization in American popular culture. This book investigates both the popular images of prison and the realities behind them-: problems of control and discipline, maintenance and reform, power and sexuality. It conveys an awareness of the limits of human and institutional power, and of the symbolic and iconic qualities the "Big House" has attained in America's understanding of itself.


The project is an investigation of faith-based sanctuary incidents and movements in Europe. While generally perceived as a US-based social movement from the 1980s, sanctuary incidents involving irregular migrants and asylum claimants are now a global occurrence. Moreover, they are often based on transnational networks between churches, and between churches and other organizations. Despite the rapid and expansive growth of sanctuary incidents and actors in Europe over the past decade, little research has been done to document and analyze this contemporary phenomenon. Research funded by the Royalty Research Fund will bring critical new insights on the important spatial dimension of sanctuary, its potential to challenge and rework democratic practices and alliances, and the growing role of pastoral and other faith-based rationalities on liberal systems of governance.


Forage fishes were sampled with a mid-water trawl in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA, from late July to early August 1996 to 1999. We sampled 3 oceanographically distinct areas of lower Cook Inlet: waters adjacent to Chisik Island, in Kachemak Bay, and near the Barren Islands. In 163 tows using a mid-water trawl, 229 437 fishes with fork length <200 mm were captured. More than 39 species were captured in lower Cook Inlet, but Pacific sand lance Ammodytes hexapterus, juvenile Pacific herring Clupea pallasi, and juvenile walleye pollock Theragra chalcogramma comprised 97.5% of the total individuals. Both species richness and species diversity were highest in warm, low- salinity, weakly stratified waters near Chisik Island. Kachemak Bay, which had thermohaline values between those found near Chisik Island and the Barren Islands, had an intermediate value of species richness. Species richness was lowest at the Barren Islands, an exposed region that regularly receives oceanic, upwelled water from the Gulf of Alaska. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to compute axes of species composition based on an ordination of pairwise site dissimilarities. Each axis was strongly rank-correlated with unique groups of species and examined separately as a function of environmental parameters (temperature, salinity, depth), area, and year. Oceanographic parameters accounted for 41 and 12% of the variability among forage fishes indicated by Axis 1 and Axis 2, respectively. Axis 1 also captured the spatial variability in the upwelled area of lower Cook Inlet and essentially contrasted the distribution of species among shallow, nearshore (sand lance, her- ring) and deep, offshore (walleye pollock) habitats. Axis 2 captured the spatial variability in forage fish communities from the north (Chisik Island) to the south (Barren Islands) of lower Cook Inlet and essen- tially contrasted a highly diverse community dominated by salmonids and osmerids (warmer, less saline) with a fish community dominated by Pacific sand lance (colder, more saline). Axis 3 reflected the negative spatial association of capelin Mallotus villosus and Pacific cod Gadus macrocephalus. Correlations of year with Axes 1 and 3 indicate that from 1996 to 1999 the forage fish community sig- nificantly decreased in lipid-poor gadids (walleye pollock and Pacific cod), and significantly increased in lipid-rich species such as Pacific sand lance, Pacific herring, and capelin.


Time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy on the nanosecond time scale is useful for the study of the rapid rotation of macromolecules. A system combining the capabilities of fluorescence spectral imaging with time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy and enabling the wide-field measurement of the spectroscopic parameters of fluorophores is discussed. The phasor approach is used to quantitatively analyze the time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy by transforming the polarized parallel and perpendicular components to the phasor space in the frequency domain, respectively, and a unique way to calculate the fluorescence rotational correlation time is put forward. Experimental results prove that the phasor approach is a proper model for the time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy.


This work based study is not only a stand alone project but can also be read in conjunction with other work based studies carried out by members of the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS) Doctorate Group. This group worked through the National Centre for Work Based Learning Partnerships (NCWBLP) based at Middlesex University. The customisation of the studies was carried out by the Professional Development Foundation (PDF). The purpose of the group was to facilitate the development of postgraduate veterinary education in general practice in order to maintain lifelong learning within the profession. Within this framework this study sets out to investigate the difficulties faced by practitioner researchers in publication. The aim of the study is to increase not only the number of manuscripts published by practitioners but also to increase the number of practitioners carrying out publication. To achieve these aims the author has evaluated the existing veterinary peer reviewed journal journals with a view to answering the question "does the veterinary profession in the UK need a new peer reviewed journal?" The author of the study has written a book to aid practitioners with publication. The sparse veterinary literature is reviewed together with the relevant medical literature. A historical analysis was carried out on the four most commonly read veterinary peer reviewed journals, the Veterinary Record (VR), the Equine Veterinary Journal (EVJ), Equine Veterinary Education (EV) and the Journal of Small Animal Practice (JSAP). Five separate case studies were carried out on successful practitioner authors, successful practitioner authors, editors of peer reviewed veterinary journals, newly qualified veterinary surgeons and final year veterinary students. The quantitative and qualitative results were recorded ethically and analysed. These results were then critically discussed and commented on. The methods of learning, experienced by the practitioner author were reflected upon. Conclusions were then reached. These showed that the main reason for lack of publication by practitioners was the relatively few manuscripts submitted by relatively few practitioners. There was no bias shown by editors against practitioner authors. Some improvements were suggested for the journals but it was concluded that at the present time there was no need for a new veterinary peer reviewed journal. However EVJ, EVE and JSAP have agreed to have a major drive to increase practitioner input. The benefits of the project to the profession were recorded. They included a regular updated list of successful practitioner authors willing to help less experienced colleagues, with publication, to be shown on the web page of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). The agreement of the RCVS scientific committee to encourage in-practice research by co-ordinating funding. The agreement of DEFRA to regularly fund a residential course on in-practice research for practitioners at Cambridge Veterinary School and to fund resulting pieces of practitioner research. The agreement of the editor of the VR to appoint a sub-editor to help with publication of these projects. The whole doctorate group project, of designing an award for advanced veterinary general practice, was accomplished. The modular certificate was accepted by the RCVS. This certificate was designed to have other modules added. The project by the author included the designing and acceptance of three additional modules to allow an award in equine dentistry. Lastly a secondary finding of the project, that newly qualified veterinary graduates were under considerable pressure in practice, was exposed. The author at a local level took action. The British Veterinary Association observed this. Consultations were carried out. A new graduate mentoring project was then successfully launched nationally. The author played a key role in this initiative both nationally and locally.


: Bypass pneumatic conveying systems provide a passive capability to reduce conveying velocity and therefore reduce attrition and abrasion in the process of conveying many fragile and erosive particulate solids. Because of these capabilities, bypass pneumatic conveying systems have been used in coal-fired power stations for removing fly ash for the last couple of decades. In bypass systems, the differential pressure between bypass pipe and main pipe as well as the pipeline pressure drop are two of most significant parameters as differential pressure represents the aeration mechanism within the pipeline while pressure drop is an essential parameter for bypass pneumatic conveying system design. In bypass systems, these two parameters are determined not only by the turbulent mode of the gas solids two-phase flow but also by the bypass configurations. The objective of this study was to experimentally investigate the differential pressure between bypass pipe and main pipe as well as the pressure drop during the bypass pneumatic conveying of fly ash. Pneumatic conveying tests in bypass systems and a conventional pipeline were carried out in this study. The bypass pipeline was a 79 mm diameter main pipe with a 27 mm inner diameter bypass pipe with orifice plate flute arrangement. Fly ash was discharged to the system from the bottom of a positive pressure blow tank. The receiving bin was mounted on load cells for measuring the mass accumulation. In order to monitor real time behavior of the system, pressure transmitters were used to measure the gauge pressure. Differential pressure transmitters were employed in the system for measuring the pressure difference between the bypass pipe and main pipe. Differential pressure results between bypass pipe and main pipe in the process of conveying fly ash showed that the pressure before the orifice plate in the bypass pipe was higher than that in main pipe as a result of orifice plate airflow resistance. Therefore, air came into main pipe and aerated the material continuously. The differential pressure also illustrated that the particulate may go into the bypass pipe as pressure in the bypass pipe after orifice plate is lower than that in main pipe. The pipeline pressure drop results also showed that pressure drop was higher than in the conventional system when using the same operating parameters due to the increase of friction. The influences of bypass configurations on pressure drop of bypass system were also discussed.


In the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), Congress included a provision requiring bankruptcy courts evaluating individual debtors' financial circumstances to utilize certain monthly expense standards developed by the Internal Revenue Service for assessing taxpayers' ability to pay their taxes (the Standards). While the IRS retains a great deal of discretion in applying the Standards for its own purposes, bankruptcy courts have interpreted the BAPCPA as giving the Standards binding force in the bankruptcy context. This unusual arrangement - where a statute regulating one substantive area incorporates documents promulgated by an unrelated administrative agency for use in a different substantive area - presents bankruptcy judges with a set of unfamiliar and difficult administrative law questions. To what extent, if at all, should bankruptcy courts defer to IRS statements, contained in documents other than the Standards themselves, about how the Standards should be applied? May the IRS alter the Standards for its own purposes but not for bankruptcy purposes, or vice versa? What procedures must the IRS use when it modifies the Standards, especially in light of the fact that the Standards now have an apparently binding effect in bankruptcy cases? These questions have become even more pressing since the IRS in 2007 amended the Standards without public notice and comment and provided different effective dates for IRS and bankruptcy court use of the amended Standards. This essay explains from the standpoint of administrative law the difficulties that these questions present and suggest a few possible (and in some cases competing) administrative law theories for thinking about them.


Finizio's theme is one we can see on the streets: having changed the 19th-century city into a "metropolis" of suburbs and highways, the car as an object is, in turn, changing in relation to the modern city. A leading Italian design professional, Finizio has gathered an international symposium of architects to explore how urban planning, architecture, and design ideas can create a new design philosophy for the automobile as a sort of domestic moving space that interacts with the new urban environment. This richly illustrated book focuses on the relationship between the static city and "mobile architecture" of the car through the works of some of the most important contemporary international architects such as Frank Gehry, Rem Koolhass, Jean Nouvel, Massimiliano Fuksas, and Alessandro Mendini.This is an urgent, exciting design mission that finally deals with how thinking about the urban car must coevolve in profound new ways.


Background. Early initiation of antiretroviral therapy reduces transmission of HIV and prolongs life. Expansion of HIV testing is therefore pivotal in overcoming the HIV pandemic. Provider-initiated counselling and testing (PICT) at first clinical contact is one way of increasing the number of individuals tested. Our impression is that not all patients admitted to a general gynaecological ward are offered PICT. Objective. To assess whether patients admitted to a gynaecological ward in a district-level hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, are being offered PICT. Methods. We conducted a retrospective chart review over an 8-month period. Patients who had a hospital stay of ≤3 days were enrolled. The case records were reviewed and relevant data, including demographic information and whether the patients were offered HIV testing, were recorded. Results. Of 1 014 patients, 451 reported that they had been tested previously; 98 (21.7%) of these were HIV-infected. There were therefore 916 patients (563 not tested previously and 353 who reported that they had tested negatively previously) who should have been offered PICT. Of these, 157 (17.1%) were offered it; 116 (73.9%) accepted and 41 declined. Forty-five (38.8%) tested positive. Conclusion. A large number of patients who stayed for ≤3 days in a gynaecology ward of a district-level hospital were not offered PICT. However, the high rate of HIV infection in those who accepted the offer of testing strengthens the case for PICT.


The sequences of the first 25 residues of histone III, and the first 22 residues of histone IIb(2), from trout testis have been determined on an automatic protein sequencer. The amino-terminal sequence of trout-testis histone III is identical to the corresponding region of calfthymus histone III, whereas the trout-testis histone IIb(2) sequence differs from that of calf-thymus histone IIb(2) at several positions in the amino-terminal region. Several in vivo sites of acetylation of these trout-testis histones have also been determined, by the same automated procedure. In addition to the two main sites at lysyl residues 14 and 23 acetylated in calf-thymus histone III, a lower degree of acetylation at two other sites, lysyl residues 9 and 18, has been detected. Four sites of acetylation have also been detected in trout-testis histone IIb(2), at lysyl residues 5, 10, 13, and 18. When the amino-acid sequences around the acetylated lysyl residues of different histones are compared, striking similarities are seen. The methods used in these studies should prove useful in elucidation of the locations of chemically stable modifications in other proteins.


While compilers for high-level programming languages are large complex software systems, they have particular characteristics that differentiate them from other software systems. Their functionality is almost completely well-defined ideally there exist complete precise descriptions of the source and target languages. Additional descriptions of the interfaces to the operating system, programming system and programming environment, and to other compilers and libraries are often available. This book deals with the analysis phase of translators for programming languages. It describes lexical, syntactic and semantic analysis, specification mechanisms for these tasks from the theory of formal languages, and methods for automatic generation based on the theory of automata. The authors present a conceptual translation structure, i.e., a division into a set of modules, which transform an input program into a sequence of steps in a machine program, and they then describe the interfaces between the modules. Finally, the structures of real translators are outlined. The book contains the necessary theory and advice for implementation. This book is intended for students of computer science. The book is supported throughout with examples, exercises and program fragments.


This study uses data from the "Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS] 1999-2000" to investigate the predictors of child (age 1-4 years] mortality in a developing country like Bangladesh. The cross-tabulation and multiple logistic regression techniques have been used to estimate the predictors of child mortality. The cross-tabulation analysis shows that parents' education is the vital factor associated with child mortality risk but in logistic regression analysis only the father's education has been found significant to reducing child mortality. Occupation of father has been found a significant characteristic in both analyzes, further mother standard of living index, breastfeeding status, birth order has substantial impact on child mortality in Bangladesh. The findings also show that in both statistical analyzes maternal health care variables such as timing of first antenatal check and tetanus toxoid (TT] during pregnancy has momentous effect on child mortality. Finally these findings specified that an increase in parents' education, improve health care services which should in turn raise child survival and should decrease child mortality in Bangladesh.


In 1992, Julie Tarney's only child, Harry, told her, "Inside my head I'm a girl." He was two years old. Julie had no idea what that meant. She felt disoriented. Wasn't it her role to encourage and support her child? Surely, she had to set some limits to his self-expression—or did she? Would he be bullied? Could she do the right thing? What was the right thing? The internet was no help, because there was no internet. And there were zero books for a mom scrambling to understand a toddler who had definite ideas about his gender, regardless of how Nature had endowed him. Terms such as transgender, gender nonconforming, and gender creative were rare or nonexistent. There were, however, mainstream experts who theorized that a "sissy" boy was the result of a domineering mother. Julie couldn't believe it. She didn't want to care what her neighbors thought, but she did care. "Domineering mother" meant controlling mother. It meant bad mother. It meant her mother. Lacking a positive role model of her own, and fearful of being judged as a mom who was making her son "too feminine," Julie embarked on an unexpected parenting path. Despite some missteps, and with no map to guide her, she learned to rely on her instincts. She listened carefully, kept an open mind, and as long as Harry was happy, she let him lead the way. Julie eventually realized that Harry knew who he was all along. Her job was simply to love and support him unconditionally, allowing him to be his authentic self. This story of a mother embracing her child's uniqueness and her own will resonate with all families.


Building designers are increasingly relying on complex fenestration systems (CFS) to reduce energy consumed for lighting and HVAC in low-energy buildings. Radiance, a lighting simulation program, has been used to conduct daylighting simulations for CFS. Depending on the configurations, the simulation can take hours or even days using a personal computer. This paper describes how to accelerate the matrix multiplication portion of a Radiance three-phase daylight simulation by conducting parallel computing on heterogeneous hardware of a personal computer. The algorithm was optimized and the computational part was implemented in parallel using OpenCL. The speed of the new approach was evaluated using various daylighting simulation cases on a multi-core central processing unit (CPU) and a graphics processing unit (GPU). Based on the measurements and analysis of the time usage for the Radiance daylighting simulation, further speedups can be achieved using fast input/output devices and storing the data in a binary format.


We present a Bayesian view of counterfactual risk minimization (CRM) for offline learning from logged bandit feedback. Using PAC-Bayesian analysis, we derive a new generalization bound for the truncated inverse propensity score estimator. We apply the bound to a class of Bayesian policies, which motivates a novel, potentially data-dependent, regularization technique for CRM. Experimental results indicate that this technique outperforms standard $L_2$ regularization, and that it is competitive with variance regularization while being both simpler to implement and more computationally efficient.


A milestone in feminist literature, this marvelous European romance, narrated by a woman, is considered the first psychological novel in a modern language and a precursor of stream-of-consciousness fiction. Written by Giovanni Boccaccio between 1343 and 1345, The Elegy has never before been available in a complete or accurate English translation. Lady Fiammetta, the first-person narrator and protagonist, recounts how, although a married woman, she falls in love with a handsome young foreigner named Panfilo and, driven by irresistible passion, becomes his lover. Panfilo subsequently abandons Fiammetta and returns to his native land, where his elderly father is said to be dying. When he fails to keep his promise to return, Fiammetta, in what is the heart of the narrative, describes her longings, her anguish, and her despair. A host of contradictory sentiments drive her to desperation and to an unsuccessful suicide attempt. After a time, Fiammetta resumes her futile wait for Panfilo. She finally resolves to seek him out in his native land. Disguising her true intent from her husband, she secures his promise to help her in this undertaking. Addressing an exclusively female audience, Fiammetta warns them about the vicious ways of men. Her whole narrative, in fact, adds up to an indictment of men as both readers and lovers. Eliciting a remarkably wide range of responses from readers and critics, Fiammetta has been variously described as a pathetic victim of male cruelty; an irresponsible fool of a girl; a sophisticated, cunning, and wholly disingenuous female; and, finally, a genuinely modern woman. Whatever judgment we make of her, Fiammetta stands out among medieval women as an ardent and outspoken feminist.


There is considerable interest in the computer vision community in representing and modelling motion. Motion models are used as predictors to increase the robustness and accuracy of visual trackers, and as classifiers for gesture recognition. This paper presents a significant development of random sampling methods to allow automatic switching between multiple motion models as a natural extension of the tracking process. The Bayesian mixed-state framework is described in its generality, and the example of a bouncing ball is used to demonstrate that a mixed-state model can significantly improve tracking performance in heavy clutter. The relevance of the approach to the problem of gesture recognition is then investigated using a tracker which is able to follow the natural drawing action of a hand holding a pen, and switches state according to the hand's motion.


Fertility throughout East Asia has fallen rapidly over the last five decades and is now below the replacement rate of 2.1 in every country in the region. While similar but less extreme declines occurred throughout Europe during this same period, the declines to lowest-low fertility during the 1990s have been reversed in the last ten years as the pace of tempo changes (i.e., the postponement of childbearing) has slowed. Recent literature has shown that many European countries have in fact also experienced increases in cohort fertility. No such widespread fertility reversal has occurred in East Asia, where family size (i.e., cohort fertility) continues to decline. In this paper we seek to explain the precipitous (and in some cases, continual) fertility declines in East Asia. Using South Korea as a case study, we argue that East Asia's ultra-low fertility rates can be partially explained by the steadfast parental drive to have competitive and successful children. Parents throughout the region invest high amounts of time and money to ensure their children are able to enter prestigious universities and obtain top jobs. Accordingly, children have become so expensive that the average couple cannot afford to have more than just one or two. We argue that the trend of high parental investment in child education, also known as "education fever", exemplifies the notion of "quality over quantity" and is an important contributing factor to understanding low-fertility in East Asia.


Successiv tilldelning (Successive Allocation) is a new approach for railway planning for Trafikverket (the Swedish Transport Administration) worked out by SICS. This document describes the steps proposed by SICS towards a full implementation of the new approach. Results from the SICS projects Tagplan 2015 and Marackasen are reported, as these support the reasoning behind the suggested implementation.


A round robin study evaluating the analysis of biomass liquefaction oils (BLOs) from fast pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was performed, involving fifteen laboratories in seven countries in order to assess the current status of analytical techniques for the determination of nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine content in BLOs and evaluate potential differences in origin (i.e. fast pyrolysis vs HTL). The BLOs were produced from a range of feedstocks including pine, mixed softwoods, forest residues, micro-algae, miscanthus, and wheat straw to cover a variety in nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine content and speciation. Nine samples were distributed, comprised of eight separate BLOs and one blind duplicate produced by five producers. The samples were analyzed for water, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine content. No analytical test method was mandated; laboratories were encouraged to utilize whichever method they determined would be most applicable, relying on the existing body of BLO literature as a guide. The results of this round robin study are presented in this paper. The results of the carbon, hydrogen, and water measurements as reference analyses had relative standard deviations (2.9%, 3.5, and 5.6%, respectively) that were comparable to those found in past round robin studies on fast pyrolysis bio-oil. The analysis of nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine showed higher levels of variability. Laboratories mostly chose the same method for water, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen determination whereas there were a variety of methods chosen for sulfur and chlorine determination. The results suggest that specific analytical methods for the determination of nitrogen, sulfur, and chlorine should be further refined to ensure reproducible and accurate results for BLO analysis due to their importance on emissions, material selection, and catalyst activity.


Use of autonomous vehicles for hydrographic surveying has been primarily limited to underwater systems with autonomous surface vehicles only recently entering routine use. Operation on the ocean surface simplifies position measurement, relaxes power limitations and reduces hull sealing, which reduces design costs for vehicles. However, the existing systems for autonomous command and control are often proprietary, expensive and designed for a single platform. The system developed at the Joint Hydrographic Center minimizes cost while maximizing functionality and flexibility by leveraging mass produced, open source hardware and software. Long range Wi-Fi is utilized for monitoring the autonomous operation vessel and provides the ability to natively interface onboard sonar systems with acquisition software. A hobby radio control system is used for remote human override. Onboard processing uses an embedded Linux platform running the open source MOOS-IvP autonomy framework. Sensor input and control output as well as fail-safes are handled by an independent microcontroller. Position and orientation input can be accepted from an existing source on the vessel or use a MEMS INS for simple deployments. The total autonomy system cost is under $1000.


We present the first water concentration data for oceanic mantle peridotite. The rocks come from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and were sampled by drilling during Leg 153 of the Ocean Drilling Program. Earlier studies of peridotite xenoliths suggest that orthopyroxene is the most important host of water in the upper mantle. However, an unresolved question is whether the measured water content in orthopyroxene is equal to its original concentration in the mantle or possibly lower because of decompression-related water loss. Our investigations of oceanic mantle rocks yield water contents in orthopyroxene in the range between 160 and 270 ppm by weight (wt). These new data, compared with those from xenoliths, experimental studies, and geophysical investigations, imply that the measured values reflect the original mantle contents. The preservation of mantle water contents is ascribed to an exhumation mechanism that provides for cooling during ascent of the suboceanic mantle slices.


Understanding the economic implication of creative individuals and firms is at the heart of the new economy and of related fields such as the economics of knowledge, the economics of science and innovation management. This book brings together a panel of theoretical and empirical contributions which address the generation of creative ideas and their transformation into products and services by firms or universities, as well as the interplay of those organizations in networks and markets. The word 'creativity' has been used a great deal recently in relation to efforts to recover from the global financial crisis and re-launch economic activity. Little has been added to explain how and why an economic approach of creativity is useful and necessary. It is useful to understand how the most creative people work and think, and how to foster their creative productivity. It is useful to understand how organizations integrate and exploit creative ideas. It is useful to understand how market mechanisms can handle creativity and how policies must be adapted. It is necessary in the light of the recent economic crises that made innovation, invention and creativity the basis of a new industrialization and fuel for a new economic development. This new book assesses the economic impact of creativity, defining the term and then going on to explore theoretically and practically the economic consequences of creativity through a range of themes including: creativity and evolutionary theories of technological change; creativity and organizational learning; creativity and technological policy; and creativity and economics of networks. This volume offers a rich source of inspiration and ideas for the pursuit of research which merges economic tradition and management perspectives.


Recognizing and summarizing persons' activities have proven to be effective for increasing self-awareness and enable to improve habits. Reading improves one's language skills and periodic relaxing improves one's health. Recognizing these activities and conveying the time spent would enable to ensure that users read and relax for an adequate time. Most previous attempts in activity recognition deduce mental activities by requiring expensive/bulky hardware or by monitoring behavior from the outside. Not all mental activities can, however, be recognized from the outside. If a person is sleeping, relaxing, or intensively thinks about a problem can hardly be differentiated by observing carried-out reactions. In contrast, we use simple wearable off-the-shelf single electrode brain computer interfaces. These devices have the potential to directly recognize user's mental activities. Through a study with 20 participants, we collect data for five representative activities. We describe the dataset collected and derive potential features. Using a Bayesian classifier we show that reading and relaxing can be recognized with 97% and 79% accuracy. We discuss how sensory tasks associated with different brain lobes can be classified using a single dry electrode BCI.


This article reviews the generic meaning of 'system' and complements more conventional system notions with a system perception based on recent complexity theory. With system as the core concept of systems theory, its actual meaning is not just of theoretical interest but is highly relevant also for systems practice. It is argued that complexity theory and thinking with reference to Luhmann a.o. ought to be recognised and paid attention to by the systems community. Overall, it is found that a complexity orientation may contribute to extend and enrich the explanatory power of current systems theory when used to complex real-world problems. As regards systems practice it is found that selective use and combination of five presented research approaches (functionalist, interpretive, emancipatory, postmodern and complexity) which function as different but complementing 'epistemic lenses' in a process described as constructive circularity, may strengthen the exploration and learning efforts in systems-based intervention.


The method of conjugate gradients provides a very effective way to optimize large, deterministic systems by gradient descent. In its standard form, however, it is not amenable to stochastic approximation of the gradient. We explore a number of ways to adopt ideas from conjugate gradient in the stochastic setting, using fast Hessian-vector products to obtain curvature information cheaply. In our benchmark experiments the resulting highly scalable algorithms converge about an order of magnitude faster than ordinary stochastic gradient descent.


Investigates two methods for the detection of defects on textured surfaces using neural networks and support vector machines. Every pixel from the inspection image is characterized by a feature vector, which serves as a local measure of homogeneity of texture. The feature vectors from the gray-level arrangement of neighboring pixels are transformed to eigenspace using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The transformed features from a predetermined set of training images are used to train the classifier. The trained classifier is used to classes every pixel from inspection image into two-class, i.e. with- or without-defect. The experimental results on real fabric defects show that the proposed scheme can successfully segment the defects from the inspection images.


A new form of grammar, which is called a programmed grammar, is defined and some of its properties are described. Programmed grammars are a generalization of phrase structure grammars where each production has a label, a core consisting of an ordinary phrase structure production, and two associated sets of production labels. If a production can be applied to an intermediate string in a derivation, it is applied as far to the left as possible, and the next production to be used is selected from the first set of labels. If the production cannot be applied to the intermediate string, the next production is selected from the other set of labels. The generative power of programmed grammars with various types of production cores is investigated. The additional machinery of programmed grammars does not add any additional generative power if the cores are arbitrary, context sensitive, linear, or one-sided linear. However, programmed grammars whose cores contain a single symbol on the lefthand side and an arbitrary string on the righthand side can generate all recursively enumerable languages. The class of languages generated by grammars of this type with the additional restriction that the righthand side of a production core cannot be the null string is properly contained with the context sensitive languages and properly contains the context free languages. For grammars of this type, called cfpg's, the emptiness and finiteness problems are undecidable. In addition every recursively enumerable language can be obtained from a cfpg language by a homomorphism. The subset of cfpg's for which the two sets of production labels are the same for each production is also considered. The class of languages generated by these grammars is properly contained within the cfpg languages and properly contains the context free languages. Furthermore, the emptiness problem is decidable for these grammars. This paper is an extended abstract based on the author's doctoral thesis.


The continuous abrasion test is a new and simple test for evaluating the abrasive potential of rock material where attrition or low-stress sliding wear problems exist. The test is sensitive to the abrasive mineral content in the host rock and was found to be very suitable in comparing the degree of abrasiveness of various sedimentary rocks and in particular coal measures rocks. The wear area generated on a tested ball bearing is used as the Continuous Abrasive Index value for the tested rock. Several types of abrasive wear pattern were recognized on the tested steel ball; these can be used as a guide for the assessment of the abrasive potential of the rock. The exploitation of this new test has led to a new rock classification index according to the abrasive potential of the rock.


Calcareous algae of order Bryopsidales, family Halimedaceae abound in shallow marine ramp facies of the Jbel Guersif Formation (late Thanetian), Ait Ouarhitane Formation (middle – late Ypresian) and Jbel Tagount Formation (latest Ypresian to late Lutetian or latest Bartonian), southern rim of central High Atlas, Morocco. The genus Halimeda includes nine new species, Halimeda erikfluegeli, H. lacunosa, H. barbata, H. marcconradi, H. praetaenicola, H. unica, H. praemacroloba, H. praegoreaui, H. praecuneata. Additionally, 14 modern and fossil taxa occur: H. cylindracea, H. incrassata, H. monile, H. opuntia, H. opuntia f. triloba, H. simulans, H. tuna, H. tuna f. platydisca, H. gracilis, H. copiosa, H. scabra, H. fragilis, H. nana, H. praeopuntia. For the first time, gametangia were observed in fossil species. All new species were of short range. Most appeared during adaptive radiation in the late Thanetian, associated with some already known fossil species and an ancient stock of modern Halimeda taxa ( H. cylindracea, H. incrassata, H. monile, H. opuntia ). The adaptive radiation was connected with the marine transgression at the southern rim of the central High Atlas and is interpreted as part of the recovery phase after the end-Cretaceous decline of green algal diversity. Mid Ypresian to late Lutetian or latest Bartonian assemblages show minor origination rates but the onset of long-ranging extant species. These assemblages are interpreted to represent the stabilization phase of Paleogene green algal evolution, dominated by well-adapted species. At the beginning of the Lutetian, already twelve modern taxa of Halimeda were present. This proves geological longevity extending over more than 50 million years and characterizes the corresponding species, respectively the genus Halimeda , as living fossils. The results also prove the early origin of the basal clades of the genus Halimeda , defined from morphological and molecular data of extant species. Origin of the extant Sections Rhipsalis, Micronesicae, Halimeda and of an opuntoid basal clade is assumed to be prior to the Late Thanetian, either in the late Cretaceous or in the earliest Paleocene, following the end-Cretaceous extinctions. Separation of the opuntoid basal clade into the lineages of the present-day sections Pseudoopuntia and Opuntia was achieved before Mid Ypresian and further differentiation of the clades during the Ypresian and Lutetian, much earlier than hitherto postulated. Presumed timing of the origin of the basal clades of Halimeda and delayed first occurrences in southern Morocco invoke speciations of the recognized extant taxa outside of the peculiar Atlantic-bound Moroccan epeiric sea somewhere on the wide shelfs of the southern Tethys. Neogene vicariance events influencing the evolution of Halimeda are shortly discussed. Concerning the fossil record, they seem to be of minor importance except for the Holocene outburst of Recent taxa, which might be a sampling or preservational artifact. Halimeda -rich facies at the southern rim of the central High Atlas is comparable to modern Halimeda meadows and banks of the Great Barrier Reef. This concerns the almost total absence of other algae, minor lateral changes in the composition of the Halimeda flora, high diversity with analogous percentage of composition patterns, which show few dominant and common taxa, and quite a lot rare to very rare taxa. In both cases, psammophytic and lithophytic species co-occur, demonstrating sufficiently coarse-grained, immobile substrates. Both Halimeda floras flourish due to upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters.


Presidente Prudente is located at Sao Paulo State (Brazil), has a population of approximately 200,000 inhabitants and in the structure of the city, there are intra-urban environments completely different from the point of view of soil occupancy, especially with regard to the density of constructions, arborization standards of roads and backyards, green areas, circulation of vehicles and people. This survey had the purpose of verifying the trend of thermal characteristics of the last 34 years and analyzing the intensity and shape of the urban heat island. The materials and techniques used to develop this study were: temperature data (minimum, average, maximum, and recorded at 9 pm) in the period from 1971 to 2005, collected in the Meteorological Station of Presidente Prudente (INMET). They were statistically treated, and the methodology to verify the intensity and shape of the urban heat island consisted of the definition of two transects, with mobile measurements, using digital thermometers, coupled to the side of two vehicles, totaling 120 points of air temperature collection. The results showed that the temperatures have suffered significant increase, especially with regard to the absolute minimum values and the records at nighttime. Heat islands of high magnitude were also identified, with maximum intensity of 9.6oC. The spatial variations occurred according to the types of soil occupancy and relief. This way, one concludes that in view of all the changes implemented in the natural environment, the energy balance has changed, coinciding with the global warming trend described by the IPCC published in 1994 and 2001.


Vitamins A, C and E are known as antioxidants, but their role in various biological systems is not well understood. We assessed the antioxidant properties of these vitamins in a plant model. A model of free radical–induced growth inhibition was created and then used to test the effect of the vitamins. The model was first validated by demonstrating that hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) can slow the growth of mustard seeds. A concentration of H2O2 that caused definite but non-lethal inhibition of growth was selected using data from the model validation study. Following this, various groups of mustard seeds were treated with H2O2 and vitamins in varying concentrations. The plant number and mean height for each vitamin group were compared to controls treated only with distilled water (DW) or H2O2. The group treated with only DW had significantly (p<0.001) better growth than other groups. H2O2 caused a significant reduction in plant growth compared to DW (p<0.001). Vitamin A caused a dose-dependent partial reversal of the effect of H2O2. Vitamin C caused dose-dependent worsening. Vitamin E had no significant effect. A separate study demonstrated that the vitamins alone did not significantly affect plant growth in the absence of H2O2-mediated damage. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that, among three vitamins that are considered to have antioxidant properties, only vitamin A exhibited such an effect in a plant model of oxidative damage. Vitamin C worsened the effect of H2O2, whereas the effect of vitamin E treatment was neutral.


Understanding modern query languages provides key insights for the design of secure, effective and novel web applications. With the ever expanding volume of web data, two data shapes have clearly emerged as flexible ways of representing information: trees (such as most XML documents) and graphs (such as sets of RDF triples). Web applications that process, extract and filter such input data structures often rely on query languages such as XPath and SPARQL for that purpose. This has notably triggered research initiatives such as NoSQL aimed towards a better understanding and more effective implementations of these languages. In parallel, the increasing availability of surging volumes of data urges the finding of techniques to make these languages scale in order to query data of higher orders of magnitude in size. The development of big-data-ready efficient and scalable query evaluators is challenging in several interdependent aspects: one is parallelization -- or how to evaluate a query by leveraging a cluster of machines. Another critical aspect consists in finding techniques for placing data on the cloud in a clever manner so as to limit data communication and thus diminish the global workload. In particular, one difficulty resides in optimizing data partitioning for the execution of subqueries, possibly taking into account additional information on data organization schemes (such as XML Schemas or OWL descriptions). At the same time, growing concerns about data privacy urge the development of analyzers for web data access control policies. We believe that static analysis of web query languages will play an increasingly important role especially in all the aforementioned situations. In this context, we argue that modal logic can give useful yardsticks for characterizing these languages in terms of expressive power and also in terms of complexity for the problem of query answering and for the problems of static analysis of queries. Furthermore, model-checkers and satisfiability-checkers for modal logics such as the mu-calculus can serve as a robust ground for respectively designing scalable query evaluators and powerful static analyzers.


Malaria belongs to the infectious diseases with the highest morbidity and mortality worldwide. As a vector-borne disease malaria distribution is strongly influenced by environmental factors. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between malaria risk and different land cover classes by using high-resolution multispectral Ikonos images and Poisson regression analyses. The association of malaria incidence with land cover around 12 villages in the Ashanti Region, Ghana, was assessed in 1,988 children <15 years of age. The median malaria incidence was 85.7 per 1,000 inhabitants and year (range 28.4–272.7). Swampy areas and banana/plantain production in the proximity of villages were strong predictors of a high malaria incidence. An increase of 10% of swampy area coverage in the 2 km radius around a village led to a 43% higher incidence (relative risk [RR] = 1.43, p<0.001). Each 10% increase of area with banana/plantain production around a village tripled the risk for malaria (RR = 3.25, p<0.001). An increase in forested area of 10% was associated with a 47% decrease of malaria incidence (RR = 0.53, p = 0.029). Distinct cultivation in the proximity of homesteads was associated with childhood malaria in a rural area in Ghana. The analyses demonstrate the usefulness of satellite images for the prediction of malaria endemicity. Thus, planning and monitoring of malaria control measures should be assisted by models based on geographic information systems.


Prion strains are characterized by differences in the outcome of disease, most notably incubation period and neuropathological features. While it is established that the disease specific isoform of the prion protein, PrPSc, is an essential component of the infectious agent, the strain-specific relationship between PrPSc properties and the biological features of the resulting disease is not clear. To investigate this relationship, we examined the amplification efficiency and conformational stability of PrPSc from eight hamster-adapted prion strains and compared it to the resulting incubation period of disease and processing of PrPSc in neurons and glia. We found that short incubation period strains were characterized by more efficient PrPSc amplification and higher PrPSc conformational stabilities compared to long incubation period strains. In the CNS, the short incubation period strains were characterized by the accumulation of N-terminally truncated PrPSc in the soma of neurons, astrocytes and microglia in contrast to long incubation period strains where PrPSc did not accumulate to detectable levels in the soma of neurons but was detected in glia similar to short incubation period strains. These results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that a decrease in conformational stability results in a corresponding increase in replication efficiency and suggest that glia mediated neurodegeneration results in longer survival times compared to direct replication of PrPSc in neurons.


There are two ways for a language to classify its nouns: either by means of classifiers, which specify the semantics of the classified noun, or by means of grammatical gender, which groups all nouns of a language into formal classes. This thesis investigates the common assumption that classifier systems may develop into grammatical gender systems. Because this diachronic phenomenon has not yet been documented for any language, the likeliness that such a development would occur is examined by means of a typological study of synchronic systems. In analyzing the data, this study adopts a new perspective on the development of nominal classification by separating how the means of formal expression develops from the development of those components that have to do with a system's semantic transparency. This twofold account for the data from a variety sample of 40 languages shows that there is indeed a number of systems that lie at the intersection of classifiers and gender systems, but that a direct shift from classifier to gender is not likely to occur.


Children are among the most vulnerable citizens of the world, with a special need for the protections, rights, and services offered by states. And yet children are particularly at risk from statelessness. Thirty-six percent of all births in the world are not registered, leaving more than forty-eight million children under the age of five with no legal identity and no formal claim on any state. Millions of other children are born stateless or become undocumented as a result of migration. Children Without a State is the first book to examine how statelessness affects children throughout the world, examining this largely unexplored problem from a human rights perspective. The human rights repercussions explored range from dramatic abuses (detention and deportation) to social marginalization (lack of access to education and health care). The book provides a variety of examples, including chapters on Palestinian children in Israel, undocumented young people seeking higher education in the United States, unaccompanied child migrants in Spain, Roma children in Italy, irregular internal child migrants in China, and children in mixed legal/illegal families in the United States.


This study addresses three questions. Firstly, to what extent does divorce during childhood have long-term consequences for the educational attainment, economic situation, partnership formation and dissolution, and parenthood behaviour in adulthood? We show that in most of these domains children who experience parental divorce in childhood have more negative experiences than children reared by both their parents. However, in answering our second question, as to whether child and family characteristics preceding divorce attenuates the relationship between the divorce itself and adult outcomes, we show that for the non-demographic ones there is evidence of powerful selection effects operating, particularly to do with financial hardship. In other words, children who grow up with both biological parents may end up better off educationally and economically largely because they were advantaged to begin with, not necessarily because their parents stayed together. The third question was - if parents remain together until their children are grown up before separating does this lessen the legacy of divorce on their adult children's lives? The answer is in the affirmative for most of the adult outcomes, but the instability of partnerships and marriages was as high amongst those whose parents separated after they had grown up as those who experienced parental divorce during childhood.


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Athletes seeking to reduce inflammation and muscle soreness after exercise often use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Although sold over the counter for many years, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are not without health risks, especially when taken in large doses for long periods. Could polyphenolic-rich cherry or blueberry juice be a natural way to speed recovery without drug side effects? This article examines the evidence for using tart cherry juice and blueberry juice as a nutritional recovery strategy after strenuous exercise. Researchers have found modest benefits for tart cherry juice for pain reduction, relief for muscle soreness, and muscle inflammation after exercise. Although blueberry juice has similar chemical properties as tart cherry juice, the evidence supporting it as a recovery drink is limited at this time. Consuming cherry or blueberry juice is not harmful and may have some positive benefits for recovery and for increasing fruit consumption in athletes and active people.


Context: Continuous Integration (CI) is a DevOps technique which is widely used in practice. Studies show that its adoption rates will increase even further [38]. At the same time, it is argued that maintaining product quality requires extensive and time consuming, testing and code reviews. In this context, if not done properly, shorter sprint cycles and agile practices entail higher risk for the quality of the product. It has been reported in literature [68], that lack of proper test strategies, poor test quality and team dependencies are some of the major challenges encountered in continuous integration and deployment. Objective: The objective of this thesis, is to bridge the process discontinuity that exists between development teams and testing teams, due to continuous deployments and shorter sprint cycles, by providing a list of potentially buggy or high risk files, which can be used by testers to prioritize code inspection and testing, reducing thus the time between development and release. Approach: Out approach is based on a five step process. The first step is to select a set of systems, a set of code metrics, a set of repository metrics, and a set of machine learning techniques to consider for training and evaluation purposes. The second step is to devise appropriate client programs to extract and denote information obtained from GitHub repositories and source code analyzers. The third step is to use this information to train the models using the selected machine learning techniques. This step allowed to identify the best performing machine learning techniques out of the initially selected in the first step. The fourth step is to apply the models with a voting classifier (with equal weights) and provide answers to five research questions pertaining to the prediction capability and generality of the obtained fault proneness prediction framework. The fifth step is to select the best performing predictors and apply it to two systems written in a completely different language (C++) in order to evaluate the performance of the predictors in a new environment. Obtained Results: The obtained results indicate that a) The best models were the ones applied on the same system as the one trained on; b) The models trained using repository metrics outperformed the ones trained using code metrics; c) The models trained using code metrics were proven not adequate for predicting fault prone modules; d) The use of machine learning as a tool for building fault-proneness prediction models is promising, but still there is work to be done as the models show weak to moderate prediction capability. Conclusion: This thesis provides insights into how machine learning can be used to predict whether a source code file contains one or more faults that may contribute to a major system failure. The proposed approach is utilizing information extracted both from the system's source code, such as code metrics, and from a series of DevOps tools, such as bug repositories, version control systems and, testing automation frameworks. The study involved five Java and five Python systems and indicated that machine learning techniques have potential towards building models for alerting developers about failure prone code.


Multiple intrusions of gabbros, mafic dikes, and syenites in the Kap Edvard Holm Complex gave rise to prolonged circulation of meteoric hydrothermal solutions and extreme isotope exchange and mineral alteration in the 3600-m-thick Lower Layered Series gabbros. In the Lower Layered Series, δ18O of plagioclase varies from +0.3‰ to -5.8‰, and it decreases with an increase in the volume of secondary talc, chlorite, and actinolite. In the same gabbros, pyroxenes have a more restricted range in δ18O, from 5.0‰ to 3.8‰ and values of δ18Opyroxeneare independent of the abundance of secondary minerals, which ranges from 14% to 30%. These relations indicate that large amounts of water continued to flow through the rocks at temperatures of <500-600°C, altering the gabbros to assemblages of talc + chlorite + actinolite ± epidote ±albite and causing significant oxygen-isotope exchange in plagioclase, but not in pyroxene. The extensive low-temperature secondary mineralization and 18O depletion of plagioclase in the Lower Layered Series are associated with the later emplacement of dikes and gabbros and syenites, which created new fracture systems and provided heat sources for hydrothermal fluid circulation. This produced subsolidus mineral alteration and isotope exchange in the Lower Layered Series that are distinct from those in the Skaergaard and Cuillin gabbros of the North Atlantic Tertiary province, but are similar to those observed in some oceanic gabbros.


This thesis presents a method for the segmentation of dual-channel structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) volumes of the human brain into four tissue classes. The state-of-the-art FSL FAST segmentation software (Zhang et al., 2001) is in widespread clinical use, and so it is considered a benchmark. A significant proportion of FAST's errors has been shown to be localised to cortical sulci and blood vessels; this issue has driven the developments in this thesis, rather than any particular clinical demand. The original theme lies in preserving and even restoring these thin structures, poorly resolved in typical clinical MRI. Bright plate-shaped sulci and dark tubular vessels are best contrasted from the other tissues using the T2and PD-weighted data, respectively. A contrasting tube detector algorithm (based on Frangi et al., 1998) was adapted to detect both structures, with smoothing (based on Westin and Knutsson, 2006) of an intermediate tensor representation to ensure smoothness and fuller coverage of the maps. The segmentation strategy required the MRI volumes to be upscaled to an artificial high resolution where a small partial volume label set would be valid and the segmentation process would be simplified. A resolution enhancement process (based on Salvado et al., 2006) was significantly modified to smooth homogeneous regions and sharpen their boundaries in dual-channel data. In addition, it was able to preserve the mapped thin structures' intensities or restore them to pure tissue values. Finally, the segmentation phase employed a relaxation-based labelling optimisation process (based on Li et al., 1997) to improve accuracy, rather than more efficient greedy methods which are typically used. The thin structure location prior maps and the resolution-enhanced data also helped improve the labelling accuracy, particularly around sulci and vessels. Testing was performed on the aged LBC1936 clinical dataset and on younger brain volumes acquired at the SHEFC Brain Imaging Centre (Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK), as well as the BrainWeb phantom. Overall, the proposed methods rivalled and often improved segmentation accuracy compared to FAST, where the ground truth was produced by a radiologist using software designed for this project. The performance in pathological and atrophied brain volumes, and the differences with the original segmentation algorithm on which it was based (van Leemput et al., 2003), were also examined. Among the suggestions for future development include a soft labelling consensus formation framework to mitigate rater bias in the ground truth, and contour-based models of the brain parenchyma to provide additional structural constraints.


The authors articulate the foundations of a future manifesto for an Internet of Things in the public interest. Nold and Kranenburg propose tangible design interventions that challenge an internet dominated by commercial tools and systems, emphasizing that people from all walks of life have to be at the table when we talk about alternate possibilities for ubiquitous computing. Through horizontally scaling grass roots efforts along with establishing social standards for governments and companies to allow cooperation, Nold and Kranenberg argue for transforming the Internet of Things into an Internet of People.


THE WAR OF THE REBELLION UNLEASHED a reign of terror, crime, and anarchy in the Ozark foothills of north central Arkansas. There, rival bands of irregulars, along with lawless "jayhawkers" and "bushwhackers," terrorized a defenseless population. One such band was led by Bill Dark of Searcy County. From June 1862 to January 1863, Dark, Captain of Company A, Coffee's Recruits, briefly attempted-in accordance with the orders of General Thomas Carmichael Hindman-to sabotage Federal advances in northern Arkansas and conscript state troops. In the end, however, Dark's efforts only alienated an already hostile population, fueled guerrilla warfare, and hastened his own demise. Indeed, in early 1863, along the banks of the Little Red River near present-day Shirley, Arkansas, Dark and his men were ambushed and killed by a member of a home guard unit. Following the war, Dark's antagonists-the independent, subsistence farmers of Izard, Searcy, and Van Buren Counties-developed a colorful oral history, associating Dark with "all that is degraded and abandoned in mankind."' A Bill Dark legendshaped by time, emotion, and association-soon emerged, blurring historical truth, and portraying Dark not as a Confederate irregular but as a deserter and even a ruthless jayhawker, a term typically applied to Union marauders. 2 The story of Bill Dark, though largely unnoticed by most historians, is important to the historiography of Civil War Arkansas in at least three ways. First, it serves as a paradigm of the way the Civil War was waged in Arkansas between 1862 and 1865. 3 Second, it has been the subject of a bountiful and unique Ozark folk tradition. And third, it reveals the power of postwar revisionism and the romanticism of "the Lost Cause" to transform an embarrassing Confederate into a bandit, and, in some accounts, a Unionist. John William ("Bill") Dark was born in Arkansas, around 1835. Though his exact origins are unknown, he probably sprang from the numerous Darks who settled south central Tennessee in the early nineteenth century. Dark's name first appears in Arkansas census records in 1850. That year, Dark, aged fifteen, was living in Little Rock with his mother, Dilla Dark, and a government clerk by the name of James Hutchins. 4 No known record exists of his father. Dark's life in Pulaski County during the 1850s was seemingly comfortable. He resided, along with such esteemed citizens as Secretary of State 0. B. Greer and Sheriff Ben Danby, in the City Hotel on Main Street. Though there are no records linking him with either of the two academies in Little Rock, a letter written by Dark in 1862-the only known manuscript by Dark to survive the war-suggests that he had been formally educated. By the mid- 1850s, he was working in Little Rock as a printer. In late 1857, however, Dark's life took a violent turn, beginning a downward spiral that led to prison and, ultimately, his doom. On November 8, 1857, Dark was indicted in Pulaski County for the murder of Hardy Foster.5 Two days later, Dark, accompanied by his lawyers, Absalom Fowler, Henry Massie Rector, John T. Trigg, and Joseph Stillwell, entered a plea of "not guilty." On January 12, 1858, Dark's legal council petitioned for a change of venue to another county, arguing that "the minds of the inhabitants of this County are. . . prejudiced against the said defendant [and] that a fair and impartial trial of the issue in this case, cannot be had .'6 Judge John J. Clendenin agreed, and the trial was moved to Saline County, where, on October 22, 1858, Dark was found guilty of second degree murder and sentenced to five years in the state penitentiary. His term was to begin on March 3, 1859.7 It was there Dark-labeled in prison records as an invalid and marked for bad behavior-found himself when Arkansas seceded from the Union in May 1861. There, too, oral tradition found him.8 Oral history is a modem research method that utilizes oral accounts of historical events by witnesses or participants or the information transmitted by them through others. …


This paper describes the flood risks faced by Surat, one of India's most successful and also most flood-prone cities. The city is located on the Tapi River and faces flood risks not only from heavy precipitation in and around the city but also from heavy precipitation upstream and from high tides downstream. Reducing the risks from upstream depends on better water management in a water catchment area and dam reservoir located far outside the city authority's jurisdiction and in another state. The paper also reviews measures being taken to reduce flood risks – and how climate change is likely to affect such risks. It suggests that part of the city's response needs to be a greater ability to live with floods, while minimizing the costs these usually bring in terms of loss of life, damage to homes and disruption to businesses.


Key words: Kojiki, Shinto, myth, international motifs, oral tradition
ABSTRACT
The Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters, AD 712, three volumes) is the oldest preserved work of Japanese literature. It was compiled by Oo no Yasumaro at the Emperor's bequest, with an aim to point out the legitimacy of the imperial family and to prove the emperor's divine origin. It is based on the imperial genealogies, as well as on the ancient myths, tales, legends and poems, transmitted orally throughout the provinces of the then Japan. The Kojiki is closely related to the ancient Japanese polytheistic religion − Shinto. It is on Shintoist thought that the work gives a complex image of the Japanese pantheon, assembled of innumerable deities, the kami. Apart from treating the original cultural heritage of the Japanese people, what also provokes special interest of this valuable work is an abundance of similarities to the familiar myths of the neighboring cultures, but also to the traditions of the peoples living in distant regions, without any contact with ancient Japan. Among many others, there are motifs related to the Land of the Dead, as the third part of the trichotomic cosmic structure: the motif of tasting food in the other world which causes the return to be impossible − widely known as the motif of Persephone, the Orphic motif of violating the forbiddance of looking which leads to permanent separation from the beloved person, or the magic escape motif with characteristic metamorphoses. In other words, the Kojiki contains the large number of universal international themes and motifs, which can be found in the cultures of the peoples worldwide. It is possible to reach them by means of comparative analysis. This kind of research provides a new perspective on the study of literature, mythology, and tradition.


To obtain high performance control of a dc-dc converter, a good model of the converter is needed. It is suitable to consider the load to be included in the converter model since it usually affects the dynamics. The load is often the most variable part of this system. If the load current and the output voltage are measured there are good possibilities to obtain a good model of the load on-line. Adaptive control can then be applied to improve the control. In peak current-mode control, the output voltage and the inductor current are measured and utilized by the controller. This thesis analyses some properties that can be obtained if the load current is also measured and utilized for control. Accurate expressions for the control-to-output transfer function, the output impedance, and the audio susceptibility are derived for the buck, boost, and buck-boost converters operated in continuous conduction mode in the case where the load is a linear resistor. If the measured load current is utilized properly by the controller, the output impedance becomes low and the control-to-output transfer function becomes almost invariant for different loads. The use of load current acts as a feedforward term if the load is a current source. However, if the load is a resistor the load current is influenced by changes in the output voltage and the stability is affected. Therefore, the use of load current is not a feedforward action in this case. Instead it can be seen as gain scheduling, which can be considered a special case of adaptive control. In the thesis it is also shown that the two published models for currentmode control, Ridley (1991) and Tan and Middlebrook (1995), give accurate expressions for the control-to-output transfer function and the output impedance but not for the audio susceptibility. A novel model for the audio susceptibility is presented and it is used to improve the two published models. Most of the results in the thesis are validated by comparing the frequency responses predicted by the expressions and switched large-signal simulation models. (Less)